Irfan Pathan needs to get back to Baroda and not for India

I feel really bored to watch Irfan Pathan play for the country. In my honest opinion, he has to be sent back to the domestic cricket scene where he can work out on his bowling. He definitely has the promise of being a good all rounder at the international level but let's face the reality, he is currently lacking the pace that is required to hurry up the batsmen in playing the false shots. More importantly, Irfan has lost the swing in his bowling which was his only plus point when he had made his debut in Australia in 2003/04.

Irfan Pathan has been clocking speeds of 125kmph and has really struggled to beat the batsmen genuinely. India has got to stick with wicket taking bowlers in all forms of the game and we do have plenty of them. Unfortunately as Irfan feels limited in his bowling, he keeps trying very hard to produce a wicket and in the process does spray the ball around both sides of the wicket and often drags it way too short. I think that he has to keep working on his basics at a lower level, especially the way he holds the ball, the release and other aspects if he wants to become atleast half of Kapil Dev.

Currently he is back in the Indian One Day team against England and the thing is that he might do well with the ball against them. But England is not a good one day team, the proper test for a bowler comes when the batsmen are attacking him fearlessly. England have been too defensive in their minds and any bowlers can excel against them, an example is Yuvraj Singh!! For the benefit of Indian Cricket and for Irfan Pathan himself, it is better to release him from the Indian squad and allow him to find enough time to regain the necessary standards in his bowling.

The lad actually wasn't picked for the first three games and was busy playing for Baroda. He had done well for Baroda in I think a couple of Ranji games. If I am not mistaken, he did pick up a five-wicket haul as well. It is good for Irfan that he was the leader of the Baroda bowling attack which means that he was on the hunt for wickets all on his own for the team. There was an incident where he had hurled the ball dangerously back onto the striker Sanjay Bangar for which he was fined 100% of his match fees. Poor Irfan seems to be getting too frustrated I suppose with the lack of venom in his bowling.  I hope Irfan realizes what all he needs to do to become a potent bowler at the international level. Even if that means a season or two out of national reckoning, let it be! He is still young and will get all his opportunities in the future. There is nothing to talk about his batting which is perfectly intact, everything is about his lackluster bowling. Irfan would have been the best bowler in women's cricket with his speeds but definitely not an international class bowler in men's cricket at the moment.

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India seals series at Bengaluru in a curtailed contest

BV Swagath's Story of the 4th ODI between India and England at Bengaluru on November 20, 2008

The T20 Champs were put to test at a wet Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru today with the Men in Blue asked to defend 198 in 22 overs which they did to seal the ongoing 7-ODI Series 4-0. England failed to capitalize on the favourable conditions to mess up with their chase and fall short of the Duckworth Lewis Target by 19 runs. It was a stop-start match at Bengaluru which ended up in a thrilling finish with the Indian bowlers and fielders holding their nerve. It was England’s best opportunity to taste victory with the bowlers struggling to get a grip on the ball but the visitors approached the chase in the old fashioned mode and were left stranded with too many to get in the final overs.

Toss : Kevin Pietersen won the crucial toss which enabled his side to book the chasing part of the match. Duckworth Lewis was going to play inevitably as the conditions remained gloomy at Bengaluru. India brought in Sachin Tendulkar in the place of Rohit Sharma and the Boss was made to open the innings with Sehwag. England stuck to the same side that lost in the 3rd ODI.

Sehwag, Yuvraj power India to a defendable target

India had to start off normally thinking that the innings would last 50 overs. Sehwag with his new partner Tendulkar looked set to put away the bad deliveries and at the same time see through the new ball spell under the cloud cover. During the 8th over, play was halted as the bowlers’ footholes were being repaired by the groundstaff. Once it was done, the man on strike Sachin Tendulkar (11 from 21 with 2 fours) seemed to have totally lost his concentration as he drove along the wrong line to be bowled by an incoming delivery from Stuart Broad. England had their chances after that but couldn’t grab onto them and the next pair of Sehwag and Gambhir made them pay for their mistakes. When the rain hit the ground for the first time, India got into a decent position at 82 for 1 in 14 overs. 

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India clinch hat-trick at a gloomy Kanpur

BV Swagath's Story of the 3rd ODI between India and England at Kanpur on November 20, 2008

India has clinched a hat-trick of wins amidst fading light at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. The homeside was clever enough to keep its head cool and work its way to a total that was 16 runs ahead of the Duckworth Lewis Target when bad light inevitably stopped the match at around 4:40 PM. The third ODI had a delayed start of 45 minutes because of the hazy conditions and it was a bizarre situation to see the action get curtailed in the morning and the evening despite the stadium having flood lights that stood up uselessly. The stars of the match were Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag while Yuvraj had no chance of scoring his hat-trick century with England making just 240 on the board.

