The Eden Garden saga

The Feroz Shah Kotla episode has rubbed more salt into the Sri Lankan wounds. If the more than impressive total of 313 had been defended a few days ago at the Eden Gardens, then Sri Lanka might have gone back after drawing the series 2-2 (which would be a very good return from the tour). The match @ Kolkata must have been painful to watch for a Sri Lankan supporter. Sri Lanka did all the hard work for the best part of 54 overs and then threw it all away.

I was speaking to a friend during the Indian run chase and when the big 2 had been dismissed, I told him that this was almost déjà-vu (the 1996 world cup semi-final). The only missing pieces were a complete collapse and crowd trouble. Some time later, I told him that if Gambhir and Kohli did pull off the chase, then I would write a blog about it (my next post). Right now, I want to only write about how a team snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Considering the following

• Sri Lanka were trailing 1-2 in the series with another game to go
• They had to win both matches
• If Sri Lanka gambled and went for the victory at Kolkata, had they pulled it off, then India would have had to go to Delhi on the back of a loss and in a must-win situation. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you see it) for them, they have not had to play a bilateral series where the final match was the series decider, for some time and so, it would have been very interesting had the series drawn level.

In soccer, I have often seen the situation where a team that is trailing by, say a goal, (or with the scores level, needing nothing but a victory to move ahead in the league / tournament) going into the last few minutes of play, puts all its players forward in the hope of getting that all-important goal. The philosophy is that even if you concede a goal because of attacking with everyone, the result will still be the same. This is a calculated gamble that captains sometimes must take.

Kumar Sangakkara has been blamed by many for his un-imaginative captaincy. I do not know if it is lack of imagination or unwillingness to sometimes go for the kill while taking the risk of losing a match. I believe that Sangakkara is the best player in the squad. He is very committed towards the team’s cause and is one of the most technically gifted batsmen in the line-up, apart from being an excellent wicket-keeper. However, it is his leadership skills that I am not yet convinced about.

He was aware that on a good batting track @ Cuttack, it was his wicket that led to a dramatic collapse and gifted India a series lead. So, when Dilshan’s wicket fell @ Kolkata, he decided to curb his attacking instincts in the hope that in case he stayed at the wicket till the 30-40 over mark, the team could then go all in and get a big total. This part was executed well and 313, which was the highest score at the venue, must have made the Lankans smile thinking that half the job was done.

India, on their part, also did the Sri Lankans a favor. This was the first time in 5 years that they were playing an ODI without either Dhoni or Yuvraj, the cornerstones of their middle order, in the squad. Add to it the fact that the top 3 in the lineup were their most experienced and in-form batsmen meant that the job was simple – Get into the middle order which lacks big match experience / performances and put pressure on them and they will crumble.

With Sachin and Sehwag dismissed within 5 overs, victory was almost in sight. Then the mistakes came (but unexpectedly, from the Sri Lankans).

• At the end of over #10, Sangakkara failed to inform the umpire about the bowling power play which the fielding side usually takes at the end of powerplay #1 so that they can get it over with. He realized this in the middle of over 11 and so, the powerplay was taken at over 12.

- India had a similar situation (run chase) a few months ago at Vadodra. The target at that time was 293 and Sachin and Sehwag were dismissed in 8 overs. That time, the partnership between Gambhir and Kohli was starting to blossom when the Aussies pulled the plug. It took all of 3 quiet overs to get Kohli impatient and drew the error from the batsman.

• Sangakkara need not have known this fact. Kohli was playing in his 14^th ODI and hadn’t made a big knock yet. His only noteworthy effort in a runchase was the 79 against an under-strength West Indies side, when the target was 129.
• At the end of over 16, India had scored only 24 runs in the bowling powerplay. It was clear that the pressure was working and more of it was required to keep the batsmen bogged down and induce errors.
• The pair scored 120 runs in the next 20 overs when the field was spread out. Sangakkara was playing the waiting game hoping for mistakes to come from the batsmen.
• We now know about the 100-odd singles in the partnership. Its hard to imagine that none of Jayawardane, Jayasuriya and Sangakkara, at any point, saw this as a problem area and looked to address it. Malinga was expected to be a potent weapon but he was anything but… Too many boundary balls were bowled by him. But this cannot be the excuse.
• The conditions with the dew in the pitch made it very hard to bowl. But letting 100 singles being scored does not help the cause (each time a single was scored, the ball invariably reached the outfield which was already dew-laden. All the more reason to prevent singles. The target was in excess of 300. A few boundaries was more than just a calculated risk the captain could have exchanged for possibly precious wickets.

