Marlon's Hurl-in

Marlon Samuels exhibited fine fitness in the first two ODI's versus India at Jamaica. That takes care of his 'knee-gling' fitness woes of late. He contributed to a stabilising partnership with Sarwan, and that must give him batting hope for the coming matches. And as always his off-spin bowling was a handy plus for his team. Samuels bowled exceptionally well during each of his spells in the 2nd match that culminated in a classic final over, reminding viewers of the tied Australia - South Africa semi-final of 1999 World Cup. His constrictive bowling was pivotal in a stunning West Indian effort that broke India's 17 match streak of consecutive successful chases by a solitary run.

But what on earth was an 82 mph delivery doing in his armoury?? Yeah, that is EIGHTY TWO Miles an hour!

Faster deliveries from spinners are getting to be as commonplace these days as slower ones from the quickies. Kumble once bowled a quicker one at about 73 mph in some match from the late nineties and it stuck in my mind then.

Then came Shahid Afridi, the leg spinning all-rounder. After playing at the highest level he re-assessed his bowling capabilities, quickly developed a faster one - and delivered it just as quickly. Seriously it is a fast yorker that looks more Waqar than Qadir. Even as Afridi keeps improving as a leggie in every match, that rocket delivery remains a weapon used by the strongly built all-rounder to engender doubts in minds of accelerating batsmen.

Afridi has gone past Kumble's 73 mph (or whatever) numerous times bowling it. The quickest I saw Afridi bowl that one was at 80 mph in a recent Indo-Pak one dayer. At the time I considered it to be a miracle of sorts. The sucker for records (even dubious ones) that I am, I even considered it to be a scarcely noticed feat achieved while bowling from a spinner's run up, one that looked as difficult to surpass as Jayasuriya's world record 48 ball ODI ton at Singapore'96 appeared then.

Not any more. Marlon Samuels, in a final spell that started off with brisk deliveries and gained in pace as the match got tighter, has done an 'Afridi' on Afridi with his 82 mph scorcher. I rubbed my eyes after I actually saw this ball, bowled off the normal slow bowler's run up, I rubbed my eyes after I actually saw this ball, bowled off the normal slow bowler's run up, get rated by the broadcasting folk at 130 Ks! Some internal doubts about diminishing vision may have lingered if one of the merciful commentators had not shrieked out the speed in subdued disbelief.

AND.....this creep n' slime delivery got unleashed while their fast bowler Ian Bradshaw was consistently clocking late sixties from the other end, with a flummoxed Carlton Baugh standing up at the stumps. I almost screamed in protest (muted it with great difficulty, as it was midnight in India) when the otherwise lovable bore Tony Cozier tried to vilify the poor keeper for missing a stumping chance. Guess he wanted to call the little gloveman a dumb ass for not realising, after all those years of keeping to 'fast' and 'slow' bowlers, that a stumping was easier attempted off quickie Bradshaw?!

West Indies cricket losing potential quick bowlers to basketball? Huh! Ever thought of blaming off-spin?

A hundred years ahead of his time

19th of May happens to be the birthday of Gilbert Jessop, 'The Croucher', who was perhaps born a hundred years ahead of the era that he could have made his own (b. 1874). Here's what Cricinfo has to say about the English cricketer on 'All Todays Yesterdays':

"Gilbert Jessop was arguably a fiercer hitter than Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Adam Gilchrist, or anyone else who has belted leather for a living, and his feats with the willow are legendary. Known as "The Croucher" for his unusual stance, he hit his first ball for Gloucestershire for four, having come in on a hat-trick, and his 53 first-class centuries came at the unbelievable average rate of 82.7 runs an hour. At Hove in 1903, he smashed 286 against Sussex in under three hours. He also creamed 157 in an hour against West Indies in 1900. In 18 Tests he made only one hundred, but what an innings it was. Against Australia on a poor Oval wicket in 1902, England were 48 for 5 chasing 263 when Jessop entered the arena. He walloped 104 in only 77 minutes, out of 139 runs scored while he was at the crease, and England eventually crept home by one wicket. Jessop was also a genuinely fast bowler and sensational in the covers."

More plaudits appear on Wisden Player page of the original Master Blaster.

"A fast bowler good enough to be selected for England purely in this role, a superlative cover fielder, Jessop is best remembered for his thrilling batsmanship. To quote HS Altham "no cricketer that has ever lived hit the ball so often, so fast and with such a bewildering variety of strokes". By no means a big man at 5'7" and 11 stone, he was a powerful driver, fierce cutter and hooker, but could also play delicate late cuts and glances. In his best innings he scored at rates of close to 100 runs/hour."

Pity then that none cared to invent the television camera half a century earlier. Those figures would make a few 'destructive' batsmen of today look like freshers from the Chris Tavaré school. One-day cricket (not to mention Twenty20) could have benefitted as much from Jessop's contributions as that other big J from 1990's Sri Lanka.

Jessop averaged 21.88 with the bat in Tests. At the time it was not as bad a batting average as it appears today if one considers that an average of 24.9 runs were scored per English wicket in the 1st decade of last century while the corresponding figure stands at 34.6 a century later. His career bowling average was up around the pedestrian mid thirties for the 18 Test matches he played. But the very decent figure of 22.79 in his First Class career bowling average column indicates he was more than handy with the ball.

These 'highlights packages' of the man's cricketing deeds makes me chew off nails. The disappointment of not having witnessed him in action is no less than that of missing out on Bradman, WG, Hobbs, Ranjitsinghji, Lala Amarnath or Jessop's contemporary George Lohmann (the man who had a Test career bowling average of 10.75).

Gilbert Jessop is one of the precious breed that stands out in every generation that plays cricket, that does more for the spread of the game than even some truly great peers, that hooks most of us on to this game as very young kids through their 'straight from the heart' approach much before increased knowledge of a heavily statistical game silently shifts our attention and admiration towards players having methods supported by successful numbers and results.

Coming back to that wishful first line, Duncan Fletcher would have been snoring a lot louder under his blanket today if he had an extra Freddie (and maybe more) up his sleeve for THE title defence Down Under.

[cross posted at Desicritics]

Beware of the Imposter!

There's a strange cheat lurking around the world's cricket grounds these days. He loves to hijack some specifically chosen international cricketer on the eve of a Test match. Then he painstakingly dons an impeccable physical makeover, Hollywood style, in order to resemble this missing player, all for the sake of a scarcely believable kick. And what's his kick?

Pretending to be that player and going through an entire Test match on the field and in the dressing room in full view of teammates, spectators and media - without ever getting caught!

For the well being of our beloved international cricketers' fraternity I tried to play Sherlock Holmes and figure out a way to trap him. Apparently he has an eye for one day specialists who are brilliant on the field and still finding their feet in Tests. And here's the clue: Mr. Imposter isn't too clever a fielder.

He 'replaced' Yuvraj singh of India in the Mumbai Test a few weeks back and dropped more catches there than Yuvraj did in his entire ODI career of nearly six years. After a few weeks of hibernation he was back to his favourite trick once again and this time he chose no less a stage than the Headquarters itself to brandish his unique trade. As per reports (lack of them, rather) Paul Collingwood appears to have returned home safely.

So if you find Shoaib Malik dropping a few catches in a Test sometime this summer make sure you watch the replays keenly and follow it up with a call to that eternal third umpire, the Interpol.

[cross posted at Different Strokes]

Dus ka tees, dus ka tees...

World Cup '07 tickets are on sale now and the early demand delights the organisers!

