The Common Man Speaks

Can we get BETTER Cricket highlights please?

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Cricket is like a religion in India. Along with watching matches involving their country, the Indian fans are also interested in following neutral matches. In fact, following other countries’ domestic matches is also an area of interest in India nowadays.

Over the last 20 years or so, the number of cricket series have increased manifolds. But at the same time, lives of not just working professionals but also of students have become more hectic. We have too many things to do in a single day. Hence, it’s not possible to dedicate a long duration of a day solely to watch a cricket match.

So, the only way we can keep himself or herself updated about every match around the world is by watching the highlights of those games. With the habit of watching videos on mobile phones spreading far and wide, it has become easy to watch highlights of the match you missed anytime and anywhere.

However, today many a times what we get in the name of highlights is disappointing to say the least. At a time when we have access to watch highlights as many times as we want, the worst we could expect is the people behind the highlights messing it up.

Somehow, the editors or channels showing us the highlights of a match believe that it should only contain wickets, fours and sixes. This thought process is the major problem with highlights today.

Highlights

If you feel highlights should only cover these three aspects, I am sorry to say you are not aware of the most important function of highlights. Which is to know when a particular game turned on its head or what the biggest turning point of the match was.

And many a times, these match-turning moments are dot balls, as far as the highlight of limited over matches is concerned. If you feel a match can tilt from one side to another only during fours, sixes and wickets, I am sorry to say you are wrong. In white ball cricket, dot balls, especially in the end, are as precious and game-turning as wickets.

For example, I remember watching the highlights of T20 match where a team needed 7 runs of 6 balls. But we were directly shown the last ball where it needed 5 off 1 ball. What happened in the previous few balls was the turning point of the match, which, astonishingly, doesn’t get featured in the highlights.

Just imagine, a person takes out time excitedly to watch the highlights of a close game only to realize that it doesn’t feature the most important part of the match!

I completely understand that highlights need to be crisp. But this is where the person responsible for the highlights should know what to retain and what not to. And if that person believes retaining replays of a crowd catch is more important than the dot balls that changed the match, it really won’t help.

Also read: Forgotten spells: When Srinath rattled South Africans singlehandedly

I personally feel it’s okay to skip one or two boundaries to show the biggest turning point of a match. It is understandable somehow in TV highlights where it’s necessary to complete the package in a stipulated time. But online highlights are not of any stipulated duration. So, adding just another 30-40 seconds that actually changed the match shouldn’t hurt.

Earlier in the year, the veteran cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle also pointed out in a Facebook post that today you won’t find the game-changing moments in the highlights [Unable to find the post. If someone is able to, do share].

Additional reading:

One of Wasim Akram’s greatest achievements is forgotten

Forgotten innings: Lance Klusener’s 99 v/s Sri Lanka

Srinath’s Titan Cup performance is proof that stats don’t show the real picture

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Javagal Srinath has been one of the best fast bowlers to have played for India. The pacer was always ready to give his all whenever the team needed, irrespective of the conditions and the format. He is the second highest wicket taker for India in one-day internationals (ODIs) with 315 wickets.

But the bowler had an unusually unbelievable record in the Titan Cup in 1996. For those who are too young, the Titan Cup was a triangular series played between India, South Africa and Australia in India. Surprisingly, Australia failed to win a single match in the entire series, where each team played each other thrice. So, India and South Africa reached the finals.

The proteas were in terrific form all through the league matches; winning all of them comfortably. However, SA somehow couldn’t chase India’s total of 220 in the final and lost the title to the hosts.

But something unusual about the Titan Cup popped up into my memory recently. It’s about Javagal Srinath’s performance with the ball. You would be stunned to know how many wickets he took in the entire tournament.

As strange as it may sound, the bowler could pick up only 1 wicket in the entire series in which India played a total of six matches, including the final. He played all six matches and opened the bowling in all of them.

Javagal Srinath

Generally, one would attribute bad performance for such a record. But that was not the case with Srinath. I remember the pacer bowling with dedication in every match of the series. In fact, this info about him picking just 1 wicket is hardly known because he never faced any criticism for it. Rightly so because he bowled well in the series.

