Different Strokes (old)
Two Smiles
Often a smile says more than many paragraphs
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Often a smile says more than many paragraphs. Today morning I saw two such smiles flashed at each other. Muralitharan came out to bat with Sri Lanka in trouble, but was batting the only way he bats - with gay abandon. After milking a few lucky ones off two Pathan overs, the great spinner faced his opposing number for the first time in ages.
Murali had a toothy grin, as he always does. Kumble started his run, came to the crease, leapt up, Murali charged! The ball fell short of a length, missed the bat and disturbed the already-oft-tormented stumps. Kumble ambled down the track with a smile very different from those that we normally see - one of triumph with a tinge of deference. Murali flashed back a different smile too - one with the helplessness of the vanquished with a tinge of bravado.
Two masters of an esoteric art sharing a private wordless joke.
Full post'I wasn’t there'
It could have been one of the greatest days of my life and I went AWOL
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
It could have been one of the greatest days of my life and I went AWOL. At the precise moment (16:44:19, as has been meticulously noted by some newspapers) that Sachin was deftly playing Chaminda Vaas to the onside for his hundredth run, I was driving around central Delhi, just 6 km from the Kotla Stadium, listening to radio commentary - instead of being at the ground - and muttering “YOU IDIOT, YOU IDIOT, YOU IDIOT!” to myself.
But on this admittedly minor scale, it was quite an experience being in Delhi traffic at this momentous hour and noting that other people in other cars were listening to their radios as intently as I was: fiddling with knobs, pulling at antennae, the passengers at the back leaning forward.
Sachin hit the four that took him from 93 to 97; six people sitting in a large Sumo next to my car exchanged high-fives. Ganguly failed to take a single; another driver muttered a curse and shared conspiracy theories with the lady sitting next to him. The radio commentator got excited, shouted “Is he OUT??!” when Sachin nicked a ball short of second slip; in numerous vehicles, hands abandoned steering wheels and flew to heads. It was high drama on the streets.
The radio channel didn’t have advanced sound filters to muffle the crowd noise, which meant that from around the point SRT got to 98 it was almost impossible to hear the commentators over the screams of tens of thousands of spectators. In that last over, when Ganguly hit a four, the crowd roared a standard roar (whether they were applauding the boundary or shouting at Dada to get off the striker’s end is another question). But when he took a single off the next ball, the noise made my car shake (shaken myself, I jumped a red light, that too in the high-security India Gate vicinity). From that point on till well after Sachin had reached the 100, I couldn’t hear a thing the commentators were saying – but then, I didn’t need to.
Full postThe nightmare called Television Commentary
It’s the mid innings break in the first One-Day International, – I think these should be renamed Damage Limitation Internationals or DLIs given the state of most one-day pitches now-a-days
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
It’s the mid innings break in the first One-Day International, – I think these should be renamed Damage Limitation Internationals or DLIs given the state of most one-day pitches now-a-days. Anyway, it’s Pakistan and England against each other, and I’m lurking around in my Inbox. We had conceded something of a mountain to chase, but I knew from before hand that we’ll lose, some times you just know.
Not a matter of not having enough faith in the team, but sometimes you just know, probably something in the stars (when half of the team is having a bad hair week (month?), something has got to give at some point!). So I thought I might as well use this time to indulge in some good old fashioned commentary nit-picking.
Enter Anu Garg, the author of the brilliant AWAD – A Word A Day – books and newsletter. I’m subscribed to the newsletter. It’s a brilliant kick-up read, especially if you read it after watching a live cricket broadcast.
For a self confessed pedant like my self listening to some of these modern day commentators is a demanding task, made mildly Herculean when some of them insist on breaking the world record for longest duration in between positive thought occurred or hair cuts taken or sentence said where they haven’t brutally executed the grammar, pronunciation, and subject verb agreement of the language they claim to be speaking in!
Full postDead rubber bridesmaids
Australia have a knack of losing ‘dead rubbers’ after securing a series win
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Australia have a knack of losing ‘dead rubbers’ after securing a series win. How much do these end of series losses really affect the Australian morale and conversely how much do the victors value their consolation prize?
Before this summer, England went the best part of two decades on the debit side of an Ashes ledger whilst picking up dead rubber cheques with alarming regularity. Cheques that always seemed to bounce come the following Ashes campaign.
And what of the opposition players that perform well in these dead matches? Mark Butcher’s best return against the old enemy came in the Leeds dead rubber of the 2001 Ashes campaign.
Likewise Alec Stewart’s highest knock against Australia was his 107 in Melbourne in the 1998/99 series. England won that test but the Ashes had already been retained by Australia. Were these players only able to produce their best when the intensity of the competition had been reduced to playing for pride?
