What Ponting did that Sachin did not!

When Ricky Ponting missed the second test match against Sri Lanka in order to be with his wife for the birth of their second child, the Australian team needed a player at No. 3. The team was still in recovery mode, their most successful captain; perhaps their second best player in history and arguably one of the best at No. 3 in the world was fading, having already quit his captaincy in the wake of losing the Ashes for a record third time. The team was searching for younger talent to get back that aura around them that had them being invincible for more than a decade. And in walked Shaun Marsh, in that important one-down position and put his hand up straight away by cracking a century on debut. With that he made sure he beat Usman Khawaja for the starting XI in the next match. But despite being a top order player, with the return of Ponting, Marsh was sure he’d be pushed down the order to No. 6 where many teams are struggling to fit a proper batsman in. Instead cricket was in for a surprise, when for the final test, Marsh walked out at No. 3 and Ponting at No. 4, disturbing one of the most successful positions in the batting order for Australian and World cricket.

Now Ponting has announced this move to be permanent. It was indeed a bold move. Ponting clearly doesn’t have many supporters outside the island continent. But with this, he is sure to get a few compliments. Earlier in his career, he never really worried about the team. He had a team of players, each one of whom could individually win test matches no matter where they batted or when they bowled. But this is a different era. Only Ponting remains from that generation. What this move also does is, it gets Michael Hussey in at No. 6. Hussey is known to be a floater and can play any role. When you are struggling to find a No. 6, there is no one else better to fill it than Hussey. Even in T20s, Hussey showed his floating abilities, coming in at No. 7 and belting Saeed Ajmal, to win one of the best T20 internationals ever and also opens the innings for CSK in the IPL. Hence this change in the line-up will go a long way in helping Australia recover their stature.

What amuses me in this regard is this batting line-up, when it comes to India. In its full power, India’s opening pair is currently among the best in the world. The next 3 are indeed legends. Let us skip the No. 6, and we have a very good ‘keeper-batsman cum captain as well. The line-up looks delicious for a cricket lover. But the problem arises when one of them gets an injury. The woes of having such a star-studded legendary line-up are that the person coming in as a replacement has big shoes to fill. And he is always monitored closely with a hawk’s eye. Already the No. 6 spot is virtually vacant. Upon that a replacement for another position is indeed tough. That said, under such a circumstance, the onus is on the others to increase their game to nullify the offset.

You don’t need to imagine such a situation. It just happened in England when Sehwag was injured. Rahul Dravid has been the best No. 3 player in cricket for a long time now. When there were no openers left in the squad, he was made to open. This has happened in the past and hence it was an obvious choice. And with that Laxman came in at No. 3. There was the mistake! Dravid is a player who adapts to any condition fast and hence can double up as an opener. But before this tour, most of the time he had done so has been in the subcontinent or Down Under. One is a batting heaven and the other is a place where the ball comes on with great pace. The two conditions that Laxman relishes. A stats page on Laxman will show how good he is in these conditions. Hence him coming in at No. 3 in these matches and succeeding were natural. But what the other side of this stats page also shows is Laxman’s difficulty in conditions where the ball moves. In all tests in England and New Zealand, Laxman has just one century and that too was in a batting friendly wicket at Napier, coming in at No. 5 when the ball doesn’t do as much as it does while opening or at one down.

This article is not to prove Laxman’s failures. Rather my question is when you have the world’s best batsman in every form of the game, who is a regular opener in One Day cricket, the best player of the moving ball, why do you fix him at one spot? If he can open in one form, given the player Sachin Tendulkar is, he can definitely do so in Tests as well. Fine if Dravid has opened before, send him as an opener. But when the ball still moves around, why keep Sachin waiting? Send Sachin in at No. 3! When the opposition’s best bowlers are swinging it around, isn’t it only appropriate to have our best batsmen facing them? Moreover, it helps Laxman’s case in facing a fairly older ball and the spinners of whom he is very fond off!

