11 newbies to watch in IPL 2012

It’s IPL time, boss.

The time for colorful razzmatazz, dancing cheerleaders, local celeb spotting and pithy commentary is here –  and yes, you get to watch some high octane cricket too.

The fifth edition of IPL is bound to be more tightly contested than the previous edition, for the simple reason being that the Indian cricketers couldn’t have had a more contrasting build-up to this year’s IPL. Last year, they entered the tournament fatigued and emotionally spent after the World Cup win while this year, they will be itching to prove themselves after a couple of disappointing months on the international stage.  The favorites are the usual suspects: Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders. CSK will be looking for an unprecedented 3rd straight title, while the other three are still searching for their maiden triumphs. The other teams have a lesser shot, but can take hope from the campaigns of Rajasthan Royals in IPL1 and Deccan Chargers in IPL2, which showed that if you grab the opportune moments, glory is not impossible.

This year, there are quite a few international players who will be making their IPL debuts, and most of them are match-winners in their own right. While the likes of Pollard, Gayle, Kohli, Raina, Sehwag etc are proven IPL performers, it will be interesting to see if these players can make a name for themselves in the biggest domestic T20 tournament in the world. I present to you, the  Newbie XI to watch in IPL 2012:

Richard Levi

Country: South Africa

IPL team: Mumbai Indians

Role: Opening batsman

T20 stats: HS – 117, Avg – 30.87, SR – 149.69

As if the Mumbai Indians were not bursting at the seams with batting talent, they have added a new explosive batsman to the team. Levi is one of the most dangerous players in the South African domestic T20s and within 2 games of his international T20 debut, he made the world sit up and notice with a blistering 117 against the Kiwis when the Saffers were chasing 174. A player who is built and strikes like Pollard, is just one more headache for the opposition bowlers. Will he be the new star in IPL 2012?

Tamim Iqbal

Country: Bangladesh

IPL team: Pune Warriors

Role: Opening batsman

T20 stats: HS – 91, Avg – 19.57, SR – 107.15

Its really surprising that a man known for his audacious hitting and rapid fire starts has a modest record in T20s. All that could change, given his recent form and new found consistency. With the likes of Ganguly and Graeme Smith to mentor him, Iqbal would be learning from the best, and will be aiming to make his captain and his countrymen very proud.

India vs West Indies 3rd Test – The Script

On the eve of Day 5 in the Mumbai test match, it seems the match is going nowhere but a draw. Luckily for us, the West Indian think tank had other ideas…

Ottis Gibson: Okay boys time to execute Plan C, we engineer a Callypso Collapso on purpose and bowl out the shocked Indians.
Darren Sammy: Wait a minute… we had a plan to begin with?
Shiv Chanderpaul: Coach, not such a hot idea with all the spot fixing allegations going on.
Ottis Gibson: We are the West Indies cricket team, minus you.
Shiv Chanderpaul: … point taken.
Graeme Smith: Worked for us!
Michael Clarke: Yeah yeah…

And so play began…

Dhoni: Sakshi? Ya its me, get the pakoras ready I’m coming home early.

But the West Indies innings swiftly ended…

© AFP

Darren Sammy: I think that was too obvious, even for us.
Cricinfo: Memories of Dominica! And we won’t stop reminding you.
Virender Sehwag: Relax guys I got this.
Cricinfo: Sehwag leads India to frenetic start!
Virender Sehwag: Fifty already? I’m bored.
Cricinfo: V Sehwag c Sammy b Bishoo 60 (87m 65b 8×4 0×6) SR: 92.30
Sachin: Target not big enough for a century.
Cricinfo: SR Tendulkar c KA Edwards b Samuels 3 (6m 7b 0×4 0×6) SR: 42.85
Dhoni: Rahul, we better force a result this time so don’t pull any of your stunts.
Cricinfo: R Dravid c sub (D Ramdin) b Samuels 33 (82m 49b 1×4 0×6) SR: 67.34
Dhoni: You too VVS, we don’t want the media to think we depend on you. Lets leave it to The-Future-Of-Indian-Cricket.
Cricinfo: VVS Laxman c Barath b Rampaul 31 (67m 53b 1×4 0×6) SR: 58.49
VVS Laxman: I should have stuck to being a doctor.

