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A chat with one of RCB's biggest fans, 9 year old Kabir Arora - his take on AB de Villiers, where Virat Kohli should bat, smashing it and team changes. Something on Zampa too.
Showing posts with label AB De Villiers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AB De Villiers. Show all posts
Why Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers should not play in the same team
When AB does those things, like plucking white balls, one-handed out of thin air, the world goes nuts. And that silly smile sits on Virat’s face – there is contentment. His world is at peace. He may even have attained nirvana at that precise moment. He’s sitting in the RCB dugout but for all you know, he could be in McLeodganj with the Dalai Lama.
Often Virat is in the middle, and he can speak to his buddy after yet another of AB’s Do-Not-Try-This-At Home feats. The glow on Virat’s face is nothing short of a girl marrying her bearded Prince charming.
At no point has Virat tried to hide his fanboy awe of AB. Why would he? How could he? How could anyone? The very reason you pick AB de Villiers in your team is for such superhuman feats.
It’s another thing that such superhuman feats will always have a downside – they will make everyone around, including Virat, far less. There’s no way you can match AB, so why not just roll over and die? Or do nothing. He’ll take care of it. He’s a superhuman after all.
And while AB can string together some fantastic strokes and catches, he is but a foot-soldier in the team. He is not RCB’s captain, Virat is.
Virat, in his own way, can be quite a superhuman. But by now, don’t we know that in the superhero hierarchy, there is the super superhero, and his flunky? While AB was being referred to as Superman and Spiderman (the latter by Virat too), India’s cricketing superhero was enjoying way too much shade.
There isn’t much between Virat and AB in terms of runs this IPL – while the captain played all 14 league matches (530 runs, averaging 48.18, striking at 139.10), the Superman was unwell for two (480 runs, averaging 53.33, striking at 174.54). While the difference in strike rates is 35+, Virat’s strike rate was still way above par.
While both Virat and AB had an indifferent 2017 season, they both were in supreme form in 2016 where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the finals.
A final in which current SRH skipper, Kane Williamson did not feature. He played six of SRH’s 17 matches that season. The then captain, David Warner, played all matches, leading SRH to the IPL trophy.
In 2017, Williamson played seven matches but upped his strike rate from 101 to 151, his batting average too more than doubled from 20.66 to 42.66. Warner, though, was in another zone (combining the best of Kohli and de Villiers) - scoring 848 runs at a strike rate of 151.42, at an average of 60.57 in 2016; averaging 58.27, striking at 141 in 2017.
Williamson, though, had moved in from the sidelines. This season when Warner was unavailable, Williamson led SRH to the play-offs as table toppers. 661 runs, average of 60 at a strike rate of 143.
Forget the numbers for a moment, and stand the four cricketers alongside each other. What do you see? Warner captain, Williamson vice-captain? AB superman, and Virat?
While Virat’s role has always been similar to that of Warner’s, to bat high up (if not open) and go on to bat through the innings with varying degrees of acceleration; it is AB’s brilliance that has been a distraction – not just for the captain but for the team on a whole.
In the shade of AB’s brilliance, RCB has underachieved yet again under Virat’s captaincy. It may sound downright preposterous but for RCB to come together as a team, they may have to split the most beautiful pairing in the IPL.
Virat may make a far better captain when he is trying to dismiss AB with the ball. The awe will be intact, (as it no doubt was in the last Test series) but there will be a far greater focus – a competition between the two, which can only happen when the two play against each other. As team mates, Virat almost seems to shudder from the limelight. And that is pretty much going against the grain.
Of course, there are other ways to do it too, go about the auctions smartly but that’s asking too much of royally challenged Bangalore.
First published here
Can Kohli lift a bunch of flatliners
Technically, RCB can still make the play-offs. But for a team that didn’t make it to the ground in the last two matches, that’s a long shot. If RCB were flattened for 49 in their match against KKR, four days later they were walloped by the Gujarat Lions.
RCB are silent, Virat Kohli, even though he speaks in the customary post-match interviews, is silent. He speaks by rote, when a team goes downhill as his, there’s not much to be said - all you can hope is that it ends soon.
But it won’t. Not for RCB, not for Kohli. There are five more arduous matches to somehow turn up for. The team composition can be tossed around but Kohli will remain captain, and in all likelihood, open the innings.
