Is Dhoni the new Ricky Ponting?

Well yesterday, the Indian captain and to be more precise at present, the Chennai Superkings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is all set to take the stage in the finals of the Indian Premier League for the third time and second time in succession. Likewise, he is the only captain and his team is the only team (obviously) to have made it to the semi finals (qualifiers this time around) of an IPL. This was something that only Dhoni can boast of and nobody else. Dhoni has all reasons and his team all the odds to make it two in a row.

With just four editions of the Indian Premier League gone and with ten teams at present to compete, there are teams in the waiting as well to gain atleast one such title. Dhoni on one side should be lucky to have beaten the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the right time when just a couple of days ago the same RCB destroyed the Chennai Superkings by 8 wickets. The venue hardly matters when the country is foreign to all non Indian players and local to players from India who have played in almost every venue that hosted matches in the IPL.

It was just more than a month ago that India-under the captaincy of the same Dhoni won the world cup at Wankhade stadium that set so many records and just 8 months ago that lifted the champions league trophy where they met the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the semi-finals like yesterday. Notable feathers in Dhoni's cap would be the inaugural edition of the world T20 at South Africa, runners-up in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League, winners in the 2010 IPL and finalists of the current edition of the IPL (which would see them may be as runners-up or winners).

I can just correlate this feat of Dhoni's to the former Aussie captain-Ricky Ponting who has has many tournament wins against his name when he captained the Australian team since the retirement of Steve Waugh in 2002. Notable achievements of Ponting include the two major world cup titles in 2003 and 2007, two ICC champions trophies in 2006 and 2009, beating India (in India) 2-1 in the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2004, 5-0 whitewash of England in Ashes 2007 and finally winning 21 one dayers at a stretch and 16 consecutive test matches. This can rarely be paralleled but one can see a glimpse of the same in Dhoni.

Bankrupt Ponting files insolvency

It was after Australia's whitewash in the 2^nd T20 world cup where Australia failed to go past the 1^st round of the tournament after losses to Sri Lanka and West Indies that the then Aussie captain-Ricky Ponting stepped down from captaincy. Now, the world had to wait for India to tame the Australian team that has been stripped of all its match winners for Ponting to give up his captaincy from all forms of the game. This might not go down well with most of them who are hardcore fans of the Aussie captain for his achievements in international cricket.

Ponting though is the 2^nd captain to have lifted the ICC world cup twice after Clive Lloyd can hardly be considered in par with Steve Waugh who was not as successful as Ponting. It was Steve Waugh who from nowhere bought his team to victory in the finals of the 1999 world cup when odds suggested that Australia wouldn't even make it to the semis with them needing wins against all three teams in the super sixes. Had Ponting been there, that would have never happened. Likewise, even Mark Taylor was a clever captain who saw his team to the finals in the previous edition but convinced himself with the runners-up tag.

Ponting under his captaincy has more than 41 test wins along with two ICC world cups and an equal number of ICC champions trophies. Till date, Australia is the only team to have won two ICC champions trophies and Ponting is lucky to have captained the side then. It would not be a tough task for anyone to lead a side with the strongest bowling line up in the world aided with depth to an equal amount in batting. Hard hitting batsmen like Gilchrist, Hayden, Martyn, Symonds, Hussey as a bunch is still unparalleled. Similarly, a bowler like McGrath can be born once in a lifetime.

Since the bowling duo of McGrath and Warne, Ponting's team has never been able to retain or regain the Ashes. Australia came close to losing a test match against Sri Lanka which was the 2^nd test for Australia after the retirement of McGrath-Warne. But, with likes of Gilchrist and co, their winning streak was extended by three more matches when they finally lost to India in the 3^rd test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2007-08 at Perth. Since then Ponting's highlights as captain are: a test series loss to RSA at home which was their 1st such loss in 16 years. Then comes the two Ashes' losses and two loss to India on their tour.

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Sub-continent ghosts and not hosts for Australia

Well the sub-continent teams namely India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have always been a nightmare for the Western countries namely Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, England and South Africa. The main reason for this is the fact that the spinners from the sub-continent are far more gifted compared to players from the rest mentioned above. This has been the reason for Steve Waugh's dream to be shattered every time he and his team led Australia would tour India to play a test series. The only conquest Steve Waugh wasn't successful in doing was a test series win over India in India.

However, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have not been that troublesome to Australia and Steve Waugh has had wins against them on their home soil. And, this time in the world cup, it was the three sub-continent teams which played havoc in Ponting's third appearance as captain. Ponting managed what no Australian captain had managed to since 1987 when India last won a game against Australia by 56 runs under the captaincy of Azharuddin. Since 1992, Australia have managed 5 wins against India and no losses at all. But now, for the 1st time since the color dress was introduced in world cup, Australia have lost to India.

All knew that Australia was not at their best of cricket but no one would have predicted that they would end their dream of lifting 4^th world cup in a row in the quarter-finals itself. At least a semi-final berth for Australia would have stopped all haters' tongues from wagging and the ACB's head to think like never before. The last time Australia ever lost a match was against Pakistan in 1999 when Pakistan were lucky to have survived a 10 run win over Steve Waugh's men. Perhaps! Had this world cup not been held in the sub-continent, may be Australia would not have fared this bad.

But, Australia and Ponting mainly is not the one who decides who hosts the tournament. Just when Australia would have been celebrating the 8^th anniversary of their emphatic win over India in 2003 world cup final, Ponting had to think of what would he face the next day with him having to face the same team but with a depleted side. Talking about Australia's relationship with the sub-continent, Sri Lanka was the team to have stopped Australia's winning streak after the match was abandoned. Let me remind you guys the difference between won and unbeaten. Pakistan stopped their unbeaten streak by a 4 wicket win and finally India broke their world cup dreams after their 5 wicket win yesterday.

For all those crazy cricket fans in India who left their business, women, career, jobs, family, travel to watch India battle it out, it was worth the sacrifice.

What is so gr8 in it?

Yesterday, Pakistan beat Australia by 4 wickets to stop their 35 match winning streak that included one tied match against South Africa in the semi finals of the 1999 world cup and one match abandoned with the match against Sri Lanka being called off due to rains. May be this world have come before for Australia, had that game taken off. But, despite all these facts, I personally don't regard this as a major victory for Pakistan or any team to have managed it. Not because that I'm an Indian and turning down Pakistan's achievements is my birth right that I am into such statements.

But, beating a team that was once an unbeatable team is not a major achievement. Only a handful of players from the Australian side are found playing cricket though not at their career best of form and fitness. Only Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Brett Lee are found making it to the squad since 2003 when the Aussies were unbeatable. And for the matter, Ponting is at his best only in smashing LCD sets rather than the ball which has was known to be. There is no Gilchrist, Hayden, Martyn, Symonds and Mike Hussey to take the batting charge with McGrath, Nathan Bracken and Brad Hogg to bowl.

Added to that, the current Aussie team lacks a match winner like Michael Beaven who could take his team out from the clutches of defeat despite his team reeling at 135/8 against England in 2003 and Andy Bichael who was a replacement for Jason Gillispie and proved much more than what Gillispie would have been. Australia never finished with a run rate less than 6.0 an over in the 2007 world cup batting 1^st and got all its opponents all out with Bangladesh being an exception in the 2007 world cup. Coming close to such a team was also a tough task let alone winning.

It would be no tough task to fight a 90 year old man when thinking about the same when the person at his young age would have made him pay the price. In the current cricketing world, Australia is as good as any other team and winning against them would be just another win against a normal opposition. New Zealand could have done this for, they were the 1^st decent team to have faced the Aussies in 2011 WC. Since the 2007 triumph, the Aussies have made news only for bad reasons though they won the ICC champions trophy in 2009 and were the runners-up in world T20 2010.

It would be nice to think about ways to make money online, online business guide than cheering a pseudo-record by Pakistan I'd suggest.

Ponting's never stopping attitude

Well he might have failed to win the first test at Brisbane and neither is Ponting happy with the 1st Ashes test ending in a draw which actually Australia should have lost. Though no one is to be blamed for their missed earning opportunities in life, the Australian captain does have someone to point his fingers at after drawing the first test at Brisbane when he shows his lack of interest on the technology for not dancing to his tunes. I wish Ricky Ponting was expecting all umpires in the world to be a follower of Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson.

May be his lack of confidence in the onfield umpires might have provoked him to take the decision himself when he claimed Sourav Ganguly out caught in the famous Sydney test somewhere three years down the lane. Had Ganguly been adjudged "NOT OUT", may be Ricky Ponting's words would have made news on cricinfo three years earlier itself. With that apart, coming to the news, Ponting says that he isn't satisfied with the technology for the sole reason that he couldn't get Cook out when the batsman was on 209. Cook later on went on to win the man of the match award which is a different issue.

