ok, another interesting series on board…
India v West Indies, 1st Test…
04:00 GMT, Oct 9…
lets see how it goes…
India agar jeetega - No accolades for they are playing on Subcontinent and are supposed to win
India agar haarega - to phir khair nahin..galiyan hi galiyan
Results apart..the series will be gruelling one for the weather is totally unhealthy..for eg..the first test is in Bombay and the temps are touching 38 deg..pity the guys out there
Ok, just to help things along, here we go. From CricInfo
Hooper carries added responsibility in Lara's absence*
Kunal Pradhan - 8 October 2002*
The absence through hepatitis of Brian Lara places added responsibility on captain Carl Hooper in the three-Test series against India starting on Wednesday.
Hooper, 36, will be playing in his 100th Test at the venue where he made his debut 15 years ago.
He has always been a skilled player of spin, scoring 579 runs against India in his team's 2-1 series win in the Caribbean this year.
"We will naturally miss Lara. But we are confident we are capable of overcoming that loss," Hooper said.
For support, Hooper will be counting mainly on fellow-Guyanese Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Chanderpaul, 28, averaged 140.50 at home against India, batting longer than anyone else over the five Tests while scoring 562 runs with three centuries.
Left-handed openers Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds are currently in fine form with 62 and 147 respectively against a local side last week.
ELUSIVE CENTURY
But the man the West Indians are looking to with most expectations is Ramnaresh Sarwan, who has scored 13 half-centuries in 24 Tests but who has yet to score his maiden Test hundred.
The 22-year-old from Guyana, a big fan of Bombay's popular film industry, would love to reach three figures in the city he has grown up admiring on the silver screen.
India are firm favourites with a batting line-up including Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Vangipurappu Laxman.
But their main weapons will be leg-spinner Anil Kumble and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Kumble, India's most successful current bowler with 333 wickets, and Harbhajan had two five-wicket hauls each while bowling together as India beat England 1-0 last year.
West Indies leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo will be hoping to get some purchase from pitches prepared to suit the Indians but the visiting side's main bowling thrust will come from seasoned paceman Mervyn Dillon and left-arm seamer Pedro Collins.
India paceman Javagal Srinath returns from a brief Test retirement to partner left-arm speedster Zaheer Khan.
Squads:
India - Sourav Ganguly (captain), Shiv Sundar Das, Sanjay Bangar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Vangipurappu Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra.
West Indies - Carl Hooper (captain), Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ryan Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Gareth Breese, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Mervyn Dillon, Cameron Cuffy, Pedro Collins, Jermaine Lawson, Daren Ganga, Darren Powell.
Umpires: David Shepherd (England), Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka); Third umpire: I Sivaram (India)
Match referee: Mike Proctor (South Africa).
**
Nehra, Das, Mishra likely
to be left out
Ashish Magotra
**
Carl Hooper was a picture of confidence at Tuesday’s press conference ahead of the first Test between India and the West Indies, at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
“The pressure is more on the Indians since they are playing on home turf,” said the West Indies skipper.
“At the end of the five days the team that has played better cricket will win,” he added.
Hooper played down talk about a minor heel injury he suffered on Monday, saying he is fine and raring to go.
He said the playing eleven is still to be decided, as “it is very difficult to predict wickets in India”.
Hooper, who will be playing his hundredth Test on Wednesday, had last visited India eight years ago.
“It is very, very hot in Mumbai and we hope to get used it. Colombo the venue for the ICC champions Trophy was not as hot, but it was very humid there too. It will be tough on bowlers of both sides, especially those who will have to bowl long spells,” he said.
West Indies coach Roger Harper said the outing at Bangalore was very helpful and all the players had got going.
“The boys are looking forward to playing the first Test,” he said.
Hooper felt that Lara’s absence is an opportunity for the youngsters in the team to try and cement their places in the side.
“The chances of this team are as good as that of the Indians,” he added.
Earlier, India skipper Sourav Ganguly said his boys are nervous but “they will settle down quickly”.
Talking about the pitch, Ganguly was surprised to know that it was relaid, as he had always felt it was one of the best in the country.
“It is a new wicket. There is a little bit of grass on it,” he said.
