Wow !! Quite a stunning day so far. Sri Lanka absolutely and totally in command.
The Pitch:
Slow, low. Very difficult to score IF THE BOWLERS ARE BOWLING WELL.But then why did we give such a red-carpet welcome to the Sri Lankans by giving them exactly the kind of wicket they thrive on ? Well, maybe the rains in Chennai were to be blamed. In fact, Srinath says that the last time the pitch was exposed was November 10. Naturally there would be some damage due to the covers being on for so long.
The Bowlers:
Yes, indeed the DID BOWL VERY VERY WELL. To put things into perspective at one stage this morning, Vaas had bowled 12 consecutive maiden overs. He also had the first 3 wickets to fall and came back later to pick Kumble. Murali picked up the "big" wicket of Sachin who scored a grand 22 in 21 overs.
The Batsmen:
Helpful as the pitch was to the bowlers and well as they bowled, the batsmen cannot be absolved of all blame. Just as it is up tp the bowlers to take advantage of the wicket, it was up to the batters to destroy the bowlers rhythm. This, they failed in magnificently. And once again, I would like to put a large chunk of the blame on Sachin Tendulkar for this. Dravid wasn't too good either, but then at least his variance from his normal strike rate was not as high as that of Sachin. Well, I would like to know in the context of what happened - how important Sehwag's innings yesterday was. All those "expert" fools who condemned him for his innings yesterday, hope you are eating humble bread now. Sehwag's approach was the right one on this wicket. It almost always is on any wicket.
Ganguly:
Ganguly did nothing great with the bat.He did however for the second time in as many attempts succeed in running out VVS Laxman. I shall leave it at that.
The Inference:
It is a dead game, anyway. So we probably need not be unduly worried about this. In fact, I would say it is a wake-up call delivered exactly when needed, just when we were about to underestimate the Lankans. Now we know we can't. Vaas and Murali will be a threat throughout the series. It was shown that even Sachin Tendulkar was dominated by them.
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2 comments:
Isn't it a blessing in disguise that sachin was dominated?? Coz whenever anyone does that to him, we get a treat in the next match. Having said so, I don't expect anything much from him. (What I expect is he should just hang on till WC-07, unleash all his energy/form/talent at that point, like he did in WC-03, with a better result this time and then retire!)
Well, for ganguly-laxman fiasco, its not fair to blame just one of them. Both are equally "great" when it comes to running-between-the-wicket.
You seem to have a clear bias against Ganguly so as to balme him for laxman's runout. If you want to be a respectful blogger that people will come to, you need to do better than that. In case, you have not notices, none hardly comes to your blog to comment.
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