Hello Sports Lovers,
Are you enjoying the sporting actions this month amid all the grand preparations for the festive season? This month was a packed one with different sports entertaining us throughout the month. The month started on an exciting note for the tennis lovers when Carlos Alcaraz & Aryna Sabalenka won the US Open Men's & Women's singles titles respectively. Sabalenka who was the defending champion defended her title successfully whereas Alcaraz continued his dream run.
It was a great campaign for Indian women boxers who won four medals (Two gold, one silver & one bronze) in the World Boxing Championships held in Liverpool with scintillating performances from Minakshi Hooda, Jaismine Lamboria, Nupur Sheoran & Pooja Rani .
As far as cricket is concerned it was usual schedule of international cricket & franchise cricket. Though cricket lovers spent majority of the month anticipating the fate of India's clash against Pakistan in Asia cup men's T20 tournament but at the end it was all cheers for the Indian fans. England & South African men's team locked horns in white ball series where the Proteas continued their good run in the ODIs by defeating the home side whereas the T20I series ended up at1-1 courtesy washout in the decider.
Franchise cricket lovers were enjoying all the actions from the Caribbean islands where yet another exciting season of CPL (men) & WCPL(women) took place. Most successful franchise of the men's tournament Trinbago Knight Riders(TKR) won their fifth title whereas Barbados Royals Women won their third consecutive title of the league.
This month was also buzzing for the women's teams as they were gearing up for the ODI World Cup starting by the end of this month. Yet another home World cup for the women in blue & as usual expectations of one & half billion people soaring high. After their triumphant campaign back in the UK Indian women had an excellent dress rehearsal for the mega tournament when they hosted the defending ODI world champions Australia in an ODI series. Despite Harmanpreet's team ending up on the loosing side there were plenty of positives for the home team just before the global tournament specially the form of their start batter Smriti Mandhana.
This edition of Sports Talk Of The Month will cover Indian men's victorious Asia Cup campaign which actually grabbed more headlines for post match incidents compared to on field performances.
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| Image Credit: wikipedia Image design: Bala Kumar |
A Series Of Off Field Controversies
The series was expected to create some heated moments among the arch rivals India & Pakistan especially after the recent happenings at the political field. Despite India beating Pakistan thrice (Including the final) more focus was on the no handshake stand taken by the Indian team & its aftereffects. Whether the decision was against the principles of sportsmanship or not is a debatable one, but Indian team was firm on their stand throughout the series. The post match incidents of the final were definitely not the ideal ones as far as cricket administration is concerned. A winning team being deprived of the trophy & medals is a rarity in cricket field. But I'm sure BCCI will take necessary steps to get it right. Overall it will be fair to say that Men in blue were by far the best team in the competition despite some sloppy fieldings & concerns over captain's batting form.
Tournament Favorites Going Down
Let's talk about on field cricket now. Biggest shock of the tournament though was Sri Lanka's disappointing performance in the later stage of the tournament. It was a real surprise to see them going down against Bangladesh & Pakistan who were nowhere near to Sri Lanka's prowess in the recent times. They have been a real force post Jayasuriya's appointment as head coach. They performed upto their potential against India in their last game though they lost it in the super over. Considering they are the co-hosts of next year's T20I World cup I am sure they will work on their shortcomings and come back as a real contender for the global tournament. The same can be said about Afghanistan too who must be disappointed with their performance in this tournament considering T20 is their best suited format.
Champions Raising The Bar
Coming back to India's triumph there were few important factors that worked well in their favor. Firstly they utilized the conditions to the best of their abilities. Pitches were tailor made for India's spin trio. Even the batters showed great adaptability in posting or chasing challenging totals. Special mention has to be there for Kuldeep Yadav & Abhishek Sharma for the way both of them dominated the entire series. If Abhishek's flamboyance at the top of the order was a treat for cricket lovers, Kuldeep's brilliance in outsmarting opposition batters was an assurance that future of Indian spin bowling department is in safe hands. Also not to forget important contributions from Dube, Samson, Bumrah, Axar, Arshdeep, Varun and last but not the least Tilak Varma.
Collective effort was one of the major factors for this success apart from individual brilliance. At the same time there were some decisions too which the team management needs to reconsider. Switching Sanju Samson's batting order despite his successful stint at the top of the order in recent times is definitely a debatable topic. Though he did his best batting at different positions throughout the series but he wasn't at his usual best. Shubman Gill who replaced Samson at the top of the order didn't seem to be at his best either. Though the combination of Abhishek-Gill produced some solid partnerships but Gill's lack of runs was evident. Now will the management persist with their newly appointed vice captain at the top of the order going into next year's World cup or move Samson back to his usual position? Even performance of Captain Suryakumar Yadav was below average. He will definitely be under watch in the upcoming matches to get back to his best.
Despite all the controversies that emerged during the series this series was a good enough launchpad for Surya's men to start getting their acts together to defend their World T20 title early next year on home soil. If they can work out on their shortcomings and keep this core team fit & in good spirits second consecutive global T20 title should not be far away.
Stay tuned for more at this space.
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