Team India FC - Page 81

If the 13 fours and five sixes that Tendulkar hit during the course of his unbeaten innings indicated that he was at his best, the 41 singles and nine twos he ran proved his fitness beyond doubt.

It was Tendulkar's first full innings for India after the third and final Test against England earlier this year at Mumbai. He had batted a handful of deliveries in the rained out one-dayer against Sri Lanka at Colombo which lasted only 16 minutes and 22 balls in all.

The last time Tendulkar played a triple-figure innings was against Pakistan at Peshawar earlier this year.

Irfan Pathan yet again showcased his batting prowess, scoring 64. The left-hander was contemptuous against the Windies bowling, smashing six fours and two sixes in 68 balls.

He was the dominant partner in the 125-run second-wicket stand and fell playing a slower one from part-time spinner Chris Gayle on to his stumps.

Pathan's dismissal brought Virender Sehwag (9) to the wicket, but the dashing batsman was done in by a fine delivery from Jerome Taylor.

The ball kept low and sneaked between Sehwag's bat and pads to disturb the stumps.

Taylor, who claimed four wickets against Australia in the first match on Tuesday, was again the best West Indies bowler on view, picking three for 64.

Tendulkar is back with a bang

Sachin Tendulkar dismissed any doubts of form and fitness as he registered his 40th One-Day International hundred, which propelled India to 309 for 5 against the West Indies, in the second ODI of the DLF Cup, at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old, playing his first ODI since February, hammered five sixes and 13 fours in an unbeaten 142 off 148 balls.

Irfan Pathan (64) played a crucial role in the middle overs, as he kept the run-rate steady in a partnership of 125 runs with Tendulkar.

Jerome Taylor returned with three wickets, but was costly at 64 runs from 10 overs.

The West Indies lost the first match of the tournament, going down by 78 runs to Australia on Tuesday.

India's innings:

India, opening with Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, started the innings under overcast conditions. On winning the toss, the Indian captain elected to bat under natural light, since the team was unsure of the lighting at the venue.

Though the West Indies fast bowlers were unable to entirely trouble the experienced Dravid and Tendulkar, they got the ball to swing, and with some help from the uneven bounce of the pitch were able to create the buzz the early overs generally offer.

Tendulkar, returning to international cricket after an almost six-month lay-off, had a couple lucky escapes in the beginning.

In the second over of the innings, Fidel Edwards induced an edge from him, but the ball fell between a diving wicketkeeper and first slip. The Mumbai batsman also survived a miscued hook shot that flew off the toe of his bat to the fine-leg boundary.

With the help of 10 extras from the bowlers, India notched 37 for no loss in five overs and coasted along at six runs per over in the first ten. But they stumbled in the next five, which fetched just 17 runs and also saw Dravid being dismissed.

Dravid, who had progressed to 26 in his usual, controlled manner, missed the line of a Dwayne Smith delivery and was given out leg before wicket. He and Tendulkar had got India off to a solid start with the 75-run partnership for the opening wicket.

Persistent drizzle stopped play for some time after 15 overs, but Tendulkar came out of the break with a signature straight drive off Ian Bradshaw. He then pounced on a short ball from Smith and pulled it for six.

Once Tendulkar had shaken off the early jitters, the West Indies bowlers looked only a little more threatening than the ones he had faced at Lashings. They strayed to the middle and leg stump, letting the ace batsman craft easy ones and twos on the on-side.

Save a few deliveries that rose up higher than expected, the middle-overs were a stroll for the Indian batsmen in the small Kinrara Oval park.

Edwards ran in hard and fast, and Bradshaw had the ball slide close to the left-handed Irfan Pathan, but the West Indies bowling didn't have sting to hurt Indian batting. Pathan and Tendulkar rolled on to a partnership of 125 from 21.2 overs, amply punctuated by hits to the fence.

Pathan, who was dropped for the last two Tests in the West Indies earlier this year, reportedly because of lack of confidence, was allowed to ease into the game. The left-hander knocked a few meaty blows, as is the job of a pinch-hitter, but his larger role in the batting line-up is evolving. He can strike the ball hard, and with a sound technique also puts a price on his wicket.

He scored 64 off 67 balls, inclusive of six fours and two sixes, before being bowled by Chris Gayle, the ball bouncing off the inside edge onto the stumps.

Tendulkar completed his 40th ODI hundred with a nondescript single to complete another successful comeback to international cricket.

Pathan's wicket brought Virender Sehwag to the wicket, but Taylor halted the show before the fireworks could go off. The ball kept low and sneaked between Sehwag's bat and pads to disturb the stumps. The bowler then followed it up with the wicket of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was out for two.

