An "A" for effort!

To stretch a game from 45/0 in 4 to the last ball of the last over calls for effort.

And thats all a fan can ask for.

India 94/5 (13.2/20 ov)

MS Dhoni 7(16)*

Last match, the one which India got pilloried for its approach, India were 101/6 at the same stage.

So, the "change in approach" has not exactly paid dividends, has it?

Look Mama, the "new approach actually worked - we lost 2 less wickets than the last time.. Joy.. And never mind the fact that they scored 13 less runs. And never mind Ravi Shastri's gyaan either = " The new batsmen dont have enough time in the final overs to adjust to the conditions".

But hey, its the new approach.. And love the outfit too.. Sure someone at Nike has his/her resignation ready..

In defence of India's batting in the first T20

MS Dhoni alluded to it in the post toss interview. The commentators kept mentioning all through the game. The shape of the ground was the subject of much discussion before, during and after the first T20.

And I believe India got sucked in by it.

How does one pace an innings on a ground where the only run making opportunities are a single, a four and a six?

Couple that with a slight two paced nature of the wicket and fairly pronounced up and down bounce, and what constitutes a good total?

Martin Crowe kept referring to a lack of structure in the Indian batting innings. Dhoni said

"One of the key things was to go into the middle with a blank mind, without a target," Dhoni said. "We wanted to play according to the merit of the ball, it was not a conscious effort to go after the bowlers and hit those big sixes."

but when a very good shot gets you a single and when the difference between a four and a six is whether the ball can be played uppishly, even if mistimed, how exactly does the batsman structure or pace his innings?

And coming to the dismissals themselves, except for Rohit Sharma and Harbhajan Singh, none of the other batsmen fell to premeditated shots.

Gambhir, Sehwag and Dhoni were done by the bounce, Yusuf Pathan fell to Oram's genius, Yuvraj was out thought by Vettori.

Irfan's was a soft dismissal.

Having said all that, India still managed 162. And they got the kind of start from their bowlers that teams can only dream of. A Guptill decision here and a little more bottle there and it would have been New Zealand bemoaning their inability to close matches ( coming on the heels of the Chappell Hadlee Trophy).

India find a way...

Contrary to what the MS Dhoni says, it was the Indian bowlers who lost the plot today. Not in a big way. But enough to cost India the first T20.

New Zealand outplayed India in the big moments - every time the game was poised to go either ways, it was India who lost their nerve while New Zealand held theirs.

And there were some mental mistakes too - Dhoni standing back to Irfan Pathan when bowling to Taylor while standing up when McCullam was at the crease, bowling Yuvi late in the game on a small ground, managing the bowling rotation - all contributed to India losing the plot.

From a batting stand point, I am pretty happy with the game plan - alternate right and left handers with a license to attack.

Kudos to New Zealand then for winning the first T20. For the next game, I would like to see Praveen Kumar ahead of Irfan Pathan - only because if the ball swings, Kumar is a better bet than Pathan.

Grinding them out

574/5 in 202 overs.

	BAW Mendis	55	13	135	1	2.45	(3nb, 1w)
	M Muralitharan	60	12	165	1	2.75

115 of those 202 overs shared by the 2 main spinners.
3 days between the two tests. 90 more overs before the end of this test.

When it comes to pacing an innings and blunting their opponents, Pakistan seem to be doing it nicely at the moment.

If, as expected, Murali and Mendis bowl half of tomorrow's overs, they would have effectively bowled around 80 overs each, which, even for a spinner, is a substantial workload. And with 3 days to go for the next test, the recuperation time is minimal. Unlike Danish Kaneria, who has had two days already in the shed and the prospect of one more day to do the same.

Sri Lanka's mistake, if it may be called that, was not that they posted 600 plus. But that they posted it too quickly. If a team can sustain 4+ runs an over for the entire duration of their innings, that in itself is a warning sign. On hindsight, Sri Lanka would have been better off batting on - only because the shoe would have been on the other foot and it would have been the Pakistani bowlers complaining of the workload.

Also, from a team perspective, Pakistan is coming back to Tet cricket after 14 months. Being on the field for 3 odd days would not have done the morale any good. And that, coupled with the short turn around time between tests, it could have been advantage Sri Lanka.

Instead, it is Pakistan that holds the aces now.

Another flat track and Pakistan winning the toss at Lahore will be the final nail in the Sri Lankan coffin!

Bucknored no more!

Rajneesh Gupta has the full list the times Indian batsmen were Bucknored.

And here is the video of the Tendulkar dismissal



Uncle JRod has mixed feeling about the impending retirement while Achettup articulates the feelings of many Indians!