A "MATCH" to Remember

What a match. In fact, it was exactly that, a "match". One side with a prodigal batting line up and a below par bowling attack. The other with an erratic set of batsmen but maverick bowlers. Hence the word "match". As in "matching clothes" or "a matching couple". To win, a team had to come one up on its weakness. At the end of the day, it was exactly what happened. India, after seemingly squandering another explosive start decided for once to behave brain surgeon like when they came to bowl. They appeared listless at the beginning of the second inning but as the game progressed it was obvious that these boys had come with a plan in their mind. Nehra resolved to surprise all and sundry with his discipline, Munaf manufactured cutters when the swing died off and Zaheer, though off color by his sterling standards deceived the batsmen more with his mind than speed. The spinners did what was expected of them, choke and strangle. The fielding standard went northwards. The result is there to be seen.

Having said that the two teams were evenly poised, let us see if there was something that differentiated the two. Yes indeed, it is a subtle point yet one that proves to be the clincher during hours of urgency. It is the belief in one's own self. When the Indian batting was almost coming apart at the hands of Wahab Riaz, Suresh Raina, who had precious few chances in this World Cup, rose to the occasion and did what was expected of him. Here is a young guy, unsure of what his position in the team is with constant threat from the Murderous Talents of Yusuf Pathan, holding his nerve and guiding his team to a total that proved extremely ungettable at the end. His was an inning too far for the opponent to cover. The phrase "rising to the occasion" has been used with much leniency but this was one event where the words did justice to the doings. Had Pakistan had one Rainaisque character in their squad, they would probably not have come second best.

Pakistan though should not go disappointed. They have outlived all expectations. They have also discovered a wonderful competitor in Umar Akmal. Certain players may have went past their "use by" dates and those players have been exposed in the course of this tournament. It is time they use their chopping axes for the right reasons and have a strategy to take their cricket to the level where it belongs.

India go into the finals facing a tricky opponent in Sri Lanka. If today's contest was a "match", that of Sunday's would be "even". Two great champions of the game will probably play their last World Cup. Two most suave and immaculate captains of the present day will play their pawns. In all, we should have a contest no less entertaining than any. They are by far the two best teams of this tournament and hence they make this contest worthy by their presence. Let it be a match to remember. Let the best team come out the winner.

Meanwhile...we shall keep Bleeding Blue.... 

The Day of Reckoning

India vs Pakistan. World Cup semi final. Few other things get bigger, fiercer and tantalizingly close to disaster than this. In fact, it does not have to be a World Cup semi final to assume such outrageous proportions. Any match played between these two countries dwarfs all other happenings, if not around the world then at least in this part of the sub-continent. There is far too much of history, friction, intolerance, prejudice, a plethora of commonalities and even more differences that come alive on when the two teams clash. It is no fun to be an Indian or Pakistan cricketer on such days. How nice it could be to go in to a sporting contest knowing that at the end of it you could be on either poles of public perception.  Media in both the countries is scathing. If on the Indian side it is fuelled more by an opportunist desire to cash in on public interest, in the Pakistan side it is pure vitriol spewed in a no barriers barred fashion. Each represent the present state of the country, one on the cusps of implementing a flawed capitalism and the other forced to look inward to redefine itself. No matter what the players do or do not, each of their moves is watched with a fiendish zeal to point out lacunae. Even a James Bond cannot give such tight vigil a slip. If the build up is frenzied, the event is a deluge of testosterone and the end a Shakespearean tragedy or a celebration of the most deranged kind.

Ever since India evicted Australia out of the World Cup in the quarter final, the anticipated semi final clash has eclipsed all other news. Domestic and foreign media both have tried to project this as an epic of the order of an intercelestial fight to finish. So much so that even the Japan Tsunami has been pushed aside, the corruption news have beaten a reluctant retreat and no aliens are abducting cows from UP on India TV. The symphony has turned into a crescendo. Anyone who ever came into a fifty yard vicinity of either team’s dressing room is a trusted insider worthy of 30 minutes of video bite. To be called an expert you need know no more than the name of Sachin Tendulkar. A minister, feeling peeved at such adulation of the cricketers has cried wolf already receiving terrible flak on its wake. This event has also promised to bring three arch enemies together, the Prime Minister of India, the Opposition Leader of India and the Pakistan Prime Minister. The presence of any two of these three is bonanza time for reporters; imagine what all three and the cricket match will do to their appetite. Well, Bon Appétit fellow scribes.

