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Fearless Cricket

19 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by niralihathi in Uncategorized

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Australia, BCCI, Cricket, ICC, India, INDvAUS, IPL, Lords, Match, MCC, test, Test Cricket, Test series

I hear this phrase “fearless cricket” thrown around a lot these days. It’s been associated quite frequently with England’s brand of one day cricket these past few years… but this series and in particular these past five days, the Indian Cricket Team have given the phrase a whole new meaning.

Winning a Test match at the Australian fortress of Brisbane (the first team to beat Australia at the Gabba since 1988) with what was basically a 2nd XI team showed something few thought India were capable of. WinViz had India’s chances of winning at 1% before the first over of Day 5 had even been bowled with 0 wickets down. So what was the deciding factor in the game?

How was it that after losing the first test, being 36 a/o, losing their captain, having been plagued with injury after injury, losing the toss and fielding a team with 2 debutants and a grand total of four Test matches worth of experience in their bowling attack (if you discount Rohit Sharma’s ball), India pulled off one of the greatest wins in Test match history to secure the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the second time in a row?

As Sachin Tendulkar so eloquantly put it: “Every session we discovered a new hero. Everytime we got hit, we stayed put & stood taller. We pushed boundaries of belief to play fearless but not careless cricket.”

They weren’t overconfident but neither were they afraid. They played with clarity, grit, purpose and most importantly courage. At no point did India look resigned to whatever ‘fate’ was in store for them. They played a brand of cricket that was unbridled by expectation and uninhibited by fear and by doing so pulled off an incredible feat.

Each and every one of those those players who took to the field for the 4th Test gave their all.

Each and every bowler shouldered their responsibility including an injured Navdeep Saini (who was fielding very gingerly) came on to bowl in the 3rd innings to support his teammates. And through their combined four Test experience managed to extract 20 Australian wickets.

Each and every one of those batters showcased why they had made it into the international side. From Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar’s valiant assault in the second innings that rescued India from 6-186 to 7-309 to Cheteshwar Pujara’s impregnable defence and Shubman Gill’s elegant drives that set the platform up perfectly for Rishabh Pant & Co. to storm the castle in the fourth innings.

It was in the final hour of play we saw this new brand of cricket come to fruition, after a series of partnerships had taken India to within 63 runs of victory, they lost Mayank Agarwal. The burden of either pushing for a win or closing off fell on Pant and debutant Washington Sundar.

The two left-handers chose to be fearless and go for the win.. but in all honesty was it really a choice? Had they even considered it a dare to take on the challenge and risk the loss? Did it even cross their mind? Nothing we saw in that final hour was out of character for Pant and we had seen that same drive in Sundar during the second innings.

So how do you beat a man that just plays the way he plays?

How do you beat a team unburdened by consequence and fear?

It seemed Australia just couldn’t find an answer as India won by 3 wickets and recorded the highest ever run chase at the Gabba to take the series 2-1. A testament to this new brand of cricket. The beginning of a new era.

Book Report #1: Wounded Tiger

03 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by niralihathi in Uncategorized

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AUSvPAK, Cricket, cwc2015, EngvPak, India, INDvPAK, INDvSL, ODI, Pakistan, PeterOborne, Sri Lanka, Test series, WorldCup2015

I had been looking for a new book for a while before I came across Wounded Tiger. My usual go-to reads are Dan Browns and Phillip Pullman novels. I love delving into an adventure with Robert Langdon and being absorbed by tales of mystery and secrets. For some reason however this time I felt the need for a change and followed my vacant clicks through Amazon in search for my next read.

Somehow I stumbled upon this book without realising it had been selected as Wisden’s Book of the Year 2015. The history of Pakistani cricket had always been of interest to me and somewhere along the way through these endless India v Sri Lanka matches I had dozed off. I had stopped watching games or following scores and it seemed like fate that I should come across this extraordinary tale to reignite my fire.

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I was born to bleed blue. There was no question about it and regardless of ones knowledge of partition or history, being Indian instantly means that you firstly love cricket and secondly support anyone BUT Pakistan. It had been drilled into me until that fabled (because I’m sure I’ve referred to it in over 5 of my previous blog posts) 2015 World Cup quarter-final between Australia and Pakistan where I somehow found myself unwittingly supporting Wahab Riaz and the men in green. I had gotten so emotionally invested that when Rahat Ali dropped Shane Watson on 6, I felt my heart sink. Apart from India, no other sports team had ever made me feel like their loss was my loss and this stuck with me for a while. It stayed with me and on July 17th 2016 I found myself once again in unwavering support of Pakistan on day 4 at Lords at the re-birth of Mohammed Amir. As Pakistan did their push-ups and salutes I once again found myself in awe of this incredibly dogged team.