Toss : England won the toss this time and for the first time were going to bat first in this series. They made a crucial change to their side by including off spinner Graeme Swann instead of Steve Harmison. India on the other hand strengthened its bowling attack by bringing in Ishant Sharma for RP Singh.

England makes a complete mess of a good opening start

The match was curtailed to a 49 overs a side contest with the batting powerplay getting reduced to 4 overs. The first few overs saw the new English opening combination of Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell just allowing the Indian new ball pair of Zaheer and Munaf bowl to their lines. But the slow start blossomed into a promising one as the two right handers played some wristy shots especially through the off side. India was now kept under slight pressure as the two batsmen built up a wonderful platform for the middle order although the pitch and the quick outfield demanded atleast 300 on the board. In the 15th over, Munaf Patel provided the much needed break for his side which came through a 0% shot from Bell, that of trying to steer one down to thirdman and nicking it to the keeper. Bell scored 46 from 47 balls with 8 fours and had out on 79 in 14.3 overs for the first wicket with Bopara. Once the two powerplays were out of the way, MS Dhoni changed the pace of the game by bowling Harbhajan and Yuvraj in tandem which entirely slowed the tempo down.

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Yuve bats and bowls India to a well earned victory

BV Swagath's Story of the 2ndODI between India and England at Indore on November 17, 2008

It was once again Yuvraj Singh who proved to be the nemesis of the English team. This time the southpaw not only knocked off a hundred, he even starred with the ball capturing four huge wickets to script a sensational triumph for his side. England did all it could with both ball and the bat but India was just too good for them. The homeside had passed through two difficult phases – first one when they were reduced at 29 for 3 and the second one when Flintoff and Pietersen had taken the batting powerplay for more than 50 runs. It was the magic of Yuvraj Singh both with the bat and the ball that got India through that crisis to end up with a 54-run victory in the second ODI at Indore. The huge crowd at the Maharani Usharaje Trust Cricket Ground would have been more than satisfied to see more than 500 runs on a wicket that threatened to explode and produce a low scoring match.

Toss: MS Dhoni won the toss this time and India was up to take first strike. Both sides remained unchanged with Yuvraj Singh recovering quickly from his back strain.

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Yuve’s blistering ton pulverizes England in Rajkot

BV Swagath's Story of the 1st ODI between India and England at Rajkot on November 14, 2008

Yuvraj Singh took out all his frustrations on the English attack at a small Madhavrao Scindia Ground in Rajkot. The left hander belted 16 fours and a half dozen sixes in his ninth ODI hundred which was instrumental in India rocketing to a massive total of 387. It was the second fastest century ever from an Indian and the Englishmen just surrendered to the onslaught from the Prince. England as a result of that crashed to a morale-shattering loss of 158 runs in this first of the 7 ODIs. It was not one man’s brilliance that had done in England; it was infact an all-round dominance from most of the Indian players that set up this dominating victory. Overall, it was a spectacular day for the paying public in the stadium and also millions of viewers as 22 sixes were smacked by both sides!

Toss : Kevin Pietersen had won what was looked upon as a crucial toss as both teams were looking to bowl first on a wicket that would have some juice considering the 9 o’clock start. On paper, India looked like a powerful side in both batting and bowling while the English four-men pace attack was expected to pose problems with the new ball. They had the depth in their batting, but the side has been known to be consistently inconsistent in One Day Cricket over the years.

Indian batsmen create havoc to bat England out of contest

The early half an hour was supposed to be crucial against the new ball. A bit of conservative approach was to be expected from the openers but the pair of Gambhir and Sehwag had other ideas. Gambhir, in particular looked at total ease and batted as if he hasn’t missed any game recently, although he was out of cricket for a week or so. It was the left hander who imposed himself on the English bowlers while Sehwag was happy to take the back seat but yet scoring at a brisk pace. England’s new ball pair of Anderson and Broad didn’t find any movement and often strayed on the pads to give away free runs. Kevin Pietersen had to bring on his two experienced seamers – Harmison and Flintoff, who could bring in some normalcy in play with their extra bounce and movement. But it was just matter of time before Gambhir and Sehwag got the better of them to continue their assault.

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