IPL 2020 - Passing Thoughts

"It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair” - Nelson Mandela 

This can be said about the 2020 IPL also. In these most bizarre times, sport by itself does not mean much tangible – after all it does not provide a vaccine or make the virus magically go away but it provide a break from the mad news cycle and yes that tiny little flicker of happiness in these depressing times. Purely coincidental it may have been, and certainly there have been better, factors in play, but since the IPL began the graph of the number of daily cases has taken a downward turn. 

Thanks to entire organizing team, the players and all the support staff for providing this welcome distraction. It certainly looks a herculean task shifting the entire tournament outside with all the covid-19 restrictions in place. 

So just jotting down my thoughts about the events of the IPL 2020 both on & off the field. 

The old order changeth giving rise to new & the more things change the more they remain the same. Two contradictory themes yet both hold true in this IPL. 

• The new boys made a name for themselves. An Indian uncapped XI can certainly hold its own in the international front. Hers is my pick for such a lineup - Paddikal, Gaikwad, Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Tewatia, Priyam Garg, Samad, Varun Chakravarthy, Natarajan, Bishnoi, Tyagi. Some of them are knocking on the India doors. 
• Chennai Super Kings failed to make the play-offs for the first time; Delhi Capitals made the Final for the first time and Rajasthan Royals finished bottom of the league for the first time. 
• Shane Watson bids farewell to the cricket – one of the true IPL heroes. Meanwhile Raina & Harbhajan skipped this year’s tournament. Not sure if we would see them again in the field. 
• Aaron Finch played for his 8th IPL franchisee this season. Given his age looks set to be heading to CSK soon! 
• Which brings us to CSK’s side. In this no IPL for old men, poor Sam Curran was given all the jobs, sometimes a finisher, opening the batting and the bowling and even death bowling! 
• Same was the case of his English team-mate Jofra Archer, the tournament MVP. One end he was bowling thunderbolts and at the other end the likes of Unadkat, Aaron & Rajput leaking runs! 
• Raw pace works best – Alongwith Archer the likes of Rabada, Nortje, Shami, Bumrah, Ferguson and Boult all made a mark. Especially heartening to see a couple of Indian names in this list. 
• The Indian finishers are still missing. The big hitters are not consistent enough although the Pandya brothers, Axar and Jadeja do show some promise. 
• However, we can put in a wicket-keepers top 6 –Rahul, Saha, Samson, Kishan, Pant & Karthik certainly makes for a power-packed lineup. 
• Professional sport has fine margins – imagine Super Overs also not yielding results. And that short run called against Kings XI made a difference in them being knocked out. That’s an area where the 3rd umpire should take more initiative. Why have all the technology in place and not use it. Any on-field error which can be corrected by a single replay should be done so. 
• New Zealand can now try using Lockie Ferguson instead of going to Southee for the Super Overs 
• The new star - Rahul Tewatia who made completing seemingly impossible chases, not once but twice! 
• The celebration - Thanks to Riyan Parag for making the Bihu dance mainstream. 
• The new frontier - Chris Gayle was benched, then hospitalized, then batted at No. 3 and breached the mark of 1,000 T20 career sixes. Not for nothing he is the Universe Boss! 
• What could have been – Ali Khan became the first USA player to be picked up by an IPL squad but then got injured without getting a game. 
• What’s with the number of fantasy leagues & gaming apps mushrooming all over. While it is fun and in the legal grey area, the authorities need to be on high alert for keeping the corrupt in check. 
• Finally, Rest In peace Professor Deano – the voice of the Select Dugout! His commentary will be missed 

There is now an IPL shaped void in the daily schedule. The Australia tour can’t come soon enough

Arbit Stats #71: A Series of Numbers

From the University of WhatsApp came this test.

And with it came a helpful hint –."difference between each letter may or may not be the same but there is an underlying pattern i.e. difference between A & B, B & C, C & D to M & N follow a pattern. Some numbers may have to be force fitted" 

It was an interesting exercise, cracked only once the pattern had been guessed. And then reverse fitting the numbers to famous (or not so famous) cricketing instances. The difference between the consecutive numbers are in Fibonacci sequence (each being the sum of the previous two differences). So here are the solutions

A - 181 – Sir Vivian Richards vs Sri Lanka in the 1987 World Cup helping West Indies to 360 to record a 191-run victory. Richards got his 181 off 125 balls while Desmond Haynes scored a more sedate 105 off 124 balls!

 

B - 181 – Matthew Hayden’s 181 helped Australia to 346 which was overhauled by the Kiwis. After suffering a whitewash in the series Australia went to go on to win the 2007 World Cup with another undefeated run! 

