Its still very early to start writing about the ICC Cricket World Cup that opens with a Bangladesh v India clash at Dhaka in March 2011. I just happened to check the fixtures in that tournament and was a bit surprised that India will be taking on Bangladesh in Bangladesh in the tournament curtain-raiser!
I hate to sound uncharitable but the opener does not augur well for the pre-tournament favorites - India. Bangladesh at home are a formidable outfit and India may well face their most unsettling challenge of WC2010 right at the outset. India need to be at their best to get off to a winning start especially since they are in, what is popularly believed to be, the tougher group in the World Cup.
Then again, seeing how I was way off in predicting that Tendulkar would get a test triple ton in the Ind-NZ test series, I could be wrong here and India may well thump Bangladesh in the tournament opener. Still, I have sounded my post of warning for the hosts and hope that my fears are allayed early into the tournament!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Can SRT get a test triple and some more?!?!
Let me add a disclaimer outright that I am not one to put the jinx on SRT so do not go about blaming me if his form peters off as 2010 wears on! That being said, I wish to seriously consider if SRT can actually bring to fruition a billion dreams - well, actually its a single dream shared by at least a billion cricket fans - the dream of seeing SRT at the top of the highest test inning score list. For the uninitiated, that list in question, in currently topped by a Carribbean swashbuckler who answers to the name of Brian Charles Lara.
Truth be told, the highest ODI inning score list and the test inning score list are very close to being poetically correct - the ODI inning list is aptly led by SRT (200*) who is unequivocally the legend of the ODI format and the test list is headed by Lara (400*) who, most would agree, has been the premium match-winner in test cricket in the modern era - and what's more, the numbers themselves, (200* & 400*) add that extra element of symmetry that makes these lists aesthetically significant!
Personally, having witnessed SRT's struggle with fitness (and form to some extent) during 2006-2007, I had resigned myself to the fact that SRT would end his career big on aggregate runs but without any X-factor innings in his kitty. I was gladly proven wrong by his 200*. In the euphoria following that innings, there were many fans who thought a test triple or quadruple was a given after that 200*. I wasn't convinced and I had my reasons; I shall divulge these reasons here:
SRT got the 200* in an ODI, batting for 3 hours and scoring at 136 runs per 100 balls. In tests, SRT's strike rate is between 50 to 60 runs per 100 balls. Now, if SRT has to get to 400 runs in a single test innings, he would need to face, on average, 700 balls (approx). This translates to 120 overs which means, Team India would have to bat for at least 200 overs (bare minimum) and SRT would have to bat for at least 2 days in a test match. Phew.....hmmmpfh!
Now, let me tell you why I have started to dream that SRT's triple, quadruple or more could actually happen!! For one thing, NewZealand will be playing India for 3 test matches with the first one being in Ahmedabad. SRT got his first test double ton in Ahmedabad at the Motera Stadium against New Zealand in 1999. The other day, when he got his 214 against Australia at Bangalore, he was clearly far more fit that the other Indian centurion - M. Vijay. SRT came out to field after his marathon and was looking fresh enough at the end of the match and game for some more runs!! SRT himself, complemented the support staff for their care of the cricketers and has repeatedly showered praise on the masseurs and physios for their work on keeping his body in ship-shape. SRT must really feel the difference given that he is not a man who lavishes unwarranted praise.
So, fitness may not be an issue. Then again, if Dhoni works on his toss winning skills (:D), SRT could find himself batting towards the end of the first session on Day 1 of a test match agains the kiwis at Ahmedabad or in at least one of the three tests. The only question that remains (and this is a big one!!) is whether SRT will be driven enough against a hardly threatening Kiwi attack. I am not claiming that he will be any less motivated to score for India but the question is whether he will be driven enough to stay on for a big big mammoth innings of say..... hmm.... 401* or 501*.... hey sorry, dreaming again.... back again now!!!
So you see, it could happen. I had ceased to dream about this 5 years ago but SRT has rekindled them by being, well, SRT!! What can I say - 'Sach is life' .......... Good luck SRT, Good luck Team India - God is already with Team India, so the best wishes I can give Team India is to say "May the force be with SRT" (Stiff upper lipped Padres should probably forgive my thinly-veiled blasphemy!!! hehe!)
PS: if it were to actually come to pass, I would like to go out on a limb and say that
Sachin will get a test quadruple in around 500 balls batting for 5 sessions!!!
Truth be told, the highest ODI inning score list and the test inning score list are very close to being poetically correct - the ODI inning list is aptly led by SRT (200*) who is unequivocally the legend of the ODI format and the test list is headed by Lara (400*) who, most would agree, has been the premium match-winner in test cricket in the modern era - and what's more, the numbers themselves, (200* & 400*) add that extra element of symmetry that makes these lists aesthetically significant!
