This is what you can do when you are in Love...

After almost 4 decades and 2961 matches since the start of One Day Internationals, someone scored a 200 and this someone is none other than the Superman of Indian Cricket, the Master Blaster, The God of World Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar. No adjective is enough today to describe the master. A new record got a worthy achiever and this can happen only when you are in Love with what you do. A very few people can come close to what Sachin has achieved in his 20 year old career, with a wooden stick. Hats off to the Master. A true Sachin fan would have shed a few tears down his cheeks when he had seen Sachin reached the Holy score of 200 off the 3rd ball of the last over. I was not the lucky one to see it but listening to FM radio was no different. One could hear the roar of the audience coming from the headphones connected to the radio.

It was simply amazing and I, myself, being a cricket fan, consider myself lucky enough to be born at a time, when I can see Sachin batting Live. It seems like 2010 is the year Sachin was waiting for, to break rest of the records. India has played 4 tests so far this year and Sachin has scored 4 centuries, with one in each of the four tests, thereby equalling Gavaskar's and Dravid's record of 4 consecutive tons in tests and one short of Gambhir, who has 5 and with the form he is in, he will definitely break Sir Don Bradman's record of 6 consecutive tons. Today, I am falling short of words to describe his knock of 200.

These kinds of innings also help nations to come close together. Former Pak greats Miandad, Aamir Sohail and the previous record holder for highest score in ODIs, Saeed Anwar were all praising Sachin on his wonderful knock. Australian legend Warne consider himself lucky as he was not bowling to Sachin today.

Now, as records are meant to be broken, a question arises in my mind. Which batsman can break this record or is anyone out there who dare to do it? Lets leave this question open to discussion as of now. I will definitely come back to it sometime later.

Talking about the match today, it was a crucial one for both the teams. India would have sealed the series after winning this one and SA were in a desperate need for a comeback after a close call in Jaipur. But, after Sachin's 200, the competition proved out to be a dead rubber. SA lost it by a huge margin of 153 runs.

Well, apart from Sachin; Karthick, Dhoni and Pathan also played decently and helped India retain their No. 2 spot in the ODIs with this win.

So near... yet so far...

It is rightly said by someone: "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital". So, after a few years from now, when you will look at the statistics of the 2010 series between India and SA, you will just see that India drew the Test series 1-1 and won the first of the 3 ODIs at Jaipur, but you will not remember that how close Proteas were from drawing the second test and winning the first ODI.

They were just 9 balls away from drawing the test match and regaining their no 1 Test spot, but Bhajji had other plans. He got Morkel leg before wicket and helped India retain their no. 1 spot. But Morkel almost did an Onions. He was about to do the same to India, what Onions did to them in their home series. Enough said and done, All Izz Well now... :)

But talking about today's match, had that penultimate ball been given a boundary, India would have lost this one. A desperate dive from Sachin would have gone into vain. But our very own Third umpire ,Mr. Hazare, was not sure even after looking at the replay for about 10 minutes and that too from every possible angle. This is what will be called so near yet so far for the South Africans.

Now talking about the shortcomings about India today... well there are lots. India again fail to capitalize in the last 10 overs making just 60 odd runs. With 9 batsmen in the team, India should have scored atleast 80 in the last 10 overs. Yusuf Pathan did not learn the lesson even after being thrown out of the team. He still wants to hit every ball out of the park, though he was successful a couple of times, but he should learn that every ball is not supposed to be hit out of the park. Suresh Raina once again, after getting to his 50, got out in the slog overs.

There is nothing much to be talked about the Indian bowling. With all 3 regular bowlers in the team going for runs, India should consider themselves lucky today that they ended up winning the game. Shreesanth was looking awry with no control over his line and length, so too Nehra. Parveen bowled well in patches, but we need a bowler, who is consistent with his performance. Lets see, whether India will be able to find out a suitable successor to Zaheer and Anil kumble before the world cup or they will rely on their batting to win the matches. Its still one year to go for the World cup, lets see now how India will fare in the next game.

Proteas had a good tea, Indians will have a good dinner...

The way Amla and the debutant, Peterson were batting today, it looked like SA will again post a total in excess of 500 and the matter became worse when Laxman dropped a sitter of Amla off Harbhajan, but then destiny had something else in store for the Indians. SA went into tea with 2 down for 228 and would have been thinking of ending the day on a good note. But they forgot, its Eden Gardens, a ground where the post tea session has always been a mystery and most of the times, Bhajji was a part of it. This time also, Bhajji played his part and SA were reduced from 251 for 3 to 266 for the loss of 9 wickets, making just 38 runs in 25 overs bowled after Tea.

Laxman compensated for his dropped catch by taking a blinder to dismiss Kallis off the bowling off Harbhajan. After that, Bhajji had 2 consecutive LBWs to dismiss Prince and Duminy, but he missed out on a Hat-trick. Nevermind, India finished off the day way ahead of her fan's expectations. Now, India have to dismiss the last SA batsman tomorrow in the first half hour and have to score a mammoth total in the first innings to win this one. But one thing is for sure, Indians are gonna have a good dinner tonight after a dissapointing lunch and tea. :-)

Poor Gayle...

This is the fourth time in four matches this series that he has won the toss, but once again he misread the pitch and put Aus into bat on a flat wicket. Watson and Paine started off well, but Hinds took a blinder to send Watson to the pavilion. Then Ponting took charge and score his 29th century to help Australia reach 324 along with decent contributions from White and Hopes.

