The Final Frontier

7th January, 2019: Sydney –a rained out day and not a ball bowled. Yet, it would go down as a red letter day in the annals of Indian cricket. India had finally conquered Australia, the first ever Asian team to do so. It has taken 71 years of toil but we finally did it. 

Yes, this was the weakest Australian team that I can recall. But it still had a world-class bowling attack which needed a special blunting down by Pujara. And for their batting lineup, missing Warner & Smith, while not a single one of them would walk in to any of the other Test teams, they were a collective pest, scoring 20s & 30s, stitching together little partnerships down to the No. 11. Yet, we did beat them in their own backyard. Something none of the Indian (or Pakstani or Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi) teams had ever done. 

Our fast bowlers outgunned their counterparts, our batsmen were better at survival and blunting attacks and our wicket-keeper gave it back as good as he got on the sledging front. A 2-1 victory doesn’t really reflect the gulf between the two teams, thanks to the washed out last day in Sydney. 

While I do not believe in Ravi Shastri’s hyperbole about this being bigger than 1983 or 201, it certainly is special. After all every India fan carries mental scars of multiple maulings received in Australia over the years. Personally, I recall horror details from the many tours of Australia. 

• 1991-92 – when we were thrashed 4-Nil with a Ravi Shastri double century, which included walloping of the debutante Shane Warne, in Sydney nearly winning us the game. Then there was Sachin Tendulkar’s coming of the age kind 100 at Perth. But we were smashed in every other game. 
• 1999-2000 – A 3-nil thrashing, which was the actual prediction of the Mr. Niranjan Shah, the then BCCI secretary. The highlight of the series was a VVS Laxman 167. It didn’t affect the result in one bit but it was the first sign of the torment that VVS would unleash on the Aussies. This became part of the 16-game winning streak for Australia, which ended in Eden Gardens at the bats of Laxman and Dravid. The tide had started to turn. 
• 2003-04 - we won in Adelaide, squandered a start in Melbourne and just could not close it out in Sydney. A 1-1 draw was certainly not a fair reflection of the series. But we had tasted a Test victory in Australia and it only served to whet the appetite further. Now we wanted a series victory. 
• 2007-08 – Lost 2-1 after not being able to hold on for a few more minutes in the bad tempered, “monkeygate” scandalized Sydney Test, but outgunned Australia in Perth. The series may have been lost, but we took solace in Captain Kumble’s famous declaration – “Only one team was playing cricket” and we could keep replaying videos of Ishant Sharma making Ponting hop around. 
• 2011-12 – 4-nil smashing as this proved to be one tour too many for the golden generation of Indian batting. Dravid & Laxman retired and we wondered if we could ever win another Test in the country, let alone a series. There was a little matter of a certain Virat Kohli getting a maiden Test hundred. 
• 2014-15 – A 2-nil loss with two draws. Another era ended for Indian Team as Dhoni retired from Tests and Kohli took over and hammered centuries at will. There was a different approach which shunned safety first for a crack at chasing a 4th innings target of 360 odd on the final day. We still lost. (nothing new about that) 

With this perspective, a series victory in Australia is special. How many days we have woken up on cold wintry mornings to check the score, only to see a position of relative strength at stumps on the previous day having been brutally taken away. A collapse triggered at the hands of a McDermott, Reid, McGrath, Lee, Gillespie, Johnson, Starc or a quickfire knock from the likes of Boon, Slater, Ponting, Hayden, Clarke, Gilchrist or being blocked out of the game by a Geoff Marsh, Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor, Healy. Many times our tail was simple blasted out while their tail wagged all day (this still happens!) and sometimes we ran into the likes of Steve Bucknor! And having to listen to the gloating & condescending Aussie commentary as well. 

Life certainly hasn't been easy Down Under. And that’s why this win is such a momentous one. 

Australia isn’t really the Final Frontier. South Africa awaits (I know, we have two more frontiers popping up – Ireland and Afghanistan). But winning a Test series in Australia certainly does feel like having conquered the Final Frontier!

The Twenty18 Lineup

The calendar changes to 2019 and we have Jimmy Neesham & Cheteshwar Pujara starting the cricketing year in contrasting yet effective styles. Before the year runs away any further, time to look back and present the 2018’s Slipstream XI – a collection of interesting & not-so-interesting events to remember the cricketing year 2018 by. 

0. Let’s begin at the beginning. 

All these years we were sending a coin up in the air for the all-important task of finding who bats first. But the smart fellows at the Big bash League decided that sending a coin up in the air doesn’t seem exciting, so let’s throw a specially designed bat! Which lead to an amusing incident where the bat landed on its side!!! 