After the heady success as an opener in IPL-9, where he piled up four centuries, scored nearly a thousand runs, that too at a strike rate in excess of 150, this year is turning out to be frugality in the extreme.
So far in five matches, Kohli is striking at 126 - acceptable for most Indian openers in the IPL, but way too conservative for RCB’s liking. There are two half centuries but his batting average is nearly 50 runs down from the heady highs of 2016.
In 2016, Kohli almost single-handedly rode RCB into the finals. In 2017, Kohli is being weighed down by an almost wobbly bunch of erstwhile T20 greats. Like Kohli, both AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle have not played all RCB’s matches this year - while both Kohli and de Villiers were late entrants, and played five out of nine matches, Gayle has featured in six.
AB de Villiers has one 50 (an 89 not out in a lost cause), but just 61 runs from his other four games. He has looked unsure against spin, unable to weigh in during Kohli’s tough phase.
For a player who Kohli has often referred to as "the best batsman in the world", de Villiers appears to only turn up, much like a 12th man, when it’s time to field. Such is the punishing nature of the format, and more so, the tournament, even the best can start to look quite ordinary.
Compared to Kohli and de Villiers, Gayle’s numbers look even more jaded - like de Villiers he has only 50 (a 77 in a winning cause, at a strike rate of 200+), though from his remaining five matches he has just 75 runs, with his tournament strike rate dropping to 125.
For most batsmen, these numbers would be more than acceptable, but for RCB to win, these three batsmen needed to overcompensate not just their weak bowling but the absence of KL Rahul on top.
Kedar Jadhav in the middle order has shown much promise, and far more threat than RCB’s big three but it’s way too often stopped shy of defining the match. Jadhav has played eight of nine matches, although he’s been striking at 160, his average of 29 has been more of a support cast than the leader he needed to be.
In the match against Lions, he had the measure of the bowling but switched off and threw it away in only the ninth over - a 31 off 18 balls would’ve served well as a lower order charge, but did nothing to control the innings. It would go down as just another Jadhav cameo, another lost opportunity.
As for the support cast, they have been woeful - both Mandeep Singh and Stuart Binny are in their eighth IPL season, but looking at them play, you’d be mistaken for thinking each match was their first.
While Binny is picked as a lower order batting all-rounder, Mandeep is supposed to be a top order batsman. Binny has bowled four overs so far and somehow wrangled three wickets. With the bat it’s 77 runs at a strike rate of 111. Mandeep has 73 runs in eight matches, with an unacceptable strike rate of 90. Top that, he ran de Villiers out in the last match.
At which point, Kohli just looked away. There was nothing else to say or do. Kohli had lost his anger, quite possibly lost all hope in this bunch. RCB slid to 60/5 with 10 overs yet to be bowled.
If Mandeep’s numbers are dismal, then Shane Watson’s horror run with the bat is symptomatic of a far more acute illness that plagues RCB - in five matches, Watson has cobbled together 61 runs at a very unT20ish strike rate of 96.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Watson has bowled nearly 15 overs – two wickets for his troubles at an economy of 10.53. No wonder RCB benched him and left him to chat up Michael Hussey on the sidelines. Even there, he seemed off the boil.
While Gayle is 37 and Watson nearly 36, and both might yet have a few seasons of franchise cricket in them, it’s doubtful either player has a future with RCB. Kohli must play each match with this knowledge - that two of his overseas’ mainstays have been largely redundant. If Kohli started off doing the job of one Kohli - that of attacker, nourisher, sustainer - he now also has to overcompensate for the lacks of others.
It’s bad enough if Kohli doesn’t turn up on some days. Then to sit and watch the team do nothing, match after match, that can be sapping. No matter how much energy Kohli might have, being part of a train wreck takes its toll.
The best Kohli can do is look to bat 20 overs. Nobody else is going to do it. There is no hurry. There’s nothing left to prove. Just go back to the Zen of cricket clichés - play each ball on its merit, don’t expect the others to, for there’s little merit left in them.
And what good are leaders, if they can’t show those lost the way?
First published here
Virat Kohli's character building exercises
Captaining Royal Challengers Bangalore is making Virat Kohli appreciate the small things in life: like beating Kings XI Punjab by one run. "Not that any side in the IPL can be taken for granted" as Delhi Daredevils found out by resting all their match winners and losing to Rising Pune Supergiants.
