Inspirational XI

Disclaimer: For those of you who take this post seriously and consider it as an insult to the stalwarts of domestic cricket who didn't quite succeed in international cricket, Apologies and an advice - Just take it easy!

Now that I have established my political correctness, let us talk:

Enough of celebrating Sachin, Lara, Wasim, Warne et al. Sometimes I wonder why we even celebrate them. I had only one dream in my childhood – to be an international cricketer. These guys didn’t help me even one bit in realizing my dream, if anything they pushed me further away from my dream. I bowl a good spell in a school match and feel good about myself, come back home and switch on the TV only to watch Allan Donald cleaning up Atherton with a an absolute Jaffa that I can’t even dream bowling it. What’s the point of admiring these dream-spoilers, they didn’t even allow me to live in an illusion. But just when I was going through those depressionary times, there were always a bunch of guys providing hope and inspiration…If Iqbal Siddiqui can play for India, surely I should be able to. If Vikram Rathore could open why not me?

I wanted to pay a tribute to all those who inspired me when I was growing up by dedicating a blog to them. Then we thought we would do it a little differently – after all these people have inspired not just me but so many in my generation. So Ramki and I had a discussion (on gtalk) on some of those inspiring cricketers (the discussion was restricted only to Indian Cricketers) of our generation and we came up with an idea to select an all time best inspirational XI as a mark of respect to them. The transcript of the discussion follows:

Mahesh: Those were great times man. We had stalwarts like Vikram Rathore, Devang Gandhi, Atul Bedade etc. I feel sorry for the teenagers of today, they only have Joginer Sharma to look upto…
Ramki: Sujith Somasundar
how can u miss him
Ajay Sharma
Bhupinder singh jr...
M: Subroto Banerjee!
R: hahahaha
M: Amay Khuraysia
R: of course
M: In a match he consitently played Shoaib's next ball in advance
R: Nikhil Chopra
Aavishkar Salvi
M: oh beauty
R: thank you
M: Almost Mcgrath - i.e, till he released the ball
R: hahaha
M: after that Paras Mhambrey would seem Mcgrath in comparison...
R: yaaa
M: What about Iqbal Siddiqui - till date even he doesn't know how he got selected.....
I think it was part of BCCI's poverty alleviation program
whereby they would pick one player to be part of the Indian team for a match
R: yep...
M: and that one match fees by Indian standards is enough for him to survive the rest of his life
R: and based on that he would make a lot of money
M: exactly
M: "I helped India chase a 4th innings total successfully against England"
R: 5 runs?
R: honor of opening the batting and bowling in the same test on debut
M: that is ultimate
R: Laxmi Ratan Shukla
Jacob Martin?
M: oh…ya
you know what
M: when Sachin picked him in the XI for one of the matches in the tri -series down under
he was asked about Jacob Martin by Ian Chappell at the toss
R: hmmm....
M: "Tell us something about this new guy in the team"
Sachin had only one thing to say - He's an excellent fielder!
R: hahaha
M: and we all know the excellence of his fielding - so u know how much Sachin rated his batting!
R: Ranadeb Bose
M: What abt Harvinder Singh
R: Of course
in the list
M: Bose is ultimate
M: my alltime fav
R: David Johnson
M: he got Sachin's wicket with a beauty (the only good ball I have seen him bowl though!)- so lets not tease him too much.......
Amit Bhandari!
R: top pick that
Connor williams
M: lol
but none to beat Vikram Rathore I say
R: couldn’t agree more
M: People talk of Lara being the quintessential walker
R: my all time favourite
M: but this man is in a different league
Have you even seen Lara walk for an LBW?
Our man did..........
apart from the grace and elegance, the sportsmanship is what separates him from the rest comfortably
R: and Sujith Somasundar also
17runs
1 single 4 fours
all french cuts
M: all classy french cuts…he simply didn’t have a clue…the ball came and hit the bat and went to the boundary!
R: Vivek Razdan
M: lol
his greatest achievement in cricket is that he was part of the winning team finally
in a quiz contest in Home Tv
"A Question of Cricket"
R: hahahaa
M: he even beat Gavaskar I say
R: oh..ok..lots of time to study about cricket....
T. Kumaran?
M: Dodda Ganesh.......
R: maan
brilliant
M: Kumaran - narrowly misses out
R: hahahahaha
M: lack of enough samples...
R: yaa..true
Dodda Ganesh is a good pick

M: Mr.Dodda Ganesh single-handedly undid all the good work by Srinath and Prasad in the opening spells in SA
oh.......
R: Gagan Khoda !
averages around 80 in international cricket
against Kenya....
M: I think he got the man of the match award for that innings
R: yes
89 if I am not wrong...
M: immediately after that match, Azhar seemed to have told the selectors that he is not fit for international cricket
R: hahahaahaha
M: Devang Gandhi! I think he was the closest to Vikram Rathore!
R: in terms of footwork...deja vu
M: In the whole of Australian tour I think he only played 2 shots in front of the wicket
one resulted in Sadagoppan's Ramesh's run out !
R: yaaa
in brisbane
M: and the other was a catch right into the hands of the only fielder standing in front of the wicket in an ODI
Only Devang Gandhi can do that.........
R: Ajay Sharma?
M: no match fixers pls
R: ok...
we dont want to spoil the team….
M: this list is too big man
lets filter it
M: lets pick an all time best XI out of this…
Openers are a no brainer......
R: openers of course
if you pick anybody else...then I don’t know you for the rest of my life…
M: Vikram Rathore - Class, Style and that quintessential sportsman spirit of walking....
Devang Gandhi - His repertoire of dismissals is simply stunning
even more stunning than Sachin's repertoire of shots
R: ok...
M: now lets come to the crucial no.3 spot
R: scenario
India lost one quick wicket
against pakistan
shoaib bowling
who would you want?
M: who else… but Amay Khuraysia....
the next ball man!
after a cracking 50 against a Srilankan team packed with spinners at home, he was up against Shoaib in Sharjah
R: hmmm
M: boy was he putting on a show there... almost beating Sujith Somasundar's master class
by the time the ball had thudded into the keeper’s gloves, he brought his front foot forward and by the time he completed his stroke, Shoaib had completed the next ball!
R: hmmm
M: but no one can beat Sujith Somasundar though!
not even Khurasiya at his best, so lets have Sujith at 3 and Khuraysia at 4….
R: ok
no 3 sujith
no 4 khurasiya
no 5 bedade
no 6 dighe
M: wow...........thats a batting line up to die for
Atul Bedade averaged almost 10 in an innings against Pakistan - for 40 odd he had 4 lives!
R: 44 with 4 sixes in them!
M: I know
R: my father used to say he is a hard hitter
well he hardly hits
M: thats not the point
Whenever he does he hits it hard
Hardly hitting hard hitter at no.5
R: thats once in 3 matches!
M: but I must confess he came back with a better technique later in his career
in the masters series that is!!!
R: hahahaha
M: now to Mr.Dighe....
I know Ajay Ratra gives him tough competition.....
but it has to be Dighe man
R: he won a series for us
THE series
M: but the real Dighe moment was in his debut match in Australia
Gavaskar had hyped him as a batsman who could keep a bit!
R: ok
and Sachin goes one step further......
sends him at no.3 after a good start to up the tempo further.......
R: yaaa
M: up the tempo he did....3 off some 25 balls I think!!!
R: 1 of 27 balls
M: even better!
Sachin was so pleased with that effort that he gave him the privilege of carrying the drinks in the same match
R: hahaha
M: in my opinion that must be the first occasion where a player in the XI after playing a physically exerting innings is being asked to do this...
R: Lol… Now to the bowlers
M: wait
R: hmmm
M: that is probably the only wise thing that Sachin did in his captaincy.......
But hang on
What abt Jacob Martin
R: ok...
12th man
M: Atul Bedade cant have it so easy
R: he is an excellent fielder isn’t he?
M: ok agreed
YES.........
M: now to the bowlers..........
Paras Mhambrey
R: Bhupinder Singh
he should be there
M: Subroto Banejee
Dodda Ganesh.......
R: Dodda Ganesh
M: YES..........
R: Harvinder Singh
Aavishkar Salvi
M: even Sourav out bowled him in a test match against Australia
Salvi is a real beauty - the almost Mcgrath......
R: yaaaa
M: we are spoilt for choices man
lets zero in on 3 fast bowlers
R: tough
Salvi definitely
M: YES!
R: and Dodda Ganesh
no arguments
M: I totally agree
now Subroto Banerjee
R: bhupinder singh
M: no more questions on that
R: you havent seen bhupinder singh?
M: I have seen
I love him too
R: then ?
M: but Subroto Banerjee is a notch above
R: no no
Banerjee bowled some good spells…but this guy is a class aprt
M: Does Banerjee know this??? Anyways let’s go with Bhupinder Singh for now.......
R: hmmm...ok
we will take a look at the records and then see
M: one spinner and one allrounder now
sure
R: all rounder...Hrishikesh Kanitkar?
M: lol
not a bad choice
but lets dig deeper
Laxmi Ratan Shukla
JP Yadav..... can neither bowl nor bat - all-rounder!
Greg Chappell's masterful selection - apparently better than Sourav it seems!
R: Reetinder Singh Sodhi
M: he's not even fit enough to be in this team
Let’s leave it at that
R: ok
then I would go with JP Yadav
M: now to that quintessential spinner's slot........
R: hmmm...Rajesh Chauhan....
M: Just yesterday Harsha was talking about him!
other contenders?
Utpal Chatterjee?
R: Ananthapadmanabhan?
M: I thought of him too!
R: Sunil Subramaniam?
M: I haven't seen much of him…
R: ok
if no spinner comes to my mind...we would take an extra fast bowler
M: lol
R: we should pick the best XI not horses for courses
M: no no Utpal or Rajesh Chauhan would be taken for sure if no other name comes up
3 fast bowlers and a spinner… good balance
R: then rajesh chauhan
M: but he's also bowled well on occasions
R: k
utpal chatterjee i am not so sure
M: Nikhil Chopra!
R: oh yaa…the best of them all
he could also be an all rounder you know?
M: I know....
R: I missed atul wassan man
M: lol..thats ok, we’ll have notable mention list at the end – would add him there…

