The Long Ganguly Goodbye - Part II

Why is everyone so fkin loathe to acknowledge Ganguly the batsman? All right, so he was not a modern batting great, but the admiration from Roebuck and Hopps is so grudging that Giant Alien Lizards who landed from Mars last night might be tempted to believe that he made a cricket career exclusively from politicking and being a fantastic leader of men and a shrewd (not brilliant though) strategist. He is an all-time ODI great - almost up there with Tendulkar. Absolutely ridiculous that nobody acknowledges his ODI record as a fact that speaks for itself, rather than as one part of a highly succesful opening partnership. Perhaps his Test record does not merit that he share Fab-ness with the other three, but he did tame the best bowlers in the business at different times in his career. Perhaps not consistently enough to justify his talent, but he did justify his place in the strongest middle order of the era for a larger part of 113 Test matches. So fk off.

Could someone confirm this..

..because I am just too lazy. Apparently, is Sauravda scores a hundred tomorrow (or in the 2nd innings), he will join Greg Chappel as the only two players to have played (x) number of Tests and scored a hundred in their first and last matches.

Is it true? If it is, how fkin ironic is that?

The Soldier

It has been months since I wrote on cricket. The interest to watch had never waned, but the desire to write certainly had. I watched with frustration as the Indian batting struggled in SriLanka . The feeling changed to irritation as the latest battle between the Fourth Estate and the Indian veterans reached ludicrous levels. Yet, none of these emotions were so strong as to be represented in words. Ganguly's retirement plans almost forced me to tap the keyboard again. But, there was still a mental block to be overcome. The block was finally overcome by the retirement of India's finest test match winner - Anil Kumble.

It was inevitable that Anil Kumble would retire sometime during the 2008-2009 season. Age was catching up and the shoulder was complaining and the veteran had to bow, as all must, to Father Time. But, as Kumble was given a farewell which rivalled Steve Waugh's, it was tempting to look back on the many triumphs and the few failures which made him such a special cricketer. But, the cliche still holds, facts and figures can never do proper justice to a sportsman.

To me Kumble's greatest achievement is that in all the tests India won during the time he was in the team, he was India's foremost player - not Tendulkar or Dravid. He relentlessly rolled on, bowling over after over and ensuring that the batsmen didn't ever complain that the bowlers hadn't done their job. He was India's finest bowler, her greatest test player.

Congrats Anil for being such a great player and for rekindling a dying flame in me -writing.

The Long Ganguly Goodbye - Part I

I doubt any public figure elicits the extremes of opinion that Ganguly does. Very often from the same person. For instance, Ganguly is the person I'd curse loudest and longest when he would get caught off a snorter at second slip. The same might have been Dravid's or Tendulkar's fate as well, but I'd always be more reserved in my condemnation. At the same time, which other ill-built sportsman can take off his shirt on the world-stage, and still not embarass his countrymen?

For someone who we all loved to scream motherchod at the drop of a hat, he inspired the kind of loyalty in his teammates and from fans that could not be explained. People who might have alleged all sorts of sexual relationships between him and his family, would resort to all manner of convoluted logic to defend his spot in the team and his captaincy.

During this series, the Long Ganguly Goodbye will try and understand this phenomenon.

The Ganguly question will continue..

Does Ganguly's selection close out the possibility of playing five bowlers without tampering with the Sehwag-Gambhir opening combo? Does Anil have the balls to drop Dada while retaining Gambhir?

The answer to this question might prove key to the results of this series. By pushing Dhoni to number 6 without pushing Dravid to the opener's slot, India still have the solid batting that can take care of Lee and Clark, and with enough firepower to score quick.

Hopefully, it is an option that Anil will consider in the first couple of matches. As is repeated often enough, the only way to beat them is by going very hard at them. I guess there is a time and a place for four bowlers. Not now. Not here.

