The Finisher

Let me take you back in time, almost 10 years ago...

The Kumar-Mahela show has ended, and Sri Lanka have posted a rather daunting 298

It is all the more daunting when Sachin is dismissed by Chaminda Vaas, the score is 7

In walks a slightly different kind of Indian cricketer, 

Shoulder length hair, but powerfully built, and he likes to run hard

He has a casual air about him, unflappable and assured, almost happy-go-lucky

He's shown glimpses of his talent in international cricket, especially at the finish

A brilliant hundred to propel India to 350 against Pakistan

A quickfire 37* to take India home against New Zealand chasing 279 in Harare

A sparkling  67* when India were reduced to 91/5 after 24 overs chasing 250+ 2 days later

And he likes to finish things off in style...

He's already turning heads, in a team that has Sehwag, Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid and Yuvraj at their peak

And now his skipper has thrust him into the spotlight...

And he does what he does best... delivers with no fuss... 

Its almost anticlimactic, its raining sixes in Jaipur, but you feel like you're always in the eye of a hurricane

177 insane runs later, the match is won, but there's one thing left... finishing with a flourish...

A heave over mid-wicket, the only real way that match could've ended, 23 balls unbowled...

And Indian cricket knew right then, they had found somebody special... really special!

Lets turn back the clock again, this time not so long ago...

Its 2011, and all of India are on edge

its the same opposition but on the grandest stage of them all

Its a tricky target, and Sachin and Sehwag have already departed...

But this time our man is the captain and promotes himself...

You of course, remember the rest... and that finish... you will never forget that finish!

Its happened so many times, that people no longer just took it for granted

They demanded it every single time

And now they demand his head on a platter... 

even though they must know there will never be another like him

and what he has done for Indian cricket can never be understated

But I know our captain... His career will finish, as all must, but he will do it in style

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Kicking Dhoni When He's Down

Tiger Woods (and this was when he was probably the most popular sportsman on the planet, well before the world decided to judge him based on his personal life) once shocked audiences on a talk show when he said "My dad always said, when they're down, stomp on 'em!" Perhaps its our false sense of fair play that makes us feign surprise when we hear someone say something like this so openly when the truth is it happens all around us all the time. It is a natural product of competitiveness - realizing you cannot afford to give your opponent half a chance to get back after he's made an error or you could end up losing. And as popular as comebacks might be for audiences, there can be few things as devastating or demoralising as dominating an opponent only to see them come back from the brink and win because you could not close the game out.

Right now Dhoni is down. He is almost out too. He's endured a miserable year and a half, perhaps as shocked as any of India's cricket fans at how quickly and sharply fortunes have changed since winning the World Cup. Instead of trying to empathize, put yourself in his shoes and understand what he's going through (is it really so hard to understand that people who have been on a prolonged losing streak and who've been hounded left, right and centre by reporters baying for blood, are going to make the odd stupid comment or do you expect to always receive the banalities that the Australian team made a joke about and were criticized for not too long ago?), people have summarily dismissed him as a cynical, uncaring, T20 mercenary. There are those who've always had an axe to grind with him, and there has never been a better time to stick a few knives in him and kick him out once and for all. It was Dhoni after all wasn't it, who brought the entire team out at a press conference to ridicule outlandish rumours put out by sections of the sensationalist Indian media about a rift in the Indian dressing room at a time the team could ill afford such petty distractions?

They're a tightly knit bunch in the Indian sport journalist community and they don't forget slights too easily. Many who are quick to point out how big the egos of sportsmen (on whom they make their money writing articles about) are have developed egos just as large if not bigger, because they've fooled themselves into believing their articles are more important because of their unique insight, like everybody else's. Sharda Ugra seems to have had it in for Mahendra Singh Dhoni for a really long time, or I don't know, maybe just after he decided that it wasn't worth making the extra effort to keep himself in their good books and let his cricket do the talking? Her latest article on cricinfo is a load of rambling rubbish, where she harps on one statement repeatedly to try and give credibility to her loathing of the Indian captain.

