Words fail me when I want to congratulate possibly the best overall batsman (and a good but under-utilised bowler) in world cricket today!
On the way to a meeting, listening to the commentary on AIR, I was rooting for Sachin to complete his double century and create a new world record. And when he eventually did, I stopped the car to clap, whistle and do a little jig right there, at the junction of Hiranandani and Kailas Complex, Powai.
But I must confess that I was a tad disappointed! Not much, just a miniscule - I think the disappointment was somewhere in the range of 2.96 parts per trillion.
Because when he had reached 186 in the 43rd over, and runs were coming in torrents, my expectations had increased.
I wanted him to then take more of the strike and score 230.
Because, that would have then been the world record for the highest score in any recognised form of one day international cricket.
Beating Belinda Clark's 229*, for Australia v/s Denmark in the Women's World Cup in Dec 1997; which was incidentally scored at Sachin's home ground - MIG, Mumbai!
That's the problem about this genius. The more he does, the more we fans expect. But really, he does not disappoint us, does he!
Congrats once again, Little Master!
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Friday, February 26, 2010
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Lessons from the Ashes
First of all, Eid Mubarak everyone – in advance.
Getting back to my blog today...actually posting some quick thoughts that I had written nearly a month ago, when the Ashes were won by England, who pocketed the last test with a day to spare.
It’s possibly a very wrong time to post this, as it seems like Australia is going to whitewash the English in the ODI series, but the Ashes victory held a few lessons for me, which I thought I might share, so here goes...
It was a very interesting series. Australia looked distinctly the better side, and statistics clearly point to it. However, the better side does not always win, as happened in this series. And this led me to think about the lessons one could learn from it.
Lesson 1 - It is not only about being consistent; it is about seizing the moment: As Andrew Strauss, England Captain, said, “When we were bad we were awful, but when we were good we managed to be just good enough”. And being just that good enough was enough to deliver.
Consider this – Australia scored more runs, lost fewer wickets, had 7 out of the top 8 scoring batsmen and the top 3 wicket taking bowlers. And yet they lost! The turning points? English bowling when it mattered. 7 out of the top 10 bowling performances in an innings and 5 out of the top 7 bowling performances in a match were by the English bowlers. English bowlers also claimed 5 wickets in an innings 4 times compared to 2 by Australia. Which brings me to the next lesson.
Lesson 2 - Work to your strengths that would lead to actual deliveries: It is no secret in cricket that batsmen can save you matches, but to win a match, you have to take 20 wickets. And England did that when it mattered.
Lesson 3 - Be positive, and results would come: Despite the fact that they were outscored by Australia in both batting and bowling, the one area where England were distinctly superior was in their Strike Rate, or Runs per Over. Definitely a sign of positive intent – they were not willing to retreat or go into a shell. And yet...
Lesson 4 - Dig in deep, even when nothing goes your way: Consider this – chasing 239 to just avoid an innings defeat in the first test, and at 70 for 5; it all looked to be over. But Paul Collingwood refused to give up. 74 runs was not a huge amount, but the 245 balls faced and the 344 minutes of occupation of the crease stood between England and defeat. But possibly the clearest indication of how the series would progress came in the final 40 minutes of the test. 12 overs to play, all Australia needs is one good ball, and a bunny by any standards at the crease. And yet, the way Anderson and Panesar blocked out every ball and saved the test must have played on the Australian’s minds in the 2nd test.
Lesson 5 - When things go wrong, take a break, and use it well to re-group and strategise: After the debacle of the 4th test, not even the most die-hard of English supporters would have thought of England winning the Ashes. But the team took their break right, worked out their weaknesses, took a few strong decisions and ‘Trotted’ away to glory.
Getting back to my blog today...actually posting some quick thoughts that I had written nearly a month ago, when the Ashes were won by England, who pocketed the last test with a day to spare.
It’s possibly a very wrong time to post this, as it seems like Australia is going to whitewash the English in the ODI series, but the Ashes victory held a few lessons for me, which I thought I might share, so here goes...
It was a very interesting series. Australia looked distinctly the better side, and statistics clearly point to it. However, the better side does not always win, as happened in this series. And this led me to think about the lessons one could learn from it.
