The tall Small

Watch this.


And before you share it: the guy is called Bevan Small. 

He is not small but tall. To me.

He might not do anything better than this for the rest of his cricket career...but he is still an addition to my list of idols.

The commentators are quite rubbish though!!

South Africa lose to New Zealand in a Quarter final upset

[Note: This is a result based analysis - I have not watched the match live and hence cannot comment on its nuances]

On South Africa
----------------
This is an upset. From whatever angle you look at it, this remains an upset. And especially so after New Zealand squandered a good fightback by Ryder and Taylor to limp to 220 odd.
But this was ALSO a mishap waiting to happen. For all the well laid plans of South Africa coming good, their loss in the hands of England also showed that their batting needed some insurance...especially as they had a non-performing opener. And especially as that opener was their captain Graeme Smith. And what a tragedy that turned out to be for this brilliant and (uncharacteristically, this time) entertaining side...ODI openers are the ones who set the matches up for the rest that follow. This team, which did EVERYTHING ELSE RIGHT, could not replace the malfunctioning opening partner of the classy Hashim Amla.
Over and above their great fielding, varied bowling and resilient lower order batting, the one last fallback that South Africa needed in the pressure cauldrons of WC knockouts was an opener who would come good on a rainy day, who would keep one end for most of the match even if wickets tumbled at other end. Smith never looked like coming good. And unlike Ponting who looked similarly off-colour for much of the league stages, Smith did not come good even when it mattered...not even to banish the 'c' word from the dictionary of South Africans.


On New Zealand
----------------
They started similar to the way Sri Lanka started against India in the 1996 Semi finals. Unlike Sri Lanka of '96 though, they never recovered in the batting innings and also did not look like having the bowling side  that could eke out best results from wearing sub-continent surfaces in the 2nd innings of the match.

But once again like so many other times the gritty New Zealanders showed how collective intent can get one up on the best collection of talents. I have not watched their fielding innings but from the position they were in mid-match, it must have taken superhuman self-belief and professional mindset to first hang in even after not getting too many early breakthroughs and making South Africa toil to their 100 run mark.... and then to turn on all cylinders and capitalise when the middle order wickets fell. ]

The beauty of this side is: I must still consider a semi-final win by this side against either England or Sri Lanka (whoever reaches semi-finals) as another upset. Another BIG upset.

Pak-NZ match 1st innings: gems from Cricinfo commentary & readers' comments

These 'How'lers were compiled from today's cricinfo commentary page during the last 10 overs of NZ innings during today's Pak-NZ match
---------------------
Episode 1: "How boring" - Readers' comments during the innings of Jamie How who scored 4 off 29 runs



..after How concedes a maiden to Umar Gul when the latter is introduced in 11th over:
Cam: "How do you put a person to sleep? How."


..and a Pakistan fan is anguished when How is dismissed in Gul's next over:
Ridhwaan: "Getting How out was a mistake by Pakistan!! He was eating up deliveries and doing Pak a favour!"


..also a hopeful NZ fan:
Wilko NZ: "Surely that will be How's last chance at this level. And what a final contribution - a paltry 4 runs from a 47 run partnership. "

----------------Episode 2: Kamran moments of the match


..after Kamran drops Taylor twice in 14th over (off Shoaib, brought back in 2nd spell for a breakthrough)
vinny: "Even tho I am 40+ and tubby, I could not be worse a keeper than Kamran, I think. I can drop catches just as good as him."
Sunil: "If Pakistan do win they World Cup, at least they now know who not to hand the trophy to, while celebrating :)"
Shridhar Jaju: "Kamran Akmal's favourite pickup line - Can I DROP you somewhere?"

-------------------
 Episode 3: Slow NZ.. On NZ conceding a lot of dot balls (led by Jamie How) in the 1st part of the match*:

..after a particular stretch of dry period when Ross Taylor was batting tentativelyAllan: "Wrighty will be fuming away in his seat at the number of dot balls. The batsmen haven't been listening!"



..after NZ pick up 4 runs in the first 4 balls ofa Gul over 'against the run of play'
Zohaib: "singles flowing like honey for NZ."
Paranoid Android gets in to details: "@Zohaib - Honey actually does not flow that well. Is that the simile that you wanted to highlight?"




