This is the day I as a cricket fan was hoping will come sooner than later,and today every cricket fan in the world(lest be an aussie) will be overjoyed seeing the so called "Invincible Aussies" come crashing down to earth at the MCG.
South Africa took an unassailable 2-0 in a 3 match series.This is the first home series defeat for Australia in 16 years and trust me India would have done the same the last year when we could have won the Sydney test so easily (I am not being optimistic).But never mind,better late than never. The quality of cricket SA have played this series is of the highest quality.First they came down a first innings deficit of 94 runs at Perth to chase down a mammoth 414 in the 4th innings,then they were tottering at 198-7 in the MCG test chasing 394 and then Dale Steyn and JP Duminy came up with a 180 run partnership for the 9th wicket to set up the match and the series for SA. A special mention for SA's catching........its been breathtaking to say the least.
Well looking into the possible causes, Aus have never been the same force to reckon with after Mcgrath,Warne and Gilchrist left them.Since then taking 20 wickets against a qaulity opposition has been a headache for them.They struggled to get Bhajji and Zaheer out in the Bangalore test and now Steyn and Duminy.Also the stalwarts Hayden and Symonds have been on the decline.
The Australian media is not taking this too kindly,calling for the heads of Hayden,Symonds and Lee,as of me, I am loving it.
I just hope the rest of the world takes some inspiration from India and SA when they play the not so invincible Aussies again. This is the video for the winning runs,please forgive the background music,its probably just an excited South African fan
18 years of international cricket, a 132 test matches, 619 test wickets, we can go on and on with the stats about a player of kumble's stature, but what really separates jumbo from the rest is his persistence and determination to do well for his team.
we will never forget the incident in the antigua test where we saw him spitting blood on the cricket field after being hit by a bouncer and when later he came out to bowl with a broken jaw,his head and jaw all wrapped up in bandages because of the injury,the grit and determination shown by him is very rarely seen in any other sportsman.
be it the historic kotla test in 1999 against pakistan when he hit the bull's eye with a perfect ten,only the second bowler to do so in the history of the game,or the moment when he reachd his maiden test hundred in the oval test,the glrious scenes are etched in the minds of the indain cricket fans forever.
but the irony of indian cricket is that inspite of so many good performances consistently for such a long period of time,he has never got the kind of praise he deserved.
sachin,saurav and dravid have been the stars of indain cricket for the past decade or so,even when it came to getting the test captaincy after ganguly,rahul dravid was preffered to him inspite of being less experienced,and it took dravids resignation during the toughest times of indian cricket for the captaincy to be handed over to him
even while he was out of the game for about a year with a shoulder injury,kumble did not sit at home,instead he took up the players' representation over the contracts issue with the board in 2002 and solved the matter
he has always faced criticism about his different bowling style and the lack of spin his deliveries take,but the fact remains that he has answered his critics everytime with unmatched performnaces and a steely resolve.
a recent run of injuries and bad form coupled with his age led him to take this decision of retiring from the game,and as everyone is saying,maybe this is the right decision at the right time.the mantle of captaincy is in the safe hands of MS DHONI and the spin brigade will be lead by bhajji,with others like mishra and chawla showing great potential.
after all the controversy and allegations on him by the media its good to see that even the indian media is supporting this decision, lets bid farewell to one of the best spinners this game has ever seen,a true champion and the unsung hero of indian cricket..anil kumble
What has been a wonderful series of test cricket, is set for a perfect finale when the final test starts today. After a humiliating defeat in the 1st test which India lost by an innings and some 200 runs India fought back really well to win the see saw 2nd test. The series has seen some gripping cricket with the emergence of a few stars,Ajantha Mendis of course,Virender Sehwag ( not emergence as a star, but definitely as a matured cricketer).
Ajantha Mendis, 18 wickets in two tests has been a revelation. Along with Murali, these merchants of spin have made the famed Indian batting line-up (barring Sehwag) look like a bunch of nine pins. Sachin,Sourav,Laxman and Dravid are due for big knocks and what would be better than the final test to find their feet. Virender Sehwag, as simple as it gets, whack the ball if its meant to be. Attacking cricket has been his funda ever since he started but now with a cool head on his shoulders which wasnt there before,he has become a headache for the opposition. His opening stands with Gambhir have been the saving grace for the Indian batting.
The pitch, as rumour has it, is bouncy and even paced which is a good news, i wont want the series to end in a tame draw. So sit back and enjoy the cricket.
