Saturday, February 20, 2010

India is No.1

After an incredible nail biting finish, Indians have retained their spot at the top of the ICC Test cricket ratings. Congratulations Team India! My wishes came true - Paul Harris was treated like the mediocre bowler that he is and to add icing to the cake, the umpires even wided him quite a few times for negative bowling!

Just when the teams seem warmed up after a win each, the series has come to an abrupt end and that is hugely disappointing. Just one more match to crown the true series winner would have been great.

Essentially, the matches were a tale of two first inning batting collapses. While the Indians collapsed in Nagpur unable to cope with Steyn’s outstanding swing bowling; the South Africans collapsed in Kolkata, to some mediocre batting (the bowling was good, without being great).

Despite the positives – centuries by Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman, Dhoni; good bowling by Khan and Harbhajan, there were a few disappointments. This was a wonderful opportunity for the youngsters – Ishant, Mishra, Vijay and especially Badrinath, to shine but all failed to grab. The opportunity, that is. And personally, I had hoped to see more of the battle between the  no.1 batsman (Gambhir) and the no.1 bowler (Steyn).

After a tightly fought Test series, it’s time to move on to the ODIs.

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