There you go, the final inspirational XI is:
1. Vikram Rathore
2. Devang Gandhi
3. Sujith Somasundar
4. Amay Khurasia
5. Atul Bedade
6. Sameer Dighe
7. JP Yadav
8. Nikhil Chopra
9. Dodda Ganesh
10. Bhupinder Singh
11. Aavishkar Salvi

12th man is the excellent fielder Jacob Martin…

I know this is the most controversial XI that we have picked in the history of “Cricket Talk” (By the way, that’s this blog’s name!). Each of you would have your own inspirations who may have been missed in this team. We wholeheartedly apologize for such omissions which may offend you. As a bargain we tried to come up with a “notable mention” list of those players who missed out by a whisker…even that’s a futile exercise because there are so many of them…but still…here is the list:

Notable mentions:
Iqbal Siddiqui, Ranadeb Bose (the only reason he missed out is because he didn't play in the XI for India, otherwise he was a certainty)Atul Wassan, Subroto Banerjee, Vivek Razdan, Utpal Chatterjee, Rajesh Chauhan, Gagan Khoda, Connor Williams, MSK Prasad, Jatin Paranjpe, Pankaj Dharmani, Debashis Mohanty, Harvinder Singh, Aashish Kapoor, Robin Singh (jr)….oh I am tired of typing now…Please feel free to add more!

Next Eleven?

This has been on my mind for quite some time now. I was wondering does India have enough bench strength so much so that, a new eleven can be picked up in place of the existing eleven. This, of course, I have done for the Test team. Despite all the hype, fun, and ever growing popularity, T20 is anyone's game and ODIs are becoming representative of T20 psyche more often than not. So, I restrict myself to the test teams, for now. Barring Murali Vijay and Piyush Chawla, I have wanted to pick guys who have not played in tests for India before, but who could make it big next. Piyush Chawla might draw some strong reactions/emotions, but my belief of him is that he was drafted in to the team too early, and age is on his side for him to pick it up from here. Pragyan Ojha should deny him a place in the side for long, but so might be true of several others finding a mention in this side.

But, there is one thing that has made me worried. It was quite easy to select the bowlers, for there are hardly any. Despite the repeated assurances we give ourselves, truth is we have a not very consistent bowling attack of the top four teams in the world today. And that there is no encouragement about an exciting prospect in the leagues, is depressing.

So, here it goes:

1) Murali Vijay
2) Abhinav Mukund
3) Rohit Sharma *
4) Cheteshwar Pujara
5) Manish Pandey
6) Ravindra Jadeja
7) Pinal Shah +
8) Pradeep Sangwan
9) Bhuvneshwar Kumar
10) Piyush Chawla
11) Sudeep Tyagi

Audacious!!!!

Boy....I am bitten by the Sehwag bug now, after readin hesh's blog. One of my cousins is an avid Indian critic. He is the so called Nakkeran of our family that he finds faults in everything India does!!! He just said one word way back in 2003 after watching Sehwag bat against NZ in a one dayer during the horror series there- Audacious!!!

Audacious?

Googled the word and this is what i got..

extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless

Well, in due course Sehwag would be added to the meaning!!

Some of Sehwag's audacious strokes...

1. 195 Melbourne 2003

To me, no innings Sehwag has played or will play beats this innings. Purely, because it was against a very good attack on a ground in which India had a poor record on the first day of a test match. Two strokes stand out in my memory...

1. Steve Waugh bowling the last over before tea, tempts Sehwag with a slower one, of the last ball- the ball lands in the stands over the watching long off's head 3 seconds later!!!

2. Dravid is gone, Tendulkar out first ball, Ganguly in a spot of bother the other end and Sehwag is off the strike for 3 to 4 overs. Waugh brings back Macgill, and with a deep mid wicket, long on and square leg, bowls a perfect leg spinner first ball pitching around middle and off, a nice flighted leg spinner....only to see it disappear into the orbit over the deep midwicket!!!


18 at Chennai 2004

I was privileged to watch his 155 in Chennai, which was an absolute master piece, but to me the shot of the match was this...Mcgrath bowling the last over of the 4th day...220 to chase...a typically perfect Mcgrath delivery drilled straight down the ground for four....and after hitting it just turned around and started walking towards the pavilion!!! It was a pity the 5th day washed out...or else the final frontier would have still been there!!!!


Champions Trophy 2002 2nd final vs Srilanka

It has started raining again, the second time, Pulasthi Gunaratne just saw his career end in the first final with Sehwag hitting 17 of his over, this time around Srilanka go with an extra spinner, but with 223 on board and rains coming down, Vaas comes in for what would be the last delivery of the final...hardly around the 125k mark...outside the off stump with a deep point and a squarish third man...and with a persistent drizzle, even if there had been a man standing with a gun nearby to Sehwag's head he wouldnt have stopped from upper cutting that ball over third man for six! Vaas's reaction after that was comical...---rain is disadvantage to batsman, but here he runs to the umpire saying the ball is slippery!!!!

Thats it as of now...will add more if time permits...

Is life really that simple?

If God grants me the power to understand how a person’s mind works – I would choose to study Sehwag’s. Like parallel thinking he almost has an alternate logic to every aspect of cricket. When someone asked him to explain the conundrum of his stupendous success in Tests and relatively mediocre returns in ODI cricket, he said that there are more vacant areas in test cricket! Now then, we have had so many legends explaining why test cricket is the ultimate test and how other forms can’t quite match upto it. And this guy claims test cricket is simpler and swears by it……

Prem Panicker had recently written about one of his chats with John Wright on Sehwag in his blog in which John recollects a conversation he has with Sehwag:

“Viru, for fuck’s sake, this is a Test match, you don’t have to play all your shots in the first over.”

“Okay.”

“I’m not saying don’t play shots,” says Wright, somewhat taken aback by the demure acceptance of his strictures. “Just give the first hour to the bowlers.”

“Why?”

“Because after that you can hit all the shots you want, you can bat all day. Don’t you want to do that, murder the bowling all day?”

“Yes. But why give the first hour to the bowler if he bowls me a half volley first ball?”

This is Sehwag for you – simple and confident. He has challenged the existential notion of risk in Cricket. Where most men saw risk, Sehwag saw runs. A half volley is a half volley is a half volley he would say…

"No matter who is the bowler, I always like to attack, I don't like to defend and hate to leave deliveries. That is nothing but waste of time."

Ask him about his success in counter attacking against the new ball, he says he’s vulnerable against the new ball and therefore attacks to get rid of the shine as early as possible! What does he have to say about his handling of Muralitharan in that extraordinary innings of 201 against in SL in Galle in a team total of 329? "I was not able to pick his doosra, so I treated every ball as a doosra and tried to hit it. But I found them to be off-spinners. It did not matter much as I was getting boundaries"

Is this all an attempt to be perverse or a display of false modesty? Nah..he is as upright and outspoken as it gets. Ask him about handling the magic of Mendis: "I could pick the ball from Mendis' hand, I attacked him and created a little doubt in his mind. I hit the good balls for fours through covers and point. I was able to read his googly and top-spin”. "I was never worried about Mendis. In the seven or eight innings I played against Sri Lanka, I got out to him only once." Don’t forget that Sehwag is talking about a guy who at that time made the world sit up and take notice of his magic with his mesmerising show against the best spin playing team in the world.

