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"!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
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...
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...
Sunday, November 15, 2009
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
Thursday, November 12, 2009
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...
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...
Sunday, November 8, 2009
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...
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...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
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!!!!!
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!!!!!
Friday, November 6, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
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!
And what a waste of another great great innings! So close and yet not to be!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)