Lesson 1 - It is not only about being consistent; it is about seizing the moment: As Andrew Strauss, England Captain, said, “When we were bad we were awful, but when we were good we managed to be just good enough”. And being just that good enough was enough to deliver.
Consider this – Australia scored more runs, lost fewer wickets, had 7 out of the top 8 scoring batsmen and the top 3 wicket taking bowlers. And yet they lost! The turning points? English bowling when it mattered. 7 out of the top 10 bowling performances in an innings and 5 out of the top 7 bowling performances in a match were by the English bowlers. English bowlers also claimed 5 wickets in an innings 4 times compared to 2 by Australia. Which brings me to the next lesson.
Lesson 2 - Work to your strengths that would lead to actual deliveries: It is no secret in cricket that batsmen can save you matches, but to win a match, you have to take 20 wickets. And England did that when it mattered.
Lesson 3 - Be positive, and results would come: Despite the fact that they were outscored by Australia in both batting and bowling, the one area where England were distinctly superior was in their Strike Rate, or Runs per Over. Definitely a sign of positive intent – they were not willing to retreat or go into a shell. And yet...
Lesson 4 - Dig in deep, even when nothing goes your way: Consider this – chasing 239 to just avoid an innings defeat in the first test, and at 70 for 5; it all looked to be over. But Paul Collingwood refused to give up. 74 runs was not a huge amount, but the 245 balls faced and the 344 minutes of occupation of the crease stood between England and defeat. But possibly the clearest indication of how the series would progress came in the final 40 minutes of the test. 12 overs to play, all Australia needs is one good ball, and a bunny by any standards at the crease. And yet, the way Anderson and Panesar blocked out every ball and saved the test must have played on the Australian’s minds in the 2nd test.
Lesson 5 - When things go wrong, take a break, and use it well to re-group and strategise: After the debacle of the 4th test, not even the most die-hard of English supporters would have thought of England winning the Ashes. But the team took their break right, worked out their weaknesses, took a few strong decisions and ‘Trotted’ away to glory.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Who writes your script?
"Who writes your script?", Graham Gooch had asked about Ian Botham, way back in 1986.
Fast forward to 2009, and the eternal scriptwriter sitting up there has written another improbable one.
Two countries, torn by internal conflicts and ethnic strife. One country facing a virtual seige by other cricket playing countries due to safety reasons, the other country empathising and agreeing to undertake a tour, and mid-way through the tour, their team bus gets attacked by terrorists!
Months later, these countries playing in a World Cup final!
How much more poetic can you get?
Congratulations, Younus Khan and Kumara Sangakkara, for the lovely game of cricket and for the spirit in which it was played considering the recent history.
A lot of us (myself included, I must confess) had not counted on Pakistan and Sri Lanka contesting the finals. But then, were we wrong? In the short history of this format of the game, these are the two best countries. After all, a 77% W/L record for Pakistan and a 70% W/L record for SL is not something to be sneezed at, is it?
Compare that to India. Notwithstanding our last championship win, we just have a 56% W/L record, and are 5th in the placings. (Count that 4th, because Netherlands with 3 wins out of 5 are statistically above us).
And yet; we eat, drink, sleep and dream only cricket.
An indication of this - on the day when the T20 World Cup final took place, another momentous event in Indian sport unfolded on the other side of the world. Saina Nehwal won the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton title beating the World No.3 in the final. Saina herself is ranked 8, and aims to be in the top 5 by the end of this year.
Here’s a little analysis of the coverage given to each event by 3 major English broadsheet dailies in Mumbai.
Look at that – an Indian winning a major sport played across the world had much lesser coverage than a sport played by a handful of countries, and where India was already out.
I wish I could do a comparison of TV channels too, simply because I flipped through news channels for about 45 minutes this morning, and could find news coverage, scrollers etc. repeating T20 ad nauseum, but not a single mention of Saina Nehwal’s victory.
We keep mentioning about how we need to promote sports other than cricket, but when it comes to practicing what one preaches, it is obvious that TV channels and mainstream English dailies (with the exception of DNA) are way behind.
Apart from a Paes, Bhupathi, Sania and Anand, it is rare to see a mention of any sportsperson other than a cricketer. And that was also after they became too big to be ignored.