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.

India get the World Cup in 2011, Aus in 2015, Eng 2019

No I'm not posing as Nostradamus, nor am I busting some secret tournament fixing by ICC. That is not my take on World Cup winning teams from the future. It's just the distribution of future Cup hosting rights as announced by the ICC today.

Bad luck Punter and Straussie, but you'll never get to play a World Cup at home!

Oh - what about Jammy? By the way do you remember that Rahul Dravid made his ODI debut in the Singer Cup Tourney at Singapore in India's first match following that Eden 1996 semi-final defeat to Sri Lanka? After his 1st two matches I faintly recall a friend getting amused at this new player who "keeps batting rock solid before getting out for these 3's and 4's".

It's been 10 years of 'wall'ing since narrowly missing out on a home World Cup. So what are his chances of featuring in the 2011 World Cup as a player?

If you ask me the chances are bleak, real bleak.....

The 15 day retirement

“Blink and you’ll miss it,” went Cricinfo’s "All Today’s Yesterdays" column today. For a moment I mistook it for a reference to Shahid Afridi’s 15 day old retirement that got reversed today. It seems only a few hundred left-button clicks since I read Osman Samiuddin’s breaking news about Afridi withdrawing himself from Test matches. The wise man that he is, Osman remembered to add these last moment prophetic words before rounding off his article:

“Given the sudden timing of his announcement, however, and the fierce speculation now surrounding the circumstances of his axing from the last Test, it is unlikely that we have heard the last of this.”

Bukhari, secretary of Afridi’s home association KCCA, hints at a disappointment at being an in-and-out member for too long. "It was unfortunate that Shahid was sidelined from the Pakistan team for quite some time before he staged an exciting comeback. He appears to be upset after being dropped in the recent Kandy Test against Sri Lanka.”

A few days back we also had this stereotypical ‘unnamed’ official (there are millions of them crowding the corridors in the subcontinent) throwing his unstated weight in by confirming Afridi’s reasons of retirement:

"This has come as quite a surprise although he intimated that he was not up for the Sri Lankan tour saying that he had played too much cricket. He actually asked to be left out of the Test side at Kandy."

Osman read the game well. One can sense that half-smile of his tearing through the pages as he now writes:
“Less than a fortnight after announcing a surprise retirement from Test cricket, Shahid Afridi has reversed his decision following talks with Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach. “

PCB chairman Shahriyar Khan has come out with his interesting thoughts on the possible reason behind the original Afridi decision. "I don't think it was due to any differences within the team. I think he felt the pressure of having to perform for a crowd every time he went to bat. In Faisalabad and Karachi recently the ovation he has got has been absolutely phenomenal. Some English players told me when they played in Karachi they'd never seen the type of reception Afridi got when he came out to bat. In Faisalabad, people left the stadium when he was out."

Now here’s the curious part: Pakistan skipper Inzamam does not get a mention in the coverages dealing with Afridi and his retirement since Afridi mentioned having spoken to him about the matter while announcing his hiatus. I checked it out with an article search on Cricinfo archives. Inzamam, till the moment I write this, continues to stay out of the loop even as we learn of Afridi reversing his ‘retirement’ decision.

Everyone involved with the career of Afridi – Bukhari, Shahriyar Khan, Bob Woolmer – has issued statements urging the allrounder to reconsider but not Inzamam. Do we assume that he has only this uneasy silence to offer on the issue or is Pakistan cricket growing used to giving him a cold shoulder off the cricket field? “Perhaps Inzamam does not exactly welcome Afridi back with open arms in his Test team,” some unnamed source may be itching to come up with this quote. Seriously though, anyone used to the ways of cricket in the sub-continent will suspect a hidden angle to it.

To be fair to the Pakistan captain he had issued a formal reaction on the matter to the media: "I would not like to create any pressure on him to do something he does not want to do at this stage." Even so, this is hardly the father figure that broke his silence during the Shoaib Akhtar issue less than a year ago and aired his views on the errant champion with an aim to align the bowler’s personal aspirations to the team’s cause.

Frankly these are mere speculations that are part and parcel of any contention. Circumstances often invite people to read more into some words, and silences, than they should. Pratyush Khaitan interpreted the Afridi retirement thus. Why, this could even be a mid-career ‘brand valuation’ exercise carried out by an unintroduced canny person behind the popular Afridi personality, a smart celebrity that intends to assess the quantum of hay that can be made while the sun shines on his cricket career.

Afridi knows his body and its requirements better than anyone else. He has a good chance of lenthening his ODI career by opting for Test retirement and that may not be a dumb move at all. We all are aware of the popularity (and consequently, brand value potential for its stars) that one-dayers enjoy in these parts. Ajay Jadeja could never cement his Test place and has last played international cricket 5 years ago and yet he gets regular invitations to TV shows for his views when India plays one-dayers. Everyone remembers Ajay as a one-time hero who hit mighty Waqar Younis for 22 and 18 in two overs in a World Cup quarter-final.

Afridi’s initial decision to retire, the subsequent reversal and the reasons he stated for each will be re-assessed in the light of events that occur in Afridi’s career in the lead up to 2007 World Cup. A feeling remains that we are further away from an end to the affair than Shahid Afridi, Shahriyar Khan and others in the know would like us to believe.

Lara's back as West Indian skipper ....again

Pratyush hopes for the sake of the West Indies that this turns out to be a good short term move instead of a horrible backward step that puts future of West indian cricket in jeopardy.

Here's another post of his that touches a chord. It celebrates the joys of watching domestic cricket and observes that the West Indian people, contrary to a perceived notion about recession of cricket's popularity in the islands of late, still exhibit a fair amount of longing for the glorious game and turn up in some numbers for their domestic matches.

Mr. Twinkle Toes at 43

Mohammad Azharuddin playing his last Test in 2000 at age 37 could still make Ian Chappell rave about his ability to stay on the 'balls of his feet' while playing slower bowlers. It ain't much different at 43.

He was playing veterans' cricket in Pakistan a few days back. Did you expect a stiff, pot-bellied old hat to pretend as the erstwhile batting artiste? This man quite resembles the Azhar we knew. Take a glance at his feet and his poise - he still stays on the 'balls of his feet' and looks good for a few years at the highest level to me.

Time for that impossible wish - that some episodes in Indian cricket had never happened - to rake up some old heartaches.

Form is temporary....

…and who better than a South African named Herschelle Gibbs to testify for its quirks? Ask him about his last one-day innings; chances are you will notice the old sparkle come back to his eyes. It was that scarcely believable knock of 175 out of 438, a sublime innings that orchestrated the greatest one-day chase against the topmost ODI team in the world.

The downward spiral of Gibbs' form that followed the innings of his life was once again scarcely believable. In the 4 tests he played since that 5th one-dayer against Australia Gibbs has eked out a dismal 121 runs - less than what he got in that one innings - over 8 completed innings at an average of 15.12. This, on top of a meagre average of 25.70 over his last 10 Tests, has left the selectors with little option but to drop him from South African Test squad after the 1st of 3 Tests that the home team are scheduled to play against New Zealand. Suddenly that innings seems like a thing of the distant past!

The game sure is full of uncertainties, many of them far from glorious to the players.

[cross posted at Different Strokes]

So will the real number one please stand up?

I like Mahendra Singh Dhoni much, and wish him the very best in life and career. In fact I am a fan of him. If I were to be sealed off in a remote island for 3 months and then be asked to guess ‘the world’s best ODI batsman now’, Adam Gilchrist and Dhoni must be two of the first names that would occur to me. The ICC ODI world #1 ranking for his batting, as such, is an expected return that no one should grudge him.