Full postSelf belief, sledging, and the art of the possible
New Zealand have defeated Australia in the third ODI by chasing down Australia's score of 331, setting a new world record in the process
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
New Zealand have defeated Australia in the third ODI by chasing down Australia's score of 331, setting a new world record in the process. This comes hot on the heels of the second ODI where New Zealand only just failed to reel in Australia's score of 322.
And the New Zealanders are not the only side doing some impressive chases. Since 2000, there have been ten instances of sides successfully chasing scores of 300 or over, which had only happened six times before 2000. A couple of years ago, Pakistan were set 350 to win and nearly did it. What is going on?
Excellent batting conditions certainly have something to do with it. The popular taste for one-day internationals is for high scoring matches, and in response to this taste, groundsmen the world over are preparing surfaces devoid of grass, and with consistent bounce and pace. Rule changes like the 'powerplay' also aid batsmen and hinder bowlers.
Declining standards of bowling attacks may also play a role. New Zealand conducted both of their runchases against an Australian attack without Glenn McGrath, and the Australian attack in the third ODI was one of the most inexperienced Australian bowling lineups seen in more then a decade.
Full postMagic balls: Buy one, get one free
Twelve summers ago I had a fairly animated discussion on a fast bowler’s ideal delivery with Gogol, the kid brother of a friend and a perennial favourite of mine
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Twelve summers ago I had a fairly animated discussion on a fast bowler’s ideal delivery with Gogol, the kid brother of a friend and a perennial favourite of mine. ‘The magic ball’ had to be defined.
We went on to answer the call of cricket fanaticism and did the job ourselves. Me-cricket-expert caps firmly in place, we chose a few of the best prototypes, deliberated on them and finally passed a judgement that the world must have been waiting for.
Sometimes I wonder what would happen if the debate were to be re-opened today between the two of us. There's a bit of hidden truth about that episode; time to come clean. I had tried to contrive that decision, though the foul-play was not eventually needed.
Back then the honour went to – take a breath now - “one that is delivered at decent pace close to the stumps, lands the inner edge of the ball in line with the outer edge of the off-stump - at a length likely to hit the stumps 2/3rd height from bottom - and moves away just enough to take the outside edge of the front-footed batsman’s perfectly offered defensive bat”. The men behind the stumps would complete the remaining formality. No one should survive that, we opined, unless good fortune prevents the nick.
Full postThe man who rolled Tendulkar over
Some questions in cricket are subjective, allowing for perfectly good arguments both sides, such as whether Bradman’s Invincibles were a greater team than Steve Waugh's side, or whether Sunil Gavaskar possessed a better defensive technique than
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Some questions in cricket are subjective, allowing for perfectly good arguments both sides, such as whether Bradman’s Invincibles were a greater team than Steve Waugh's side, or whether Sunil Gavaskar possessed a better defensive technique than Geoffrey Boycott. In such cases the pleasure lies in the give-and-take of conversation, in the marshalling of evidence and the subtlety of the details one summons – it’s a way of keeping one’s cricket brain in good nick.
And even when some perfectly absurd point of view turns up, such as the recent case made by least three wise men of Indian cricket that Sourav Ganguly was not just a batsman but a batting allrounder and would add balance to the Test side with his seamers, the good cricket fan mops up the coffee he has spilt in surprise at the breakfast table, and, swallowing his initial derision, begins to think how one might best argue this case. (eg. Not only did our good Dada take a number of wickets in this year’s Duleep Trophy, but he also topped the bowling averages for India in his debut series in 1996; bowled a corker of an opening spell when given the new ball against Australia at Kolkata in 1998, not so long ago; and only last year beat and bowled the tiresomely immovable Jacques Kallis in a Test match, again in Kolkata.)
So here’s another question for you to mull over: of the hundreds of bowlers to have dismissed Sachin Tendulkar in his sixteen seasons of international cricket, who can have been the least distinguished? To my mind the answer is Ujesh Ranchod, a bowler of Indian origin who came with the touring Zimbabwean party of 1993. One doesn’t know on what basis Ranchod was selected, but when he was named in the eleven for the only Test of the series it turned out he was making not only his Test but apparently also his first-class debut.
Ranchod was a purveyor of the most gentle, benevolent offspin; what shape and curve he possessed had less to do with his bowling than his frame (although only 23, he was rather portly). He made a charming contrast bowling in tandem with Zimbabwe’s senior spinner, the gaunt, shrewd veteran John Traicos, all of 45 - no older man has played Test cricket since, or probably ever will. While Traicos looked every bit as capable as when he made his debut for South Africa in 1970, Ranchod’s was the sort of bowling that made even the viewer want to charge down the pitch and hit him for six. Yet some lucky star stone over his head that day, and Tendulkar, perhaps overly respectful given that it was the first day of the Test, chipped him in the air and was caught by Traicos.
