Category Archives: Cricket

Sachin’s 100th century > victory?

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Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar currently has a tally of 99 hundreds in international cricket. Obviously, cricket fans, not just from India but from all over the world desperately want the legend to reach 100 centuries soon.

You can’t blame the fans as 100 tons is a humongous feat which nobody has achieved till date. However, I have started getting a feeling that we the audience and the media are putting huge amounts of pressure on the little man to reach the mega milestone.

Every time Sachin goes out to bat these days, there’s only one question going on in everyone’s head, “Will he or won’t he?” This is equivalent to parents desperately wanting their child to top the exams! Although he has borne pressure all his life but the whole nation expecting you to score a hundred every time you go out to bat is a bit too much to handle.

When India won the first test match against the West Indies, almost every headline mentioned the fact that Sachin failed to reach the milestone. Even news reports gave too much importance to it rather than India’s praiseworthy fight back to win the test.

(Article continued after picture.)

Now, according to latest reports, The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has decided to present Sachin with 100 gold coins if he gets his 100th ton in the second test at Kolkata! Phew!

By giving crazy importance to his 100th hundred, we are forgetting the basic fact that cricket (or any other sport) is a team game where the end result matters the most. Hence, we should be more concerned about the result of the ongoing test series rather than concentrating on one individual score.

Sachin’s greatness is as huge as the universe. So, it’s just a matter of time when he reaches the 100 centuries mark.

The second test match between India and West Indies has just started in Eden Gardens at Kolkata. India are batting. Sachin has come out to bat but I hope our focus remains on India’s performance. Just let the Master Blaster be!

We love hating team India, don’t we?

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It is indeed disappointing to see Team India losing the first two matches in the ongoing test series against England. Given the form of the team in recent times, this came as a real surprise. But what surprised me more is the reaction of these so-called cricket fans and ex-cricketers who have suddenly forgotten the team’s great achievements in recent times and are going all out cursing them.

It is very difficult to understand that those who speak like gyaanis of cricket can’t understand a simple thing that defeat is also a part of the game. The Australians ruled the first two forms of cricket for over a decade but had to return without reaching the semi-finals in the 2011 World Cup. But look how sportingly the people of Australia have reacted to the defeat. Sorry to say, Indians can’t do this!

 Just four months ago, every cricket fan and even non-cricket fan was literally worshipping the Indian team after they won the World Cup 2011. There were mad celebrations all over the country. I still remember scenes where some were even bowing down in front of the photographs of the team as if they were Gods.

But just one series defeat and we turn a blind eye to all the feats achieved in recent months or years. One series defeat is enough to bring a major change in our outlook towards the team. Those who proudly called themselves fans four months ago are criticizing Dhoni’s men like anything and even making fun of them.

My only question is – why can’t we be with the team even during defeats? I don’t think you call yourself a ‘supporter’ of the team if you can’t show support when it is needed the maximum, which is during defeats. That’s the major difference between a ‘fan’ and a ‘supporter’. I proudly call myself the latter.

I supported the team during their shocking exit from the 2007 World Cup although many laughed at me. I did the same to them when just few months later we won the T20 World Cup.

I am doing the same thing again as I am sure they will bounce back!

Happy Birthday Sachin. A Poem For You!

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By: Keyur Seta

Over the years, Sachin Tendulkar’s huge number of fans, including me, have expressed their respect and gratitude towards him in every special manner on April 24 each year. Hence, I ran out of ideas to express my respect for him on his birthday. So, I decided to pen a poem for the God of cricket.