In a recent interview to Cricinfo he was asked about his loss of form and how much pressure was there on him when he was selected for the tour of Australia in 2007-08 to which his reply was:
“No, because I was confident despite having flopped for the whole of 2007. Then I even had a bad domestic season, scoring hardly 30-40 runs in the six Ranji innings I played. But I knew if they picked me a big one would come soon. You cannot flop the whole time. I went to Australia with a lot of self-belief and confidence, and I scored 30 and 40 in Perth, then 60-odd in the first innings in Adelaide, and got a big century in the second innings.”

This is insane. Generally we see cricketers defending themselves against the selectors’ logic. Here he almost admits that it’s a gamble by the selectors. And look at his extraordinary confidence in his ability despite being so woefully short on form – “But I knew if they picked me a big one would come soon” – Wow.......

And his response to a question on “being in the zone”:
“I have asked him (Sachin Tendulkar) many times what the zone is. He tells me that's when "I see nothing except the ball". I ask how that is possible. I have never felt something like that. I have asked Rahul Dravid the same thing. He says sometimes when he is in really good form, he sees only the ball - and not the sightscreen, the non-striker, the umpire or who is bowling, he just sees only the ball. But I have never entered that zone even if I've scored triple-centuries twice. Maybe I will enter that zone they talk about in future.”

In the same interview he was asked about his attitude to spinners:
“I was a middle-order batsman who was too good against spin and hit sixes consistently in Under-19 and Ranji cricket, and I still have the same confidence. Once Gary Kirsten asked me, "What would you do if there is a long-off, long-on and deep midwicket?" I asked, "Gary sir, do fielders matter to me?"

Then he goes onto give an example which I can bet the rest of my life earnings that no one else in the world can think like him:
“Let me give an example: I was batting on 291 at Chepauk, against South Africa. I told Paul Harris, "Come round the wicket and first ball I'll hit you for a six." He accepted my challenge and the very first ball I hit him for a straight six, and there was a long-off, long-on, deep midwicket and a deep point. I was so tired and he was bowling on the pads and I was getting bored. So rather than spending 10-15 minutes to get to the triple-century I gave him good advice.”

This is hilarious. How could a serious professional cricketer talk like this. Someone like Steve Waugh would have glamorized it in the name of mental disintegration and such other non-sense. This guy talks like he thinks and thinks like he bats – damn it’s a circular reference…….the essence of the matter is his gifted ability to simplify things….

No wonder there is a Sehwagology spiritual movement going on in the world…

Let’s talk about his technique (what a narrow minded Englishman will call as non-existent), balance, arms and all that in the next blog…

Simply the best..... "Say Wah g"

The most fantastic thing about blogging is that we can search for anecdotes and quotes as and when we type on a particular topic or person. Starting to write about Sehwag I searched for quotes on simplicity, and after reading through the quotes from great personalities, I came to only one conclusion. Keeping things simple is the most difficult of all. Just take a look at this quote,

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

Supreme excellence takes years of practice, which equates that to make things look simple, it is very difficult.

But where does Sehwag come into the picture here? That is because Sehwag is simple.

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”


Sehwag has a weakness against the ball coming in, gets frustrated being tied up at the non striker's end, goes after deliveries outside off stump regardless of the situation, doesnt play the hook shot properly, has problems against the raising ball and fends it often( his solution to turn this of his hips isnt proper either because he plays it in the air more often than not) does not move his feet, and biggest of them all, Sehwag has a very careless attitude when he bats....

So how does Sehwag succeed? Over a period of time, everyone evolves into a different person than the one he originally was, through experience knowledge etc. People define that as maturity. Surely you are not the person that you once were? This applies to batting too...(remember Afridi in the T20 final?) On one end you have Sachin grafting for runs and on the other you have Dravid counter attacking with disdain at 32/4, while ten years back it would have been( and was) vice versa.

So how has Sehwag's batting evolved?

Experience?

Batting at Melbourne on 195 he tried to clear long on of a non regular bowler and got out....India subsequently lost the match, and people claimed that had this rash stroke hadnt happened, India would have won their first series in the Oz...

Thats a lot of experience/burden on your shoulders...

Two tests later, he goes to both 100 and 300 by hitting sixes of regular bowlers so much so that the six for 300 was the same stroke he mishit in Melbourne!!!!

Knowledge?

Teams dissect your weakness with alarming quickness. Dravid was so successful in the 2003 series against Australia with the flick through mid wicket that Aus kept two close in fielders at short mid wicket to prevent him from playing the shot. He didnt play the shot and his form and batting fell through in the subsequent series against them because of that.

Similarly Sehwag was successfully cutting through third man and deep cover in Aus that a permanent third man and deep cover was kept as early as the first over of a test match!!!.... that too for Glenn Mcgrath...

Result? Mcgrath was hit for 16 runs in his first over in the same area between the two fielders!!!!

People start to put Sehwag into the "arrogant" category. Surely, I would ask these people to hear him speak on something and then classify him. He is a simple man, who says simple things...."I see the ball, I hit the ball". Surely, it takes years for everyone else to talk zen like this!!!!! You dont call zen masters arrogant!!!

So, who was the most disappointed person when Sehwag got out at 293? May be the guy who illegally bet on him in Cayman Islands, but not Sehwag who just shrugged and said "I was happy I got 293"...

When someone says Sehwag is a master when the pitch is flat, people tend to disagree...But they are true, Sehwag is a master at getting results in flat pitches... There is nobody in the game who can take advantage of a flat pitch than Sehwag....

What are the chances Sehwag will displace Sachin, Dravid or even Sunny from their pedestal as the best batsman? Very slim....but we can say this quite confidently, while Sunny had competition from Sachin, and Sachin from Dravid, rest assured there wont be another to challenge Sehwag!!!!!

Its a joke...

Recently I read a news in Cricinfo about the appointment of Waqar Younis as bowling and fielding coach. Really, there is not a bigger joke than PCB in the world of cricket. First of all, they have a head coach in Intikab Alam - no one including himself knows what he's supposed to do with the team. Then they have Aaqib Javed as assistant coach, now Waqar has been added to the support staff team as bowling and fielding coach. Ironically when their batting has been consistently letting them down, they decide to appoint a bowling coach over and above Aaqib Javed. And like a buy one get one free offer, Waqar is also asked to take care of fielding - to appreciate this joke fully,read the following comment from Waqar.

This was featured in "Quote unquote" section of Cricinfo recently.

"Not me. I would have never done that. It's not my job."

Waqar Younis confesses on air as he sees Umar Gul dive full length at mid-off to save a boundary
Nov 27, 2009 ( And 12 days after making this comment, he finds himself as the fielding coach of the team!!!)

Pink of health

What a season of test cricket it’s been. Of all men, Chris Gayle constructing a masterpiece to come within a striking distance of humbling Aussies in their own backyard was a sight to behold. That this came in the wake of extraordinarily sweeping judgments of the WI Cricket team in the Australian media after the meek surrender in the first test makes it all the more commendable. For a guy who said that he wouldn’t worry too much if test cricket goes on a decline, Gayle more than made up for his innocuous and irresponsible statements with a sterling show of commitment and skill which has invigorated hope in Caribbean Cricket. The performances of Adrian Barath and Dwayne Bravo in the ongoing series have been heart warming and equally so is the emergence of a genuine quick bowler in Kemar Roach. WI Cricket has promised many a new dawns in the last decade only to wither away later, but for cricket’s sake let’s hope this is not another one of them.

In the neighboring Kiwi land we have had an even better series. The first match was an absolute classic with the see-saw battle between Pak and NZ continuing till the last session on the fifth day. The return of Shane Bond at his best was as comforting a thought as it was depressing to see him sit out immediately after the first test due to injury – is there a more wasted talent in the game of cricket? If the first test was a classic, the second test was equally significant though less exciting as Pakistan came back to square the series like only they can – whoever thought Pakistan cricket is dead and buried. Mohd. Asif came back and reaffirmed his status as one of the best going around in the business of fast bowling. A bowling line up of Mohd. Ameer, Asif , Gul and Kaneria is quite a handful in most conditions and the emergence of a classy top order batsman in Umar Akmal has given the Pak team the much needed balance. A strong Pakistan and WI team is very critical for the long term health of the game.

