O pen up…

Hi,

The way the Pathan’s batted in yesterday’s T20 match against Sri Lanka reminded me of the Natwest final victory of India that was powered by Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif. This time, it was more about brute power and guts. The Pathans had all that is needed to bat for India in T20. Brute power, effective pull shot, ability to build a partnership. Amazingly, T20 seems to be like any other form of cricket where partnerships matter the most. While Yusuf Pathan put the spinners out of contest by hitting Bandara out of the park, Irfan kept his cool and hit the boundaries and sixes at the crucial moments. India can afford to pay the costliest bowling coach in the world to get Irfan back to his bowling best. He is such an asset to the team if he can bowl at his best. He is a match winning batsman. The Sri Lankan captain Dilshan was a bad leader. His body language was negative during his team’s fightback and lost his cool at the most crucial moments. And, after Yusuf hit Bandara out of the park, he could have taken a chance with Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya being an experienced player, could easily have gotten a wicket and sealed the match for Sri Lanka. But destiny had something else in its mind. It wanted the Pathan brothers to script a most enthralling win for India. As Dhoni rightly said, there were lots of chinks in the Indian batting armour that got exposed in yesterday’s match. Dhoni is turning out to be a great leader. Even in a victory, he is ensuring the right amount of introspection goes into the dressing room to ensure better game of cricket. It was a treat to watch the game till the end although I should say both the teams played mediocre cricket till about the 10th over of the Indian chase. This victory should propel India to learn the most important lessons a champion has to learn – to keep going.

Unfortunately, these days, when someone apologises, it is seen as either a sign of weakness or an admission of guilt. I am neither unnerved nor are we guilty. In the larger interests of the game, if an apology could help build bridges and smooth things over, then it is better made than left unsaid because of egos.

– Anil Kumble

Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game

– Anil Kumble

Hi,

If you are not one of those who gives your flesh to watch a cricket match played by India (I am one of those), you might not have noticed the great controversy that is happening in Australia after Australia’s 16th consecutive win under ‘cry baby‘ Ponting’s captaincy.

It all started on day one of the test match when Indians’ appeal was turned down after Symonds clearly edged a ball to Dhoni. Symonds who was on 30 that time went on to make 162 which just turned the match in Australia’s favour. To add to umpire Bucknor’s woes, Symonds agreed in a post-match interview that he actualy had nicked that ball.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23000142-11088,00.html

Day 2 and 3 produced some high quality cricket with Australian fight back followed by an Indian classy reply. The centuries made by Laxman and Sachin in this match will still be remembered for long despite the controversy the match has caused.

And then, Ponting did something silly. Infact it was Symonds who was silly. He went to Harbhajan and was visibly sledging him and goading him to respond. Once Harbhajan responded, he turned to Ponting who in turn reported to umpires of Harbhajan’s racially insulting comment. This was unacceptable to any cricket lover, because everyone knows how much Australians sledge their opponents and ‘mentally disintegrate’ them – in Steve Waugh’s words. Their reaction to Bhajji’s comment only shows how mentally fragile they themselves are and their sportsmanship.

And on day 5, when India started batting to turn the match into a draw (India had all the chance in the world to even win the match had the umpires not given some real bad decisions over the first 4 days of the match), things started getting worse. Before the series began, Ricky Punter Ponting had made a deal with the Indian captain Kumble that whenever there was a doubt whether a catch was cleanly taken by a fielder, both captains should agree to go by the fielder’s word. He had done a ‘magnanimous’ act on day 2 of the match when he had claimed he had not collected clean an edge given by Dravid. But on day 5, when it was so crucial for India to stay on, he and his teammates made a mockery of the spirit of cricket by claiming catches some of which were clearly grounded. The umpires who had ultimate respect for the Australian sporting spirit fell into the great Australian psychological trap and judged the Indian batsmen out (2 crucial wickets of Dravid and Ganguly fell that way) and India was already cheated by the hosts. The fact that Clarke the person who cheated the most took 3 wickets in the penultimate over to finish off the match in Australian favour only rubbed salt in the wounds for Indians.

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/Aussies_are_true_masters_of_appeal_management/articleshow/2684508.cms

The post match euphoria started after the Indian catain Kumble stated in the press conference that ‘Only one team played in the spirit of the game’. The calm and composed but yet unyielding manner in which he responded touched the hearts of many a cricket fan. The fact that there was more reaction amongst the Australian cricket fraternity and fans than expected only shows the evidence.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4349193a6488.html
http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2008/jan/07roebuck.htm

If you thought it ended there, you are mistaken. The charge that was made against Bhajji was upheld by the match referee and he was banned for 3 matches post the match. There was no wonder the Indians felt cheated and BCCI responded in a really tough manner. I can’t help but appreciate BCCI’s stand during this entire drama. They have insisted on backing Harbhajan and are willing to pull the team out of the tour if the charges against him are not withdrawn. They even managed to get umpire Bucknor removed from the next test match (Although some will argue this was not correct, I as a cricket fan see nothing wrong in the decision taken by the ICC in the interests of the game). While Ponting behaved in a rather immature way by shouting furiously at an Indian reporter who questioned Ponting’s integrity in appealing for a catch that was grounded, the Indian captain Anil Kumble won the hearts by keeping his calm and compose and by giving it back to the Australians with utter dignity. He clealry stated to the press how he felt cheated by his Australian counterpart where some claims by the fielders turned the match in their favour.