In the poem I have stated how fortunate we are to grow up along with Sachin’s career. Here it goes:

Unki Karamaton Ne Kiya Jawan

Jab se paon sambhale humne zameen par,
Unhone paon jamaye khel ke maidan par,
Chalne lage hum duniya samajne,
Ve chalne lage apni takdeer banane,

Hue bade to museebaten badhi,
Unhe bhi tikaon ki badhaen nadi,
Bhagwan dilate humen museebaton se chhutkara,
Unhone tikaon ko balle se de mara

Also see: Sachin Tendulkar’s 8 best bowling performances

Apekshaon ke boj se jab hum thak jate,
Un par ladi sau karod apekshaon ko dekhte,
Ve jab dete apekshaon ko hathiyar mein badal,
Prerna lekar hum karte us par amal

Hue hum jawan unke vikas ke samantar,
Rahega is baat ka garv humen jeevanbhar,
Usi garv se dete hai aapko varshganth pe salam,
Vishvabhar mein ooncha rahen sadaiva aapka naam

An Open Letter To Shahid Afridi

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(Not dear anymore) Shahid Afridi,

Your anti-India statements have triggered uproar in India against you. Although I am also angry with you, I also found your comments funny. Funny because it came from someone like you who has never been a wholehearted human being. Your antics on the field are a proof of it.

You have immense batting talent. Your world record of fastest century in one-day internationals is a proof of it. However, you got badly carried away by the success and started believing you can hit every ball for a six. This started your downfall as you started gaining more interest in hitting sixes, in your personal strike rate rather than your team’s victory. If you were really a wholehearted person, you would have batted according to the need of your team instead of just going out there with the only mission to hit sixes and in the process making a fool of your batting talent. In 90% of your innings, you have just needlessly thrown away your wicket. With the bat, you average just in the early 20s.

Over the years, as a bowler, you have started having an illusion that it is absolutely impossible for a batsman to hit you for a four or a six. Whenever a batsman does that, you react in a manner as if the batsman robbed your house. People around the world have witnessed you abusing batsmen after they hit you around the park. If you were truly wholehearted, you would have got the batsman out using your bowling skills rather than getting furious on the batsman and being a spoilsport.

Not just that, you always come up with all kinds of unsporting methods like excessive appealing to disturb the rhythm of the batsmen. And who can forget your worldly infamous ball chewing incident? (Still talking about wholeheartedness, Shahid?)

After your team’s sad exit from the world cup (when they lost to India in the semi-final), you were seen with a broad grin on your face during the post match presentation. In fact, your smile was wider than the winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. This speaks volumes about your wholeheartedness as it shows that such an important loss doesn’t mean anything to you.

Time and again, whenever anyone receives a backslash from the world, he or she blames it on the media. You did the same thing after receiving criticisms from Indians and even Pakistani ex-players. Hence, you have made a bigger fool of yourself by making a U-turn for your comments.

I have some very good friends in Pakistan. By interacting with them, it is evident that the common man from your country has high respect for Indians. I advice to get some piece of mind from your countrymen.  The above mentioned point openly proves your wholeheartedness. Hence, you, a ball chewer, are not at all eligible to comment on Indians.

World Cup 2011: Important Part of our Lives’ Summary

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All of us who are born after 1983 or were too young to remember anything of that period, have only heard stories from our elders about India’s remarkable World Cup victory in that year or at the most, have seen footages of the final between India and West Indies.

Although by listening to the stories and watching the highlights years back, we were able to imagine the triumphant feeling that the country must have experienced back then but we were devoid of the actual feeling of the live moment when the country achieves the feat of lifting the World Cup.

Come April 2, 2011 and we were able to have a firsthand experience of what it actually means to rule the world when Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit Nuvan Kulsekara for a six over his head. I jumped out of my chair like I have never jumped before ever (Thank God for my height else my head would have hit the fan!). And that’s not all. I even clapped on the table few times. The scene gave a jolt to my family as I have always been someone who controls his reactions, but who the hell cares? We have the cup that counts! I am sure even others, like me, will have fond memories of what they did when the six was hit.

The final victory, twists and the important happenings of the match, players’ performances, tension when India lost two openers and the rest of the matches of the series are going to be a part of our discussion for the rest of our lives. The visuals of our team celebrating after the victory, Sachin being lifted on the players’ shoulders and the celebrations across our countries are going to remain permanently in our eyes forever. Unintentionally, we might even by-heart the scorecard of the final (see below).

