T20 : The "Fatafat Cricket"

T20 cricket or fondly known as the "Fatafat" cricket is getting humongous popularity in all cricket loving nations due to various T20 leagues, primarily Indian Premier League.
Before IPL, everybody was criticising of too much cricket being played. But as we move into middle leg of the tournament, IPL is one of the most talked about topics. Every one has a favourite team or a favourite player or atleast a favourite moment in the IPL-6 for which they are cheering for. And why not, over the last few days, IPL has given so many entertaining and refreshing memories, not only for the players, but also for the fans all over the world. From Gayle's "Gangnam" style to Harbhajan's "bhajnam" style, from Sammy's sucking the dummy to Gambhir- Kohli spat, IPL has already provided enough for the fans to make them glued to their screens.
One can say that old stewards are losing their way in the much hyped tournament. We saw many big guns not performing to their potential, be it Little Master SRT, Punter Ponting, Classy Rahul Dravid or ever dependable Kumar Sangakkara.
We witnessed less than a few straight drives, cover drives or leg glances, but there were many easy looking sixes from the big man Gayle, IPL maestro Watson, dashing Kohli and lazy Rohit Sharma. Scoop shots, reverse sweeps and switch hits could not miss anyone's attention.
It was surprising to see a few explosive men coming out as fuss crackers, man of sixes Yuvi, explosive Virender Sehwag and brilliant Adam Gilchrist to name a few.
Though Gayle's 175* has been the cynosure of the 54 day long tournament, bowlers haven't done that bad either. Where Bangalore has been the ground where even 180 is almost un-defendable, Hyderabad has been the ground where batsmen have failed to register even respectable scores. Bowlers with tight line and lengths were rewarded with hat-tricks with Amit Mishra claiming his 3rd of the tournament.
The performance in IPL does not guaranty good performance in international cricket, but in India, it is definitely a gateway to the higher level.
With less than negligible attendance in Test Matches to more than full stadiums in IPL, the 4 hour cricket has definitely gained more popularity than 5 day cricket.
Still my heart says, Test cricket is the best ever cricket that could be played and cover drives are more beautiful than switch hits. Hope ICC and BCCI will make more efforts to keep the most pious form of cricket alive.

An Elephant called Ricky Ponting

There's an elephant in the room at the moment in Ricky Ponting that nobody is really addressing- New Zealand legend Chris Cairns said in Nov, 2011. 
Cricket Australia address Cairns' concern and showed world's one of the greatest one day batsman, the door to exit.
Ricky Thomas Ponting, one of the most uncompromising player of his generation was axed from the Australian cricket team after a poor show in first 5 ODI's of CB series-2012. Lets have a look at the career of this proficient batsman.

He grew into Australia's most successful run-maker and only sits below Bradman in the country's overall ratings. It takes an extremely critical eye to diminish his run-scoring achievements, which seem to collect new records in every series. Like spotting a celebrity, it's necessary to look twice when analysing Ponting, first as the archetypal modern batsman, then as the country's 42nd Test captain. There is no doubt about his greatness after taking guard, but his leadership has been under scrutiny for much of his reign. While his blade has sparkled, his stewardship is pock-marked by three Ashes defeats - two in England and one at home - and stumbles to South Africa and India.

Those results didn't stop him from becoming the most successful captain in Test history after passing Steve Waugh's 41 wins in the 2009-10 Boxing Day Test. In the same match he overtook Shane Warne's 92 victories as the most by an individual, and he led Australia to 34 consecutive undefeated World Cup games. He stepped down from the captaincy when that run ended, in the 2011 World Cup. For the first three years of his reign he was in charge of a superstar unit and did not have to decide much tactically, but once that group headed for retirement he had to change from a manager to moulder.

As a batsman the only debate is where to rank him in the high reaches of the game's greatest run-makers. Acclaimed by Academy coach Rod Marsh as the best teenage batsman he had ever seen, Ponting began with Tasmania at 17 and Australia at 20, and was given out unluckily for 96 on his Test debut. There were some teething problems, including a public admission of an alcohol problem, but the longer he went on the more he matured, building up records and runs.