But incidentally I have been watching cricket for the last three months, and there are two one-day players today who seem to be batting on the 3rd floor while all others, Dhoni included, are fighting it out on the 1st to win a ticket to the 2nd. The Australian skipper and #2 batsman Ricky Ponting is one. The other is Dhoni’s team mate and winner of three consecutive man-of-the-series awards, Yuvraj Singh. He is ranked number 10 though.

In the 2nd of the two-match DLF Cup series versus Pakistan at Abu Dhabi, everyone except Yuvraj in either team had a struggle during their respective stays at the crease. Dravid played more than 100 balls and yet never looked entirely comfortable with the stroke making. It would be ditto with Inzamam in their innings. The older ball was clearly causing problems.

India’s nemesis Mohammad Asif returned with Rana Naved during Indian ‘slog overs’ to strangulate the Indian innings and the two were largely successful at that. Exit set batsmen Dravid and Dhoni and enter new player Yuvraj Singh, coming in at twilight, against two very accurate seamers, bowling in a groove with the virtually unhittable old ball. He plays a few balls in typical fashion and then breezes 18 runs from 4 balls in an Asif over. No brawn, no power, no luck; just pristine timing of the ball. It becomes the single largest reason that India go past 260 with the decisive extra runs that prove to be too much for Inzamam and the Pakistan lower order in the final analysis.

The quality of the innings was put in perspective when the two bowlers regained full control immediately after Yuvraj departed. In recent memory only Ricky Ponting exhibited such clean hitting in the Johannesburg record-breaker but he got great competition from South Africans Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith on a batting beauty. Yuvraj’s surgical dissection was a one-off in the four innings played during the series and even Rana Naved’s inspired assault on Indian off-spinners during Pakistan’s chase was no patch on it.

Cricinfo’s Dileep Premachandran summed it up thus:

“The innings lost momentum towards the end, with Naved bowling a fine spell full of subtle changes of pace. Mahendra Singh Dhoni played with great intelligence for his 59, but the disdainful manner in which Yuvraj Singh thwacked 24 from just 10 balls made you wonder whether he would have been a better option at No.3. On a pitch where the vast majority of strokes were mistimed or heaved off the square, Yuvraj's wondrous sense of timing stood out, and the three fours and a six off Asif's penultimate over transformed a competitive total into an imposing one.“

That brings us to a few questions. Just how much of these rankings is based on past and present statistical records? [It is common knowledge, after all, that prior to this phase Yuvraj had precious little in the ‘achievements’ column to even dream of getting near at the top.] And, to what extent do they weigh in non-statistical factors like impact of scored runs on the game and match situation when runs were scored?

Let us face it: no ranking methodology is ever going to offer an explanation that satisfies all, and any brewing debate on the topic is best abandoned on that futile note. There are certain occasions though when our eyes tell us so much more than the stats pages. The present batting form of Yuvraj Singh is a case in point.

[cross posted at Different Strokes]

Malcolm Speed on his last lap?

Scott Wickstein hopes so in no uncertain terms. Another post by Zainub at Different Strokes takes a swipe at the ongoing Indo-Pak cat and mouse game for passing the buck in seniors' cricket controversy.

Why don't they make more men like Imran?

He won me all over again today. Here's the post that deals with this renewed admiration for the Pathan.

Statutory warning: The post has nothing to do with cricket!

WG comes to Sheikh Zayed stadium

1st ODI of DLF Cup between India and Pakistan at Abu Dhabi: Pakistan, chasing 198, are 70/2 after 17.3 overs. Irfan Pathan bowls the 4th delivery and Inzamam cuts it to left of point. The diving point fielder Yuvraj Singh denies non-striker Younis Khan a view of the ball as the latter bolts off the blocks expecting it to go past Yuvraj. But Yuvraj recovers from a rubbery full-stretch dive in a flash, ball in hand and flings it at the bowler’s end where Younis is now scampering back from mid-pitch. Throw comes at the wrong side of the stumps.

Pathan crosses the pitch and barely grasps the ball, arms outstretched. The momentum is taking him away from the stumps. Pathan twists his overbalanced frame and tries to back-flick the ball on to the stumps in a jiffy, quite unaware of the large distance Younis still has to cover behind his back, and misses a crucial runout chance. That missed opportunity rankles the bowler and anguish shows up on his face.

That little passage of play hits me. It fires a short circuit in me. A

jump cut instantly transports my thoughts back to the age of the bearded doctor. Dr. William Gilbert Grace, WG in short.

“His most conspicuous act as a doctor is thought to have occurred when an unfortunate fieldsman impaled himself on the boundary fence at Old Trafford.”

WG derived corollaries to the adage ‘cricket is a batsman’s game’ all by himself. Even the

umpires of Bristol were not spared WG’s disdain.

Furthering that logic Dr. Grace must have expected the bowlers to ‘serve’ as live bowling machines on the crease while he was batting. [I can picture some of them copping mouthfuls from the legend for showing a willingness to see his back in that blasphemy called appealing.] And close-in fielders would be no more to him than pests asking to be swatted.

Delicious possibilities spring to mind as I imagine the DLF incident to occur in the 1880’s with the Doc at the non-striking end instead of Younis. Shivers, though, run down the spine to think of the throw hitting the stumps…. Sometime in the near future ICC may do an Edgar Allan Poe on Andre Nel & co. and gift them with bedtime horror stories set in the era. That may make Nel count his blessings and wake up less grumpy next morning.

Something fixes the momentary neuron dysfunction up in my head, and I am back in 2006 watching live coverage of DLF Cup. “Younis?” I grimaced at the image on screen. I fail to allow that lean and exuberant young man take over the slot WG was occupying moments back. The cameras swap and a dominating figure now occupies the television screen. And then it strikes me. Younis’ partner there at the crease is the one more likely to pull off a cool ‘WG’!

As much as with the batting, WG keeps popping up in other facets of Inzamam’s persona every now and then. A chip of The Old Doc unveals in that beard of Inzy while another peeps from that looming frame, that age-of-innocence look, that stroll-in-the-park gait of his while relaxing between deliveries (‘Waiting for a bus’ - Dean Jones sums it up).

On the telly screen Inzy fails to put bat on one and bowler Sreesanth has a word to say. Inzamam huffs. This man has disdain for the mere mortals called bowlers - just like WG! I decide to check out online for more tallies between the two specimens. The Doc’s Player’s page for the Doc can probably help me out.

More similarities come to the fore. “Athletic is not a word that obviously comes to mind when contemplating Grace in his prime, though a slim young man did precede the pot-bellied genius who in middle age was far too heavy for any horse to bear.” Remember the droopy-eyed, rangy rookie that played arguably the greatest one-day innings in recent World Cup history during a

1992 semi-final match?

It seems unbelievable today that Bill Lawry even referred to Inzamam as a “wonderful athlete” on live commentary when Inzy returned in the finals to strike a few priceless end over blows in the Pakistan innings.

I’m going ahead with WG2 then….that is Inzy’s new nickname as far as I am concerned!

Having WG2 in the team works out just fine for Shoaib Akhtar too. “It is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease,” said the Doctor about English skipper Aubrey Smith, who had a curious, curved approach to the wicket that earned him the unwieldy nickname `

Round The Corner'. With WG2 playing for his side Akhtar can expect to be spared such potential assaults on that not-too-ordinary run up of his.

