Farewell Ian Bell

Ian Ronald Bell, the maker of Slipstream centuries, the sledgehammer of eternal justice, and the patron saint of this blog has announced his retirement from all forms of professional cricket. 

"Bell would have reached his 100 only if Cook had reached his. So all this is Cook's fault." 

One fine evening, more than a decade back, I sent in the above comment to cricinfo’s text commentary for South Africa-England Test match at Newlands. And lo and behold – the comment got published (my first ever!). And that was the impetus needed to start a dedicated cricket blog. (The debut) And Ian Bell was anointed the patron saint of "Slipstream Cricket".

Bell had developed a reputation for getting a century only when at least one other batsman had got a hundred in the same innings. This penchant for so called slipstream centuries also gave this blog its name. Of course, Bell duly corrected this anomaly after some 10 attempts, but I guess reputations stick. 

And my favourite cricket columnist/humourist, Andy Zaltzman (Twitter) gave him the lovely moniker of “the sledgehammer of eternal justice” – an apt one considering the superhero era we live in! (Reddit)

Bell ends his career with over 7,700 international runs with 22 Test centuries and a test average of 42. Not a particularly great number in an era where 50+ averages are not uncommon. But somehow, stats never seem to do justice to English batsmen. Graham Gooch had a similar average and Michael Atherton who finished with similar tally has a batting average similar to Shahid Afridi's in Test! Bell also finished with over 5,000 ODI runs which was England’s highest tally at that time. 

English cricketers are judged by their performances against the old enemy. And this is where Bell stood out. Being part of 5 Ashes winning campaigns (and 2 losing one’s) spoke of both his longevity & the increased frequency of Ashes contests. And like fine wine he aged well in the Ashes battles. From being Warne’s bunny and barely able to get a run in the classic 2005 series to three centuries in the 2013 series – that is a mark of resilience in a cricketer! 

From an Indian perspective he got his highest test score against India. But the moment which stands out is that brain-fade run-out at the stroke of Tea. The spirit of cricket had to be invoked, India withdrew the appeal, and Bell came back to bat. In a miserable tour for India, we got some points in the spirits stake at least! (BBC)

His run in the longer format may have been cut short, although he was good enough for one last recall which unfortunately never came. And after announcing his retirement post a measly domestic run, has now gotten twin 50s in his final first-class game. 

Farewell Ian Bell. That straight drive will be missed. 

P.S. the man can play a perfect straight drive to a toilet paper roll as well! 

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.

Bell Rings in 5 Urns

Slipstream Cricket would like to congratulate its patron saint, Ian Bell on his tremendous achievement of being part of five Ashes winning campaigns - only the second Englishman after Sir Ian Botham to do so since the Second World War.

Says a lot about the longevity of Bell and also the frequency of the Ashes Clashes - he has also been part of 2 losing campaigns including 2 whitewashes Down Under.

Image Source - Cricinfo

23 Jan 2015: Notes & Stats

With a majestic innings of 142 against Australia in Hobart today,  Ian Bell, the Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice, and the patron saint of Slipstream Cricket has now become the highest run-scorer for England in One-Day-International Cricket surpassing Paul Collingwood's tally of 5092 runs.

Slipstream Cricket would like to convey their congratulations on this stupendous achievement.

Arbit Stats 40

267 - the most runs scored in an ODI innings by a team after the fall of the 5th wicket. 

Also the partnership between Luke Ronchi & Grant Elliot who are now the owners of the record for the highest 6th wicket ODI partnership. 

The previous owners - MS Dhoni and Mahela Jayawardene for Asia XI against Africa XI. 

300

300th entry on this blog. Coinciding with an amazing win at Lords with India bowlers bouncing out the opposition. So pardon my self-indulgence for feeling like this

A time for some self congratulations. The scoring rate has certainly slowed down but the posts will keep on coming.

But this post is about this little cricket blog. 

• Named after Ian Bell's tendency to score centuries only if another batsman had scored one in the innings. An anomaly which Bell (also named the patron saint of this blog) has since corrected. 
• Also the only dedicated blog covering Jharkhand cricket and its cricketers. 
• Arbit Stats which appear with their own random frequency. 
• However what this blog is not? A newspaper trying to cover every occurrence in the cricketing world.

300 posts in almost 5 years of dedicated cricket blogging. Some of the posts have managed to make an appearance on other forums as well. Special thanks to forum moderators.

