Newspaper Vocabulary Analysis: article#4

Hello aspirants!

As you all are appearing in various competitive exams such as Banking, SSC, railways etc., it is very important for all of you to have good General Knowledge and strong command over English language. Nowadays vocabulary is asked in different forms in Banking and other exams. There can be direct vocabulary questions or questions can be asked in indirect forms as in cloze test, fill in the blanks, synonyms, antonyms and many more. We can not deny the fact that vocabulary is inevitable aspect, so here in this section we will discuss an article from any renowned newspaper and highlight some useful words and phrases with their meanings.

Article#4

source: Avijit Ghosh in Addictions | India, Sports | TOI

Heroes and zeroes of Team India’s England tour


The improbable happened at Trent Bridge. Outplayed in the first two Tests, captain Kohli and company have made a stunning comeback with a 203 run win. The five-Test series is enticingly poised 2-1 in England’s favour. It’s anybody’s series now. Remember, even a 2-2 draw ensures India keeps the rubber. In the previous series between the two evenly matched sides, India had thrashed England 4-0 at home. Can India pull off the unlikely?

outplayed: play better than the opponent.

enticing: attractive or tempting

poised: being in balance or equilibrium.

phrase: "anyone's game": a game that anyone could potentially win (because neither person or side has an advantage).

thrashed: to defeat soundly

pull off: to succeed in doing something that is difficult.

The report card:

Murali Vijay: 1 out of 10

Not long ago India’s most dependable opener, Vijay looks woefully short of confidence and strokes. His sense of judgement – what to play and when to leave – seems to have abandoned him. Barring one innings, he had even struggled in South Africa. And the terrible run continues in England where he has fared worse:  2, 6 and a dreaded pair at Lord’s: 0 and 0.

woefully: in an unfortunate or deplorable manner.

abandon: desert, to leave behind.

barring: except for

fared: to get along; to get on; manage

Shikhar Dhawan: 5/10

When others fail, excuses are given. When Dhawan fails, he becomes the whipping boy. The Delhi southpaw bounced back after becoming India’s fall guy for the narrow 31 run loss in the first Test. Dhawan’s 26 and 13 was more than every other top six batter had managed, barring Kohli. But two dropped catches, including a grimace, didn’t help his cause. His aggressive 35, however, set the tone for India’s spirited reply in the first innings at Trent Bridge. He had, reports said, worked on his technique. And his 44 in the second innings, stopped England from making early inroads. But as Gavaskar pointed out the other day, he still needs to work on his concentration.

whipping:a sound defeat; beating

southpaw: a left-handed person

grimace: a facial expression, often ugly or contorted, that indicates disapproval, pain etc.

phrase:---make inroads upon or into something: make advances into; make forays into; make encroachments into.

KL Rahul: 5/10

The young gun from Bangalore barely survived the drop after 4, 13, 8 and 10 in the first four innings. At Edgbaston, his attempted drive in seaming conditions dragged the ball back from the sixth stump. The shot got the Twitter talking and trolling. But his seven catches, including a smart one to pouch England’s best Joe Root and cameos of 23 and 36 means he will live to fight another Test. Rahul’s 36 has a couple of strokes that could figure among the Top 20 played by India this summer. But the team needs meatier contributions from this stud who is still some distance from acquiring Test stardom.

meatier: substantial; rich in content; significant.

Cheteshwar Pujara: 5.5/10

He failed in South Africa. Had a horror county stint with Yorkshire. Was dropped for the first Test. Then his captain got him run out for 1 in the first innings at Lord’s. And he looked strokeless and vulnerable in the second (17 off 87). Pujara even succumbed to an uncharacteristic hook in the first innings at Trent Bridge. In the slip cordon, he dropped a catch. Just when it looked like the gods were conspiring against him, the 30-year-old from Rajkot produced a career-saving 72. He needs to do more though. Pujara knows he can.

stint: a period of time spent doing something.

vulnerable: susceptible to harm or damage; susceptible to attack.

succumbed: to submit to an overpowering force.

