This is what over-confidence makes

Well the one-off T20 match between India and England was just another instance of one team over estimating itself and in the process taking the opposition or granted. This time, it was not a hare-tortoise story that was the case with India but this was a result of the wrong selection of the playing XI which proved costly for India. The match definitely was a costly one for India where the loss was not restricted to one match alone but was as good as a series loss where India lost all the T20 games it played. Loss record for India is 100% in the T20 tournament against England this series.

Though only one T20 game was played, a loss in that means India lost 100% of its matches. Coming to the game, it was not a good decision to include someone like Robin Uttappa in the playing XI when one has to take a long route to trace back when exactly did Uttappa last play an international T20 match. That was not a bad decision as well when Uttappa has been a player on the to be included lists but, yesterday's scorecard says it all. All that Uttappa could score was a single before Kieswetter caught him behind the stumps.

There have been matches in this bilateral series where huge totals have been chased down but there have been no games where small totals have been defended successfully. And, with that fact in front of us, it should come in as no surprise that a total of 120 stood nowhere when it comes to chasing and England did exactly that. Though Suresh Raina was successful to a little extent, the batsman with the highest strike-rate happened to be Ashwin who scored 17 runs at a strike rate of 154.54 runs. The generosity of the Indian batsmen was evident when they gave away 2 overs maiden.

There was surprisingly nothing much to complain about the English batsmen when they had the match well in their chance. Thanks to the total of 120 set up by the Indian batsmen which didn't make any of the English batsmen to fear for. Though here were initial strikes of Hales and Kieswetter, the batsmen who came in later had little to do with most of the damage being done by the bowlers. One can go through the scorecard to see who the major wicket-takers were. If not for Jadeja, the rest of the players who returned with a wicket were part-time bowlers.

A totally clueless England

Looking at yesterday's game between India and England, one has to pinch himself to see whether it was a dream that he was witnessing when India crushed England yet another time despite winning the series for the fourth consecutive time to return the favor back to the touring nation. That was not the Indian team with the likes of Sehwag and Yuvraj doing the trick with the bat but some Varun Aaron whose name was felt only yesterday when he grabbed 3 wickets returning with a spell that read 6.1-1-24-3. As an Indian cricket fan I wish there were more than 5 games.

Had the series been a 7 match one, India would have made history when they would have become the first ever team to have won all their matches in a 7 match one day series. Players like Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin make their names felt only once in a blue moon. But, against a team like England and especially yesterday, they had their ball do the talking. Though Praveen Kumar and Vinay Kumar proved comparatively costly with the ball, they had a wicket against their names and an over maiden. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were the most successful bowlers with 3 and 2 wickets respectively.

It was confusing whether the pitch aided the bowlers or the batsmen when India were on the top in both the departments while England were at the receiving end in both. Had the pitch aided the batsmen, England, with the likes of Pietersen, Cook and Bopara should have made it count. But, all England could manage was 220 on the board finishing their innings with 4 more overs still to go. And, had the pitch been a bowler's paradise, then still the Indian batsmen should not have seen the match end with 10 more overs still to go. Does England have an answer?

India had three quick wickets falling when Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane and Parthiv Patel fell early. Thanks to Greame Swann who grabbed three wickets out of the four that fell to see at least one English bowler returning successful. With that initial success, though a win was far from reach, the match should not have ended so early when there were ten more overs left. May be the English captain wanted to prove that England batsmen played more than the Indian batsmen could manage. To put an end to the sweet revenge, all India now require is a win in the fifth ODI and a win in the one-off T20 match.

Sweet revenge 1 for India

It is needless to be said about the way Indians will take on the English team on their return series to India where they are scheduled to play 5 one dayers and one T20 game. Luckily for England, there will be no test matches to worry about. Had this been something similar to the Ashes, they would have retained the title for a mere 2 months before surrendering the same to India. Yesterday, at Hyderabad India registered a first win against England by 126 runs which was more than any margin of victory for both teams in the last two series played against each other.

The English bowlers had absolutely no answers to the helicopter shot by Mahendra Singh Dhoni who top scored with 87 and was awarded the man of the match. There were contributions from other batsmen as well that included Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Gautam Gambhir to a greater extent. The only bowler from England who tasted success a little bit was Graeme Swann who had an over maiden and a wicket to his name. Of course, even Steven Finn and Jade Dernbach also returned with a wicket but were at the same time belted for more than 6.0 runs an over.