Back at home, after a yawn inducing draw in the first test we witnessed a superlative performance from India to bulldoze past Srilanka in the next 2 tests and go on to lead the test rankings for the first time since the ranking system was introduced. It may not appear to be the most exciting test series if you go by the series score line alone – 2-0 drubbing by India and both by an innings. But that would be a narrow view of exciting test cricket. If you had seen those 2 masterpieces from Sehwag, you would know what I am talking.

If the brilliant hundred at Kanpur didn’t get its due, we can only blame Sehwag for that. Even before we could fully appreciate what he did at Kanpur, he comes back and puts on a show of such attacking cricket which with all due respect to past greats doesn’t have precedence in a sport of a few centuries vintage. I consider it to be one of the greatest privileges of my life that I was present at Chepauk when Sehwag sent the South Africans on a leather hunt when he scored his second triple hundred. I had not seen such a brutal, almost insane level of aggressive bastmanship ever. But at Brabourne he even surpassed himself. To make arguably the greatest wicket-taker in the game look so hopeless and impotent is plain rude. The statistics alone paints quite a picture – 293 off 254 balls with 40 fours and 7 sixes. At 10 in the morning, Srilanka was ahead by 393 and at 4.30 in the evening they were behind by 50 runs – Only Sehwag is capable of doing this to opposition. But the fact that all this is only a small part of the entire picture aptly describes the Sehwag phenomenon.

I wonder if any other sport could provide a platform for such kind of continuous and sustained brilliance. Maradona’s magic is a matter of minutes; Jordan’s genius is sometimes about seconds, Bolt’s defying human traits is all of a few fractions of a second. It’s entirely appropriate that Sehwag plays the sport whose grandness allows for putting on a show of such a sustained spell of brilliance that no other sport can quite match (with the exception of tennis maybe). Hang on, Let’s deal with Sehwag in a separate blog.

As usual Sambit Bal gave better words to my thoughts than what I could conjure up myself in an article aptly titled “There’s nothing quite like test cricket” in Cricinfo – an extract of which is as follows: "A good game of Test cricket - it's hard to imagine Pinter referring to any other form - is like five whole days of delicious foreplay, a treat for the senses. Each day leaves you with anticipation, and the final day, the final session, leaves you sated, fulfilled, and with a glow of well-being. No other form of cricket, and indeed no other sport, can match the sensory pleasures of Test cricket - so languorous, so drawn out, and ultimately so rewarding.”

Call it the blogger’s curse

How often have we seen this happen – A commentator claims a batsman is looking good for much more and the next ball he gets out. If that is the quintessential commentator’s curse, I am bitten by a blogger’s curse now. Not too long ago I wrote about Dhoni’s yet to be proven ability as a quality test batsman (although I admitted that he would in all probability go on to set his record straight in future) and he’s already scored a couple of hundreds in this series! And a couple of blogs back I also wrote about Bhajji’s lack of penetration and why Ojha should be picked ahead of him and today as I am watching the second innings of SL live, I think I have to eat my words – he’s bowling beautifully today. But knowing Bhajji’s lack of focus, I would still dare to put my money on him not sustaining this penetration in his bowling for too long…I hope I am proven wrong again!

There’s so much to write about Sehwag. I am waiting for the sheer brilliance of that innings to sink in...

The legend of Malcolm Conn

Cricket writing is a funny profession. It's attracted people from all corners and disciplines – ex-cricketers, College drop-outs, crime journalist, historian,environmentalist, human rights activist, a PHD in Network modeling and what not. No wonder cricket literature is probably the richest amongst all sports. Leaving the literary part aside, even at a journalistic level, we have got writers from diverse backgrounds and with vastly divergent views. At one end, we have people like Sambit Bal, Rohit Brijnath et al elevating cricket watching experience to an even higher level with their words, and at the other end, there are writers like Sanjay Jha, Malcolm Conn and co who make you wonder if they see the same game of cricket that all of us see. Then there are those writers like Viswanath and Vijay Lokapally who write on Cricket as if it’s the most boring thing on earth.

Tony Cozier had written an article in Cricinfo today regarding the Aussie media reaction to WI’s performance in the first test which got me to write this blog. He picked out a few writers for special mention in that article but I enjoyed his rebuttal of Malcolm Conn more than others. There’s something about Malcolm Conn. Seriously, it puzzles me that such a jingoistic and dumb guy has survived as a prominent cricket writer in a country which takes it cricket rather seriously for a few decades now. Of all the non-sense that so many people thrash out in the name of cricket writing, Malcolm Conn occupies a very special place. His consistency in churning out non-sense series after series, year after year with no loss of enthusiasm is almost bramanesque (or should I say Tendlkarine*)!

His series of articles during the monkeygate series down under can be published as a book titled “Non stop no sense” and let me assure it would be a bestseller. But he’s had some real masterpieces even before that. Let me just share a few top of the mind recalls of his genius in this blog.

I am not able to trace it in google, but I remember this piece like I read it yesterday. After that historic test series (yes, the same Laxman miracle series) between India vs Australia at home in 2001, a 5 match ODI series was played between the two teams. Sourav Ganguly continued his bad run from the tests to the ODIs too until the final match. In the final match he somehow rediscovers a bit of his form and scores a brisk 70 odd and just when he is looking good he gets out to a short ball again to Mcgrath. It was a marginal decision as the ball appeared to be at just about the shoulder level so Sourav waited a few seconds to check with the leg umpire if it was over the shoulders or not and then started walking – absolutely nothing more than a wait for a few seconds. It was a non-event when I was watching the match live. The next day I open the sports section in Hindu and Malcolm Conn writes of that incident as something like Sourav’s body language on being given out was as bad as Michael Slater’s in the Mumbai test match and that he was extremely lucky to get away scot-free. It was as far from the truth as it can get but he wrote it with such assurance that if you hadn’t seen the match and just read his report, you would have a completely different take on the incident. Since this was my early days in knowing Conn, I took him too seriously at that time but over the years I have learnt to appreciate the unintended fun in his writing!

In the same series, in another match (if I am not wrong it was at Vishakapatnam) there was a near stampede in the stadium as the greedy administrators had issued excess tickets. In that kind of a situation the police have no other choice but to disallow people entry into the stadium even if they own a ticket. And as some people agitate there would naturally have been some lathi work from Police. Malcolm Conn writes in the next day’s report (stepping into the shoes of Arundhati Roy for a while) that animals are treated better in India! What an irony that this comes from a guy whose country men are anything but civil to our contingent down under!

During the monkeygate series, Harbhajan got into a controversy when someone claimed that he misbehaved with the crowd and spat at them and such other things which was denied by their very own AB who was sitting in that stand at that time. But nevertheless Malcolm Conn had made his judgment as if Bhajji spat at him and he had video recorded it for evidence with his unbelievable headline “Harbhajan Singh walks free after spitting controversy”. The fact that there was a controversy out of nothing at all is comfortably neglected.

Moreover through out the series he defended the behavior of the Australian team against the Indian team by quoting and requoting a statistic which is more a reflection of the apologetic state of justice in the ICC world for Asian cricketers rather than a pointer to reality. The statstic was “Despite having the worst behaved team in the world, with almost twice as many ICC code of conduct violations as Australia, Indian officials continually refuse to pull their players into line.”

He follows that up with an even better one!

“This summer alone India has had four players reported, three found guilty by match referees and one-day captain MS Dhoni warned for wearing illegal keeping gloves”
MS Dhoni was warned for wearing illegal gloves! If you are not aware of the background of that incident then you might think that Dhoni is a cheater…Infact immediately after that Gilly came in support of Dhoni and said it must have been a manufacturing defect. But Conn doesn’t care about all that. He never allows a fact to come in the middle of a good story – that’s his USP! Thank god he doesn’t hold anything against Sachin and Dravid, else he might have placed them in the league of villains of the game because of their ball tampering habits!

In the recent India vs Australia test series at home in 2008, Conn came up with a few more beauties:
In an article titled “India’s verbal barrage as Watson fights lone hand” he came out with an immaculate psycho analysis of the Indian team with this statement:
“That India felt it necessary to so strongly verbal the Australians when so far in front suggests how desperate they are to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.”

OMG, when Australia does it, its gamesmanship, mental disintegration and friendly banter but in India’s case it is desperation!!! Even Balakrishna is not capable of such comedy I tell you!

Amazingly in the same article with that verbal barrage on Watson headline, he himself goes onto quote Watson as thus:
"There was actually a lot of extremely friendly banter I thought. Obviously it was challenging but me and Brett were having a great time out there,'' Watson said.
"It was never going to get out of hand. It was friendly banter and there should always be that in any sport, especially Test cricket when everyone is challenging each other.”