But we will never know. Credit will only go to Gambhir and Kohli (deservedly so) for the perseverance shown on the field and for the maturity with which the chase was orchestrated.

Drawn first test @ Centurion & SA V Eng

However, South Africa need not be too concerned about not being able to win the opening contest. I checked the stats and found that South Africa are not necessarily the fastest out of the blocks in this particular fixture (at home against England). They have won the first test at home against England only 5 out of 17 (including the recently concluded test) attempts. Thats a probability of about 30%.

The result, on the other hand, a bit of a surprise. Its the first time in 71 years that a first test of a series in South Africa has ended in a draw with no play lost due to weather.

England in South Africa - Tough encounters

This has proved to be quite a competitive series. Since South Africa's re-admission to test cricket, they have battled England in 3 test series, winning 2 of them and losing the most recent one. However, when i was going through the series history, i came across an incredible series that deserves mention.

The mother of all come-backs

The 1956-57 series between South Africa and England will probably go down in history as the comeback to beat all comebacks. I can't recall a team ever coming back from a 2 test deficit to win a series. With the tendency of teams today to protect series leads by playing out draws and fewer 5 test series being on display, we might not get to see it anytime soon.

However, this series did have some incredible results. England won the first 2 tests as convincingly as imaginable (by 131 runs and then by 312 runs). The 3rd test was close but ended as an exciting draw (South Africa, chasing 190 to win, ended day 5 at 142 for 6, being reduced to 42 for 4 at one stage.

South Africa mounted an enormous comeback, winning the next 2 tests to tie the series at 2-a-piece, albeit under questionable circumstances, with the condition of the pitch causing a lot of debate.

Stats: To see or not to see

Take a leaf out of other sports? Or not?

I have followed the game of baseball for over a decade. Once fascinating thing i have observed in baseball, like in many other American sports, is the obsession with stats. The game is all about numbers. As surprising as it may sound, i have seen it work on so many occasions that it would be foolish to rule out their impact.

Without getting into the intricacies of baseball, i want to dwell on what sort of stats we are talking about.
They could be from team performance related like

• The win-loss record in a particular ground which could indicate how the team performs under certain conditions

Or player performances, like

• The players' performances against specific opponents, which is normally used to target the "star" performers in the opposition line-up

• How a batter has historically performed against right arm pitchers as opposed to left arm pitchers (which could decide on whether he starts or not).

• How a bowler has performed against specific batsmen as well as a comparison of performances against right handers and left handers

Here, cricket has an advantage. In baseball, you cannot tinker with the batting (they call it hitting) line-up. In cricket, you can send any batter at any time. So, if you, for example, find that a batsman has predominantly good numbers against spinners as opposed to the quick bowlers, you can decide to send him in when the spinners are in operation. I agree that over a period of time, the opposition is bound to figure out this strategy and counters it. But the only thing that would increase is the intensity in the game and the excitement level for the fans following the game.

Situation stats like in case a team is chasing a big target, doing a quick stats analysis

• Which team has chased successfully at the ground

• Which team has chased successfully against the same bowling lineup

And trying to figure out what they did right and verify if some of those right things can be replicated.

The point is, its not just about making these stats available to the players but to the audience too which will make it more interesting. However, there is a downside to it. Unfortunately, betting is a reality whose presence in the sport we've all been made painfully aware. I imagine that if television were to show these stats during matches, it will only increase betting and that cannot be good for the game.