If the batsmen did their work by scoring runs and keeping the scoreboard ticking, even the bowlers were not short of performing their duty when no bowler bowled his complete quota of 10 overs and still saw all 10 wickets from England tumbling as though it was a day 5 of a test match. If not for Alistair Cook, no other batsmen had a worthy contribution with the bat though Jonathan Trott stayed there at the crease for a decent amount of time. 6 out of the eleven English batsmen who made it to the crease (obviously) returned back scoring single digit scores.

England's innings got over with close to 15 overs of their game still to go. Scorecard suggests that only Praveen Kumar had an over maiden under his name though other bowlers were no short in tackling their opposition. Umesh Yadav was the most expensive bowler who gave away runs at a rate of 6.40 runs an over which can be forgiven, given India's victory over the trouble torn team and with Umesh Yadav being in his early cricketing days. The first six in the English innings came from the blades of the number 10 batsman - Steven Finn who luckily remained unbeaten.

Something fishy in the tri series

Well if the ongoing triangular series involving India, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe is considered, there can be something fishy smelt with much unexpected results happening. The latest development in this regard is the win of Zimbabwe over Sri Lanka no matter by which margin. And the margin wa also unexpected in case someone wants to give it a thought. This is rarely possible in case of Zimbabwe who can't even think of beating Bangladesh be it at home or outside. On the other side also, Zimbabwe are seen beating India rather convincingly not once but twice in the encounters they have faced.

This can partially be assumed to be the result of the Indian selectors resting most all of their players with an intention of giving the young legs a chance and also senior players rest before the big game in the Asia cup would begin. But still there were the likes of Suresh Raina, Rohith Sharma and Zaheer Khan among the list who could have saved face for India atleast against Zimbabwe though not against Sri Lanka. But, the funny side of the tournament happened to be the fact that India managed to win a game against Sri Lanka which is comparatively stronger than Zimbabwe but lose to Zimbabwe.

Moreover, Sri Lanka lose their last encounter to Zimbabwe by eight wickets which makes people think in the other way. One thing which can justify the Sri Lankans' attitude is that since they had already made it to the finals and they would have taken this match against Zimbabwe less seriously one can suppose. The scorecard suggests that the Sri Lankans were not deprived of any of their players owing to rest with Dilshan, Kapugedra and Samaraweera still being in the squad for this to happen. It would not be a surprise in case Sri Lanka lose the finals to give Zimbabwe their maiden triangular series victory.

Though the match was inconsequential, Sri Lanka should have won it in case people's thinking should not swing towards the bad side. The finals of the tournament will no doubt be won by Sri Lanka but, if the ongoing developments are given a close look at, things are not clear whether there is any ful play involved or not. The only hope would be the fact that there would hardly be anyone who would have his bet on either of the team for the series is not a well sought after one. But, this should not and cannot be considered to be the reason to be a fair play when results go unexpected with a lot of difference inbetween.

Is India trying to follow West Indies?

Well, all you readers are aware of the way the West Indies team last year got into the record books for the wrong reasons when they became the first team to not only have lost a test match series to Bangladesh but also were the first team to have been whitewashed by the same. And the misery just got extended further when they lost the one day series as well. All thanks to a strike carried out by the West Indies Cricket Association (WICA) regarding contract disputes. May be the strike was not seriously taken by the WICB for it was a series against Bangladesh which the West Indies were about to face.

That got extended until the ICC Champions Trophy last year in South Africa where West Indies lost all three games it played against Australia, Pakistan and India in the league stages. Now, it looks like team India is also following suite when the BCCI has rested most of the senior players including the regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and a squad consisting of Suresh Raina as the captain is all set to face Zimbabwe in their first encounter. India need not fear Zimbabwe for a victory is granted unless the Indians don't make a fool out of themselves by underestimating Zimbabwe.

But, there is another team in Sri Lanka who would be facing team India for the third time in this year after they had a bilateral series late last year and then in the world T20 and now in the tri nation tournament at Zimbabwe. Oh! Yes, I had forgotten to mention the tri nation tournament involving India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh held earlier this year. This would be a chance for team India to salvage their pride by winning the finals of a tri angular series which India has always been deprived of a title despite being at the top in the league stages.

