With
35,985 participants, the New Delhi event has been declared the largest yoga
demonstration at a single venue, beating out the previous record of just under
30,000 set by Indian school students in 2005.
Near lies Kotla
ground, different ~ mostly no music to bowlers – reportedly smaller where batsmen
make merry. India has exhibited its weakness to left-arm
pace. England's John Lever had a
memorable debut at the Kotla in 1976, when he notched up a half-century and had
match figures of 10 for 70. That Series
was marred by the ‘vaseline incident’ of John Lever. At Chepauk, in the 3rd Test too,
Lever was fiery. The England attack of Willis, Lever, Old, Greig and Underwood
bundled out Indians for 83 chasing 284.
Now in Bangladesh,
stung by their first-ever series defeat against Bangladesh, undefireIndia is looking to salvage some pride and prevent
the hosts from registering a rare clean sweep.
At the center is another tall left arm bowler - Mustafizur Rahman, who
has taken 11 wickets in just 2 matches. At
the time of posting this, Bangladesh are 210/7 chasing 318. Fifties from Shikhar Dhawan and MS Dhoni set
India up for their best batting performance of the ODI series; Dhawan stroked a
73-ball 75 and Dhoni, batting at No. 4 for the second match running, made a
77-ball 69 that saw India through the middle overs. Together, they laid the
platform for the lower middle order, led by Suresh Raina, to smash 50 off the
last five overs.
Captain cool is a cliché often used to describe MS Dhoni.
MSD had tasted success in all formats of the game. The transformation of MSD, from a long-haired
pinch-hitter to a suave captain was as
dramatic as his exit recently
from Tests. Now there is criticism that
Dhoni has lost his cool in this Series – here is an interesting AmulAd !
RavichandranAshwin
who answered the press conference, mounted a strong defence of MS Dhoni's
leadership saying he would "die on the field" if his captain asked
him to. Dhoniearlier brushed aside the
criticism of his captaincy but sarcastically quipped that if he was the source
of everything that was wrong with Indian cricket, he would gladly step aside.Ashwin
added that challenge starts for Mustafizur from here. Before Mustafizur Rahman, there was
AjanthaMendis. Much like Mendis did in his debut Test series in 2008, but
subsequently found tough to live up to that reputation. India's plans for tackling Mustafizur have
been widely sought after, and when the inevitable question popped up, Ashwin
said: "If there isn't a counter as such, I mean what can we do? Can we
kidnap him? No, we have to come out there and play some good and solid cricket
and try and make sure we nullify him. He does bowl a good cutter, which is
something we have to watch out for.
In this Series,
apart from Bangladesh romping home a 79-run
win over India in the first ODI at Dhaka , the talking point has been the
Dhoni-Rahman incident that took place in the 25th over of India's run chase.Off
the second ball of the 25th over, Dhoni drove a Rahman delivery to mid-off and
set off for a quick single but mid-way through the run, he barged into the
bowler who seemed to feel the force and had to leave the field injured. Later Dhoniwas fined 75 percent of his match fees and Rahman
50 percent of his match fees.While Dhoni has been criticised for deliberately
shoving Rahman, it must be noted that it was clearly accidental and the
incident has judged far too hardly by some.
Times of India
reporttried to give it a different
tinge stating that given Dhoni's stature in international cricket, it was a
very unsporting act, something the Indian captain has never been accused of in
his illustrious career. But, replays clearly showed that Dhoni played it soft
and with mid off fielder inside the circle, he had to take off quickly. Streaming in at a good pace, there was Rahman
in the middle who could see Dhoni charging – still ambled across without ever
trying to get out of the way.He was not
even preparing to collect the ball – but stood on the way – and there was a
possible run out – Dhoni ran straight, barged into Rahman and nearly knocked
him off his feet. After the collision,
Dhoni seemingly said sorry to the bowler, though he was unhappy with the bowler
coming his way, went to check whether Rahman was okay. Earlier in 5th over the same
bowler had blocked Rohit Sharma too.
BishanBedi once
asked the Indian team to jump into Ocean and now says that MSD is no longer
Captain Cool and yoga sessions can help him overcome the tough phase !Bedi
feels Dhoni is certainly ruffled by the recent losses.“Ye
pehlidafahaikiwohbehkibehkibaateinkarrahahai (It’s the first time he is not
making sense). And that is a clear indication that he is not ‘Captain Cool’
anymore. He looks ruffled. Having said that I still don’t blame any individual
but the team,” Bedi said in an interview.“There is no shame in defeat but there
has to be some concern in defeat. The killer instinct, which is part of a
professional sportsperson’s character, was missing from Team India. Bangladesh
were more committed in batting, bowling and fielding front.Bedi, 68, also
questioned the think-tank’s decision to drop Ajinkya Rahane in the second game.
Man to man India
were a better side on paper, but games are played on the ground. Bangladesh has
played better Cricket – India should avoid the washout – then there will always
chances to undo all the damage. Off the field, it was Bangladesh
who displayed their poor spirit …. In a shocking revelation, Indian cricket's
superfan Sudhir Gautam has claimed that the Bangladeshi fans wanted to kill him
to avenge their team's quarter-final loss against India in the ICC World Cup
2015. Gautam as all fans know, is seen at all India's matches with his body painted in
tri-colour. He is always spotted in the stands waving the Indian flag with
number 10 on his body (Tendulkar's ODI jersey number). He had even travelled to Australia and New Zealand for
World Cup 2015. Sudhir was manhandled by the Bangladeshi fans post India's
humiliating series defeat against Bangladesh after the second ODI.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
24th June 2015.