• Die Hard Cricket Fans (Link)
• Sportskeeda (Link)

Thanks to all the readers across the forums for keeping the blogs going. 

Next target Lara's 400 mark :P

The Ashes Story - From A Punch to Piss

The oldest cricketing rivalry for probably the smallest sporting trophy. England & Australia lined up to contest the first of the two Ashes contests this season. A short summary of what an Indian fan saw in passing of the Ashes.

It all began with a punch. As is rightly said - "Nothing good happens after two in the night". David Warner threw a punch at Joe Root in a bar during the Champions Trophy . No one got hurt. But the impact was felt later. Warner was dispatched to Zimbabwe - a very appropriate punishment, steeped in tradition and reminiscent of the colonial times. The coach got fired. New fellows were added to the touring party as replacements. In short, an Australian camp in total disarray just days before the start of the series. On the other hand England became the runners-up Champions of the Champions Trophy.

The start of the series was fantastic to say the least. A fly-past by the Royal Air Force. Then Ashton Agar made a fairy-tale beginning to his career breaking the world record for the highest score by a No. 11. It was a tight test and Australia fought and fought but England helped by Anderson grimly hung on to take victory.

However that was it from the cricketing front. Just when you expected Australia to fight back they shrunk away. 1-0 became 2-0 and then 3-0. In between the rain Gods also threw in their weight behind England. Michael Clarke made a big gamble and enlivened a dull end to the 5th Test. However, the stringent interpretation of cricketing rules jumped in and the public got cheated through a combination of bad light and the usual lack of common sense from the officialdom.

It was an appropriate conclusion in a series marred by umpiring and DRS debates. I won't be making any judgement on the umpires. Their job is tough and being made tougher through the technology available to everyone in the world except the gentlemen in charge of making the decisions. Hence making a wrong judgement call is part and parcel of the game. However what still baffles me is the way the authorities are interpreting DRS. DRS was brought in place to remove howlers. And howlers do not need an array of futuristic technology to be eliminated. They can be seen in one video replay. So lets remove DRS from the teams and just hand it over to the 3rd umpire (like the no-ball check on wickets). But a simple common sense approach is too difficult to expect from ICC.

Another chapter was added to the great saga of Walking/Non-walking. Stuart Broad did not walk after edging because (a) there was a match at stake, (b) the umpire did not give him out, and (c) Aussies had used up their reviews. There was a massive outrage with the usual "Spirit of Cricket" nonsense being debated.  If the 3rd umpire had the power to review, one replay would have given Broad out (more likely that Broad would not have waited for the decision himself). However when such common sense approach is missing then such controversies are bound to happen.

It was great to see Slipstream Cricket's patron saint, the Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice, Ian Bell scoring runs and lots of them and at the time when it was really needed. The only consistent batsman across the misfiring English lineup and the constantly shuffling Aussie one. 

A 3-0 verdict actually flatters both teams. It could easily have been 4-0 for England or a 3-2 Australia and all other permutations is between. A misfiring English line-up managed to hang in when required while a revolving door Aussie one performed better than expected. Both sides though need to sort out the personnel for the next bout.

It would have been a travesty if a series which had a punch as an epilogue had just ended in bad light. Post the bad light, post the presentations, the English cricketers took turns to celebrate the urn by peeing on the pitch. God only knows what they were thinking. Maybe it was some act of solidarity with Monty Panesar but certainly made for lots of bad press. [Personal Opinion - Coming from a country where sportsmen salute the ground before they enter it, the English act was blasphemous].

So in short - The series began with a punch and ended in a piss. In between some average cricket was played with more focus on umpiring and DRS controversies and Walking/Not Walking and the usual nonsense called "spirit of cricket"

Hoping for a much better return series Down Under. 

The Sledgehammer Strikes

Ian Ronald Bell - the English No.4 also known as "the Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice" and once upon a time maker of "Slipstream Centuries" is, as a dedicated reader of this blog might know, the patron saint of this blog. His penchant for making "slipstream centuries" (a Bell century came only when another English batsman had also scored a century in the same innings) not only lead to the genesis of this blog but also provided its name. 

So its fitting that Slipstream Cricket salutes Bell for having made his best Ashes century (in his words). According to Slipstream Cricket, the Agar fairytale and the DRS controversies (nothing unusual about it), should not let the Ian Bell century into slipstream. This was one of the better Test innings played. Certainly a game-changing one, putting England in command. 