Be (Ti)wary

For the third Test, the only reason I'd think of dropping either Dravid or Ganguly is if Kumble would consider a fifth bowling option. Yeah, so Rohit Sharma has been warming the benches when he might as well have been perfecting his game at home. It's easy to look at Yuvraj and say see what years of being benched in the Test squad did to him, but the more critical ones will recognize the merits of travelling with the team and Yuvi's portion of the blame as well. More importantly, it would be bloody crazy to blood Rohit in a decider against Murali and Mendis - he might take forever to recover. Let's not repeat Manoj Tiwary's trial by fire-breathing-Lee.

Virile Saurav

Ganguly's batting at Kanpur was a measured repartee to critics, and even I have done that occasionally, who have always questioned his spine. Now his fans have one of the great Indian knocks to hold up when his determination/virility/team-play/skill is questioned. He came to the crease after Morne had a piece of Dravid's finger and his wicket, and while he was at the other end, Laxman played inside the line to one that pitched on leg and took off and middle - Morkel at work again. Given how the pitch was behaving, and given that the Indian batting has over the last couple of years been guilty of permitting easy momentum shifts, Ganguly was phenomenal - driving out of the rough, fearless in coming down the track, and almost chanceless against the quicks.
Sreesanth had a fantastic opening to the third days play. Not only did his batting deprive Smith of any initiative, his bowling was also quite spectacular, outshining Ishant Sharma for the first time.
Could the South Africans have done better? Maybe, if Smith and Kallis hadn't let things drift for that long in the second innings, if Ashwell had taken a few more risks.
Any sense criticizing the pitch? Maybe, but only on the grounds that the match did not last full five days. Predictably, when something was in it for the bowlers, it made for exciting cricket. It also threw mud on the giant strides that the South Africans seemed to have taken in learning how to play spin effectively.
Did they choke? Yes. The Indian tail wagged longer than at any point in the series on a crumbling pitch on the decider.

Return of the Sree and other boring matters

Been a while since that war dance, the defining memory of that series, happened. Sreesanth had a fantastic tour of South Africa, though the batting frittered it away every time he and Zaheer had South Africa down in a heap. Boring, cautious batting from the two sides did not help the series though there was a result in every match - quite like the Eng-NZ zzzznorathon going on right now.

Sree now returns from injury to find a place in the team because of injuries to Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, to bowl under Anil Kumble's captaincy for the very first time. The recently concluded CB Series not only saw a much calmer Sree, (who incidentally, has attributed his new Zen state to Ayurvedic treatment), he was also modestly succesful with a few crucial wickets.

With such intense competition for a spot in the Indian fast bowling ranks, how Sree copes with the drudgery of bowling to Ashwell and Jaques, and the biffing to be expected from Grame Smith and ABDe could determine his future in the Test bowling ranks. Will he keep his cool? Unlikely. Will he be succesful? Perhaps. Smith, Jaques, Amla and co. are unlikely to have forgotten about Sree's wily ways. In any case, Sree will be part of an attack that might contain two left arm seamers.

Edit: Sree's rehabilitation though, is just one of many cataclysms that we have seen since that eventful tour of South Africa. Foremost among them is the end to those meandering days under Dravid, to a more purposeful approach under Anil and MSD. Dravid may have been a more astute strategist, but Anil and MSD are delivering more spectacular results.

Dada's return. If memory serves right, that tour was when he made his comeback, and things have been pretty rosy for him in the Test arena since then. With Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma barking at his heels, this series is no different from the previous few which have all started with his place under threat.

Pathan was sent home in disgrace from that tour, having lost his form so horribly since his brilliant hat-trick. Not only was he crucial in that win at Perth, but he has made himself pretty much indispensable to the balance of the ODI team. The pace and nip are not quite there yet, and it is forseeable that he may find himself in a restricting role, once the ball loses shine.

South Africa was also where Karthik was asked to open for the first time. Having impressed, he went to scale greater highs in England - not only as opener, but as general cheerleader-in-chief, before returning with a thud at home against Pakistan. Now he finds himself a back-up for the tireless MS Dhoni, Sehwag having claimed the opener's spot with aplomb in Australia. Unfortunately for him, it also looks like Gautam Gambhir and Chopra have somehow climbed higher up in the pecking order to replace Jaffer if that becomes necessary.

