Green Lords Cricket Ground Pitch - Good for India! Indian V England 2nd Test Match lords.

England has decided that they will serve the greenest cricket pitch ever produced on earth to the touring Indian cricket team in 2nd Investec Test match to be played at Lords Cricket Ground in London from July 17, 2014. This is because they believe their own bowlers, like James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Liam Plunkett, and Moeen Ali are of club standard. The way James Anderson. England's medium fast bowler,  cried seeing the Trent Bridge pitch is also the reason for this sudden love for greenery. Also there is an ego in England camp that Indian batsmen can't play on green tops (a notion as far away from truth as polestar from earth).

green pitch being rolled at Lords Cricket Ground, london

But what is England Cricket team (and management) are forgetting is -

• England batsmen are struggling with form. Captain Alastair Cook is horribly out of form along with Ian Bell and others.
• On faster pitches England was chickened out in Australia in Ashes.
• India have a better pace attack, more disciplined than the overrated English bowlers, to exploit the green pitch conditions.
• Green pitch never helps reverse swing bowling and that means the potency of England bowling attack will be greatly marginalized by the conditions.
• England bowlers are tired due to long hall in the field courtsey strong batting performance by India in previous test match.

If one looks at the recent history of Indian cricket, the team has always done well on pitches which have offered some assistance to the bowlers, be it in the form of spin or in form of pace and bounce. If one cast the mind back to last  years Indian cricket team has tested victories in bowling friendly conditions at Durban (South Africa), Perth (Australia), Headingly (England) etc.

The reason for India's better performance in bowling friendly conditions, contrary to belied that they should struggle, is that it covers up the weakness of the team. What is the weakness of Indian cricket team? The weakness is bowling. It is young and inexperienced with Ishant Sharma being the leading bowler. With all the great batsmen in their lineup the Indian team struggles to get out the opposition batsmen on flat pitches. On green pitches, however, the batsmen are good enough to put up decent number of runs on the scoreboard and then bowlers can weave their magic around the technically weak and vulnerable batsmen of other team.

With first test match being drawn team Indian has a great start already. Usually they start an overseas test series with a loss. Now on a green looking lords test match pitch, India will look to do one better i.e. to win this match. History says they have won only one match out of 16 played at Lords (Mecca of Cricket) so far. But after the end of this test match the number of wins will be 2 out of 17, thanks to green pitch.

India V England, Live Streaming, Test Series 2014, Watch live here, Listen Cricket Commentary, Cricinfo cricket

Watch Live Streaming of India V England Test Match Cricket Series 2014

India and England will start off the grueling 5 test match cricket series sponsored by Investic with first match being played at Nottingham from Jun 9, 2014 - Jun 14, 2013. Live streaming can be accessed here. Streaming will include updated scores, scorecard, commentary, and statistics.

India V England Cricket Score

To see the cricket score you can visit this page any time. Cricket score of test match played between Indian and England will be made available to users free of cost. Who won the toss and team for the test match will also be shown here as and when the events happen. The test match will start at 15.30 IST (Indian Standard Time).

Gautam Gambhir potentially a better test cricket captain than MS Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni or MSD in short continues to remain the captain of Inidian Cricket team even though he has the shameless away record among all the Indian captains thus far. The 8-0 away series drubbing where India lost to mediocre England and bore Cricket Australia's team in past couple of years has had no affect on MS Dhoni's captaincy as he continues to remain the most tactless captain ever. Under him India is likely to loose all the away matches this year as well. This will not be because of lack of quality players under him but because of his inability to use what he has got.

Gautam Gambhir - A Perfect Captain

MS Dhoni continuation as captain of India despite head shaker losses raises a question of two about the availability of resources for captaincy of India. Does India lack players who can lead the national team? After thinking about it - answer is comprehensive 'NO'. Far from it - India has many potentially great captains waiting to get an opportunity to serve the nation. Gautam Gambhir is the front runner in the race. The way he has been able to lift the morale of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 7 after a horrible start to the league is a prime example of his leadership qualities. Some of the international great players like AB De Villers have openly said in press that Gautam Gambhir has a potential to become the great captain. Jaques Kallis, now retired from test cricket, also shares the same view. Only problem with Gautam Gambhir is his own form which is not enabling him to get into the first eleven and hence the captaincy looks far away thing to be had.

Form is not the only thing that denies players to get their true position in Indian cricket, there is politics too. Everyone knows the backing MS Dhoni get from selectors, although Mohinder Amarnath was exception and he had to paid the price for raising voice against MS Dhoni, and has done quite well in limited over cricket. This is another problem in Indian Cricket. If you do some thing well in ODI and T 20 cricket you are considered good for test cricket as well. This is especially true if your godfathers are in cricket commentary who are also the former greats. You might be wondering what commentators has to do with who gets the captaincy or not? It matters a lot in Indian cricket. If a 'kar' and 'tri' says good things about you - no one can replace you from captaincy position. On the other hand if 'kar' and 'tri' don't like you - you won't be in a team no matter however good your performance has been. Then there is 'ogle' as well - master of creating the environment in favor and in against (mostly against) the player. Ask Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, and Ishant Sharma, if you don't know what I am saying, how the comments from Mr. Ogle has made their cricketing career a hell at various times.

They say that all salute the shining sun. MS Dhoni is a shining sun even though he is not the best captain for India at the test cricket level. Bad luck is that he has age and so many other factors backing him. This means that the most deserving players who can captain India, especially Gautam Gambhir, will continue to be kept denied the opportunity captain the Indian Cricket team. India is most likely to suffer another whitewash by the hands of England in the upcoming test series this summer. MS Dhoni might win the IPL 7 for CSK Chennai Super Kings but he will struggle to win a test match series for India, for sure.

India will win ICC T 20 World Cup 2014

I know that this T20 cricket is a mercurial form of cricket. And I am not an astrologer too. Yet I have been following this game ever since I was born. So here is my prediction - India will win ICC T20 2014 and will not loose any match.

Much criticized Yuvraj Singh will hit the winning six
for India.

I am pretty sure that other teams are already dispirited watching India play in this ruthless and commanding manner. While others living in a dreamworld of their own dreaming about how good their batsmen and bowlers are, it is reality for India. Indian bowlers are best in the tournament, never mind what the critics have to say. India have comprehensively beaten the much talked about Pakistan and West Indies, and that too by out-bowling them.

Some of the comments that people born to be critical of India's performance are really funny:

Indian Slog Over's  Bowling is Weak - Really? On what basis? I saw even the much higher rated Australian, South African, and Pakistan bowlers serving waist high full tosses. And it is not that Indian bowlers are not trying it. Actually the batsmen have become smarter and they convert full yorkers into full tosses and smack them for sixes. Batsmen are not servants or slaves of bowlers that they will remain stagnant at one place when the bowlers delivers the ball. It's high time the critics stop making such useless statements. It will help reduce the number of people making joke of them.

Indian Batsmen Are in Hurry - Really? So you want them to emulate that strategy suggested by Sunil Gavaskar. The strategy is to give first couple of hours to the bowlers. Listen critics, if you do that then all 20 overs would have been bowled in that time and there would be nothing left other than to scratch the pole and looking at the poster of Gavaskar. In T 20 cricket you must always look for runs, and doesn't matter if it looks cultured or not.

Indian Batsmen don't drag the bats - Not true at all. This Indian team has better athletes than any Indian team of past. Those who are making such statements must look at the highlights of their playing days. That will make it clear to them how ordinary they were when it comes to running between the wickets.