The match surely will be remembered for all the frenzy it has caused. I as a cricket fan was surely disappointed but am happy that the Indian captain conducted himself in utmost dignity.

Hi,

If an American finds the news of India winning a world cricket tournament interesting and sends a congratulation mail to his Indian colleagues, I am sure you should accept that Twenty20, the new format of cricket started with the same purpose, has been successful. I spoke to my American manager and he was all inquisitive about the kind of effect India-Pakistan matches have on the cricket fans. I am sure, I have sold the concept of cricket to him. All praise should go to ICC for introducing the format that binds people to the game.

Now coming to the match, I am a big believer in body language and other psychological factors that affect the result of a game, and since the toss, I could see that India, though nervous, had the belief that this was going to be their day. The way Dhoni spoke immediately after the toss showed that even ‘captain courageous’ could get nervous, but something in his voice conveyed that they were going to pull it through. Shoaib Malik tried to put on a casual tone dismissing any pressure India-Pakistan match can have on his team, but the tension that he had beneath the surface was evident.

India did not have the best of the starts, but Indian batsmen have matured in the way they are handling innings. They are no longer giving any importance to reputations and are believing in the age old wisdom of building partnerships. The partnership between Yuvraj and Gambhir was actually a good one. Though Yuvraj did not fire, Gambhir kept going and made sure that India had a good platform for a decent score. Rohit Sharma utilised this platform to push the scoreboard just beyond a respectable score. While Gambhir controlled his risky shots, Rohit Sharma impressed everyone with his cool head.

With the runs on the board, Dhoni’s men always believed they had a chance and applied pressure the way they had done in the previous matches. After Azharuddin, I feel Dhoni is the only captain who has succeeded in pressurizing the opponent teams. I am not saying anything against Saurav or Dravid – they both were excellent captains, but their captaincy styles were different. Saurav and Dravid lead their teams by setting an example whereas Dhoni’s style is that of bringing the best out of his mates and making the right tactical moves to put pressure on the opponent team.

Anyways, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan took crucial wickets for India and the match was almost over before Misbah showed some real guts. Again it was Irfan and RP that pulled back the game with 2 important wickets. Dhoni’s decision to give the ball to Joginder Sharma in the final over can be debated till the end of this milennium but the only thing the decision shows is ‘Dhoni knows tactics’. It definitely was a surprise for Misbah and he was tempted to go for an uncoventional shot and failed miserably.

The post match euphoria was evident the most in Harbhajan Singh’s actions. The way he was shouting and the way he was jumping and dancing just showed how much the victory meant to India. The last catch taken by Sreesanth set the nation on fire. Deepthi and I could not believe it for a second, particularly after witnessing Misbah’s batting, and we both were jumping for the next 5 minutes. The tournament has costed me a lot of mobile bill, as I was constantly on phone with my Dad and Vivek Chauhan discussing every wicket, every sixer. Never in my life have I enjoyed a cricket tournament this much. Hope to see more of such tournaments and more wins for India. Chak De…

Hi,

I liked Sunil Gavasakar’s song at the end of the Thursday match between India and South Africa – ‘Chak De, Chak De India! Choke De Choke De South Africa!’

So very true. India batted like men and bowled superbly (except for the umpteen wides given away) and fielded like lions and made sure there was no chance they could not qualify. South Africa never ever believed they could even qualify to the semis (let alone winning against India).

The comment made by Dhoni, “The team believed that they can beat SA even on a pitch as tough as the Kingsmead’s and the belief got them through” and the comment made by Shastri, “SA have always looked at the figure 126 rather than the figure 154 and believed that there was a possibility of them getting knocked out. That belief did them in” sum up the mood in the two camps.

I also liked the comment made by Graeme Smith, “We seem to be inventing ways to get ourselves knocked out of World Cup tournaments”. I actually felt sympathetic towards the SA camp when they started panicking to qualify for the semi finals. But at the end of it, there is just one statement you can make. THEY DID NOT DESERVE A SEMI FINAL BERTH.

I had watched all the world cup exits of SA:
1. 1992 – Only their 1999 exit was as tragic as the 1992 one. In the semi final encounter against England, their target was revised from 22 runs to win in 13 balls to 22 runs to win in 1 ball – by a stupid rain rule.
2. 1996 – SA having won all their league matches was on a song only to face wounded Windies in the quarter finals. West Indies, having suffered a humiliating loss in the hands of the Kenyans, gave it all they had to defeat the South Africans. Lara’s 111 in the match was a world class innings.
3. 1999 – The tragic exit where SA almost scraped it through with Klusener in deadly form. His 2 boundaries off the first 2 balls of the last over just rocketed past the fielders who stood helpless and then Aussies tightened the field to get Donald run out and a first ever tie in a semi final match in the World Cup took Aussies through because they were rated better than SA in the Super Six stage.
4. 2003 – None was as stupid as the 2003 exit where they mis-read the Duckworth Lewis system and ended up with a tie (which knocked them out). Boucher playing a defensive shot off the last ball will make him grimace at himself every morning when he wakes up from sleep.

True that the players’ psyche gets affected due to such losses. But the fact remains – If they can’t play under pressure they can’t win the world cup.