Sad and testing times for cricket indeed! What a shame to foresee (and demand for) a possible life ban on a young talent like Mohammad Amir. If any of you guys watched Pakistan play against England in the recently concluded test series, y’all would have loved to see a young fast bowler who brought back memories of the legendary Imran Khan.
I won’t dive into the grime of what happened and how the sting operation was carried out – I’m sure the news channels have burned it into all of our brains by now. But the public outcry demanding a ban for Pakistan (the entire team?!) seems harsh and unfair doesn’t it? Ban the players! By all means, they deserve punishment if found guilty. But banning the entire team is atrocious! They’ve given world cricket some truly exciting moments throughout its history.
India was marred by the match fixing scandal in 2000 too remember? How would we have reacted if everyone had called for banning India from playing cricket? And if the accused are proven guilty, it will speak volumes of a crumbling country and a cricket board in dire straits. What Indian cricketers earn in a year, Pakistan cricketers earn in 10. They have an unstable government full of corrupt politicians, a fan base that is unforgiving, a cricket board that hands out bans, only to revoke it in a few months.
I am strongly against any kind of chiselling, and on the record, I strongly condemn the entire episode. But think of it from Mohammad Amir’s shoes just for a moment. This isn’t match fixing! The match was headed to a tame end. This is spot fixing! Which inexperienced, suddenly glorified 18 year old wouldn’t be tempted to earn a quick buck without influencing the outcome of the match?
Bowling is truly an art. Being a casual club cricketer and a fast/fast-medium/medium-fast/medium-pace (take your pick) bowler myself, I take to bowling in the nets as a way of releasing pent-up energy.
While batsmen for the most part have a split second to decide on their shot, fast bowlers have the liberty of planning their move well in advance. As you walk back to the start of your run-up, you already have a rough idea of what you want to do with the next delivery.
Any pace bowler will second me when I say, that a glimpse of the stumps and the batsman from the start of our run-up, plays a major part in inspiring us. Standing a few meters away are your two targets – you know what (or whom) you want to hit. So you reassess and decide how you want to swing it, where you want to pitch it, and where you want the ball to go.
Then of course, there is the build up to the actual delivery. The run-up begins with slow strides, while the grip on the ball gently starts increasing. Half way through the run-up you pick up the pace. This increase in speed is something that comes naturally. The hard work and the planning are all done and now you just can’t wait to reach the crease and shoot.
The final few steps just before the delivery are exhilarating to say the least. You’ve almost reached there! There is nothing else you look at other than the pitch and the batsman ahead. The non-bowling arm goes up a notch to act as a lever for the final burst of pace. Then comes the jump, the swing of the bowling arm, the release, one last look to see what happened to the ball and if it got you the wicket, and finally the landing that completes one well planned, excellently executed fast ball.
Ever wondered exactly how many batsmen have been left stranded on 99 not out? There have been 10 batsmen till date in the history of ODIs.
|
Player |
Runs |
Balls |
4s |
6s |
Opposition |
Venue |
Date
|
|
Bruce Edgar |
99* |
136 |
6 |
1 |
India |
Auckland |
14-02-81 |
|
Dean Jones |
99* |
77 |
4 |
3 |
Sri Lanka |
Adelaide |
28-01-85 |
|
Richie Richardson |
99* |
141 |
11 |
1 |
Pakistan |
Sharjah |
15-11-85 |
|
Andy Flower |
99* |
111 |
7 |
2 |
Australia |
Harare |
24-10-99 |
|
Alistair Campbell |
99* |
124 |
8 |
0 |
New Zealand |
Bulawayo |
01-10-00 |
|
Ramnaresh Sarwan |
99* |
104 |
8 |
0 |
India |
Ahmadabad |
15-11-02 |
|
Brad Hodge |
99* |
86 |
7 |
1 |
New Zealand |
Melbourne |
04-02-07 |
|
Mohammad Yousuf |
99* |
104 |
7 |
2 |
India |
Gwalior |
15-11-07 |
|
Michael Clarke |
99* |
106 |
7 |
0 |
England |
The Oval |
30-06-10 |
|
Virender Sehwag |
99* |
100 |
11 |
2 |
Sri Lanka |
Dambulla |
16-08-10 |
And while we are on statistics and numbers, here’s a fun fact for you if you’re a bit superstitious about lucky and unlucky numbers. The number 13 is believed to be unlucky for many. And Sehwag was denied what would have been his 13th century.