Oh! It seems I am getting bit out of context as far as topic is concerned. Actually the critics is so critical of Indian cricket that as a true fan of Indian cricket I always like to take them (critics) on and smash them out of park, just as Yuvraj Singh smashes the cricket ball out of stadium.

Now coming to Yuvraj Singh, the strongest man in India (when it comes to character), leave him alone critics. He is a proven match winner and doesn't need any of your advise. Please learn to respect the men who bring glory to the country otherwise there is someone up there in heaven who will seal your fate.

Cricinfo's cricketer of the generation award should have been gone to?

'Cricinfo' or 'EspnCricInfo', a well known sports news website among cricket lovers recently announced various awards including the 'Cricketer of the Generation' award which went to Sachin Tendulkar. But there were other worthy candidates in the race to win the award, including Australia's leg spinner Shane Warne, and South Africa's allrounder Jaques Kallis, both of whom could have won it easily.

Best batsmen of the generation

While it is foolish to argue about  who should have been the real winner, especially when the jury includes former greats of the game like Barry Richards, Rahul Dravid, and Martin Crowe, no one minds if someone puts up his point as to why the award should have gone to a 'looser' than a 'winner'.

Sachin Tendulkar was arguably the most correct batsmen the world has ever seen. The back lift of the bat, straight blade, decisive footwork, elegance and grace and what not, all were there to see in tendulkar's batting. When it comes to dynamics of the batting, the technical aspect, there is no one even close to matching tendulkar. But is this enough to crown him with cricketer of the generation awards? Mind you he scored more runs in international cricket than any other batsmen with that technique of his. So it's not about only looking stylish, the guy produced the runs as well.  He produced runs all over the world in all conditions, from humid chennai in India, to cool london in britain, bouncy Perth, and seaming Durban.

 Jaques Kallis, who in my opinion is the best allrounder a world of cricket has ever seen, his tally of runs and wickets is there for all to see. Kallis would come to batting crease with his head down, approach to bowling crease with his head up, and do what he does the best i.e to score runs and bowl meaningful wicket-taking overs to help South Africa boss the game. There have been many a occasion where this calm and quite looking man has turned the cricket matches around. These were exactly the reasons as to why he was called 'King Kallis'. But then why he ended up not winning the title? May be his performance against the top team of the era Australia in Australia was not up to the mark. May be jury thought he had more quality cricketers accompanying him in the team as compared to tendulkar who had 'none' for most of his career as such the task of kallis was made much simpler than the tendulkar. But I still say that Jaques kallis should consider himself very unlucky not to have become the generation's cricketer.

Best allrounder of the generation. King Kallis,
a great cricketer

Shane Warne, for who I think the slowmo (slow motion) cameras were invented. It was amazing to see the visuals on the television when Shane Warne used to rip a ball and and slow mo camera would show the revolutions on the ball in the air on its flight path. Then suddenly the ball would drop and it will turn one way or the other and it was a delight to see many a great batsmen beaten by the champion bowler. There was a feeling of tension in the air among the opposition  whenever australian captain used to call Shane Warne for a spell. He was magician. His bowling action was clean, something to be jealous of, and his mastery on leg spin bowling was unparallel. He has a shrewd brain as well and it was fascinating to see how he would lure the batsmen into false sense of confidence before completely fooling him. He was always on the hunt. Many former Australian captains think that he would have been the greatest cricket captain ever if he was given the responsibility to captain Australia. So why he failed to win it? May be the controversies he got involved in, or his record in India where Sachin Tendulkar himself took him to cleaners, or also as was the case with Jaques Kallis he too was surrounded by many a great players, especially those fast bowlers.

best leg spinner of the generation

In the end I am as happy as I am sad that Sachin Tendulkar won the title while Jaques Kallis and Shane Warne missed out to become the CricInfo 'Cricketer of the Generation'.

Sri Lanka wins Asia Cup but India is quietly happy

In cricket every victory is like a fuel that keeps the motor of team going by generating extra confidence to clear the coming miles. The Asia Cup tournament is just won by Sri Lanka, as I get the news from cricinfo live, who defeated Pakistan by margin of 5 wickets.

Shahid Afridi, down and out. Over dependence on experienced players
means Sri Lanka and Pakistan has no chance of winning
World Cup 2015.

By going through the comments on article "Thirimanne ton takes SL to title" it is clear tat most Sri Lankan cricket team fans are happy and over the moon over the performance of their cricket team. The Pakistan cricket fans on the same forum seem to be happy for Sri Lankans as they are congratulating them more than what is required, at least it seems so. But what is amusing, or worrying if you are a true supporter of your cricket team, is the claims that some of the people are making that their team is best in the world exclusively on the basis of performance in Asia Cup. May I tell you that - the teams who did qualify for Asia Cup 2014 finals are far from the best.

When all eyes are on world cup 2015 giving too much importance on a regional tournament like Asia Cup is nothing more than throwing dust into one's own eye. At the present all teams in the world have their eyes fixed on ICC world cup 2015. Intelligent team managements, like India, South Africa, England, Australia, and New Zealand are fielding the players keeping in view the conditions that will greet the teams once the tournament starts down-under. This is where good teams make moves and don't mind getting out of useless tournaments like Asia Cup.

If one look back at India's squad that participated in Asia Cup one can clearly see that there was dearth of experience in the team with players like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and MS Dhoni missing, who otherwise are regular members of the team. India quite rightly used the tournament to find out which of the younger players have enough skills and quality in them which will serve them and who would fare well once the world cup cricket matches start. Sri Lanka and Paksitan, the two finalists, on the other hand kept playing the same old players. While it was Misbah Ul Huq, Shahid Afridi, and Saeed Ajmal who helped pakistan perform well throughout the tournament, Sri Lanka was again dependent on experienced duo of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, along with bowler Lasith Malinga.

While Sri Lankans, and to some extent pakistani, cricket fans might enjoy the good performance in this tournament, there might be bad news coming their way in 1 year time. It is a huge possibility that both Pakistan and Sri Lanka would crash out of the world cup in first round itself. India is happy though as they have used this opportunity and found out which are the new players who are ready to accompany the established players, who have the capacity to perform under pressure, score runs and pick wickets, and hopefully win India the 2015 cricket world cup.

At the moment cricket fans from Sri Lanka and Pakistan are not hesitating to take a dig on Indians but times will surely change and they will surely eat their own words.

The players from Sri Lanka and Pakistan who will fail in next world cup are: Kusal Parera (a flat track slogger), Lahiru Thirimanne (doesn't know how to hold the cricket bat), Mahela Jaywardene (can't play on fast and bouncy pitches), Kumar Sangakkara (too much ego, should fail!), Shahid Afridi ( self destructive), Umar Gul (worst fast bowler in world), Umar Akmal (too much teeth but no runs).

It will be a huge fun when India will lift the world cup trophy in Australia. The blood pressure of cricket fans in Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be out of control and they might again spam the cricinfo live cricket website with hated comments towards the Indian cricket fans. But this is what Indians enjoy the most.

Graeme Smith Retirement Special

The current South Africa Cricket Team captain Graeme Smith has decided to retire after the last test match between South Africa and Australia. Although Graeme's decision to retire from all forms of international cricket came as a surprise to cricketing fraternity, we must respect him for deciding to call time and wish him good luck for the future.

Graeme Smith, the forthright, direct, and upfront
cricketer

What can one say about this special men. He made a phenomenal career on the back of grit, determination and courage and hard work. He was a brash lad who grew up right from young leader to match winner and quickly became the heartbeat of South African cricket team.

