Yuvraj's Heroic return

Although team India did not fulfill its fans wishes of a second world T20 title even after the thrilling one run win against the South Africans but one man has surely won the hearts of all the cricket fans around the world and he is none other than the lion hearted Yuvraj Singh.

 The return of this brave man to the Indian team was criticized by many as a "hurried return" by the EX cricketers and boy didn't he reply to them in style. He was up to the challenge of international cricket right from the word go.

First up were Afghanistan and he castled then with his brilliant bowling. Against England he was not required in both departments as the spin duo of bhajji and chawla ran thru the English line up after the top order's explosion with the bat. The match against Australia , first super eight match, was one off day for the Indian side which in the end mattered the most for semis qualification.

Come the crunch game against the arch rivals Pakistan the Indians were up for the challenge and so was this great all rounder. He first took two important wickets of Pakistanis top order batsmen jamshed and akmal, made a run out with a direct hit bringing the memories of the younger yuvraj and then finished off the game in the company of virat kohli to keep India's record , not losing to pak in world cups, against the border nation intact.

Against the current world no.1 of T20 cricket the southpaw was looking good with the bat hitting two magnificent sixes in a quick knock before getting out to morkel. and then again came to the rescue of the Indians as he picked up the dangerous devilliers and du plessis, who were running away with the game.

All and all the man of the tournament of the 50 over WC 2011 made a strong return to the national side more so with the bowling and it will not be long before he makes those big match winning knocks with the bat. And his role is vital in the team because of his all round abilities which contribute to the the team in every department of the game.

Chris Gayle – welcome back to Test Cricket

                                 

 If there was one man who was in pseudo hibernation in the world cricket fraternity it was Christopher Henry Gayle of West Indies. I say it as pseudo hibernation because he has been playing cricket all around the world except for his own country due to reasons which we don’t want to debate upon at present as he is back in his countries jersey.

Called back into the West Indian team after about more than a year, for the England tour of the Windies, he was at his best right from the word “go” notching up consistent scores in every other innings since his arrival into the international stage .

After scoring well in his first ODI (53 against England) and T20 (85 against New Zealand) it was time for his big score in his first Test as well and he delivered exactly that with a well built 150 off 206 balls against New Zealand at Antigua. It was a perfect comeback innings which he and his team would have wanted.

Coming into bat after New Zealand posted 351 on board, he was in murderous mood right from the start of the innings as he took  Chris Martin to cleaners in the very first over of the match as he thrashed him for four consecutive boundaries and from then on it was no looking back as he effortlessly got the runs  throughout the innings and made New Zealand pay for dropping him twice.

He along with Powell laid a perfect foundation for the West Indies with a huge 250 plus opening stand and put their team in a strong position to bat the opposition out of the match. Powell in the process also got his first test century.

Gayle, the senior pro, returning to the West indies fold will certainly do better to their team’s not so good fortunes. West Indies have been relying on the only senior guy in the team, Chanderpaul,  for most of the times but now with Gayle’s addition the team will look forward to do better in the present series and also in the tours ahead which includes the World T20 as well, the tournament in which West Indies are tipped to be the favorites.

Finally. Gayle’s return is not just a happy sign for West indies fans but also for the cricket fans around the world as he is a player to watch out for in every format especially T20′s.

virat kohli in golden marathon

     Its been a marathon golden run for Virat Kohli, who has been in great form from a long time which continued even after a long break till Friday's match against Sri Lanka in hambantota in which he made his third consecutive century against the Lankans.
  
     there were no signs of rustiness of break in virat's innings as he looked at ease right from the start of the innings. he was accumulating runs at will and at brisk pace and kept the scoreboard ticking. he was ably supported by the Delhi dasher virender sehwag who missed out on a century himself by a whisker. their partnership laid the foundation for a mammoth total of 314 and put India on course for their first win after the break from cricket.

     this knock of 106 against lanka also makes him the fastest player in the world to get to 12 ODI centuries in 83 innings. the fact that the difference between him and the next best is 30 innings just goes to show his stupendous rise to the top of the ODI cricket.

