Regular readers will know that the IPL and me are not natural bedfellows. I don't sit in front of BBC4 every afternoon in May yawning through the timeouts and ad breaks while the pitches gleam like coloured glass, the boundary ropes creep ever closer to the stumps, the cheerleaders shake their....pom-poms and that blasted trumpet trill punctuates seemingly every over.
Nevertheless, the IPL is part of the world cricket scene and I can't ignore it. Many players in the UAE and India have smashed or twirled their way into my Team of the Week and it's always interesting to see how many globetrotting T20 mercenaries fail while internationally unknown locals find themselves thrust into the spotlight, if only for a few months. I don't necessarily see it as a training ground for proper cricket, Test cricket, but it does produce some entertainment and excitement, the vital ingredient for any sport.
IPL 2014 definitely benefited from its truncated length. Maybe more franchises should go bust and keep the competition even more concise and less drawn out. Another positive from this year is the way the two best sides reached the final and produced a classic of big hitting, albeit not from the big names.
For once, Chris Gayle was useless, accumulating fewer than 200 runs at barely a run a ball. The Bangalore opener was presumaby unfit but an essential part of the IPL nonetheless, at least in the eyes of sponsors and the casual spectator. Kevin Pietersen fared a little better as Delhi skipper, yet a single 50 in 11 innings at a scoring rate of 126 was not a good return. Dare I suggest he was - er - distracted?!
Of the Aussie recruits, only Glenn Maxwell and David Warner did the business with the bat, while Watson, Bailey, Finch and Mike Hussey disappointed on the whole. The English counties will surely hope from more from their Antipodean investments this summer. South Africans Miller, AB and Duminy were their consistent selves, unlike De Kock and the once reliable Jacques Kallis. With no international cricket in his schedule, the Saffer legend produced only one score of note, a 72 in the very first game for KKR. At least he was part of the victorious squad.
With the ball, Sunil Narine took another 21 wickets at a typically miserly 6.35 an over, Mitch Johnson had some memorable days but Dale Steyn proved human, at times being clouted around the grounds he once ruled as a dangerous death bowler. Meanwhile Lasith Malinga restored faith in his ability to bowl fast and full to frustrate the big hitters when it matters.
Overall, numerous Indian players caught the eye. Sehwag, Raina and Yusuf Pathan might be remembered for their brutal landmark innings but they were not the outstanding performers of the tournament. Robin Uthappa demonstrated the consistency of a great Test opener rather than a Powerplay power merchant. He struck a sensational ten consecutive scores of 40 or more in a total of 660. Only 18 sixes yet a laudable scoring rate of 138 made him a deserving winner of whatever colourful trophy goes to the top run-getter.
Mohit Sharma took more wickets than anyone else (23), albeit conceding more than eight an over. Another seamer Bhuvi Kumar wasn't far behind, but his economy rate for the Sunrisers was a more impressive 6.65. The experienced Harbhajan Singh, Ravi Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin bowled creditably, but for me the star names were probably 20 year-old Akshar Patel and a man more than twice his age, Pravin Tambe. Slow left-armer Patel's 17 wickets at only 6.13 an over proved vital for Kings XI's progress to their first final. Meanwhile leg-spinner Tambe, whose age in years easily outnumbers the number of senior matches under his belt, usually proved hard to hit for the Royals. Tambe's time for a Test career has probably past him by - by about twenty years - but Patel is a promising prospect. He'll command big money at IPL 2015 and how he copes with that may determine his opportunities for international cricket, whatever the format.
Showing posts with label IPL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IPL. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Saturday, 31 May 2014
Team of the Week ending 30th May Viru goes Batty!
With wet weather restricting the action in England, there were only two County Championship centuries this week. That just makes it more surprising that there were two scores of 99 and one of 98! The unlucky trio of Westwood, Patel and Hildreth also fail to make my team of the week. Instead my opening batsmen come from the IPL. Virender Sehwag has largely been living off past glories for a while now but, with a place in the final at stake, the old Viru returned to the fore. Against CSK, the Kings XI star plundered 122 from 58 balls, 96 coming from boundaries. Rajasthan's teenage wicketkeeper Sanju Samson also produced a brilliant 74 in 47 balls against Mumbai Indians.
Sehwag's innings had to be special to outshine Suresh Raina's scintillating response of 87 in 25 balls for the Super Kings. All bar three came in fours and sixes, and 33 runs were thumped from a single seven-ball over (including a no-ball) by Awana before it took a brilliant piece of fielding from George Bailey to run him out.
Back now to the Championship for the next selections. Will Porterfield's 118 for Warwickshire against Somerset was his first with the red ball for his county while Gordon Muchall's unbeaten 158 in Durham's draw against Notts was the top score of the week. Two Glamorgan players vied for the number six position, and I've plumped for Jim Allenby's all-round consistency over Chris Cooke's two lively performances in the Championship and T20 Blast.
Tom Smith struck 54 and claimed 5-49 in the otherwise damp and dismal Roses contest, folowed by a 27-ball 54 as Lancashire's T20 opener, enough to make my Eleven. The contrasting ODIs between England and Sri Lanka witnessed several excellent bowling displays. Principal amongst them was Chris Jordan's 5-29 at Old Trafford where the home team dismissed SL for their third lowest ODI score ever. Fortunes had been reversed just a few days earlier. In chilly Chester-le-Street, Dilshan scored 88, Kulasekera took 3-15 but spinner Sachithra Senanayake trumped the lot with his mean 4-13 to complete England's misery. He has accumulated some pretty decent career stats over the years, particularly in limited overs formats, but will surely add to his single Test appearance.
My final two choices are Junaid Khan and Gareth Batty. The Pakistani aggregated 7-33 in Lancashire's two T20 victories and certainly doesn't deserve to be ignored in favour of some England has-been called Flintoff when he makes his debut, as he surely must, if only to attract more through the turnstiles next week. I'm no fan of Batty's spiky on-pitch demeanour, as illustrated by his aggression against Somerset last summer. However, 8-68 for Surrey against Essex was the bowling performance of the week.
Sehwag's innings had to be special to outshine Suresh Raina's scintillating response of 87 in 25 balls for the Super Kings. All bar three came in fours and sixes, and 33 runs were thumped from a single seven-ball over (including a no-ball) by Awana before it took a brilliant piece of fielding from George Bailey to run him out.
Back now to the Championship for the next selections. Will Porterfield's 118 for Warwickshire against Somerset was his first with the red ball for his county while Gordon Muchall's unbeaten 158 in Durham's draw against Notts was the top score of the week. Two Glamorgan players vied for the number six position, and I've plumped for Jim Allenby's all-round consistency over Chris Cooke's two lively performances in the Championship and T20 Blast.
Tom Smith struck 54 and claimed 5-49 in the otherwise damp and dismal Roses contest, folowed by a 27-ball 54 as Lancashire's T20 opener, enough to make my Eleven. The contrasting ODIs between England and Sri Lanka witnessed several excellent bowling displays. Principal amongst them was Chris Jordan's 5-29 at Old Trafford where the home team dismissed SL for their third lowest ODI score ever. Fortunes had been reversed just a few days earlier. In chilly Chester-le-Street, Dilshan scored 88, Kulasekera took 3-15 but spinner Sachithra Senanayake trumped the lot with his mean 4-13 to complete England's misery. He has accumulated some pretty decent career stats over the years, particularly in limited overs formats, but will surely add to his single Test appearance.
My final two choices are Junaid Khan and Gareth Batty. The Pakistani aggregated 7-33 in Lancashire's two T20 victories and certainly doesn't deserve to be ignored in favour of some England has-been called Flintoff when he makes his debut, as he surely must, if only to attract more through the turnstiles next week. I'm no fan of Batty's spiky on-pitch demeanour, as illustrated by his aggression against Somerset last summer. However, 8-68 for Surrey against Essex was the bowling performance of the week.
Sunday, 25 May 2014
Team of the Week ending 26th May 2014
It's weird how things change from week to week. Sometimes you can't find a single opening batsman performance worth considering, while this week there were three consistent run-makers in the IPL alone. David Warner blitzed a 45-ball 90 and a rapid 59 for Hyderabad, Robin Uthappa maintained his incredible run of 40+ scores for KKR and Lendl Simmons just reached three figures for Mumbai. In England, Chris Rogers compiled another hundred but Marcus Trescothick's brilliant match-winning 133 for Somerset against Durham earns him one of my opener slots. Simmons narrowly pips his fellow T20 blasters to the other position.
James Vince failed to reach 100 but three more half-centuries for Hampshire across both domestic formats makes him my number three. Last time, Neil Dexter produced a six-for for Middlesex but last week his unbeaten 163 against Northamptonshire was the highest score in the Championship. Hamish Marshall aggregated almost 200 runs for the seven days, including a 118 in Gloucestershire's second innings which ensured a rare first-class win against Kent.
Super-fast 50s in the IPL are part and parcel of the tournament but when Yusuf Pathan thumps five fours and seven sixes in a mere 22 balls, even my antenna twitches. His record-breaking 72 catapulted the KKR man into my team of the week ahead of other serious contenders like Shakib and Hampshire's Matt Coles. MS Dhoni delivered two more finishing flourishes but my 'keeper of the week is Durban-born Gareth Roderick, whose contribution to Gloucester's triumph included 59, 85 and five catches before he had to hand the gloves to teenage sub Cameron Herring.
All-rounder of the week is Toby Roland-Jones. The Middlesex seamer followed an impressive 6-55 with an even better 6-50 to finish off Northants. Not only that but he contributed a career-best 60 in just 30 balls to set up the declaration which led to that result. He has burst from the shadow of Finn, Murtagh and Harris to become a really useful four-day bowler. If only he was born in South Africa or Barbados, he'd have more chance of breaking into the England squad!
Chris Jordan has already done that and he repaid the selectors by turning in a superb 13-ball 38 and 3-25 to clinch a ODI success against Sri Lanka. He is well behind TRJ in first-class stats but is the real thing in one-dayers. My last two bowlers pick themselves. Playing against each other at Chelmsford, Monty Panesar took 2-57 and 5-23 for Essex but his Pakistani opponent Saeed Ajmal was even more unplayable. The off-spinner's 6-75 and career-best 7-19 ensured Worcestershire remain favourites to return to Division One next season.
In summary:- Trescothick (Som *), Simmons (Mum), Vince (Hants), Dexter (Mid), Marshall (Glouc), Yusuf Pathan (KKR), Roderick (Glouc +), Roland-Jones (Mid), Jordan (Eng), Saeed Ajmal (Worc), Panesar (Ess)
James Vince failed to reach 100 but three more half-centuries for Hampshire across both domestic formats makes him my number three. Last time, Neil Dexter produced a six-for for Middlesex but last week his unbeaten 163 against Northamptonshire was the highest score in the Championship. Hamish Marshall aggregated almost 200 runs for the seven days, including a 118 in Gloucestershire's second innings which ensured a rare first-class win against Kent.
Super-fast 50s in the IPL are part and parcel of the tournament but when Yusuf Pathan thumps five fours and seven sixes in a mere 22 balls, even my antenna twitches. His record-breaking 72 catapulted the KKR man into my team of the week ahead of other serious contenders like Shakib and Hampshire's Matt Coles. MS Dhoni delivered two more finishing flourishes but my 'keeper of the week is Durban-born Gareth Roderick, whose contribution to Gloucester's triumph included 59, 85 and five catches before he had to hand the gloves to teenage sub Cameron Herring.
All-rounder of the week is Toby Roland-Jones. The Middlesex seamer followed an impressive 6-55 with an even better 6-50 to finish off Northants. Not only that but he contributed a career-best 60 in just 30 balls to set up the declaration which led to that result. He has burst from the shadow of Finn, Murtagh and Harris to become a really useful four-day bowler. If only he was born in South Africa or Barbados, he'd have more chance of breaking into the England squad!
Chris Jordan has already done that and he repaid the selectors by turning in a superb 13-ball 38 and 3-25 to clinch a ODI success against Sri Lanka. He is well behind TRJ in first-class stats but is the real thing in one-dayers. My last two bowlers pick themselves. Playing against each other at Chelmsford, Monty Panesar took 2-57 and 5-23 for Essex but his Pakistani opponent Saeed Ajmal was even more unplayable. The off-spinner's 6-75 and career-best 7-19 ensured Worcestershire remain favourites to return to Division One next season.