Added to that was the fact that Alistair Cook never got out whatsoever. And, the reasons for Ponting to get annoyed with the technology is justified when he could have had another wicket to his team's name on one hand while on the other, a catch extra under his personal name. The article suggests that Ricky Ponting as expected or even suspected if one is not wrong enough, tried to convince not only the onfield umpires but also the third umpire - Aleem Dar saying that the catch was taken. But, unfortunately fortunately, it was not the Border - Gavaskar trophy involving India but the Ashes involving England.

England's influence on world cricket is equally good as is Australia's influence. And, one has to no matter what accept the fact that the Sydney test episode has implanted a fear among the onfield as well as the third umpires before getting into such dirty games. No matter what the influence of Australia has got on world cricket, it would come as no surprise if the umpires do not give the decision in favor of Australia for the fear of having to face the music for the wrong reasons. And, with all these in front of us, Ponting's lack of satisfaction towards the technology can well be understood.

When good performance would be pointless

Well this is regarding the only one day international match between Ireland and Australia which was played yesterday at Dublin. And, needless to be said, Australia did win as expected despite putting a modest of all totals when they lost 9 wickets for a score of just 231 runs on the board. The reasons for the same might be many like, Australia were playing a game away from home though they were facing Ireland who are yet to attain some dignity in international cricket. On the otherhand, Ireland were playing a game under conditions similar to their home nation which is just hundreds of miles away.

However, Australia did win the game though not convincingly when the margin of victory was just 39 runs which is way behind Australia's success in terms of number of runs scored against any strong nation say Pakistan and West Indies offlate. The other reason for Australia to put up such a under rated performance against the Irish would be that they might have underestimated the opposition for which most of the teams have paid the price. And, last but not the least, the match under discussion is totally inconsequential and the performance of Australia does not matter to any extent.

Of course, had Australia lost the match, that would have surely made headlines. But, a win will never ever make one. I bet that hardly anybody would be aware that there was a match held between Australia and Ireland yesterday at Dublin. Australia has got nothing to lose in case they get away with a marginless win for they are not involved in any triangular series to worry about a bonus point nor are they going to face any big opposition for them to carry forward some confidence with this game. But, still, one has to imagine why Australia went into the match with a full fledged team involving Ponting, Watson, Clarke and Bollinger?

In terms of the number of extras conceded, Ireland has an upperhand when the Irish bowlers conceded just 13 of them and with the leg byes and byes being excluded from the list, the number drops down to just 7 as against the 17 extras that included 14 of them in the form of wides and no balls bowled by Australia. This might not mean that the Irish bowlers were more accurate in their bowling as compared to Australia for, the experimenting factor comes into the picture at which the Aussies rank number one in the world. When there is no experimenting, there is little scope for errors but more scope for stagnation.

Punish the umpires instead

Well the news has its say that the decision review system is about to take a back seat for the reason that it involves a lot of cost that is considered as unnecessary by the ICC. It seems that the world's cricket governing body is not interested in giving the teams or the players a fair trial no matter what on earth happens. It is not the ICC who would be responsible in case a team crashes out of a major tournament when there is hardly any mistake on its side or there is least that it can do. Really?

If the ICC considers about cost cutting measures, one has to reason out why does the game has a provision in giving the umpires an option to refer a doubtful decision to the 3^rd umpire? Why doesn't one of the teams suffer in case there can be a lot of money that can be saved. Of course, there is not going to be a loss of anyone's life or property in this case. The ICC should have learnt a lesson after the Sydney test episode between India and Australia where 8 decisions were wrong and funny that one of them included the decision by the third umpire as well.

However, all these are allowed to happen by giving a lame excuse that these are human errors regarding which nothing can be done. One can agree with the former part of the sentence which says "human errors" but not with the latter part that says "nothing can be done". In case something needs to be done, there are lots that can happen. In case a batsman is found to be not out, he can be called by the umpires back to the crease to continue to bat. This can happen when the same umpires rule out a six to be a four after consulting the third umpire over wireless.

Similarly, in case the opposition captain calls back a batsman after learning that he was not out, the batsman can still come back and play like it happened in a match between Sri Lanka and Australia in 2004 after Symonds was given out which was not the case actually. And one other thing that can be done is to penalise the umpires in case they go wrong in deciding irrespective of whether it is a human error or not. When captains can be fined for slow over rate and bowlers for excessive appealing, why should the umpires go scot free for their decision can affect not only a player or a match but also a series?

