IS A WIN POSSIBLE?

India have managed to take 7 wickets of Bangladesh and the home team need another 200 runs to secure the first ever win against India in test matches.That is highly improbable and it is no exaggeration to say that it would be impossible. But what is interesting is that whether the Indian bowlers would be able to get the remaining 3 wickets.

In the first innings, the lower order batsmen of Bangladesh put up a brave fight and almost equaled the Indian effort when more than half of the team was back in the pavilion with few runs.

There is no better opportunity for the beleaguered Indian bowlers to get a win even when it is against Bangladesh.

Hope the standing in captain Sehwag does not regret calling Bangladesh an ordinary team before the start of the test.

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DEBATABLE DECISIONS

The Indian team management decided to open the innings in the test matches with the help of a makeshift opener, Dinesh Kaartick. This meant no place in the team for both V.V.S.Laxman and Yuvraj Singh.

It is to be remembered that Kaartick is also a wicketkeeper and the team has the regular keeper M.S.Dhoni in the playing eleven. So the decision is strange.

Dhoni does not inspire much confidence with the keeping gloves. He is awkward as far as the collections to the spinners are concerned. Probably, Dhoni took to keeping as an afterthought. He is not a natural when it comes to wicketkeeping. Ugly is the word that comes to mind when describing the wicketkeeping of Dhoni. In this context, it is unwise to have two keepers in the playing eleven when proven batsmen are sitting in the dressing room.

In the past, there were few instances when two wicketkeepers, Kiran More and Chandrakant Pandit were in eleven. But then the situation was different with players down with illness and injury. But Laxman and Yuvraj are fit and healthy.

If the management is committed to find an opener, Gambhir might have been a better choice. Kaartick is, at best, an ad-hoc opener.

Is the fact that Bangladesh is the opponent that such decisions are made or are they the indicators of the things to come?

GREAT BENCHMARKS

It is billed as ‘The Revenge Series’. The Indian team won the one-day series by winning two matches of three. One match was washed out.

Dhoni who received a lot of flak after the failure in the World Cup came good in the first match and he won the Man of the Series award. Gautam Gambhir scored a ton in the series to justify his selection in place of Sehwag. The bowlers too, took wickets.

The first test match ended in a draw with almost three days of play lost due to rain. Sachin and Saurav scored 100s to add to their career tally. Hard as they tried, the Indians could not enforce the follow-on and let the home team escape from the jail.

Predictably, the media has gone to town about the revival of the team. It is quite a revival with the success coming against a team whose status was, till recently, not up to the international level!

In the recently concluded Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament, India secured the third position. The hockey team also witnessed changes both at the level of the coach and the players. It was indeed an achievement that the Indian team could reach the last four of an international tournament after a while. Pleased with this success, the ruling body of hockey in the country announced a cash reward of Rs.50,000 each to the players. Suddenly, Indian hockey is in a revival mode, despite the Union Sports Ministry removing the sport from the priority list.

There are some interesting parallels that I wish to draw from the world of politics. The BJP put up a dismal show in the state of Uttar Pradesh. But the leaders of the party are confident of doing well in the general elections of 2009. It appears, that they are afraid of the anti-incumbency factor. Similar is the case with the political party of India-the Congress. The top leadership of this party also wants us to wait till 2009. Interestingly, both the national parties talked a lot about their revival before and during the elections.

Looks like the entire country is in a revival mode. The new benchmarks are really great!

FROM VIRTUAL TO REALITY

Till last night, the Indian team was ‘virtually out’ of the World Cup. But with Bangladesh triumphing over Bermuda, India is truly out. That is what the television experts want us to believe.

Bermuda was never going to upset Bangladesh. The most optimistic of the fans of Indian cricket was confident of Bangladesh going through to the round of ‘Super8’.

The match itself was interrupted several times by rain and in the end it was a 21 over a side game. Each time the covers were removed and the match restarted, Bermuda lost wickets. It was only in the last 5 overs that some big shots were played and the score was pushed up to 94.

Bangladesh lost 3 wickets in the process. But they had the nerves to stay calm and finish the game with a lot of balls to spare. Ashraful who had been overshadowed so far by younger players stayed till the end.

I expected to see Dwayne Leverock come up with a catch similar to the one taken against India. But there was no such luck.