C - 182 – Mohammed Azharuddin top-scored in Eden Gardens in 1993 to set the tone for 3-0 whitewash against England and rescue his captaincy. 

D - 183 – India’s team total in the 1983 World Cup final. And they won comfortably by 43 runs. New Zealand got the same score in the 2015 final and were thrashed! 

E - 185 – Shane Watson's blitzkrieg helped overhaul Bangladesh’s 229 in just 26 overs! Wonder where Watson would have ended up if he had played the full 50 overs. 

F - 188 – Gary Kirsten vs UAE in the 1996 World Cup. A match also remembered for the UAE skipper Sultan Zarawani coming out to face Alan Donald without a helmet and promptly getting knocked in the head. 

G - 193 - Netherlands stunning run-chase vs Ireland in 2014 T20WC. They needed to chase a target of 190 in under 14 overs which is exactly what they did to go through to the next round. A chase which was replicated a few weeks later in the IPL by Mumbai Indians against Rajasthan Royals (the famous Dravid cap throwing incident) 

H - 201 - Jason Gillespie came in as a nightwatchman and got a double century against Bangladesh. Got the Man of the Match & Series Awards for his efforts. And never played another Test for Australia! 

I - 214 – the 3rd highest score on Test debut – by Lawrence Rowe for West Indies vs New Zealand & Matthew Sinclair for New Zealand vs West Indies. Behind Tip Foster’s 287 & Jacques Rudolph’ 232 

J - 235 - Virat Kohli vs England

K - 269 - Kohli is 269th Indian test player and hence the tattoo. 

L - 324 - Waheed Mirza’s score in the 561 run opening partnership with Mansoor Akhtar for Karachi Whites against Quetta breaking the record of 555 made by Holmes & Sutcliffe 45 years previously. No one else needed to bat for Karachi as they recorded an innings & 294 run victory 

M - 413 – Opening partnership of Vinoo Mankad & Pankaj Roy against New Zealand. A record which stood for over half a century. 

N - 557 – Clarrie Grimmett Test runs aggregate. His record for fastest to 200 wickets was finally broken by Yasir Shah after Ashwin nearly threatened to break it. 

This was one wicked quiz. Cricket’s obsession with statistics makes it truly a mathematician’s delight.

The Twenty15 Line-up

With the last day’s play of the year approaching, Slipstream Cricket presents the cricketing XI of Twenty15 A.D.

1. Pink Ball 
30th November, 2015: The first ever ball bowled using a pink ball in international cricket. History was witnessed. It was well received and hopefully it will open up Test cricket to more audiences.

The First Pink Ball

2. Australia - The World Champions

At their home turf, Australia regained the World Cup, while New Zealand became everyone’s favorite second team. Special mention - The Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum’s letters requesting leave for his supporters & asking for Indian fans to support the Kiwis in the finals.

3. Picture of the Year 

Grant Elliott smashes Dale Steyn for a six and then comes down the pitch to offer his hand to the bowler who is lying flat on his back. A better picture for sportsmanship could hardly have come.

4. Corruption
The cricketing world continues to reel with corruption charges. Some more players and officials got banned. N Srinivasan, the ICC & BCCI chief honcho had to step down because of Supreme Court intervention. 2 IPL teams were suspended. A Test match was conducted by an independent judge. Chris Cairns faced a perjury trial in London where his own team-mates gave evidence against him. While he was acquitted, the charges made by the likes of McCullum, Vettori and Ponting do not really absolve him in the public eyes. And there were many other unfounded allegations. Mohammed Aamir is back after serving a 5-year ban and his own team-mates are not exactly happy on his return
The corruption net is only growing wider.

5. Safety First
Umpire Paschim Pathak wore a helmet while officiating in a Vijay Hazare Trophy match. Given the increasing number of on-field incidents it is a good idea and hopefully others will also emulate him.

6. Cricketing Promos
It was a great year for the cricket promotional campaigns with Star Sports mauka series and the Ashes promo “We didn’t start the fire" being standout ones.

7. The Afghan fairy tale continues
Afghanistan became the first Associate to beat a full member in a bilateral series by beating Zimbabwe. They continued their rise by breaking into the Top 10 of the ODI rankings by the year-end. They bring a ray of hope into the increasingly murky world of cricket. Certainly deserve Test Status alongwith Ireland.

8. Contest of the Year – Wahab Riaz vs Shane Watson
It was an attritional battle with Shane Watson managing to see through the Wahab Riaz spell in the World Cup Quarter-final. It was fiery and engrossing spell in the midst of an ordinary match.