Aussies not for big bucks?

Needless to be said, this is the third edition of the Indian Premier League. For the second time in succession, players from Pakistan are banned (once officially and unofficially this time) from participating in the same. At the same time, one other aspect that needs to be noticed is that some most of the players from Australia are also not found to feature in the IPL despite having the potential in them to attract huge sums of money and a lot of fame as well. The list includes close to a dozen players from the country. This is to be indeed given a closer look.

Last year in 2009 (obviously), Michael Clarke was found to back out from that year's edition of the IPL despite being offered a base price of $1 million the reason for which sources say is not enough for him considering his caliber. And, there was Shaun Tait who withdrew his name from the auction list when he wanted to improve his game as far as his international commitments were considered. This also was found making Shaun Tait back out from the CB series earlier that year for the same reason which drew a lot of applause. This was said to have been done by Shaun Tait to battle depression.

So has been the case with Mitchell Johnson who has not seen featuring in the IPL so far in all three editions though having the potential in him to make it big here. Johnson was believed to have been offered a price if $800,000 which he turned down without a second thought. And this year, though being free from his international commitments, Ricky Ponting is seen nowhere in this edition of the IPL despite having appeared for Kolkata Knight Riders earlier. While others like Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori and others who are also into their international commitments are being seen.

The only players being seen from Australia are players who have quit playing international cricket like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Martyn to name a few. Someone like Andrew Symonds is making his appearance owing to the fact that he has been banned from playing international cricket for Australia for reasons best known to everyone after the T20 world cup last year. The other category include players like Shaun Marsh and David Hussey who have not been featuring for the Australian team for a long time. The only players who play regularly play for Australia and still show interest in IPL have been Brett Lee (if not for his injury), Warner,Watson and Ryan Harris offlate.

Vettori's gift for NZ on his 100th test appearence

Well this is the New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori's 100^th test match and has been a good performance both as a captain and as a player. With Daniel Vettori trying to prove a point in his 100th test, one has to see the positives in the ongoing test match against Australia. New Zealand have successfully bowled Australia for a mere total of just 231 on the board which would have otherwise been close to somewhere around 500+ like it happened in the earlier test where Australia put up a total in excess of 400 and defeated New Zealand till the death.

Because this is Daniel Vetttori's 100^th test match, New Zealand can think of a decent loss unlike it happened in the earlier test where Australia had a lead in excess of 302 runs. Australia had lost half the number of wickets that New Zealand lost towards the end of their innings and as mentioned earlier scored 302 runs less than what the Aussies could manage. However, now if the first day's play is considered, New Zealand are found enjoying a slight upperhand when it comes to the test match. May be the loss that New Zealand would have anticipated to incur be now reduced by an innings to a few runs.

No matter how low the team total of Australia is, victory can never be snatched from them. The best example being the Sydney test between Pakistan and Australia where Australia lost all their 10 wickets for a score of 127 with hopes of an Aussie win being nowhere. But, much to everyone's surprise Australia won the match by 36 runs needless to be said. Now, if Australia have lost all their 10 wickets on the 1^st day's play itself, it would not come as a surprise to anyone if Australia manage to reduce New Zealand to a lesser total than what Ponting's men could.

And, in case New Zealand manage to take a small lead in the first innings, the Aussies have always shown that they get back to the game by not repeating the mistake they did in their first innings for which once again the Sydney test against Pakistan stands as an example. A hint regarding the same is already available from the 1^st day's play when the first New Zealand wicket fell with the scoreboard reading 19 runs at the end of the day's play. It would not be a tough task for the Aussies to get the remaining 9 New Zealand wickets in the next day they play.

A bold decision by Ponting

Well there are at present two test series' going on in parallel namely, the tour of England over Bangladesh and the other one being the Australian tour of New Zealand. However, if both the tournaments are considered, it looks that the Bangladesh have shown better performance against England compared to New Zealand's performance against Australia. This was evident from the fact that there, the England captain didn't turn up to impose a follow on over Bangladesh while here, Ponting took no further thinking in imposing the same against New Zealand. This itself shows the caliber of the New Zealand team.