In summary:- Trescothick (Som *), Simmons (Mum), Vince (Hants), Dexter (Mid), Marshall (Glouc), Yusuf Pathan (KKR), Roderick (Glouc +), Roland-Jones (Mid), Jordan (Eng), Saeed Ajmal (Worc), Panesar (Ess)
Saturday, 10 May 2014
Team of the Week 9th May: AB, PJ and DM get A*
A good spread of top performances this week, with wicketkeepers and slow bowlers to the fore. First name on my team sheet is Worcestershire captain and opener, Daryl Mitchell. This is his tenth summer with his home county, and it must be one of his best starts to a first-class season. I once saw him fall two runs short of a triple-century at Taunton but when set he is one of the best county openers around. Against Glamorgan, he was last man out for 109, then unbeaten on 151 in the second innings, taking his career average close to 40 and season average well into three figures. Durham's Mark Stoneman has been around almost as long, but with less success. However, his 131 did much to keep Durham in the match against Yorkshire and certainly eclipsed debutant Kumar Sangakkara, whose first outing for his new county lasted only two balls. Good practice for the Sri Lanka tour then!
Mike Yardy showed the way for Sussex with a first innings century against Lancashire but I've gone for Kent's Brendan Nash at number three. He shared a 197-run partnership with Rob Key, scoring the same number of runs (126) but at a much brisker rate. The Aussie-born West Indian international is proving to be one of Kent's best signings of recent years.
It doesn't matter where AB De Villiers plays; he'll produce the goods on any pitch, in any country, in any format. As the IPL shifted from the UAE back to India, the Bangalore number five took advantage and smashed an 89 and 53. He's still way behind the current leading scorer in he tournament, Glen Maxwell, though. Shane Watson has flattered to deceive in recent years but it was with his bowling that he made the headlines his week, including a hat-trick against Kolkata and taking another three wickets against the Sunrisers.
Back in Blighty, another Aussie, Phil Jaques, outscored his fellow Notts batsmen in the draw against Somerset. However, team-mate Samit Patel made 132 arguably when it mattered most, on the opening day. He took a couple of wickets, too. The same wicketkeepers always seem to appear in contention. Chris Read hammered 17 boundaries in 96, alongside the aforementioned Jaques and Patel, James Foster propped up the Essex batting, and Tim Ambrose delivered a fine 167 for Warwickshire. He pipped Ned Eckersley to a place in my team of the week; the Leicestershire batsman donned the gloves in O'Brien's absence and also struck 110 runs.
On the bowling front, spinners took the plaudits, and not only in the IPL where Pravin Tambe was once more Mr Economical for the Royals. He doesn't quite make it this week, displaced by a couple of slowies in the Championship. Kent's young Alex Riley (4-77 and 5-78) and Glamorgan's nothing-like-as-young Dean Cosker (5-39 and 4-94) deserve the selections at a time of year when seamers usually hoover up the wickets. The final bowling spot goes to Bhuvneshwar Kumar of Sunrisers Hyderabad. His 4-14 against the Royals was his best in a T20 contest, and in the 2014 tournament so far has conceded fewer than 6 an over across eight games, and nobody has taken more wickets. Not bad for a fast-medium pacer!
To re-cap: Daryl Mitchell (Worcs), Mark Stoneman (Dur), Brendan Nash (Kent), Phil Jaques (Notts), AB De Villers (Banga), Samit Patel (Notts), Shane Watson (Rajas), Tim Ambrose (Warks, +), Adam Riley (Kent), Bhuvi Kumar (Hyder), Dean Cosker (Glam)
Mike Yardy showed the way for Sussex with a first innings century against Lancashire but I've gone for Kent's Brendan Nash at number three. He shared a 197-run partnership with Rob Key, scoring the same number of runs (126) but at a much brisker rate. The Aussie-born West Indian international is proving to be one of Kent's best signings of recent years.
It doesn't matter where AB De Villiers plays; he'll produce the goods on any pitch, in any country, in any format. As the IPL shifted from the UAE back to India, the Bangalore number five took advantage and smashed an 89 and 53. He's still way behind the current leading scorer in he tournament, Glen Maxwell, though. Shane Watson has flattered to deceive in recent years but it was with his bowling that he made the headlines his week, including a hat-trick against Kolkata and taking another three wickets against the Sunrisers.
Back in Blighty, another Aussie, Phil Jaques, outscored his fellow Notts batsmen in the draw against Somerset. However, team-mate Samit Patel made 132 arguably when it mattered most, on the opening day. He took a couple of wickets, too. The same wicketkeepers always seem to appear in contention. Chris Read hammered 17 boundaries in 96, alongside the aforementioned Jaques and Patel, James Foster propped up the Essex batting, and Tim Ambrose delivered a fine 167 for Warwickshire. He pipped Ned Eckersley to a place in my team of the week; the Leicestershire batsman donned the gloves in O'Brien's absence and also struck 110 runs.
On the bowling front, spinners took the plaudits, and not only in the IPL where Pravin Tambe was once more Mr Economical for the Royals. He doesn't quite make it this week, displaced by a couple of slowies in the Championship. Kent's young Alex Riley (4-77 and 5-78) and Glamorgan's nothing-like-as-young Dean Cosker (5-39 and 4-94) deserve the selections at a time of year when seamers usually hoover up the wickets. The final bowling spot goes to Bhuvneshwar Kumar of Sunrisers Hyderabad. His 4-14 against the Royals was his best in a T20 contest, and in the 2014 tournament so far has conceded fewer than 6 an over across eight games, and nobody has taken more wickets. Not bad for a fast-medium pacer!
To re-cap: Daryl Mitchell (Worcs), Mark Stoneman (Dur), Brendan Nash (Kent), Phil Jaques (Notts), AB De Villers (Banga), Samit Patel (Notts), Shane Watson (Rajas), Tim Ambrose (Warks, +), Adam Riley (Kent), Bhuvi Kumar (Hyder), Dean Cosker (Glam)
Friday, 25 April 2014
Team of the Week 25th April 2014: Cook and Maxwell in prime form
For my first Team of the Week of the 2014 'summer', there's a good mix of the familiar, the new and the forgotten. In England, it was a good week for opening batsmen. Greg Smith (Leicestershire) and Derbyshire's recruit from Lancashire, Stephen Moore, each made hundreds, but they are edged out by Essex's Alastair Cook and Lancashire's Sydney-born Paul Horton. Cook picked up 166 runs in a draw, presumably happy to let James Foster do the skippering. Meanwhile, Horton scored one run more, Mr Consistent with 83 and 84. He ended the 2013 season with three hundreds and two ducks in the final four first-class matches, and the Red Roses will be relying heavily on him for runs this year.
Nick Compton (100 not out) and Gary Ballance (174) each reminded England selectors of their middle-order Test credentials, even if they were both born in Africa. The Yorkshire batsman will probably have the edge once Sri Lanka come to town next month. Much as I'd like to, I can't ignore the IPL. Glenn Maxwell added another two big scores, 89 and 95, to his opening blast for Kings XI Punjab. Oddly, he's never made a T20 hundred in 65 innings but he came very close this week.
My wicketkeeper of the week is Tim Ambrose. Several yeara ago, he was the England number one, scoring runs for fun, but then Matt Prior and, later on, depression, got the better of him. Last year he seemed rejuvenated at Warwickshire and this week, he not only contributed a useful cameo with the bat, he claimed six catches in the first innings. Facing seamers of the quality of Woakes and Barker, he should pouch many more.
Peter Trego was welcomed back to Somerset's starting XI and inevitably enjoyed a decent performance in the draw at Durham. However, Gloucestershire's Will Gidman gets the nod as all-rounder. A late developer, cricket-wise, he has eclipsed his older brother and county captain Alex, albeit more as a bowler than batsman. His 3-43 and 6-50 against Glamorgan bolstered his impressive career stats to 169 first-class wickets at under 21 apiece. Even allowing for the fact that they've mostly come in the Championship's second flight, that's pretty good going.
Jack Brooks is another who didn't make the county grade until his mid-20s but he excelled for Yorkshire this week, taking eight Northants wickets. He of the distinctive white headband was accompanied by he of the flowing dark ginger curlilocks, Ryan Sidebottom. The left-armer claimed 7-50 in the match, which was won by an innings. My final two earned their 'call-ups' in Cardiff and the UAE. Mohit Sharma played three times in the IPL this week, taking six for only 44 runs in total. His 4-14 against Mumbai was the pick of the bunch. Back in the Championship, Dean Cosker peered out of the shadow of the retired Robert Croft to capture 5-46 for Glamorgan. Now aged 36, his left-arm spin has earned him over 550 first-class wickets. They haven't come cheap but he does sterling work for the Welsh side.
So there you have it. Take a bow: Cook, Horton, Compton, Ballance, Maxwell, Ambrose (+), W Gidman, Sidebottom, Brooks, M Sharma, Cosker.
Nick Compton (100 not out) and Gary Ballance (174) each reminded England selectors of their middle-order Test credentials, even if they were both born in Africa. The Yorkshire batsman will probably have the edge once Sri Lanka come to town next month. Much as I'd like to, I can't ignore the IPL. Glenn Maxwell added another two big scores, 89 and 95, to his opening blast for Kings XI Punjab. Oddly, he's never made a T20 hundred in 65 innings but he came very close this week.
My wicketkeeper of the week is Tim Ambrose. Several yeara ago, he was the England number one, scoring runs for fun, but then Matt Prior and, later on, depression, got the better of him. Last year he seemed rejuvenated at Warwickshire and this week, he not only contributed a useful cameo with the bat, he claimed six catches in the first innings. Facing seamers of the quality of Woakes and Barker, he should pouch many more.
Peter Trego was welcomed back to Somerset's starting XI and inevitably enjoyed a decent performance in the draw at Durham. However, Gloucestershire's Will Gidman gets the nod as all-rounder. A late developer, cricket-wise, he has eclipsed his older brother and county captain Alex, albeit more as a bowler than batsman. His 3-43 and 6-50 against Glamorgan bolstered his impressive career stats to 169 first-class wickets at under 21 apiece. Even allowing for the fact that they've mostly come in the Championship's second flight, that's pretty good going.
Jack Brooks is another who didn't make the county grade until his mid-20s but he excelled for Yorkshire this week, taking eight Northants wickets. He of the distinctive white headband was accompanied by he of the flowing dark ginger curlilocks, Ryan Sidebottom. The left-armer claimed 7-50 in the match, which was won by an innings. My final two earned their 'call-ups' in Cardiff and the UAE. Mohit Sharma played three times in the IPL this week, taking six for only 44 runs in total. His 4-14 against Mumbai was the pick of the bunch. Back in the Championship, Dean Cosker peered out of the shadow of the retired Robert Croft to capture 5-46 for Glamorgan. Now aged 36, his left-arm spin has earned him over 550 first-class wickets. They haven't come cheap but he does sterling work for the Welsh side.
So there you have it. Take a bow: Cook, Horton, Compton, Ballance, Maxwell, Ambrose (+), W Gidman, Sidebottom, Brooks, M Sharma, Cosker.
Monday, 28 October 2013
Jones and Jadeja - A Last Lucrative Hurrah?
Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes started the rot four to five years ago. A few physical injuries and mental exhaustion took their toll on budding first-class careers so the two Aussies went for the easier and more lucrative route to fame by becoming specialist T20 fast bowlers. Let's be honest, they haven't done too badly. Apart from Australia and his native Netherlands, Nannes has plied his trade for no fewer than eleven top teams around the world, taking 214 wickets in 181 matches over six seasons, compared with 93 in a mere 23 first-class fixtures before that.
Tait, still only 30, did at least have a decent grounding in proper cricket, including three mediocre Tests and 35 ODIs. However, it's now thirty months since he played even a 50-over game, but at least he retired with Sachin Tendulkar his final victim. He has represented nine senior sides in a ten-year career and, with only a few four-over stints, albeit at a fearsome pace, he probably has several more years left in him.