As for the game. 5th Day's play. 137 runs & 4 wickets. Its all upto the bowlers now on both sides (English ones with the ball & Aussie ones with the bat). A thriller is on cards. After all this is the Ashes, we are talking about.

P.S. Edgbaston 2005 scorecard for reference 

200 Not Out

Rahul Dravid reached the milestone of 13,000 Test runs.

Sachin Tendulkar is more than half way in the attempt for the 100th international 100.

Darren Bravo is looking more and more like the man he is often compared to, Brian Lara.

Meanwhile, almost unnoticed, Slipstream Cricket (formerly called The Crickiblog) has reached its own special milestone of 200 posts (this being the 200th one). The 100th post milestone had been reached on the  blog's 1st birthday. Since then the strike rate has improved considerably and the 2nd 100 took less than 11 months.

How do I explain this improved strike rate? The cricket world cup happened for one (India won :D), which kept the months of February and March quite busy. My posting ability improved (:P). Or maybe I had nothing better to do and becoming a bigger cricket tragic than I already was. (But my other blog seems to have hit a writer's block and frequency of posts has deteriorated quite rapidly).

In the past one year, the blog has undergone a little bit of design changes. The Arbit Statistics have got a fully dedicated section for themselves, though they keep updating pretty fast. Also the blog has made acquaintance with fellow blogs on the matters of the gentleman's game. (Point to be noted -  the blog and not the blogger). It feels good to be mentioned around here and there.

As for the content, have decided that this is not a newspaper or a review site. And I do NOT have to cover all the goings on in the cricket world (but still follow up a lot). A lot can be left unwritten. But whenever there are some thoughts assembled they ought to be jotted down and posted. So these posts are becoming the random musings of a die-hard fanatic.

Nowadays, also being occasionally published at DHCF (Die Hard Cricket Fans). The posts get published as the editor wishes.

Finally, time for a dedications.

• To The Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice, for being the catalyst for the blog's genesis and its name.
• To BCCI, for making our team play non-stop, so that the lack of posts can never be blamed on the lack of cricketing events taking place. Laziness will take the blame here.
• To Pakistan cricket, its board and its players, for providing most of the off-field drama.
• To South Africa, for continuing their proud choking traditions.
• To Australia, for not being the dominant force that they were, so that sadist fans across the non-Australian world can gloat.
• To England for being the most entertaining team in the cricket world (so damned good in Tests and absolutely lousy in the ODIs).
• To Jharkhand for winning its first ever domestic trophy. Your deeds will be followed. (Aside - Can't think of any other blogger writing about Jharkhand cricket).
• To Rahul Dravid. Just for being Rahul Dravid.

To the next century.

P.S. Hoping I haven't jinxed it (You-know-who's You-know-what )

P.P.S Hobbies can be addictive

Payback Series: Whiteawashed

It had been built up as a revenge series by the broadcasters. And Team India certainly have paid back with interest (only for the ODI leg so far). Here are the thoughts for today's game at Eden Gardens and the series as a whole.

• Dhoni enhanced his finisher reputation. The big sixes were back and he stayed not out as well. His average may have been boosted by the large number of not outs but isn't not getting out one of the criterion for a good batsman. (A post by The Old Batsman on the subject is here).
• Rahane is looking impressive without having got that BIG one as yet. Also he is unlucky that Kieswetter keeps taking stunning catches to dismiss him when normally his keeping has been of the Kamran Akmalesque quality.
• Manoj Tiwary has been having a pretty weird international career. Injured during practice on the eve of his debut series and since then has played 5 matches across 4 series spread over a 4 year period.
• England had an awesome opening partnership followed by one of the most stunning collapses. 128 for none followed by 47 for 10. 
• Varun Aaron takes his 4th international wicket. Interestingly all 4 bowled which starts the slide for the Poms.
• Ian Bell finally played and scared the rest of the English lineup by failing to read Jadeja's spin.
• Some apologies for the years of abuse heaped on Ravindra Jadeja.
• In short England caught in a spin web and spun out. England in India have been worse than India's in England (only comparing the ODI parts so far)
• India still missing most of the big guns and their first choice replacements as well. On the other hand England did not have Broad & Anderson, though they wouldn't have made too much of a difference.

Payback still remains. This is only the appetizer. It won't be satisfied till the Tests thrashing is also avenged.