It seems to me that somehow Pakistani cricket is destined to continue even if the world were to end. From a country younger than my parents, the team have survived a journey through terrorist attacks, match-fixing scandals, the mysterious death of coach Bob Woolmer, becoming nomads and countless accusations of ball-tampering and yet somehow have also produced some of the greatest players to grace the game. I needed to know how and why.

I have managed to ramble on for 400 words without once discussing the mastery of Peter Oborne’s book. I won’t give away the story, in fact this post can hardly be called a book report. My sole purpose for writing this is to try and make you read it. (You’re more than welcome to borrow my copy, but i’ll definitely be wanting it back).

I admit it was a challenging read for me. To digest the horrors of partition, it’s impact on both countries and the game and to try and comprehend the complexities of Pakistani cricket in it’s cultural and political context. I found it difficult to try and wrap my head around the extent to which external factors and deep-rooted prejudice and condescension has continually tried to keep cricket in Pakistan down, from the Rana-Gatting incident to the kidnapping of umpire Idris Baig by the touring MCC team.

However, Peter Oborne allowed me to travel with him on a journey not just through the history of cricket but a history of Pakistan through the lens of cricket. He narrated the stories of AH Kardar and Fazal Mahmood who helped shape not only the cricket team but the nation. He charted Pakistan’s first win in England and how it was orchestrated by a man who refused to let the political and social chaos of partition stop him from playing cricket. A man who could have been killed on a train were it not for the legendary Indian CK Nayudu who protected Fazal Mahmood from Hindu fanatics with his cricket bat.

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AH Kardar and Fazal Mahmood

 

It tells the story of how young boys were picked out of street games and thrown into an international team, of how Wasim Akram asked his captain how much money he would need to bring on tour not realising international cricketers were paid. It helps us comprehend an almost magical realism where a 12 year old plays first class cricket and a ball can be released at 100+ mph. The book wanders a bit in the middle but Wounded Tiger takes the story far beyond Imran Khan’s ‘cornered tigers’ and the heroics of the 1992 World Cup. It doesn’t just paint over the cracks or chisel out new ones, Wounded Tiger gives a full account of both glory and grievance of the team from their astounding victories to their bewildering defeats.

Wounded Tiger feels very unburdened given the extent to which Oborne covers an entire country’s past in under 600 pages. It intertwines fact with anecdotes to create a dynamic picture and continues to surprise and entice you to read just one more page. Oborne states that writing on Pakistan cricket “has sometimes fallen into the wrong hands . . . carried out by people who do not like Pakistan” and this book gives us a chance to revise how we see Pakistan through stories including that of the legendary Lala Amarnath who was born into a poor Hindu family in pre-partition Punjab and adopted by the Rana family who sponsored his cricket education in Lahore.

Unable to (with good reason) continue a straight narrative to cover such a vast history, Oborne adapts to a thematic approach to cover topics such as reverse swing, the emergence of women’s cricket, Shoaib Akhtar (aka the ‘rawalpindi express’), Misbah-ul-Haq and lastly Pakistan’s Age of Isolation. The post 9/11 era that has left Pakistan using homes from home.

This book covers it all, it delves into the introduction of the doosra, it covers the history, politics, war and geography of Pakistan, it exposes the opportunity costs of continued social ostracism from India and the terrorist attacks that have forced Pakistani cricket away from their rich and vibrant history and through a cast of heroes and villains allows us to try and better understand this nation under siege.

 

 

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England’s buildup to the Ashes

04 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by niralihathi in Uncategorized

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Alastair Cook, Ashes, Brendon McCullum, Cricket, England, New Zealand, Test Cricket, Test series, West Indies

The last 18 months have been an extremely tough ride for England. Ever since the pummeling they received from Australia in the last Ashes it has been a series of problems for England. From a loss to the Netherlands in the 2014 T20 World Cup to their early and unseemly departure from the 2015 World Cup.

However it was time for a fresh start. Time to put their one day woes behind them and look ahead to the 2015 Ashes series at home. England began their journey with a 3 Test series against the West Indies. A series that was supposed to be a breeze for England according to ECB Chairman Colin Graves who labelled the West Indies as ‘mediocre’. It was far from that as the series ended 1-1. England had pursued with an older and more experienced side and it had backfired. It was time for change, time for new blood as England’s next adversary was possibly the most aggressive cricketer and his ten men.

It was only a two test series but it was expected to be thrilling. Regardless of the format being played, Brendon McCullum had only one gear, attack. A gear that generally eluded Alastair Cook.

