It was a tremendous exhibition of how to strike a cricket ball and to score 219 in a 50 over game of international cricket almost defies belief, but even Virender Sehwag would admit that the pitch in Indore couldn't have been any more perfect for batting.
There have been 3223 one day internationals and only Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar have scored double hundreds. Both pitches were prepared by the same curator, which is as remarkable as it is telling.
We don't want to take anything away from Sehwag or Tendulkar. They cannot be blamed for taking full advantage of the surfaces they were asked to bat on and the achievement of hitting a double hundred in a ODI is without doubt a notable one.
In tonight's episode of Bigg Boss 5, you will see that Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds all set to enter the Bigg Boss 5 House along with his 'translator' Pooja Missra. This is the first time that an international cricketer is entering Bigg Boss.
The contestants have already been getting clues in some form or the other that a cricketer might be the next entree in the house. But could they even guess it would be an international cricketer who would not even know Hindi? How will they react to his entry?
Andrew, who plans to stick around in the House till it ends in the first week of January, says his family was extremely anxious to know what he was going to do on a show that is based on the popular Big Brother format
Let’s make one thing clear, Virat Kohli is an immensely talented batsman. Kohli is at the head of a new generation of Indian batsmen, including Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane that promises the handover of power from the old guard of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman may be much smoother than once feared.
Nevertheless, Kohli’s reaction to his dismissal in the third ODI against West Indies in Ahmedabad was unacceptable. Standing his ground and glaring at the umpire was bad enough, but his mouthing of obscenities and general childish demeanour was more befitting of the type of behaviour seen at Premier League football grounds.
“You’re just one score away from happiness.” – Jonathan Smith
It’s very rare that I turn back to the first page of a book the second I read the last word on the last page, but that’s exactly what happened with Jonathan Smith’s The Following Game
Or rather by writer, teacher to acclaimed writer Vikram Seth, coach, and ardent literature lover Jonathan Smith. But apart from that, or maybe even above all, by the father of writer and retired England cricketer Ed, an equally ardent cricket lover, a supporter, an aficionado, a follower.
Confronted with a cancer diagnosis and questions over what’s essential in life, looking back at his own career as a teacher and coach, as well as a follower of cricket, Smith
Who do you think has the best Test average of those that have played at least three matches since New Years Day 2008?
Perhaps surprisingly, it is not Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla or even Jonathan Trott. No, the man who heads the table is that most underrated of cricketers - Thilan Samaraweera.
Samaraweera has scored 2,561 runs in 28 Tests during this period with seven hundreds and an average of 69.21 - only Younis Khan and AB De Villiers average over 60 during the same time.
But this excellent record didn't prevent Samaraweera from being dropped by Sri Lanka after the home series defeat by Australia in August.
Duleep Mendis, Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors, has stated that Samaraweera,
Responsibility. Some thrive on it, others crumble under its weight.
Being made captain of an international cricket side is certainly a responsible position. Being made captain of Pakistan in the wake of the Lord’s spot-fixing scandal that had consumed the previous skipper Salman Butt had even more responsibility attached to it.
Such was the burden placed on Misbah-ul-Haq’s shoulders.
Pakistan could easily have imploded. But it didn’t and Misbah must take a lot of credit for that.
At the Reverse Sweep, we find it absurd that Misbah attracts so much criticism from Pakistan cricket followers on blogs and Twitter.
His captaincy may be defensive and over-cautious at times, but Misbah has proved to be
For all the criticism from everyone; including this blog; over the nature of the Wankhede pitch, the Mumbai Test produced the most thrilling draws of all time. Why Test Cricket cannot be marketed and turned into a profitable venture is a mystery to me.
The emergence of R. Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha is heartening. However having seen Arshad Ayub and Narendra Hirwani deliver a similar performance (41 wickets in 3 Tests) against a much stronger New Zealand in 1988 and then fritter away their careers; I know we must all pause and see where the new spin pair stand a couple of years from now and how they perform away from India against quality opposition; before we can truly hail their arrivals. After all for spinners
Sachin Tendulkar has always been in the limelight when it comes to records and now with 99 international centuries to his name, he is just one short of becoming the first man with such an achievement. A huge achievement and it is one that will probably stand as a significant monument such as Bradman's average in the chronicles of the game. However in chasing this glory are we forgetting that 100 is just a number and that there are more important things?