Tendulkar and Suresh Raina played steadily, running hard between the wickets, before going for the big blows. Raina got into the act with a six straight down the ground, before Tendulkar took Dwayne Bravo apart with two sixes over cover in one over.

Raina was dismissed in the frantic run-search (for 34 in 29 balls) but Tendulkar continued the assault. Bravo and Taylor were dispatched over the boundary ropes as India scored 48 runs in the last four overs.

The fifth-wicket partnership between Raina and Tendulkar cost the West Indies 68 runs off 65 balls.

Gayle, because of his lack of pace, was the only bowler whom India struggled to get past easily. Bradshaw stuck to a consistent line, but was unable to help the West Indies stop the Indian run-flow in the middle overs.

Warne controversy dilutes marquee clash

A match that was billed as the clash of two returning legends has now been overshadowed by the words of another from across the seas. Sachin Tendulkar and Glenn McGrath are poised to renew acquaintance on Saturday afternoon, but the build-up to the match was dominated by Shane Warne's scathing comments on coach John Buchanan featured in The Sun.

"Im a big believer that the coach is something you travel in to get to and from the game!" Warne is supposed to have said, and catchy line though it was, neither Ricky Ponting, who addressed the media ahead of the India game, nor Buchanan was amused. You can depend on Warne to cause a stir though. No other cricketer on the planet would have managed to steal the limelight from Tendulkar, that too less than a day after a stirring unbeaten 141 on his return to the big time.

Both teams struggled in the face of stunning assaults from West Indies in the Powerplay overs, but Australia held on to prevail, while India were denied the chance of a comeback by rain. And given the fact that they already have points on the board, Ponting hinted that Australia would keep faith in the relatively inexperienced faces that triumphed over West Indies. One change could be at the top of the order, where Matthew Hayden - who averages a mighty 54.81 in 17 matches against India - should get the nod ahead of Simon Katich.

Though the redoubtable McGrath will ask stern questions of India's line-up, the likes of Nathan Bracken and Mitchell Johnson will be under immediate pressure against batsmen who certainly aren't shot-shy. Dan Cullen, the offspinner from whom so much is expected, will also relish the challenge of bowling to players who play spin perhaps better than anyone else.

India are also likely to make just one change, with Yuvraj Singh coming in for either Mohammad Kaif or Suresh Raina, who batted so well in the slog overs against West Indies. The five-man bowling attack is unlikely to be weakened given how easily West Indies took them apart. But with Sreesanth and Ramesh Powar waiting on the sidelines, Rudra Pratap Singh and Harbhajan Singh will need to show some improvement to keep their places in the XI for the remaining matches.

India will take heart from numbers that suggest they play better against Australia at neutral venues. Though the overall head-to-head record is overwhelmingly in Australia's favour - 49 wins to 27 from 80 games - it narrows down to 11 Aussie wins and 9 losses when the teams clash on foreign soil.

Come Saturday though, even the statistically minded will have eyes trained on the tussle between two of the game's ultimate warriors. Tendulkar averages an astonishing 49.02 in 44 matches against the world's best, further evidence, if any was needed, as to why he's light years ahead of anyone else as a one-day batsman. The fact that McGrath has just 32 wickets at 26.28 - his career average is 22.45 - in 22 games against India offers further proof of just how effective Tendulkar has been at taking on the shiny white ball. That said, McGrath won the contest that mattered, in the 2003 World Cup final, something that still rankles with Tendulkar. Expect some fireworks.

It will also be a big match for one man on the sidelines. Greg Chappell's place in Australian cricket's pantheon is beyond dispute, and this will be the first time that he leads his Indian wards in a contest against the team that has set the standards for nearly a decade. As Ponting said at his press conference, Chappell knows most of the Australian players as well as anyone, and any little chinks that he remembers will be of immense use to an Indian side that has to win to stay alive in the competition.

India (likely): 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Rahul Dravid (capt), 3 Irfan Pathan, 4 Virender Sehwag, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 7 Mohammad Kaif, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Rudra Pratap Singh, 11 Munaf Patel.

Australia (likely): 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Phil Jaques, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Mark Cosgrove, 6 Shane Watson, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Bracken, 10, Dan Cullen, 11 Glenn McGrath.

'You must be in the game right till the end ' - Dravid

Both Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath lavished praise on Sachin Tendulkar, but were confident that Australia would prevail when they meet India on Saturday in the third game of the DLF Cup. McGrath is representing Australia for the first time since the VB Series last January, and relished the opportunity to pit himself against both Tendulkar and Brian Lara in the same tournament.

"My whole career, I have enjoyed bowling to guys who are the best in the world," he said. "Sachin and Lara are two of those guys. I didn't get a chance to bowl at Lara the other night, now I'll see how I go against Sachin. I am looking forward to it. Sachin is a class player, I have always enjoyed bowling to him in the park. The way I started the other night was a perfect length to a right-hander. So, we have a right-hander who has got a 140 under his belt. He is due to fail in this game!"

