Ramanisblog

Category: cricket

  • Dhoni’s dazzling century saves India the blushes-Don’t count on it at all times.

    India right now is riding only on Batting.Even this needs to be tested on bouncy pitches against genuine fast bowlers. Fielding at best is very average.Excepting Suresh Raina,MSD,Gambir and Virat Kohli others seem to be leaden footed. Hitting at the stumps is below par. They average about 3-4 per innings.This area needs to be improved.Less said about catches, the better. Bowling is a cause for worry.Zaheer , despite commentators praising his skills, his ststs. interms of wickets is pathetic.Harbhajan is not consistent, but among the lot he is better.Jadeja is learning.Nehra is a lottery.When you think he is bowling well, he will send no balls, gift runs to the batsmen by pitching short, bowling at a juicy height out side the off stump to the batters.SreeSanth he still does not know when he will bowl well notwithstanding his recent 5 wicket haul. Bowling at the death is very costly. Silver lining is MSD’s Captaincy. In short India is yet to be tested.
    It almost seemed the ghost of 2007 World Cup returning to haunt India at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium. But a defiant 152-run alliance between MS Dhoni (101*) and Virat Kohli (91) saved India from another heart-break and saw them home with six wickets and 15 balls to spare.

    MS Dhoni’s undefeated 101 lifted India from troubled waters and saw them home by six wickets. © AFP
    Dhoni stood like the Rock of Gibraltar between India and defeat. In his characteristic manner – effective if not artistic – he got into the act of nudging the ball and sprinting between the 22 yards. The captain salvaged Team India’s rocking boat with an inspiring century.

    He anchored the Indian innings with an undefeated 101 off 107 balls. He yet again exhibited his indefatigable stamina to take India through the 297-run target from a precarious 51 for three. For his match-winning knock, which comprised nine searing hits to the fence, Dhoni was declared the man of the match.

    Virat, on the other hand, impressively rose to the occasion and showed terrific temperament during his 102-ball innings. He moulded his innings with a potter’s care, keeping his natural aggression in check, yet scoring at a decent pace. The toil between the wickets had him cramping and he sought the assistance of a runner. Perhaps, his sapping energy got the better of him and he gave a simple return catch to Shakib Al Hasan. Virat fell for 91, nine short of what could have been his second ODI hundred.

    After setting a target of 297, left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak started the proceedings for Bangladesh with pacer Syed Rasel. Though not with his delivery, he still provided the breakthrough with a brilliant direct-hit to send Virender Sehwag (13) packing.

    Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli moved on after the big-blow, punishing Razzak’s three wide full-tosses to the boundary. But India’s hopes of recovery were soon dashed by Rubel Hossain. Gambhir offered a loose shot to a full-length delivery pitched outside off and stood stunned as the ball rattled his stumps after taking an inside edge.

    Yuvraj Singh (1) walked in with the pressure of holding the Indian innings together but four deliveries later he took the long walk back to the pavilion. He was done in by a delivery from Rasel that came into him and took the bails off.

    Virat Kohli batted with superb temperament for his 91 runs and added a mammoth 152 with his captain. © AFP
    Skipper MS Dhoni had his job cut out and young Kohli once again found himself in a pressure cooker situation. Building a huge partnership was the need of the hour for India and the Kohli-Dhoni duo went about the task with caution and care.

    Runs came in a trickle as the resurgent Bangladeshi bowlers turned the screws on the batsmen. Pressure as well as the required run-rate mounted on with every dot-ball played. But Dhoni and Virat lost neither hope nor patience. They worked their way to revive India’s innings, putting up a stand of 152 runs.

    When Virat fell, Indian still needed 94 runs off 15 overs and the match hung very much in balance. Suresh Raina rose to the occasion and scored an impressive unbeaten 51 off just 43 deliveries to help India seal the match. His knock was punctuated with five boundaries and a six. He was involved in a wonderful 94-run partnership with Dhoni to take India home comfortably.

    Earlier, Bangladesh batsmen vindicated captain Shakib Al Hasan’s decision to bat first in great style by notching up a massive 296 for six. The foundation was laid by Tamim Iqbal, who stunned the Indians with his whirlwind 42-ball knock of 60 runs.

    Imrul Kayes played a perfect supporting role; the duo notched up 80 runs in 66 balls, bringing up Bangladesh’s highest opening stand against India. Kayes contributed with a solid knock of 70, notching yet another 50-plus run stand, with Mohammad Ashraful (29).

    After the Indians pulled back things in the middle overs, Mohammad Mahmudullah came up with another breezy 60-run knock to take Bangladesh close to the 300-run mark. He made optimum use of the batting powerplay to clobber the Indian bowlers for eight boundaries during his 45-ball innings.

    Yuvraj’s miserly spell of one for 33 in 10 overs was in stark contrast to the generosity of most of his colleagues, who not only gave runs but also bowled 3.3 extra overs by way of wides and no-balls.
    http://www.cricketnirvana.com/news/international/2010/January/news-20100107-77.html?