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

“This man (WG), for heaven’s sake, opened for England at the age of 50.”
More similarities there!

WG2 gives India a scare and plays a tireless, perfectly paced lone hand in Pakistan’s unsuccessful chase of 270 in the 2nd DLF Cup match. 36 is clearly not the age to even start assessing post retirement options when you can still bat like that. [I may have to withdraw my comment on WG2 in another DS post. “I do not see him doing great things in ODI's for a very long time from here” looks a prediction gone terribly wrong.]

A pest of an opposition skipper dares run him out in that match (and runs away to the boundary to save his skin) but no swear words are forthcoming from the departing WG2. Rather un-WG-like…

“He (WG) was notorious for employing, in order to pursue victory or personal achievement, a variety of wiles and tricks that may be thought of as, well, hardly cricket.” I’m afraid we have reached the end of the road. Do I hear fans of good Samaritan Inzy promptly scream out other dissimilarities? We run the risk of doing Inzy’s beloved game a disservice by letting this piece end on that sour note.

“Grace’s towering presence, more than any other single factor, transformed it (cricket) into the unrivalled spectator sport of summer, first of all in England, subsequently in other lands spread widely across the world. I would even suggest that a true measurement of WG’s unique stature is that he is instantly identifiable, even by some who are uninterested in his vocation, by his initials alone.”

Aah, that’s much better! WG2 will rather be IH after that.

[Quotes courtesy: Geoffrey Moorhouse, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1988]

[cross posted at Different Strokes]

The charm of Ian Chappell

Most ex-players avoid speaking about themselves or referring to anecdotes from their playing days in the commentary box. Probably they feel they are not supposed to do that in the midst of live commentary. Another reason may be a false sense of guilt at 'blowing their own trumpets'.

Ian Chappell does not share that philosophy. He is an ex-player worth reading and listening to. He has a talent for linking some development at the current time to a related incident from his days. Being fair in his observations and viewing things without a bias adds to his charm. He was himself a great and fearless player of fast bowling and averaged 50 against the 70's West Indies (to his overall 42); yet he avoids taking indirect swipes at sub-continent batsmen for being short on that ability.

I have seen or known little of player and skipper Ian Chappell. Ian the commentator appreciates places and players for what they are. Little surprise then that he was such a well-respected leader of men. Not one to swear by averages alone, in 1998 he said Jadeja to be a better ODI finisher than Bevan considering the teams they played in, and has never missed an opportunity to stress the value of Jayasuriya's play to his team.

He was the rare non South Asian commentator who praised India's Mohammad Azharuddin for his skills instead of the 'artistry'. Praising Azhar's other exceptional skills was a strange unstated taboo for a number of ex-player commentators even in those pre match fixing implication days. Perhaps Azhar's well-circulated weakness against short pitched bowling was held against him, rendering him a 'lesser' player to some.

Ian had none of it though. While the Hydrerabadi was scoring his last century in what ended up as his last test in 2000, I recall Ian Chappell demonstrating to televiewers how Azzu played spinners so well and adjusted to variations at last moment by staying on his toes ("balls of the feet" - I still remember Ian uttering that) while some others like Dravid (back then) got rooted on heels and invited problems.

True to his disposition Ian did not stint in showering praise when it was time to bid Jayasuriya good bye in Test cricket. Here's his ultimate compliment to the Sri Lankan master while harking back on Jayasuriya's greatest week in cricket. [On that theme, here's another tongue-in-cheek recollection from the same phase]

Warne's bitten.....

At a press conference on the eve of the ongoing Fatullah Test match Shane Warne reiterated his earlier views on Murali's 'minnow' wickets. Apparently it mattered little that the Sri Lankan mystery man averages 5.7 wickets a Test even without these 'easy' wickets. If not better judgement then that piece of stat should have kept Warnie quiet as he himself averages 4.8 wickets a Test (overall). [We probably need not get into the pros and cons of Murali's and Warnie's fortunes as those are besides the point being made].

More surprising is a man of Warne's stature and experience actually committing the folly of casting aspersions on competitive abilities of a team even before playing his first Test against them! Going by reputation was always the surest way any sportsperson ever knew to earn himself a BIG fall. Things were not too different this time either. Warne went though 20 wicketless overs in the Bangladesh first innings at better than 5 runs an over, a first for him in any innings that had him bowling 10 overs or more.

As Ravi Shastri opined on television at the tea break during first day's play, Warne is a competitor to the core and can surely be counted upon to come back in the 2nd innings and / or the 2nd Test. The pointed lesson though should not be lost on a champion; and Shane Warne without an iota of doubt remains one, notwithstanding his indiscretions.

The Faridabad fiasco

A number of pertinent questions have remained unanswered since the deplorable maltreatment of cricket fans at the venue of the Faridabad one day match. None of the "$ 1 billion" folk came out to accept blame for the shameful mismanagement and about the only words of comfort for the injured came from the Indian captain. Here's Pratyush's take on that.

Remembering Sophia Gardens

The Fatullah Cricket Stadium in Narayangunj District near Dhaka is about a quarter of the globe away from Sophia Gardens cricket stadium in the British Isles. But the events of this 1st day of the Test series between Australia and Bangladesh have reminded cricket followers of a particular match played between the same sides at the Welsh ground. Bangladesh supporters will hope that today’s proceedings at the Fatullah has the same impact on Test cricket in Bangladesh that that Natwest league match of 18th June 2005 had on their one-day outfit.

Ever since winning the cliffhanger of a final against Kenya at Kuala Lumpur in the 1997 edition of ICC trophy Bangladesh have always shown this ability to surprise big sides in international cricket whenever taken lightly. In one day cricket they have recorded knockout punches against each of their sub-continental big brothers and have occasionally scared a few other traditional Test sides rated as semi-Goliaths to Bangla’s David. The crowning glory was the in-your-face victory over Australians at Sophia Gardens last year that set the tone for the Antipodeans’ Ashes misfortunes later that summer.

Ability, therefore, was not a concern for the fledgling team. The bowling remains thin but that is no shame in this phase of early growth. Over the years though, Bangladesh supporters were let down by recurring non-performances from an unmistakably potent top order batting. For nearly a decade the Bangla batsmen betrayed a reluctance to do it the hard way, which is often the only way in international sport. Aftab Ahmed appeared to exorcise a limpet of a demon with that sixer off Jason Gillespie to seal the Sophia Gardens match. A spurt in Bangla’s one day performances indicates some truth about that take. Bangladesh have won only 15 of the 120 one day matches they played. Of the 15 wins though, no less than 6 have come in a remarkable period starting 18th June 2005.

Bangladesh appears to relish the opportunity to play against the Australians. They first took this formidable opposition by surprise when they batted admirably at Cairns during the second Test of their Down Under tour in 2003. And interestingly that match too had marked an upswing in Bangla’s performances in Test matches. One win and three draws in 22 matches (starting from the Cairns Test) is certainly no renaissance worthy of note. But no wins and a solitary draw in 20 matches till that point perhaps provides....well, an adequate perspective.

Dav Whatmore, serving as Bangladesh coach for three years, has valuable experience of a similar team-building job from his stint with the struggling young Sri Lankan side in the mid 90’s. But success, when it comes, in his present assignment of removing the ‘minnow’ tag from all future references to the Bangladesh team should rank higher than even the 1996 World Cup triumph.

