Hope you guys have been following India’s tour of Sri Lanka in the past 2 months now. It’s been a great cricketing season for India – winning the Asia Cup after such a long time and drawing the test series was some of the best cricket India has played in recent times.
Something that almost everyone in the cricketing world is talking about is the Indian bowling. However, the raw, unexposed, and inexperienced except for Harbhajan Singh, bailed us out in the finals of the Asia Cup as well as in the final test match. Consider the test matches for example. The first innings of the first test match was a bowling disaster with Sri Lanka scoring 500 odd runs. But did the ‘strong’ Indian batting line up cover for its weaker bowling attack? Nope! They scored a paltry 276.
The second test match was a batsman’s game all the way. Neither the Lankan nor the Indian bowling did much in that match. In the 3rd test however, it was the Indian bowlers that shined. The batsmen did an incredible job too, no doubt about it, but Indian bowlers outshone their Lankan counterparts, plain and simple. Personally, I think the Indian strategy of trying out its bowling bench strength before the World Cup next year is a well planned out strategy.
That said, perhaps in the years to come, India’s tour of Lanka will merely be remembered as the last test series played by the legendary Murali. Congratulations to him for grabbing that coveted 800th wicket. Sadly though, I just cannot think of a Sri Lankan attack that doesn’t feature him. Now that he’s off test duty, maybe it’s time KKR picked him up for season 4?
KKR won the first T20 they played on this tour, beating the Sri Lankan U-23 league leaders Ragama by 6 wickets.
Batting second, KKR overcame a few hiccups to cross Ragama’s score of 149 in the 17th over. After a quick start of 67 in the first six overs, KKR was in a spot of trouble after losing captain Sourashish Lahiri and slumping to 93 for 4. Sourashish, who made a brilliant 54 off just 26 balls, made sure that the early exits of Sunny Singh and Mandeep did not hurt too much. Later it was Debabrata Das who saw KKR through, stitching together vital partnerships with Harpreet (21 in 25 balls) and Vivek Singh( 15 in 13 balls). Debabrata himself remained unbeaten on 54, with 4 fours and an equal number of sixes.
Earlier, Awana’s 2 wickets for 17 in 4 overs was the best effort, as Ragama overcame a wretched start (2 down for 17 at the end of the 5th over) to reach 149. The late surge was thanks to experienced Wayamba wicketkeeper Sameer Soyza who got 31, and talented young batsman Nayana Fernando, who got 35 in just 23 balls.
KKR and Ragama play a second T20 today, just after lunch, and the home team has beefed up with another couple of Sri Lankan internationals, Kolatunga and Jehan Mubarak. Also, expect more from Ragama skipper and Sri Lankan international Koushalya Weeraratne, who went cheaply in the first match.
A miracle. Sri Lankan airlines calls at 6:30 in the morning to let us know that the missing carton has arrive. A good start to the day which only got better when we went for practice to the picturesque Nondescripts Cricket Club. The Indian team was playing just next door at the SSC in Colombo.
The weather was not unlike Kolkata, humid and in the early thirties – and it was heavy going for the boys as they went through a grueling 3 hour session. While most of the boys went back to the hotel, coach Owen and Dav held back four of the younger boys for another two hour indoor nets.
In the evening, there were some interesting scenes at the airport as the driver at the airport could not recognize the only seven footer on the flight, and Irfaan had to wait for 45 minutes before they located him. Obviously, none of the standard gear fits him, and we will have some interesting tailoring to do before we can give him a full uniform.
Tomorrow is our first match, and word is that the likes of Jehan Mubarak and a couple of other Lankan internationals could be playing against us. Great news, as there’s nothing better than tough opposition to get the best out of the boys.
KKR played well this season but it was not good to take the team to the next level in the tournament. There may be many reasons behind this but the one I see is the under-performance of the star players.
In the auction in October for IPL-IV I wish KKR choose some good Indian as well as Foreign players.
The likes of Chris Gayle , Brendon McCullum were not at there very best and so were Ajit Agarkar , Ishant Sharma.
I wish KKR purchases some all-rounders this year rather than going for a specialist bowler... Need to purchase 2 all-rounders and 2 specialist batsman who on their day can single handed win the match for us.
I feel that KKR should retain Sourav Ganguly , Ashoke Dinda , Wridhimann Saha , Murli Karthik , Manoj Tiwary (Indian) & Chris Gayle , Brendon McCullum and Angelo Mathews (Foreign)
Angelo Mathews showed us that he can win matches for KKR on his own so he is to be kept in the side. Hope we can buy Kerion Pollard for us this year. Angelo has shown his class both in KKR as well as Sri Lanka's team.
Players I think we should buy:
Foreign : David Warner , Kevin Peterson , Kerion Pollard , Shane Watson , Mike Hussey , Dirk Nannes , Mathew Hayden , Dwayne Smith , Jacob Oram , Nathan McCullum , Jacques Kallis , Ricky Ponting , JP Duminy , TM Dilshan , Michael Lumb.
Indian : Dinesh Karthik , Saurabh Tiwary , Praveen Kumar , Mithun Mahnas , Suresh Raina , Amit Mishra , Ashish Nehra , Ambati Rayadu , Virat Kohli , Vinay Kumar , Irfan Pathan , Yusuf Pathan , Robin Uthappa , Pragyan Ojha.
These are the players which I wish that they play for KKR.
Hope that SRK , DAV and DADA consider my blog.
Hoping for a good result for KKR in the coming season's.
A true KKR fan
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