Personally, having witnessed SRT's struggle with fitness (and form to some extent) during 2006-2007, I had resigned myself to the fact that SRT would end his career big on aggregate runs but without any X-factor innings in his kitty. I was gladly proven wrong by his 200*. In the euphoria following that innings, there were many fans who thought a test triple or quadruple was a given after that 200*. I wasn't convinced and I had my reasons; I shall divulge these reasons here:
SRT got the 200* in an ODI, batting for 3 hours and scoring at 136 runs per 100 balls. In tests, SRT's strike rate is between 50 to 60 runs per 100 balls. Now, if SRT has to get to 400 runs in a single test innings, he would need to face, on average, 700 balls (approx). This translates to 120 overs which means, Team India would have to bat for at least 200 overs (bare minimum) and SRT would have to bat for at least 2 days in a test match. Phew.....hmmmpfh!
Now, let me tell you why I have started to dream that SRT's triple, quadruple or more could actually happen!! For one thing, NewZealand will be playing India for 3 test matches with the first one being in Ahmedabad. SRT got his first test double ton in Ahmedabad at the Motera Stadium against New Zealand in 1999. The other day, when he got his 214 against Australia at Bangalore, he was clearly far more fit that the other Indian centurion - M. Vijay. SRT came out to field after his marathon and was looking fresh enough at the end of the match and game for some more runs!! SRT himself, complemented the support staff for their care of the cricketers and has repeatedly showered praise on the masseurs and physios for their work on keeping his body in ship-shape. SRT must really feel the difference given that he is not a man who lavishes unwarranted praise.
So, fitness may not be an issue. Then again, if Dhoni works on his toss winning skills (:D), SRT could find himself batting towards the end of the first session on Day 1 of a test match agains the kiwis at Ahmedabad or in at least one of the three tests. The only question that remains (and this is a big one!!) is whether SRT will be driven enough against a hardly threatening Kiwi attack. I am not claiming that he will be any less motivated to score for India but the question is whether he will be driven enough to stay on for a big big mammoth innings of say..... hmm.... 401* or 501*.... hey sorry, dreaming again.... back again now!!!
So you see, it could happen. I had ceased to dream about this 5 years ago but SRT has rekindled them by being, well, SRT!! What can I say - 'Sach is life' .......... Good luck SRT, Good luck Team India - God is already with Team India, so the best wishes I can give Team India is to say "May the force be with SRT" (Stiff upper lipped Padres should probably forgive my thinly-veiled blasphemy!!! hehe!)
PS: if it were to actually come to pass, I would like to go out on a limb and say that
Sachin will get a test quadruple in around 500 balls batting for 5 sessions!!!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
A Very Very Special lax man!!
Seems an eternity since my last post but I just feel I have to write this one today.
Just as I grew up watching Sachin Tendulkar set the cricket world on fire through the 90's, I am sure there would be a lot of teenagers who saw a very lax looking man lead India to a famous test victory today. Twenty years down the line, if one of these teenagers is on a quiz show and they are asked the question - "What do the initials VVS in VVS Laxman's name stand for?" - I reckon, it wouldn't be too surprising if the answer given is "Very Very Special". I am sure, Laxman will go down in cricket-lore as Very Very Special!
In fact, he is so special against the Aussies that not many pundits are surprised by his performance today. It has become commonplace to expect such performances from the wand-weilder - Laxman. What it does, is put Ishant Sharma's performance on a higher pedestal. Ishant was the surprise package, not Laxman.
Laxman was his usual self - just very very special and reLaxed!!
Just as I grew up watching Sachin Tendulkar set the cricket world on fire through the 90's, I am sure there would be a lot of teenagers who saw a very lax looking man lead India to a famous test victory today. Twenty years down the line, if one of these teenagers is on a quiz show and they are asked the question - "What do the initials VVS in VVS Laxman's name stand for?" - I reckon, it wouldn't be too surprising if the answer given is "Very Very Special". I am sure, Laxman will go down in cricket-lore as Very Very Special!
In fact, he is so special against the Aussies that not many pundits are surprised by his performance today. It has become commonplace to expect such performances from the wand-weilder - Laxman. What it does, is put Ishant Sharma's performance on a higher pedestal. Ishant was the surprise package, not Laxman.
Laxman was his usual self - just very very special and reLaxed!!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A DCT - A Dream Come True
The DCT a.k.a Dream Come True was an acronym I made up almost a decade ago. Yesterday, around midnight (AEST), I did have a DCT moment. It was so special, so supernatural that I decided to break my hiatus and write a post about it.
A few years ago, I had decided that Sachin Tendulkar (SRT) could no longer last an entire 50 overs in an ODI. The simple reason being that the biophysics didn't work out! His body couldn't last the intensity with which he plays his ODI innings. Hence, I had given up on him scoring an ODI double ton which, to be honest, I have felt he has deserved just as Sunil Gavaskar deserved to break the 10000 run test match barrier.