  • Sehwag ‘cricketer of the decade’

    Sehwag has defined batting as an Art and Science;art in his grace despite being brutal,science with out appearing to be deliberate.More important he enjoys hitting the ball not bothering about his scores as he has stated’ball is there to be hit’.
    Comparison with Tendulkar is not correct.Both belong to different classes as Richards and Gavaskar.
    NEW DELHI: Even as fans in the city gear up to watch Virender Sehwag in action on home ground on Sunday, international accolades keep pouring in

    Day in Pics: December 26
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    for the modern-day great. Days after noted columnist Peter Roebuck featured him in his star XI of the year, calling him “a great batsman” , “impudent but rarely imprudent” and “among the most devastating openers the game has ever known”, Britain’s Daily Telegraph, known for its sports coverage, has anointed him the ‘cricketer of the decade’.

    Former England player Derek Pringle, while justifying the decision, has written: “Dashing openers have always been with us… but nobody has managed to do it with the audacity and frequency of Sehwag. Two triple and four double hundreds in a 72-Test career is a weighty achievement for one who bats as if needing to catch the last plane out of Kabul.”

    Pringle goes on to add: “To many, the choice will appear controversial. Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, have all excelled over the past 10 years. They all announced their brilliance in the 90s, so were discounted.”

    Describing Sehwag’s breathtaking shot-making, Pringle says: “There is a high-risk element to his shot-making… and yet there is an appetite for runs at odds with the thrill-seeker in him that chases boundaries. When he first appeared, bowlers consoled themselves that while humiliation was likely, it would be brief. They cannot bank on that now as age and experience have sharpened his judgment to the point that a hundred no longer sates him.

    “Like many of the great ball strikers, he scarcely moves his feet when he bats, relying on the kind of hand-eye coordination that raptors would be proud of. For bowlers… Sehwag is the bogeyman who brings nightmares.”

    Comparing him to another Indian great, Tendulkar, Pringle concludes that “Sehwag has been, by far, the more enriching. He should be better known than he is, even in India, but for the monopoly of Tendulkar”.

    Pringle makes it clear in his article that he has not gone purely by statistics to find his player of the decade. “Statisticians and the government policy-makers trust figures, wise men, facts, but I’m going to apply another measure: that of redefining the role they play, something Virender Sehwag has done for opening the batting in Test matches,” he writes.

    Another interesting bit is the former England medium-pacer’s description of Sehwag’s personality and how he makes the bowlers fear him. “Not much taller than Tendulkar’s 5ft 5in, Sehwag, now 31, is nondescript, a short, balding roly-poly man, who could be running a Delhi shoe shop. It is only when he swings his bat and the ball rockets past cover to the boundary that his aura is transformed into a Viv Richards-like menace and bowlers begin to tremble.”
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/top-stories/Sehwag-cricketer-of-the-decade/articleshow/5382800.cms

  • 2009 Cricket Awards.Guardian,UK.


    Batsman of the year: In 40 international matches this year, he scored
    2,539 runs, over 150 more than anyone else. In 12 months he has
    scored four centuries against India, two against Bangladesh, two more
    against Pakistan, and one apiece off New Zealand and South Africa. He
    also had a 96* against West Indies. He has been prolific in Twenty20,
    Test matches and fifty over cricket, and even coined his own shot.
    Tillakaratne Dilshan has been all but unstoppable, and as well as
    being the year’s best batsman, must also be the game’s most improved
    player.

    Bowler of the year: Was there one? Top of the Test match tables is
    Mitchell Johnson, who has taken 57 wickets at 28.8 each so far.
    Worryingly, only one of the top twenty wicket-takers in Test matches
    managed to taken them at average of under 25 each, and that was Nuwan
    Kulasekara, who took exactly 20, enough only to place him 20th on the
    list. The biggest single problem facing cricket is the imbalance
    between bat and ball, a bias brought about through bigger bats,
    flatter pitches and the seeming impossibility of staying fit as a
    fast bowler in the modern game. Looking back on the year, I just
    don’t feel that I have seen enough great quick bowling, and with
    Muttiah Muralitharan on the wane, there is no shoo-in contender for
    this prize any more. In the absence of any outstanding candidate, I’d
    plump for Swann, who bowled more deliveries in Test cricket than
    anyone except Johnson, and took 64 wickets at 29 each in all forms of
    the game. Not bad for a man who, two years ago, was seen by many, The
    Spin included, as just another county journeyman.

    XI of the year, picked for performances in all
    formats of the game and with a strong degree of personal prejudice:
    TM Dilshan, V Sehwag, MJ Clarke, AB de Villiers, AJ Strauss, MS
    Dhoni, SR Watson, DL Vettori, GP Swann, MJ Johnson, DW Steyn.