He plays all the shots with a full flourish of the bat - the cover drive and the pull are particularly productive methods - and knows only to attack. His breathtaking, dead-eye fielding is a force in the game by itself. Only Sachin Tendulkar has more centuries in Tests and ODIs than Ponting, who is a natural in the game's traditional forms, but resistant to the perks of Twenty20, which he retired from in 2009. There have been setbacks against probing seam attacks, high-class finger-spin and, latterly, short balls, which he insists are meant to be pulled or hooked.

The end of Ricky Ponting's ODI career was received with hope for some and a shock for others. In that moment, a journey of 375 matches, 13,704 runs, 30 centuries and three World Cup wins was ended, and ended in a most unsentimental way. Inverarity said there was no room for sentiment in the world of elite sport, and a day later Ponting agreed with him. 

Remarkable, and past. There was a vast contrast to be found between the Ponting of Johannesburg 2003, where he smashed Indian bowlers all over the park,  and Brisbane 2012, as he scratched around for 26 balls before delivering an outfield catch. In that moment he may not have known the end was coming, but he understood completely when it did a day later.

Bidding adieu to one of the most complete batsmen of this era, RT Ponting. Hats off to this great cricketer and a wonderful captain.

I have seen GOD , he bats at no.4 for india in Tests- Sachin Tendulkar

God, Little Master, The Maestro, Masterblaster urff Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Yes, today we are gonna talk about one and only Mr. S.R. Tendulkar. More than world economy, hurricanes, earthquakes, petrol prices, there is one individual who has been making the headlines of all the newspapers (especially Indian), and no prizes for guessing, this person is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
Sachin Tendulkar has been the most complete batsman of his time, the most prolific run maker of all time, and arguably the biggest icon the game has ever known.
Now when Tendulkar is on the verge of yet another milestone, 100 international 100's, we will have a brief look at the career of this great man. Though he is the highest run scorer in the world in both formats of the game, his path has never been a walk on red carpet.
Having broken on to the international stage the tender age of 16, more than 20 years ago, at a time when Berlin Wall still stood, it took him fairly long to reach his first international hundred. Tendulkar himself had a doubt creeping in his mind that whether he belongs to the big international stage at all. He first felt  an international century coming his way at Napier Test, his 10th test, but was caught by John Wright at mid off to rob him of the record of becoming the youngest Test centurion.
Finally, the moment came at Old Trafford in 1990 when he cracked a breezy 119 nott out in a match saving effort. But then again, he had to wait for an year and a half to get his second ton.
In the 1991-92 winter tour of Australia was disastrous for India. But a young Tendulkar lived up to the promise. His 148 not out at the Sydney Test was the youngest by anyone playing in Australia. And with that he won the first of many battles he would fight against the magical Shane Warne.
By 1994, Tendulkar had established himself among the front rank batsmen in the world. But a three figure score in ODIs eluded him. But the course of Tendulkar's ODI career and with that, that of Indian cricket changed forever on a freezing dat at Auckland in 1994 when skipper Mohd. Azharuddin pushed Tendulkar to open the innings and take advantage of field restrictions. The mumbaikar scored a brisk 82 off 49 balls. That knock was followed by a string of quick fire half-centuries and ended all debate over his batting position in ODIs. Finally, in his 77th ODI innings, against Australia, he made hi first 100, opening up the floodgates.
During the course of his career, he overtook Lara and Gavaskar's record of 34 Test centuries in 2005. He holds a record of 51 test centuries as of now which could extend further to an unimaginable level if he continues to play even for another couple of years.
After his first century, the longest break between his Test centuries is of 14 innings. We hope and look forward to his 100th International century in the upcoming matches and then to a figure which one can only dream of, till this Great Man calls it a day from this world arena. 