In just one full day, New Zealand lost as many as 11 wickets which is as good as getting all out and losing a wicket extra. The entire day belonged to New Zealand which saw them bat without any Aussie taking the crease. The New Zealand team had ended the previous day that is day 2 with 108 runs on the board and losing 4 wickets which included an unbeaten 5^th wicket partnership of 65 runs between Vettori and McCullum which could last for just 4 more runs on day 3 of the test match. It would not be longer for the Kiwis to lose the remaining 9 wickets in a similar fashion.

New Zealand were playing at home and no excuses regarding their debacle can be entertained. The first innings of New Zealand lasted for just 49 runs with 6 losses of wickets inbetween. After the loss of the 4^th wicket on the 2^nd day's play, New Zealand were expected to put up a fighting performance atleast if not a match winning one. But, all that happened was the continuation of the bad work that was seen by the New Zealand batsmen in the initial part of the first innings. And if that was not enough, they lost yet another wicket in the second innings of their batting when Watling lost out to a controversial decision.

Whatever, the highlight of the day's play was the Australian captain Ricky Ponting imposing a follow on upon the New Zealand team. Ponting was never found doing such a thing in the past despite there being a huge margin. I remember Ponting deciding to continue batting in the first test against England in the Ashes 2007 with a lead of 445 runs. And then, in the recently concluded test series against Pakistan, Ponting decided not to go in for a follow on despite the fact that Pakistan failed to cash out an opportunity to win a test at Sydney. These were the cases where Australia were hosting unlike in the current test against New Zealand. This shows some maturity of Ponting as a captain.

Ponting's decision to declare?

As expected, the second day also belonged top Australia when they amassed 459 runs on the board by scoring 143 runs extra compared to their score at the end of the first day's play. And as usual, the batting of the New Zealand side started collapsing like glaciers in snow mountains. The first four wickets of the New Zealand side fell with less than 50 runs on the board. The scoreboard of the New Zealand batting read 43 runs when the fourth New Zealand wicket fell. No needs to be given any sort of appreciation for tumbling the New Zealand wickets for it was the Kiwis who flattered.

The Australian bowlers did nothing extra ordinary to bowl the New Zealand batsmen out for a partly score. Since the fall of the fourth wicket at the score of 43 on the board, the New Zealand team didn't lose another wicket until the end of the day. The scorecard at the end of the day read 108 runs for the loss of four wickets meaning 65 runs in addition to 43 were scored without losing a wicket. The first three New Zealand batsmen went back to the pavilion scoring single digit scores of 9, 0 and 5 respectively. However, the scorecard read 31 runs when the 3rd wicket fell.

The trio New Zealand batsmen scored just 14 runs if their individual scores are taken which means that the additional 17 runs should have been scored by extras. Even Australia lost just 4 wickets on their first day's play like New Zealand. Australia lost 4 wickets on day 1 after scoring 316 runs and New Zealand also lost 4 wickets but with a score that was just 208 runs less than what the Aussie batsmen could pile up on day 1. The Kiwi batsmen could not even score half of what the Australian batsmen could do on day 2. This was rather expected taking into consideration their caliber in test cricket.

Earlier, the Australian batsmen put up a score of 459 runs on the board as mentioned above. In the process, the Australian team lost just one wicket of Michael Clarke who scored 168 runs that is needless to be said. After Clarke retreated, Ponting declared the innings with a score of less than 500 on the board and with as many as 5 wickets in hand. This can rather be considered to be an unusual gesture in today's test cricket especially when a total of 400+ on the board can no longer be considered as safe. And, this was done outside home as far as Australia are concerned. With the likes of Haddin, North and Johnson, Ponting could have delayed the declaration to avoid cursing himself later. But, the decision can well be understood by Ponting alone.

Clarke's performance not surprising

From the past one month or so, all news that Michael Clarke was able to make was regarding his break up with some female whose relation with Michael Clarke is needless at the moment and at the same time not clear as well. Clarke returned to the Australian cricket with a bang when he scored an unbeaten 100 runs in the first test at Wellington against New Zealand. It was not Bangladesh or the West Indies whom Clarke was facing to say that the weak opposition helped Clarke nor it was Brisbane or Sydney where Australia were playing to say that Clarke had the home team advantage.

In addition to Michael Clarke, there were other Australian players like Simon Katich and Marcus North who aided Australia in putting up a mammoth total of 316 on the board on day 1. This was achieved at a run rate of less than 4 which once again points towards Australia's losing momentum after the retirement of big guns a couple of years ago. However, this was more than enough for and against teams like New Zealand who are best suited for teams like Pakistan and may be England and that too under home conditions. The bowlers from New Zealand could get the wicket of just three Australian batsmen, with the other one being run out.

