The Great Indian Team Performance Curve: A Thesis

I read a friend’s Facebook status post, wondering about the changes we are witnessing  in the Indian team’s performance. To be precise, his questions were “how so much” and “how so quickly”.

A while ago, I had read an extremely well-conceived article by Cricinfo’s Siddharth Monga on the contribution of the “system” to India’s Champion’s Trophy win last night. Here it is.

Armed with the thoughts that came while reading Monga’s thoughtful piece, I set about trying to construct a quickfire “thesis” to explain the path charted by the Indian cricket team

Part A: how so much?

Ans: The direction that a cricket team – correction, an Indian cricket team goes can be largely explained by measuring the following areas:

(A)   the leadup to selecting the final 15 who set off for the tour – including resourcefulness, non-compromise and vision,

(B)   Captain’s performance as a player

(C)   The captain-coach duo and their (interpersonal) vibes within the team including handling of individual players as well as coaching staff,

(D)   Form of individual stars in the team, if any; and

(E)    Expectations set by the leadership team from the players, series by series (completely on-field stuff, nothing interpersonal here). This includes flexible thinking.

[A, B & D are extremely version specific; hence same set of people can produce different performance curves in different versions of cricket]

• Ganguly's team, in rebuilding phase of 2000-2003, thrived partly on A & B,  a lot on C & D and little less on E (except uncompromising integrity).

• During the latter parts of Ganguly era (late 2004-2005) the team form dipped due to partial dips in B, C & D.

• In Dravid’s (2005-mid 2007) era the emphasis on A & E became supreme; B was very good too, for most parts. However all of that was completely undone by the then coach Chappell's effect in undermining C - so much so that the huge minus in B led to underperformance in D as well.

• MSD's 1^st era (2007--2010), on the other hand, revived team form almost entirely based on C, D & E. In Tests, B almost did not come into picture, such was the overwhelming effect of D [Big four + Viru + Zaheer]!! A got toned down to moderate – which is fine if D is good.

• Dhoni’s 2^nd era (early 2011 to end 2012) saw a virtual disappearance of D, while B did not come up to compensate. This made BIG difference, even as A & E remained very similar and C dipped only marginally compared to Dhoni’s 1^st era. [Not by coincidence, Era-2 was the first days for captain with new coach]

• Dhoni’s 3^rd era is just starting. D is not likely to reach the stratospheric heights of his 1^st era anytime soon (certainly not in Tests). I agree majorly to this article. By accident or by design, Team India's A has shot up in past 3 months, even compensating for seniors' exodus contributing to instability in D (it is also looking up, thanks to performing youngsters).  In fact, A has fared so well that D (at least in Champion’s Trophy) was a factor of A!!   Decisive A has also led to decisiveness in E. Factor C, while still very good, is now so very different from Era 1. These days we see an animated Dhoni who actually tells youngsters what to do…and I believe he is now in sync with India's "new" coach Duncan Fletcher.

Part B: how so quickly?

A & E are the only components that are largely controlled by intent rather than chance. While teams thrive or perish on ‘culture changes’ in either direction it is foregone that culture changes take a lot of time.

A & E can be implemented in a very short time-frame. It is only the start, though. Any major changes in A & E, implemented too quickly, might create a shock-wave in ‘good’ (read ‘comfortable’) times, leading to adverse impact on results. However in THIS case, major changes in A & E were done when the team performance was close to its nadir (i.e. around when Dhoni’s 2^nd era was closing out). Things that would seem to be “upsetting” otherwise...those were perhaps now seen as a “Ray of Hope”.

Everything, absolutely EVERYTHING can happen when people chuck out the resistance and look forward to a change.

That ends my thesis, responding to Shrikant Subramanian’s Facebook question. [wiping brow]

Exciting? Indeed. I was just as excited while force-fitting the pieces of the puzzle. Thanks to you for appreciating. And at this humbling moment of success I would like to thank my…zz-zz-zz-zz

Crappy?? Yippie kay yay…..all theses necessarily are.

IPL-6, Rajasthan Royals, Uttar-Dravid, Sanju...and Uttar-Process

"Manzilein unki hoti hai jinki sapnon mein jaan hoti hai
Kyonki pankhon se nahi, hauslon se udaan hoti hai"

Sidhu goes overboard to describe Dravid's achievements as player and skipper this IPL season, coming back from "packing sandwiches for kids" to powering his team towards a high scoring chase tonight against Pune Warriors.

Gavaskar had a more unique line of tribute, from a Mumbaikar to Bangalorean:
"These guys from Bangalore are underrated - they are such nice guys who achieve but have no self-promotion."

But beyond this Rahul celebration (which is every bit deserved for the old man) a little story may be emerging in Rajasthan Royals backyard for Indian cricket fans. We may be hitting upon the next big thing in batting. I can't believe a batsman, even an 18 year old in-form talent, can strike a first ball cover driven four of THAT class. This was the first I saw of Sanju Samson - and I am already hoping for more, much more.

Since he is 18, he is also the right person at the right place at the right time: playing for RR just when the team is buying Rahul's "horses for courses" theory, backed by the vision of "get the processes right and worry not of the results"....something that he developed with Chappell as his vision for 2007 world cup but could not sell to the Indian team due to "over-aggressive selling" tactics of his then coach.