On no less than three separate occasions does she bring up Dhoni's remarks that the 2007 World Cup loss hurt more than the recent test series losses. Its what you usually do when you have scant evidence to back a ludicrous claim, shout the one point you have hoarse. The article gets more ridiculous and contradictory with every paragraph. She opens with a reminder that it wasn't just Dhoni who took India to the number one position and that "Besides, captains are only as good as their teams", then a short while later its "Dhoni has lost nine of 16 tests".. oh no, certainly not the captain only being as good or bad as his team there? There are the odd rumors from friends, oh sorry, "peers" who claim Dhoni called "day cricket" boring (protect those unidentified sources at all costs! especially if they don't happen to exist!) as a youngster. There's the standard street-smart gambling /hunch stereotype portrayal instead of a "daring piece of cricketing logic"... well maybe a "daring piece of cricketing logic" should tell you that neither Sehwag, who doesn't deserve a spot in any of the teams based on his form, nor Kohli who is among the most immature of cricketers going around and cannot command respect while he remains such, are anywhere near suitable candidates to captain India right now.

Should it be every cricketer's ultimate goal to think about the good of Test cricket? Every cricket captain? We know Ms Ugra has used Ponting as an example on more than a few occasions to ask how we would react to Dhoni if he was Ponting instead, so maybe we should go back to when the venerable Ponting put himself before the game and chose not to go for a series levelling win to protect himself from an overrate related ban, or when Mahela Jayawardene acted as proxy captain against the Spirit of the Game (Warne has been charged under this same offence in, get this, the BBL!)? Surely these acts deserved equal condemnation? Dhoni has always been a defensive captain, but he is not alone, apart from Michael Clarke in recent times captains from all sides have been defensive. Cook could easily have chosen to set India a target in Nagpur and try to bowl them out under the pressure of the chase instead of giving Trott and Bell the licence to bore test cricket lovers to death, right?

But timing is everything. There will perhaps never be a better opportunity to write a populist article demanding the final removal of the Indian skipper from a format to which he is so apparently unsuited and cares so little about, forget that his patient 99 probably helped stave off a 3-1 loss. Ms Ugra learnt this the hard way the last time her ego got the better of her and she wrote a scathing piece on Dhoni for the unspeakable crime of not showing up for a press conference... which he had no obligation to turn up to in the first place. My my, he left a few journalists waiting for what they mistakenly assumed was obligatory instead of customary, what a scumbag! We'll tell all our fans on cricinfo and they'll demand his head... except, they didn't and the article drew such a vicious response (India were a pretty good team back then, and we didn't care about Dhoni not attending a press conference at another boring Sri Lankan series) that it was pulled from cricinfo's front pages within minutes and relegated to the nether pages, so hard to find a couple of hours later that I need to use exact search strings on google to find it.

Nor is Ms Ugra alone among those who've used India's downfall to trumpet their vindication for doubting Dhoni, almost all exclusively in hindsight. Mohinder Amarnath drew scorn for claiming he wanted to sack Dhoni as captain but stayed silent and decided not to as selector and instead what's he doing, write a book on it? I'm a mere spectator, and like many in the audience I love watching a champion make a comeback from the brink, and there will be fewer victories sweeter for me if Dhoni is able to silence these critics once and for all. Its not that they matter or that they are worthy opponents, its the wave of adversity that he's facing because he has chosen to treat many of the sports journalists in this country for what they are, unlike a few who have become media darlings because of carefully managed and cultured relationships with these two-faced hounds who swish their pens around hoping their jabs will win them plaudits, rarely thinking about the consequences of their influence and responsibilities while demanding the same of those whom they criticize.

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WHERE. IS. CHE. PUJARA?

As I write, India have just lost Yuvraj Singh and are in trouble in the 2nd ODI against England, at my hometown Kochi. Yuvraj was perhaps unlucky, but he benefited from a poor decision earlier when he edged the ball to the keeper off Woakes. The top four have all struggled, as they have since the Pakistan series. Poor form, poor technique, troubled atmosphere in the dressing room... it doesn't matter, India aren't fielding their best team, so why is anyone surprised? The excuses for keeping Cheteshwar Pujara out of the team are almost as mind-boggling as the decision to bring RP Singh back into the squad during that disastrous tour when things started going downhill.

