Whitewash - what it means, for Indian cricket fans. 5-0 against England.

We got thrashed in England. We lost a Test series 5-0. We lost an ODI series that was almost ours. We lost the T20 match too. We were even ridiculed by English commentators, accused of Vaseline-usage, and called donkeys by Nasseer Hussain.

They had the psychological advantage. We lost out on our best players - Sachin, Sehwag, Zaheer, Yuvraj. We had a whole new bunch of youngsters coming in to replace them.

Then comes their turn to come to our own backyard, expecting a good contest. Five matches they had, and here's what happened:

Thrashed at Hyderabad by 126 runs. Chased down beautifully at Delhi by 8 wickets. Took the series at Mohali, by 5 wickets. Chased a total with 10 overs to spare in Mumbai. And then saved a thrilling victory for the end of the series, to win the 5th one at Kolkata by 95 runs!!

What was shocking, was that not even a single match was a close one... all were one-sided, and won comfortably in the end by India. And one can't even say "Ah, this is a case of home advantage". Because the poor fielding, the horrible body language by England, cannot be justified by that.

Now let's come to India and their plus-points in this series. First and foremost, MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI. He is back in form in ODIs, and how. Dhoni has scored 340 runs in 285 balls and 450 minutes, hitting 28 fours and 14 sixes, in 6 ODIs, without being dismissed. Secondly, the batsmen.
Kohli, Gambhir, Rahane and Raina scored when it was needed, and eventually won during crucial moments in the matches.
And after Dhoni's series-winning leadership, comes my second favorite bit about this Indian squad: the young dynamic and EFFECTIVE bowling-up. The opening pair in the form of Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar, always started off things in a smooth and economical way. Then the two youngsters, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron proved themselves. Then the spin department, with Jadeja and Ashwin. And finally, part-timers in the form of Raina and a brilliant Virat Kohli.
Fielding improved drastically, and I think a lot of credit should go to our new fielding coach Trevor Penny.

Couldn't ask for a better Diwali gift than this. Thank you, Team India.

Happy Diwali to all! :)

5-0

Welcome Back, World Champions.




P.S. Win the T20 also please! Cherry on the cake, it will be :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments are most welcome here!

Popular posts from this blog

The Avengers (2012) - I'm part of the hype.. oh yes, I am!

Image
The Avengers... now this is a movie, which a huge majority of fans are looking forward to. It's entirely justified. And I'm putting the emphasis on the word "entirely". You take five superhero movies. Different stories, coming from different eras, different contexts, or different places of the universe even! But they all come together in ONE MEGA-SEQUEL. And that's Avengers for you. Most of my friends from my friends-circle over here in Geneva, actually know how excited I am for this flick. And it's funny and ironical, because I never knew that I would turn out to be such a big fan of this Marvel Cinematic Universe. (As it is called by the makers) It all goes back to Iron Man, back in 2008. Initially when the name itself came out, knowing nothing about it, I used to make fun of it: "A superhero with powers of being made out of Iron? What a joke" Well, I then saw the movie, and was totally impressed. Robert Downey Jr. was a-ma-zing in this r...
Read more

09/10 - Combined Hindi Music Review: Anjaana Anjaani & Robot

Image
Salutations all! :D Hope all are doing well. It's been exactly 1 and half months I've not written on this blog and I must admit it does feel weird to pen down my opinion, after such a long time gap. Anyway, I will be soon writing a blogpost on August and September, two AMAZING months of my life. 2010 is just getting better and better for me! :) I hope all are having a great 2010 as well... Cheers to all! :D But well, this blogpost will mainly consist of reviewing two Hindi movie soundtracks. Both are from forthcoming Bollywood blockbusters. One is the movie ANJAANA ANJAANI. And the other, ROBOT. (Also known as ENDHIRAN - THE ROBOT) The reason why I'm combining both reviews into one blogpost, is because the two soundtracks are very VERY different. Two opposites, in fact. According to me, one of them has failed BIG TIME, and the other, has really emerged as probably the best soundtrack of the year! Now which of the two is the better album, is what you will find ...
Read more

2010 - The Year That Was... 2011 - A Very Promising Year!

Image
Dear Readers, First and foremost, here's wishing you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! May 2011 be a year filled with Good Luck, great Health, and never-ending Happiness!! :D Now, as usual, I shall give you the list of contents, of this blogpost. Sort of the trailer of the movie that awaits you, metaphorically speaking, that is. Introduction Bollywood: 2010 in review: The Best Movies of the Year and the Best Songs of the Year. 2011? Big movies await us! Cricket: The biggest event in the sport: the World Cup - Advantage India. Lifeblog:  2010 - Best year of my Life.... 2011 - Even better? First year at University of Geneva: BEWARE! EXAMS AHEAD! Introduction   And there ends yet another year. Where another new year begins. New moments to be cherished, new milestones to achieve, new reasons to smile... There will be ups-and-downs, there might be bad moments, but one needs to sail through it all, because it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. Be Happy, keep Hope...
Read more