P.S. Malcolm Waller missed out on a well deserved century as he finished on 99* to take Zimbabwe to a thrilling one wicket victory over the Kiwis.

P.P.S. Wishing all readers a very Happy Diwali.

Payback Series: Game 4 - Thoughts

The Payback continues, with a Comprehensive 6 wicket victory at Wankhede, Mumbai.

• It was one of the most eagerly awaited debuts in recent memory. And Varun Aaron delivered to all expectations. A low economy, excellent clean-up of the tail and consistently over 140Ks. Certainly well begun and living to the expectations. A note of caution - Ishant Sharma & Irfan Pathan had even better starts.
• Another poor batting display by England. And still no Ian Bell. Logic of this is certainly beyond me.
• Suresh Raina leaving his England monsters behind while Virat Kohli produces another classic display. 
• Steven Finn giving Raina a send off after he had smacked the pants off the English bowling was hilarious to say the least. Can't understand all the chatter from a team which is getting comprehensively pounded.

Looking forward to a 5-nil whitewash in Kolkata.

P.S. Congratulations to the All Blacks on winning the Rugby World Cup. There were quite a few parallels to the Indian victory in the Cricket World Cup earlier this year. 

Payback Series: Game 2 - Thoughts

The payback continues with interest. This time at the Ferozshah Kotla in Delhi.

• Again England did not pick Bell. Why is a mystery. Certainly hope that Bopara's military medium isn't the factor keeping him in the team ahead of Bell.
• An even bigger mystery is what is an underperforming Kieswetter doing in the team? They have Bairstow and Jos Butler is the reserves.  In fact Butler is considered the better keeper by Somerset followers as well. Some re-juggling is certainly required.
• Good pace generated by Umesh Yadav. Maybe a bit wayward but the pace is there. As of NOW.
• And for a change India bowled well within time. Though I hardly see it getting mentioned anywhere.
• Gambhir should be opening. Can't have makeshift openers like Parthiv Patel with Gambhir in the line-up.
• Good innings by Kohli. Nothing surprising from him in that. In fact, the partnership with Gambhir had a deja vu feeling written all over it.
• Indian conditions and the English seam bowling looks neutralized. On the basis of 2 games only. Still early days here.
• Victory by 8 wickets with about 80 balls to spare. One word. Comprehensive.

Let the payback continue.

Payback Series: Game 1 - Thoughts

It was time for revenge and payback, proclaimed our TV channels promoting the current India - England series in India. But 5 ODIs and a T20 do not give enough opportunity to give payback for the happenings over the summer in England. Yet it was nice to start with a win in the 1st ODI in Hyderabad. I could only watch the England innings. Followed the Indian innings via online text commentary at work. Here are my thoughts for the match.

• Why did England not play the "Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice"? Cook as captain and having to fit in Trott, KP, Bopara, Bell in one lineup. Thats an interesting conundrum. Still feel that Bell should have been the first one to be picked in this lot.
• No debut for Varun Aaron as yet. When will I get to see a school alumnus play for India. (Aside - his Facebook fan page is here)
• On paper, the bowling looked weaker than in England except the conditions had been reversed. This game showed how big the difference can be. (I know it is only one game. Still)
• Do English batsman in general have a difficulty against left arm spin? Ravindra Jadeja's success here and the successful county stints enjoyed by Pragyan Ojha this season & Murali Kartik over the years certainly does point to that conclusion.
• Random Factoid - Almost 3 years since India beat England in an international match in any format. Last victory was in the Chennai Test, 2008 post the 26/11 incidents
• In summary, England's opening performance in India reminded of India's performance in England.
• 126 runs - a comprehensive win

P.S. Piyush Chawla's 92 in the Challenger Trophy final the day before must definitely rank as one of the best List A innings ever.

The Pataudi Trophy - Review

I remember with how much eagerness and anticipation I had written this preview. And how wrong was I? There was a section with a man-for-man comparison stating how equally matched the 2 teams were on paper (Alas as it turned out, it was only on paper). In fact we got hammered man-for-man.

In the end it turned out to be a contest between England against Rahul Dravid & Praveen Kumar. England were an efficient machine, with even the replacements also slotting in seamlessly. India on the other hand hand key components falling apart, getting damaged and replaced by Chinese made imitations. Rahul Dravid did build his Wall, but the other batsmen built tunnels under it. Praveen Kumar ran in all the time, holding one end as a stock bowler while there was no one at the other end to strike through. India just fell apart. There have been debacles in the past, England getting whitewashed in Ashes of 2006-07. But never before has such a long-anticipated top of the table clash turned so one-sided.

