CHANGE OF ROLES?

For the second innings in a row, Harbhajan Singh managed to upstage his more legendary teammates and scored a century.Harbhajan took four wickets in the first innings but could not make much of an impression on the New Zealand batsmen so far in the second innings.

Since announcing his arrival into the big league of test matches with a bang in Sri Lanka, Suresh Raina has failed to back his supporters. Even when he scored a half-century against the Australians, Raina looked extremely suspect when it came to the fast and rising balls. If one remembers correctly, Raina offered not so pleasant pictures when facing the short balls even in the IPL. What is worse is the fact that Raina tries a big shot and gets out as he did in the first innings of the Hyderabad test.But interestingly, Raina got the wicket of Ryder.

So is Harbhajan the new batsman and Raina the new off-spinner in the Indian team?

HOMING ON THE FACTS

South Africa won their test match at the Wanderers in Johannesburg by taking advantage of the home conditions. The pace and the bounce proved too much for the visiting Kiwis. Home conditions played a role too in the win of Australia over Sri Lanka in Brisbane. The bowlers and the batsmen of the home team deserve all the appreciation.

England managed to beat the Aussies in the Ashes of 2005 and it was the English bowlers who proved to be the decisive factor. Call it reverse swing or not, the swing generated by the likes of Simon Jones proved to be the undoing of the Aussies.

New Zealand is always a tough proposition when it comes to playing them at home. Teams from the subcontinent are often at sea when it comes to the rising ball.

In their pomp, the West Indies bowlers succeeded everywhere and at home they were truly devastating. It is an entirely different story now.

But it is altogether different when it comes to the teams from the subcontinent in general and India in particular. The wins are never attributed to the skills of the players. The pitches are given all the dubious credit. Cricket analysts who are otherwise balanced seem to lose their judgment once the results go in the direction of the home team. Seemingly, it gives more delight to watch a batsman duck to a bouncer than be fooled by the spinning ball.

What is appalling is the fact that the local media also takes jibes at the pitches. The statisticians take delight in calling batsmen ‘fat track bullies’. It is quite another thing when batsmen from teams outside of the subcontinent fail to tackle the spin. The pitch is blamed. The spin bowlers are not at all given the credit. Of course, even a mediocre spinner like Ashley Giles is praised for his acumen when bowling on the wickets of the subcontinent.

Things have gone to such a pass that the cricket administration has appointed a committee to look after the pitches and produce wickets that are more suitable to the visiting teams!

Home teams have always taken the advantage of the conditions and this is something that is not peculiar to cricket alone. Of course, to be fair, good teams possess the talent and the skill to beat any opponent anywhere, be it at home or away.

SAME OLD STORY

Sri Lanka made all the right noises about how to handle the Aussie might. But when it came to the actual cricket, the same old story continued.

Never did the batsman of the home team appear in trouble. There were three centurions. Phil Jacques scored his first test century while replacing Justin Langer at the top of the batting line-up. Ponting scored a fluent half-century and Andrew Symonds rounded off the innings with some scorching drives and cuts. In between Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey added to the total with their tons. It is only Matthew Hayden who failed to cash in on the insipid bowling of the Lankans.

Ponting wishes to deny Muralitharan the opportunity of going past the wickets tally of Shane Warne on Australian soil. Murali had the better of Ponting. Batsmen found Murali tough only in the early stages, but as the innings progressed, the off spinner could not exert any pressure.

While batting, the Lankans had nothing to offer with the pace of Australia being too hot. Marvan Atapattu laboured to a 50. I am of the view that Marvan is someone who feasts on lesser bowling attacks and that he reserves his best for home conditions. The absence of Kumara Sangakkara is a big setback in the batting department.
It is a foregone conclusion that the Aussies make a winning start to their summer

A COUP OF SORTS!

The Australians and the Sri Lankans will fight it out for the Warne-Murali trophy starting with the first test on the 8th of this month. With this, a new trend has been set. This is the first time that a trophy bears the name of a current player.

The Sri Lankan cricket authorities have pulled off a coup of sorts. I use the term ‘coup’ deliberately. It is a well-known fact that the Aussie spectators do not like Muralitharan. A former captain of Sri Lanka Arjuna Ranatunga even advised the off spinner to give the tour to down under a miss. With the naming of the trophy, the authorities hope to take attention away from the disputed bowling action of Murali.

Is the naming of the trophy going to put all doubts over the action of Murali to rest once-and-for all? It was in Australia where Murali was first no-balled for ‘illegal’ action.