Behind all this cacophony, Sri Lanka has silently crept up to the finals. Whoever they meet in Mumbai would be in a state of over buoyancy and emotional drain down. Nothing would augur better for the Lankans. If they meet Pakistan, rest assured the audience will volunteer to be their honorary cheerleaders. If it is India, they can play to their strength and still spring a victory, belligerent crowd notwithstanding. This makes one job in the whole world the least desirable at the moment, the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team. Had the Imperial Sourav Ganguly been at the helm, his countrymen would have been assured of impetuous disdain of the opponent. Had it been Anil Kumble, it would have meant a pragmatic approach with German precision. Rahul Dravid would have gotten an algorithm to win developed by an ace research team of the Carnegie-Mellon university and adhered to it against the advice of the Lord Himself. But none of these greats are donning the dreaded Blue Cap at the moment. The man in charge is an Iron sinewed bloke from the hinterlands of India. 

He came in to contention with an acute paucity of technique but with the power of a monsoon cyclone, a lack of finesse but a zeal to take the bull by its horn. And he has been successful, immensely so. Some say he is lucky, others credit the team for his success. But he stands aloof from the crowd keeping a shepherd’s eye on his flock, marshalling resources, fetching victories and then walking into the sunset with his back to the naysayers. He neither has Ganguly’s awe nor Kumble’s stature nor Dravid’s acumen. But he has his guts. Those are made of entirely un-biodegradable material. And he has won India a World Cup with them, albeit the one in the shortest format. He won the tournament taking with him a team made up of rag tags; a few survivors of a disastrous World Cup campaign and another motley group of hitherto unknowns sans the big names of Indian Cricket. But he tethered them to the finals facing the equally unlikely finalist, Pakistan. And he handed over the last over to Joginder Sharma. The plan was to bowl wide of off  stump at the risk of being called wide. It worked at first but seemed to come apart as Misbah ul Haq hoinked one over mid off for six. But the man stuck to his plan with the outside off stump zone. This time the batter fell in to the trap. India won a nail biter. The choice of Joginder for the last over, though brilliant in success, would have been outrageous in failure as the experienced Harbhajan had an over left. The same situation confronted the Iron Man against South Africa in the league stages of this World Cup. This time though the ploy with Nehra did not work. How dented is India’s captain from this? Will he go by his super human guts in a pressure situation again or will he look for the conventional options? This match will put the Indian captain’s coolness to the ultimate litmus test. In victory or in defeat, time will tell whether the middle class boy from Ranchi embraces immortality or falls to the all leveling floors of failure. This is the day of reckoning for Mahendra Singh, Dhoni.

Meanwhile....let's BLEED BLUE!!!!!!!!

The English Ailment

The English adventurism is legendary. We have read the tales of David Livingstone, George Vancouver, Richard Burton, Ralph Fitch, Francis Younghusband et al and have been enthralled, inspired and amused. These discoverers braved seas, scaled mountains, fought hostilities, made peace with unfriendly natives and let the Union Jack fly high all over. Coming from a tiny island of negligible land mass they managed to conquer 33,700,000 km² of earth’s geography, roughly a quarter of it. At the height of their powers they held the fate of 458 million people in their hands. Now this was not too far away in the history. Wikipedia vouches the authenticity of this data till 1922. All this attests to the fact that the English are brave people who have it in their mind, body and soul to travel yonder and hold sway. Coming from such a courageous lineage, it is expected of the English team to hold good under the most strenuous conditions and give tough fight to all the biggies world over. Coming to think of it, all the current Test playing nations have been British colonies at sometime or the other. So they are at Home advantage everywhere J.  Given this, it is saddening to hear Andrew Strauss blame fatigue and mental fragility more than lack of ability for their not so successful campaign in the current edition of the World Cup. But does the dear Straussy have a valid point here. Well, may be!!

Before the World Cup, all and sundry went gung-ho about England’s famous Ashes triumph. It is somewhat baffling for us non-Oz/non-English to comprehend why Ashes is given such venerated status in international Test cricket. Well, there is a bit of history behind it. The England-Australia Test series started in 1877 and went without a name till 1882. In the 1882 series played in England however, the Australians regarded lowly as they were a colony, beat the English side in dramatic fashion in the only Test match of the series in The Oval, London. The English media did not take this too kindly. One newspaper in particular, The Sporting Times, even wrote the Obituary of Cricket in England. It went on to say that English Cricket has passed away and been cremated and the “ashes” will be taken to Australia. Since then, each campaign is a contest to either regain the Ashes (England) or retain the Ashes (Australia). In the 1883 series, this little trivia was further strong cast when the visiting English captain was presented a terracotta Urn containing the mortal remains of a cremated cricket ball in Melbourne. The conclusion from this amusing piece of cricketlore is that English cricket is dead, has been dead and will be dead. It is only the honor of its memory that drives a bunch of lads each year to slog their lives out on cricket grounds in the harsh English winters or the Australian outback. Hence the stature of the Ashes.