So what about Simon Jones. I did scoff and splutter when reading about his decision to concentate all his efforts on winning contracts for T20 franchises around the world. With no reputation in that form of cricket at all, and living entirely on fans' memories of his mid-2000s England heyday, that did sound mighty optimistic to me. He made no impact in Glamorgan's one-day final this summer and, for all his media appearances and talking the talk, I do wonder why he thinks the Big Bash, IPL etc will come hammering on the door of such an injury-prone bowler, eight years past his prime.
Now even his home county Glamorgan have shut the door in his face, quite rightly preferring to place their hopes and slender cash reserves on young talent. Jones commented that he would have to seek employment 'over the bridge', presumably meaning the Severn crossing. However, unless he has relatively low expectations, pay-wise I can't see many counties fighting for his services. Perhaps he can prove me wrong but it would be a gamble for any side.
Over in India, Ajay Jadeja has made a comeback at 42, nearly seven years after his final first-class appearance for Rajasthan. It wasn't a senior game, but a Buchi Babu tournament one-dayer for Haryana. Nevertheless, as one of India's top 50-over batsmen of the 1990s before involvement in match-fixing cost him dear, eyebrows are being raised. Is he just helping out a former side, mentoring the youngsters or actually testing the waters for a Warne-like comeback payday? I'm probably too much of a cynic by steering towards the latter. After all, if Tendulkar finds his powers waning at 40, what hope does his former team-mate Jadeja have?
In the end, it's a commercial world and if someone has the cash and nerve to make an eye-catching big-name signing in Jadeja, then I don't blame him for trying. As for Simon Jones, I wish he had simply bowed to the inevitable and made a dignified exit from the senior cricket field and used his experience to benefit youngsters as a coach. I'm sure he'd make a great one.
Tait, still only 30, did at least have a decent grounding in proper cricket, including three mediocre Tests and 35 ODIs. However, it's now thirty months since he played even a 50-over game, but at least he retired with Sachin Tendulkar his final victim. He has represented nine senior sides in a ten-year career and, with only a few four-over stints, albeit at a fearsome pace, he probably has several more years left in him.
So what about Simon Jones. I did scoff and splutter when reading about his decision to concentate all his efforts on winning contracts for T20 franchises around the world. With no reputation in that form of cricket at all, and living entirely on fans' memories of his mid-2000s England heyday, that did sound mighty optimistic to me. He made no impact in Glamorgan's one-day final this summer and, for all his media appearances and talking the talk, I do wonder why he thinks the Big Bash, IPL etc will come hammering on the door of such an injury-prone bowler, eight years past his prime.
Now even his home county Glamorgan have shut the door in his face, quite rightly preferring to place their hopes and slender cash reserves on young talent. Jones commented that he would have to seek employment 'over the bridge', presumably meaning the Severn crossing. However, unless he has relatively low expectations, pay-wise I can't see many counties fighting for his services. Perhaps he can prove me wrong but it would be a gamble for any side.
Over in India, Ajay Jadeja has made a comeback at 42, nearly seven years after his final first-class appearance for Rajasthan. It wasn't a senior game, but a Buchi Babu tournament one-dayer for Haryana. Nevertheless, as one of India's top 50-over batsmen of the 1990s before involvement in match-fixing cost him dear, eyebrows are being raised. Is he just helping out a former side, mentoring the youngsters or actually testing the waters for a Warne-like comeback payday? I'm probably too much of a cynic by steering towards the latter. After all, if Tendulkar finds his powers waning at 40, what hope does his former team-mate Jadeja have?
In the end, it's a commercial world and if someone has the cash and nerve to make an eye-catching big-name signing in Jadeja, then I don't blame him for trying. As for Simon Jones, I wish he had simply bowed to the inevitable and made a dignified exit from the senior cricket field and used his experience to benefit youngsters as a coach. I'm sure he'd make a great one.
Monday, 27 May 2013
Mumbai give Tendulkar a winning send-off
Having picked the Super Kings to win back the IPL title, I suppose it was inevitable that the Mumbai Lions would come out on top in the Eden Gardens showdown. No Ponting or Tendulkar, but in this Final it was the T20 specialist Kieron Pollard whose batting proved decisive in the first innings. It was then the turn of the frontline bowlers to shine. When the two slingers Malnga and Johnson had despatched potential match-winners Mike Hussey, Raina and badrinath back to the dugout inside two overs with just three runs on the board, things were looking grim for CSK.
However, in T20, there's always hope. Some big sixes and there's always a chance of reaching the target before the remaining wickets tumble. Nevertheless at 39-6, all Chennai hopes were resting on one man's shoulders. Batsman, 'keeper and captain for CSK and India, MS Dhoni is used to immense pressure but this was one challenge beyond even his talents. To his credit, he compiled another unbeaten half-century but the pacemen, plus Ojha, Harbajhan Singh and Pollard, proved too difficult to hit. The dot balls mounted up and the game was up before the start of the final Pollard over. Sachin was out injured but the boyish enthusiasm was still to the fore on the boundary as Rohit Sharma spent ages pointlessly shuffling his field to defend more than twenty runs from the last ball!
What we didn't know was that the Little Master had already decided to make this IPL his last. A pity he couldn't represent the Indians on the pitch in their hour of success but he did at least bow out with a six a few weeks ago. At 40, Tendulkar has now officially retired from two of the major money-spinning formats IPL and ODIs. To his credit, he has left Test cricket to last but I think he should bow out this year. If he rediscovers the old form, perhaps he could persevere for longer, but at 40+ even the longest, most lucrative and stunningly successful career of the modern era has to end. Rahul Dravid, as so often, made the right decision at the right time. Perhaps Sachin is thinking of the succession plan in the national side. Essentially there doesn't seem to be one. So much batting talent in the Ranji Trophy and ODIs: Kohli, Raina, Rahane, Sharma, etc, etc, but such a shame that none have transferred their considerable potential on home soil to the Test arena around the world. Maybe it will come.
What the IPL won't produce is the next crop of Indian Test batsmen. The top order at the Indians, Super Kings, etc, are occupied by the international superstars like Gayle, Watson, Hussey and Jaywardene or retirees like Dravid and Ponting, giving little chance for the young guns. In any case, a few whirlwind 30s or 40s in IPL is hardly a firm foundation for a brilliant Test career. On the other hand, T20 does offer bowlers the chance to experiment with their craft in front of huge crowds, and has given an audience for the Narines of this world to develop. It doesn't allow them much of a chance to fail but when a bowler learns to take wickets and keep different batsmen guessing, that will hold them in good stead for any form of cricket.
Of course, this year's IPL has been rocked by the latest spot-fixing scandal. Where there's huge sums of money swilling around, there will also be unscrupulous individuals able to tempt players over to the 'dark side', risking their long-term sporting careers for short-term criminal gain. As Dravid said this weekend, that doesn't mean the IPL should be scrapped, because the dodgy bookies will merely find another tournament to taint.
And so the game moves on to what I would classify as more meaty cricket, with the 50-over Champions Trophy, more Test series and, for me, the County Championship. A 100% cake and chocolate diet is fun for a while, but mixing with some protein, carbs and greens is ultimately far more satisfying!
However, in T20, there's always hope. Some big sixes and there's always a chance of reaching the target before the remaining wickets tumble. Nevertheless at 39-6, all Chennai hopes were resting on one man's shoulders. Batsman, 'keeper and captain for CSK and India, MS Dhoni is used to immense pressure but this was one challenge beyond even his talents. To his credit, he compiled another unbeaten half-century but the pacemen, plus Ojha, Harbajhan Singh and Pollard, proved too difficult to hit. The dot balls mounted up and the game was up before the start of the final Pollard over. Sachin was out injured but the boyish enthusiasm was still to the fore on the boundary as Rohit Sharma spent ages pointlessly shuffling his field to defend more than twenty runs from the last ball!
What we didn't know was that the Little Master had already decided to make this IPL his last. A pity he couldn't represent the Indians on the pitch in their hour of success but he did at least bow out with a six a few weeks ago. At 40, Tendulkar has now officially retired from two of the major money-spinning formats IPL and ODIs. To his credit, he has left Test cricket to last but I think he should bow out this year. If he rediscovers the old form, perhaps he could persevere for longer, but at 40+ even the longest, most lucrative and stunningly successful career of the modern era has to end. Rahul Dravid, as so often, made the right decision at the right time. Perhaps Sachin is thinking of the succession plan in the national side. Essentially there doesn't seem to be one. So much batting talent in the Ranji Trophy and ODIs: Kohli, Raina, Rahane, Sharma, etc, etc, but such a shame that none have transferred their considerable potential on home soil to the Test arena around the world. Maybe it will come.
What the IPL won't produce is the next crop of Indian Test batsmen. The top order at the Indians, Super Kings, etc, are occupied by the international superstars like Gayle, Watson, Hussey and Jaywardene or retirees like Dravid and Ponting, giving little chance for the young guns. In any case, a few whirlwind 30s or 40s in IPL is hardly a firm foundation for a brilliant Test career. On the other hand, T20 does offer bowlers the chance to experiment with their craft in front of huge crowds, and has given an audience for the Narines of this world to develop. It doesn't allow them much of a chance to fail but when a bowler learns to take wickets and keep different batsmen guessing, that will hold them in good stead for any form of cricket.
Of course, this year's IPL has been rocked by the latest spot-fixing scandal. Where there's huge sums of money swilling around, there will also be unscrupulous individuals able to tempt players over to the 'dark side', risking their long-term sporting careers for short-term criminal gain. As Dravid said this weekend, that doesn't mean the IPL should be scrapped, because the dodgy bookies will merely find another tournament to taint.
And so the game moves on to what I would classify as more meaty cricket, with the 50-over Champions Trophy, more Test series and, for me, the County Championship. A 100% cake and chocolate diet is fun for a while, but mixing with some protein, carbs and greens is ultimately far more satisfying!
Thursday, 23 May 2013
CSK lead the way
I know it's not my favourite competition - give me the County Championship any day, even with Somerset's dreadful run! - but the IPL is worth following just to see how the world's best cricketers fare against each other in the biff-bang game. Chris Gayle is the king of Twenty20 but even his sixes couldn't drag RCB into the top four. Not only that, but the Chennai Super Kings feature batsmen who have outperformed the West Indian opener.
Surely CSK should have the firepower in depth to win the final this weekend, whoever the opposition. Mike Hussey has played the same number of games as Gayle, yet has accumulated 24 more runs, featuring six half-centuries in the 16 innings. His 58-ball 86 not out against the Indians was superb and it took an even more ferocious performance by team-mate Suresh Raina to steal the headlines, though not the Man of the Match award.
Of the top players, Gayle doesn't even boast the best strike rate. That belongs to another CSK stalwart, their irrepressible skipper MS Dhoni. He may have endured considerable criticism since India slipped off their perch as number one Test nation but in the short formats, MS is as good as anyone. A strike rate of more than 167, with just the final to come, is phenomenal. Needless to say, he has also made more dismissals behind the stumps (15) than anyone else in this year's competition.
With the ball, CSK also field the highest wicket-taker, Darren Bravo. His 28 scalps often seem to come at the death, with a soaring economy rate to match, but his contribution to the Chennai cause cannot be overlooked. Lasith Malinga has been eclipsed at last! He wasn't even the best fast bowler in Mumbai's side; that is Mitch Johnson. Mean bowling is usually the preserve of the spinners such as Harbjajan Singh, Mishra and the excellent Sunil Narine, but Dale Steyn's 19 wickets at under a run a ball have taken the Sunrisers to touching distance of the final. James Faulkner has snared an impressive 27 IPL victims this year, making him the star of the Royals' march to the final eliminator. I hadn't realised what a fine all-round record he has in first-class cricket, too, so could a Test call-up be far away?
So will Chennai Super Kings claim their third title in four years? Even if they don't, their ace performers have lit up the tournament. Mike Hussey may have retired from Test cricket but his class in all cricket remains undimmed. The lights may have gone out on Tendulkar and Ponting this Spring but Mr Cricket, about to reach his 38th birthday, shines as brightly as ever.