The compilation of batsmen stuck on 99, and more details on how it all happened can be found on: http://bit.ly/cV1Gl1
Ninety nine not out. Not in the record books but definitely a match winning performance by Virender Sehwag. Now much has been made of Randiv’s controversial no-ball – by the media, by the onlookers (on TV and on the ground) and by fans like you and me. However, the players have moved past it. Randiv apologised, Sehwag accepted it, the Lankan board fined Randiv and Dilshan, and the entire episode should have been closed soon. And yet, we still talk about it, we blog about it, and it makes great lunch time conversation.
But flip through the pages of cricketing history, and you will find many such instances where batsmen have been left stranded, deliberately and otherwise. A good link I’d suggest is: http://bit.ly/dxvUJg
In all this madness however, have we ever questioned if the no-ball rule itself is silly to start with? And this is no age old rule! In fact, conventionally, batsmen got runs on a no-ball. To say that the shot was not valid because India already won the match before the shot was hit is just plain unfair.
I’ll leave y’all with 2 things to chew over:
1. If Randiv was on a hat-trick and Sehwag deliberately padded the ball away, would he be guilty of not giving Randiv a chance of earning a well deserved hat-trick?
2. Who robbed Sehwag of a century - Randiv or the rules of cricket?
1) Souarv ganguly (c)
2) C gayle
3) C Pujara
4) M.Tiwary
5) A.Matthews / B Mcculum / David Hussey
6) Shahid Afridi / Abdul Razaaq
7) W Saha (wk)
8) U Gul / S BOND
9) J Unadkat / A Agarkar
10)A Dinda
11)M Kartik / I Abdulla
Hope you guys have been following India’s tour of Sri Lanka in the past 2 months now. It’s been a great cricketing season for India – winning the Asia Cup after such a long time and drawing the test series was some of the best cricket India has played in recent times.
Something that almost everyone in the cricketing world is talking about is the Indian bowling. However, the raw, unexposed, and inexperienced except for Harbhajan Singh, bailed us out in the finals of the Asia Cup as well as in the final test match. Consider the test matches for example. The first innings of the first test match was a bowling disaster with Sri Lanka scoring 500 odd runs. But did the ‘strong’ Indian batting line up cover for its weaker bowling attack? Nope! They scored a paltry 276.
The second test match was a batsman’s game all the way. Neither the Lankan nor the Indian bowling did much in that match. In the 3rd test however, it was the Indian bowlers that shined. The batsmen did an incredible job too, no doubt about it, but Indian bowlers outshone their Lankan counterparts, plain and simple. Personally, I think the Indian strategy of trying out its bowling bench strength before the World Cup next year is a well planned out strategy.
That said, perhaps in the years to come, India’s tour of Lanka will merely be remembered as the last test series played by the legendary Murali. Congratulations to him for grabbing that coveted 800th wicket. Sadly though, I just cannot think of a Sri Lankan attack that doesn’t feature him. Now that he’s off test duty, maybe it’s time KKR picked him up for season 4?
The Knight Riders' 5th win was much closer than the final margin of 24 runs indicated. CCC made KKR sweat before finally finishing up at 114 all out in the 19th over. The KKR bowling hero was Mohamed Irfan who took 4 wickets for just 11 runs, and took the first and last wickets of the CCC innings. He was well supported by the ever consistent Parwinder Awana who took 2 wickets for 19 runs in his 3 completed overs. Chaminda Ishanka played a lone hand for CCC, scoring 40 well made runs, embellished with 5 fours.
