Elsewhere:
Do join us for a Bored Quickie during the IPL finals.
Read about Matty Hayden's conversations with Jesus.
Showing posts with label Hayden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hayden. Show all posts
24 May 2009
Small gloat
Yes, I called one half of the IPL final right, and I was one step away from calling both. So here's showing the finger to the rest of Bored .
27 February 2008
Huge Christians don't speak of institutional biases
"That's why he has been charged more than anyone that's ever played in the history of cricket."
Another statistic that is often bandied about is that Indians are the worst offenders of the hallowed Code of Conduct.
So, are black people in America more dangerous or more criminally inclined than white people?
Another statistic that is often bandied about is that Indians are the worst offenders of the hallowed Code of Conduct.
So, are black people in America more dangerous or more criminally inclined than white people?
26 February 2008
Talk about being provocative
Hayden just referred to Bhajji as an "obnoxious little weed".
Is "little" racist?
Is "little" racist?
25 January 2008
Getting Hayden
Right now, Haydos is sitting pretty and looks set to make a mountain of runs tomorrow. How India deals with hungry Hayden will be decisive in how the contest pans out.
The ball isn't swinging now and is unlikely to swing through the first session tomorrow. India will need to use intelligent defense as an attacking strategy. Hayden gets really restless when he is tied down, and invariably looks to manufacture shots. He gets away with it some of time, but if India are pig headed, they can win this mini-battle. Extremely tight bowling, protection of the square boundaries and curtailment of singles. This may mean taking a few slips out until the ball starts to reverse, but that looks like their only chance if he is going to survive the first five overs tomorrow.
If he starts walking down the track, Dhoni may need to stand up to the stumps for Pathan.
The ball isn't swinging now and is unlikely to swing through the first session tomorrow. India will need to use intelligent defense as an attacking strategy. Hayden gets really restless when he is tied down, and invariably looks to manufacture shots. He gets away with it some of time, but if India are pig headed, they can win this mini-battle. Extremely tight bowling, protection of the square boundaries and curtailment of singles. This may mean taking a few slips out until the ball starts to reverse, but that looks like their only chance if he is going to survive the first five overs tomorrow.
If he starts walking down the track, Dhoni may need to stand up to the stumps for Pathan.
22 January 2008
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.
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.
05 January 2008
Why Jaffer needs a media guy
Wasim Jaffer came to Australia on the back of a very good year. He made runs against Ntini, Pollock, Nel, Mashrafe Mortaza, Syed Rasel, James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom, Tremlett, Shoaib Akthar and Mohammed Sami. In 10 Test matches in 2007, he averages 46.55 with three hundreds that include a double against Pakistan at home.
This means that he has batted at least as good as Alastair Cook and Jayasuriya have for the last couple of years. He has been much better than Grame Smith and Chris Gayle have. The only opening batsman who has done better than him over the last ten Test matches has been Mathew (Alone at the Top) Hayden.
Jaffer has failed thrice this series and there is a clamour for his exclusion from the side at Perth. Apparently we need to take the attack to Australia and Jaffer is incapable of doing so. Not only that, he is said to lack the technique required for horizontal strokeplay, which is so important to flourish in Australia. And the conclusion that the experts are only too easy to arrive at is that Jaffer is keeping Sehwag out of the side.
Jaffer's double at Kolkata came off 270 balls.
Life has been tough on Veeru and it was unfair to drop him from the Test side when he was. However, cricket selection is not about correcting historical wrongs. Having already unfairly glossed over the claims of his Delhi mates Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra, everything should not be given to Sehwag on a platter. Not when Jaffer and Karthik have been a prolific opening combo over the past year. It was a mistake to break them up, but that does not justify an even bigger one.
Jaffer's problem is that he does not give off the "confident vibe" which Yuvraj seems to ooze without effort, or Sehwag is rumoured to bring into the batting order, and is an easy scapegoat. He needs to start wearing shades and start talking more maybe. Or at least louder and in better English.
This means that he has batted at least as good as Alastair Cook and Jayasuriya have for the last couple of years. He has been much better than Grame Smith and Chris Gayle have. The only opening batsman who has done better than him over the last ten Test matches has been Mathew (Alone at the Top) Hayden.
Jaffer has failed thrice this series and there is a clamour for his exclusion from the side at Perth. Apparently we need to take the attack to Australia and Jaffer is incapable of doing so. Not only that, he is said to lack the technique required for horizontal strokeplay, which is so important to flourish in Australia. And the conclusion that the experts are only too easy to arrive at is that Jaffer is keeping Sehwag out of the side.
Jaffer's double at Kolkata came off 270 balls.
Life has been tough on Veeru and it was unfair to drop him from the Test side when he was. However, cricket selection is not about correcting historical wrongs. Having already unfairly glossed over the claims of his Delhi mates Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra, everything should not be given to Sehwag on a platter. Not when Jaffer and Karthik have been a prolific opening combo over the past year. It was a mistake to break them up, but that does not justify an even bigger one.
Jaffer's problem is that he does not give off the "confident vibe" which Yuvraj seems to ooze without effort, or Sehwag is rumoured to bring into the batting order, and is an easy scapegoat. He needs to start wearing shades and start talking more maybe. Or at least louder and in better English.
Hayden is a bully
Mathew Hayden refused to give an inch. Bhajji was bowling so well, had he been luckier the Aussies may have been bowled out with a fourth innings target not more than 200. That might still have proved a lot for the brittle Indian fourth inning batsmanship, but you have to give credit to Hayden, the habitual bully. Another batsman might have tried to bide his time and wait for the bowlers to make their mistakes, but that is why they are not Hayden, and Australia is the best side in the word. Hayden did not let Bhajji settle, and Bhajji is the kind of bowler who does not let up if he gets a prized top-order wicket. Thanks to calculated sweeping and reverse sweeping, Australia are on top and in a position to decide whether to dangle the carrot or not, despite India having one of their better days on the field. Sexy.
16 November 2007
Zaheer versus
Zaheer Khan's recent record of early eickets against left-arm opening batsmen in Test cricket is heartening.
Grame Smith fell in the third over of the first innings at Durban.
Shahriar Nafees fell in the third over of the first innings at Chittagong.
Andrew Strauss kept falling. Third over of the first innings' at Lords as well as Trentbridge, the eleventh over of the second innings at Lords and in the fifth over of the first innings at the Oval.
Alastair Cook fell in the thirteenth over of the second innings at Lords.
And lining up to face Zaheer over the coming weeks are Salman Butt, Mathew Hayden and Phil Jacques. Having seen the Aussie openers handle Vaas with ease, and Hayden's continued domination over Zaheer, this battle will make for interesting viewing.
Grame Smith fell in the third over of the first innings at Durban.
Shahriar Nafees fell in the third over of the first innings at Chittagong.
Andrew Strauss kept falling. Third over of the first innings' at Lords as well as Trentbridge, the eleventh over of the second innings at Lords and in the fifth over of the first innings at the Oval.
Alastair Cook fell in the thirteenth over of the second innings at Lords.
And lining up to face Zaheer over the coming weeks are Salman Butt, Mathew Hayden and Phil Jacques. Having seen the Aussie openers handle Vaas with ease, and Hayden's continued domination over Zaheer, this battle will make for interesting viewing.
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