Some tough decisions are must

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Faridabad match has shown that the youngsters in the team are realising their responsibility. Today Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni played a very responsible knock to take India to victory after yet another failure by the top order. I was most impressed by Raina's approach. He is one of the youngest player in international cricket today but has already shown a very mature head. He paced his innings very well and when the situation demanded was not afraid to play big shots. This shows that he knows how to approach a target and is confident about his game. Raina has a good understanding with Dhoni and this is not the first time that they have bailed India out of a difficult situation. They had done the same against Sri Lanka in an ODI played last year. Seeing Raina in a good form, Dhoni played....

This match reminded me of 1983 final

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The match has been a great thriller even though not many runs were scored. To win a match after scoring just 203 runs and that too in the subcontinent is a great achievemnt and the Indian bowling and fielding deserves all the kudos for a wonderful performance. In my opinion the turning point of the match was the first over by Irfan Pathan. When a team is defending a low total it needs to pick up a couple of early wicket and today that work was done to perfection by Pathan. The first over reminded me of the 1983 world cup final when we had just 183 on the board. Balvinder Singh Sandhu bowled a beautiful inswinger to get rid of Gordon Greenidge and we went on to win the most famous match in Indian cricket history. In that match, too, Vivian Richards was making life difficfult....

This defeat is a disgrace

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Before the start of the Mumbai Test match Andrew Flintoff had said that it would be very unfair if his team would have to go back after losing the series. And the way the England team has performed they did not deserve to lose the series. Infact if we analyse the entire series England have outperformed India except for one day at Mohali that saw them losing the second Test. England were almost down to their third string team when the Mumbai match began. They had already lost their skipper Michael Vaughan before the series began and the skipper's mantle fell on Flintoff. The second Test hero Cook and Harmison were ruled out due to injury and all of us thought that the final match would prove to be a cake walk for India. I had never ever imagined that Flintoff would prove to be such....

Neither team was proactive

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This match is very interestingly poised and frankly I don't want to hazard a guess on which team will win the match. One thing that baffled me today was that no side was willing to take any initiative. I felt that both India and England were playing in a semi-cautious mode. The Indian bowlers were not attacking as much as they should have ansd instead were waiting for the England batsmen to make mistake. Similarly England, too, played very slowly. Rahul Dravid should have kept in his mind the fact that England also has a long tail and after Flintoff there was no batsman who could resist for long. Flintoff played a very responsible innings and was able to prolong the agony of Team India. But I feel that he should have been a little more aggressive and scored at a more faster rate especioally....

Sreesanth is lion-hearted

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You can always trust the Indian team to make things more exciting on the cricket field. The way things have gone today, it is now certain that there will be a result in the match. When the play began there was a hope that despite losing its top order the Indian would be able to reach some where near Englan'd total. However after the fall of Yuvraj that became very difficult and when Dravid got out whatever little hopes that we had evaporated. However the Indian lower order and the tail displayed a very positive attitude. If Dhoni and Pathan and later Sreesanth and Kumble had not played the way they did then India would have been in far greater trouble. Dhoni attacked brilliantly and was given good support by Pathan. In my opinion the problem with India is that its top order is not firing and....

Dravid has to become 'The Wall' again

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It has been a day that India would like to forget. Every thing that could go wrong for the team went wrong. The batting was bad and the fielding pathetic. I don't understand how can a team drop so many catches and still hope to one of the best in the world. This team has a coach who is very aggressive, has a physical trainer and even then there is no improvement in the fielding. It would have been excusable if the team had fielded poorly for just a day. But if you see all the three Test matches then there has been hardly a day when the Indian have not dropped a catch. This has led to the opposition scoring more runs than they should have. The bowlers also feel let down when the fielders are not able to hold onto the cherry. Today the....

Chappell, Dravid should share the blame

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Why did Rahul Dravid chose to field after winning the toss is beyond my imagination? The team management and coach Greg Chappell must also take the blame for this decision as all of them have a say in what should be done if the team wins the toss. Every one knows that the Mumbai wicket turns after the third day and Chappell and Dravid should have kept this in mind. The reason doing the rounds is that the wickets had some grass on it so the Indians wanted to take advantage of playing three pacers. But according to me it was a defensive decision as India did not want to face England seamers on the first day. But the way England batted showed that there was nothing in the pitch for the bowlers. The wicket of Ian Bell was a bonus as he chased a wide ball....

Munaf is the find of the series

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A great day for Indian cricket as the team has shown that it can win the match after trailing for nearly half of the match. When the final day began most of us were expecting India to win the match but the best thing about the victory was that it came on a pitch that was not tailor made for Indian bowlers. In the morning Munaf Patel was simple outstanding and the way he cleaned up the England tail paved the way for India's victory. His run-up is rhythmic and his action is also very smooth. This means that he can generate a lot of pace which is very essential to get the wickets of the lower order batsmen. He can also reverse swing the ball and according to me is the find of the series. Though he has a long way to go but the way....

