All hail Ajantha Mendis

The Asia Cup final is going on right now and Mendis has turned the game on its head. India were coasting at 76/1 after 9 overs. Now, it is 98/5 from 16. Currently, Mendis’ figures read 4-0-8-4. That’s 4 overs, 8 runs, 4 wickets. I’d heard a lot about this 23-year-old gem that Sri Lanka discovered, and finally I got to see him in action today. It seems it was also the first time for the Indian batsmen. Frankly, I’m quite disappointed the way they handled him (it seems they hadn’t done their research on him), but this post is not about India. It’s about Mendis. And what he can do for cricket.

Cricket will be that much more interesting because of him. I can’t wait to see Tendulkar play Mendis. India has some of the finest players of spin (Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman), and Mendis playing a Test against them is a mouth-watering aspect. Or even the Aussies. I am anxiously looking forward to these contests. They should be thrilling. Looking at the cricket schedule, India is touring Sri Lanka at the end of this month. What good timing. What might have been a drab series, at least to me, now has become very interesting. Let’s hope Tendulkar is fit and back in the Indian team by that time.

For those that haven’t seen Mendis, here’s a short video of the buzz he created when he first joined the Sri Lankan national team to play against the West Indies.

Verdict on Bracken

Bracken was hugely lauded for his performance in the CB series and even given the Player of the Series award. He took the most number of wickets, 21, at a miserly average of 16.52. But nobody seems to have noticed that he played exceedingly well against Sri Lanka, but not India. Here’s a breakdown of his stats.

Against Sri Lanka : Conceded 110 runs for 13 wickets at an average of 8.5 in 4 games
Against India : Conceded 237 runs for 8 wickets at an average of nearly 30 in 6 games

Sydneygate

So, a whole lot has been said/written about the Sydney Test. Enough that it made me come out of retirement to provide a clear, concise picture of it all.

The long and short of it is this: downright incompetent and one-sided umpiring. It’s not the Australians’ fault. They did not play out of the spirit of the game, and Kumble was wrong to say that (is he not always appealing for ridiculous wickets?). There were tons of other events that led to the emotional outpouring, but the only thing wrong with this game was the poor umpiring. If all the decisions had gone in India’s favour, they would have enjoyed it as much as the Aussies did. What do you think is going to happen in the next Test when Tendulkar nicks one, is given not out and stands his ground? Players don’t walk, claim catches they haven’t taken, and so on. It’s not new. It has happened before and will happen again. That’s not what was wrong with this Test.

All this talk about India discontinuing the tour, Aussies being ugly (as much as I hate their guts), or not playing in the right spirit, or bringing a charge against Hogg for using the term “bastard” is nonsense, and it would behoove all parties to not conduct, participate or pay attention to such frivolous and time-wasting matters.

Bad umpiring by itself is not that big a problem either, assuming both sides benefit from it. But this was by far one-sided, suspiciously so. And that’s what drove the Indians’ over the bend (along with the fact that the umpiring changed the complexion of a very crucial game in which they had somehow gotten on top even though they had lost Zaheer Khan). I have compiled a list of all the bad decisions (roughly in the order of gravity):

1. Symonds’ caught behind given not out by Bucknor
2. Dravid given caught behind by Bucknor on the last day when the ball clearly hit the pad
3. Bucknor did not refer Symonds’ close stumping to the 3rd umpire (not whether he was out or not, but that one needed to be referred)
4. Benson asked Ponting if Clarke caught Ganguly cleanly (rules say he has to ask leg umpire and if both are not sure, ask the 3rd umpire or give batsman the benefit of the doubt)
5. Benson gave Ponting out LBW when on 55 in the first innings (which negated the decision below)
6. Benson gave Ponting not out when on 17 in the first innings when he was caught behind (a very thin edge)
7. Bucknor failed to spot the no ball with which Brett Lee bowled Jaffer in the first innings
8. 3rd umpire failed to give Symonds out stumped even though his foot was in the air (and all 3 Australian commentators at the time agreed that it was out)

I have not included any LBW decisions because they’re usually in a gray area. I did read somewhere about a nick from Hussey (I think Peter Roebuck mentioned it), but I did not see it personally, so I don’t know what that was about. But the two wrong decisions at the top of the list above were enough to turn the game on its head. The first seized the initiative from India and the second handed it to Australia.