Raina- A Hero and a Zero

Recently, in the first ODI against England, Suresh Kumar Raina crossed the fairly significant milestone of 3000 runs in One Day Internationals. Although his ODI career has been nowhere as up and down as his Test career, he hasn't had a smooth run in the ODI's as well. He started his career pretty well, but lost his way in between, during the Greg Chappell's reign. From 2008 onwards, he has been a permanent member of the ODI squad.
Before the 2011 WC, Raina again lost a bit of form, which led him to play only 4 matches in the big event..
Raina's average is not too impressive at 35.51, but it must be remembered that almost 80 percent of his innings have come while batting at number 5 or lower. And at that position, his strike rate and average are very good. In fact since 2008, the only man who batting at Number 5 or lower, who has a better average and strike rate is Mr Cool, MS Dhoni..
One of the things that make Raina such a good lower order player is that he doesn't take much of a time to settle in. Whenever there is a vacancy higher up the order, Suresh Raina deserves to have a shot at it. His proficiency in the ODI format and his stats suggest that he would do a pretty good job at that position.
Moving to Suresh Raina's test career, he hasn't tasted much of a success in this format of the game. Though he had played just 15 matches as of now, but his record is far from being impressive. He averages a meagre 29.5 in test matches. And his only century coming up in his debut match against Sri Lanka. Unlike his miserable debut in ODI's, where he was dismissed first ball by Mutthiah Muralitharan ,  he started promisingly in test cricket. But hasn't reached any height in this format.
After the World Cup, Raina took over as captain of the ODI side for the tour of the West Indies after Dhoni opted to rest and Gambhir was injured. He score 232 runs at an average of 46.4 making crucial fifties in each Test.
But in England, aside from the half century in the first test, Raina managed just 27 runs from seven innings. He struggled against the short bowling and made a 29-ball duck in the final test, the longest in India's Test history.
He is much more classy played than his record suggests. We hope to see him retain his place in the Test squad and become a permanent member in all three formats of the game.

Slinga Malinga- The Yorker Man

Today, on 8th Oct, in the match against Somerset, Separamadu Lasith Malinga again showed why he is such a dangerous bowler in death overs. His figures on 20/4 justified his man of the match award. First Malinga took out Somerset's two biggest batsmen of the tournament, Peter Trego and Roelof van der Merwe, with devilish yorkers and changes of pace. Then he came back in the death overs to almost pick up yet another hat trick in a T20 game.
The game was an important one, none other than the semifinal of Champions League T20. Mumbai Indians wanted to book a berth in the finals against RCB, and so did Somerset, who have never won any major tournament so far.
It looked like Mumbai Indians have put enough runs on the board after the first innings was over. But no total is big enough in T20 cricket.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat first. They ran away at the top through Aiden Blizzard's quick fire half century. And in the end, by some fearsome batting from Sathish and Yadav to put up their best batting effort of the tournament.
Malinga opened the bowling attack for Somerset and picked up dangerous Peter Trego in the very first over. Trego had no clue what so ever as to what to do with the pacy away going yorker. He was the first victim of Lasith Malinga. This was the beginning of what was going to be a sensational piece of bowling from Slinga Malinga.
Somerset hadn't yet put their first step properly after the departure of Trego, Malinga claimed the prized wicket of in form and dangerous Roelof van der Merwe. RVDM was bowled with a slow low full toss. After that Kieswetter and Hildreth started rebuilding the innings scoring at a crisp rate and keeping in breath with the required rate. The match was evenly poised till 17th over with both sides having a chance to win the semifinal.
Malinga was bought into the attack when Somerset required just 29 runs to win from 18 balls at a run rate of 9.66, which is not a huge task in a T2O match. Malinga bowled unplayable deliveries to give away just 7 runs off the 18th over.
Still 22 required off 12 bowls. Very Much Possible. James Franklin bowled a brilliant over by picking up 2 wickets for 7 runs in that over. The match could still tilt in anybody's favor. Though Mumbai Indians were favorite at this moment.
15 runs required to win from 6 balls. Difficult but not impossible. Malinga bowled an exceptional over by giving away just 3 runs and damaging the furniture of 2 more batsmen. In both the cases, middle stump was uprooted. His accuracy being as sharp as Arjun's arch.
Scoring runs consistently on his bowling is becoming more and more difficult. He is the first and only bowler to have two World Cup hat-tricks, the first and only bowler to have taken three hat-tricks in ODI's and he is also the first and only player to have taken four wickets in four consecutive bowls in any form of international cricket. Though he has retired from the longer version of the game, he still excites and entertains cricket lovers all over the world with his slinging accurate yorkers in ODI's and T20 games. Hope to see his great swinging yorkers for many more years to come.