For England, there was someone or the other to keep knocking down the Indians if they even thought off getting up. It was simple, Excellent no-nonsense batting, sustained bowling and some decent all-round fielding. They executed it beautifully and ran India ragged.

For India, there were patches of brilliance like Dravid's batting, Ishant's spell at Lords, opening 2 days at Trent Bridge. Otherwise it was an abject surrender. There were cries heard that the team was under-prepared and needed more warm-up games. This may have been true but the way the English victory margins kept increasing through the series, it would have seemed England were the ones under-prepared at Lords.

Key moments for the series. Zaheer pulling his hamstring on Day 1 at Lords, Prior & Broad's counterattack when they were in trouble in the 2nd innings at Lords again. In Trent Bridge, India had England down for the count at Tea on the first 2 days and they managed to recover ground through Broad with both bat and ball. After that it was just a one-way road. Gautam Gambhir's on-field injuries meant a random batting order every time.

Other aspect highlighted has been the failings of the Hotspot. Technology certainly isn't fool-proof. But in trying to make technology fool-proof, the governing bodies have lost sight of the original idea of DRS, which was to remove umpiring howlers like Harbhajan given out lbw of a inside edge at Trent Bridge and not the marginal too-close-to-call situations like Dravid's at The Oval. Here due to some sheer pigheadedness of BCCI, ICC and other governing bodies, we have got such farcial scenario of different rules applicable in different places for the same game.

In the end, all I can say is England were bloody good, like they were in Australia earlier this year. I was cheering for them during the Ashes but couldn't watch them pummel my Indian team like this. Michael Vaughan's jokes which I enjoyed with relish during the Ashes were now too painful to even read.

India were under-prepared, exhausted, injured unit. Players were hopeless in the English conditions against an efficient English cricketing machine. And simply outmatched and outclassed.

Only good thing which came out was that the Indian fan learned to appreciate Rahul Dravid once again.

Also spare a thought for Duncan Fletcher, England coach for seven years and current Indian coach. His long term aim of making England the world's best test side has finally come true but at his own expense.

P.S. At least we did something about the Cricket Spirit while recalling Ian Bell, the Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice.

Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice

Congratulations to Ian Ronald Bell for getting the Man of the Match for his first ever Test double century at The Oval. You are the reason this blog exists.

The 2000th Test - Day 2 Thoughts

Some weird scenes, quite a bit of struggle and some pretty good cricket. These are the thoughts which come into mind after the second day's play at Lords.

• First up the man who scored a double hundred. Kevin Pietersen just about survived thorugh his first few runs on Day 1, then struggled through to his hundred, may or may not have been out caught by Dravid at leg slip but in the end not just stayed on but hammered his way through to an unbeaten double hundred.
• Praveen Kumar was not even considered as Test material till lots of injuries and rests got him selected against the West Indies. And today with Zaheer injured, Ishant and Harbhajan totally clueless about how to take a wicket he led the attack, took a five-for and got his name put on the Lord's honours board. And more importantly bowled almost throughout the dayl.
• Dhoni and Dravid. Given the way his attack was performing, Dhoni himself came onto bowl and didnt do a bad job either. While in his place Dravid came up behind the stumps after many years and again didn't do too bad a job there. Kapil Dev has called this act a mockery of Test cricket. With all due respect to him I dont see how this is the case. Its not as if they started the day with Dhoni bowling. He came only after one full session had been played. A team is struggling and is going about with different options about taking a wicket. In fact to me it showed that like true champion sides, the current Indian team is willing to adjust and adapt to difficult situations.
• Ishant & Harbhajan. Totally ineffective. Combined figures of none for 280 from 67 overs is certainly not a good sign.
• Eoin Morgan's dismissal. On first glance everybody says its out. Morgan himself walks off. Then the Hotspot pictures come in and say the ball brushed the pad but no mark on the bat. If the decision had been challenged it would certainly had been reversed. Only issue Morgan walked off and did not review it because he thought he had edged it. So the incident pretty much opens up the DRS debate again. Technology is certainly not perfect.
• Zaheer's injury just showed how much off a difference he makes to the attack. England can call up Bresnana, Finn, Shahzad if any of their fast bowlers get injured. Whom do we call up Sreesanth, Munaf, Mithun? Hoping he gets fit soon enough. Otherwise its Advantage England for winning the series.
• In the slipstream of Pieteresen's knock, the sledgehammer of eternal justice and this blog's mascot Ian Bell scored an elegant 46 laced with 6 hits to the fence (more on that in a later post).
• Indian openers survived the day. Lets see what they can achieve today.