If not for Mike Hussey on a rare occasion, the rest of the Australian batsmen showed no signs of fear towards the New Zealand bowlers. There could have been only one bowler who could put pressure of some sort on the Aussie batsmen and that was Shane Bond who bid adieu to test cricket. If that is to be kept apart, the lone bowler who could do that job to some extent would be Daniel Vettori not because of his extraordinary bowling skills but due to the fact that Australians are bad players of spin bowling. But the other side of the coin is that so is New Zealand.

Even New Zealand fear spin bowling more than Australia due to the fact that atleast Australia have a decent batting run up which is not the same when it comes to New Zealand. It would not come as a surprise to anyone in case the same Michael Clarke who id much of the damage to the Kiwi bowlers turns up to do the same with the ball as well. Clarke would have two advantages, one owing to the fact of New Zealand's approach to spin bowling as stated earlier and two for having a mammoth total on the board which would persuade him to try and do different things. In case he fails in that, there is Ryan Harris and co who can settle things for Aussies.

Ponting's yet another immaturity

Well what would have Australia lost if not for the match against New Zealand in the finals ODI of the bilateral series when the series has been pocketed by them a couple of days ago? Aussies made the most of it when they seriously had to win though they lost the first encounter which would have seen them go 1 down in the series. However, that was the match where both the teams fought in a very tight manner and as the convention goes, there could be only one winner and that happened to be New Zealand. And, then onwards, it has been the Aussie show until they sealed the series against their name.

And, there should be absolutely no reason for New Zealand to rejoice their victory in the 5^th one dayer played at Wellington despite winning the match be a rather decent margin of 51 runs. This can be considered as Australia's loss and not a win by New Zealand for it was not New Zealand who fought for it. The match was gifted by Australia to New Zealand for which New Zealand has to be thankful to their Tasmanian rivals. However, things didn't start as though New Zealand would win the match when they lost 4 wickets for a score less than 100 on the board.

The score was 25 by the time the 2nd wicket had fallen and scorecard suggests that the New Zealand openers - Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill had scores of 1 and 7 respectively. New Zealand could score a total which was only somewhere near to the total that they could manage in their earlier games. In the 4th ODI at Auckland, they ended up scoring 238 runs and in the 3rd ODI at Hamilton, they were found to score just 245 runs compared to the 241 they put up in the last one dayer which they appeared to win convincingly.

One has to wonder as to how come New Zealand could manage to defend a similar total in the inconsequential match at Wellington when they could not even come close to doing the same in the previous one dayers at Hamilton and Auckland respectively. And, the way Australia played was just another instance of a captain's immaturity when Ponting went into the fifth ODI with a full strength Australian team when he could have rested some senior players like Watson & Johnson and instead played some lesser talent like Bailey. Neither did Ponting go in for a whitewash nor did he give some lesser talent a little bit of match practice.

New Zealand no match for Aussies!

It was just unfortunate for Australia to lose the first match of the Chappel-Hadlee series against New Zealand when a last moment risk from Scott Styris saw Australia with the last option of making it to the presentation ceremony first before Vettori had to. And, from then onwards, needless to be said, it has been only Aussies to have been walking away with the honors of the day. If not for the 2^nd one dayer, the remaining two one dayers were completely dominated by Australia. And, this time in the fourth ODI, Australia dismissed Kiwis' claim in the 2^nd ODI.

In the 2^nd one dayer at Auckland, New Zealand were found blaming the Duckworth-Lewis method for their team's loss against Australia which saw their required number of runs being reduced by just 8 runs and the number of balls being reduced by 30. And, this time, it was the Aussies who were found facing the same situation when rain tried to play a spoilsport. The revised target for Australia happened to be 200 runs from 32 overs as against the 238 run target they were supposed to chase from 50 overs had everything gone alright. Meaning the number of runs required was reduced by just 39 and the number of balls by 96.

Had the game went on smoothly, and than Australia would have had to chase at the rate of just above 4.0 an over, which happened to be just below 6.0 an over after the rain interruption. The main thing that proved costly for the Kiwis was their batting which saw the 2^nd highest score in their innings happened to be scored by a number 8 batsman in Darryl Tuffey who bought in all his experience. If not for Bollinger, all the Aussie bowlers returned with wickets and a run rate below 6.0 an over. Most of the Kiwi batsmen were batting as though it was a test match that would end in a draw.