9. The English Turnaround
England entered the World Cup and then made a quick exit after getting hammered by all and sundry. The whole cricketing world came as one to have a good laugh at the English expense with the likes of Malaysia, Singapore & Japan challenging them for a game on their return. But fortunes turned around as a revamped England ODI team started playing brave cricket and registering big victories. Brave cricket basically meaning selecting players who could belt the ball to all corners of the ground from the word go. A philosophy the rest of the world had adopted some 20 years back.

10. Comment of the Year
Kumara Sangakkara was an under-achiever – so said none other than his own father. All this after nearly 28, 000 international runs (:O)

11. Arbit Stat of the Year - 542
That is Adam Voges’s current batting average against the West Indies. A statistical anamoly which will get corrected in due course if West Indies start thinking about playing Test Cricket

12th Man - Ian Bell
The patron saint of Slipstream Cricket lost his Test place after announcing his ODI retirement. It will be a pity if this was the last that we had seen of him in international cricket. After all he does hold some unique records like being the highest ODI run-getter for England and the only English player to win the Ashes 5 times.

That’s all for the year. Wishing all readers a very Happy cricketing year 2016.

HomeWorkGate

In team sports its not uncommon to hear of players getting dropped on disciplinary grounds. Generally the charges are obvious (drinking, brawling, drugs), sometimes not-so-obvious (intra-team issues, personal rifts) but never has a reason such seemingly as frivolous as HomeWorkGate been given.

It came as a shock when it was announced that Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khwaja will not be taking part in the 3rd Test against India. on disciplinary grounds. And the  intensity increased when the "disciplinary grounds" on which they had been dropped were made public. In summary, players had been asked to give three points on how to improve the team (quite understandable given that they were coming from back-to-back losses). And these 4 gentlemen had failed to "present" their views in the time given.

My first reaction was laughter. The intensity of the punishment and the "crime" had seemingly no correlation. Barred from playing for not submitting homework on time sounds extremely schoolboyish and not something expected from a professional, international sports team. Though if you want to have an extreme view, the concerned players' approach wasn't professional either. Failing to complete the assigned task on time would call for censure in any corporate environment. Professional sport hardly need to be any exception to this. Yet making all this public wasn't certainly the best way to go.

Which makes us one think whether there is more to it than meets the eye. The case looks complicated coming after the recent sudden retirement of Mike Hussey. Shane Watson leaving the country, James Pattinson publicly accepting his mistake. There is too much dirty linen being washed in public. Cricket Australia needs to control the "innovative thinkers" who are becoming their coaches. Michael Clarke and Mickey Arthur certainly have a lot to answer for.

I do not even pretend to know what are the goings-on in the Aussie dressing room, but the events over the past couple of days have certainly made the Australian team the butt of many jokes. Former Baggy Greens are shocked and the arch-enemy English are rolling around laughing on the cricket pitch (Great time for the Kiwis to surprise them). But we Indians should stay focused lest we lose laughing in the Mohali Test starting tomorrow.

To sum up - there is something rotten in the state of Australian cricket. (A line I normally used in the context of Pakistani cricket) 

T20 World Cup - 2012 Review

Apparently a T20 Champions League is currently underway in South Africa. Quite a misnomer given that some of the Champion teams had to play in the qualifying while a 4th place finish gets a direct entry for some one else. BCCI be a little less greedy. Get 4 IPL teams but restrict direct entry to only two.

Also this is a perfect example of cricket overdose, coming as it does close on the heels of the T20 World Cup. I have hardly been following the Champions league. And am sure there are many other ardent fans who are also suffering from this excess.

Now for the main agenda for this post. Here are some thoughts on the T20 World Cup with a little focus on the Indian performance.

West Indies winning was liked all around. They certainly brought joy to all the cricket followers  through the "Gangnam style" cricket. But will this mark a turnaround in their fortunes. I don't think so,  given that most of the current West Indies lot is more interested in performing in one T20 league or the other across the world. Will the likes of Pollard, Gayle, Bravo, Sunil Naraine show the same commitment when matches of West Indies clash with the Big Bash or IPL etc?

Sri Lanka again lost in a major final (4th in last 5 years). But they have certainly been the most consistent of all teams in the limited overs format.

There was a strategic decision by Mahela Jayawardene to handover the captaincy to Kumara Sangakkara to avoid getting a ban. A move which raised a few eyebrows about the slow over-rate rule. Tony Grieg, the Cheerleader-in-chief of Sri Lanka went all gungho hailing this "tactical" move by the Sri Lankan team management. I don't have any issue as all this was not illegal. But what about the "Spirit of Cricket" nonsense which Mr. Grieg had harped on about earlier this year at the MCC lecture. In my opinion, Mr. Greig if this is not hypocrisy, then I wonder what is?