Given this background plus the general cricketing hostility between England and Australia, the hullabaloo surrounding England's Ashes plunders does not seem out of proportion. Add to that the fact that it took England 15 years to beat Australia in Australia, the frenzy seems almost normal. Nothing could take away the brilliance and belligerence shown by Strauss' boys in the Ashes, not even the erratic performance in the World Cup. England won the Ashes 2010-11 with a scoreline of 3-1. All three victories were by the margin of an inning and then some. If India and South Africa gave the Oz immortals the cancer, it was England who metastasized the disease, knocked them to a coma and finally pulled the plug from the life support. The ramifications of the result are yet to be seen as the Australian board is still waiting for the World Cup to get over to do the necessary chop and change. But with their earlier than expected exit from the World Cup, it seems like the coup-de-grace will be delivered to the Punter and a few others. Suffice it to say that the England cricket team reached its zenith at this point. What is difficult to understand is the 7 match ODI series that followed. It was supposed to be the preparation pitch for the World Cup. But was it prudent? 

England played 14 test matches in the 2010 season. This is the highest number of test matches played by any team with India being the only other team to equal the tally. 8 out of these 14 were away matches. Even India did not playe that many away matches during this period. Given the geographic distance between England and other test playing nations, it is understandable if the lads feel a bit homesick. This apart, there is another telling statistic that gives an indication of gross Schedule Mismanagement. In whole of  2010, England played 17 ODIs spread over 21 weeks, which is less than a match a week. But right after the Ashes, which must have been mentally and physically draining, they played 7 ODIs within a span of 3 weeks i.e. more than 2 matches a week against an wounded Australia seeking redemption!!!! This meant, the scoreline of this series was 6-1 in favor of the Oz. This also meant that the English team had been away from since mid-November till they ultimately exited the World Cup on 26 Mar, 2011. That is close to 4 months away from home port and it was definitely telling. 

To the uninvolved observer, Michael Yardy's proclamation of depression might seem unprofessional. He will probably be compared with the talented but syndromic Michael Trescothick in times to come. But the English administrators must see the underlying cause. The over emphasis on test matches, the maniacal obsession with the Ashes and the strange indifference to ODIs means, England will still be searching for the only parameter that defines the champion of cricket, the World Cup.

The English Cricket Team does not enjoy the kind of support that say an Indian, a Sri Lankan or an Australian team does even when they are playing at home. Any match with the sub continental teams in England witnesses an almost partisan crowd favoring the visitors rather than their home country. Given the social fabric of the nation, it is inevitable. This can change only when the English team delivers solid results in a consistent manner. The beginning of it can be seen with the T20 World Cup win and the brilliant showings in the Ashes. Their performance in the World Cup, though schizophrenic, shows some promise with a gritty win over South Africa and a thrilling tie with India. Given this start, the man managers must back this team to perform and do the scheduling with an eye to the future. With the emergence of fine players like Jonathan Trott, Eoin Morgan and Graeme Swann (an English off spinner who can snare wickets at will, a rarity indeed), this English team does have what it takes to make the likes of Livingstone and Younghusband proud.

Till the next post, Au Revoir...

Should Sreesanth Play in the Semis

As India go in to the Semis against arch rivals Pakistan, the one question that would be giving them the greatest trouble would be the opening bowling pair. So far, India have had moderate success with the pairs that they have tried. Barring Zaheer, and one exceptional performance from Munaf where he took 4 wickets against Bangladesh, there have been little glory to gloat. The "Spin Experiment" with Ashwin as the chief chemist has been decent at best but the effectiveness of that against a subcontinental team is circumspect. That leaves a serious question mark as to how to handle the first ten overs in this mother of all encounters when India comes to  bowl. Let's see in detail what do the logbooks tell us.

GROUND REALITIES

The PCA ground is a tricky beast. India haven't exactly set things on fire here. In all, this stadium has hosted 18 ODIs with India featuring in 9 of those and winning 5. Here is the shocker though. India and Pakistan have dueled 2 times with Pakistan coming victorious on both occasions. If this did not depress you enough (if you are an Indian fan like me), here is another...Pakistan has played 5 ODIs on this ground and the only team they have managed to beat is India. They have lost to Sri Lanka, South Africa  and New Zealand. And India have lost to no other team in this ground than Pakistan and Australia. Disturbing news!!! Below is a table that puts the performance of the two teams in perspective.

