Monthly Archives: December 2008

Cricket’s 2008 Top Headliners!

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So what were the top stories of 2008?

Inaugural Success of IPL

Year 2008 witnessed the opening of IPL (Indian Premier League), the mega event from BCCI that clearly gave cricket a stunning make-over and boost in game excitement, viewership and tremendous marketing potential. The mantra for 2008 became T20 or, as it is called, 20-20. A 3-hour-rapid fire game that takes you to the edge of your seat until the final ball is bowled.

IPL is BCCI’s response to the rival Indian Cricket League (ICL) into Twenty-20 era. They pulled up 8 teams from Indian cities bringing overseas and domestic player mixture. The key difference being IPL swamped in current top International players while ICL dominantly settled for retired, yesteryear stars. IPL is BCCI’s child,  so you can imagine the media attention, money involved is big.

South Africa Record 2nd Highest Run Chase in Test Cricket History

South Africa beat Australia in the first Test of their series by 6 wickets chasing down a huge victory target of 413, becoming, in the process, the 2nd highest-run chasing team in Test cricket. AB de Villiers was chosen Man-of-the-Match for his unbeaten 106 in the chase (and for his vital 1st innings 63 and pouching 4 catches off the Australian batting line). Graeme Smith continued to excel in batting in the 4th innings, with his average the 3rd highest in history, behind Geoff Boycott (England) and Sunil Gavaskar (India). West Indies still hold the record for highest run chaser, scoring 418/7 against Australia in 2003.

The Super Six of 2008

Chanderpaul 6 and Win – In their ODI home series against Sri Lanka.

Mystery Spinner – Ajantha Mendis

2008 saw the entry of a new (yet another!) spin wizard from Sri Lanka with his finger talking googlies, flippers, offbreaks, legbreaks and anything you can spell. He clearly gave India a very hard run during their away series and even India’s strong middle order were unable to read him. Mendis took 26 Test scalps and lead the 2008 ODI bowling with 48 wickets at an astonishing average of 10.12 and economy rate of 3.54. He is overturning the conventional wisdom in ODI where bowlers are relegated to side acts as batsman become big bat bullies.

Take a look at Mendis cleaning India’s clock in the Asia Cup final.

2008 Top Performances – Batting & Bowling

Top 10 ODI Batsmen

  1. Gautam Gambir (India): 1119 runs – Gambir came of age this year and stabilized the Indian opening.
  2. Mahendra Dhoni (India):  1097
  3. Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka): 942
  4. Virender Sehwag (India): 893
  5. Yuvraj Singh (India): 893
  6. Younis Khan (Pakistan): 865
  7. Salman Bhatt (Pakistan): 861
  8. Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh): 807
  9. Shoaib Malik (Pakistan): 681
  10. Suresh Raina (India): 680

Top 10 Test Batsmen

  1. Graeme Smith (South Africa): 1656 Runs
  2. Virender Sehwag (India): 1462
  3. Ricky Ponting (Australia): 1182
  4. Hashim Amla (South Africa): 1161
  5. Gautam Gambhir (India): 1134
  6. VVS Laxman (India): 1086
  7. Neil McKenzie (South Africa): 1073
  8. Michael Clarke (Australia): 1063
  9. Sachin Tendulkar (India): 1063
  10. AB de Villiers (South Africa): 1061

Top 10 ODI Bowlers

  1. Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka): 48 wickets
  2. Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka): 35
  3. Nuwan Kulasekara (Sri Lanka): 33
  4. Stuart Broad (England): 32
  5. Sohail Tanvir (Pakistan): 32
  6. Nathan Bracken (Australia): 31
  7. Shahid Afridi (Pakistan): 30
  8. Abdur Razzak (Bangladesh): 29
  9. Mashrafe Mortaza (Bangladesh): 28
  10. Ishant Sharma (India): 27

Top 10 Test Bowlers

  1. Dale Steyn (South Africa): 74 Wickets
  2. Harbhajan Singh (India): 63
  3. Mitchell Johnson (Australia): 63
  4. Brett Lee (Australia): 57
  5. Makhaya Ntini (South Africa):  54
  6. Daniel Vettori (New Zealand): 54
  7. Ryan Sidebottom (England): 47
  8. Jimmy Anderson (England): 46
  9. Morne Morkel (South Africa): 43
  10. Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka): 43

Stats Courtesy: Cricinfo.com

High-Tech Review System

ICC embraced the technology to allow the batting or fielding team to appeal against umpiring decisions. Considering the amount of pressure the umpires are involved in making critical decisions which significantly impact game outcomes, this is definitely a welcome move from ICC. Not to say anything about avoiding acrimonious incidents such as what happened in the Sydney Test between Australia and India.

Controversy

Harbhajan Singh made his mark on 2008, but not always in a good way. He and Andrew Symonds were involved in a racial sledge/abuse case that resulted a three test ban on Harbhajan Singh. Not satisfied with that, Harbhajan got into a slapping incident with fellow Indian teammate Sreesanth and got thrown out of the IPL. He is back with the Indian team spearheading the Indian attack.

