Gabba - a year ago

"It ain't about hard you hit. It's about hard you can get hit and keep moving forward" - Rocky Balboa  

Date: 19th January, 2021 – one year ago. 

Location: Gabba, Brisbane, Australia (a.k.a the Gabbatoir) 

Result: India won by 3 wickets

Usually, it is the losing team which looks for excuses. Here the winning team had them all and more – alien conditions, long tour, lost 4 tosses, ravaged by injuries, inexperienced players, covid threat, and yet they came out winning! 

Just one single stat exposed the gulf between the two teams. Going into that Test – India had a collective experience of having taken 13 Test wickets while the Aussies had 1,033! And there was a small ask of chasing over 300 on the 5th day. Somehow, none of this mattered as the trio of Pujara, Gill and Pant, blocked and bludgeoned past the target taking numerous body blows but never yielding. 

The last day was crazy. Still get goosebumps a year later, thinking of how that day went. All superstitions were put in place lest I somehow jinx the team – avoid posting anything on social media, folllow/watch the game from same website etc., stay in position, even avoid breathing at times! Such was the adrenaline rush at the winning moment that felt like running out in the streets to celebrate (not an advisable thing to do in covid times). Social media felt like being part of a collective celebration with its toxicity drastically reduced for a while. 

What all India overcame – bio bubbles (it gets crazy after a while), covid restrictions, injured players, 36 all out, off field controversies, racial abuse! Yet we came out tops, because someone always came in and put in their finger in the dyke and saved the city! 

What the win also did was put into context the previous 2-1 victory in Australia (2018-19). Given how depleted the Indian team of 2020-21 was, Aussies can’t keep harping about missing Smith & Warner in previous tour!

The Gabba bastion had been well and truly breached after 32 years! Or in the immortal words of Vivek Razdan, "toot gaya Gabba ka ghamand"

We remember not the scores and the results in after years; it is the men who remain in our minds, in our imaginations" - Neville Cardus 

And that’s how Rahane, Pujara, Vihari, Ashwin, Jadeja, Pujara, Gill, Pant, Siraj, Thakur, Sundar, Bumrah, Natarajan will be remain in our collective imaginations. 

P.S. The win also led to an essay writing competition on the internet. Everyone had a say on the win (and why not). And they did have their say. And it is a year later and yet I felt that I had to post my thoughts!

The Test

The Test is a 8-part documentary chronicling the journey of the Australian Men’s cricket team over a period of 18 months from the lows of the ball-tampering scandal in 2018 to the high of retaining the Ashes away from home in late-2019. For a cricket tragic like yours truly, all the events depicted are familiar. Yet, that doesn’t take away any of the excitement of re-living the events. 

These were extra-ordinary times for Australian cricket. Over the years Australian teams had been pushing the lines of the sportsman spirit – something which Steve Waugh famously called “mental disintegration”. But in Newlands, they were caught literally with their hands in their pants! The repercussion of being branded cheats in public were huge. Long bans for Smith, Warner & Bancroft and resignation of head coach Lehmann. Cricket Australia needed a thorough overhaul of the system. 

It is at this point which “The Test” begins. No doubt a good PR exercise in collaboration with Amazon to redeem the image of Australian cricket. On the cricketing front, Justin Langer took over as coach, with Tim Paine as the captain. After a while Paine, who was surplus to the limited overs set-up handed over the ODI & T20I reins to Aaron Finch. Retired legends like Ponting, Steve Waugh, Gilchrist, Haddin came into consulting roles. 

Initially the team struggles in filing the voids caused by the bans of their best players. But over time, new players put up their hands and take the place. The path is difficult, and they take baby steps. They celebrate their little successes – a hard-earned draw, a home Test victory, a Home Test series victory, an away ODI series victory in India, a semi-final finish in the World Cup and finally retaining the Ashes away from home! And it’s not just the on-field performances, there is also a change in the approach to the game. As Harsha Bhogle said, you can’t keep any Australian team down for too long! 

And there is the parallel track of Steve Smith – relieved from captaincy and banned for a year, makes a comeback, faces the boos of the crowds, but with his on-field exploits manages to turn the jeers into cheers. In between also gets knocked out while batting! Quite a phoenix like rise from the ashes for him. 

Then there is the story of the rise of Tim Paine. From being seen as a stand-in captain to becoming an Ashes winning captain, earning the respect of a nation in a job considered as the second-most important in Australia after the Prime Minister. 

Throughout the series, there is a recurring narrative of being together and helping each other out. Someone even remarks that this was a happy & united team despite continuously losing! “Elite Mateship” is a term which they come up with. However, Adam Zampa & Marcus Stoinis take it to a different level altogether! 