Stat Courtesy: www.espncricinfo.com

Few things are evident from this. 

• India has never batted second on this ground and hence has never won batting second. 
• Pakistan has won only when it has batted second. 
• India, even when batting first, has not managed to defeat Pakistan.
• One more stat that I have masked in this table is, in 15 of the Mohali Day/Night encounters, team batting First has one 8 times and the team batting second 7.

This means, MS Dhoni has a tricky job with the toss. If he wins, he must contend with the common providence that says bat first and defend which is further bolstered by the fact that India has done well batting second in this tournament. But then the two losses against Pakistan would loom large too. Shahid Afridi, on the other hand should have little worry in opting for bowling if he wins the toss. His bowlers have done well and the famed Indian batting has shown enough chinks in its armor to excite Afridi.

DEW DEW...WHERE ARE YOU

Dew plays a very important role in the Day/Night matches played in the sub-continent. During the March-April-May quarter, there have been 8 matches on this ground. And well,  Mohali, as tricky as it is, has an even-steven here too. Team batting first has won 4 times and so has team batting second. However, if we focus on only the D/N matches, there is some respite. Of the 6 D/N matches played in this time of the year, team batting first has gone home smiling 4 times. Here is another illustration.

Stat Courtesy: www.espncricinfo.com

But guys, look at the row in RED. That sinks my heart.

The Cricketist Begins

It has been a fabulous beginning to the Cricket calendar this year. India had a better than expected outing in South Africa, England have outdone themselves in the Australian outback and a controversy ridden Pakistan team did wonderfully under difficult conditions in New Zealand. Results from rest of the world have been on predictable lines. With this has started the ICC Cricket World Cup. Up until the knock out stages, most of the teams have lived up to their expectations with the exception of England and India. England have vacillated between awesome to awful with a frequency better than the latest Intel processor. While Ireland and Bangladesh have benefitted from such largesse, India and South Africa have been left bemused. India, the firm favourites, having 12 men on the ground with the audience showing maniacal faith, had left a lot to be desired till the knock out stage. But with the solid counter-punch handed to Australia in the Quarters, they seem to be crawling back to contention. Sri Lanka have shown ruthlessness in their dealings with opponents. Their spinners have been sublime throughout. West Indies were unsure why they were there and have exited without causing many eye brows to arch. Pakistan is peaking at the right moment. New Zealand have shown that the ancient ritual of hara-kiri is still in vogue with their sound drubbing of South Africa who seem hell bent upon copyrighting the word “CHOKER” for themselves, sound competition from England and India notwithstanding. The semi-finals line-up is a trifle surprising with the absence of Australia and South Africa. All in all, the business half of the world cup has been pretty much what it is expected to be, business like.

Coming to individuals, two men have stood out colossally. One would be our very own, Yuvraj Singh who for once has decided to make appropriate use of his enormous potential. He could have become anything from a playboy to a messiah to billions and at last seems to have made peace with the “mini me” that had threatened to take his career downhill. India’s recent world cup campaigns of the last decade and a half have been over reliant on Sachin Tendulkar and it is fantastic to see a different man standing up. Yuvi has at least another World Cup in him and a lot of international cricket in between. This may be the crowning era of his otherwise flawed genius. The other man who has gotten better with every match, and I am not talking about just the World Cup, is Jonathan Trott. He has bloomed late but he has bloomed brilliant. Spectacular performance in the Ashes has been bettered with a dream like outing in the World Cup. The English batting line up, which shows the hangover of all the beer that the whole of England consumes, suddenly seems to have one teetotaller up its rolls. Trott is the leading run getter of this edition of the World Cup and is still going strong as this post goes up. Both Yuvraj and Trott are in what could be called the middle age of their Cricket lives and both are showing signs of achieving the greatness that would last more than a generation. Time shall tell, how they hold up their respective promises.

After having typed 548 words, yours truly realizes that the main purpose of the post has not been touched upon yet. As the URL says, this is supposed to be an IPL blog. So what the heck with all this talk of the WC? Well, the WC performances are pretty much a precursor to what we will see in the IPL. It is not just the forms of players that is important, but also the way the fields and pitches are going to behave is to be extrapolated from these matches. In all likelihood, we are going to have some very exciting contests in the coming days. Nothing more so than the epic battle in Mohali between India and Pakistan of course. So let’s smack up our lips in anticipation of the delicious fares and let’s get our dinner napkins ready.

Till the next post, Au Revoir!!!