Sledges, stumpings, and other stories

Not necessarily. Ask Suresh Raina. The lad, trying hard to comeback into the national team, was chuffed up when he got a SMS from Greg Chappell after he had scored a ton against Tamil Nadu. "He [Chappell] is a quite a reader of the game. Even if you make 20 or 30 runs, he knows how you have made those." Sometimes, all it takes for you to perk up is a 160-character message. No wonder the SMS market in India, expected to grow to 180 billion by 2010, is huge. Get out your phone, send your loved one a message, or at least sign up for Cricinfo Mobile!

What do you do Jack, when are you batting with tailenders? Score runs in the early part of the overs and take a single off the last ball. Syed Sahabuddin, the Andhra allrounder, did exactly that. For a whole 11 overs. Fighting a brave battle, taking Andhra from a struggling 144 for 6 to 323, ten runs short of victory, he took on Ishant Sharma, the Delhi fast bowler who almost made it to the national squad, and kept out D Kalyankrishna from facing the speedster. He faced 9.5 of Ishant's 11 overs, taking singles off the last ball. What does that say about Ishant? Will leave it to you to ponder. Eventually, though, it was to be in vain. He made a fatal hit into long-on's palms and Andhra fell agonisingly short of what would have been a famous win.

The career of Rajesh Sharma, the Punjab offspinner who was reported for a suspect action earlier this month, is on the hold. The Board of Control of Cricket in India has asked the Punjab Cricket Association not to pick the youngster for the final Ranji match of the season. In the past there have been numerous cases of players being reported for suspect actions in domestic cricket but this is one of the few times any concrete steps have been taken to remedy the problem. Meanwhile across the border, in Pakistan, 41 bowlers were picked up from last season for having suspect actions, but 19 have not reported to the board at all and have been banned. Don't chuck merrily in this part of the globe; it's a brave new world.

Agarkar's sledging stumps a batsman
Would you believe it? Ajit Agarkar got a batsman stumped. No, he has not lost his pace so much but by quirk of circumstance, and by cricket's Law, he has one such victim. Pankaj Singh, a Rajasthan tailender, was involved in a sledging battle with Agarkar. Few balls and numerous sledges later, Agarkar hurled one short and outside the offstump. Singh tried to hit it out of the ground, missed but didn't want to miss the verbal battle. In his enthusiasm he had left the safety of the crease and was moving towards Agarkar when Vinayak Samant, Mumbai's street-smart wicketkeeper, threw the stumps down. Since Pankaj Singh was not attempting a run he was given out stumped.

And that is not all, Ajay Jadeja, Rajasthan's captain, was asked later whether he thought it was unsporting of Mumbai. Jadeja replied calmly that he would have done the same if he were in Samanth's shoes. Sometimes, sledging can be injurious to your wicket.

The customary Nehra corner In the continuing saga of the misunderstood fast bowler, Ashish Nehra wasn't in action when Delhi took on Andhra at Vijayawada. Nehra missed the game citing "personal reasons" and didn't get to be a part of a cracking contest. Any guesses on what these mysterious reasons maybe? Answers on email please.

The quote of the week
Goes to Mohammad Kaif. When asked what he felt when he was dropped, Kaif retorted, "In which match?" Ah!