India missing Sehwag, Yuvraj

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

India’s 54-run defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan at the Super Sport Park in Centurion on September 26 brought to the fore the big hole in their team caused by the injuries to Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

Sehwag and Yuvraj are not only the master blasters who blow away the opposition in the blink of an eye but they bring in the balance that enriches the side to the extent of being unbeatable.

Both Sehwag and Yuvraj are two wonderfully gifted all-rounder cricketers whose mere presence in the park makes a world of difference. Without them India are not the team that could be expected to do wonders or even live to their big reputation now.

Under the circumstances it seems highly unlikely that India would be able to lift their game and make it to the semifinals of the Champions Trophy. Their fate, in the present scenario, might not be much different to the one in the ICC Twenty20 in England earlier this year.

India, on paper, are still a better side than Australia and the West Indies, whom they have to combat in the remaining two league matches. It remains to be seen how Mahendra Singh Dhoni meets the challenge.

Life is already getting tough for Dhoni. Often found as cool as a cucumber he was certainly in a spot of bother not only in the field but also off it. He must have realized, although he might not admit it, that a game against Pakistan takes its toll and there are moments when you run short of ideas.

It was not Dhoni’s cup of tea to have remarked: "At times I felt I was three bowlers short. There were times I didn't know whom to go to or what fields to set. Wherever I put a fielder, the ball went elsewhere." It was not his usual answer to a simple query if he missed a fifth bowler.

Dhoni must be wondering how things went horribly wrong when he had the match in control by picking up three wickets inside the first 15 overs. How can he be blamed for pressing the part-timers into service at a stage when Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf were not prepared to take on the bowlers?

It was the failure of the premier spinner, Harbhajan Singh, to have severely hurt the plans. The vastly experienced off-spinner didn’t oblige his skipper with a wicket or two and in fact compounded problems by spraying the ball in various directions.

Shoaib and Yousuf played risk-free cricket with complete peace of mind. They knew that they were actually stealing the game by piling up the runs. Their double century fourth wicket stand ensured a mammoth total for Pakistan.

When India batted, chasing 303 in 50 overs, they kept the contest alive by maintaining healthy run-rate from the outset. Strangely though, some suicidal instincts saw them lose wickets against the run of play. They were bowled out inside 45 overs. In fact 31 deliveries were still to be bowled when their last wicket fell.

Although 54 runs separated the two sides in the end, the contest was much closer and India were guilty of giving it away after being in the driving seat which was of course not an unusual sight in their games against Pakistan in particular.

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South Africa get a much needed lifeline

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Much to the relief of the organizers and the thousands of their die-hard supporters, the South African team has got a lifeline in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2009 by overpowering New Zealand by five wickets in their clash at the Super Sport Park in Centurion on September 24.

There were moments during the game when one felt that South Africa would be falling apart once more as they had done in the previous ICC tournaments at home. One was getting reminded of the match between the same two opponents in the 2003 World Cup when a combination of factors had helped New Zealand stun the hosts.

New Zealand once more needed to bring about an upset to prevail over South Africa because there was hardly any comparison between the two teams. The South Africans stood head and shoulders above the Black Caps in every department of the game but they had to prove it in the park to stay in the reckoning after the humiliating loss at the hands of Sri Lanka the other night.

As somebody quite rightly pointed out, both South Africa as well as New Zealand have had the tendency of being engaged in shocking results. South Africa have usually been at the receiving end while New Zealand have generally been the beneficiaries in the tales of unexpected.

No matter how superior the South Africans were on paper, they must have been under immense pressure when they took the field in Centurion. They had to prevent the New Zealanders from posting a kind of total that would have kept the contest open.

The brilliant bowling by Wayne Parnell and Roelof van der Merwe allowed the hosts in accomplishing their task of limiting the Black Caps who were threatening to put runs on the board. Dale Steyn also chipped in with useful wickets much to the delight of skipper Graeme Smith who was obviously not in a mood to give anything away in a do-or-die game for his team.