But this IPL has been a humbling experience for the great Virat, there are days when he doesn't score a 50 or a 100. Days when RCB bats first, and Virat's Google Maps has no obvious destination. There are days, like yesterday, when even Virat scores at less than a run a ball and is dismissed at the wrong time. For Virat, being dismissed at any time is the wrong time, so imagine what it must feel like to be dismissed.
"I'M OUT?? I DON'T GET OUT? How can I be out? Why?" And slowly it sinks in, as he drags his feet to the dugout, to sit alongside this season's benchwarmer, Chris Gayle.
Yes, that Chris Henry Gayle, now a daddy off the field but no longer on it. Gayle has scored just eight runs in three games. He missed a few because of his baby's delivery, and then he's missed a few more because of his own non-delivery.
Virat has had to drop the undroppable Gayle and said so in so many words: "No, Gayle wasn't rested, we chose Travis Head in his place." How can someone drop Gayle in a T20 match? Well, Virat just did and continues to. He's been upfront about it, not shying behind sugar-coated explanations of resting a player or using the usual face-saving reasons such as injury niggles for big players.
Talking of big players, Virat has also dropped the rather rotund Sarfaraz Khan. And again, shot straight from the hip, citing fitness or lack of it, for Sarfaraz's drop. Is there a Kingfisher Honesty Award? Create one just for captain Kohli.
If facing brutal facts such as, "I can't win every game on my own" weren't bad enough, realising that neither can AB de Villiers has been a revelation. Virat has made no qualms about being all fanboy about AB's batting. According to him, the South African freak is the world's best batsman.
No wonder he's all freaked out when AB is dismissed. In many ways, AB's dismissal rips through him far deeper than his own. It's as if he's been wronged. It's as if Virat believes he's privileged to play alongside de Villiers. There is a blue chip mutual fund respect between the two.
After RCB lost three in seven deliveries, it took an AB de Villiers laser show to light up the night sky, and with it, Virat's face. All was good with the world again. Virat's belief in mankind was restored.
Though it would take a lot more to restore any belief in his bowling. Is it okay to call them that? Opening with Stuart Binny, where does Virat go from there? Closing with Chris Jordan, that's where. In between there's Varun Aaron. And an uninjured Shane Watson, still somehow bowling, is his best bet at the death.
Virat knows with his bowling no score is safe, so he's constantly trying to outdo himself, but all with an almost bipolar cocktail of caution tossed with aggression. And he's still striking in excess of 140-150. Just imagine what could be, if he went out there and played a frolicking T20 innings, no stress, just strut. But that's not how it is for Virat Kohli.
He's the captain. And with every match as his team's ship continues to sink, he wages a lone war against this deceptive iceberg: the visible part is the opposition, the unseen part is his own team. So far Virat has kept the RCB Enterprise afloat. But can he take it where no Royal Challenger has gone before? This is one captain's voyage, we don't want to miss. Beam us up.
First published here
RCB confident to win IPL without Mallya
It's always been a case of so close yet so far for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Inspite of having some of the biggest names in their squad, they continue to underperform in the IPL. For years, both the trophy and the answers have eluded them.
Not anymore.
It now appears with RCB owner, Vijay Mallya fleeing the country, a weight has been lifted off the players. Mallya was a regular at most RCB matches, however, he did little to boost the players' confidence.
At best of times, he looked twitchy and unsure of his million dollar investments, in this case the players.
Even though Mallya's RCB boasted of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, it is now learnt that way too much time was spent mastering the annoying Kingfisher jingle.
Time that could have been spent productively in the nets or in the gym was wasted dancing to the "childish" jingle. While players from other teams also participated in these Kingfisher promotional films, it was the RCB players who had to be present at the drop of Mallya's white hat.
"He always wanted us dancing to that Oo La La La Le O jingle.. I F***KING hated it... it made me so f***king pissed I wanted to beat the s**t out of the DJ who kept playing it on Mallya's repeated requests," said a leading RCB player who did not wish to be named.
Another top overseas batsman was also quite annoyed with the jingle, "Man, no chill with this s**t hits the roof and puke all over the dance floor. Bro give me a break, old man. Bro, you dance. Let us play cricket... except after the match, lol."