They take potshots at Virat Kohli for his on-field gestures & in your face aggression in Australia. But for some reason they miss the footage of him asking Indian fans not to boo Smith during the World Cup. Sometimes when you get too worked up into building a narrative that you forget the balance in it. However, Eoin Morgan’s interview is shown where he responds in negative when asked whether he would ask the fans to stop booing Warner & Smith! 

Massive defeats are easier to live with than the ones that slipped away. England running 481 in an ODI and beating Australia by 200+ runs margin was easier to accept. While Ben Stokes’ heist at Edgbaston was a bitter pill to swallow! 

There were a couple of lines which stood out for me. And this is something which we can incorporate in our everyday life (and work). 

1. Nathan Lyon talking about how celebrating every win is important. Because you never know if that would be your last win. 
2. Ricky Ponting berating David Warner, asking him what he had won that he was afraid of losing. 

So that was “The Test”. A must-watch for every cricket tragic! 

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!

A Little Bit on Ball Tampering

Ball Tampering – "unlawful alteration of the surface or seam of a ball on the field, to affect its motion when bowled."

Cricket is a batsman’s game. Over the course of last one and a half centuries, laws of the game have been tweaked to make it “swing” increasingly in the batsmen’s favour. Covered pitches, restrictions on bowling, restrictions on field placements, shortened boundaries, better safety equipment, bigger bats, and changes in the front-foot no-ball rule. Almost every single rule change tilting the balance further in the batsmen’s favour. 

Meanwhile, the bowlers have also lived up to the ask, with constant innovations, Bodyline, Swing, spin, chinaman, doosra, reverse swing, knuckle ball, carom ball et al. In due course some have even resorted to the dark arts as well. 

The cricket ball, like everything else on this planet, follows the laws of physics. Bernoulli’s principles regarding motion through a fluid holds especially true. Although, no one has worked out the exact calculations or made big differential equations on the subject, it can be safely said, the more the difference in the nature of the two halves of the ball, the more its tendency to swing. So ensure that one side stays as smooth as possible while other side stays as shiny as possible. Although keep in mind, that is one of the many variables affecting the swing. Others being speed of release, angle of the seam, ambient temperature, wind etc. However, while other variables are not exactly in control, the shape of the ball can be “managed” in multiple ways. Some legal, some illegal, and many falling in the grey area. It is certainly an art, although there are some who move into the darker arts. 

Below is a pictorial representation of the different techniques to manage the shape of the ball. 

Use of any visible agent to change the shape certainly falls in the definitely illegal category. And that is what Cameron Bancroft was caught doing against South Africa. Caught on the cameras with a piece of sandpaper in his pocket which he then tried to hide in his pants post instructions from dressing room, all of which caught by the South African cameramen who were specifically assigned to the task of catching any Australian transgressions. Post the day’s play, Steve Smith admitted to the leadership group’s involvement in the shenanigans. Next day, Tim Paine was leading the side with both Smith and David Warner having resigned in the middle of the Test! 

The fall-out was brutal. And especially so given that it was Australia who was involved. After all this is a team which makes a hue and cry of playing the Aussie way, “hard and fair”, maintain a holier than thou attitude (e.g. Warner’s comments on Faf du Plessis being caught tampering, or Ponting’s reactions on using England using “specialist” substitute fielders), and discuss sledging or “mental disintegration” as a team strategy! There was no way the rest of the cricketing world would not have jumping up with glee at seeing the quagmire in which the Aussies had landed. And just to spice things up a little, there was the bad-tempered theatrics from both sides preceding the event – a constant war of words, Rabada may or may not have deliberately bumped into Smith, Warner had to be pulled away from de Kock, fans and officials had also got in the act, and all of this caught on hyper-sensitive stump mics and CCTV cameras! All setting up for an ugly showdown, until the Australian side imploded on a bit of sandpaper! 

There were repercussions off the field as well. The situation seemed akin to a national emergency in Australia with the Prime Minister issuing a statement of condemnation. The trio lost their individual sponsors while the national team sponsors issued their own threats. ICC reprimanded the trio as per its regulations. Too mild, shouted the watching crowds. Everyone was baying for blood. Cricket Australia got into the act, conducted an enquiry of its own, and declared the trio guilty and banned Warner & Smith for a year each and Bancroft for 9 months. The watchers were stunned by the severity of the sentences. It was followed by scenes of the players facing upto media, admitting their guilt and accepting their sentences. All of this accompanied by bucketful of tears. In the aftermath, Darren Lehmann also resigns as coach of the team. 

While the sentences were severe, there was lingering sense of doubt about the whole goings on. Were none of the bowlers and the coaching staff aware of the plan, if not actually complicit in it? And the leadership group mentioned by Smith, comprised just of Warner and himself? Was Cricket Australia simply trying to contain the damage by throwing the trio under the bus by taking such severe action? And were the actions a fall-out of last year’s pay dispute? Too many questions left unanswered suggesting there is more than what meets the eye. Will we ever get to know? Guess, will have to wait till somebody writes a tell-all book on the matter. 

