Two bowlers, both off spinners, have been reported for suspect actions. One of them is Johann Botha of South Africa and the other is Saeed Ajmal of Pakistan.
Botha used to look suspect on TV, even if that doesn't mean a thing, and has been through this before. Perhaps that is why he and his team/board members understand what this is all about.
Botha needs minor tweaks, says SA bowling coach
Botha faces stringent test on action
Gerald Majola responded thus - "It's very disappointing for the team, especially considering his performance over the recent past," Majola told Cricinfo. "But there's nothing we can do. We will follow the procedure laid down by the ICC. Hopefully, he will be cleared before the World Twenty20." Cricinfo
All Botha had to say was this - "I have put a lot of work into my action," Botha said during the recent one-day series in Australia. "It probably took 10 months from my first test to the one I passed. I still have (the doosra), but I probably don't bowl it as much as I used to. Definitely, it is possible to bowl it legally.
"My doosra actually tested lower than my off spinner for elbow extension. I think my doosra was at 9 per cent, and my offie was at 11 per cent, which are both well below the limit. With the doosra, your wrist cocks to a point where it is actually harder to extend your elbow. I just use it better than I did in the past." Cricinfo
Ajmal is perhaps being reported for the first time at the nternational level and hence the outrage is greater. It is also perhaps in such an extreme disappointment that he believes his possibly straightening elbow is Shane Watson's fault. - "They told me in the first game some of my doosras had [a] little elbow bend," Ajmal told Cricinfo. "I was very surprised. My first-class debut was in 1996 and this has not happened before. I think Watson was talking [with] umpires about this. He was speaking with them and when the match finished the umpires said there is a problem. [But] I am not disappointed. I am playing tomorrow [in the third ODI]. It is not a problem." Cricinfo
The not-so-young man's frustration is understandable - he might not have the years left in his career to both accomodate corrective measures, if required, and return to play from such a period.
But what isn't so easily understandable is an experienced ex-bowler and coach prejudging the issue and obfuscating it with a view to trample over procedure.
Sample one from Intikhab Alam - "Ajmal has played against four countries and nobody raised any finger on his action and suddenly this decision comes," he told AFP. "I think they [ICC] are lacking consistency in this process. He bowled exceptionally well and suddenly they decided that he has a problem with his action." Cricinfo
The mysterious "They" comes in and "They" took out Ajmal because he bowled well. Evereybody has it in for Pakistan, including the "They". Something quite similar was heard during the dope allegations against some bowlers of the Pakistan team a few years ago. The "They" surfaced then too but from other sources.
Now consider this from Cricinfo - Rauf and Bowden, along with off-field officials Zameer Haider and Nadeem Ghauri, submitted a report to the ICC in which it was stated that, having monitored Ajmal's action over the two ODIs in Dubai, there was sufficient concern for it to be scrutinised further. Ajmal, the ICC and the PCB will be sent footage of the bowler's action, and Ajmal is required to present himself for testing by an ICC-approved biomechanist within 21 days. Cricinfo
Intikhab Alam's "They" sounds like a dangerously deadly hand out to crush Pakistan cricket. On examination of theat hand...the "They"...it turns out that out of the four of that hand, one is Rauf, the other is Haider and the third is Ghauri. So it stands to reason, going by Ajmal and Alam's statements, that it is the troika of Rauf, Haider and Ghauri who felt Ajmal had bowled well for Pakistan and must therefore be pulled up for a bad action, along with Kiwi Bowden.
This makes it easier to understand a section of Alam's "outrage" where he says that Ajmal wasn't called against four countries but was called against Australia - the three, Rauf, Haider and Ghouri must be planning to migrate to Australia.
But Alam's cunningest one comes a little later - "Murali bowls such a delivery and he was cleared, Harbhajan was cleared, and there is no difference between these two and Ajmal," Alam said. "I don't agree that Ajmal bowls a different doosra, there is only one kind of doosra. Ajmal has hyper-mobility in his arm and I hope everything goes well for him."
sup>Cricinfo
Before we proceed, notice the contrasting response between the Saffer bowling coach and here. Even in Harbhajan's case - the Indian gurus were convinced he needed correction. Murali's case is too well known for me to repeat, but he underwent every test wherever and whenever he was called upon to take.
Coming back to that Alam statement - by bringing in Murali and Harbhajan and Ajmal being no different...he is instructing that 1) they bowl illegally so Ajmal should be allowed to do the same 2) trying to rustle some Asian support on this so that ultimately an Asian country can be "blamed" for it.
But he takes a small precaution...Alam mentions after each name he drags in that they were cleared , so that he isn't sued out of his last pennies and paisas by the duo. The smart man he is, Alam fails to mention that the two were "cleared" AFTER stringent testing, and in Harbhajan's case, two corrective periods which ate up at least 2-3 years of his career. In fact not one Indian claimed it was an outrage because Harbhajan had bowled well against the Australians...Bedi was quite vehement...and all Prasanna and Gavaskar said then was that why Jim Laker for correction, why not Prasanna or Venkat? The BCCI did not utter one word against the calling, testing and correction...both times Harbhajan was called.
Intikhab Alam omits that conveniently because he wants to pre-empt Ajmal's testing! And evcerybody, including ex-cricketers talk about growing ailments in modern cricket and how they must be rooted out! Rather than take up the challenge of testing and going through it and proving to the world that the report was mistaken...or show willingness to correct a flaw if detected and thereby respecting the game and its body like everybody else...we see influential men from Pakistan Cricket circles set bad examples for their youth. It is easier to blame, badger, obfuscate....even throw in a healthy dose of nationalism into it.
Also, he pre-judges the issue by turning a medical expert - he diagnoses Hypermobility of Elbow in the same breath. Wasn't that the Shoaib Akhtar affliction? So it must be same with every reported action. Alam is directing that such a report be given or the underlyuing message is for some PCB doctor to come out with a Hypermobility of Ajmal's Elbow thesis based upon which PCB can fight any sanctions IF such an eventuality arses.
All that's fine "protecting our boy stuff", but why did Intikhab Alam had to shoot himself by mentioning Hypermobility after all the indignance earlier? That means there must be something different with his action. So the Umpiress were correct in calling for testing. So "They" is simply a bogey. So Shane Watson doesn't have anything to do with it. And if Hypermobility of Elbow is the case, laboratory testing should exonerate Ajmal along similar lines of Shoaib Akhtar. So why the worry then? Why the need for all this hypermobile talk before testing then?
And didn't Ajmal himself say that "They" told him in the first game itself before calling? So it was not as if it came out of the blue because he was continuing to play well in the second match...he was being wathed for specifics of some of his doosras by Rauf, Haider, Ghouri and Bowden.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Hypermobile reactions
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Deccan Chargers ram it home!
FH Edwards 4 0 27 2 6.75 (4w)
RP Singh 4 0 27 2 6.75 (1nb, 1w)
DR Smith 2 0 15 0 7.50
PP Ojha 4 0 21 3 5.25
Harmeet Singh 1 0 19 0 19.00
This is what the weakling bowling attack did! When three of your bowlers bowl 4 overs each for runs in the 20s in the T20 and take 2 or 3 wickets each against a batting line-up comprising of Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo, JP Duminy, AM Nayar, Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan...you know you have it in you to be the champs!
DC v 3D in the finals looks increasingly likely now!
What a win today! It didn't look likely at one stage but Ojha, RP Singh and RFidel Edwards did it for DC.
Of the Indian players to have progressed or retained a higher performance this IPL have been Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh and Yusuf Pathan thus far. Irfan needs watching...otherwise not one another has become a more formidable player since the last season.
Player of the match - Pragyan Ojha deservedly. Good show!
What was all that talk about DC being sold off? Wotsay Reddy gaaru? :)
IPL 2009 - - Scorecard
IPL 2009: Match 12: Deccan Chargers v Mumbai Indians
IPL 2009 - - Scorecard
This match interests me on more than one count - two of the best teams in the tournament facing off besides a supporter's bias.
The pitch suggested to Sunny and Jeremy that this will be a high scoring game. Gibbs and Gilly began selectively against a good opening attack, perhaps the best of this tournament...Gilly more classy in his selection than Gibbs who enjoyed a few edges and safe landings.
The initial mantra was to attack the ball with the minimum risk, so Gilly chose the fifth ball of Lasith Mahalinga's excellent over till then to open the account with a splendid pull over mid-on for a six.
The next over Zaheer Khan obliged Gibbs...rather Gibbs wrested the ball from the pitch by dancing up to it and then drove it over the fielder at extra-cover for four. A single later, Gilly almost scored a six over an edge at third man...over slips. The phenomenal edge proved to be a one bounce four. But the tone was set - 15 useful runs off the first two and the knowledge that patience would be rewarding on this pitch, even with such a polished bowling attack.
Bravo went for a few but procured the first breakthrough - Gilchrist edgeing a wide chase to the keeper Pinal Shah.
Harbhajan was expected to matter in the pre-match analysis by the wise ones. He's holding it at sevens at the moment without being threatening at all.
Dwayne Smith was promoted to one drop - and it turned out to be a good call. With Gibbs clearly adopting the anchoring role, Smith fulfuilled his role of an attacking blade at the other end. There is some debate over Dwayne Smith in the Caribbeans but they are people who enjoy a good hot chinwagging session. Here, he did what he was suppossed to - his 35 off 22 denied any advantage accruing to Mumbai Indians from the fall of Gilly's wicket.