The Indian batting order fell away…

Dhoni:  Mmm pakoras.
Cricinfo: MS Dhoni c KA Edwards b Rampaul 13 (45m 37b 1×4 0×6) SR: 35.13
Darren Sammy: I can’t believe this is working.
The-Future-Of-Indian-Cricket: Time to show off my patience and maturity, despite my youth.
Cricinfo: Oh he’s so patient and mature, despite his youth!
Dhoni: Do you mind moving things along.
The-Future-Of-Indian-Cricket: It’s all about the drama boss, haven’t you seen Lagaan?
Cricinfo: V Kohli c Sammy b Bishoo 63 (136m 114b 3×4 1×6) SR: 55.26
The-Future-Of-Indian-Cricket: Damn.
Bad Light: I’m staying out of this.

The climax was upon us…

Ashwin: My selection is secure, you can have this one Darren.
Darren Sammy: But your first innings century was full of shots more delicious than pakora! Take it.
Ashwin: Not if we keep blocking!
Darren Sammy: Not if we keep bowling Marlon Samuels!
Aswhin: Not if Ishant and I run ourselves out!
Darren Sammy: Not if we fumble!

Before either side could make up their minds…

Cricinfo: Oh for goodness sake.
Minimum Overs: That’s it I’ve had enough of this.

And so a scores-levelled draw occurred, only the second in history…

The People: Test cricket is alive and well! All they have to do is keep batting like morons.
Sachin: Well at least I’ll have the West Indies ODIs to sort out my century of centuries.
Indian Selectors: Ahem.
Cricinfo: Dhoni, Tendulkar rested ahead of Australia tour
Sachin: (sigh)

Contributed by : Varun Prasad
Varun’s blog : The Cricket Musings

No Blunders for Down Under

I cannot remember the last time the Indian selectors received credit from all quarters for picking the best Test squad possible. Kris Srikkanth and co deserve it rightly for ignoring the likes of Shastri, in picking players based on their form and promise instead of past exploits and ‘getting under skin” crap. Harbhajan Singh has done nothing of note in the recent past to merit inclusion, while Ravi Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha have grabbed their opportunities with glee. There is no shame in it though, as Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Saurav Ganguly showed that they can come back as better players after an enforced absence from the team. It is up to Bhajji now to work his ass off and show the world that he still has got the goods for the international stage. The Indian team will be the better for it.

Apart from the spin department, there are a few minor quibbles here and there; Abhinav Mukund getting dropped after a poor tour of England, Rohit Sharma ahead of Cheteshwar Pujara, and picking two raw pacers for possibly the most demanding overseas tour for an Indian team. Still, the decisions are all justifiable. Ajinkya Rahane has impressed in the brief opportunities he has got and will have more confidence than Mukund, Pujara has just returned to full fitness and there is no need to rush him back when he have an in-form Rohit Sharma, and the pace combination is the best we have, given the lack of viable alternatives.

So, it all adds up to a pretty good team to tour Down Under. I would say that this is the best chance for an Indian team to win a series there, for the foreseeable future. Still, the Aussies won’t just roll over of course; they might be a team in transition, but with exciting players like Pat Cummins and seasoned veterans like Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey, they will still remain as tough nuts to crack. Hopefully, this series will end on a better note than the way the England tour ended.

Squad: MS Dhoni (capt &wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Zaheer Khan (subject to fitness)

Benny for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Benny on Twitter @tracerbullet007

Arbit Statistics of the Day

The big event did not take place at the Wankhede today but another very rare event did take place.

R. Ashwin scored a century to follow with his Michelle becoming only the 3rd Indian ever to do so. The two prior ones being historic legends Vinoo Mankad & Polly Umrigar. (Pretty sure a five wicket haul wouldn’t have been referred to as a Michelle then, Michelle Pfeiffer not having been born  ). Surprised to see Kapil Dev missing from that list. Full list of such happenings is here (Thank you Statsguru).

More Arbit Stats – India & West Indies batsmen have combined to score 11 50+ scores in the 2 innings between them, which is a new record for most 50+ scores. Here is the Statsguru evidence.

And also the 1st time ever all the top 6 batsman on both sides have scored a quarter century. Talk about a batting beauty.

Nishant Kumar for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Nishant on Twitter @NishantSKumar

Vinod Kambli’s allegations – Now is the time to speak out

As any cricket follower in the country would have been aware by now, Vinod Kambli has made some serious claims about the 1996 World Cup semi-finals. He claims that captain Mohammed Azharuddin went against the team’s collective decision of batting first and chose to field instead. The match was later to be abandoned due to crowd trouble in India’s innings and a crying Vinod Kambli leaving the field.

Any match-fixing claim has to be taken very seriously. These things have happened. Players have been banned, fined and now even jailed for such crimes. But its also very easy to make allegations about past events, where only the word of one person against the other stands.