     he has been India's highest run getter for more than two years now. and is also in top three run getter in ODI's for this year. this century was his fourth in five innings, and his fifth successive fifty-plus score, equaling the Indian record. these numbers just reflect his great consistency over a period of time.

     for someone who is tipped to become the next Dependable in the Indian test team this consistency is just a testament of his great temperament and supplements his contender ship to the test no.3 spot. and if he continues in the same form there is no doubt he will go on to become one of the greats of limited overs cricket and might challenge his fellow team mate sachin tendulkar for the ODI records as he has amassed 12 hundreds in no time with a more than 50% conversion rate and a strike rate of around 87.

   

Dhawan & Steyn standout chargers !!!

       It could not have been a better finish for Deccan chargers. the IPL 2012 ended with two comprehensive wins for them at their home, which would have ended the so called bad curse.

       The stand out performers for the Deccan chargers have been elegant shikhar dhawan and fast furious dale steyn. the duo performed match after match for their team consistently which can be seen from the list of highest   run getter's and wicket takers where both of these are right up their with the rest in top 5. dhawan at 2nd place and steyn at 5th to be precise.

       Shikhar dhawan , not so hyped batsman, was very quick to get his bat going this season scoring his first 50 in the third game and never looked back. the southpaw has carried forward the good run he had last season during which he scored 400 runs and improved it even better this season with 569 runs which has taken him to the second highest run getter position of this season. He scored 5 fifties in 15 games and of which the 73 against RCB, 84 against Delhi's top quality bowling and 71 against Punjab have been the best. Giving him company most of the times was the Australian cameron white, who was also in prime form this season scoring 479 runs.

       Dale steyn, the world's most feared bowler of the present generation was at his brutal best right through out the tournament rattling the batsmen time and again with speed and control. has he played all the matches he would have given his African team mate morne morkel a run for the purple cap. his economic and wicket taking spells have most of the times put the DC in great position. His spells of 2 for 10 , 3 for 12 and  3 for 8 have been the best in the ipl's history. With an economy of 6.10 he was able to dry the flow of runs most of the times. dale steyn was well complemented at the other end by amit mishra , the leg spinner , who kept the pressure on opposition and made crucial breakthroughs when needed.

       With more consistent efforts from the other players along with these two in the team , Deccan chargers will be the team to beat come the next season next year.
     

       

Rahane kickstarts IPL 5

        After a not so extragavant start to this year's IPL (excluding the opening ceremony) the IPL eventually witnessed its first glittering performance thanks to Ajinkya Rahane's 98 in the 4th match at jaipur between rajasthan royals and kings 11punjab.
        Rahane put in a solid breath taking performance against kings 11 on friday evening. tearing apart the kings bowling right from the word go but was unlucky to miss out on a well deserved hundred after placing his team rajasthan royals well on course for a first win with a huge total on board.
        The fans saw some brillitant batting display from  rahane after a dull start to the tournament where bowlers have made their presence felt through some good performances but not this time around as they got hammered away on a good flat batting wicket at royals home ground.
        Rahane was at its brutal best from the start. first hitting  the australian faulkner to two boundaries and then hammering the fellow indian praveen kumar to four 4's in the very 3rd over of the game which set the tone for the rest of the innings. Rahane would have got many valuable tips from his new captain, the senior pro and legend dravid , during their opening partnership which got their team to a good start.
       Taking advantage of a not so impressive bowling unit of kings 11 rahane kept the momentum going throughout the innings as he got the boundaries at will. He was hitting them cleanly and elegantly. The straight six of valthaty was a treat to watch.
      Towards the later part of the innings he became more and more aggressive as he jumped from 72 to 95 with five fours in successive overs. The nervous nineties got to him as he tried to slog over extra cover after kept quite for a few deliveries and got bowled to faulkner on 98 but it was a masterful innings , one which officially kick started the dashing IPL , and will inspire many other domestic indian youngsters to take on the center stage in the coming matches and get noticed all over the world. 

VIRAT KOHLI - a silver lining !!!