This RR team, quite like RR of 1st IPL season, seems to be working to "process is king" theory this year. It shows in the lack of tension on the faces of the players. May or may not be the best / only way to win, but the journey sure becomes more enjoyable. Imran Khan used to speak of it during the later, more successful phase of his career - but can't even compare a modest team lke RR to the men Imran had at his disposal. So THIS really is the first case study of the "process + Horses for courses" theory in a sub-continent setup.

PS: In that 2005 article which predicted that Chappell-Dravid will be adopting this "horses for courses" theory in 2007 WC instead of set teams and batting orders, I had given almost all credit to Greg Chappell for the theory. But subsequent to that article, Chappell's way of handling shows that he was only the father of the idea. It is Dravid who, inspite of then failure of the concept, kept believing in it and now the man has found a perfect platform to try it out amidst a sea of youngsters. This time these guys do not have conflicting signs to confuse them as there is no Chappell around.

My Brian

"I just want that someone in their 50s or 60s, when they talk about Brian Lara, they say `I enjoyed watching that guy playing cricket'. "
That's how Brian Lara wanted to be remembered by cricket lovers. Back in June 2002.....5 years before calling time.
It is nearly six years since he played his last international match. It is also for six years that I am drifting further and further away from this game that I wanted to live my life on. I wish I could just stop at saying: "I enjoyed watching that guy playing cricket."

"Waqar essentially just did one thing with the ball"

When Wasim & Waqar were in their playing days, I used to hang around in a group of late teens / early 20's chaps who were more attracted to Wasim. That variety in swing and seam, that lift from a seemingly innocuous action, that magic surrounding his towering persona. In comparison Waqar appeared to be more of a ramrod to breach defences, the guy with perhaps the most imposing bowling action of his time.

However subsequently I have watched more cricket. And with the increasing dominance of the bat, I have come to value bowlers who had an aura of inevitability. With that realisation,  Waqar Younis and his craftwork during the 90's is a subject of particular interest to me. 

This passage in a lovingly written article on Waqar precisely describes why some of us find the Waqar phenomenon so intriguing: the inevitability of what the batsmen already knew was coming:

"International batsmen generally have half-decent balance, but the Waqar Younis inswinging yorker made fools of them all. Given a choice between losing their toes or losing their dignity, most batsmen opted for falling flat on their face, a position from where they could better hear their middle and leg stumps going their separate ways. Where Wasim was an expert lock pick with a wide array of tools at his disposal, Waqar just burst through doors with a battering ram so immense he could just as easily have gone through the wall. Wasim could do a million and one devious things with a cricket ball, but Waqar essentially just did one. And he only needed to do one. The Waqar Younis reverse-swinging yorker might just be the most destructive delivery in the history of cricket.

Maybe all of this is painting him as one-dimensional, but it was that yorker that grabbed me when I finally got to see him bowl, and it was that yorker that largely explains his phenomenal ability to run through a batting order in the time it took a dismissed opening batsman to say, "Mind your toes." Delivered with a different, more round-arm action to the one he used when opening the bowling, it was a virtually unstoppable delivery, and one of Waqar's greatest strengths was that he acknowledged that fact and was perfectly happy to bowl it again and again and again, where other bowlers might have held it in reserve as a surprise weapon. It didn't need to be a surprise, because knowing what was coming simply didn't help the batsman all that much."

Here's a video of that one thing that Waqar did incomparably. 

The circle of a day

In the morning this daily quote flashed up on my office desktop as I booted up the comp:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge

12 hours later I was preparing to shut it off.
I checked gmail and, as I was about to log off, I found a link on Virat Kohli's phenomenal rise.
I am pasting an extract from the article:

"His work ethic is brilliant, his focus is immense," says Yuvraj Singh. "Since the time he has joined the Indian team, I saw his work ethic and wished and wondered why I didn't have that work ethic when I was his age."

I reckon Yuvraj and Rohit are even more talented than Virat.They always were.
At the end of the day, my working day, Virat is pipping those two at what Calvin Coolidge quoted to me when I started the day.
Good night, folks!!

Kohli Yug (Screengrabs)

I am yet to get over Virat Kohli's batsmanship in the Hobart ODI last month. Now we already have his killer touch again in the Mirpur win last night.
[If I am permitted to use 'touch' for an innings worth 182 runs...]


Hobart got me excited about an ODI after a long time....first time after 2nd April 2011, to be precise. An Indian batsman taking a very decent bowling side apart during a 300+ chase under pressure on foreign soil is a rare sight, even unexpected these days. For the man to succeed at it with a bonus point, and without slogging, is something special.


Mirpur was a showcase of Kohli's leg side artistry. He declared total dominance of any opposition in sub continent ODI's...and that does not look so snigger-worthy when coming from the lone guy that played well against Australia in away Tests.


Hobart, I reckon, was the formal announcement that he wants to be the new King. In all forms of cricket. At any country...and perhaps against any opposition.


An FB friend used the term 'Kohli-yug' on his status last night. 
Mirpur may be the start of that yug.