The careers of two other contemporary batsmen give us a good thought. When Daryl Cullinan was a permanent No. 4 for South Africa, Kallis came in at one down. He excelled so much in that position that he continued to play there even after Cullinan’s retirement. But the arrival of Hashim Amla gave South Africa a problem of plenty as far as the top order was concerned. In order to accommodate him and balance the side, Kallis moved down to No. 4 and from thereon South Africa has developed an equally strong batting line-up. Same applies with West Indies. Brian Lara has broken the World Record for the highest score in a Test innings twice from the No. 3 spot. But with Richie Richardson in the early ‘90s and Chanderpaul and Sarwan later in the decade coming in at No. 3, Lara has moved himself down to No. 4. But the struggle of West Indies batsmen during this era has caused Lara to continuously change his position, doing well at both 3 & 4.

What these prove is that, being a good batsman you can play at different positions. Dravid, Lara and Kallis have already proved that. Ponting has just opened the chapter. If only India had let Sachin open or walk-in at No. 3, I might have had a sweeter memory of the recent tour of England! Perhaps from a higher position in the order, we might have seen Sachin breaking more records in Test cricket. But in the end, I think, like every Indian, even the No. 4 spot loves Sachin to let go off him!

"Champions" League, Really??

When the tournament’s title sponsor pre-maturely ends its deal citing low viewership, you know something’s amiss. It was very evident, a revamp was required. Whoever was responsible for writing the script for the 2011 Champions League T20 left no stone unturned to make sure it turns out to be a big blockbuster! So we have four IPL teams whereas some countries don’t even get one! It gets better when the final is an all Indian affair. Considering the second semi-final was played in front of an empty Chepauk stadium, this was perhaps the only way to get people to fill the stadium.

Bangalore witnessed some of the best matches. A ground where 99 was almost defended and scores of 200 plus chased down. Two IPL teams managed to pull off unlikely wins of the last ball. One featured a missed run out chance and the other a last-ball-six ala Javed Miandad. But not sure how many people will still remember a Arun Karthik , 20 years from now.

In between all the fours and sixes, SRK also managed to get huge publicity for his upcoming movie, Ra.One. This is was notably his biggest gain from KKR making it to main round of the tournament.

CLT20 is the brain child of the cricketing boards of India, Australia and South Africa. But no points for guessing who rules the roost. They get to host the tournament almost everytime and field the maximum number of teams. One reason why we won’t be seeing the tournament hosted by Australia in the near future, is that it compromises on India’s prime time viewing. As a cricket fan, I hope that the very motto of the CLT20 stays alive and it doesn’t turn out to be an IPL part 2, with a few foreign teams as guests.

Whoever wrote off The Champions League...

Scoring a century when the whole team just has 120 balls is an achievement. Taking a five-wicket haul when all you have are 4 overs, is just incredible. Posting a target of 214 in 20 overs is mind-boggling. Believe it or not, all the above-said happened for the South Australian Redbacks against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Nokia Champions League T20. But after all this, still ending up on the losing side courtesy a last ball six is just plain bad luck. Hearing about all this itself is hard to believe. Imagine watching it live.

I had forgotten about the match and stumbled upon it while scrolling through channels looking for something interesting. RCB were 143/1 in 12.5 overs. What a score I thought. They should easily win it. But the equation read 72 required of 43 balls. Whoa!

Daniel Harris had hit a century, Callum Ferguson had supported more than a handful and the two made light of the RCB bowling. But now Dilshan and Kohli were entertaining the crowd with nonchalant hitting. There were no slogs. Vettori later admitted in the post match presentation that he had never seen such clean cricket shots flying into the crowd. But the partnership ended creating a template. A batsman comes in, hits a six and then gets out and that too to Shaun Tait. This infused life into the match. Wickets kept tumbling suddenly and it came down to 14 off the last over and finally 6 off the last ball. I was updating my friend and co-author of this blog (btw if you didn't know, this blog is supposed to have him!) all the while. And I almost messaged him, "Miandad anyone?". Harsha on TV was saying, "This match has had everything. Will we see a last ball six?". As if dreams come true, Arun Karthik, an import from the CSK emerged an unlikely hero, hoisting Christian's slower ball into the stands.

