IPL 2020 - Passing Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

World Cup 2019: The Slog Overs

Finally, the long winding league phase comes to an end. And surprise, surprise we have our 4 semi-finalists revealed to us – India, Australia, England and New Zealand! A list which had been predicted within the first fortnight itself! But that is not to say that the dead rubbers were meaningless. The very last game changed the order of the semi-finals leading to change in many travel plans!

Sporting outcomes depend on very fine margins. If that shot from Carlos Brathwaite had reached its intended destination, New Zealand would have been out of the World Cup and Pakistan would have qualified! In the end New Zealand’s campaign faltered badly but they had enough initial momentum to nudge ahead of Pakistan. 

Pakistan’s campaign showcased their one quality – unpredictability. Or, in simple terms basically being Pakistan throughout! Everyday their supporters found new similarities with the 1992 campaign. They even supported other teams including India and New Zealand, while their own kept stumbling through. Finally ran into an impossible task with the Net Run Rates where their heavy defeats and narrow wins came back to haunt them. And then, finally the 1992 comparisons stopped!

But this is cricket fandom. So we move on to the next set of analogies. In the 2008 U19 World Cup, India beat New Zealand by 3 wickets in the semi-finals. The captains on the day – Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson. The same duo who will step on the field for the toss on July 9th.

South Africa, for the first time ended a World Cup campaign on a winning note, beating Australia and changing the semi-final lineups also. They have had two ties as well, and some rain involved. Maybe this is the luck they needed to turn around their future campaigns.

England’s stumble against Sri Lanka was the result which made the league phase interesting. But Sri Lanka couldn’t use that platform while England returned to their merry ways. Meanwhile, England reached semi-finals in 1992!

West Indies started with a win, ended with a win and had nothing else to show in between! Except that the signs of revival are very much there. Sheldon Cottrell has developed his own fan following with the Salute though!

Shakib-al Hassan had a sensational tournament. And in my opinion should be the Player of the World Cup. Bangladesh certainly are no pushovers. It has taken them (a lot of) time but they have arrived on the big stage. And it is the inspiration for all other newcomers and Associates.

Afghanistan were the fan favorite. Everyone would have liked to see them win a game or two. However, no one wanted to see them beat their own team though. However, the Afghan fairytale has hit a rough patch. Player indiscipline, administrative problems and fan trouble. Hope these are sorted out soon.

Australia are becoming the imposing machine again, but the ruthlessness is yet to fully come back. Wouldn’t have expected Australians of Waugh-Ponting-Clarke era to lose the last game!

And finally, India. After the weirdo game against England, easily dispatched Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Rohit Sharma has got 5 centuries in this edition with potentially two more innings to go. And yet still generates lot of social media hate, especially from the so-called fans who still do not realize that the red-ball and white-ball are two different ballgames entirely! Well, can’t do much about it.

We bid farewell to Chris Gayle, Shoaib Malik, Imran Tahir, JP Duminy and Ian Gould– in different forms. However, Ian Gould is the only one who has actually done his last game. Others might still be seen in different T20 leagues or even internationals!

So India vs New Zealand & England vs Australia. Let the Endgame commence!

World Cup 2015: Short Notes - 24th Feb

In today's episode, Chris Gayle, Chris Gayle's stat attack, and more Chris Gayle.