At the moment, Gibbs has held on to score a fifty taking DC to 136-2 in the fifteenth. It is at this point that the magic of Bravo comes in...he has Rohit Sharma, who revels in an up and down and up kind of graph to his career, playing exactly the kind of shot he wants down Shikhar Dhawan's throat. The fielder was placed there for the shot and Rohit was mesmerized.
In the same over, an intervening ball later, VVS Laxman tries to play a cut by making room. Bravo notices the movement and digs it in short and Lax is surprised unpleasantly and edges to square leg.
A good start is being frittered away, you begin to think. What next, you ask yourself. The answer comes in an idiotic run out with both the batsmen immobile in the centre of the pitch...it appears Venu Rao has held on and Gibbs has to go, which irks him to no end and isn't good for DC chances either. Suddenly you sense...realize...a quiet putsch has been engineered and implemented - Mumbai Indians with one Bravo and a throw, have clipped the horns of Deccan Chargers.
Deccan Chargers 142-5 off 16
UPDATE
The suspicion one had is confirmed - the overthrowing is almost complete - what remains is DC bowling at MI. DC has screeched to a halt in spectacular fashion - reusable spacecrafts could use this technology to halt their descent from the heavens onto an aircraft carrier! Rohit Sharma, VVS Laxman (difficult to continue to be loyal), and Venu Rao did not perform. The Indians in the DC league haven't performed. Did Gilly have such a premonition and use up his overseas players first? Or was it not so wise? Laxman needs to make up his mind....otherwise he'll be left holding the baby.
DC finish about 40 runs shorter than anticipated at the 13th-14th over at 168/9. Mumbai Indians need 169 to win. The strongest bowling attack of the tournament (nine MI players can bowl decently) have broken the DC innings.
Can the so called "weakling" bowling spring another surprise? Can Fidel Edwards and RP Singh concoct a potent poison to tip their arrows with? Can Pragyan Ojha break into a kind of limelight he has not yet been in? This is a difficult match. Wickets and only regular wickets will matter...they cannot curtail MI otherwise. Later then...after the break.
Mumbai Indians Chase
After a torridly excellent first over from Fidel Castro Edwards, Rudra Purple Singh strikes! Hustling Sanath to pull/hook and top edge to Gilly...one down. Next ball, an extremely close call for Sachin who crossed over.
MI 4-1 after 2 overs.
ST Jayasuriya c Gilchrist b Singh 1
RP Singh 1 0 1 1
JP Duminy is the next man in with Sachin already at the crease.
Plenty of work to do but Go DC Go! Keep it up! Let's see some of that magic of the underdogs!
UPDATE
Sachin is attacking the rookie Harmeek Singh 446 thus far...will he throw away his wicket to a rookie as he has often?
Make that 4461...I actually wished Sachin would be back in the hut just a moment ago. That's an absolute first for me. Is IPL perverting or something?
446104 - Harmeek Singh's first over to MI. 42/1 MI after 5 overs.
UPDATE - Sachin consumed by Ojha
Mumbai Indians were ruling - they still are - with Sachin and JP Duminy feasting on the fourth and fifth DC bowlers. Young Pragyan Ojha was holding his own. He had noticed the uppish drives Sachin had played twice earlier off RP Singh into the cover-extra cover region. Now, after the strategic break, he came back to tempt Sachin with a second cpnsecutive ball on the off...Sachin tried to lift the fuller one over extra cover and ended up holing out easilt to Gibbs there. I almost feel guilty at my elation over Sachin's dismissal...but that's the game.
The strong Mumbai Indians team needs 75 more off 47 balls. The match is tipped in their favour.....GONE!!!!!!
Pragyan Ojha bowls Dhawan! 96/3 off 13.
Just a dent for there are still Bravo and AM Nayar to bat...and we know what those two can do! By the way, JPD is still there and he can win it singlehandedly with a dozen strokes of his own! So we'll just say Go DC Go! and leave it at that.
Bravo looking to thrash the ball around....
UPDATE: Pragyan Ojha Douses Duminy!
The young lad is doing a star turn for his home team! He strangled the runs first. Had the batsmen hitting and missing and all intertwined. So its was given JPD would advance to show who actually was boss. Pragyan Ojha simply held it back a little and JPD ended up getting too much under the ball and sent it high, almost vertically up...Dwayne Smith takes a good clean running catch at long off...running to his right.
What a performance from Pragyan Ojha!
However, the dangerous AM Nayar is at the wicket with Bravo....and Fidel couldn't leap enough to take that catch...so we'll just be happy with what we have and say Go DC Go!
Like I said, the dangerous AM Nayar opens out with a monster six off Venu Rao..
117-4...52 off 26 balls needed.
MI 119-4 off 16 overs. DC at this stage were 142-5 but they were screeching to a halt. MI are picking it up.
Castro Casts AM Nayar Out!
Batsman looking to make room and thrash it over extra cover or much squarer...the ball is cleverly bowled a little shorter and wider and it takes the dangerman's edge and hurries into Gilchrist's gloves.
120/5.
Harbhajan comes in and blasts castro for a first ball four over midwicket. next ball castro bowls wide...get it together maaan! This is good tight tense cricket!
44 needed off 21...MI bat very deep.
Go DC Go! C'mon Castro!
Oooohhh...Bravo flicks Castro for a one bounce 4!
38 from 18 required. MI should win this.
Harbhajan smashes Venu Rao for a SIX!
1610 ,,,to Bravo...poor fielding by Harmeek...4. He had stopped it at the boundary but...
16104
And a dot.
161040 - 18 overs gone 143-5
26 needed off 12 balls.
C'mon DC...Go Fidel Go!
YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bravo plumb to Castro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Deccan Chargers!
DC WIN!
Two observations at this stage of IPL 2009
Point 1:- India's second string and third string and usual T20 suspects haven't taken their games forward since 2008. Either they have remained as they are or have regressed. India's T20 WC team, especially the bowling, could be a challenge to constitute this time around.
Point 2:- South African crowds appear to enjoy all forms of cricket unreservedly like crowds in Asian countries. T20 is enjoyed as simply T20 and people do not come looking for a test match in a T20 game...or vice versa. Are they the only ones outside the subcontinent? Maybe Kiwis too are that way as one saw during the bilateral T20 games, but it is difficult to differentiate enthusiasm for any cricket possible instead of rain from enthusiasm for individual forms of the game...Ozzies could be irritatingly complaining but they tend to wander into stadia anyway, England definitely complain but they make no bones about it and are honest about not understanding the format. And one knows for a fact that there is a sufficiently large percentage of people in West Indies who come looking for test cricket in T20...especially if it is IPL. Just check out the various MBs....presuming the ratios reasonably represent the thinking of the population at large, you can draw your own conclusions.
Outside the subcontinent, I haven't seen so many enjoy so wholeheartedly different varieties of the game as in SA. In fact during the final CB series in Ozzieland one was quite shocked to see largely empty stadia in many matches.
So will T20 end up becoming a subcontinental phenomenon after being born in UK or what?
At the end of it, these are my personal opinions...none need agree with them, and disagreement will not alter my perceptions. They could be wrong, they could be correct and they might just not matter at all.
Friday, 24 April 2009
IPL 2009: Match 11: KXP v Bangalore Royal Challengers
IPL 2009 - - Scorecard
BRC haven't settled their opening combo yet and the matches are slipping away. This time Jesse Ryder throttled to life but Robin Uthappa sank like a pebble. And this is laming the BRC's gallop to the finish line.
What follows for BRC are an equally mercurial pair of Taylor and KP - they can be brilliant fireworks day and be wet duds the next. Rahul Dravid, in this state, has been a consistent pin holding all the tearing pieces of the puzzle together...wo betide BRC if he were to fall early...and that was what exactly followed. But before that a promising partnership between Fatbwoy and Kallis.
This was a rare BRC rebellion against norm. A study of the two seasons would reveal that the Royal Challengers have been more establishment than rebelling red challengers. The top order was not designed to challenge last year and it didn't...this year some extra bubbly was incorporated to tickle the opposition nose...unfortunately fitful, like the unsold soda water from old stock stacked up in the rear of a local grocery store. Not enough fizz...but this match there was a definite reawakening.
The two Kiwis are essential for BRC's batting capabilities - Ryder and Taylor must perform with greater consistency. They should aim to touch 60-70% levels at least. Soon KP will leave and go back home...then they become even more important. With kallis finding his touch, their good form could make BRC a formidable top order even without KP.
Yousuf Abdulla with his slow spongy bouncers damaged the BRCs four times (Ryder was clean bowled the other three were Venky Prasad kind of bouncers which sat up and stalled misleading the batsmen) alongwith Irfan Pathan's three for the road. Pathan picked up Robin U off his first ball for the first breakthrough...and bowled with sufficient guile later on to truncate a BRC innings which began to look like it might go a little farther than it eventually did. Virat Kohli might want his bat to speak up for him more often than the extravagant body language he tends to project to the television cameras. The BRC innings lost the hard-fought momentum it gained with his wicket.
Piyush Chawla bowled flat and fast along narrow lines with subtle spin, and economically, without posing much danger overall. The batsmen chose to watch him out, but he did tempt The Wall to step out and paste him high over long off...instead the ball went up and down like a bell curve well within the boundary. VRV Singh caught it and did enough to let us know of his contribution to the cause.
Talking about VRV Singh brings me to a thought which struck me...there are a few Indian players of past promise opting to settle for the lucrative ease of being just IPL players. VRV Singh is one who appears well set to be no more than a IPL player and happy doing so. Sreesanth has gone a step further...injury or no injury...he appears quite content to be a dugout entertainer than a player serious about every opportunity so that he can agan begin to play for the country. I may be wrong but one gets such vibes seeing some players.
