The Line-up from Twenty13

Like most other things, the cricketing year 2013 is also coming to an end. So here is an year-end list. Just giving it some cricketing context by making an eleven to remember for (or not) from Twenty13.

1. The final one

Sachin Tendulkar c Darren Sammy b Narsingh Deonarine 74

Thats how a 200 test career ended on the scorebooks. There was a little more to come when he gave a touching farewell speech calling it his "life between 22 yards for 24 years" Millions of fans also promptly announced their retirement from watching the game. (How many kept this promise during the Johannesburg Test is a matter of conjecture). (Click here and here for Slipstream Cricket's coverage of the last match)

2. Fairy tale beginnings

Australia are in major trouble. 9 down facing up to a huge deficit in the opening game of the Ashes. A 19 year old, who wasn't even originally picked in the squad, comes into bat on debut. And then proceeds to score 98, the highest ever by a number 11. Its the stuff fairytales are made of. However Ashton Agar's career did not really take off. There is still plenty of time for it though.

3. The Power of the Moustache

Shikhar Dhawan had played for India before,but he only exploded on the scene, twirling his moustache, this year. Ravindra Jadeja transformed from the being the most abused one to to now being a  revered one. David Warner returns from Zimbabawe and starts scoring Test centuries. Mitchell Johnson from a Barmy Army punching bag becomes the sledgehammer  who destroys England. The only thing in common between all these characters is the Moustache. 

4. To Walk or Not to Walk - That is the Question

Stuart Broad edges Ashton Agar (he of the fairy-tale start from 2 above) into the waiting first slip. Umpire Dar does not raise his finger. Australia have used up all their reviews, Broad does not walk. The social media erupts declaring that this is as big an incident as Bodyline. The Spirit of Cricket (whatever that is) is called into question. Everyone jumps into the debate. Meanwhile the most common sense solution (empowering the TV umpire to initiate decision making) is not even breathed about. 

5. The Irony

We are living in an era where the health of the game is being questioned. Test cricket is supposed to be dying due the arrival of ODI cricket, which in turn is dying to the arrival of T20 cricket and the non-death of Test cricket. Then we had the Champions Trophy's last edition (as of now) this year. The tournament was keenly contested raising ratings. But being held in England rain also joined the party redcuing the final (of all games) to a 20 over contest. The Irony...

6. The Fixing Saga

Sreesanth, Chandila, Chavan arrested during IPL, Ashraful banned, 3 former Kiwi internationals facing Anti-corruption inquiries, Umpire Rauf getting dropped from the international panel, Team owners facing illegal betting charges, bookies attempting to buy franchisee in Sri Lankan Premier League (which failed to take-off). The fixing saga continues but the corrupt are being weeded out. Can it be completely eradicated? Well human greed has no limitations but "constant vigilance" is what is needed to keep the game as clean as possible.

7. Homework Gate

4 Australian cricketers are dropped from the squad ... for not completing a presentation on how to improve the team. No wonder they were absolute rubbish at that time. Not too much after the coach was the one who got dropped and slowly the team also rediscovered its mojo.

8. Karma bites back

England were all gung ho after winning the 3rd consecutive Ashes. They celebrations ended with some of the team members taking a leak on the Oval pitch displaying no sense of respect for the hallowed turf. Well karma came back  to bite them and since then England have been humiliated by the same opponents in the next 4 matches.

9. Pakistani Enigma

The Pakistan team performs like a sine curve. Hitting rock bottom and then immediately scaling new heights. The same set of players can lose a Test to Zimbabwe (who are struggling to arrange a match) and then a couple of weeks later beat up the top ranked South Africa. And to ensure that the sine curve is complete they lost to South Africa in the very next Test.

