The 1st World T20 Final

“In the Air...Sreesanth… Takes It…India WINS” – boomed Ravi Shastri as Misbah-ul-Haq’s attempted scoop shot was caught much short of its intended destination. And with that final act, India became the inaugural World Twenty20 champions.

For the Indian fan, it was a perfect finale to a near-perfect event. A world tournament final victory, coming over your historical arch-rivals was just the balm needed to heal the wounds from the ODI World Cup earlier in the year.

The tournament had been a grand spectacle. Music, player introductions, bowl-outs, fireworks and dancing cheerleaders were some of the innovations which were well received by the audience. For the marketing men, the final was a dream match-up like the perfect icing on the cake. The finalists— India and Pakistan – historical arch-rivals, both seeking redemption for their respective horrendous show in the ODI World Cup. They had played a thrilling tie earlier in the tournament which India won 3-nil in a bowl-out.

India suffered a setback before the start with Virender Sehwag missing the final through injury. In came debutant Yusuf Pathan as his replacement. Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat first. Pathan began his international career in a spectacular fashion launching the very second ball he faced from Asif into the stands but he fell soon after. Gautam Gambhir played a steady hand while wickets fell regularly at the other end.  The most memorable moment of the innings arrived when Gambhir smashed a six straight into the scoreboard. “That’s one way to get the scoreboard moving” was the gem from the commentary box. India ended up with a seemingly below-par total of 157.

Pakistan should have chased this in a canter but the World Cup final has its own pressures. Tight bowling and fielding combined with some reckless shots had handed over the initiative to India. The Indian fans thought the match was in the bag but Misbah had other ideas. There was a flurry of big shots while wickets kept falling at the other end.

Pakistan needed 13 runs off the last over with Misbah on strike and only one wicket remaining. Here Dhoni made the crucial choice. He handed the ball to Joginder Sharma ahead of the much more experienced Harbhajan Singh. Dhoni’s sheer gut feeling seemed to be the only logical explanation for this choice as Joginder bowled a wide and then was hit for a straight six. Everyone’s nerves were all over the place and Misbah seemed to be the only calm one. And then the third ball of the over. Misbah tried the scoop shot, the ball seemed to have been hit perfectly rising in the air as we saw the crowds in the background. With bated breath, we saw the ball begin its descent. Was it going to cross the boundary or was it falling short? The ball came down and landed safely into the hands of the waiting short fine leg fielder. Misbah was down to his haunches and the Indian team was celebrating.

I was watching the game with some hundred others in my college common room, which had never been so crowded before. There had been a hushed silence with everyone doing their best not to jinx the Indian team by any sort of movement. Sressanth caught the ball and the whole room erupted. An instant party followed.

All thoughts of assignments and submissions for the next day had gone for a toss. They would wait. After all we were now the World Champions.

P.S. - This article was written as part of the ongoing #BeACricketWriter Contest being conducted by Harsha Bhogle

IPL7: The AfterThoughts

The 7th edition of the Indian Premier League has come to an end. And Congratulations to Kolkata Knight Riders for their second IPL title. After an embarrassing defeat to Rajasthan in which they lost 6 wickets for 2 runs they have really lifted their game and were deserving winners in the end.

Now the time to note down some after-thoughts (not a review) from this year's IPL.