Surely CSK should have the firepower in depth to win the final this weekend, whoever the opposition. Mike Hussey has played the same number of games as Gayle, yet has accumulated 24 more runs, featuring six half-centuries in the 16 innings. His 58-ball 86 not out against the Indians was superb and it took an even more ferocious performance by team-mate Suresh Raina to steal the headlines, though not the Man of the Match award.
Of the top players, Gayle doesn't even boast the best strike rate. That belongs to another CSK stalwart, their irrepressible skipper MS Dhoni. He may have endured considerable criticism since India slipped off their perch as number one Test nation but in the short formats, MS is as good as anyone. A strike rate of more than 167, with just the final to come, is phenomenal. Needless to say, he has also made more dismissals behind the stumps (15) than anyone else in this year's competition.
With the ball, CSK also field the highest wicket-taker, Darren Bravo. His 28 scalps often seem to come at the death, with a soaring economy rate to match, but his contribution to the Chennai cause cannot be overlooked. Lasith Malinga has been eclipsed at last! He wasn't even the best fast bowler in Mumbai's side; that is Mitch Johnson. Mean bowling is usually the preserve of the spinners such as Harbjajan Singh, Mishra and the excellent Sunil Narine, but Dale Steyn's 19 wickets at under a run a ball have taken the Sunrisers to touching distance of the final. James Faulkner has snared an impressive 27 IPL victims this year, making him the star of the Royals' march to the final eliminator. I hadn't realised what a fine all-round record he has in first-class cricket, too, so could a Test call-up be far away?
So will Chennai Super Kings claim their third title in four years? Even if they don't, their ace performers have lit up the tournament. Mike Hussey may have retired from Test cricket but his class in all cricket remains undimmed. The lights may have gone out on Tendulkar and Ponting this Spring but Mr Cricket, about to reach his 38th birthday, shines as brightly as ever.
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Chris Gayle - Simply the Best
Just when you thought the world's greatest Twenty20 batsman has done everything, he goes and breaks just about all remaining records. We all knew Chris Gayle can win matches on his own but today he beat Pune Warriors all by himself. 175 in 66 balls, two wickets in one over, ... I half expected to inspect the scorecard and find he'd stumped Murtaza off his own bowling!
People have slammed the opposition bowling for being weak but, let's face it, this is T20. When a humungous talent like Gayle sits in the zone, no bowler on earth can stop him, short of tempting a mis-hit to a man on the square leg boundary. Not Steyn, not Ajmal, not Narine. I have often derided the format for producing one-off star performances and building instant reputations which can never again be justified. However, the amiable Jamaican is in a class of his own once he gets going. Viv Richards in his pomp was similar in the way he could be snaffled early in an innings but, with a few cracking boundaries to his name, bowlers could merely watch and admire. And that was in Test matches. He achieved the highest ever score in T20, the highest number of sixes (17) and the fastest ever T20 century, in a mere 30 balls.
What was even more astonishing is that his innings was interrupted by rain!
Gayle's career statistics make incredible reading. Brad Hodge may have accumulated more T20 runs in total, but the West Indian's 5,236 have come in a mere 134 innings. His strike rate is bettered only by Kieron Pollard but his Caribbean colleague has struck nowhere near his awesome record of 383, an average of almost three every time he takes guard! Gayle has scored almost as many runs and centuries in T20 as he has in Tests. Eleven hundreds all told; that's the same as McCullum, Warner, Sehwag and Pollard COMBINED!
It must be a great feeling to be an RCB fan right now, yet Gayle didn't even have the highest strike rate in today's innings. That accolade went to team-mate AB De Villiers who had the audacity to plunder 31 runs in only eight balls at the death. And nobody will remember it because this day belonged to Chris Gayle. It took 2962 ODIs before Sachin Tendulkar claimed the first 50+-over double-century. I suspect that it could take a lot fewer before Mr Gayle plunders the first twenty-over 200. His ODI best is a 'puny' 153 not out but I wouldn't complain if he reproduced his IPL heroics in the Champions Trophy semi-final at Cardiff this summer!
People have slammed the opposition bowling for being weak but, let's face it, this is T20. When a humungous talent like Gayle sits in the zone, no bowler on earth can stop him, short of tempting a mis-hit to a man on the square leg boundary. Not Steyn, not Ajmal, not Narine. I have often derided the format for producing one-off star performances and building instant reputations which can never again be justified. However, the amiable Jamaican is in a class of his own once he gets going. Viv Richards in his pomp was similar in the way he could be snaffled early in an innings but, with a few cracking boundaries to his name, bowlers could merely watch and admire. And that was in Test matches. He achieved the highest ever score in T20, the highest number of sixes (17) and the fastest ever T20 century, in a mere 30 balls.
What was even more astonishing is that his innings was interrupted by rain!
Gayle's career statistics make incredible reading. Brad Hodge may have accumulated more T20 runs in total, but the West Indian's 5,236 have come in a mere 134 innings. His strike rate is bettered only by Kieron Pollard but his Caribbean colleague has struck nowhere near his awesome record of 383, an average of almost three every time he takes guard! Gayle has scored almost as many runs and centuries in T20 as he has in Tests. Eleven hundreds all told; that's the same as McCullum, Warner, Sehwag and Pollard COMBINED!
It must be a great feeling to be an RCB fan right now, yet Gayle didn't even have the highest strike rate in today's innings. That accolade went to team-mate AB De Villiers who had the audacity to plunder 31 runs in only eight balls at the death. And nobody will remember it because this day belonged to Chris Gayle. It took 2962 ODIs before Sachin Tendulkar claimed the first 50+-over double-century. I suspect that it could take a lot fewer before Mr Gayle plunders the first twenty-over 200. His ODI best is a 'puny' 153 not out but I wouldn't complain if he reproduced his IPL heroics in the Champions Trophy semi-final at Cardiff this summer!
Monday, 1 April 2013
County Championship Preview 2013 - the Imports
As the international cricketing calendar heads for its annual hiatus, and many stars head for the heat and dust of India to boost their bank balances for several interminable weeks, my own mind switches to more local matters. If it's April, it must be the start of the County Championship.
There have been some articles recently about how boring county cricket is. I have to disagree. Yes, it suffers from the uncertainty over who is playing for each county, because of the England central contract system and ludicrous short-term contracts for overseas stars, but there remains plenty of quality in the game, in whatever format. 2012 may not have produced the last-day drama of the previous two summers but the Championship still has plenty of excitement to offer. Where people criticise owes more to the media coverage. It used to have the May-August period to itself, but now there is wall-to-wall sport throughout the northern hemisphere summer. Sky TV hoovered up all the live broadcasting rights to domestic cricket but gives it next to no publicity, demoting cricket - other than the Ashes - below football (even when there aren't any competitive matches), rugby league, tennis, golf, fishing (FISHING??!!) and probably the ITPL (Indian Tiddlywinks Premier League).
So why should we sit up and take note of the 2013 Championship? I'll preview the two divisions shortly but today I'll focus on the likely imports set to descend on these shores. Right now, after three weeks of persistently cold, often very snowy conditions, Mumbai and Mohali must look far more inviting than Derby or Durham. However, a number of international cricketers have signed up to at least two months of county action. Some are old hands for whom the IPL is irrelevant, others just looking to keep their hands in during a break in international commitments. However, there are some real names to note.
After last year's distrubing season, Surrey have again splashed the cash, nabbing Graeme Smith as captain on a three-year contract. He'll give them some much-needed beef at the top of the order. And who is due to arrive in mid-season? Only Ricky Ponting! He may have nothing to prove, but then if the pressure is off, opposition bowlers may suffer at the hands of a true master of the past two decades.
In an Ashes summer, there are plenty of Aussies heading for England early. Nottinghamshire welcome Ed Cowan, who will be replaced by David Husey when the Test series starts. Michael Klinger, Rob Quiney, George Bailey and Joe Burns head for Gloucestershire, Essex, Hampshire and Leicestershire, respectively, while veterans Simon Katich, Marcus North and Chris Rogers beat a more familiar path to Lancashire, Glamorgan and Middlesex. ALviro Petersen, Ashwell Prince (potentially on a Kolpak contract) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul could all shine, too.
Note the dominance of batsmen. I suppose it's a sign of the times that bowlers are more interested in preserving their weak bodies for T20 than learning their craft in proper cricket. Jeetan Patel (Warwickshire) and Trent Copeland (Northants) are the only bowlers appearing in the first part of the summer, although Pakistan spin duo Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman should be useful assets for Hants and Somerset as the season reached its climax.
I haven't mentioned T20 as the line-ups will no doubt change between now and July. The Champions Trophy in June also lead to greater demands, injuries and hasty new signings, so watch this space. Watch, too, for my previews of the Championship. It's likely to be unpredictable as ever (so predictable!?). Will Warwickshire follow Lancashire's fate and go straight form champions to relegation? Will Somerset finally, FINALLY win the pennant? Will Surrey take the title their wealth demands? Lots to look forward to. IPL? Pah!
There have been some articles recently about how boring county cricket is. I have to disagree. Yes, it suffers from the uncertainty over who is playing for each county, because of the England central contract system and ludicrous short-term contracts for overseas stars, but there remains plenty of quality in the game, in whatever format. 2012 may not have produced the last-day drama of the previous two summers but the Championship still has plenty of excitement to offer. Where people criticise owes more to the media coverage. It used to have the May-August period to itself, but now there is wall-to-wall sport throughout the northern hemisphere summer. Sky TV hoovered up all the live broadcasting rights to domestic cricket but gives it next to no publicity, demoting cricket - other than the Ashes - below football (even when there aren't any competitive matches), rugby league, tennis, golf, fishing (FISHING??!!) and probably the ITPL (Indian Tiddlywinks Premier League).
So why should we sit up and take note of the 2013 Championship? I'll preview the two divisions shortly but today I'll focus on the likely imports set to descend on these shores. Right now, after three weeks of persistently cold, often very snowy conditions, Mumbai and Mohali must look far more inviting than Derby or Durham. However, a number of international cricketers have signed up to at least two months of county action. Some are old hands for whom the IPL is irrelevant, others just looking to keep their hands in during a break in international commitments. However, there are some real names to note.
After last year's distrubing season, Surrey have again splashed the cash, nabbing Graeme Smith as captain on a three-year contract. He'll give them some much-needed beef at the top of the order. And who is due to arrive in mid-season? Only Ricky Ponting! He may have nothing to prove, but then if the pressure is off, opposition bowlers may suffer at the hands of a true master of the past two decades.
In an Ashes summer, there are plenty of Aussies heading for England early. Nottinghamshire welcome Ed Cowan, who will be replaced by David Husey when the Test series starts. Michael Klinger, Rob Quiney, George Bailey and Joe Burns head for Gloucestershire, Essex, Hampshire and Leicestershire, respectively, while veterans Simon Katich, Marcus North and Chris Rogers beat a more familiar path to Lancashire, Glamorgan and Middlesex. ALviro Petersen, Ashwell Prince (potentially on a Kolpak contract) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul could all shine, too.
Note the dominance of batsmen. I suppose it's a sign of the times that bowlers are more interested in preserving their weak bodies for T20 than learning their craft in proper cricket. Jeetan Patel (Warwickshire) and Trent Copeland (Northants) are the only bowlers appearing in the first part of the summer, although Pakistan spin duo Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman should be useful assets for Hants and Somerset as the season reached its climax.
I haven't mentioned T20 as the line-ups will no doubt change between now and July. The Champions Trophy in June also lead to greater demands, injuries and hasty new signings, so watch this space. Watch, too, for my previews of the Championship. It's likely to be unpredictable as ever (so predictable!?). Will Warwickshire follow Lancashire's fate and go straight form champions to relegation? Will Somerset finally, FINALLY win the pennant? Will Surrey take the title their wealth demands? Lots to look forward to. IPL? Pah!