• But first things first, England duly won the Battle of Britain or the Cricketing equivalent of the Calcutta Cup in a pretty un-English manner. Batted first, put on a big opening stand, failed to capitalize on it, yet reached a big score, then easily chipped away at the Scottish batting and won handsomely. Should have a calming effect on the jitters going on in the English camp. Bangladesh-England is going to be the game to watch out for.
• India have created a template for winning matches - bat first, preserve wickets, create a big platform and then launch/implode at death ending in a score of 300 odd. Then keep chipping away, the rising required run rate creating its own pressures and you have registered a huge win in the process.
• Now to the Chris Gayle show. He could have been given out first ball and even a review won't have saved him. But he wasn't and even the review couldn't get him out. One of the key issues with DRS - this umpire's call business.
• And then Chris Gayle consolidated to reach his fifty, then consolidated some more to reach his hundred, then went berserk to reach 150 and finally exploded to his double century.
• Stat Attack - 
• Highest individual score in World Cups
• Highest individual by a non-Indian batsman in ODIs
• Biggest ODI partnership going past Dravid's two second wicket efforts with Ganguly & Sachin in the year 1999.
• Samuels & Gayle partnership was worth 100% of the West Indies runs
• Equal most sixes in an innings record
• February 24 - a day for ODI double centuries. Off the 5 till date, 2 have been scored on this very day of the year.
• Zimbabwe showed heart in their chase but it was way beyond them. Quite similar to the happenings against South Africa.
• West Indies lost to Kenya in 1996 and then went on to beat Australia and South Africa. This time around the loss against Ireland seems to have spurred them on.
• Shocking Stat - Devon Smith has played 100+ games as a batsman with an average of 18+. 
• The DRS issues again jumped into the limelight. Did not really affect today's outcome but might become critical in the end.
• We also had our first appearance of Duckworth-Lewis. An algorithm which absolutely no one understands but still used.
• Prediction Time - Ireland to beat UAE.

Mankading & "Spirit of Cricket"

Mankading - the act of a bowler running out the non-striker batsman before bowling the ball has always been a source of needless controversy. 

In fact for some weird reason it has become a test of the "sportsman spirit" of a bowler who does not do the "Mankad". Cortney Walsh has received a medal for not running out Salim Yousuf. But if the bowler does Mankad, like Sachitra Senanayake did to Jos Buttler, all hell breaks lose. The bowler and the fielding captain are accused of having destroyed "the spirit of cricket" - the greatest crime imaginable in the gentlemans's game.

Well here are my two bits on Mankading.

It is within the laws of the game. In fact there is a specific law for the situation, hence no ambiguity is possible. Law 42(15) states - "The bowler is permitted, before entering his delivery stride, to attempt to run out the non-striker. Whether the attempt is succesful or not, the ball shall not count as one of the over. If the bowler fails to run out the non-striker, the umpire shall call and signal Dead ball as soon as possible". 

So if there exists a specific law which states what are the consequences of a bowler breaking the stumps with the non-striker outside his crease, then why the hue and cry? The "spirit of cricket" has already been murdered many a time (Fixing, Corruption, Walking/Not walking etc.) by different sets of players, officials and administrators. Guess that is why it exists in "spirit" form.

Here the batsman was wandering outside the crease and with run-out decisions sometimes become a matter of TV frames, then it does become an advantage for the non-striker to back up as far ahead as possible. In this case, Buttler had been warned twice by Senanayake in his previous over. (Which is where the matter of cricket's spirit should rest, which seemingly is not the case). And when Buttler was found wandering out again he was run-out. A result very rightly deserved. 

So the right decision was taken on action justified and well within the laws and more importantly the previous over Senanayake having shown the proper "spirit" also, guess Buttler should have nothing to complain about. Don't see any justifications for the hue and cry it has raised.  Nor do I see why the batsman is being portrayed as a victim, when its his own actions which are to be blamed for his fate.

To me its clear, Senanayake and the rest were well within their rights to run-out Buttler. And no harm was caused to the so called "spirit of the game".

Closing Notes - a couple of interesting exhibits on Mankading

Exhibit A - The original report on Mankading

Exhibit B - Chris Gayle showing "spirit" of game. Again the dancing might not be agreeable to the believers in the Gentlemen's game.

Now its up to ICC to either (a) tinker with the laws, which they love to do a lot; OR (b) tell the players that Mankading does no harm done to the "spirit of cricket" 

IPL6: The Middle Overs

The IPL madness is well and truly on. Only after some 30 odd game with some 40 plus (or is that 100) still remaining some fatigue has also started creeping in. So like any ODI its time for the boring middle overs. A phase which is not interesting by itself to watch but has quite a big impact going forward. The mind maybe getting a bit IPL-numb but there are still moments thrown up which will be remembered for, if not years, at least one week going forward.