For millions of fans in a nation where cricket is the number one sport the past year or so has been like a generous helping of apple pie after the bitter pills swallowed along the learning curve. They are hoping for the best and urging their team on to another step up the ladder. With that kind of history against the top team in cricket world their prayers may not remain unanswered for long.

That the Bangladesh players have broken their record for best all-wicket partnership and rewritten the record for most runs scored in a day for the second time in a month on this remarkable day is truly of secondary significance. After all the pitch played to the home team’s strengths, the spinners were ineffective on a first day wicket and a left-right partnership did Australian bowlers in on a hot n’ humid afternoon. Notwithstanding all that and a few critical lapses in concentration by the batsmen, the calculated audacity exuded by the team and an abiding picture of batsmen collectively striving to bat the team to a position of ascendancy were the primary gains for Bangladesh during their 88 overs of emancipation.

May Fatullah be the next Sophia Gardens, and much more. And the one person who will not have anything to complain about that is Muttiah Muralitharan.

[cross posted at Differrent Strokes]

The Chappell impact, and the skipper’s vote

A recent e-mail from a friend read, “When Mr. Greg Chappell is done with his present stint he will be writing a book inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. It will be called ‘My experiments with Indian team’.” My friend expressed an opinion gaining ground in a section of Indian cricket lovers. Excessive experimentation with strategies, they fear, may spell doom for Indian team by the time this pre-World Cup year closes. The issue never fails to engender a debate, major points being frequent changes in batting order and repeated switches between 5-bowler and 4-bowler teams (may be rephrased as 6-batsman and 5-batsman teams).

Oh, the delicious irony if it all! People having harsh words to say for Chappell’s Way would sing hosannas on ‘sound strategy’ and ‘consistent selection’ to prove their point, and so would those who praise it. Perception of the term ‘consistent’ can be the opposite banks of a river even to people sharing the same roof for best part of their lives.

We limit the current scope of discussion to batting. The conventional or age-old approach to deciding batting strategy of a match assigns the ‘specialist batsmen’ well defined batting positions and allowing them a long run there to prove themselves. The term ‘specialist’ here is meant to express trust on the skills of these batsmen at various aspects of the craft of batsmanship. They are expected to play a number of roles and change gears depending on the scenario developing in the middle.

We have seen this method at work for all international teams since the birth of Test cricket. For example, Sachin Tendulkar batted at number four in the Indian team for over a decade in Tests. His batting position was irrespective of the situation his team faced. He would show the best defence in international cricket at 13/2; and at 200/2 he would be a volcano waiting to explode. Most supporters of this theory also endorse playing same batsmen for all recognised formats of the game. “If they are good for Tests, they will do well everywhere.”

Modern cricket lays more emphasis on optimisation and a new approach is fast gaining popularity amongst teams striving for that extra inch. This is particularly true for one-day cricket. It endorses ‘horses for courses’ to be the right way to go for the desired result. Here a batsman is put through a SWOT analysis and then assigned an unambiguous role. He will then be either an accumulator or a destroyer or a 50-over man, and rarely the all-in-one of the earlier approach.

Promotion of stroke players as one-day openers was the first big step in this direction and New Zealand patented this theory in the 1992 World Cup through Mark Greatbatch. Thereafter one-day cricket degenerated to a drag as novelty became a rarity, but for the occasional bout, until the Indian team of late showed intent of taking it to the next level.

Greg Chappell’s experiment with the batting roles has redefined the term ‘specialist’. For a ‘specialist’ batsman in his team, the function is well defined but his position in batting order shall be ‘real-time’, i.e. skipper and coach will decide during the course of the match on the position he bats at.

In other words this player is not expected to make any adjustments to his game like the ‘old specialists’ and simply needs to carry it out the job on hand WHENEVER his team needs him to. Fallout: he moves up and down the order match after match and even sits out games when the team does not expect his specialised services to be required for a particular match. Chappell’s experimentation with the Indian one-day side and Dravid’s concurrence to it demonstrates their faith in this theory.

Does this new-age approach, attempted for the very first time by the Indian team management at the highest level, go with ‘consistency’? Some say yes, while most disagree even in the face of an upsurge in Indian performances in one-dayers. Concern about its impact on player psyche and confidence remains a major obstacle on its road to popularity. It certainly will be no cakewalk for unsuspecting players to redesign their well-entrenched beliefs all of a sudden and fit themselves in this new mould. Also, the gifted and free-spirited players, though performing well in the early days of Dravid-Chappell regime, may start dipping off under the robotic monotony of their routine once the novelty wears off.

The opportunity to judge ‘Chappell’s hypothesis’ on the basis of records is still a year away, in the least. This theory, much Like Suresh Raina and some other rookies that were selected with an eye on their potential, is another new member of the Indian team. It had an impressive debut but it will have to prove its worth over a period of time. The success or failure of this hypothesis in the long run, primarily in the 2007 World Cup, is linked to what the Indian players make of this vision. That alone will decide Chappell’s place in Indian cricket history as a visionary or a villain.

There is one small point, often given a miss in the exchange of crossfire between opposing factions, that perhaps needs to be kept in mind at all times while discussing this ‘consistency’ theme. The team management and selection committee must display consistency in selecting the playing squads. It matters even more than choice of strategy in the overall scheme of things.

The most important message for a player comes neither thru an email nor at the team meeting nor scribbled on a paper chit. It is there in the newspapers with the announcement of squads. Expecting players to adapt to a team strategy is fair enough but the team management is then responsible for the careers of players that are willing to comply. Players combining right attitude with desired performance levels need to be defended where it matters - in front of the selectors.

A vote for the skipper and the coach in selection meetings can be the logical way to go about it.

[Cross posted at Desicritics: sports]

Cricket reporting made easy

Take a 5th day match report of Mumbai Test and perform the following precise operations:

Find 'Mumbai Test', replace with 'Delhi ODI'.

Find 'Dravid at the toss', replace with 'Flintoff at the toss'.

Find 'Yuvraj Singh', check for phrase 'bad match', replace with 'Owais Shah'.

Find 'Shaun Udal', replace with 'Harbhajan Singh'.

Find 'India after lunch break', replace with 'England after Pietersen'.

Find 'Dhoni's skier', replace with 'Blackwell's sweep'.

Find 'Flintoff at the post-match', replace with 'Dravid at the post match'.

Find 'I think the grass would have to be knee-deep for me to bowl first', replace with 'for me it was the last throw of dice'.

Find 'chants of brick back Sourav' - but do not replace it.

Your Delhi ODI match report is almost ready! Easy stuff.

[cross posted at Different strokes]

Clearing the ropes from an armchair

"Hell! He had just this one over to play and it would be tea."

Viewed from outside the boundary ropes, cricket can often be an easy game to play. Everything the players attempt on the field is but child's play to the majority of us watching from the stands, peeping at the internet scorecard, and gazing at the idiot box. We have seen ex-players failing the temptation to step into this armchair-critic mode.

"C'mon pal, you simply cannot afford to have such an ordinary yorker at this level."

England are 23/2 chasing India's 203 in the 1st ODI. How's this one for the barmy army to boo their dismissed batsmen?

"Sure your coach tells you a thousand times that Pathan swings one way, but you still have to gift him your wicket through another left-handed nick or right-handed lbw."

A bit too long for the regular couch-potato's liking, I guess.

Crawl into my cricinfo parlour...

Different Strokes, that is. Some nice n' interesting posts are happening there of late. If you love cricket, chances are you will enjoy them. Hope to see you there.