Virat Kohli: 8.5/10

In a series where Indian’s frontline batsmen made guest appearances at the crease in the first two Tests, Kohli was the exception. To those who had been screaming that he was vertically challenged against Anderson and were hoping for a rerun repeat of his nightmarish 2014, Kohli replied with 149 and 51, 23 and 17, 97 and 103. He is clearly world’s best batsman now. His captaincy, though, is another matter. It has lacked out-of-the-box thinking and his selection of Kuldeep Yadav on a cloudy day after rain will surely be a strong contender for the daftest decision of the year award. Minus one point for sub-par captaincy.

nightmarish: an event or experience that is intensely distressing

daftest: foolish, stupid.

sub-par: not measuring up to traditional standards of performance, value or production.

Ajinkya Rahane: 4.5/10

17, 4 ,0, 2, 0, 1, 10, 9, 48 (an important knock against S Africa at Johannesburg) and 10 – the darling of tv commentators had trouble getting into double figures before the start of the series. With that kind of baggage, most cricketers would have been dropped, especially after scoring 15, 2, 18, 13 and dropping a catch in the first two Tests. But Rahane, who rarely succeeds in the first Test of a series, was privileged enough to get another chance and came up with 81 – he had a life in his 50s — and 29 at Trent Bridge.

privilege: a special advantage, permission, right or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual or class.

Dinesh Karthik: 1/10

His collection wasn’t top class. Neither was his catching. And it earned plenty of sarcastic tweets. But his batting was a bigger let down: 0, 20, 1, 0.

sarcastic: mocking, contemptuous, or ironic language intended to convey scorn or insult.

Rishabh Pant: 5/10

Anybody who has watched IPL is aware of his explosive hitting. And when the Hardwar-born southpaw smote a six off the second ball he faced, some thought he would continue in the same vein. But negotiating the red ball in swinging conditions is a different ball game. The rest of Pant’s innings wasn’t half as impressive as that shot over the bowlers head. In all, he scored 24 and 1. Pant took seven catches and dropped a difficult chance. But his technical problems are obvious.

smote: to inflict a heavy blow on something

vein: a transient attitude or mood.

Hardik Pandya: 7.5/10

On this tour, Pandya stepped out of his callow youth and became a man. The all-rounder displayed more grit than flash in his approach than most seniors in the team. And he conjured a dream spell (five for 28) to send England reeling at Trent Bridge. But no matter what the team management thinks, he isn’t good enough to bat at No 6.

callow: lacking adult maturity  or experience; immature

conjured: to call or bring to mind; to imagine, picture

reeling: to be thrown off  balance or fall back.

R Ashwin: 6/10

The off-spinner — super at home and sub-par away — started brightly scalping seven wickets at Edgbaston. But strangely he was brought on to bowl in the 38th over at Lord’s. Hasn’t been much impressive with the ball since then. The Tamil Nadu cricketer has displayed great resolve and surefootedness in technique. 10, 13, 29, 33 not out, 14 and 1 not out do not appear much on the scoreboard. But compared to the top five batters, they are pretty respectable.

surefootedness: not liable to stumble or fall; confident and capable.

Mohammed Shami: 5.5/10

In near perfect conditions for seam and swing, the Bengal paceman has shown decent control and movement, both in the air and off the pitch. But Shami has failed to conjure the probing match-winning spell.

conjure: to effect or produce by or as if by magic

probing: possessing or displaying the perceptions of great accuracy & sensitivity.

Ishant Sharma: 7.5/10

Bowler of the tour. Often lampooned on social media in the past, Sharma has been India’s indefatigable workhorse. His sharp in-cutter’s have often provided the crucial breakthrough for his team. His 5 for 51 at Edgbaston gave India a genuine chance to claim the Test. And his early strikes were instrumental in setting India on the road to victory at Trent Bridge.

lampooned: publicly criticize someone by using ridicule, irony or sarcasm.

Umesh Yadav: 3.5/10

Unlucky to be dropped after the first Test. Yadav had started off with a shoddy first spell but improved as the game progressed and had catches dropped off his bowling.

shoddy: badly made or done; poor-quality; inferior

Jasprit Bumrah: 6.5/10

Got the ball to rise disconcertingly at Trent Bridge and sliced through the England middle order in the second innings. But every time Bumrah gets a wicket, you still wonder if he has overstepped. One day, he might cost India far more dearly than he did at Trent Bridge. Minus one point for being a repeat offender.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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