Chanderpaul Stands Firm

April 9th 1994
In his third test, Chanders is in a star-studded West Indian side
They've crushed England and taken the five match series 3-0 already
But in the 4th test England fight back, and the West Indies begin to collapse
Chanders enters at number 6, with the score on 126
Gus Fraser rips through taking 3 wickets at that score
The English snarl, "Get out little man"
But Chanderpaul stands firm
He battles and battles, and ends up with 77 and takes the Windies to a respectable 304
The Windies lose the match, but it would not be the last time Shiv glued an innings together

May12th 2003
The Windies and Australia have an identical 240 on the board after an innings each
Australia then roar to 417 after centuries by both openers
The Windies are 4/165 when Chanders comes in as Lara is dismissed
With Sarwan, with whom he would share many brilliant partnerships, he stitches together a century
Its too much for the snarling Australians as McGrath gets into a famous heated spat with Sarwan,
At the end of the day, Sarwan is dismissed for a century,
but Chanders stands firm and is unbeaten on his 100
The Windies complete a memorable win the next day, the highest chase in Test History

June 10th-11th 2007
Chasing an improbable 455 to win against England at Manchester
The Windies are reduced to 3-88 in the 32nd over of the second innings
Chanders walks in, as the English sledge "Just leave little man"
But Chanderpaul stands firm and he bats and bats and bats,
100 overs later, the Collymore is dismissed and England win by 60 runs
Chanders is unbeaten on 127*, Runako Morton's 54 is the next highest score
The West Indies failed in the first innings too, Chanders was the only batsman to cross 50

April 10th 2008
Sri Lanka collapse and recover in an ODI to post a respectable 235
Chanderpaul walks in with the Windies placed comfortably at 3/109 off 28 overs
And watches them collapse, he is still there when No.11 Fidel Edwards walks out
The score is 219 and the Windies need 17 off 7 balls, he slams the last ball of the over for 4
The wily Vaas concedes 3 runs off the first 4 balls as the Windies need 10 off 2 balls
"Give it up little man" but Chanderpaul stands firm
He smashes a 4 past mid-off and and then hits a full toss into the stands at mid-wicket

14th November 2008
Chasing 232 against Pakistan, Chanders comes in 2/14, after both openers are dismissed for ducks
Along with, who else but again that man, Sarwan he steadies the ship,
But Sarwan falls for 45 and the West Indies are failing again
For 44 overs Chanerpaul stands firm, defying the Pakistani bowlers
Wickets fall around him, as they have so many times in the past
As they will continue to fall around him in the future
When Gul bowls Lionel Baker, the Pakistanis triumph by 24 runs
That the Windies had hopes until that moment can only be because of Chander's defiance
He's not out on 107, more than half the team's total score

May 2015
In the dying light of a spectacular career, Chanders watches the West Indies in turmoil
But it isn't just their batsmen this time, its their administration
As it has been for over a decade
The legends ask him to retire, "Its time to leave little man"
But Chanderpaul stands firm, defiant to the very end
He will not retire and leave the team in the hands of those who will fail again
They drop him, but Chanderpaul still stands firm
After all those years, maybe it is the only thing he knows

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Dear Trevor

From Cricinfo, Trevor Bayliss has this to say on the UDRS

"The question that's got to be asked is, why the referral system is being used in every other series barring this one, when the ICC said that it should be used after October 1," Bayliss said. "No one's explained to us yet why it's not being used when it's being used everywhere else in the world. If Dilshan was able to go and make a big score in the first innings, things might have been a bit different."

Now, this can either be seen as a valid point for the increased use of Technology in cricket ( and grist to the mill for more BCCI bashing) or sour grapes.

I am inclined to go with the latter. And not just because of my well documented antipathy to the increased use of technology in cricket (here and here).

In one of the "other series" where the UDRS is being used, at the end of the first day's play, both teams involved are unhappy with the referral system. This despite having the full complement of everything the UDRS has to offer.

Ricky Ponting is unhappy because "The Australia captain believed West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul was caught behind on 38 during the opening day of the second Test. But the third umpire did not give him out.".