More on the monkeygate again:
“Had the ICC treated India the same way FIFA treated the Spanish Football Federation in 2004 when Spanish fans made monkey chants at black England players during a friendly soccer match, the BCCI would have been fined about $100,000” he writes in a thought provoking piece.

Extending the same argument, for the number of racist abuses that happen in Australian cricket grounds (remember Makhaya Ntini or Muralitharan), Austalian Cricket Board wouldn’t have had money to pay its players after paying up the fines for racial abuses!

Another gem from the Sydney fiasco days:
“Ricky Ponting should be championed as a national hero for exposing racism in cricket.Ponting deserves to be feted, not condemned, for taking his bold stand to protect Australia's only black player, Andrew Symonds, from continuing racial taunts by India spinner Harbhajan Singh.He should be considered in the same light as former AFL stars Nicky Winmar and Michael Long, the Aboriginal footballers who took a stand against racism two decades ago.” - Even Ricky Ponting in his dreams wouldn’t think so highly of himself!

This time on the spirit of cricket and all that:
“Likewise, India's teenage beanpole Ishant Sharma made such an animated display of grief after a caught behind from Andrew Symonds was turned down that the game will become a circus if this is allowed to continue.” – He talks as if he’s never seen Mcgrath and Warne in action! BTW he is referring to that nick off Andrew Symonds which in the entire country of Australia only Bucknor failed to hear…If only the bowler didn't react the way he did that it should have made the headlines…

The legend of Malcolm Conn is too big a story to be narrated in one blog…But the next time you see Malcolm Conn in the byline you better know what to expect!

* Thats not an adjective that I invented. Suresh Menon had come out with this in the last month's edition of Sports Illustrated.

What a Gamble!

Sourav once aptly said that Dhoni has got one very important attribute of a good captain - Luck. The more I see Dhoni's captaincy the more I agree with Sourav's assessment*. This is not to take anything away from Dhoni's tactical nous as a captain which in general is good but to reinforce that not everything that works can be attributed to the merits of his captaincy.

How do you categorize Dhoni's decision to play Sreesanth ahead of Ishant in the 11? Retrospectively we might call it a master stroke but prospectively it was anywhere between a stupid decision to a bold gamble. But then the appetite for a gamble is what separates good captains from ordinary ones. Remember the Mark Taylor style of declaration - almost every declaration of his was a bit of a gamble. Its a shame that he was succeeded by Steve Waugh and now the ultra cautious Ponting! As much as I didn't approve of the decision to play Sreesanth in the 11, I was glad to see Dhoni taking these gambles in critical matches rather playing it safe. Like Keynes said, in life its generally better to fail conventionally than succeed unconventionally!

The logical extension of this gamble should lead to Ojha being played ahead of Harbhajan when only one spinner needs to be played - in my opinion its a much lesser gamble given the way Harbhajan has been bowling of late.

* Once Mahela Jayawardene famously said "Its impossible to win a toss against Dhoni"!

Test cricket in ICU?

There seems to be a collective paranoia out there. Almost every test match these days is either a reassurance of the grandness and the greatness of the real game of cricket or the warning signs of a soon to be extinct breed of Cricket. Ever since the advent of T-20 and more so since India won the inaugural T-20 world cup and the launch of IPL a couple of years ago, there seems to be an exaggerated concern for the format of the game which has withstood many a crisis from imperialism to world war to the more contemporary 26/11 kind of horrors, hell even cricketers were targeted during a test series in Pakistan. Test cricket’s reaction to all these events has been only one – “Move on”. Its rather puzzling that the soul of a game of such resilience is being severely tested by that all evil thing called money – not USD, not Euro or GBP but the one which gets printed at Nasik by the Reserve Bank of India – it’s a different story that all IPL transactions are USD denominated (currency of the country which is as alien to cricket as George Bush is to common sense!).

Or at least that’s what the mainstream media wants us to feel! But that’s what media has always done – to propagate the story which is easy to propagate (*like how Securitization, greedy Wall Street bankers and the rating agencies were the culprits behind the sub-prime crisis! – What about those who bought a house without even having a stable income???). It’s very easy to equate the current situation to the Kerry Packer days but that would be incorrect. The common theme might be money but unlike Packer, IPL is not a rebel league, also cricketers of today even outside of the IPL world are very well paid professionals which was not the case during Packer days. And the Cricketers are not being cornered to take on either/or stance between country and club, between test cricket and T-20. No wonder that none of the players (outside of Chris Gayle that is!) who’s worth his salt to play test cricket has shown the remotest of inclinations to prefer T-20 over tests.

If that is the stance from players, what about the fans? All IPL matches were full-houses and test match attendance record in India is not much to boast about is a fair argument. But even in pre- T20 days, we didn’t have the greatest of attendance for test cricket outside of the traditional test venues but at the same time ODI matches witnessed full houses wherever it was hosted. This is nothing new. Frankly how many of us have woken up to this realization that T-20 is the new thing to follow and that test cricket is boring, time consuming and out of fashion! I have gotta be out of my senses to believe that the viewership for test cricket has reduced after the advent of T-20. What has happened is that T-20 has expanded the cricket viewership to people who weren’t following cricket before. Bringing new audience to a game is no crime I reckon! But how do we care, we have to blame it on something. So we conveniently blame it on those things which are in the news - T20, IPL, Lalit Modi, etc...

As I have said before Test Cricket and T20 are almost as distinct in character as two different sports for them to cannibalize each other – if anything they can only feed onto each other. We haven’t seen anything dramatic in the world of test cricket of late that we haven’t seen before that warrants such a large-scale alarm for its imminent extinction. Ian Chappell is talking about a 3-day test as a possible solution and Sourav is complaining about how dead pitches might kill test cricket – as contrasting as ay two opinions on a subject can be. If we crib about not producing a result in 5 days, surely shortening the duration is the last solution we want to implement. I fully endorse the pitches argument – I think it’s the sole reason for the depreciation in the quality of cricket over the last decade. But having said that I must also add that its not a problem that cropped up overnight, its been depreciating at a steady rate across almost all the grounds in the world for more than 10 years now. WACA is a shadow of its heydays, Gabba which arguably had the best pitch in the world in the 90’s is slowly but surely moving away from its pinnacle, the Caribbean wickets can warrant banning a match for causing danger to the psyche of the bowlers these days – even Ajay Ratra scored a hundred there! Mohall has shown the most accelerated depreciation of all from being the fastest and liveliest track in the country to an absolute dead as dodo stuff now, even Chepauk produced a featherbed for Sehwag last time. It’s a consistent theme in almost all countries except Srilanka which has always produced featherbeds, they really can’t depreciate any more! There used to be so many tests in the nineties where not one batsman from either side scores a hundred but nowadays they order a probe if such an instance happens! But mind you none of this has anything to do with T-20 or the IPL.

Let’s leave all this aside and see how Test cricket has fared in the last few years. For the all hype about T-20’s popularity, the premier event in that format – the world cup in England this year got a lukewarm response from both the fans and the media. At the same time the build up for the Ashes had already started even before THE premier event was over - So much for the death of test cricket! All the Ashes matches witnessed near full houses as well. With the recent sea-saw battle in England, we have had 3 classic Ashes series back to back after an era of thorough Australian dominance of the Ashes, Australia and South Africa produced an absolute humdinger in Australia last year and followed up with a just as exciting return series in SA. India vs Australia rivalry has risen even further in prominence from Sourav vs Waugh days to now with the same intensity and competitiveness if not more. New Zealand was struggling to put a team on the park with the ICL-exodus issue and injuries, but they still fought bravely under the astute leadership of Vettori. England seems to heading in the direction under Andre Strauss. Srilanka is not doing too badly either. Outside of B’ladesh and West Indies, its quite a competitive battlefield in test cricket these days. Over the next few months any team out of Australia, South Africa or India can be the No.1 team in the world – damn, when was the last time Test Cricket was so healthy.

So it’s not the T-20 vs Tests or the fans preference for one over the other which is the real problem here. Cricket and its followers are dynamic enough to allow the co-existence of all 3 formats at the same time. As much as the game has the appetite for all the 3 formats of the game, it doesn’t quite have the resources – especially TIME. This is where the administrators need to pull up their socks for once and ensure appropriate allocation of the precious resource of time across the 3 formats. India is scheduled to play 6 tests in a year – really, it’s a shame! (But even that is not a new phenomenon, during the peak of our masala ODI matches here, there and everywhere India played only one test in a year’s time in 1996-97!). ICC needs to go back to its drawing board and come out with an alternative to that now outdated FTP – stipulate a minimum number of test matches for all the test playing nations, need to set aside a month for IPL - its better than fighting a losing battle, put a cap on the number of ODIs organized outside of the scheduled program – no more seven ODI series please…, have a T-20 world cup twice a year and ODI world cup once in 4 years (I might sound stupid for stating the obvious only if you didn’t know that there’s another T-20 world cup coming up in 2010 in WI. Pak were the world champions for a monumental 300 odd days!!!)