Rahul Dravid and The Summer of '11

Rahul Sharad Dravid played his 344^th and last one-day international of his career at Cardiff on 16^thSeptember 2011. This innings consisted of his usual knock full of cuts, drives and leg side glances. But still his last one-day knock could not help India win the last ODI in England.

It all started with Dravid’s another magnificent century in the 1^st test at Lords, this being his only century at the Mecca of Cricket. He was the lone survivor in Indian first innings. He negotiated the bounce and swing from England pace attack. When other players were finding it difficult to middle the ball, he made the fielders fetch the ball from boundary rope 15 times in his innings. In the 2^nd innings, Dravid’s new role was to open the innings with Mukund due to Gambhir’s injury. Even though he scored just 36, he was still the 3^rd highest scorer as other Indian batsmen failed again. India lost the first match by a margin of 196 runs. But this was just the beginning.

The second test match started with a ray of hope for India as England got all out for 221 in the first innings. India's 1st innings started disastrously with Mukund getting out for a first ball duck. But wait, they had Dravid as their savior yet again. Dravid made another brilliant century. But to our disappointment, India again bundled out at a meagre score of 288. England replied with a massive 544 and India managed only 158 handling the hosts a victory by a massive 319 runs. Dravid's another century got wasted. Before this series, it happened only 3 times that Dravid's century came in a losing cause. After first 2 matches of the series, the tally reached 5.

The 3rd match was a comeback match for Indian opener, Virender Sehwag. A big hype was created on his comeback and he got a kings' pair nullifying the hype to full extent. It was another forgettable match for Indians as England amassed 710/7 declared and India not able to reach even 250 in the two test innings. Dravid was wrongly given out caught behind when the ball kissed his shoe lace. Rahul Dravid's rare failure in the 3rd test match made India lose the match by an innings and 242 runs. Still there was more embarrassment to come to Indian Cricket Team.

The 4th Test match. Venue-Kinnengton Oval, London. Same old story. Same result. Dravid opening the innings yet again and scoring another classy century. He batted for more than 6 hours while the rest of the team could not understand the pitch. Dravid carried his bat through the innings and when England asked India to follow on, he again came to open the innings. Inspite of the heroics of the Great Man, India still couldn't find a way to avoid an innings defeat. India lost 4th consecutive Test Match by innings and 8 runs.

No doubt, RD was adjudged the India's Man of the Series for his brilliant and consistent performances.

After his inhuman efforts, RD was recalled in the ODI series after a gap of around 2 years. He was also included in the only T20. Considered as a misfit for ODI earlier in his career, the 38 year old smashed 3 sixes in three balls that helped India reach 165 in allotted 20 overs. Though India lost the match, RD's only T20 innings was a treat to watch.

Then came the ODI series. India again lost the series 3-0 with two matches washed away due to rain. Rahul Dravid in his last series again proved his worth in the Indian batting line up. He amassed 69 valuable runs to take India's score over 300 for the first time in the whole series. His fluent innings was again overshadowed by Virat Kohli's century. This has been the story of his whole career, being overshadowed by others, and the same thing repeated in this match. It was an ordinary day at Cardiff, but will be remembered as one of the saddest days for those who loved Dravid in the Blue Indian Dress.