South Africa play 2 test matches against India, no.1 team, at least before the start of this series. If South Africa wins this series, then they take away the no.1 spot. For India, a drawn series will be enough for them to retain the no. 1 spot. However, they will like to win the series of course. They will be without the service of The Wall, Dravid, and Laxman is still doubtful. The key however will be Sehwag as usual. If he strikes, then he can take the match so quickly away from the opponents. SA will have Steyn and Morkel in their arsenal. 2 match series or not, this is going to be one exciting clash.

India (probable): 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 M Vijay, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 S Badrinath, 7 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 8, Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Amit Mishra/Pragyan Ojha, 11 Ishant Sharma.

1st Test: India v South Africa at Nagpur
Feb 6-10 (09:30 local, 04:00 GMT)

2nd Test: India v South Africa at Kolkata
Feb 14-18 (09:30 local, 04:00 GMT)

1st ODI: India v South Africa at Jaipur
Feb 21 (14:30 local, 09:00 GMT)

2nd ODI: India v South Africa at Kanpur
Feb 24 (09:00 local, 03:30 GMT)

3rd ODI: India v South Africa at Ahmedabad
Feb 27 (14:30 local, 09:00 GMT)

Bangladesh 233 and 228 for 3 (Tamim 151, Junaid 55) trail India 544 for 8 dec ( Tendulkar 143, Dravid 111, Dhoni 89, Gambhir 68, Sehwag 56) by 83 runs

Quite unpredictable performance from Bangladesh especially from Tamim Iqbal. 151 runs after the opposition declaring their innings, quite remarkable. However, 2 wickets at the end from Khan changed the complex of the game. Still Bangladesh can put up some fight by putting some price in their 7 remaining wickets. Dhoni will like to pack them quickly, however without having to bat much in second innings since Dravid and Yuvraj already are out of the match. Interesting point of the match now.

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Highlights will be available after the match

Bangladesh 247/6 Shakib Al Hasan 85 (97), Mahmudullah 64 (80) | Yuvraj 10-33-1
India win in 43 Virat Kohli 102 (95), Gambhir 41 (46) | Naeem Islam 8-35-2

The impotent selection committee have had a few on the house, so we shall set them loose:
It’s a good thing that hierarchies exist in the Indian team. Someone like Virat Kohli needs that. It’s similar to when Yuvraj Singh first came into the team. There was Tendulkar (because he worshiped him) and Ganguly (because he knew how to encourage young talent and still draw the line) and so he mentally remained junior for a while. While all are allegedly born equal, some type of people (and players) early on need to be made to believe that some are indeed more equal than others. Things work out better for them this way.

The Kohli run has several fallouts – for one, it means that when India do field a full strength side in the future with Sachin-Sewhag at the top, Rohit Sharma-Dinesh-Yusuf-Uthappa (in that order) move further into the fringes. Which is not necessarily a bad thing when you’re thinking in terms of squad strength being enhanced. Secondly, Jadeja will become irrelevant with more onus on Yuvraj, Raina and Kohli himself to fill up overs. Also it would be nice if less of the Dhoni-boys (Tyagi/Jadeja) were picked and more of the match-winners (Ishanth, Praveen Kumar) in future squads.

As for Bangladesh, a disappointing tournament with no wins recorded. One thing that stands out keeping in mind their recent success is that when they get on a roll (both with the bat or in the field), they seem to rely on the opposition panicking. SL and India are far too experienced and better (on the average day) to do that. So when Bangladesh are faced with calmness/discipline just when the momentum’s going their way, they seem to hurtle into a mental brick-wall and appear listless/clueless. Most of the better teams win matches because they’re able to feed on any existing momentum going their way or because they have stand-out players who can pull out a spectacular performance. With the number of Bangladesh players who fall into the latter category a couple or so, unless they can find a way to keep the forces swinging their way, they’ll continue to drop out of tournaments and increase the yells for other countries to be given their opportunities.

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Scoreline: SL 213 all out Sangakkara 68, Randiv 56, Dilshan 33
India win in the 33rd over: Virat Kohli 71 no, Gautham Gambhir 71, Dinesh Karthik 48 | India vs SL in the finals

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Scoreline: Bangladesh 249/9 Mushfiqur 32, Shakib 47, Imrul 42, Raqibul 43 | Perera 10-32-2
SL win in the 43rd over Upul Thranga 118 no, Jayawardene 108

So easy, I took a stroll – something I never thought I’d do while Mahela’s batting.

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Scoreline: Ban 296/6 Tamim Iqbal 60 (42), Mahmudullah 60 (45), Imrul Kayes 70 (100)
India win in 48: MS Dhoni 101 (107), Virat Kohli 91 (102), Raina 51 (43)

Like has happened for years now, the Indian batsmen bail the team out after an ordinary performance in the other 2 aspects. Dhoni is probably the best going in pushing the singles with an I-won’t-get-out halo round his head punctuated by big hits when needed (at least most of the time). There was a stat that came up during the game which put his average at a ridiculous 100+ in games India win chasing. In Virat Kohli, there now seems to be a Raina clone, role-wise and game-wise. So all in all, three exciting players who have changed/are changing to win and finish games – The only question that needs to be asked is: what does the average sports fan prefer – entertainment or a clinical efficient win. A silly thought actually, cos when a team loses after your favourite players have done well, it depresses you. But anyway.

One can see with Imrul at the top what Bangladesh are trying – to change the style of play as compared to Junaid Siddique opening alongside Tamim. With Mahmudullah, Shakib and others around able to clout the ball, there seems to be a slow change creeping into Ashraful’s game. Not to compare the two, but it’s similar to what has happened with Tendulkar over the last 4-5 years. Things seem calmer and more assured. He did get out in typical style today though (complete with the frustrated look and all), but then change is a slow process.

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India cannot take Bangladesh lightly as they would also be aiming for the first victory in the series knowing fully well that another defeat would virtually close their passage to the January 13 final.

They have quality batsmen in the likes of Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Ashraful, who seems to have regained a bit of his old touch after an indifferent run last year, with a 75 against Sri Lanka.

But Bangladesh have been hampered in the pace bowling department by the unavailability of Mashrafe Mortaza and injury to Nazmul Hossain, who was replaced by Shahdat Hossain before the tournament.

Bangladesh squad

Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim†, Abdur Razzak, Aftab Ahmed, Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Ashraful, Naeem Islam, Raqibul Hasan, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Syed Rasel, Tamim Iqbal

India squad

MS Dhoni, V Sehwag, AB Dinda, G Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, RA Jadeja, KD Karthik†, Z Khan, V Kohli, A Mishra, A Nehra, SK Raina, RG Sharma, S Sreesanth, S Tyagi, Yuvraj Singh

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Eng (1st Inn) 273 all out | Morne Morkel 5, Steyn 4
SA (2nd Inn) 312/2 Graeme Smith 162 no, Hashim Amla 95

Damn, should have caught that partnership live.

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