Tuesday, January 31, 2023

The Gandhian Cricket Story

The Lucknow pitch was mourning on the eve of Martyr's day. It had decided not to allow violence. Hence no batsman was able to "hit" the ball for a six, not even Surya Kumar Yadav. It was a night of near total nonviolence. As hard as they tried, nobody could send the ball over the ropes in 239 attempts.

Only batter who looked comfortable and capable of big hitting was Washington. No wonder, with that American name, he seems to have no reverence for Gandhi. Fortunately, SKY ran Washington out to ensure there won't be any blasphemous violence. 

Hardik Pandya hails from the home state of Gandhi. But the New Zealand Captain Mitchell Santner proved to be more aware of the occasion than Hardik. Hardik had 3 overs of spin left in his kitty but he chose to unleash violence through pace. Santner on the other hand got everyone to bowl spin and even tried to coax his fastest bowler to "spin". It was truly magical that New Zealanders were more Gandhian than Indians as they chose to "Spin" in honor of the Saint of Sabarmati.

Finally, it was a tight finish with the hosts choosing not to hurt the sentiments of visitors in an exhibition of true Gandhian ethos. Lucknow, the city famous for its Ganga - Jamuni Tehzeeb of Nawabs combined Gandhi with Modi and declared, "Na Maaroonga, Na Maarne Doonga !".

Newer generation unfamiliar with Gandhi and his values called it boring Cricket. But it was truly Gandhian Cricket where T20 was played in Test Match mode. No, not the Bazball type but the 1947 mode. Perhaps we can call it Gandzball. Finally, as Shastri (Ravi, not Lal Bahadur) would say, "The game of Cricket was the winner !" because New Zealand couldn't believe they lost it and India couldn't believe they won.

PS: Hope the ICC slaps some demerit points on Lucknow pitch. It wasn't a pitch. It was Mirpur in slow motion.

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Shubman Gill : Enormity of That Double Hundred

It's a special, very special knock by Shubman Gill, a lot more special than the very recent and much quicker Double hundred by Ishan Kishan. Here are some tidbits that tell the story of enormity.
Shubman: 208 of 149 balls
All others: 128 of 151 balls
Shubman: 19 fours, 9 sixers
All others: 12 fours, 2 sixers
Both sixers were hit by Rohit and no other batsman cleared the boundary after Rohit got out.
Second highest score: 34 (of 38 balls) by Captain Rohit as no other batter came anywhere near 50.
SKY with 31 of 26 was the only other batter to strike at above 100% (SR: 119.23) while Shubman scored at 139.59 strike rate.
Collective strike rate of all other batters was 84.77% compared to Shubman's 139.59%.
Shubman scored 61.9% of the runs coming of the bat and 59.6% of the team total, playing just under half of the 300 balls.
Shubman had a reprieve, thanks to missed catch by Latham. But that's always part of the game. The way he plated from 48th over is testimony to his ability to switch gears.
This was indeed a very special knock and in the process, Shubman Gill became the "Fastest Indian" to 1000 ODI runs.
The Shubman Gill era has officially begun !

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans
All reac