Some of the reactions were funny. When former Aussie captains took a stand that team culture under them was different, it just reeked of hypocrisy. Then there was a rumor of Michael Clarke expressing a willingness to come out of retirement to lead the team! But the best take came from the Irish. Recently elevated to Test status, and missing out on a place in the 2019 World Cup, they suggested that if Australians really want to repent, they should drop out of the next World Cup to introspect and give the place to Ireland! 

Now that would be true over-the-top punishment for putting some sandpaper on a cricket ball!

The Twenty17 LineUp

2018 has dawned upon us and the cricketing action continues in full swing with New Zealand completing a demolition of the West Indies and Vidarbha winning the Ranji Trophy for the first time ever. Before the action hots up further, time to take a look back at the Cricketing XI of 2017 (compiled by yours truly).

1. Afghanistan & Ireland get Test Status

After resisting for years, ICC decided to expand the Test arena. And thus we have two new Full members on-board – Afghanistan and Ireland (although both are yet to play a Test). Well-deserved reward for the yeoman service done to the Associate cause. Ireland by consistently upsetting the big teams at the major events and Afghanistan by providing a sporting fairy-tale even the best of Hollywood writers will not be able to script! Now they just need to play a Test each!

2. Women’s World Cup

2017 was the year in which women’s cricket became just cricket! The massive success of the Women’s World Cup provided the ultimate fillip. It also helped that India performed well and finished runners-up in a closely contested Lord’s final. But surprisingly after all the goodwill generated, BCCI hasn’t really cashed in and the Indian team hasn’t played a single game after the World Cup Final!

3. Pakistan 

If there is a team which can be trusted to do the inexplicable, it has to be Pakistan. It was another roller-coaster year (no surprises there!). They won the Champions Trophy in England and managed to lose a Test series to Sri Lanka in their adopted home! But the highlight would be the return of International cricket to Pakistan with a T20 series against an International XI (which inexplicably was given international status) and a one off game against Sri Lanka. Which brings us to…

4. The Sri Lankan Captaincy Revolving Door

Angelo Matthews, Dinesh Chandimal, Upul Tharanga, Thisara Perera, Rangana Herath, Chamara Kapugedera, Lasith Malinga – Seven different men captained the Sri Lankan team across different formats this year. Also showed in the overall results where they were hammered by all and sundry, including a series loss to Zimbabwe, who themselves were coming off from losses to Scotland and Netherlands!

5. Performance of the Year 

Will pick two this year. Marcus Stoinis’s incredible assault against New Zealand, which nearly won Australia the game. And Harmanpreet Kaur’s blistering 171* against Australia in the World Cup semi-finals, probably the defining innings for the women’s game in India.

6. Play is stopped due to…

Cricket fans are used to rain and bad light or even bees and dogs stopping play. But 2017 saw even more bizarre stoppages. A county game was stopped due to an arrow landing near the pitch, a Ranji game due to a car driving onto the pitch and finally a Test Match interrupted due to high pollution levels!

7. Pay Dispute

Australians joined the world perennially occupied by the West Indies with a bitter long drawn-out dispute which went on for most of the year. However, unlike the West Indies, the Aussies were able to resolve theirs and get back to business of playing the game!

8. The Return of the Unwanted

The India-Sri Lanka matches were back with not one but two full back-to-back tours. Not helping matters was the poor form of the Sri Lankans. Result: A TourSweep with India beating Sri Lanka 9-0 across formats in Sri Lanka, who improved a bit on the return tour winning one ODI and drawing two Tests!

9. Comeback Sledge of the Year

Pakistan discovered a exciting new talent in Fakhar Zaman, who got a match winning century in the Champions Trophy Final. The newbie also showed an innovative way to tackle sledging, leaving Liam Plunkett speechless by calmly saying “No English”. Ironic considering he is one of the more proficient English speakers in the Pakistan team!

10. Play of the Year

Mitchell Starc’s ball to James Vince. Almost a leg-break at 140KMPH. Just beautiful to watch!

11. Colourful Start of the Year

Sunil Ambris had a pretty interesting start to his Test career – becoming the first batsman ever to be hit wicket off the very first ball he faced, then in the second innings smacking a six to score his first runs, hit wicket again in the first innings of the next Test and rounding it off by being retired hurt in the second innings. Quite an action-packed start for the new West Indies keeper. 

And the 12th Man

Geoff Boycott being pranked by Johnathan Agnew on air. Boycott’s reaction on being told by Agnew that one of his centuries does not count as first-class anymore is just priceless.

That was cricketing year 2017. Lets see what 2018 has in store for us!