Earlier, KKR struggled to put runs on the board in sticky conditions. Sunny Singh's 35 off 27 was the standout knock at the top of the innings, and Vivek Singh hit 36 off 23 balls at the end to give the KKR score some respectability at 139. Sachit Pathrana's 5 for 23 was their premier bowling performance.
We play our last match, on Wedenesday against the Colts, and hope to finish well on what has so far been an amazing tour for the development squad.
Four out of four. The Knight Riders won their second T20 of the day, beating a strong Ragama side by a handy margin of 47 runs.
After setting a target of 188, they were only briefly threatened by Ragama, who finally lost too many wickets to mount an effective chase. Weeraratne did come back strongly, hitting 46 off just 24 balls, and for a while he and Sameera Soyza (25 off 18 balls) looked good to make a match off it, progressing to 90 in the 10th over. After Weeraratne went, the Ragama chase fell apart, and they lost their way, scoring just 57 off the last 10. Parwinder Awana bowled yet another consistent spell, ending with 16 runs and 2 wickets off his 4 overs, and captain, Sourashish had another excellent all round effort with 18 for 1 off his 4 overs.
Earlier, Sourashish got his 2nd consecutive 30 off the day, this time off 36 balls, and with Sunny Singh put on 97 for the first wicket. Sunny was once again in sublime touch and his 64 came off just 42 balls with 4 sixes and 3 fours. Useful innings from Mandeep (38) and Vivek Singh (24) ensured that KKR reached a target that would not be easy.
It was a fairly strong Ragama side, with 3 internaionals and 4 U-19 internationals, and the win could only add to the confidence of the team. Coach Dav Whatmore rewarded his boys by cancelling one of the two matches tomorrow, giving the boys a sleep-in before they played their third match in 48 hours. It will be the Colombo Cricket Club tomorrow, and we tee off at 2:00 pm local time.
KKR won the first T20 they played on this tour, beating the Sri Lankan U-23 league leaders Ragama by 6 wickets.
Batting second, KKR overcame a few hiccups to cross Ragama’s score of 149 in the 17th over. After a quick start of 67 in the first six overs, KKR was in a spot of trouble after losing captain Sourashish Lahiri and slumping to 93 for 4. Sourashish, who made a brilliant 54 off just 26 balls, made sure that the early exits of Sunny Singh and Mandeep did not hurt too much. Later it was Debabrata Das who saw KKR through, stitching together vital partnerships with Harpreet (21 in 25 balls) and Vivek Singh( 15 in 13 balls). Debabrata himself remained unbeaten on 54, with 4 fours and an equal number of sixes.
Earlier, Awana’s 2 wickets for 17 in 4 overs was the best effort, as Ragama overcame a wretched start (2 down for 17 at the end of the 5th over) to reach 149. The late surge was thanks to experienced Wayamba wicketkeeper Sameer Soyza who got 31, and talented young batsman Nayana Fernando, who got 35 in just 23 balls.
KKR and Ragama play a second T20 today, just after lunch, and the home team has beefed up with another couple of Sri Lankan internationals, Kolatunga and Jehan Mubarak. Also, expect more from Ragama skipper and Sri Lankan international Koushalya Weeraratne, who went cheaply in the first match.
July 29
A thumping win for the Knight Riders. After setting a target of 286, they dismissed the opposition, Moors Sports Club for just 76 runs in the 25th over. The Moors were destroyed by an early burst from Pakistani fast bowler Mohammed Irfan who generated genuine pace and bounce and took 2 wickets. He ended with 2 for 10 in his 5 overs. Fellow left arm seamer Akhlakh Ahmed also ended with excellent figures of 3 for 5 in his 4 overs. Keeper Sanju Samson did a competent job behind the stumps and took 3 catches and a very smart stumping.
Earlier things did not look quite so rosy for KKR, when they lost Sunny Singh and Chetan Sharma within the first 5 overs. Harpreet and Debabrara Das also went cheaply and at 73 for 4, 200 was looking difficult. Mandeep and Sanju did a great job of rebuilding the inings, and when Mandeep finally departed, for a well compiled 83 studded with 11 4’s, KKR were looking much healthier at 167 for 5. The tail chipped in with decent contributions from Sourashish and Gaurav Jathar and a whirwind 39 of 20 balls from Irfan, with three massive sixes.
