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.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 15-16: Jharkhand

Delhi [225/10 (50)] beat Jharkhand [126/10 (38)] by 99 runs

The Jharkhand campaign came to a halt in the Qaurter-Finals stage against Delhi. Put into bat, Delhi racked a total of 225 on a two-paced dodgy pitch with uneven bounce. The Jharkhand chase got derailed with a completed failure from all the batsmen, save for Dhoni who remained unbeaten on 70 in a combined team total of 126. Finally Dhoni got going but the other batsmen could not put in the kind of performances which had carried them to the knock-out stage.

Overall, it was a good campaign for Jharkhand with 5 wins and 2 losses. And there was a lot of media spotlight with Dhoni playing. And with Ishan Kishan appointed India Under-19 captain for the World Cup, the media coverage only increased with the game being telecast live. Good media coverage backed by a decent performance should certainly improve the chances of the players especially the likes of Nadeem, Tiwary, Jaggi, Rahul Shukla, Kaushal Singh et al.

Trivia: Varun Aaron was leading the team which had the national team and the U-19 team skippers in the line-up.

Season Stats:

Top Scorers

1. Ishank Jaggi - 237 @ 39.50
2. Saurabh Tiwary - 193 @ 38.60
3. MS Dhoni - 179 @ 35.80

Top Score - Saurabh Tiwary, 87* vs Kerala

Most Wckets

1. Shahbaz Nadeem - 13 @ 13.15
2. Rahul Shukla - 13 @ 17.62
3. Sonu Singh - 7 @ 5.00

Best Performance - Sonu Singh 4/15 vs Railways

Player Count: 15

List A Debuts: Ankit Dabas, Sonu Singh, Vikash Singh

Coming Up Next: Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy from January 3rd.

P.S. - Group Stage Reveiw (Link)

Vijay Hazare Trophy 15-16: Jharkhand Group Stage Review

Dhoni playing in a domestic game after many seasons dramatically increased Jharkhand’s media coverage. in a first, we had full page articles in Mumbai Mirror for a Jharkhand List A Game. And the increased attention helped the team's cause as they marched into the quarter-finals after winning 5 of their 6 games and topping the Group stage. 

Game 1: Jharkhand [210 (50)] beat Jammu & Kashmir [205/7(50)] by 5 runs

Points: Jharkhand 4, Jammu & Kashmir 0

Team: Ishank Jaggi, Ankit Dabas, Anand Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, MS Dhoni, Kumar Deobrat, Kaushal Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Varun Aaron, Rahul Shukla, Jaskaran Singh

List A debut – Ankit Dabas

Key Performances: Ishank Jaggi (54), Kaushal Singh (53), Shahbaz Nadeem (3/28)

Game 2: Jharkhand [177/7(47)] lost to Gujarat [179/4(40.5)] by 6 Wickets

Points: Jharkhand 0, Gujarat 4

Key Performances: MS Dhoni (44), Nadeem (2/36)

Team Changes: None

Game 3: Kerala [236/8(50)] lost to Jharkhand [240/5(47)] by 5 wickets

Points: Jharkhand 4, Kerala 0

Key Performances: Rahul Shukla (3/47), Saurabh Tiwary (87*), Kaushal Singh (48)

Team Changes: None

Game 4: Haryana [133/10 (33/50)] lost to Jharkhand [134/1 (29.4)] by 9 wickets

Points: Jharkhand 4, Haryana 0

Key Performances: Shukla (3/33), Nadeem (2/17), Aaron (2/21), Jaggi (62*)

Team Changes: In – Monu Kumar; Out - Jaskaran

Game 5: Jharkhand [216/8(50)] beat Karnataka [169/10 (45)] by 47 runs

Points: Jharkhand 4, Karnataka 0

Key Performances: Jaggi (50), Deobrat (47*), Nadeem (3/15), Sonu Singh (3/20)

Team Changes: In – Sonu Singh (making his List A debut); Out - Monu Kumar

Game 6: Jharkhand [211/5 (45)] beat Railways [96/10 (37)] by 115 runs

Points: Jharkhand 4, Railways 0

Key Performances: Tiwary (49), Sonu Singh (4/15), Nadeem (2/21), Ankit Dabas (2/20)

List A debut for Vikash Singh, who has previously played 10 T20 games

Team Changes: In – Monu Kumar, Vikash Singh; Out – Aaron, Shukla; Deobrat leading the team

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Ishank Jaggi - 236 @ 47.20

Highest Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 13 @ 11.15

Player Count: 15

Captain Count: 2

List A debuts: 3

Coming Up Next: Quarter-final against Delhi on 23rd Dec

Ranji Trophy 2015-16: Jharkhand vs Hyderabad

Match Summary: Hyderabad (145 & 269) lost to Jharkhand (388/8d & 29/0) by 10 wickets 

Points: Jharkhand 7, Hyderabad 0 

Jharkhand continued their fantastic turn-around with a third bonus point win on the trot. And qualified for the quarter-finals after a gap of 2 years.