Wishing all readers a very happy New year 2018!

Arbit Stats #57: Blockathon

Test Match #2209: Sri Lanka vs Australia

Probably one of the best Test matches in a while. If it had been an Ashes game, paeans would have been written about it. But it was a Test match in Sri Lanka (like another one in Galle almost a year back).

Unlike most matches, there was a third player involved, the rain Gods. They had their own way of making their presence felt at different points in the game. Australia were on top, Sri Lanka fought to keep the lead down. Then came the Kusal Mendis special, rains appeared on and off,  but Australia sank deeper and deeper. Then came the block with an eye on the rains. The block went on and on, the skies grew darker, but the rains stayed away. After 178 balls of stoic resistance, the wicket was prised out. And Sri lanka romped home to a famous win, only their second ever against Australia.

But what a resistance it was. Steve O'Keefe and Peter Nevill just blocked their way in a partnership of 178 balls with just one scoring shot making new records for the biggest runless period of play - over 23 overs without scoring a run. For a perspective that is longer  than an entire T20 innings!!!

Arbit Stats #49: Twin Doubles

ODI #3723: Australia vs India, Perth, January 12, 2016

207: Partnership between Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli for the 2nd wicket for India.

242: Partnership between Steve Smith & George Bailey for the 3rd wicket for Australia.

Smith-Bailey upstaged the efforts of Sharma-Kohli. In the process this was the first ever ODI to feature two double century partnerships.

Also Rohit Sharma's 171 was the highest score by a visiting batsman against Australia in Australia beating Vivian Richards's 156 in 1979.

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.

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.

World Cup Semi-Final: India vs Australia – How It Unfolded (For Me)

I am wide awake much before the usual waking time. And why not? After all not everyday in a World Cup semi-final featuring your team. If this is how nervous I as a follower feel, wonder what goes on in the players’ minds?

Start getting ready for office. I am not bunking work to watch the match? Why, because the team won on the days I went to work. So why jinx it? On the eve of the game I have changed my mobile wallpaper to the “BleedBlue” logo. My way of supporting the team. Meanwhile Star Sports has suddenly realized that there are other sports being played on this played also. And shows a montage of the coming live action from Football, Badminton, F1, Tennis etc. Actually a good line-up for any sports fan.

Toss Time: Australia win the toss and elect to bat India out of the game. But We Won’t Give It Back. The commentators are already talking about this game being a home game for India. Finally, we are realizing the virtues of a huge population and the brain drain. Any corner of the big wide world and you will find Indians, lots of us Indians.

Anthem Time: I sing along to Jan Gana Mana. There is no music more rousing than your national anthem. Can there be? During the anthem, they show the entire team, then the support staff, a few crowd shots and then the lone figure of Dhawal Kulkarni. A player who has been around the team for the whole World Cup but not officially part of the World Cup team. Wonder how must that feel. Binny, Rayudu & Axar also did feature in a single game but they are World Cup players while Kulkarni is not. Okay back to the game now.

1st ball – Shami misses the edge of Finch’s bat. And I am off to work.

I hear snatches of commentary blaring out from the shops on the roadside. They are discussing those number things which mostly do not make any sense. But its early part of the game, so the commentators need to be kept busy. On the way, twitter keeps me company. Finch seemingly in trouble but surviving. Warner looking to hammer them all away and WARNER is OUT. (yay 15/1). Smith joins Finch and the milking of the Indian bowling has started.

I have reached office in quick time. The traffic was much less than usual but more than expected. And went to my desk instead of going to the Food Court, where a big screen had been put up for the live telecast. There will be a time, but it’s not now.

89/1 (15): Not looking terribly good at the moment. Need wickets pronto. All online commentary channels have been fired up. I might be in office but being focused on the work seems highly unlikely.

132/1 (25): Expecting to chase 340 odd. Need wickets. Lots of them and fast. Steve Smith has hit fifty and is looking ominous. Finch has also reached a fifty now. [Aside - A home team wearing yellow had been utterly destroyed in the previous World Cup that I had followed. That doesn’t seem to be happening here].

155/1 (30): Old wisdom says you double the score after 30 overs. Post T20 era, you score 200 in the last 20. Whichever way its going to be a tall chase for India.

181/1 (33): Australia take the Powerplay early. And Steve Smith gets another 100 against India in the 2014-15 Season. Not good at all from our perspective. 

197/2 (34.1). And Smith is OUT. And Maxwell walks in. This could go anywhere now.

Maxwell threatening to take the game away. Lands a few hefty blows as well. But Ashwin has got him. We need a collapse like India’s 29/9 against South Africa in last World Cup. Umesh gets Finch. Are the Aussies collapsing? 235/4 (39). [Aside - Successfully postponed a bit off work which was threatening to come my way. Cricket and my nation need my undivided attention].