10. The Associates battle on

The likes of Ireland and Afghanistan continue to keep the Associate flag fluttering. Although they face severe resistance from the big 10. England keep stealing Irish players and using them (Morgan & Rankin) to beat them. A 16 nation qualifying tournament is held to find 6 Associates who get to play in the qualifying rounds for the next T20 World Cup. Yet the likes of Irealnd, Afghanistan, Nepal et al keep on playing. Guess they are the truly passionate cricketing countries.Hats off to the Associates.

11. Comeback of the Year

From who else but the ever-youth comeback kid, the one and only Shahid Afridi. After having retired for the 20th time in the past 20 years, he comes back to the national squad and destroys West Indies with bat and ball. 76 runs (coming in at 47/5) and following it up with a 7 wicket haul . If not the greatest all-round ODI performance, this surely has to be the greatest all-round comeback performance of all time. May he keep retiring and coming back.

12. The 12th Man (a purely cricketing concept)

For the 12th man presenting some off-field action. Here is a video of Brett Lee trying to kill bowling an over at Piers Morgan. 

Well that was the line-up from the year as we bid farewell to the legend Jacques Kallis who retires in the ongoing Durban Test. Wishing for good cricket in the next year.

Wishing all readers a very happy and prosperous new year ahead.

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand vs Vidarbha

Match Summary: Jharkhand (332 & 161/9d) drew with Vidarbha (218 & 164/3)

Points: Jahrkhand 3, Vidarbha 1

Not a great performance overall but Jharkhand take away 3 crucial points from their encounter against Vidarbha. For a change Saurabh Tiwary failed, albeit only in the 1st innings but also for a change the likes of Nemat, Jaggi and Kumar Deobrat helped to prop the innings. Samar Quadri then recorded the best season fugures by any Jharkhand bowler to give a chance for an outright victory. But a familiar second innings collapse put paid to such hopes. They did set a target of 276 runs but Vidarbha ran out of time and the game petered out into a draw.

Season Stats:

Leading Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary - 815 runs @74.09

Top Wicket-taker: Varun Aarom - 18 wickets @20.28

Standings: 9 points from 7 games. Moved upto 8th place. Relegation fight with bottom placed Haryana (7 points) is on. 

Coming Up Next - Last game of the season. Against Punjab who have the likes of  Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Manpreet Gony and Jiwanjot Singh in their ranks. The match could be quite critical to avoid being relegated back to Group C. 

P.S. If you are a Jharkhand fan, you might like to keep an eye on Haryana's last game against Odisha.

Arbit Stats - 28: Cook + Clarke = SRT

3rd Ashes Test, Perth

The two opposing captains Michael Clarke and Alastair Cook are both playing in their 100th Test in the ongoing game in which England is heading for another walloping. Now given cricket's obsession with statisitics it was, but natural, that the two batsmen's numbers would be compared. And their batting stats are pretty similar. Not much to choose between the two here. However some really "bored" soul went a step further and added the two figures up. And lo and behold something magical happened. Sometime in the Test, the Cook & Clarke's combined career aggregates (matches, runs and centuries) added up exactly to those of the only man to play 200 Tests. Our own Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. And a stats obsessed and trivia loving social media ensured that such a "unique" aggregation of numbers doesn't go unnoticed by anyone.

Guess Cook got inspired by this uniqueness and got out for a golden duck in the second innings.

In summary

Alastair Cook           (100 Tests, 7955 runs, 25 centuries)

+ Michael Clarke     (100 Tests, 7966 runs, 26 centuries)

= Sachin Tendulkar  (200 Tests, 15921 runs, 51 centuries)

To "celebrate" such a "unique" stat, Slipstream Cricket is going to make its own "arbit" prophecy. 

The unique circumstance where "stars" are numerologically aligned, a child will be born who will break all existing and future batting records. 

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand vs Mumbai

Match Summary: Jharkhand (351 & 278/7d) drew with Mumbai (278 & 115/5)

Points: Jharkhand 3, Mumbai 1

How happy does a fan feel, when his team, the perennial underdogs gives a bloody nose to the top dog in their backyard? Well, being a Jharkhand Ranji follower this was the almost fairy-tale like game of the season. 