Monday, 28 May 2012
KKR beat CSK to the IPL
After the interminable group stages, IPL 2012 livened up for an entertaining climax in Chennai between the home side and Kolkata Knight Riders. Even an avowed T20-sceptic like me couldn't help be gripped by the final ten overs of the match, with the outcome swaying like a pendulum every few balls.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, MS Dhoni opted to bat first and it looked the right decision. Whilst the pitch had seen plenty of runs early on, Chennai Super Kings looked in command from the start. Birthday boy Mike Hussey and a resurgent Murali Vijay flayed poor Brett Lee but it was the Indian opener who fell first, mistiming a slog to a diving Shakib. In came Suresh Raina to up the scoring rate still further. Hussey was tiring visibly and was relieved to see the runs coming in boundaries, because it was too energy-sapping running singles, let alone twos. Having been happy to watch Raina's innings from the other end, the Aussie eventually missed a straight one from Jacques Kallis, on 54. Dhoni struck two fours from his nine balls and his partner perished to a last ball swish to deep mid-wicket having made 73 from 38 deliveries. Good bowlers like Kallis, Lee, Pathan, Shakib and Sunil Narine had each bowled some good balls but had also been thumped around the ground.
Facing a target of 191 under the lights, surely CSK had it in the bag. When KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir missed Ben Hilfenhaus' slower ball in the first over, the yellow-clad fans must have been supremely confident. However, 'keeper Manvinder Bisla, preferred in place of Brendan McCullum, had other ideas. Supported by the peerless Kallis, he played the innings of his career. They shared a partnership of 136 and, more importantly, kept themselves ahead of the asking rate, before Bisla mistimed a slow short ball from Albie Morkel.
Kallis then assumed control, striking some impressive boundaries. At the other end, Shukla and Pathan fell cheaply, but Kallis was clearly wilting in the heat. A quick run left him suffering from cramp and unsurprisingly he didn't last very long after that, slicing a full toss to cover for an excellent 69. His departure left KKR needing 16 from seven balls and the home fans were preparing for victory. Nevertheless, Shakib and Tiwary are useful men to bat at six and seven.
Excitement rose to fever pitch the next ball when Vijay caught Shakib only to be recalled for the most marginal of 'high' no-balls. They had run two and then from the extra delivery, Shakib scooped to the fine leg boundary. Fortune had swung back in KKR's favour, and they needed just nine from the last over, bowled by Dwayne Bravo, who had taken vital wickets for CSK, but at a price.
With their lengthy consultations about field placings, Dhoni and Bravo seemed intent on boring the batsmen into submission. Don't know why they bothered because Bravo's third and fourth balls were gifts for Tiwary who smacked each for leg-side boundaries, sealing the victory and the first IPL trophy for KKR. Now it was the fans in purple doing the cheering, and deservedly so.
I don't think many could begrudge Gambhir the title. He always looks so grim and deserved the chance to smile for once! Similarly few - apart maybe from Chris Gayle - could complain about the Player of the Tournament award to Sunil Narine. Morne Morkel may have taken more wickets, but the young undemonstrative Trinidadian showed that his Champions League economic performances were no flash in the pan. He was good value for his huge IPL auction fee and how I would like to see him ply his trade in first-class cricket. With his high, Kumble-like delivery arm, there's no reason why he couldn't become a valuable member of the West Indies Test side. Sammy needs him at least as much as Gayle right now.
It wasn't a great IPL for Tendulkar, Dravid or Ganguly, whose time has surely come to retire for good. However, the evergreen Hussey and Kallis proved that class is permanent, and Dale Steyn's pace and guile are more than a match for any opponent in any format. Malinga became less effective as the competition wore on. Maybe it's not just the twenty-four balls he has to bowl every few days; I guess it's hot work fielding out there in India, too. The IPL organisers must be relieved that the tournament has been a success in the full grounds, with KKR breaking their duck, too.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, MS Dhoni opted to bat first and it looked the right decision. Whilst the pitch had seen plenty of runs early on, Chennai Super Kings looked in command from the start. Birthday boy Mike Hussey and a resurgent Murali Vijay flayed poor Brett Lee but it was the Indian opener who fell first, mistiming a slog to a diving Shakib. In came Suresh Raina to up the scoring rate still further. Hussey was tiring visibly and was relieved to see the runs coming in boundaries, because it was too energy-sapping running singles, let alone twos. Having been happy to watch Raina's innings from the other end, the Aussie eventually missed a straight one from Jacques Kallis, on 54. Dhoni struck two fours from his nine balls and his partner perished to a last ball swish to deep mid-wicket having made 73 from 38 deliveries. Good bowlers like Kallis, Lee, Pathan, Shakib and Sunil Narine had each bowled some good balls but had also been thumped around the ground.
Facing a target of 191 under the lights, surely CSK had it in the bag. When KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir missed Ben Hilfenhaus' slower ball in the first over, the yellow-clad fans must have been supremely confident. However, 'keeper Manvinder Bisla, preferred in place of Brendan McCullum, had other ideas. Supported by the peerless Kallis, he played the innings of his career. They shared a partnership of 136 and, more importantly, kept themselves ahead of the asking rate, before Bisla mistimed a slow short ball from Albie Morkel.
Kallis then assumed control, striking some impressive boundaries. At the other end, Shukla and Pathan fell cheaply, but Kallis was clearly wilting in the heat. A quick run left him suffering from cramp and unsurprisingly he didn't last very long after that, slicing a full toss to cover for an excellent 69. His departure left KKR needing 16 from seven balls and the home fans were preparing for victory. Nevertheless, Shakib and Tiwary are useful men to bat at six and seven.
Excitement rose to fever pitch the next ball when Vijay caught Shakib only to be recalled for the most marginal of 'high' no-balls. They had run two and then from the extra delivery, Shakib scooped to the fine leg boundary. Fortune had swung back in KKR's favour, and they needed just nine from the last over, bowled by Dwayne Bravo, who had taken vital wickets for CSK, but at a price.
With their lengthy consultations about field placings, Dhoni and Bravo seemed intent on boring the batsmen into submission. Don't know why they bothered because Bravo's third and fourth balls were gifts for Tiwary who smacked each for leg-side boundaries, sealing the victory and the first IPL trophy for KKR. Now it was the fans in purple doing the cheering, and deservedly so.
I don't think many could begrudge Gambhir the title. He always looks so grim and deserved the chance to smile for once! Similarly few - apart maybe from Chris Gayle - could complain about the Player of the Tournament award to Sunil Narine. Morne Morkel may have taken more wickets, but the young undemonstrative Trinidadian showed that his Champions League economic performances were no flash in the pan. He was good value for his huge IPL auction fee and how I would like to see him ply his trade in first-class cricket. With his high, Kumble-like delivery arm, there's no reason why he couldn't become a valuable member of the West Indies Test side. Sammy needs him at least as much as Gayle right now.
It wasn't a great IPL for Tendulkar, Dravid or Ganguly, whose time has surely come to retire for good. However, the evergreen Hussey and Kallis proved that class is permanent, and Dale Steyn's pace and guile are more than a match for any opponent in any format. Malinga became less effective as the competition wore on. Maybe it's not just the twenty-four balls he has to bowl every few days; I guess it's hot work fielding out there in India, too. The IPL organisers must be relieved that the tournament has been a success in the full grounds, with KKR breaking their duck, too.
Monday, 7 May 2012
Daredevils defy defeat
In many ways, there have been few surprise so far in the IPL. Admittedly it is not my favourite competition but I can't deny the passion (as well as the income) it generates for cricket, particularly in India itself. The Delhi Daredevils have lost only two matches so far, when they were overpowered first by AB De Villiers (RCB) and then Jesse Ryder (Pune Warriors), and in recent weeks have boasted what looks like a 'fantasy' batting line-up. Jayawardene, Sehwag, Pietersen, Taylor and Pathan make for a fearsome top five. Captain Sehwag has now thrashed five successive half-centuries, which may be unprecedented, and KP has also made match-winning runs. Mahela and Ross have struggled but it doesn't matter when the other two are firing on all cylinders, and Morne Morkel is taking wickets.
Today's opponents, KKR, have won five on the trot without having outstanding individual performances. Like Sehwag, skipper Gambhir has led from the front but the usually relaible pair of McCullum and Kallis have so far failed to shine with the bat. It is hardly a shock to me that the young West Indian spinner Sunil Narine is their top wicket-taker and is one of the most economical bowlers in the whole competition, conceding an average of just 5.25 runs per over. His 5-19 against the Kings XI last month remains amongst the best match figures, too.
The Mumbai Indians will surely again reach the knockout stage, although they needed three boundaries from the last three balls from Dwayne Smith to beat the Super Kings yesterday, after Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma had seen their splendid foundation to the chase eroded by a crazy spell of ten balls, in which four wickets went for four runs.
The fourth place is up for grabs although at the moment RCB look favourites to progress. Any side with Chris Gayle, AB De Villiers and Virat Kohli in their side has to be in with a very good shout. However, the Jamaican must be disappointed. He has slammed 'only' 31 sixes and failed to convert five fifties into three figures. What a failure! AB's 172 is the highest strike rate of any leading batsman in the tournament to date, but top of the run aggregate is Ajinkya Rahane. While a Mumbai star in the Ranji Trophy, he opens alongside Rahul Dravid for the Rajasthan Royals who still harbour hopes of reching the top four.
The bowling table has a familiar look to it, too. Lasith Malinga lords it at the top, with more wickets and a superior economy rate to anybody. Twenty20 often throws up new stars and the giants can easily be thrashed for sixes, but the Sri Lanka magician has in 2012 maintained his reputation as a death bowler par excellence. It remains a mystery to me why he couldn't do it consistently in Test cricket.
As for today's clash of the top two teams, it could go either way. KP has gone back to England to prepare for the Windies but KKR can breathe no more easily because he will be replaced in the Daredevils team by none other than David Warner, another superstar of the format. Gambhir needs more support from his batsmen and for Narine and co to make early inroads into that formidable Delhi top five if their recent round of victories can be extended. My guess is that they won't do it and that the home team wil extend their lead in the table.
Friday, 10 February 2012
Man of the Moment: Ravindra Jadeja
To be honest, I don't really 'get' the IPL. Maybe it's because I'm an Englishman. Maybe it's because I'm into the more traditional forms of cricket. To me, it's always been promoted as glitz and glamour, the franchises mere playthings of the super-rich elite of India. The dodgy dealings of Lalit Modi and now the sudden withdrawal of the Pune Warriors' backers serve to reinforce my view. However, when attention turns to the players the IPL becomes more interesting.
I can't deny that some of the world's most exciting cricketers take part, along with many promising young Indian talent. Yes, the auction process represents much of what I dislike about the competition, yet it is horribly fascinating at the same time. I don't understand why some players aren't part of the whole charade and some are, but it's a bit of a drama. Many international stars put themselves forward, lured by $ signs and lots of 0s for a month or two's cricket, with much of that likely to be sitting around on the benches. For some, there is the embarrassment of failing to reach their reserve price (Jimmy Anderson, Owais Shah, VVS Laxman, et al), which must surely be worse than not having joined the auction in the first place. For others, there is the hugely ego-boosting outcome of attracting a bidding war and being 'sold' for enormous sums.
The most expensive player of the IPL 2012 auction was not the likes of Murali, Jayawardene or McCullum but Ravi Jadeja. Chennai SuperKings secured the all-rounder's services for an estimated $2million+ in a secret tie-breaker. So can he deliver?
Twenty20 is a bit of a lottery, of course. The likes of Gayle and Warner may hit a 20-ball half-century one day and be bowled for a first-ball duck the next. Similarly, the opposing bowlers may go for fifteen an over in one game and on the next emerge with four overs, four wickets for ten. At just 23, Jadeja has 50 ODIs behind him but only 12 T20 internationals. With the bat, his record is unremarkable. In fact he has a more impressive set of statistics for first-class than one-day cricket. Indeed his triple century a few months ago made him my Player of the Week. His strike rate in 57 T20s is a mediocre 117. His bowling figures are no better. However, attacking batsmen who can spin the ball and field brilliantly are like gold dust. The Super Kings are presumably banking on Ravi's previous 'bad boy' (or 'rock star' according to Shane Warne) image selling a few more tickets, too.