Smith made his first-class debut for South Africa at the age of 21, and ends his illustrious career with 17 228 International runs and as the most capped test captain in the history of the game. He has always been someone who has left everything out there on the field for his team and for his country.

Whether he was a great captain or not is a matter of debate but he certainly lead the very talented bunch of players which itself is some task. As a batsmen his record is pretty good.  Graeme Smith has ended his test career with 9257 runs in 116 matches scoring those runs at a healthy average of 48.72. In ODI format too the batting record of Graeme Smith is envious to say the least. 6989 runs at an average of  37.98 from 194 matches is a decent stat for any modern day opening batsmen especially when you consider the South African conditions. The ball moves in the air and bounces too. Although there is nothing for spinners in rainbow nation but Smith showed batting prowess during his career by scoring plenty of runs in subcontinental conditions in India, Pakistan, and Sri lanka.

I would like us to remember Graeme for his nerves of steel and his match-winning performances that were synonymous with some of the most remarkable fourth innings victory chases of all time.
As a personality Graeme would be remembered as forthright man. His batting style was similarly direct and upfront. Anything down to leg side or slightly drifting towards the pads was sure to disappear screaming thorough the leg side through 'midwicket' fielding position in game of cricket.

Fact that Graeme Smith held the captaincy reins after the Hansie Cronje saga and under the difficult circumstances and again the fact that since then he was able to built the side and make it an extremely competitive side tells something about the character of Graeme Smith. After all if South Africa is currently the no.1 side in ICC teams ranking for test cricket, much credit goes to 'biff' (nickname of Graeme Smith).

Cricinfo puts its better "His achievements as a batsman are significant, but the most important monument to his career is the fact that under Smith, the confidence of South Africans, both within and outside of the national team and its structures, has been rebuilt."

He was favorite bunny of Zaheer Khan, fast bowler of India, but he never tried to avoid his wrecker-in-chief and in fact was able to dominate the bowler on quite a few occasions.

At time Graeme Smith could look ugly as he was never a stylish batsmen. But he was very courageous. Who can forget him battling against Mitchell Johnson with a broken thumb.

South Africa now face the same dilemma Australia did a few years ago - how to rebuild a team when key players decide to hang up the boots. First Kallis, now Smith and who's next? It does tend to happen in clusters. Ab de Villiers is just 30 and being a batsman has a few good years left so that's one player the Proteas can still build their team around, but Dale Steyn is 6 months older and being a quick, injuries and general wear and tear will probably catch up with him earlier. 32 - 33 seems to be about the use by date for most genuinely quick bowlers, but Steyn is clever as well so he might be able to go on a bit further. There is no doubt that is the key retirement that SA should be anticipating and planning for. Philander is never going to blast a team out and Morkel is, well Morkel ! You get the good, the bad and the ugly - sometimes in the one spell! Overall it doesn't look too bad for SA.

Following the recent retirement of Jacques Kallis from test cricket, there is no doubt that South Africa are now ready to move into a new era and it is the job of CSA (Cricket South Africa) to build on the solid foundations that these great players have left behind.

Graeme Smith was a gentlemen and game of cricket would be poorer without him.

Pakistan bowling not as good as cricket fans think, India v Pakistan

I write this column just before the start of crucial Asia Cup encounter between Pakistan and India. Both teams have lost a close game to Sri Lanka and this is like a virtual semifinals. Both team are in desperate need to win this game else the chances of reaching the final of Asia Cup'14 will be as good as over. It's sink or swim situation.

India v Pakistan live score

As always there is a great banter is going on between the cricket fans of both India and Pakistan. Traditionally India have been a strong batting side while pakistan has had few impressive bowlers. Due to their prowess in bowling, the pakistani cricket fans always tease Indian cricket fans and call India's bowling 'a club level bowling' while Indians respond by telling them about 'street level batting lineup'  of pakistan.

While it is true that Indian team selected for Asia Cup is missing many experienced and seasonal campaigners from their squad, likes of MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Yuvraj Singh, and Pakistan's bowling is tipped to bowl out India well before 50 overs of cricket by cricket experts, the reality is far from it.

Pakistan bowling is always talked as if there is no bowling line up equal to it. There are spinners and fast bowlers with unusual and suspect bowling  actions and with it they are able to do things which team like India having bowlers with clean actions can't do.  But despite unfair advantage that Pakistan bowlers have over the years over other bowling units, except Sri Lanka who also have bowlers with suspect bowling actions, they have made no impact on India's batsmen.

In all ICC world cups and other major tournaments conducted by International Cricket Council it is India who has always come out trumps. Indian batsmen not only dominated their Pakistan counterparts but their bowlers have also managed to out-bowl the pakistan's fast bowlers.

In fact there is an argument that India's Varun Aaron and Shami Ahmed are quicker than any of the fast bowlers of Pakistan team.

But fans are fans. With support of tiny Sri Lankan fans the Pakistan fans find no disgrace is passing irking comments towards Indian cricket fans. The disgusting behavior often lead to setting teeth on edge of India's supporters. They will go to the extent that the manipulate facts and present fake cricket records to prove that their team is better than Indian cricket team. If you don't believe me go and see the comment section of espn cricinfo.

Indian bowling is often termed as 'toothless tiger', 'club level', 'street level', by Pakistan Cricket fans. Sri Lanka Cricket fans join them and together they will generate barrage of anti-india comments on cricket forums all over the world.

Fact of the matter is that India has been dominating both Pakistan and Sri Lanka over the last one decade or so, and they (India) is among the top 3 teams in both formats of cricket. India are currently ranked number 2 in ICC cricket rankings of ODI teams while Paksitan is at 6th position which clearly indicates the huge gap between them and also proves that despite so called poor bowling India have been a better team with a proven track record.

Meanwhile I quite enjoy the way the cricket fans go at each other and strain every nerve to get the attention of the cricketing world. There is no love lost between Pakistan cricket fans and Indian cricket fans despite desperate attempts from both sides to bring sanity among the relations of two nations.

Sri Lanka Cricket Fans

Sri Lanka Cricket team won the World Cup of 1996, rather gifted to them, curtsey match referee Clive Lloyd calling their semifinal game against India 'complete' before the schedule close after 50 overs of cricket.

Apart from that they have won nothing and in fact have been quite dismal, both with performance and behavior on field, in years after the win in ICC world cup.

Sri Lanka cricket fans dancing and have rockets
ready to throw on opponent players

Sri Lankan fans are quite ill mannered. They can't digest the success of other cricket teams like India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand which are the only consistently performing teams in ICC cricket tournaments.

The abuse coming from Sri lankan Cricket community can be seen of websites like 'cricinfo.com' where they continuously use words which are otherwise restrictive on other websites. They are full of abuse and hatred against Indian cricket team.

There is a reason for such behavior of Sri Lankan cricket fans. Over the past few years the Indian cricket team has continuously defeated Sri Lanka both at home and away. More importantly India completely outplayed Sri Lanka in 2011 world cup finals to win it for the second time in the history of cricket. Sri Lankan fans couldn't digest it and the got such a jolt in their bodies that they keep making senseless comments against India. In particular they blame that India was involved in 'match fixing' and thereby proving again and again that they are sore looser's.

But if you have seen how a cloth-less man reacts when on occasions he gets a piece of cloth to cover his body you can understand what happens when once in a blue moon Sri Lanka manages to win a cricket match against India. The highlight again are abusive comments on cricinfo when it happens.

Fact is SriLanka cricket team cannot defeat India even in their wildest of dreams. Every good team has a bad day, and it happens with India as well. So when India under-performs against Sri Lanka in cricket on some unlucky day the wilder then wildest dream of Sri Lankan cricket fans come true. And they loose their senses, it seems. Although one might ask when were they really sensible?