• The Impossible Chases - The tougher the ask, the higher the stakes, the more seemingly easy it becomes to chase it down. The team batting second knows the target and also the fact that they can only win if they go slam-bang from the first ball. And apparently this belief is actually carrying them to victory. Examples - KKR chased down 160 in under 15 overs to finish 2nd in the League; Mumbai Indians chased 191 in 14.3 to enter the qualifiers; CSK blitzed 100 in 6 overs in a chase of 227; Rajasthan smashed 65 in 3 overs to win with an over to spare. And it all culminated in the final with KKR chasing down 200.
• The previous edition of the IPL was under the spot-fixing cloud. This year, thankfully, no such corruption allegations have emerged, as yet (fingers crossed). Though given the Lou Vincent & Player X stories coming out, sceptics want to see everything through tinted glasses. And that is the damage which has been done by the fixers.
• The IPL unfolds like a story. Its a little long drawn but this year's script had the perfect climax. The events from the last set of league matches down to the final must have been the perfect dream run for the marketing teams.
• The final stretch also highlighted the importance of the "Indian" part of the IPL. Manan Vohra, Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, Akshar Patel, Yusuf Pathan & Piyush Chawla in the final; Sehwag & Raina in the eliminator. It was mostly an Indian show towards the end.
• Congratulations to Yusuf Pathan, for becoming the first player to be part of 3 IPL winning squads - once with Rajasthan and twice with KKR.
• Special congratulations to Vinay Kumar, Roni Uthappa & Manish Pandey for winning their 4th domestic title of the year - Irani Trophy, Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy & the IPL.
• Special Mention - Suresh Raina. He is the IPL GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The highest scores across seasons is the most reliable batsman and fielder in IPL with the happy habit of taking key wickets as well. And most importantly performing in crunch matches. The blitzkrieg against Kings XI was one to be remembered, though in a losing cause.
• The umpiring standards in India are pretty poor. But the umpires are under far greater scrutiny than ever before. Its a tough ask made tougher by the technological hindsight provided to everyone except the people responsible for making decisions.
• The Club vs Country Conundrum - This is not going to end ever. And the only one who has a right to make a decision is the player concerned. Though the club and the country do both need to have a slightly flexible approach in the matters. Sunil Narine chose to play in the IPL final over joining a West Indies Test camp. He did produce his worst performance of the season. Maybe this off-field drama was to be blamed or maybe he just had a bad day in office. But no player should have to make such choices.
• And finally a word on the winners - Kolkata Knight Riders was a team made up mostly of India discards. But one by one all the pieces fell in place - Uthappa, Gambhir, Umesh, Chawla, Shakib, Narine, Surya Yadav and Manish Pandey - they became the strongest team in the whole lineup. A couple of them even made their India comebacks.
• And a word about the final - Sony Max couldn't resist playing Veer Zaara right before the finals :P

So the IPL fest concludes and now back to serious cricket. Tours of Bangladesh and England beckon for the team. Its a good idea to test the bench strength in the Bangladesh ODI series (only good use this hastily arranged series can have).  And then off to a 5-Test series against England. Hopefully results will be drastically different from the 2011 tour. 

IPL7: Notes#3

The League part of the Indian Premier League is over. Congratulations to Kings XI Punjab for winning the League. Oh wait.... the IPL is still not over. The top 4 have to now go through a seemingly complicated (albeit more fair) elimination process to decide the champions of IPL7. 

Some thoughts on the India phase of the league (For UAE phase, click here)

• Chennai Super Kings are the consistency personified. 7th consecutive knock-out phase entry doesn't surprise anyone.
• Defending champions Mumbai Indians recovered marvelously from pathetic start to just about enter the knock-outs by the skin of the teeth with net run rate calculations being as much in focus as the actual match result. (Detailed post tomorrow or maybe not)
• Rajasthan Royals have always been a fan favorite team, in spite of the spot-fixing scandal. They have been unorthodox in their selections also but this time over-experimentation caused an early unexpected end to their campaign.
• T20 cricket has emboldened batsmen. The bigger the target, the likelihood of it getting chased down somehow becomes higher. With batsmen under no pressure, even 15 an over does not seem too big an ask. KKR, Kings XI, Mumbai Indians all produced one astonishing chase after the other.
• If CSK as a team are consistency personified, Robin Uthappa was the epitome of a consistent batsman. Nine 40+ innings in a row in a format which is designed to be unpredictable will take some beating.
• Amit Mishra had a horror tournament after a good return to the national side. But it was as a batsman that he provided the "highlight" of the tournament with this extreme run-out against Rajasthan Royals. (Video)This one was straight from the Inzamam school of run-outs. [Aside - 23 run-out collection here]
• Apurva Wankhade was fielding in a stadium carrying his name. Would like to know how many similar stadium-player combinations are there.
• When the batsmen are in a rampaging mood, even the likes of Dale Steyn become lambs to slaughter. Steyn getting hammered twice (by AB de Villiers & Yusuf Pathan) wasn't a pleasant sight to behold. But what was pleasing was the way a smiling Steyn applauded his opponents. The kind of moments which make sports special.
• Indian seamers stated well, but by the end of the league stage Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was the last man standing. Mohit Sharma was the other one to have enhanced his reputation.
• As always, the future of Indian batting seems in good hands with Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Manan Vohra all playing key parts.