In the future, no matter how many important events happen with us or how much we achieve in our lives, many years later if we ever decide to write the summary of our lives, India’s 2011 World Cup victory will be an important part of it.

 

Scoreboard of the ICC World Cup 2011 Final: – 

 Sri Lanka innings
 U. Tharanga  c Sehwag b Khan            2
 T. Dilshan  b Harbhajan Singh          33
 K. Sangakkara  c Dhoni b Yuvraj Singh  48
 M. Jayawardene  not out               103
 T. Samaraweera  lbw b Yuvraj Singh     21
 C. Kapugedera  c Raina b Khan           1
 N. Kulasekara   run out                32
 T. Perera  not out                     22
 Extras (b 1 lb 3 w 6 nb 2)             12
 Total (for six wickets; 50 overs)     274
 Fall of wickets: 1-17 2-60 3-122 4-179 5-182 6-248
 Did not bat: L. Malinga, S. Randiv, M. Muralitharan 

 Bowling: Z. Khan 10-3-60-2 (1w), S Sreesanth 8-0-52-0 (2nb),
M. Patel 9-0-41-0 (1w), Harbhajan Singh 10-0-50-1 (1w), Yuvraj
Singh 10-0-49-2,  S. Tendulkar 2-0-12-0 (3w), V. Kohli 1-0-6-0
 India innings
 V. Sehwag lbw b Malinga                  0
 S. Tendulkar c Sangakkara b Malinga     18
 G. Gambhir b Perera                     97
 V. Kohli c & b Dilshan                  35
 MS Dhoni not out                        91
 Yuvraj Singh not out                    21
 Extras: (b-1, lb-6, w-8)                15
 Total: (for four wickets, 48.2 overs)  277
 Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-31 3-114 4-223
 Did not bat: S. Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, S.
Sreesanth, M. Patel.

 Bowling: Malinga 9-0-42-2 (2w), Kulasekara 8.2-0-64-0,
Perera 9-0-55-1 (2w), Randiv 9-0-43-0, Dilshan 5-0-27-1 (1w),
Muralitharan 8-0-39-0 (1w)

World Cup 2011 Final Photos

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Pictures Courtesy: Cricinfo.com

Dhoni's six sealing it off for India

Yuvraj Singh's reaction after the winning runs were hit

Yuvraj and Dhoni rejoice the happiest moment of their lives

Fireworks blow up at the Wankhede Stadium

Indian skipper being carried off by his team-mates

Sachin being carried by his team-mates as an honour for his non-stop service to the nation for 22 years

The moment that will stay etched in the minds of all the Indians. We are the World Champions

Sachin going berserk with his team-mates and why not

A rare picture of Sachin Tendulkar with his daughter Sara and son Arjun, all smiles

World Cup Final: ‘Win The Toss, Win The Match’ Situation For India?

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Experts often use the phrase ‘Win the toss, win the match’ by taking the nature of the pitch and other conditions into account as it is believed that the team that wins the toss will most probably win the match. This phrase can be used for Team India for their all important final match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 at the Wankhede Stadium against Sri Lanka on Saturday April 2, 2011.

If India wins the toss and decides to bat first and puts up a challenging  score, they have a great chance of grabbing the World Cup. This is simply because Sri Lanka has struggled to chase challenging totals in recent times. This can be attributed to the fact that they have a long tail. Sri Lanka’s number 7 batsman Angelo Matthews, who hasn’t been in that good form, is followed by 4 bowlers, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Murlitharan, who are mug with the bat.

Lanka was affected by their long tail in their match against Pakistan when they were unable to chase a challenging score of 277. They have won chasing twice in the tournament against Kenya and England. In the first instance, they had to chase just 143 and that too against a minnow. And against England, they were chasing a non-challenging score (230) which their openers managed alone. So, if India bats first and puts up a total close to 280 or more, it will be huge ask for the 1996 World Cup champions.