Sri Lanka Cricket got test status in 1981 and that is where ICC (International Cricket Council) made a huge mistake. Sri Lanka failed to perform at highest level of cricket and many times their players brought gentlemen's game i.e cricket to disrepute Cricket has suffered because of Sri Lanka.

Although Shane Warne is easily the greatest spin bowler the game of cricket has even seen but stats says that it is Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan who took 800 test wicket compared to 708 of Australia's Shane Warne. But we all know which was spinner among the two and which was not.

After than there have many funny Sri Lankan bowlers with unusual bowling actions like 'Lasith Malinga', 'Ajantha Mendis', and worst of them the current captain of Sri Lanka cricket team 'Angelo Mathews'.

Kumar Sangakkara is well known for not walking even if he has given a straight catch to the fielder and Mahela Jayawardene is a world renowned flat track bully batsmen the cricket has known in its history.

Just like their are voices raising for ban on Sri Lanka cricket in ICC, one hopes there is some sort of punishment or controlling measures being adopted to control the Sri Lankan Cricket fans for abusing other, throwing stones, and breaking stadium chairs. They also once got attacked in pakistan because of their bad behavior.

Cricinfo cricket score with commentary

If you want to follow all the news about cricket, get cricket statistics and remain updated with live cricket scores then see cricket score (i.e cricinfo like cricket blog) is the best resource available.

The best thing about 'cricinfo' is  that it is completely focused on game of cricket. Not only one gets to know about international cricket matches which are being played currently but also schedule of future cricket matches is available.

There has been huge fan following of "Cricinfo", also known as "EspnCricInfo", and it can be easily gauged by the number of people making comments on various cricket articles that are published.

The best thing about 'cricinfo' is that every cricket fan can go through player's statistics and records. There is an online tool that allows to mine into the career statistics of cricketers. Statsguru is Cricinfo's searchable cricket statistics database.

As one can see from picture above that one can search for cricket stats of players in all formats of cricket i.e Tests, ODIs, T20Is, All for Batting, Bowling, Fielding, All-round, Partnership, Team performances across 30 random parameters. It is probably the most useful tool to dig into cricket statistics of men and women cricket.

Apart from stats there is a record section where ESPN Cricinfo provides records by team for one day internationals and test matches for all players. What I like is the section where one can go through records by tournament or trophy. For example, one can easily fins all the 'Ashes', 'Border-Gavaskar trophy', 'Champions Trophy', 'World Cup' cricket records.

Records by calendar year, records by ground are also available to make it easy for cricket fans to enhance their cricket knowledge. The cricket information thus provided on Cricinfo is up-to-date and it can be relied upon.

It is truly a marvelous cricketing website. I really enjoy the 'features' section where cricketers of past like Ian Chappell, Rahul Dravid, Martin Crowe, Mark Nicholas speak their mind on cricket. You will also find cricket columns by renowned cricket journalists and reporters like Sharda Ugra, David Hopps, Brydone Coverdale, ED Smith, Rob Steen, Christian Ryan, Ed Cowan, Daniel Brettig, and others. There is also a section called guest column where cricket fans can submit their own articles on cricket and thereby have a chance to express their own views.

To keep visitors engaged cricinfo.com has a trivia section where cricket fans have a chance to test their cricketing wisdom. For example a trivia might throw up a question:

 "Since 1990, how many times have teams been bowled out for less than 100 runs in an innings in Tests?"

OR

"Who has won the most man of the match awards in defeats in ODI's?"

There is a cricket fantasy cricket show and one can part into cricket fantasy game and score points to win some great gifts.

If you want to download cricket videos and wallpapers of cricketers than those are also available on the cricinfo website.

Varun Aaron fast, fearsome bowler of Indian Cricket deserve some respect

Varun Aaron has played only 19 first class game, so if he misses his line and length a bit, it is very understandable. But he has what India is looking for years - PACE!

Varun Aaron clocked 155 kph, faster ever ball from Indian fast bowler
in cricket

Yesterday in match between India and Bangladesh in Asia Cup at Fatullah, Varun Aaron averaged 145 kph on speed gun. He even touched 150 kph at times, even in returning spells, and showed us that he has in him, along with Umesh Yadav, to become India's first tare away new ball opening pair.

But fear in India is always been how bowlers are treated. Kapil Dev, former Indian captain and opening fast medium bowler, once said that batsmen are treated as 'owners' and bowlers as 'labors' in India. They aren't given the respect they deserve. After all they are also servants of Indian cricket just like batsmen. But batsmen having created many records by batting on flat and docile wickets in India, even scoring 12 centuries against West Indies in past on such wickets, have a big 'EGO', and they are in no mood to give that respect to the bowlers.

One saw yesterday when ball slipped out of Varun Aaron's hand, possibly due to sweaty conditions at humid fatullah in bangladesh, and it ended up as a 'beamer'. In a game of cricket, a beamer is a ball delivered by a bowler that does not bounce before reaching the batsmen and end up above his waist. Without giving any thought to conditions that prevailed, and without wasting any time, Sunil Gavaskar was all over young Varon Aaron. "Don't tell me that ball slips out of hand at this level. He should not only be suspended, but also banned for quite a few matches," Gavaskar said.

May I tell you that in last 50 matches 35 beamer's have been bowled, and those were not delivered by Indian bowlers. But this is the sort of attitude we carry towards bowlers in India and then expect them to come up with good. I am sorry nothing good is going to happen unless former Indian cricketers drop their ego and behave as a servant of Indian cricket. Varon Aaron is not playing here to get a certificate on how to behave on cricket field. And Aaron has never taken is partner off the field of play when umpire has given him LBW, that's what Sunil Gavaskar did in Australia, something Ricky Ponting keeps reminding us.

What has also been disappointing is this constant calls from former great indian batsmen to reduce pace/speed of India's bowlers. Other teams, like Australia and South Africa, encourage their bowlers to ball as quick as possible and never compromise on speed. They feel that line and length will come with experience but if a bowler deliberately reduces his pace it doesn't come back. But there is 'no one' who understands fast bowling, and its dynamics, in India and they keep making 'silly' comments. You wouldn't have heard anything more than 'pitch the ball up, swing it' from Indian commentators. It is as if pitching the ball up and swinging it will happen easily and batsmen will remain static and not take that pitch up ball on full, i.e convert it into a fall toss, and hammer it away. It's painful to see how cricketers of 80's with their  old theories have been able to impose on new generation cricketers, especially bowlers.

Both Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron are assets of Indian cricket. They need to be groomed well. Insulting them for everything will not help. What will not help them is blaming them for intentional beamers, which they never intended. Start giving some respect to Indian bowlers and they will deliver. Just like Russel Arnold of Sri Lanka was giving it more than Harsha Bhogle of India at commentary yesterday.

IPL T-20 cricket require skill as well

They blatantly say: "real test of a batsmen is in test cricket", as if playing t-20 cricket is a child's play. I am talking about the test cricketers of past who have never experienced what it is like to play a 20-20 over cricket match in a packed stadium.

It's amazing how the players who hit boundaries and sixes in t-20 cricket leagues like IPL and Big Bash, under immense pressure, are not given enough credit for what they do.

T-20 players deserve some respect

What a test cricketer of past never understands is that there is no time to assess a pitch, get used to a bowler, and  give first hour to a bowler while playing shortest format of the game, and therefore, when a modern day twenty twenty player plays innings after innings and scores consistent runs in a manner that 20 over cricket demands, he needs to be applauded.