Sachin Tendulkar started his career at a time when even ODI’s were not as popular leave alone T-20’s and his debut series was a dull as dead 0-0 result in a 4 match test series and now completed his 20th year on the road with another yawn inducing draw against Srilanka at Motera. A lot has changed in the game of cricket in those 20 years but outside of the quality of pitches none has impacted test cricket too adversely – surely not T-20 or IPL!

* Hangover of FRM...

Top 10 moments

1. The first time I put on my India cap

2. My first Test hundred

3. The counter-attacking 114 at Perth

4. Bowling the last over against SA in the 1993 Hero Cup

5. 82 (off 49 balls) against NZ as opener in 1994

6. Winning the Titan Cup in 1996

7. 1997 Sahara Cup win over Pakistan

8. Scoring 155 against Australia in the 1998 Chennai Test

9. 1998's sandstorm hundred in Sharjah against Australia
.

10. Meeting Don Bradman in Adelaide

11. Beating England at Leeds, 2002

12. Match-winning 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup

13. First series win in Pakistan, 2003-04

14. 35th Test hundred, v Sri Lanka in Delhi, 2005

15. Beating England in Nottingham in 2007

16. Beating Australia in Perth in 200817. The CB Series triumph in Australia in 2008

18. Going past Brian Lara's Test run tally in Mohali, 2008

19. Second-innings Test hundred against England in Chennai, 2008

20. 175 against Australia in Hyderabad, 2009

Courtesy cricinfo

Hey Pals,
Saw you guys blogging about the GREAT man, I jus couldn't hold myself longer entering a new post (my work jus keeps me bz bz all the time). Well well well, what can we possibly say about this great man... The only guy playing international cricket since I started watching cricket, huh twenty years fulfilling the expectations of Millions, A MAN NEVER LEAVE A BETTER LEGACY TO THE WORLD. Inspite of all this the humble manner in which he conducts himself is truly an example for a perfect celebrity Trait. When Sachin's playing well, he puts a smile on billion faces. He has enthralled his legions of fans with many a great innings and srokes... Here's some...

143 at sharjah '98

Sachin unleashed some of his breathtaking strokes and power, none better than the Squarish push of Kasprowicz which sped to the boundary like a bullet that went snapping past the diving square fielder(catching position) between the fielders at point and square cover. NOBODY... literally no fielder moved an inch, even the cameraman was not sure where the ball was, by the time he spotted the ball, it had already hit the fence. Such is the greatness of this cricketing GOD... As Tony Greig said during the commentary of this match “This little man is the nearest thing to Bradman there’s ever been.” He also won an Opel Astra for his 137 in the finals which he dedicated to his wife, on his 25th birthday.

98 of 75 balls - 2003 worldcup vs PAK

I know Hesh has already narrated his version of this stroke - forward push of wasim akram that went past the extra cover. This stroke was easily better than the six over thirdman of shoaib akhtar. I would have seen this stroke more than one hundred times(courtesy youtube) and tried repeating it whenever I have nets sessions, dint even come 1% closer to what sachin hit that day. I also heard that Wasim akram was furious at Razzak after the later dropped him at mid off and asked "Do you know who you've dropped", now if an oppenent captain does that, you know who you are... It was Mahashivratri and people were going to Temples to worship Lord Shiva but who knew that the God himself had come to earth in the form of Sachin playing a glorious innings for INDIA.

Moinkhan BOWLED between the legs

I know we are talking about the mastery strokes of the master, none better than this particular delivery to Moinkhan. Sachin became Warne with the last ball of the day during the 1st test between India and Pakistan at multan. Sachin bowled 5 tight balls. The sixth one was a googly. Moin couldn’t quite read the ball and got stranded on the crease while the ball went through his pads and on to the middle stump. This is one of the greatest dismissals by a part time bowler and one of the few dismissals to happen on the last ball of the last over of the day.

Thats it folks... C ya around...

PS: For those who have no idea who this is... am a good old friend of the so-called Ramki (we used to call him RAMA), his college m8...

Remarkable Strokes of the Little Master - my version

Now that was a great topic and I am extremely grateful to Ramki for leaving out some of the more scintillating shots for me. I must also admit that despite leaving them out, his picks are absolutely out of the top draw too especially the Irani Trophy one – since I was also in the stadium that time, I know exactly where he is coming from!

Here we go:
Let me begin with the shot that Ramki had mentioned but left the job for me to elaborate:

143 vs Australia at Sharjah

To me there is not a more audacious shot (neither a shot conveying more intent ) played in the game of Cricket. With the team in trouble mid way through the innings, the only thing that mattered to all of us was scoring enough to make it to the finals on net run rate. I can bet that no one who was watching the match even entertained the thought of a win especially after the Indian innings was reduced by 4 overs due to the sandstorm break with just 9 runs less than the initial 285 as the target. And when Sachin flicked the ball to square leg to take a couple to ensure that we reached the finals, all of us were relieved and started thinking about the prospects of somehow India overpowering the Aussies in the finals but this man had other ideas – knowing the man, its not entirely surprising really. But what was astonishing was that with a solo shot he was able to convince everyone around that this match is far from over. Just after completing a hard run 2 to take India to the finals, the next ball Damien Fleming bowls a good length delivery on the middle stump and Sachin moves a little inside out just when Fleming is about to deliver the ball and smashes it overs covers for a boundary – all in a blink! The moment the ball reaches the boundary, Tony Greig would already be jumping up in joy in the commentary box shouting that this man is trying to win this game now! It took just one shot from the genius to bring the mediocrity out of us mere mortals. When all of us were celebrating for reaching the finals, he literally slapped for us for underestimating his capabilities with this shot. I have never been a great believer in Superman, Spiderman and all other fantsasy characters but this one shot changed all that – I believe in Sachin Tendulkar…

Like Ramki wrote genius knows no boundaries!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXRkHervQJc
Forward to 7:46th minute to watch this particular shot

193 vs England at Leeds

CLR.James writes of Learie Constatine as an independent spirit in that masterpiece “Beyond a boundary”. That’s one compliment which is very difficult to bestow upon Sachin however hard you try to as he has to put up with the expectations of a billion people all the time – its almost impossible to be a free spirit with the pressure of having to live upto such monumental expectations. Despite that kind of pressure the fact that he’s played such attacking cricket all his career is a reflection of his extraordinary confidence in his ability rather an expression of free spirit. But this one shot of Caddick in the Headingley test in 2002 was the one that showed us what Sachin could have been if he was a complete independent spirit. On a pitch in which the English press thought conceding anything more than 250 to India would be a bad bowling performance by the home team, Sachin had the cushion of a great start by Sanjay Bangar and Rahul Dravid (who played an absolute master piece) and built a great partnership with Sourav. When they were starting to accelerate the umpires gave them the offer for bad light. They refused and stayed back to play out the next 12 odd overs and what a spell of play that turned out to be – I haven’t seen Sachin play with such freedom in a long long time . Caddick comes into bowl and Sachin doesn’t move an inch till about a micro second before caddick delivers the ball and then at the last instant dances down the wicket and hits a good length delivery on the middle stump across the line over mid wicket for a home run! Failure was never a thought in his mind through the whole process - no second line of defence, no straight bat, no thought of a miscue, just a marvelous execution. Listen to the sound of ball hitting the bat – even if u were blind that day you would have figured out it’s a six! And listen to Boycott going bonkers after the shot - have you ever heard him so excited in commentary?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYGWcwHcWx4
Forward to 3:14 in the video for this particular shot

98 against Pak in Centurion – WC 2003

The first 3 shots that Sachin played against Shoaib Akhtar were astonishing for the sheer audacity of the attack. He lets the adrenalin take him over for that unforgettable square cut six, then plays his trademark flick and follows up with a “nothing more than a forward defence” which ended up beyond the boundary ropes too. But for all the magic of these 3 shots, my favourite is the backfoot drive that he played off Wasim Akram later in the same match – its straight out of heavens. Am I trying to be perverse – c’mon guys, watch the shot and decide for yourself.

