Australia in good hands under proactive Smith

December 16, 2014

Australia smithDec 16: Australia can be confident about seeing the national cricket team in Steven Smith's hands. It is a great shame that Michael Clarke's body has not held up well this summer, and ideally it would have been nice to see Steven have another 12 months or so before taking on the job. But as the next long-term captain in the selectors' eyes, these next three Tests against India will do him a world of good.

I could understand Michael's strong desire to push through his back trouble and make a hundred in Adelaide, and I felt for him as he spoke fearfully about whether he might play again. We don't yet know how long he will be out for, but I do know that if the experts can get his body right, he may end up benefiting from time away, much as Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin have done in recent times. For now, though, the captaincy rests with Steven, completing a journey to leadership that began when I handed him his baggy green cap at Lord's against Pakistan five years ago.

Steven then made 77 in his second Test match, at Headingley. We had been bowled out for 88 on the first day and were well behind in the game. Pakistan eventually scrambled home in the fourth innings, but Steven's knock gave us a chance. Batting with the tail, he played all the shots, taking on Danish Kaneria in particular with a pair of sixes down the ground. We were sitting there in the team viewing area hoping he would go on to a hundred, and while Steven fell short, I never forgot how much poise he showed that day.

I think we all thought he was eventually going to be a batsman, but the view from the selectors when they first picked Steven was that he could be the next really bright, shining light as far as spin bowling was concerned. A bit like Cameron White when he came in for his first few games as a teenager bowling legspin. Everyone hopes they're going to turn into the next Shane Warne, and it very rarely turns out that way. Legspinners probably don't reach their peak until their late 20s, and we saw Steven in Shield cricket at 18, and White at 17.

Leggie or not, you could just see there was something unique about his batting. Like Phillip Hughes, Steven had the ability to score a lot of runs but did so in an unorthodox manner. They both looked a little different, Phillip being very strong on the off side and Steven, if anything, a little stronger as a leg-side player. When we first saw him we hoped he could potentially turn into a very good allrounder.

Since then, Steven has been treading a very similar path to David Warner. When I saw them both as young blokes, I knew that they had a lot of talent, because they could do the things that senior Test players deemed as difficult. They had all the shots, Warner could hit big sixes and Steven could play some unorthodox shots and make the hard things look easy. But when you looked at their techniques and how they were going to survive in the longer forms of the game, you had some question marks over how they were going to fare.

They both needed that technical base most players of my generation had, because we grew up playing longer-form cricket. They grew up playing short-form cricket, so had a game based more on those formats than we had. Both Steven and Warner have been able to build defensive games and plans that now allow them to bat for long periods of time and therefore score good Test match runs. With a little more comfort around their positions and 20 to 30 Test matches under their belt, they are getting to the point where they understand themselves and their own games and understand what it takes to be very good Test match players.

Something else I have liked about Steven's batting is how he has taken on responsibility for winning games in recent times. He has shown that particularly in the past two ODI series. When he got a chance to bat at No. 3 against Pakistan he made a fine hundred, and then against South Africa he was the man who got Australia over the line when they had looked down and out. He has got all the qualities to be a long-term leader and he's already developing a reputation as the man who can rescue Australia when all seems lost.

I learned a good deal about the way Steven thinks about the game by commentating on the BBL last summer. I watched him lead Sydney Sixers as I sat alongside Adam Gilchrist, Mark Waugh and Damien Fleming in the commentary box. We would talk about what the captain or bowlers might be thinking an over or two ahead. More than once, we mentioned a possible tactical move, and sure enough, Steven addressed it even as we spoke.

T20 provides a useful test of a young captain, because it is easy to get lost in the speed of the game and become overly reactive rather than staying ahead of it. Steven was very proactive in his thinking, and to see him do that gave me a lot of confidence about his leadership.

Brad Haddin has already served as Steven's deputy in the BBL, and will be an ideal vice-captain in Brisbane. The way he led the team in the final session of the Adelaide Test after Clarke's hamstring injury gave us a glimpse of how sharp Brad can be, both in terms of setting the right fields but also ensuring that the players stuck to their task at a time when India looked more than capable of winning the match. You could see from a distance that if Australia broke the stand between Virat Kohli and M Vijay it was always going to be difficult for new batsmen to start, and Brad should take a lot of credit for the way the team hung in.

He's a very determined, fighting character, and as the wicketkeeper, gets an excellent overview of the game. Brad's strong relationship with Steven will also come in handy, because as I discovered, leading Australia in a Test match is far more consuming than doing so for any other team or in any other format. This is less to do with the intensity of the match but more the amount of other tasks you find yourself saddled with in the days leading into the match. There are press conferences, numerous pitch inspections, interactions with players, discussions with selectors, and more -all the things that Steven would never have had to worry about before. Brad will be helpful there.

The way Australia have played over the past 18 months won't change much under Steven, because he doesn't know any other way. The time he has been back in the team is the time that Michael and Darren Lehmann have generated a shift towards greater acceptance of the way the team needs to play.

It was summed up best by the way Warner attacked the game on the first morning in Adelaide, not allowing India to settle. This was something special, because it took the pressure off the whole dressing room. He may only have been doing it to free his own mind and get himself back into another contest, but I have no doubt that had a big positive effect on everybody who batted after him.

It helped him that Mohammed Shami and Varun Aaron both started by bowling round the wicket. It was almost as though India were thinking about containing Warner, rather than trying to take the early wickets that are so critical in Adelaide, given how the pitch settles down on days one and two. You've got to try to make inroads with the new ball, and it doesn't matter how good the batsman is, your first thoughts must be about how you are trying to get him out.