England - The Most Entertaining Cricket Team Ever?

England are the most entertaining cricket on this planet. How they have become so is a total mystery. They may not be the best but are certainly the most entertaining. And that too across all three formats of the game (They also have 3 different captains in place).

England are the current T20 World Champions, a format in which they have lost to Netherlands also.

Their performances in the ODI World cup earlier this year, defied any sort of cricketing logic. A team which beat South Africa & West Indies and tied with India, while losing to Bangladesh & Ireland and getting pushed to the limit against the Dutch. The only consistency they showed was how they made every single game exciting and worth watching to the neutral followers.

And in Tests, the English have mastered the art of dramatic endings. In a 12 month period they produced 4 cliff hanger draws with the last pair on the crease fighting desperately for survival till the last over. (Against West Indies they were at the receiving end of it). Winter Ashes they beat the Aussies thrice by an innings while losing 1 match by an innings themselves. And today against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, they again showed up the maverick nature of cricket.

When the last day's play began after a rain delayed start, England were 91 runs ahead with some 57 overs of play left. A boring draw was the most likely conclusion. Ian Bell, the Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice (as he has been named) duly completed another Slipstream Century. And in a surprising decision Strauss immediately declared. First thought was why bother coming out to bat to add 5 runs to the lead while losing 4 overs. Bell was allowed to reach his personal landmark. And then Tremlett, Swann and Broad knocked out Sri Lanka in under 25 overs and helped seal an innings victory. (Some terrible, if you a Lankan fan, Stats here).

Certainly a maverick victory to say the least. Showed that the old adage still holds - In cricket it is not over till the last ball has been bowled and certainly not when England are one of the teams involved.

P.S. Now waiting for the "blame the IPL" for this defeat game to begin. 

P.P.S. Eagerly awaiting for the India-England Test series.

In other news, Shahid Afridi has retired from all international cricket. (Pakistan - the non-stop controversy continues)

World Cup Thoughts - Feb 27

After watching a CRAZY tied match between India & England, well, there is lots and lots to say. If I was commentating like Ravi Shastri, I would have said "In the end, cricket was a winner". 

• Virender Sehwag's edgy start. Should have been out 3 times in the 1st over. Wasn't and helped the team get off to a flier.
• Sachin Tendulkar's brilliant century. And seeing him hit those big sixes off Swann was special. The best one though was the first one off Collingwood and here is what Cricinfo had to say about it, 

  17.4	Collingwood to Tendulkar, SIX, the ball was straight, but the bat much straighter. Tendulkar with one, simple movement has lifted this over the bowler's head and straight into the advertising boards. First six of the match, made to look indecently easy

• Tim Bresnan was brilliant in the end. And he was in my Fantasy League team along with SRT.
• Munaf Patel ran out Zaheer trying to take an impossible second run, after having run the first one short. A little thing but in the proved decisive. 
• Forget Sehwag, this time around even the entire team could not bat out the 50 overs.
• At the halfway stage, it seemed India would romp home but our bowling attack (sorry, wrong word) just wasn't there for most of the England innings.
• Strauss played an innings hardly expected from him or in general any English batsman for that matter. But Zaheer's yorker took him out.
• Ian Bell (the hero of this blog) was playing fine till he got a cramp. Also involved in a bizarre decision review. Started walking off on seeing the replay but umpire stood by his original decision and gave him Not Out on a technicality.
• The Batting Powerplay seriously scares the Batting side. India lost their way a bit, while the English almost lost the match.
• And when the Indians seemed to have the match under control, a flurry of sixes from Swann, Bresnan & Shahzad sealed a tie.
• England nearly choked. Well, with so many South Africa born players in their ranks, what else could we expect.
• India & England both have a good batting and pathetic bowling lineups. Not sure how longer they can go on with this.India's in particular starts and ends with Zaheer, the rest are just kind of running through the motions.
• The "Movies Now" channel was showing all 6 Rocky movies. Manged to catch quite a bit of action in between overs. Just wondering how awesome it would have been to watch the match with the Rocky theme on rather than the cliched commentary. 

