Ashwin

Ashwin

 

Find a way to get the Indian Opener Early

Leader in sports

Shikhar Dhawan

Every single time Shikhar Dhawan has scored an ODI fifty (at least) in 2013, India have won the game. Moral of this short story: If you want to beat India in ODIs, you find a way to get Shikhar early.

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95 runs off 86 balls by Shikhar Dhawan..
141* runs off 123 balls by Rohit Sharma...
And
100* runs off just 52 balls by Virat Kohli...

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Full rankings on www.icc-cricket.com

Official Team rankings

ICC rankings for Tests, ODIs and Twenty20

ICC Test Championship

14 September 2013

Team	Matches	Points	Rating
South Africa	24	3240	135
England	38	4407	116
India	30	3473	116
Australia	33	3318	101
West Indies	22	2168	99
Pakistan	22	2133	97
Sri Lanka	26	2295	88
New Zealand	27	2126	79
Zimbabwe	11	372	34
Bangladesh	13	134	10

ICC ODI Championship

16 October 2013

Team	Matches	Points	Rating
India	50	6137	123
Australia	39	4491	115
England	42	4671	111
Sri Lanka	49	5435	111
South Africa	34	3584	105
Pakistan	45	4526	101
New Zealand	29	2593	89
West Indies	41	3639	89
Bangladesh	23	1754	76
Zimbabwe	26	1439	55
Ireland	11	423	38
Netherlands	7	88	13
Kenya	4	40	10

ICC Twenty20 Championship

11 October 2013

Team	Matches	Points	Rating
Sri Lanka	21	2173	128
Pakistan	33	2867	125
India	19	1843	123
West Indies	22	2041	120
South Africa	25	2233	118
England	28	2357	112
Australia	26	2047	102
New Zealand	25	1937	102
Ireland	12	568	81
Afghanistan	9	622	78
Bangladesh	14	739	74
Scotland	9	435	62
Zimbabwe	16	553	46
Kenya	13	456	41
Netherlands	8	181	36

The following team is not ranked as fewer than eight T20I matches played since August 2010 Canada.

Rankings table devised, developed and maintained by David Kendix, member of ICC Cricket Committee

Full rankings on www.icc-cricket.com

 

India blaze down target of 360

India v Australia, 2nd ODI, Jaipur

The Report by Abhishek Purohit

October 16, 2013

India 362 for 1 (Rohit 141*, Kohli 100*, Dhawan 95) beat Australia 359 for 5 (Bailey 92*, Hughes 83) by nine wickets

	India's openers put on 176 in 26.1 overs

"Now this is another fine mess you've got us into," goes the constant refrain from India's batsmen to their bowlers. At times, the mess is so huge the batsmen fail to clear it up, despite their best efforts. At times, the batsmen do such a thorough job, their refrain to the bowlers changes to, "So that's all you've got?" It was the latter occasion tonight. India's bowlers leaked 359, the same score they had in the 2003 World Cup final. Only once had a bigger target been chased in ODI history, the famous Wanderers 438 game. Leave alone 359, India had never chased even 300 successfully against Australia.

All that changed, as Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli made a mockery of the target, if a mockery can indeed be made of a target of 360. India got there with nine wickets and 39 deliveries to spare. Kohli registered the fastest ODI century by an Indian, in 52 balls. Rohit, accommodated by the team management and scrutinised by the media and fans for years, made his third hundred in 104 games, and his first since 2010. But it was Shikhar Dhawan, the golden boy of 2013, who set up the chase with a bludgeoned 95.

Dhawan and Rohit racked up 176 for the opening wicket in 26.1 overs, and Rohit and Kohli 186 for the second in only 17.2 overs. India began solidly against the fast bowlers and went through a short lull against the spinners before Dhawan hit a flurry of boundaries that more than made up for the brief let-up. During his brief career, Dhawan has made sure he makes let-offs and good fortune count. He was put down on 18 off Clint McKay and survived a very close stumping appeal on 42 against Xavier Doherty. After both reprieves, he let loose a volley of imperious strokes. He charged the fast bowlers, especially Shane Watson repeatedly, to power them through the covers. He pulled with confidence, and even the extra pace of Mitchell Johnson could not rein him in.

Rohit wasn't as free-flowing at the time but that did not take away from his contribution to the stand. He was strong through and over the covers against the quicks. He ended the fallow period of five overs for 18 runs against the spinners by stepping out and lifting Glenn Maxwell for six. Barring that insignificant sequence, Australia were never able to build any pressure, conceding boundaries regularly.

The only challenge in front of India now was whether the rest would be able to keep up with the frenetic pace the openers had set. Kohli came in and stepped up the tempo so emphatically, the conclusion was foregone long before India arrived home.

The openers had ensured India stayed in sight of an asking-rate of over seven; Kohli made it drop rapidly. As soon as he arrived, he started stepping out and muscling sixes, against seam and spin alike. Kohli hit seven sixes in all, and on the whole, the match descended into a Twenty20-style innings where one boundary merged into each successive one with the collective impact of deflating the bowlers and rendering them almost irrelevant.

Rohit played second fiddle in both partnerships, but was always in control of the situation. As he pulled a six to move to 75, he collapsed in pain from a cramp in his leg. He's been accused of being soft, of lacking temperament, but he took treatment and nearly doubled his score. He hared back for twos as the non-striker, and celebrated an emotional and long overdue century with screams and invectives.

It was improbable to even imagine Australia losing after making 359. Their first three batsmen delivered the platform with three half-centuries and George Bailey and Glenn Maxwell savaged an already clueless India attack. Roughed up by Aaron Finch, Phillip Hughes and Shane Watson, India's bowlers leaked 96 in 8.3 overs against the fourth-wicket duo of Bailey and Maxwell, and 122 in the last ten overs. It was the first time the first five batsmen had made fifties in an ODI. But it was also to be the night India executed their highest successful chase.