20000 runs is the new elephant in the room

Nobody who ever saw this partnership is likely to forget it, least of all Murali, Vaas and co.

Anyway, now that Sachin has taken himself out of the elephant equation, there is a new one for Venx The Messiah and his Gang of Merry Men to consider. How do they put 20000 runs to pasture gracefully? These are two giants of the one-day game, and sad as it may be, it is good for Indian cricket that the more athletic Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa stepped up so their absence was not felt in one of the most demanding of all ODI tournaments. Of course Dravid and Dada may still be able to contribute with the bat, and may be packed with the tactical mishmash that comes with 20000 runs, but we need to give the captain the team he wants. Having done so once, and all credit to Venx The Messiah, and may his loins bear a thousand lions, ans seen more than satisfactory results, we just need to continue doing so. Barely anything should be allowed to stand in the way of the development of Rohit Sharma, Uthappa and Gambhir. It will be unfair, not only to those three, but even to Raina, Kartik and Tiwary who have waited, to consider any sort of longish farewell for Dada and Dravid.

I don't know, but the moronically conceived Asia Cup may be the right opportunity. There is even a game against Hong Kong at Lahore.

Paandav kitne the? (Or the power of five)

If you're not the kind of Indian cricket fan who goes only by the scorebook, the end-of-Perth analysis of this series is this:

Bowling has been excllent. Batting has been ho-hum, but all but one have shown they are in good form. Regardless, they won a game which people are calling the greatest win ever. So, excellent.

It would be unreasonable to burn effigies now, even if they come back 3-1, even if the fourth was an huge innings defeat. Let me be clear that I think it is unreasonable to burn effigies anyway.

This means that the Indian team goes into this match with a license to thrill, and so it does not make sense to go in without the power of five. Arpy-Pathan-Ishant-Kumble-Bhajji.

Looks good on paper, and even better in the first three matches. Be sure that they won't reduce the Aussies to dust at Adelaide, but we know they can trouble their best.

Is this series a statistical anomaly for Michael Hussey (avg of 54 only)? Or will we learn that Michael Hussey is a statistical anomaly? The bigger threat is Mathew Hayden. How does one get Hayden out cheap? Especially if he just wants to score runs and nothing else will do. Well we can start with throwing five decent bowlers at him.

What of the batting? There is no doubt that Jaffer has been the weakest link, and if Kumble's thinking concurs with what I have said above, he will have to get the chop. I would have preferred it if it were a middle-order batsman, but none of Ganguly-Laxman-Dravid can be dropped at this point.

Your best batsmen or your best openers?

At the same time, everyone but Jaffer have shown some excellent form, and what is rumoured to be a batting beauty is perhaps, just what the doctor ordered. Ganguly has a point to prove and this is his best chance. And Sachin and Laxman are not without a sense of occasion - their last chance(?) against the best team in the world playing at home. And there is Dravid with all those happy meories at this ground.

But this should, by no means, be the end of the road for Jaffer. I suspect there is an even chance that it may be, but that would be very cruel to a man who made runs in England, West Indies and South Africa.

Is there a case for a parallel change to bring in Dinesh Karthik in place of Dhoni? There is, because then we can continue to keep Dravid at number three. But is this going to happen? No.

Australia does not need to play five bowlers. Also, with Brad Hogg into the batting at Adelaide, there is a lot more sting to the tail than merely that other statistical anomaly-Mitch (avg of 99 only).

I hope Mitch continues to play, and I hope he overcorrects his wide outside offstump line and bowls on the pads.

Timing

I'm all for the BCCI's bold move where an ODI batting lineup will take shape under the tutelage of Gary Kirsten and Sachin Tendulkar, in harsh Aussie conditions.

But timing is a gift. Ganguly has it. The BCCI does not. I will be very interested in Dada's response at Adelaide.

