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Showing posts with label ODIs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ODIs. Show all posts
Pandya, Pant and Thakur - ODI wrap.
Good to see India go with the 4th quick, 6 bowling options, how hard can it be? Here I talk Pant, Pandya, and Thakur. And refrain from saying I told you so.
Preview of the decider (while doing a KL Rahul)
what India should do but won't. Or maybe they will. Because it's hitting them bang in the face. A show with a lotta actions - from a ghazal singer to a KL Rahul.
One all.
Some coincidence - for CricBait’s 100th episode we ended up all coordinated. A lot more than the men in blue surely.
Waking up with Virat.
Virat Kohli wakes up on match day. He says to himself, "Today, I will score my 28th". "Today, I will score my 29th". "Today, I will score my 30th ."
Virat Kohli doesn't wake up like you and I or most cricketers these days. He doesn't get up on the left side of the bed or the right side of the bed; he gets up on the two ends of the pitch. Within seconds of waking up, he has changed from his pyjamas to his batting gear, he is marking his guard.
Virat Kohli, as you've often heard, is in the zone.
What does that mean? Is it just a lazy term used when a sportsperson is on top of his game? Or is it the term that needs little else to be said - you've watched enough sport to know it is what it is and nothing more or less needs to be said: Virat Kohli is in the zone.
Of course, the zone comes with so much more. With many players, it could be that one fine day, the ball is being sucked by the magnetic field of the bat's sweet spot to go where it is ordered to. With Virat Kohli, it started when he said, "Today, I will score my ______ century".
It's hard to say which one it was. His first ODI century came in his 13th innings, it was against Sri Lanka. That was 2009 - before that, Virat knew three half centuries. Two 54s and a 79 not out. It's hard to say how Virat Kohli woke up then, but maybe it was more on the lines of, "Today, I will score a 54".
After his first ODI century though, in his 173 innings that followed, Virat made a score of 54 only once again. Virat was already working at unlearning the 50s, the 54s to be precise, and make 100s out of them.
The zone-chip wasn't quite in sync; in 2010, it was three ODI tons to seven half centuries. In 2011, it was four tons to eight half centuries. In 2012, it was five tons to three half centuries, Virat Kohli was starting to wake up differently.
Before 2012, Virat had scored only one of his eight ODI centuries against Sri Lanka. In 2012, he scored four against them, and his first against Pakistan.
No denying that Virat wakes up differently when he's playing Sri Lanka - out of the 194 ODIs, 46 are against them, it's like a favourite vacation spot with an inviting buffet service.
Eight of his 30 ODI centuries are against them, 11 of his 44 half centuries. But his batting average only goes up to 59.08 from his career average of 55.75. His strike rate actually dips to 90.74 from 91.72, not that that's much of a dip.
And while it looks all too easy for Virat against Sri Lanka, that's exactly where the perils of being in the perpetual zone crop up - how does he muster the fight in him against a team, when he can quite easily go about it in default mode?
Two back-to-back centuries, 131 and 110*, after the series won 3-0, after two single digit scores. It's similar to his post-match conferences, the questions are often the same, the answers too, often, can be similar - but there is no short cut in his replies, no need to be cute, over-smart, funny. Virat takes the long route, explaining as he would, to a person who either knows nothing or is genuinely interested in what he has to say.
Perhaps, Virat is genuinely interested in saying his part, with utmost earnestness. These usually brief Q&As are seldom brief with Virat.
Here too, Virat is in the zone. It's control over flash. It could be just another ODI in a dead rubber, but for Virat, it is his team that has just whitewashed Sri Lanka 5-0 in the series.
His team that has Rohit Sharma opening the batting. More than any other player in the team, Virat has backed Rohit - possibly because he admires his batsmanship, as he has said on many occasions. Possibly because he knows what Rohit is capable of when he's in the zone.
While Rohit made his ODI debut over a year before Virat, he has played 31 ODIs less than him. And while it is often unkind to compare numbers, it took Rohit more than 100 ODIs to get into his groove.
In his first 103 matches, Rohit's batting average was 32.5, he had scored two centuries. In the next 60 matches, he added 11 centuries, including two doubles, increasing his batting average to 43.46, his strike rate from 75 to 85.