New Zealand lacked quality batsmen who could go the distance in a 50-over game. Their inexperienced batters may be getting away with it in the Twenty20 games but it was a different ball game lasting full 50 overs, an area where they were found wanting once more.

There were times when New Zealand looked in a position to amass a total in the region of 250 after Ross Taylor had done the hard work. But not unexpectedly their last seven wickets tumbled for 51 runs and they were bowled out for 214. Parnell was their wrecker-in-chief with a five-wicket haul.

The target of 215 was unlikely to test the South Africans even though New Zealand had some quality as well as variety in their bowling. It could have been an interesting battle, had the target been over 250.

Daniel Vettori, as he always does, refused to give up and the fall of wickets at regular intervals allowed him to keep his boys motivated. Jacques Kallis batted imperiously before edging Shane Bond while Hashim Amla played the anchor role admirably.

The innings of the day, however, was played by AB de Villiers whose glorious unbeaten half century helped the hosts in reaching the target quite comfortably in the end.

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‘Makeshift’ West Indies show more fighting grit than predecessors

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

In the final count it didn’t really matter which West Indian team was taking on Pakistan in the first Group B match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on September 23.

I don’t think the outcome would have been much different even if Chris Gayle and company were there in place of the ‘depleted’ West Indian side that took the field. We have seen on numerous occasions in the recent past when the West Indies had squandered the opportunity of beating Pakistan after being in the driving seat for the better part of the match.

The individual brilliance of Gayles, Sarwans, Chanderpauls and Bravos could turn the tide against any other opposition with Pakistan being the sole exception. In fact even the great West Indian sides of the 1970s as well as the 1980s had encountered untold problems while coming to terms with Pakistan.

The inexperienced West Indian side showed more fighting grit than their predecessors and they might have even won the game on some other day with the same kind of performance, had the rub of the green gone their way.

The West Indians did a wonderful job by posting a total of 133 after the top-order had self-destructed while facing some accurate and hostile bowling on a track where the ball was bouncing much more than on any ground in the Caribbean these days.

The resilience and self-belief of the lower-order was exemplary. The manner in which the likes of Nikita Miller, Darren Sammy and Tino Best applied themselves should have been an object lesson to not only their colleagues in the dressing room but also to their more illustrious contemporaries watching the action from the comfort of their homes in the various islands of the Caribbean.

Pakistan were always expected to struggle even while chasing the target of 134 in 50 because their batsmen are more comfortable compiling runs on easy-paced tracks offering little or no assistance to the fast bowlers.

It was going to be a different ball game at the Wanderers and Gavin Tonge’s superb spell with the new ball showed once more how vulnerable was Pakistan’s batting in difficult conditions. It was anybody’s game when Pakistan’s top half was back in the hut with 76 runs on the board and as many as 58 still needed.

Pakistan are also known for producing new heroes in every other game. Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi, least expected to come off in the pressure-cooker situation, did the job by adding 58 for the sixth wicket. In the context of the game it looked quite extraordinary but they somehow put the runs on the board and there was no close finish as was being anticipated.

One thing that looked the most perplexing was the decision of the West Indian captain, Floyd Reifer, to bat after winning the toss. Not sure what exactly was in his mind or that of his team management but he allowed Pakistan a lifeline by not exposing their batsmen to the tougher conditions earlier in the day.

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Hosting jinx haunts South Africa yet again

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

History repeated itself at the Super Sport Park in Centurion on September 22 as the hosts South Africa crashed to defeat in the opening match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2009. They were surprised by the Sri Lankans, who never looked back after the whirlwind century from Tillekeratne Dilshan.

The top ranked ODI side of the world, South Africa, entered the competition as the firm favourites. Now they face the prospects of an early elimination on their own soil yet again in not too dissimilar fashion as the ICC World Cup 2003 and the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in 2007.