"In out last two matches (against South Africa and Australia) we had not done too well here but we hope to perform better this time round.
“Ashish Nehra, S S Das and Amit Mishra are most likely to sit out the game,” the skipper added.
Ganguly felt Lara’s absence would be felt more by the crowd, “which will miss some exciting strokeplay but the young West Indian side will provide a good challenge to the Indian team”.
He also reckoned the return of fast bowler Javagal Srinath would add to the balance of the team.
**
The curator of the Wankhede pitch, Nadeem Memon, opined that the match would last four days.
"The new pitch has been re-laid according to the directions of the New Zealand experts hired by the BCCI. It is a virgin wicket, no matches have been played on this pitch. There is just enough grass on the pitch to bind it.
"It will assist the fast bowlers and last at least two days before it starts breaking up.
“The pitch will favour the India spinners as the match goes on and there will definitely be a result,” he said.
**
It is learnt from a reliable source that about $80,000 has been spent of the entire exercise of re-laying pitches around the country. But, all in all, Nadeem promises a good match.
“If India win the toss they should bat, and if the West Indies win, they should bowl first,” he further reckons.
The West Indies play three Tests and seven one-dayers on the tour of India.
Squads:
India - Saurav Ganguly (captain), Shiv Sundar Das, Sanjay Bangar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Vangipurappu Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra.
West Indies - Carl Hooper (captain), Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ryan Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Gareth Breese, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Mervyn Dillon, Cameron Cuffy, Pedro Collins, Jermaine Lawson, Daren Ganga, Darren Powell.
Umpires: David Shepherd (England), Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka); Third umpire: I.Sivaram (India)
Match referee: Mike Proctor (South Africa).
This means Indian Eleven wil be..
Saurav Ganguly (captain), Sanjay Bangar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Vangipurappu Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan
Seriously, its going to be an exciting one.
The main reason is because of the new pitch being laid, mainly assisting the fast bowlers, that should be a huge disadvantage for Indian bowlers, as Windies fast bowler might feel more comfortable. It is going to be exciting to see how the Indian batsman react, does that mean they will be going with Kumble and Harbajhan, with Zaheer and Srinath as the only 2 fast bowlers.
Big mistake to go with 2 spinners, I say go what the pitch tells you to, I say leave one of the 2, I say pick Harbajhan over Kumble and bring in a fast bowler, ok I'm sorry a medium fast bowler.
The batting lineup is too good, but Windies have some quality batsman of their own, though Lara will be missed big time but Chanderpaul and Hooper beat the snot out of the Indian fast bowlers, Sarwan and Gayles can always be dangerous, so their batsman should be a little worried to India. Indian with their star studded batsman lineup will crush the Windies batsman, I think its going to be a high scoring series, and we might see 2 or 3 draws, but India should easily win this one.
I think India can give rest to Tendulkur, because he will be despertly needed in the upcoming tour of NZ, with Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Ganguly, who needs Tendulkur.
Ganguly won the toss and elected to bat.India 11/0.
West Indies team:
CH Gayle, WW Hinds, RR Sarwan, S Chanderpaul, *CL Hooper,
RO Hinds, +RD Jacobs, MV Nagamootoo, M Dillon, PT Collins,
CE Cuffy.
Indian team:
Bangar.Sehwag,R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, *SC Ganguly, +PA Patel, A Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman, Z Khan, J Srinath.
44/0 in 21 overs....
indian openers looking good....
sehwag brilliant like always....
Ind 75-0 (29)
R (B) 4's 6's
S Bangar not out 18 87 3 0
V Sehwag not out 53 89 11 0
Sehwag going strong
Saw a bit of it... Im surprised that the stadium if full of people even though this is a test match!! Seemed like a sold out stadium on a week day!
Shewag reaches his century:
Batsmen: R B 4s 6s S/R
V Sehwag (RHB) 101 145 19 1 69.66 Striker
SB Bangar (RHB) 29 134 3 0 21.64 Non-striker
India 136/0
Shewag has scored 101 off the total of 136, just goes to show how much he is dominating the match.
i tell u this guysehwag is really good....
i havent seen any bowler who has really troubled him so far....
looks so cool and comfortable playing out there....
brilliant strokes, amzing strike rate, simply too good....
i wud rate him the best opener of present cricket, along with gibbs and gilchrist....