And, when it came to the batting of Australian team, similar to their bowling, if not for one batsmen in Brad Haddin, the rest of them showed no signs of fear and mercy in belting the New Zealand bowlers. One Aussie batsman in Ricky Ponting was found having 8 hits to the fence which was 75% of what the entire New Zealand team put together could do. However, when it came to the number of sixes hit, New Zealand managed to take the upperhand when their team had 9 sixes compared to just 3 from the Aussie side. However, once again, the man-of-the-match was not justified. Scorecard suggests that it was Ricky Ponting who should have been awarded the Mom which was unfortunately awarded to White.

Australia do it effortlessly

Well after two matches that ended in tense moments, with both Australia and New Zealand fighting it until the last legal delivery was bowled and the last run scored or conceded, there was finally a game that proved one team to be stronger than the other. And as obvious it has been, that one team that had to be sideline from the other happened to be Australia. Though Australia won the second one dayer at Auckland by 12 runs, the victory couldn't guarantee Australia a convincing sleep, with reports suggesting that it was the D-L method that helped Australia achieve the task.

In the 3^rd ODI which Australia won, the Australian bowlers did everything right if not for the toss which should have seen Ricky Ponting choose to bat rather than to bowl. Though Australia won the match convincingly, it would have been a better decision from Ponting had he chosen to bat first with the seamers not being able to extract anything from the surface. However, despite the ball being unable to swing, it was enough to trouble the New Zealand batsmen who kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. The final score of 245 was not at all an issue in chasing for the Australians who are gifted with atleast 7 specialist batsmen in their side.

The New Zealand team needed contribution from as many as 7 batsmen who departed after scoring double digit figures, with 5 of them scoring between 20 and 40 or above. But, when the same was considered from the Australians' side, they needed the efforts of just 2 batsmen in Ponting and Haddin, whose work was continued by White and Voges. No bowler from the New Zealand side could take a wicket until the 33^rd over, after Watson was run out in the 7^th over. Highlights suggests that there were two chance given to Haddin when the batsman was on 8 and on 83, both of which were tough ones but gettable as well.

And, this is the difference between a team that dominates and that which wins with a combined effort. A dominating team makes chances for itself and a strong team looks for chances while an ordinary team only welcomes chances. Finally, a weak team like Bangladesh West Indies lets go off a chance despite being forced to accept one. And NZ belongs to the third category that can only make it count when things favor them. One thing that was evident from the match was that, a 35 yer old mason, who should have retired by now was found making a comeback to the international after he was last found playing for NZ in July last year against Scotland.

Australia wants more from Ponting

Well after Australia's loss to New Zealand at Napier a couple of days back, tongues have to wag for the losing team. This happens to be either some lame excuses which form the reason for losing or the strength that the opposition is aided with that inversely hit them. However, Ricky Ponting comes out asking more from the Aussie batsmen when scoreboard suggests that the Aussie batsmen have done enough to see their team through the match which unfortunately didn't happen at Napier. It was just a matter of time that Australia get back to their winning ways which can be proved in the next 4 ODIs that follow.

This was more or less Dhoni's words when he comes out blaming the batsmen for India's loss in the finals of the tri nation tournament featuring Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India a couple of months back. However, though the batsmen should have put up atleast a score of 300 on the board, Ponting's words are not completely justified whatsoever. Every Australian batsman put up a score in excess of 10 runs which is not guaranteed in case of a touring team that loses. Australia had a depth in batting upto number 9 until Mitchell Johnson who can prove something with the bat.

Ricky Ponting justifies his words citing the team total which was at one stage 50/1 at the end of the 6^th over with the run rate above 8.0 an over, without realizing the advantage of the powerplay that the batsmen were enjoying. Even a run rate of over 10 an over at that stage should not raise eye brows. And, how can one extrapolate the final match score with just 6 overs been bowled? If this is the way calculation can go on, a match should yield a total in excess of a thousand incase the 1^st over goes for 20 runs and the same is expected to happen for the remaining 49 overs.

Meanwhile, Ponting should take a look at his own captaincy when the way he used his bowlers is given a close look at. Despite going in for over 6 an over, Bollinger is given to bowl his entire quota of 10 overs. One has to wonder as to what on earth made Ponting go in for full pace attack leaving little room for the spinners to cash in. Ponting had spinners like Michael Clarke and Nathan Hauritz who bowled just 5 overs. Despite decades of experience, Ponting was found forgetting the fact that the batsmen from New Zealand are bad players of spin bowling. The Aussie bowling was found to oscillate between medium pace and fast bowling.

