When World No.1 And World No.2 Battled

He surly is the destiny’s child, impossible actually is nothing for him, that’s why with each passing match he is taking team India to new heights. With the kind of success he has achieved, the man with Midas touch is surly going to be considered as one of the greatest leader India has ever got. The man in talking is once again the caption of team India –Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

When a team scores 359 runs they are considered to be winner by themselves and everyone, because chances of chasing such a huge target in ODI’s are generally theoretical , with lots of  if’s . But this Indian team believes in making things happen. I always wonder what  Mahendra Singh Dhoni actually says to his team members that they always perform for him  and for the first time I had heard from the man himself."I just told them in the innings break that we have done this in past when we had made  414 runs and Sri Lanka had made some 412-413 runs  .Just go their and don’t look at the scoreboard and try to play the shots in right shape”. Easily said than done !! But these things count when a team actually achieve it.

16 October 2013 was a historic day in world cricket when world no.1 and world no.2 team battled to produce a historic event for the ODI history. Australia scored 359/5 thanks to the awful  bowling performance by Indians and in reply India scored 362/1 thanks to the awe-inspiring batting performance of Indians. India chased down the target in 43.3 overs which turned out to be the second highest chase in the history of game and could have been the highest ever, had Australia scored 435. Only on very few occasions such scores had been chased by any team and unfortunately Australia was always at the receiving end in the top four ones.

It was raining fours and sixes at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur last night. If score was rare then their has to be some rare feast achieved by the teams and players. This match was not an exception  ,their was a fastest hundred scored by any Indian involved in it along with the 176 runs opening partnership against Australia by India. Top five Australian batsmen scored 50 and equaled the previous record on the pitch which surly proved to be a graveyard for bowlers with only 6 wicket fell in the match and 721 runs were scored. These achievement of last night surly proves that history is yet to be written and records are made to be broken.  

Cricket Would Be Soon Godless

The 5 wise men who first selected him in 1989:

RS Dungarpur, Akash Lal, Ramesh Saxena, GR Viswanath & Naren Tamhane

He made his Test debut in Karachi in November 1989 when he was just 16 years 205 days old.

From past 24 years this line is being repeated so many times to introduce the maestro ,that the first name which strikes to any cricket follower mind  is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

In my last post I talked about the speculation and today came the news –Sachin Tendulkar to retire after 200^th test.Yes, You got to believe this. Cricket would soon be a Godless sport.15 Nov 1989 to 18 Nov 2013 ,On the 8771th day, God will hang his shoes .

Here is a recap of what virtuoso has left for us in the purest form of cricket-

He has had the 5th-longest Test career ever in terms of time & played on 59 different Test grounds – more than anyone else.

Has had played 200 tests and scored over 15800 runs .

He has played with 108 different team mates and played against 485 different players in Test cricket .

He has played 146 Tests with Rahul Dravid, 122 with Anil Kumble, 120 with VVS Laxman and 103 with Sourav Ganguly.

47 of his Tests were under the captaincy of Mohammad Azharuddin - more than any other captain.

He has never batted at number 3 in his Test career.

He has batted with 65 different players and has top-scored on 78 occasions – more than any other Test player.

He has only been stumped once – at Bengaluru in 2001 by James Foster off Ashley Giles.

He played 84 successive Tests from 15 November 1989 to 15 June 2001.

He has had the 5th-longest Test career ever in terms of time & played on 59 different Test grounds – more than anyone else.

You were a great habit ,in fact an addiction .Not seeing you playing in the future sounds scary.We all will live every moment of these last two games

Sachin Tendulkar Era

"That flick would be missed; the delicately placed shot off the pads, the trademark straight-drive with the manufacturer’s logo so visible; the punch to cover; it will all be missed. That innings in a one-day international which always used to be more like a highlights package would be missed maestro .Thanks a lot for so many proud moments, it was an honor watching you batting .The ODI cricket will miss its most fastidious student Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar .”

Words really fell short for me to express what the news of Sachin’s retirement from ODI meant to a true cricket fan like me. We all knew that this is going to happen but the way Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement didn’t give anyone chance to even live and cherish the memories of witnessing the greatest batsman ever in world cricket one last time. He got a chance to end his ODI career against the same  team from which he started but he  just choose to fed away.

As cricket is now being played in different formats a player has to announce his retirement from international cricket thrice viz. Test , ODI and T20.And from IPL , CLT20 post retirement from international cricket. But Sachin Tendulkar became the only player who has announced his retirement from IPL and CLT20 before getting retired from Test cricket.

 24 years in international cricket  and out of which 22 years he had spent without  being part of a world cup winning team. And now ICC World Cup, IPL, CLT20, Ranji Trophy all are currently held by Sachin Tendulkar's team!! May be it’s the accomplishments which are tempting him to take retirements or in his own words that youngsters are now ready to take the responsibilities, in the shorter formats of game atleast, which indirectly means they are still not prepared for tests! But we as a spectator are so much addicted to watch him that many had decided to take retirement from watching  ODI’s post his announcement and remaining  were watching  with the hope that Sachin will still play Test cricket, IPL and CLT20. But now with his retirement from IPL and CLT20 their only hope is test cricket.

More than his scores media’s focus  is now on counting the number of more matches he will play and how much older he is getting .With the speculations that Sachin can retire after West Indies series, I hope we will some how manage to keep watching live cricket by watching the sensational Sachin Tendulkar Era on internet for keeping our interest alive, all thanks to the technology.  

Decision Review System

Out if all the engineering fields Software is the least developed field .Thats why behind any major break down there is a software failure.

