India left struggling at the end of Day 2, 2nd Test Napier.

It's never easy to bat during the closing hours of a day.......especially after being in the field for most part of two long days. More so when you are facing a staggering total of 619/9 d.

By setting up such a score, the Kiwis have ensured that they are not going to lose from here. It's Team India who has to do the catching up act all the time. Irrespective of the surface, the task is going to be all but uphill. And once you end the day at 79/3, without doubt you are looking down the barrel.

India finds itself in such a situation, thanks to some pedestrian bowling and mediocre fielding on day one. After being pushed on to the back foot right at the start, when the Kiwis were left tottering at 23/3, if they have managed to score such a mammoth total, it's not only due to exceptional batting, also they were ably supported by our fielders and bowlers.

Yuvraj dropped Taylor to start with and he went on to score 151, he dropped Franklin and he scored a fifty. And there were more.

The bowlers bowled their heart on a flat surface to create those opportunities, but seeing those early reprieves, they were always going to be frustrated. Then on the bowling was just not consistent enough.

To the credit of the Kiwis, they did really well to come back from a defeat and 3 wickets down and impose themselves on a strong opponent like India. Ryder has been a revelation, Taylor brilliant and Maccullum superb. Add to that fifties from James Franklin and Vettori, Sehwag's men were left panting.

The fact that Dhoni had to sit out, has not helped. He's sorely missed behind the stumps, as the captain and sure enough, Dinesh is no match for him as a batsman too.

Now India have their back against the wall and its up to Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman to guide their side out of trouble and save the match, the chance of winning being long gone. You can't pin your hopes on a struggling Yuvraj, hence it's the much famed "Fab three" now to lead the show.

On the other hand, it's certainly going to be interesting to see if this side is capable of pulling off a draw out of such a situation, and if they can, they would have proved their worth as the truly deserving challeger of Australia for the top ICC ranking.

India wraps up 1st Test on Day 4 at Hamilton

It all happened as expected. New Zealand had managed to set a modest target of 39 for India to go up in the series 1-0. And India did, in style.

Another feather in Dhoni's cap, a 33-year old draught of a test win ended! Tremendous achievement indeed......given India's form off late, again it was expected though..........of course there were eternal critics like Sourav Ganguly, who has time and again brought up this issue of overseas test victory as the only litmus test of the quality of Dhoni's captaincy. It was a fitting reply to him and people like him.

A special mention of Sachin is a must, for the sheer brilliance and intensity of that man with the bat even after 20 hard, long years of international cricket. Great going dude! Nice to have you back as a player.......rather than a name.

Dravid was good, Laxman needs to pull up his socks and Yuvraj was a worry.......he still has not been able to put his mind over matters, when it comes to Test cricket. He seriously needs to bat with the same mindset with which he plays one-dayers.

Coming back to the victory, by now Dhoni has won 5 out of the 6 Test matches that he has captained, one being a draw. Superb record upfront. I would like to see though, how he reacts when a situation presents itself where India has to save a test from the brink of defeat. It will be interesting to see how he marshalls his resources under such tight situation.

All well for now though......time to enjoy and to get ready for the next one in Napier.

India vs New Zealand, 1st Test, Day three

It was yet again a fascinating day of cricket today at Hamilton. NZ, to start with, must have hoped to take a couple of wickets upfront in the first hour, to gain access to the Indian tail. Didn’t happen soon though. The obstacle on their way was Sachin Tendulkar.

A hundred plus partnership followed with Dhoni (115 to be precise) after the overnight one with Yuvraj ended (a 76-run one). Sachin carved out his 42nd test century in the morning and went on to score a tremendous 160 before nicking O’Brien to the wicket keeper.

When they finally managed to get to the tail, they ran into Zaheer Khan, whose late burst saw India going past the 500 mark and established an over all lead of 241 runs in the first innings.

Then on it was always going to be an uphill task for the Kiwis, who scored 75 for the day with a loss of 3 wickets. Now they are behind by 166 runs with 7 wickets in hand. With two full days of cricket left (that is assuming no weather intervention), it’s India who are absolutely in the driver’s seat in this test.

But to play the devil’s advocate, anything is possible in cricket……. who knows………. a Ryder might just do a VVS Laxman out of the blue, and you can’t discount Taylor too. The Kiwis are known for doing the unexpected at home and especially when India is chasing history, skepticism do creep in to our minds.

What team India needs to do is, to go for the kill. Absolutely no mercy and no complacency till the job is finished.