1. Debutante(s) of the Year 

Ireland & Afghanistan became the 11th & 12th Test playing nations respectively. While Ireland ran Pakistan close, Afghanistan were overwhelmed by India. Meanwhile Nepal made their ODI debut with a narrow win against Netherlands. It was reported in Nepalese newspaper as “Nepal hammer Netherlands by one run”. 2019 is going to be a bumper debut season as all Associates get international status for T20s.

2. Sandpaper Gate 

Cameron Bancroft was caught with his hand in his pants as he tried to hide away the bit of sandpaper used to rough up the ball. Ball tampering is a taboo and usually leads to a temporary suspension of the guilty party. But this one snowballed into a major crisis for Australian cricket leading to extended bans for Bancroft, Captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner and departures for Coach Lehmann and CA chief Sutherland. Heads continued to roll and Australian cricketing culture itself was called into question, while the rest of the cricketing world watched in glee!

3. Cricketing Jargon of the Year 

The culture review of Australian cricket brought in a new terminology - Elite Honesty. Now you could not just play hard and fair, but you also had to show “Elite Honesty” at all times (:O). However, giving it close competition was SENA (short for South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia). Cricketers, especially from the sub-continent, now had their career numbers judged with their performance in SENA regions. Only a favorable comparison here would ensure a place in the pantheon of greats! 

4. Technological improvement of the Year - Stump Mics 

Stump microphones were turned up mainly to catch the faintest of the snicks on the snickometer, but it became a more useful tool for catching the discusssions/ banter/ sledging going on in the field. Special mention here of Tim Paine and Rishabh Pant’s talks (!). So amusing that often the actual commentators just kept quiet while these two were standing up to the stumps. 

5. Run-Out of the Year 

Azhar Ali added a new chapter in the glorious tradition of Pakistan cricket’s comical run-outs. The batsman hit the ball towards the boundary and then proceeded for a mid-pitch chat oblivious to the facts that (a) the ball never crossed the boundary, (b) the fielder had jogged down to retrieve the ball, (c) the keeper had rushed up to collect the throw and break the stumps & (d) the umpire had not made any signal. 

6. Retiring on a high 

A century in your last innings to go with a century on debut, and ending the year with a knighthood. What a way to go, Sir Alastair Cook! 

7. Battle of the Year 

The war against corruption continues as does the infighting for controlling the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI in short). Last year with the ODI World Cup, Women’s cricket had finally become cricket. This year it added its public controversy with the spat between Mithali Raj and coach Ramesh Powar, leading to the latter’s dismissal. Well, being in the limelight is great but should be for the right reasons! 

8. Finally getting its due 

The Ranji Trophy – India’s premier domestic first-class competition. There was a major expansion with NINE new teams added. India’s domestic competition now has 37 first-class teams. Well we also have 1.3 Billion people, so no big deal. But it was commentator Kerry O’Keefe’s on air jibe about its quality which lead to everyone singing paens in praise of the Ranji Trophy and how important a role it plays in establishing India’s dominance in world cricket! 

9. Scaling New Heights - Indian Pace Attack 

During the India-Australia series, an interesting graphic came up. India’s pace troika of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami had collectively taken more wickets in an year than any other pace bowling trio. They broke the 34 year old record of Marshall, Holding & Garner. An Indian fast bowling trio being spoken in the same breath as these legends while outgunning home attacks. With Bhuvaneswar Kumar and Umesh Yadav as back-up, never before had we had so many fast bowling riches. 

10. The Sleeper Hit of the Year 

A tri-nation T20 series involving India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – who would be interested, especially after India rested most of the big guns. But the Nidahas Trophy proved to be an action packed entertainer. Bangladesh irritating the Sri Lankan home fans to such an extent with their Naagin Dance celebrations that they switched support to India! And then there was Dinesh Karthik belting the last ball for a six to win the final for India. 

11. The Sponsors! 

Was flipping through the sports channels, Star Network was showing the Burger King Super Smash while Sony had the KFC Big Bash on air! Junk food companies sponsoring elite sports events. Nothing new given that McDonalds sponsors the Olympics. And cricket has always been the less athletic of sports, which prioritizes Lunch, Tea and Drinks breaks even over the actual action at time. Case in point – lunch taken during an India-South Africa ODI when India needed 2 runs off 31 overs! 

12th Man – Free riding of the year 

Adil Rashid did not bat, did not bowl, did not take a catch and ended up on the winning side of a Test match. 

That was cricketing year 2018, lets see what 2019 has in store for us with a World Cup looming and new international teams coming up all over the globe. 