    Match of the year: Ideally, the game should be watched from a seat at
    the ground. Failing that, a sofa in front of the television will do.
    But my favourite day’s play of this year though was followed over the
    radio. There is something especially magical about Test Match
    Special. It seems to make a tense game seem tighter still. On the
    fifth day at Cardiff, as Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar were
    playing out those fraught final 40 minutes, I was in the pub, sat
    around a small personal radio plugged into a tinny pair of portable
    speakers, listening, along with a group of complete strangers, to Jon
    Agnew’s crackling description of the denouement. It was one of those
    moments when the country seems to stop. Walking the dog, washing the
    car, cooking the roast, all that could wait. The only thing anyone
    was interested in, whether they loved cricket or not, was whether
    England could bat out the match.

    Shot of the year: Something about playing Australia seems to bring out
    the best in Chris Gayle. Maligned and mocked through early part of
    the English season after his offhand comments about the future of
    Test cricket, Gayle set the World Twenty20 alight with his innings of
    88 from 50 balls against Australia at the Oval. All Englishmen love
    seeing Australia lose, especially in an Ashes summer, and to see them
    humiliated is a greater pleasure still. Brett Lee followed a bouncer,
    which Gayle had hit out of the ground for six, with a cunning slower
    ball. Gayle moved his front foot aside and hit through the line over
    long-on, sending the ball high into the air. If this shot was heard
    around the world, it was only because of the almighty clatter it made
    when it landed. Sky measured it at 105m. “It’s the first time I’ve
    hit it so far,” Gayle reckoned afterwards.

    Blunder of the year: On the morning of 20 August, Australia decided to
    leave Nathan Hauritz out of their team for the fifth Test, on a pitch
    which, as every fool knew, was always going to spin. Graeme Swann
    took eight wickets in the match, Australia had to cobble together 52
    overs from their three part-timers. “In hindsight, a specialist
    spinner would have been pretty handy out there,” reflected Ricky
    Ponting afterwards. Well duh. This is an especially strong field and
    special mention should also go to John Dyson, for his unique
    interpretation of the Duckworth-Lewis method, and Kevin Pietersen,
    for the premeditated sweep against Hauritz that got him out in the
    first innings of the Ashes.

    QUOTE OF THE WEEK

    “I’d love to, but I can’t” – Chris Gayle responds to a request from a
    comely young female photographer that he sit with his knees together
    while she took the team’s picture. As Peter Lalor joked in The
    Australian, she’s still blushing now.

    -guardian.uk.

  • Tribute to Sunny Gavaskar by CNN.

    Sunil Gavaskar: Cricket (India)

    Gavaskar batted in an era when the dangerous West Indian pace quartet was at peak ferocity. He didn’t wear the protective helmets of today, he didn’t have modern day umpires ruling a no ball for more than one bouncer per over. His opening partners changed dozens of times throughout his career, but the captain always held up his end. He was the first man to cross the unthinkable milestone of 10,000 runs in test cricket and surpassed Sir Don’s record for test centuries. He did it all seemingly without breaking a sweat and smiling, always, all the way to the commentary booth where he now sits. Sachin Tendulkar, by his own admission, grew up idolizing Gavaskar, and would undoubtedly rate him higher than himself.

    http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/none/asias-greatest-sports-heroes-437912?pks=ggl%20SunilGavaskar

  • Sachin- Man among men.

    Genius and a humble human being without pretenses.
    Story.

    “Nothing bad can happen to us if we’re on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it.”
    – Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight.

    “Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job.”
    – Yaseer Hameed in pakistani newspaper.

    “To Sachin, the man we all want to be”
    – Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin.

    “Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives.”
    – BBC on Sachin

    “Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?”
    – Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin’s catch in 2003 WC.

    Sachin is a genius. I’m a mere mortal.
    – Brian Charles Lara

    “We did not lose to a team called India…we lost to a man called Sachin.”
    – Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

    “The more I see of him the more confused I’m getting to which is his best knock.”
    – M. L. Jaisimha

    “The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility – all make for a one-in-a-billion individual,”
    – Glen McGrath

    “I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play,”
    – Anjali Tendulkar

    Question: Who do you think as most important celebrity ?
    Shah Rukh Khan: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan. Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!
    – Shah Rukh Khan in an interview.

    “India me aap PrimeMinister ko ek Baar Katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin Tendulkar par Ungli nahi utha Sakte.. “
    – Navjot Singh Sidhu on TV

    He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.
    – Waqar Younis

    Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world. I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.
    – Allan Donald

    On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!!
    – Peter Rebouck – Aussie journalist

    “Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It’s clear discrimination. ”
    – NKP Salve, former Union Minister when Sachin was accused of ball tempering

    There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.
    – Andy Flower

    “I have seen god, he bats at no.4 for India”
    – Mathew Hayden

    “Commit all your sins when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed coz even the GOD is watching”
    – A hoarding in England

    NOW THIS ONE IS PROBABLY THE BEST AND MOST CUTEST OF THE LOT

    “Even my father’s name is Sachin Tendulkar.”
    – Tendulkar’s daughter, Sara, tells her class her father’s name after the teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai.