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It took an attack on Jesse Ryder for me to figure out how much I love the man's rock 'n roll ways and his cricket. Here's to you, Jesse, cheers boss!
Showing posts with label Jesse Ryder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesse Ryder. Show all posts
Bored Trivia
If everyone becomes captain then what do Andrew Flintoff, Jesse Ryder, Harbajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Sreesanth, Shoaib Akthar, Md Asif, H Gibbs etc. become ?
They are VICE Captain(s)
Hamilton Test Day 1 - A better late than never report
I must begin with my apologies for posting so late for I'm the bored member who said I'd be up at 3:30am to watch the proceedings of a long anticipated Test clash. But dang it, my arm, I couldn't even move it two days ago, I didn't even make it to work today. Moving to the match.
If you ask me, there isn't much that's new about India letting go of an opportunity to dominate. That said, NZ did well to recover. Vettori played a captain's innings and Ryder gave good support. Good to see that Ryder got the century he deserved - wish it wasn't against us, though!
Tomorrow, Gambhir will be key. I think this will be tour in which Gambhir can go from "seems good" to "really good". This will be a true test for him.
Looking forward to tomorrow.
Drink & Drive
Close up of banner headline "If you drink and cover drive, you're a bloody Ryder".
Cut to Jesse Ryder.
Good 5 sec Ad break that.
(spoofs the Ad headline - if you drink then drive, you're a bloody idiot)
Malfunction
Noun: mal’fúngkshun, A failure to function normally
I was searching for the “one word” that would best describe the Indian teams T20 performance today and found this one.
If anyone thought it is not, then sample this
94 for 5 in 13.2 – Almost 50% of your batting arsenal spent even before you crossed 100 and that to after exhausting 65% of the batting quota, not forgetting that fact that it was a T20 on a ground that was only bigger than the ones where we used to play book cricket those days (read classrooms)
MS Dhoni - Youth icon, inspirational captain, the mainstay of Indian middle order decides slow and steady wins the race, in a must win T20 scoring (a near run a ball) 28 runs in 30 balls
Ravinder Jadeja after having middled a couple beautifully decides enough is enough and holes one out to a hungry Guptill (16.5). Left one to wonder what the Indian strategy was
Irfan Pathan opening the Indian bowling started off on a great note, a six to Jesse Ryder. Bowling one of the shortest of short balls, at an express speed of not more than what would have been Anil Kumble’s “slowest” slower ball
But it was still a close match, or at least so it seemed. The Kiwis could win only in the last ball of the match
If you try and hide everything else and only look at the fact that NZ took their full quota of 20 overs to win or things like 86 of the Indian runs came in boundaries or that the Indians cleared the ropes more than the Kiwis then I must tell you that the grass is still very green on the other side of the septic tank.
But I thought the Indians were never in control of the T20’s, both the first match and this one. It makes one think if this is the beginning of the end, of what most of us call the great Indian cricket resurgence. I wish, I hope & pray that I be wrong when I say this. The verdict we dread would be out in the open in a couple of more weeks.
Ok, now to the most important part of this post. Why did one title this Malfunction?
One of the great Indian news channels called it so. Nope, they weren’t discussing any cricket when they said this. Apparently Ishant Sharma got his bottom exposed (of course not bare bottom, one could only see his thermal suit inner) and they called this a sacrilege and a wardrobe malfunction on the cricket field. The most interesting observation made by the esteemed channel was that the clothing sponsor Nike has to now answer a few difficult questions about how this happened.
This is what I call the great Indian news television malfunction.
Subcontinental Headlines No More
By Q
Despite the English and the Australians holding the claim for bringing the game to the globe, the subcontinent seemed to make the game their own.
The exciting occurrences of a new young player making the headlines, a thrilling run chase with last ball wins, all bowled hatricks, reverse swinging demolitions of oppositions to snatch victories from impossible positions were always associated with the Pakistans and Indias of the world.
All this while the English and the Australians went about their business with expected calm and composure.
The Australians winning everything in clinical fashion and the English losing everything.
With the pulsating positives came the dark negatives as well.
Revolts against the captain, dressing room rifts among team mates, player-management arguements, factions within the team, fixing matches, relationship with bookies, ball tampering, visits to the match referee, fines, bans, you name it and the subcontinental players were in the limelight for everything wrong.
As much as they were for 16 year old debuts, 10 wicket hauls on debuts, youngest to score centuries, fastest 50s and 100s, first to 10,000 test runs, most 6s, first to 500 ODI wickets, and a whole lot more.
Then something changed.
Indians, Lankans, Pakistanis went into the background and the non-Asians, for lack of a better word, started to emerge.
Emerge with a bang to put it aptly.
The calendar changed from 2008 to 2009 and within 11 days the headlines seemed like lightning bolts.
A captain asked for the removal of the coach, while the coach remained quiet.
An emergency board meeting later the captain and coach were both gone, apparently resigned, and a new captain was put in charge.
News of rifts, factions, dressing room arguements surfaced.
The outgoing captain finally spoke and said that he was forced to leave, unlike we were told initially by the board.
All this and it did not involve a team from the subcontinent. In fact, the entire drama unfolded faster and with more twists and turns than any subcontinental drama in the past.
Elsewhere, another cricketer was forced to miss a match because he had one too many the night before, and was "inadequately prepared".
Night out partying and that too not for the first time and facing disciplinary measures sounds like a cricketer from the subcontinent outskirts suddenly exposed to the big bad world of international cricket.
Not quite right, as yet again the headlines were splashed by a non-Indian, non-Pakistani, non-Lankan cricketer.
His replacement for the match was a young 22 year old whom not many had heard of.
Had you? I hadn't.
He grabbed the opportunity with both hands and turned out to open in place of his drunk-and-dumped mate and smashed a debut ton.
It wasn't long ago when young players from India and Pakistan, whom not many had heard of, were being thrust on to the big stage.
Yet again, not this time.
This one wasn't even the most scintillating debut of the year, which is a mere 11 days old.
Nearby, another 22 year old was elevated to the international stage against arguably the best pace attack in the world today.
Awesome would be an understatement for what the young kid produced.
Here was another young cricketer, whom not many had heard of. Whats more is that he became the first ever cricketer in the country's century a bit old cricket history to play an international match without ever having played a first class game.
There was a time when such things were the order of the day for India and Pakistan. In their history, there have been numerous instances of boys spotted in the streets and thrust into international action with no first class experience whatsoever.
This time this headline belonged to no one from the Subcontinent.
It has taken the non-Asians 11 days this year to turn the tables and deliver headlines of the subcontinental nature.
Is the world a changed place? Are the Australians and the English and the Kiwis taking over? I haven't even mentioned the South Africans whose captain walked out at the fall of the 9th wicket to try and save the match with literally one hand!
If the first few days of 2009 are anything to go by, the year ahead will see a lot more drama, both on and off the field, and for a change it will not involve anyone from the Subcontinent.
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