We have a day of practice tomorrow, a day off on Saturday, and then 2 T20s against the Ragama Cricket Club on Sunday. The word is out, and we expect Ragama to put out fairly strong sides for Sunday.
July 27
We practiced today at the Bloomfield club, yet another beautiful facility slap in the middle of Colombo’s cricket mecca. This was a light practice considering we are playing the Moors Cricket Club tomorrow, and conditions have been humid. It must be pretty taxing on the boys as they refused an invitation to watch Sachin and Laxman batting and elected to go back and sleep at the hotel.
We have finally managed to stitch two track bottoms together to make a pair for Mohammed Irfan. He shall make his debut in full KKR colours. Thought of getting him another pair of spikes, but for some reason, none of the shops he tried had size 17. Wonder why?
July 27, 2010
A great start for the tour. We won our first match convincingly against the NCC, one of Sri Lanka’s premier cricket clubs. KKR chased down their total of 155 in just 22 overs, thanks to an outstanding century from Haryana captain Sunny Singh. Sunny’s 106 was scored off 98 balls with the help of 2 sixes and 13 fours. He was well supported by Chetan Sharma, who contributed 22 in a first wicket stand of 77, and Mandeep Singh who was unbeaten on 28.
Earlier, a wicket each in the first two over’s stymied NCC’s start, and a third with the score at 20 did their cause no good. Parvinder Awana did the early damage, and finished with excellent figures of 21 runs and 3 wickets in his 8 overs. After the early debacle, Jehan Mubarak and Pussesola tried to rebuild but were tied down by some good restrictive spin bowling from the captain , Sourashish Lahiri, and Arlen Konwar. Finally Jehan departed for 22, trying to force Konwar, and Gaurav Jathar took two late wickets to have NCC on the mat. Only some late hitting by Sri Lanka international Ganegama, who got 3 fours in his 35, gave the score some respectability.
Early days yet, but good to beat a team that boasted 5 -6 Sri Lankan Under-23 players and two Sri Lankan internationals, Mubarak and Ganegame.
The boys went back to the hotel in a good mood, and immediately entered the pool for a recovery session. There was a bit of drama as marketing and logistics manager Mathew Joy suddenly went down in the deep end, and was thankfully rescued by Awana and Akhlakh. Certainly will not hurt their cause for a team berth next year.
Tomorrow, we practice at Bloomfield, another lovely cricket facility, in the morning and hope to get the boys out later to the test match to see a bit of the action.
A miracle. Sri Lankan airlines calls at 6:30 in the morning to let us know that the missing carton has arrive. A good start to the day which only got better when we went for practice to the picturesque Nondescripts Cricket Club. The Indian team was playing just next door at the SSC in Colombo.
The weather was not unlike Kolkata, humid and in the early thirties – and it was heavy going for the boys as they went through a grueling 3 hour session. While most of the boys went back to the hotel, coach Owen and Dav held back four of the younger boys for another two hour indoor nets.
In the evening, there were some interesting scenes at the airport as the driver at the airport could not recognize the only seven footer on the flight, and Irfaan had to wait for 45 minutes before they located him. Obviously, none of the standard gear fits him, and we will have some interesting tailoring to do before we can give him a full uniform.
Tomorrow is our first match, and word is that the likes of Jehan Mubarak and a couple of other Lankan internationals could be playing against us. Great news, as there’s nothing better than tough opposition to get the best out of the boys.
We finally arrived at the Palm Beach Colombo after a marathon two flight journey. In an intricate logistics exercise, 3 groups of players and staff left from Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi respectively and joined up in Chennai to take a flight together to Colombo. All went well, well almost all, as the airlines managed to misplace a bag of team kit in Delhi.
