i3j3Cricket :: A blog for fans of Indian cricket…

In recent years, India have been a batting team. With the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman, Sehwag and Yuvraj performing well, India’s strength has always been its batting (at least on paper).

Now, as the change of guard is happening, we have the likes of Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel breaking into the team and bowling quite well, while the batting is starting to look a bit wobbly.

Consider today’s ODI against Australia. The Indian team of 3-4 years ago would have easily got the 204 runs needed to win, but we were bowled out for a paltry 152 today. But then again, the Indian team of 3-4 years ago would have probably conceded a lot more runs. India’s bowlers did their job well today - it was the batsmen that let her down. It is a pattern that is starting to emerge of late. In fact most of India’s overseas test wins of late have come on the back of good bowling performances - the batsmen have just been playing good supporting roles.

So, I wonder if India is slowly changing from a team where its strength has been its batting to one whose strength is its bowling. The bowling is still underrated, though and a lot of people were questioning its ability to cope against Australia in Australia before the series began. The bowlers proved them wrong and performed brilliantly - but they were let down by some poor batting in Melbourne and a second  innings collapse in Sydney.

So, is India becoming more of a bowling team? And is that a good thing??
My answer would be Yes to both…

-Mahesh-

Here is a shot at the first of hopefully many cricket quizzes to follow. Based on the responses, I hope to continue this for a while. I will post the answers two days after every quiz.. How about that? Let’s get cracking!

1. During the recently concluded test series, the Indian pace trio of Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan and RP Singh took the help of a “doctor” during the perth test match. Name the “doctor” in question.

2. Which cricketer is known as “Lagaan Bhai” as he hails from Bharuch and resembles characters from the Aamir Khan starrer, “Lagaan”?

3. Anil Kumble, at the end of the recent Sydney test, said, “There are two teams out there. One is playing cricket and the other is not”. These lines were originally said by whom and when?

4. Connect Stuart Broad, Tilak Raj, Dan Van Bunge, and Malcolm Nash

5. What was unique about the second game of the Zimbabwe - England one day international series in 1996/7, which Zimbabwe won by 7 runs?

- Srikanth