The first test began poorly for England, their top four batsmen fell for just 30 runs. Was this just a taster for what was to come in the Ashes? If England could not face up to New Zealand, how did they expect to deal with Australia and their Mitchell’s? England were saved from an embarrassing collapse as their younger players came through.  Joe Root and Ben Stokes scored 98 and 92 respectively with Stokes going at almost a run a ball. Half centuries from Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali saw England to a respectable first innings score of 389.

New Zealand however, made scoring look all too easy. Unlike England, their top four batsmen all scored half centuries with Kane Williamson scoring a fantastic 132. New Zealand scored 523 and left England trailing by 134 runs.

What came from there though was not expected. Cook found form and scored 162, Stokes scored a century at a strike rate of 110 and England set New Zealand a target of 344 to score in less than a day. England still had their work cut out for them but their bowlers shone through. New Zealand were 0-2 in two overs and 12-3 in six. Whilst Williamson was at the crease there was always a chance, but that soon changed. Ben Stokes came on to bowl the 24th over and within two balls the game had swung drastically in England’s favour. Stokes removed Williamson and McCullum in consecutive balls. Corey Anderson and BJ Watling put on a stand but New Zealand fell 124 runs short.

It was a fantastic test for England. Not only did they perform well but they looked to play aggressively. Even their field settings were uncharacteristically threatening. The series was shaping up to be an interesting one.

Alastair Cook shows real aggression against New Zealand

The second game of the two test series was just as intriguing. At the end of the second innings, scores were equal. Both teams had scored 350 runs. It was as though the test was starting again from scratch as a very long ODI. Or so it seemed from the way New Zealand batted. Eight of their batsmen smashed sixes. They all played as though they were channeling their captain Brendon McCullum. Oddly, the only man who played a real test innings was Brendon McCullum himself. New Zealand went on to score 454 runs at almost five runs an over.

The rain cut down England’s time to make the runs by almost two sessions, their day five target was near impossible. Had the roles been reversed there might have been some hope that New Zealand could pull off a stunner but this was England. They played the only way they knew how and fell 199 runs short.

The series ended 1-1 with fans wanting more. It was a fantastic series and a real challenge for England. Alastair Cook and his men will need to learn to be much more aggressive against Michael Clarke.

Is it still 2011?

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by niralihathi in Uncategorized

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Cricket, England, India, Test series

Though the face of Indian cricket has changed since 2011, it appears not much else has.

What should have been a fantastic series with India’s ‘new to Test match’ team and England coming in from a slump with Alastair Cook under tremendous pressure regarding his captaincy and tactics especially after the series against Sri Lanka, turned out to be nothing more than a replay of the 2011 whitewash.

The series started well, both teams appeared evenly matched with the first test ending in a draw and India taking the second by 95 runs.

However from then on it was England’s series. Cook found form and England took complete control of the next three Tests. India lost the final Test by an innings and 244 runs, their third biggest margin ever. Joe Root and Gary Ballance scored more than 500 runs each, a feat last achieved by England in 2011 against India where Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen pummeled India.

Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir scored a combined total of 147 in 10 innings and India’s star ‘chaser’ Virat Kohli averaged a measly 13.40, the third lowest average for a top four Indian Batsman. Kohli’s reputation was the only thing that kept him in the team for all five tests. It was very clear from the beginning he was out of nick and yet his presence appeared unquestioned. Bringing players like Rohit Sharma and Naman Ojha – who played superbly in Australia – to sit on the sidelines whilst India’s ‘wonderboy’ is caught behind by either the keeper or slips seven out of ten times seems completely unfair. Kohli needs to earn his place, especially in the Test team.

However the most perplexing outcome of the series was India’s number 3 batsman who averaged only 22.20 runs, the lowest of any Indian no.3 batsman. Bearing in mind this man had been primed for Test match cricket and kept out of some one day cricket. He had been aptly described as ‘The Wall 2.0’ yet Cheteshwar Pujara was often dismissed softly after a solid start.

Bar Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma’s performance in the first two tests, India’s bowling appeared to be no threat to then England batsmen. Unfortunately for Pankaj Singh – whose figures did not justly reflect his performance – it is unlikely he will be picked again anytime soon after he gained his new title of ‘most expensive debutant without a wicket.’ England on the other hand performed phenomenally well with the ball with Jimmy Anderson picking up 25 (Just as Stuart Broad had done in 2011). However some of the wickets, especially those taken by England’s new spinner Moeen Ali, were from poor batting.

Has the IPL and India’s record for the most number of ODI’s played in a single year by any team ruined India’s chances at ever becoming a top Test match cricket team? do India need to lose some ODIs to finally realise they are in real trouble?

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