        Only a century could have proved him right. Virat kohli,the Indian future great, has scored the first ton from Indian team on the Australian tour. with a century and a half century in last two innings against Australia on tracks which are considered to be the difficult ones in the world and against the best pace attack he has answered his critics in style.

        Amid all the old veterans this Delhi lad has quietly raised his game and improved by leaps and bounds on his first Australian tour as each test passed by after having been on the receiving end of all the people, who argued the he should be replaced with rohit sharma after the first two tests debacle of Indian team, has came out more stronger with the additional criticism.

         Leaving behind the middle finger controversy he started looking good from the Sydney test and got into his rhythm at the WACA, the fast track of Australia and was the highest scorer in both the innings of the match for India . and continued the good run into the final test here at Adelaide and scored a composed and classic century and in the process became the highest run scorer for India in the ongoing test series, a feat though with less amount of runs is no mean achievement especially when all the batting greats failed to put even a double digit score.
        Backed by the Indian skipper m s dhoni, who believes in giving long run to players to prove themselves, has not let his captain down and developed into a very fine player on a tour where all the other stalwarts of Indian cricket have failed to rise to the occasion and deliver when the team needed them.

        He has been a one bright stone in one of the disastrous tour of Indian cricket history where the team is staring at 0-8 foreign loss. He showed good technique and has all the ability to take the no.3 position in Indian test team which has already occupied in the limited overs team, after the retirement of rahul dravid. 

        This experience of Australian tour and performing against the best bowlers in the world will give him lots of confidence going into the tri-series to be followed up after the tests and also in his future test cricket. He now needs to carry on his one day record into the test arena, which most youngsters fail to do so and play more consistently if he has to be one of greatest test batsman which he really looks like. 

NEXT FAB 4 OF INDIAN CRICKET

     When ganguly , one of the fab four of Indian cricket , yuvraj looked the only person to replace the southpaw. But the years have gone by and India is now oozing with talented youngsters. The youngistan has done a commendable job in limited overs cricket and are now on the back of the senior pros of test cricket
for a test berth , which also brings out the best out of seniors.

     Virat kohli, Rohit sharma , Suresh raina and Yuvraj singh, who have taken India to a great level in one day cricket, will form the India's next fab four of test cricket. They will be challenged by cheteshwar pujara, manoj tiwary and badrinath. but these four are expected to be the next middle order of India's batting in the future.

     Virat kohli is in phenomenal form for the past two years during which he was the highest run getter in ODIs and has never looked since he made his debut. He is the best of the four at the moment. having made the no.3 spot in one day team as his own he looks deserving enough to take the same spot in test team as well. Although he has not made a mark in the limited opportunities got till now he has shown tremendous temperament in his knocks in limted overs cricket which can surely help him in test arena.

     Rohit sharma is a player who has impressed one and all right from the time he played a great knock in CB series final in Australia. The comment of Indian coach "It is very unfortunate that you have still not played a Test match" tells how he is rated as by everyone in the world. He missed the test cap just by a whisker last year when he got injured just an hour before the match started was a big disappointment for him. The man of the series award in the recently concluded India-west indies series is a proof of him playing under pressure and giving out the best.

     Suresh raina another player like virat kohli who has done exceedingly well in limited overs cricket will form the next back bone of Indian batting line up. A century on test debut against sri lanka two seasons back was a perfect start to his test career. A player with aggression and smartness on field will be of great asset to the team. he has been consistent in limited overs.

     Yuvraj Singh , the hero of two world cup winning teams , completes the fab four. Having faced a lot of criticism from different quarters of the world for not extending his great one day record into tests yet this man has ability to be part of the Indian test setup for few more years. He is a great finisher and his bowling supplements  his batting skills in giving the important break through s. After recovering from the lung tumor he will be again in contention for the 6Th spot which is up for grabs.

     These players will form a great fielding unit which is also an integral part of cricket. these players playing along with the seniors in the team and rubbing shoulders with them will give them the necessary experience and inputs of the test cricket. with few more test matches under their belt before the big 3 retire will help them stand in better shape to take on the test reins from the seniors.