Sir Jadeja - When the Indian captain knights you, you do have to live up to the reputation by coming up with something which mere mortals cant even think of. And thats what happened when Sir Jadeja was on strike with the team needing 2 runs off the last ball. Yet in dramatic circumstances (some would say very fishy), the bowler RP Singh bowls a (big) no ball which "Sir" top edges to third man who catches it while "Sir" crosses over to other end. Result - both teams found celebrating till they realise the real consequence, that Sir Jadeja ensured his team's victory off the last ball with one ball to spare (Go figure). And he turns up next match to create a (then) record for fantasy league points from a single game. And follows it up the very next game by creating a fantasy league record for the maximum negative points from a single game. Not for nothing is he Sir Jadeja.

The Gayle Storm - How the hell does somebody score 175 runs all by himself in a T20 match. I find scoring at such a rate difficult in Stick Cricket.also. Records tumbled in the Gayle storm - Highest individual & team T20 scores, fastest senior level century in any form of the game, most sixes in a T20 innings and what not. Whichever side you support the Gayle storm would have left you stunned and you would have been left applauding at the brutality of it all. Special mention for Bhuvaneswar Kumar who went at an economy rate of under 6 in the face of Gayle storm.

Kohli Gambhir faceoff - Some things should not happen on a cricket pitch. Even though cricket is no longer a Gentleman's game, the Kohli-Gambhir faceoff was ugly. And such things SHOULD NOT happen.

Sunrisers bowling attack - A team with the weakest batting lineup is sitting pretty near the top of the table just because of its sheer bowling prowess. Steyn, Ishant, Mishra & Perera have combined together to successfully defend even the undefendable

Missing Million Dollar Baby - Still no sign of Glenn Maxwell. The team should be getting some return on investment.

The Foreign Captain Conundrum - The teams need Indian captains. A non-performing foreign captain is the biggest liability for any team, given the restriction on number of foreign players (and a very justified one also as it is an "Indian Premier League". Hence we have seen a number of captaining casualties already - Sangakkara, Ponting, Angelo Matthews, Ross Taylor are all sitting out of games. Even Cameron White is not a certainty while Adam Gilchrist is the biggest liability in Kings XI side. Only Jayawardene is justifying his own place in the playing eleven. While RCB had rightly replace Daniel Vettori with Virat Kohli prior to the start of the season

The Jumping Jepang Award for the Biggest Riser -  Aaron Finch - not picked in the original auction, then a late substitute for the injured Michael Clarke, now finds himself leading the Pune Warriors.

Team Tidbits

• The perennial underdogs Rajasthan Royals have made another impressive start to their campaign. Hoping  that unlike last year they don't fizzle out by the end of the season.
• Delhi Daredevils will play a key role in knocking out one of the play-off contestants during mid-May.

And hoping for more intense and proper contests as the race for the play-offs hots up.

Arbit Statistics 21 - Chris Gayle

In an IPL T20 match Chris Gayle scored 175 not out. Yes, one hundred and seventy five runs scored by one person in a single T20 innings.

End of Arbit Stat.

Amongst the many records (fastest century, highest T20 score etc) he broke during the Gayle storm, the most qualified for an Arbit Stat is
Chris Gayle has broken Hamilton Masakazda's record for most T20 career runs scored in a single ground.

Podcast: Thoughts on Cricket - T20, India

After having reviewed India's Olympic performance through a podcast, presenting the second podcast done by the trio of Karthik, Ajay & Yours truly.

Though the discussions went on for long, the podcast has been restricted to less than 20 minutes play duration. 

Among other things we analyse and find why picking Chris Gayle for your T20 team is not a good idea.

A podcast reviewing the World T20, the currently underway CL T20, talking about the IPL and looking forward to India's upcoming series.

01:15 - Thoughts on the World T20 

06:00 - Quick thoughts on Anil Kumble becoming the ICC Cricket Committee Chairman 

07:50 - Champions League T20 Thoughts - Lack of champions, proposed future formats 

10:50 - Proposed changes to CL T20 

12:50 - The IPL, teams being terminated and feasibility 

15:00 - A few thoughts on domestic cricket 

16:45 - India's upcoming calendar and the case of the missing SL series 

18:30 - Closing comments

If you like what you hear, follow us @ajay_prasad @kcgadiyar and @nishantskumar

IPLV: Post 3 - More Scandals & Less Cricket

IPL becoming less about cricket and more about drama.

