Cricket Digest For Jan 06, 2009

Posted by B.V. Swagath on January 6th, 2009

Aus Vs SA, 3rd Test

The Proteas face the Survival Test on the final day of the Sydney Test. They have effectively got 8 wickets in hand considering that Graeme Smith has been ruled out to bat. South Africa do have a decent chance of even winning the test with 314 more to get but the Sydney wicket is not all that flat. There is a bit of low bounce which can be exploited by the pace bowlers and although it will take turn, the Aussies certainly do not have any quality spinner. At stumps on Day 4, SAF have recovered well after losing makeshift opener Morkel and have got McKenzie and Amla batting solidly. The Aussie attack doesn’t have any big names at all and all their hopes rest on Peter Siddle. So I would think a draw is most likely to happen unless SA batsmen play very bad.

I thought it was a pretty bold decision from Ricky to give a target of 376 and leave SA to bat for 116 overs! It is good to know that the Aussies are still playing for only winning Tests and not for draws even if they are 0-2 down! That’s good spirit indeed. The South African bowlers did okay in containing the Australians for 257 for 4 in 67 overs before the declaration.Here is the Live link for this Test Match.

BD Vs SL, 2nd Test

Sri Lanka have wiped out Bangladesh inside 50 overs to wrap up a massive 465-run victory. Tillkaratne Dilshan has made most of his opportunity by scoring a breezy 143 in the second innings and then to take 4 quick wickets in as many overs when Bangladesh came out to bat during the 4th day. Mendis took care of the top order taking three wickets. This match belonged totally to Dilshan as he had also scored 162 in the first innings which helped SL reach 384 from a vulnerable state of 75 for 4. Dilshan has walked away with both the Man of the Match and the Player of the Series awards.Here is the Link to the Full Scorecard.

Ranji Trophy

Saurashtra has shown a lot of courage in giving some sort of fight for Mumbai on the third day. Saurashtra are hanging in there at 247 for 5 in reply to the monstrous 637 from Mumbai. This match surely will end in a draw but Mumbai should go through to the finals unless Saurashtra manage to avoid getting all out in their first innings. Something like that which is highly unrealistic. Veteran left handed batsman Sitanshu Kotak frustrated the Mumbai bowlers with his stubborn defence before he fell towards the fag end making 89 in over 5 hours.

I had a good look at Cheteshwar Pujara for some 30 mins or so. And gotta tell you that this kid is going to last for 10 years of international cricket! He is a tall batsman who has got a good reach forward and gets back in time to fend the rising delivery with a lot of ease. Pujara is blessed with some text book basics and should be comfortable playing against any type of bowling on any type of wickets. He is as good as a Dravid was in defence. Another thing that caught my eye was the free flowing shots that Pujara plays; there is lot of flourish in the shots along with some golden touch. India has got to give him a place whether it is at the cost of Dravid!

And the other match at Nagpur is nicely poised with Uttar Pradesh fighting back after an early loss of both Raina and Kaif. They still managed to get to 253 for 3 from a shaky situation of 63 for 3. Left handed Opener Shivakant Shukla has got an unbeaten century, I am happy to know that he is just 22 years, so we can expect bigger things from him in the future! He is being well supported by No.5 Parvinder Singh who is on 93. Shukla has batted for close to 500 minutes! UP are now 192 runs away from Tamil Nadu’s 445. So you can’t say who will get the decisive first innings lead to enter the Final!

Cricket

Leave a Comment