40 times Ranji champion Mumbai were playing without most of their stars. But they were up against a Jharkhand lineup which has been totally spineless with the exception of Saurabh Tiwary. And they lived true to form. The batting lineup collapsed around Saurabh Tiwary and it seemed that we were headed for another defeat. But then No.10 SS Rao decided to hang around while Tiwary decided to launch into his "Dhoni" avatar. A score of 238 out of a total of 351 has to be one of the best Ranji knocks of all time. Well, statistically it was the highest first class score ever by a Jharkhand batsman breaking teammate Ishank jaggi's record. The knock seemed to have a morale-boosting effect on the bowlers as well. Aaron's pace was too hot to handle even for the likes of Wasim Jaffer while skipper Nadeem also rediscovered his mojo. Against all odds Jharkhand took the first innings lead.

Second time around jharkhand threatened to collapse again but this time Jaggi shored up the innings with a century. probably losing his record to Tiwary was the motivation. In my mind Jharkhand messed up a good winning chance by delaying the declaration. They had Mumbai on the mat but then ran out of time. 

Quite a few takeaways from this "moral" victory. Saurabh Tiwary has been consistency personified in this season with 6 50s from 8 innings but this was a truly sensational performance. He also became the top scorer in this Ranji season. 

Aaron's pace and form are being discussed all over again. A couple of more consistent performances for the the rest of the season and there is good chance, he might be back in the national team for the New Zealand tour early next year

Season Stats

Leading Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary - 761 runs @84.56

Top Wicket-taker: Varun Aarom - 17 wickets @18.06

Standings: 6 points from 6 games. Still at 9th place but equal on points with Haryana. Relegation still a very distinct possibility

Coming Up Next - Jharkhand sit out the next round of games before taking on Vidarbha at home. Good chance to score a win there given that Umesh Yadav will not be available.

Arbit Stats - 27

December 5, 2013 - India vs South Africa ODI in Johannesburg.

While India got hammered by the South Africans, they still managed to create a couple of quirky records. And more importantly in the true spirit of a team game that cricket is, this time the records were also collective ones in nature.

1 - When Shikhar Dhawan scored the first runs of the Indian innings he not only opened his and the team's run account but in the process took India past Australia in the aggregate ODI runs scored tally. India is now ODI cricket's leading run getter as a team.

2 - India became the first team to hit 2000 sixes in ODI cricket when Dhoni hit Morkel out of the park.

Well, bad result on the day. Yet we managed to create a couple of "important" and totally useless statistics in the process.

On a more sombre note, Slipstream Cricket is saddened by the passing away of Mr. Nelson Mandela, who was one of the greatest human beings ever born. Also without whose struggles, apartheid in South Africa may not have ended and the South African sporting ban could have gone on for longer. Mr. Mandela was also one of the rare leaders who understood the role of sports as an unifying factor rather than just as an arena of supremacy.

RIP Sir.

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand vs Gujarat

Match Summary: Jharkhand (289 & 166/7) drew with Gujarat (352/9d)

Points: Jharkhand 1, Gujarat 3

The run of defeats has ended but it was a pretty close call. Saurabh Tiwary continued his outstanding season and carried the team to safety. In the process he also crossed the personal milestone of 3000 first class runs. Apart from Tiwary there has been a complete lack of consistency from the other batsman. 

This game also followed the season's script. Jharkhand batted steadily with Nemat alongwith Tiwary scoring half centuries but with no support from others. Jasprit Bumrah doing most of the damge for Gujarat. In reply Gujarat built their innings around Parthiv Patel's189 which was enough to get them the all important first innings lead. Jharkhand almost collapsed in the 2nd innings till two retired hurt batsmen Tiwary and Thaker came back to scored 50s to bail them out.