Screengrabs from Hobart ODI on 28th Feb 2012:
[pic  courtesy - Star Sports telecast] 

Picture Perfect Wall

In year 2008 and at age 35 this man, Rahul Dravid, was beginning to miss catches which he would grab earlier at slip (and in sleep);  he was suddenly batting as if the wall in him had been breached...and he ran so badly that he was his own worst enemy in any form of the game whenever  a short single was on offer. Even I made a blogpost contemplating his Test future at the time.  No one except MS Dhoni, the man who ironically removed Dravid from ODI team a year before, seemed to believe that he could bounce back in Tests.


3 years later in June 2011, you are allowed to expect that things have dipped far worse for Rahul Dravid. After all he is aged 38½ now, ten years more than the Berlin Wall when it was brought down.  


Voila - instead you have a man who is batting once again like he did at his unbreachable peak in the early parts of last decade. More amazingly, during his last ODI series in Sep'11 and in Tests thereafter he was seen running far purposefully between the wickets than he ever did in the past 4 years.


And just when I start dismissing it all as the 'flicker of a dependable candle before it blows out', he takes this catch [please pardon the poor cellcam video quality - it was taken in haste during midnight TV replay]. 


The second such catch within a year, after this stunning 200th one in Durban, Dec 2010.


What do we have? Masterchef RD presenting  in front of us 5 flowing centuries in 5 months, good rotation of strike and flashes of tremendous slip catching, all on a platter. 


I am almost forced to think now - has  this man hit upon some additional gas reserves within him that can pull him through for a year or two yet??


Cricket is indeed a game of chance...you never know when you rediscover fountains of youth.


Didn't someone tell him that India are running short of an express fast bowler??

"You have been lucky if you have failed with time left to benefit from the lessons"

Actually that thought, posted as subject line, came to my mind as I was browsing through some old Facebook posts in my profile.


I came across one on 12th March, as South Africa were taking advantage of India's inactive fields / bowling plans during middle overs. Here's what I wrote as a comment at 8-51pm (at around 40th over of South Africa innings):

"Dhoni lets opponent get away in middle overs...I am seeing this coming loss as a blessing in disguise - may be now he will be forced to rethink his strategy in middle overs.. he will see that he is winning INSPITE OF it and not due to it...but then these opponent batsmen,they get out just as I see a silver lining - and perhaps give MSD a chance to carry his poor strategy to the KO's."

Well luckily for Indian team, South Africa did NOT panic for once and scraped through to win that match..in retrospect we can thank this loss for the obvious rethink of Indian middle over strategies that subsequently worked so well against ALL the former World Cup Champions (West Indies next match, Australia in QF, Pakistan in semis & Sri Lanka in finals).

Let all Indian Cricket fans therefore gather at India Gate, candles in hand, and shout thankfully in unison to commemorate the last over of that match:

"ASHISH NEHRA AMAR RAHE"

Post World Cup analysis...of my OWN world cup previews

What goes up must come down. Likewise whatever gets previewed should also get reviewed - including the preview. Not that it is important to anyone (even myself)..just feel I need to get it out of the system before the World Cup win gets out of everyone's system.



I will list a set a set of ticks and crosses. 'Tick's are for the things I was right about, and 'Crosses' for the ones when my foot came perilously close to my mouth.


These were not exactly 'predictions' - I quit predicting since 2007 when I predicted India to be semi-finalists 'without a shade of doubt'. Let's say I 'opined' on EACH of these points BEFORE things happened...


So even in my failures I am better than those who rightly thought Nehra shouldn't have bowled last over against SA BUT only after seeing the result when all are generally right on what did not work - something that was forgotten while people thought themselves capable enough to get into reviewing every little decision of captain (exclusion: I know of someone who actually gets credit for predicting that one rightly before it happened):




Tick: Sehwag vs Pathan dilemma in knockout matches: Sehwag does not score batting 2nd. He never did in the past 2 years barring one knock a year, and in WC he failed 100% in 2nd innings. Contrarily, 2nd innings are where Yusuf Pathan comes good. During WC, Pathan did not get many chances in 2nd innings till he was dropped - and he did well in one of his 2 chasing innings. As predicted, Sehwag was a passenger in 2 of the 3 knockout matches where India batted second.*



Tick: Even with 4 bowlers the Mumbai pitch was never expected to be so helpful to pacers that Ashwin could yield position to Sreesanth: India’s 3rd seamer became the weakest link in final match. **



Tick: Dhoni's public criticism at his batsmen playing to the gallery ( in South Africa match, after 2nd successive collapse in last 10 overs of 1st innings) would be taken positively by his team: There were concerns that it was inappropropriate.***



Tick: Trust Dhoni to have the best intents and most optimal plan for this set of players, instead of judging by him ONLY by results: Results can go wrong inspite of all that...try to see his point and shout ONLY IF that is not agreeable / he does not admit it. He admitted both mistakes he made in knockout phases - one directly (misreading Mohali pitch) and the other tersely (playing 3rd seamer in Mumbai).+



Tick: [This is a shady forecast - non-cricketing] Winning the final might be Sachin's destiny which became apparent after Pak semi final: He won the cup and the players all but dedicated it to him.