Hyderabad collapsed in the first innings with Jaskaran Singh, Kaushal Singh and Shahbaz Nadeem taking 3 wickets each. Jharkhand scored briskly and built up a huge lead riding on Saurabh Tiwary's unbeaten double century. Hyderabad resisted strongly in the second innings and managed to turn around the deficit. But Jharkhand easily chased the small target without any loss and racked up their third consecutive bonus point win.

Game Notes

• Team Changes: Rahul Shukla came back in place of Samar Quadri.
• 2nd first-class century for Shiv Gautam.
• 15th first-class century for Saurbah Tiwary.
• 3rd fifer for Rahul Shukla and second for the season.
• 3/32 - Jaskaran Singh's career best bowling figures 

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary 677 @ 67.70

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 45 @ 17.16
Player Count: 21 from 8 Games
Captain Count: 3 from 8 Games

Points Tally - 31 from 8 games. Finished second in the league table behind Saurashtra (36). Earns them a place in the knock-outs as well as a promotion to the big league of Group A or B next season, which provides a better platform for the likes of Tiwary & Nadeem to be noticed by the national selectors.

Coming Up Next - The Ranji Quarter-finals begin 3rd February, but before that we have the Vijay Hazare Trophy commencing on 10th December, where Jharkhand fight it out in Group B. With the national team unlikely to have any tours, there is a likelihood of the likes of Dhoni and Aaron playing for Jharkhand which will be a real boost-up for the team

Arbit Stats #47: Pink Ball

Test Match #2190

Australia vs New Zealand, Adelaide

It is the first international cricket game to be played with a pink ball. 

Enough hype already generated. And it also generated its own series of firsts, for the trivia aficionados.

Mitchell Starc - 1st Bowler to bowl with a pink ball.

Martin Guptill - 1st Batsman to face a delivery in pink. 

Martin Guptill - Also the 1st Batsman to be out with a pink ball.

Josh Hazelwood - 1st bowler to take a pink ball wicket.

In the meantime, Australia have now emerged victorious in

• 1st Test Match (vs England)
• 1st ODI (vs England)
• 1st Day-night ODI (vs West Indies)
• 1st Indoor ODI (vs South Africa)
• Ist T20I (vs New Zealand)
• 1st Day-Night Test (vs New Zealand)

A sign of Aussie willingness for innovation and their domination.

Ranji Trophy 15-16: Jharkhand vs Himachal Pradesh

Match Summary: Jharkhand (337) beat Himachal Pradesh (133 & 133) by an innings & 71 runs

Points: Jharkhand 7, Himachal Pradesh 0 

Jharkhand team seems to have found a rich vein of form just at the right time. A second straight innings victory that too against Himachal Pradesh has propelled them into the 3rd place in the table with a very realistic chance of making it into the knock-outs.

It was a strange match. A tale of two different days. On Day 1, Jharkhand ran up a total of 306 for the loss of 4 wickets riding on the back of some excellent to order batting with Shiv Gautam scoring a brilliant 122.  It looked like a match to be decided on the first innings lead basis. Then on second day, it was a dramatic change as first Jharkhand collapsed to 337 all out and then Himachal were knocked out for 133. Twice. Within a day. Wonder what went wrong for the batsmen.

Day 1: 306/4
Day 2: 297/26

Game Notes

• Shahbaz Nadeem remains the captain. 
• Team Changes: Out went the seamers Ajay Yadav and Rahul Shukla and in came the spinners Samar Quadri and Sonu Singh.
• Sonu Singh made his first class debut
• 2nd first-class century for Shiv Gautam.
• Samar Quadri reached the milestone of 100 First-Class wickets in his 30th game.
• Nadeem registered his career-best figures of 7/45 which is his 8th career fifer and third for the season 
• This is quite a depleted Jharkhand squad with Varun Aaron on national duty while youngsters Ishan Kishan & Virat Singh are currently away on national Under-19 duty. 

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary 462 @ 46.20

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 40 @ 16.40
Player Count: 21 from 7 Games
Captain Count: 3 from 7 Games

Points Tally - 24 after 7 games. Moved up two places to 3rd. Now, lying 1 points behind Kerala who are currently in place for the second knock-out spot from the Group. Jharkhand are now in a 5-way race for the two Group C knock-out berths. A win should be good enough to secure the second place otherwise may need a combination of favorable results for a place in the quarter-finals.

Coming Up Next - Away game against 7th placed Hyderabad. Would follow keenly the other Group C games specially Kerala vs Himachal Pradesh which might turn out to be straight shootout for the 2nd berth behind Saurashtra who take on J&K, while Services, who have an outside chance take on Tripura.