250/5 (43). Now Clarke goes. 42 balls left. C’mon India get those 5 wickets and maintain your neat wicket taking record.

271/5 (45): 5 overs to go. How much can they score? 50 more? We are still looking at a BIGGG chase :( The Aussies have been losing wickets at the death, very like India, but unlike India the big hits have kept coming as well.

328/7(50):Australia the first team to not get all out against India this World Cup. India actually need to tie this game to go through to the final. That would be FUN. 

Time for Lunch. The Food Court looks different. Its more crowded because of the game telecast. The openers stride out to loud cheers in the food court. Lunch is gulped down amidst oohs and aahs across the food court.

Haddin drops Dhawan? Has he dropped the World Cup. India breathes. And scores runs easily.

Back at desk. Dhawan out. And so is Kohli. And Rohit. Now Raina is out. Need to get away from the desk. This has been quite a wicket-taking spell. :(

156/4 (32): Rahane & Dhoni have been becalmed. Afraid the game is meandering away to an end. (179 off 108 balls). Well Played India. You had already exceeded the expectations.

178/5 (36.2): Rahane OUT! Suddenly work seems to have become more interesting. DRS used for the sake of using it by the Aussies and they get a positive result in their favour. Some days the dice just does not roll your way.

183/5 (38): It’s THAT Score. Now the question – Will we crawl to a defeat, a la UAE, or go out all guns blazing, like the West Indies? Prefer the 2nd option but Dhoni is playing like the first.

196/5 (40): 132 off 60 balls. Well-nigh impossible now. It has all gone down since Dhawan’s dismissal. Nothing much to write home about.

232/7 (45): Dhoni also gone. And the last flickering embers die out.

233/10: Its all over at SCG. Australia win by 95 runs. 

Brad Haddin did not drop the World Cup. Well played Australia!. Though methinks the country happiest with this result is not Australia but Bangladesh. Which reminds me all Asian teams knocked out of the tournament at the first possible opportunity.

India certainly exceeded the expectations by reaching the semis with a clean slate. It was a complete team effort with no individual standing out throughout the course of the tournament. Well Played. Team India. Thanks for all the entertainment.

Random Thoughts: Was this the last India game for Dhoni. What will we remember India's tournament for? How many casualties from this World Cup lineup. How different will the team be when they next take the ground. But these questions will wait. After all the World Cup final is still to be played.

And for me, I will finish off the pending work and go home. Also feel sad for a while. And then tomorrow is another day. After all one of the side-effects of growing up is that such defeats don't hurt for long, unlike earlier.

So off to the MCG. The Kiwis are waiting. This is their mauka for the first ever World Cup victory.

World Cup 2015 - Quarter-Final Predictions

The battle-lines are drawn. The Quarter-finalists identified. 7 games remaining, 7 teams to be knocked out. 1 winner. On the eve of the first of the 4 Quarter-finals, its Divination time – the time to predict the teams still left standing after four days of hopefully intense battle.

Quarter-Final 1 – South Africa vs Sri Lanka

The foremost question - Will South Africa choke again? AB de Villiers has said they won’t. History suggests otherwise.

It’s an intriguing clash between two teams with very evenly matched records against each other. Both are coming in with 4 wins each. South Africa have a suspect record while chasing and a tendency to not make through to the knock-outs. Sri Lanka on the other hand have regularly been reaching the last stages of ICC events. They also have been losing players through the tournament and have a question mark on their bowling.

The toss will be crucial. Both would want to bat first and avoid the scoreboard pressure while chasing.

Prediction – Sri Lanka to win toss, bat first, put up a fairly decent total. South Africa would begin the chase in earnest, then falter, and asphyxiate, resulting in a Sri Lankan victory.

Quarter-Final 2 – India vs Bangladesh

Both teams have had a much better than expected Group Stage. Powered by their bowlers (!!!), India sailed through to the top of the Group with 1 full game to spare. On the other hand, Bangladesh punched out England and gave a good scare to the Kiwis on their way to the knockouts. The MCG is expected to be filled with Indian supporters, some Bangladeshi supporters and a decent contingent of the Barmy Army. 

India are the favorites but will do well to remember the 2007 World Cup. Bangladesh don’t have anything to lose but a win would certainly be the greatest day in their sporting history. 

Prediction – India (what else to expect from an Indian blogger)

Quarter-Final 3 – Australia vs Pakistan

On one corner, the home team, who are an efficient mean machine out to destroy all opposition with both bat and ball and powered by a sense of not giving it up till the last ball has been bowled. They have had a smooth ride into the Quarters with only one bump in the road. Even in that loss to the Kiwis they showed the true Aussie grit. Where many teams would have given up after being knocked out for 150 odd, Australia fought back hard and the Kiwis barely managed to scrape home with one wicket to spare.

