Cricket News sort by Cricwaves Columns

That Mumbai won the most prestigious Indian domestic tournament for the 40th time wasn’t surprising. The manner in which they fought throughout the series to lay their hands on the trophy though was outright inspiring.

Indian opener Gautam Gambhir registered yet another failure in the final ODI at Dharamsala, raising serious question marks over the future of his international career. Gambhir’s 24 on Sunday was preceded by scores of 52,8,33 and 10 in the series.

South Africa avoided the ignominy of a whitewash against New Zealand by winning a thriller on Friday at Potchefstroom. Ryan McLaren, known more for his bowling, and having already picked up four wickets with the ball, became an unlikely hero with the bat when he slammed the last ball of the match from James Franklin for a six.

Following India’s hard-fought win at Mohali, M S Dhoni surpassed Sourav Ganguly to become the second most successful one-day captain in the history of Indian cricket. Dhoni registered his 77th victory in his 134 match as captain.

For a while now, India’s batting has been its stronger suit. Even when the test side occupied the top spot in the world rankings, the efficacy of the bowling lagged some way behind the solid and commanding batting of the likes of Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman.

The game of cricket has a way of making heroes out of players in the most unlikely of ways. Batsmen end up winning games with their bowling and vice versa. On Saturday, New Zealand pulled off the most unlikeliest of ODI wins when they recovered from 140 for 8 to chase down 209.

Cycling’s fallen hero Lance Armstrong has finally admitted to doping en route to winning seven Tour de France titles. Following this admission of guilt, Armstrong has received backlashes from different sections of the sporting fraternity.

Former Pakistan skipper and noted commentator Rameez Raja has stated that M S Dhoni must quit T20 captaincy since India haven’t been faring well in the format under him. Raja has a fair point.

The 1960’s hold a special place in Indian cricket because it was a decade which saw some of country’s finest talent in action. It was just about the time the Indians were learning how to win at the big level.