In most of the matches, he bowled economically and didn’t make it easy for the batsmen. This helped bowlers from the other end pick up wickets. But instances of putting pressure never get a mention in scorecards.

The one wicket Javagal Srinath took was in India’s second last match against Australia in Mohali. It was an important one of Michael Slater, who was out leg before wicket. The match was an unofficial semi-final for both the teams.

Also read: Forgotten innings: Lance Klusener’s 99 w/s Sri Lanka in the final

We have heard a lot of cricket experts or commentators say that statistics don’t show you the real picture. Javagal Srinath’s performance in the Titan Cup is a shining example of it. There are days when even the greatest of spells don’t yield results. This is where it gives a feeling that luck also plays a role to some extent in the sport.

But despite this, it would be wrong to say that Javagal Srinath had a quiet tournament. He made up for it with the bat. He was the hero when India was struggling to chase a modest score of 215 against Australia in a league match and were 8 down. Srinath saw India home with some fine support from his Karnataka team-mate Anil Kumble.

Back then, it was an era of pinch-hitters and Srinath was India’s most favored one for that role. In the league match against South Africa at Rajkot, Srinath top scored with 53 runs [his highest score] after coming one down as a pinch-hitter. Not many would have expected him to be India’s highest scorer in any match.

While writing this, another major example of stats not being the ultimate truth comes to my mind. Rohit Sharma scored a mammoth 264 against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in 2014. Nine years earlier to that, Sachin Tendulkar scored 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup.

The score of 264 is way more than 98. Yet, Tendulkar’s innings is held in much higher regards than Sharma’s.

I am sure there are many more such examples.

Additional reading:

One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

Forgotten spells: When Srinath rattled South African batting order singlehandedly

14-year-old Marian Gherasim becomes the youngest T20 int. player

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Romania’s Marian Gherasim has become the youngest player ever to play an international T20 game at the age of 14 years and 16 days on 16 October. He made the record when he played the second T20 of their bilateral series against Bulgaria at the Ilfov County ground.

Gherasim broke the record of Kuwait’s Meet Bhavsar who had made his T20 debut against Maldvives at the age of 14 years and 211 days in January last year. [See the list of youngest players to debut in T20 internationals HERE]

Gherasim is a medium fast bowler who also bows off spin. He didn’t bowl on his debut match. But he did bowl 3 overs in his second match the next day and picked up 1 wicket by giving only 22 runs. [See the scorecard HERE]

Marian Gherasim
Marian Gherasim flanked by his teammates Pavel Florin and Cosmin Zavoiu [Photo courtesy: Paval Florin on Facebook]

Ramesh Satheesan, the captain of Romania, spoke about him during a discussion in the Facebook group ‘Die Hard Cricket Fans.’ He said, “He’s been with us ever since he was 10, developing his cricket under the watchful eyes of our national coach. Multi talented guy, bowls perfect off spin nowadays with loop and spin. [He] mixes leg spinners in between.”

About the wicket he took, Satheesan added, “He’s also the youngest to have taken an international wicket I believe that too that of the opponent captain; with a perfect loop and beating the batsman in flight.”

Astonishingly, Gherasim was also a part of the Romanian team when he was 12 years old but those matches didn’t qualify as international matches.

Gherasim is the youngest of the three brothers. His eldest brother Laurentiu made his T20 debut with the team at the age of 16 last year.

Sharing how the Gherasim brothers started playing cricket for them, Satheesan added, “Their house is very close to our cricket ground in this village called Moaravlasie and every time there’s a game happening in the ground, these lads used to visit us and started played casually. That’s how the fascination started.”

Also read: One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

Forgotten innings: Lance Klusener’s 99 v/s Sri Lanka

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South Africa’s Lance Klusener was one of the most exciting all-rounders to have played the game. Those who witnessed his start and rise in the 1990s would mostly agree that he deserved to play many more matches for the Proteas.

Although he was a good pace bowler, Klusener was mostly known as a batsman who can smash just about anyone when he is in form. This is more so since some of his best ODI (one-day international) innings came under pressure situations. It would come as a surprise to many that he batted at number 11 when he started his first-class career as a bowler.