Till next time

Arbit Statistics - 16

This headline caught the eye after the IPL final.

IPL1 Final - 2008 - Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings 

IPL5 Final - 2012 - Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings 

Only common player in both winning elevens - Yusuf Pathan (Lots of common losers though in the CSK sides)

So Yusuf Pathan becomes the 1st player to be in the winning XI in the final for 2 different teams.

Laxmipathy Balaji is the only other 2 team winner but wasn't in the playing XI.

Ravindra Jadeja in the mean time becomes a winner for RR (2008) & runner-up for CSK (2012). Achievement shared with Dwayne Bravo (runner-up (2010, MI) & winner (2011, CSK).

Headline worth an arbit stat.

World Cup Thoughts - March 9th

It was an India match day, so a post has to come. Missed most of the game due to being at work. Only saw the end bits. Here are the thoughts for the day.

• First, Piyush Chawla - From the reactions on the internet, he is fast replacing Ravindra Jadeja as the most abused Indian cricketer.
• It seems to be a new strategy. Zaheer opens the innings, the other pacer opens from the other and after one over Yusuf starts over. Not a bad move given that except Praveen Kumar (and he is not playing), the other Indian pacers seem to prefer bowling with the older ball.
• 4 in 4 for Sehwag. 4th innings in the World Cup and he starts with a boundary of the first ball. Thats a nice little habit to have. Had read somewhere that Sir Jack Hobbs (the greatest run accumulator in 1st Class cricket) liked to take a single off the first ball he faced. So Sehwag should be doing well.
• Yuvraj Singh had another good day in the office. But the rest of the team seemed to be taking it easy. Still the Seven Samurai managed to get the job done in the end.
• I thought India had made it to the Quarters by now. But it seems I was wrong. There is an odd chance that we have not. If WI beat Eng, Eng beat Ban, WI beat Ind, Ire beat WI, SA beat Ind, Ire beat SA, SA beat Ban & Ire beat Neth, Ind could still miss out. (Source - @espncricinfo)
• And to end with some new titles for Kamran Akmal - Here is what he has been described as by the master of Awesome cricket writing Andy Zaltzman -  the Maharajah of Missed Chances, the Don Corleone of Dropped Catches, the Earl of Err, the Pharaoh of Fumble, Lance Corporal Granite Hands

World Cup Thoughts - March 6th

Not posted here in a while. Contrary to what might seem given the frequency of posts here, I actually have a regular job, with a 6 day work week at that, which sometimes makes me earn my salary. So since my last posting, where both my predictions went horribly wrong, 5 matches have taken place. Here are the World Cup thoughts as of date.

• New Zealand are now in a neither here nor there kind of situation. They get thrashed by the big teams and indulge in some heavy-duty minnow bashing when they get the chance.
• Whatever happened to Bangladesh. All out for 58, certainly wasn't expected and that too against West Indies. This was followed by the shameful incident of stone throwing at the West Indies team bus. Even more ridiculous was the explanation provided by the police, that the fans thought it to be the Bangladesh team bus. As if throwing stones at your own players is acceptable behavior.
• If their was an award for the "Most Entertaining Team of the World Cup" it has to go to England. Another close match. 
• Don't like to use the word, but South Africa choked today. When AB de Villiers and du Plessis were crawling towards the target, I wondered if the South Africans were planning to choke. And thats what they did. A flurry of wickets and England out of nowhere found themselves at the top of the Group table.
• It seems all captains have found the way to get Kevin Pietersen out. Just put any left arm spinner against him. Today it was Robin Peterson's turn to get KP.
• I believe the Irish are going to become the most loved team of the World Cup. Another fighting display this time against India. They were BRILLIANT in the field. Trent Johnston's chicken dance routine was funny. And George Dockrell is an impressive young spinner. Certainly looks like getting into the England team soon.
• Yusuf Pathan showed how to best deal with a small target in a nervous run chase. 5 balls faced from a bowler who had just taken out Dhoni. 2 straight huge sixes and a four. Can't be more confidence destroying than that.
• Never visit the barber's shop while an India game is on. My neck was literally on line with a raazor blade uncomfortably close while everyone debated the DRS review. One unnerving experience to say the least.