South Africa have had this knack of choking at certain levels. They have often run out of steam in the semifinals of various ICC tournaments but more alarmingly they have fared even worse in their own backyard.

Judging by their current form and the balance of their side I was quite confident that they would leisurely walk through to the semifinals with neither of their opponents in league matches, Sri Lanka, England or New Zealand, possessing the strength to take them to task. I had anticipated them getting knocked out in the semifinals at the hands of Australia or India.

But the events of the opening day have created doubts even if they would reach the knockout stage of the competition. The home advantage has turned out to be the big disadvantage to them and they have to do something extraordinary to come back in the reckoning.

Since they are playing in their own country where they have a pathetic record in the ICC tournaments one can’t really back them regrouping all that quickly. All they need is a couple of bad hours in the park and they would be out of the event much to the disappointment of their fans.

Graeme Smith would do his country a great service if he could convince his boys to take the games against England and New Zealand as just another One-day International, forgetting they were playing in the Champions Trophy.

Smith must be wondering how he lost the plot against Sri Lanka, who were bulldozed by Pakistan in the warm-up tie leading to the big event. His decision to bowl first after winning the toss was a bold one but it didn’t pay off. They needed to take more than a wicket when the ball was still hard and new.

Dilshan and skipper Kumar Sangakkara laid a platform from where they never going to lose. The match could have gone only one way once the Sri Lankans had amassed 319 runs in 50 overs. Dilshan’s 92-ball 106 was indeed a terrific effort against the high quality bowlers.

Smith and Jacques Kallis delighted the home fans with their stroke-play but as expected the arrival of the spinners shattered their stumps as well as hopes. The mystery spinner, Ajantha Mendis, foxed the well-set Smith first ball before scalping Kallis and J P Duminy on successive balls.

Sri Lanka had the match in complete control when the rains came and they were the deserved winners even though it was DL method in the end that was used to settle the issue.

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Pakistan’s wake-up call for favourites

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Just the other day I had pointed out that Pakistan can never ever be written off irrespective of their weakness or the strength of their rivals on paper. They have been the most unpredictable side all along in every team sport, generally having shown disrespect to conventional thinking.

Pakistan’s performance in the warm-up games leading to the ICC World Twenty20 in England earlier this year never really suggested that they would go on to collect the trophy a fortnight later.

Now Pakistan have got off to a flying start in South Africa, having trounced Sri Lanka in the warm-up tie at the Willowmoore Park in Benoni on September 18. They whacked their opponents by a staggering margin of 108 runs in the day-nighter.

Not many people would have expected Pakistan going on the rampage against a strong Sri Lankan outfit. But again it was a case of history repeating itself. Sri Lanka, more often than not, have come up with their worst performances while playing against Pakistan.

Makeshift opener Kamran Akmal came good hitting 82 off 78 balls with his brother Umar also had fun with the Sri Lankan bowlers while blasting 67 off 51 balls. Shahid Afridi came down the order but caused enough damage to take the Pakistan total past 300.

Sri Lanka certainly had the batting resources to challenge the big score but they were laid low by a man called Rana Naved-ul-Hasan took five wickets. All the big guns of their batting flopped like their champion bowlers.

Be at home or even at a neutral venue the Sri Lankans have crashed in similar fashion against Pakistan. Not only that but Sri Lanka have also helped Pakistan’s cause immensely on numerous occasions by blasting other teams heavily in the same group.

Well Pakistan and Sri Lanka have not been grouped together this time round. Pakistan’s massive win over Sri Lanka in the warm-up game, however, could serve warning bells to Australia and India, two of the three pre-tournament favourites, who have been drawn in their group.

In the event of Pakistan making it to the last four either Australia or India will have to miss out. The West Indies, with their depleted outfit, could not be expected to spring surprises a la Pakistan.

Talking about the West Indies they had to face the music at the hands of South Africa in their warm-up encounter. There was absolutely no element of surprise in watching the home batsmen dominate the inexperienced bowlers. South Africa posted a total of 388 for four with skipper Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and J P Duminy having enthralled the audience.