Ranadeb Bose played this game and there wasn't much he did other than record his presence in the scorecard.
Ravi Boapara Strikes Gold
When the positions were interchanged, Ravi Boapara contributed his first big one in IPL. Not only did he bowl an economical over earlier, he came back as an opening batsman to play an exhilarating innings which ambushed the BRC hopes leaving his England teammate and rival captain today, Kevin Pietersen, a thoroughly dejected man. KP had a poor game today again...out for a second ball duck to South African Yousuf Abdulla.
Pankaj Singh's first over itself opened the gates. The wides allowed Boapara to settle in and ultimately punish one of the extra balls for a four. That was enough to get the juices flowing for Boapara...when Kallis came on for his first over, he promptly dispatched the toothless short first offering over midwicket for a six...a rousing welcome to the Saffer hero with a dose of his own medicine.
KP used seven bowlers to no avail - Kumble, the dangerman, was played out like Chawla was.
Ravi Boapara forged useful partnerships with every succeeding batsman and that was enough to overhaul the target. Naturally, he was the Player of the Match.
This was a good match for him and should help him in his England efforts.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
IPL 2009: Match 10: Rajasthan Royals v Kolkatta Knight Riders
IPL 2009 - - Scorecard
It's that man again - Yusuf Pathan - the man who bailed out RR like last year. He showed yesterday that he can hit the ball longer than Gayle...and that too off BAW Mendis, the mystery bowler. The match went into a tie-breaking super over, plenty of excitement, but before we get there lets begin at the top. We have to wade through a vulnerable RR batting order, a weakened bowling line-up in the absence of Sohail Tanvir, Dada's continued statements for KKR and the customary dissing of John Khan.
The Kolkattans have been taken over by a showman - their cricketing instincts and interest have been muzzled into a small cone of trinkety glamour posing as pure gold. They are finding that the team they must support is probably not the team they'd like to support.
Nothing wrong with the players or the spectators, but John Khan the buzz creator man has ended up creating such a bad vibe around the team that no marketing or interest generating strategy can help or turn around....and there are a few on the web currently.
Many arrogant peeps have had to eat crow before John Khan - now Dada is serving out large helpings of it and ensuring John Khan eats rather than skip. We haven't heard anything from the Big Shooting Tongue through official media and this silence is deafening when you consider that John Khan had commandeered all the available soundbyte bandwith before the tournament began. But I am sure the spinmeisters who weave thick hides for the errant moneyed and powerful will come up with a suitably passable twist to the story. It was Dada who performed in the last match and this one. The multi-skipper isn't to be seen but the confusion of too many hands, some of them either esoteric or ignorant, is perfectly visible. KKR are not able to string together a team which can win. If one goes by the body language of the players on the field, the spirit has been killed.
Everybody was taking potshots at Dada before the tourney and when Dravid did his bit in the opening days, one commentator famously said now Dada would have to show similar support to the new captain of his team as Dravid did. There was a sneer in his faceless voice...with a smirk over his visage hidden by the convenience of TV production vans. Dada flopped the first match and there was a "I told you so" veneer in the same commentators voice when the topic came up later. In fact it was less of a veneer and more overt. Naturally since then there has been silence. Also from the gas tanks of the dressing room....no more hisses, no more whines...no more f@rt from the mouth emissions.
BAW Mendis is having to play earlier than team strategists would have liked. That is if there is such a thing as strategists...I am not talking about pipe dreamers but concrete visualizers. BAW Mendis is a man who thrives on the surprise element. We have seen that in the past few months. Yusuf Pathan has played him before successfully and so wasn't perturbed. But those who didn't play him all that much wobbled against him. By the time the tournament reaches the late stages, everybody would have analyzed BAW Mendis and found ways to tackle him. Maybe they'll simply play him out and attack the other side....the thing is, it is possible that a KKR captain may have wanted to spring him in the latter stages as a surprise weapon for the final sprint to the title. So Yusuf had a whale of a time in the Super Over against Mendis and that was that for KKR.
RR depends heavily on Graeme Smith. Kamran Akmal's presence in the batting line-up is also being missed as is Watson's. But even then they managed 150 against KKR despite Smith falling early. That's a bowling worry for KKR. twice teams have moved on well despite early breaks against them. Ishant Sharma isn't clicking. He isn't the best in limited overs anyway and sadly, India's hope is missing out on proper, useful guidance by being in KKR. What can John Khan offer him other than money of course? He might have learned more bowling alongside Glenda, or under the supervision of TA Sekhar or Venky Prasad. They might have equipped him with skills and tactical wisdom.
We prevailed in a close match
IPL 2009: Match 09: Delhi Daredevils v Chennai Superkings
Scorecard
When you consider that the result hinged upon one single Goni moment in the 19th over, you know you won a very close match. Much of it thanks to the brain fuse of the opposition. You know, till that point, the match was anything but won. But such is the nature of this game and also its charm.
All Goni needed to do after the six he hit off the fifth ball was pat the ball away and let Albie play the final over. Albie might have made something of the final over and the fifteen runs target...nothing certain, but possibly could have.
It is a new line up 3D is employing this time. The bowlers are inexperienced in a sense except Nehra and Vet. I'll grant them the leeway to settle in, but it is scary to see one of your main bowlers afraid to run in and bowl! The man's lips were dry and he was licking them to no avail!
TA Sekhar, I'm sure, will spend some useful time with the Mumbai lad. 3D needs him in better frame of mind.
It was at this point I was wondering why Sehwag failed to employ TM Dilshan's useful spin bowling....fastish and flat. The man is with confidence and form...his bowling too could be in top shape.
Maybe it is time Mahroof's brought in...3D can't afford to slip up and have players on the bench who haven't played any game at all.
And Nannes needs to step up too. He's been given the role of spearheading the attack and while bats will generally flay around, there could also be Fidel Castro Edwards like moments in between. He must work to generate something similar once in a while...maybe he he can begin by cutting out the width.
Sangwan came good today and was impressive in standing against the tide and holding his ground. The tide had to surrender - Matty is a huge wicket even today and patel is in good T20 form. His third, Raina, though prone to throw it away, is no mean player himself. At least Sangwan was able to profit by stirring Raina's tremulous concentration...that's a trick learnt. He had the top three and all were firing away. Good stuff from the young man.
Close game...and one nearly got squished! A lemonade and a huge sigh of relief was the repair employed after.
MOM - AB de Villiers
Later then...
IPL 2009: Match 09: Delhi Daredevils v Chennai Superkings
IPL 2009
Scorecard
The Delhi Belly is potent this year. It was what we missed last year - a strong middle section to take over if the top wheels came off. ABD is in a form opposite to what he was suffering last year and TM Dilshan is in the best of his career. Suddenly the innings doesn't have to collapse if Gambo and Veeru are chopped off early by the opposition.
In the pre-tournament assessment we felt 3D had added solid muscle to its midsection - the six packs were in peak form - and that 3D were unlikely to be tripped by a lax thond. Today ABD abd TM Dilshan showed how and why.
8-2 and the best opening combo of the world back in the dugout in 2 overs flat. In came the partnership of ABD and TMD. Aided and abetted by some pi$$-poor CSK bowling from thereon, the aggressive nature of the two batsmen at the crease broke out into a raging fire. Albie Morkel, surprisingly, and Freddie Flintoff, now almost expectedly, allowed 3D to gallop along. Manpreet Gony has become an opening over speacialist with nothing much thereafter.
The counterattack was stunning - 4th over, 5th over and 6th over, and 3D was away. Flintoff, Morkel and Gony were taken out of the attack, Murali and Jogiya were brought in to stem...but MSD could either bowl them out now and expose the fumbling trio later or mix and match. It was a situation where Dhoni was trying to hide his top three bowlers somewhere in the pack....shuffle shuffle shuffle, then deal...get copped...place the cards back in the deck and shuffle shuffle shuffle and then deal.
Freddie Flintoff has come here to learn in his own words...he has plenty to do.
His final over was again a monster when CSK didn't want it. Some 20-odd runs off it and the last three overs became fruitful. ABD sprinted to a brilliant hundred.
I'll be churlish despite all this and state that 3D might have wanted a few crusial runs more. Manoj Tiwary couldn't really tonk it in the few balls he faced and 200+ slipped away from the grasp. The CSK batting line-up is good and 3Ds bowling is inexperienced.
So Delhi has a mean belly...that much is proven...but can the bowling sustain the batting? To me, the bowling has a frail look about it in terms of experience. Dirty Dirk and Nehra will have to rise to the task. As will Salvi and Sangwan. Matt the Butcher and Baby Patel could feast on it at the top followed by Morkel and MSD.
190 isn't a safe score and Viru Daredeviler is bent upon retaining Glenda and Mishra for later. That's scary.
As I was typing the CSK innings is underway and the attack has been flayed into the azure distances,...in five overs CSK are 56-0! Dirty Dirk, Nehra and Salvi are dung at the moment...let's see if Sangwan can step up...
Oh yeah! Oh Yeah! Swing Sangwan Baby...today's your day and on cue! Was that Baby Patel gone in the gully? raina in...Go 3D Go! Go Sangwan Go!
UPDATE - Avishkar Salvi Has Lost It
The man needs to be culled and slammed into the dugout. The man has lost it....including for 3D. His mouth is dry, his mind is zonked, his limbs are pipes of soft heavy lead...he is just putting the ball somewhere...he's been bullied and he's been phoooked. He needs the merciful touch NOW from Viru.
