Batting Conundrum

Even as I type this, Team India has limped to 65/4 in the 22nd over of 2nd ODI, chasing a mammoth 275 by SA, possible mainly due to the bludgeon by the name of Justin Kemp. More on Kemp’s innings some time else. It would not take rocket science to predict the result of this match as well and though miracles have known to happen before, I don’t think it can deviate from the problem facing the Indian Cricket Team right now. Before it becomes too late, for Dravid and Chappell. Our batting has been woeful, since the West Indies tour, in the ODI variety of the game.

The current scenario in SA can very well be blamed for one simple fact. Bounce is something we have never been good at, and we will continue to struggle till we learn to play on all types of wickets at Domestic level. Mohali is just one exception. It offers a nice pace and bounce to the quicker variety of bowlers, but, is the only one in the country to do so. We could possibly do with at least one such venue every zone to try and counter this problem. Obviously, as the age old adage goes, “easier said than done”. We have had a truck load of pitch committees which have been formed (and dispersed), but none of them have been able to come up with real solutions. Possibly, the solutions that they have come up with have not been implemented. Either ways, Indian Cricket is the loser. There are two things to be noted here, a. it is very difficult to change the basic nature of the soil and b. there should not be a major over haul of the pitch conditions, such that, we lose out on our basic strength, i.e. spin bowling.

Coming back to the discussion, it may seem all easy for the Team India to lay the blame on the strange pitches of Africa, but what then the question that begs to be answered is, what happened at the Champions Trophy? Too slow for their liking? Hadn’t had too much match practice? But then, wasn’t this supposed to be one of the most vaunted batting line ups of all times, which boasts of the Sehwags, Tendulkars, Yuvrajs and the Dravids? So, essentially, we cannot bat too well on pitches which offer more-than-necessary bounce to the bowlers, and we struggle to play our shots on pitches which get slower and lower as the game progresses (like the ones witnessed at the CT). What we probably need is a pitch on which the Aussies and the South Africans scored their 400s at Jo’burg, a couple of huge scores, the media hails the performance of the batsmen, the viewing public relaxes a bit, and the pressure is off the Indian Batsmen!

But jokes apart, I think it is high time that we recognize that Team India may have a decent batting line up, but that is it. We are just that. Decent. Nothing more. Period. And taking it forward, it essentially means that Team India should stop gloating about their “awesome” batting line up, realize that being the best on paper and actually being good are two different things al together and should rather stick to the basics and not unnecessarily experiment (could not help bring this point up!). Apart from this, I think the Chairman of the Selectors, Mr. Dilip Vengsarkar has hit the nail on the head when he said that the Bench Strength of the Indian Team is a cause for worry. Personally, a good performance in the World Cup is what all the fans would hope for, but the World Cup is just one of the destinations, of the long journey of making India one of best in the world (if not the best). And that means, that it is high time we stopped shielding behind the “we are building a Team for the WC” line, and start scoring runs, and winning more matches.

Nothing against Greg Chappell, but, the performance needs to be the only basis to judge his performance, and not the De Bono hats, or the mountain climbing, and definitely not the statement, “The process is equally important”!


Our Team Scores in the last 14 matches. Just 1 score of above 300, and at least 5 of below 200. The important thing to be noted here is that the field restrictions for these matches last for 20 overs.

Vs WI 1st ODI – 254/5 in 50
Vs WI 2nd ODI – 197 all out in 50
Vs WI 3rd ODI – 245/9 in 50
Vs WI 4th ODI – 217/7 in 50
Vs WI 5th ODI – 236 all out in 50
Vs WI DLF Cup – 309/5 in 50
Vs Australia DLF Cup – 35/5 in 8
Vs WI DLF Cup – 162 all out in 40
Vs Australia DLF Cup – 195 all out in 50
Vs England CT – 126/6 in 30
Vs WI CT – 223/9 in 50
Vs Australia CT – 249/8 in 50
Vs SA 1st ODI – 91 all out

Over to Mr. Dravid and Mr. Chappell

The Wicked Wicket Story!

There has been a lot of ado about the pitches at the ongoing Champions Trophy, especially in the early part of the competition. Graeme Smith strongly criticized the slow and low ‘turner’ of the Brabourne wicket and called it a brute. There were murmurs of the finals getting shifted to some other venue (from its original Brabourne Stadium), which luckily did not happen. Atkinson, the pitch expert, from England was summoned, and glues and PVA soon became household names! Thankfully, all that seems to be behind us and cricket, and not the pitches have become more of the center of attraction lately.