A forgotten duel, and anecdotelessness of ex-players

Javagal Srinath. Nasser Hussain. Names that may perhaps induce some cricket lovers from England and India to sift through their memory bank for glimpses of the 1996 series between India and England, the one that launched Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid in Test cricket amongst four other rookies.

None will vote for this series if it were to compete for the ‘greatest ever’ tag. Nevertheless it featured some memorable moments of attritional cricket. Most of it happened in the decisive 1st Test of the series through a duel between Hussain and Srinath. Hussain was on a comeback and showed no inclination to let go of his chance to book a long run in the England side. Srinath approached his peak as a fast bowler.

When the Indian batsmen capitulated in the 1st innings, Srinath guided the total past 200 with a useful lower order 50. More importantly, he followed it up with probing spells in tandem with the impressive Prasad. Most English batsmen struggled against the Indian seamers, particularly Srinath and his mix of inswingers and straight ones.

Hussain came in early and found himself separating Srinath from an English collapse. The gangly Bangalorean saw his chance and greeted Hussain with his full bag of tricks. Ball engaged bat in a fascinating contest till a leg side caught behind decision went against Srinath with the Hussain innings still at a nascent stage.

How fortunes can turn on such little things; thereon Hussain stepped up a level or two while Srinath, bowling admirably right through the 3 matches and beating numerous edges without quite running through the opposition ever, was doomed to take his place in the hierarchy of unluckiest bowlers ever to bowl in a Test series. Hussain encashed his slice of fortune to score a century that won England the match and series. Some Indian players chose not to applaud Hussain’s feat as he raised his bat. He could hardly care less, finishing the three-Test series with 2 Man of the Match awards and sealing a permanent place in the England side.

Rahul Dravid, who made his debut in the following match, has now played his 100th Test. Ten years is a long time in international cricket these days and the above episode from the playing days of two former cricketers must now be deemed part of rusty dusty imagery from days gone by. The mind picks up a duster as the erstwhile combatants join forces in the ongoing India versus England series with the objective of entertaining TV audiences from the commentators’ corner.

Here’s hoping that Hussain and Srinath, and all their ex-player mates seeking a career in live commentary, pick up theirs and divulge their recollections of such experiences to the viewers. Majority of the ex-player commentators including the two protagonists speak too much of what happens in the middle and narrate too little of what we wish we could.

Why is your new act so bereft of memoirs from your old one, dear ex-player? It certainly need not be. You were there when that dressing room prank was played, when that bowler had to be separated from the batsman, that umpire sent it upstairs, that run-out turned the match, that one man took it away from them, that team proved far greater than the sum of its parts, or your co-commentator made his debut. What are these but capital gains from your playing days?

Making use of these 'earnings' with a good sense of timing may need some learning at 'nets', quite like trademark shots and killer deliveries. Do it for the sake of everyone and the game. Relate a rib-tickling incident to help make a sluggish passage of play more bearable. Or quote your brilliant skipper of those days to explain the situation that may develop soon.
We can promise you that all shall love it, even the blokes (very few of them, really) that always groaned when you were summoned to execute your part in a match. The satisfaction of still adding your bit to the game from outside the arena will all be yours, which is not too insignificant.

These anecdotes, rather than some inane redundancies so many of you take pride in dishing out, are hidden aces that you hold over some of your articulate competitors who never played the game at the highest grade. Show them, win some hearts.

[cross posted at Different Strokes]

The Gold Rush

A young fast bowler (YFB) enters an interview hall. YOS, off-spinning mate from his state team, crosses him at the door. Some batsmen are seen exchanging heated words with security personnel at the gate. A banner outside the hall reads "Recruitment of bowlers for Indian Test team". A few good men (FGM) are waiting. They stop shaking their heads and face him.

FGM-1: I must say that you look impressive, boy. Tell us what you can do for the team.

YFB: (clears throat) Good morning gentlemen. I came across your newspaper ad for this walk-in. Sir I am a fast bowler. After working up a rhythm I bowl at a pace that batsmen do not relish. I own a deceptive slower, a kicking-off-good-length bouncer and an accurate yorker. I mix all of these weapons sparingly and generally stick to an off stump line.

FGM-2: Anything more?

YFB: I am pretty quick in the outfield and all my skippers will tell you I am a safe catcher. And I am in fine form this first class season.

FGM-3: But can you bat?

YFB: I'm afraid I am not too good at it.

FGM-3: Thanks. You may leave now.

YFB walks away, but turns back at the door. Eagerness drips from his countenance.

[What happens next? Continue reading this post at Different Strokes]

'Even contest' grounds

Australia score 434 in fifty overs at Johannesburg and South Africa hunt them down with a wicket and a delivery to spare. Thrilling indeed - because they made a match of it as the script progressed, because none dared guess the result till it came.

Sri Lanka struggle to 130 all out against Pakistan at the Premadasa in the 2nd ODI and then hit back to have their opponents at 82/6. They made a match of it too.

We all loved the matches - the 872 one, and the 264 one too. Yet so few will put their hands up if asked to say a few words in praise of the groundsmen of those pitches. "It was not a fair pitch", the common refrain. These people, the groundsmen, have the only job on the ground that is more thankless than the wicketkeeper's.

What is a fair pitch? Limiting the scope of discussion to a one-day match, curators prepare one-day pitches for both teams to play on them for just one day. The surface may be a spinners delight, a paceman's dream or a batsman's paradise, as their administrators legitimately or otherwise want it to be. They just follow the orders. The weather and local factors also play a big part in their craft just as the ambient moisture does to Hoggard's. Their main duty to the one-day sport then is merely ensuring that the surface, of whatever nature, plays more or less the same for that one day. In other words, play fair.

Yet in the event of a one-sided result the pitches are sometimes blamed by players and coaches even after those have played evenly for the designated duration. And seldom will anyone from the home association care to defend their groundsmen.

ICC has proposed a new pitch monitoring process for international venues. One hopes the process works with the positive philosophy of helping preparation of fair pitches as we discussed above, rather than one that narrows its scope down to witch-hunting. A process to curb undue pre-match requests by home captains / administrators to excessively alter the nature of a pitch on the eve of a match is worth exploring though.

Inclusion of the curator in the post match conference may not be a bad idea. Poor batting or bowling will then be tougher to defend. Conversely the curator shall feel like being part of the process that is responsible for ensuring that either team gets the same conditions.
Anything to see an evenly contested cricket match....

[cross posted at Different Strokes]

Celebrating "The Innings"….

This is a story we all know but yet I love to narrate again and again; you may get tired of hearing it but I don't see myself relenting. Let's go back by 10 years. To be exact.

A little bit of backdrop will not do the story any harm. Sri Lanka, a team that was expected to lose to all others barring Zimbabwe till 1994, start a steep upward curve the following year. This curve probably starts taking shape when Sri Lanka tour Pakistan for a 3 Test series in 1995. They lose the first test to a strong Pakistan side - and shock everyone when they come back to win the other two Tests and clinch the series: a first-ever for any three-match series.

More warning signs for the unheeding cricketing world come during the Sharjah tournament in October 1995. In a league match they chase 333 made by a respectable West Indian side (Lara 169) valiantly and lose by a mere 4 runs. This, even after Sri Lanka are reduced to 103 for 5 with all their stars gone. They make a thrilling match of it through lower order support to a never-say-die century by the most unfancied Tillekaratna. The Lankans subsequently beat the same side in the finals.