On the other corner, you have Pakistan, a team which is the very definition of mavericks. The Irish were knocked out by Pakistan, not because of their own loss to them, but due the hammering which Pakistan got from the West Indies. After years of using one Akmal or the other, Pakistan have finally learnt that it pays to have an actual wicket-keeper doing the job behind the stumps. A good bowling combined with some brittle batting make up for a totally unpredictable combination.

Prediction – Australia to win.

Quarter-Final 4 – New Zealand vs West Indies

The Kiwis go into the knock-outs with a cent percent record while West Indies have barely managed to make it on the basis of net run rates. The Kiwis have looked set to destroy the opposition batting and then chase down the small targets as fast as possible. Though sometimes the batting does implode but so far they have survived on this tactics. West Indies, on the other hand, seem to have no plan but just individuals doing the job either fantastically well or spectacularly badly with no middle ground. Gayle can get a double century all by himself or the bowlers can tie down the Indian top order but chances of both events happening together seem quite unlikely.

The result could well depend on which version of West Indies turns up to play.

Prediction – New Zealand to win. Or a Chris Gayle explodes (which hasn’t ever happened in any crucial game in any format for any team).

Now its time to see how good my "inner eye" is.

World Cup 2015: Short Notes - March 5th

After a break of 1 day, in which the cricketing world's focus was on BCCI's presidency battle, the World Cup resumed on Tuesday. 

• Seems like ICC had had enough of the brickbats. So they asked the big boys to go all Sparta on the Associates. Result - South Africa, Australia & Pakistan hammering the little fellows to pulp, with all of them recording huge wins.
• We now bid farewell to Scotland whose purely mathematical chances of qualifying have evaporated. They were never in with a chance but at least they had the best kit.
• These one team bat-a-thons are getting ridiculous to watch. The mind is numbed from seeing teams score at 15 an over for the last 10 overs. What are the bowlers supposed to do? And the big scoreboard pressure gets to the team chasing and the contest is all but over within a few overs into the chase. Not good for any game.
• Krishna Chandra Karate - the best name of the tournament.
• Shaiman Anwar of UAE leading the run-charts. Who would have thunk this?
• Sachin Tendulkar apparently wants a 25 team World Cup. Well that will be just a series of mismatches. My suggestion is have 16 teams in 4 groups (like in West Indies) followed by straight knock-outs (unlike the long unending Super 8 stage in West Indies). Or you can have 2 groups of 4 each in the 2nd round followed by semis & finals (like the T20 World Cup). Enough said.
• No some crucial games coming up. More than that hoping for a few genuine contests. Need not be a edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger all the time but is a contest too much to ask for?

World Cup 2015: Short Notes - 27th Feb

Its the World Cup. And there ought to be some madness. But even the madness has its own patterns.

• There seems to be a grand conspiracy by all parties to put egg on the ICC's face. The Associates are putting on a tough fight on the field. The Full time nations are hammering each other in one one-sided game after the other. Meanwhile ICC is still looking at taking the World out of the World Cup by restricting the entries to ten.
• Ireland nearly choked and then managed to sneak through against UAE in a close encounter. Afghanistan were down for the count but showed some amazing resilience to win an even closer encounter.
• After the India defeat, AB de Villiers wanted to go to his room and feel sad. Then he decided to take out his sadness on the West Indies. And what followed was countless records getting broken one after the other.
• Jason Holder - 1st 5 overs - 9 runs, next 5 overs - 95 runs. So he comes back and scores a 50 in a losing affair.
• The luck of the Irish - Ed Joyce and the dancing bail. (Video)
• In other news - Pakistan are behaving exactly like Pakistan - losing heavily, rumours of rift against the fielding coach and the chief selector has been sent back for being found in a casino.
• Australia haven't had a game in two weeks now. Almost forgotten that they are still playing.
• The Indian fans are already walking about like World Champions. Well the real World Cup begins only after the group stages.
• Prediction time - Pakistan-Ireland and England-Bangladesh to be the deciding games for this World Cup.
• Side Note - As if a World Cup game is not enough incentive, Australia and New Zealand will also be playing for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.

P.S. In case you want to feel like doing something about the World Cup size for the next tournament and haven't done it yet, feel free to sign this petition here. [Current Count - 13960]

World Cup 2015: Short Notes - Feb 21st

Another round of one-sided hammerings. These matches are still watchable for their sheer sadistic quality.

