KIWI SHUT INDIAN TIGER ROAR

The Indians had come to NZ with the hope of burying their past demons. Sadly Indians could not keep up with their champion image and displayed a brilliant example of how to play cricket invidually.Clearly Vettori had given a brilliant opportunity for the Indians to draw first blood in this NZ tour by sending the Indians to bat first .The reason I am saying this is because the grounds were small and with big hitters in the Indian batting lineup I was expecting a score of about 200.Moreover the kiwis had to bat under the lights and in the windy conditions which was a definite plus point to the Indians while defending the score.

However as a tradition India never starts a tour on a happy note.Same was the case the Indians came to the field as they had already won the match.True they got off to a flying start with Sehwag clearing the MCG inner circle(NZ boundary) four times before trying a Nadal like smash through midwicket only failing this time.Credits to the young O Brien for having a big heart.Then it was Yuvraj,I think its time somebody told him that he cannot sweep a part time spinner leave alone a Vettori.After which Rohit as usual came with lot of flair pushing a ball to six and then again trying to clear the ropes and scooping it in the air.Yusuf was batting like in the nets that is with gay abandon.With already hitting three sixes he again tried to flat bat the ball out of the ground only this time N McCullum was smart this time giving it huge air time and landing it almost out of the playing area.Pathan tried to heave it from outside over long-on ,only to find Oram at long-on doing a Voges.The only positive was even after 96/6 India had Raina a man who has truly come of age and score a brilliant 61 unbeaten to lead India to 162.

With the Kiwis needing 163 Ishant struck first taking out Jesse Ryder and a near shout for Guptill.He was equally supported by Zak on the other end with a brilliant spell of controlled aggressive fast bowling.But only the score was too small for the small grounds and McCullum showing immense maturity to guide NZ to victory alongwith comeback man Oram.Although Indians were outplayed in this game I do like to stress a point here that India is going to get back.Mark my words kiwis Sehwag and Yuvraj are going to hammer the kiwi bowling next T20. NZ doesn’t have enough teeth in their bowling attack to really stop Indians ,it was Indians who gave away the match instead of the other way around.

One more thing I would like to comment on is the ridiculously small grounds.The ICC should maintain some standards which every country should follow .I think the optimum ground size should be 90m radius in which I think spinners can really bowl without sending in rockets at the batsmen legs.Anyhow lets wait and watch as Indians make a mockery of the kiwi bowling next T20.