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.

India win Galle Test to level series

After three days of intensely fought competitive cricket involving spin bowling - spinners running through and batsmen countering them - an unexpected, fiery spell of fast bowling by Ishant Sharma on the fourth day of the second Test match between India and Sri Lanka at Galle, tilted the match in India's favor, helping them win the match by 170 runs.

And a what a well contested match it was! If Mendis shrugged off Sehwag's assault to take 10 wickets, Harbhajan shrugged off his indifferent form in recent times to match that effort. The Lankan top order's composed batting was matched by Gambhir's crucial fifties. Until Ishant's spell sprinted forward India to the finish line, both teams were running close all through the match.

The real difference for India, of course, was Sehwag's heroic, assaulting double century. In the very first session of the match, he had tamed the 'unreadable' Mendis, dismissed the wily Murali, calmed India's nerves and single-handedly laid the platform for a memorable win.

Apart from methodically and completely destroying the spinners, his best moment was not during one of the 250+ runs he scored in the match, but the one run he didn't score in the third ball of the 81st over - the one that would have taken him to 200 with last man Ishant at the other hand. He refused the easy single to shield Ishant and waited until the last ball of the over to get to his personal landmark! That moment once again exemplified his style of batting - treating each ball in its own context. Forget text book technique, his simple approach to cricket is what every young cricketer should be taught.

India wins, series drawn

For the first time in the series, on a surface that suited them perfectly, the Indian bowlers dominated proceedings in the third Test match and bowled out the South Africans in their second innings for just 121.  The South African top order that performed admirably well in the first innings struggled to score and once Sehwag broke through the defenses of Kallis and Smith, Harbhajan and Ishant ran through the rest of the lineup.

Earlier in the day, Ishant and Sreesanth had frustrated the South Africans with an often lucky partnership to help India stretch its first innings lead to 60.  Although they lost the openers, the Indians knocked off the 62 runs required for victory quite easily, squaring the series and thereby managing to hold on to their number two ranking in the ICC list.

For an Indian fan this was a rather disappointing series; other than Sehwag's triple century at Chennai and the fascinating contest the first two days of this Test match provided - that's three days out of the 15 days of cricket (well, actually it was three out of 11, since the last two matches ended in just three days) - there was nothing else to cheer about. Hopefully, with IPL coming up soon, there is plenty to look forward to.

After the Indian collapse in the second Test match, I struggled to understand how a team that had performed reasonably well on green pitches in recent times could bat so poorly. Agreed, the South Africans bowled incredibly well, still, 76 all out just didn't make any sense. This Kanpur pitch, if nothing else, has provided a way to compare the performance of the South African batsmen. In the first innings, faced with a dry, cracking pitch, their top order batsmen played to a plan, batted with purpose and at least for the first half of the innings tackled the spinners with ease. In the second innings though, the same batsmen seemed lost, struggled to score and looked baffled against spin!

I guess as a batsman, irrespective of how well you plan ahead and mentally prepare yourself for the kind of shots you need to play on a given surface, on alien conditions, it is indeed difficult to execute your plans effectively - sometimes you succeed, but sometimes you fail. The collapse was probably not due to lack of plan or application, but just a lack of experience playing quality pace bowling on such green-top pitches. And that makes those wins in Perth and Headingley even more incredible!

Team India - The Next Generation

By winning the CB series, India's next generation of cricketers have proved that they have the technique and temperament to compete with the best. Here is my review of the players in batting order -

Robin Uthappa - Showcased his hard-hitting capabilities while chasing 318 for a victory against Australia in the league phase, but otherwise had an average series. He seems ideal at number 6, but in a Team packed with low order hitters, he will miss out if the team goes in with five bowlers unless he is willing to adjust his game as an opener. He proved that he has the temperament to be an opener when he curbed his aggressive style and gave India a solid start along with Tendulkar in the final. Remains to be seen if he can develop in to a solid opener who can mix caution with aggression and provide the team with consistent good starts.

Virender Sehwag - I strongly believe that though he should be a sure pick  for opening in Tests, he has been too inconsistent in recent times to be considered an automatic pick in one dayers. After the first few games in the league phase, Dhoni quickly recognized him as the extra batsman in the team and rightly kept him out for the rest of the series. Robin Uthappa should be given an extended run as first choice opener, with Sehwag as cover for the openers in case of injury. If the pitch conditions demand an extra batsman instead of the fifth bowler, then Sehwag is an ideal pick as he can also bowl off breaks.