In the end I can say this was probably the best match of the past 3 world cups. The best since Edgbaston 1999, another tied match.

And a day earlier, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in another close game further strengthening my belief of Pakistan as a dark horse for winning the Cup. Still a long way to go.

Now over to some boring matches from tomorrow. Predictions Zimbabwe & West Indies to win.

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust...

The Ashes are done and dusted. Australia have been thrashed beyond recognition. In fact the 3-1 margin actually is quite flattering towards the Aussies. The previous series in England had been a close fought one with Australia being the better performers inspite of being on the worng side of a 2-1 scoreline. Andrew Strauss had then commented that "When we bad we were awful, when we were good we managed to be just good enough". This time after 3 innings victory there is not much to review, except what exactly happened in Perth?

The SCG could have been the farewell venue for Ricky Ponting's Test career. Instead it was Paul Collingwood who got the perfect farewell from Test cricket. The totally dominant Aussies were reduced to a joke in the light of England's throughly professional performance. Underperforming players and some muddled selection policy made the Autralian cricket time of quite a few jokes. The cricketing world rejoiced to see them suffer. Here are a few highlights.

• What do you call an Australian cricketer who is world class? Retired.
• After winning the toss, Strauss to Ponting, "You lads can bat". Ponting, "No mate we can't. We really can't".
• What is the Australian version of LBW? Lost, Beaten, Walloped.
• Michael Clarke wanted to captain Australia very badly. He did just that.

On the cricketing front the highlights would be the surreal score of 1-517, Collingwood's catches, England's pace attack, Bell's 1st Ashes century, Trott's batting, Hussey's lonely battle. And above all Alastair Cook, for whom the picture is the most apt description.

And if we add the Sprinkler dance, an almost perfect Ashes for the England team.

P.S. Now I am waiting for the Indian tour of England later this year.

The 1st Birthday with a Century

January 4, 2010 - A comment posted on the cricinfo website about Ian Bell was the push needed to start a cricket blog. And thus was born Slipstream Cricket (then known as The Crickblog).

January 4, 2011 - The blog celebrates its 1st birthday while completing its century. This is the 100th post on this blog.

From that debut to the century its been an interesting journey. Covered quite a few matches international as well as some Indian dometic, Test cricket, ODIs, T20s, some Arbit Statistics, some quotes, a few pictures, selecting random XIs . It was nice to have a platform to write about my own passion for the game. And it felt good to see that this blog has started getting noticed.

Now for a list of people I would like to thank

• Ian Bell. A comment about Bell's inablity to get a century by himself was published on cricinfo. And that was the push needed to start the blog. Since then Ian Bell has got this monkey off his back. And is batting better than he ever has.
• Cricinfo. For publishing the comment. And for providing such a massive database for the links.
• The BCC! (Bored Cricket Crazy Indians). For having linked this blog on to their site and bringing itout in the public domain. Also thanks for the tweet.
• Peter Siddle. For being the biggest traffic driver.
• The readers of this blog. It was nice to see the score get past the 1000 mark.

Hope to continue blogging more and more.

With Best Wishes

Nishant

Update
Watching the 3rd day's play in Newlands between India & South Africa seemed a perfect way to celebrate the 1st birthday. Steyn's bowling, Sachin's century and some fighting cricket by both teams. Thanks for joining in the birthday party.

The Slipstream Century

Ian Bell has finally done it. It took him ten attempts but he finally got there.

Against Bangladesh in the 2nd Test at Mirpur, Bell scored his 10th Test century. And unlike his previous 9, this time around none of the other batsmen in the English lineup had already reached a century. It may have been a mere coincidence but this unique statistics was always highlighted by Bell haters (and there are a lot of them). He has been accused of scoring easy runs (the 9 slipstream centuries, an average of over nearly 250 against Bangladesh). In fact it was suggested that Bell was the best batsman to come in and score runs after the team has reached a total of 400. And there was this tendency to play little elegant innings and get out.

But things may finally be looking up. He did play a fighting innings, generally the kind played by Collingwood, to help save the 3rd test against South Africa. And in the current test also, England werent exactly in a comfortable position when Bell batted them through.

Hopefully this innings would be the start of a new batting era for Ian Bell, cause when he is playing well, he is definetely amongst the better to watch batsman in the present times.

P.S. This blog post was waiting to be written for quite some time. After all, a comment about Bell's batting published on cricinfo was the push I needed to get this blog started.