This time Gayle started off watchfully and it looked like he will take the game away from the Aussies but Gayle again came to the rescue of Bollinger, who dismissed Gayle for the 3rd time in the series. Then WI kept on losing regular wickets until Deonarine showed some resistance. Also, Pollard and Smith tried to up the ante for WI but all was in vain.

Now, what poor Gayle will say after this defeat. Now the series has been lost and he cannot take his words back, so it will be either 3-1 or 4-0 in favour of the Aussies. It is rightly said by someone "jo baukhte hain... woh kaatate nhi..." (those who bark, do not bite...) ;-) Also, it has been said that "Actions speak louder than words..." but Gayle's actions led him and his team down.

Gayle goes from 4-1 to 3-2

It seems like Gayle has to change his statement after every game now, if WI continue to perform as they did yesterday. A dismal batting performance coupled with a terrible bowling effort. After electing to bat this time, Gayle score a first ball duck and in no time WI were reduced to 16 for 4, with Bollinger taking 3 out of them. At once, it looked like WI will be bowled out for less than 100, but the lower middle order save their ass and they went on to score 170 and got all out in less than 40 overs.

Watson once again made mockery of the WI bowlers, thrashing them to every nook and corner of the ground and as soon as he departed, skipper Ponting carry forwarded his aggression and helped Aus chase the target in just 25 overs.

If WI continue to play like this, ICC has to take away their Test as well as ODI status. But I would prefer to see them performing against the mighty Aussies and breaking their winning streak.

History did not repeat itself...

So, we lost by an innings. It was bound to happen, but being a true Indian fan, you expect a lot from the team and the consequence is that you get disappointed in the end. There was a glimmer of hope when Sachin and Dhoni were batting and it looked like they will stay there till the end of the day and save India from a humiliating defeat. But there was something else in store for Dhoni and his boys. Soon after completing his century, Sachin fell to Harris and Dhoni followed suit. After that it was a matter of just a few more overs and the game was over. But Saha, Bhajji and Zaheer showed guts and when it seemed that they will save India from an innings defeat, Steyn spoiled the party taking two more wickets, competing his 10 for the match.

Amla was awarded with the Man of the Match, but if you ask me my choice, it would be Steyn. Taking 10 wickets in a match and that too on a pitch which had nothing much for the fast bowlers and where Indian seemers Zaheer and Ishant were struggling to take one wicket. Had it been a joint MoM, it would have made more sense.

Now, after this loss, Mr Srikant, the chairman of the selection committee decided to bring back Dinesh Karthik, who just scored two centuries in the Duleep Trophy final against West Zone and S.Sreesanth, who just recovered from his injury. But the surprise package was the inclusion of Suresh Raina, who was considered as a pure ODI batsman. Lets see whether he will get a chance in the second test. But if he gets one, he will stood up to the occassion for sure.

Can India bounce back...?

This one reminded me of the historic match between India and Aus in 2000-01, where India after following on went on to win the match, courtesy Laxman and Dravid. They batted for the full 4th day and took India from 200 behind to 300 ahead and then left the rest to the bowlers, when Bhajji rose to the occassion and won the match for India.

Everything is almost the same in this one, right from India losing 12 wickets in a day to batting after being followed on. If Sachin can stick tomorrow for the whole day with someone who can rotate the strike, I think we will be in a good position by the end of the day tomorrow. Lets hope for the best.

If we look at the numbers in this game, we have got all the number ones here. Dale Steyn, the number one test bowler was bowling to the number one batsman, Gauti with the number one all-rounder, Kallis standing in the slip-cordon waiting to catch the ball. But it was disappointing to see the no. 1 batsman struggling here. Both the other no. ones performed according to their ranks with Kallis scoring a ton in the first innings and Steyn taking 7 wickets to restrict India to 233, when they were just 4 down for 221. To add to this, from the Indian side, only Sehwag played responsibly in absence of Dravid and Laxman as was expected from him before the match. But, in the second innings, he lost his temper and played a bad shot off the outside off stump delivery, giving an easy one to skipper Smith.

Now i just hope that history repeats itself and India go on to win this one. A draw will also do... ;-)

Australia continue to dominate West Indies after assaulting Pak

When WI skipper, Chirs Gayle made a statement that "we will win this series 4-1", it looked as if he meant it, but as soon as WI came into bat while chasing 256 to win the first ODI, it was all over in the third over of WI innings. Gayle played an over confident shot and got caught at mid on. After that, there was nothing much left in the game with wickets falling at regular intervals. There was only one partnership above 50, that was also not of much help and soon WI were all out for 143, losing the match by a huge margin of 113 runs.

Let's try to look at the mistakes made by WI skipper before and during the match.

• Predicting the outcome of the series before the first match. He knew that Aussies just came of out a clean sweep over Pakistan and a statement like this one has only put pressure on WI only, not Aussies.
• Second, deciding to field after winning the toss. Aus won 3 out of their 5 games against Pakistan while batting first and also there was nothing in the pitch which could have supported the WI pacers. But still they did a good job by restricting them to 256.
• When WI came out to bat, I had a feeling that Gayle will play a sensible and responsible knock. But I was wrong. He started hitting the ball from the word go and soon was seen going back to the pavilion.

Had Gayle not made any one of these mistakes, the outcome of the game could have been entirely different.

Today Bollinger came out with a statement, which goes like "we aim to finish this home season unbeaten". Now lets see, whose wish will come true.