Monthly Archives: March 2009

Australia Lose by Innings Despite Johnson’s Blitzkrieg

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sydney-harbor1

What a stunning assault by Mitch Johnson! 123 runs off just 103 balls with 5 sixes and 11 boundaries. Well, that makes up for Gilchrist’s retirement. It proves that Johnson’s earlier 95 not out in the first Test was not an aberration, but a mark of things to come for the future. Luckily for South Africa, the other batsmen after McDonald did not hang around for too long, thus handing them an innings victory which will provide some balm for the last two demoralizing defeats.

The past six Tests between these two teams, the Top Two in my book, has been extremely strange. As Andrew Hughes puts it,

I can’t work out if what we’ve been glued to for the last three months is two ordinary teams taking it in turns to beat one another up, or two fantastic sides engaged in a titanic struggle for world supremacy.

I am not sure earlier, but I think Australia gained more from these past few Tests than South Africa. They have been able to come back from a hiding at home and beat South Africa with a Test to spare. If Australia had lost this series, their aura of invincibility would have been shattered forever and other teams would play more confidently against them. Now, everyone thinks that the South African victory was a fluke and, besides, how many times has Australia ever won in India?

Australia has also unearthed some gems. Johnson, obviously, is the show-off candidate, shining with both bat and ball. As if the dazzling top order was not enough, now teams have to worry about the tail wagging feriously. If Australia can hit almost 200 runs after being 6 down against one of the best attacks around, that is not good news for the middling bowling of other teams.

But Johnson was also devastating with the ball with his partner Peter Siddle. An underbowled Katich also picked up 5 wickets at 11 runs each. For those who suggest Ponting is a brilliant captain based on this series victory, it is strange that he hardly bowled Katich and Clarke even when the South Africans were piling up their huge score in this Test.

The young Phillip Hughes has been a great find. After a quick duck in his first innings, he played three good hands to wreck South Africa’s hopes of winning the series. However, these good words cannot be said for the other new faces in the team, McDonald and Hilfenhaus, whose days in the team may be numbered.

The big shots in the Australian team, Ponting, Hussey and Clarke, did not make a significant mark in this series. If the trend continues, this could be a troubling issue for Australia. I still don’t think that Australia’s problems lie in their batting. Remember that Australia were bowled out for 207 in the 2nd innings of the first Test (compared to 209 this Test) and still won. Australia won when they were able to get South Africa out cheaply.

Australia’s next series, the Ashes in English conditions, will likely be much easier on the bowlers. But there will less room for error since the England bowlers are also likely to perform better. With Lee’s return, the bowling attack will gain some more teeth. However, Australia are still without a good spin option.

Is there any significance to the innings defeat? After all, it is the first time since 1998 (in India!) that Australia have lost by an innings. Considering it was a dead rubber, I don’t think anyone should read too much into it, except for the bowling failure. Everything reeked of lack of motivation and, if Johnson had not swung his bat around, they would have deserved to lose by much more.

[Photo licensed from stibbons]

The Most Watched YouTube Video for Cricket

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The most watched YouTube video for cricket is the infamous underam incident of 1981. In those days, the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup had a best-of-five finals. Australia and New Zealand were 1-1 going into the 3rd match at the MCG. When New Zealand needed a six off the last ball to tie the match, Greg Chappell, the Australian captain, ordered his younger brother, Trevor Chappell, to bowl the last delivery underarm. The disgusted No. 10 New Zealand batsman Brian McKenzie could do nothing much except protect his wicket.

Years later, McKenzie remembers team discussions about how they could have potentially hit the ball out of the ground by first flicking it:

We tried a few years later to flick it up and hit it. You can flick it up if the ball is at the right pace, but the coordination of it is damn difficult. And then you’d have to hit it about 90 metres for it to be six at the MCG. I would defy anyone to do that.

When we tried, it took about 30 or 40 goes to get to the level where you could actually hit the ball. But we could only hit it 40 metres.

For his part, Greg Chappell was named as one of the top 10 sporting cheats by Virgin Media. Years later, he would coach the Indian cricket team and he would show his true colors with a public falling out with Ganguly, the Indian captain. Regardless of his batting achievements, he seems to be particularly vile and despicable.