The 14 players on tour are a mix of old KKR hands, hot new prospects and a couple of outsiders who could surprise a few. Obviously, we could not take any players who would go to into the IPL auction, so much as they would have liked, Sourav, Manoj, Dinda or any of the other senior players could not make it with us. Nor could Jaydev as he and Cheteshwar were in the Indian squad to the Emerging Players tournament in Sri Lanka.
Some of the old hands include Mandeep, Harpreet, Gaurav Jathar and Akhlakh Ahmad, who were with the squad last year, and Sunny Singh, Debabrata Das and Sourashish Lahiri, who were around in previous editions of the IPL.
Teenagers Sanju Vishwanath and Vivek Singh have been in our development squad for the last couple of years – and Sayan Shekhar Mondal has just started making his way into the Bengal team.
Also around are Chetan Sharma, who played for the Delhi Giants in the ICL, and Prawinder Awana, who has had a stellar season for Delhi and North Zone.
Also good to have Arlen Konwar from Assam, whose first class record has been impeccable for the past few years, and Irfaan Ahmad from Pakistan, a 6’11” ( yes that is not a misprint, he is almost 7 feet tall) fast bowler from Pakistan, specially recommended by Wasim.
The coaching staff comprises Dav, Vijay and Joydeep, and Owen Mottau, a technical batting coach who has worked with the likes of Dravid, Sangakarra and Jayawardende.
Tomorrow is our first practice at the Nondescripts Club, right next to the SSC, where the Indian team is playing. And then we play our first match against the Nondescripts team reckoned as one of the strongest sides in Sri Lanka. This club has produced players like Sangakarra, Tharanga, Malinga and Dinsh Chandimal, and is considered one of the main pipelines of talent for the national team
CONGRATULATIONS AND HATS OFF TO MURALIDHARAN, the only one in whole world with unbreakable (as per Shane Warne) world record of 800 wickets in Test cricket. Mr Dhoni, try to learn something from this man, at least how to be humble and polite with such achievement. He has touched the ultimate yet knows when to stop. Look at his face, his smile like a baby when he reached the milestone of 800!!
Mr Dhoni, at least achieve quarter of this and be polite because your obstinate attitude will ruin you one day.
With the FIFA World Cup now over, it’s cricket all the way for the next few months. There is India’s tour of Sri Lanka (which by the looks of it till now, doesn’t look very good for India – 125 for 4 on day 2 and trailing the Sri Lankan Board President’s XI by 389 runs), Pakistan and Australia have their own test series going on in England, then there’s the tri series in Sri Lanka between the hosts, India, and New Zealand. But probably the most exciting cricket we will see in the next few months will be the T20 Champions League in September in South Africa (they really seem to be hosting every major sporting event don’t they?). Excited though I am about the T20CL, it brings back the nostalgia of the IPL fever, and it is with a pang of disappointment that I realise that the Knights could have been playing this league if only we’d performed a little better during the season. With the transfer windows opening later this year, we will be following the T20CL very closely, marking prospective Knights in purple armour. There is a plethora of talented cricketers in India and abroad which we could really use. Suggestions as always are welcome on what you guys think should be the ideal picks for the next season. Let’s hope we get some truly exciting cricket to watch in the second half of this year, and also hope Paul comes out of retirement and picks his food from the KKR food tray, every time next season.
KKR played well this season but it was not good to take the team to the next level in the tournament. There may be many reasons behind this but the one I see is the under-performance of the star players.
In the auction in October for IPL-IV I wish KKR choose some good Indian as well as Foreign players.
The likes of Chris Gayle , Brendon McCullum were not at there very best and so were Ajit Agarkar , Ishant Sharma.
I wish KKR purchases some all-rounders this year rather than going for a specialist bowler... Need to purchase 2 all-rounders and 2 specialist batsman who on their day can single handed win the match for us.
I feel that KKR should retain Sourav Ganguly , Ashoke Dinda , Wridhimann Saha , Murli Karthik , Manoj Tiwary (Indian) & Chris Gayle , Brendon McCullum and Angelo Mathews (Foreign)
Angelo Mathews showed us that he can win matches for KKR on his own so he is to be kept in the side. Hope we can buy Kerion Pollard for us this year. Angelo has shown his class both in KKR as well as Sri Lanka's team.