The only cause of concern for the hosts was an abdominal strain to Herschelle Gibbs when he took evasive action to avoid a straight drive from Smith. Gibbs had to retire hurt and he will be needed to have a scan to determine the extent of the injury.

I don’t think New Zealand’s defeat at the hands of the Warriors in Pretoria can be classified as a shocker. The Black Caps possess an inexperienced batting that’s unlikely to score heavily. They have a potent bowling attack but in one-day cricket you need to put runs on the board too.

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South Africa, India start as favourites

by Syed Khalid Mahmood

The ICC Champions Trophy 2009 is round the corner. There have been plenty of One-day Internationals (ODIs) leading to the second most prestigious event in the sport after the World Cup that’s held after every four years.

With so much action on the eve of the tournament it’s not at all a tall order to assess which teams are more likely to lay their hands on the trophy. If the recent form in ODIs is the sole criterion then Australia and India appear to be the firm favourites for the crown.

But if all the factors are taken into account then South Africa have to be regarded as the front runners. The top ranked ODI side in world cricket as of today, they will obviously gain huge advantage of playing at home.

The Champions Trophy 2009 is being played under a new format and only the top eight teams of the world are contesting it. They have been divided equally in two groups. Defending champions Australia are drawn with India, Pakistan and the West Indies in Group A while the hosts South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England constitute Group B.

The weakened West Indian team is unlikely to come good in the challenging environment of South Africa where the ball would seam and bounce. Unless their authorities work out some formula to reinforce their squad with the seasoned campaigners at the eleventh hour, the West Indies could be the punching bag with every rival fancying their chances of improving their run-rate.

Even if the West Indies were playing to their full strength they would have been least expected to qualify for the semifinals from the group of death. They would have struggled even against Pakistan.

Talking of Pakistan they can never be written off even if they are being represented by second or third strings. They would remain a threat to any fancied team. They are not ranked all that highly at the moment but they can screw anyone on their day. They have every chance of causing an upset or two and displace Australia or India from the semifinal line-up.

The contest is much more open in Group B where South Africa are the standout team but there’s very little to choose between the trio of Sri Lanka, England and New Zealand. None of these three outfits is expected to bag the trophy.

In the prevailing scenario the Champions Trophy 2009 is more likely to be a three-horse race between South Africa, Australia and India. One of these three teams should win the tournament if the miracles don’t happen.

Besides the rankings and ratings these are the three teams who have the firepower and depth to dominate others. South Africa and India, in my opinion, possess stronger ODI outfits compared to Australia, who have proved simply too much for the struggling England side. The Australians have been experimenting continuously after losing their legendary cricketers and it remains to be seen if they will be able to cope with the pressures.

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Sohail Tanvir, Ahmed Shahzad banned for bringing game to disrepute

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

What a pity that the quartet of Sohail Tanvir, Ahmed Shahzad, Javed Qadir and Nadeem Shaikh had to be banned indefinitely from playing in the cricket tournaments at the Karachi Gymkhana for having brought the game to disrepute.

The technical committee of the 24th PPL Trophy Karachi Gymkhana Ramazan Festival Twenty20 Cricket Tournament 2009, headed by Iqbal Umar, found them guilty of having violated the code of conduct while playing the quarter-final tie for A O Clinic Cricket Club against Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) on September 13.

“The umpires, Riazuddin and Junaid Ghafoor, had complained in writing to the technical committee that Sohail Tanvir, Ahmed Shahzad, Javed Qadir and Nadeem Shaikh were engaged in verbal abuse, suspected ball tampering and defying decisions. The technical committee, in view of the umpiring report, has banned all the four cricketers from future tournaments at Karachi Gymkhana,” a statement issued by the organizing committee read.

It’s very sad indeed that Sohail Tanvir and Ahmed Shahzad, who have played international cricket for the country in the recent past and they are still in contention for a place in the national squad, displayed so much immaturity while appearing in a local tournament of Karachi.