In this period from October 2013-September 2017, Rohit's batting average has been a tad over 60, and he's been striking at nearly 95.
In this series alone, Rohit scored two centuries and a 54 in five games. Who's to say how much of Virat's zone is rubbing off on to his mates?
In the days to follow, Virat Kohli will wake up, and say to himself, "Today, I will bat the best as I can, not play in the air early on in the innings, and try and bat out the 50 overs."
Somehow that translates into, "Today, I will score my 31st century." But it's never that easy. Not even for Virat Kohli.
First posted here
yOS 17 update applied to the Yuvraj operating system
It's about the stillness - if his bat doesn't get you, his gaze will
Yuvraj Singh has just collected his Man of the Match trophy; he’s asked to stand between three beaming middle aged men who form the presentation party. Yuvraj complies. He stands there, with them, still. Almost like stone. Almost stoned.
Before that, Ravi Shastri interviews him, congratulates him, applauds him, applauds his partnership with Dhoni – there too, Yuvraj is still. Focused on his answers, which have clarity, simplicity, he says nothing more or less than needs to be said. Shastri quips about marriage working for him – Yuvraj matter-of-factly mentions lady luck, going on to thank his mother and Guruji. Yuvraj’s smile, that smirk of old, the wisecracks, they’re missing.
At 35, making a questionable comeback, yet again, Yuvraj has little left to prove to anyone – what is left to prove, is perhaps, only to himself. Possibly the most watchable batsman of his generation, the beard suits this new sadhu like avatar of Yuvraj.
Yuvraj last scored an international century in that World Cup he won for SRT in 2011. Since then his journey has been well documented, and will continue to be documented, repeatedly – The Yuvraj chronicles are about the six sixes, the World Cup, the aftermath, and the incredible comeback to cricket after cancer.
But there was only so far that reputation of the 2011 World Cup and the 2007 World T20 was going to take him. Here in 2017, more than his fans, Yuvraj appears to inhabit the present.
He looks leaner, way meaner than he has in an age. The eyes seem hungrier, almost on a hunt, ready to prey on the bowling. As in the recent past, Yuvraj scored First Class runs and was picked for the national side. Unlike before, Yuvraj and his bat surged away to a big hundred – his highest ODI score, 150.
Throughout his innings, it was as if Yuvraj had not moved. It was as if he was a robotic replica of the Yuvraj masterclass, perfected in the laboratory to regain that lost zeal, to recreate that magic of old, from a fading memory.
The movement was that slight, it hardly registered. The shots, as you come to expect of trademark Yuvi shots, are in these swooping, majestic arcs – as if a supremely quick dancer has just struck a pose, and you’re left baffled with the final pose that you can barely recall what happened before - and whatever must happen, happens.
In this case, it’s that high bat-lift swooping down so fast, you almost expect cartoon speed-lines next to his bat. But did the bat move? Or did Yuvraj move?
Yuvraj Singh’s movement only registers when it’s awkward. When he’s amateurishly fishing outside off, tying himself in silly knots against the shorter stuff or prodding against an off-spinner. That’s when his flow is dammed.
But that was not the Yuvraj of Cuttack. It took him nine deliveries to get going with his first four, also the only time he looked rushed by the short delivery. Within five balls, he had three boundaries.
Yuvraj Singh, the video game, was at the crease. It was as if you and me had the joysticks. And even though Yuvraj hit 21 fours and three sixes, he ran 48 of his runs and 46 of Dhoni’s, at no point did it appear as if he ran at all.
Coming in at the fall of Virat Kohli’s wicket at the end of the third over, Yuvraj Singh batted till the end of the 43rd over. He batted for over three hours. When he was dismissed, he seemed to have barely broken into a sweat.
Why would he, he had barely moved through the innings.
He just stood there and stayed in the present. That Virat Kohli had just been dismissed off his fifth ball didn’t faze him. That India was 22/2 didn’t deter him. That India was soon 25/3 didn’t daunt him.
He was with Dhoni, and Dhoni was him. Deep down he knew that for any opposition that was a frightful prospect. And for them to stay in that fright, all they had to do was stay put.
Which they did, like the immovable objects that they are.
First published here
Kohli's future as captain
"Kohli’s true test as captain will come if and when his magnificent form dips to that of his peers. How he copes then could be the making of an even better player than we’re seeing now."
