Best test cricketer of 2010

It is time to reward the best Indian test cricketer of the year 2010. 

We started the year as the Number 1 test team in the world.

The challenge was to retain this position by the end of the year. India did not have enough test matches to play during the year as the calendar was loaded with ODIs and T20s. BCCI took some quick action and added tests to the itineraries of the traveling nations. Thus we played around 14 tests during the eventful year of 2010.

All the hopes of retaining the number 1 position was on the shoulders of Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman, Dhoni and Harbhajan. Zak added the sting to the bowling lineup. There were some media + ex-player criticism that India cannot hold on to the position because they lacked the quality bowling line-up and also their batsman cannot play on foreign soil. But we eventually did manage to hold on.  Thanks to some great batting.

Out of the 14 tests played during the year, we won 8 and lost 3. The remaining 3 ended in draw.

I quickly looked at the stats for these 14 tests. The top 3 run scorers is not a surprise. Sachin, Sehwag and Laxman. 

Going by this, the gold medal goes to Sachin, silver to Sehwag and bronze to Laxman.

Let me dig down a bit. Check out the averages of these guys against the different nations they played.

Laxman stands out with a consistent 50+ average. Sehwag’s average against Aussies is pathetic. Sachin’s average against Aussies and Bangladesh is incredible but average against New Zealand is bad.

Going by this, gold goes to Laxman, silver to Sachin and bronze to Sehwag.

Lets dig further - Sit back and recollect some of the key moments of 2010….2010 was about close encounters and daring chases. India won these close encounters. And hence we are number one. 5 tests could have ended in a unhappy fashion for India. But one man saved us in all these.

Ahmedabad – India Vs NZ – India were virtually 90 for 6 in the 2^nd innings…Laxman & Bhajji were in.

When Laxman departed, India had taken the match out of NZ control with India leading by around 250 runs…His patient 91 runs of 253 balls resulted in a draw avoiding humiliation. Bhajji scored 115.

Mohali – India vs Aus – India were 76/5 chasing 216…Laxman joined Tendulkar. Soon India were 124 for 8, loosing Sachin, Dhoni and Bhajji. Ishant joined Laxman. Laxman had a special knock and took India to victory by 1 wicket. In the first innings, Laxman had batted at number 10 because of a back injury. It’s now in history that we won the series 2-0.

Bangalore – India vs Aus – Tendulkar scored 214 and 53* & helped India cruise to an easy win…Pujara made a sensational 78* in the 4^th innings.

Nagpur – India vs SA – India ended up losing by innings and 6 runs despite a Sachin’s 100 – Laxman was not playing

Kolkata – India vs SA - Laxman came back into the side in the 2^nd match of the series. He scored 143 (Sachin scored 106 and Sehwag – 165)…India won by innings and 57 runs – drawing the series level at 1-1

Centurion – India vs SA – India lost to SA by innings and 25 runs…despite Tendulkar’s 50^th test century…Lax scored a pathetic 15 runs in the test

Durban – India vs SA – India won by 80+ runs…both innings Lax topped the scoring lists…38 and 96…the 96 came with tail enders again. A loss here would be the worst humiliation for India after the bashing we suffered in Durban.

Colombo – India vs SL – Chasing 257 to level the series, India were 62 for 4 on a crumbling wicket. Sachin and Laxman managed the show scoring 54 and 103* to secure a win for India. Sehwag had scored a century in the first innings.

If the above close encounters were lost, India would have not been the number 1 side by year end. And one man held forte in most of these encounters….Laxman.

So it’s an easy conclusion that the gold medal goes to Laxman. 

VVS Laxman is the test cricketer of 2010.

PS - Sachin fans will jump over me and argue that Sachin is the best...But guys deep down your heart, you also agree with me. In the bowling area, it was a team effort with no single bowler standing out.

Indian connection to Pak match fixing

Amir, Salman & Asif (Getty Images)

The 5 Why's is a very good management tool to find the root cause of a problem.

Thinking about the latest controversy surrounding Pakistan cricket, I did a RCA (root cause analysis) using the 5 Why's technique.

Not surprisingly I found an Indian connection.

Why? – Why did Pak cricketers indulged in match\spot fixing?
Because Pak cricketers are in huge debt.

 
Why? – Why are they in huge debt?
Because they invested money thinking that they can earn enough  from IPL

 
Why? – Why dint they earn enough from IPL?
Because Pak cricketers were not allowed to participate in IPL
 

Why? – Why were they not allowed to play in IPL?
Because Indians think that Pak was behind 26/11 attack on Mumbai. Pak does not acknowledge its role.

 
Why? – Why did Pak terrorists attack India?
Because they cannot see India prosper. They cannot see a peaceful India. They are jealous of Indian growth.

