Dhoni wants India to begin 2011 with a bang

Dhoni wants India to begin 2011 with a bang

At the post-match presentation ceremony at Durban, Indian captain Dhoni had said it was a great New Year gift for the country and they would want to celebrate big time but not get drunk. Dhoni and his team did exactly that as they have been doing throughout the year

Plucking on guitar strings and whistling into harmonicas, Durban collectively sings through the last day of the year 2010. Much like the suited-up members of wedding bands in India, dreadlocked DJs and small-time musicians line the streets of South Africa in hope. While the more optimistic ones wait patiently to be hired outside plush hotels and private suites of the upstate North Beach, the more unemployed ones march down shady corners of the east-coast South African city. Although the parties have to wait until midnight, the carnival has already kicked off on the streets.
But amidst this intoxicated chaos, a large black-tinted bus hustles through the festivities purposefully towards the airport. As they waved their goodbyes to a bunch of curious hippies and drunk musicians outside their hotel, the passengers -- members of the Indian Test team -- put a hold to their impending celebrations, and a metaphorical one to the year 2010. The quest is the same for both the musicians and the Indian cricketers -- nervously pass time until their respective big bashes.
It's been a year that Team India wouldn't have ever seen end, at least in Test cricket. 2010 witnessed 14 matches in white flannels as the newly crowned number one Test team in the world, out of which MS Dhoni and his men won eight, lost three and drew three to consolidate their ranking.
While they nearly conceded it to the South Africans at the Eden Gardens in February, they pulled together as a team and remained on top of the perch. Having beaten India in the series opener in Nagpur, South Africa were nine balls away from a draw, and the number one ranking, in the second and final Test in Kolkata. But that was as close as anyone came, as India showed, like they would many times later in the year, just why one could never write them off.
Although India crushed Australia 2-0 and sneaked a series-win past NZ, the tour of South Africa was always going to be the ultimate examination, one that was billed to be better than the Ashes. In the backdrop of the events Down Under, the cooker whistled in the Rainbow Nation, for India failed brilliantly in the first one in Centurion -- by an innings and 25 runs.

'Pitch will last all five days'

Few gave them a chance before the most-awaited tour of recent times began; even fewer after the Centurion debacle. While the number one ranking wasn't up for grabs this time around, Dhoni's surreal record of never losing a Test series as captain was. But thanks to VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, Dhoni's unbeaten streak overflowed into 2011, while India won at the Kingsmead in Durban for the first time in their history to level the series. As everyone's focus shifts to the delicately poised finale in Cape Town, Laxman, the hero of the second Test, had already begun visualising the plausible scenarios.
"What is really important is how we start in Cape Town. The first day of the match usually sets the tone so it is very important that we give it our best shot. In Durban, the fortunes were fluctuating from our side to their side, but we can't let that happen in the decider, we must win every session and every day without thinking about the end result of winning a Test series. But if we do the small things well, then I'm sure that the result will look after itself on the Newlands pitch," Laxman said.
The Cape Town pitch is the closest it comes to a spinning crumbler in South Africa. But Newlands chief curator Evan Flint has assured otherwise. "It will be a good pitch that'll last all five days. I would like to create a surface that South Africa can get a good result on, but I've just got to do the best I can, and hopefully South Africa can play to their strengths. It doesn't have the same bounce or pace as say Durban and Centurion, but I'll do the best I can," Flint said.
Everyone in South Africa, hippies, DJs and musicians included, seems to be talking about the health of the Newslands wicket. By the time the lucky few band members get hired for the parties around South Africa on New Year's eve and forget all about the overwhelming distraction of cricket, Team India would've already completed their first practice session at Cape Town. For the Indians though, the parties can wait, a series win cannot. The guitars and the harmonicas may have found their tunes, but the maestros focus solely orchestrating their crescendo -- Cape Town.
After the mauling the team received at Centurion and the subsequent bounce back, Dhoni is now on the threshold of doing the improbable. A series win in South Africa. The series has been billed as the final frontier for India and it seems they can cap up the fine 2010 with a great start to 2011.

'We need to be at our best in all departments'

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels that they need to be more disciplined in all three departments to win the series-decider against South Africa. The series is currently tied 1-1 after India won the second Test in Durban by 87 runs, following the humiliating innings and 25 runs defeat in the first match in Centurion.
"Our bowling, our batting and our fielding have to be at their best if we hope to win the next Test. We don't have much experience on these types of wickets, so it's a big challenge for the side. We know it doesn't always go our way and we last won a Test in South Africa in 2006 so everyone wants to perform really well," Dhoni said.
The captain said the win in the second Test match boosted the team's confidence after their innings and 25-run humiliating defeat at Centurion. "Whenever we lose a Test match, it has a big impact on the side psychologically. It was a bit of a worry for us to get 20 wickets but our bowlers did really well in Durban. Most of our bowlers are swing bowlers and not naturally talented to bowl fast on flat wickets so it makes it difficult for us to bounce the batsmen out," he said.
The Newlands pitch is supposed to be more batsman friendly than the pitches for the first two Tests and a high scoring contest is very much on the cards. South Africa have won 14 out of 21 Tests at Newlands since readmission and lost just three, all against Australia. South Africa have beaten India twice in Cape Town, most recently in 2007. On that occasion, the match was also a series decider and South Africa's victory allowed them to clinch the series 2-1.
"The one thing I'm really consistent at is losing the toss. Sometimes it can be really tough. It's always good to win the toss so you give your bowlers a chance if there's something in the wicket," Dhoni was quoted as saying by South African website Sports24. This Test match will be significant as Proteas will be playing under coach Corrie van Zyl for the last time. "He's a good man to have around and he believes in hard work. He'll be very difficult to replace," said the skipper.
Source: Indian Express