Some non-ashes news (-worma)
As we all may have read by know, Murali Karthik took 10 wickets for Lancashire in their Division two game against Essex. Scorecard here
Taking ten wickets in a county game is surely not as big as an international achievement, and we all know Pak discards like Mahmood, Saqlain, Mushtaq keep doing it regularly. But still, to put it in perspective, some facts:
1) This is the same ground (don't know if its the same pitch) where Aus conceded 500+ runs to the Essex side
2) This Essex side is much stronger than the one Aus faced, since they have recalled their international imports like Flower brothers etc.
3) Wickets taken by Karthik in first innings: Andy Flower, Ronny Irani, James Foster, Andre Adams, Darren Gough
4) Wickets in second innings: W Jefferson, G Flower, A Flower, Gough, A Adams.
I guess, its important to keep an eye on his performance, since he is already our second choice in ODIs. If he keeps doing well, he may nudge Bhajji for the lone place. Even in tests he can keep Bhajji on his toes, even nudge him out, on current form.
Other news, Chappel says he is seeing positive results in Indian showing on the field. As you all already know my views on this, I do agree with him. Sure, its still no-where close to satisfactory, but Chappel also didn't say so. Its improving, is what he said, and compared to where we started in this season, there's no denying it.
And Aus A, touring Pak now, is facing a bit of a tough time in their first game. We all are aware that this A tour (and their U19 tour to India) can be important for CA, since they all looking for some long term prospects to take up the mantle from some of their current stars.
As I had mentioned earlier, Pak team has the lookup of their national side (throw in Inzy, and it looks like a re-conciliatory national team, fresh from an internal bust-up :). Even the Aus side is strong through Hodge, Hussey, Watson, Haddin, Bracken, White(he should be closely watched)
Meanwhile, the other surprise, Bangladesh being made to bat first in their first test against SL, are 130/2 in 30 overs!
Taking ten wickets in a county game is surely not as big as an international achievement, and we all know Pak discards like Mahmood, Saqlain, Mushtaq keep doing it regularly. But still, to put it in perspective, some facts:
1) This is the same ground (don't know if its the same pitch) where Aus conceded 500+ runs to the Essex side
2) This Essex side is much stronger than the one Aus faced, since they have recalled their international imports like Flower brothers etc.
3) Wickets taken by Karthik in first innings: Andy Flower, Ronny Irani, James Foster, Andre Adams, Darren Gough
4) Wickets in second innings: W Jefferson, G Flower, A Flower, Gough, A Adams.
I guess, its important to keep an eye on his performance, since he is already our second choice in ODIs. If he keeps doing well, he may nudge Bhajji for the lone place. Even in tests he can keep Bhajji on his toes, even nudge him out, on current form.
Other news, Chappel says he is seeing positive results in Indian showing on the field. As you all already know my views on this, I do agree with him. Sure, its still no-where close to satisfactory, but Chappel also didn't say so. Its improving, is what he said, and compared to where we started in this season, there's no denying it.
And Aus A, touring Pak now, is facing a bit of a tough time in their first game. We all are aware that this A tour (and their U19 tour to India) can be important for CA, since they all looking for some long term prospects to take up the mantle from some of their current stars.
As I had mentioned earlier, Pak team has the lookup of their national side (throw in Inzy, and it looks like a re-conciliatory national team, fresh from an internal bust-up :). Even the Aus side is strong through Hodge, Hussey, Watson, Haddin, Bracken, White(he should be closely watched)
Meanwhile, the other surprise, Bangladesh being made to bat first in their first test against SL, are 130/2 in 30 overs!
posted by worma at
3:09 AM
5 Comments:
jgohil, was it the same pitch used for the Aus game? (just trying to compare this with McGill's performance)?
And yes, bhajji has gone down in his ODI performance quite a lot(even after considering that he is used defensively to some extent). Time to give Karthik a longer run in that version atleast. And in tests, bhajji should be made aware of the competition. I still think he bowls well in tests, even last season wasn't too bad. his county stint was bad(but thats understandable to some extent, as most of the Indian regular players haven't done well in counties, maybe due to casualness in their approach). Not so sure about bhajji's attitude problem, as our media is totally unreliable in that aspect
About Ganguly, as Prem said, no point discussing that man anymore. Lets just wait and see what happens. And in any case, my views are probably well known here ;-)
By
worma, at 04:15
kishor_cool I think you just got owned by k-slice. :-)
By
ClannZú, at 07:01
alvin, did you note a certain Mr Andy Flower in that lot? ;)...and anyways, bhajji had a county stint against same eng blokes....I dont remember him finishing any matches? I am not saying that bhajji is bad(he may be, or he was just not putting his whole in county games, and I wont blame him for that), but just putting things in perspective. Also, as you would have read in the post, he was bowling on the same ground where recently McGill and co went for 500 runs.
And I also think that conspiracy theory is rubbish. firstly, as vick said, there is no 'reason' for ganguly to not play his best spinner(since bhajji does not have a vote in deciding captain)...and secondly...its not as if bhajji gets the first go all the time...heck ganguly even tried kumble many times above bhajji...and I think we all know ganguly is not a big fan of kumble (esp in ODIs). And whenever karthik has played under Ganguly....I have seen him get same sort of chances as bhajji (or any other spinner in his place) would be getting. Its not asif Ganguly gets karthik to operate in the worst scenarios
By
worma, at 15:13
alvin, Eng's dark age in spin is over ? Well, we'll soon find out, they're coming to Pak and then Ind this winter. And meanwhile, Warne filled his bag with 40 wkts in the series....Jenner and Merlyn not withstanding :)
By
worma, at 15:14
alvin, I did not take bhajji reference from you. All mention of bhajji was my own to put my own point. And ok, I took the conspiracy word from Vick's comment, my mistake. My point anyway was that I dont feel that Ganguly does anything different with karthik than Dravid, so if karthik has had a few good performances under Dravid, it can be due to lack of understanding of Karthik as a bowler(as you also said) or maybe plain co-incidence.
And I was using the bhajji example here to the effect that Ganguly has tried to use his best spinner on the day (and there is some gut feeling, some net session watching etc involved in this too)..and sometimes that has turned out to be kumble ahead of bhajji, so be it.
And yes, your point taken about being cautious. As I mentioned in the post itself, I know it doesnt count as much as international wickets (some of those interntional batsmen are also not as serious in these games, I can believe that, if told).
About Englands's dark age of spin being over, well I frankly did not see ANY sign of that! I am sure if SL visits Eng today, Murali would get a truckload of wickets!!! I did not see any technical or mental advancement in the Eng batsmen as far as handling spin was concerned. Well, anyway, we will get to judge this soon, when they visit India (not sure about Pakistan, since their spin attack can often be indisciplined, or plain ineffective!...if they had any sense of urgency for this Eng tour, they would call up Mushtaq..who is still taking loads of wkt in county, and also is a brilliant leg spinner...and Eng batsmen may be psychologically wary of legspinners for some time:)
Irrespective of what Eng is doing for their spin, and how successful it is, I still agree that we should do something for our fast bowling issues. I believe our current crop of batsmen are good in playing pace, and the younger lot do go to Aus on scholarships. I do believe that some of the younger lot like Yuv, Raina, Raidu etc seem to be good players of pace (as compared to spin). In bowling also we have the academies...how well we utilise them is another aspect. The entire lot of current SL pace bowlers, as Prem once pointed out, has bred in our pace academy.
Anyways...would love to hear your take on our pace bowling woes..??
By
worma, at 18:20
Post a Comment
<< Home