Okay. It's been a long time I wrote something on cricket. I have predicted earlier to the end of my previous post ' Should they do it? ' that there might be more retirement announcements at the end of India - Australia Test Series and my prediction has come true. Anil Kumble (Jumbo), one of the best spinners India has ever produced, has called it a day and hung up his shoes after the 3rd test match against australia. Dhoni captained India for the fourth test match and India has won it. It's the third straight success for Dhoni as captain in test matches. Be it defensive or aggressive, whatever the critics may call it, Dhoni once again proved to be lucky mascot when victory matters.
He made Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma bowl continuously outside the off stump to the two left handers Simon Katich and Michael Hussey in the first session on the third day of the match. The field set was 8-1 to the offside. Australia knew that they had to win the match to level the series. So they took the risk and hunted the outside the off stump balls and lost their wickets. What seemed like an Australia's match at the end of the second day turned out be and Indian one at the end of the third day. India won this test match and won the series 2-0.
Then came England to India for seven one day internationals and two test matches. Being the home side and that too after a series win against Australia, India was clearly the favourite. No body would have expected that the India will drub England 5-0 in the one day matches. The last two matches were disrupted because of security concerns post mumbai terror attack. So English team flew back to England and the last two matches were cancelled. Many indian fans including me must have deeply disappointed for not witnessing the rare chance of what would have been a total whitewash with India defeating the English 7-0.
I don't think this will happen rarely anymore. No doubt, India is emerging as the best team in the cricketing world under the captaincy of Dhoni. Sooner than later, India will replace Australia as the number one team in the world. I always admired ganguly as a captain of Indian cricket team. He was very aggressive on the field. I thought that being aggressive would make a better captain. But here is a man, cool and composed, not aggressive by body language but by his shrewdness, in the making of a best captain. Here are two things I liked about Dhoni during the test series against australia.
Then came England to India for seven one day internationals and two test matches. Being the home side and that too after a series win against Australia, India was clearly the favourite. No body would have expected that the India will drub England 5-0 in the one day matches. The last two matches were disrupted because of security concerns post mumbai terror attack. So English team flew back to England and the last two matches were cancelled. Many indian fans including me must have deeply disappointed for not witnessing the rare chance of what would have been a total whitewash with India defeating the English 7-0.
I don't think this will happen rarely anymore. No doubt, India is emerging as the best team in the cricketing world under the captaincy of Dhoni. Sooner than later, India will replace Australia as the number one team in the world. I always admired ganguly as a captain of Indian cricket team. He was very aggressive on the field. I thought that being aggressive would make a better captain. But here is a man, cool and composed, not aggressive by body language but by his shrewdness, in the making of a best captain. Here are two things I liked about Dhoni during the test series against australia.
1) When australia was nine wickets down and India on the verge of the victory, and what were the final moments of ganguly's presence on the field, he asked ganguly to captain the team for the next five overs. But ganguly's job lasted only for three overs.
2) When Border and Gavaskar were handing over the Border-Gavaskar trophy to him, he called kumble to come and they both together lifted the trophy. Although kumble captained two test matches in the series, I never expected such kind of pleasant gesture.
Indian cricket has a long way to go under the leadership of Dhoni. With already the inaugural twenty-twenty world cup under his belt, I hope he would lead us to victory in 2011 one day international world cup.
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