Hitting 4's and 6's is not that easy, especially when international class bowlers are operating. Required rates of over 15 an over and even more is needed sometimes to win a cricket match. To achieve it, which a modern day cricketer does with great regularity, is an unbelievable performance. It is one thing saying that the format allows players to play in a free manner and makes it easy to clear boundaries, it's another thing to actually do it.

Same is true for bowlers as well. In test cricket you can get away by sitting on back of length and outside off stump line for whole day. in t-20 cricket you will be absolutely hammered. Plus there is limitations to the bouncers, wickets are flat, and batsmen are looking to score from the word go. Forget about the respect or reputation. Whoever you are, you will be attacked at the first possible opportunity. It doesn't really have to be a a loose ball for it to disappear out of stadium as far as twenty 20 cricket goes.

I bet not many test players of 70's and 80's would have been successful in modern day cricket. They would have been brutally exposed. No longer a forward defense would have saved a match for you. You got to either hit a six or loose the match.

Many of the cricketers of 70's and 80's would have struggled to keep their place in the team due to inability to hit boundaries at will, under pressure. They would have surely planted their foot forward and tried to swing the bat, but there wouldn't have been any connection between the bat and ball, as it requires more than that, it requires skills. Yet while commentating on TV, how easily they say: "T-20 batsmen just plant their leg, make room and swing the bat. Nothing special about it. Real test will be in test cricket. If they wan't to drive, get a car."

One has to remember that a modern day cricketer plays all forms of cricket. He needs to be equally good in all formats, unless he doesn't play them, as people end up judging his form in cricket by what they see him doing in one form of cricket and even come to conclusion that "he is out of form" even when next tournament is of another form of cricket. Thus a player struggling in T-20 cricket might end up loosing his place in Test Match cricket, even though he had previously done well in longer form of cricket. This is because T-20 has been publicized, by cricketers of 70's and 80's, as easiest form of cricket. So if someone in not doing good in easiest form of cricket how he will do well in toughest form of cricket 'test cricket'.

Virender Sehwag, India's opening batsmen, fell victim to such a theory. Sehwag was brilliant test match players with multiple triple and double centuries to his credit, yet when he got out early in ODI cricket people started questioning his technique. They completely forgot to realise that the batsmen was looking to give quick start to the team which has plenty of other solid batsmen who could have played longer innings if he got out. He wanted to get opposition under pressure and thus was going after the bowling.

But in India they ended up his ODI average of 34 odd and dropped him blaming him 'inconsistent', and completely ignored his average of about 50 in test cricket.

It is extremely important that those who judge players don't get confused with forms in different forms of cricket.  It is easy to get out in T-20 cricket if you are not selfish and play for the team. It requires immense skill to succeed regularly in T-20 arena.

IPL(Indian Premiere League) has given so much of confidence to players like Shaun Marsh, David Miller, Sanju Samson, Faf Du Plessis, Chris Morris, Kevon Cooper, Ainkya  Rahane, Kieron Pollard, etc.

These players have taken their confidence and skills gained from IPL to their respective nation. Mentioning things like batsmen get to play only on flat wickets and a quota of four overs from any bowler, is a complete undermining of bowlers' effort. If this would have been so easy we would have seen 200+ scores in almost every matches, but this is not. Bowlers like Dale Steyn, Mallinga, Cooper, Bravo, Brett Lee, etc. have shown that you can flourish in even these formats.

IPL is not an easy platform, it tests new-comers at a massive level, so much that by the time they come out of it, they are much readier than what they would have been by merely playing Ranji or Duleep trophy on flatter and crowd-less stadiums.
I hope after reading this article, X cricketers will give the respect to IPL and Big Bash players, who deserve it fully.

Test cricket is the pinnacle but IPL does require skill to do well. Some of the players may never be test greats like Pollard, Yusuf Pathan but equally test players like Rogers,Elgar and Cook are not IPL type of guys.

Was Shakib Al Hasan's ban too harsh!

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is apparently requested by captain Mushfiqur Rahim to reconsider, and reduce if possible, the suspension of Shakib Al Hasan for 3 matches, following  the incident which saw Shakib making an inappropriate gesture on live television during the second ODI against Sri Lanka in Mirpur. He was also been fined BDT 300,000 ($3800).

Should Shakib's ban be reduced?

The ban on Shakib will greatly affect Bangladesh chances to win the upcoming Asia Cup tournament involving world champions India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as other participants.

See: Can Bangladesh beat any team playing cricket at home

Bangladesh will kick off their campaign versus India with a day night ODI match at Fatullah. Absence of one of the best allrounder's in the game of cricket will surely make things a bit easy for India. Was the punishment too strong for what Shakib did?

Shakib Al Hasan's suspension ban for three ODI's in the Asia Cup 2014 will be hugely detrimental for the Bangladesh team's case to do well in the Asia Cup 2014. In regards to the Bangladesh's current situation and the way lots of players confident are falling apart Shakib Al Hasan's inclusion could be the X Factor they require. By suspending Shakib BCB showed that they are very strict towards their Code of Conduct and I'm sure Shakib realised that. As far as Shakib will want to prove a point to the nation and himself aftermath of his latest suspension as he is one of the top allrounders in the world. As Tamim is unfit Bangladesh need Shakib more than ever now. I believe BCB can reduce suspension for country's sake. With the pedigory Shakib brings to the game no one will be bit relaxed more than Mushfiqur Rahim. Hopefully BCB decides what is best for Bangladesh as a nation and Bangladesh Cricket Team.

Also read: Should Asia Cup Squads chosen keeping World Cup 2015 in mind

Shakib is a confident player and has the ability to lift the performance of his teammates as well. Recently in an interview he claimed that 'Bangladesh should have won the last edition of Asia Cup". That is a positive statement to make before the start of new Asia Cup. He brings so much to Bangladesh Cricket.

The problem is Tamim is out and Mashrafe looks unlikely to be fit against India. If Shakib is still suspended from that game then Bangladesh has no chance of making up for that heartbreaking 2012 Asia Cup loss and a possible embarrassing loss against Afghanistan may be looming. I agree what Shakib did the other day was unacceptable and should serve that 3 match suspension but those remaining 2 matches should be against preferably teams like Hong Kong and Nepal in World T20 rather than against much much stronger teams in India and the emerging Afghanistan. Yes Bangladesh fans and even team itself are truly disappointed with that recently concluded Sri Lanka series but what's done is done and this coming Asia Cup should be seen as a fresh opportunity for Bangladesh Cricket. These are just my thoughts anyway and I think Shakib should play against India and I'm sure he himself is the most disappointed and will come back much better now. Let's not be so emotional and rather look forward.

No doubt than players needs to be more disciplined. The ban was bit less, one might argue, for what he did. This is where the cricket board if Bangladesh need to educate their players and make them ready for International cricket. At domestic level people sometimes don't bother about things like a player's on field behavior, but at international level where each player is an ambassador who is representing his country is expected to maintain decency.

Chaos in India cricket, blame game started for away losses, Duncan Fletcher criticised

Indian cricket is going through turbulent times. No matter what one does to bring it back on track, it refuses to do so. After 8-0 straight losses in England and Australia, cricket lovers were hoping for improved performances in South Africa and New Zealand, hoping that lessons would have been learnt. But it is same old story. India returned empty handed from both the tours.

Breaking News: Coach Fletcher may be replaced by Andy Flower

Duncan Fletcher - India Cricket Coach, in lnterview looks relaxed,
has come under heavy criticism from former Indian cricket players

India's performances have bee so dismal that it has been compared to 'mouse'. 