First posted here
Has Virat's victory-virus infected the team?
Kedar Jadhav will turn 32 this March. His turn to play international cricket came a little over two years back. Since then, he’s played less than 20 games for India. Jadhav wasn’t always a regular in the Indian team, except when they flew to Zimbabwe. Where he scored his first one-day century. Few will remember that one though.
Few will forget this one against England. Openers gone, Yuvraj and Dhoni gone, that much mentioned score, 63/4, and the inevitability of the situation and the target facing him. What did he have going for him - he had scored eight centuries in List A cricket, 13 in first-class, he was a journeyman cricketer of sorts, his mom and dad and wife and child were in the stands – but beyond that, his captain, he of 26 ODI hundreds, was at the other end.
If you wanted to chase down any target, there was no better man to chase it with – he could be his own engine and yours too, he could be the wind, the words, and just the belief you needed to see – for Kedar Jadhav’s dare to dream big was as much as a look into his own desires as a look into Kohli’s eyes.
They had the know-how of scoring 26 centuries – of which six were made chasing targets in excess of 300. Kohli’s eyes gave Jadhav a peep into 14 centuries scored by him in successful run chases.
And as Jadhav continued to draw on his own abilities, he saw, right in front of him, something magical happen – something that went beyond the 27th ODI ton and the 15th ton scored in a successful run chase. He saw his chats with Kohli in the dressing room play themselves out in the middle. He saw how you chase a fairly unlikely target from a situation gone horribly wrong.
Just when it appears you have your backs to the wall, you push the walls back – the walls can be your own inhibitions or the bowlers coming at you ball after ball. You free yourself of defeat because right then it appears the game is already lost.
His captain counter attacked, played more in the air and over the top than he had in recent memory. The calculations had gone for a toss because there was nothing left to calculate. At 63/4 in 12 overs, there were no repairs to be made – it was burn down the house in the hope that the flames would take England down as well.
When your captain frees you to attack, like hell, you attack. There was nothing in the pitch, not much in the bowling, it was a tiny ground, it was home. It was his home ground. It was all blue in the stands.
From the word go, Jadhav was in overdrive, scoring way more rapidly than Kohli. While Kohli’s presence at just over run a ball gave India comfort and control, Jadhav’s boundaries shocked – they appeared to come out of nowhere.
Unlike Dhoni and Yuvraj before him, there was no illustrious international CV that preceded him. He was just doing his thing, whether it was timing through the covers for six, or swiveling away to the square leg boundary for four. It looked like Jadhav was having an IPL net session against an IPL team in his IPL backyard.
It seemed that simple, he seemed that assured. And while Kohli reached his 50, and sixed his way to a hundred, you had Jadhav’s innings hurtling down unannounced on some Rapid Transport System.
It seemed quite unbelievable, except when Kohli taunted his little partner to run faster or run a second even when there wasn’t one. In spite of those taunts, Jadhav was unfazed, like some veteran of 74 first-class games in his own little kingdom. Invariably, these taunts would be followed by a nonchalant boundary.
Just as when the cramps appeared as he closed in on his century, the boundary appeared again, 96 became a 100. England still didn’t know what had hit them. It still didn’t look like an amiable little guy like Jadhav could hit them that hard.
By then, Virat Kohli had reached superman mode and hit a six that had WTF written all over it.
200 runs and 25 overs later, when Virat Kohli fell, and the cramps weren’t getting any better for Jadhav – he had seen enough into those eyes to know and believe that the game was already in the bag. With that belief, cramped Jadhav, in spite of collapsing at the crease, hit two more sixes and a four after his hundred.
And in the process, Jadhav scripted some ODI history:
Jadhav's strike rate of
157.89 for his 120 (76) is the eleventh highest strike rate for a second
innings hundred in ODI history via @fwildecricket / twitter
After winning the Man of the Match award, Kedar Jadhav thanked Virat Kohli. It was a moment of rare honesty and emotion, both Jadhav and Kohli seemed quite overcome. Few things can give more satisfaction than sharing knowledge.
Virat had just taken Jadhav through the 36 chambers of Kohli’s Shaolin, on the sidelines and in the middle. Perhaps, a bow followed by a hammed “Master!” in a dubbed Chinese accent would’ve been appropriate.
First published here
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