The recent controversy regarding Decision Review System are actually the consequences of this fact only. Those who are favoring DRS had actually shown their faith in technology to reduce the chances of getting wrong decisions through human error .While the reason the others are not supporting it including the richest board of Cricket BCCI is , they don’t want to increase more complications in the game until the technology used to correct the human error is hundred percent conclusive.

The concept of DRS was meant to assist the umpires ,that’s why we are having a limit of how many decisions can be reviewed by the players. However this logical concept has resulted in many controversies of wrong decisions , poor umpiring and players making mistakes in deciding when to take review and when not to. A few years back before the introduction of DRS , umpiring in Cricket had touched new heights and we had got best of the decision from best umpire award winners like Simon Taufel , Billy Bowden , Kumar Dharmasena .But there is alarming drop in the standard of umpiring also ,because of the pressure created by this Decision Review System.

The solution to this problem is that all decisions should solely remain in the hands of the umpires. If the umpires in the middle are not sure about an appeal, they can review it, and the third umpire will hopefully make the right decision . If the umpires in the middle make a wrong call , the third umpire can step in. The third umpires should be able to review it , and change the decision. This will make the players out of the decision making process and the game will continue to retain its fairness up to every ones satisfaction.    

Walking And Not Walking In Cricket

Sachin Tendulkar didn’t waited for umpires decision and choose to walk , the whole crowd has given him a standing ovation.

Sachin Tendulkar didn’t choose to walk  although he was out and waited for umpires decision.

Sachin Tendulkar has to walk  although he knew he was not out because umpire has given him out .

Stuart Broad didn’t choose to walk although he was out and waited for umpires decision and stayed their after being given not out .

Batsman don’t walk because no body does !!!

Cricket is a game which is being played with some strict set of rules .Umpire play a vital role in taking the on field decisions and hence their decision is considered to be final ,of course  before the introduction of DRS. As per the rule people walk because they can and have to walk when umpire raises the finger irrespective of what they think .While nodding your head in disgust or any exchange of words with umpire or any ungentle behavior when umpire has given you out led to have a disciplinary action against you  ,at the same time simply not obeying the umpires decision of  not out and choosing to walk comes under spirit of cricket .Now lets talk it from bowlers perspective while too much of appealing makes you eligible to be fined ,at the same time it is must to appeal to get a out decision. We have some rarest of rare cases in the history of cricket when fielding side decided to take away their appeal just to keep alive the spirit of cricket ,otherwise ,they just try their luck every time to make umpires point their fingers towards sky because that’s the rule .Yes, a fielding side can appeal even if they know that batsman is not out just to impress and create pressure on the umpires .

So if we are strictly following all other rules of  cricket  ,than accepting the umpires decision and choosing not to walk should also not be criticized although it may not come under spirit of cricket .If we keep aside the validity of DRS but introduction of DRS is a clear indication that decisions given by umpires are not correct always.

ICC World Cup 2015

Sunday 15^th February 2015 the decibel level at Adelaide Oval will be at its peak , the atmosphere on the ground will be electrifying and the whole cricket loving world is going to stick to their television sets and their will be no traffic jams for sure for at least for eight hours .The reason is the match for which cricket lovers wait throughout the tournament will we played first in this world cup .Yes , defending champion India will start its world cup campaign  against the arch rivals Pakistan .It further means that for the cricket world cup special audience rest of the matches of group stage will be of lesser importance. The reason why I am saying this is being the world champions the path way to Quarter-Finals looks easy for India ,provided we don’t get any surprises.

History suggest that India have never lost to Pakistan in their five meetings in world cups, Good ,its always nice to start a tournament with a win !! On a serious note team India will have another task in hand from the start of the tournament to make that tally 6-0 ,apart from defending the world champions title. Looks like I am already envisaging the future events and why not this is how we play cricket from off the field !! Despite knowing the fact that the event is going to take place after 18 months ,to be precise from Saturday 14^th February 2015 and their will be many other tournaments and posts to be written in between , we as a true cricket follower had to exaggerate the future event ,as we do by discussing the past events .

Now ,lets come to the present that we are still world champions and should enjoy its stature .And with this post I complete the half century of my blog posts !!!

The Articulation Which Produces Best Cricket

Cricket is a game not a battle, but if we articulate all the cricketing actions it do look like so .There are many cricket rivalry which were created on paper and hence created our interest for the matches .Think of an India Vs Pakistan match, now think of the endless motivational media reports on TV and news papers , now think of those Goosebumps and moments which had skipped your so many heart beats ,yes this is actually how the on field rivalry starts in Cricket.

The best example of this is the battle of all battles ,the greatest test rivalry -Ashes . Yes that ashes in which England and Australia play , and these rivals were playing with each other for five years before the idea of the Ashes was born ! In 1882 when Australia had beaten England at Ovals for the first time and the reaction (mock obituary)of Reginald Shirley Brooks in The Sporting Times which had added a pride element in it the word Ashes came into picture..

The mock obituary read “ In affectionate remembrance of English Cricket which died at The Oval,29^th August,1882.Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P N.B. The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken by Australia.” This had actually given weight to the series and had actually made people of Australia believed that they had achieved some thing big. That’s why when in the subsequent series when England under the captaincy of Lord Darnley had beaten Australia ,he was presented with an urn containing the Ashes of a bail used in the third Test by a group of Melbourne women .

Cricket have different meaning depending on what hype media has created about the series and it do have an impact on spectators and players .History suggest that it is this rivalry only which inspires player to give their best and create history and this is what people like to see on the ground .Many new records  get created in such series and it is your performance in these series only which  can change your entire career and will give you a place in the memorable moments of Cricketing history.