Avishkar Salvi - 2.0 0 36 0 18.00
6.6 Salvi to Hayden, 1 run, looks to make room, Salvi follows him, and yorks him too, but Hayden still gets a single to long-off, 24 off this over
6.5 Salvi to Hayden, FOUR, and Hayden gets to fifty with a smart scoop-sweep, this one was slower, he waited for it, and lofted it over short fine
6.4 Salvi to Hayden, SIX, Poor bowling from supposedly the McGrath clone, half-volley outside leg, would have been wide had Hayden not picked it up over short fine and taken an easy six
Paul agrees with Nitin: "It simply defies logic that McGrath isn't a shoo in for any team that he's a part of. He was the go to bowler for Sehwag in the last IPL and this time around he can't even get into the team."
6.3 Salvi to Raina, 1 run, and Raina does his job well, takes an easy single into the on side
6.2 Salvi to Hayden, 1 run, same shot again, but closes the face too early, and doesn't get the elevation, but this falss just short of long-on
6.1 Salvi to Hayden, SIX, is he ending Salvi's IPL here, walks out of the crease again, with karthik having gone back, and hits it cleanly over long-on
6.1 Salvi to Hayden, 5 wides, wide outside leg, and Hayden misses out on the scoop. Just as well for Chennai, as this beats poor Karthik, up to the stumps, and goes for five
4.6 Salvi to Hayden, 2 runs, full, on stumps, and drilled down the ground for two
As a former McGrath lookalike bowls, Nitin writes in regarding the real deal: "I fail to understand Sehwag's stratergy. Why is he not picking up Glen McGrath, and perferring it over Nannes. This is the second time he's done it. Is he just under estimating McGrath's utility or failing to learn from his previous mistakes?"
4.5 Salvi to Patel, 1 run, full, on stumps, dropped at his toes, and a quick single
4.4 Salvi to Hayden, 1 run, fuller, on the pads, and flicked away for one
4.3 Salvi to Hayden, SIX, see you later, Salvi ambled in in his run, Hayden walked towards him as he ran, he met the ball midway down the pitch, and picked it up for a huge six over midwicket
4.2 Salvi to Patel, 1 run, again, short and angling across, Parthiv upper-cuts again, and this one falls just short of thirdman
4.1 Salvi to Hayden, 1 run, short ,angling across, Hayden looks to cut, but not enough room, he still manages a single and retrieves the orange cap
Aavishkar "McGrath" Salvi replaces Nannes
This guy is no McGrath and he's easily spooked!
CSK are like a powerbike at the moment, chomping up the miles on 3D.
90-1 in the 8th.
Sangwan needs to control his no balls.....YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SANGWAN DA PUTTAR, PRADEEP APNA! MATTY HAYDY BACK IN DA HUT!
90-2
YOUR DAY BABY...GO SANGWAN GO!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Australia vs Pakistan 2009: First ODI, Dubai
Pakistan v Australia 2009: First ODI, Dubai.
Scorecard
Make that a fiffer for Afridi and 118-8 to Ozzies.
Australia, now, is certainly a more approachable team. They can be tapped on the shoulder and asked to step aside - How times change!
Nice to hear Geoff Boycott after a surfeit of Nicholas.
UPDATE
Australia continues to slump further 122-9 and Afridi has six of them. His personal best figures to date.
Australia haven't played spin well today - they have looked like complete novices - they have either played for a spin which wasn't there or haven't played for the subtle movement which was there. Completely flatfooted and totally oblivious to what Afridi was dishing out. We know they can do better but the difference in class is evident compared to earlier times.
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Stumped by a truant component
Just when our combative juices unfroze and began to flow in this season's IPL, one is stumped by a peculiar problem. The home network connection (wiring + modem) has suffered a fatal flaw somewhere and hence the window to the world is shut firmly on one's face. Rather rudely too, one must say, when in the midst of airing something...
The men who deal with such truant systems have been prompt to respond to one's shrill panicky shrieks of SOS. "Mhaare side se sab theek hai..Aapka hi kuch phook gaya hai..dekhna paddega...batau, kaishe karein daksaab?" one of them leerily offered over the telephone. However they are facing a problem of accessibility - we are unable to coordinate our times in such a manner that they can come home and identify the errant part of the entire system and discipline it while one is at home!
They don't work Sundays and by their own admission they don't take working after lunch hours too seriously...so it looks like a half-day leave will not do; one'll have to sacrifice an entire valuable day for getting back online from home. Some things continue to be unpleasantly archaic - stiff despite the flexible modern strides.
Now is the IPL 2009 worth it?
Posting the next day from workplace isn't quite the same fun - sorely lacking in live spontaniety...One'll have to sort out this conundrum sooner or later.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
When hoity-toity Riders fell
Scorecard
There was an air about the KKRs. Some of it had to do with the flamboyant cricket players associated with the team and a lot of it had to do with the masters of illusion trying to decieve us with bright arc lights. It couldn't last forever could it? People would eventually peer behind the screen and find it is just a sorry large piece of dirty canvas with a projector in front of it. John Khan may be an enthusiastic hamster but he wasn't the real cricketing deal.
John Khan derided many along the way - "Humnph...sabhi log jeetenge kya?" he sneered from a self-penned loftiness. Again in a fit of juvenility, he created for himself what he thought was a halo - an inane story about how his alter ego rises from briusing and manages to stab his opponent's lower abdominal area with a dart, inspired from a foot-mouth disease he suffered a little earlier. It was strange John Khan saw it as an achievement! A matter of pride! That was the quality of "gold " on the KKR helmets and that was the level of intellectual glamour John Khan was trying to dazzle us with.
Juvenile behaviour will be cruelly exposed in the real world - it is neither charmingly child-like nor productively mature.
Last year's wooden spooners, Deccan Chargers slayed the celluloid illusion of KKKKkkkkR, and how!
After the initial dents by Rudra Pratap Singh, Harmeet Singh slashed through. Then two great catches and a brilliant run out in addition to two excellent stumpings off two brilliant Pragyan Ojha deliveries...and the illusions were all steamed off. The multiplicity of captaining thought lay starkly helpless and John Khan was left with nothing but his arrogance to clothe himself in.
The most disgusting team in the competition was brought down from the heights it itself had verbally raised itself to...not raised by their performance or by the forklift of humble excellence. That was Deccan Chargers' forte.
Believe it or not, DC looked the best team in the competition! And I'm doubly happy for both my teams are performing to potential now. (3D being the other) And I'm going to ignore that it is possible that the utter mediocrity of KKR's think tank and performance could perhaps have amplified DC's halo. I feel for Kolkattans who are so passionate about the game. They deserve better. Rather than use what Dada can contribute in the think tank area, John Khan has carved up the dressing room. You could see it on the field.
101 was never going to challenge DC and Herschelle Gibbs and Rohit Sharma ensured DC got there in a crushing fashion. Forget the batting, I'm willing to go easier on Rohit Sharma if he continues to field the way he did for India too. If he can bat, it's a bonus.
But let's not forget the grand contribution of Fidel Castro Edwards' 4 - 1 - 6 - 0, the most economic spell ever. It set the tone for others. The bwoy wanted respect among men and he earned it with his brilliant deeds. Hail Castro Edwards! Now DC's men who matter have to ensure Castro retains his focus and remains hungry and fit for the remaining games he'll play.
Vassy is playing the dual role of bowling strategist and player...he's a wily one and with bowlers in good form, expect the supposedly weak DC attack to gore through some better teams as well.
Ojha is turning out to be an impressive bowler too.
And finally, I am glad DC have gotten rid of their old colours - they look natty in their newer ones - and it shows in the way they feel about themselves and how they play. They are playing a smart game and a higher level.
Go Deccan Chargers Go! What a Sunday it was for me...both my teams played...I hope my two teams 3D and DC face-off in the finals!
3D, MI, DC, BRC/CSK/RR could be the semi finalists this year.
IPL 2009: Match 04: Deccan Chargers v KKR
Scorecard
Deccan Chargers Website
This is a must win match for Deccan Chargers. They need to get off the blocks in style this year. Their bowling remains weak though not as much as last year - Fidel Edwards and Vaassy should weigh in, but their batsmen have played themselves into some form. However, the local boys - Rohit Sharma is in a protracted slump and one doesn't know how much cricket the rest have played coming into this tournament. In fact Rohit has regressed since the heady days of 2007 and early 2008. It is difficult to imagine Venugopal Rao having played plenty of cricket coming in. He was a key performer for DC last season and needs to be firing.
Dwayne Smith could play a useful all-rounder's role.
DC is my other team and I would love for it to kick some K...k..k..k..Knight Rider butt. The DC bowling could be the key...if they lift the team game by 10% over last year, it is trouble for others who have already touched better potential. For starters, Vassy should continue to confound and footlock Gayle...that would be a big big early welcome wicket.
UPDATE
Ground conditions are soggy and McCallum, the new captain of KKR, prefers to bat first. I have a feeling DC bowloing is being underestimated now. If Castro gets going and Vassy comes into his own..it is a touigh ask. Symonds isn't playing.
C'mon Castro...let it rip!
CaptainCeeeee trying to stare down Castro! Castro smiles back...Gwaaan Fidel me bwoy...let them feel the heat! Been on target thus far. And Edwards is bowling smart.