• Today's notes begin with an after-thought from yesterday's Kiwi-English game. The shambolic English performance could be summed up by New Zealan'd winning "shot" - an over the head wide running down to the boundary.
• And now for today's game of the upredictables. I had predicted a Pakistani win but given that these are the two most unpredictable teams around the result couldn't have been any more opposite. West Indies recorded their biggest ever victory against Pakistan.
• 1 for 4. Thats the score most of India woke up to. And we were celebrating out big victory against this team.
• Arbit Stat#41: 1 run - the lowest combined score made by the top four batsmen in an ODI innings
• West Indies have come back from losing against Ireland to hammering Pakistan throwing Group B wide open. The inconsistency of the teams in the mix just adds to the unpredictability although the long drawn format was designed to maintain status quo.
• Bangladesh must be really happy to get away with a point from a washed out game against the Aussies. This one point might well crucial in the end.
• Its still early days but funny to see England and Pakistan bang at the bottom of their respective groups after 2 games each.
• Tomorrow the big boys come to play. Will India finally manage to open their account against South Africa in the World Cups. Or will this mauka mauka game continue.

World Cup 2015: Short Notes - 14th Feb

After seemingly endless rounds of warm-up games (results of which were taken seriously by everyone except the teams concerned), during the course of which they even held the Opening Ceremony, the actual World Cup tournament has finally begun. And like the previous edition Slispstream Cricket is going to present the "Short Notes" featuring random notes on the games gone by and the occasional prediction. 

• The hosts have started their respective campaigns on similar emphatic notes. Bat first, score big and then knock-out the opponent.
• If England-Australia and Sri Lanka-New Zealand games are this one-sided, wonder what kind of massacre the games involving the minnows Associates will be.
• New Zealand have emphatically shown why they should be considered the tournament favourites - a solid top order combined with an explosive middle, and a made for conditions pace bowling attack with Vettori providing the spin variety. They are looking good to go all the way.
• Australia had small scares but their win was as emphatic as could be in an opener. Now only question remaining is how do they fit in Michael Clarke into the line-up? The potential names for the chop - Finch, Bailey & March all came in good, making them pretty much undroppable for the next game.
• Its a good idea to play the national anthems before the game, But it might not be such a good idea for the camera to pan in on the England's Irish captain Eoin Morgan during the rendition of "God Save the Queen".
• DRS issues came into the play sooner than expected. James Anderson being given run-out after referral on an LBW during which the ball had technically been dead. Again issue here was not DRS per se but the men using it. Cricket always teaches you new things. 
• Steve Finn gets tournament's first hat-trick and the first Michelle while Aaron Finch is the first centurion.

And now for tomorrow's games. Two sets of neighboring countries taking on each other. South Africa to win against Zimbabwe while as for the other one, watch this pre-game and lets say no more

World Cup Preview - Group A

The World Cup is almost there on us. And like the teams, the fans are also slowly but surely warming up to the event. Now, while we wait for the real event to start, Slipstream Cricket presents short previews of each of the participating teams. 

Covered in today's post are the teams in Group A.

Australia
Australia are the hosts, have the best knowledge of the local conditions, a good attack, an in-form batting line-up. But they also have to resolve their captaincy conundrum. Their is a good chance the captaincy might be passing between an unfit Clarke, the less in-form Bailey and the heir apparent Steve Smith. The Aussie selectors may have over-gambled on this matter. Also there will be shadow of the tragic events earlier in the season.
Prediction - Should make the quarters easily and their going all the way won't be too much of a surprise.

New Zealand
They are the co-hosts, have the best local knowledge, a super pace attack for the conditions with good spin support and a batting line-up in the form of their life, and they are the masters in sledging (refer last World Cup Quarter-finals against South Africa).
Prediction - Should make the Quarters easily. My pick for lifting the Cup.

England
The entertainers of the last World Cup. Good bowling attack but the batting seems to lack the extra explosive fire-power which all the other teams seem to be have.
Prediction - Quarter-finals, but not beyond.

Sri Lanka
They have been consistency personified in the last few ICC events though they have had a rough time in the recent series in New Zealand. They have an added incentive of winning it for their retiring legends Sangakkara & Jayawardene. A fully fit Malinga holds the key for Sri Lanka to go far.
Prediction - Quarter-finals

Bangladesh
Not played well at all in the big tournaments. The team is mercurial and may cause an odd upset but they are equally prone to being beaten by the Associates. The Bangladesh-England match is likely to decide the last knock-out spot from this group.
Prediction - Group Stage

Afghanistan
The World Cup debutantes Afghanistan have been the feel-good story of the sporting world. Their rise in the global game is the stuff fairy-tales are made of. Their decent pace attack is countered by their inconsistent batting. They are the banana skin match for the big teams in the group.
Prediction - Group Stage

Scotland
Scotland shouldn't provide much trouble to any of the other teams. Their aim would be to put it past fellow Associate Afghanistan and not embarrass themselves against the big boys.
Prediction - Group Stage

Key Games

• Bangladesh vs England
• Australia vs New Zealand
• Afghanistan vs Scotland

Next time - Preview of Group B teams.

