Category — Cricket

If you’ve been as bamboozled by Ajantha Mendis’ carrom ball as the Indian batsmen have been, then you ought to unravel the method behind this “mystery” ball by reading how the Australian bowlers John Iverson and John Gleeson used to bowl in a similar fashion many decades ago.

In their loss to an exuberant and bold Bangladesh side, the Indian team (flat and knotted up with tension) created possibly the worst possible scenario for themselves in Group B!

Looking at the remaining matches in the group, one cannot help but notice that India’s path to the next round has become difficult… almost impossible! Lets look at a probable scenario with the following results…

India beat Bermuda
Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh
India beat Sri Lanka
Bangladesh beat Bermuda

This would result in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India having 4 points each. But Bangladesh, having beaten India, would be placed above India in the points table. And all would come down to winning margins. For India to be able to qualify for the Super Eights stage, Sri Lanka would need to beat Bangladesh by a narrow margin and India would need beat Sri Lanka by a huge margin. And even this scenario assumes that India beat Bermuda by an obscene margin!

Just going through the above scenario makes it pretty much clear that the probability of it panning out as described is quite low. Given the form they showed against Bangladesh, the assumption that India would beat Sri Lanka (by any sort of margin) requires a big leap of faith! Also, given the form that Sri Lanka are in, it may happen that they beat Bangladesh by a comfortable margin.

Whew! … India has really painted itself into a corner! And they not only need to play like tigers to get out of that corner, but also keep hoping that other matches follow a pattern favourable for them! An absolutely rare case of ability and hope converging!

But then… as they say… if you believe in something hard enough, the entire universe will conspire to make it happen!

[cross-posted at One-Day Mataram]

B Manoj Kumar and Mohammed Shaibaaz Tumbi, two 13-year old school-boys from Hyderabad, have managed to eclipse a record set by Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli in February 1988. They scored a world-record partnership of 721 runs off 40 overs to break the 664-run partnership record set by Tendulkar and Kambli. But then, you know that already! The news has been all over the media. These two (obviously quite talented) schoolboys are being heralded as the next Tendulkars and Kamblis. Too premature, I say!

Of course there is no doubt that 721 runs in 40 overs in a competitive match is no mean feat. But one must consider the fact that the other team was all-out for a mere 21 runs. That gives us a measure of the other team’s ability (or the lack of it, at least!)

By the way, one interesting point to note here is the way the two mammoth partnerships were achieved.

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Did Damien Martyn push/shove BCCI president Sharad Pawar? Is the Indian media (and subsequently politicians, ex-cricketers and the public) justified in raising hue and cry over the incident? Does this require a formal probe by Cricket Australia so that the “guilty” can be “brought to justice” or even an apology?

Of course not!!

What Damien Martyn did was just a reaction of a jubilant player eager to lay his hands on a trophy that had eluded his team up until that moment. He simply seemed to usher Sharad Pawar to one side so he could join his teammates in holding the Champions Trophy aloft. There was nothing insulting in that gesture or at least there was nothing in the pictures that made me project nefarious intentions onto Martyn’s actions. So the media hue and cry is nothing but a tactic to fill up airtime. As far as the politicians are concerned, I don’t blame them for using this “incident” to display their nationalistic fervour. But I am surprised and concerned that players including the normally reticent Tendulkar have chosen to comment on this as though the Australian team has committed a grave crime! It just goes to fortify the thought that there is a definite Asian-nonAsian divide emerging in world cricket. And that’s really unfortunate!

Having said that, I must confess that Ricky Ponting’s gesture, asking Pawar to hand over the trophy, was quite rude and cannot be put down to enthusiasm or over-exuberance of victory. Of course, I don’t demand a probe or an apology for it. I reckon it’s a cultural thing and no amount of disciplining and/or apologies is gonna change it in a hurry! The only thing worth doing is to dish it out to the Aussies in the same coin… on the field!!

In the end, it looked much more exciting than it actually was! Agarkar’s late burst could do little to reverse the dwindling fortunes of an Indian team that just did not seem motivated enough to win. The match was, in fact, lost earlier in the day when the Indian batsmen failed to put a high price on their wickets, gifting them away by committing some embarrassingly basic errors! And these errors were compounded later in the day by some inaccurate fast bowling (12 wides!!). The only lot from the Indian side that came away unscathed were the spinners who kept the Indian hopes alive all along. Now the Indians go into a do-or-die encounter against Australia on Sunday… on a Mohali pitch that offers pace and bounce!

Continue reading at One-Day Mataram.