As I have written before, the IPL has been the first tournament to make stars out of otherwise ordinary slow bowlers, something unheard of in previous private competitions like WSC in the '70s. The likes of Ashwin, Mishra, Rahul Sharma and Iqbal Abdulla were amongst the stars of IPL 2011, and will probably feature strongly again. Sunil Narine's exploits in last year's Champions League have encouraged KKR to shell out £700,000, fourteen times the West Indian's base price.
The tournament doesn't begin until April so I hope Ravi Jadeja comes back down to earth in time to try and justify his price tag. Actually I don't think it matters much if he doesn't. The auction has served its purpose. I just hope that the IPL serves up some decent cricketing entertainment and turns up some surprise new stars along the way.
I can't deny that some of the world's most exciting cricketers take part, along with many promising young Indian talent. Yes, the auction process represents much of what I dislike about the competition, yet it is horribly fascinating at the same time. I don't understand why some players aren't part of the whole charade and some are, but it's a bit of a drama. Many international stars put themselves forward, lured by $ signs and lots of 0s for a month or two's cricket, with much of that likely to be sitting around on the benches. For some, there is the embarrassment of failing to reach their reserve price (Jimmy Anderson, Owais Shah, VVS Laxman, et al), which must surely be worse than not having joined the auction in the first place. For others, there is the hugely ego-boosting outcome of attracting a bidding war and being 'sold' for enormous sums.
The most expensive player of the IPL 2012 auction was not the likes of Murali, Jayawardene or McCullum but Ravi Jadeja. Chennai SuperKings secured the all-rounder's services for an estimated $2million+ in a secret tie-breaker. So can he deliver?
Twenty20 is a bit of a lottery, of course. The likes of Gayle and Warner may hit a 20-ball half-century one day and be bowled for a first-ball duck the next. Similarly, the opposing bowlers may go for fifteen an over in one game and on the next emerge with four overs, four wickets for ten. At just 23, Jadeja has 50 ODIs behind him but only 12 T20 internationals. With the bat, his record is unremarkable. In fact he has a more impressive set of statistics for first-class than one-day cricket. Indeed his triple century a few months ago made him my Player of the Week. His strike rate in 57 T20s is a mediocre 117. His bowling figures are no better. However, attacking batsmen who can spin the ball and field brilliantly are like gold dust. The Super Kings are presumably banking on Ravi's previous 'bad boy' (or 'rock star' according to Shane Warne) image selling a few more tickets, too.
As I have written before, the IPL has been the first tournament to make stars out of otherwise ordinary slow bowlers, something unheard of in previous private competitions like WSC in the '70s. The likes of Ashwin, Mishra, Rahul Sharma and Iqbal Abdulla were amongst the stars of IPL 2011, and will probably feature strongly again. Sunil Narine's exploits in last year's Champions League have encouraged KKR to shell out £700,000, fourteen times the West Indian's base price.
The tournament doesn't begin until April so I hope Ravi Jadeja comes back down to earth in time to try and justify his price tag. Actually I don't think it matters much if he doesn't. The auction has served its purpose. I just hope that the IPL serves up some decent cricketing entertainment and turns up some surprise new stars along the way.
Monday, 30 May 2011
IPL 2011 - a 'Tournament of Success'?
As regular readers of this blog will know by now, I'm not a huge fan of Twenty20 cricket. For me, the IPL represents so much that is wrong with modern sport: short-term profit for the few at the expense of long-term development for the many. However, love it or loathe it, IPL has been an incredibly popular competition, especially for the cricket-loving Indians and their super-rich individuals keen to raise their own profiles by bankrolling the city franchises and luring most of the world's best players to India for a few months.
This year I have tried to follow the tournament more closely, catching climaxes of matches on telly when I get home from work. Congratulations to the Chennai Super Kings, of course, but I can't recall many exciting finishes at all. For all the camerawork showing close-ups of dancing girls, excited children with flags and vuvuzelas, glamorous ladies, shiny Volkswagens and even shinier Shane Warne teeth, stadia were often half-empty and TV audience figures were apparently well down on previous series.
Still, as long as companies and billionaires wish to finance and sponsor it, IPL will surely continue, and it has spawned similar tournaments in other countries, such as the irritatingly vulgarly named 'Big Bash' in Australia. A major problem for me, apart from the 'six' being rebranded the 'DHL Maximum', a wicket 'Citi Moment of Success' and even a catch has to be a 'Karbonn Kamaal Catch' (who's KK?!), is the contradiction over the whole essence of T20. It's supposed to be a fast and furious format, yet the play during IPL games is infuriatingly slow. There may be more atmosphere than in Test matches (just compare with the England v Sri Lanka Test at cold, wet and windy Cardiff this week!) but there are so many breaks. For a start, there's the blasted 'Maxx Mobile Strategic Time Out'. Why don't they be honest and call it a Maxx Mobile Extended Ad Break? There are always lengthy on-field consultations between every ball where bowling, batting and fielding strategies are discussed by players and I just want to scream at the TV: "Just get on with it!"
Anyway, rant over! There were, of course, some brilliant performances. Last year, true cricketing class won out, in that stars such as Tendulkar and Kallis reigned supreme with the bat in particular. Both played well again in 2011 but the stand-out performers have to be Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga. The laconic West Indian opener arrived late but produced some devastating displays of powerful hitting, securing the 'Orange Cap' for hitting most runs, 608 in only 12 innings, including 44 sixes, almost twice as many as the second highest total (by MS Dhoni, of all people!). Yes, he was found out by spin bowling in the final, but when he got going in earlier stages, he was irresistible. For the Mumbai Indians, Malinga's brilliance at bowling yorkers have become legendary and he ended the tournament with 28 wickets at fewer than 6 runs an over, an incredible achievement.
The likes of Zaheer Khan, Brett Lee and Morne Morkel all had their moments, but spin bowling again proved to be a match-winning option, whether slowing down the openers or frustrating batsmen chasing targets in the closing overs. Subtle changes in pace, flight and length proved more devastating than sheer speed, the occasional in-swinger at the toes or seamer's slower ball, and I take my hat off to Daniel Vettori, Ravi Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Rahul Sharma and even old Warney himself for demonstrating the slow bowler's art. This is one area where T20 can truly benefit the more traditional forms of the sport. A few big innings from players such as Paul Valthaty deserved to make the headlines but the young Kings XI Punjab all-rounder couldn't carry that early form into the second month. Remember he has never played a first-class match in his life and he may never will.
Another positive is the improvement in fielding. One-day cricket certainly raised standards in the 1970s and now T20 has taken athleticism to new heights. Runs, wickets, strike and economy rates are all important but I reckon the Super Kings' enthusiasm, energy, skill and timing in the outfield were crucial factors in their success. Even fast bowlers like Dougie Bollinger were pulling off great stops and pouching brilliant catches on the boundary.
Much is made of the importance of international recruits to IPL, and players of the stature of Vettori, Gayle, Shaun Marsh, Mike Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Mahela Jayawardene and Jesse Ryder do bring something different to the party. However, I reckon the competition succeeds more in showing the world the depth of talent that exists within India. Already ranked no. 1 in Tests and 50-over World champions, most of the best teams were captained by local heroes like Tendulkar, Dhoni and Gambhir. Younger stars like Raina, Vijay, Kohli and the aforementioned spinners have also shone, proving that India have plenty of talent waiting to replace the legendary Tendulkar, Dravid and Zaheer Khan. IPL will doubtless endure a few seasons more, without dodgy characters like Lalit Modi, but the organisers need to recognise that sometimes less can be better (including number of games), especially in the long run. If cricket really does need Twenty20 to attract fans and players of the future, the format should not be run into the ground to rake in big bucks for just a few years. Cricket deserves better than that, and so do the highly talented players who illuminated the past few months.
This year I have tried to follow the tournament more closely, catching climaxes of matches on telly when I get home from work. Congratulations to the Chennai Super Kings, of course, but I can't recall many exciting finishes at all. For all the camerawork showing close-ups of dancing girls, excited children with flags and vuvuzelas, glamorous ladies, shiny Volkswagens and even shinier Shane Warne teeth, stadia were often half-empty and TV audience figures were apparently well down on previous series.
Still, as long as companies and billionaires wish to finance and sponsor it, IPL will surely continue, and it has spawned similar tournaments in other countries, such as the irritatingly vulgarly named 'Big Bash' in Australia. A major problem for me, apart from the 'six' being rebranded the 'DHL Maximum', a wicket 'Citi Moment of Success' and even a catch has to be a 'Karbonn Kamaal Catch' (who's KK?!), is the contradiction over the whole essence of T20. It's supposed to be a fast and furious format, yet the play during IPL games is infuriatingly slow. There may be more atmosphere than in Test matches (just compare with the England v Sri Lanka Test at cold, wet and windy Cardiff this week!) but there are so many breaks. For a start, there's the blasted 'Maxx Mobile Strategic Time Out'. Why don't they be honest and call it a Maxx Mobile Extended Ad Break? There are always lengthy on-field consultations between every ball where bowling, batting and fielding strategies are discussed by players and I just want to scream at the TV: "Just get on with it!"
Anyway, rant over! There were, of course, some brilliant performances. Last year, true cricketing class won out, in that stars such as Tendulkar and Kallis reigned supreme with the bat in particular. Both played well again in 2011 but the stand-out performers have to be Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga. The laconic West Indian opener arrived late but produced some devastating displays of powerful hitting, securing the 'Orange Cap' for hitting most runs, 608 in only 12 innings, including 44 sixes, almost twice as many as the second highest total (by MS Dhoni, of all people!). Yes, he was found out by spin bowling in the final, but when he got going in earlier stages, he was irresistible. For the Mumbai Indians, Malinga's brilliance at bowling yorkers have become legendary and he ended the tournament with 28 wickets at fewer than 6 runs an over, an incredible achievement.
The likes of Zaheer Khan, Brett Lee and Morne Morkel all had their moments, but spin bowling again proved to be a match-winning option, whether slowing down the openers or frustrating batsmen chasing targets in the closing overs. Subtle changes in pace, flight and length proved more devastating than sheer speed, the occasional in-swinger at the toes or seamer's slower ball, and I take my hat off to Daniel Vettori, Ravi Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Rahul Sharma and even old Warney himself for demonstrating the slow bowler's art. This is one area where T20 can truly benefit the more traditional forms of the sport. A few big innings from players such as Paul Valthaty deserved to make the headlines but the young Kings XI Punjab all-rounder couldn't carry that early form into the second month. Remember he has never played a first-class match in his life and he may never will.
Another positive is the improvement in fielding. One-day cricket certainly raised standards in the 1970s and now T20 has taken athleticism to new heights. Runs, wickets, strike and economy rates are all important but I reckon the Super Kings' enthusiasm, energy, skill and timing in the outfield were crucial factors in their success. Even fast bowlers like Dougie Bollinger were pulling off great stops and pouching brilliant catches on the boundary.
Much is made of the importance of international recruits to IPL, and players of the stature of Vettori, Gayle, Shaun Marsh, Mike Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Mahela Jayawardene and Jesse Ryder do bring something different to the party. However, I reckon the competition succeeds more in showing the world the depth of talent that exists within India. Already ranked no. 1 in Tests and 50-over World champions, most of the best teams were captained by local heroes like Tendulkar, Dhoni and Gambhir. Younger stars like Raina, Vijay, Kohli and the aforementioned spinners have also shone, proving that India have plenty of talent waiting to replace the legendary Tendulkar, Dravid and Zaheer Khan. IPL will doubtless endure a few seasons more, without dodgy characters like Lalit Modi, but the organisers need to recognise that sometimes less can be better (including number of games), especially in the long run. If cricket really does need Twenty20 to attract fans and players of the future, the format should not be run into the ground to rake in big bucks for just a few years. Cricket deserves better than that, and so do the highly talented players who illuminated the past few months.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Players of the Week: Craig Kieswetter and Chris Gayle
This week, I'll start with the IPL and there can surely be no argument about who is the international Player of the Week. Anyone who can hit 107 in 49 balls and 3-21 in the same match and still have an even more memorable game two days later has to win my accolade, even though I am one of his many critics regarding his attitude problem. Of course I'm talking about Chris Gayle.