So after these 5 whys – we know the Indian connection to the Pakistan's match fixing.

Strikes and Deals – India this week

This is the summary of the events of last week. India saw strikes and we also were involved in some “deals”.

Strike 1 –
The citizens participated in a strike against the taxi and autowallas. We called it MeterJam. This media\internet hyped event saw little success but if you are on social network sites, your views may differ. Some also compared this as a David vs Goliath war….I am not sure who is David and who is Goliath.

Strike 2 –
A small strike by the Indian cricket team captain, MS Dhoni. Mr Cool, lost his cool about a bad practice pitch offered by Lankan cricket board. The practice pitch was bouncy and good length deliveries turned out to be bouncers. Karthik got hit on the elbow during practice. The already unfit Indian outfit were in for another blow. Dhoni lost his cool and walked away in protest, from practice. The team followed and observed the strike.

Strike 3 –
Our dear Parliamentarians did a mini-strike. They stalled the Parliament session for a day to ask for hikes. The “poor” MPs wanted a 400% increase. As the cabinet surprisingly put this on hold, the united MPs decided not to work for a (yet another) day. Though there is still no decision made on this, it’s hardly a  tough guess to predict the outcome.

Deal 1 –
In a Times Now expose, we got to know the deal between India and US. India wanted some favor from the US in a world bank issue. Montek Singh wrote to a top official in the US govt requesting for help. In the quick reply, the US official asked Montek to handle the ‘noise’ created by the Dow Chemicals judgment.  We all know how we got silent on the entire issue of Bhopal gas tragedy.

Deal 2 –
After Randiv shamelessly bowled a no-ball to Sehwag and denied him a well deserved century, the media lambasted the Lankans. Technically, Lanka had not committed a crime. But audio\video recordings, bowlers apology, twitter messages forced the Lankans to take some action. Captain Sangakkara was to be blamed. Seeing SL’s precarious position in the tri-series, a deal was set and a bakra was caught. Dilshan was fined and Randiv was suspended for a game – effectively both lost a match fee.

Deal 3 –
Govt was looking for a support for the nuclear bill to be passed (pending since a long time). And they got support from the most unexpected party – BJP. A separate headlines came on the same day. CBI announced that Gujarat’s BJP CM, Narendra Modi is not involved in the Shorabuddin encounter\murder. Though some call it co-incidence\truth, I think it was a bloody good deal.

Amidst all these, we also celebrated our 64th Independence day.

Give respect and take respect

A harsher form of the blog title would be “an eye for an eye”. Age old statement. But kind of relevant today. Probably Muralitharan brought this statement back to limelight. Thanks again to the media.

A debate has again started brewing, about Murali’s ability to bowl (some say chuck) and is Murali the greatest bowler ever. Started off by the TV interviews of Muralitharan after he announced his retirement from test cricket. 

Bishan Singh Bedi had gone ballistic calling Murali a chucker. Bedi added that if ICC had not bent the rules, Murali would not have achieved, what he has. Bedi has been a crictic of Murali since long. He had called Murali a cheat, a javelin thrower, a shot putter etc. Back in 2007, Murali had also filed a $9 million legal suit against Bedi, against Bedi’s constant insults meted upon Murali.

Controversy seems to be Bedi’s second name. Even during his days as a player, Bedi was controversial. After his retirement, Bedi’s magical fingers and shoulders stopped and his mouth started playing. The entire Indian team took a caning when Bedi (the then Indian coach) asked them to jump off the plane into the ocean. He also said Ganguly does not deserve a place in Indian squad. Part of the media and some players came out openly against the controversial Sardar, then. Not to forget - Ganguly’s bat told Bedi - why he is probably the best left hand batsman India has produced.

Yesterday’s comments on Bedi from Murali are shocking. Shocking not because of the words used. Shocking because it came from a mild mannered Muralitharan. To be fair, Bedi got what he deserved. If you do not respect, don’t expect it back.
The SriLankan strategically tried to hit 2 birds with one stone. “Bedi does not belong to the class of Prasanna, Chandra and Venkatraghavan. Bedi is an ordinary spinner.” Murali isolated Bedi from the others in the group.
Though the entire retired spin fraternity of India replied back against the world record holder, the statements have raised a debate within the famous spin attack of India. Who is better? Prasanna, Chandra, Bedi, Venkat, Maninder, Kumble, Raju?
If number of wickets is the yardstick – Kumble, Bedi are the top 2 (among the listed above). But then if the same yardstick is used, Murali is the best.

Harsha Bhogle once said not all famous\good cricketers can be good commentators. Bedi could be on his mind then. Will Murali also join this group of great cricketers and bad commentators? 