So tomorrow we have the game between Canad and Kenya. Not even worth predicting.

Another Impossible Chase - Well Almost

What is it that Yusuf Pathan likes about chasing seemingly impossible targets? (Written about his domestic exploits here). The 5th ODI against South Africa saw another blazingly murderous Yusuf Special. From 113/8 to blaze through to 219/9 in the company of Zaheer in South African conditions required some special hitting. And he provided just that. And it is not as if its something new. He had been chasing down these impossible targets in domestic cricket. Now its the international arena. And its now to see some consistency.

The Art of Chasing Impossible Targets - by Yusuf Pathan

Yusuf Pathan has taken it upon himself to prove that any target in cricket can be chased. However hopeless maybe the situation. There is always something to fight for. Since February he has played the lead role in 3 sensational chases, all in domestic cricket and across the 3 formats. Though he ended up on the winning side in only one of these.

An unbeaten 210 in the Duleep Trophy Final helped West Zone to chase a target of 536 set by South Zone (the highest successful chase in the history of first class cricket)

80 off 39 balls, in the Deodhar Trophy final against North Zone. Sitauation was hopelss at 108/6 before Yusuf almost took them home.

100 off 37 balls for Rajasthan Royals against Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Rajasthan needed 144 off the last 10 overs when he started hitting it around. Yusuf almost saw them through but Rajasthan lost by 4 runs in the end.

He has always been a big hitter, but never seemed to be fulfilling his true potential, specially when playing for the country. He seemed to be becoming the Indian Cricketing equivalent of Football's Thierry Henry. Great performances for the club but always under-delivering for the country. This recent run of big scores should be a big confidence booster though. Hope the big hitting continues.

Another great Finale

Indians seem to have rediscovered their love for the longer version of the game. And why not? The national team became the top ranked Test team. To ensure continued command on this position, the board changed the schedule to play more tests. And to top this even the domestic matches are turning out to be more and more exciting. Barely 3 weeks after the fantastic Ranji final we have had another awesome finale to the Duleep Trophy. 

West Zone took on South Zone in Hyderabad in a game which was initially closed to the public to avoid the Telengana agitation. Both teams were depleted due to key players playing for the national squad and the Board President's XI. However both teams still had a fair share of fringe players in their ranks. South Zone batted first and score 400 thanks to Dinesh Karthik's 183 while Irfan Pathan took 5 wickets. West conceded a lead of almost 150 runs with only Yousuf Pathan scoring a hundred while the rest of the batting collapsed as Ganapathy picked 5 wickets. Karthik got another 150 in the second innings as South declared setting West a victory target of 536 runs. Chirag Pathak, Harshad Khadiwale & Wasim Jaffer gave West a good start. But South were still on top when the 5th wicket fell at 293. But Yousuf had other ideas. He went for the bowling in a manner only he can. He got good support from his brother Irfan, Pinal Shah and Romesh Powar as he hammered his way to an unbeaten double century and finishing the game with a six. Yousuf was dropped 5 times during the innings as he led West Zone to the highest successful fourth innings chase in first class cricket history. 

A great match to be remembered for twin centuries by Karthik & Yousuf and the highest run chase ever. It was a memorable game. But there are still points to ponder upon. It could have been better if the BCCI had not diluted its importance by selecting some key players for the Board President's XI squad. That team should have been picked entirely from the other 3 zones. This would have added to the star value of the match. If spectators were not to be allowed in the ground then shouldn't the game have been shifted elsewhere.