For the second successive day, Stuart Broad spoiled India’s day. On the first day of the Test match, he helped England reach a respectable 221 from the depths of 124 for 8. And today took five of the last 6 wickets of India to fall for a mere 21 runs. Well done!
I am not a big fan of Stuart Broad. England could perhaps do with a better allrounder (batting average of 28.68 and bowling average of 33.49). It is however amazing how Broad continues to stay in the team with performances at the right time. This is the guy who got taken by Yuvraj Singh for 6 sixes in an over and he is still around!
For that matter, there are a few in this English side that I thought wouldn’t last this long. Ian Bell is one. He had some miserable performances and was dropped at one point. Alastair Cook is another. I even thought that about Strauss at one point. It is interesting how the winning habit of a team makes you reconsider your thoughts about the team members.
When it comes to the Indian team, Sreesanth is the obvious candidate. It is ridiculous that he is still around despite all the craziness. He even got to bowl in the World Cup final! And going by his performance in the first innings and Zaheer Khan’s continued absence, he may even be there for the rest of the Tests in the series, outlasting his frenemy Harbhajan Singh who looks completely out of form.
I also wondered much about Ishant Sharma, who seemed to be coasting in the team without doing much except for that spell against Ricky Ponting sometime back. But it looks like the West Indies tour was his coming-of-age. He is doing some seriously good stuff with the ball leading the attack.
Stuart Broad, to me, seemed the person most likely to be dropped from the team. He has been very ineffective with his bowling and England really need wicket-taking bowlers. I thought Harmison would replace him. But it seems that he will be playing at Lord’s. This is probably his last chance, because when England loses, he will be the one to go.
And how tragic for Panesar! He is the only person dropped from the England team that played at Cardiff, despite having played his part in a brave partnership that saved England from losing. Still, it was to be expected as his bowling was pretty average and England’s plans for this match did not involve two spinners.
England once again bat first. If this was a match between two equal teams, they would have had the last shot at the Australians on the pitch. But if the Australians continue to make monumental scores, England will be the one trying to save the match once again on the last day.
In the entire recorded history of cricket, there has only been four instances of six sixes in a legitimate 6-ball over in first-class and international cricket. Here are the details about the batsmen and bowlers involved.
The first instance was in a 1968 first class match in Swansea where Sir Garfield Sobers playing for Nottinghamshire butchered Malcolm Nash of Glamorgan. Sobers almost did not make it as he was caught off the 5th ball, but the fielder fell over the rope while holding onto the ball. This feat was only one exploit in a great career as an all-rounder with 8032 runs and 235 wickets in 93 Tests. His Test record of 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958 stood for over 3 decades before Lara bested it with his 375 against England.
As for Nash, he continued playing first-class cricket till 1983, taking almost a thousand wickets at 25.87 and also 324 wickets in List A matches, in addition to being a useful batsman. He almost repeated his feat again by being hit for five sixes and one four (whew!) by Lancashire’s Frank Hayes. In an interview with the Times, he recalls the game:
The subject is never left alone. I have given talks about it several times a year for 40 years. People have said to me, ‘Why did you not give up the game after that?’ yet why should I mind? It was just another day and I moved on. Garry Sobers has a certain amount of respect for me and I have the utmost respect for him. When I go to the Caribbean, I make a point of trying to see him.
I was absolutely silly – I should have been bowling over, not round the wicket. I do not replay the over, although I might have bowled that last ball slower rather than attempt a seamer. I did not bowl slow left arm for a long time after that, but the following year we were county champions and I was to get Garry out a few times.
The second instance was Ravi Shastri taking Tilak Raj to the park in his 1985 game for Bombay against Baroda in India’s Ranji Trophy league match. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any video or photos of that game. Ranji Trophy matches were never big crowd pulling games, and this was no exception. Shastri started his career as a bowler, but graduated into a top order batsman who was asked to bowl at times.
The irony of Shastri being in this list is that the end of his career was partly brought about by his inability to score quick runs in one day internationals, at a time when cricket audience was exploding in the Indian subcontinent. India’s loss to Australia in the 1992 World Cup by a solitary run (a match where Shastri scored 25 off 67 balls) destroyed his standing among Indian cricket fans. He would retire at the age of 31 as knee injuries kept him out of cricket, and a new Indian team was shaping under Azharuddin.
As for Tilak Raj, he played 26 first-class matches scoring 936 runs and taking 5 wickets, which essentially means that he was only a part-time bowler. He was in the news recently when Gibbs replicated Shastri’s effort (see the third instance):
On Saturday, Tilak Raj sympathised with van Bunge.
“It will feel bad,” Tilak Raj told Reuters. “I felt terrible back then. All I can say is that it’s destiny.”
Tilak Raj said he had prayed to God before delivering the last ball, which Shastri still smashed for a straight six.
“I am a relieved man now, someone else has joined me after over 20 years,” he said.
Tilak Raj, now 47, an occasional spinner, was playing his first game for Baroda after moving from Delhi. Primarily a batsman, he had already scored 70 in his debut.
The third instance, as we just mentioned, was by South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbsagainst the Dutch Daan van Bunge in a ODI match in the 2007 World Cup. Gibbs has had a long Test and ODI career, though with averages of 42 and 36, he has not done enough justice to his potential. His best innings would be the incredible 175 off 111 balls in South Africa’s victory chasing Australia’s massive 434.
Daan van Bunge, being from a non-Test playing nation, had very little experience with a few ODIs under his belt before the SA match. He is an allrounder with actually a pretty good ODI bowling average (25.90). He seemed to have been very affected by the mauling, as he announced his retirement from international cricket at the tender age of 24. But he recently decided to come back and wants revenge!
“It would be great to play Herschelle again in England next year and I wouldn’t mind if he tries to repeat that feat again,” van Bunge said. “But I am sure, whatever he does, he wouldn’t be able to hit me again for 36 runs in an over,”
The fourth and latest instance was the T20 match between India and England, in which Yuvraj Singh took on Stuart Broad. Yuvraj also scored the fastest fifty in a T20 international match off just 12 balls. Yuvraj had some personal business to take care of against England, whose Dimitri Mascarenhas hit Yuvraj for 5 sixes in an ODI over a few months before. India would go on to keep their nerve in some tense matches to win the tournament under their new captain Dhoni.
Yuvraj’s success in the limited overs game helped him to break back into the Test team, where he celebrated his return with a big century against Pakistan. Unfortunately, he was in poor form in the subsequent series in Australia and was one of the factors behind their defeats in the first two matches. He was dropped, but soon found his way back, with a recent innings being a consequential unbeaten 85 to aid Sachin Tendulkar in a successful chase of a large 387 4th innings target.
Stuart Broad continues to be an important member of the English team with his all-round skills. His batting has been particularly impressive and his bowling has been improving, though perhaps not good enough for England at the Test level