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!