There was never much doubt that was how Nathan Lyon was thinking on the last day, and what he did in the second innings, bowling Australia to victory, will be great for him. A lot of people seem to forget how good Nathan's record is. Every series there seem to be questions about why he is being persevered with, but his record is already outstanding for an Australian spinner, and he is getting better all the time.

India's batsmen have seen more spin than anyone in the world, and Nathan was able to bowl deliveries that baffled even their best. Balls that drift away and spin back with bounce are of the kind that Indian spinners have unleashed upon Australia, so to see one of our spinners doing that was terrific - it couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.

One of cricket's modern greats, Ricky Ponting captained Australia in 324 matches and scored over 27,000 runs

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News Network
February 24,2020

Wellington, Feb 24: Indian batsmen's inadequacies in adverse conditions were laid bare as they crashed to an embarrassing 10-wicket defeat against a ruthless New Zealand side that wrapped up the opening Test in just over three days here on Monday.

Starting the day on 144 for four, India were all out for 191 in their second innings. This was only a shade better than their dismal 165 in the first innings, which eventually proved to be decisive.

Trent Boult (4/39 in 22 overs) and Tim Southee (5/61 in 21 overs), the most under-rated new ball pairs in world cricket, showed that when it boils down to playing incisive seam and swing bowling, this batting line-up is still a work in progress.

The required target of nine runs was knocked off by New Zealand without much ado for their 100th Test win.

India's last defeat was against Australia at Perth during the 2018-19 series but the loss at the Basin Reserve would hurt them more because the visitors have not surrendered in such a fashion of late.

There was no resistance from a star-studded line-up and more than intent, the failure was due to poor technique on a track that had something on the third and fourth day as well.

This is a team that plays fast bowling much better than their predecessors, the reason for their success on the bouncy Australian tracks.

But when it comes to facing conventional seam and swing bowling in testing conditions, they are yet to learn the art of saving a Test match.

India had lost the mental battle on the first day itself when they saw the moisture on the wicket.

The toss became a factor and not for one session did they look comfortable. Mayank Agarwal was the only batsman, who felt at home in patches, as New Zealand showed what a Test match strategy is all about.

If the first innings was about mixing back of length deliveries with fuller length balls, the second innings saw the pacers coming from round the wicket and targeting the rib-cage. The line was disconcerting and it stifled them for good.

It affected their mindset and once Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari stepped out on the fourth morning, defeat was written all over as both looked ill-equipped to handle such high quality seam bowling.

Rahane (29 off 75 balls) and Vihari (15 off 79 balls) are players who only play long-form cricket at the international level and both are known for their patience.

But little would have the Indian vice-captain apprehended that he would get a delivery from Boult, which he thought would move away after pitching but it held its line and he had no option but to jab at it, and all he got was an edge.

Southee, who bowls a lovely classical outswinger, then bowled an off-cutter from the other end and before Vihari could comprehend, it came back sharply to peg the stumps back.

Within first 20 minutes, the two seasoned practitioners of swing had knocked the stuffing out of India's resistance.

Rishabh Pant (25 off 41 balls) batted only in the manner he can and played one breathtaking shot off Southee, a slog sweep off a 130 kmph-plus delivery to the deep mid-wicket boundary.

But there was too much left to do with too little support from the other end. Bending on one knee, he tried another audacious slog scoop but couldn't clear.

Southee, who had a terrific match, deservingly completed his 10th five-wicket haul and all it took was 16 overs to end the innings and the match.

New Zealand now have 120 points in the World Test championship and India stayed on top with 36 points.

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April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: It was on April 2, 2011, when the Men in Blue went on to win their second 50-over World Cup title.

India won its first World Cup in 1983 and then had to wait for 28 years to again lift the title.
Going into the 2011 tournament, India went in as the clear favourites as the competition was to be played in the sub-continent.

Under MS Dhoni's leadership, India lost just one match in the competition against South Africa.
India had defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with Sri Lanka.

In the finals, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team's score to 274/6.

India in their chase got off to a bad start as the side lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board.

But Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni stepped up and stitched a match-winning 109-run partnership.

Gambhir perished after playing a knock of 97 runs, but in the end, Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line by six wickets.

The winning six struck by Dhoni is still viewed as one of the most exciting moments in India's sporting history. 

As the winning six was hit, Ravi Shastri was doing commentary then, and he famously remarked, "Dhoni, finishes it off in style, India lifts the World Cup after 28 years".
As soon as the match-winning shot was hit, Tendulkar erupted with joy and had tears to see his dream finally being fulfilled.

Earlier this year, former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the 2011 World Cup win, titled 'Carried On the Shoulders Of A Nation', was voted the greatest Laureus Sporting Moment of the last twenty years.

The lap after the World Cup is still edged into everyone's hearts.

Playing in his last mega 50-over tournament, it was the last chance for Tendulkar to lift the coveted trophy.

Before the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had played five tournaments (1992,1996,1999,2003 and 2007), and he fell short every time.

The closest he came to winning the trophy was in 2003 as India made the finals under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

But the Men in Blue fell short in the finals against Australia.

Then in 2007, the biggest setback was in store for the legend has India bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.

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March 13,2020

Mar 13: The start of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world's most lucrative cricket competition, has been postponed from March 29 until April 15 over the coronavirus, the Indian cricket board said Friday.

"The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to suspend IPL 2020 till 15th April 2020, as a precautionary measure against the ongoing Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation," the BCCI said in a statement.

The two-month Twenty20 competition is estimated to generate more than $11 billion for the Indian economy and involves cricket's top international stars.

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