Thursday, January 08, 2009

World Cricket review - second-half 2008 and early 2009!

Well, a lot has happened in the last six months. I won't even claim to try and summarise every important event. I'll just hit what I consider are the highlights ( of the latter half of 2008) :) and hope I haven't missed anything too important :

a. India toured SL: And were soundly beaten in the Test series 2-1 and in the Asia Cup final, all coz the vaunted batting lineup had no clue how to play Ajantha Mendis, the new spinning star. Dravid's mediocre run continued.

b.SA toured England: Beat Eng in the Tests 2-1 and lost the ODI series 4-0. Graeme Smith bludgeoned his way to being SAF's highest scorer and KP's captaincy reign began when he took over from Vaughan for the last Test.

c. Aus toured India: For 4 Tests( who tours for 4 Tests??? Is the BCCI nuts? ) . They were beaten convincingly, 2-0, by a Kumble-and-Dhoni-led side who hit their peaks at the right moments. The Australian empire had begun to crumble. For Hayden, it might be seen as the beginning of the end after a disastrous series in the land where he resurrected his career in 2001. Dravid's regrettable lack of big scores continued - the end of an era? Kumble retired in the third Test and Ganguly retired at the end of the series - two of India's stalwarts from the 90s gone. With no viable match-winning spinner in sight ( Bhajji has too many off days), India's spin cupboard looked very bare after Jumbo's retirement.

d. SA toured Aus: And beat them 2-1 in Tests. A first victory for SA on Aussie soil. Hayden's horror run continued. And SA chased down a world-record 414 to win the second Test. They pulled off similar heroics to win the third Test from a near-losing position at the end of the second day - something Aussie teams did regualrly through the 90s and noughties. Truly, the baton seemed to have passed. Graeme Smith batting in the 4th Test, at no.11, with a broken arm, to try and salvage a draw, while Aus looked to be running out of options, signaled the change more than anything else.


e. Eng toured Ind: They were soundly beaten and trailed 5-0, after 5 matches, in the 7-match ODI series until the Mumbai terror attacks intervened. Eng departed hurriedly only to return, in a marvellous display of sporting spirit, diplomacy by KP and solidarity with India, to play the two-Test series in Chennai and Mohali. India chased down 387 to win the first Test ( the highest fourth innings run-chase in India) at Chennai thanks to a whirlwind 83 from Sehwag that put the target within reach and a composed unbeaten century from Tendy that helped erase his demons of never actually performing in the fourth innings / leading India to victory. Dravid recovered his form in the second Test (136) to effectively shut out any English chances of winning the Test, inspite of a fine KP century. India won the series 1-0.

f. In the Ranji Trophy, after hiccups against UP and TN, Karnataka defeated Baroda, Andra and Maharashtra to qualify second from their group, behind TN and in front of UP, for the quarters. They went down to Saurashtra in the quarters when Sau. chased down 325 on a turner on the last day(at Brabourne, which wasn't the home ground for Sau or Kar. What's wrong, BCCI??) thanks to fine innings from Kotak and a century from Pujara. In the semis, a marathon innings from UP batsman Shukla ( the fourth-longest in first-class history) helped UP gain the first-innings lead over TN and qualify for the finals against Mumbai, whose mammoth 637 proved too much for Saurashtra to overcome in the other semi-final. UP are in the finals for the 3rd time since 2004 and Mumbai are on course for their 32nd title, I think.

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