Yet, SRT has always found nuggets to surprise me. I can recall - as if it were yesterday - his amazing 98 at Supersport Park Centurion in WC2003 against Pakistan. That day, he did surprise me starting with that uppercut off Shoaib Akhtar. Yesterday's unbeaten 200 was such a bolt out of the blue that I have yet to recover from the pleasant numbing of the senses. However, my actual realization of SRT's achievement had a bit of a supernatural deja-vu-ish flavour to it. This is how it happened yesterday night ...
I had a chat with my parents that ended around 10:30pm AEST. My mother told me that Sachin had got his century in the 28th over and I merely acknowledged it saying that this is going to be another high scoring rubber. SRT's centuries have become so commonplace in the last few weeks that I didn't even bother being ecstatic about it. I signed off that conversation and went back to some reading that I had to do for today - I didn't even bother checking the scorecard online, at that time.
Around midnight, I decided to check the Indian batting scorecard and see how South Africa had begun their chase. That's when it happened ... The cricinfo site was taking an eternity to load ... This usually happens when there is huge traffic to check on some breaking cricket news - scorecards become inaccessible and the cricinfo home page takes ages to load. That was precisely the moment when a light went up in my head that something special had happened in the Indian innings and that something special was that Sachin had achieved the ODI double ton - trust me.. these were thoughts, now put in verse!! I knew it then without checking, without being told... just like that... a deep intuition - it was like sensing new information that was out there in the universe.... and there's more!
Whenever I check cricinfo first up for any new information, it is usually not to my liking... the team that I am supporting usually is not doing well... this is just one of those cricketing superstitions that I have experienced in my years of following cricinfo when I don't have access to the cricket on television. So I usually check the timesofindia or rediff website if I want to break that jinx and yesterday, it was almost as if the web was telling me to uphold my superstition and get my first account of the ODI double ton, not from cricinfo but from some other site - and I obliged!!
I immediately loaded the timesofindia website and lo and behold! - the headlines confirmed my supernatural intuition! There are some moments in life that affirm your belief in the unknown, the immeasurable, the subjective universe - and yesterday I had one such moment. Needless to say, "Thanks Sach for that special moment... sach is life!!"
A few years ago, I had decided that Sachin Tendulkar (SRT) could no longer last an entire 50 overs in an ODI. The simple reason being that the biophysics didn't work out! His body couldn't last the intensity with which he plays his ODI innings. Hence, I had given up on him scoring an ODI double ton which, to be honest, I have felt he has deserved just as Sunil Gavaskar deserved to break the 10000 run test match barrier.
Yet, SRT has always found nuggets to surprise me. I can recall - as if it were yesterday - his amazing 98 at Supersport Park Centurion in WC2003 against Pakistan. That day, he did surprise me starting with that uppercut off Shoaib Akhtar. Yesterday's unbeaten 200 was such a bolt out of the blue that I have yet to recover from the pleasant numbing of the senses. However, my actual realization of SRT's achievement had a bit of a supernatural deja-vu-ish flavour to it. This is how it happened yesterday night ...
I had a chat with my parents that ended around 10:30pm AEST. My mother told me that Sachin had got his century in the 28th over and I merely acknowledged it saying that this is going to be another high scoring rubber. SRT's centuries have become so commonplace in the last few weeks that I didn't even bother being ecstatic about it. I signed off that conversation and went back to some reading that I had to do for today - I didn't even bother checking the scorecard online, at that time.
Around midnight, I decided to check the Indian batting scorecard and see how South Africa had begun their chase. That's when it happened ... The cricinfo site was taking an eternity to load ... This usually happens when there is huge traffic to check on some breaking cricket news - scorecards become inaccessible and the cricinfo home page takes ages to load. That was precisely the moment when a light went up in my head that something special had happened in the Indian innings and that something special was that Sachin had achieved the ODI double ton - trust me.. these were thoughts, now put in verse!! I knew it then without checking, without being told... just like that... a deep intuition - it was like sensing new information that was out there in the universe.... and there's more!
Whenever I check cricinfo first up for any new information, it is usually not to my liking... the team that I am supporting usually is not doing well... this is just one of those cricketing superstitions that I have experienced in my years of following cricinfo when I don't have access to the cricket on television. So I usually check the timesofindia or rediff website if I want to break that jinx and yesterday, it was almost as if the web was telling me to uphold my superstition and get my first account of the ODI double ton, not from cricinfo but from some other site - and I obliged!!
I immediately loaded the timesofindia website and lo and behold! - the headlines confirmed my supernatural intuition! There are some moments in life that affirm your belief in the unknown, the immeasurable, the subjective universe - and yesterday I had one such moment. Needless to say, "Thanks Sach for that special moment... sach is life!!"
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