Tick: (This was before WC started when Yuvi was struggling) India cannot win this world cup without Yuvraj firing as he does not have a replacement at this stage, so we might as well keep him in the team and hope for the best [I see an in-form Yuvi as 1.5 batsmen]. Yuvraj bettered the best by becoming 2 full players in the tournament - one batsman and one bowler


Cross: (This was not a public prediction) Sachin would contribute to the final win and silence those who criticise of his finals performances. That criticism remains unfair anyway - Sachin has contributed to may final wins including Aus tri seeries in Dhoni era - but what better to do it in a WC final? NOT TO BE!!



Tick: When India were 31/2 and Gambhir-Kohli were trying to form a partnership, the camera zoomed into the gallery for a moment. I had predicted that as THE decisive moment and that India would win after that point. So it happened. The man was superstar Rajnikanth.



Cross: (This was not a public prediction) I had assumed India's bowlers to bat better as the tournament progressed especially Harbhajan...it never happened - they kept looking like fish out of water.



Cross: Raina would struggle after the lows he suffered in the leadup to the world cup and it was a big risk to replace Pathan with him in knockouts: Raina and Sehwag were instrumental in ensuring that India did not lose the semi final in the 1st half itself. Raina did the same in the Quarter final chase against Australia. He is well on his way to be our Michael Bevan (with a better strike rate)..and here's hoping that Raina's Test career does better than Bevan's. He deserves some luck.


And now to the one 'Cross' that made me happiest after I was wrong:



Cross: Yuvi's fielding returned! When the World Cup began, I kept expecting Yuvi the batsman to come back sometime (during world cup or maybe later - not for a moment I thought him to be a finished batsman). I considered Yuvrja the bowler to be 'buffet' stuff but I wouldn't have exactly bet against him improving there. The one thing I was prepared to bet against: I was sure that Yuvi's take-off-the-cliff dives to pouch magical catches and stop boundaries were a thing of the past. Gone for ever. Imagine how ecstatic I was to see him bring back those flying days in the final stages of World Cup.++

[The (*) & (+) signs are for explanatory notes which no one is interested in...I have removed text out of those parts...to be produced only if further discussion happens on a point]

[Posted as a note on my Facebook page]

The only outdoor game where skill >> athleticism

Today a 'friend of friend' on Facebook stated sarcastically that he was 'glad that cricket was played mainly by 8 countries' (indicating India hardly had a chance to be world champions if cricket was played widely). He also went on to state that it is time for India to be doing better in sports that is popular in many more countries, like Football.

I am sharing with you my reply to that point, with some edits to improve readability of this post (an FB post is, well, an FB post):

"Again, assumptions galore here, without much emphasis put on the essentially different nature of the games. I would like to put forward an argument here.


India's sports culture has ensured that India's performance in various games depend on the ratio of athleticism-to-skill involved in that game. Let us take a game like Football. While it is also a lot about skill, the skill comes in only as the final 20-25% of a player's making in the overall picture; the first 75-80% of a great football player is great natural athleticism.

As the skill portion increases in a game, India tends to gets better at it. Hockey needs slightly higher proportion of skills as I see it.I Cannot cite many more examples right now. But whatever  variation it is, all outdoor games were created PRIMARILY for athleticism. Both Football & Hockey fall in that category. All other outdoor games like rugby are also in the same league - if anything it is even more about physical athleticism. All others except cricket.


Cricket stands alone as virtually the only game where athleticism requirement percentage is so low (maybe down to 20-25%) that LACK of it can be COMPENSATED by skill. I doubt if any other outdoor game could have 'achievers' like Ranatunga and Inzamam, to cite two. Those are extreme examples, but cited only to get the point across. They would not have a hope in hell to compensate the lack of athleticism by their skill in ANY other sport like football, even if they had the skill of Maradona within them.

Conversely, their being better athletes would NOT contribute to their being much better cricketers or even better catchers. Inzy was the best catcher in his side. Inzamam in fact got fitter once and promptly aggregated 9 in six WC matches in 2003...no wonder that after getting dropped he came back heavier both in girth and scoring ability.


The whole point of so much is: It is NOT guaranteed that other team's sporting performances in athleticism dominated sports will be replicated in cricket, the only skill dominated outdoor sport where a player - albeit a very talented one - playing for 21+ years is having the best year of his life while approaching 38 and is looking good for more.

Just having many countries beginning to play cricket does NOT guarantee that India's position will then become as lowly as it is in other 'athletic' sports. The subcontinent clearly has a special talent in this particular game called cricket. A game in which hand eye coordination is as much required as extreme mental powers of concentration required for long durations to avoid EVEN ONE mistake (applicable to batsmen, mainly).

If it were not so, India would be no match in cricket for New Zealand, England, South Africa and Australia. Countries that are quite good globally at some very athletic sports like rugby or football. Teams whose fielding and running between the wickets hails from another world compared to the Indians' (on their poor days, which are many).

"Wunnit for Sachin": why Sachin got 18 instead of 100th hundred in Cup final

Heaven. A cold morning of early January 2011.


God sips coffee early in the morning and checks his mailbox. He was out of office for the Durban Test between India and South Africa.

The box is overflowing. He finds a lot of applications from India requesting, or almost ordering him to award the 2011 World Cup to Indian cricket team. Reason: This will be Sachin Tendulkar's last World Cup.

His eyebrows get furrowed. Do these guys have nothing to do? Shaking His head, He opens the next email in his Prayers folder: from a 22 year old called Virat Kohli.