Bucknor has been ruling too much against India over the years for it to be entirely coincidental. I want to believe that he’s unbiased, but a lot of evidence to the contrary has piled up. I can’t recall when he’s made a huge blunder in India’s favor, but I can rattle off a number of absolute stinkers that have hurt India badly in important games. I don’t know what his motivation could be — perhaps he got poor decisions in India in his playing days. Or maybe I am wrong and he’s not really biased. Whatever the case, the Indians should raise an issue, furnish the evidence of his poor decisions against India for the past few years, ensure he never officiates in any of India’s games (or is fired permanently) and move on.

The other thing to do is, obviously, to bring in the appeals/challege system so such injustice cannot be done again to anybody. Downright wrong decisions will be avoided and just that will be a huge improvement. It’s time to usher cricket into the 21st century, and the sooner ICC does it the better. I have no respect for Malcolm Speed, but hopefully he’ll do one thing right while in office. Everybody talks about the appeal system after such poor games and call it the right time to bring in that system. The right time is before such games. I wrote about it a long time ago. Wake up, ICC.

As for the racism charges against Harbhajan. It’s difficult to say since we don’t know what exactly was said. Personally, I don’t think “monkey” is a racist term, but maybe in this case it was, and if that was Harbhajan’s intention he should be penalized. I do, however, think that the penalty given (3 Test ban) was particularly harsh, espeically given that there doesn’t seem to be enough proof to suggest a racist intention. Greg Baum argues the case well here. It’s important to note that, from the tv shots, Harbhajan seemed to immediately apologize. That makes me think he did use the “monkey” term, although the motive might not have been racist (aren’t both of them brown-colored? how can it be a skin color issue then?). Also, Darren Lehmann once called Murali a “black cunt” which is clearly more racist, and he got off with a 5-ODI ban, didn’t he? I am sure Harbhajan and the rest of the Indian team would prefer a 5-ODI ban to a 3-Test ban.

I would like to end by presenting my arguments against certain cases I have seen mentioned in a few places.

1) Didn’t visiting teams to India always get bad umpiring decisions back in the 70s and 80s?
I don’t know about back then, but if so, yes, that would be wrong. That, however, doesn’t mean it’s okay for it to happen now for teams visiting Australia. By this argument, you could say that it is okay for Indians to call racial slurs to other Caucasian teams because it was the other way around back in the day.

India was robbed in this Test. What has happened, has happened and can’t be changed. Australia has retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Let’s look forward to the series later in the year when Australia will visit India.

Baseball in Manipur

Continuing the theme of the last two posts…

Link to video

Tendulkar & Dravid

Excerpt from Rahul Bhattacharya’s Pundits from Pakistan (describing a game during India’s historic tour of Pakistan in 2003-04):

In Dravid, he found a sharp, hard-running ally, and who played a cracking reverse sweep which may have plucked a string of nostalgia in Tendulkar’s heart. Tendulkar used to play it just like that half a decade ago, and then he gave it up. Half a decade ago, Dravid would have scolded himself and performed twenty push-ups if he had attempted that stroke even in a dream.

The greatest bowler of all time?

Were it not for umpires’ tendency to not give batsmen out LBW when they take a stride forward, Kumble could very well have the most tally of wickets in cricket at this point. I’ve noticed this a lot. Kumble gets batsmen out LBW a lot, but only a small fraction of those are given (mostly because the batsman takes a step forward). Kumble’s habits don’t help him much either: he appeals just as vociferously for balls pitching outside leg or clearly missing the stumps, which is just plain ridiculous. Kumble doesn’t impart too much spin or bounce on the ball, so he’s hitting the stumps a lot. On all kinds of pitches, against all kinds of batsmen. While watching on TV, I can tell that; and Hawkeye usually confirms that. So, he has so many valid LBW shouts that aren’t even entertained by the umpires.