Good one Castro! Faster ball to CaptainCeee and pushes him back and away...good speed from Fidel and plenty of brains....a good yorker to finish off with a change of speed as well...almost went through. Excellent first over by Castro and KKR limited to 1-0.
RP Singh should be a hungry man as well and he's got HIM! BIG MACK GONE FIRST BALL OF RP SINGH!
What a turnaround for Big Mack! Last year he let it rip first up...this year he goes for less than small change!
Bravo Rudra Pratap! DC is a baaaad team...KKR is just a glimmery team..Go eat them up Chargers!
And Castro follows it up with a maiden over! And excellent searching over! Gwaan me bwoys!...Gwaaan me bulls!...Gore down the arrogant Kkkkkkkkkkkknight Riders!
CaptainCeeee takling toll of RP Singh in his second over. I wonder why Vassy isn't playing? He'd have sent back CaptainCeee by now!
OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RP Catches Gayle on an adrenaline surge....planning and he made him go again but with a change in pace and Gayle goes straight up and down into the fielder's hands!
Two Big Boomers gone! KKKKKKKKkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkknight Riders being gored down by Deccan Chargers...12-2 off 3.4 overs.
Will Dada play a redeeming innings? I'd like him to...Khan couldn't ask him to step out and planted a trojan multiple captain theory as a new strategy to allow another captain..now that'll be shelved for it was only meant to ease out Ganguly..cowardly fellows.. no respect for John Khan...so I'd like Dada to do well...but then DC is my team...
Harmeet Singh, all of 21 years, a medium pacer only with things to look forward to, lures Dada to advance to him to up the rate...notices the sashay in time and bowls it just a little wider...the monumental nick and Gilchrist holds it. Sad goodbye dada but hey...another punch by Deccan Chargers! They are coming back in the second season!
23/3 off 7 overs KKR This is not an Indian pitch to lay and flay with frivolous theories...you need focus in the jungles of Africa...a bit of humility like Sachin and Dravid showed the other day...and these are wide grounds where you cannot hide! Not even in the glare of blinding glamour you yourself paint to fool us.
This attack is gelling well. Ojha keeping up the pressure. Aakash Chopra and Hodge playing themselves in. The overs are ticking by. DC is not to be underestimated anymore...no sireee! And ain't I happy! I have two purposeful teams in the fray this time!
27-3 off 9 and all one can hear on TV are appeals.
Now is the time for all the various capatains of KKR to get together and offer their two cents to up the run rate! It should be effective as John Khan has been having us believe till now...let's see it.
Sehwag beats the raindogs
Scorecard
A year ago, against the same opponent, Sehwag and 3D lost a crucial rain-hit match at home...at Kotla...and had to bank upon others to see them through.
The heartbreak appeared to repeat itself in South Africa today...but things were a little luckier. Just enough play was possible to crunch KXP by ten wickets this time in a severly rain curtailed game.
Duckworth-Lewis required 3D to score 54 off 6 overs of whioh they had already scored 24 off the first two...so 30 more off 4 was just 7 rpo.
Viru got his team past with ease. A resounding 10 wicket win for 3D over KXP.
Tough luck Yuvi and KXP...thin bowling resources there as well.
"They are our legends" Sehwag appraises Mark Nicholas when he expressed surprise about Sachin and Dravid's performance in the post match talk-a-do.
Fittingly, Daniel Vettori is declared Player of the Match for his 3 - 0- 15 - 3 - 5.00 .
How about blaming someone else for a change Abbas?
Cricinfo
Zaheer Abbas: "It's time that Pakistan cricket breaks its silence over what's been happening against it in recent times. The ICC took away the Champions Trophy and now it has deprived us of the World Cup. What else should happen before we break our silence? I would ask the PCB to make it clear to the ICC that we will boycott the World Cup if it is held in Asia. If Pakistan is unsafe for the event then there is no justification to have the World Cup in other parts of the subcontinent which are also within the range of terrorists. It's a great loss for Pakistan cricket and for that I would blame the ICC and India which has pulled out its support when we needed it the most."
Yeah, how about blaming those who shoot visitors to Pakistan? How about blaming those who creep out of Pakistan to bomb, shoot, maim and spread terror in other countries? How about blaming those who carefully tend to and breed such terror mongers within Pakistan? Or better, Zed, how about taking a break from blaming all and sundry in general and introspecting...or just resting your mind and tongue? It is a taxing thing to keep blaming the world for all ills within and for so long...maybe setting your house in order would be far simpler and less tiresome. How about cooperating with the world for a change to correct things within rather than expect the other way around all the time, take all the help all the time and yet hurt those who help... through all?
Get real Zaheer Abbas! Read More......
IPL 2009: Match 03: Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab
Scorecard
3D Official Website
KXP Official WebsiteFirst off, 3D has disposed off the black colour from its uniform and replaced it with blue. Dunno if it is to keep shani maharaj at a distance, but 3D ends up looking like England in the bargain!
Shikhar Dhawan is a serious loss - remains to be seen if Dave Warner can replace him adequately.
Shoaib Mallik is another unfortunate loss - Collingwood is his replacement. I'd say even stevens in all respects..including fielding for both mallik and Collingwood are good there.
Owais Shah - he is a toss up to strengthen the middle order as and when required.
3D was top heavy last season with a few batsmen also out of form in the team.
ABD is in fine form. TM Dilshan is probably in the best cricketing phase of his life. Mahroof is always valuable.
DK and ABD are the two keepers depending upon how the team is structured for a match. DK has been in good domestic form.
Nehra comes back - his experience will be useful alongside Glenda. YoMa was a tad expensive the last time even if he had strike power.
The Vet will play the entire season this time. And looking at the performance of Kumble, Warne, Bhajji and Sanath, Danny boy should be pretty useful.
Mishra will have to start from scratch in the second season. He should do well here.
There are a few rookies and forgotten men in the team as well. Avishkar Salvi was supposed to happen in Australia but Irfan Pathan happened instead and later, Ishant Sharma. Now Avishkar is a tall bowler and the original leader of the tall bowler pack from Mumbai...even ahead of Munaf Patel. But he is now a forgotten man mostly...so plenty of incentive for him and what better opportunity than alongside Glenda?
By the way, Tejaswi Yadav is the scion of Laloo Prasad. He's a batsman.
But we come back to the four crusial players - the four local lads. It is they who will have to perform a notch higher. Bhatia...Manhas...whoever plays for 3D must go for it.
The conditions here are different from India. That much we have understood from yesterday. Glenda becomes potent. Collingwood could be a threat if the bounce on today's pitch is spongy. But batting will have to be patient.
Batsmen will have to construct their innings taking a leaf out of Dravs and TenD's books. Hitting across the line and biggies may take a match or two of getting used to.
KXP do not have the services of Lee and Sreesanth. Chawla has faded since. But they have JT drafted in! Now Jerome Taylor knows a thing or two about packing up a team in quick time and...and...he also knows a few fundamentals about big time batting. This man debuting in IPL will be an able replacement for Lee.
Irfan Pathan could be a canny bowler on these surfaces....so while KXP remain a strong batting side...perhaps stronger for the inclusion of JT...they might have slipped a notch or two in bowling. It all revolves around Jerome Taylor...he'll have to lead the attack for the boys from Punjab.
3D have an in form set of international players and a great opening combo but they need some sensible muscle in the middle order. Mithun Manhas should be the man for this job IMO. If DK plays he'll be the other critical component. Manoj Tiwary must make the eye-catching leap forward as well.
I expect 3D to progress well in this tournament but it will have to be on the strength of good consistent cricket being played by them.
For the opener, Glenda, Collingwood, Vettori and ABD will be my starting line-up. I'd love to have Dilshan or Mahroof but only four can play.
Go Delhi Daredevils!
By the way, are the KXP whites legal against the white ball?
UPDATE - TOSS
Sehwag won the toss and elects to field despite both teams chasing yesterday going down. Perhaps the truncated match (14 overs a side) is also responsible for the decision besides a strong batting lineup.
3D team
V Sehwag, TM Dilshan, G Gambhir, AB de Villiers, MK Tiwary, KD Karthik, , DL Vettori, VY Mahesh, A Nehra, Dirk Nannes, Avishkar Salvi
Kings XI Punjab team
RS Bopara, KC Sangakkara, DPMD Jayawardene, Yuvraj Singh, K Goel, T Kohli, IK Pathan, WA Mota, PP Chawla, VRV Singh, YA Abdulla
I would have expected Collingwood and McGrath to play. But Sehwag goes for lesser known bowlers and goes heavy on batsmen. Abdulla (RSA) and Mota will be new to look at for me.
UPDATE
Rain descends again and looks like 3D will continue to be hounded by rain from last season. In the first edition, they were almost dumped out of qualification by strokes of rain.
UPDATE
They are showing the rerun of yesterday's match - BRC batting and KP just left...Robin Jackman thinks like Mallayya on cricket...he felt the last man who could get BRC back into the game was just dismissed. He forgot Dravid and Kumble and perhaps doesn't rate Praveen Kumar one bit!
ULTRA SHORT UPDATE
3D rookies, Sangwan, Dirty Dirk Nannes and YoMa getting whupped. Add Salvi too.
Some rip roaring sixes from Karan Goel and Boapara....long ones.
This 12 over match looks done! I said looks...let's see what 3D do.
Sangwan had a Boapara skier dropped off him by three fielders and next ball a difficult caught and bowled.
Karan Goel has been marked out...if he plays this way (he had a decent IPL last) this season, bring him into the camp. can pull and hook, powerful and good eye.