Klusener became a star in no time after his debut in 1996. But his popularity increased after his antics with the bat in the 1999 World Cup, despite South Africa not lifting the cup.

Who can ever forget his histrionics in the semi-final of the WC against Australia where he almost took his side to their first World Cup Final ever? Even after more than 20 years, the result of the match continues to hurt me, although I am not a South African.

But maybe because his 1999 WC heroics are so popular that one of his best ODI innings is forgotten. It came in the final of Golden Jubilee Cup in Lahore in 1997. The series was organized in as part of the celebration of Pakistan’s 50 years of Independence and was also known as Pakistan’s Independence Cup.

Lance Klusener
Lance Klusener (File photo)

It was a quadrangular series between Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies. It came as a surprise to me to not see India being a part of a ODI series taking place in Asia.

Sri Lanka and South Africa reached the final played on 8 November at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium as both the teams won three and two matches respectively in the league stage. Pakistan won one while West Indies lost all the three matches in the series.

Sri Lankans were a much bigger threat in that era but they could score only 209 for 7 in their 50 overs with not a single batsman going past the score of 32. South Africans were in great form in that series and it felt they would cruise to the target. But that wasn’t to be.

The Proteas were in a spot of concern when they were 71 for 3 [the idea of sending Pat Symcox as a pinch-hitter didn’t work] and 109 for 4. But Klusener, who came in at number 3, kept the innings alive for the South Africans when wickets were falling at the other hand. The other batsmen were getting starts but they weren’t able to capitalize on it.

Klusener batted one-down in the series to get some quick runs. It wasn’t different in the final as well. The left-hander started hitting boundaries as soon as he arrived. But when the team kept losing wickets, he changed his role and controlled his aggression to see his side home.

To see a hitter like him showing maturity and responsibility is what makes this knock a highly memorable one for me.

Also read: Forgotten Innings: Nayan Mongia’s historic feat v/s Australia

It is unfortunate for any player to get out at 99. I was disappointed when he was caught and bowled by Sanjeeva D’Silva on that score. But I remember him telling Ian Chappel in the post-match presentation that he was glad to see his side home in the final.

The video of his speech is not available. In fact, there’s only one 11-minute poor quality video of that match (seen above) available. But it’s good enough to revisit, what in my opinion, is one of the best ODI innings by a South African.

Looking back at the Klusener of that era today, I can only imagine how destructive he would have been in the T20 version of the game today.

Additional reading:

One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

Forgotten Spells: Srinath’s match-winning 6 for 21 v/s South Africa

One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

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Contrary to today’s times, the 1990s saw a battery of fast bowlers around the world that would trouble some of the best batsmen of that era and played for a long duration. The list of such bowlers would be incomplete without the mention of Pakistan’s great Wasim Akram.

Although there were the likes of Glenn McGrath, Counrtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald, Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath, my personal favorite was always Akram. More than his pace, it was his skill of moving the ball on any surface that used to fascinate me. Who can forget his two wickets in two balls in the 1992 World Cup Final?

In 104 test matches, Akram took as many as 414 wickets at an average of just 23.62. He took a staggering 502 wickets in ODIs (one-day internationals) with a similar average of 23.52.

The bowler had plenty of memorable moments on the field in his career spanning around 17 years. But unfortunately one of his greatest achievements [if not the greatest] is forgotten. In fact, I haven’t heard about it in various cricket discussions I have had in my life, both offline and online.

Akram was one of the rare bowlers to take as many as four hat-tricks in his career. Two each in tests and ODIs. The only person above him is Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga who has taken five [all in white ball cricket].

(See the list of all test hat-tricks HERE)

Wasim Akram bowling

This article is about his test hat-tricks which are highly significant. Akram took his first test hat-trick versus Sri Lanka in 1999 at his home ground in Lahore when he dismissed Romesh Kaluwitharana, Niroshan Bandaratilleke and Pramodaya Wickramasinghe.