Technological assistance will help him, whenever it gets here. Hawkeye’s not going to be offiicial anytime soon, so Kumble might never have the benefit of that technology. But just being able to re-appeal against the on-field umpire’s decisions should help.

Sehwag or bust

When chasing 350+ totals on the last day, India’s attitude is summed up by the title of this post. If Sehwag plays really well and manages to take India very close to the total, then they’ll have a go at the target. Otherwise, not really. As well all know, that has never happened for Sehwag’s record in the second innings is quite ordinary: an average in the mid-20s and no centuries.

But what if Sehwag does just well enough? India scored at four and a half runs per over in the first session on the last day of the 3rd Test against the WI without losing a wicket. Isn’t that a good enough start to be a little positive in the second session? Yes, they lost two wickets, but that’s no reason to throw in the towel. And what’s with tea being the magical point where they decide whether or not to have a go at the target? When you’re only two down with twenty minutes to go to tea, isn’t it obvious to have a go at the target? Why then play out 5 overs for very few runs at that point?

India’s had a few opportunities to chase 350+ totals in the last 15 months. They’ve made good starts in all. Against Pakistan in Bangalore, they were 103/1 at lunch chasing 383; against England in Nagpur they were 63/1 chasing 368; and against West Indies in St. Kitts they were 109/0 chasing 392. Yet they’ve failed to chase any of them. The good thing is that they didn’t repeat the mistake they had made against Pakistan: shutting down shop completely after losing two quick wickets post-lunch and thus allowing Pakistan to go on all-out attack. Lara wanted to do the same, and tried if after Sehwag was out, but India kept the scorecard ticking and he had to start worrying about saving runs.

But what bothers me is that India had a realistic chance of chasing down the targets in the other two games and they just didn’t react quick enough. They were far too negative early on, and ended up requiring more than 200 runs in the last session. Sehwag is not the only one who can get them to that target. I think that if Sehwag gives us a decent enough start, we need to drop Dravid to no. 5 in the batting order. That way, we can keep the run-rate going and if a few wickets fall, then we have the best defense in the world to see us through to the end of the day.

Deserve it

At the end of day 4, the West Indians have a slight upper-hand in this game. Disregarding Jerling’s incompetence and without going into the previous games, it’s clear to me that the Windians don’t deserve to win. They somehow conjured a 219-run lead, and then failed to enforce the follow-on. Memories of India’s Sydney Test in 2003-04 abound. Then, Ganguly’s singular defensive decision had laid to waste a golden opportunity. If you want to beat a better side, you need the conviction to go with it. You need to be courageous and not be afraid to attack. If you don’t have the heart for it, you don’t deserve to win.

Apart from that, enforcing the follow-on in such a situation is just a better decision from all perspectives. Consider what could’ve happened had the West Indies enforced the follow-on today.

• They bowl India out before the end of the second session on the 5th day. In that case, a lead of 219 would’ve been more than enough. Considering the Indians would’ve been staving off defeat for most of the innings, their run-rate wouldn’t have been very good. The West Indians wouldn’t have been required to bat again, or if they were, they would’ve likely needed less than 80 runs. Even on a wearing 5th day pitch, they would back themselves to score 80 runs in three hours (the worst case scenario). The result: West Indies win.
• India bats through the 5th day. The West Indians couldn’t get them all out. Fine. They’re not going to be able to do in two and a half sessions tomorrow what they wouldn’t have been able to do in four sessions anyway. The result: draw.
• West Indians bowl India out in the last session of the day, and now require a 100 runs from 15 overs or so. The Windians would’ve had a realistic chance of chasing that, but even if they lost a few quick wickets, they know they can play out the remaining overs. The result: draw or West Indian win.