He ultimately goes but he's got KXP off to a blinder. Boapara and he have ignited this edition of IPL with big hitting.
After the break, Danny has Boapara shuffling forward tentatively nowhere and has him plumb. The change of pace works wonders for 3D...the other dangerman is gone.
Now two new bats at the crease....should be a few slow overs even if those two are Sanga and Yuvraj at the wicket. Go Delhi Go!
Danny Boy's first over reads thus W 0 0 0 0 1 - five balls to Sanga and scoring restrained when KXP are rampaging. Good going that for 3D but plenty of overhaulin' left to do...
WICKET UPDATE
Dirty Dirk douses Sangakkara's ambitions off Danny Vet.
Sanga fell over to the off side and glanced Vettori's faster one to fine leg boundary for a four. Next ball he pulls him around the corner but Dirty Dirk was lurking in the difficult area...he took the catch and rolled over a couple of times at fine leg and Sanga's back in the hut.
Mahela comes in and the right-left combo's on again...immediately he gets moving with a four.
Glenda advising the bowlers how to go about it during the break...lovely!
But Yuvraj has begun to target and Dirty Dirk it is...hoicked long long long over long on for a six! He does the same to Danny boy next.
When things are getting desperate a couple of good fielding efforts to effect run outs and a crash of wickets see 3D redeem itself slightly. The target is stiff but not as impossible as it once appeared with KXP 67 off first 5 overs!
There was an over of poignant drama - Avishkar Salvi bowling the final over to Irfan Pathan - the First Choice Heir to the Replacement Usurper...the tragedy is both are in doldrums today.
And expectedly, Daniel Vettori comes out as the prize bowler - with 3 for 15.
Ravi Boapara is another Englishman to have a decent start to his IPL career alongwith Kevin Pietersen.
The target - 104. Go Delhi Go!
Saturday, 18 April 2009
IPL 2009 Statistics
The Archive of IPL 2009 lies within - - - - - -
IPL 2009 - POINTS TABLE
Team
P
W
L
T
N/R
Pts
NRR
For
Anti
BRC
01
01
0
0
0
02
+3.750
133/20.0
58/20.0
3D
01
01
0
0
0
02
+3.167
58/4.5
53/6
DC
01
01
0
0
0
02
+2.849
104/13.1
101/20
M I
01
01
0
0
0
02
+0.950
165/20.0
146/20.0
CSK
01
0
01
0
0
0
-0.950
146/20.0
165/20.0
KKR
01
0
01
0
0
0
-2.849
101/20
104/13.1
KXP
01
0
01
0
0
0
-3.167
53/6
58/4.5
RR
01
0
01
0
0
0
-3.750
58/20.0
133/20.0
IPL 2009 - RESULTS
Match
Win
Score
MOM
Link
CSK v MI
MI
MI 165/7
CSK 146
Sachin T
Article
BRC v RR
RR
BRC 133/8
RR 58
Dravid R
Article
3D v KXP
3D (D/L)
KXP 104/7(12)
3D 58/0(4.5)
Vettori
Article 1
Article 2
DC v KKR
DC
KKR 101 a.o
DC 104/2
RP Singh
Article 1
Article 2
1PL 2009 - MOST RUNS
Player
Team
Inn
Runs
HS
Avg
SR
6s
50/100
Rahul Dravid
BRC
01
66
66
66 137.50 01 01/00
S Tendulkar
MI
01
59
59*
- 120.40 00 01/00
Matt Hayden
CSK
01
44
44
44 125.71 01 00/00
IPL 2009: Match 02: Rajasthan Royals v Bangalore Royal Challengers
ScorecardBangalore Royal Challengers were trumpeted to be a different team now. Not only was there a new captain, there were a few new attacking faces roped into as well. Well, when the match kicked off, things appear to be same as they were last year.
Mascarenhas The Underrated
Warney bunged him in first. It's the intuition of a natural leader and a player who understands the game beyond its boundaries. Mascarenhas, the man whom England loves to ignore time and again, delivered in striking fashion. First he nicked a nervous Jesse Ryder and had him taken behind. Next ball, he had the enormously talented but wasteful Ross Taylor playing funny...moving so far across to off in an attempt to whip the ball of his legs...and before the ball was bowled that the ball didn't have to do much to knock back the leg stump as Taylor tipped over excessively. Brain fuse....and the new captain, Kevin Pietersen walked in to a mixture of sheers and boos from the Cape Town crowd.
Kevin Pietersen flatters to decieve
Admittedly one of the world's best players came in when under pressure. He looked good for the customary 30 and was out when he needed to stay longer. I don't say he is a dead rubber player for he has come good under pressure, but he tends to throw it away when his limbs have just begun to stretch out. It was a good catch by NK Patel, diving forward at short mid-wicket, but the ball was in the air...and that's my point. Hopefully, with the first game out of the way, KP settles into the task of playing through till the end, for if he does that, BRC should be strong.
Rahul Dravid is a true great
Last season, he led a team of out of form stars and still topped the batting averages at more than run a ball. It wasn't good enough for the liquor baron Mallayya who wanted fizz and sparkle instead. Perhaps he didn't recognize the circumstances in which Dravid scored his runs last season...the only fighter for BRC.
Today he repeated it. All the expensive show ponies the racing man signed up for his team bolted back into the stable but The Wall stayed and scored 66 at a strike rate of 137, holding the innings together and giving a fighting chance for BRC. That's what he did last year...that's what captains do...but Dravid is no longer the captain of course thanks to the infringing gurus.
This man has shown he can play all formats well...he is a true cricketing great...complete in all aspects.
The Magician should play again
I am an unabashed admirer of Shane Warne the leg spinner. Today when you saw him befool and wreck batsmen, you wondered why he ever retired? And that diving catch to dismiss Dravid...lithe young lads would have been proud of it. I'm sure Ponting would love to have him bowl for his team again...Ashes again, Warney?
Immediately you could see class bowling returning to cricket viewing.
Indian bowlers of RR
Munaf was his usual self...a mix of this and that. Some good steady bowling and some boundary balls. Yusuf Pathan lost it....Dravid waded into him. Kamran Khan bowled in the high 130s but he has a long way to go before the 18 year old can be fearsome. One understands that he can consistently bowl in the 140s...but he didn't reveal a faster one today in that case. He is one to watch.
It's a fighting score
I agree Graeme Smith's there, but Dale Steyn is in the form of his life. Praveen Kumar, Kumble and Ryder should support him in making the chase tough.
Even as I type, last season's performer, Asnodkar, goes for a duck. Praveen Kumar has him caught. Three tight overs till now and the score is 7-1.
Make that 7-2...Praveen Kumar has Graeme Smith caught as well! In the slips by world record holder Rahul Dravid! Now this becomes interesting!
The absence of Shane Watson could be telling for RR.
UPDATE
Anil Kumble went on to wreck the reckless royals of Rajasthan, who flashed flamboyance when a steely blade was the need of the hour. He took five and The Champions stumbled and fell to finally settle at the lowest score ever recorded by a team in IPL...some 50-odd runs in reply to Dravid's fine individual effort of 66 in coaxing his own reluctant team to 133.
IPL 2009: Match 01: Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians
Scorecard
It was a good toss to win under the circumstances - alien land, cloudy sky and soggy ground with likely improvement as time passed. MS Dhoni won it and sure enough, opted to chase.
The bounce was spongy, the ball at times clinging to the wicket, and the overcast skies helping swing. Batting required innovation and patience. Mumbai Indians had Sachin and Jayasuriya at the wicket. It wasn't easy and it wasn't looking like a T20, but the batsmen were scoring over a run a ball! Nobody noticed really how the veterans were shepherding the innings along. Sanath went trying to amplify the rate and he was replaced by Shikhar Dhawan.
Dhawan played successfully last season for Delhi Daredevils and he carried on from where he left off. No extravagance, yet at over run a ball. But like Jaya, he too fell in the 20s after a start.
At 14 overs, Mumbai was 103 and it looked a nicely set up game for a late dash.
AM Nayyar has been generally impressive in domestic cricket. It was he who fulfilled the earlier efforts of Sachin and other teammates. He chose the IPL debutant, Andrew Flintoff of England, for closer attention. Three sixes off an over and Mumbai were fairly sprinting to safety on this pitch. His quick 35 off 14 balls marks him out as a player meriting microscopic analysis...he could break out this season for senior honours.
When Mumbai finished at 165, it was evident that they had almost won the match seeing the way the pitch and outfield was. Credit to Sachin and the 20s and 30s from players which CSK would have ultimately loved to have.
Not impressed with CSK bowling under the circumstances.
Lasith Mahalinga is back! And he is a far better bowler than before. He has control and he is more thoughtful about his bowling now. What a match he bowled! 4-0-15-3 said it all.
Harbhajan was another...the two bowled well on an improving pitch and sunnier ground. Bravo was Bravo...efficient, as was Sanath jayasirya.
The others chipped in...only Hayden and Dhoni showed committment for CSK. Freddie contributed a consolidating 24 at no.4 but he needed to play on especially after he failed with the ball. And the rest were simply not in it.
One wonders why Albie Morkel was on the bench and not playing today?
Players who stood out for me - AM Nayar, Lasith Malinga, Bhajji, and Sachin of course.