• To begin with a so-called sting operation from a 3rd grade TV channel. They had good material exposing the underhand dealings for domestic players & franchisees. Instead attempted to turn it into a more sensational "fixing" scandal. Haven't seen much worse journalism. But then can't expect much more from a channel whose primary content is showing aliens abducting cows and similar stuff.
• Then some team owner vs stadicum fracas. Don't give a damn.
• One player arrested. Charges very serious. But its for the player to handle. Dear Media, don't blame IPL for this.
• Politicians calling IPL corrupt (Perfect example of pot, kettle, black etc.). One ex-cricketer turned MP goes on fast against IPL (Annaji, see what have you done to the country).

Now over to the real stuff, the cricket

• Chris Gayle - redefining T20 standards. I can only redirect to a far better write on the subject (The Old Batsman)
• Rajasthan Royals crash out. Every neutrals favorite team couldn't make it to the play-offs. Just wondering - Is Sunday going to be the last innings for the Wall. Will Dravid return next year? (Want to see him play, dont want him to do be gone like Dada)
• KKR have finally started winning. Good to see them being on top. Some toned down egos probably doing the team a world of good.
• Its not too late. Parvinder Awana should be fast-tracked into the India A squad for West Indies.
• The least likeable team. On current on-field behaviour has to be the Mumbai Indians.
• Indian death bowling - only one conclusion can be drawn. It does not exist.

India vs West Indies Test 1 - Thoughts

It was much closer than it should have been. India in India (with an amazing record of just 2 losses in last 20 home games) taking on West Indies who have been struggling anywhere and everywhere against anyone and everyone. The first test in Kotla provided further proof that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. Here are the thoughts at the end of the game.

• A home test without Harbhajan Singh and a revamped bowling lineup. His direct replacement Ashwin takes 9 wickets and picks up the Man of the Match on debut. The other spinner Ojha making a comeback picks 7 including 6 in the 1st innings. Add Harbhajan's miserable performance against Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy, the chances of a comeback soon become a bit dimmer. (In the same game another Indian discard RP Singh picked a Michelle while Suresh Raina scored a double hundred).
• Chris Gayle was missing a result of too many ego clashes amongst West Indies cricket stakeholders. Don't know who to blame here. The board, the players's association or Gayle himself?
• Another exclusion was of Ramnaresh Sarwan. This was a case quite similar to Harbhajan's. Born 10 days apart, both have great reputations, formidable records and a lousy current form and both out of their national teams.
• Shivnaraine Chanderpaul was there as usual tormenting India as he has been doing since time immemorial. Probably the ugliest batting style in the whole cricketing world and also the most effective in blunting any bowling attack. But India are rendered especially toothless against him.
• I like Darren Sammy. Many may say that he doesn't deserve to be in the team. But his dedication cannot be faulted. Bowls his heart out, takes the wickets, gets a few quick runs when his team needs them and is doing an excellent job captaining the West Indies team. I guess West Indies cricket needs players like Sammy more than Gayle.
• India's collapse in the 1st innings was the reason that this test got all exciting. India still went on to win can say a lot about India's fighting spirit or West Indies's incompetence. Your pick.
• Dhoni became the 1st Indian to reach 200 test dismissals whereas Mark Boucher just took his 500th Test catch. Also Dhoni remained not out on 0 in the 2nd innings. Hope nobody accuses him of remaining not out to boost his batting average this time around.
• Sehwag was off to his murderous starts. Knocked a big chunk off the chase almost as soon as it got started both times around. 
• Dravid was there doing his typical "Back to the Wall" jobs in both innings. He lost his crown of most 4th innings runs to Tendulkar though.
• VVS Laxman was there to see another 4th innings chase through.
• The stage was set. I had actually dreamed up the scenario as well. The ball bowled slightly outside offstump and it gets punched through the covers for a boundary. The crowds giving a standing ovation as India reached victory with the same shot as Sachin Tendulkar reached his 100th international 100. But alas, it wasn't meant to be... (Aside - SRT refused to take a legbye and was out LBW a couple of balls later in the same Bishoo over). The wait continues.

Now over to Kolkata.

World Cup Quarter-final Predictions

Its Prediction Time

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

QF1 - Pakistan vs West Indies

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

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

QF2 - India vs Australia

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

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

QF3 - New Zealand vs South Africa

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

Prediction - South Africa

QF4 - Sri Lanka vs England

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

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

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