Next they visit the new unofficial Test champions Australia and lose the Test series 3-0 to no one's surprise...but three events occur during that series that change things forever for this team. I can recall this episode in some detail as cricket-watching was all that I was doing at the time.

1) Jayasuriya scores his 1st ever Test century in the 3rd Test - against the Aussies at their backyard; and for the 1st time believes that he is a Batsman & not the bits-and-pieces part-timer he believed himself to be for seven international seasons.

2) Arjuna takes up a fight with the Australian umpires regarding Murali and faces some harrassment on and off the field. Characteristically he keeps giving some back in kind. In the 2nd final of the ODI series he even feigns injury and brings out the team's fastest pair of legs Sanath as his runner - to severe objection of Taylor and his teammates.

In effect, his non-compliance to Australia's on-field pressure tactics inspires the team to haul their chins up and meet the adversary in the eye. However in the process the Sri Lankans develop a silent hostility towards the Aussies, which is to be aggravated by the Aussies' decision not to play their WC'96 league match scheduled in Sri Lanka.

3) The ODI tri-series Down Under unfolds as an eventful one. The Sri Lankans were struggling with the form of their opener Mahanama and their wicketkeeper, 5-down bat Kaluwitharana. Midway through the series the team management swaps their positions in a desperate move, one that will take them to the series finals via 3 wins in 3 consecutive league matches. It is a decision - more correctly a brainwave - that will have a never-before effect on all forms of the game.

The post-1996 trend of teams scoring quick runs even under pressure, and the general Aussie way of playing cricket of late is the direct fallout of a philosophy expounded to the cricket world by Sri Lanka through their cup winning effort: when in doubt, attack (as someone put it nicely).

Back to March 17 1996. Sri Lanka have stormed into the WC finals unbeaten, thanks to Kalu, Jayasuriya, Aravinda, Vaas, Murali and Dharmasena. Casualties of underestimating this unit lay by the wayside - most notable of them India, who did not learn their lesson even after losing a league match convincingly and were casual enough to let their hair down after only the 1st over of a World Cup semi. [Not that the unsuspecting Indian players can be blamed too much - they saw the back of their main tormentor of the league match Sanath and his opening partner before people took their stadium seats.]

This all-important day of the Finals belongs to just one of the brave little islanders. Australia bat 1st in the WC final and threaten to run away at around the half-way stage (132/1). The Sri Lankans field and bowl brilliantly,in that order, to pull them back and peg the total to threshold of competitiveness (241/7). Aravinda is instrumental in this restrictive effort - he picks up three wickets and bags some good catches too. That effort however does not serve even as a half-decent foresight of the stuff he was about to unleash.

The Sri Lankan innings stutters off the blocks as they lose their gladiators Sanath and Kalu by the team score of 23. 'Mad Max' de Silva walks in at one-drop. He puts together a crucial stand with Gurusinghe before Guru departs for 65. The team score is 148 and in comes the Himalaya-cool Ranatunga.

A most unforgettable display of classical batsmanship follows, exceeded in thrill only by Inzy's blazing 60 of 37 balls against NZ in the 1992 WC semis. Aravinda has played top-flight cricket for 19 years but seldom must he have looked as perfect a batsman as he does during this partnership with his captain.

This innings is not as frantic in pace as Aravinda's own semi-final resurrection work against India. His dominance of the bowling though is complete. If his semi-final blast hit India like a stealth bomber, this one had the inevitability of the Sun illuminating the horizon at dawn. No risks are taken and yet Aravinda makes McGrath and Warne look like innocuous triers. In one over of Warne the bowler is driven for a straight four thru mid-off. Masterclass is still not over and the 5'3" genius then paints a mirror image of the shot in the very next Warne over through mid-on. Only VVS Laxman at work in Eden Gardens 2001 and Nathan Astle scoring his record breaking Test double ton have since etched as prominent images.

An Australian team walking in a daze much before the actual end of play is the rarest sight of all, but the whole world saw it today. Aravinda de Silva chose the greatest cricket match in the history of his country to levitate to another stratum and play The Innings we all dream about. 10 years ago, The Innings is about to begin soon...The Sun rises at the dawn of Sri Lankan cricket and I don't want to miss it even in the dreams.

The man who scored more than half the runs chasing in that epic Sunday match....

....was the man who finished it off, Mark Boucher! He scored 225 undefeated runs for South Africa.

Amazed? No one should be, as Boucher it was that convinced Gibbs to mend his ways and come back to himself and South Africa on a grim 2000 evening. The shadowy clouds have since cleared away and the sun is rising once again upon Gibbs' career. The effortless batsman has 175 reasons to smile now, and perhaps a little poignant 'thank you' to return.

12th March, 2006: while I was travelling

5.00 pm IST: Channel surfing was never so much fun. Kumble was taking the English middle order on a ride at Mohali on one button and the Australian captain was batting like some eye-candy Terminator at Johannesburg on another. Found time to message my friend Samir about the folly of Smith referring to Ponting's Aussies as 'chokers' in press. Little need of charging such rivals up on the eve of a decider, I opined.

5:30 pm IST: Australia have crossed 400 and are still going strong. I thought of postponing the imminent 3-hour evening journey back to Haldia (my workplace) and stay back at Kolkata. "Great batting is sure to continue in the South African chase dear; don't miss it" - the Johannesburg pitch enticed with a smile. But what of the very early wake up tomorrow?

5:50 IST: Channel surfing is over, and so is an hour-long dilemma. It is stumps at Mohali with the scales tilting for India. The South Africans lose an early wicket (Dippenaar) shortly after they come out to pretend chasing Australia's 434, or so I fatefully think of the early developments. "No use wasting a night's sleep over a no-contest," I reconsider stoically over the replay of Dippenaar's dismissal and set out on my journey. Hope I can forgive myself this indiscretion some day earlier than Martin Crowe exorcises his 299.

7:15 pm IST: I'm well on my way to Haldia when I get an sms from Samir. "Now that is what I call a chase." I text him asking for an explanation. Instinct tells me of my terrible mistake. Confirmation comes soon in the form of a phone call. South Africa are 180+ at nine runs an over, skipper leading the charge with one-drop Gibbs. As if that is not enough, he has to end the call with "You are really missing SOMETHING here."

I spend the next 2½ plus hours on frantic calls and impatient messages to / from my friends Samir, Sandeepan and Abhijit. …"smithy's dsmssed"….

"193 reqd off 143 balls, Gibbs 130"....

"182 in 22 overs, Gibbs 136"….

"My goodness Angshu, they need just 164 more off 21 overs – it's less than 8! Khatarnaak (deadly) batting by Gibbs"…..

"284/3 in 30.5, gibbs 161".

Nearly miss the station where I get down to resume the rest of my journey. Just have enough time at the changeover to rush into a nearest electronics shop and get a glimpse of the television. 100 needed off 60 balls, 5 wkts - sorry, wickets remaining.

"it's a sort-of-normal diffclt chase, not bynd ths team if Kemp gets in" I simply have to play the self-assigned cricket specialist's role on the 2nd leg of my journey even while on board a moving vehicle. The connectivity plays truant for a while and then, "48 off 30 balls with 4 wickets in hand, Kemp gone just now. Hey wait, it was 77 off 42 at one stage". Turning around for empathy I find myself looking at a bunch of serenely oblivious people in that public transport. No one….NO ONE is aware of the amazing developments in Johannesburg. At that moment I feel one with with Patrick Swayze's 'Ghost'. Agony and an air of helplessness are my travel companions and those two shoot up with the excitement whenever I receive another update from my friends. The despair is absolute as I brought it upon myself.