Friday, 17 April 2009
IPL 2009: Only with reservations please
By my own word, I wasn't supposed to breathe a single post about IPL 2009. Those reservations stand - the kidnapping of the tournament abroad as well as the hijacking of cricket by non-cricketing gurus who have bought themselves into the throne have left a poor aftertaste for me. But the other day Jayalalitha with her "A good politician..." one-liner on TV struck a chord with me - "A good cricket watcher must always be open to the game", suggested itself to me as if on cue.
I ruminated as the autosuggestion replayed itself like the IPL parade on news channels. Perhaps we were the mistaken ones who saw IPL as a domestic tournament and held that domestic tournaments must be played on home soil...perhaps in the cliched global economic village we live in such stringencies are anachronistic...perhaps we were blind when we saw a IPL and its overseas clones meeting in a Champion of Champions kind of encounter...true IPL will never enthuse one again like it did and certainly could in future, but cricket is being played by boys and men. There isn't much international cricket going on and it is possible that some of the youngsters we wish to look at will get a game and we can see what stuff they are made of. For the sake of this cricketing matter, and only this cricketing matter, one must take inspiration from J Jayalalitha's advice, develop a thick hide, organize the priorities of what we wish to follow and get on with the game.
One may be unable to watch all matches, but those one can, we'll look out for specifics of character, skills and adaptability among youths who get to play and the fringe players of the Indian team. The infringing crew will simply have to be ignored. This is a bit like what Swapan Dasgupta narrated on Arnab Goswami's televised debate over criminals in politics - an old politician once shared with him thus, Dasgupta said - "politics and politicians cannot do without lathhaiths and contractors. As long as they remain in the outhouse, it's OK, but when they are brought into the living room, then it is trouble." Indian cricket has also allowed moneyminded contractors and sophisticated lathhaiths inside the living room...now watch them dictate test cricket as well. Start with windows, insinuate oneself, and then go the whole hog...But we move on, hoping sense prevails at some point of time in the future and our living room will be cleared off eventually and the infringing crew is stuffed back into the outhouse where they truly belong.
On to nano-cricket then...today there are a couple of matches lined up.
I'll start talking about players and teams as I go along for I am not yet acquainted with who is playing, and for whom, who is not playing, etc. Nothing exhaustive or ambitious...just the matches I am able to see without effort.
I expect Delhi Daredevils to do well. Mumbai Indians, Chennai Soopahkings too. RR could be a strong team as well. KKR should collapse under its own weight of contradictions despite the presence of names. Deccan Chargers should do better than before but they will end up making the numbers. BRC is a strong team and one which could short-circuit a few teams.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
The Men Within: Harimohan Paruvu
I DROPPED ANCHOR and hopped ashore just as cricket talk was heaving to yet another reactionary storm. My old sea legs denounce me when I get too deep into the churnings of modern cricket politricks and the compulsory talk thereof. I need to get back to terra firma and reacquaint oneself with the passion which ties me to the game along with so many cricket fans around the world. It is not that that passion is diminished, but is increasingly misdirected. Sometimes it is OK to be just a landlubber washed up ashore. That's also a charming aspect of the game along with the storms and the seas...and veering to the point, in the blog/forum sabbatical I enforced upon myself to refresh and complete pending reading, I strayed once again from my purpose of completing the tomes at hand and was back in the bookstore. This time I pounced on The Men Within by Harimohan Paruvu published by Indialog. In many ways this chance encounter proved to be a reunion with better aspects of the game and its following.
All three were unknown - the title, the author and the publishing house. Enough to arouse curiosity. The author's mugshot on the back cover conveyed a weatherbeaten sincerity which comes from having played the game on the field. At that point I didn't know, but later on discovered that Hari Mohan played the game for Hyderabad especially in the year they won the Ranji Trophy. I guess this is him at Cricinfo. However, the mention of Hyderabad on the back cover convinced me to buy it. That's roots territory you see...
When I picked up the book for an "owner's look", as I like to call the second look of assessment outside the bookshop, out of the biodegradable handbag courtesy the bookshop while held up in a traffic jam at a busy intersection, I found out it was actually a work of fiction...a novel. Mind you, even though Indians are great creators of fictionary illusions, they are not exactly the best authors of such tales in print, especially sporting tales. India is still at the initial steps of a sporting heritage, so what does an author of sports fiction draw upon as source and inspiration, I thought to myself. The few one has come across by way of films have been terribly "Hollywood inspired" variety. My heart sank a little lower as my mind overcame the impulse which forced me to purchase the book. Sitting in the traffic jam, I urged myself to be positive about the book. Later in the day, I promised myself, I'll give it a shot...a healthy shot.
I was stuck in a sofa of the visitor's gallery - I had to wait a little longer for my mother's flight to take off and I had promised her that I would stay till I saw the KLM tail in the air (don't ask me why she insisted or what purpose it serves for me to wait till her flight took off but I humored her and her ageing whims...and don't ask me how I'd be able to see her plane in the night sky...some things said and done at partings and goodbyes don't make much sense but are deeply meaningful all the same). Harimohan's The Men Within was at hand and ready for the waiting exercise I had locked myself into.
The story began Shameemesquely...staid, steady and almost expectedly familiar. The fears of a (B or T)-ollywood monster in my hands began to take shape. Needlessly, I discovered later, those fears...necessarily, I discovered, is the way we narrate and listen to tales. Within a few pages I found myself sitting in my favorite Panjagutta time-pass of Red Rose Cafe, within familiar sounds, mannerisms and talk. From there it was just a hop, skip and a jump to the Blue Moon Air Conditioned Men's Hair Cutting Saloon of Somajiguda and the talkative barber within, who with a keen cricketing tongue, laid bare many intricacies of the game and thrust them into your ear while he went about his business upon your overgrown mop... you simply kept an eye on the match in the television in the corner and urged him on with the occasional ahs and uh-huhs. Ah yes, I was transported back to the times cricket was discussed in Hyderabadi by Hyderabadis in the city of Hyderabad. The mind began to understand again the rhythm, the language...Sampath began to assume a character...Chiranjeevi began to rise out of memories from another day - there was a Pratibandh-ata about Sampath...there was a Somayajulu about Viswanath Sharma. "Hmm...not bad if it sticks to these sterotypes," I comforted myself and read on...
The true character of an author and his skill is best recognized when the last page has been flipped over. When I did that with this book, I was left marvelling...at my silly first impressions of the author and story, the finesse with which the author explained how the modern game is played, the salty-sweetness which a good story with its ups and downs leaves you with...and also the hour beyond the delayed take-off time I ended up sitting in that airport visitor's couch, without once being conscious of time or being distracted even for water or a coffee. The book is, like they say, a seductress. There were moments when you could actually feel your chest puffing out in pride for the characters one had identified with a couple of hours ago. One could feel the positive energy thumping within...the world suddenly simplified to one's will to learn and overcome.
It drags you into like the girl next door does...plenty of pretense yet in a language you instinctively understand. Four hours later you know you've had a talk like never before and will probably never have again with anyone. This book is a basic cricketer talking about the game to basic cricket fan in a way only the old salts at the ground can. This book specializes in moulding the multiheaded coaching/assistance team behind today's cricketing elevens through the catalyzing influence of Coach Sampath...a coach but a learner as well.
I wish to give away details, but then I want you to read the book as well. So maybe I'll leave it at that. The concept of a coach and modern methods is so wonderfully explained...in a manner very different from what you have seen/read thus far. In that sense, it also becomes relevant.
The familiar ingredients do not impimge themselves or appear forced...just necessary and finely blended like the myriad range of flavours in a Hyderabadi cuisine.
Like the nondescript looks of Chiranjeevi at the beginning of a story gradually morphs into a compelling red saga which takes you through different emotions in the dark cinema theater, where you find yourself, a man of the cynical world, nodding in understanding of well known tired concepts but expressed melodramatically, differently, provocatingly, on screen..leaving you analysing the movie and the message, and marvelling how that ordinary looking man Chiru carried off the show - this book makes you feel glad you picked yet another winner from the obscurity of a bookshelf.
If you are a cricket fan, this is a story you will enjoy. If you are not a cricket fan, this will be a story you surely will like. If you are an Indian cricket fan and also write about it, please do read it for it shows you, in many ways, how...This is a book which also shows that Indian authors, especially sports novel authors, need not be toxic. There are also some good men within.
The Men Within
A Cricketing Tale
Harimohan Paruvu
Indialog Publication
Rs.225 (INR)
Get a copy today - my recommendation...must read...profound, yet in a light and inoffensive manner...books can be preachy or too textual to communicate.
If you are a Rediff Books member this is the link.
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About the Author (from his website)
"Harimohan lives in Hyderabad, a city where he grew up. He studied in All Saints High School and St. Alphonso's Junior College before graduating in Civil Engineering from the Osmania University College of Engineering. In his second year at engineering college he represented Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, bagging five wickets on his debut against Andhra. He completed his post graduation in Management from Osmania University and represented his alma mater in the Inter-varsity tournaments during all his years at the campus, even leading the varsity team creditably in 1988.
Post civil engineering and MBA from Osmania University, Hyderabad, Harimohan worked in the corporate sector as a marketing professional and as an investment banker for 12 years before deciding to divide his time between writing fiction, copy and content, playing league cricket on Sundays for Marredpally Cricket Club, reading, listening to music, meeting friends over chai and travelling.
Among his cricketing memories, the ones he prides himself most are on being a member of the Hyderabad cricket team during 1985-87 which won the Ranji Trophy, being skipper of the Osmania University cricket team in 1987-88, being a member of the Osmania University team which won the South Zone Universities Championships in 1991, being a member South Zone Universities team which won the Vizzy Trophy in 1991 and being skipper of the Marredpally Cricket Club which won the HCA Sunday league championship in 1993 and 1997." Read More......