In the same year against the same team at Dhaka, Akram got another hat-trick when he sent Avishka Gunawardene, Chaminda Vaas and Mahela Jawavardene back to the pavilion in a matter of three balls.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. The two hat-tricks Akram took were in two consecutive test matches. Hence, he is the only bowler in the history of world cricket to take two hat-tricks in two matches back-to-back.

Watch both the hat-tricks in the video above

All of you who are reading must have had hundreds of cricket discussions in your life. How many times have you people discussed about this feat by Akram? This would be interesting to know.

As far as hat-tricks are concerned, the only bowler to have had a bigger achievement than Akram was Australia’s Jimmy Matthews. He took two hat-tricks in two innings of the same match against South Africa way back in 1912.

The two matches in which Akram took two hat-tricks were a part of the first Asian Test Championship. The Lahore tie was the league match while the final happened in Dhaka. The other team in the series was India, which couldn’t reach the finals.

Also read: Forgotten Cricket Moments: The real Lagaan match at Brabourne Stadium

Despite the first of its kind triangular test tournament, the Asian Test Championship isn’t remembered as a memorable series. The second Asian Test Championship of 2001 [played between Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh] is even less remembered with India not taking part in it.

Maybe because of the low key nature of the tournaments, Akram’s incredible feat has been forgotten over the years.

Additional reading:

Forgotten spells: When Srinath was on a hattrick THRICE in one innings

Forgotten innings: Nayan Mongia’s historic feat vs Australia

Forgotten spells: When Srinath was on a hattrick THRICE in one innings

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Indian cricket can’t boast of many fast bowlers who bowled really quick and played for a long duration. Javagal Srinath was an undisputed leader of India’s pace bowling for years. Cricket fans who started following the game in the 1990s have fond memories of him.

But somehow his best spell in test cricket hasn’t been discussed much and it seems as if it has been forgotten.

Srinath started his career in the early 1990s and made a mark in India’s tours to Australia and New Zealand during that period. He changed his bowling action a bit early in his career, making it not as high arm as it was earlier. But that didn’t affect his quality of bowling. He soon became India’s strike bowler.

One of Srinath’s impressive bowling spells during his initial years

Srinath was someone who enjoyed hitting the deck and using the bounce to full effect. Most of his deliveries came inside the right-handers which weren’t easy to handle. At times he used to fox the batsmen with balls that left the right-handers.

This particular feat of his came in the 1996-97 season. India was all set to play a three test series against South Africa. This was right after the Titan Cup which India won by defeating SA in the final. The first test was at Ahmedabad.

Javagal Srinath

It was a low scoring match where batsmen had to work hard. India batted first and scored only 223 with not a single batsman reaching 50. It looked as if SA would be bundled out on a score much lower but Fanie de Villiers had other plans as he scored a fighting 67 to take South Africa to 244.

India fared worse in the second innings and were 124 for 7 at one stage. But the debutant VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble showed some fight and helped the team reach 190.

This was the first proper test series I followed as a child. I wasn’t pleased with this ‘new player’ Laxman in the first innings. In that age I was quick to judge and said he has no future. But he made me eat my words in the second innings when he scored 51 in extreme pressure and I was glad.

South Africa were given a target of 170. As the Indian players went on to the field, not many would have thought that Srinath was all set to deliver the most defining moment of his career. Being a fourth-day pitch in India, it seemed the spinners will take the bulk of the wickets if India has to win.

But Srinath delivered from the word go. In the first over itself, he reduced SA to 0 for 2 when he got Andrew Hudson and Daryll Cullinan off successive balls. I remember going mad with excitement as those were my initial days in test cricket and I had never seen a side being 0 for 2. [As I write this, I remember England were 0 for 2 this week against Australia]

Srinath returned for his second spell when the opposition was 96 for 4. He reduced them to 96 for 6 as he again got two wickets [Dave Richardson and Jonty Rhodes] off two balls.

There was more to come though. In his third spell, he bowled Allan Donald and Paul Adams off successive deliveries to finish with tremendous figures of 6 wickets for just 21 runs. [See the whole scorecard HERE]

It is too rare to see a bowler being on a hattrick thrice in one innings. In other words, whenever Srinath got a wicket in this innings, he got another one in the next ball itself.