Despite those two triple-centuries, he doesn't have a brilliant Test record. Even more surprising, his reputation for fearsome hitting doesn't necessarily translate to his first-class game. Unlike, say, Virender Sehwag, his strike rate in Tests is way short of his one-day figures. Nevertheless, with a point to prove to the WICB, he has been a revelation in the IPL in recent weeks and has almost single-handedly taken the Bangalore franchise to the play-offs. The aforementioned all-round performance was followed today by his innings of 41 in a mere 16 balls. That included 37 in one over, helped by a no-ball. Great entertainment, but pity the poor bowler, Prasanth Parameswaran!
Back in England, Lancashire have advanced to the top of the County Championship but they came a cropper in the CB40 competition today. Striking performances over the past seven days include Jonny Bairstow's maiden double-hundred. The other week, I mentioned Yorkshire's embarrassment of wicketkeeping riches, to which the 15 year-old Barney Gibson could now be added, but 21 year-old Bairstow could be a fixture for years to come, his game suited equally to first-class and one-day formats. Other names to mention are Simon Kerrigan, also 21, who claimed exceptional figures of 5-7 in Lancashire's victory over Warwickshire, and Ravi Bopara. I only include the latter not because of any great contribution on the pitch but because he has supposedly turned down a call from the Mumbai Indians in order to concentrate on playing proper cricket to regain his England Test place. He has risen considerably in my estimation as a result.
However, my County Player of the Week is another keeper-batsman, Craig Kieswetter. He seems to have been around for ages yet is still only 23. Those early performances for Somerset which earned him an England ODI call-up were two seasons ago. 2010 was less successful for him domestically and he spent the winter with the Lions rather than the full international side. Nevertheless, this week he produced two well-timed centuries for his county, both in a winning cause. His 117 was his first Championship hundred of the summer, then today's innings of 108 not out steered Somerset to their fourth successive 40-over victory. His ability to produce match-winning performances with the bat, allied to talent behind the stumps, could well bring him back in contention for the senior England squad once more. Bad for Somerset but good for him!
Despite those two triple-centuries, he doesn't have a brilliant Test record. Even more surprising, his reputation for fearsome hitting doesn't necessarily translate to his first-class game. Unlike, say, Virender Sehwag, his strike rate in Tests is way short of his one-day figures. Nevertheless, with a point to prove to the WICB, he has been a revelation in the IPL in recent weeks and has almost single-handedly taken the Bangalore franchise to the play-offs. The aforementioned all-round performance was followed today by his innings of 41 in a mere 16 balls. That included 37 in one over, helped by a no-ball. Great entertainment, but pity the poor bowler, Prasanth Parameswaran!
Back in England, Lancashire have advanced to the top of the County Championship but they came a cropper in the CB40 competition today. Striking performances over the past seven days include Jonny Bairstow's maiden double-hundred. The other week, I mentioned Yorkshire's embarrassment of wicketkeeping riches, to which the 15 year-old Barney Gibson could now be added, but 21 year-old Bairstow could be a fixture for years to come, his game suited equally to first-class and one-day formats. Other names to mention are Simon Kerrigan, also 21, who claimed exceptional figures of 5-7 in Lancashire's victory over Warwickshire, and Ravi Bopara. I only include the latter not because of any great contribution on the pitch but because he has supposedly turned down a call from the Mumbai Indians in order to concentrate on playing proper cricket to regain his England Test place. He has risen considerably in my estimation as a result.
However, my County Player of the Week is another keeper-batsman, Craig Kieswetter. He seems to have been around for ages yet is still only 23. Those early performances for Somerset which earned him an England ODI call-up were two seasons ago. 2010 was less successful for him domestically and he spent the winter with the Lions rather than the full international side. Nevertheless, this week he produced two well-timed centuries for his county, both in a winning cause. His 117 was his first Championship hundred of the summer, then today's innings of 108 not out steered Somerset to their fourth successive 40-over victory. His ability to produce match-winning performances with the bat, allied to talent behind the stumps, could well bring him back in contention for the senior England squad once more. Bad for Somerset but good for him!
Monday, 2 May 2011
Players of the Week: Liam Dawson and Rahul Sharma
With the rain continuing to stay away from England, the County Championship and CB 40 are shaping up nicely and there were plenty of individual performances to admire. Warwickshire's Varun Chopra may have failed to register another double-century but he did make 115 in the one-dayer. The only 'double' this week was scored by Marcus Trescothick. The Somerset skipper thumped 227 to help his county recover from their awful start to the first-class season, beating Hampshire. Durham's spin all-rounders Ian Blackwell and Scott Borthwick put on a show in their 8-wicket win over Warwickshire, while Notts all-rounders Samit Patel and Paul Franks were also on form against Worcestershire. The county champions also had Alex Hales in the runs, with a third 80-something of the summer, followed by 113 in the one-day defeat to Essex, for whom Ravi Bopara hit 50 to go with his Championship century during the week.
Ed Joyce top-scored for Sussex in both their matches, and Lancashire wicket-keeper Graham Cross made an impressive 125, including five sixes, against Sussex in their Division One draw. Surrey's own 'keeper Steven Davies was twice out in the 90s this week but his opposition stump man John Simpson struck a career-best 143 for Middlesex as part of a big partnership with his captain Neil Dexter, who added 145 and three wickets to the winning cause. It was a tense finish to the Derby-Leicester Championship game. Will Jefferson top-scored with 133 but special mention must go to team-mate Claud Henderson's 96 overs in which he conceded only 172 runs while taking seven wickets. They're the sort of stats I thought went out of fashion with big bands, DAs and winkle-pickers! The South African spinner took a battering in Sunday's 40-over game against Warwickshire, but Leicestershire's young batsman James Taylor was again in the runs, making 101 in the unsuccessful run chase against the Bears.
However my County Player of the Week is Hampshire's Liam Dawson. In his first match of the season he compiled two half-centuries but this week in his third he went considerably better, notching 91 and 169. Surprisingly his 260 runs weren't enough to stave off defeat against Somerset but the 21 year-old opener gets my award for the week.
On the international front, the IPL has thrown up more six-hitting, with Yuvraj Singh smashing a few healthy innings but for me the outstanding performances came from a pair of Sharmas. Playing for the Deccan Chargers, Ishant claimed 5-12 at Kochi, four of his victims out for a duck. Still only 22, Sharma is widely respected but his figures don't bear out his talent. 90 Test wickets at an average of 36 and a similar average in T20 allied to an economy rate of almost 8 an over don't exactly come close to a Malinga or Steyn, but he had a great match last week.
However for consistency over three IPL games, my other Player of the Week award goes to his namesake Rahul Sharma. The Pune Warriors leg-spinner may be inexperienced in the first-class format but in T20 he is proving a very useful man to have around. In the last seven days, he has claimed match analyses of 1-27, 0-27, 2-27 and, just to spoil the symmetry, 3-13. That's what I call economy and consistency! Shame his colleagues couldn't match it because all four games were lost!
Ed Joyce top-scored for Sussex in both their matches, and Lancashire wicket-keeper Graham Cross made an impressive 125, including five sixes, against Sussex in their Division One draw. Surrey's own 'keeper Steven Davies was twice out in the 90s this week but his opposition stump man John Simpson struck a career-best 143 for Middlesex as part of a big partnership with his captain Neil Dexter, who added 145 and three wickets to the winning cause. It was a tense finish to the Derby-Leicester Championship game. Will Jefferson top-scored with 133 but special mention must go to team-mate Claud Henderson's 96 overs in which he conceded only 172 runs while taking seven wickets. They're the sort of stats I thought went out of fashion with big bands, DAs and winkle-pickers! The South African spinner took a battering in Sunday's 40-over game against Warwickshire, but Leicestershire's young batsman James Taylor was again in the runs, making 101 in the unsuccessful run chase against the Bears.
However my County Player of the Week is Hampshire's Liam Dawson. In his first match of the season he compiled two half-centuries but this week in his third he went considerably better, notching 91 and 169. Surprisingly his 260 runs weren't enough to stave off defeat against Somerset but the 21 year-old opener gets my award for the week.
On the international front, the IPL has thrown up more six-hitting, with Yuvraj Singh smashing a few healthy innings but for me the outstanding performances came from a pair of Sharmas. Playing for the Deccan Chargers, Ishant claimed 5-12 at Kochi, four of his victims out for a duck. Still only 22, Sharma is widely respected but his figures don't bear out his talent. 90 Test wickets at an average of 36 and a similar average in T20 allied to an economy rate of almost 8 an over don't exactly come close to a Malinga or Steyn, but he had a great match last week.
However for consistency over three IPL games, my other Player of the Week award goes to his namesake Rahul Sharma. The Pune Warriors leg-spinner may be inexperienced in the first-class format but in T20 he is proving a very useful man to have around. In the last seven days, he has claimed match analyses of 1-27, 0-27, 2-27 and, just to spoil the symmetry, 3-13. That's what I call economy and consistency! Shame his colleagues couldn't match it because all four games were lost!
Monday, 25 April 2011
Players of the Week: Gareth Berg and Shaun Marsh
While the vagaries of April's global weather has brought unbroken sunshine to England and rain to India, there have been plenty of interesting results and individual performances.
Last week's candidates for Player of the Week were mostly in the mix again. Lasith Malinga may be playing games with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board but he lets his bowling arm do the talking for Mumbai in the IPL, especially with his 3-9 in 4 overs against the Deccan Chargers. In England, Chris Woakes claimed 6-49 in the Championship and his Warwickshire colleague, Varun Chopra thumped his second double-century in successive matches, plus a 54 in the CB40. He is now looking quite a useful one-day player and, judging by his run-accumulation, pretty useful in the four-day game, too.
Other star turns in domestic cricket included Craig Kieswetter's 100 in Somerset's welcome CB40 win over Notts, fellow 'keeper Niall O'Brien's rapid 90-somethings for Northants and his skipper Andrew Hall's 5-22 in the one-day defeat of Leicestershire. Zander de Bruyn's 172 for Surrey against Glamorgan showed Somerset what they have been missing so far, and Essex opener Alistair Cook's 155 reminded us all what he could do for England at Test level this summer. Farveez Maharoof may not be the most successful of Sri Lankan players, but in Lancashire colours he enjoyed an excellent all-round week. Yorkshire's Ryan Sidebottom and Richard Pyrah each grabbed eight wickets in the match against Notts which, thanks to a second innings batting collapse, could not prevent the champions nicking an unexpected 58-run victory.
However, my County Player of the Week is Gareth Berg of Middlesex. he's one of those useful all-rounders who scores few hundreds and takes few 'five-fors' but nevertheless contributes a great deal to the team. Aged 30, his first-class career has just entered only a fourth season but this week, he combined a match-winning 80 with aggregate bowling figures of 6-80 against Derbyshire. This was followed by a miserly 4-24 in the CB40 victory over Worcestershire. Berg is yet another South Africa-born player but is usefully available to England should an ODI all-rounder berth become vacant.
Over in the IPL, in addition to Malinga, Harbajhan Singh's 5-18 for Mumbai against Chennai caught the eye, and his team-mate Rohit Sharma plundered 87 in 48 balls and 56 in 34 in his two games this week. Chris Gayle' love of T20 at the expense of everything else showed its face when his arrival in the competition for Bangalore was trumpeted by a powerful unbeaten 102 against KKR. Nevertheless, over the week, the West Indian was narrowly eclipsed by Aussie Shaun Marsh, my other Player of the Week.
The Aussie has become something of a T20 specialist, his first-class talents earning him a place in the Test squad but as yet no slot in the first XI. 33 ODIs have yielded more than 1100 runs at 37 but in the shorter format, his average is an impressive 45 at a strike rate of almost 138. This week, the Kings XI Punjab batsman struck 71 against the Royals and a punishing 95 in 46 balls versus Delhi, the latter in a very high-scoring match in which Sehwag and Warner put on 146 in 70 balls, which even Marsh's efforts couldn't match. I still think he will one day emulate his father Geoff and make his Test debut but for now the world should enjoy his batting talents in T20.