It was a scene of chaos at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Crowd had gone berserk. Kohli was high on emotions. Gayle, wrapped in a towel and shorts, was jumping around. There was a red battalion on the field. The noise was cacophonous! Bengaluru had just witnessed the T20 match of a lifetime. The word amazing failed to describe the match fully.

As I am writing this, RCB pulled off another rabbit from the hat chasing down 200+ score yet again. As Sid Monga said, for those who love this format, it is purely unadulterated porn!

There have been other good and close matches this Champions League including the just concluded first semis. But this one was at its peak. The IPL may have invoked some harsh criticisms, but its positives are pure entertainment and awesome cricket. What a match!

The Debut

No I am yet to be contacted by any of the franchisees.  So I haven't made my debut yet. I am talking about my first ever live match. Mumbai Indians vs Trinidad & Tobago at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. One is a club, another is a country. One doesn't have any Mumbaikars in the squad and the other has its home-boy in the opposition camp. One can play 5 foreign players (as opposed to the other teams' 4), the other doesn't have any at all except for all those Indian origins!

It was exciting to go for my first match but not much hype as no star player was playing. And my company was a cricket player, two sponsors of tomorrow and another debutant like me (who had just learnt what cricket was!) But we got excitement in a different way, getting to choose our seats in an empty stand right behind the White Mischief cheer girls! Ah we used the entire stand to get different views and angles. Of the game of course!

The match definitely wasn't of T20 standards. A few big hits here and there. But the guys couldn't provide even half as much entertainment as the girls could! By the end of the first innings, T&T just surrendered meekly and no one broke a sweat as much as we did dancing with the girls. Oh I haven't shook my body this much since college mass-group dance during cultural stage shows.

But MI tried their best to make a match out of it by consistently losing wickets. And we ended up in another of those down-to-the-wire finishes (as Ravi Shastri puts it!). But hard luck fell upon Ramdin who missed hitting the stumps from 2 feet distance allowing MI to sneak through a match they had determined to lose. The team played bad cricket and did injustice to all three words - "Mumbai", "Indians" and "Champions". With such cricket, they shouldn't progress to the next round. But we got a bit of an exciting match though our money's worth was already obtained thanks to our strategic positions.

In the end, a decent debut. Considering the fact that it was in Dravid's home ground with Sachin in the balcony, just like me!

Dravid's Swansong

Ajinkiya Rahane miscues another of his foolhardy shots and this time it lands on the fielder's palms. India lose their first wicket. Rahane walks off. Sofia Gardens stands. Not because Rahane, a future talent is walking off. Neither is Sachin Tendulkar scheduled to come in. It is because Rahul Dravid is coming in to play the last match of his 344 matches old ODI career.

The D-Day doesn't invoke any nerves on him. Dernbach tried pulling out of his delivery stride to try and make the occasion even more tense. But Dravid still had that serene look on his face. 

It was just another day at the crease for Dravid, evident in the way he played. The front-foot coming forward, the back-foot rocking back and then creating room by getting the front leg away a bit, the ball was cut for four. It was only timing and no power as the ball teased the fielders till the boundary. With Kohli, he did what he had been doing in that middle order for the past 15 years. Build a partnership with just ones and twos and allow your partner to accelerate by easing the pressure from your end. And after the half century, trying to adapt to the situation and getting a couple of boundaries. It was brilliant to see Dravid batting with Kohli. Both of them have similar class with those wrists being the strong point. Where Kohli lacks the feet movement, he makes up for it by his aggressiveness. And they complement each other just like Dravid used to do with Yuvraj before. 

When the ball beat the bat, spun and hit the stumps, Swann did not celebrate the 170-run partnership he had broken. Instead he ran over to congratulate Dravid. Swan himself had told how relieved he was after Dravid announced his retirement from ODI's saying he needn't have to bowl to the man who always looked in-form. The entire England team followed suit. It was a momentous occasion. Dravid had signed off in style.Walked back raising his bat not just to Cardiff but to the entire world. Sadly though he still ended up on the losing side.