Ponting too was awestruck by the manner in which Tendulkar had announced his return to the fray, saying: "I have always said that Sachin is the best player I have played against and seen. He is absolutely world-class. Having him at the top of the order makes the team look much more formidable. He gets in there early, he has technique to play the new-ball, and he can be as damaging as anyone in the middle and end overs. He makes for a pretty good package when he is at his best."

That said, he insisted that the game would not be about individuals. "India has always been the team that we respect, and they have lots of match-winners in their team," said Ponting. "On their day, they are as good as anybody going around. We have got one win under our belt and that should help. As for India, this is a short series, so they will, I am sure, look at tomorrow as a game that they must win."

Rahul Dravid suggested that a positive mindset would be India's biggest ally. "We need to be at the top of the game to beat the Aussies," he said. "They have maintained their status as the best side in the world, and we have played some good one-day cricket in the last year. It should make for a good contest.

"Like everyone saw, the West Indies were in control for three-fourths of the game, but then the Aussies fought back and won convincingly in the end. You must be in the game right till the end against Australia, you can't relax at any stage. We will look to be aggressive and positive."

India's preparations weren't helped, however, by rain that resulted in their practice session at the Turf Club being called off, after only Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had got an opportunity to knock around in the nets. "We have had just about enough of this bad weather," said a visibly irked Dravid. "I think we have got our quota of rain for a couple of years in the last month or so! It is a bit frustrating, but it is something we can't control. Yesterday was shaping up into a good game, and we were beginning to have good training session here today. The facilities were great and we had excellent practice pitches, but only two players got to bat."

Dravid accepted that India's bowling had been well below par against West Indies, who were 141 for 2 from just 20 overs when the rain came down. "We didn't bowl as well as we would have liked, and there is a lesson to learn there," he said. "We have worked out the areas that, if we bowl in, will bring us success. We have got plans in place, now it's a question of executing them."

Australia also struggled with the ball when Shivnarine Chanderpaul was smashing it all over the place, but McGrath was coy when asked if he would become something of a mentor for the younger bowlers. "I don't know if I am good at it," he said truthfully. "But I get along well with the young quicks and they sort of keep me on my toes. I haven't spent a great deal of time with them just chatting to them, so I am working their game out and seeing actually how much they know about their game."

Despite the fact that he's now one of the game's senior statesmen, McGrath hinted that the snarl, that has been just as much part of his game as his accuracy, wouldn't go into premature retirement. "Being a fast bowler, one needs to be aggressive," he said. "Even so, there is a line I have made that I don't cross too often. But Ricky wouldn't want me skipping around after bowling half-volleys and smiling when I get hit for four."

Both camps played down the significance of a Greg Chappell-coached India taking on Australia for the first time. "We don't look at it that way," said Dravid. "It doesn't make a difference that Greg is an Aussie and we are playing Australia tomorrow. He is our coach, and Australia is just another team. I don't know if the fact that Greg has coached people like Ponting in the past will make that much of a difference."

Ponting, who was part of the Australia A squad coached by Chappell in 1994-95, agreed. "You might be right there," he said with a laugh, when asked to recall those long-ago days when he was trying to make his mark. "I have only heard good things about Greg as a coach. He has been with us at the Academy at different times, he knows a lot of our game reasonably well. So he will have a fair deal of knowledge to pass on to the Indian team about us.

"When he [Chappell] was coach of South Australia, Tim Neilsen was with him there as the assistant coach. Everything he has said about Greg is positive, Tim said Greg is the best batting coach he has worked with. He would have brought a fair bit to the Indian team, and a fair bit of knowledge about us too."

How that knowledge helps the Indians on Saturday remains to be seen.

Cricket is not a burden yet: Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday said his unbeaten 141 against the West Indies in the DLF Cup tri-series in Malaysia showed he was not finished as a batsman yet.

"Cricket has been my life, I am living a dream," the 33-year-old Indian star said after hitting his 40th one-day hundred, which went in vain as the West Indies were declared winners on Duckworth-Lewis method following a rain disruption.

"If it is a burden, I would know when to step aside, step back and say it is the end.

"But I am still enjoying. Everytime I go out there, there is enthusiasm. I just want to continue with that."

Riding on Tendulkar's ton, which contained 13 fours and five sixes, India made 309 for five in 50 overs.

West Indies were 141 for two in 20 overs when rains forced the play to be called off, and the West Indies total was 29 runs more than the par score of 112 for two at that stage.

Tendulkar rated his knock highly for a combination of reasons but said he was disappointed because the team did not win.