It appears things had come to such a pass that players were planning a walkout from the team but because the notorious after-parties were still so inviting, no player had the heart or balls to leave.
"You party like that. Man you go straight to heaven... lol... and bang on to clouds with angels... sweet nothing chirp chirp birdies like that," said a batsman who has a penchant for "good times" and his bad boy image.
With so much dancing to the jingle and partying after that, even the fittest players were running on empty. There just wasn't enough time to recover, it was a wicked grind of jingle dance, party, play, and more jingle dance.
"He did strike me as a pervert, just sitting there sipping his gin and tonic leering at us through his shades, and always that Oo La La Le O," said another top foreign batsman.
Now it appears, with Mallya gone, the jingle rehearsals are down to a minimum. He still asks for the odd Skype session but they are far tougher to arrange.
The after-parties too have dried up, and most players are switching their phones off at night, dreading a Vijay Mallya-Lalit Modi call from one of their all-night raves in London.
With Mallya and his distractions out of the way, RCB appear a rejuvenated bunch. They have been further energised by their captain's brilliant run at the World T20.
Fresh from being awarded "Man of the Tournament", Virat Kohli is adamant to beat all teams with West Indies' batsmen in them - "especially Mumbai Indians that has Lendl Simmons who took the game away from us in the semis."
When reminded that Samuel Badree who also plays for RCB had a decisive role in the semis, he half-joked, "Maybe, that's why he is injured."
When asked if Vijay Mallya's absence will make any difference to the team, he joked again, "It might do some good for him, watching us play he would just go red in the face... so hopefully less tension for him."
Before AB de Villiers cried, the skies wept.
- O dear Leonard Cohen
- Will you lend your voice and words
- To the loss we're feeling
- Because all we can do now
- Is cry
- Cry, cry, cry
- All we can do is cry
- Cry like we was babies
- Cry like we was lost
- Cry like we don't know when we're going home, AB
- Cry like we don't know when we're going home, baby
- Cry like we just don't know
- Oh, what a game this is
- The very game that makes me live
- Is the very game that makes me die
- The very game that makes me high
- The very game that makes me die
- Oh, what a game this is
- The crying game
- I cried like a Pup
- I cried like a captain
- I cried with AB de Villiers
- I cried with Michael Clarke
- I cried with my heart ripped bare
- I cried for a player I scarcely knew
- His childhood photographs on my bedside table
- And I saw him growing up
- And I saw him going up
- I saw him fall
- I saw us all fall
- I saw that kid from the country
- His farmer ways
- I saw him with Warner
- I saw him on the scoreboard
- Forever not out
- Forever, 63* not out
- I saw Morne long legs run down at the Kotla
- I saw Morne scissor balls back down at third man
- How he made the ball rise on such a passive pitch
- How he made the ball rise on just any pitch
- "How the moon hits your eye
- And the zing bails fly
- That's a Morne"
- I saw Morne as a boy going to school
- The gentle gawky kid that wouldn't hurt a fly
- The gentle gawky kid that wouldn't tell a lie
- Such a good kid, such a straight good kid
- And that kid sits on the banks of Eden Park
- In a pool of tears, in a pool of blood, sweat and years
- Morne Morkel, just sits there and weeps
- All six foot four inches of him just sits there and weeps
- That's a Morne
- "When the moon hits your eye
- Like a big pizza pie, that's amore"
- Oh, what a game this is...
- The very game that makes me live
- Is the very game that makes me die
- The very game that makes me high
- The very game that makes me die
- Oh, what a game this is
- The crying game
- AB was everywhere, every fucking where
- From mid off to mid wicket
- From a midsummer night's dream to a midlife crisis
- AB batted in the 40th, AB bowled in the 40th
- AB aged nine years, he was on to his 40th
- AB says
- I don't know what to do, I am completely at a loss
- AB says
- I don't know, I don't even know when we are going home
- AB says
- I tried my best to catch it, I didn't
- AB says
- As a captain, I'll be there for the guys
- AB says
- But life moves on and the sun will come up tomorrow
- AB says
- AB sobs
- I write to my South African friends
- I ask them the same question
- How are you?
- Antoinette Muller says
- "Oh I'm fine. They did their best."
- Sean Wilson says
- "I'm okay. It's just sport."