See - Gavaskar calls India powermouse of cricket.

And if that was bit insulting, or amusing, or nothing, depending on how you take it, former captains have jumped into the arena and have started to play 'blame game'.

MS Dhoni, who was called 'obnoxious' by Sourav Ganguly and  someone who doesn't 'risk it all' by Rahul Dravid, is already injured and replaced by Virat Kohli as a captain of India for Asia Cup.

See: Virat Kohli to captain in Asia cup, MS Dhoni can learn lessons

Criticism and blames for continuous losses have not been limited to MS Dhoni only. Even coach, Duncan Fletcher, has been made party of blame game. "I don't know what Duncan Fletcher is doing. The approach needs to be right, and Fletcher needs to help Dhoni. He has clearly struggled and he needs to be more involved. He needs to plan better and the selectors have to assess and get the right squad," said Ganguly.

BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has also waken up and want to take control of situation. "We want to take stock of the situation. We want to know what is going wrong. We would like to know from them what is required to improve," as per BCCI's official statement to a leading cricket website.

While all such developments might make cricket fans in country think that finally someone is concerned about free-fall of cricket in India, experience tells us 'nothing will be done'. There will be meetings, coach and captain will be summoned, packages will be discussed, a good laughter will take place, and a press release will be made stating - "we had a serious discussion on how to improve cricket".

Sourav Ganguly, interestingly, has also blamed spinners for the India's dismal performance overseas. Both Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have failed to meet expectations.  While Ashwin is quite experienced at international level, one has to be bit lenient with Jadeja as he is very young, as a player, in test cricket. He is also a batsmen turned into useful bowler, although his batting stats aren't that impressive. He took a 5 wicket hall against South Africa at Durban where he claimed 6 South African wickets for 138 runs.

Also, it's plain incorrect to blame the current team for 10 losses in the last 12 overseas marches - that has come to be repeated too often of late. This team is responsible for just last 2 of those 10 losses. The "credit" for the remaining 8 should go to the famed line up of Tendulkar-Dravid-Laxman-Sehwag-Gambhir. This team has done far better than that over rated one. We came close to winning one match in SA and had our moments in both the tests in NZ. The batting now looks better than it ever did in the last 10 years - I woudn't have expected that the previous era batters to come close to 40 runs of a victory chasing 400. Its really the bowling cupboard that looks bare and unless we fill that gap, no tampering with the captain / coach is going to help. Como'n, with all the cricket being played, we surely can get hold of 2 decent fast bowlers and one good spinner.

Anyway, What's wrong with Duncan Fletcher? He inherited a wilting team, and transformed it into a team full of talented youngsters. It will take time for them to be world beaters. They showed promise, won a champions trophy, and unlike their predecessors of 2011, did not lose every away match, and put up a good fight.

MS Dhoni calims India have improved since 8-0, Do you Agree?

After the defeat in Wellington, from a winning position, MS Dhoni, the captain of Indian cricket team, claimed that India has shown signs of improvement in last 2 series.

"We played after a long break outside the subcontinent. If you compare those two series [0-8] with the last few we have played, there is plenty of improvement. That's what it's all about. You want to keep improving to a stage where you start converting those good situations into better starts and start capitalising on it. So far you may say we haven't capitalised on the kind of starts when it came to our batting department, but still there is plenty of improvement. I will take that and move on to the next series," said MS Dhoni.

Have we really improved or there are only few positives that are blanketing plenty of negatives.

I'm someone who speaks more about process rather
than thinking about just results - MS Dhoni

Let us see what has really improved.

Batting - This is one area which every one related to indian cricket was really concerned about when there were talks going on about the retirements of Sachin Rendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman. But the batting department has done well. New players like Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Cheteshwar Pujara has carried the batting with distinction in their young cricketing careers. Judging from the times the fab 4 played last couple of foreign tours, the present Indian batting lineup has done better despite inexperience. Batting of India has surely shown the signs of improvement with many exciting new batsmen fighting for the permanent slot in the squad.

Bowling - This has always been the weakest area of strength for cricket team of India. But it has reached new lows. Most bowlers in Indian team look unfit and incapable of picking up 20 wickets necessary to win test matches. Zaheer Khan, although look slim and trim, is bowling no more quicker than the speed of 130 kph. Ishant always struggles to find the right length, and Umesh Yadav is not captain's favorite, judging by the first eleven that have been selected to represent Indian team on the field by MS Dhoni.

Fielding - Definitely got better with arrival of young players. Ravindra Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane needs special mention. While Jadeja is quick as a gazelle and quick on to the ball, you have to envy Rahane for the accuracy of his throws to the stumps. Both have turned quite a few cricket matches for India by displaying brilliant fielding acts.

Captaincy - Really confused about this department. While MS Dhoni seems to have won everything which a captain would dream for, including number 1 test match ICC ranking status, the performance overseas have been quite disappointing. There seems to be no strategy being adopted on the field of play. Opposition teams have been able free themselves from clutches of India on regular basis, especially overseas. Also there seems to be favoritism when it comes to selecting the best 11 players for the match. Haven't heard as many excuses before from a captain of game of cricket.

We almost lost the Jo'burg test- had it not been for a brilliant run out by Rahane, it was a goner. The 2nd Test in NZ, we should have won from the position we were in. Its another thing BigMac batted brilliantly, still should have atleast gone for the kill. The only positive I saw was Rahanes batting and Kohli. Ishant probably had an off day when he took those 6 wickets. Dhoni's captaincy as always, was unimaginative and strange! He does not pick the best XI for starters. Jaddu ( nickname of Ravindra Jadeja) in tests as a frontline spinner? Doesnt make sense, even though he has done well in India. Then there was the curious case of Stuart Binny in the ODIs- who was picked as an all rounder and did not bat and did not bowl. Dhoni is being too stubborn with his words and acts. Preserve him for ODIs- because we need him in that format. Get a new captain for tests and T20s.
I guess Dhoni will clutch on to any straws at this point in time. He knows he doesn't warrant a place in the test side unless he's captain so he's saying all the right things in front of the media. Personally, I think he's a superb player BUT fails big time as a captain in test cricket. If you see some of the other captains in world cricket like Michael Clarke and Brendon McCullum, all of them are aggressive and thoughtful captains. Plus, they all are blessed with good bowling line ups. India unfortunately doesn't have many good bowlers. The only way we can win overseas in tests is to have a potent bowling attack. As it stands now, India would do well to remain in the top 5.

Brendon McCullum's triple century highlights selfish attitude

It was a good innings of 302 by Brendon McCullum against India in second innings of Wellington Test match on February 18, 2014. But it was clearly selfish as it was meant to achieve personal goal rather then winning a test match. On a road like cricket pitch captain Brendon McCullum batted and batted, painfully slowly, and made sure that he become the first triple century maker in New Zealand's cricket history. Not for once it looked as if he wanted to win a cricket match. It was a black day for test cricket and such selfish play only harms test cricket.

Brendon McCullum, after Scoring First Triple Ton
For New Zealand vs India

Indian cricket team, although young in both experience and age, played the game in right spirit. Their bowlers tried their heart out on a dead wicket to get their team into winning position. In their cricketing history, New Zealand hasn't won that many test matches, as reflected by their ICC rank of 7, and therefore it was even more embarrassing to see them not playing for winning one more test match. Very rarely triple hundreds ends up on winning sides. Mostly the matches have been drawn in which a batsmen has scored 300 and more runs. Only Virender Sehwag's triple tons, and Mathew Hayden's triple century once, ended up in a win.