"It will be a special hundred because it came on a difficult surface and after so many months (of being away from the game)," said the Mumbai batsman who was playing in his first match since undergoing a shoulder surgery in March.

It was Tendulkar's 40th hundred but the batsman said the numbers did not matter to him.

"It was a very good innings but I am disappointed because we did not win. 40 is just a number," he said.

Tendulkar said the innings should silence all doubts about his fitness.

"I am absolutely fine. It is a challenge coming back after serious injuries; one has to be mentally strong."

Tendulkar admitted that the bowlers lacked discipline - conceding 26 extras - but also defended his teammates.

"Discipline is an extremely important factor which we lacked today. But it is not the first time nor is it going to be the last," he said.

"Bowlers are not machines. It is not easy to bowl at that level everyday. The body and the mind have to co-ordinate. We are always trying."

He said India could have been in a better position, vis-'-vis the D/L method, had the match gone beyond 20 overs.

"Field restrictions would have got over after 20 overs and runs would not have come easily," he said.

Tendulkar, however, did not blame the D/L formula.

"Rules always favour one team. These calculations are done based on a well thought out formula. It is difficult to find a perfect formula," he said.

West Indies skipper Brian Lara said his team had their game plan ready after India put up a huge total.

"We always had an eye on the total. We still had 30 overs to go and India had runs on the board.

"The match was well poised but unfortunately it was spoilt by rain."

Lara also paid rich tributes to Tendulkar.

"He has come back after six months and showed us what a genius he is," Lara said.

"You just had to watch and appreciate it. It was a very special innings."

Yuvraj fit for Australia clash

India captain Rahul Dravid has a simple formula that can help his team beat the formidable Australians: play your best cricket and sustain the intensity right through the game.

But he admits it is easier said than done and cites the example of the West Indies, who started in blazing fashion in the opening match of the DLF Cup tri-series but could not sustain the tempo till the end.

"To win against Australia you have to be at the top of your game, throughout the game. We can't afford to dominate a part of the game and relax for the rest," Dravid said on the eve of India's encounter against the Aussies in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

Dravid said Yuvraj Singh, who was forced to sit out for the first match against the West Indies because of fever, has recovered and is available for selection.

"He is fully fit and should be there tomorrow," he said.

Dravid rued the inclement weather, which disrupted the teams' practice sessions on Friday.

The Indians have been at the receiving end of bad weather recently. Their visit to Sri Lanka last month was hit by torrential rain and they returned home without playing a match.

In Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, the weather gods robbed them of possible victory.

After India had posted a huge 309 for 5, rain forced the match to be called off after 20 overs in the West Indies innings. The Caribbeans were declared winners by the Duckworth-Lewis method.

"It is frustrating but one has no control over this; there is nothing much you can do about it," Dravid said.

"We batted very well, but we can't contain rain. We have to accept and move on. These things are beyond our control."

On the need for handling the middle overs better, Dravid said, "We need players with power, with creativity, who can play on slow wicket to exploit the overs once the field restrictions are lifted."

He added that Yuvraj could do it and Dhoni too could be good.

"Viru (Virender Sewag) could also build a strong middle over."

Dravid refused to confirm whether he would open the innings with Sachin Tendulkar.

"Nothing is written in stone; there has to be flexibility," he said.

Referring to the depression in the pitch on Thursday, he said, "I base my decision based on what I see."

He dismissed any notion of "pitch tampering", saying, "What is that, never heard of that. It is a new word."

hi chhonu 😳,Sarah and Moony. 😃 How are you all doing? Moony, its nice to see you here. 😊
I am so happy that Sachin made a great come back, but i m sad because we lost and people will keep saying that whenever Sachin playes, we lose the match. So, he plays for his own records 😔 .
Chhonu monu, you are now Mrs Lee 😉 😆 😆

Originally posted by: inaanki

hi chhonu 😳,Sarah and Moony. 😃 How are you all doing? Moony, its nice to see you here. 😊
I am so happy that Sachin made a great come back, but i m sad because we lost and people will keep saying that whenever Sachin playes, we lose the match. So, he plays for his own records 😔 .
Chhonu monu, you are now Mrs Lee 😉 😆 😆

hey anki...

i'm doing great....am sooooooooooooooo happppppppy today's match was washed out...i thought i would have to go to bed crying my heart out but thank God for the wonderful rains!!!!..😊

Yeah, that was one hell of a knock from Sachin,it really shows what a magnificent player he is.

Forget abt what ppl keep saying, bcoz ppl who say that dont really know anything abt cricket....We all know just how many matches we have won because of this great player..😊😊

If the bowlers hadnt gifted sooo many extras, we still could have won the match by that insane D/L method!!