The talk of these pitches brings me to one Test match in the season on 2004-2005, when the World Champions Australia took on India in a Test Match, at Wankhede(which incidentally is at a stone’s throw from Brabourne), and the match got over in 2 and a half days flat, the Aussies were not able to chase a meager 100 odd total on a third day pitch, and the Indian spinners wreaked havoc. Ponting could not stop criticizing the pitch, and in fact went upto the extent of making an official complaint to the ICC about the same. Why? Couldn’t his batsmen show a decent enough technique to score a meager 100 odd runs on a third day pitch which helped spinners? And if that pitch was termed as a Bad Wicket, why was the original WACA, Perth wicket (now it has slowed down considerably), not black listed as an International Test Venue, when the Aussies and the West Indians played out another 2.5 day Test Match

Aus-WI match at WACA

For that matter, what about the Kingsmead wicket in South Africa, where the visiting teams like the Indians have lost out in under 3 days again, on another Fast Bowling Devil, where our own bowlers Srinath and Prasad were next to unplayable, and Donald’s deliveries made one think whether one’s watching Cricket or an American bombardment on Iraq!

India-SA match at Kingsmead

NZ always dish out a green, seaming Wellington to the visitors, and invariably, the teams not too adept at dealing with such pitches succumb badly. NZ went one step ahead in India’s last tour to Kiwis, the Wellington match got over in less than 200 overs, and it got worse when the Hamilton wicket lasted less than 180 overs - that’s like two days of cricket!!!

India-NZ match at Wellington


There are so many other wickets which have shown their bias towards fast bowling and have never come under the scanner. So why should a spinning wicket? Shouldn’t the yardstick while judging the pitches be the same for all countries? Why is a wicket that turns from the second day onwards, a wicket that does not make for interesting viewing, whereas, a wicket that seams around so much from the first morning(that a Team winning the Toss wins the match!), not meted out with the same kind of treatment? Indians are often criticized of showing no Technique on such wickets, I agree, we do not handle really quick bowling too well. But then, why do we not condemn the Aussie Team for surrendering meekly to the guile of the Indian spinners, like they did at Wankhede? Isn’t playing spin bowling an art by itself?

It is one thing to improve the quality of our Domestic Cricket Wickets, to make it a more balanced battle between the bat and the ball, unlike earlier, when we either had not more than 2 completed innings in the match, or the encounter would end in 2 odd days flat. But it is totally irrational to play into the hands of the opponents by preparing pitches that suit them more than us, and till the time, there are the Perths, the Kingsmeads and the Wellingtons of the world, we have the right to play to our strengths and have our own Wankhedes and the Brabournes.

Answers - Champions Trophy Cricket Quiz

Hello All,

Sorry for the delay in posting the answers, but I had to wait for some "late-Latifs" to post the answers!!!

So, here goes,

1.Whose brainchild was the Champions Trophy (then known as the ICC Mini World Cup)?
---Who else, but "our own" Jagmohan Dalmiya, who started with this Tournament, to collect funds that could be used to encourage/develop Cricket in newer Regions! Ironic, that his successors dont really think so!

2.In the first 4 editions of the Champions Trophy, 2 Indian batsmen have top scored the Runs columns, where as 1 Indian bowler has top scored the wickets column for that Tournament. Name them.
---The Players were :
Saurav Ganguly (348 runs) in 2000,
Virender Sehwag (271 runs) in 2002 and
aurprise surprise, Venkatesh Prasad (8 wkts) in 2000!

3.One of the closest matches that happened at the Champions Trophy was the first ever played in 1998, between NZ and Zimbabwe, when Harris hit a boundary off the last delivery to win it for the Kiwis. Who was the bowler, and how many runs were needed at the beginning of the over?
---Yeah, it is Neil Johnson, many got this one right. 14 runs were needed to win off the last over, and Harris hit a four off the last ball to clicnh a cracker of a match!

4.Who is the only cricketer in the History of the CT to have scored a ton and take 4 wickets in the same match?
---Sachin Tendulkar did it against Australia in 1998, glorious days of Tendulkar versus Aussies!

5.What is the highest Team Score in the CT, by a team against a Test playing nation in the first 4 CTs?
---India 307/8 in 50 overs versus Australia at Dhaka in 1998, otherwise, NZ's 347/4 against USA(yeah, we did have them play International Cricket!), rules the roost

6.In the current edition of the CT, i.e. the 5th one, whose record did Fervez Mahroof break to record the best bowling analysis in the CT?
Shahid Afridi - 5/11

7.Name the Man of the Series in the 2002 CT which was shared by India and SL?
---A bit of a googly here, there was no Man of the Series award given!

8.Looking at the CT 2006 crowd turnout, who said the following, “This [poor crowd turnout] makes me wonder if cricket is a religion in India? Let me rephrase it then: it's Indian cricket that is a religion in India”?
---Yeah, that was our own Sanjay Manjrekar, a very well made point there Sir!

9.Connect the following: Bruce Reid, Kapil Dev, Danny Morrison and Jerome Taylor?
---This one was a tough nut to crack...each one of them were the first players from respective countries to take ODI Hat tricks, Jerome Taylor achieving that feat against the Aussies in the 2006 edition.

10.How many runs did Yuvraj Singh score in his first CT match, which incidentally was his ODI debut as well?
---He did not bat, against Kenya, his second match against the Aussies, he scored that 80 odd!