Che is in form. Most of the players in this team are not. They say Che doesn't fit in. Yet in an almost identical side they went to great lengths to fit Nohit in the squad. They say Che is a test player, in the Rahul Dravid mode. Yet like Rahul (who scored a 50 in 22 balls in an ODI), Che recently accelerated from 150 to 200 in 17 balls. And what sort of ridiculous argument is that anyway? Dravid was one of the greatest ODI players, and before you scoff, hear me out.

The man has over 10,000 runs in ODI cricket, one of only 10 players to have reached that mark. That he managed in it a side that had two others who achieved the feat in the same era, and lest it be forgotten they had the best positions in the team to take advantage of that opportunity, makes it all the more incredible, though to be fair there were a ridiculous number of ODIs back then. Dravid gave the team excellent stability and played the ideal foil for more flamboyant batsmen around him, as can be seen from the record partnerships he shared with them.

Of course, none of this is to say Che is the next Dravid etc, just to say that because you feel he is similar and so he doesn't fit in the ODI squad, is plain ridiculous, especially when you look at the new rules in ODIs. Che is one of three players in the squad who plays the pull shot decently, the other two being Dhoni and Yuvraj. I'm not sure what value India hope to get out of Jadeja and Ashwin (Ojha has successfully been sidelined while the erratic expensive Mishra gets a call, seriously wtf is going on?) at 7 and 8, but if they are going to play bits and pieces cricketers, they might as well try proper batsmen in the top six. Batsmen in form.

At the moment you couldn't buy form for Gambhir or Rahane. And honestly, Gambhir has been woeful for almost a year and a half, he's played a few gritty innings, but he isn't the free-flowing batsman he once was. You really don't wan to be wasting a spot at the top of the order, you want your best batsmen opening in ODIs, thats what we've always done. Dhoni is our best ODI batsman, but he'd never open, as it is people are saying he's over-burdened, so the natural choice is promoting Kohli to an opening batsman. Che easily slots into this squad.

Gambhir, Dhoni and Yuvraj are all 31 going on 32. Sehwag is 34. Their experience might come in handy in Australia when we look to defend the world cup two years down the line. But that squad cannot afford to be carrying passengers. And it cannot afford to be carrying debutants. Bored members Naked Cricket and Straight Point were shouting themselves hoarse for Che's inclusion into the test side a year and a half before he finally got the opportunity. When Che was finally given the chance, he replaced a struggling Dravid at No.3 and brought confidence to a difficult chase. The team is running out of excuses for picking the likes of Ashwin, Nohit, Jadeja, Gambhir and has no valid reason for keeping Che out. When will they finally give him the chance in ODIs?

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Why Doesn't Anyone Care That We've Just Witnessed One of ODI Cricket's Greatest Innings?

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni came in when his side was reeling at 29/5, batting with the last recognized batsman in the line-up. Against top quality pace and swing, on a pitch that offered reasonable assistance to fast bowlers early on. Raina stuck with him until the 33rd over, and while 102/6 had banished all talk of India succumbing to one of their lowest ODI scores, it was certainly nowhere near a score that offered a fight. Bowlers had economy rates that were in the 2.5 rpo range (those that bowled at the end of the innings saw those economy rates rise to around 5 rpo). Yet Dhoni toiled, refused to play strokes that offered the opposition a chance (save for a lob to midwicket when he was on 16), and then led a calculated assault that gave India a more than respectable score given the horrendous start. His first 22 runs came off 60 balls, meaning he scored 91 runs off his next 65 balls. All this while suffering cramps in the unforgiving Chennai heat and humidity.

