Tuesday, November 30, 2010

I AM NOT A FREAKING CRICKET MATCH!!!

A woman in USA with no idea about cricket kept her twitter handle as @theashes. This was enough for the tweeting cricket-crazy fans to bombard Ms. Ashley Kerekes with questions like "Whats the score?". The lady initially was angry.
"I AM NOT A FREAKING CRICKET MATCH!!!" is what she said, but has now sort of accepted her new found celebrityhood. In fact she has offered a ticket to fly to Australia to watch the ongoing Ashes. Also there is new hasttag campaign on twitter asking the authorities to #gettheashestotheashes. And she is also encashing this by selling her own t-shirts.

Confusion leading to fame & business.

P.S. I am thinking of changing my twitter handle to @iccworldcup2009 or @cricketworldcup2009 or something like that. Lets see if they give me a ticket to the World Cup finals.


Monday, November 29, 2010

517-1


Today when I switched on the TV before leaving for work, the score was 503 for 1. And this was not Sri Lanka building a huge score in the first innings of a home test. This was England in the 2nd innings of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane, after having conceded a 220 odd run lead in the first innings. 
The Aussies must be a real demoralised lot, after this battering. The end result may have been a draw but the psycholigical points are with England. They survived when nobody expected them to. Hats off to Strauss, Cook & Trott for their magnificent innings.

P.S. The Aussies can take heart from the fact that according to the Ranji Trophy scoring system, the points would have been Australia-3, England-1.

P.P.S. I can recall a similar match from 1999. India were shot out for 83 in the first innings, then scored 500+ for 3 (with 3 centurions) in the 2nd against the Kiwis.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Peter Siddle - the Expression

The Ashes have started. The opening salvos have been fired. Australia have moved into a commanding poesition at the end of Day 3 thanks mainly due the Peter Siddle hattrick spell and the Hussey-Haddin 300+ partnership.

On Day 1, Siddle took a 6 wicket haul including a hattrick (Cook, Prior, Broad). Now, this is one awesome way of celebrating your birthday. It is his look of intense concentration while bowling which stands out. The best comment  -  his face looks as if he is trying to divide 376 by 17 in his head. Here is a pic

Thursday, November 25, 2010

India - New Zealand, 2010 Review

New Zealand are turning out to be one team which India are finding really hard to beat in Tests. In the last 20 years, In India 3 wins & 8 draws, while in New Zealand, 1 win, 4 draws & 3 losses. Even with a Test series victory India lost ranking points. For the Kiwis the result must have been a real morale booster following the pathetic display in Bangladesh (4-0 loss in ODIs). Here are some of the highlights of the series.
Kane Williamson scored a century on Test debut after a couple of ducks in his first 2 ODIs. Jesse Ryder was injured but still was their best batsman by quite a distance. And the Phantom, Chris Martin almost took them to victory singlehandedly with that spell in Ahmedabad. McCullum scored a double in Hyderabad.
Harbhajan Singh's batting provided the biggest cheers for India whlie his bowling was a letdown. (Best Comment after the second Test - Harbhajan the batsman is the reason why India aren't 1-0 down in the series while Harbhajan the bowler is the reason why they aren't 1-0 up). VVS Laxman came up with another in-crisis match saving innings. Dravid & Gambhir worked there way back to form whle Sachin was kept waiting for his 50th century, Sehwag played like Sehwag. Raina contributed more with the ball than with the bat. And people have started questioning his place now. Nothing much to write about in the bowling department though. Zaheer is the best bowler by a mile. Ironically, India took 20 wickets in the Test he did not play in.
So the Kiwis are done and dusted. And India now proceed to South Africa. Nice times for a cricket fan. Start the day with Ashes and then look over to spend the evening with a test series between the top 2 ranked nations. In between there is a 5 ODI series also to take place.

P.S. post was delayed due to following the ongoing Asian Games & the Bihar election results. 

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Arbit Statistics - 3

South Africa vs Pakistan, Ist Test, Dubai.
It has happened quite a few times that one player may have scored more runs than the entire oppostion playing XI or taken more wickets or catches. But this one takes the cake.
Jacques Kallis has scored more runs, taken more wickets & more catches in Test cricket than the entire Pakistani team combined. Now lets see if any one questions his all round abilities.

Arbit Statistics - 2

India vs New Zealand, 2nd Test Day 2
45.1 Arnel to Tendulkar, 1 run, back of a length delivery angling down the leg, Tendulkar helps it down to fine leg for a single.

Nothing special in it by itself. With this single the Indian playing XI reached a career total of 50,000 Test runs. And they are the first ever team to do that. And it was fitting that the two seniormost batsmen Tendulkar and Dravid were there to reach this milestone (?)

Friday, November 12, 2010

Arbit Statistics

Cricket is a game filled with obscure statistics. Here is one more. But a quite revealing one.

This is from text commentary on MSN
83.6 Harbhajan to McIntosh, 1 run, Dhoni makes no attempt to save the single, Harbhajan gives it a bit of air, much fuller, McIntosh drives it to long on, gets to his 2nd Test ton, take a bow young man, it's been a terrific innings from him, the first ton by a NZ opener away from home after 6 years, Fleming was the last one to do it.

"the first ton by a NZ opener away from home after 6 years".
This single line probably sums up best the state of Kiwi batting in Test cricket. Also why they are where they are in the ICC rankings.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Lowest First Class Score in India

Hyderabad were all out for 21 in the first innings of the new Ranji Season against Rajasthan with the debutant Deepak Chahar returning with figures of 7.3-2-10-8. Here is the video highlights of the innings.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Razzaqed

South Africa get Razzaqed as they lose to Pakistan (sorry by Abdul Razzaq) by 1 wicket in the 2nd ODI.
What a finish to the game by Razzaq. These is the stuff for which movie climaxes are made. Doesnt really happen in real life. But it happened. Razzaq hit 10 sixes and scored 63 off the last 65 runs to take Pakistan to victory. What an innings. And all this while his partners (Haider, Wahab Riaz, Ajmal) were all busy trying to run themselves out and with Shoaib Akhtar for company. Razzaq reached his 50 with a boundary of the last baal of the 44th over and had scored his century with the 3rd ball of the 50th. And it was chanceless clean hitting. No  mishits, no dropped catches.  Will definitely go down as one of the greatest ODI innings ever. 

P.S. Dont think this will have much off an impact on Pakistani cricket though. They are too unpredictable and have seen too many false dawns.