Well there you go that rounded up 2008 stories. Let’s look forward to yet another exciting year of cricket in 2009.

Throwing Someone out from the Team

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Try to imagine this: You add a new batsman to the team and then allow him to play 8 Tests. He is out for a golden duck twice and makes a total of 297 runs at an average of 21 runs per Test. Or take another batsman who plays 10 Tests scoring a grand total of 324 runs at an average of 18 runs per Test. Would you retain these two batsman in your team? 

The two batsmen are Hayden and Dravid respectively. And because their names are Hayden and Dravid, they are still in the Australian and Indian teams. If they were debutants, they would have been dropped after the first few innings, even perhaps after their first Test. And the reason is obvious: These are proven batsmen going through a bad phase and you need to give them some time to work through whatever issues they are facing.

But this brings about a dilemma: How much time should you give them? And are you willing to risk a few losses while you are waiting? The problem is, of course, you don’t know if a player is in a slump until they miss out on 4-5 consecutive Tests. It is also not evident if the slump starts in the middle of a series (in which the player had started out strongly).

The best case scenario is that the batsman finally recovers his groove and starts making significant scores, thus repaying the faith of the selectors. Unfortunately, it can also happen that the player just makes enough not to get kicked out of the team. For example, Dravid made a century after his 10-Test drought, thus quieting his critics for a while. But in his next innings, he got out for a zero after blocking 19 balls. Apparently, whatever form he had in his first innings did not last long enough.

This kind of situation where a player has an extended run in the Test side despite mediocre output is very bad for the long-term health of the team. You don’t get the chance to introduce new players and provide them enough exposure. And older players in your first-class leagues never get called to the international team, providing you less of a backup in the case of injuries, which are increasing in these days of heavy cricket schedules.

South Africa Are Number One

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It was hardly a contest at all. The South Africans brushed aside Australia’s meagre target in quick time and now have a legitimate claim to be No. 1 in Test cricket. Australia has simply been outclassed by a superior team with a captain who leads from the front.

What’s next for Australia? You have to go back a long way before you found a series where Australia played a dead rubber where they had already been beaten. This should spell the end for Matthew Hayden, a great batsman of the past, but reduced to irrelevance in this series. Perhaps he will resign instead of being outed by the selectors.

Hussey aside, the rest of the batting seems okay. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be coming together in unison to post huge scores. Australia’s main problem, though, is their toothless bowling that is encouraging to the other Test teams. They may be well advised to try out different bowling options in the next Test.

Though the series is lost, Australia do have a chance at redemption. They have an away series against the South Africans and if they can come up with a much improved performance, they can reclaim their throne.

As for South Africa, what a team. The right mix of experience and young talent including the debutant Duminy. A superb strike bowler in Steyn. An inspiring captain in Graeme Smith. We should have guessed that they were meant for great things on this tour, by the way Smith closed his mouth about his opponents and let his bat do the talking.

Australia Need a Miracle

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To win the series, South Africa need just another 153 runs with 10 wickets in hand and an entire day to play. Unless they lose their heads, it should be an easy target to achieve. Of course, South Africa did have a collapse in their first innings before recovering to post a lead. So there may be some hope for Australia, but after letting South Africa get to a 400+ target, that is not saying much.

Ponting was terribly unlucky to get out at 99. This would have been the 4th time he hit centuries in both innings of a single Test. Having hit 101 in the first innings, Ponting said, “I’m actually going to check with the scorers tonight and see if I can take one run from the first innings and transfer it over to the second innings, see if that’s possible.” A great player, but unfortunately captain of Australia when they are struggling to meet their past form.

Australia needs an inspired bowler today to go out and get a bunch of wickets, something like Bob Willis’ 8-43 in the 1981 Ashes Series. And they need a partner bowler to stem the runs on the other side. An injured Lee doesn’t look the part. Johnson may yet emulate his 8-wicket haul from the first Test, but he needs some support from the remaining bowlers. There aren’t too many runs to play with.

The South Africans have a few batsmen like Kallis who can drop anchor and others like Smith who can bludgeon the opposition into submission. It is their Test to lose. If they play sensibly, the match should be over around lunchtime.

Watch out Australia !!!

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Australia is losing their supremacy.  Their bowling & fielding is not up to the mark.  Most of the key batsmen are struggling. No longer can they sledge & demoralize the opponents.   JP Duminy’s well crafted, outstanding & gusty innings , the  final three partnerships of South African first innings is evidence that Australia is no longer World Number One.  Watch out Australia !!!!

Sanity Restored in Sri Lanka-Bangladesh Match

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I was negatively surprised to see Sri Lanka out of 293 in their first innings against Bangladesh. Of course, there was no need to worry as the perennial under-performers crashed to 178 and then allowed Sri Lanka to rachet up a lead of 406 runs. The Lankans can declare now, of course, but they will probably wait to let Jayawardene achieve more personal milestones.

