Apologists for India’s performance would point to three close matches that could have gone either way and to Tendulkar’s brilliant century. They would also be right in suggesting that a weakened Australia still has considerable strength in its ranks and also that the experienced team members (Ponting, Hussey) were in good form.

This obscures the details. First, the close matches were bolstered by a rearguard performance from Harbhajan and Co. Tendulkar’s 175 stands alone in a batting scorecard that shows no significant support. India fielded its best lineup in both batting and bowling, and were bowled out for 170 and conceded 350.

There will be a few scapegoats to be sacrificed at the end of this series. Probably one or more of the bowlers will be axed, and perhaps we will see a new No. 6 or No. 7 in the team. But that is not solving the problems that we saw in this series.

The first problem is that the bowling, for the most part, has been toothless. Unable to pick wickets when needed and unable to control the acceleration. Australia crossed 250 four times in the first five one-dayers. This was emphasized clearly when India used 9 bowlers in the just-concluded match to try to force the Australians to make a mistake. Usually, that shows a captain trying hard, but today, it just showed desperation.

The batting has been better, but it has not come together as a unit. The contributions of the lower order has masked the poverty of the performances. It doesn’t look likely that India will change their top five, except if forced to by injury. So it is time for them to step up.

The one blessing of this series has been Dhoni finding his place at No. 5 and not floating around. That is a good spot for him in my opinion and if India can find some better team performances from the top order and get a couple of good allrounders for the next two spots, the batting should be India’s strength at the World Cup.

• Tests
• One-dayers
• Twenty20

Click here to answer the question.

Interesting lineup for India: Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Kohli, Dhoni, Raina, Jadeja, Harbhajan, Praveen Kumar, Nehra and Ishant. This seems like a good template for going into the 2011 World Cup. Assuming no injuries hit and Yuvraj is back, we should see something like this:

Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, batsman/allrounder, allrounder, spinner, fastbowler, fastbowler, spinner/fastbowler.

It is difficult to predict the bowlers for two reasons. One is injuries, obviously. The other is that there are several months before the World Cup where you have T20’s and other World Cups. It is quite easy for a good bowler to get smashed up badly in a critical match and then be dropped and not be considered for selection. The top 5 of the Indian batting lineup don’t have such problems.

I am of the opinion that Raina and Ishant be dropped. Neither have done much in recent times. Raina doesn’t have a great career record to begin with. And Ishant’s body language surely speaks volumes about his low confidence.

I am rather worried about the spinners. Harbhajan Singh has been on and off, but we don’t seem to have any good alternatives, either. The pace front doesn’t look too bad, but it is a matter of clicking at the important moments.

Still, it is early days. Let’s wait and watch!

As one user on Cricinfo said, Australians now own the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Champions League. The two teams which have won the Indian Premier League have both been captained by retired Australian players. Is there anything left for Australia to win?!

Maybe the Twenty20 World Cup, but that is coming up next year and Australia will surely win that. Perhaps in the same manner that they took a few attempts to win the Champions Trophy and now you cannot take it away from them.

On one hand, this domination is amazing. On the other hand, it is boring. Cricket needs some new narratives than, “Australians win again!” For years now, we have seen India and South Africa (and at one time, even England) challenge the dominance of the Australian team, but the depth of the talent in Australia is simply too much.

In a way, Australia is like the Brazil of cricket. There will be setbacks once in a while, but Australia have made a habit of coming back strongly from them.

October 5 (Sunday) at Vadodara – starts at 9:00 am IST

October 28 (Wednesday) at Nagpur – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

October 31 (Saturday) at Delhi – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

November 2 (Monday) at Chandigarh – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

November 5 (Thursday) at Hyderabad – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

November 8 (Sunday) at Guwahati – starts at 9:00 am IST

November 11 (Wednesday) at Mumbai – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

I don’t much like the 7-match ODI formats. Maximum 5 would be better. But India v Australia does seem a good competition. So as long as the matches remain closely fought, it should be okay. Australia should generally be the favorites, but on Indian soil, the home team may be able to pull some surprises. And India also has some players coming back from injuries. So game on!

With the exit of all the Indian teams, the fans seem to have turned towards supporting T&T. What better than supporting a West Indies team against one from Australia!

But New South Wales are pretty good at what they do. If it weren’t for Pollard’s stunner, NSW would have won their previous tie against T&T. And T&T reached the finals today via some extraordinarily sloppy fielding by the Cobras.

Anyway, the best two teams will fight it out for the Cup. In that sense, the Champions League is vindicated.

Please go here to add your blog as an entry. Or if you would like to recommend someone.

So this time, I was hoping for a good match between the two teams, but it didn’t prove to be so. New South Wales cranked up 169/7 on a tricky pitch and the Victoria response was over by the time they struggled to 12/3 after 5 overs. It was a surprising move to bring Hauritz on very early, but he did the trick getting two wickets in the first over.

It will be good if Trinidad and Tobago win their match tomorrow and have a re-match against NSW. The last match between the two sides was a stunner, as T&T looked dead until an astonishing 18-ball 54 from Kieron Pollard did the Australian side in. I just hope that they have a good pitch for the last match.

It is interesting how you start forming loyalties once the tournament progresses. At the beginning of this Champions League, I had no idea about any team other than the IPL ones. But now, I am cheering for T&T. It may be worthwhile to have a longer Champions League and a smaller IPL. Contrast that with the World Cup where you already know the teams and so you don’t need a lot of unnecessary matches.

A crowd of 3,000 roared their approval for the first match in Montreal between September 24-26, 1859. A crowd of several thousand spectators including 1,000 ladies witnessed the proceedings on the last day of the tour. Sporting tours became a way of life with this event.

The 1859 tour was the brainchild of Robert Waller and WP Pickering. Mr. Pickering had captained Eton before emigrating to Canada in 1852. He represented Canada in the USA vs Canada match of 1853.

The article has an amazing scorecard between the English and the Americans. The latter fielded 22 (Twenty-Two) members against the standard 11 of the English team. And they still lost by an innings and 64 runs! The second match was not too bad, the Twenty-Two losing by “just” 7 wickets. You can also see some strange bowling figures with one English bowler taking 16 wickets in a single innings.