..after James Franklin, sent as pinch hitter, departs in 2 balls:
Lance: "Can NZ Cricket check to see if Kevin O'Brien has Kiwi grandparents? Maybe the Black Caps could swap him for Jamie How or James Franklin? Surely he is a cousin of recent Black Cap Iain O'Brien."


..by the end of 40th over (just before NZ pressed accelerator pedal in 41st)
Matthew: "As a frustrated NZ supporter, should I be pleased or worried at the relative ease Taylor and Styris are accumulating runs without taking risks? I can't help but feel that Pakistan will do the same in reply!"


-----------------

 Episode 4: Fun of another kind - Ross Taylor turns it on its head..47th over yields 28, 48th over produces 15 and 49th over produces 30 runs..all off different bowlers...




48.2 Abdul Razzaq to Taylor, SIX, carnage! this has got to be stinging for Pakistan, more so after the millions of chances Ross has had, down on a knee and swings him over deep midwicket from outside off stump


48.3 Abdul Razzaq to Taylor, SIX, they just keep coming, full toss on off stump, Ross hits it into orbit, somewhere over deep midwicket, keep disappearing from the moment he bends the knee and swings them
[excerpts from commentary text]


..parting thought from a neutral reader on the birthday gifts from Kamran to Ross with love:
ragu: "How much of that applause was for Kamran I wonder?"

------------------as I complete the compilation, the 50th over has yielded a moderate 19 runs. NZ end innings at 302/7, up from 210/6 at end of 46th over...92 runs in 24 balls.
That deluge came at the end of an innings in which one batsman had scored 4 runs in 29 balls. Anybody still predicting a quarter-final elimination of New Zealanders in the knockout stages??




[source: cricinfo commentary for NZ-Pak match]


*Update:



Here's a nice quote from cricinfo match bulletin at halfway stage. It aptly summarises the early innings show put up by NZ batsmen:

"Guptill carried on batting solidly, reaching his half-century off 71 balls, while Taylor, whose early struggle was substantial by normal standards but incomparable to How's, slowly grew in confidence."

Wanted: 5th gear in Indian Test team

Reproducing my Facebook wall post:

"India 292/2 in 82 overs after NZ's 193 all out...When will the Indians ever dominate if not in the current Test?? They are already about 30 or 40 short of what they should have been at end of day given the position and opposition bowling..Get a feeling that there is no 5th gear, and the team believes depending on the opposition car's failure for a win is a good strategy just because there were self-implosions in opposition ranks in the past. To be fair, the vision is perhaps impaired by limitations in bowling."

Scorecard of India-NZ Test:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-new-zealand-2010/engine/current/match/464533.html

Asking rates above 10 for more than 5 overs are difficult to get even in T20....

....no matter who you have at the crease during those overs with whatever number of wickets in hand.

Need proof?

Have a look at this chart for the IPL season 2 stats showcasing best strike rates amongst batsmen.

The list may well get new additions after the 2nd semi final and the final, but as on 23rd May morning there are only a handful of people who could twice achieve a strike rate of 200 or more (i.e. 2 runs a ball, or 12 runs per 6 balls) in the completed innings they played over 14 or more matches.

They are the usual suspects - Ross Taylor, Adam Gilchrist and Yusuf Pathan. What's more creditable, they have achieved these strike rates when it has mattered most - in the 2nd innings(if I am not mistaken then all of these 6 specials barring one Y Pathan innings were done chasing down a total - or is it 100%?? Hope someone answers that). This shows how good they have been in cracking the opposition team's bowling strategies.

But ultimately this list also shows that even these 3 whirlwinders were THIS good in only a couple of matches in such a long series. And that some other not-too-less special guys like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, MSD, Raina, ABdV - for all their fireworks - could either not achieve a completed innings with 200 strike rate or managed to get there just once. In other words, these 2-runs-a-ball-and-more innings were not as common as we may presume they were if these stats were not presented to us.

Say one of these top 3 guys (Pathan / Taylor/ Gilly) were chasing 10 an over and also playing one of these special innings. A simple calculation will show that they would still be required to either take risky singles to hog the strike or need their partners to also score at 7 or 8 to get over the line. In the closing overs it is quite likely that the partner will be a newcomer at the crease. That complicates things further.