Pakistan in India, Chinnaswamy, Days 2 and 3: Ganguly, Pathan make hay, looks like it will be a batathon

After an eye-catching partnership between Ganguly and Pathan competing among them for the best sixer against Kaneria, it fell to India to slowly wrench the Pakistani batsmen out before they reached the follow on score. At the end of Day 3, India will be disappointed that they do not have more runs to play with. Misbah and Kamran, the duo that thwarted the Indians at Eden are batting and there is Mohammed Sami to follow. Only 58 runs are needed to avoid the follow on.

It was sexy stuff from Ganguly. He looked awesome, and as a person who has always been frustrated with his lack of urgency between wickets, I was really really happy that he ran 78 singles and 13 twos. Pathan too, turned it on, but I hope his selection will be determined by his bowling alone.

I don't think India bowled as well as they could have. Salman Butt had it quite easy, and I think young Ishant found the right hand-left hand combo tricky. Butt hit several boundaries on leg side, behind and in front of square.

Younis Khan is a bit of a stud. I did not think much of him when he came into the game and was stunned when Pakistan decided that he was their best number 3. But eventually he did rewrite the rules of the game in his own small way, much like Dhoni did later. That dab to third man got him thirty percent of his runs today. Like Dhoni, like Sehwag, there is not much we can complain of when he gets out. All we can mutter is, "but that's the way he plays the game!" Sad part is, Pakistan rely on him much more than we ever did on Sehwag or now rely on Dhoni. They rely much more on Yousuf, and he played a shot that he will rue, to get out.

Misbah is slowly becoming a master at the attritional game. Even today he ate up time and made the runs that will almost certainly save Pakistan from the follow-on. Kamran is his pocket-sized ally. Neither put away the shots, but managed a risk-free game.

Day 1: India go ahead, the Left turns it.
This was Chinnaswamy, and it wasn't too long back that Balaji and India fell with fifteen balls left. The Bangalore jinx had to be broken and India came close to giving Pakistan the test on a platter on Day 1. Laxman was unlucky maybe. But Jaffer, Dravid and Gambhir made errors in judgment. Gambhir flirted with one outside off, and did not do much to dislodge Karthik from the opener's slot. Jaffer misread the line and got hit right in front. He did not look anywhere near as fluent as he did in the two innings at Eden, and looked ridiculous going like that after facing 62 balls. So, questions still remain at the top. Did Dravid play one shot too many? Arafat may have put in some extra shoulder into that ball, and Dravid did not see that coming. It is a shot he plays well, so he'll be ruing his bad luck. Four down on the first session of the first day of a Test match. Though Arafat was getting the ball to move, he was not that hostile.Subsequent events showed the pitch for what it was, and had the top order shown a little more application, the heroics that followed would not have been necessary.

Yuvraj Singh has all but torn down the walls of the Test team with a counterattacking innings of real confidence. It is not the first time he has scored a Test century, but every time he has showed us that he belonged, he would paly a one-day stroke too many and get out. Ganguly rode out a stupid feud with the childish Akthar early in the innings and then hardly gave a chance through his innings. Yuvi's runscoring abilities took the pressure of Ganguly and he followed Yuvraj to a century in the third session. Gaping holes in the Pakistan bowling became apparent. Akthar was taken to hospital again, but Sami soldiered on and that certainly was not enough. Yuvraj and Ganguly played Kaneria quite easily. Younis Khan, Yasir Hameed, Salman Butt all had a ball. Three hundred runs and the new ball later, Yuvraj was out.

Karthik did not look very confident. His situation is dicey and he will need to push his claim against a ball that is still new, tomorrow. India would want to bat till tea, but if Akthar is back to bowling well tomorrow, the innings could fold before lunch and set up and see saw.

Your best openers or your best batsmen

Question is, do you pick the two best openers in your XI, or do you pick your best batsmen and demand that two of them open the innings?

Jaffer and Karthik are certain for the XI for the first Test against Pakistan. But are they both good enough to be in a side that could potentially leave Laxman, Yuvraj or Ganguly or any combination of them, on the bench?