RISE OF MISHRA AND UNADKAT

Even after noteworthy performances
in Ranji Trophy and IPL, Amit Mishra
and Jaydev Unadkat were
continuously ignored by national
selectors for several reasons. While
Amit Mishra was out of contention
after India’s forgettable whitewash
at the hands of England team at
their home where he actually didn’t
perform well, Jaydev’s case was much
worse. India already had two left
arm seamers in Zaheer Khan and
Irfan Pathan with more young
seamers like Bhuvaneshwar and
Umesh Yadav blocking all possible
ways that Jaydev can be picked in
the squad.
But Mishra came back strongly in
Ranji trophy last year with 21
wickets from 7 matches at an
average of 31.80. After Ranji trophy,
IPL 2013 showcased much of his
wicket taking skills. Amit Mishra
turned out to be backbone of
SunRisers Hyderabad franchise and
played a very important role in
taking team SRH into semifinals. He
single handedly won games with his
catchy wrist spin. Batsmen were not
able to make most out of Mishra’s
overs.

Jaydev Unadkat was not so
impressive in the Ranji trophy where
he picked up 20 wickets from 11
games. But in the IPL 2013, Jaydev
turned out to be bowling mainstay
for RCB in the absence of Zaheer
Khan who missed out due to an
injury. Unadkat bowled interesting
lines and picked up wickets in
regular intervals. His five-wicket
haul was one of the highlights of the
tournament this year. He picked 13
wickets at an average of 28.40 from
13 matches.
And now after the successful
Champions trophy and West Indies
tri-series where Mishra was warming
the bench for two months, selectors
decided to give chances to more
promising youngsters for the series
against Zimbabwe. So, Amit Mishra
got his chance to be the main
spinner of the side and to play all
the matches of the series. Mishra
grabbed his chance firmly for which
he was struggling for nearly a
decade only to end up as top wicket
taker with 18 wickets from just five
games. Mishra did not give much
room to the batsmen and bowled a
lot of tight balls to keep the run-
rate under control. Zimbabwe
batsmen looked clueless against
Mishra’s wrist spin.
Jaydev Unadkat was the pick among
Indian pace men in Zimbabwe tour.
Jaydev bowled with a lot of zest and
control. He was highly economical
too. One best example for how
matured Unadkat is, the way he
bowled in 2nd ODI. When both
Sikander Raza and Visu Sibanda
were breaking free against Vinay
Kumar and Shami Ahmed, Jaydev
came in and bowled some
interesting lines to bring back India
into the game.
After waiting for a long time on the
sidelines, both Unadkat and Mishra
got their chance for this Zimbabwe
series and they proved their worth
with their strong performances.
Hope both Mishra and Unadkat can
retain their place in the squad for
the home ODI series against Aussies.
Both of them have waited for really
long time and now they have already
made most of it. Now it’s just within
the hands of selectors and team
management to use their skills in an
efficient manner.

DOWNFALL 2013:

                      All were fine for South African cricket team until the start of calendar year 2013. They were the top ranked ODI side towards the end of 2012 and they were peaking at the right time. SA started their campaign with a shocking series loss against NZ at January. Then SA did host Pakistan for a five match ODI series and won it which tends to be their only series victory this year. But that too did'nt come easily for a full strength South African side.
                    Then came CT2013, one of the most important limited overs tournament this year. Even before the start of the tournament, team SA was hit by twin injuries of their star batting duo of Greame Smith and Jacques Kallis. And adding to the woes, Dale Steyn too hit by injury just before the start of first game against India. South Africa went on to lose againt India but won the next league game against Pakistan. In a must win game against West Indies, DRS and poor shot selection of Windies batsmen resulted in a proteas win and proteas were slotted to play against the host England in the semi finals. Again SA surrendered meekly in knock outs against the mighty England side which gave them the chokers tag once again.
                           Now, SA is currently touring Sri Lanka where they have already lost the series by 3-1 with still one more game to be played. The first thing that hit South African team was the injuries of the star players. Dale Steyn,Morne Morkel,Smith and Kallis have not played more than 9 ODI's in last 7 months. This main reason have haunted SA team at crucial points of the games.
                        This long injury list of seniors players have also lead to  serious concerns about South Africa's bench strength. Alviro Pietersen who is filling in Greame Smith's opener slot, has played 3 games so far and scored just 59 runs at an average of 19.67. Colin Ingram another young batsman who is filling in the crucial No.3 slot in the absence of Jacques Kallis looked good but failed during important phases of the game when the team did depend on him. But he is much better than many other proteas batsmen in the terms of runs. He has played 14 matches and scored a century and three half centuries at an average 34.19 with 451 runs this year. JP Duminy who's just back after injury did'nt do much after his century in the game against Netherlands. Faf du Plessis who was hailed as the find of the year 2012 too disappointed and looked like a fish out of water.
                         Bowling has always been SA's strength but this year none of protea bowlers' stats has been impressive so far.  Rory Kleinveldt, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Chris Morris were not upto the mark and failed to deliver with wickets. Hashim Amla who had a fantastic 2012 and also a star batsman in the side has been struggling to be among runs this year. Amla played 12 matches and scored 364 runs at an average 33.09. But only the absence of stars due to injury is not the only reason as SA played with the full strength squad in many games they lost. So it's the performance slump that's been hurting them.
                        SA started the year as numero uno side but now they are already 5th in the recently released ICC ODI rankings. The main problem is the performance slump and that can be corrected only with training and training. SA are all set to tour Pakistan to play tests and ODI's and to host India for the rest of the year. SA should have to regroup quickly in these series and must have to learn lessons from their mistakes to be back among victories and to attain the top team status again soon.