09:50 pm, IST: The cellphone was my intergalactic link from this other world. Hell, what's wrong with the darned connection again...Luckily the calls started pouring in again. It was time for live commentary till the end. …."van der Wath has just played the innings of his life and SA need 12 off 11 balls, 3 wickets in hand. Wait, make it two wickets and 10 balls."…"7 runs off 6 balls. The Aussies are delaying the proceedings shamelessly."…."another wicket falls. 3 off 2 with last wicket. Brett Lee is now starting his run-up…eeub seore aeuuk..."

That jumbling up of sound signified that another 'poor connectivity' zone was approaching. A few minutes later, confirmation came that the record was indeed broken twice in a day. Peace prevailed on the record-happy mind thereafter.

10:15 pm, IST: Match over, now there is ample time for a few comments. This time I was on the receiving end. Sample this sixer from a luckless friend who learnt of this incredible match and its outcome from….me! "Wl ths b the turning point 4 world cric & 4 australia & sa? Gibbs has done a javed miandad on aus!" By now the net was apparently getting splashed with the breaking news. "I was reading the e-reports and they still cnt believe it!'

As the journey draws to a close I remember that English county match from 2002 that had similar back-to-back mammoths scored in the same day. It is amazing how unthinkable can become inevitable once the blocks are removed and thinking becomes uncluttered.

When it came to giving that great World Cup 1999 semi-final clash (and I missed most of it....travelling) a real run for money in the 'greatest one-day match ever' poll it had to be another ODI involving same two sides. Another world cup comes up in a year – already waiting for that clash even as Ponting refuses to take a share away from Gibbs' hour of glory.

I will not be travelling that day.

[cross posted at Different Strokes]

Is Silence golden? Then shut it away in the locker with jewellery!

"You owe me a beer."-Andrew Symonds to Michael Clarke as he left the field after he had been caught via a deflection off Clarke's boot

Lesson learnt: Playing supersub for the opposition can be doubly expensive.


"They have changed the whole way spin bowling will be coached. Anybody with half a brain will push it to the limits."-Dr Paul Hurrion, one of the ICC's expert panel of human-movement specialists, on the limits of legality

And what does Coach 2015 yell at the nets? ‘Listen kid - all your six throws should hit the top of off-stump on 1st bounce, batsman missing.’


"If they can get away with it, why can't we try and get away with it too?"-Andre Nel says that South Africa may take a leaf out of the Australian book when it comes to appealing

They are hardly getting away with it these days, Nel. And not all Aussies are backing their homegrown noiseboxes..

"It's exactly how toddlers behave in an effort to hide their shortcomings."-Bob Simpson slams the on-field behaviour of the Aussies


Maybe Bob will have a chat with Nel. But who’s telling his skip? Certainly not Warne…

"You can fry an egg on his (Smith's) face within two minutes."-Shane Warne takes yet another dig at Graeme Smith

Smithy’s ‘frying pan’ must have been worth going miles to see after that Warne ‘insta-chill’. Talking of verbals there’s this spontaneous, religious Aussie basher that does not even need an invitation or an end to get going...a look at the map is generally enough.

"You can see the way they crumble under pressure. When there is no pressure, they look really good and are tough to beat. But they panic under pressure and they looked awful and vulnerable the other night."-Arjuna Ranatunga has yet another pot-shot at Australia

How we wish Arjuna that you had visited rival dressing rooms with this invaluable pearl when Australia were notching up those 16 consecutive facile and thoroughly deplorable test wins.


While on exhanging pleasantries, trust a beautiful mind to locate another of its kind...

"I don't know about his background, but I found him a decent person, unlike normal cricketers."-Pakistan's head of selection Wasim Bari on Rahul Dravid.

Decency be damned, there's this new theory propounded on this same man correlating ‘straightness’ to using bats instead of pads!

"He is so straight and negotiates almost every delivery with his bat, why does he need pads at all?"-Danish Kaneria indirectly rules out Rahul Dravid as a likely candidate for LBW

Hurrah - at long last we are entering interesting territory…Crash! The topic gets derailed and we are into the lean phase of WI cricket:

"If the flour is poor quality and the salt is poor quality, the bread will taste bad."-Jimmy Adams

The unstated connotation of the Danish theory probably left that bad taste in 'P'ADams’ mouth. Quite unlike the most famously unrepented kiss of the season:

"It was just a bit of fun. We weren't hurting anybody. I have nothing against gay people, but, you know, I prefer men."-Richelle Fitzgibbon, who indulged in the 'crime' of locking lips with a female friend during a one-day match in New Zealand, puckers up to those offended


The air, so filled with love of all kinds by now, also evoked a near-perfect declaration of romance reverberating from the rival camp amid the trilling of bugles...

"I just love the Pakistani bowling."-Virender Sehwag puts his 48 boundaries in the first Test at Lahore in words.

...and from across the boundary fence:

"My grandma has a crush on Richie Benaud"-A banner at the Gabba which prompted Mark Nicholas to ask "Is that necessarily a good thing?" of his fellow commentator. "Depends on the grandma," replied Benaud, quick as a flash


Benaud’s verbal googlies are still about him while he completes his 7th 10-year haul. Wish we could say the same about the fortunes of another skipper from another land and era who isn’t even half his age.

"I've played well for the last five to six months."-Sourav Ganguly wonders what all the fuss is about

That’s the spirit, Sourav. Our fingers remain crossed. You only have to play more well. Surely the least you can do is consult St. Carlisle regarding your future. He is the new prophet from Africa:

"One day the ICC is going to have to stand up and make a decision on something ... they're going to have to grow a spine and make a decision."-Former Zimbabwe captain Stuart Carlisle blames the ICC for the mess in his country

Gawd - Stuart was amazing there and actually foretold events from an unknown millenium! With such skills he may just land an official appointment in the near future. Apparently some people in charge of making international schedules seriously need to employ soothsayers for that trickiest prediction of all: which month does winter set in this year..

"I think the cold weather conditions played a big role in the groundsmen failing to get their task done properly."-Pakistan chairman Shaharyar Khan lays the blame for the turgid Lahore pitch on the weather


They better make that appointment next time, for swashbuckling openers treat bad meterology the same as bad bowling:

"It is the prerogative of the home side to prepare the pitch. We are ready to play on any wicket but such wickets are not good for cricket."-Despite filling his boots, Virender Sehwag has some home truths aboutPakistan's preparations

But then, what of their bad history?

"No. I don't know anything about them. I haven't heard about them."-Virender Sehwag,when asked about the record held by Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad for the highest opening stand

Mind correcting your tone of voice Mr. Najafgarh? [Absolved myself from bad geography there, in case you missed] ‘They' were ex-openers and no way related to ‘MK’. A Great Batsman and a Great Bowler are out to get you for this, led by a Great Skipper.

The topic being history, let’s end this with a couple of guys who created and erased some of it in the past year. In fact, the two even gratefully exchanged 16 years of history in 2 miniscule series-defining runs. A penny for their thought?

"I must admit that when I put my arm around him the exact words I used were 'It's 1-1 you Aussie bastard'."-Andrew Flintoff jokes about what he really said to Brett Lee at the end of the Edgbaston Test.

“There's not too much that'd do differently - obviously I'd have liked to change a couple of results, or just add a couple of runs to our total at Edgbaston!”-Ponting, looking back on the 2005 Ashes series.

[quotes courtesy: cricinfo]