Last week's candidates for Player of the Week were mostly in the mix again. Lasith Malinga may be playing games with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board but he lets his bowling arm do the talking for Mumbai in the IPL, especially with his 3-9 in 4 overs against the Deccan Chargers. In England, Chris Woakes claimed 6-49 in the Championship and his Warwickshire colleague, Varun Chopra thumped his second double-century in successive matches, plus a 54 in the CB40. He is now looking quite a useful one-day player and, judging by his run-accumulation, pretty useful in the four-day game, too.
Other star turns in domestic cricket included Craig Kieswetter's 100 in Somerset's welcome CB40 win over Notts, fellow 'keeper Niall O'Brien's rapid 90-somethings for Northants and his skipper Andrew Hall's 5-22 in the one-day defeat of Leicestershire. Zander de Bruyn's 172 for Surrey against Glamorgan showed Somerset what they have been missing so far, and Essex opener Alistair Cook's 155 reminded us all what he could do for England at Test level this summer. Farveez Maharoof may not be the most successful of Sri Lankan players, but in Lancashire colours he enjoyed an excellent all-round week. Yorkshire's Ryan Sidebottom and Richard Pyrah each grabbed eight wickets in the match against Notts which, thanks to a second innings batting collapse, could not prevent the champions nicking an unexpected 58-run victory.
However, my County Player of the Week is Gareth Berg of Middlesex. he's one of those useful all-rounders who scores few hundreds and takes few 'five-fors' but nevertheless contributes a great deal to the team. Aged 30, his first-class career has just entered only a fourth season but this week, he combined a match-winning 80 with aggregate bowling figures of 6-80 against Derbyshire. This was followed by a miserly 4-24 in the CB40 victory over Worcestershire. Berg is yet another South Africa-born player but is usefully available to England should an ODI all-rounder berth become vacant.
Over in the IPL, in addition to Malinga, Harbajhan Singh's 5-18 for Mumbai against Chennai caught the eye, and his team-mate Rohit Sharma plundered 87 in 48 balls and 56 in 34 in his two games this week. Chris Gayle' love of T20 at the expense of everything else showed its face when his arrival in the competition for Bangalore was trumpeted by a powerful unbeaten 102 against KKR. Nevertheless, over the week, the West Indian was narrowly eclipsed by Aussie Shaun Marsh, my other Player of the Week.
The Aussie has become something of a T20 specialist, his first-class talents earning him a place in the Test squad but as yet no slot in the first XI. 33 ODIs have yielded more than 1100 runs at 37 but in the shorter format, his average is an impressive 45 at a strike rate of almost 138. This week, the Kings XI Punjab batsman struck 71 against the Royals and a punishing 95 in 46 balls versus Delhi, the latter in a very high-scoring match in which Sehwag and Warner put on 146 in 70 balls, which even Marsh's efforts couldn't match. I still think he will one day emulate his father Geoff and make his Test debut but for now the world should enjoy his batting talents in T20.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Players of the Week: Chris Woakes and Shane Watson
With a full set of IPL matches, a round of County Championship fixtures and a few ODIs, there was plenty of cricketing action to monitor and individual performances to admire over the past week.
In England, the shock result was Warwickshire's demolition of favourites Somerset. In response to pre-season questions on whether the county could turn second places into trophies, Marcus Trescothick had said that they had been working on a few things over the winter. Well, putting in the opposition on a Taunton belter of a pitch and getting bowled out twice in a day aren't my idea of a winning strategy, Tres! No, he isn't my Player of the Week! Leading candidates from the domestic circuit include Dale Benkenstein, whose 150 for Durham in their win over Yorkshire was his second century of the campaign so far. Derbyshire enjoyed a rare innings win, against neighbouring Leicestershire, with Tim Groenewald claiming a match analysis of 8-97 along with an unbeaten 60 with the bat. Last season's leading wicket-taker, Andre Adams this week staked his claim for a repeat performance with 5-54 and 6-31 in Nottinghamshire's nine-wicket hammering of Hampshire.
Back at Taunton, Warwickshire opener Varun Chopra struck only his third first-class hundred, and it was a 'double', which set his side on their way to that memorable innings and 382 run victory. However, even his 210 was eclipsed by young England bowler Chris Woakes. He was my first Player of the Week in 2010 and did it again back in January, but his all-round performance just about earned him a third accolade. His run-a-ball 129 took the Bears past 600, then took 9-91 in the two Somerset innings. For someone who bats at eight or nine, it is perhaps incredible that he has a first-class batting average of 32, better than Chopra, and a bowling average of under 25. That's world-class statistics but he can't get a place in the England team. Huh??!
On the international scene, Indian and Aussie batsmen have taken the glory this week. In the IPL, young T20 specialist Paul Valthaty has eclipsed everybody with his striking for Kings XI Punjab. His brilliant 120 not out against the Super Kings was followed by 75 against the Deccan Chargers, putting even Adam Gilchrist in the shade. Mike Hussey has also enjoyed a good week, both with Australia and in India, while veteran Shane Warne showed he can still be a mean bowler, conceding a miserly 63 runs from his twelve overs this week. Other contenders must include Gautam Gambhir and some bloke called Tendulkar who scored another hundred. Apparently he does that quite often...
However, even Sachin has to play second fiddle because my International Player of the Week is Shane Watson. In the last two ODIs against Bangladesh, he plundered an astonishing 185 not out in 96 balls, including a record 15 sixes and 15 fours. Even more remarkable was that his runs came out of an innings total of just 232! Not only that but in the following game, he contributed a further 72 in 40 balls. Nice preparation for his stint at the IPL, although he has yet to reach such heights in the shorter format.His ODI average has now risen above 43 at a strike rate of almost 90. Oh, and he can bowl a bit, too. Wih these kind of performance he can expect more MikesSpinOnCricket Player of the Week awards, too.
In England, the shock result was Warwickshire's demolition of favourites Somerset. In response to pre-season questions on whether the county could turn second places into trophies, Marcus Trescothick had said that they had been working on a few things over the winter. Well, putting in the opposition on a Taunton belter of a pitch and getting bowled out twice in a day aren't my idea of a winning strategy, Tres! No, he isn't my Player of the Week! Leading candidates from the domestic circuit include Dale Benkenstein, whose 150 for Durham in their win over Yorkshire was his second century of the campaign so far. Derbyshire enjoyed a rare innings win, against neighbouring Leicestershire, with Tim Groenewald claiming a match analysis of 8-97 along with an unbeaten 60 with the bat. Last season's leading wicket-taker, Andre Adams this week staked his claim for a repeat performance with 5-54 and 6-31 in Nottinghamshire's nine-wicket hammering of Hampshire.
Back at Taunton, Warwickshire opener Varun Chopra struck only his third first-class hundred, and it was a 'double', which set his side on their way to that memorable innings and 382 run victory. However, even his 210 was eclipsed by young England bowler Chris Woakes. He was my first Player of the Week in 2010 and did it again back in January, but his all-round performance just about earned him a third accolade. His run-a-ball 129 took the Bears past 600, then took 9-91 in the two Somerset innings. For someone who bats at eight or nine, it is perhaps incredible that he has a first-class batting average of 32, better than Chopra, and a bowling average of under 25. That's world-class statistics but he can't get a place in the England team. Huh??!
On the international scene, Indian and Aussie batsmen have taken the glory this week. In the IPL, young T20 specialist Paul Valthaty has eclipsed everybody with his striking for Kings XI Punjab. His brilliant 120 not out against the Super Kings was followed by 75 against the Deccan Chargers, putting even Adam Gilchrist in the shade. Mike Hussey has also enjoyed a good week, both with Australia and in India, while veteran Shane Warne showed he can still be a mean bowler, conceding a miserly 63 runs from his twelve overs this week. Other contenders must include Gautam Gambhir and some bloke called Tendulkar who scored another hundred. Apparently he does that quite often...
However, even Sachin has to play second fiddle because my International Player of the Week is Shane Watson. In the last two ODIs against Bangladesh, he plundered an astonishing 185 not out in 96 balls, including a record 15 sixes and 15 fours. Even more remarkable was that his runs came out of an innings total of just 232! Not only that but in the following game, he contributed a further 72 in 40 balls. Nice preparation for his stint at the IPL, although he has yet to reach such heights in the shorter format.His ODI average has now risen above 43 at a strike rate of almost 90. Oh, and he can bowl a bit, too. Wih these kind of performance he can expect more MikesSpinOnCricket Player of the Week awards, too.
Friday, 8 April 2011
Four Cricketers of the Day - plus one!
It was interesting to see that the new edition of Wisden includes only four Cricketers of the Year, having decided to exclude the fifth - thought to be Pakistani bowler Mohammed Amir - because of his ban for spot fixing. I thought Scyld Berry pitched it just right, saying if they'd included the mystery man it would condone his cheating and if they'd picked someone else he would be there by default. Congratulations, though, to Jonathan Trott and Tamim Iqbal - surely automatic choices - and also Chris Read and Eoin Morgan. It must be difficult to select players for this traditional accolade when convention decides that they can't have been amongst the Five in any previous year. 2010 may not have been Read's best year but he captained Notts to the County Championship in fine style. Morgan enhanced his reputation in one-day cricket, especially at the T20 World Cup, besides making a reasonable start to his Test career against Bangladesh and Pakistan last summer.
The England Irishman scored only six for the Kolkata Knight Riders in today's IPL opener, which was won by MS Dhoni's Chennai SuperKings, thanks to Anirudha's runs and three great yorkers from Tim Southee to deny KKR in the final over. Back in England, while a few of Morgan's international colleagues had mixed fortunes on the first day of the County Championship. After filling their boots against Cambridge University last week, both Alistair Cook and Ravi Bopara fell cheaply to Kent's Darren Stevens who ended the day with 5-14 from 12 overs, leaving Essex on 49-6, still 198 short. Earlier, Rob Key's was the first wicket to fall this season but Sam Northeast stuck an excellent century.
Veteran Glen Chapple claimed four wickets for Lancashire against Sussex, but Yorkshire's Adil Rashid went two better against Worcestershire, whose innings was boosted to respectability by Matt Mason's 63 in 54 balls batting at number ten. Miracle of miracles, Hampshire's former England star Simon Jones actually made it onto the pitch at the Rose Bowl and even took a wicket, but I wonder how long it will be before injury strikes again. He and his colleagues toiled against Durham, for home 36 year-old Dale Benkenstein scored 118 and three team-mates, including Ian Blackwell, compiled half-centuries.
So, to mark the Wisden launch I will go one better and select five players of the day: Tim Southee, MS Dhoni, Dale Benkenstein, Darren Stevens and Adil Rashid. I hope none of them get done for spot-fixing this summer, or I may have to take it back....
The England Irishman scored only six for the Kolkata Knight Riders in today's IPL opener, which was won by MS Dhoni's Chennai SuperKings, thanks to Anirudha's runs and three great yorkers from Tim Southee to deny KKR in the final over. Back in England, while a few of Morgan's international colleagues had mixed fortunes on the first day of the County Championship. After filling their boots against Cambridge University last week, both Alistair Cook and Ravi Bopara fell cheaply to Kent's Darren Stevens who ended the day with 5-14 from 12 overs, leaving Essex on 49-6, still 198 short. Earlier, Rob Key's was the first wicket to fall this season but Sam Northeast stuck an excellent century.
Veteran Glen Chapple claimed four wickets for Lancashire against Sussex, but Yorkshire's Adil Rashid went two better against Worcestershire, whose innings was boosted to respectability by Matt Mason's 63 in 54 balls batting at number ten. Miracle of miracles, Hampshire's former England star Simon Jones actually made it onto the pitch at the Rose Bowl and even took a wicket, but I wonder how long it will be before injury strikes again. He and his colleagues toiled against Durham, for home 36 year-old Dale Benkenstein scored 118 and three team-mates, including Ian Blackwell, compiled half-centuries.
So, to mark the Wisden launch I will go one better and select five players of the day: Tim Southee, MS Dhoni, Dale Benkenstein, Darren Stevens and Adil Rashid. I hope none of them get done for spot-fixing this summer, or I may have to take it back....
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