Raymond van Schoor, R.I.P.

Raymond van Schoor, 1990-2015

275 senior level games, over 8000 runs & 50 wickets. A career cut short at a young age of 25 due to a stroke suffered while batting in a domestic List A game. 

15 Not Out For ever!

Rest in Peace!

Ranji Trophy 15-16: Jharkhand vs Tripura

Match Summary: Tripura (166 & 161) lost to Jharkhand (394/4d) by an innings & 67 runs

Points: Jharkhand 7, Tripura 0 

This was the best possible result for Jharkhand's qualification chances. A win with a bonus point as well. Knocked out Tripura for 166 riding on the back of Rahul Shukla's 6-wicket haul. The opening partnership was dodgy but the rest of the line-up all batted big and achieved a huge lead. Second time around also Tripura were found wanting as Nadeem ran through the lineup. The Tripura batsme were just about able to extend the game into the 4th day.

Game Notes

• Shahbaz Nadeem remains the captain. 
• Team Changes: Ajay Yadav and Sumit Kumar returned while out went Ishan Kishan and Samar Qaudri.
• 11th first-class century  for Ishank Jaggi who seems to have recovered from his bad run of form.
• A career-best 6 for 40 for Rahul Shukla, his second career fifer
• Nadeem got his 7th career fifer and his second for the season.
• Sumit Kumar pouche 5 catches behind the stumps in the Tripura 1st innings.

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary 383 @ 42.56

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 29 @ 19.52
Player Count: 20 from 6 Games
Captain Count: 3 from 6 Games

Points Tally - 17 after 6 games. Moved up one place to 5th. Now, lying 7 points behind Himachal Pradesh who are currently in place for the second knock-out spot from the Group. With 2 rounds left, it is still mathematically possible though need quite a few results going in our way.

Coming Up Next - Away game against second placed Himachal Pradesh. Full points here would do the qualification chances a world of good.

Farewell Mitchell Johnson

"He bowls to the left, 

He bowls to right,

That Mitchell Johnson,

He bowls a lots of shite"

Thus sang the Barmy Army, every time their favorite target, Mitchell Johnson came on to bowl in one of the rare England's Ashes wins Down Under.

But there was another Mitchell Johnson also, a bowler who could strike terror in batsmen's minds. Ask the English team who were at a receiving end of an Ashes mauling where Johnson took 37 for 517 over 5 Tests, or a Graeme Smith who had his right hand broken in one Test and his left hand in another in back to back series by Johnson's missiles.

He was a different character - making a cartoon of himself for his misplaced sledging of James Anderson (Video) but being visibly shaken up after hitting Kohli (video).

He finished up with 313 Test wickets only behind Warne, McGrath & Lillee for Australia. And he also had a test century. Not bad returns. Farewell Mithcell Johnson!!!

He bowled to the left, 

He bowled to right,

That Mitchell Johnson,

He ended up quite all right

Ranji Trophy 15-16: Jharkhand vs Jammu & Kashmir

Match Summary: Jharkhand (551/8d) drew with Jammu & Kashmir (309 & 265/4 (f/o))

Points: Jharkhand 3, Jammu & Kashmir 1

Finally, the Jharkhand batting lineup came good with solid all-round batting display. They racked up their biggest score of the season, managed to impose a follow-on against J&K. And 2 quick 2nd innings wickets at the end of Day 3 made one believe that an innings victory with bonus points was waiting. But that was not to be as a fine rear-guard action from the J&K batsmen ensured that the match ended in a draw.

Game Notes

• Shahbaz Nadeem remained the captain. 
• Team Changes: Ishan Kishan, Jaskaran Singh and Kaushal Singh returned while out went Prakash Munda, Sumit Kumar and Sunny Gupta. 
• All season not a single century, now two of them came in the same innings.
• Ishan Kishan scored his maiden first class century in his 10th game. This kid is certainly one to watch out for.
• Anand Singh also playing his 10th first class game got his maiden half-century and proceeded to convert it into a big one.
• Kaushal Singh recorded his best innings figures with a 4-wicket haul in the first innings.
• Nadeem vs Parvez Rasool. Two similar players in competition for an India A slot. Nadeem was better with the ball, Rasool better with the bat.
• Ishank Jaggi got more runs (93) in one innings than his previous 4 matches combined (87).

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary 289 @ 36.13

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 23 @ 21.48
Player Count: 20 from 4 Games
Captain Count: 3 from 4 Games

Points Tally - 10 after 5 games. Moved up one place 6th. Now, lying 11 points behind Himachal Pradesh who are currently in place for the second knock-out spot from the Group. With 3 rounds left, it is still mathematically possible but getting more and more improbable.

Coming Up Next - Away game against Tripura, who are at the bottom of the table. A good chance to take full points and keep the knock-out hopes alive.