India Vs New Zealand at Jaipur - Indian bowling woes !!!

Perhaps you would have heard these songs many a times.  ‘konja neram, konjaneram’ in Chandramukhi, ‘pichai pathiram aendhi vanthen’ in Naan kadavul & others.  It is Madhu Balakrishnan, who shot to fame with  Malayalam ‘amme amme’ in vaalkannadi.  He had also lent voice to Illayaraja’s album “Thiruvasagam”.  He would be watching today’s match at Jaipur with keen interest and may not like this article.  

Indians take on Newzealand – Daniel Vettori is back but Brendon Mccullum is a doubtful starter.  Jesse Ryder is not there.    In the last match though Sreesanth struggled in the start finished with couple of wickets towards the end.  This tall right arm fast bowler is from Kerala and the only Keralite to play T20 for India. Known for his emotional behaviour his career graph has been subject to wild swings.  He is known to be a breakdancer also. 

Kiwis in their present form don’t pose any great threat but the chinks in Indian bowling armoury are apparent even when you have to contend with Ross Taylor and Marin Guptil only.   In the first outing Virat hit a good hundred pacing his innings well. Raina has not made fifties for long excepting the recent one against Aussies.  The batting front is strong with Murali Vijay expected to perform well and it will be interesting if Saurabh Tiwary get another look in.  Wriddhiman Saha has battled in with some huge scores in domestic cricket but this diminutive keeper is not expected to thrash bowlers.   Ashwin impressed with his control – somehow I am not feeling comfortable having Munaf Patel in.  He is one the slow movers and though once thought as a pacer, bowls at around 130 kmph, which sometimes could prove to be a canon fodder as Ramnaresh Sarwan would testify.    Ashish Nehra is an attacking bowler but would leak badly.  In fact there is none who could keep a tight leash in the slog.

At Jaipur they say that dew could be a big factor especially when chasing in a day night affair.  This is the place where Hyderabad crumbled to record low of 21 in Ranji but perhaps had grass at that time.    More needs to be seen towards the 2011 ICC WC – the tenth World Cup hosted by India, Srilanka and Bangladesh.  The matches are to be played in One day format with fourteen national cricket teams scheduled to compete.  The tourney will take place between 19^th Feb 2011 to Apr 2011.    There are two groups Group A consisting of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Canada, Kenya, Newzealand, Australia and Zimbabwe.  Group B closets India, England, West Indies, South Africa, Bangladesh, Irelands and Nederlands.

Played on subcontinent wickets which will lack bounce and seam, the bowlers might go for runs and the present bowling bunch is a concern for India. Sreesanth who might make up to the line up has the dubious distinction of the second top bowler with poor economy rate with  6.03 having conceded 2356 runs in 2344 balls next only to Elton Chigumbara in a list of bowlers who have played at least 50 matches.  In the top 10 Rudra Pratap Singh is also there.  In the top 50, 11 Indians figure in which certainly is not a great thing to relish.

Singer  Madhu Balakrishnan is brother in law of Sreesanth.

Regards – Sampathkumar S
{Spl thanks to www.cricinfo.com for the statistics}


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Post above was made this morning - much before the start of the match.  Now at 0930 pm Indians are poised to win with a fine century by Gautam Gambhir.  


Sreesanth bowled well to pick up 4 wickets still this analysis would indicate that selecting him is wrought with great risk as in his 51 matches - he has gone for 40 and above in 32.