Ishant Sharma - my view

Many articles praised Ishant Sharma after the first test against South Africa at the Wanderers that he had turned a corner. He got wickets in the first innings of the first test and after that was off-color.I thought he bowled too many boundary balls in that first innings, but that was masked by the spectacular wickets he got- Amla and Kallis.

 Ishant's action demands that he get his body and wrist behind the ball. When he gets his wrist position right behind the ball, he is unplayable.He will hit the seam hard on the pitch, he will always get sharp bounce and seam movement from a good length. As soon as it falls away, he bowls only two deliveries - short and wide outside off or full on the pads. What is more concerning is in the latter case his deliveries are slower off the pitch and he gets no seam movement. It's clearly visible to the naked eye, when he gets his action right, the ball thuds into Dhoni's gloves, when he doesn't it glides in. By doing that he provides easy runs. The good Ishant and bad Ishant appear in the same over at times. Good bowlers, as they come of age, figure out a way to minimize their bad. Some like Ishant can't. Even after 50 test matches. Bowlers like Shoaib or Mitchell Johnson can blow away sides when they are good and hence their bad is worth it, but Ishant is fast medium strictly at his fastest. At his best, he is a good stock bowler.

But Ishant was never a stock bowler in his formative years, which brings me to his other problem- He does not know how to work batsmen out in a spell, which is crucial on pitches that don't provide much assistance. The reason is - he never had to do that as he was coming trough the age groups. His modus operandi is - keep bowling and one of the deliveries will turn out to be unplayable. Such bowlers are great in nets and bad in matches. Dhoni always employs a deep point and deep midwicket and fine leg to cut down runs and hopes he will bowl a wicket-taking ball sometime. It works against for domestic batsmen, West Indies or Zimbabwe and probably for Dhoni himself as they can't keep his good deliveries out. If Ishant really wants to be a great, and he can - all the ingredients are there, he needs to play a season or two in county cricket or shield cricket in Australia and learn that skill of plotting and planning dismissals and learn to adjust his length based on conditions.

For now, Dhoni is doing a disservice to India and to Ishant by playing him.

THE IDEAL T-20 STRATEGY

Too much is made into analyzing T-20 matches, but the fact remains T-20 is one format where instinct and luck beats strategy hands down. Although you still have to do the basics like putting a rank bad ball away, fielding well and taking catches.

Lets take a look at the last 3 T-20 WC winners- India in 2007, Pakistan in 2009 and England in 2010. See anything in common ? They all started the tournament as no-hopes. Pakistan in 2009 in one of the warm-up games was thrashed by India ( They won by 9 wickets or so ). They won the cup and India couldn't win a super-8 game ! The moment you start thinking "Here is my T-20 strategy" , That's it ! Game Over. The successful teams in a tournament are the ones that treat each game on merit and don't think too far into the tournament. Rankings in T-20 don't make sense either. I remember in the 2011 IPL the top ranked Mumbai Indians seemed unbeatable. One day they ran into wooden spooners Kochi Tuskers and lost easily despite a Tendulkar 100 and a 180+ score because McCullum happened to have one his days.

Is Australia in form ? Maybe ! or Maybe not ! They have had best of the batting conditions so far. If they were caught on a dry pitch like today against sub-continent spinners, Watson and Warner are more likely to mishit than hit. Also they are a one-man show right now. Are India in form or are they out of form at the moment ? They thrashed England and Pakistan and were mauled by Australia. The answer is there is nothing called "team is in form" in T-20. Pakistan play spin well, but the Indian part-timers had them in knots except for a brief period where Malik and Akmal were batting. On another day they might get smashed. NZ are poorly ranked, but gave SL a serious scare. SL had two mystery spinners and Malinga, but on that day all NZ mishits were flying in vacant areas except for the super-over. On another day they might have ended up 80 all out. Are England hopeless ? I don't think so. They have some good instinctive T-20 players. If they win the toss and if one of Morgan or Wright fires, they might beat SL

If you ask me to pick a favorite in this tournament, my money would be on Australia. They came in as no hopes and are just looking to win every game without thinking too far into the tournament. All you need is a decent bowling lineup and a batter in red hot form. Australia have that.

So is there an ideal T-20 strategy ? There is none !  So what should a team do, going into a T-20 WC ? Do the basics, but go and have fun , hope for the best and not read too much into the results.

The bet

This incident happened during the 1971 tour of India to the west Indies. The tour was significant in many ways. It heralded the arrival of India's spinners as genuine match-winners.