The first 3 shots against Shoaib were magical more because of the context of the match rather than the shots themselves – mind you they were great shots anyways but it just reached a higher pedestal because of the circumstances of the match. But this backfoot drive against Wasim Akram would have been special even if it was played in a tennis ball match in my neighborhood Trust Puram ground in Chennai! As Sachin was going hammer and tongs at one end the ever so menacing Akram was bowling at the other end holding his own amidst the Sachin carnage. The first ball of the ninth over, Akram bowls the typical left armer’s ball on the corridor which will have the batsman guessing whether to go on the front foot or back foot, with a vertical bat or horizontal bat? The ball pitches on the off stump and holds its line (which is quite deceptive considering the prodigious swing that Akram usually generates), Sachin moves his left leg a little forward to cover the angle and almost parallely shifts his weight onto the backfoot to be in perfect balance and gets his blade down at 60 degrees to drive that 3 quarters length ball through covers for a boundary and watch that follow through of his after the shot – oh boy even he enjoyed it so much…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwXxGe4bL7M&feature=related
Forward to 3:06th minute in the video for this particular shot

155 vs. Australia in Chennai

Actually I can pick any shot in this innings and that would fit the bill as a remarkable shot! This battle of Sachin vs Warne was one of the most hyped individual battles in the history of the game. Hardly a couple of months back Sachin was dismissed by that little known leg spinner Rawl Lewis from WI in a ODI tournament in sharjah by bowling round the wicket into the rough. Sachin at that stage was generally perceived to be a little suspect with leg spinners bowling round the wicket into the rough and Aussies are sure to have done their homework before they landed on the subcontinent. At the same time Sachin’s preparation for this series is part of cricketing folklore now! And his sensational innings for Mumbai against Australia in the tour match gave more than an indication of what was to follow. But come the first test, the ever so competitive Warne draws first blood by dismissing Sachin for a single digit score. Out walks Sachin in the second innings with the team in a precarious situation and unleashes an array of attacking shots which will last in the memory of all those who witnessed the innings for their next seven births!

Sachin in such supreme form played so many great shots but to me this one shot stands out the most. Shane Warne after taking a pounding from a series of slog sweeps from Sachin, comes round the wicket yet again but this time alters the length by dropping it short but at the same time imparts more spin on the ball, Sachin on seeing the ball pitching short clears his left leg a bit and rocks back on the back foot to be in a perfect position to play the pull shot but with the ball turning square, he had to change his mind – the simplest alternative is to let it go. But Sachin was not in that kind of a mood that day, as if time stood still, on noticing the exaggerated turn he remained in the same posture but paused the pull shot and adjusted beautifully by covering the turn and cut the ball over covers – call it a cover cut if you want. With the pitch biting and turning sharply mere mortals struggle to survive a vicious Warne turner but this man plays two shots in one for the same ball!

I am not able to get a video of this shot on you tube. Will post the link as soon as I find one.

I can spend a lifetime on writing about my fav shots of Sachin, but with time constraints let me just mention two more shots without elaborating much.

That pull off Andy Caddick in the 2003 World Cup a day after Caddick made an audacious statement that Michael Vaughan is better than Sachin!

And that full blooded lofted drive off McGrath immediately after pulling him out of the stadium in the champions trophy in Nairobi – oh boy was that retaliation or what???


This topic is so expansive that it deserves a book more than a blog post...

Different Strokes...

As I write this blog, India is struggling in Guwahati, and yet I am sitting in front of a computer multi tasking between my office and personal work. Call it responsibility or 'i dont care about them any more' attitude this has been the way i have been watching cricket for the last few years. A glimpse here or there, while the match is going on, and checking out the highlights if the match is good enough.
Even, the 175 two days back was watched now and then in office, and I only caught the magic in the highlights package and Youtube. May be I have reached the saturation point?

I dont think so, bcos i wouldnt be writing a cricket blog then!!!!!

But there used to be a time, when I used to watch every match, follow every ball, and keep tab of the records, the score, so much so that I could recall even the most trivial facts about the match.

And a Tendulkar century would be watched without commentary live(sentiment!) with the TV on mute, watched again in the highlights package, and also when the match is telecast again as a whole, so much so that we could actually, tell his scoring pattern and the wagon wheel better than the statistician. And, some stroke will always be the first to come to my mind when I talk about a particular Tendulkar century or innings...If I say 98 against Pakistan, I am sure you would be replaying the upper cut of Shoaib( not to his face, but the ball, though that would have been good too!!!!). So here are some stand out strokes which I get in my mind.....

143 Sharjah '98

The first thing coming to mind is Sachin standing in the middle of the pitch alone, with sand storm blowing all around him nonchalantly looking the other way when all others were scurrying for cover, but this is about his stroke of the night...

The straight six of a potential Steve Waugh yorker was an out of the world shot, but my shots of the night were this.....

1.Short fine leg up Deep square leg in position...Tom Moody bowling...he is just been intentionally edged to through 2nd slip for four...So what does he do he bowls a slightly fuller but not drivable length( not drivable for Tendulkar either!!!!) in cutter....but Sachin moves forward two steps in a flash, the ball is still not drivable and outside off stump, Sach puts his front leg across and waits for the ball to come to his body and flicks( it was not even a flick just a little push) into the minutest gaps for four... Check Moody's face on Youtube after that shot....

2. Steve Waugh positions a short point in Mark Waugh...he stations himself at point and there is just a pencil thin gap....Tendulkar cuts the next ball exactly in that gap right between the diving brothers...so much so that it eludes both of them....

3. I will just mention the inside out cover drive he plays after the target for the finals is achieved, and let Hesh explain it better....I wouldnt want to spoil his party!!!

155 Chennai '98

Tendulkar is tired...the lead is substantial, Aussies waiting for the declaration, Azharuddin is charging the bowlers at the other end, the field is defensive, and Taylor brings in Mark Waugh bowling off spinners....

First ball is patted back straight to the bowler, the second is cut through 3rd Man for 4.... Taylor brings in a short third man, the next ball , a perfect off spinner is just cut finer left of the short third man for 4....Taylor brings the third man finer, Waugh bowls the same delivery, there was not even any movement from Sachin the ball is late cut for 4.....Taylor gives up and brings himself at slip.....Absolute Magic!!!!!


139 vs Aus-

This was the match in which Tendulkar crossed 10,000 runs in one day cricket...Many shots stand out but the best was this....

The pitch is two paced, and by the 30 over mark there is uneven bounce with many balls keeping low...Steve Waugh brings in Damien Martyn, bowling medium pacers....He is able to swing the ball...and the odd one is keeping low....He pitches one middle and off short of good length and the ball shoots up low zooming towards the off stump...but by then Tendulkar was in the form of his life...( literally he was in 143 mood!!!!) he doesnt even blink...uses just half his bat and flicks ( yes, flicks ) the ball through third slip!.... for four... This shot will test any good writer his vocabulary... I would try to do justice...Imagine a typical Azhar flick through mid wicket and square leg...slice the shot down to half and hold the image....imagine the ball coming down at off stump and play that image again...the ball is hit with the edge of the bat and the ball goes through 3rd slip for four...Gilly had moved down to the middle stump, and Martyn did a classic double take, but Tendulkar was looking exactly at where the ball went!!!!

76- Mumbai 2001

Its a signature straight drive but whats special about this? India in a spot of bother, Fleming suddenly reversing the ball, troubling Mongia with some good balls, Gilly standing up so that the batsman couldnt go out of the crease to counter the swing, and Tendulkar kept quiet by Mcgrath for quite sometime. Mongia somehow gets a single and Sachin on strike. The next ball, reverse swinging into the stumps that Waqar would have been proud of is on driven with barely minimum movement between the non striker and the stumps, but this is not the shot I am talking about.
Fleming has a conversation with Waugh and a 3rd slip springs in, Fleming runs bowls the ball again fully, again reverse swinging but swinging out, Sachin moves the same way, bat comes down for the on drive which if completed would have been going to the third slip positioned, but at the last moment, nothing special opens the blade little bit and drives it between the umpire and mid off...and the follow through is magic....he does not look at the ball, he looks at his feet and how its positioned, plays a shadow shot of how he did that even as the ball is reaching the boundary...Genius knows no boundaries!!!!!!

136-Chennai

Mongia going beserk, hit Waqar for a six, Tendulkar in a lot of pain, every single block puts pressure on his back and brings grimace to his face and everybody who is watching him. Wasim bring himself and Mongia hammers him straight over the head for 4, plays the rest of the balls and takes a single of the 5th ball giving Sach just one ball to face. Watching this on television, I heave a sigh of relief, not that I didnt believe in Sachin handling Akram...but its always better to be safe than be sorry.... but back of my mind, the ball Akram is going to bowl was creeping its way through the mind...good length, shaping up to be a half volley swinging away, a guy with back pain couldnt reach out and will snick it to the waiting catchers behind the wicket, I was practically yelling, leave the ball leave the ball every second when Akram was running into the crease. The ball is exactly the same, I hold my breath in fear, but Tendulkar shows the difference between ordinary and genius, a little walk as the ball is released...the half volley materialises out of nowhere, and a half cover drive thats it..it was just that...the drive stopped when the pressure would have come on his back...and that was enough for the ball to race to the boundary!!!!!