He knew a teenager by this name. That Virat had sent an email called 'silent prayer' to Him 4 years back on the eve of a youth cricket world cup final. At the time God had liked the boy's passion and granted his wish.


Turns out that this email is from the same Kohli Kohli's request is same as the others. But God is immune to such veiled 'give it to him' prayers which are truly intended for self. "Look's like the guy has grown up and as a natural consequence got greedier", He murmurs with a frown.


Then He sees some more requests from other Indian cricket players. God is struck by the common theme: not just the comon folk of India but even Indian cricket players are placing the prayers of World Cup win to Him on behalf of Sachin rather than themselves. "Oh my Rajnikant," God says, "what's happening here?"


God is impressed and decides to grant the common wish. But he wants to check genuineness before granting.


He loads the 'Future Preview' tool on his Cloudtop [not having MSW operating System, please be mindful, which is a banned substance in Heaven].


When God intends to verify genuineness of any personal promise / claim qualifying a prayer, he justs uses FP to simulate and check the person's reaction when the prayer gets granted. Instead of granting the exact prayer they asked for, God often fine tunes it from their FuturePreview reactions. People often do not express themselves so well in prayers.


[FP does not lie and is hence incompatible to MSW OS - another reason for not using the latter.]


He checks Kohli's reaction first, after a simulated World Cup win:
Kohli says "Wunnit for Sachin."


So far so good. God is a little repentent to have earlier misjudged Kohli as greedy. He moves on to the next sender. Zaheer Khan.
"Wunnit for Sachin", Zaheer says in the FuturePreview, pointing to Sachin.


Next is Yuvraj Singh - another second timer. God had recently granted approval for his request to succeed at 2011 World Cup with both bat & ball.
"Wunnit for Sachin", says Yuvraj too. He also goes on to say that the mysterious special person he wanted to win it for was none other than Sachin.


Gautam Gambhir. 2nd timer again. This guy wanted to do well in the Cup final, if his team progresses and if he gets selected. God had approved this guy's earlier prayer too.
"Wunnit for Sachin," Gambhir utters on Future preview.


Last one. This is the only World Cup win prayer for self from an Indian cricket player. You guessed the sender right: Sachin Tendulkar. FP had already started processing 'Sachin after grant of prayer'..but then the battery got discharged. God knew its contents though as he had already approved the prayer (this was a resend from Sachin). Sachin requested for a World Cup win as well as a 100th hundred for himself at the Cup final.


"Okay," God summarised, "I will give them all what they said they were happy for. Sachin wants the world cup, so I will give it to the Indian team for his sake. However all the others waxed eloquent in FP about their happiness at Sachin getting a particular score. So that removes the 100th hundred Sachin was destined to get in this match as per his own prayers. Instead I will grant the general players' preference of one-eight for Sachin."


That's how Sachin got 18 (one-eight) in the World Cup final instead of his 100th hundred.


“Wonder why these players prefer a particularly low score for Sachin in the finals…I have never seen so many people do that to a person they genuinely like!”


He finishes the coffee and moves to visit the World Cup stadiums. Most of them need His help to get completed on schedule.


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


cricinfo players' quotes after 2011 World Cup final: http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/current/story/509249.html

Spraying @ Wankhede [WC 2011 finals]

We were jointly watching the cup at my friend's place.
Sometime around the 30th over of Indian chase, the spinners were losing control on the batsmen. We were discussing if dew was a reason.
One of us pointed out that the newly started custom of spraying anti-dew sprays had worked like a dream in favour of India during the semi-final at Mohali. Any effect of dew would suggest non-application of spray.

"Was the anti-dew spray missed?"
We reckoned that was indeed the case. We then sought to delve deeper even as the Indian batting looked increasingly assured and Murali yielded 19 in his two-over 2nd spell.
"Is that (spray) a miss by Mumbai cricket authorities or was it deliberately omitted to maximise Indian advantage?"
We tried putting on our "conspiracy theorist caps".


At this point, one in the group went a couple of hours back in time and quipped:
"Now I get why the normally accurate Zaheer started spraying during his last twilight spell. The ever generous host** that Zaheer is, that's when he noticed that spraying had not been done. Good man."
Indeed.


**Zaheer Khan plays for Mumbai, venue of 2011 WC final

World Cup final watchers' sea-sawing opinions: Gambhir bimari

During the Sri Lankan innings, Gambhir chased a ball and made a half-decent attempt to save a boundary off the last ball of the over. He failed. Ad break. Up comes a medical insurance company ad making viewers aware of its coverage of 'gambhir bimari' [serious diseases].
The acceleration of Sri Lankans was getting on the nerves of some of us.Gambhir's concession of that boundary did not help one bit. A riled friend grunted after the ad:

"Gambhir bimari hai" [Player Gambhir is the disease]

By the end of the 10th over of Indian innings though, the same friend was predicting Gambhir to be the match winner(which was a creditable 'early call'). And by the 30th over Sangakarra and his Sri Lankan side had begun to think what my friend had said earlier:

'Gambhir bimari hai'

Zaheer_2011_final vs Zaheer_2003_final

Anyone out there still likening Zaheer Khan's Cup final performance of 2011 to his performance in 2003? DON'T EVEN!!!!! Zaheer only bowled badly in last 3 overs yesterday. Maybe a better performance in those overs would have slashed 15 runs from Team India total and from his own bowling figures.