Yet while many people acknowledge that it was an excellent, few have gone so far to call it what it was, one of the greatest ODI innings in recent times, if not ever. I can't begin to imagine how the English or Australian press would have gone overboard had it been one of their cricketers who had played such a brilliant innings. It might not be in the league of Viv Richards' 189 or Kapil Dev's 175, but its certainly right up there with Steve Waugh's 120 n.o. against South Africa in the 2001 world cup and was reminiscent of the kinds of innings that Michael Bevan (whose ODI stats are very similar) seemed to play with regularity. Dhoni is widely regarded as the best ODI batsman today, yet I'm not sure if it was because we've taken his performances for granted that this innings hasn't received nearly as many accolades as it should have.

Are we fed up with the number of cricket matches being played, like this series that is squeezed in between England's tour? (Why are even watching it then?) Are we angry with Dhoni for all that has happened over the last 18 months? Have we just lost interest in ODIs now that so many of the stars have retired? Has a pall of gloom descended upon cricket fans over how much we've lost in 2012, and particularly in the last month. Was it that the innings wasn't as valuable given we lost the match? Are we kidding ourselves into believing these innings have become commonplace? Have we lost our objectivity in appreciating excellent cricket knocks, preferring to harp on all that is wrong with Indian cricket at the moment? You see, even while he was batting, it wasn't enough. An accomplished Indian opener, whose 36* is the stuff of legends, was whining about how slow the Indian approach was. This after whining about loose strokes and poor techniques from the batsmen who we give free passes to the test side ahead of the Indian skipper based on... their alleged superior batting technique. Its never enough, and then one fine day he'll retire and the tributes will flow in and maybe, just maybe then, there'll be a mention of this innings in the light that it deserves.

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Did Sri Lanka Give It Their Honest Best?

In sentencing Mervyn Westfield to four months in prison for accepting payments to under-perform in a county game, Judge Anthony Morris said "For financial gain you betrayed the trust placed in you to play honestly and to the best of your ability." The crown prosecution service issued the following statement: "Devoted sports fans who pay hard-earned money to watch competitive matches have a right to expect players to do their honest best for the team, whether those games take place in the biggest world class arenas, or at their local ground."

How should "devoted sports fans" feel about the decisions of captains like Mahela Jayawardene and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, when they choose not to pursue a victory in conditions one can hardly call treacherous - on the contrary you might even call them encouraging - in the last match of a test series while they're 1-0 ahead? Have these captains and their teams done their honest best to win a match? Don't give me this hogwash about the series being at risk when hardly any wickets have fallen in the lead up to the declaration, for goodness knows how many overs.

Disgracefully, in both cases the risk was minimal. We hear a lot about Test cricket dying, and people losing interest. We hear a lot about players calling it the "ultimate test" and how it needs to be preserved. There will always be portions of a game, almost any game, which are boring. But to agree to a draw when there is ample opportunity to force a result robs spectators and the game alike. Test cricket is about patience, but you're only testing people's patience when you decide not to make a game a contest. Draws can be fun, results can be boring, but who has ever walked into a ground hoping that a team would call off a reasonable, and potentially exciting, chase so that they can bask in the glory of their banked result?

When questioned, Jayawardene's callous reply was "Well, we won the series, right?" Imagine if Salman Butt, on being questioned (and lest the point is lost, for robbing spectators of watching his team give their honest best) about the spot fixing scandal said, "Well, we won the match, right?"

If the ICC and the players are actually serious about wanting to save test cricket, and this hasn't become one of those fake "We must do all we can to end world poverty" quips you hear at every event from fund-raisers to beauty pageants, they need to start making sure people want to watch test cricket. One way to do that is to play to win. But nobody talks about this. Oh no, its far easier to say India and the BCCI are determined to destroy test cricket. A sham, the whole show.

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5 reasons why we will see India playing the finals

1. Finally they have started to know their responsibilities and play well as a team (we saw that in the QF)… Now it is the added responsibility of the ICC and BCCI that it ends well too

2. Pakistan might play Akhtar... And a good part of the team wouldn’t want to win the match because that will mean Akhtar would leave on a high… Above all, Misbah wants him to play when Afridi doesn’t want to play him… So Afridi might just play him and not let him play his play… So they are a big mess

3. Dhoni has to get his opportunity to justify, “See I told you how good the team is, you guys didn’t believe us, but we believed in ourselves and the belief has paid off… And of course you now know how good captaincy was, how important it was for winning and how the bowlers, batsmen and fielders have to improve and play for the team rather than playing to the gallery… And, thank you Sachin for presenting us this opportunity”