And the  West Indies are unhappy because "Chanderpaul was fired on the flimsiest of evidence from one camera shot when other angles were inconclusive and the "hot spot" replay failed to show a touch on the edge of the bat."

And for the record, Snicko indicated a sound in both incidents - the source of which remains unknown.

So not only is the technology in use unreliable, it is further compounded by the fact that  human error ( and human malice) has a huge role to play in the final result. So, not only can the technology in use produce erroneous results ( or be manipulated to produce said results) but you have the discretion of the third umpire to deal with AFTER the technology has delivered its verdict.


And who is to say that Sri Lanka would have benefited from the UDRS. For all I care, Prasanna Jayawardene would have never come close to the 154 he scored in the first Test at Ahmedabad had the technology been in play!

Does that answer your question, Trevor?

Cheers,

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West Indies-England tie fixed.

By rain and Duckworth Lewis. And then England got fixed. Somewhere towards the end, Cha'paul and Sarwan ran across the fields of tulips and embraced - and that's when Cha'paul's helmet took a knock, and tilted some, blinding him, till he adjusted it like the awkward school boy that he is.

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Shiv crawls on

WI main middle order man - also the mean middle order man has been rather busy with something other than cricket

He hasn't noticed that they've started playing the one dayers against England.
Funny guy Shiv, didn't even remember losing the first one dayer.

Anyway, the Caribbean Crawler smashed an absolutely brilliant 68, the only problem it came off 108 balls while... chasing 329

He might have thought 'yep, this one looks like one of dem dead pitches from back home.... let's draw this one now.'
good goin Shiv....

Gayle needs to keep reminding him that the 50-50 games are on.
Cant help it if the IPL hangover is making the ODIs appear a little too long to watch or play.

by Prafs

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Shivnarine Chanderpaul Referreal

Third Umpire Decision (on basis of above evidence) : OUT

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Cricketing Inventions and Lessons from a Bored Afternoon

by VM

I never thought that an odd invention from a bored summer afternoon would occupy my childhood fancies so much. What could possibly happen when it’s so scorching hot that you aren’t allowed outside, you don’t have a proper bat, and less than three people available for a team game? Stick-cricket happened.

As the name suggests, it’s a modified form of the game we love, only with rules tweaked to make a game out of the several restrictions that I describe. It’s mostly played with only two people using a stick – often curtain rod - and a harmless plastic ball or occasionally mock-tennis ball to minimize any damage to our surroundings. A box or shelf doubled up for stumps and a line drawn with chalk delineated the batting-crease. There was no wicket keeper, unless we could afford a third player, and no fielders, well, actually there was one fielder: the bowler. There was no umpire either, the batsmen would have to “walk”, in this case to the bowling crease, to bowl to the person who he has just faced as bowler. Honesty was necessary and inevitable, for anything contrary would mean returning either to the books or the boring TV. No “in-the-air” shots were allowed, for that could cause damage at home and invoke the ire of the folk at home. The rules were thus set up.

So how does the batsman score? Well, the bowler would run up for a few steps and bowl to the only other player: the batsman. The batsman could then hit it some distance and run to the other end, quick enough to reach there before the bowler could pick up and throw to the end the batsman is running at. Hitting the end from which the batsmen is running from would not constitute a run out! So the game goes on like this.

If you’re thinking that it’s a boring game, you may not be too far from the truth, though it must be said that it kept me occupied and saved me some very boring afternoons. But more that anything, playing this game was in many ways the moment of truth for the cricket fan in me. It taught me how hard it can be to hit the ball for single, without dragging it on to my makeshift stump, how valuable the reverse sweep could be, and what talent it takes to hit a four. I must add that we did get better at scoring, but only with a lot of practice and meanwhile learned the art of patience. Most importantly, it turned me from a jingoistic cricket fan to an appreciative fan who would attempt notice the details, and most importantly realize that it is after all a game and not war, as was often portrayed by the newspapers then. Maybe this is why I like Test cricket more and than any other form. Perhaps this is also why most of favorite batsmen are the more patient like Dravid, Kallis and Chanderpaul.

Do you have a cricket-based invention from childhood or a cricket-watching moment of truth? There’s no better place than here to share.

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