After all, its them who are eyeing the number one spot in the world.

1st Test, India vs New Zealand, Day Two

Not much to write home about for the day, except for a routine day of typical test match cricket, where 3 half centuries were scored from the Indian side and 4 wickets were captured by the Kiwis.

The day started really well for NZ. Ever since Mills caught Gambhir right in front of the stumps on the very first ball of the day, the confidence of the Kiwis had surged a few notches, despite the fact that, it was a no-ball. What was encouraging was the movement in the air and off the pitch. Not too far since then team India handed them the 1st wicket, a huge one in form of Sehwag, thanks to some indiscrete running between the wickets.

Now NZ could stick to their plans through the day, as the destroyer of strategies was back in the pavilion.

But Dravid and Gambhir held forte till the brink of tea, both scoring fine half centuries (Dravid 66 and Gambhir 72), and India had pushed their nose a bit forward with this strong foundation. Both fell in quick succession, but that brought in Laxman and Tendulkar to crease, who carried the innings forward. When Laxman departed after scoring a 92 ball 30, India were already within striking distance of the NZ first innings total of 279.

At stumps, Sachin was still going strong at 70 and Yuvraj had kind of got a start, and team India was just 1 run behind with 6 wickets in hand.

Even though the batting has been slow (at a rate of 3.04), it has put India in a very strong position, from where we can work towards a big lead. With only the 2nd day over, this test match looks very much like heading towards a result, and for fans like me, to be heading right towards a chapter in 41-year history.

1st Test, India vs New Zealand, Day One

As the saying goes, "In Test cricket, bat first if you win the toss. However, if you see moisture on the surface, think once, and bat first. More moisture, think twice, then bat first.”

Dhoni, being Dhoni, was seldom going to follow traditions just for the heck of it. He is this ultra cool bloke, who always follows his instincts when it comes to decision making. Yet again, we saw just that this morning when he decided to bowl first, citing a very practical reason - that he wanted to give his bowlers the best chance in the first couple of hours to take wickets with whatever little help the other wise placid looking wicket was going to provide.

The fact that team India managed to claim six wickets in the first 2-hours, kind of vindicated his stand, and his decision seemed to be a brilliant one.

But to me, this decision was a good one for a quite different reason. Team India has never started a fresh series well. Under the given conditions, there was a great chance that we could have found our team in a similar situation as the Kiwis found themselves in, with almost no chances of bouncing back. More than anything else, this could have played on our mind creating a self doubt for the entire series upfront. This is exactly what Vettori & Co were desperately looking for, as more than anybody else, they are aware of our strength and form. Hence, Dhoni thought that even a couple of wickets would hand us back the momentum and it did.

The decision would have been slammed down as utter defensive had it backfired. Team India knew this and went all out to prove it right,

Zaheer has been the true leader of the attack for the past couple of years and he showed the way by claiming the 1st two wickets. He could have had one more had Sehwag held on to that sharp chance Taylor had offered when on naught. Ishant Sharma again showed why he is such a good bowler when it comes to overseas conditions. Munaf too stuck to the task. Repeatedly, off late, this seam bowling department has been one of the major reasons of India’s success abroad.

With their back against the wall, at 60/6, we saw the real quality of a test match when Vettori and Ryder got involved in that record 186-run stand. Finally 279 did look like a very decent total.

The Indian innings started on an expected note with Sehwag and Gambhir starting breezily to end the day at 29/0.

All eyes will be now on second day, when India would be looking forward to build up a good total on a relatively eased up surface after seeing off the first hour. On the other hand New Zealand will fancy their chances to restrict India to a modest score.

Boy! What entertainment right from the word go......Can we ask for more!!!!

India wins series against New Zealand

Wow! India wins the series 3-0. And in what manner! Sehwag and Gambhir just dismissed the opposition attack with utter disdain to race to the modified target of 201/0 in 23.3 over to register a comprehensive series win.

The result just confimed the superiority of the visitors over the host as a side more than anything else. And many people like Sourav Ganguly, who had been adamantly refusing to acknowledge this side's capability in overseas conditions (read Dhoni's captaincy). despite the success in T-20 world cup in South Africa, the tri-series win in Australia, a long due one day series victory in Srilanka (achieved twice now in quick succession) have yet again been proved wrong.

Team India has improved in this series by leaps and bounds. Coming into the T-20 series without a practice game, with as many as seven guys playing in New Zealand for the very first time, they struggled to adapt in the first match and lost the second match by a whisker.