4. You have the IPL coming and you don’t want the Indian public to shut themselves off… Stone the lovely properties of our cricketers, defecate in their backyards, avoid the lathi charging police in the stadium & spoil the fun and stop the big money flowing

5. BCCI wouldn’t want Modi tweeting, “See, those morons can’t even get their team play a final”

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Perception is Reality...NOT

Another batting collapse, another final lost. Some things never change. Neither do perceptions. Ever since Suresh Raina was bounced out at the Twenty20 World Cup he has been said to have found out. So much so that the experts seem to think Raina comes in a Buy One Get One Free deal with Nohit Sharma. So when Raina did his best to bail out his team with a back to the wall hundred, this is what cricinfo had to say,

"Nothing has gone right for Raina ever since the Twenty20 World Cup when he was grounded by the bouncers. Word caught on and even domestic bowlers started to serve the short stuff. Humiliation was at his door step. Raina went for advice to the likes of Rahul Dravid, sought out Gary Kirsten, faced throw-downs, faced balls blasted from tennis racquets, but it is not an ailment that vanishes overnight."

Notice how the enlightened souls at cricinfo haven't provided any evidence to suggest Raina getting found out. Well, lucky for you someone decided to check up on how the batsman has performed during the said period.

Let's see...an average of 45.75, strike rate of 96.99, five scores of fifty or more in sixteen innings. Tendulkar, Dhoni and Kohli are his only teammates who average higher during this period, and they all do it at a lower strike rate. In terms of consistency, only Dhoni and Kohli have a lower innings to fifty ratio.

Moving on to his middle order peers (Batting between number 4 and 7) in world cricket, Dhoni, Mahmudullah, Collingwood and Brendan Taylor are the only ones with a higher average than Raina. Again, none of them have scored as quickly as him.

Now, one can make arguments about the flat pitches he's batted on but his teammates batted on those same pitches. More importantly, all the evidence points to India finding a reliable and devastating batsman in the middle order and not to someone who is a sitting duck. But pointing it out isn't going to get people to read or talk, is it? So let's just continue the myth that Raina hasn't been cutting it since he was "found out".

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Cinderella Redux

Once upon a time there was TINA. TINA was extremely popular with the Blue Man Group. She charmed and mesmerised her minions for almost 7 years. While her stock has gone down of late there are still some of those Blue Men who like to HUM songs in her praise, when in fact TINA is well and truly past her prime. Maybe her aficionados are high on MSD? These men of questionable taste are also seeing MINA on the side. No one really knows what makes MINA so alluring but it's been rumoured that MINA is TINA's younger sister, let's face it, it's every hot-blooded male's fantasy to score the sister combo.

But while the Blue Man Group was been blinded by their love for TINA and MINA, poor little HINA was left in the cold. HINA is their step-sister, a modern-day Cinderella if you will. All she does is play darts in her basement and curses like a sailor who hasn't been laid in months. No one has noticed her so far even though she seems to be The One for the Blue Man Group. Does HINA have a fairy godmother? Will the fairy godmother turn HINA into a beautiful princess who captivates The Blue Man Group, or will the Evil Sisters continue to cast a spell on those unsuspecting men?

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Onto the Challengers

I had started putting together a post for the Challengers, but Cricinfo pipped me to the post. And for the most part, I agree with what is written. But there are a few points I would like to highlight, nonetheless.