Have to say the Jharkhand lineup is pretty unsettled with constantly changing batting order, bowlers moving in and out, even a change in wicket-keeping duties. Nadeem has not been able to continue his last year's form while Ishank Jaggi is badly out of form (1 run in last 4 innings). Scenario looking quite bleak here.

Season Stats

Top Scorer - Saurabh Tiwary - 485 runs @69.89 (head and shoulders above the rest of the Jharkhand lineup)

Most Wickets - Varun Aaron 11 wickets @ 21.45 (missed this game)

Standings - 3 points from 5 games. Bang at the bottom of the group but closing in on Haryana. Would need a couple of 1st innings leads if not an outright victory to move out of the relegation phase.

Coming Up Next - Against 40 time Ranji Champions Mumbai in their backyard. Not much to hope for from that game. Well, on a bright note Mumbai would be missing the likes of Rahane, Rohit Sharma & Zaheer Khan. 

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand vs Odisha

Match Summary: Jharkhand (221 & 194) lost to Odisha (307 & 109/1) by 9 wickets

Points: Jharkhand 0, Odisha 6

Another game and another loss. The batting with the honorable exception of Saurabh Tiwary is just not clicking as a unit. Even changes in personnel didn't help Jharkhand this time around. The top order was blown away by Basant Mohanty both times around. Nothing much to write home about.

For Jharkhand, opener Shamseed Rathour and wicket-keeper Pappu Singh made their First-Class debuts. Welcome to the senior cricket to both of them. Also Ajay Yadav had his first game of the season and picked up another 5 wicket haul. His career is still in its infancy but 4 5-wicket hauls in 6 first class matches is quite a good beginning. 

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary - 344 runs @ 57.33

Most Wickets: Varun Aaron - 11 @ 21.45

Standings - 2 points after 4 games. Right at the bottom of the table and 4 points below 8th place Haryana. Relegation is becoming a distinct possibility.

Coming Up Next - Gujarat at home. Lets see if the batting holds up this time around.

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand vs Haryana

Match Summary: Haryana (309 &128) beat Jharkhand (231 & 172) by 30 runs.

Points: Jharkhand 0, Haryana 6

As I had written previously, this was expected to be a result oriented game, Unfortunately Jharkhand ended on the wrong side of the result. This is a game which we should have won, but in the end just fell short.

Haryana batted first and reached 309 helped by some solid contributions all round. Varun Aaron was the pick of the bowlers taking 4 wickets while Nadeem got 3. In reply, as usual, Saurabh Tiwary was the sole big contributor with 95 as the team conceded a 78 run lead. In the second innings Haryana were 16 for 5 at one stage but Sachin Rana's 84 took them to 124 setting Jharkhand a target of 203. Bhavin Thaker & Ishank Jaggi's got half centuries but their was no support from anyone else with only Rahul Shukla reaching double digits.

Only positive - Varun Aaron's 7 wicket haul in the match.

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary - 220 runs @ 55.00

Most Wickets: Varun Aaron - 8 wickets @ 18.63

Standings - 2 points after 3 games. Jharkhand slides down further to the bottom most postion. Knock-out chances getting slimmer and relegation highly probable. Not a good sign. Come on guys.

Coming Up Next - Familiar East Zone rivals Odisha away. More evenly matched teams though Jharkhand does have a slight upper hand.

P.S. Where is Ajay Jadeja? Has he also retired again?

#ThankYouSachin - One Last Time

Continuing from yesterday

Nov 15 - Day 2

The Dream - Well, let me be honest, I had a fitful sleep. And a part of it had a dream sequence in which SRT reverse sweeps Tino Best over Chanderpaul's head (who is at first slip) for 6. Rest of the dream has slipped away from the waking up memory. Dream might be explained but certainly no cricketing logic can explain the shot. Just remembered his "personalised digigraph" (nice work by BCCI) told me to chase my dreams as they do come true. Now I am wondering...

Woken Up - see a overnight message about the possibility of a ticket. But too late by then.

