The No-Ball

August 16, 2010, Dambulla

India vs Sri Lanka, Micromax Cup, Game 3

India win comfortably by 6 wickets with almost 15 overs to spare and also earning a Bonus Point in the process. The game would however be remembered for the deliberate no-ball bowled by Suraj Randiv to Virender Sehwag with India needing just one run for victory. Sehwag, who was on 99, hit the ball for a six. But given the current laws of the game, the game was deemed over with the no-ball as India had got the run needed for victory. The runs were not awarded to Sehwag and he finished with 99 denying him a well deserved century.

The no-ball was deliberate. No doubts about that.The runs were not counted. However the ball was counted in Sehwag's tally. Sehwag's career tally is now missing a century, a six and has an extra ball. There was a big hue and cry over the incident, specially in the Indian media. The issue might come up again if the qualifications boil down to net run rates. The 6 runs could make a big difference then.

Now just consider this hypothetical scenario. 1 run is needed off the last ball. The batsman hits it in the air and the fielder takes a catch. However during the time the ball was in the air, the batsman have completed a run. So what happens now? Shouldn't the match be over as soon as the first run is completed. Even if the ball had crossed the boundary the batsman would only have been awarded one run. So would he given out? My opinion he is out. But the law is vague enough to keep lawyers busy for ever.Just goes to show the Law is an Ass.

P.S. It seems Sri Lanka Cricket and Suraj Randiv have apologised for the incident. But this was a golden opportunity missed. Enough outrage has been generated to call for banning cricket ties with Sri Lanka, But alas this does not seem to be happening.

August 14

August 14 is a pretty historic day, specially for Indian cricket fans, though not many may be aware of the signficance of the day. I learnt this via cricketwallah's posts on twitter yesterday only. On August 14, 2010, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar scored his first test century. Who would have thought then that 20 years down the line he is still not finished yet.

Dedicating this post to mark the 20th anniversary of the great event.

Here is the link to the highlights of that innings.

Victory & Twitter Trends

India-Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Colombo

On a 5th day pitch India chased down a tricky target quite comfortably. VVS Laxman added another Very Very Special hundred to his CV (I am considering now putting him in my all time Test XI at the no. 5 slot). Sachin played cautiously to anchor the chase while Raina finished off the match in style with a six. Also in the process cementing the no. 6 slot in the current lineup for himself.

It was a pretty good victory. And the euphoria spilled over to the Twitter world. India was as usual showing its internet population might. Laxman, VVS & Raina were in the top 10 trending topics worldwide. This did create some really funny situations. Especially with regards to Raina. Quite a few foreigners confused Suresh Raina for the Korean singer Raina. And they wondered what she had done to be trending (no birthday, boyfriend issues). And Indians were left explaing it was a cricketer.

P.S. My prayers for Indian victory answered but SRT's hundred replaced by VVS's Hundred. Not that I mind :)

The Perfect Test Day

Friday, August 5th, 2010
India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Day 4, Colombo

Its days like today that make Test cricket such a beautiful game. And really missed watching it due to being at work. The day was worth using up a CL though (not that I used it). Followed the scores throughout and sometimes listened to the radio commentary on FM (which was pathetic). 

But what a day. The match was evenly poised with India maybe marginally ahead having taken 2 wickets on Day 3. Sri Lanka leading by 34 with 8 2nd innings wickets in hand. Indian spinners struck early and the Lankans were reduced to 87/7. India were looking set to finish off the a series levelling victory today itself. And then started the fightback. Samaraweera alongwith Malinga and Mendis foughgt back. A 50+ partnership for the 8th wicket and then a century partnership for the 9th and India were set a target of 257 to win. Not impossible but pretty difficult. And having lost the first 3 wickets for 53 its become more difficult for the Indians. Sri Lanka who were looking buried in the first session are now back on top. India now we head into 5th day needing 204 more runs with 7 wickets in hand. 

This match has certainly got a result (unless it rains) but at this stage its not easy to predict who will win. Any thing can happen. And it would be an exciting 5th day for sure. I guess we can say the pitch was perfect for a Test match. Lasted for 5 days, was helpful enough for the bowlers but did not destroy the batsmen (unlike whats happening in England).

Praying for an Indian victory tomorrow (and another SRT century as well)

The Indian Test XI

Cricinfo has been picking the all time greatest Test XIs for all countries. And after an endless wait today they have started the process for picking the Indian Test XI. Here are my picks for the all time best Indian line-up for test matches.

1. Sunil Gavaskar

2. Virender Sehwag

3. Rahul Dravid

4. Sachin Tendulkar

5. Mohammed Azharuddin

6. Kapil Dev

7. Syed Kirmani

8. Anil Kumble

9. Javagal Srinath

10. Bishan Singh Bedi

11. B Chandrasekhar

This was a pretty easy selection. I guess most would agree with at least 9 spots. The only really debatable ones are Azhar & Bedi's spots.

And for the reserves (or the other shortlisted)

Openers - Vijay Merchant, Gautam Gambhir

Middle Order Batsmen - Gundappa Vishwanath, Saurav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Mohinder Amarnath

Wicketkeeper - MS Dhoni, Farokh Engineer

Allounder - Manoj Prabhakar, Vinoo Mankad, Ravi Shastri

Fast Bowlers - Zaheer Khan, Venkatesh Prasad

Spinners - Harbhajan Singh, Venkatraghavan, Prasanna, Subhash Gupte

Now for the captain.
India's best captains Nawab Pataudi Jr. & Saurav Ganguly have missed out being selected in my lineup. 8 of the 11 have captained India in Test cricket. So just going in for Azharuddin as captain. (Hardly lost in India, hardly won abroad)

Lets see what the experts come up with.