Forgotten innings: Nayan Mongia’s historic feat vs Australia

The rare feat coupled by the fact that he singlehandedly won the match for India makes me wonder why this effort isn’t spoken about much. In fact, I have never read posts about this spell in any of the cricket groups on Facebook and I wonder why.

Luckily, there is this little video below which has captured all his wickets in the innings.

Srinath’s career too has fared an almost similar fate in terms of remembrance. He hardly gets a mention in a discussion on the best Indian players. When he played his last test match in 2002, he was the second highest wicket taking fast bowler with Kapil Dev being the first.

Additional reading:

When Australia played against Australia in this World Series

Dhoni could have scored more 100s but…

Yuvraj Singh’s 3 heroic TEST innings that have been forgotten: See videos

Forgotten innings: Nayan Mongia’s historic feat vs Australia

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Perhaps Nayan Mongia might not feature in the list of best Indian wicketkeeper-batsmen when we have the likes of Budhi Kunderan, Syed Kirmani, Farokh Engineer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni etc. But for those who grew up watching cricket in the mid-1990s, Mongia’s name was synonymous with the word ‘wicketkeeper’.

The cricketer from Baroda played continuously for team India in both test matches and one-day internationals in this period and proved to be good enough. It was impossible to miss his presence whenever India was bowling. His constant chatter with the bowlers and his trademark expression ‘Aai ga!’ ensured he was always in the game.

Indians have just witnessed the entire career of the legend MS Dhoni. Hence, in front of him, Nayan Mongia, the batsman, won’t appear much impressive. But the chirpy cricketer did have one major achievement with the bat.

Unfortunately, his biggest feat as a batsman is something cricket fans seem to have forgotten. In all these years, I don’t remember that innings being discussed online and offline by anyone.

Nayan Mongia
Nayan Mongia during that innings. Photo courtesy: Cricketcountry.com

It came in the only test between India and Australia in Delhi in October 1996. This test was the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Apart from Mongia’s innings, another reason why this match is special for me is because this was the first time I properly followed a test match ever.

It was a good test for India as they easily defeated Australia by seven wickets. Mongia was India’s test opener in those days. He was considered competent but I don’t think anybody could have expected him to score as many as 152 runs.

Short highlights of the match

Mongia showed his patience as he batted for 366 balls and 497 minutes. He applied himself and got his eye in. He showed respect to good deliveries and in between took risks by playing few lofted shots. It was a high quality innings which played a major role in India winning the match.

Also read: Only time Tendulkar was NOT selected in team India, neither injured nor rested

Shane Warne was out injured during that Australia tour of India [which continued with the Titan Cup after this match]. But the Aussie line-up still had the likes of Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel; the latter was moving the ball at will. Hence, it wasn’t an easy bowling attack by any means.

As hardly anyone remembers this innings, it is obvious that the relevance of this knock is also unknown. Mongia got his name included in India’s batting records. At that time, he was just the fourth Indian wicketkeeper to score a test hundred after Budhi Kunderan, Farokh Engineer and Syed Kirmani.

Read the list of centuries by wicketkeepers HERE

Highlights of Mongia’s match-winning partnership with Sourav Ganguly

And Mongia’s score of 152 was just the second highest by an Indian wicketkeeper after Kunderan’s 192 versus England in 1964. Likewise, he also became just the second Indian wicketkeeper to reach the score of 150 in tests.

Maybe because this knock hasn’t been as popular as it should be, there is no video on YouTube with the complete highlights of Mongia’s innings.

Additional reading:

When Australia played against Australia in this World Series

Dhoni could have scored more 100s but…

Yuvraj Singh’s 3 heroic TEST innings that have been forgotten: See videos

Dhoni could have scored more 100s but…

by 3 Comments

India and the cricketing world is overwhelmed with emotions right now as former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has announced retirement from international cricket. And why not? He was not only one of the greatest players to have played for India but also one of the finest in the world.

