The Indian team is back to what it was doing for a few years now. Demolishing opponents day in day out after a rather forgettable tour of England. first they drowned the English in the revenge series with a 5-0 whitewash in ODIs series and now almost clean swept the windies in the test series and it will not be a surprise if they blank the windies in ODIs.
This return of form for the Indian team ahead of the important tour of Australia is heartening to see. and the great starts of the youngsters or the debutantes to say in the international arena has pleased every indian fan , for whom the only disappointment from the series was of sachin missing out on the 100th ton twice in the series after coming close to it.
The dramatic series against west indies has contributed to the rise of some of the best talents of the country in the likes of batsman virat kohli , charismatic spinner ravichandran ashwin and the rare breed of fast bowlers of Indian cricket , umesh yadav and varun aaron. Along with these youngsters the old pro's and the other players have played their part to perfection in winning the series.
As the history goes with the indian cricket they are the slow starters and it was proved again as they got bowled out cheaply in the first innings of first test and conceded a lead of near 100 runs to not so great opponents. but they managed to pull back things and won the first test courtesy brilliant bowling by R.Ashwin and decent chase by the batsmen.
In the second test it was batsmen turn to pile on the misery of the visitors as three of the batsman managed to score hundreds during the course of huge first innings score which was enough to bowl out the windies twice and take india to the series win. v.v.s laxman made a big 176 to earn himself a mom and umesh yadav made significant contribution with the ball in this test taking 9 wickets and providing breakthroughs when the team required.
The final test was a dramatic and thrilling one and also turned out to be great advertisement for test cricket after the dull first four days with the wicket not helping the bowlers. The drama started from the fourth day when sachin failed to notch up his 100th ton when he got out on 94 much to the disappointment of the home crowd of mumbai. but it was ashwin's day out who earlier took 5-for in the first innings of west indies turned out to be the savior with the bat as he raced away to his maiden test ton and becoming the only Indian player in almost 5 decades to accomplish the task of taking 5 wickets and scoring a hundred in the same test. the fifth day pitch was an opposite of first four days as the wicket started taking turn quite sharply which was too hot to handle for the windies batsmen and they were folded out cheaply by the indian spin duo of ojha and ashwin leaving india a chasable target of 242. India this time decided to go for the win after being criticized for not opting to do so earlier in the year against the same opposition in their backyard. and they almost pulled it off the last ball but couldn't do so after failing to consolidate on a good start given by sehwag and then resurrected by kohli. The match ended in a draw with scores level giving india the series 2-0.
The man of the series was none other than R.Ashwin who made the series his own by taking 22 wickets and also scoring his maiden ton and in the process shut the doors for harbhajan for the tour "down under". He performed brilliantly bowling with a lot of control and out doing the batsmen with the variety in his armory. he also got a lot of support from his senior pragyan ojha who kept the pressure from other end as they complemented each other by taking 42 wickets among them.
Umesh yadav bowled with great speeds and took wickets at regular intervals. He was at his best in kolkata test taking 9 wickets and helped india win by an innings in that match. Varun aaron as like umesh was fast and initially might have pressurized himself after good debuts from ashwin and umesh but got into his rhythm on second day of last test and took 3 wickets. The view of watching indian fast bowler notching up speeds of 140 kmph on consistent basis, ahead of australian tour where the speedsters rule, would have pleased every indian cricket fan.
This return of form for the Indian team ahead of the important tour of Australia is heartening to see. and the great starts of the youngsters or the debutantes to say in the international arena has pleased every indian fan , for whom the only disappointment from the series was of sachin missing out on the 100th ton twice in the series after coming close to it.
The dramatic series against west indies has contributed to the rise of some of the best talents of the country in the likes of batsman virat kohli , charismatic spinner ravichandran ashwin and the rare breed of fast bowlers of Indian cricket , umesh yadav and varun aaron. Along with these youngsters the old pro's and the other players have played their part to perfection in winning the series.
As the history goes with the indian cricket they are the slow starters and it was proved again as they got bowled out cheaply in the first innings of first test and conceded a lead of near 100 runs to not so great opponents. but they managed to pull back things and won the first test courtesy brilliant bowling by R.Ashwin and decent chase by the batsmen.
In the second test it was batsmen turn to pile on the misery of the visitors as three of the batsman managed to score hundreds during the course of huge first innings score which was enough to bowl out the windies twice and take india to the series win. v.v.s laxman made a big 176 to earn himself a mom and umesh yadav made significant contribution with the ball in this test taking 9 wickets and providing breakthroughs when the team required.
The final test was a dramatic and thrilling one and also turned out to be great advertisement for test cricket after the dull first four days with the wicket not helping the bowlers. The drama started from the fourth day when sachin failed to notch up his 100th ton when he got out on 94 much to the disappointment of the home crowd of mumbai. but it was ashwin's day out who earlier took 5-for in the first innings of west indies turned out to be the savior with the bat as he raced away to his maiden test ton and becoming the only Indian player in almost 5 decades to accomplish the task of taking 5 wickets and scoring a hundred in the same test. the fifth day pitch was an opposite of first four days as the wicket started taking turn quite sharply which was too hot to handle for the windies batsmen and they were folded out cheaply by the indian spin duo of ojha and ashwin leaving india a chasable target of 242. India this time decided to go for the win after being criticized for not opting to do so earlier in the year against the same opposition in their backyard. and they almost pulled it off the last ball but couldn't do so after failing to consolidate on a good start given by sehwag and then resurrected by kohli. The match ended in a draw with scores level giving india the series 2-0.
The man of the series was none other than R.Ashwin who made the series his own by taking 22 wickets and also scoring his maiden ton and in the process shut the doors for harbhajan for the tour "down under". He performed brilliantly bowling with a lot of control and out doing the batsmen with the variety in his armory. he also got a lot of support from his senior pragyan ojha who kept the pressure from other end as they complemented each other by taking 42 wickets among them.
Umesh yadav bowled with great speeds and took wickets at regular intervals. He was at his best in kolkata test taking 9 wickets and helped india win by an innings in that match. Varun aaron as like umesh was fast and initially might have pressurized himself after good debuts from ashwin and umesh but got into his rhythm on second day of last test and took 3 wickets. The view of watching indian fast bowler notching up speeds of 140 kmph on consistent basis, ahead of australian tour where the speedsters rule, would have pleased every indian cricket fan.