However, all is not good with Sri Lanka, because

  • They do seem to be playing a lot more matches with the Bangladeshis than most countries. Some of the batting and bowling averages of the Lankan players are buttressed by meaningless performances against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Thankfully, the latter is not playing Tests anymore.
  • The reliance of the Sri Lankan batting on Sangakkara and Jayawardene is bound to backfire with the bigger Test countries. They need other players to step up and make a difference.

In one aspect, Sri Lanka is lucky that they have Mendis to replace Muralitharan, unlike Australia and India who have yet to find a long-term replacement for Warne and Kumble.

As for the Bangladeshis, they keep making fools of their fans. They don’t seem to have the capacity to fight in a 5-day, 2 innings Test. Once in a while, there is an encouraging performance by a batsman or bowler, but never enough to win matches. Somehow, this is offered as proof that they are maturing as a team.

I say that instead of this charade that passes for Test matches, Bangladesh should be banned from playing Test matches and have a good string of ODI victories against the main Test nations before they are admitted again.

Australia’s Dilemma

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What a Test debut for Jean-Paul Duminy. In his first match, he remained unbeaten with a 50 as South Africa overhauled a massive target of 414 runs against Australia. And yesterday, he added 318 runs with the 4 tail-enders to gain a vital lead for South Africa. At the close of the 2nd day, the consensus was that South Africa would fold up quickly with a huge deficit, so no one could even imagine a lead. The latest star in the SA team could not have scripted a better start to his career.

Duminy’s stunning effort has placed Australia in a huge dilemma. Only 6 sessions remain in the match and they are behind. If they try for the win by slogging their way to a big target, they could very easily lose wickets and be fighting to save the match. On the other hand, if they bat sensibly, they would have to bat for at least 4 sessions, but then have only 60-odd overs to bowl South Africa out. Which probably is not going to happen, considering the depth of the South African batting.

This series has exposed how deep a hole the retirements of Warne and McGrath has left Australia in. For a while, it seemed that Lee was turning into the main spearhead of the Australian attack, but his improved performances were just a random blip. In the current series, he has taken 1 wicket while conceding 200 runs. Stuart Clark, injured, is out of the picture and, at 33 years, not the best long-term prospect for Australia. Let us not even talk about the Australian spinners.

However, all this is good for cricket. It is boring when you have one team dominating all the others, like how Australia used to do. Now, South Africa and India are closing (or have closed) the gap with Australia and we can look forward to more interesting contests. More of that and less of the mind-numbing whitewashes.

Team India Coach – Gary vs Greg

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It may be too soon to speculate that Gary Kirsten is doing something right that Greg Chappell missed but its certain that his quiet/behind the scene nature is showing that he has/would focus on team improvement.  Greg came-up with radical changes in team structure, strategy and to top ‘em all the ego clashes with Senior players that back fired in media and eventually left (a.k.a. fired).  Both Greg (Ave: Tests-53/ODI-40) and Gary (Ave:Tests-45/ODI-40) were both decent opening batsmen during their times. This raises an interesting question: What’s up with India going after batsmen for regular coaching jobs?

The Dhoni-Gary combo is doing better – so long as we don’t smell a smoke between them – I wish the new coach to carry on for years to come, and what is that called, yeah bring the world cup glory!

The Curious Case of Mike Hussey

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Michael Hussey falls again for a duck, the 2nd one in a row. At one point at the beginning of his career, his average hovered very close to Don Bradman. Just last year, his average was just over 80. Now it is down to 60. He is still a dangerous player, but his claims to greatness are diminishing Test by Test. His decline mirrors his fortunes in the ODI arena, where his average did not fall under 100 until his 33rd match, but now stands at 57.

Hussey’s astronomical averages had been boosted by his ability to remain not out at the end of the innings. Consider this: In ODI’s, the first time he was out was in his 7th match and even after 42 matches, he remained not out 21 times (50% of the time). After 20 Tests, he was not out 8 times out of 33 innings (almost 25% of the time).

It is not difficult to imagine a scenario where Hussey’s average has not been preying on his mind. And the added pressure may be affecting his play, as he has to keep racheting up big scores to maintain his average. Instead of what he should do, which is to just play himself back into form, instead of worrying about making large centuries. If he doesn’t do that and continues in poor form, then there will be real external pressure for him to do something big, when he has the lowest confidence and least able to make such scores. Just like Matthew Hayden.

Murali gives Sri Lanka the “edge”??

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Apparently, Cricinfo hasn’t noticed the recent form of Bangladesh with the latest item on the Sri Lanka-Bangladesh Test as “Murali gives Sri Lanka the edge in spin battle“. Bangladesh has found it difficult to survive 50 overs, let alone manage to post a respectable score. There is no “edge”. Sri Lanka is the overwhelming favorite to win both Tests by a huge margin.

It is incredible that the number of Sri Lanka-Bangladesh Tests are exactly the same as number of India-England Tests, even though the latter has been even-matched in the last few series. If there were 3 Tests in the India-England series, we could have seen a much harder fought 2nd Test. The cricket administrators do not seem to get this at all.