Shane Watson was a deserving Man of the Series. One player who certainly owes a lot to the IPL

A pattern has been observed in the tournament winners. They generally have very bad starts to the tournament. In fact, 3 of them have gone on to win the tournament without even a single win in the first phase. Here are the opening round performances of the 4 winners

• 2007 - India - 1 No result, 1 Tie (win in bowl-out)
• 2009 - Pakistan - 1 loss, 1 win 
• 2010 - England - 1 Loss, 1 No Result 
• 2012 - West Indies - 1 Loss, 1 No Result

ICC needs to review the necessity of a Super Over in League stages. Use it in the knock-outs, but why is required at all in a League game? A tie is after all a perfectly acceptable result in any league format across sports.

England, I am worried about you. If you could make Piyush Chawla look like Shane Warne, then a 4-nil thrashing is in the offing in India. Have to admit that the better players of spin (Pietersen, Cook, Trott, Bell)weren't in the squad. Which begs the question, why weren't they there?

Now for India. The team doesn't give the feeling of a team at all. A few thoughts on the Indian performance.

• Batting has become Virat Kohli + support. Only if, just in case, Kohli might have an off day (an increasingly rare occurence), the batting collapses completely. 
• There were some very strange team selections. The presence of Piyush Chawla, absence of Umesh Yadav/Praveen Kumar. Manoj Tiwary being forever benched. Rohit Sharma getting game after game. Irfan Pathan opening when there are 6 other specialist batsmen waiting in the dug-out. Quite logic defying.
• One highlight was the return to fitness, though not complete form of Yuvraj Singh. His return from cancer is certainly more than just cricket.
• Dhoni is looking weary. Its said captains have a shelf life. He seems to be at the end of his. All this non-stop cricket is certainly taking a toll. But no replacement seems to be ready to take over the mantle from him.
• Yet insite of all this, India did win 4 out of the 5 games they played. So there is hope.
• And yes, we continue our DOMINANCE over Pakistan in the World Cups (:D)

So these were my thoughts on the Gangnam style World Cup.

P.S. More than the Champions League, what I have been following is the ongoing Duleep Trophy. To be covered in the next post.

This is BLASPHEMY, MADNESS, NEWLANDS

A memorable scene from the movie 300 comes to mind (a score which is unthinkable here)

After the events in Newlands this is is what would have been the conversation

THIS IS BLASPHEMY, THIS IS MADNESS said the batsmen.

The bowlers would have said - THIS IS NEWLANDS.

An insane day of Test cricket in Cape Town. The scorecard resembles a 19th century test match. To sum up the events 23 wickets fell, all 4 innings took place on the same day, both teams were knocked out for less than a 100, Australia at 21/9 were in real danger of recording the lowest score ever in the history of Test matches, the last wicket added more than the 1st 9 combined, and in the 4th innings the batsmen settled down as if nothing had happened. What happened after lunch, did pitch transform into a snake-pit? And then quietened down after the Aussie innings. Also there were an extra-ordinary numbers of decisions overturned via DRS while Shane Watson recorded almost T20 type of bowling figures. And to round off a crazy day, Michael Hussey dropped  a simple catch of Hashim Amla of the last ball of the innings.

In this context, I can safely say Michael Clarke's 151 has to be one of the greatest innings of all times. Nathan Lyon & Peter Siddle's 26 runs partnership maybe just helped the pitch ease out a bit. Should Australia have declared then? Dont know but certainly an interesting day's play ahead.

P.S. Wonder if ICC's pitch committee has to say anything about this pitch. Recently Kotla & Galle have received lots of criticism. Wonder what will said about this one.

World Cup Quarter-final Predictions

Its Prediction Time

The quarter-final line-up has been finally settled. The matches in the league did not exactly fit into any pattern. But they did show that the unpredictable can happen in a matter of overs. New Zealand's 92 run blast in 4 overs against Pakistan, India's 29/9 collapse against South Africa or West Indies fading away against England. All showed that games can turn around in a matter of few balls. There are enough players who can take the game away from any opposition at any time. Someone like Zaheer Khan can turn it in just one magical ball (Andrew Strauss & Devon Smith will certainly vouch for this). All this just shows that predicting the winners on a given day isn't an easy task. So here are my predictions for the 4 Quarter-Finals.