Enforcing the follow-on virtually ensures that the West Indians wouldn’t lose, while significantly enhancing their possibility of a win. Consider their current predicament now. They lead by 332 runs today with 6 wickets in hand. What is the minimum number of runs required to ensure West Indies don’t lose? Nobody knows, for you can’t entirely discount the possibility of a Sehwag special or a late Dhoni blitz. With every over that the West Indies bat, the chances of India not losing keep going up. If they declare too early, India will have a small chance of winning, as opposed to no chance of winning had they enforced the follow-on.

I can imagine those who disagree with me making two counter-arguments:

1) Making India feel that they can get to the target would increase the odds of West Indians getting them all out quickly.
Not really. The assumption here is that the Indians will play more aggressively (and thus provide more chances) then they would’ve had the follow-on been enforced..

• Playing too defensively (especially for the natural aggressors) can have a similar effect. Plus, as soon as India loses a wicket, they’re going to go in the defensive mode anyway.
• Also, consider the reality of the situation. Sehwag’s going to play his natural game no matter what, and anybody who saw India’s recent Tests against England will know what their approach is going to be. They will be circumspect early on, and if they still have enough wickets in hand towards the end, they might have a go at the target.
• Even if this assumption were true, the West Indians then could’ve employed extremely attacking fields which would have increased their chance of getting wickets. Remember the 3rd Test against Pakistan in India last year? India completely shut-down shop, Pakistan attacked by having 6 men close in, and ended up winning the game with about 6 overs to spare (if I remember correctly).
• And let’s not forget that this scenario violates the one pre-condition that has been set up by Brian Lara: West Indies cannot lose. So, are they going to give India a “realistic” chance at the target? No. Even if they do, is India going to fall for the trap? No.

2) Batting again gives the tired bowlers a chance to rest.
This is where the bit about having a heart for it comes into play. If the West Indies can have Bradshaw bowl 23 overs on the trot in a game they had little hope of winning, surely they can conjure the energy to bowl again here. Plus, with Gayle and Samuels in the team, they can give their main bowlers a rest when needed. Also, if the bowlers were effective early on and did take a few wickets, they would need no encouragement: they would all be eager to run in and finish the job off. The situation itself would’ve been the motivating factor.

3) They have a better chance of bowling India out on a wearing, 5th-day pitch.
Let’s not even consider the fact that the West Indies have no specialist spinner. But surely they realize that they’ll get the use of the pitch for most of the 5th day anyway. The pitch is not going to be that different between the second and third sessions on the last day.

I rest my case here.

QED

Cricket at the Taj

From Flickr.

Looking forward

The second Test is done and dusted, and while we dominated them both, we failed to win either (although luck played a huge part in that). Here’s what we need to do moving forward:

• Drop VRV - Even if Sreesanth, Pathan and Patel all fall sick before the next Test. He’s dead-weight as far as I am concerned. I was suprised when he played in the first Test, let alone the second. And his batting makes McGrath seem like a top-order batsman. Personally, I’m not impressed with Sreesanth either and can’t understand what all the hoopla surrounding him is. At best, he seems mediocre. Munaf Patel on the other hand clearly has a lot of potential and will probably be a permanent member of the Indian pace attack for the next decade. The same can’t be said about Sreesanth. And don’t even get me started on Powar. That means we need to get some bowling back-up. Agarkar, Nehra and Balaji are worth another chance.
• Develop Sehwag’s bowling - Sehwag is certainly an under-rated bowler. A lack of control and variation holds him back, although his accuracy is acceptable. Bowling huge, ripping, off-spinners is not enough. Under-spin, top-spin, doosra and varied pace can turn him into a full-time bowler. Imagine that.
• Five bowler strategy - I’m a huge advocate of having five bowlers, especially when we usually have a couple that come cropper. Eventually, Sehwag could be that fifth bowler, but until then, we need to have enough firepower out to go that last mile and finish off the opposition. That’s another reason to get some back up pacemen. Inability to bowl out a half-decent batting line-up on the last day of a Test match doesn’t bode well for us. Plus, we seem to be doing alright in the batting department at the moment as it is.