But in retrospect it is critical that Zaheer saved his most special 1st spell for the final (6 runs in five overs)..If there was a wayward Zaheer show in the first few overs like 2003 (with one side already leaking via Sreesanth), then EVERY bowler would have had 15 more runs in their figures. Work out the Sri Lankan total with that calculation for an idea of the difference Zaheer made with his first spell.

'Change Managers' & 'Continuous improvement agents' Dhoni & Kirsten

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was part of the previous Indian world cup (2007) team that was eliminated early. He, in fact, was integrally involved in the failure, when he failed to support the then skipper Dravid in the still-in-balance elimination match with Sri Lanka. He played the ugliest first-ball shot of his career to Murali first up and departed almost looking happy to go.

Then came the elevation. Dhoni became the T20 & ODI skipper in 2007. The T20 WC win gave him some power with the authorities as well. And he set about arranging his pieces for the change he saw as compulsory.

Irrespective of what people think of him, everything he has done since was done with the good intent of increasing India's chances of success. Some of them were drastic yet right decisions. Dravid & Ganguly's one day omissions were such. These are two players he respected for their ability and Test performances, but also rightly judged the unsuitability of these two to modern limited overs cricket. Some in recent times have been controversial. The selections (or non-selections) of Pragyan Ojha and Ashwin in various series / tournaments are amongst those.

While each decision can be discussed and criticised, it surprises me that so often the INTENT of MSD's decisions gets questioned. And especially as it involves a man who is the first one to admit his positives and his mistakes including his own non-performance after every match in front of all the world (try that just ONCE, to understand what it takes to do it) and tries to build further on it. All of it an extension of the mission of continuously improving the team he is entrusted with.

For the Indian ODI side, we have seen the COMPLETION of transition from dependence on the 10 year+ greats in the match yesterday. Make no mistake. What the cricket world saw yesterday was awe-inspiring.They saw a bold, formidable team which has delivered when it mattered. What's awe-inspiring? That the win came through guys that will return at the next world cup at their peak powers (or still close to it). This team has its problems, but it is aware of those and is perhaps smart enough to assess them well and chart a near perfect 'horses for courses' solution for the chinks. Much of it MUST BE thanks to their skipper and coach...combined with some support from the selection panel who at times have trusted these two guys even when they were unconvinced themselves.

Gary is now leaving for home. Do you think this is going to be Dhoni's BIGGEST contribution to Indian cricket? Much less. He has a far tougher transition in hand in next 2 years - doing to the Test team what he did to the limited overs side. That side is far more dependent on 10+ experience players. Alarmingly it still remains so even after retirement o 2 greats like Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly. And the reason behind it is why that makes it more important - young talents are not adept at the longer version as the older generation and this gap is increasing ALARMINGLY. Dhoni's ability to keep the Test team at the top and hence creating a 'suction' for Test cricket amongst youngsters picking up a bat or ball is critical to the health of Indian cricket (and hence cricket in general) in next 2 decades.

Imran Khan made a great comment after yesterday's victory when Rajdeep Sardesai asked him if Imran was expecting India to win the World Cup. Imran said words to this effect:

"India have been doing well in all forms of cricket in the lead up to world cup. And this is what was Pakistan team was also doing in 1992. This is always the case.'

Imran was not far off the mark. India 1983 were the SOLE instance of a 'not-doing-too-well-for-previous-years' team winning the world cup and sending shock waves. All the others were always major contenders. Success in all forms of cricket is thus intertwined.

If India's Test side tails off, it can still enjoy ODI / T20 sucees for a couple of years. At most. But such anomaly will indicate inability of Indian first class cricket to produce Test quality players...and soon enough the cracks will show up in ALL forms. See Australia between 2007 & 2011? If the Aussie case looks like a moderate decline, we need to remember that such decline in quality is happening INSPITE of an Aussie cricket system in place to prevent it. We do not really have a strong system as yet - we depend heavily on the individual leaders for identifyig talents that come up, how these talents are nurtured and focussed to perform well as well as work for team's cause. This has a big bearing on the team performance, hence its ability to create a following and generate for talent.

That is why people like Ganguly & Dhoni are important to create this 'suction' at top by generating success. That is why the ONLY person I have seen close to God in cricket is Imran Khan of Pakistan, where even the gradually-shaping-up cricket system we have is non-exitent.

From that ugly dismissal in 2007, to the gutsy and brilliant innings culminating in an unforgettable winning sixer in 2011 - the circle probably turned the proverbial FULL circle for Mahendra Singh Dhoni when India chased a once-in-4-years Cup final with 2 of their 3 "10+ years big batting guns" gone within 1st 12% of the chase.

The ODI transition is complete for now, even though Sachin chooses to plays on for a couple of years.

Waiting for the next great transition show for Indian cricket - the Test team. And this time Mahendra Singh Dhoni will need to bridge a bigger gap, with no Gary Kirsten as his accomplice. This where the new coach is going to be critical in carrying on the legacy of Kirtsen-Dhoni combo, albeit with tweaks to suit the style of the new guy. And this is where all of us - cricket followers & media alike - are also going to be critical. How? Simply by appreciating that the Test transition is going to be tougher, with the self-styled-self-techniqued-self-taught-but-team-oriented Amazer from Ranchi himself getting on in years.