In this case the credibility of the allegations is a bit low. The events happened 15 years ago. Given Vinod Kambli’s recent antics, his trust level is pretty low. He was a case of talent truly wasted as a player. Thrown out of team on disciplinary grounds, making controversial TV apppearances (Sach Ka Saamna & Bigg Boss), announcing his retirement from cricket some 7-8 years after being dropped him from the Mumbai Ranji team, Going on proclaiming his friendship with Sachin Tendulkar on all possible forums. Sounds like a person who is despearate to be in news always.

Here the allegations have been made against a former India captain who is under a life ban from cricket for match-fixing based on evidence collected by CBI. So Azhar provides an easy target for such allegations.

If I remember correctly, all the analysts during the World Cup had agreed that Sri Lankans were very good at chasing down targets Performances against India, England certainly justify this claim. Even in the final they chose to chase against Australia knowing fully well that all the previous winners had batted first in the finals. So putting Sri Lanka into bat first seemed a logical decision. There was also talk of using a spinner to counter the marauding Sri Lankan openers in the inital overs. So Kumble opened the bowling with Srinath. Then there was the evening dew factor. Taking these factors into account bowling first does seem to be a logical decision. The one error was misreading the pitch. The pitch had become an unknown quantity due to opening ceremony fiasco. Given all these factors Azhar would have been roasted if he had decided to bat first.

Now coming to Kambli’s remarks. He says Navjot Sidhu was all padded up to open. The toss hadn’t been held till then. What if Rantunga had won the toss. Then there are claims of this being his last game when the truth is he played on and off for another 4 years. Also the timing of the allegations make no sense. He could have come out in the open then or when the match-fixing scandal came up in 2000. Why did he keep silent all these years?

Is there any truth in Kambli’s allegations? I don’t know. The only people who can answer are the other members of the 1996 campaign. So far the manager Ajit Wadekar, and other players like Sanjay Manjrekar, Nayan Mongia and Venkatpathy Raju and Azhar himself have already rubbished Kambli’s claims. But it is very important that the other players like Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath et al, whose credibility cannot be questioned speak out. This is certainly not a time of maintianing a dignified silence. Its time to come out in the open and speak out. You owe this to the Indian fan.

Nishant Kumar for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Nishant on Twitter @NishantSKumar

When Cummins kept going

Thanks for Cummins!

When Pat Cummins scored the winning runs off Imran Tahir in the 2nd and final test of the series, it signaled the birth of a star cricketer. At the tender age of 18, he made his Test debut against the World no. 2 and helped his team to a series-leveling victory, with both bat and ball. There had been a lot of hype surrounding him prior to this tour, but it is altogether a different task to actually meet those expectations. The ease with which he handled pressure situations while bowling in the 2nd innings, and when he came out to bat with a few runs to win, has confirmed hopes that he can stand the test of time and become a future great of the game. These are early days yet, but there is nothing wrong in dreaming.

Australia can thank Cummins and few others for the win; namely, the much maligned Ponting, Haddin and Johnson. The victory might have just bought them an extra series, but there is no doubt that Oz need to look beyond them. There is no shortage of options with Khawaja, Wade and Pattinson available as ready-made replacements. Ponting is an exceptionally difficult case, as the likes of Dravid and Tendulkar have shown that temporary loss in form almost always makes way for permanent class; but how long can the selectors wait? It will be an interesting next few weeks for Australian cricket.

Oh, South Africa. Four home series have gone by and still they have not won one of them. For a team fighting for the top rank in international cricket, this is a staggering statistic. They have the batsmen, fast bowlers, spinner, keeper, captain and coach to make them a formidable side; and still, that final hurdle just cannot seem to be overcome. Fortunately for them, Sri Lanka is next. They have some serious issues if they cannot put it past the troubled Lankans. Also, Philander seems to have sealed the 3rd seamer’s spot ahead of Tsotsobe. Another debutant to have a dream start to his Test career.

Lastly, a mention about the 2-test ‘series’…..while there is no doubt that the contest between two equally matched sides deserves a minimum of 3 tests to sort out the better team, it was hard to fault the logic of the two boards. After all, while the internet buzzed with rage over the short series, there were hardly any spectators in the ground to justify an extra test; in any case, the revenue is mainly made from gate collections. Of course, the cricket boards have only themselves to blame for the obvious reasons. If all cricket boards can sort out these simple issues, the crowd will come. After all, I believe that Test cricket is not dying; its just the crowds for Test cricket, that is dying.

Benny for DieHard Cricket Fans
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