Ashes First Test: Australian Bowling Exposed Beyond Redemption!

We all knew that Australia would struggle to a large extent to dismiss the England batsmen on a consistent basis. The Aussies don’t have a single spinner who is capable of turning the ball to an alarming or even an average degree. Further, their pace bowlers are too predictable, making it rather difficult to dismiss a side that has someone like Stuart Broad batting at number eight. However, no one was prepared for the mauling that the Aussie bowlers are getting as I write this blog.

They have been literally massacred, reduced to looking like a bunch of school boy bowlers who have no idea what hit them...and it did hit them...I mean, each of the English batsmen has got a century or even more, making it clear to everyone that the Australian bowlers simply don’t have the firepower to dismiss a side like England twice in a test match. How the Australians plan to win the Ashes 2010 is still a mystery to me and you have a Ponting screaming out his lungs that they are going to whitewash the England side 5-0!!!

How come Kiwi players are always hurting?

It seems to be a pattern that no cricket follower in New Zealand would like to acknowledge. Despite not playing too much cricket and being gifted with naturally impressive physiques, it seem that the kiwi bunch of cricketers are most prone to injuries. Take the case of Chris Cairns who at one point was regarded as the leading all-rounder in the game but succumbed to multiple injuries. The same thing happened to Dion Nash who probably wasn’t as good as Cairns but was a very useful swing bowler. The same thing happened to Geoff Allot,
the unsung kiwi hero from the 99 world cup and the latest crop of bowlers from the nation located at the deepest end of the southern hemisphere, including Kyle Mills and Daryl Tuffey. Now, it seems that the virus of getting injured without actually doing too much is spread among the New Zealand batsmen. Just take a look at the current state of the test match between NZ and India being played at Nagpur. Jesse Ryder is hobbling all over the 22 yards and Brendon McCullum can hardly bend! What is with all these players—is there some injury-engaging element in their DNAs?

Against the Spin » Twenty20: Cricket’s great equalizer

Against the Spin » Twenty20: Cricket’s great equalizer

I seriously disagree with this view. T20 does not create a level playing field. It only lowers the benchmarks needed to win the game to such an extent that the chances of mediocre teams rising to the fore and winning games increases exponentially. Just because some major teams have struggled T20 does not mean that T20 is a leveler....test cricket is a leveler because it does not allow any scope to hide your weaknesses and only the better team can win.

Laxman Again Proves: Age Argument Doesn’t Exist In Test Cricket

VVS Laxman is truly team India’s saviour when it comes to bailing out the team from seemingly hopeless situations. However, not many people realize that he is also pushing 36 in terms of his ‘calendar’ age and yet, his batting aggregate in the last 15 or so test matches is close to 66!! In fact, it seems like Laxman has discovered the most consistent patch of his career. Further, he seems to have aborted all questions about age being a factor, i.e. at least in test cricket. Steve Waugh, Shane Warne and Glen McGrath were the others who proved that age has nothing to do with test cricket and even Tendulkar seems to be championing the same cause.