End of the day, there is a lot more excitement that can be brought home to your television sets which would make the game watching experience even more interesting. What i have not factored is the possibility of the vast majority of the cricket viewing population not particularly interested in knowing these intricate details which then trumps all the effort put into making this available.

The tale of a bucketful of runs

Yesterday, there was an ODI between India and Sri Lanka in which more than 800 runs were scored in a single day. Many of those who did not watch the match will see it as an opportunity missed to view a run feast. I am glad i did not have to watch those bowlers get absolutely battered on a batsmen's paradise. However, Zaheer @ co can take heart from the fact that this is not quite as bad as what another Indian bowling attack had to endure a few years ago.

I am talking, ofcourse about the battering suffered by Kumble and Venkatesh Prasad, among others, in the sultry conditions @ Premadasa in 1997. Sri Lanka scored all of 958 runs and India, who had previously declared after making 537 themselves, might have looked back at their performance as an opportunity missed to make an even bigger score. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, missed out on a chance to reach the ever elusive 1000 run mark

Back to the topic of high scores, the thought of a team scoring 1000 runs in one innings is very daunting indeed. I used to think that any team that manages to score so many must have done so, similar to Sri Lanka, in an effort to bat the other team out of the contest...But it turns out that the truth is somewhat surprising.

Victoria, home to arguably the greatest artist of leg break bowling, Shane Warne, are the only team in all of professional cricket to have recorded a score of 1000 or more. If you think this is a proud achievement, what about the fact that they have managed this humongous effort on 2 occasions!!!!

An even more stunning fact would be that both the times that more than 1000 runs were scored, Victoria won the match!!! This would suggest that the pitch was not a plain batsman's paradise.

In 1923, when they played Tasmania, Victoria were asked to field after losing the toss. The bowlers ran through the Tasmanian batting line up in 52 overs for 217. Their response was an emphatic 1059 in 2 days. The Tasmanian batting line up's response to this unprecedented mauling was a paltry 176 runs. - The result - A victory by an innings and 666 runs!!!!

William Harold Ponsford was fortunate to be a part of both the run fests... He was the captain fantastic in 1923 and the highest scorer, rattling off 429 of the best, playing from the middle order. In 1926, he played as an opener and was not the skipper. He top scored with 352.

World cup jinx and consitency

Jinx of losing in the Finals?

It certainly might appear so. In the history of world cup, except for 2 occasions, the team that loses in the finals has not had a chance to make it to even the semi-finals of the next edition of the tournament. The only sides that managed to break this trend were England (in '83 after having lost the '79 Finals to the mighty Windies) and Australia (in '99 after losing the '96 Finals)

So, this brings out the possibility that often, its the team that manages to keep its energy levels high and brings its "A" game to the field when it matters most. After all, World Cup is the ultimate test of limited overs skills (correction, it was generally accepted as the litmus test until the advent of t20)

But if the finalists from one edition fail to make it to the semi-finals of the next, it surely must mean one of 2 things

- Either the squads are very shallow and a few injuries lead to losses in matches and a general loss of form and confidence which translates to poor performance

- The teams are plain inconsistent and find it difficult to be able to maintain a consistent performance level over a sustained period of time.

Consistency is the name of the game

So, i came to the conclusion that in order to be successful, you need to have a deep squad and be very consistent. Of these 2 qualities, consistency trumps the other since we have seen on many occasions that strong squads don't necessarily win all the time.

We are all aware of the awesome consistency that the Aussies have displayed in this (among other) formats of the game.

- 4 World Cup victories
- 2 time finalists
- Missed out on the semi-finals on only 2 occasions - in '83 (they had lost the previous finals in '79) and '92 (where they were the main hosts, a fact I will dwell upon in greater detail later)

What many might have missed out on, is the consistency displayed by the Kiwis

- Semi-finalists in 4 out of the last 5 editions of the world cup from '92 to '07. Ofcourse, the semi-finals is a jinx that they must be hoping desparately to break.

New Zealand have never won in the semi-finals of a world-cup. Australia have never lost in the semi-finals of a world-cup!!!!