Dhoni achieved such greatness also because of him being a terrific captain of team India. As we all know, he is the only captain to have won the 20-over World Cup, 50-over World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy, along with various other series victories.

But the one quality in Dhoni which we rarely find in other captains is his selfless attitude as far as one-day internationals are concerned. He considered the team above his personal interests in ways we hardly see in other players and that deserves tremendous applause.

Let’s go back to the period when Dhoni was relatively new in the Indian team in 2005. It was in one of his earliest series itself that he made his announcement through a powerful 148 against Pakistan in Vishakhapatnam. In the same year, he smashed 183 not out against Sri Lanka in Jaipur, which remains his highest score.

In both the innings, he batted at number 3. There were times when he opened the innings or batted in the top four and had scores of anywhere between 70 to 90 under his name. In other words, Dhoni had made a name for himself as a quality top-order batsman.

Dhoni

Soon after winning the 2007 T20 World Cup, his first stint as a captain, he was also made the captain of the ODI side. Being the captain, nothing could have stopped him from continuing to bat in the top four and score many more runs for himself.

However, after being made the captain of the ODI side, Dhoni realized that the team has enough batsmen to bat in the top four or five. Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag were fixed openers and there was Gautam Gambhir too who had to be played in the top three. Plus, there were the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina.

So, Dhoni humbly accepted his role as the number seven batsman. You don’t need to be an expert in cricket to know that someone batting at 5-down doesn’t get too many opportunities to score centuries. He could have scored many more hundreds but he chose to keep team India ahead of his personal interests without even mentioning this anywhere.

Records also tell us that that Dhoni has scored just one century each while batting at number 6 and 7. The second one came against Pakistan in 2012 only because the top order collapsed at 29 for 5, so he got ample overs to bat. [You can check HERE]

Although Dhoni never made a show of his selflessness, there’s one symbolic moment where it was for everyone to see. He was the winning captain of the 2011 World Cup Final against Sri Lanka. Plus, it was his innings of 91 not out that helped India lift the cup. The 6 he hit to see India home is one of the iconic moments in India’s sports history.

Also see: Only time Tendulkar was NOT selected in team India, neither injured nor rested

However, as soon as the World Cup was presented to him, he gave it away to his team-members to enjoy. He is nowhere near the trophy in the below picture of the team celebrating the 2011 WC victory. He chose to stand in a corner and cheer.








When Kaluwitharana scored 0 in 70-run partnership

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Long before the format of T20 came into existence, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana of Sri Lanka batted in the 50-over format just like batsman do in the shortest format of the game today. They started batting this way in the 1996 World Cup, which Sri Lanka won against various odds.

This was a rare sight then to see both batsmen attacking the bowlers. In those days such jobs were generally given to pinch-hitters. For those who don’t know, a pinch-hitter is a bowler who is sent up the order just to slog and increase the run rate. But in the case of the two Sri Lankan openers, both were proper batsmen who batted like pinch-hitters.  

In the 1992 WC, New Zealand’s Dipak Patel started a new practice of a spinner opening the bowling. The antics of the two Sri Lankan batsmen did the same in the 1996 WC.

Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana soon became known for demolishing bowling attacks in their style. It is believed that the Indian pace bowler Manoj Prabhakar’s career was ended by the duo in the league match of the 1996 World Cup.

As expected, the duo continued their style after the ’96 WC too. The next series Sri Lanka played was the Singer Cup in Singapore which also had India and Pakistan. Jayasuriya was considered more destructive of the two. This was proved after Kaluwitharana couldn’t do much with the bat in the series.

Romesh Kaluwitharana
Romesh Kaluwitharana

In the first match of the Singer Cup, Jayasuriya blasted the Pakistani bowling line-up as he set a new world record for the fastest hundred in ODIs in just 48 balls [this record was broken in the same year by Shahid Afridi in 37 balls against Sri Lanka]. He broke the record of Mohammed Azharuddin by a long way who had reached the triple figure in 62 balls against New Zealand in 1988.

Sri Lanka won the match and it seemed they would clinch the series. The team met Pakistan in the final who were all out on just 215. It seemed the chase would be a cake-walk for Sri Lanka considering their form. I remember commentator Charu Sharma wondering if the match would end in just 30 overs.