New Zealand set India the target of 435 runs in 67 overs, which was never achievable, and test cricket took one of his last breaths once this was done. The scorecard on stumps 5th day looked like this:

Ind vs NZ scorecard, stumps 5th day, Welllington  2nd Test Match

There have been talks of reviving test cricket. One Day Cricket (ODI) and T-20 cricket are giving test cricket run for its money. But what we saw today highlights that test players have become selfish and they don't care much about making a match out of a game. Brendon McCullum might be seen as a hero after today's knock, but test cricket has become even more weaker today and it will be interesting to see for how long it can survive.

What made the matter worst, and making play bowing to watch, was a flat dead track. There was nothing for the spinners even on 5th day of test match. Virat Kohli showed that by making a century easily. Normally it is not that easy for a batsmen to score a hundred on last day of test match on a wearing pitch. This also makes you wonder about the claims of sporting wickets the cricketers of western world talk about. Recently we saw at Johannesburg,  South Africa came close to chase down a target of 458 on last day on another flat wicket. The wickets in India are result wicket, and that's what is needed for test cricket. Help for fast bowlers is OK, but spinning the ball is also an art and there must be assistance in pitches for spinners to show off their art and for batsmen to show us, especially the batsmen from south africa, australia, new zealand, and england; that they can play spin bowling.

All in all it was a disappointing day for test match cricket and the one that a game of cricket, especially the longest form of cricket, can ill afford to have. Hopefully we won't see more such selfish knocks which highlights personal achievements rather than team goals.

McCullum, Watling put New Zealand on top against India's toothless bowling unit, India vs New Zealand

It's sorry state of affairs once again for indian cricket team. It is hard to believe that a team who had their opponent on the mat more than once in a recent past has allowed it to not only recover from precarious position but also to call the shots, and even gave the confidence of winning a test match. Both in Wellington and in Centurion recently, indian young batting side did well to put their team into winning positions but bowlers just don't know how to win matches, it seems.

Focus, concentration, and determination was highlight of
record partnership between McCullum and Watling

That day at centurion it was Ab De Villiers and Faf Du Plessis  who took the game away from India and today it was captain Brendon McCullum and wicket keeper BJ Watling who have hurt india with a record breaking stand worth more than a triple century. While BJ Watling was out to a third new ball, lbw to Mohammed Shami at an individual score of 124, McCullum was nearing an illusive triple century batting on 281 not out at the end of 4th days play.

Once again it has been sorry tale for the indian team,hats off to McCullum and Watling. who played fantastically well but unfortunately indian fielders and bowlers were once again disappointing as they let mccullum and watling off the hook by dropping some catches and inconsistent bowling. Further after getting a 200 plus lead any team would have have put the opposition under tremendous pressure but india did that till they pick up the 5 wickets and after that they went to sleep. I have a bad feeling whenever the pitch doesn't assist bowlers they become more ineffective and inconsistent. Also their fitness level is always questionable. Similarly, the batsmen once they get into double figure score they don't carry on the good work and throw their wickets away. Ajinkya Rahane was so happy after getting his first century at test level that he happily threw his wicket away, it seems.

New Zealand who once lost 4 wickets for 95 runs were leading India by 325 runs with 4 second innings wickets still remaining. The full scorecard at the end of 4th days play looked like this:

Scorecard, India vs New Zealand, 2nd test, day 4 stumps, 2014 welllington

It's not that indian bowlers didn't tried hard to pick the wickets, but their best efforts weren't good enough. This again has highlighted the fact that india's bowling team is perhaps the weakest among the top test cricket playing nations in the world.

Surely, it is frustrating for fans to see their team getting into positions of strength every now and then only to watch it struggling to safe defeat at the end of the match.

While McCullum's efforts need to appreciated, one should also closely look at what this Indian team has made of it's opposition batsman. Since July 2011, there have been 1 triple century, 7 double centuries and 8 more scores of 150+ scored vs this Indian team. The Indian bowling stocks have taken a plunge, and for a true follower of Indian cricket, 200+ scores by opposing batsman doesn't surprise anymore. We can argue forever if this is due to spineless bowling or unimaginative management tactics/captaincy, but the reality seems that opponent batsman will score against India. If India is really serious about it's Test cricket, then there should be a selected set of players who get a chance to play in the county cricket in England and get to fine-tune their batting or bowling skills. This is not in any shape now, and for the foreseeable future. Hardcore Indian cricket fans have nothing else to cheer other than reflect on the glorious days of Indian cricket between 2001 and 2011.

MS Dhoni is being defensive not only in his field settings-He is ultra-defensive even in team selection. Even with this array of dazzling batting talent at his disposal, he never plays 5 bowlers in the starting XI, even when the nation faces a must win Test to avoid a humiliating series loss against the No.8 Test nation. That is what gets my goat.

This is line in the sand moment. Dhoni has to step down before his defensive thinking percolates to the entire team. Bowling attack completely refurbished. We'd rather fail with Varun Aaron , Umesh Yadav and Ishwar Pandey (Pankaj Singh if selectors believe) rather than failing with Unfit Zaheer who can give you one good spell at best and Ishant Sharma - highly dependent on conditions. I doubt whether we have performances outside India even on our agenda !!

Suraj can't tolerate the pathetic bowling performance from india's bowlers any further, and he mince no words when he says: "This is what I was talking about. I was thinking India might be able to bowl out NZ once Brendon gets tired but our bowling attack is so pathetic that we can't even get a tired player out forget about cleaning up the tail. I really hope India slip further down the rankings so that they do not feature in the TOP 3 teams and also that BCCI don't dictate terms. I have no doubts that NZ will fancy their chances tomorrow morning after declaring once Brendon gets to his Triple Century and Neesham gets his Century. And if India's luck is further bad and if there are overcast conditions, then in the end we will have to say in Ravi Shashtri's words, 'Its All Over'."

Shivani Singh, a cricket fan, says: "I am an ardent Indian fan living in NZ and am disappointed in the Indian performance at the same time would like to congratulate NZ esp McCullum and Watling for a great and dogged resistance. However It is sad to see the comments by some so called cricket enthusiasts eg. Atif Masood, there is no need to get nasty mate!! That reeks of jealousy, I'm guessing you're a Pak supporter, a team I admire greatly and no matter how passionately I support India, I will never make comments like that against Pak team, learn from Afridi who rightly said in one of his recent interviews that some Pak cricket supporters need to get over hating Indian Cricket team. Comments like Atif Masood's shift the attention from a great batting performance by NZ! Grow up mate!"

 Meanmwhile MS Dhoni and Indian team found some support when preeti jain said "I really feel ashamed when I see my countrymen making our own team look horrible when they lose.When Aus were 0-7 down the FANS did not say that they were the worst, and now that they have won the ashes & defeated SA they are not over the moon saying Aus is the greatest. SA were downright bulldozed by Johnson.Are their fans calling them No.8? After Dhawan got a ton We were like India will win this by an innings, we will win the 2015 WC. MSD is a good captain and I actually admire him for not calling it quits 2 preserve his own record and expose the inexperienced youngsters. I agree some of the decisions MSD makes as a captain are inexplicable but you have to get behind your team and support them. Those asking for Gambhir probably did not watch the Aus series he just hung his bat outside the off stump and edged to the slips.No disrespect but this team is as good as any. Let us learn to appreciate the opposition and give credit where its due Superb knock by BAZ under pressure."

Is it confidence? Indian bowlers can't produce magic when opposition bating is flying. Indian curators has to prepare 50% 50% wickets which encourage fast bowlers. Its hard to believe out of 2nd largest population they can't generate pacer like Mitcheal Johnson while neighboring country Pakistan is producing tons of pacers. Make good pitches and let fast bowlers to grow.