- Sean Simpson says
- "I am shattered. Drinking nice wine though."
- Ben Karpinski says
- "Not well mate. Really not well
- But hoping your boys can beat Australia on Thursday. That will help things"
- The very game that makes me live
- Is the very game that makes me die
- The very game that makes me high
- The very game that makes me die
- Oh, what a game this is
- The crying game
- Before AB cried, the skies wept.
Credits, notes, asides:
"That's Amore" - by Dean Martin (lyrics by Brooks, Jack / Warren, Harry).
"That's a Morne" - by Sean Wilson (@SimplySean on twitter).
It's only after writing this that I discovered that Morne Morkel and I share a birthday. We did not go to the same school, however.
For a lark, picture Leonard Cohen singing "Now so long, Morne, it's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again".
First published in daily O
Out of South Africa
When the media pounded Smith about this decision, Smith with his usual pugnacious attitude, responded, “Listen. I didn’t want Morne to better his personal record of 40. We would lose a genuine number 11 batsman and our selectors – you know how they are – they might get Gibbs back in to play at #11.” When pushed further, Smith revealed, “I didn’t want to upset the delicate clique balance we have in our team. And also, Morne might want a move up the order. As valid as that request may be, considering the kind of form Alviro and Ashwell have been in recently, I was keeping an eye on the upcoming series against India. You know Dhoni is going to spread the field as soon as Morne steps in to bat. This will give us an opportunity to score all the runs we want.”
Real IPL Player: Delhi Daredevils vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
i) Jacques Kallis chugs down the track on his follow through and applies brakes just before colliding with AB de Villiers, who had blocked the delivery. Kallis gives him a piece of mind, telling exactly what he thought of him. And to ensure de Villiers has not missed the point, Kallis repeats the sermon after the next delivery. For the uninitiated, the duo is rumoured to play for the same national side;
ii) It’s not for nothing that cricketers are called demi-gods in India. Anil Kumble removes Yogesh Nagar, not exactly Don Bradman reincarnated, and then does a Lord Vishnu. Only the Sudarshan Chakra is missing as Jumbo sketches a circle in the sky.
iii) Two white ladies enter the hospitality suit with bindis on their forehead. Downwards, the sartorial parsimony, so intrinsic of the local culture, however reassures that they have not chucked their own tradition altogether. IPL rings on cultural fusion in South Africa.
iv) Sehwag doesn’t field McGrath the Pigeon. The joke doing the round here is Sehwag wants to stay away from any sort of ‘Kabootarbaazi’.
v) Rahul Dravid’s most shots find the point fielder. We didn’t seek evidence but Jammy decided he had a point to prove.
B the moment of the match
It's funny finding a moment of the match even before the match is halfway complete...
But I am sure this is...
Dirk Nannes bowling the 18th over for Delhi.
It was Jacob Oram of Chennai who faced him
A good hit from Oram could only take him as close as a yard and a half near the wide long on boundary
AB de Villiers took a well judged catch to return Oram to his rightful place at the dugout
Mr Gavaskar, the commentator I thought overplayed how close AB was to the boundary just to make that moment of success plug make some (exciting) sense.
Mr Gavaskar and his band of commentators, what a funny bunch they are turning out to be.
Well, let me re-phrase the last part of that line...
These sponsor plugs are bring the ass out of these commentators...
who will captain daredevils...
with jatman out due to injury...the question is who will captain delhi daredevils...
vettori...?
though he started well...but that onslaught from yusuf seems to have scarred him...seems to have lost his touch since...and now struggling to complete his quota of overs...
de villiers...?
i have not seen him captain so can't comment on that but what i know is that he is going great guns and i don't wanna put an extra burden on him...which might hamper his fluency with the bat...delhi needs him more as a bat than a captain...
dilshan...?
after what he did with his sole captaincy stint in a T20 match in srilanka...no way...?
dinesh karthick...?
i think he is best suited for this temporary stint...seems to have found some form with bat...and extra responsibility and lure of competing against dhoni might make him more alert and focused on the job at hand...which delhi needs badly in the middle...as also in the middle overs...the way delhi opening has been so far...
besides...it will be a sight to see dhoni coming to toss with his counterpart...i really don't wanna miss this chance to see them compete against each other...
do you...?
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