Apart from that, looking back at all the one-day internationals played at the Wankhede Stadium, team that bats first and scores more than 250 has always won the match. No team has won batting second when the team batting first has gone on to score more than 250. This statistic, coupled with the fact that Sri Lanka has a long tail, clearly indicates that India has a mammoth chance batting first. Hence, if we win the toss, the ICC World Cup 2011 could well be ours!

India hasn’t beaten a Test-Playing team (except B’desh) in WC since 8 years and 10 matches!!!

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After India’s disappointing loss to South Africa in their group B match at Nagpur on March 12, questions have started rising whether India really has in it to win the World Cup 2011. Before the start of the WC 2011, the cricket fanatics in India and a section of the media undoubtedly labeled India as the biggest favorites to win the cup. In fact, there was a common assumption that only Dhoni’s men can win the cup.

But after India’s performance in the ongoing world cup and a shocking statistic which it gives rise to, one can conclude that India needs nothing short than a miracle to lift the cup. The shocking statistic is that India hasn’t beaten a single test-playing team (except Bangladesh) in a World Cup match since eight years! In other words, India hasn’t defeated a strong team in their last 10 WC matches! So can they still be called even near favorites to win the cup?

India’s last 10 performances in WC matches are as follows: –

  • India v/s Kenya (2003 WC Semi Final at Durban) – India beat Kenya by 91 runs
  • India v/s Australia (2003 WC Final at Johannesburg) – Australia beat India by 125 runs
  • India v/s Bangladesh (2007 WC Group B match at Trinidad) – Bangladesh beat India by 5 wickets
  • India v/s Bermuda (2007 WC Group B match at Trinidad) – India beat Bermuda by 257 runs
  • India v/s Sri Lanka (2007 WC Group B match at Trinidad) – Sri Lanka beat India by 69 runs
  • India v/s Bangladesh (2011 WC Group B match at Dhaka) – India beat Bangladesh by 87 runs
  • India v/s England (2011 WC Group B match at Bangalore) – Match tied
  • India v/s Ireland (2011 WC Group B match at Bangalore) – India beat Ireland by 5 wickets
  • India v/s Netherlands (2011 WC Group B match at Delhi) – India beat Netherlands by 5 wickets
  • India v/s South Africa (2011 WC Group B match at Nagpur) – South Africa beat India by 3 wickets

We can also say that in India’s last 6 games against test playing teams (including Bangladesh); India has managed to win just once and that too against Bangladesh! It was against New Zealand in the Super Six stage of 2003 WC that India last beat a strong team in a WC and that was on March 14, 2003 (exactly 8 years ago).

So, forget winning the World Cup, India first needs to beat a strong test playing team. And to win the cup, India needs to beat 4 strong teams in a row. But it looks like our captain cool Dhoni isn’t aware of this as he looks satisfied beating minnows. When it was pointed out to Dhoni that India struggled to beat a team like Netherlands, he said, “Look at the scorecard. It says India won by 5 wickets.” Such a huge achievement to beat Netherlands, Dhoni?

Will we be able to win the World Cup if we are just satisfied beating teams like Netherlands? Considering India hasn’t beaten a single strong team in their last 10 WC outings, will they be able to beat 4 in a row? It looks tougher than climbing Mount Everest especially with our bowling attack. Of course, being a strong Indian supporter, I will be highly glad if I am proved wrong by Dhoni’s men.

My First World Cup Experience: Popats Do Happen!

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I have seen a number of matches in the stadium but on Sunday March 13, 2011 it was special as it was the first time I saw a one day international in the stadium and that too a World Cup match, even though it was an unimportant tie between New Zealand and Canada. Also, this was the first international match at the Wankhede Stadium after a major renovation.

There were strict instructions written on the ticket that patrons won’t be allowed to take any accessory or articles that has a battery inside the stadium. So, it was kind of difficult and unusual for me to keep my mobile phone at home as I have never kept it away from me since last 5 years ever since I started using it.