And that, eventually, gives us an idea why it can be rather difficult to chase 10 plus in closing overs even with wickets in hand.

Knockouts are the phase where this pressure of asking rate will be felt even more in the 2nd innings. Why 10, anything above 8 can prove to be too much pressure in the final 5 overs of a semi final or the final. Now watch the replay of Gilly's innings yesterday and rate it in perspective. In a semi final clash and chasing a not too modest target, he scored at 3 runs a ball for the first 17 balls and at 2 runs a ball for the next 17 before getting out in the 35th delivery he faced.

How do I rate it? Even leaving alone the premium quality hitting demonstrated by the ageless gladiator from the Aussie Juggernaut of the 2000's, I consider Gilly's 85 yesterday to be the best of all above-50 IPL 2009 innings in terms of significance, and is arguably also the overall best amongst all knocks played in the 2 editions of IPL we have seen so far.

[Closest contestant in overall category: Warnie's cool headed finish in IPL 2008 final. Warnie scored just 9 runs, but then it was special not for the volume but for the sheer weight of the situation he was in].

Girls Aloud

Some of the world's topmost woman cricketers are now blogging on the game at cricinfo.
We can keep up with them at "Girls Aloud".

Memories of great World Cup feats

If you are a cricket lover and have a history of slipping into the odd bout of dejection like most fellow mortals, save this link. You can finish two rounds of globetrotting and yet struggle to find too many better remedies. Cricinfo recalls the 11 greatest World Cup comebacks in it, tide-turning performances forced in the backdrop of self and / or team facing an extreme adversity.

A few personal memories are attached to each of them barring two. While I had the privilege of watching the entirety of two of those performances unfold, I have watched live only parts of a few others on that list. I have watched replays /read / heard of the rest.

It is hard to fathom the exact impact of Kapil's 175* against Zimbabwe in 1983 on Kapil's eventual World Cup winning team, and consequently on the popularity of cricket in India. The pleasant-est memory associated with that epic will always be the twinkle in my father's eyes whenever he used to narrate his memories of the day to me twenty odd years back.

Those were not exactly memories - like other Indian cricket followers dad too was blanked out by a broadcast strike on the match day - but that perhaps helps add to the old-world charm of the epic feat. It was less of listening to a cricket match and more of papa turning into a story telling granny. I hope I can discuss it with him the next time we meet, just to catch up on that old twinkle once again.

That Murray-Roberts partnership is another one that shaped dad's cricketing beliefs forever. Whenever he sees any of the numerous West Indian lower order collapses of recent years he seldom fails to remind that Roberts and others of that old lot of quicks were far better with the bat as well.

Us papa-son pair were together on 13th March 1996 at the Eden Gardens when India took on Sri Lanka in the 1st semi final of the 1996 World Cup. A few days earlier I was shocked at people writing off the latter, a favourite with me, as worthy opponents of India in the semis and on that day I had inauspiciously (I'm an Indian fan first...) reminded my friends of the depth in SL ranks even after that Sanath-Kalu-gobbling first over from Srinath. Eden was burning around seven hours later but the ugly sight was hardly more painful than the inferno that raged inside after my worst fears had come true.

But I remember that numbing show from Aravinda with immense fondness. How unfortunate it is that the sports tellies in India never show that innings just because India happened to be on the losing side. It blew out the hopes of millions eleven years back but illuminated the best aspects of batting for immortality. Aravinda's driving, as in The Innings in the next match, was divine and he was easily the best batsmen in the planet during that week. I fail to recall having watched any other fifty scored in less than 35 balls that involved no lofted stroke, where all boundary strokes were perfect ground shots between fielders.

The very next day I watched the semi final loss of West Indies to Australia live on television. I never got the compensation I demanded for the previous night and felt hopeless about life for a time after it actually happened. I still find it hard to believe West Indies lost after getting within 40 runs with 8 wickets remaining, with skipper Richardson unbeaten.

Just as Murray and Roberts had shaped dad's views on West Indian lower order batting, watching most of Fleming's Jo'burg 2003 heroics live contributed to a growing belief that Fleming is extra effective against South Africans. It turned out to be a false impression when I checked it up later but what a commanding innings it was!