Adelaide 2014: The AfterThoughts

Australia vs India, Adelaide 2014

It was a Test like no other. Matches have been held in the shadow of death before. One of Australia's greatest batting talents Archie Jackson died of ill-health while an Ashes tour was on in Australia. The Chennai Test of 2008 was played in the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks. And one of the greatest series of all times, the 2005 Ashes was played with the backdrop of the London bombings. 

However this match was different. An international player dying during the course of play in a first class match was an unprecedented event. The entire cricket community was in a state of shock. Something as innocuous as a cricket delivery had taken away a cricketer's life. Phil Hughes's sudden death and the subsequent outpouring of grief had rightly lead to the rescheduling of the India-Australia matches.

The rejigged Test series was cricket's way of saying "The Show Must Go On". There were lots of tributes paid to Phil Hughes during the game. 63 not out and 408 became the new landmarks in the scorebooks.

And above all this was Michael Clarke. The man had been in a row with the selectors  over his fitness when the incident happened. He was immediately on the scene, all animosity forgotten. As a leader of men, Clarke's stature has grown tremendously over the last few days. He took the field inspite of fitness issues and scored a century. However in the process, he picked more injuries. And there is a chance that he might never play again. Yet, I doubt that Clarke would have missed this game for the sake of prolonging his career.

The bouncer has always been a thrilling sight to watch. Now it had blood on its name. So I was wondering who would be the first bowler to bowl a bouncer in this game. And how would the crowds react. The answer came soon enough. Varun Aaron bowled it in the very initial stages. What was heartening was the crowd's reaction. There was applause for the bowler. A sign that people wanted things to become as normal as possible.

However Day 3 proved that things can never be the same again. Mitchell Johnson hit Virat Kohli bang on the helmet.  The entire Australian team, the non-striker and even the umpires ran in to check on Kohli. Thankfully no harm had been done. Yet Johnson was looking more terrified than anybody else. In earlier times, the bowler would have followed it up with a stare and/or some choice words with the close-in fielders also adding their two bits. Things have changed.

Yet nothing symbolized how much nature wants to back into balance than the verbal altercations between Aaron, Warner et al on 4th day. For some odd reason it was actually good to see that things were moving towards normalcy. Not that sledging and rude gestures are any good, but somehow it certainly helped in the healing process.

And finally a few words on India's performance. India's bowling is in a terrible condition. The bowlers are fast but too wayward while the spin department is itself in a spin. There is no way we can win Test matches with this attack on any half decent pitch. India's batting has no sting in the tail. The top order can bat firmly but is more likely to collapse under pressure.

However what was refreshing to watch was India's approach towards the 4th innings chase. With such a target, 80 percent of the times we would have collapsed quite early in the day and showed no fight. Other times we might have batted out a draw with the opposition under no threat. However Kohli and company actually went for the target. And for this very reason the defeat did not hurt as much. Yes we suffered a spectacular collapse losing 8 wickets in under a session. Yet the approach was there to win it.

Probably it was the stop-gap captaincy of Kohli which made India go for the target with Kohli himself leading the way with twin hundreds. However his captaincy shouldn't be judged on one off instance. After all as a stop-gap arrangement till Dhoni returned, Kohli could easily take more risks than the incumbent.

So in the end a grieving Australian camp turned up and outplayed the Indians. The first Test match is out of the way. And hopefully normal service will resume from Brisbane onward.

P.S. A word on Sean Abbott. It must have taken tremendous mental strength to come back and play in the very next match. That too in the very same ground. After all that he had to go through, he came up and got his career-best bowling figures. Hats off to the young man.

Arbit Stats 35

Australia vs Pakistan Test Series, 2014

9 - Number of centuries scored by the Pakistani batsmen in a 2 Test series.
21 - Number of years that the previous 9 Pakistani Test centuries against Australia took.

Shows the level of complete dominance and break from history that this series has been for Pakistan. They are now on verge of a 3rd successive Test win against Australia after having lost the preceding 13 in a row against them.

Unrelated but comparable factoid.
6 - India's medal haul in 2012 London Games
7 - The number of previous Olympics (from 1984 - 2008) in which India got 6 medals combined.

Arbit Stats 29

England are getting whipped in the ongoing Ashes. They are heading, no hurtling towards a 5-0 series whitewash. Many factors can be attributed to this thrashing. Lots of post-mortem reports will be prepared. But one stat will stand out to give the extent of the chasm between the two teams.

969 - The aggregate score of the English batsmen in the 1st innings of the 5 Tests.

1071 - The aggregate score of the Australian tail (wickets 6-10) in the 1st innings of the 5 Tests.

Australia have outplayed England totally. And nothing sums the dominance more than the above stat.

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.