Pakistan win: Humble Pie Time

Ok time to eat an humble pie (whatever it is). My prediction for the second test got wrong. Pakistan managed to win by 4 wickets against Australia, though it was far narrower than it sounds. Since the time I made the prediction, the match swung wildly from one team to another. Aamer destroyed the Aussie middle order. Then Paine & Smith consolidated, before Smith went ballistic enhancing my belief in an Australian victory (Aside: Does Steven Smith have the highest batting average for someone making his debut as no. 8 batsman). Pakistan were set a target of 180. Farhat dropped by Watson and then Butt got out. Farhat and Azhar Ali consolidated. And Pakistan seemed to be coasting to victory before Bollinger took out 2 wickets.

When play resumed 4 more Pakistani wickets fell before Gul scored the winning runs. There was acontroversial moment as well wtih Hussey claiming Kamran Akmal's catch. In the end Paksitan just about won.

Ricky Ponting is now ofiicially Australia's worst captain in England.Has lost 2 Ashes series, got knocked out in the 1st round of the T20 World Cup, lost to England in ODI series this year and has now lost a test to Pakistan (first in 15 years). Not that he is a bad player or captain. Its just a statistical anamoly.

P.S. This deserved a 3 test series. They should have dropped those 2 mindless T20s at the start of the tour and made it a 3 test series. But will the ICC listen?

Prediction Time: Pakistan-Australia, Headingley Test

MCC Spirit of Cricket Series

Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd Test, Headingley

(At stumps Day 2, Aus 88/10, Pak 258/10, Aus 136/2)

As I write this, Australia are trailing by 34 runs at the end of Day 2 with 8 2nd innings wickets in hand. After their terrible performance in the first innings (shot out for 88), not many would have given them a chance to win. But at the end of Day 2, they are the ones who will call the shots. Pakistan are seemingly ahead at the moment. But memories of Sydney earlier this year are too fresh for anyone to make a heavy bet on them winning. After all the team currently down is Australia who have made a habit of making comebacks from seemingly hopeless situations (which is why they are a champion side). And they are facing Pakistan who define unpredictability (And Australia haven't lost a test to Pakistan in a long long time). Given the match situation, Ponting and Clarke looking in good touch and Hussey yet to come and Pakistan's self-destructing batsmen (as evident in all 3 previous innings on this tour, losing wickets in a heaps to Watson & North, Australia's 5th & 6th bowlers), I can safely predict an Australia win for this match.

P.S. I like the name of the series, far better than the other test series going on (Micromax series)

800 and Gone

India vs Sri Lanka, 2010, 1st Test, Galle.

Muttiah Muralitharan had announced that he would be retiring after this match. The all time highest wicket taker was 8 short of 800 wickets. And as I had predicted in my previous post, he did take those 8 wickets. Pragyan Ojha, whatever he may go on to do in his cricketing career will always be remembered as Murali's 800th and last test victim. The landmark was reached in almost perfect manner possible. Ojha was the last Indian batsman dismissed. India had a very small lead which the Lankan openers reached without any trouble.

Murali's fairytale retirement marks the end of a legendary test career. No other bowler may probably even come close to his tally of wickets. (There was a column in cricinfo which showed how much better he was over other bowlers). He was one of the major reasons in making Sri Lanka the force they are now in world cricket. He had his controversial moments. The chucking allegations never went away since he was no-balled in Australia. He was labelled a chucker though tests proved otherwise. In fact his bowling probably improved after the allegations. But off the field there was never any single controversy. 

Muralitharan will not bowl in Tests ever again. The unorthodox action will not be seen nor will those bulging eyes. Time to bid adieu to a true legend of the game. That there was more interest in whether he would reach the 800 mark than if India could save the match shows the level of respect for him. In fact many Indians (yours truly included) wished for rain to help save India the Test but only after Murali had got the 2 wickets to reach to 800.

Goodbye Muralitharan.

Here We Go Again

After having spent a month watching, mostly unknown footballers in action in the World Cup, its time now to move on to a bit more familiar territory. India - Sri Lanka cricket matches. :P

So its a 3 match series between 2 teams who must be really bored of playing each other.

The first match is also going to be Muttiah Muralitharan's last test for his country. 792 wickets.Will he get to the 800 mark? I think so. Its time to salute one of the greats of the game (forget the controversial action, he is a a true LEGEND).

Series forecast - Given the state of India's bowling line-up, Sri Lanka to win 2-0.

Cricket is back

The World Cup football is finally getting over tonight. It was fun while it lasted. And unlike cricket it is a pretty simple game. So simple, in fact that an octopus has been correctly predicting the match results. 

And now for the cricketing action. There is an Australian tour of Pakistan going on in England right now. There is Bangladesh tour of England also going on simultaneously. And India A and West Indies A were also playing there. So England is the place to be if you are a cricket fan. 

Bangladesh finally managed to beat England at senior international level yesterday with a 5 run victory in the 2nd ODI. Now they have victories against all the test playing countries in some format of the game. It was a bit surprising though England should have been the final frontier for them. 

In the World Cricket League Ireland continue to prove that they are currently the best Associate team.

And my team India is going to play again (:)). And they are playing a 3 match test series (:D). They are going to play Sri Lanka (again :( wtf ). Can India-Sri Lanka matches be banned?

P.S. this is the 50th post in this blog.