Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Arbit Stats - 30

June 16, 2013 - Corey Anderson makes his ODI debut
January 1, 2014 - Corey Anderson hits his 1st ODI century (in his 7th ODI) in the process also smashing the record for the fastest  ODI century of all time.
January 25, 2014 - Corey Anderson takes his 1st 5-wicket haul on ODIs against India (in his 12th ODI).

Thus he breaks the record for the least number of games (12) for a player to record  a century & take a 5-wicket haul in ODI cricket. Previous record holder being Greg Chappell who achieved this distinction in 16 games.

Amongst other tings he has done his IPL credentials a world of good.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand Season Review

Match Summary: Punjab (516) defeated Jharkhand (216 & 127) by an innings and 173 runs
Points: Jharkhand 0, Punjab 7

An absolute thrashing, Disaster in Dhanbad - I would call it. And with this defeat and Haryana securing 3 points against Odisha, Jharkhand head back to Group C. Only highlight from this game would be Rameez Nemat's opening knocks in both innings.

Season Review
Nothing much to write about Jharkhand's performance this season. It has been a disappointing season on most counts. No wins at all and 3 losses including those to Odisha and Haryana. last year's quarter-finalists finish bottom of Group A and are now relegated to group C (alongwith their fellow promotee Services who also head back to after one season in Group B). Somehow I feel given the group compositions, qualifying would be easier from Group C despite only 2 teams getting selected from that group. Maybe BCCI could look at evening out the groups and having different qualification knockout format.

The season's highlight would be the performance against Mumbai. Even in that there was a chance to go for a win which Jharkhand did not go for. This did prove quite crucial in the end.

Saurabh Tiwary was consistent throughout the season with 238 (out of a total of 351) against Mumbai being the highlight. This incidentally is the highest first class score by any Jharkhand batsman. Unfortunately most of the time Tiwary was fighting a lone battle while the rest of the batting collapsed around him.

Varun Aaron came back from injury and had a decent enough season which earned him a recall to the Indian national team. But more would have been expected of him. 

The skipper Shahbaz Nadeem had a decent all round year but did not match last year's levels.

Overall the team seemed out of depth against the Group A teams. Also the imports Thaker & Thakkar were not really upto mark and by the end of the season both had been dropped from the playing XI. I think getting average first class players from other states certainly will not help the team's cause. The likes of Aakash Chopra, Kanitkar, S Sriram, Amol Mazumdar are the ones the team should target (not necessarily the same ones). 

Season Stats
Leading Scorers
Saurabh Tiwary - 854 runs @65.69
Rameez Nemat - 472 runs @42.91
Ishank Jaggi - 373 runs @28.69

Top Innings - Saurabh Tiwary - 238 vs Mumbai

Most Wickets
Shahbaz Nadeem - 21 @34.05
Varun Aaron - 20 @21.95
Samar Quadri - 17 @24.53

Top Performance - Samar Quadri - 6/65 vs Vidarbha

Hoping for a much better Ranji season next year. 

Coming up Next - Vijay Hazare Trophy in the first week of March.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Arbit Stats 29

England are getting whipped in the ongoing Ashes. They are heading, no hurtling towards a 5-0 series whitewash. Many factors can be attributed to this thrashing. Lots of post-mortem reports will be prepared. But one stat will stand out to give the extent of the chasm between the two teams.

969 - The aggregate score of the English batsmen in the 1st innings of the 5 Tests.
1071 - The aggregate score of the Australian tail (wickets 6-10) in the 1st innings of the 5 Tests.

Australia have outplayed England totally. And nothing sums the dominance more than the above stat.