Wishing all cricket tragics a Happy New Year!

Arbit Stats #46: Opening Low

The ongoing India-Sri Lanka series has been a a bad one for the opening partnerships. After 12 completed opening partnerships, the highest opening stand is 15 - which is the lowest, opening stand in any series featuring three or more Tests ever.

Kudos to Dhammika Prasad, Ishant Sharma and co. for this achievement.

IPL6: The Middle Overs

The IPL madness is well and truly on. Only after some 30 odd game with some 40 plus (or is that 100) still remaining some fatigue has also started creeping in. So like any ODI its time for the boring middle overs. A phase which is not interesting by itself to watch but has quite a big impact going forward. The mind maybe getting a bit IPL-numb but there are still moments thrown up which will be remembered for, if not years, at least one week going forward.

Sir Jadeja - When the Indian captain knights you, you do have to live up to the reputation by coming up with something which mere mortals cant even think of. And thats what happened when Sir Jadeja was on strike with the team needing 2 runs off the last ball. Yet in dramatic circumstances (some would say very fishy), the bowler RP Singh bowls a (big) no ball which "Sir" top edges to third man who catches it while "Sir" crosses over to other end. Result - both teams found celebrating till they realise the real consequence, that Sir Jadeja ensured his team's victory off the last ball with one ball to spare (Go figure). And he turns up next match to create a (then) record for fantasy league points from a single game. And follows it up the very next game by creating a fantasy league record for the maximum negative points from a single game. Not for nothing is he Sir Jadeja.

The Gayle Storm - How the hell does somebody score 175 runs all by himself in a T20 match. I find scoring at such a rate difficult in Stick Cricket.also. Records tumbled in the Gayle storm - Highest individual & team T20 scores, fastest senior level century in any form of the game, most sixes in a T20 innings and what not. Whichever side you support the Gayle storm would have left you stunned and you would have been left applauding at the brutality of it all. Special mention for Bhuvaneswar Kumar who went at an economy rate of under 6 in the face of Gayle storm.

Kohli Gambhir faceoff - Some things should not happen on a cricket pitch. Even though cricket is no longer a Gentleman's game, the Kohli-Gambhir faceoff was ugly. And such things SHOULD NOT happen.

Sunrisers bowling attack - A team with the weakest batting lineup is sitting pretty near the top of the table just because of its sheer bowling prowess. Steyn, Ishant, Mishra & Perera have combined together to successfully defend even the undefendable

Missing Million Dollar Baby - Still no sign of Glenn Maxwell. The team should be getting some return on investment.

The Foreign Captain Conundrum - The teams need Indian captains. A non-performing foreign captain is the biggest liability for any team, given the restriction on number of foreign players (and a very justified one also as it is an "Indian Premier League". Hence we have seen a number of captaining casualties already - Sangakkara, Ponting, Angelo Matthews, Ross Taylor are all sitting out of games. Even Cameron White is not a certainty while Adam Gilchrist is the biggest liability in Kings XI side. Only Jayawardene is justifying his own place in the playing eleven. While RCB had rightly replace Daniel Vettori with Virat Kohli prior to the start of the season

The Jumping Jepang Award for the Biggest Riser -  Aaron Finch - not picked in the original auction, then a late substitute for the injured Michael Clarke, now finds himself leading the Pune Warriors.

Team Tidbits

• The perennial underdogs Rajasthan Royals have made another impressive start to their campaign. Hoping  that unlike last year they don't fizzle out by the end of the season.
• Delhi Daredevils will play a key role in knocking out one of the play-off contestants during mid-May.

And hoping for more intense and proper contests as the race for the play-offs hots up.

Positives from Another 4-nil

I would describe myself as a firm believer in my Indian cricket team. But this Australian tour coming on the back of the hammering received in England has shaken up the Indian cricket supporter in me as well. As the tour went by I had absolutely no enthusiasm in switching on the TV to watch the match. Similarly often forgot about checking the net for the scores while at work. Tried to avoid opening cricinfo on coming back from work. None of the players may have retired so far but after this Australian tour I am certainly thinking of taking retirement from from active cricket following. But within hours of the end in Adelaide came the Pakistani victory in UAE and the enthusiasm got a bit restored.

Everyone I read is going hammer and tongs at the team. Calling for drastic action, yet no one knowing what the action should be. Calls have been made for the seniors to be dropped (me also did the same), some have asked for a ban on IPL (too drastic, too much money), restructuring of the Ranji Trophy (my suggestion 3 levels of 9 teams each, no Duleep trophy or Deodhar Trophy), firing Duncan Fletcher (probably the easiest job and most likely to happen), overhaul of BCCI (how?). 

