Reverse Swing

Watching the TV coverage of England v India you could hear Matthew Prior groan every time the batsman played a shot. I found it vaguely irritating after a while. According to Steve James. who clearly had the benefit of a stump mike this was what he was saying to Karthick and then Dhoni.

Clearly it spurred Dhoni onto better things and saving the game. It strikes me there’s not much point to sledging unless it contains some mordant wit or an essential truth, and “Yuvraj Singh is batting brilliantly in the nets,” slips into neither category. And as Prior found out it can backfire against you. It’s obviously not just Lara that you don’t sledge.

India First innings – 201 all out

Looking at England’s second-string bowling attack and India’s star batters before the game began I was apprehensive. But Anderson and Sidebottom bowled with a consistency that has escaped Harmison, for instance, over the last couple of years. With Anderson and Sidebottom in tandem it was good to see some conventional swing bowling from both ends. Whether this is the Alan Donald effect it’s difficult to say, but Anderson looked relaxed and in control, with no free gifts for the batsman. I can’t recall him bowling like this since he came into the team in 2003. On this performance you’d pick the bowlers to hold their places for the next test

Despite being behind on first innings, India must fancy knocking over the English top order. If they can get the home side out for less than 150 that would leave a gettable 250 in the fourth innings.You sense that this will be a low-scoring test with a result in prospect.

Dravid must have been thinking it was a good toss to lose at Lords with the cloud cover and movement and England at the crease. But Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan have been bowling some unthreatening lines, failing to exploit the conditions, and RP looks accurate but of no great pace. Just the thing an out of form batsman like Strauss needs. I’m sorry to have seen Munaf Patel so unceremoniously dumped – I bet he’d fancy a bowl on this.

It was quite something to watch the ruthlessly professional West Indies squeeze Pakistan out of the game at Sabina Park. Tight bowling, spattering the spot, nothing down the legside, and definitely no extras, as they were backed up some athletic fielding, culminating in Bravo’s astonishing left-handed catch off his own bowling to dismiss Gul.

The last sight of the West Indies was in their warm-up game against India when they were giving catching practice. And then there was Tony Cosier’s commentary: does anyone shout more loudly for their own team than Tony Cosier?

Today I shall be cheering on Scotland against the Aussies. Strange how these things work out. If this was a football match then I would be cheering on Australia rather than Scotland.

I caught some of Munaf Patel bowling for India against South Africa, looking distinctly out of sorts, and looking nothing like the top prospect of earlier in the year when he played against England.

It seems that the physio thought he was fit to play but the player didn’t. It makes you wonder what exactly went on. I hope the Indian Board and Munaf can sort this one out, as it would be a pity if he was labelled as unreliable and not picked again.

When Lara became captain of the West Indies for the third time you hoped that it would be a success. A strong and successful West Indies team is good for the game at international level.

The early signs under Lara’s latest reign were good – a magnificent performance in the ODI international series against India when they took the series 4-1 after losing the first match, completely taking the momentum away from the tourists.
But now they’ve lost the 4th test to India the fall-out has started with Lara unhappy about the omission of Dave Mohammed, and the unusual claim that :

“I found out that I was a selector from May 28th only a day before the Test match [at Kingston],”

So in other words he’s saying for the first three tests he had no idea he was on the selection committee. It makes you wonder what went on. Did he not ask when he was appointed captain whether he would be a selector? You would have thought this would have been one of the first things that was discussed. Did they not invite him to the selection meetings? Did the selection panel ever actually meet? If so did no one ask why Lara wasn’t there?

This selection spat is nothing new as earlier in the series he was told to curb his comments when he said he had asked for an out and out fast bowler and had not been given one.

He went on to throw doubt on whether he would remain as captain:

I feel let down. I must tell you there is a meeting coming up in a couple of weeks, depending on the selectors, I would definitely revisit my decision to captain the West Indies team.

All of this tends to turn the focus away from the India great win – their first in the West indies since 1971 – and the performance of Rahul David as both captain and player.

So Zaheer Khan didn’t quite do it this morning.

Goughie came in and started hitting it all over the place with a 33 ball 50 including 2 sixes. They obviously weren’t going to take Khan off when all he needed was the one wicket but his figures ended up 27-7-138-9 – that’s an E.R. of 5.11.

Overnight he was on 21.3-6-65-9, with an E.R. of 3.05. But this morning that economy rate went out of the window
The 5.2 overs today went for 63 runs, that’s over 12 an over. There were 12 nbs overall but I’m not sure how many of these were bowled today.

So presumably the field was around the bat as he went for the elusive 10th wicket, and Gough just went for him. Would have been good to see that, as there’s nothing better than some crazy June cricket.

Now Essex are following on but Zaheer Khan is being rested. 20Twenty who needs it?

India’s Zaheer Khan playing for Worcestershire against Essex has the bowling analysis of 21.3 6 65 9. With Darren Gough to come in Khan has the opportunity to get the elusive 10-fer when play resumes this morning. He’s done the hard work already but can he finish it off?
I’d be interested to hear Indian’s readers comments on why Zaheer Khan’s not been picked for the West Indies tour? Any thoughts?

Collins gets Sehwag

Originally uploaded by caribbeancricket.

It’s in the air. Caribbeabcricket catches the moment when Sehwag finally goes.

On 99 at lunch Sehwag would have become the first Indian to hit a century on the first-day morning of a Test. He had to be content with a score of 180.

5TT2

Originally uploaded by Yamfoot.

Yamfoot’s shot of Munaf Patel warming up.

In the first test against the West Indies I thought India were quite brave to go into the test with three fairly raw quick bowlers – none of them has played test cricket for more than for a couple of months and it was VRV Singh’s debut. The fact that the only other full-time bowler was Kumble, emphasises how much confidence the Indian selectors had in them, or maybe the shortage of other options with Irfan Pathan out of sorts.

I was very impressed with both Munaf Patel and Sreesanth in the test series against England – both of them had pace, with Munaf displaying some mean reverse swing. With quick bowlers it does take them a couple of years to mature on the test circuit – if you think of Flintoff, Harmison , Hoggard, Simon Jones it took them time to become good bowlers. I’m pretty sure that both Munaf and Sreesanth have the potential to be key strike bowlers for India for years to come – the only concern is that too much is expected of them too soon. There will be days when they will go for a few – such as in the first innings in Antigua, but they will also be capable of bringing India back into the game: such as Sreesanth’s pre-lunch spell on the final day. In time they could be great bowlers but over-exposure and an excess of expectation could get to them, and stop them achieving their potential.

It would be easier in some ways if the two of them were working in tandem with a couple of more experienced pace bowlers rather than spearheading the attack. But this option wasn’t available and in Antigua it was down to Munaf and Sreesanth with the debutant VRV Singh. I think they did pretty well.

Unfortunately Sreesanth’s heel injury keeps him out of the second test and Irfan Pathan comes in for him. Pathan wasn’t so impressive against England – although he swings the ball he’s only around 70mph. Apparently he missed the first test through injury and it was suggested, a lack of confidence. The second test gives him the opportunity to get back in the groove, and I’m sure a re-run of the videos of his first over hat trick against Pakistan will help him get in the right frame of mind.