When Jayasuriya was batting, it looked like Sri Lanka would reach the target even before 30 overs as the batsman, this time, broke the record of the fastest 50 in just 17 balls! The previous record holder was Simon O’Donnell who had scored half century in 18 balls against Sri Lanka in 1990.

While Jayasuriya was batting as if he the opposition is a school team, Kaluwitharana, his partner, was kept quiet and away from the strike as well. He was eventually out when the team score was 70.

Also read: When 2 part time bowlers opened the bowling for Australia

Strangely, Kaluwitharana’s contribution in the 70-run partnership was 0 in 11 balls! I am yet to see any such incident where two batmen, especially openers, had a partnership of well above 50 and the contribution of one of the two is nil! [In case somebody knows about any such occurrence, please enlighten me].

But there was more surprise in store. The match turned out to be a major surprise for everyone as Sri Lanka were all out for just 172 despite Jayasuriya scoring 78 in just 28 balls. None of the batsmen could do much and Pakistan made a dramatic comeback to lift the Singer Cup.

Additional reading:

The only time Sachin Tendulkar was NOT selected in the team, neither injured nor rested

When hearing issues stopped India from winning against England

When Navjot Sidhu and Ajay Jadeja were rivals on Sundays

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The phrase ‘reality show’ has been in the vogue since a decade and a half. But there were a lot of popular reality shows back in the 1990s. The only difference was that they weren’t termed as ‘reality shows.’

Not many would remember that we also had cricket reality shows in the 1990s in which some popular and successful former and current [at that time] cricketers used to perform. One such show was hosted by the great Mohinder Amarnath. It was a quiz show were ex-cricketers like Sandeep Patil, Atul Wassan, Roger Binny, Sayed Kirmani, etc, used to participate.

But one competitive show that excited kids and adolescents a lot in the 1990s featured Navjot Singh Sidhu and Ajay Jadeja. The reason this show stood out was that it wasn’t a quiz show.

Interestingly, the show tested indoor cricket skills of youngsters. It used to air on Sundays before lunch time on Star Plus.

This is how it worked. Sidhu and Jadeja were two captains whose teams would participate against each other. Each team would have youngsters who were commoners or cricket enthusiasts or budding cricketers.

Interestingly, players used to wear coloured clothes with one team wearing blue and the other orange. [On a lighter note, whoever thought that Indian players wore orange for the first time in their 2019 World Cup match against England was wrong]

Navjot Sidhu-Ajay Jadeja

Both teams used to participate in a number of indoor cricket games. This included Chinese cricket, juggling the ball on the bat, trying to hit the stumps from a distance, etc.

But one that I loved the most was a box cricket game with ‘ek tappa out’ rule. It meant that a batsman can be given out even if the fielder catches the ball after one bounce. There was a complete relatability factor since we used to play with the same rules in our colonies.

While batting in the stadium, Sidhu was known for coming down the track to the spinners, including Shane Warne and Muttiah Murlidharan, and lofting them for huge sixes. He used to dance down the track in this format too, but only to play the ball along the ground, as were the rules.

Also see: Forgotten Cricket Moments: The real Lagaan match at Brabourne Stadium

Jadeja was the best Indian fielder in that era. He used to showcase his fielding skills in this show too. Sidhu also became a much better fielder but that was much later; maybe just a year before he announced retirement.

It was a much admired show then among cricket fans. Of course, it was the era when Hindi television had content to offer; much before the saas-bahu pollution ruined it.

What made the show special was that the two cricketers involved in it weren’t ex-players. Both Sidhu and Jadeja were in form current players then. They used to somehow take time out of their busy cricketing schedules to shoot for this show.

I have been trying to remember the name of the show since few weeks now but to no avail. But a couple of cricket enthusiasts recently told me it was named ‘Kricket.’  

Strangely, not only is there not a single video of this show, I couldn’t even find a mere mention of it in any article or post.

Additional reading:

England also had one Mark Waugh who also batted well and bowled off-spin