QF1 - Pakistan vs West Indies

Predicting a Pakistan game is like predicting the unpredictable. On the plus side, they have a well rounded bowling attack with all kinds of bowlers available to them and a deep batting lineup with Razzaq coming in at No. 8. On the minus, they have Kamran Akmal behind the stumps (enough said). Add general pathetic fielding and a top order which does not provide any confidence. Against them are the West Indies, who have collapsed from eminently winnable positions against England & India. Roach and Gayle can change the game on their own though.

Prediction - Pakistan should win. (or Kamran Akmal drops a catch of Gayle who the unleashes mayhem,  then any result can happen)

QF2 - India vs Australia

Australia are the enemy No. 1 in the eyes of the Indian cricket fan. They have a real FAST bowling attack and Shane Watson. Apart from that they have Ponting's tantrums and a hopeless spin attack. India on the other hand have a much vaunted batting lineup, which tends to collapse after the 40th over, and Zaheer Khan.  India have done every thing they could to make sure that they are not considered as favorites by anyone. But they are still the bookies favored ones to win the Cup. 

Prediction - India to win. (I am an Indian, what else would I say?)

QF3 - New Zealand vs South Africa

Seemingly the easiest of the lot to predict. South Africa to stroll to a win. They have better batsman, better fast bowlers, and surprisingly even better spinners than New Zealand. But this is a knock out stage and they have a tendency to, umm... choke (:P) (On the other hand they might have taken care of that choke against England). And if something like 92 runs in 4 overs happens, then who knows.

Prediction - South Africa

QF4 - Sri Lanka vs England

Sri Lanka playing in Sri Lanka. They should win.  But they are up against England who have proved to be the real jokers of the tournament. Had 6 close games when quite a few others barely had 1. The teams they lost to did not qualify for the knock-out while having an unbeaten record against those which did. And they have provided 6 entertaining games on the trot. 

Prediction - Sri Lanka (though want England to win for the sheer entertainment they have provided)

Disclaimer: I am no octopus, just a mere mortal human being. So I could be wrong :)

World Cup Thoughts - Feb 26th

Finally a good game between Ireland & Bangladesh, taking the count for good games to 2 out of 9 played so far (Netherlands-England being the other one). And both my predictions made yesterday came true. Here are the thoughts for today.

• The groups are looking more and more lopsided. The stronger Associates have landed in a group which was already far more competitive than the other. West Indies, Bangladesh, England & Ireland are fighting for 2 QF slots with the Dutch also a tough team.
• New Zealand - Zimbabwe match is going to be the decider for the 4th quarter-final spot in Group A, and I have a feeling that Zimbabwe might sneak in.
• This is going to be a spin dominated world cup. Except Australia everyone is playing more and more spinners.
• I was watching the post-match show after the South Africa - West Indies game. There was a discussion on the issue of taking the fielder's word for low catches. Saurav Ganguly then recalled an incident from a test played in 2008 when he took the fielder's  word for a low catch and walked. However the ball had touched the ground and India went on to lose the Test. He did not name the fielder or even the opposition but it was obvious which match he was referring to. The Sydney Test (monkeygate scandal) of 2008 still hurts every single Indian player involved in that game. Maybe thats the reason India haven't lost to Australia in a single Test match since then (Played - 8, Won - 5, Draw - 3).
• Fantasy Team performed well with both trumps Watson & Tamim putting on a good show. Tamim's Man of the Match award was a bit surprising given Shafiul Islam's late spell, but I am not complaining.
• Today's prediction - Pakistan are playing, can't predict the unpredictable but they should win.

World Cup Thoughts - Feb 22nd

After 4 boring matches finally a close one. Netherlands certainly embarrassed England though they just did not have the bowling attack to beat them. While Australia certainly proved too good for Zimbabwe. Here are some random thoughts

• Ryan ten Doeschate (RTD) was awesome with the bat and the ball. But if he had not misjudged that Ravi Bopara six shot, who knows what could have happened next.
• The ICC qualification rules for players do need an overhaul. Or else playing for country will soon become similar to playing for a club.
• If Dirk Nannes had still been playing for Netherlands, things certainly could have been different.
• Shane Watson is now the Aussie for all season.
• Australia cant play spin.
• Ricky Ponting's behaviour is certainly tarnishing his legacy. Breaking a TV now ???
• After a pathetic start my cricinfo fantasy team finally has taken off in style (Thanks to Watson & RTD)
• RTD has to be a good batsman. He has "ten" in his name. (After all we do know what a certain batsman whose surname starts with "TEN" is capable off)

World Cup boring so far. Where are the big matches? ICC has to be blamed for some atrocious scheduling.

And finally, thoughts are with people in New Zealand who have been impacted by the earthquake there.