Full postOn the (alcohol fuelled) Madness of Crowds.
After the first one-day international between New Zealand and Australia, Ricky Ponting once again complained about the poor crowd behaviour that saw several of his team-mates have fruit and bottles thrown at them
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
After the first one-day international between New Zealand and Australia, Ricky Ponting once again complained about the poor crowd behaviour that saw several of his team-mates have fruit and bottles thrown at them. This is not the first time that Australian teams in New Zealand have had to deal with this; poor crowd behaviour was a feature of Australia's one-day games when they toured New Zealand earlier this year.
There's no doubt in my mind that the demon drink is almost entirely responsible for the missile throwing and pitch invasions that occur in New Zealand and were formerly a frequent event in Australian one-day games as well. I was 'lucky' enough to experience one of these disturbances up close and personal in this fixture in Australia's tour of 2000, and I saw first hand the way in which the ground authorities were eager to maximise sales of the full strength local beverage- they were selling it by the six-pack.
Most of New Zealand's cricket fixtures are played on rugby grounds, and New Zealand Cricket do not control most of the venues. Eden Park, for example, is controlled by the Eden Park Trust Board. So there are limits to what New Zealand Cricket can do to limit the sale of alcohol. Ground authorities are keen to maximise their revenue, and there is little that can be done to restrict them.
In Australia, the cricket authorities are in a much stronger position. Cricket Australia affiliate bodies directly control four of Australia’s six main venues. These authorities were (and are) as keen as anyone else to maximise their revenue from the game, but are also mindful of the need to maintain order to attract patrons. I suspect that the insurance companies that protect them have played a role in insisting on stronger crowd control measures.
Full postThe Great Brain Robbery
Last Saturday I witnessed a rampant Australian side tear the barely beating hearts from a New Zealand team that were at Eden Park in seemingly body only
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Last Saturday I witnessed a rampant Australian side tear the barely beating hearts from a New Zealand team that were at Eden Park in seemingly body only. I could smell the Australian swagger from the stands. The stench invaded the nostrils of the 20,000 or so others in the ground too, as one heckle after another chided the failing efforts of the hapless Kiwis.
Fast forward a mere four days. A puny leap of 100 hours and the Men-In-Black stood with phasers at the ready and came within a shaving of chasing down the 323 required runs. In the process, they accumulated more than three times their Auckland run tally.
So why the difference? Same men, same coach, same team batting first and while ultimately the same result, it would be a one eyed critic that could not concede to the difference between the two sides being microscopic in Wellington.
New Zealand, inside the Westpac Stadium ‘cake tin’ found the mental missing ingredient and baked up an altogether more intense aura. They had a touch of swagger blended with bites of brilliance and but for a young Australian with a golden arm, may well have been heading to Christchurch with the prospect of taking the Chappell-Hadlee honours.
Full postDoes Glenn McGrath get his due?
Even at the age of 35, no one doubts that Glenn McGrath is one of the world's leading fast bowlers, even if it is an age since he pushed the speedometer past 140 kmph
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Even at the age of 35, no one doubts that Glenn McGrath is one of the world's leading fast bowlers, even if it is an age since he pushed the speedometer past 140 kmph. He may not be the fastest bowler but he is still one of the best, spearheading the Australian attack for a decade now.
Sometimes though, I feel that for all of his wonderful achievements, Glenn McGrath might be somewhat under appreciated, at least in Australia. To understand how much he's done, the joy of StatsGuru comes to our aid. If you look at the career summary for Glenn McGrath, it is pretty obvious- he has done everything that a bowler could do, and he's done it year in, year out, against all comers, in every part of the world. And he's still doing it. So far this summer, close to his 36th birthday, he's taken 16 wickets at 20.43
So why do I feel that Glenn McGrath might be under apprieciated? Well, for a start, Shane Warne has overshadowed his entire career. To the Australian cricket public, bowlers are the people's heroes, not the batsman, and Warne's dazzling persona, deeds and controversy have kept the spotlight firmly on him. Aesthetically, to watch Warne in operation is a visual feast for the spectator or the television viewer, his wiles, legbreaks, and cunning provide far more drama then McGrath's robotic accuracy.
Not that Glenn McGrath begrudges Warne his fame. It is impossible to tell looking in from the outside, but McGrath seems to be the ideal team man, rejoicing in the success of his collegues as much as his own. Despite the Golden Boots that McGrath sported to celebrate his 500th Test wicket, McGrath is at heart a modest man, not given to blowing his own trumpet. When talking to the media, although he is open about his bowling goals when asked, he seems more animated talking about his ever-improving batting feats.
Full post