If the quality of a country’s cricket can be gauged by its domestic leagues, then Indian cricket lies in shambles. The premier Indian domestic first class tournament, named after the legend from the Golden Age of Cricket finds itself in this situation for many reasons.

This is very evident from the current season, where teams play only for the first innings lead, and don’t attempt to make a game out of it. And the lesser said about the state of the pitches, the better. We have seen only seventeen results out of the 45 games so far, and the pitches have been dead, in many of these games. The major problem is in the current points structure, that gives 3 points for first innings lead, 5 for victories and 6 for innings victories.

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It Rained Runs at the Green Park

The second Test of the ongoing India – Sri Lanka series has begun well for the hosts, with the openers amassing a one-day like partnership. The Green Park at Kanpur usually is a good track, and aids spinners later in the game. However, after a debacle against the Proteas at Motera last year, the pitch was transformed into a dustbowl where only Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman put bat to ball after four sessions, and India won that game within three days. The pitch didn’t look the same today, but Lanka went in with three spinners in Murali, Herath and Mendis.

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The ongoing seven game series of one-day internationals between India and Australia has generated a lot of excitement all over the world. The teams fighting are the very best in the world, regardless of the fact that injuries have severely dented the tourists and not so severely, the hosts. The true test for any sporting team lies in its reserves, and Australia has proved why they have been on top or around the top for two decades now. The performances from Doug Bollinger and Clint McKay were fantastic, considering their lack of international exposure. That the Aussies managed to win three games with Mitchell Johnson woefully out of form, is ample evidence of the bench bowlers.

With Lee, Bracken, Clark not playing and Johnson out of form, the Aussies have accomplished what no other team lacking four of its premier fast bowlers can even dream of doing: defeating India on their own turf. The crowd support in the series is awesome, with Sachin’s march to 17,000 runs followed my many a eager fan, in person and in much larger numbers, on TV. The margins of victory too say something about the rivalry that has become the talk of the cricketing world: 4 runs, 99 runs, 6 wickets, 24 runs, and 3 runs. With series like this, one day cricket can never die!

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England 102 and 82 for 5 (Anderson 0*, Prior 4*) trail Australia 445 (North 110, Clarke 93, Ponting 78 Broad 6-91) by 261 runs

The day started on a muted note for England with Clarke and North bent on consolidating the lead and batting England out of the game. Clarke played some lovely shots and was poised for a well deserved century but fell on 93 to Onions, but he had taken Australia to nearly thrice what England managed to score. North had been patient, and continued in the same vein after Clarke was dismissed. The second new ball saw Haddin fall to Harmison for 14, but the score had steadily moved up to 323 for 6 by then.

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