The Asia Cup starts from today and I wonder what the organisers are thinking......... A 6 nation tournament and I dont need to study rocket science to tell who will b 3 teams actually competing.Add to that there could not have been a worse time for the tournament to be held.Organised after a sensational IPL( if u dont count the Kitply Cup) ,the matches on the first 3 days r (xcept for the Ind vs Pak).......... i dont want to say that(pathetic).The important matches will take place at Karachi(at the coast least affected by the monsoons).
India despite losing the final of the Kitply Cup enter the tournament as favourites.India havent won the Asia Cup since 1995,they would like to do it this time.
The frequency of India vs Pak matches has paled off the sheen off their contests. This tournament means more than just winning or losing to Pakistan, the recent reluctance of other countries to play there and Aus pulling out has resulted in huge losses to PCB.This tournaments successful organisation is very important for PCB. Even there have been rumours that the Champions trophy may be shifted to some other country.
Sri Lanka who have been constantly on the downslide after last years World Cup final will be looking to prove a point or two.
All said, after the boring first leg the tornament may throw up some exciting Cricket
Team 1 have scored 250 runs from their 50 available overs and Team 2 lose 5 wickets in scoring 199 runs in 40 overs. Play is then stopped by the weather, the rain refuses to relent and the match is abandoned. A decision on the winner is required.
Team 1's innings: this was uninterrupted, so the resource percentage available is
100%.
Team 2's innings: resource % available at start of innings =
100%
After 40 overs Team 2 have 10 overs left and have lost 5 wickets.
From table, resource % left at suspension of play =
27.5%
As play is abandoned all this remaining resource is lost.
Hence resource % available for Team 2's innings = 100 - 27.5 =
72.5%
Team 2 had less resource available than Team 1 and so to give the target Team 1's score must be scaled down by the ratio of resources, 72.5/100
Team 1 scored 250, so Team 2's 'target' is 250 x 72.5/100 = 181.25
For competitions commencing April 1999, the next lower whole number, 181, is the score to tie, or the 'par score' for the match situation at the stoppage.
As there is to be no further play, the winner is decided according to whether or not the par score has been exceeded. With 199 runs on the board, they have exceeded this by 18 and so are declared the winners by 18 runs.
Case 2:Interruption to Team 2's innings
A one-day match has been shortened to 40 overs per side before it commenced. Team 1 have scored 200 runs from their 40 available overs and Team 2 lose 5 wickets in scoring 140 runs in 30 overs. Play is then suspended and 5 overs are lost. What is Team 2's revised target?
Team 1's innings: At the start of 40 over innings resource percentage available =
90.3%
Team 2's innings: resource % available at start of 40 over innings =
90.3%
After 30 overs Team 2 have 10 overs left and have lost 5 wickets.
From table, resource % left at start of suspension =
27.5%
5 overs are lost, so when play is resumed 5 overs are left. From table, resource % left at resumption of play =
16.4%
Hence resource % lost = 27.5 - 16.4 =
11.1%
so resource % available for Team 2's innings = 90.3 - 11.1 =
79.2%
Team 2 had less resource available than Team 1 and so to give the target Team 1's score must be scaled down by the ratio of resources, 79.2/90.3
Team 1 scored 200, so Team 2's 'target' is 200 x 79.2/90.3 =175.42 which rounds down to 175 to tie with a revised target of 176. They then require a further 36 runs to win from 5 overs with 5 wickets in hand.
Case 3: Interruption to Team 1's innings
In an ODI, Team 1 have lost 7 wickets in scoring 190 runs in 40 overs from an expected 50 when extended rain leads to Team 1's innings being terminated and Team 2's innings is also restricted to 40 overs. What is the target for Team 2?
Because of the different stages of the teams' innings that their 10 overs are lost, they represent different losses of resource. Team 1 have lost 7 wickets and had 10 overs left when the rain arrived and so from the table you will see that the premature termination of their innings has deprived them of the 20.6% resource percentage they had remaining. Having started with 100% they have used 100 - 20.6 = 79.4%; in other words they have had 79.4% resources available for their innings.
Team 2 will also receive 40 overs. With 40 overs left and no wicket lost you will see from the table that the resource percentage which they have available (relative to a full 50 over innings) is 90.3%. Team 2 thus have 90.3 - 79.4 = 10.9% greater resource than had Team 1 and so they are set a target which is 10.9% of 225, or 24.53, more runs than Team 1 scored. [225 is the average in 50 overs for ODIs]
Using the sum 190 + 24.53 = 214.53 rounding down gives 214 to tie and Team 2's target is 215 in 40 overs.