• While the India Blue has the strongest batting lineup on paper, it is also true that Yusuf Pathan is in the midst of a crisis of confidence. Being benched is hardly a shot in the arm as far as confidence goes. As is Abhishek Nayar. After all, having your skipper bowl an over or two when you are chosen as the fifth bowler will hardly do wonders to the confidence. Neither will making your debut 3( or is it 5) matches after you have been penciled in in the playing XI. Also, just how much faith will Dhoni have in Dhiraj Goswami, Kedar Jadhav, Suresh Kumar and Jalaj Saxena remains to be seen.
• Then there is the Sreesanth factor. Dhoni and Sreesanth have history, vide Dhoni's remarks post slap gate. And Sreesanth's celebrations after bowling Dhoni in IPL 2009. And there is the Harbhajan Sreesanth equation. Not just slap gate, but the fielding antics in the Pakistan test series and after. Which makes for a very uneasy dressing room. And with no Tendulkar in the picture, there is no leadership in the dressing room.And in such circumstances, I will be very surprised to see the Blues progress very far. Which will renew the calls for Dhoni's ouster as captain.And given Sehwag's stated ambitions and Ganguly's support, may happen sooner rather than later.
• The most heartening thing about the India Red is the pace attack they are fielding. And no, not Munaf and Ishant but Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi. Coupled with Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla, is it any surprise that I am picking U.P to take home the Ranji this year? Batting wise too, the Reds are on terra firma.Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhaman Saha and Ravindra Jadeja form a formidable 4,5 and 6 while Sunny Sohal and Murali Vijay at the top should give the team the necessary impetus. And a bench comprising of Ishank Jaggi, Ameya Shrikhande and Harshad Khadiwale is nothing to be scoffed at. R. Ashwin will play, because you cannot be on the BCCI contract list and a probable for the Champions Trophy and not get a look in. The wild card for the India Reds is Badri. Specifically Badri the captain. I was not particularly impressed by his handling of Tyagi in the Irani Trophy. And while he can perform with the best of them when not under the spotlight, Badri is a different animal altogether when the spot light is squarely on him. That said, the sheer depth of talent in the team roster should see them home.
• What I like about the India Green team is the man they have selected to be captain. If Suresh Raina can bring half the nous he brings to constructing his innings and his bowling, we may have something here as a long term prospect for India captaincy. And having apprenticed under Md. Kaif does not hurt either. Bowling wise, the India Green team has no bowling to speak of, although a one-two of Chaitanya Nanda and Shadab Jakati may cause more than an odd headache for the opposition. Batting wise, this is the most exciting lineup there is in the Challengers. I particularly like the look of a Rahane, Srivastava, Tiwary and Raina 1-2-3-4. What I do not like is the selection of daddy's little boy. Is it the selectors argument that Srikkanth Anirudha is a better prospect than a Stuart Binny or an Ambati Rayadu? Or even Romesh Powar? Losing finalists is where I see them, but I will be particularly keen on how Raina progresses as captain.
  

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MSD on DKNY.

Here's what Mahendera Singh Dhoni aka MSD has to say about Dinesh Karthik aka DKNY when asked about Sehwag's and Gambhir's absence:

Dinesh Karthik will open tomorrow because he is doing well in the net sessions also and we do not have a replacement.right now.

Dinesh has done that job in west indies also and also in test series he has done well for us. Definitely in tomorrow’s game we can say Dinesh Karthik will open

And here's what he said when asked about Virat Kohli:

We will see how Dinesh does in series. I think it is unfair to give an individual just one game to prove himself. If you see Virat Kohli, personally I feel he is not an opening batsman. Last time when we came here. I believe when Sehwag got injured during a practice session and Virat had to open and he did very well for us. But it is unfair to just push a newcomer for a role.

I would prefer Dinesh to open and give an opportunity to Virat Kohli where he fits and he has most chances of performing and where he can really fill in the space in the side.. This is a very short series. Let us see who it goes.

Press Trust of India aka PTI

If DKNY becomes a team India regular under MSD’s captaincy, we can all eat our words. DKNY, before he became fashionable was just Dinesh Karthik or DK, and looked upon more as a dropper than a keeper.

Forgotten was the scattered success, gone were the good times under GC. What you had was the perception of a weak threat to MSD, another out of favour player. During the few breaks that DK got, he didn’t do himself many favours.

Then came the IPL, DK became DKNY. Next, a break in the Windies, opening, a super 67 followed by a foxy 47. And now a chance to open with Sachin Tendulkar.

For his own good, hope the kid knows his lines and whom to thank if he scores big. Repeat after me: Thank You Sachin aka SRT!

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