Players I think we should buy:
Foreign : David Warner , Kevin Peterson , Kerion Pollard , Shane Watson , Mike Hussey , Dirk Nannes , Mathew Hayden , Dwayne Smith , Jacob Oram , Nathan McCullum , Jacques Kallis , Ricky Ponting , JP Duminy , TM Dilshan , Michael Lumb.
Indian : Dinesh Karthik , Saurabh Tiwary , Praveen Kumar , Mithun Mahnas , Suresh Raina , Amit Mishra , Ashish Nehra , Ambati Rayadu , Virat Kohli , Vinay Kumar , Irfan Pathan , Yusuf Pathan , Robin Uthappa , Pragyan Ojha.
These are the players which I wish that they play for KKR.
Hope that SRK , DAV and DADA consider my blog.
Hoping for a good result for KKR in the coming season's.
A true KKR fan
Meet Mehta
KORBO LORBO JEETBO RE...!!!
DADA NAMESTEY AUR KYA HO RAHA HAI? AAP AGLE IPL KA WAIT KAR RAHE HONGE. AAP LOG 6OVER KE POWER PLAY KO THIK SE MANAGE NAHI KAR PAA RAHE SO PLZ DO IT.
CONGRATULATES 4 4TH IPL AND I KNOW WE WIN THIS TITLE.
BEST OF LUCK
The Indian ‘A’ team’s tour of England and Scotland has been a dream run, especially for young Knights. The first high was the team composition itself which had Cheteshwar Pujara leading the team, Wriddhiman Saha keeping wickets, Jaydev Unadkat and Iqbal Abdullah leading the bowling attack and Manoj Tiwary bearing the responsibility of holding fort in the middle order!
Although the format was first class and not T20, I feel the longer format of the game is as character building, as the shorter format is exciting. Kudos to Unadkat for a brilliant first-class debut game against the West Indies ‘A’ team. His figures for the match read: 7/41 in the first innings and 6/62 in the second innings! For the complete scorecard I suggest you go to http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/435869.html
Another achievement of mention here is Iqbal Abdulla who picked up 4 wickets, took 2 catches, and run 1 batsman out to help India ‘A’ restrict Yorkshire in the warm up match. For more scores: http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/435860.html
And of course, the second and final 4 day match that just ended, saw a complete Knights’ rampage. With Cheteshwar Pujara scoring an unbeaten 208, Wriddhiman Saha chipping in with a half century, the match was already headed to a draw. Three Knights however, gave me something to smile about. Unadkat (again), Abdulla (again) and Tiwary (finally) together picked up 8 of the 10 West Indian wickets. For more scores check: http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/435870.html
While the world (me too to some extent) J has been busy watching the FIFA World Cup and the Asia Cup, our Knights have been silently brilliant.
hi,a better season compared to the previous one.we can make excuses that we missed out coz of just a game,either the one against punjab or against b'lore,we can also make excuses that we lost coz of a poor run rate,but then that wont help us to win the next title.this season the batting except dada was pathetic.some guys played some of the games well,but consistency was nowhere to be seen.bowling was good.dinda is improving,unadkat seems to have a good future,iqbal abdulla is good as well.to my surprise i found laxmi ratan shukla missing from the line up for most of the games.he was a good performer for us in the previous 2 seasons,but why was he made to sit on bench,that was a bit dissappointing.then dinda also didnt play that much even though agarkar was turning out to be a burden for the team.i thought we had a very short batting line up.tail started very early.anywasy,lets keep everything behind for the time being.wat im lookin forward is the composition of the team after the september auctions.hope we have good talented youngsters who enjoy their cricket.hopefully dada will be there to lead the team,other than him we need another batsmen of class,standard & consistency.probably an indian batsmen.well,i will leave it to september for further short listing of possible guys to be in our camp.till then KKR FOR LIFE.
jayant