There’s a clear lesson from the debate – In public life, expect no mercy from anybody.

World T20 - Random thoughts

Hypocrites

Most of us studied in Govt aided institutions. Most of us had the opportunity to join Govt service. We could have joined the forces, scientific organizations and served India directly. Still, most of us work in private companies who pay well. Leave it at that.

Dhoni and men represent India. Dhoni and men also represent their clubs\franchises in IPL. Most of us still say, they do not have national pride...They run behind private clubs to earn money. They don't have pride to play for India.

Aren’t we hypocrites? We ourselves work for private companies and we want others not to follow us!

Duckworth Lewis

England lost to West Indies in their first match of T20 WC 2010. Thanks to the rain Gods and Duckworth Lewis. England shared a point each with Ireland in their second match. Thanks to the same reasons. In the 2nd match, if rain Gods had delayed their arrival for 9 more balls, probably England would have had an early flight home. Ireland needed 13 runs of 9 balls (and could afford loosing 2 more wicks) to win the game. DL would have played spoil sport. Again.

DL would have knocked out the eventual champs in round 1.

It’s time to bring in a new methodology for the shorter version of the game.

Pakistan vs. India

Sadly, this match never happened. But look at both the teams, statistically.
Both teams won just 2 games in the tournament.
Both beat South Africa and lost to Aussies (their common enemies in the tournament).
India beat SA by 14 runs and lost to Aussies by 49 runs
Pak beat SA by 11 runs and lost to Aussies by 34 runs
Margins are similar.

The other victories for the former world champions came against lesser ranked teams.

Still Pakistan went into semis. And India came back early.

Isn’t it time to revamp the tournament schedule? Copy from the IPL format. After all it’s the WORLD CUP. And the best team should be World champions!

    

Low full tosses, great catches and ...

Like the rest of India, I woke up on Saturday with an angry feeling after the humiliating loss to Aussies in the T20 world cup. It was a big one sided match and we lost miserably.

But that did not deter me from playing my weekend quota of cricket.

 

With more friends turning up for the matches, we decided on a 8 per side, 9 over match. Mr Y did some pathetic selection and the opposite team was loaded with batsmen. The first match was tragedy of sorts for us in Y's team. The ball was whacked all over the place. Mr R looked inspired by the Aussie openers blitzkrieg the previous night. He took the team total to 90+ including 18 from an over of Mr M. Though the chase began on a positive note, the tasking was too daunting for us. We eventually lost the game by 30+ runs.

 

We started the batting first in the 2nd match. End of over 1 and openers were back in pavilion. Within no time we were 8 for 4 in 4 overs. Then the opposition captain, Mr A decided to give the ball to his part time bowlers. Wides from the bowlers and some good batting from the last pair, took the total to 30+. This was like Aussies getting a target of 80 against Ireland in a 50 over game. The match result was a given for both teams. Without any struggle Mr A's team was cruising towards the target. Mr A sportingly rotated his batsmen, so that everybody gets a chance to bat. 7 runs to go with 5 wickets in hand and plenty of overs. Sun had started to remind us that it was summer. Then Y asked M to bowl (remember the same M who was thrashed for 18 in an over).

 

Everybody thought that the game would end in this over

Ball 1 - Low full toss - Phat came the bat - Ball was in air for a long long time. Mr Y puts down a sitter in long on. Drop number 1. Batsmen take 2 runs.

Ball 2 - Another low full toss - Phat came the bat - Ball was in air for a long long time. Mr AG takes it comfortably. Great catch number 1. Gone.

The rest of the over went without any notable event...The match had not ended.

 

Mr Y bowled (to be honest - threw) the next 6 balls and took the important wicket of Mr R.

So then what had to end by last over was dragged to the next over.

 

2 runs to win and 2 wickets in hand.

Mr M to bowl. Fielders close in.

 

Ball 1 - Yet another low full toss - Batsman whips it to short mid-on. Mr MVN jumps up, tosses the ball and takes the catch on 2nd attempt. Great catch number 2.

 

2 to win with 1 wicket in hand.

 

Ball 2 - Over pitched. Batsman edges. Keeper drops the sharp chance. Drop number 2. Batsmen take a single.

 

Match tied. 1 to win with 1 wicket in hand.

 

Ball 3 - Again a low full toss. Batsman defends it. Straight to fielder. No run.

Ball 4 - Oh...Again a low full toss. Again batsman whips it hard. Mr MKB (B stands for Bheem!) takes a blinder. One handed catch at silly mid-on. Great catch number 3.

Then the usual things happened - celebrations, dull faces discussing on how they threw the match etc etc.

 

So Saturday morning was the tale "Low full tosses, great catches, dropped catches and a Tied match"