Sohail Tanvir and Ahmed Shahzad, who had come from Lahore, didn’t make any friends by behaving so rudely and unprofessionally in the cricket field. They showed disrespect to two international umpires, contending their decisions like schoolboys.

I am not if they were aware of the fact that the Karachi Gymkhana happens to be one of oldest institutions of the country and its members have been known for going by the book.

Sohail Tanvir and Ahmed Shahzad, in particular, were being blamed for the chaos with the others like Nadeem Shaikh and Javed Qadeer getting the cue from them. It was very unfortunate that the incidents of indiscipline took place in the presence of Dr Syed Mohammad Ali Shah, whose A O Clinic Cricket Club has played in all the 24 editions of the tournament so far.

Dr Shah, who is also a member of the Governing Body of the Pakistan Cricket Baird (PCB), besides being the President of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), should take a note of the ugly behaviour of players of his own team.

The technical committee of the Karachi Gymkhana obviously can impose a ban on the cricketers found guilty in their own tournaments. Now the ball is in the court of the PCB to conduct an enquiry and take appropriate action to prevent such incidents in future.

Dr Shah, who was present at the ground for the better part of the ill-tempered match, can set an example by having those cricketers punished who challenged the authority of the umpires and tried to influence them.

Both Sohail Tanvir and Ahmed Shahzad are young cricketers. They are expected to make a comeback in the national squad in not too distant future. But they need to be more stable mentally and they must learn to accept the decisions of the umpires.

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Dravid does make the difference

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Although it was Sachin Tendulkar who stole the limelight by scoring heaps of runs the contribution of Rahul Dravid in India annexing the recently concluded Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka was no less insignificant.

Already short of both the world-class openers, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, India desperately needed depth and resilience in their batting to dominate their rivals. The young guns had been found wanting when exposed to challenging conditions and the selectors had made the right move of going back to the basics.

While Tendulkar’s presence ensured unmatched class on top of the order, the comeback of Dravid provided the much needed strength and character to an otherwise enterprising batting line-up.

When you have the master blasters like Yuvraj Singh, Manhedra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Yousuf Pathan to follow there is greater need for a solid platform to let them fire to their heart’s content.

This is exactly what happened in Colombo recently. Dravid didn’t score many in the outing against New Zealand but he spent a lot of time at crease to blunt the Black Caps attack. Dhoni and Raina did the rest with their characteristic positive stroke-play. It could have been a different story to relate if India lost early wickets even though the target wasn’t all that big.

India had already cruised into the final, having become the top ranked ODI side in the world in the process, when they came out to take on hosts Sri Lanka in their league match. Set a daunting task, the Indians were in the game until Dravid was at the crease. With his departure the Indian hopes were dashed.

With the makeshift opener Dinesh Karthik having looked out of sorts in the league matches, Dhoni made the bold move of sending Dravid in as the opening partner with Tendulkar. It turned out to be a master stroke as both the seasoned campaigners provided a perfect start that eventually won them the game as well as the trophy.

Dravid is a team man to the core and he is one man who is always more than willing to meet the challenge. He could not have desired a better comeback gift than the Compaq Trophy that was gleefully collected by skipper Dhoni.
Talking of Dhoni let us give him the credit for having laid the red carpet for Dravid, who was returning to the ODI side after quite sometime.

“Dravid is the most stable and technically sound. He is a kind of batsman who would look to take his innings till the end. He will support the middle-order and help the flashy players play their game.” Dhoni was quoted as saying before going to toss in the opening game.

"Dravid is the ideal No. 3, especially in such conditions and during the evening when the ball swings and seams, so definitely he we will bat at that position," Dhoni complimented.

Dravid has made the captain proud once more. India would need him at his best in the upcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa where his ability to come good in conditions difficult for batting could again lay the platform for the stroke-makers to make hay in the death overs.

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