This article is specially meant for the cricket crazy junta in our country and in our college. The Duckworth Lewis method has been in use for quite sometime now for resetting targets in rain shortened one dayers and T-20s.For many of us its very goofy and complicated and we wonder whether its fair, but I would like to tell you people out there its fair, at least much fairer than most of the other “rain rules” as they call it. The method is the invention of Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis. Frank is a consultant statistician and editor of the Royal Statistical Society's monthly news magazine, RSS NEWS. Tony is a lecturer in Quantitative Methods in Management in the Business School at Oxford Brookes University. Had this method been there at the 1992 world cup, South Africa would not have had to score 22 runs off one ball. I hope u have as much fun reading the article as I had writing it.
Basic Idea of the Method:
The basic concept is that the batting team has two types of resources with which they can make as many runs as possible, wickets and overs left.The percentage of resources lost is determined by a table and a revised score is determined by scaling down the first innings target if the team batting first had the same amount of resources available.An extract of the table has been given to let you understand(those who want the full table can leave their email ids in the comment, I’ll mail them).
Table : Extract from the table of resource percentages remaining
Reading the table:
Reading the table is very easy, suppose rain stops play in the second innings and the 2nd team has played 30 overs and has lost 5 wickets. Then the percentage of resources remaining from the table is 40%.
Applying the D/L Method:
1. For each team's innings (a) from the table note the resource percentage the team had available at the start of their innings; (b) using the table, calculate the resource percentage lost by each interruption; (c) hence calculate the resource percentage available. 2. If Team 2 have less resources available than Team 1, then calculate the ratio of the resources available to the two teams. Team 2's revised target is obtained by scaling down Team 1's score by this ratio. The figure so obtained is rounded down to the next whole number to give the score needed for a tie. The target is one more run than this. The procedure by which a tie is always possible is a consequence of a change in playing conditions introduced internationally from April 1999. 3. If Team 2 have more resources available than Team 1, then calculate the amount by which Team 2's resource percentage exceeds Team 1's. Work out this excess as a percentage of 225 [the average 50-over score in 'first class' matches and one-day internationals (ODIs)]. Rounding this down to the next whole number gives the extra runs to add on to Team 1's score to give the score to tie. Adding one run gives Team 2's target.
I know this would have gone like a bouncer over your head(at least it went over mine).It would be better if we had an example.
In a practical scenario 3 types of interruptions r possible:
1.The second team is chasing a target and rain interrupts and no further match can take place and a par score has to be determined. 2.The 2nd team is chasing and rain interruption leads to a loss of a few overs and a revised target has to be determined. 3.1st innings and the innings ends at thar interruption and the 2nd team has to be set a target because the 1st team was playing thinking the game to be 50 overs and they were pacing their innings at the point where rain interrupted so 2nd team has to set a target greater than what 1st team had scored.
The great Indian Tamasha (some like to call it the IPL) that spanned over a period of 45 days, came to an end last week. Some people say it is a revolution, it has changed the face of the Indian entertainment industry, it has changed the way people watch TV in India, SONY TV’s TRPs have shot up big time and blah blah blah…………. Apart from these lines, the info bar at the bottom in every news channel also showed these lines: Sachin pulls out of asia cup, Zaheer unfit for asia cup, sreesanth unfit to play(not b’coz of bhajjis slap though!!!), injured RP singh to miss first one-dayer.
Well, the only answer to that is we have got the replacements also thanks to the IPL. But was it necessary in the first place, player burn-out has been the most vocalized issue in international cricket for the last couple of years. Right from ricky ponting to MS dhoni, all have voiced their concerns over too much cricket being played these days, so was the tournament of such great length necessary when the players needed a much deserved break right after a grueling aussie tour.
Some would say “look at the money involved”, true; I totally agree that the amount of money involved makes it almost irresistible, but then we should stop expecting our players to have long careers, the way I see it there would be hardly a player who has debuted in recent times and will play for our country for a period of 15-16 years,like sachin or kapil or gavaskar. Players of todays age will have short careers of 5-6 years in which they will earn a lot of money through extravaganzas like the IPL but wont get the honour of representing their country for long.
We are not country like Australia that can produce talented cricketers at a regular interval of time, I believe the present crop of players is the best we’ve had for the last few years, and it is the best we are going to have for quite a few years to come. We must try our best to preserve such players rather than burn them out before their time……..
Well looking into the possible causes, Aus have never been the same force to reckon with after Mcgrath,Warne and Gilchrist left them.Since then taking 20 wickets against a qaulity opposition has been a headache for them.They struggled to get Bhajji and Zaheer out in the Bangalore test and now Steyn and Duminy.Also the stalwarts Hayden and Symonds have been on the decline.