Indians are always astounded by facts and figures and if you want to impress an Indian, all you have to do is sound confident and state some numbers and he will think you to be very wise, that is until he figures out that those numbers have
As India stumbled from heavy defeat to even heavier defeat during a traumatic summer in England one thing seemed very clear: the bowling cupboard was emptier than the contents of Wayne Rooney's head.
With Zaheer Khan injured, Harbhajan way past his best and Ishant Sharma even more inconsistent than usual, it was left to the wholehearted but lacking in pace Praveen Kumar to lead the attack.
But after three Tests against an improving but brittle West Indies despair has turned into optimism as suddenly the cupboard is filling up faster than the supermarket shelves at Waitrose ahead of Christmas.
Harbhajan has finally been put out to pasture and Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha collected 42 wickets at 23
I cannot remember the last time the Indian selectors received credit from all quarters for picking the best Test squad possible. Kris Srikkanth and co deserve it rightly for ignoring the likes of Shastri, in picking players based on their form and promise instead of past exploits and ‘getting under skin” crap. Harbhajan Singh has done nothing of note in the recent past to merit inclusion, while Ravi Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha have grabbed their opportunities with glee. There is no shame in it though, as Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Saurav Ganguly showed that they can come back as better players after an enforced absence from the team. It is up to Bhajji now to work his ass off and show the world that he still
Just as in Adelaide in 2006, the first four days of the 3rd Test between India and West Indies had been pretty soporific.
Other than the pleasure of seeing Darren Bravo once again confirming his immense promise, the drama within a drama that was Sachin Tendulkar's 99.94 and the all-round display of Ravichandran Ashwin, the Wankhede Test had not been a good advert for the longest form of the game.
But the inherent brilliance of Test cricket is that in the space of a few minutes it can transform from execrable to exhilirating and and that is exactly what happened on day five in Mumbai.
Through a mixture of poor shot selection, lack of belief and general naivety as well as some good bowling by Ashwin and
This week, teaching English in the Czech Republic, I have heard the terms 'nigger' and 'gypsy bastard' used in my classroom. This is not unusual and both - in particular the latter - get fairly generous airings from some of my students. It is not a language barrier or some sort of elaborate cultural misunderstanding on my part. It's just tremendously unrefined and unapologetic racism and it is, sad to say, pretty rife in life over here as I have experienced it in the past four and a half years.
Ignoring, discussing, resigning from lessons, temporarily flouncing out, attempted reasoning, and desk thumping have thus far been my reactions to hearing that sort of thing. Astonishment at why I'm complaining,
Shane Watson - 7: His body let him down just as he was looking impressive with the ball on day one. Batted well for his 88, but once again failed to get to three figures - it was the 18th time he has passed 50 in Test cricket, but has only gone on to reach 100 twice. His future lies down the order.
Phil Hughes - 7: Batted entertainingly during his big partnership with Watson on day two and deserved a hundred. Will now get the opportunity to plunder some runs off New Zealand's weak attack.
Usman Khawaja - 7: The replacement for the injured Marsh showed once again that he has the technique and temperament for Test cricket even if his failure to pick Tahir's googly led to his downfall after his crucial
Graeme Smith - 5: Undone by Johnson first time around and the extra bounce of Lyons in the 2nd innings. Gamble to bring on Tahir in the final throes of the chase failed.
Jacques Rudolph - 5: Looked well set in both innings before two tame dismissals. Will need to start kicking on to resist the claims of Alviro Petersen for his spot in the side.
Hashim Amla - 9: Was content to be circumspect as Kallis blasted away at the other end on day one, before playing what appeared to be the crucial knock of the Test with his 2nd innings hundred. Averages over 70 since the start of 2010 and on this form has a claim to be the best batsman in the world today.
Jacques Kallis - 6: 1st innings 54 off just 41 balls was very
I've got back into "A Question of Sport" recently. For any readers
outside of the UK who at this point are saying "WTF", QofS is
basically a sporting quiz on the BBC that features famous sportsmen
and women past and present. It's a little bit kooky and with Phil
Tufnell on the panel it can even border on "zany" occasionally.
On Monday night, Jonathan Trott was a guest on the show. The guy is a
fricken genius. He knew the answers to every sport: rugby, motor
racing, football the lot.
It reminded me that he and his England colleagues are finally on a
little break from playing cricket, as he cosied up to Matt Dawson et
al. He's been playing cricket solidly for months and months. A rest
and an appearance on QofS