The legacy of Dhoni-Kirsten will matter. Just as it always did ever since a rotten, shame-ridden legacy was chucked away 11 years ago and a new legacy gradually emerged under Sourav Ganguly and John Wright. A legacy that has since underwent upheavals, modifications, even personal clashes and downward spirals but nevertheless always strove to achieve improvement [Some things do not really change, perhaps..]

-----------
[Edited from a note in my Facebook page]

India Revisiting all WC champion teams in chronological order

Who won the WORLD CUP since its inception (barring 1983, which was won by India)?




1) West Indies (1975, 1979)..& defeated in India's last group league match


2) Australia (1987, 1999, 2003, 2007)..& defeated in quarter final


3) Pakistan (1992)..& defeated in semi final


4) Sri Lanka (1996)..waiting in final



India is a nation that respects history.


We undo things in the EXACT order those were done.
 
[Shared on my FB page today]

Raina's crystal ball

As expected before the finals, the Indian players are nervously energetic.


None of the Indian players has any idea of how the final will play out for him.

Sehwag returns back to his room from a special lecture by Ravi Shastri on "Hitting deliveries to the boundary like tracer bullets" and immediately feels this tension. Being a social animal, Sehwag has no intent of withstanding this uneasiness alone. He has set up an Facebook invite to a nail biting party for all his mates. Ex-captain Sourav Ganguly is the Guest invitee.


About 12 suo-moto responses came promptly from Sri Lankan players volunteering to join the party but Sehwag had to refuse the invites.
Papparazzi saw a controversy in that refusal but the story turned out to be less engaging than was initially thought.


The hotel staff have only agreed to clean up KILOS of bitten off nails resulting from the party. TONS of nails will be out of the agreement and the room owner will have to clean it himself. As we all know, Sehwag prefers to sweep Sri Lankan deliveries ONLY on the cricket field.
13 other Team India players have accepted Sehwag's invite for nail biting party ahead of finals. Tendulkar's acceptance reportedly came within 13 seconds of sending out invite...making Sehwag tweet on it.


All except one man.


Suresh Raina.
He is not chewing his nails for a change. He is unaffected by tension.
Why?
Because he knows EXACTLY what he will be doing in that match as the 7th batsman.
How does he know that?
He has a secret crystal ball that has given him his secret brief in all EXACTNESS.


This is his brief:

 - Irrespective of whether India bat 1st or second, the fifth wicket will fall EXACTLY at the score of 187.


- The fifth wicket falls in EXACTLY the 38th over too.

- After coming in, Raina will be required to take the Indian total to EXACTLY 260 by playing cautiously at the start and aggressively at the end.

- And in the process he will get to an unbeaten personal score of 34 (not EXACT for a change, but thereabouts) in those overs.

Raina reopens the cricinfo statsguru page. He wants to check the number of times he passed 34 in ODI's with a new filtering criteria he just thought of. He would next go to the ESPNcricinfo camp to ask for those videos.
[End of story]

Don't you believe me on Raina's brief? Check up for yourself on the QF with Australia and SF with pakistan - you already know that India scored 260 in both matches. Now see the over# and team score at which 5th wicket fell - and also Raina's score in each of the 2 games:

QF: http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/engine/match/433601.html

SF: http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/engine/current/match/433605.html


Are you an Indian? Then pray that Sri Lanka do not bat first and get > 260 ;-)

[Acknowledgement: This is an expansion of cricinfo's stats article today on no. 7 performances in India & SL teams]

Ind Pak semi final proved existence of God

The high voltage Ind Pak semifinal match of 2011 World Cup proved that pressure matches can also be played in good spirits.



It also finally proved that God exists amidst us.


Don't get me wrong - he is not a player who is in his 22nd year of career as many hallucinate. There was proof yesterday that the guy is a mere mortal.


He is a slim, sharp looking umpire who has been sublime for many years, and divine yesterday.


He is Simon Taufel.

Pak-Ind WC semi final at Mohali: My facebook posts during the Pakistan chase

After Nehra's 1st over:

Nehra - you must come good. You also got swing in 1st over. C'mon

Upon my thoughts going back to Wahab Riaz's deliveries in the Indian innings even when the Pak chase was on:

Wahab Riaz - can't still get over him!! Wonder what he can be if he gets swing both ways regularly.

Upon why I thought India had a good chance of winning, even after making concession of Pakistan being a better bowling side than India:

Pakistan created 15 chances out there (the 9 dismissals + the 6 lives of Sachin including the reviews). We need to create 10 (or 11, keeping cushion for 1 dropped chance)..

comment after further progress of play: we have missed two (Dhoni missed Younus before he was caught 2 balls later, and Yuvi misses running out Umar)..so NOW we have to create 12 chances;-)

While watching Munaf bowl good spells in today's match and remembering his remarkable spell to English midle order in his debut Test, Mohali 2006:

‎5 years back at Mohali, in another March, the fastest bowler (then) in India made his debut against the visiting English team. And decided the match in the 2nd innings with proper fast bowler's wickets. His name: Munaf Patel. History counts for nothing... and today Munaf's pace is unrecognisable. Still it remains the same venue, and the same bowler...