But my uneasiness because of the absence of mobile phone disappeared as soon as I entered the stadium. The newly revamped Wankhede Stadium was a treat to the eyes! New stands, jazzy interiors and the roof appeared royal and overwhelming. Just few minutes inside the stadium and I was convinced the stadium is the right choice for the World Cup Final. Another thing which amazed the cricket lovers was the price of the snacks and beverages. The rates were way below the cricket match standards.

But all wasn’t hunky dory: there were huge layers of dust on the seats. Such a scene for the first match after the new seats were placed was just unexpected. But the biggest negative point was that the screen just didn’t show anyone from the crowd! If crowds are shown in each and every venues then why not in Wankhede??? I hope this is not repeated in the next match and most importantly in the finals.

New Zealand, who were put in to bat by Canada, piled off a mountainous 358 for 6 in 50 overs courtesy a century by opener Brandon McCullum (101) and a quickfire 74 by Ross Taylor. Canada in reply looked as if they would be bowled out cheaply after losing quick wickets. However, skipper Ashish Bagai (84) and Jimmy Hansra (70*) led a tremendous fight back to help their team reach 261 for 9 in 50 overs. It’s a big thing for a team like Canada to reach that score after being 4 for 2 in 4 overs.

Not a close or interesting contest by any means but at least I can tell my grandchildren that I saw a World Cup match in a stadium (lol). But I certainly won’t tell them that I was without a mobile phone for 10 hours 15 minutes when mobiles were actually ALLOWED in the stadium. Yes, just before entering I got to know that the instructions behind the tickets meant for gadgets like cameras. Well, popats do happen!

Ireland At ICC’s Mercy

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By: Keyur Seta

The whole cricketing world is going gaga over the heroics achieved by Ireland in the ongoing 2011 Cricket World Cup despite being just an associate nation. And why not? The men in light green have rubbished off the title of ‘minnows’ associated with them by their infamous world record victory against England and by showing fight and determination against other teams as well.

But Ireland’s success story reminds us of the heroic feat achieved by Kenya in the 2003 World Cup where they shocked everyone and managed to reach the semi-finals. (Even their victory against the West Indies in the 1996 World Cup is still fresh in cricket lovers’ minds). This was considered as the rise of the Kenyan cricket by many and a possible chance of gaining a status of a test-playing nation. Sadly, that was not to be. Kenya never really managed anything after their World Cup fairytale.

The obvious reason for this appears Kenya’s poor performance. But I strongly feel that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is mostly responsible for this. For a well performing associate team, it is necessary that they continuously get international exposure and that too against strong opponents.  Right after the 2003 WC, Kenya played just a four nation series in Sharjah and that too because the Indian team wasn’t available. But after that series, Kenya played just two one-day internationals in the next three years (Wikipedia)!

By ignoring such a well performing associate team, one is forced to question whether the ICC wants the game to spread in more and more countries. On and off, these associate teams do play against other associate teams but if they really need to grow as a full-fledged cricket team, they need to play regularly against stronger test-playing nations.

In the summer of 1998, there was a triangular series in India featuring India, Kenya and Bangladesh. Such series are the need of the hour for associate teams. Surely, it shouldn’t be difficult for the ICC to hold such tournaments regularly. Audience attendance won’t be a problem as one can see large number of supporters of Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, etc thronging the stadiums during their matches. So, revenue won’t be a problem for the ICC, if that is what is bothering them.

And all that talk of scrapping the associate teams from playing in World Cups is annoying! Only those who are against the growth of the game can think this way. Agreed, the matches can be boring when a strong team thrashes an associate one. But then, you have every option of not watching such matches; no one is forcing you.

One just hopes Ireland doesn’t follow Kenya’s fate because of ICC’s cold-shouldering. After all, organizing exciting and interesting cricket matches is not just all. Spreading this great game far and wide is equally important.