However, there was no need for the BCCI to drop all the senior players namely Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir etc to name a few all simultaneously. It would not come as a surprise for anyone in case India fail to win a game against Zimbabwe. This would mean some satisfaction for the Indian team that would be heading for a tournament after their yet another dismal T20 world cup where India lost all three games in the super eights. Moreover, most of the players including Raina are new to Zimbabwe which can smell trouble.

Why is Raina being made the captain?

Well it is not a breaking news about Dhoni's praise and confidence he has in the upcoming cricketer Suresh Raina which saw Dhoni allowing Raina to captain the Chennai Superkings side in the IPL a month back. But, one has to imagine whether Dhoni's selection of the captain in his replacement is justified in case Dhoni is responsible in making Raina captain the Indian side for the tri nation tournament involving Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in Zimbabwe? Or did the selectors show faith in Raina upon Dhoni's choice as mentioned above? In either case, there are better people than Raina who could be given the reins.

One may not agree with me if I say that Suresh Raina still needs to find a platform for himself in the team as a player before he can think of stepping into the shoes of a captain. Not because of his failures in some parts of the team but for the only reason that there are better people and more experienced people than Raina who are eligible to lead the side. Of course, the list does not include Sachin Tendulkar who has shown to be exactly opposite as a captin compared to what he was and what he is as a player.

There are batsmen like Rohith Sharma whose caliber in the Indian team as a batsman is similar to what Raina enjoys. The only difference between the both being that Raina bats left handed while Rohith Sharma bats right handed. Both of them have had equal number of ups and downs in their cricket career. Or else, there are players like Dinesh Karthik who can replace Dhoni as a keeper but would not be a fair choice as a captain instead of Dhoni. And one more fascinating thing about the squad is that the vice captain of India will be Virat Kohli.

There is no doubt that these players have the potential in them both as batsmen and as captain to take the team forward. I thought of mentioning Yuvraj Singh but found that his name misses from the squad set to tour Zimbabwe. My sincere apologies for that. Other choices as captain would be Amit Mishra and Yousuf Pathan both of whom are equally talented and experienced like Suresh Raina. No doubt that not much would be expected from Suresh Raina when his team would return from Zimbabwe. There is no doubt that India will make it to the finals and in case they lose, it would be another loss in a final and nothing more.

Sachin Tendulkar at the receiving end

This was one last chance for Sachin Tendulkar to showcase his talent as a captain and would have been great when he was captaining a side where he not only was born and bought up but also learnt how to play cricket. But, when he once again lost in the finals of the IPL, he would be considered as one of the worst captains India has ever seen though that is not really the case. Sachin was successful in winning 10 out of the 14 13 games he featured in, if the encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders is omitted from the list in this year's IPL.

Sachin Tendulkar was responsible for 5 of the 10 wins which constitute 50% of the wins that the Mumbai Indians had and then for a team with just one international batsman to make it to the top of the table is really something great. However, his dropping of Sanath Jayasuriya would always go down as a bad or ugly decision as far as critics go. Jayasuriya would have played a role as a hard hitting batsmen who would have taken the number of international batsmen in the side to two. Added to that would have been is left arm orthodox which is better than someone like Kieron Pollard's medium fast.

Any captain who is set to face the team to which he has lost earlier and that too in the knock out stages of the tournament is indeed unlucky. And, Sachin Tendulkar is one such unlucky chap and more so when he lost in front of his own people. The Mumbai Indians faced the RCB in the semis and the Chennai Superkings in the finals, both of whom had beaten them earlier in the league stages. I remember the Pakistan team in the 2^nd world T20 last year where it faced Sri Lanka against whom they had suffered a defeat in the super eights but won the finals convincingly.

Sachin Tendulkar was the captain of the Titan cup in 1996 which India won after beating a South African team which until then had remained unbeaten in the tournament. South Africa had won three games each against India & Australia before losing to India in the finals. Similarly, Sachin Tendulkar was a part and the architect of the Indian team that beat Australia in the Sharjah cup in 1998 after Australia had won all of its league stage games against the Kiwis and India. Though Sachin Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians didn't win all the matches in the league stage, they were the table toppers and losing out in the finals really hurts not only Sachin Tendulkar and Mumbai but also to all cricket fans.