India : 201/0 (62.3)1st Inn.
Batsman Runs Balls
S Bangar 55 187
V Sehwag 137 191
.
Runs Balls 4 6 S.Rate
1 SB Bangar c Sarwan b Dillon 55 187 4 1 29
2 V Sehwag c Jacobs b Dillon 147 206 24 3 71
3 R Dravid not out 18 49 2 0 36
4 SR Tendulkar not out 23 55 4 0 41
TOTAL (in 82 overs, for 2 wickets) 255
Current Run Rate 3.11
was looking at the bowling analysis of the WIndies...
Bowlers Overs Mdns Runs Wkts Nb Wb R.R
Cameron Cuffy 15 . 0 3 42 0 0 0 2.80
Carl Hooper 7 . 0 2 34 0 0 0 4.86
Chris Gayle 1 . 0 0 3 0 0 0 3.00
M Nagamootoo 21 . 0 5 70 0 3 0 3.33
Mervyn Dillon 16 . 0 6 30 2 0 1 1.88
Pedro Collins 15 . 0 6 38 0 3 0 2.53
Ramnaresh Sarwan 0 . 1 0 0 0 0 0
Ryan Hinds 9 . 0 0 39 0 1 0 4.33
Wavell Hinds 4 . 0 0 11 0 0 0 2.75
:) seems he has used nine bowlers...only ones left out are Chanderpaul and WK
India made 278/2 in their First day of test match.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Spock: *
Saw a bit of it... Im surprised that the stadium if full of people even though this is a test match!! Seemed like a sold out stadium on a week day!
[/QUOTE]
Spock Ji
Now you know why Pakistan wants to play in India. In places like Mumbai and Kolkata the Seating Capacity is between 60,000 and 100,000.
More people have attended the Mumbai Match on Day One than the number of people who witnessed the Australia-Pakistan Test in Colombo in Five Days.
The Indian government is misxing Politics with Sport which I do not support.
However, the Indian Government's stance that they are linking this to Cross Border Terrorism is their responsiblity.
With this policy the Pakistan Cricket Board has lost USD 50 Million in two Years.
I hope India and Pakistan sort out their Political Problems so that we can watch the India-Pakistan Cricket Matches in Inda as well as Pakistan.
Have a Nice Day
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by bdsurti: *
Spock Ji
Now you know why Pakistan wants to play in India. In places like Mumbai and Kolkata the Seating Capacity is between 60,000 and 100,000.
More people have attended the Mumbai Match on Day One than the number of people who witnessed the Australia-Pakistan Test in Colombo in Five Days.
The Indian government is misxing Politics with Sport which I do not support.
However, the Indian Government's stance that they are linking this to Cross Border Terrorism is their responsiblity.
With this policy the Pakistan Cricket Board has lost USD 50 Million in two Years.
I hope India and Pakistan sort out their Political Problems so that we can watch the India-Pakistan Cricket Matches in Inda as well as Pakistan.
Have a Nice Day
[/QUOTE]
You are right, but we cannot blame the players/sports boards for these politics... Anywayz, our team and our Government is ready to play (and it will be fun, like old times) but the ball is in your Governments court.
India currently 383/4
This morning India lost two quick wickets. Tendulkar for 35 and Ganguly for 4. Wickets fell at 280 and 296.
Dravid solid as ever.
Laxman stumped for 45
India 401/5
Dravid 98 not out
Tea
All the following happened in one over after tea:
Dravid completed his century and retired hurt as he was dehydrated. In came Harbhajan, Dillon started his run up, abandoned it and threw the ball on the floor and ran to the pavilion as he was having stomach problems, Cuffy took the ball to complete the over, and took Harbhajan's wicket with the first ball.
The next over:
Kumble also gone.
India 408/7
Zaheer Khan goes first ball
India 408/8
A mini collapse from 401/5 to 408/8, effectively 408/9 as Dravid looks unlikely to return.
Nagamoto misses his hat trick as his appeal for lbw against Srinath is turned down.