Briefly Cricket: My role with the new ball is to restrict

My role with the new ball is to restrict

New Delhi: Paceman Ishant Sharma says he has been assigned to play a defensive role with the new ball considering swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumars ability to strike early blows. My bowling is different from Bhuvis. He is more effective with the new ball as he can get a lot of swing. I dont get a lot of swing with the new ball in Indian conditions. So I need to wait for the ball to get old so that I can get some reverse swing, Ishant said. Till the time the ball gets old,I have to play the defensive role of trying to contain the batsmen. Everyone has been assigned a specific role and we perform our roles accordingly, Ishant told reporters. In the absence of Indias best exponent of reverse swing Zaheer Khan,Ishant is the senior most pacer and he explained as to why he is more effective with the old ball. If you watch a Test match in India,during the initial stages,its not favourable for swing bowling and you need to play a defensive game. Once the ball starts reversing,you can then set attacking fields but its more important to know when to attack on sub-continental tracks.

Aussies will be better prepared next time

Melbourne: Former captain Ricky Ponting says he himself failed repeatedly before learning to perform in India and the bunch of Australian cricketers playing there will be able to handle the conditions better next time. I found the first three of four tours I went there I couldnt score a run. It wasnt until a few tours down the track that I started learning about playing spin bowling and coping with the conditions that I started to work it out, Ponting said. Those guys on that tour will be a whole lot better off next time they go there and are confronted with conditions like that. Well keep our fingers crossed and hopefully they can finish on a winning note this week, Ponting told The Australian. Ponting scored his first half-century on his second tour of India and his first century on his fifth tour after 15 attempts. Ponting defended coach Mickey Arthur and captain Michael Clarke,who are under fire for poor show and axing four players on disciplinary ground.

Sachin is most talked about player online

New Delhi: Sachin Tendulkar has been the most talked about cricketer on social networking sites during the first three Test matches of the India Australia series,according to a study by IBM. The analysis on social sentiment of cricket fans and alike conducted during the first three matches shows that Tendulkar consistently leads the overall conversation in this period,the study stated. Fifty per cent of the public sentiment revolved around his batting performance followed by his past records,his stature and retirement plans,among others. Tendulkar was followed by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and opening batsman Murali Vijay,who has scored two consecutive centuries in the last two Tests,while allrounder Ravindra Jadeja performance with the ball in the series makes him the most popular bowler in the Indian team,IBMs Social Sentiment Index stated.