It was also a day when I realized that the game of cricket can even bring tears to your eyes. I had tacitly gotten used to the Indian team without Dravid after 2007. Even the brief spell during the Champions Trophy didn't raise much hopes. But I feel thankful to the BCCI for having given a chance that allowed Dravid to announce his retirement. Else it would have gone unnoticed. While walking back to the pavillion the camera focused on his face. It showed that even The Wall has emotions!

Thank you Dravid for a selfless service to Indian cricket in the blue jersey.

P.S: Please read my first tribute to Rahul Dravid

My Picture of the Wall

One Down

When he goes out on the field today, he would have done on this tour almost everything that he had done during his entire 15-year career. A debut, a farewell, opening the batting, coming at one-down, a Lord’s century, carrying his bat,  three 6s in a row, keeping wickets and receiving the Man-of-the-series! Sadly though, one thing Rahul Dravid missed was to be on the winning side! But the Indian story might spoil this post on Dravid’s swansong!

Whoever wrote him off in his early days as a one-day player might not have imagined that he would go on to score 10,000 runs at an average of 40! If you start arguing about strike-rate, I’d say that’s a statistical tool that has come in only recently. In those days, Dravid’s strike-rate was enough to propel the team to a defend-able total (which these days might seem too less!).

It is easier to take Dravid’s case in ODI’s than to support him. Probably because you don’t understand Dravid through those numbers (though they are of appreciable magnitude). Neither are there those pages and pages of articles that people keep writing about Tendulkar. You understand this genius by watching him, his skill, his patience and his attitude.

When he leaves Cardiff today, India wouldn’t find it difficult to replace him because the IPL has given them many options. But ODI’s will miss that trademark on-drive that pierces the midwicket with a surgeon’s precision, where the bat comes down in one motion from second slip, where those legs move fluently back and across. After the ball reaches the boundary, he just wipes the sweat of the forehead with the thumb between the helmet’s grill. It was just another of those natural shots for him. Watching all these in color is not possible anymore. Luckily he hasn’t hung up his whites yet!

P.S: Please read my first tribute to Rahul Dravid

My Picture of the Wall

The First Ball

Ah what a time to start a blog on cricket. India’s just been peeled, torn, cut and squashed by the British. No. 1 in tests has become 3. The only T20 lost. ODI series gone! But then, being the most ardent of Indian supporters and seeing this team perform since the late nineties, I do not give up hope on such trivial issues. If you are an Indian fan, optimism should be your strength. And the reverse also works. If you show faith (or optimism) on Indian performance, you are branded a fan! Remember 2007WC, when once we all (read 1 billion people!!) believed Bermuda could beat Bangladesh?! Yes, that’s exactly what I am talking about!

Now the papers and the sites have screamed various causes for India’s performances. The word ‘fatigue’, echoed. The IPL, blamed. The selectors, censured. The BCCI criticized for all its hypocrisy. But whoever thought the BCCI would change must be the greatest optimist. I recently read somewhere, ‘Even after Srikanth Anirudha makes his debut, plays tests, scores runs, retires, joins BCCI and then heads the selection panel to give his child a chance, BCCI would remain the same!’ How true! If you ask me for the cause, I would say it was because the selectors completely ignored me and my talent because I didn’t play the IPL!

I say forget this tour. It doesn’t even have Sachin’s hundredth century. Only Dravid’s scored. And he would be the last person to disapprove even if this entire tour were termed unofficial by the (BCCI-controlled) ICC! Give India a break. But if you really want an improvement, ask BCCI to subscribe to Harsha Bhogle’s articles on Cricinfo and then implement the suggestions. For starters, they can even refer to this blog. How is this for a beginning – Rest all main team players for the upcoming home series against England and West Indies. Let them go home, love their wives, play with their children, take rest. (Hope they haven’t forgotten what these mean!) Play the emerging players. If they lose, you are already used to it. If they win, you have a fresh pool of talent! Whatever be the case, for the series Down Under, you have a team of fresh and fit players!

Anyway I am not BCCI and never will be. All I can do for my passion for the game is watch it, play it and then write it! And this blog helps me do the last part. Even Saurav!