Cricket on Song...

Last 24 Hours, we have been witnessing some amazing moments on the cricket field... Down under, in Sydney, it was class on display as the ageing stalwant Ricky Ponting along with his Captain Micheal Clarke plundered India to score century each.  Ricky Ponting's innings was his reply to his critics who were gunning for his head and his innings was an affirmation of the fact that it's only the form that is temporary, but pure class is truly permanent. His ferocious pulls and delicate cover drives were a treat to watch.  

Some hours before, at the other end, in on the most beautiful cricket stadiums of the world, Newlands, Capetown, two batsmen were showing their artistry on the cricket field.  First it was Alviro Petersen, who was playing only his third cricket test. His century was full of strokes...the way test cricket should be played. Follwed by his century, Jacques Kallis, too, came out with some breathtaking and signature strokes of his to notch a 150 in his 150th test.  It was indeed an amazing and exhilarating day of batsmanship for Cricket Connosieurs.  

The underlining part in both these test matches, were the rate at which these batsmen scored their runs.  While Ponting and Clarke helped themselves to maintain a healthy run rate of 4 plus, Jacques Kallis and Petersen continued scoring at a brisk rate of 4.5 runs an over.  Such stroke play can only make test cricket exciting to watch in the times when test cricket is getting sidelined by its cousins the T-20 especially and the 50-Over ODI format.  

Three Players... Alviro Petersen, a batsman who has come of age, and two others, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis, who refuses to age, just made a cricket fan's day memorable. Their effort was one which made batting look so easy even in different conditions.  At the end of the day, I believe, if there is anything more victorious, then it is the game of Test Cricket.  

Before I conclude, with all these players showing their class, it is now time for the other great player playing in this test to show his class so as to reach the milestone the billion people of india are waiting for...

P.S ..and what followed was some superlative innings from some of the finest players playing test cricket today...Jacques Kalliss... Micheal Clarke, Ricky Ponting, AB DeVilliers, Micheal Hussey... will we be able to see some magic from Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar tomorrow...?

Links :-  


Jacques Kallis
Ricky Ponting
Micheal Clarke
AB Devilliers
Micheal Hussey
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
Alviro Petersen


Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa
Sydney, Perth, Australia

The Day surely promises to be exciting...

Mmm…and interesting day ahead… four of the most exciting Test Teams in World Cricket are matching themselves against each other.  Australia against England in the Ashes series, as also later on the day, India takes on South Africa.  And as I write this, the second Ashes test is already underway, and how much worthy it was to stay back and watch the match a little. 

Half an hour into the match, and there was a visual treat which will linger on for days and I am talking about the stupendous catch Paul Collingwood took to dismiss Ricky Ponting.  The pitch was full of pace and the ball was flying all around when Englishmen were put into bowl.  As an obvious strategy, there were six men guarding the slip-gully corridor, and here it was, a tame defence from Ponting to a rising ball flying towards the fourth slip. 

Collingwood, rather than waiting for the ball, decided to pounce on the ball, and dived, stretching himself fully, air-borne, almost a meter and a half above the ground.  All the while he kept his soft hands behind the ball, intact, and let the ball to remain there, as he came back to ground with a thud.  He literally picks the red-cherry out of thin air.  Super technique of catching, impossible to mimic, and a great treat for the eyes.  These sort of catches are never practiced on net sessions and training sessions and comes out of  impulse, super-reflexes, and a commitment to excel in the highest way possible.  

Writing about the other match that is waiting around the corner for me to watch, this surely promises to be great advertisement for test cricket.  I don’t know how much a three-match test series can be a ‘Final Frontier’ as the India media projects it, but the rain is surely trying to play spoilsport as reports suggest.  Even then, it still appears to bring all the classic elements of a test match simply because of the actors involved.  Players like Smith, Kallis, Amla, DeVilliers, Steyn as also Sehwag, Dravid, Sachin and Laxman,  in action, on a wobbly track will surely be a purist’s delight. 

Something about the statistics, and I am compelled to bring to my notice the amazing fact that in the 15 test matches that south Africa played in SuperSport Park (the name of the ground), it has won an amazing number of 11 matches, while loosing only one.    It will be a tough ask, for Indian batters to face the quartet of Steyn, Morkel, Parnell and McLaren, but India also have its battery full.  Harbhajan needs to take a leaf out of Greame Swann’s book and look at how the Englishman had bowled quite aggressively, when England toured South Africa.  Swann chased wickets rather than trying to contain batsmen.  Who ever told that pace and bounce is only for fast bowlers? If one bowls with a consistent plan and on the right areas, spinners too prove to be lethal in such surfaces.