India need to desperately start a long overdue 'bowling transition' now. And by that I don't mean stop-gap arrangements. The batting order transition is more or less done now. But the bowling attack which once won India matches with the services of Zaheer (younger, pacier, strike bowler version), Harbhajan, and Kumble, is gone for good and yet we don't have a settled bowling lineup. Shami is inexperienced but good, and that's it. And if we keep playing him in every match, we will bowl him into ground like so many others before.

Sandip Patil and Co. showed a lot of guts replacing some of the most celebrated batting icons in India's cricketing history, they need to do the same with this bowling lineup. There are potentially 4-5 young fast bowlers, all with different strengths, waiting in the wings. Unless we magically find three bowlers with skills similar to Steyn, Morkel, Philander, India HAS to play with 4 fast bowlers and Ashwin/Jadeja in overseas conditions.

Brendon McCullum makes India wait for their first test match win in recent times on foreign tour

India began third day of India vs New Zealand, 2nd test day 3 at Wellington in ascendancy and reduced New Zealand to 94-5 before a heroic batting effort from the captain Brendon McCullum deflated the touring bowlers. At the end of day 3 New Zealand were 252 for 5 and the score board looked like this:

India vs New Zealand score card, stumps day3 wellington test match

The morning session was India's thanks to some probing bowling from Zaheer Khan, but since then it has been all Brendon McCullum and BJ Watling. They've put on the highest sixth-wicket partnership for New Zealand in the second innings and have picked up the lead as well. If ever there was a captain's knock, it is what McCullum has played today. Came in with his team three down, battled against his natural instincts and has just willed and withstood everything that's been thrown at him. BJ Watling deserves just as much praise, holding one end up and frustrating India's bowlers.

Brendon McCullum composure was highlight of batting display

It was a sincere effort from Indian bowlers though, on a pitch that is getting flatter and flatter by the day. In fact it has turned into a batting beauty and Indians have to make sure that they don't allow New Zealand to take a huge lead and set India a mammoth target to chase in the fourth innings of the match.

New Zealand's captain Brendon McCullum played a workman like innings mixing caution with aggression and forcing India's captain MS Dhoni to set some unusual fields. 

What must be worrying Indian captain is the inability of his bowlers to take wickets when India is forcing for a victory. Just recently in South Africa, the hosts came very close chasing down a target of more than 450 set by India. In fact after being getting on top in game Indians managed to come close to loose it. India will be aware of that and will need to make sure that they don't get into desperate situation.

Earlier Zaheer Khan managed to pick up couple of wickets with new ball. He has taken 3 wickets in second innings so far after going wicket-less in first innings of the test match.

India could have made things easy for themselves if they hadn't drop quite a few simple catches. The catch dropped by Virat Kohli, not the first one he has dropped, of Brendon McCullum was a sitter and is already proving to be a costly mistake. Despite lapses in the field, Cheteshwar Pujara described India's fielding effort as 'fantastic' in a press conference and said that few mistakes on field are part and parcel of the game. He also credited bowlers for their efforts and praised New Zealand batsmen for putting up brave fight. As per Pujara India is still in dominating position and would look to pick up couple of wickets early at the start of play on 4th day.

Apart from Zaheer, Ravindra Jadeja kept things tight and also picked up 1 wicket.

Cricket fans have always something to say. Lets have a look at reactions on the cricket forum:

Blackholesun says: "Well played New Zealand !

And what a shame for India again. Seems like bowlers are back to their earlier ways. Just look at Johnson, 7 wickets followed by 5 to break the back of the same (more or less) that broked India's back. That is what is called fast bowling. When your bowlers are bowling at 130-135 Km / hr then your line and length needs to be very accurate and you might also need to depend on the pitch to do something

Can't do anything other than waiting for the next day. Hope our bowlers are able to pick up the remaining wickets as soon as possible.
One thing is sure that if this team is going to Australia, we are going to get a big thrashing there."

Rashindu Croos-Dabrera says: "It was refreshing and surprising to see Indians bat so well in their first innings. One thing they got it right, they attacked. That gave them lead and time, which the latter could be the pivotal point in Indians making the victory at last. We ll said that, there is still a big barrier ahead, which could prolong the victory and could even potentially lead to another famous defeat. Dare I must say though, its just one wicket away for Indians coming back, but they will need to make that soon rather than later for their sake and fans sake. Well played though Kiwis to live another day."

Cricketing Stargaer was surprised by the happenings of world cricket, especially the ICC rankings:"What s happening to world cricket? The winter started with South Africa, England & India #1, 2 & 3 in the rankings. England have lost 5-0 to Australia. South Africa are only playing 3 Tests, so can't do any worse than 3-0 and India are making a determined bid to be whitewashed by New Zealand, ranked #8 and a full 35 ranking points behind, which will be a massive rankings hit.

Realistically, India should still win comfortably on the 4th day. New Zealand need to bat nearly through the day and it will only take a single wicket for India to re-establish control. But it is an amazing effort by New Zealand from a lost position and India really are making this hard for themselves."

fair play thinks toss was really crucial, he says: "India is in a good position simply because Dhoni won the lottery on the first day on a green juicy wicket that made even Sharma look like a champion bowler but is wicketless so far in the 2nd innings.

Playing a test match with three specialist bowlers only and the tactics of containing runs in this 2nd innings rather than trying to take wickets is extremely defensive and doesn't really deserve a victory. If India continues with such tactics of trying to pile pressure by going batting heavy and hoping to score big, they will only win overseas sometimes and if they get lucky like this."

Silverbails was obviously angry with Indian bowling effort, as per him: "It looks like this pathetic Indian team are going to do their usual trick of pulling a definite loss from the jaws of a rare overseas victory!! If you drop a player of the sheer grit, determination and class as McCullum twice then you're really asking to get punished, which is exactly what was demonstrated at the Basin today. India don't really look like having the killer instinct in Tests, always letting teams time and again off the hook; having a clear inability to get the tailenders out. This match may go the full distance, depending upon what happens in the first hour of the fourth morning. And, there's even the very real possibility of India losing this one, to go 2 - 0 down. Why persist with Rohit Sharma and Ishant? They should be dropped immediately! ny chance is showing some fighting spirit Dhoni & Co. after quite an abysmal tour? Probably not, but here's hoping...I'm quite expecting a 1 - 0 or a 2- 0 win for the black caps. India should have a look and copy the Aussies." 

Obviously apart from the dropped catches, I believe the fact that we don't have a fourth seam bowling option has come to haunt us! I said this with many other Indian fans before the series started but MSD simply doesn't try to adapt when playing abroad. Even though Jadeja may not have gone for runs & luckily took one wicket, it always will be the seamers who get you the wickets on most of these grounds outside the subcontinent. So when you go in with just three seamers with one who is 35+ in age and they are asked to bowl a lot of overs, they naturally start getting tired & becoming less effective the more they have to bowl when the wicket is not as helpful as it was in the first innings. Very frustrating but just let us hope we get some early wickets in the morning, otherwise the same may emerge as today with NZ building a good lead.

But i wonder why is this panic alarm in Indian camp. I see no reason this match going into draw or India losing it. Be kool and calm, victory is on your doorsteps. this was a good fight back from NZ, but they cant stand for too long. even if they make another 200 runs, the good batting conditions, the strength of indian batting and the enormous time left in the test is on your side. Just be patient and give a time. Could have done better by snatching innings defeat but not be. But here is the consolation, a long waited, away test victory is on its way.Enjoy it!