Funny, uh? :)

When enough is just not enough....

I just had to write about this incredible test match that took place 105 years ago... The thing to learn from this match was that sometimes, enough is just not enough. The Aussies were painfully made aware of this. The match i am talking about, is the 1st match of the Ashes series of 1894, played from the 14th to 19th December at Sydney.

Batting first, the Aussies rattled off 586 runs in 4 1/2 sessions. At the end of it, they must have felt good (I did some research on this and it is arguably the highest score in one innings at that time and also till the turn of the century. But due to the lack of sufficient data, i cannot be 100% sure). England battled till the end of day 3 when they were dismissed for 325, handing the Aussies a ridiculously high first innings lead of 261 runs. On day 4, England were asked to follow on and, on a pitch that was easing up, battled to a score of 437 towards the end of day 5 (This being a timeless match, the number of days the game went on did not matter)

The Peel and Briggs Show

The target for Australia to go 1-0 up in the series was a not-so-tricky 177. They ended day 5 at 113 for 2, just 64 runs behind and all of 8 wickets in hand. Overnight rains and bright sunshine changed the conditions to suit a pair of slow bowlers, Bobby Peel and John Briggs. The pair of left arm orthodox spinners orchestrated a dramatic final day collapse, including the last 6 wickets for 19 runs to help England win the match by 10 runs.

But then, this was more than 100 years ago. You would believe in
"Once bitten twice shy"

Not the Aussies. Probably the reason that they hold 3 of the top 5 first innings score in the test history which have ended in defeats for the high scoring team.

Sometimes, enough is just not enough.

The summit reached - Who will keep us there?

Most of the country seems to be in a celebration mode ever since India reached the summit after the recently concluded series against Sri Lanka. There is no taking away credit from a good squad with lots of positives from all departments on showcase...

One must, however, also consider the tricky situation the team put itself in.

On the bowling front, there isn't (atleast right now) too much cause for concern. The fast bowling department seems to be filled with good performers, both on the field and off it in the domestic circuit. The spin department also has a couple of good options and hopefully they can be fine tuned in the next couple of years (assuming Harbhajan is fit and in form for that time, he can guide the newcomers).

On the batting front, its all to clear that there is a major roadblock ahead.

By the time India play a test match of real importance, Sachin will be almost 37. Dravid will definately be 37 and VVS will be 36 years of age.. The opening partnership has a good few years ahead of them (and, as Murali Vijay showed, there is some cover for that department too). Yuvraj, on the other hand, has only recently started to cement his place in the test squad (more by chance than by choice, one might comment). So, the middle order conundrum that the selectors might be faced with (if not next year, then definately in 2 years' time) is definitely something that a fan needs to be concerned about. There are a few players in the domestic circuit who could make an attempt to fill in the gaps but what they are seriously missing is some time at the middle.

I believe that one good way of grooming talent is mentoring. Even now, its not too late to have a process in place whereby players like Pujara, Vijay and Rohit Sharma get to go on tour and one by one get some chance to fine tune their skills. If, on the other hand, the powers-that-be stick to the current squad and, in a few years time, if a batch of youngsters are not able to perform, come up with some lame excuse, it would be a shame. We have already seen what happened to the "mighty" Aussies when they lost all those players in a hurry (luckily for them, they had Hussey, Clarke and Ponting and the impact isn't that much).

It is also paramount that Yuvraj starts getting more consistent so that when it is time for the "Holy Trinity" to retire, he can be there to guide the next gen. The openers' slot, the wicketkeeper's slot and that of the bowlers is not that big a concern.

In the end, I guess victory (in this case, the #1 test ranking) always comes at a cost. Whether the cost is a little too steep this time, only time will tell.

A blast from the past - Retro Ranji :)

Most of us are aware of the rules followed in Ranji Trophy and the way the results are decided. The most common result, ofcourse, is a draw. I bet most Ranji results were decided based on the first innings lead (which, ofcourse, is the first criteria to decide on drawn matches. I did find something interesting that happened nearly 27 years ago.