After Yuvi took two important wickets of Pak middle order to compensate for his batting duck:

Punjab ke gaon gaon mein, sarson ke kheton mein ei badi purani kahawat hai:



"You can't keep a good Yuvraj Singh down!"


'Wah - ab' yeh bowler banke inteqam lega.

Finding a familiar favourite batsman lurking behind the frame of Pakistan's Misbah ul Haq as the latter kept failing to get the ball off the square, thus conceding dots:

There's a lot about Misbah ul Haq which reminds me of a Very Special player from Hyderabad, India, someone who is arguably the greatest player NEVER to play in a World Cup. Misbah has the same wide shoulders, same clean-n-strong-jawed face, the same solidity, same age, same calm & solidity..& unfortunately today, also the same struggle in limited overs format to get the ball of the square. Feel for him..

After Munaf took his 2nd wicket:

Munaf & Mohali - made for each other!!!

After Pak reached the close of 40th over will  one set batsman (Misbah) and a willing ally in Wahab:

Pak need 62 off 6 overs, PP3 yet to be taken, Misbah & Wahab Riaz at crease, 3 wkts remaining. Can it get better than this??

After the Indian win, while trying to rub it into the folk that pretend they know EVERTHING better than the national skipper:

For all those who played pundits and thought Dhoni & team mgmt knew less than jhontu's and montu's of the para: have a look at Munaf and Nehra's figures. Sometimes, just sometimes (which is most of the times) Captain Cool knows better. He sees these guys at the nets too..we don't.

Quoting the most interesting personal note I heard in a tele-channel just after completion of the semi final match: Quote of the night when India won against Pak in WC semis:

"Main Mumbai mein hasoonga - 1996 mein main roya tha magar ab hasoonga."

          - Vinod Kambli, on a TV channel.

[This one is for eternity, irrespective of what happens on April 2]

On news pouring in from FB friends in other cities that crackers are being burst:

I cannot hear many crackers being burst: probably Kolkata hangs on, holds its guns for April 2nd..SUPERLIKE!!

comment after learning that crackers are being burst at some parts of Kolkata as well:
CORRECTION: Salk Lake holds its guns for April 2nd

 
Upon seeing bowling figures of Indian bowlers at the end of the semi-final with  Pak:

Zaheer 2, Munaf 2, Nehra 2, Bhaji 2, Yuvi 2....no 6th bowler...talking about pack hunting, HAVE YOU SEEN ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

Sharing a video of the Indian national anthem (recorded in 2009) where India team has Ashish (Nehra) on the screen and the word (ashish) in the song as well:

Time now for some POSITIVE Nehra jokes:



Q: Who is the only cricketer who will have his name pronounced when the Indian national anthem is sung at Wankhede on April 2nd?


A: 'ASHISH' Nehra, of course!!


-------


Check the video below - I shot it before Ind-Pak ICC trophy 2009 match. India lost that one. Then the team had 2 players whose name ...was in Indian national anthem - Dravid had been recalled!!

On the recurrence on 'mis' prefix in Pak's misadventure in the chase:

Wondering if one of the Pak newspaper headlines tomorrow will be:



"MISbah's MISbalanced MIScue ends MISsion"

My subsequent correction to comment: More correctly: "MISbah's MIScalculated innings culminates in MISbalanced MIScue, ends MISsion"

On Sachin: note on 'When desitny begins to wilt and comply to your will':

http://pavilionview.blogspot.com/2011/03/when-destiny-wilts-and-begins-to-comply.html

Commando's walk in the storm

This is the video link of the famous desert storm innings, Sharjah 1998:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXRkHervQJc&feature=fvwrel

India were facing elimination in the tri-nation tourney if they lost this match by a certain margin. After a major early collapse, there appeared no way that India would even come close to overhauling that margin. Sachin helped the team get over the minimum runs required to make the final..and then even tried to go for an impossible win (before falling just short). This innings had everything - EVERYTHING that an ODI batsman is expected to do for his team. Have you watched Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Commando"? No? Watch Sachin's 143 instead. Barring the end result, it can put even Miandad's last-ball-sixer-knock in Sharjah'86 to shade.


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

For those who questioned the intent behind Sachin's walk in 2011 WC (suggesting it was prompted by fear of getting caught at UDRS):


YES, that could have been a possible reason for his walk (I am sure it will be THE reason for many future walks)...but Sachin had started walking long back.


Watch the closing moments of this video - he had 'walked' at the end of his innings. He waited to check if it is a no-ball due to height - and walked away when he saw no no-ball signal...even after the umpire gave him not out. As I had opined to my FB friends earlier, there was a time before 1995 when Sachin used to let umpires decide if he was out. But from late 90's ever since he become a role model (or ever since Ponting started playing for Aus & took up the 'non-walker' mantle ;-) I have always seen him taking the decision himself.


[I am willing review that stand if I get proof that he selectively chose not to walk even after 1998. Unlikely - this was a high octane match against his eternal foes Australia, he was the lone fighter badly wanting to win this match (I am 75% sure he would have won it that day had he stayed...and there was no UDRS at the time.]

Alternative climax of Commando: Just before slaying the villain, Schwarzenegger turns into a monk and walks off into the mountains.