Oh I digress...

This post was meant to be finding positives from this disaster. And surprisingly I could think of a few. And they are

• The fast bowlers (Zaheer, Ishant, Umesh) stayed fit throughout the 4 tests. And they did have loads of bowling to do in the series. At least someone looks to be doing the job properly.
• We have bowlers who can bowl above 150 Kmph. Ishant & Umesh both crossed the barrier.
• Virat Kohli shows that he has the fight in him. The century in Adelaide should do him some good.
• Zaheer out-sledged Haddin. 
• Shaun Marsh may have been reduced to playing in IPL only or he like a phoenix he may rise from these Ashes and score 30 Test centuries for Australia.
• Ricky Ponting has become more vulnerable and somehow more likeable.
• Sachin Tendulkar not getting the 100th 100. I might be the only Indian supporter who was happy  that SRT did not reach the so called landmark Too much useless hype on a meaningless stat. 
• And...Rahul Dravid gave a good speech to start the tour. CertainlyTHE highlight for India.

Well thats it, no more positives from the series.

P.S. Dear Indian team, please always remember, the Indian fan will always support you. Thanks for all the good memories.

2000th Test: Lords - Day 4 Thoughts

End of Day 4 in the 2000th Test at Lords. 98 overs of play left. India need 378 runs. England 9 wickets. 1st result highly unlikely, 2nd one quite so.

• India left fighting for survival in the first test. Pretty much following the script of our overseas tours. Batting gets derailed, then bowlers unable to close out things or totally ineffective. But this is a 4 test series so we should be able to come back (if needed, that is).
• Clutching at Straws fact - On the last tour in 2007, India survived in Lords with rain washing out the final session and the last wicket pair of Dhoni & Sreesanth at the crease.
• Day 4 of the Lords Test showed why Test Match cricket is so intriguing. England are were they would have wanted to be at the start of the day, eyeing a lead of around 450 and declaring at tea or in the final session. However what they wouldn't have anticipated was collapsing to 62 for 5 and then a 150 + partnership between Prior and Broad bailing them out.
• Matt Prior for the second time in the match pulled England out of a spot of bother, scoring fast without taking too many risks.
• Stuart Broad arrived in the Test with a big question mark on his place. He removed it with both ball and bat.
• Rahul Dravid's celebrations on day 3 after reaching his 100 showed just what these runs meant to him. Also he opened the batting the second time around when he has clearly shown a disdain for it in the past (although why it is so is a mystery as quite often he has been batting in the first over itself) Still anyone out there wanting him to retire?
• Ishant Sharma destroyed the English top order. But then went missing after lunch almost literally. Have to say this, love the sight of an Indian bowler bouncing out the opposition top batsman (Pietersen in this case).
• In an attempt to cut down the scoring rate, Dhoni spread the field but the rate improved. Aren't attacking fields better at saving runs also. Just wondering.
• I like the way Strauss allows his batsmen to reach personal milestones. Bell against Sri Lanka, KP in the first innings, Prior in the 2nd.
• Random Observation - Suresh Raina seems to be always there when a players' celebration is going on. Batsman at other end, as a runner for the batsman, near the bowler or the catching fielder, Raina is always in the frame.
• Now for Day 5 - Can India save the match? Yes we can. Will we save the match. I certainly hope so. Don't want to jinx any of the batsmen so no predictions on the likely centurions.

The 2000th Test - Day 2 Thoughts

Some weird scenes, quite a bit of struggle and some pretty good cricket. These are the thoughts which come into mind after the second day's play at Lords.