When talking about the match, people often mention the “most overlooked century”, the unbeaten 102 made by the Kiwi opener Bruce Edgar who was still standing on the other side when things went down. This was Edgar’s sole century in 64 one-day internationals, but even if he had scored many more, he would never forget this one.

The underarm ball was banned after this incident. It is a credit to the game of cricket that it would not tolerate a happening that would discredit its claim to be the most pure game. If it is not cricket, it won’t be allowed in cricket.

Tendulkar’s 42 Test Centuries

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Tendulkar hit another marvellous century to lead India to victory against the Kiwis. This was his 42nd century in 157 matches, more than one every 4 matches. This tally includes four double-centuries, with an unbeaten 248 being his highest score. With this 43 ODI tons, Tendulkar is just 15 short of 100 international centuries.

Let us take a look at Tendulkar’s centuries. He has made the most centuries against Australia (10) with 7 centuries against Sri Lanka. Against the rest, he has made 3-4 centuries each, with Pakistan bringing up the rear with 2 centuries. The Pakistan count is not a surprise as India has played very few Tests against Pakistan during Tendulkar’s career. With the Mumbai attacks, he is unlikely to play many/any and increase his record against them.

centuries

Tendulkar’s best year was 1999 when he scored 5 centuries against four countries. His drought years were 1991, 1995, 2003 and 2006.

centuries-by-year

Chennai has been Tendulkar’s favorite ground with 5 centuries followed by Nagpur with 4. He has also hit 4 centuries in Colombo, but at different grounds. Tendulkar also has 3 centuries in Sydney, although no one of them resulted in an Indian victory.

Most of Tendulkar’s centuries have been relatively sedate ones. 24 of his centuries have been made without a single six. The maximum he has hit has been 4 sixes in his unbeaten 155 against Australia in Chennai, 1998. Only twice has he went past a strike rate of 80 while hitting a century. The most 4′s Tendulkar has hit is 35 in that unbeaten 248.

How many more centuries could Tendulkar make? On an average (mean, median and mode), Tendulkar is most likely to hit two centuries per year. If we eliminate the out-of-form years, Tendulkar is likely to make between 2-3 centuries. If Tendulkar retires after the 2011 World Cup, he is likely to hit around 5 to 7 tons. An upper limit (based on his best years) would be 10 centuries. I would assume that if Tendulkar is close to his 5oth century, he will stay back to complete that unique record, probably foregoing playing in the ODI team.

A Simple Solution for Stupid Duckworth-Lewis Mistakes

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There are mistakes and then there are MISTAKES. If you throw away your wicket while batting, that is a mistake because you can always argue that if the shot went right, you would be praised instead of being criticized. Same can be said for bowling mistakes. You take risks, which, by definition, have downsides. But there are other mistakes that leave you with, “What in the world is wrong with you? Are you illiterate? Can you not read a piece of paper that simply has a list of numbers on it?”

John Dyson committed a MISTAKE. Even as the West Indies have won their first series against a major Test nation after a long time, Dyson, at least for the short-term, will be remembered for this amazing piece of incompetence. The only thing that may perhaps comfort him is that he is not alone. The South Africans famously messed up their 2003 World Cup campaign by hitting a drawing score instead a winning one, and then crashing out. Dyson went one better, by choosing a losing score, though the ramifications are not as severe as exiting a World Cup. This mistake is now immortalized in his Wikipedia entry.

Which leads me to my conclusion: The Duckworth-Lewis calculations may be lucid to statisticians and those inclined towards math and numbers, but apparently they are heavy going for sports persons and coaches. One option may be to make the charts much easier. But another option is to provide the details right there on the giant scorecard in the stadium itself. Here is the simplest form:

WI behind by 1 run

This information would be updated at all times by a certified Duckworth-Lewis computer program after every ball. In addition, every player on and off the field would have a pager-like device that would provide this information and also allow captains and coaches to explore scenarios such as what happens if one or more wickets are lost. All the information would be streamed from a single source so that there can be no point of confusion.

Will Ponting Overtake Tendulkar?

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Teams fight against each other to win Test and ODI series, but there are other competitions going on, especially in the individual record space. One of these is who will remain on the Mount Everest of cricket, i.e., who will score the most runs and most 100s. Currently, Tendulkar leads both charts with almost 12.5 K runs and 41 centuries. Here is a table of his nearest active competition and how younger they are when compared to Tendulkar.

