Apt Climax -- Perfect ending ...

Finally we come to the close of the “Cricketing Bonanza”. A part of me is really sad as I will sincerely miss the absorbing cricket that was displayed. The result at the end of the series:

India draw the series with SA at 1 - 1

Eng win the Ashes 3 – 1 (hopefully by time you are reading this)

For India this is almost the best result that it could have hoped for (at least I did before the series and that’s what I mentioned in my blog earlier). Some would say that we had a great opportunity to win the series on 4^th day of the 3^rd test but the way Kallis played on 4^th day, SA did not deserve to loose the match either. May be the difference between the 2 sides was actually just Kallis.

This series was always about Chin music, our batsmen versus their bowlers. I guess India has shown that we have the resilience to fight it out in the extreme conditions. Shewag and no. 6 (Raina and Puajara) were quite disappointing else everyone contributed in every which way. Sachin was majestic, VVS was special, Gauti was responsible, Dravid provided resistance (could have been better), Dhoni was reasonably good. Also one thing I want to mention is that more than 50 % of dismissals were to good deliveries which showed that India has the grit to fight.

To win series abroad we need pacers who can take 20 wickets in seaming and bouncing tracks. We are in desperate need of fast bowlers. In the hind sight, I feel the selection of the squad was not great as we just did not have any one to replace Ishant. Also imagine what would have happened if Zaheer was not available for entire series. So who is a better team between SA and India? Definitely with SA favourite to win the series and India performed better than expected, the answer would be India. (People in SA will not agree but then no one from SA read my blog so who cares). India has retained no 1 status for now but testing times are just round the corner with series against West Indies and England at their respective homes. We have some time and I hope we can find a good bowler by then.

Coming to Ashes, I am so glad that England have won the Ashes and not just retained it. They have been dominant over the Aussies through the series and this is a very fitting result. Australia will take some time to re group and come back. England are marching up the ladder and I am quite sure by the time India play England this summer it will be again the battle for the top spot.

Will be writing through the WC11 and till then hopefully no more blog on cricket.