I also watched most of Bevan's unbelievable-yet-so-familiar rescue act against England in the same edition. A real indicator of the man's calibre is that he did it even when the opposition were not getting slack or celebrating prematurely - those days nobody dared indulge in it with him unbeaten.

As far as missing great matches go I have a history of wretched luck. I missed Inzy's hurricane 37-ball 60 in Pakistan's 1992 semi-final win over New Zealand - er, I don't even remember the reason. [An insatiable query inside makes me watch replays of that match and the 1992 final & inspect if the thin man from 1992 is indeed the man we know as Inzamam-ul-Haq today.] But I recall some others. Australia and South Africa played out the (ODI) Match of the Twenty-first Century on 13th March last year while I was travelling. And I spare them not an iota of hatred for doing nearly the same to me with the Match of the Twentieth Century - the 1999 World Cup tied semi final.

I had reached home just in time on 17th june 1999 to watch the final 3 or 4 overs of the best cricket script of all time (Even Lagaan, I'm afraid, comes second). I remember Reiffel spilling a Klusener catch off Mcgrath over the boundary soon after. The four deliveries of the final over were the stuff that separate the strong from the immune.

Strange are the ways of fame and glamour. Some are destined to hog the camera flashes while others will never be worshipped come what may. Damien Fleming, the Australian medium pacer, has never been a star. I saw him at the Mohali airport in a blue shirt during the 2006 ICC trophy and promptly thought of the early setbacks he caused during India's losing chase in the league match with Australia in the 1996 World Cup. But his greatest moment, one that gave his team a chance to win the 1999 World Cup, never came back to me. Damien Fleming's name features way below in columns, episodes and, perhaps, even sections of human memories dedicated to its celebration.

Imagine this man's resilience at that frozen moment against Klusener in having been hit for two blinding fours in the 1st two balls and still coming up with two unhittable deliveries on the trot after that with the scores tied. Try to measure the self-belief in a team that misses a run out chance in the first of them and yet believe in deserving another chance to win it. Klusener showed a lot of strength but it came second to immunity from pressure.

That gives me a nice opportunity to end this discussion with my favourite World Cup tale of flowering under fire: Steve Waugh's hundred in the Aus-v-RSA Super Six match four days before that semi final encounter. It was an elimination match for Australia and who would come to rescue but the man who was instrumental in the team winning their first World Cup in 1987. And what would he score but the highest score of his career.

This is the match from his 1st international season when I first watched him, a twenty year old then, play his now-famous no-nonsense game to extinguish broadening Indian hopes of a surprise win. On 6th January 2004, his last day as a cricketer, he altered his methods a bit but did exactly the same. In between he became the cause of many such moments of lament to us Indians and other non-Australian cricket fans across the world, but such men leave you little choice but to bid them farewell with a 'Way to go'. I'm glad I did that on 6th Jan 2004.

DC preview on South Africa

is up. Told you about my latent poetic talent.....

Other collaborative WC'07 previews on DC:

West Indies
Sri Lanka
New Zealand
England
Zimbabwe
Bangladesh / Kenya
Minnows [Scotland / Holland / Bermuda / Ireland / Canada]
Pakistan
India
Australia

Emotional Yellow, and Bloody Black

I just read two stories, one after the other, on cricinfo's Surfer. They came from rival sides Australia and New Zealand. One is a charming piece of news about a born charmer who once belonged to the yellow side, and the other a blood-and-guts story of survival of a fighter struggling to be back in the black side's belongings.

In context and content the two stories are as different as chalk and cheese, as Twenty20 and Tests, as Australia and New Zealand. But strangely each involves you just the same.

The impatient Crowe

All of you must have heard of the fable where a patient crow keeps dropping pebbles one by one inside a pitcher till he succeeds in drinking the water inside it. Well here's a Crowe that is quite unlike the legendary bird, at least when we think of the patience aspect. Going by indications this one rather loves picking up stones from such a pitcher and dropping them on unsuspecting soft targets.

Ever checked out on that notion with stats?

I did today, in order to confirm something I believed about NZ skipper Steven Fleming. Here's what resulted.