In the 5th test at Port-of Spain. West Indies after getting India out for 360 were going strong , at 517-6. Maurice Foster was batting confidently and reached 99, David Holford and he had already added a handy 93 between them Sunil Gavaskar who was fielding at fine leg was asked by a spectator if he thought Maurice would get to his 100. Gavaskar said he would. The spectator felt he wouldn't and was willing to bet on it. They agreed that if Foster got out on 99, Gavaskar would pay him a pound and if Foster got to his 100, the spectator would give him 100 pounds.

Suddenly Foster became jittery. Three balls later, he edged one on to his stumps ! Out for 99. During tea break , Gavaskar took his pound on the field but couldn't find that spectator .. and with Foster's dismissal West Indies collapsed to 526 all out.

After Retirement ?

By profession former English captain Mike Gatting is a plumber, before and after representing England

Pakistani cricketer Moshin Khan, joined Bollywood. He married actress Reena Roy and settled in mumbai

Michael Holding started a gas station soon after he retired in his native Jamaica before he started commentary.

Curtly Ambrose and Richie Richardson started a reggae band named Big Bad Dread and the Baldhead.

Mike Whitney started hosting travel and reality TV shows in Australia. Most notably Gladiators Australia

I need more Rotis

Flashback to 1974. There was a camp for under 16 cricketers in wankhede stadium , mumbai . Keki Tarapore was in charge of the camp. There was a young kid from the north , tall and broad shoulder who bowled quick. When food was being served, he went up to Keki and told him

Boy " Sir I need more rotis " .
Keki " Why ? "
Boy " I need strength . I am a fast bowler "
Keki " Huh ! We dont have fast bowlers in India. In India we have only spinners "
and scoffed at him.

The boy ? Kapildev Ramlal Nikhanj . who went on to become India's wisden cricketer of the century . Kapil has privately mentioned that this incident went a long way in steeling up his determination to bowl fast .

Image courstey Wikipedia

Keep it straight!

This is a story of a usual cricket setting in Bombay with a 30 x 10 yards quadrangle for a playground and the residents of the buildings encompassing from three sides for spectators. While it was commonplace to see hours of cricket belted out in a days work in such a setting, it wasn't uncommon for "out of the fence" hits to be greeted with traditional Bombay slang (&%$*#) by the contemporary spectators. One such setting existed in Bhagirathi building in South Mumbai. A young Mumbai lad, like many other Mumbai lads, would visit his uncle in this not so uncommon setting. And like many other Mumbai lads, he had a liking for cricket. And like many other lads, he played in the three-way enclosed quadrangle. And as most individuals, he did not have a particular liking for slang. Hence like most "gully" lads would do, he played most of his cricketing shots down the length of the quadrangle into the only dimension not guarded by screaming residents. The only thing uncommon about this story was that the young Mumbai gully lad went on to be known as Sunil Manohar Gavaskar who was renowned, among other things, for his straight drives. God Bless the screaming spectators!!!!!!!

This story is based on hearsay but does make the rounds in the neighborhood I grew up in..

Received in an email from Advait Kantak

It doesnt matter !

As is well known , India defeated WI in the final of the 1983 World Cup. Six months later WI had to tour India for 6 Tests and 5 ODI's. WI were also keen to avenge their humiliating defeat in the 1983 WC. They left india undefeated, winning the Test series 3-0 and the ODI's 4-0 as if to prove that they were the true world champions.

The Indian batting almost always collapsed in that series. During the final test at Madras, the Indians decided to send Gavaskar in at no.4 to solidify the middle order. But the Indians lost 2 wickets without a run on the board and out walked Sunny. Viv Richards greeted him at the pitch saying " No matter where you bat maan , The score is still zero ! "

Andy Roberts the genius ...

The 1983 WC hero Mohinder Amarnath was India's best batsman against pace . Prior to 1983 WC, India had toured Pakistan, their main bowler Imran Khan was mainly an inswing bowler. Mohinder opened his stance up knowing that Imran never got sharp outswing. It helped him gain some extra time to counter Imran's reverse swing. Mohinder was India's top run-getter in an otherwise abysmal series. When WI arrived, the leader of their pack, Andy Roberts was quick to spot the change and devised a plan. He would bowl leg cutters from wide of the crease. The angle would drift the ball in and the cut would move it away. Roberts had all the WI quicks practice that ball quite meticulously. Mohinder with his open stance had no answer ! He scored just 1 run in six innings.