And from then on, it has been only a men-in-deep-blue show all along.

Though almost each and every member from the New Zealand side have spoken highly on the prowess of team India, deep down they certainly believed that they were always the front runners for the series. More so after beating India 2-0 in the T-20 series. This is not hard to figure out if you closely follow their post match interviews and a few other interactions with the media.

They keep on emphasizing on the fact that they have failed to bowl at the right areas to the strong batting line up, thereby allowed India to win matches. But the fact remains that they were beaten by a better side and all those bad bowling happened only due to the savage attack that they came under upfront.

Today when Vettori said that they would consider they were 2-3 down including the T-20s, he was only consoling himself and his side, as those two initial matches were kind of used by team India to acclimatize themselves with the conditions and once that happened there was no stopping.

I'm sure we are going to witness an engaging test series as well.

Preview:India vs New Zealand, 11th March,2009, Hamilton

I know its a bit too late to post a preview just a few hours running into the game tomorrow, but then I needed to do this just to summerise my thoughts before the real action begins.

India are no doubt eyeing the series victory right here, rather than allowing the kiwis any opening which can be disasterous, given the talent they boast of in this particular side. Dhoni must have discovered it in a not so pleasant manner during the closing hours of the Chirstchurch match, where the Mills and Southee partnership had threatened to sneak back into the match by almost half an hour of lusty hitting. Anything could have happened there, had Munaf not been removed from the attack by the umpire.

India did manage to win the match, but not before inflicting a sense of satisfaction and a bit of confidence into the opposition. Even after receiving the mauling in the first half, the kiwis will be taking this goodish feeling of having given India a run for their money despite of facing a staggering target.

Team India must have discussed it in their meeting........the drop catches, the sloppy ground fielding, the lack of purpose in bowling......not to forget Munaf's attitude.

It will be interesting to see if Dhoni gives him another chance.

Sachin missing out is not going to hit India too hard as they have the fire power in their line up which is not dependent on any individual any more. People are ready to stand up and be counted.

Rohit Sharma seems to be the natural replacement, but my money will be on Irfan Pathan, given the all inform batting line up already there at Dhoni's disposal.

Irfan would really bring in a nice balance into the side, especially because Rohit is unlikely to get much of a hit in the middle, unless there happens to be a bad collapse. And you don't get into a game planning for a collapse.

Dhoni would again like to call correctly at the toss and bat first, whereas Daniel Vettori would certainly be in a dilemma. If chasing is their strength, target setting has been India's strength. Just to make India a bit uncomfortable he would not really take a risk by batting first and then watching his bowlers carted all round the park helplessly. Rather he would hope to bowl first, bowl better and give themselves an outside chance with guys like Ryder and Maccullum in such kind of form.

We will have to wait and watch.

Me to Iain O'Brien @ his blog - 9th March,2009

Hi Iain,

In the line of my comments to your pervious post, Yuvraj did come good and provided the impetus to propel India to that mammoth total of 392/4. It was always gonna be hard to overhaul that kind of a total, but boy! What an innings Ryder played!

This is exactly what I meant when I’d said you have got one of the most exciting one day sides in the world today.

I doubt if Daniel playing in this match would have made too much of a difference. At best his overs would have gone for lesser but another bowler in the line up would have ended up more expensive.

Now, even after countering a rampaging Sehwag, if you land up in such a mess, what does one really do? Imagine Sehwag batting for a good 35-over at least for once in this series....You'll need more than a couple of Ryder's to chase that down.

But excellent batting track mate.....I just loved watching it.

I hope both you and Dan are playing in the next match.

Best of luck.

Me to Iain O'Brien @ his blog - 07th March,2009

Hi Iain,

No doubt you are one of the best fast bowlers that world cricket has today.

I just feel our (Indian) batsmen have to be a bit more careful while playing you. If they can get say fifty-odd out of you giving you no more than a wicket, they will have done their job.

I know that won't make you too happy (ideally for somebody who sets high standards for himself, fify-odd runs are one to many.....but trust me, these bunch of Indian batsmen are capable of much more really.

You are yet to see Yuvraj in full flow.....And who knows, you might just see Yusuf Pathan as well coming up the order for a match and he is well capable of scoring big, real big hundreds.

But all said and done, your current team is one of the best one day side in a long time from New Zealand.....We have already seen the glimpses of that in Australia and you guys can only improve.That makes world cricket more and more exciting.

By the way.....what are the chances of getting a full match in Christchurch mate?

All the best