Whatever, despite all these mishaps from Ponting, he must consider himself lucky enough for coming close to winning and not losing in a one sided manner.

Pakistan Never Wanted To Win The Hobart test

Well as expected, Australia defeated Pakistan by needless to say 231 runs in the third and final test at Hobart. This, if statistics need to be given a serious look, is the fourth time in succession that Australia has defeated Pakistan in a test series by winning all the three games that were scheduled. So, it would not be wrong to conclude that Pakistan are no match for the Aussies whatsoever. This was more so after their 36 run loss to the same in the previous test at Sydney when Pakistan let go a golden opportunity after Australia were bowled out for 127 on the first day and Pakistan took a 200+ lead there after.

Added to that, in the third test at Hobart, Pakistan went in without their wicket keeper batsmen Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammed Sami who were all decent players in test cricket. And moreover, it was Mohammed Sami along with Mohammed Asif who ripped apart the Aussie batting line up when Aussies lost all their batsmen for 127 runs on board. On the other hand, someone like Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammed Aamer who are aged 22 and 17 years respectively made it to the squad. Can anyone guess the reason for the same? MohammedAamer had until then played just 7 matches until then and it was Safraz' debut test.

Is it because that the Pakistanis had already lost the test series to Australia and a win or a loss in the Hobart test would have hardly made any difference to the Pakistanis that they went in for such a change? Or is it because Pakistan were less likely to win the test match at Hobart irrespective of whoever makes it to the squad that the playing eleven was chosen like that? The third reason for such a change that one can imagine is Pakistan had already got used to losing test matches after a they had a year without playing a single test match in 2008 and more so against Australia, wherein Pakistan had lost 3 earlier test series'.

If anyone could take pains to go through the Pakistan scorecard, only five Pakistani batsmen players were found crossing the double digit mark, with two of them being tailenders in Mohammed Asif and Umer Gul who scored 29 and 38 respectively. However, the 7 match old Mohammed Aamer could bowl 31 overs returning with figures of 2/97 that included the price wicket of Ricky Ponting but not before the Aussie captain could score yet another double hundred. So, if these things are taken into consideration, it looks like Pakistan had decided well before the Hobart test started to lose the game or may be gift the game to the Aussies.

Ricky Ponting misses Steve Bucknor & Mark Benson

Whenever a team finds itself in shambles, the first person to face the axe is the captain of the team. And it is more so in case of the Australian captain Ricky Ponting who had no choice but to be at the receiving end when his team was all out for a partly total of 127 in the second test at Sydney against Pakistan. Tongues have already started wagging against the Australian skipper's favor when he chose to bat first in the so called green top in Sydney, which Ponting did otherwise. Whatever may be the reason, Australia's score card can never read anything else if not for the truth.

However, everyone (including me) would be shocked indeed when a team like Australia loses its first 7 wickets at a score less than 75. And as it is in front of us, Australia's final score reads 127 all out. I just wonder as to how many people would have died all over the world from heart attack after the Aussie batsmen did such an unbelievable feat and that too at Sydney! Though Australia are not with the greats like Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Justin Langer and others, Australia are still the opposition to beat by most of the teams around.

Australia still have Mike Hussey, Ponting himself along with Shane Watson who can make a decent batting line up. And another reason for the Aussies to kick themselves is the fact that they have been bought down to their knees by a team that have not played a single test match in the year 2008. Scorecard reveals that the highest run getter in the first innings of Australia was Mitchell Johnson who scored 38 runs and added to that was the fact that he was the lone six hitter in the innings and also the batsman who hit five boundaries that was more than anybody else in the Australian first innings.

And it was not Danish kaneria who posed some problems for Aussie batsmen who are bad players of spin comparatively. But, it was some Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Sami, the former who was suspected of doping charges and the latter who has come back to play test cricket after more than two years, since the ICL was a failure. All that the Pakistan team needed to demolish the Aussie batting line up was four bowlers, out of which the ten wickets were shared by the three fast bowlers viz Sami, Asif and Umar Gul. And yes, this was the venue where the onfield umpires viz Steve Bucknor & Mark Benson played for Australia to get them their 16^th consecutive test win 2 years ago.

I hope Ponting would surely recall the moment and miss the services of these two men more than someone like McGrath & Warne.