11.What do the following players have in common vis-à-vis the first 4 CTs played, R. Sarwan, M. Vaughan, V. Sehwag, A.De. Silva, S. Ganguly, S. O’Connor, J. Kallis and M. Dillon?
---Another tough cookie...They were all awarded the Man of the Match award in the semi finals of the first 4 CTs played so far

Following are the scores -
TG - 7
abaddon - 5.5
kriti - 4.5
chetan narula - 3

Hope you guys enjoyed the quiz, do lemme know how can I improve it further!
Will be out with a new Cricket Quiz soon...Till the next time, ciao!

Champions Trophy Cricket Quiz

11 Questions, some simple, others not-so-simple! Answer 'em all ASAP, I will be out with the answers in a coupla days time!

Here goes the first one...

1. Whose brainchild was the Champions Trophy (then known as the ICC Mini World Cup)?

2. In the first 4 editions of the Champions Trophy, 2 Indian batsmen have top scored the Runs columns, where as 1 Indian bowler has top scored the wickets column for that Tournament. Name them.

3. One of the closest matches that happened at the Champions Trophy was the first ever played in 1998, between NZ and Zimbabwe, when Harris hit a boundary off the last delivery to win it for the Kiwis. Who was the bowler, and how many runs were needed at the beginning of the over?

4. Who is the only cricketer in the History of the CT to have scored a ton and take 4 wickets in the same match?

5. What is the highest Team Score in the CT, by a team against a Test playing nation in the first 4 CTs?

6. In the current edition of the CT, i.e. the 5th one, whose record did Fervez Mahroof break to record the best bowling analysis in the CT?

7. Name the Man of the Series in the 2002 CT which was shared by India and SL?

8. Looking at the CT 2006 crowd turnout, who said the following, “This [poor crowd turnout] makes me wonder if cricket is a religion in India? Let me rephrase it then: it's Indian cricket that is a religion in India”?

9. Connect the following: Bruce Reid, Kapil Dev, Danny Morrison and Jerome Taylor?

10. How many runs did Yuvraj Singh score in his first CT match, which incidentally was his ODI debut as well?

11. What do the following players have in common vis-à-vis the first 4 CTs played, R. Sarwan, M. Vaughan, V. Sehwag, A.De. Silva, S. Ganguly, S. O’Connor, J. Kallis and M. Dillon?

For answers, I will be back in 2-3 days...!

The Opening Overs...!

With the kind of cricket following we have in this country, it would be really unfair if I did not open this blog with the same. So here goes my first delivery with the new ball...

* What is common to Murlitharan's Test Debut, Lasith Malinga, Lindsay Hassett and me?!

Well, not that I expect too many people to pick this away to the boundary, but I can assure you of better cricket quizzes in the future for sure. The answer to this one is 28th August, which is the birth date of Malinga, Hassett and urs truly, and also the date that Murli played his first Test on!
Alrite, b4 I get another set of brickbats, lemme reiterate, no more of such wide deliveries...things will only get better from here! Talking about myself, will be brief, the below is a brief about my personal stats...

Name:- Suneer S. Chowdhary (though I would have really wished it was Rahul Dravid or a Steve Waugh!)
DoB:- Mentioned above!
Currently doing:- an MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai
Would have wished to be doing:- either captaining India in the Cricket World Cup 2007, or sharing the commentary box with Tony and Ian...!
Other Interests(other than Cricket that is):- aah....hmmmmm...(lemme think!)
Favourite Batsmen:- Rahul Dravid, Steve Waugh(for their sheer grit, determination, and ability to overcome all odds and succeed)...amongst the bang boom variety, I like Sehwag's style(whatever the critics gotta say about this guy, we need people with his attitude in the team). Favourite Bowlers:- Curtly Ambrose, Shane Warne(even if you include all his eccentricities off the field!), Murli(with him bowling, one can be rest assured something's gonna happen, same is the case with Warne for that matter!)
Favourite Fielders:- No list would be complete without Jonty Rhodes, but I also liked Nasser Hussain(a very under rated fielder), Gibbs(Jonty's legacy passed on...), Yuvraj and Kaif(personally I believe that Kaif is a better fielder than Yuvi, but for Yuvi's flamboyance in the field!)
Favourite ODIs:- Would be hard not to include the Natwest Final between India and England, and the India vs Pakistan match in Dhanka where we chased a 300+ target in fading lights, but my all time favourites for the sheer entertainment generated, would be the 2 SA-Aussie matches, the tied match at the 1999 WC and the Jo'burg ODI where SA chased a mammoth 400+, once a life time phenomonenons!
Favourite Tests:- The Laxman Test Match(Kolkata, where India won after following on against the Aussies), and another India-Australia match at Wankhede, where the World Champions failed o chase a target of 100 odd. I was at the stadium for all the three days, and the atmosphere was just electrifying, had to be there to believe it!

Comments and respective Favourites are welcome !

The Toss...!

This blog is all about Cricket, about me and Cricket, about my thoughts about Cricket and the various issues surrounding it. Cricket Quizzes will also form a major portion of the blog(like a Sehwag's century normally does!)...!

Basically, this one is for all the Cricket Fans n Fanatics!