We write in salacious details about Dhoni’s and Yuvraj’s love lives, but we are mum when it comes to the sporting achievements of champions in other sports. Net result – most people would not even know the names of sportsmen who have brought laurels to the country in their sports.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a test. I am mentioning the names of 29 Indian sportspersons who are champions at their respective sports. Let’s see how many can you guess?
Abhinav Bindra, Akhil Kumar, Al Lakra, Anjali Bhagwat, Anju Bobby George, Anwar Sultan, Armaan Ebrahim, Dinesh Kumar, Jaspal Rana, Jayanta Talukdar, Jitender Kumar, Karan Malik, Koneru Humpy, Limba Ram (he lives in a garage today), Mahesh Chandran Panchanathan, Manavjit Singh, Mangal Singh Champia, Mansher Singh, Mary Kom, P Harikrishna, Parimarjan Negi, Parthiva Sureshwaren, Rahul Banerjee, Ravi Dixit, Sandipan Chanda, Saurav Ghosal, Suranjoy Singh, Tania Sachdev, Vijender Singh
I rest my case. Thank You.
Fast forward to 2009, and the eternal scriptwriter sitting up there has written another improbable one.
Two countries, torn by internal conflicts and ethnic strife. One country facing a virtual seige by other cricket playing countries due to safety reasons, the other country empathising and agreeing to undertake a tour, and mid-way through the tour, their team bus gets attacked by terrorists!
Months later, these countries playing in a World Cup final!
How much more poetic can you get?
Congratulations, Younus Khan and Kumara Sangakkara, for the lovely game of cricket and for the spirit in which it was played considering the recent history.
A lot of us (myself included, I must confess) had not counted on Pakistan and Sri Lanka contesting the finals. But then, were we wrong? In the short history of this format of the game, these are the two best countries. After all, a 77% W/L record for Pakistan and a 70% W/L record for SL is not something to be sneezed at, is it?
Compare that to India. Notwithstanding our last championship win, we just have a 56% W/L record, and are 5th in the placings. (Count that 4th, because Netherlands with 3 wins out of 5 are statistically above us).
And yet; we eat, drink, sleep and dream only cricket.
An indication of this - on the day when the T20 World Cup final took place, another momentous event in Indian sport unfolded on the other side of the world. Saina Nehwal won the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton title beating the World No.3 in the final. Saina herself is ranked 8, and aims to be in the top 5 by the end of this year.
Here’s a little analysis of the coverage given to each event by 3 major English broadsheet dailies in Mumbai.
Look at that – an Indian winning a major sport played across the world had much lesser coverage than a sport played by a handful of countries, and where India was already out.
I wish I could do a comparison of TV channels too, simply because I flipped through news channels for about 45 minutes this morning, and could find news coverage, scrollers etc. repeating T20 ad nauseum, but not a single mention of Saina Nehwal’s victory.
We keep mentioning about how we need to promote sports other than cricket, but when it comes to practicing what one preaches, it is obvious that TV channels and mainstream English dailies (with the exception of DNA) are way behind.
Apart from a Paes, Bhupathi, Sania and Anand, it is rare to see a mention of any sportsperson other than a cricketer. And that was also after they became too big to be ignored.
We write in salacious details about Dhoni’s and Yuvraj’s love lives, but we are mum when it comes to the sporting achievements of champions in other sports. Net result – most people would not even know the names of sportsmen who have brought laurels to the country in their sports.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a test. I am mentioning the names of 29 Indian sportspersons who are champions at their respective sports. Let’s see how many can you guess?
Abhinav Bindra, Akhil Kumar, Al Lakra, Anjali Bhagwat, Anju Bobby George, Anwar Sultan, Armaan Ebrahim, Dinesh Kumar, Jaspal Rana, Jayanta Talukdar, Jitender Kumar, Karan Malik, Koneru Humpy, Limba Ram (he lives in a garage today), Mahesh Chandran Panchanathan, Manavjit Singh, Mangal Singh Champia, Mansher Singh, Mary Kom, P Harikrishna, Parimarjan Negi, Parthiva Sureshwaren, Rahul Banerjee, Ravi Dixit, Sandipan Chanda, Saurav Ghosal, Suranjoy Singh, Tania Sachdev, Vijender Singh
I rest my case. Thank You.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