Pathan set the tone

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It has been a great come back by India after the England team looked to be in control on the third day. All this happened only due to the positive approach adopted by the Indians. The tone for this was set by Irfan Pathan, who made a good half-century, and Harbhajan Singh. Both of them faced England bowlers with great confidence and did not hesitate to play their strokes. And off course at the other end was the father figure of Rahul 'The Wall' Dravid. He showed tremendous composure during his stay at the crease and was very unlucky to miss his century. Now India are in charge of the match and all this was possible because they displayed a very positive attitude. The Indians were very aggressive and so they could come back in the match. The lead that India has taken could prove to....

Kumble's good show ruined

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Today was a great day for Indian bowlers and they bowled their hearts out to restrict England for just 300. Anil Kumble and the pacers especially young Munaf Patel did a great job. Kumble has had a great match and my heartiest congratulations to him on taking 500 Test wickets. It is a great achivement and over the years he has proved to be the most reliable strike bowler for India. Words cannot describe his value in the Indian team. But after his great effort the Indian batsmen ruined the day with an inept display. Time and again I have said that a positive approach will bring good results and today if the Indian batsmen had gone out and played positively, India would have been in the drivers seat. However that was not to be and the primary reason was that our batsmen showed too much....

Flintoff reminds me of Kapil

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Well there is not much to say about the game. The weather has spoiled what had promised to be great contest. Bad weather and rain stoppage affect both the teams particularly the batsmen. They never know when the paly would be called off and even when they are in the dressing room, the umpires may suddenly come and say that the match will be starting in the next 20 minutes. So one has to be mentally prepared to come out to the field on a short notice and this puts a lot of strain. Such a scenario is the worst nigtmare of the batsmen as they cannot play their natural game. Andrew Flintoff is facing the same situation now as he does not know how to bat beacuse the weather has been playing spoilsport. His natural game is to attack but he cannot do so because the....

Indian bowlers were good

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After the first match where England gave a good fight to India the second match has generated a lot of excitement. Even after losing the toss India made a good start with the bowlers doing a good job. The Indian bowlers were helped by some poor batting by England batsmen. The openers started on a good note by Strauss chased a wide ball. That was a very rash shot and reminded me of my playing days when I used to play the same way to gift away my wicket. Irfan Pathan bowled a good line and length to Cook and it was evident that he had a plan for Cook. Cook is not very comfortable playing the incoming balls and he consistently bowled incoming balls to Cook, which trapped him LBW. Kevin Pietersen was the best batsman on view and he has show a lot....

England proved me wrong

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India played with a positive attitude on the final day and even though the target of 368 in 90 overs was improbable, the way India approached the target in the last session was commendable. At the awards ceremony Rahul Dravid said that they decided to go for the win at tea break. In my opinion India should have stated the fireworks a little earlier, say one hour after the lunch break. The combination of Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid played really well and had built the platform from which the stroke players could launch the final assault. Jaffer played a brilliant innings and to score a 100 in his come back match is a great achievement. He has a wide range of shots all round the wicket and this is a very good sign. Technically he is very compact player and today he showed that he can....

Pathetic show by India

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Great England batting and poor fielding coupled with poor planning by the Indians were the hallmark of the day's play. England have done their homework well and I believe that Alastair Cook had already come to Mumbai and practised under Hanumant Singh. He is a young player and the way he has played in his debut match shows that he is going to have a long career in international cricket. In the first innings he had played a very matured innings and today also he showed a great character to score his first Test hundred. He plays with a straight bat and has a lot of time while striking the ball. Players who play late at the ball always have a great advantage as they can place the ball where ever they like and this is very much evident in Cook's batting. He has shown that....

Indian batsmen were too defensive

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I have always believed in a positive approach and still believe that India can make a come back into the match and even win it. But for that India will have to be agressive and play with positive approach. During my playing days I had always believd that playing with a positive frame of mind will give you the best results. If one goes in the match with a negative approach they can never succeed. In todays game Indian batsmen were too defensive. The fact that all the LBW decisions were given when the batmen were trying to defend proves it. The whole day India could manage to score at just over two runs per over. When the batsmen give too much respect to the bowlers there is always a chance of losing wickets and England bowlers did just that. Apart from Mathew Hoggard all the....

Bowlers let India down

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At the end of the second day's play the match is evenly poised. With three more days to go the match will surely produce a result. On Day I the approach of the England Team was very cautious but today they were very positive and that showed on the scoreboard. The tail wagged very efficiently for them and they put up a very respectable total on the board. The problem with the Indian bowlers is that when ever the batsmen start scoring at a brisk rate against them, the bowlers go into a shell. They get busy trying to stop the runs and forget their primary task of picking up the wickets. Today when the game began all that India needed was to take three wickets to wind up England's innings. But Collingwood played a marvellous innings to score his century and all the tailenders gave him....

England's approach was negative

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To put it simply England gave a very poor performance. Even though some of their main players are not in the team I thought that they would put up some kind of fight. But that did not happen. In the first session they played pretty decently and had blunted the Indian attack. But the fall of Ian Bell's wicket put them on the back foot. Even when they were at 89 for two no one would have expected that their batsmen would show such a negative approach and score at just over two runs per over. In 90 overs England managed just 246 runs. The pitch was not playing any tricks and was on the slower side. It was not bad batting but bad and negative approach that got them into trouble. England gave too much respect to the spinners and in the process lost the wickets....