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Perhaps there is a story
In how this came about first and then this transpired.
I hope someone who knows it all can tell us the story from the beginning with all the twists and turns.
Sehwag could be Wisden Leading Cricketer of the World 2009
There is news floating around that Virender Sehwag could be the Wisden Leading Cricketer of the World 2009.
Details are awaited, confirmation and formal announcement too.
Watch this space.
Wisden's Five for this year are - 2009 JM Anderson, DM Benkenstein, MV Boucher, ND McKenzie, SC Taylor.
The Next Lot of Cricket Books
Even though I haven't been able to wade through my last purchases - still stuck with Steve Waugh's tome, poor Aakash Chopra is languishing unread still, and therefore am yet to write my reviews about them - I was seized with a compulsive desire to purchase some more books today while examining my bookshelf for recent/current reads. 
Out of the three books I picked up from my regular browse, Om Book Shop of NDSE Part - I, one is actually a simple replacement for a book somebody failed to return to me after borrowing. I do not recollect now who that could be but Beyond A Boundary by CLR James needed to be brought back to my collection. Along with Satadru Sen's Migrant Races, James' socio-cultural cricket treatise is the pride of my collection under this dual genre. You never tire of reading both books. Open any page and start off, they'll draw you in. But I haven't reviewed it ever since you can come across plenty on the web - it is a well discussed book and I cannot possibly add something brighter to the tonnes available. The paperback replacement cost me Rs 450 (INR) before the customary rebate. For people as serious as you all about cricket and who drop by to read this blog, It's worth a read and having on your bookshelf.
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The other book I picked up was a random one. I wasn't looking for it and I hadn't heard about it or the authors before.The title attracted my attention. It is possible, I may be mistaken though and then my apologies to the authors would be due, that Soumya Bhattacharya's excellent book contained a sentence along those lines ( I have to write the review of Soumya's book as well for I am finished with it). But we Indians are familiar with that trend - moviedom practices of naming films from a line taken out of popular songs have accustomed us to it. So I plucked it out of the display shelf and turned to the backcover. It said right at the top in red bold italics - "A bible for Sachin fans and a robust challenge to his critics."
Naturally, that was enough to intrigue me. I kinda go about doing the same in an amaterurish manner.
The back cover goes on to say further down in the second paragraph - "In this book, the authors, who consider themselves fans and analysts in equal measure, follow the career of the cricketing demigod - his advent, his peak, his fall and his resurrection. Armed with irrefutable statistical data, which they contextualize with rigour...." - that was enough! I identified myself with the initial part and thanks to Jonathan, Barry and Ron, we have learnt to submit our resistance to excessive statistical foundations, by and large, to cricket discussions and books. This book, therefore, needed a checking out.
It goes on to say, "And if you still don't believe that Sachin is God's gift to the world of cricket, well, God help you!"
That is a familiar sentiment - one which I have held for ages. So another point in favour of buying the book.
Below that, again in bold red type, but in larger font highlighted by two white tracks running parallel to each other above and beneath the red, was this "With a foreword by Harsha Bhogle."
So there must be some matter in the book if Harsha associated himself with it.
The tone Harsha sets with the opening paragraph of the Foreword is typical though -
"Everyday of his working life, Sachin Tendulkar has walked out on behalf of many million people. Of himself, too, but that is an expectation easily borne. But expectation of others? Of everyone else? People he doesn't know but who know him intimately? Students studying civics, housewives frustrated by tedium, executives facing a career block, pensioners searching for something to deliver them a smile? The unemployed, the impaired, the invalid?
If Sachin makes runs, a ray of light enters their lives, momentarily they let go of the present and rejoice till reality comes home again. But Sachin gives them that moment."
Now this is generic rhetoric we employ to create and amplify the importance of some things in our lives - for instance the relevence of movies to a labourer who is an addict to them and spends every penny he earns daily on them while his children wait patiently, trustingly, for the next meal papa would provide. In a way this rhetoric is peurile, but in many ways it is actually true. People actually sacrifice profound parts of themselves to lift frivolous matters such as a movie or a game to important heights. They substitute their lives with these. This is the reason India is cricketcrazy.
I looked at the contents - the titles were promising - plenty of "Beyond the..." though. As I was randomly reading through the pages, I noticed on the page about the authors that Shyam Balasubramanian had the curious coincidence of living his life within fifteen minutes of two cricket grounds - Wankhede in the nursery phase, and Lord's in the independent young tree phase. So it couldn't be a horrible read even though there was mention of IIT Kharagpur as well. Surely an IITian geek must be influenced by living in proximity to two great cricket stadiums and must be able to express the game beyond formulae and computations? I decided the only way to know was to buy it and read it.
And new authors, like new players, I always encourage. These gentlemen appeared to be almost contemporary as well. Newcomers, even if they have a dud on their hands, at least have a new kind of expressiveness to their read. Do you recall a newbie writing this - "Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun" - a little over a decade ago? For me, that first paragraph from the first page of that author's first book immediately made the book readable and posssessible. That author was called Arundhati Roy, never wrote another book beyond a pamphlet but the thing is new authors can throw up fantastic new images which make it all worth the while. Further, the random paragraphs I read sounded a bit like the way of some eminent bloggers and forummers I read...
So that's how I ended up with If Cricket Is a Religion, Sachin Is God by Vijay Santhanam and Shyam Balasubramanian. Now to read and write a review.
It cost me Rs 195 (INR) before the rebate. RBS Bazaar has it listed at the same price though they are offering a 25% discount. Flipkart has it pegged at Rs.177 (INR). Now I always get a 20-25% rebate on any purchase from Om Book Shop so that doesn't matter to me, but there is a choice if you want to buy online. It is not expensive and I somehow have the feeling that the 200 pages inside it are worth more. I'll come back to the review after reading it.
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And finally to the controversial buy of the day. "Oh yes yes yes...and a very contextual buy if I could afford it...or one of the non-cricketing books will have to go back to its shelf," I thought back in the bookstore, as I espied the cover among the "New Releases" section adjacent to the payment counter. But I dug deep into my pockets, anything for SMG, discovered that I actually had some extra money and thus I bought it....I felt like a king when I saw that I kahn buy it. Ah money...it makes the world go around. Nice to have some when you really need it.I had read Sunny Days and subsequent books by SMG. Those were his own words, the way he saw it, as a player and later, they should have been enough...Devendra Prabhudesai now writes a biography after all these years! It is bound to be a different perspective. However how different can it be from other biographies on Sunny? That remains to be seen of course.
Sunny himself writes a note to Prabhudesai on the inner back flyleaf. It goes like this -
"Devendra,
There are some things you know about me which I didn't know myself. Just goes to show how much effort you put in this compilation.
Thanks v. much for it shows sentiments which are truly appreciated.
With every good wish,
Sunil Gavaskar"
Devendra Prabhudesai is a BCCI honcho...I do not know what post he holds exactly. The book is 500 pages thick and every danger that it could turn out to be a poor buy. I mean what else is left to fill 500 pages on Gavaskar which hasn't already been said?
But that is not always why a book is written. And repetition of facts may be for different reasons of context. Partly because I have my own analysis of SMG - the good, the bad and the ugly - and because he is also in the news after an actor treated the legend with harsh words in public, and the curiosity of 500 pages...I couldn't help but pick it up.
I read the preface and I felt I could read a little more. The Table of Contents didn't look dangerous. The list of Acnowledgements appeared to reflect meticulousness and comprehensive research. Obviously this is a Mumbaiyya's view of Mumbai and Indian cricket with Gavaskar as the theme.
I read a few pages...they appeared well written. I didn't feel scared making the buy now. It could well turn out to be a dud, or too scholarly a book, but doesn't look like 'll regret buying it.
Rupa & Co. are magicians for the reading public of India. This publishing house brings the best of stories and authors to you at an affordable price. Take some time off to visit their pavilion at the next World Book Fair at Pragati Maidan...it always attracts a huge crowd. I buy many books off the Rupa shelves...being a man of limited resources which must be carefully stretched to accomodate my interests, I really wonder what I'd do if there weren't Rupa & Co. or Wordsworth Publishers - two publishing houses which bring quality at minimum prices and thus encourage the habit of reading. But I digress...
I have never purchased any biography on SMG...Sunny Days and its sequels were enough...and one "interacts' with him almost daily through television or newspapers or the net. This is the first, and again, I think I shall not regret the purchase. Let's read and see.
SMG: A BIOGRAPHY OF SUNIL MANOHAR GAVASKAR
by
Devendra Prabhudesai
Rupa & Co
The cost is Rs 395 (INR) - not too bad for 500 pages of research material - and different discounts are available. Rupa offers 10%, I took 20 percent.
And this is what I found on Prabhudesai - Devendra Prabhudesai (b. 1976) is a cricket writer based in Mumbai. He is presently Manager - Media Relations and Corporate Affairs, at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
This is his third book. He has earlier penned Rahul Dravid’s biography, The Nice Guy Who Finished First (2005), and Cricket World Cup: Around the World in Seventy-and-a-half Days (2007).
Of course he's the chap who penned Dravid's Bio! So this book should guide me if I should go for Dravid's bio as well or find the hidden alley and slink out!
It'll take me time - I have six unread books on my plate now of which two are tomes (500 or more pages range ) - but I'll have snippets ready as I read them through IPL 2009. Maybe you can judge the books for yourself.
More on this later then... Read More......