• First up the man who scored a double hundred. Kevin Pietersen just about survived thorugh his first few runs on Day 1, then struggled through to his hundred, may or may not have been out caught by Dravid at leg slip but in the end not just stayed on but hammered his way through to an unbeaten double hundred.
• Praveen Kumar was not even considered as Test material till lots of injuries and rests got him selected against the West Indies. And today with Zaheer injured, Ishant and Harbhajan totally clueless about how to take a wicket he led the attack, took a five-for and got his name put on the Lord's honours board. And more importantly bowled almost throughout the dayl.
• Dhoni and Dravid. Given the way his attack was performing, Dhoni himself came onto bowl and didnt do a bad job either. While in his place Dravid came up behind the stumps after many years and again didn't do too bad a job there. Kapil Dev has called this act a mockery of Test cricket. With all due respect to him I dont see how this is the case. Its not as if they started the day with Dhoni bowling. He came only after one full session had been played. A team is struggling and is going about with different options about taking a wicket. In fact to me it showed that like true champion sides, the current Indian team is willing to adjust and adapt to difficult situations.
• Ishant & Harbhajan. Totally ineffective. Combined figures of none for 280 from 67 overs is certainly not a good sign.
• Eoin Morgan's dismissal. On first glance everybody says its out. Morgan himself walks off. Then the Hotspot pictures come in and say the ball brushed the pad but no mark on the bat. If the decision had been challenged it would certainly had been reversed. Only issue Morgan walked off and did not review it because he thought he had edged it. So the incident pretty much opens up the DRS debate again. Technology is certainly not perfect.
• Zaheer's injury just showed how much off a difference he makes to the attack. England can call up Bresnana, Finn, Shahzad if any of their fast bowlers get injured. Whom do we call up Sreesanth, Munaf, Mithun? Hoping he gets fit soon enough. Otherwise its Advantage England for winning the series.
• In the slipstream of Pieteresen's knock, the sledgehammer of eternal justice and this blog's mascot Ian Bell scored an elegant 46 laced with 6 hits to the fence (more on that in a later post).
• Indian openers survived the day. Lets see what they can achieve today.

A Fast Bowling Tale

An India Test tour of the West Indies.

And a tall, fast bowler is battering the batsman with pace and bounce and some swing in

Pretty familiar scene except that this time around its the West Indies batsmen who are at the receiving end. The sight must have definetely gladdened the hearts of the former Indian players who had been at the receing end from the West Indian fast bowling greats all these years.

The sight of Ishant Sharma running through the lineup did make for very good watching from an Indian fan's perspective too. A fast pitch is certainly no more a threat to the Indian teams. Our fast bowlers have begun returning in kind, and in fact performed better than the home ones. Examples like Perth (2007) and Durban (2010) immediately come to mind.

The reurgence of Ishant, the likely return of Zaheer, the newly disocevered test bowling of Praveen and well the craziness of Sreesanth and English conditions. Already anticipating a great series in England.

P.S. Ishant's performance brought back thoughts of "that" ball from Sreesanth.

IPL Thoughts - April 21, 2011

First up, the larger effects of the IPLon the cricketing world. West Indies cricket is suffering, Pollard, Gayle & Dwayne Bravo have more or less decided that IPL is far more important than playing for West Indies. And with the West Indies season always in a partial clash with the IPL, the situation is likely to go worse. In a sad sort of way, it a good that there are not many West Indians who actually are saleable to the IPL franchisees. So most of the team will still be playing for West Indies rather than IPL.

Cricket Sri Lanka, the Lankan players and the BCCI are involved in another tangle. The board wants the team to prepare for England and leave the IPL early, which the players certainly won't like. The issue here seems more to with politics than anyhting else. Otherwise why would everyone associated with a World Cup runner-up team resign immediately after the tournament. On last count, the captain, vice-captain, coach and the selectors have all resigned. And it will all end with the BCCI named as the bad boy and accused of destroying world cricket.

Now some thoughts on the matches

• The trend in the IPL seems to be that the team with the higher points going into a game is likelier to lose. Hence the closed points table. Everyone almost bunched together. A rained off game here and there just adds to the fun.
• The fan loyalties would have been under severe test when Rahul Dravid would have played against RCB in Bangalore. That would have been interesting to watch but the rains played spoilsport.
• Some of the matches are needlessly close. Others just swing around one way or the other. Predictions are becoming more and more difficult here.
• Ravindra Jadeja is the comeback hero for all to see. Probably the most abused cricketer in the country today, he has come back strongly in the IPL after being banned the last season. Taking wickets, scoring runs, hitting big sixes, he is doing it all.
• Manoj Tiwary is another Indian to have impressed so far. One of the unluckiest cricketers, got injured before his likely international debut against Bangladesh in 2007 (place went to Rohit Sharma), he might not make a come back to national contention but is certainly playing well.
• Similar is the case on Venugopal Rao, played a few ODIs for India then slipped out. Now making big runs.
• Ishant Sharma bowling at 150+ was a good sight. Hopefully the company of Dale Steyn might bring his speed back on track.
• With quite a few players likely to be rested for the West Indies ODIs, performances in the IPL could quite likely bring immediate rewards to some. The IPL could act like an extended selection tournament for the Indian team.

P.S. The ICC has finally decided to review its decision on the 2015 World  Cup. A good first step. Lets see what happens next. My views 10 team world cup with evryone playing everyone else is not a bad idea, but there should be a qualification process and everyone has a chance to play there.