Delhi was playing Karnataka in the finals of the Ranji Trophy, at the Feroz Shah Kotla. The mantra that most teams follow in this tournament, as you can imagine, is bat first and make a huge score and bank on your bowlers to get you that all important first innings lead. G R Vishwanath won the toss and decided that Karnataka would bat first. The team batted really well and piled on 705 runs before being dismissed in the 256th over (surprisingly on the 4th day). This was then the 10th highest score in first class cricket in India. There were 4 centurions in the Karnataka innings with Brijesh Patel top scoring with 125 runs.

Usually first class matches are played for 4 days. But, finals are a 5 day affair. Delhi went into bat early on the 4th day, knowing that the Ranji Trophy was slipping away from their hands. They did a good job at that.. By the end of day 5 (which was the scheduled close of play), they had scored 543 for the loss of 6 wickets. This was a final (probably the rules dictate that since Karnataka did not declare, Delhi would have to bat till they either were all out or they got a first innings lead, whichever came first). The match was extended to a 6th day!!!

Resuming on the 6th morning, Delhi lost their star batsman, Amarnath and were almost down and out at 589 for 8, a staggering 116 runs behind with just 2 wickets in hand.

Rescue act by RS and RP

Rakesh Shukla and Rajesh Peter got together and proceeded to architect a stunning comeback. Their partnership yielded 118 runs for the 9th wicket (Rajesh Peter's 67 would be his highest score in first class cricket) and got the all-important first innings lead without further loss of any wickets.. (Captain, Mohinder Amarnath top scored with 185 runs)



A true thriller but not during any of the 5 scheduled days of the match :)

Numero Uno - Do not forget these guys...

India, by virtue of some really good test cricket over the past 10 years, find themselves at the summit of test cricket. A moment worth savoring for the true cricket fan.
There was a lot of hue and cry when the T20 world cup was won. Somehow, i feel that this achievement in test cricket would bring to the team members (and also the fans) greater joy, even though being ranked as the number 1 test team does not bring along with it any trophies. Test cricket has been and continues to be (i want to say that it will continue to be, but with the advent of T20, i'm not so sure) the litmus test for judging cricketing talent.

Having reached the summit, the team should not forget how they got there. Most of the core team members who helped the team get to the top are still around. These men have seen most of the top of the curve will get their due credit and will be talked about by everyone in the coming days (Sachin, Dravid, Sehwag, VVS, Zaheer). There are 2 men who were hugely responsible for this achievement but have since, retired from test cricket. They are ofcourse Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly.

In my first post, i would like to take a different view on the success of India in test match cricket by mentioning a word or 2 of praise on Dada.

The Indian cricket team was known for its strong performances at home even in the '90s. However, its performances away from home was what was preventing it from being categorized as a strong team. So, assuming the same level of performance at home post 2000, the rise in the ranking must be mainly due to the stellar performances away from home during this time.

After Sachin decided to give up captaincy to focus on his game in the late 90s, the squad was in need of a strong captain and here Ganguly must be given his due credit. He might not have had a lot of impact in tests away from home but the ones where he played well are special.

1: The 98 scored in the run chase in Kandy in 2001 helped square the series at 1-1. This was a testing innings since it involved a tricky run chase of 264 against the deadly (in Sri Lanka) combination of Vaas and Murali.

2: The 144 scored in Brisbane in 2002 was very important since it helped keep the series evenly poised. It came with a first innings of 300 plus scored by Australia and India at a tricky 127-4 with Sachin and Dravid both failing in the first innings. We might never know what could have happened, had India been all out with a deficit or, worst still, if they had gone to Adelaide trailing in the series.

3: The 50 in the first innings of the historic win in Johannesberg in 2006 might, at first sight, not look like much. But it was that and more. It was the difference between a score of around 170 and a score of 250. It might not sound like much but i would like to think that the bowlers got a huge psychological boost when they saw that the batsmen had given them something (considering the nature of the track) substantial to bowl at. And how they did..

4: Most important fact that we should remember is that when he gave up captaincy, Saurav Ganguly was the most successful test captain for India.