9:30 A.M: The Delight - Gotten ready in time. Have a ten minute window for watching the game on TV. And what do I say. Loud cheers for Pujara for taking a single and giving strike to Sachin. Sachin takes a single to retain strike. Next over from Shillingford - a square drive boundary. YES. Next ball, goes for a sweep... Has he missed it?... Its going fine and going for a four. Consecutive boundaries... and I now head for work. Not that much work is going to be done while he keeps batting.

In transit: He has crossed 50. Tino Best is sledging him. Seriously Tino, you got to be out of your mind. Meanwhile office is reached in record times for a working day. But as I enter and settle down. I get the news. Its OVER.

10:39 A.M. - Sachin Tendulkar caught Darren Sammy bowled Narsingh Deonaraine 74. (Probably the last batting entry ever). All participants are now to be lodged in quizzards memories like Eric Hollies. Also a certain Cheteshwar Pujara who in all likelihood was his last batting partner.

Mind is numbed. Nothing feels right. Reality has to be accepted. But...

Virat Kohli walks in as SRT walks out. The baton has passed on.

Surreal scenes - Pujara & umpire get booed because he is given not out. Indians - the masters of "jugaad" already thinking of ways to get Him to bat in the second innings.

Kolhi goes out after a fifty [Aside - Why does his century hunger from ODIs disappear in Tests]. Rohit Sharma in, Pujara gets a 100.

End of Day's Play - It has started to sink in. Meanwhile Rohit Sharma is putting his hand firmly on the baton taken up by Virat Kohli. West Indies are imploding. Maybe giving more party time... But for the Indian fan... Its time to move on.

Records Alert - Darren Sammy has got 5 catches in the innings, equal most by any non-keeper. Shillingford gets his 5th consecutive 5-for in an innings - most by any spinner. Speaks volumes about rest of West Indies bowling attack.

No... not posting this today... Will post together after Day 3.

Nov 16, Day 3 - Likely end of end.

One advantage of growing up. You tend to move on fast. A good nights's sleep and such sundry memories go to rest in peace.

Meanwhile West Indies have started collapsing. Again I reiterate, these players pretending to play for West Indies are just T20 mercenaries. West Indies should retire from Test cricket and have Ireland take their place in the Test community.

Samuels, Gayle, Deonaraine out. Now Chanderpaul goes too. The end is near...Ramdin resists but at the other end Ojha and Ashwin make short work of Sammy and Shillingford before Shami gets Gabriel out. And  then it is all over.

And then this wonderful speech. "My Life Between 22 Yards for 24 Years". The innings, the match, the staged series are all forgotten. That is how you bid farewell. Meanwhile, a few silent tears rolled along.

There will be countless presentation ceremonies, multiple farewell gifts and momentos, millions of pictures getting clicked. People trying to get in the same frame as SRT to be able to post the picture on social networks. There will be countless others who will say I WAS THERE when it all ended....

I Wasn't There at the Stadium. But does it matter...

All I can say is THANK YOU SACHIN for all the wonderful memories. Your place in the lineup might be soon taken up by someone else who might even create his own records. But... he will be a hero for a new generation. I may admire his exploits, but there won't be any romance associated with them. After all the peril of having grown up is you tend to move on fast.

THANK YOU SACHIN

#ThankYouSachin

The final test is here. And inspite of myself, I am feeling a little low. In my opinion, the retirement has been quite delayed, but now that the event is impending, something still seems wrong. After all Sachin Tendulkar has been part of the Indian team since, well, as long as I can remember.

I for one wasn't elated when a hastily planned farewell series was announced. After all this meant that a mouth-watering feast of India-South Africa contest has been reduced to a level of high tea. And all the over-the-top (read normal) media coverage and the grand plans (199 kg of rose petals, paintings as farewell gifts etc.) made it all worse. But now that the last match is here, the occasion is tinged with sadness. After all its another reminder that another of my childhood heroes is leaving the stage.  

