Sri Lanka vs India ODI match Canberra 12 February, 2008 - A Fun Report

Other possible headlines
- Finally Duckworth Lewis gets the better of Rain Gods
- Indian batsmen played slow enough to last a 50 over match
- Sreesanth gets hammered and how
- Sri Lanka rides on Jayasuriya’s cameo

Rain Gods came again and were angry as ever (with Duckworth and Lewis of course). However, the umpires could just manage 29 runs a side for result.

India took field and started very cautiously for a couple of overs (one of them was even a maiden). However Sehwag threw caution to wind and went home as usual (Fire or Retire?). Sachin played a small cameo before he was satisfied and went. Gambhir, Dhoni all contributed 30s and Rohit Sharma made up for his earlier average performances. Indian batsmen played slow enough to last a 50 over match. Overall, a pretty average stuff of about 6-7 RPO (which is good for a full match but not much for a shortened match). Maybe they didn’t think Sri Lanka deserved to see more of them! Aah and Yuvraj, well he did get only 8 balls and since he needed to score fast you can overlook this dismissal, though his contribution at this stage could have mattered. Overall it was a strike rate of just about 100 for everyone. For the record - none of the Sri Lankan bowlers was impressive, nor were the Indian batsmen extraordinary.

Rain Gods checked that 25 overs were necessary and so left us in a position where only 21 overs could be bowled. However,it seems that there was a short cut and 21 overs were enough for this to be declared a match.

Dilshan who was supposed to be dropped in favour of Maharoof got retained and the “Fire or Retire” worked for him. He Fired! And so did Jayasuriya, and how!! Sreesanth went for 23 in an over, and the mayhem didn’t stop at that. He went for 48 in 3 overs,and overshadowed Ishant and Irfan who went for 26 and 30 respectively.

Jayasuriya lasted only 13 balls and he brought back Sri Lanka into contention in just those. All others got inspired and the target looked very small from there onwards. Though Harbhajan bowled quite steady, it was too late. And India paid the price of using part time bowlers this time (they had a lucky escape last time when Australia had almost recovered from the slump with even part time batsmen like Brett Lee). India had got 7 extras in 29overs but gave 19 in 19 overs,including 3 no balls resulting in 3 free hits.

Well now India may pay the price of not earning the bonus point. Let us wait and watch!

(the above are written in a funny mood and not intended to hurt your sentiment - i doubt if any actual players gets time to read - so please don’t (get) hurt yourself defending them)

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Australia vs India ODI match Melbourne 10 February, 2008 - A Fun Report

Other possible headlines
- Toss was the only win Australia could register today
- 45% of boundaries in the Australian innings were hit in the first 2 overs of Ishant Sharma!
- Ponting is not Harbhajan’s bunny anymore, he leaves before him
- Ishant Sharma is neither Shant (Quiet) nor Sharma (Shy)
- Dhoni feeds part time bowlers to Brett Lee

Within an hour of the start of the match it became clear that the Toss may end up to be the only thing that the Aussies may win today. First of all Gilchrist. Walk-ready Gilchrist was made to walk by the umpire, and the fact that he was on 0 didn’t help, obviously Gilly isn’t fond of ducks - surely not when they fly out of a scoreboard. Then Ishant Sharma was smashed 5 times to the fence within his first 2 overs. For the record, 45% of the boundaries in the Australian innings were hit in those 2 overs. It seemed that maybe Praveen Kumar may just manage a look in, in the the next match - or maybe Munaf? And right when Ishant Sharma should have been removed from the attack, his Captain did the most courageous thing! He continued with him with some advice. Well, this turned the match. Maybe Hayden couldn’t hide his delight at this decision, but before he knew he was watching the replays of his 4s in the pavillion. Ponting followed him in the next Ishant over. He seems to be happy proving that he isn’t Harbhajan’s bunny any more. So he is now leaving before Harbhajan enters!

Soon Clarke, Symonds and Haddin left. Unluckily Hopes wasn’t playing so there were (literally) no Hopes left for Australia. And Australia was rocking at 92 for 6. Well, Dhoni in a momentary lapse of reason ordered his part-time bowlers instead of wrapping up the tail - something that they could have given a miss today and should have risked bowling out their main bowlers to try and wrap up Australia. - something that they could have given a miss today and should have risked bowling out their main bowlers to try and wrap up Australia. Now Brett Lee enjoyed sometime out in the sun with Hussey before sense prevailed and Ishant, Pathan and Sreesanth returned to wrap up the rest. Well the score was 159 by now.

It seemed India’s match, but India was happy to make it difficult for themselves. Or maybe it was Captain’s decision to have every batsman take crucial practice. With Ponting so sure of the defeat that he postponed the 3rd Powerplay till the 46th over. Well India almost lost their way after Tendulkar left but for Dhoni who refused to go and neither let Rohit Sharma go. Well that’s how difficult Captaincy is! I still remember when Kapil Dev never used to give up, whether he had Ghavri for company or he had Kirti Azad with him. Yuvraj is increasingly coming like a fad which doesn’t last long. Well somehow India didn’t try to even get that extra bonus point for which Australia always makes a fight. Whether, it can cost them in the end is for all to wait and see. In the end India took 45.1 overs to score just 160!!

(the above are written in a funny mood and not intended to hurt your sentiment - i doubt if any actual players gets time to read - so please don’t (get) hurt yourself defending them)

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If Australia bats first, it is most likely to win. The likely score bands:

Australia: 273/294 (based on the average score by Australia batting first in a home series in 2007, and the average score based on the players playing in this match. If Hopes is played, Australia are likely to score an extra 15-20 runs)

India: 256/264 (based on the average score by india batting second in 2007 in an away series, and the average score based on the players playing in this match. Actually with Yuvraj not playing the average scores may go down by another 6-10 runs)

Australia may win by a margin of 10-40 runs. But if Hopes plays and Yuvraj doesn’t play, the margin may increase by another 25 runs.

If India bats first, it has a 55% chance of victory. The likely score bands:

India: 264/271 (based on the average score by india batting first in 2007 in an away series, and the average score based on the players playing in this match. Actually with Yuvraj not playing the average scores may go down by another 6-10 runs)
Australia: 260/273 (based on the average score by Australia batting second in a home series in 2007, and the average score based on the players playing in this match. If Hopes is played, Australia are likely to score an extra 15-20 runs)

India may win by 5-10 runs, else Australia may win by 4-6 wickets. But if Hopes plays and Yuvraj doesn’t play, the margin may increase by another 25 runs, which means that the chance of India winning would be just about 25% and Australia may win by 5-7 wickets.

Another important fact:
Indian team’s score based on statistics of present team is 256 for 9 (without Yuvraj), and they are likely to restrict an average opposition to 266 for 7. So the present team is likely to win 40% of matches they play
Australian team’s score based on statistics of present team is 296 for 5 (with Hopes), and they are likely to restrict an average opposition to 243 for 9. So the present team is likely to win 80% of the matches they play.

This is solely based on statistical analysis of the author and has no derivation from any existing article or piece of work.

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