13 vs Kenya 2003

Ya you read it right...13 it was...Ganguly scored a century and Yuvi 50, but the shot of the night was a magical back foot straight drive, so ramrod that it missed the off stump by a whisker.....I generally dont show any emotions when Tendulkar is starting early(another sentiment!!!) but I remember myself blabbering with astonishment at the shot while a small part in my brain was reminding me of the sentiment, admonishing me for my outburst...but that shot was worth it!!!!!

41 vs Pakistan 1998

The famous '314' match where Ganguly scored a century again, but Tendulkar started it all....Pakistan had a peculiar ploy of bowling there spinners around the wicket to Tendulkar, and had some success too, Afridi had bowled him around the legs....India had a good start, 50 runs in 6 overs with Tendulkar hitting Azhar Mehmood for 4 continous fours the previous over, and Saqlain is introduced around the wicket with a slip in place. Sitting in my living room, I was straining in my seat to see whether the ball was an off spinner or a doosra and check the turn, but Tendulkar didnt give me a chance because he had danced down the track and had picked it as it bounced of the pitch giving it no chance to turn, and hit it over the bowler's head for six!!!!


65 Calcutta 96

Heart breaking yes...but we only knew the menace in the pitch once Tendulkar departed such was the mastery of the innings.... One shot still stands out in my mind.... A squarish deep mid wicket...who could cover both square and straight a short mid wicket to counter the flick...and a mid on to counter the straight drive with Dharmasena turning the ball(would you believe it???) but he is accurate in his spot, and Manjrekar keeps picking the short mid wicket and the mid on or if he beats them both the deep fielder. Tendulkar shows him how its done....

A one and half step down the track...and a half flick half drive, eludes the diving short mid wicket fielder, mid on tries to cut but the ball isnt straight enough for him and is also picking up speed so he gives chase, the deep runs to his left to cover but couldnt do as the ball isnt square enough for him to cut...the two guys are just two feet from the ball when it crosses the boundary ropes!!!!

104 Benoni '97

Another pressure match, another match where we needed both run rate and a win against Zimbabwe, Sachin scoring a century on a difficult wicket to set the pace for Jadeja and Robin Singh to finish it off. Streak bowling a good length delivery bouncing just more than expected... Sachin starts his favorite back foot cover drive...realises the ball is bouncing more and swinging away, just changes the position of the bat...one second the bat is coming down vertically the next second its horizontal but the arm is coming down the same way, cuts it over point for boundary.... for a flat one bounce four!!!

94 vs Rest of India

I watched this match live at Chepauk, and barely 5 minutes after I entered the stadium, the second wicket fell with Sachin walking to bat against virtually the Indian team minus him. I was sitting exactly square of the wicket, not the best place to watch cricket at Chepauk but definitely the cheapest, but was able to get a good look at the lengths bowled, and one particular moment stands out...Harbhajan bowling to Tendulkar was joking with him after one quiet over... Didnt know what transpired, but the next Harbhajan over first ball was hammered for four, courtesy a flat batted sweep through the vacant square leg region. Ganguly, moves the short fine leg to square leg and moves a guy to deep fine leg..but sort of squarish. The next ball is paddled fine through the vacant fine leg for four. Ganguly, has a brain wave again, brings the fine leg back close, moves the deep square leg again...pulls back the mid wicket deep, puts a fielder close right in between those two fielders( i dont know what to call that position but it was blocking my view of Sachin perfectly so i had to move!!!!) Harbhajan bowls, Sachin waits for the ball to turn, and plays a slog sweep but over fine leg to the right of deep square leg with that noname position fielder watching with his mouth open!!! Harbhajan wasnt smiling anymore!!!!


P.S: I have left some of the more sensational shots for Hesh to describe, as he is better in this than me, but if he does miss any half volley..watch out for my second innings on this topic!!!!!

100...

Location: Cafeteria of my office.

Around 35 people sitting, a sizeable number standing in front of an LCD tv hung overhead. The DTH connection is very poor, so we can see pixels and frames instead of the live streaming video, and this happens frequently, frequently as in every ball.

But nobody moves an inch.

Surely something historical is happening?

Nah!!!!

A guy named Sachin is on 99 and on strike.

Ball pitches outside off at good length, nothing special about the delivery and for (once on TV we see the whole sequence perfectly) Tendulkar tries to guide and misses.... and next was what I couldnt believe, a collective gasp of breath from the audience.

Its not that the guy is on 99 for the first time!!!!!

A group of guys turned around to look at one of their colleague just walking in and threatened him to go off now and come back later, so that he wouldnt jinx Sachin!!!!

Nobody was worried about the enormous target, the climbing run rate, only 2 regular batsmen to follow, the mighty Aussies piling up the pressure.... all they wanted was a glide down the third man which the master duly obliged amidst pixels and frames( we didnt know what happened...but one frame froze to a familiar picture, Sachin without the helmet looking up the sky!!!). There was a loud cheer, and even those who dont know the difference from a wide and a no ball, were muttering "sachin must have scored a century".

There was a collective commotion and atleast half of them left to go back to their seats and continue their work. The moment was over.

I still can not understand!!

Ravindra Jadeja ahead of Rohit Sharma and Badrinath!! Nothing wrong with the bloke, but in what I have seen of this guy in the IPL or the 7 matches he has played so far, does not seem to have the temperament yet for cricket at this level. I am only hoping he proves me wrong, if he continues to be in favor of the selectors.

And what a waste of another great great innings! So close and yet not to be!

An unusual feeling...

For someone who takes a lot of pride in being a Chennaite for the sheer reason that Chepauk has been Sachin's favourite hunting ground, its going to be a little hard to settle for the Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Hyd. But if I could bunk office to watch Sachin do some gym work and net practice in the MRF pace foundation when he was recovering from injury 4 years back, I would take this anyday...I am just praying that we field first so that I could catch up with the Indian innings after office. Even If Sachin replicates half of his usual Chepauk form, I am in for a treat...

Missing the point...

I agree with every line that you have written but that’s not my point. If Gibbs had dropped that catch in the semi final, then it would have been an absolute what if moment. Even otherwise this could have been a what if moment but I have a problem when this is hyped up based on the semi final’s result which should ideally be an independent event – If you have to give weightage to performance in the preliminary stages of the world cup, then SA should have got a reservation for their clean slate in the league stages of the 1996 world cup.

Pakistan won the WC in 1992 but they only qualified for the semi finals by a whisker and that too with extraordinary help from weather gods. But that’s not what made them win the WC as much as that gem from Inzamam or that deadly spell by Wasim. You can comfortably ignore Wasim or Inzamam and argue that Pakistan won it purely because of luck – if the game against Eng wasn’t rained off, they would have lost because of which they wouldn’t have qualified for the semi finals and therefore that is the most critical factor – the butterfly effect!. In any event with multiple causes we can take our biases for the causes and go to any limits to justify them...

When Kapil Dev took that catch, we could have sensed that it could be “that” catch. I think the SA rain rule example is not in sync here. When Azhar won that toss and elected to field, most of us immediately felt it was not wise – why bat under pressure in a critical match, might as well set a target and defend. (Also I wouldn’t really call it a what if moment anyways!). When Steve Waugh handled the ball, I was watching the match live in the stadium from “D” Stand and trust me everyone in the stadium sensed that this was a break that could turn the match. On all these occasions our hunch that this could be a crucial moment is right only in retrospect and could have so easily gone wrong – I am completely in agreement with you on all this.

Now thanks for that Robin Jackman’s commentary* – That’s exactly my point. That Razzaq drop could have proven to be insignificant if Sachin had got out the next ball. But would he have said something like “oh boy. How crucial that dropped catch is going to be in deciding who’ll be the winner of this WC” in this case? I don’t think so. I can only imagine him saying something like “Oh boy, Has Gibbs given Australia another chance to get out of the jail and make it to the semi final”.

Unlike other examples that you have given, with the Gibbs' dropped catch, one could have only sensed that this is not curtains for Australia yet in this WC and nothing more. C’mon don’t tell me one can foresee a tie in the semi final which would make the result of this match absolutely critical and therefore this drop could prove to be catastrophic to SA’s chances of reaching the finals!

*If I remember right, the exact comment on that Razzaq dropped chance was "he might live to rue that"