Current Player Tests Runs Avg 100s Less Tendulkar
Tendulkar 157 12499 54.58 41 -
Ponting 131 10948 56.43 37 1y 8m
Dravid 132 10575 52.35 26 4m OLDER
Kallis 131 10175 54.41 30 2y 6m
Chanderpaul 119 8502 50.01 21 1y 4m
Jayawardene 102 8251 53.23 25 4 yrs

Ponting, Dravid and Kallis are within striking distance of Tendulkar (surprisingly, they have played almost the exact number of Tests). We can eliminate Dravid as he is 4 months older than Tendulkar and presumably will retire earlier. He will also play the same number of matches as Tendulkar, unless Tendulkar has a sustained poor run of form and is dropped while Dravid keeps playing. At this moment, that does not seem very likely. Apart from form, the Board will have to deal with angry public opinion if Tendulkar is ever dropped. Not gonna happen!

Ponting and Kallis have roughly the same shot at overtaking Tendulkar. If  they all retire at the same age as Tendulkar retires, they will have 1.6 and 2.5 years respectively to overtake his total which would be around 2000 runs more. In fact, they may have more time because if they are really close to Tendulkar, they may stick around for a year or so longer. If they maintain their current average, they would need roughly 20-25 Tests to overtake Tendulkar. Last year, the big teams played 12-15 Tests. So it is definitely achievable.

So the main questions are: Will Ponting and Kallis maintain their batting towards the end of their career, or will they have a sudden end like Hayden? Both of them have fallen from their previous near-60 averages and are nowhere near hitting the 1000 runs per year they used to. Ponting has more room here, because a winning Australia will help him retain his place on the basis of captaincy. With the victory in SA, he is back at the top again. Kallis has only his batting form to fall back upon.

The success of Twenty20 may disrupt some of these calculations. More international T20 and ODI matches mean less time for Tests. Nowadays, Test series are down from 5 and 6 Test series to 2 and 3 Test series. IPL and other local T20 tournaments can reduce the incentive of players to continue playing Tests. Injuries are more problematic at older ages. Here, Ponting is worse off. Being the captain, he is forced to be active in all the three forms of the game, whereas Kallis could end his ODI commitment earlier. Tendulkar has already quit T20 and only plays some of India’s ODI matches – he may be saving himself for Tests and one last World Cup.

That being said, last year proves that teams can play several Tests in one year. Australia and South Africa are popular teams and, like the popular kids in school, get to play with every one. Both Ponting and Kallis are exceptionally talented and can raise their game, and their cricket boards will accommodate their desire to hit a target more than other players. In any case, Ponting has a real chance of catching up to Tendulkar’s century count. He is just 4 behind. Unless Tendulkar has a spectacular year, that record is Ponting’s for the taking.

Chanderpaul, too, can be eliminated. He is too far behind, even if he has been racking up huge scores and crossed the 50-barrier recently. It is surprising that he has even scored so many runs after playing so low down the order. Jayawardene is another story. 4 years to hit 4000 runs. Possible, especially with Sri Lanka’s schedule leading them to more matches with the low-ranked Test teams. Whether Jayawardene’s appetite will be enough is a bigger question. Resigning the captaincy after the India defeat showed that he does not have the stomach for handling adversity.

When will the Kiwis Stop Making Excuses for Their Top Order?

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New Zealand were saved from a terribly embarrassing score by being rescued from the depths of 6 for 60 to a respectable, if hardly intimidating, total of 279. Daniel Vettori and Ryder played well, scoring centuries each, though the latter with little help from the clueless O’Brien who almost sold his partner down the river by getting stumped out. Apparently O’Brien was looking for a single, though why he felt the need to leave his crease blows my mind.

The Kiwi’s habit of having Vettori be the superstar batsman in addition to leading the team and bowling the most overs is, to be very kind, crazy as bats. It reminds me of India in the early 1990′s, boasting the supposedly best batting lineup in the world, but having to be rescued each time by Kapil Dev and the tail to worry the scorers. New Zealand seems to be in the same state now, with Vettori and McCullum the best batsmen in the team.