Sachin Tendulkar - The fact that at 35, after 18 years of cricket, he is even in this next generation team tells a story doesn't it? Clearly his experience at the top of the order adds stability to the team. He started the series with a string of fluent 30s followed by  single digit scores in three games and just when the critics were getting ready to slaughter him, roared back to form with a cracking 63 in the must win game against Sri Lanka. He then took charge in the finals and led the team to victory. If his sublime innings of 117* in the first final was a perfect example of a well paced chase, his 91 in the second final was another magnificent innings grafted patiently against tight bowling and extremely good fielding. Who can ever forget those beautiful upper cuts he executed off Mitchell Johnson's bouncers! Irrespective of age, he still is India's best ODI batsman and in fact ended the series rated as the no.1 batsman in the ICC ODI rankings.

Gautam Gambhir - Was the most consistent batsman for India through the series; topped the batting charts for the series with 440 runs at an average of 55.00 and a strike rate of 82.70; and his beautifully paced 113 against Australia that almost took India to victory was the best innings by an Indian in the tournament! Ferocious cuts and pulls are his trademark shots, but he also showed nimble footwork against Murali's off spin. He sure has grabbed the number three spot for himself. He, more than Yuvraj deserves a place in the Test XI.

Rohit Sharma - Impressed everyone with his compact technique and athletic fielding abilities. Seemed capable of playing both in aggressive mode and in accumulation mode, but fell several times to casual strokes. Surely talented, but, needs to be seen if he has the mental strength to develop in a to consistent middle order batsman.

Yuvraj Singh - He was touted as India's best bat and expected to marshal the inexperienced middle order, but his horrid run continued in the one day series as well. Except for the delightful 76 against Sri Lanka wherein he showed how devastating a batsman he can be, and a quick 38 in the final he had a very ordinary series.

MS Dhoni - Known for his outrageous shots and hard-hitting capabilities, he never really got a chance to showcase his firebrand style of cricket. Instead, with the top order failing too many times, he found himself in situations where he needed to rebuild the innings and accumulate runs. By suitably adjusting his game, he has proved that he is a versatile batsman. Particularly,  the 88 he accumulated in the washed out match against Sri Lanka and the 50* he made, also against the Sri Lanka, without hitting a single boundary were well crafted innings. But more than his batting, he impressed everyone with this captaincy. Having gotten the team he wanted, he marshaled the players very well. If I were to pick one decision that highlighted his captaincy, its the one he made regarding Sehwag. With the batting collapsing a few times, he dropped Sehwag and instead brought in the extra bowler. By reinforcing the bowling, he took pressure off the batting and this five bowler strategy, I think was crucial in India eventually winning the tournament.

Irfan Pathan - Pathan, the batsman never got  going - it did not help that the captain sent him in at number three a several times - except for that 31 in the must win match against Sri Lanka; Pathan, the bowler started the series well, but lost his edge as the series wore on. He is a decent swing bowler who can be very good if conditions suit him and a capable number seven batsman and when in form allows the team to go in confidently with a five bowler attack. I never understood the ploy of using him at number three - in good batting conditions, there is no point in sending him ahead of specialist batsmen, and in difficult batting conditions, he doesn't have the technique to cope! Dhoni should use him wisely and make sure that he is not over worked.

Harbhajan Singh - He overcame controversies and crowd hostility to consistently choke the runs in the middle overs and picked up some important wickets as well.

Ishant Sharma - The find of the series, no question about it! Bowled beautifully in the test series and emerged as India's strike bowler in the one dayers. He bowls fast, extracts good bounce, swings both ways and has the stamina to bowl long spells - what more can you ask for! We can only hope that he doesn't fades away like many other Indian bowlers (think Balaji, Nehra and even Pathan & Munaf who aren't nearly as lethal as they once promised - at least not consistently) in recent times.

Praveen Kumar - The surprise package of the tournament, he was the man of the match in both the must win game against Sri Lanka and the final! To say that he played a major role in India winning the series is an understatement - another wonderful prospect for Team India.

Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla - Each played their part in one match or the other. But, Sreesanth has a tendency to blow hot & cold, and Munaf is injury prone & a poor fielder. It's to Dhoni credit that he managed them well all through the series. Unless they step up their game to justify their talent, they are sure to lose their spots to Zaheer and RP Singh when they return.

Zaheer Khan, RP Singh - These two were expected to be India's front line bowlers, but both were out to injury.

Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary - Not too long ago Dinesh Karthik and Suresh Raina were touted to be the future of India's middle order, but Rohit Sharma and Uthappa have beaten them to the team. Though they did not get a game in the series, whenever they came on the field as substitute fielders, one could feel the enthusiasm they brought to the team. The fact that these guys are waiting in the bench should drive those in the team to always be at their best, and that is good for Indian cricket!