Unlike our prediction, the winning team this time neither had a player wearing the Purple cap not the orange cap. Apologies for that.

Imbalance in the IPL

It would have been a good news for all the cricket lovers across the world when two new teams were added to the Indian Premier League which will make it there the coming year in 2011. The teams, namely the Kochi team and the Pune team is expected to kick the stadiums from the coming year which would, needless to be said take the number of teams featuring to 10. But, one thing that is expected to be given a closer look is the imbalance in the IPL wherein teams are concentrated in some corners while the remaining states are almost ignored.

When the Kochi team was introduced, it was another team from the South India with the Chennai team, Bangalore team and the Hyderabad team having its presence since the IPL was launched a couple of years ago. In the entire India, there is no other corner where all the states have their IPL teams. Only from South India, all four states have IPL teams. And, when the discussion is regarding the other team in Pune, it would be another team from the state of Maharashtra after we have Mumbai Indians who have been a part of the campaign since 2008.

Thus, Maharashtra becomes the first and the only state to have two IPL teams and hence would be a tough choice for any Maharashtrian to decide which team to support especially when there would be a clash between the Mumbai team and the Pune team. I can hardly recall any player making it to the international scene from either Kerala or Pune (though Maharashtra state has its share to a greater extent). At present, Sreesanth is the only player from Kerala who at times is making his presence felt in international cricket. If one can take opains to travel towards the East of India, if not for Kolkata, there is no other state that has an IPL team.

There is no team in Madhya Pradesh when we have players like Rahul Dravid who hails from Indore. And, the state which has been at the receiving end of a lot of injustice in this regard would be the Gujarat state. There are top players like the Pathan brothers - namely Yousuf Pathan and Irfan who hail from Baroda. And then there is Parthiv Patel who also come from Gujarat. But, unfortunately, we don't have an Ahmadabad or a Gandhinagar team in the IPL. And, there could have been a team from UP as well which has given players like R P Singh, Praveen Kumar and Suresh Raina to international cricket.

At present, the teams are spread as 4 from the South, 1 from the East, 1 from the West and 3 from the North. Had there been some decent calculation, the teams should have been spread symmetrically which would have seen 2 states from the East, 2 from the West and as usual 3 each from South(leaving Kerala) and North.

How has team India benefited from the IPL

One of the reasons why the Indian Premier League was launched a couple of years back was to bring out the best of the talent in domestic cricket so that the international team does not suffer due to wrong selection if the BCCI and the IPL chairman Lalit Modi are to be believed. Lalit Modi confirmed this further by making it mandatory for all teams to have not more than 4 players outside India. But, records suggest something different. If the Indian team post the inaugural edition of the IPL is given a deep look at, the players who have featured in the 15 member international squad has hardly found to vary.

The IPL has seen a batsman in V V S Laxman who features for the Deccan Chargers and was also in the elite list of icon players but has been almost ruled out when it comes to playing in the limited overs game. Of course, the senior trio of Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly were shown the gates long back which need not be an issue. In addition, there have been may batsmen like Ambati Rayudu who has shone for the Mumbai Indians with the bat. And then we have Shikar Dhawan, Chetheshwar Pujara and others who have done a satisfactory job for their team.

But, none of these players are found to make it to the selection panel's list when it comes to selecting the 15 member squad for any tour be it at home or outside. The young players in the international team is found to contain some names which are heard commonly like Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Rohith Sharma etc. And, in case anyone is injured by freak chance, their places are taken by Piyush Chawla(in place of Ravindra Jadeja), Pragyan Ojha and Sudeep Tyagi. On the other side, the BCCI has not been able to handle with the existing players itself like Robin Uttappa who has been in the international squad before.

There was no reason for someone like Abhimanyu Mithun to make it to the international 15 member squad with just 1 T20 game in the IPL behind him. So is the case with Saha. There are players like Monish Mishra, Rahul Sharma, Tirumalasetti Suman who shone with the bat for the Deccan Chargers to name a few. But, the reason behind the BCCI sticking to its old strategy of having familiar faces in the 15 member squad is somewhat confusing. Though the team has seen Pragyan Saha, Piyush Chawla and Saha, they are hardly played unless there is a freak injury to any of the familiar players.

If the BCCI doesn't want to cast its eyes on the mentioned players, the words of the same doesn't make any sense when it claims the IPL to bring in talented young players up the ladder.