Here is a little run-down of how the final test went by and what I was upto at the same time. To borrow a line from 24, events happen in real time.

Nov 14 - Day 1

Early Morning - Should I have gone to Wankhede? Sould I have tried for the tickets? Having "grown up" now, the enthusiasm has reduced dramatically. But... maybe I should have...

Its newspaper reading time. Lots & lots of anecdotes. There is a full pull-out section. Loved the little Sachin holding a bat picture...the random stories... the changed times... Yes 24 years is a lot of time!!! Ohh...and its Children's Day today. A childhood hero beginning to leave the stage on the most festive day of school life. Somehow quite apt.

Toss Time - I am planted in front of the TV. Got a rumour that Sachin might come for the toss instead of Dhoni. Rumour quashed, Dhoni wins the toss and elects to bowl. First thought - given the quality of West Indies cricket in recent times, there is only one last innings for Sachin. But I have to head for office. 

Record Alert - With the toss done Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first man to appear in 200 Tests. [Aside - probably the last one too?]

West Indies lose Gayle early, try to consolidate a bit, lose their way and get shot out for 182. During this while Ashwin takes his 100th Test wicket in his 18th test, fastest by an Indian, fastest since World War II and 5th fastest overall [Record Alert]. Dhoni reaches 250 Test dismissals and Ojha takes a 5 wicket haul.Will HE come out to bat today itself?

Tea time. I finally read the Rohit Brijnath article that everyone has been raving about (Click here). More nostalgia. And while I am at it, I read one about my own cricketing God, Rahul Dravid (Click here). And while I am still at, an old Tendulkar blog post by yours truly (Click here for some shameless self-promotion - It was once the top entry on google search for "Sachin Tendulkar")

Post-Tea Session - Indian openers hurtling away. I am wondering if West Indies were worthy opponents for this occasion. Wouldn't giving Ireland Test status have been a more befitting memory. People who managed Day 4 & 5 tickets/passes would be extremely worried about the match lasting the distance.

Landmark Almost Forgotten - Its Shivnaraine Chanderpaul's 150th Test match. Good going Sir.[Aside - Shivnaraine & son Tagenaraine have appeared together for Guyana in first class cricket. Will they become the first father-son pair to play in the same Test match?]

Meanwhile Dhawan gets out. So the all important question - Will it to be Vijay or Pujara getting a standing ovation on getting out? ... And Murali Vijay it is whose wicket is celebrated by the crowd.

3:30 P.M. - HE has walked into bat... (maybe for the last time?) Why the hell I am in office at this time? Why didn't I try for the tickets? WHY? WHY?? WHY??? Runs scored... so the Bradman fate has been avoided. Only other alternative - go out with a century - like Greg Chappel or Azhar.  Which reminds me - Azhar was walking down Sachin on his first test (pic here), Manoj Prabhakar was the one alongside him for his first test century (pic), Nayan Mongia was giving him comapny in the great Chennai innings of 1999 and Ajay Jadeja was his last opposing captain in Ranji trophy (pic). Quite a comprehensive list of unsavory characters here :P

Back on the field - 1st boundary has gone like a tracer bullet (please excuse the side-effect of having listened to years of Ravi Shastri's commentary). Statutory Warning - This is going to be a long blog. Into double digits now. Pujara is also batting, not that anyone is looking at his or India's score... BUT HE BETTER NOT RUN OUT SACHIN.  HIS score crosses a "score" (couldn't resist the pun). If following online commentary is making me goosebumpy, can't even imagine the feelings of the chosen ones in the stands.

Day 1 ends with SRT at 38 not out. #DecisionTime - Should I bunk office tomorrow? And by the way, India trails by 25 runs with 8 wickets in hand.

Returns from office... Listening to FM Radio. Every song on every channel is interspersed with chants of Sachin... Sachiiiin. Well on FM at least one Godly quality is on full display - HIS omnipresence.

To Be Continued...