The problem with these kind of rescue innings is that it diverts attention from the ineffectiveness of the players who are supposed to perform. If New Zealand wins this match, which is a real possibility, the batting collapse will be brushed under the carpet and the team never improves. And one day, the lower order does not rescue the team, there is an ignominious collapse (England’s 51), all hell breaks loose and there are no ready replacements.

In the Kiwi’s favor, maybe we should say that perhaps the wicket was sticky and India did put them in. Still it is an old story that keeps repeating, and New Zealand has to recognize that to improve as a team. Now, if they could only get Shane Bond back…

Bangladesh Too?

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Bangladesh is cancelling all foreign tours citing the reason that it cannot guarantee enough security for the visiting teams. This immediately means an end to the planned tour by the Pakistani team and, for the short-term future, an end to visits by any cricket team.

So Pakistan and Bangladesh are out of the running. Sri Lanka could be the next as the Tamil Tigers sense an opportunity to disrupt the calm in Colombo. And India is also facing many challenges with heightened security concerns after the Mumbai attacks. Any repeat incidents could put an end to any international matches in the sub-continent.

It is time for governments to step in and fix the security issue from both a police/military standpoint and a political view. All of these crises involve some political grievances and it will require political leadership to solve them. The Indian sub-continent had been growing by leaps and bounds in the last decade and terrorism could put a quick end to that.

Preview of India – New Zealand Test Series

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Based on the strength of the teams on paper, the India-NZ Test series, which starts on Wednesday, should be a cakewalk for India. The batting order of India is one of the strongest in the world (Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Dhoni, to name a few) and their bowling is not bad either when compared to the New Zealand team.

However, the history of India in New Zealand has been poor, especially the much-vaunted Indian batting which crumbled like a house of cards in an earthquake. While India has been the only team to consistently perform in Australia this decade, they have been unable to replicate the same at the Aussie’s neighbors. The problem has been the inability of the Indian batsmen to adapt to the pitches and conditions in New Zealand. This may not be as much of a problem as usual because the team has been playing in New Zealand for almost a month. However, six of the Test team were not chosen for the ODIs and T20s and do not have any live match practice. 

The recent Indian successes have been attributed by many to Dhoni’s captaincy and management style. It should be seen how he manages to inspire this team to perform better and win the series. Many of the youngsters in the team have much to prove. For Dravid, this is a do-or-die series. He was under pressure in India’s last series, and scored a century to ease some pressure off. Now he has to show that the century was not a flash in the pan.

This is a 3-Test series unlike recent series with other teams in New Zealand.  That will provide more excitement over a longer duration. Also it will allow a team to come back if they fail to start off the series properly. I suspect that would be India, which is most likely to crash and burn in the first Test. And if that happens, we will have to see if and how they come back.

ICC Women’s World Cup Cricket 2009

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Most of our blogging revolves around events in the men’s sport. We even dedicate several posts to inconsequential series such as matches with the weakest Test playing teams or dead rubbers. At the same time, we and most cricket bloggers ignore the most important event happening in the women’s cricket game, namely, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2009 taking place in Australia right now.

What many people don’t know is that the first women’s World Cup (in 1973) actually took place before the men’s tournament (in 1975). There were 7 teams in that tournament in England which was won by the hosts. There have been nine tournaments so far, including the present one, the same as the men’s tournament. The current champions Australia have been the dominant team, winning five tournaments, with England (twice) and New Zealand (once) taking the Cup when it was hosted in their home countries.

Although the women do not play as much cricket as the men, they have their records too. Belinda Clarke, from Australia, is the only person (of either gender) to score a double-century in a one-day international (an unbeaten 229 against Denmark in the 1997 Cup). Take that, Sachin!

Cricinfo has some nice posts by the cricketers themselves. Here is Haidee Tiffen about her memories from the 2000 World Cup:

 Australia needed five runs to win and we needed one wicket. Offspinner Clare Nicholson came to bowl the final over and Charmaine Mason edged the first ball to our keeper, Rebecca Rolls. All I remember after that is throwing my cap into the crowd during the celebrations and feeling gutted that I had just thrown my New Zealand cap away!

The league matches are now over. Sri Lanka and South Africa got knocked out before the Super Six. At this moment, England, India and NZ seem the main contenders for the finals. England have not lost a match so far in the tournament, a performance that is a far cry from the men’s team which is superstar-rich, but results-poor.