Kohli, the Mortal and Immortal Words of Sahir Ludhianvi

2011 April 2: Somewhere around the delayed dinner time of millions of Indians, Mahendra Singh Dhoni launched that famous six to win the second Cricket World Cup for India. Coming 28 years after the first win, Indian fans were over the Moon.

We had Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Kohli, Dhoni, Raina and our test team boasted of Dravid and Laxman too. But over the next 3 years, Dravid and Laxman retired after back to back 4-0 drubbing in test series in England and Australia. Sehwag and Gambhir fell into bad times. Yuvraj Singh could never be the same force after he came back from cancer and Raina slipped into mediocrity. SRT was given a staged farewell at Mumbai. With only Virat Kohli going from strength to strength, MSD too retired midway through a test series Down Under.

Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane had formed a new top order that fought the loss of an entire generation of greats who dominated the decade between 2000 and 2010. Rohit Sharma's emergence as a superlative top order batsman in limited overs Cricket practically coincided with the decline of Sehwag. Indian Cricket marched into newer heights in spite of lack of big titles.

"I can go on with the same intensity for another two-three years. If you ask me when I am 34 - 35, my priorities and answers might be different..." said India Captain Virat Kohli when asked about the hectic schedule and his unflagging intensity. That pretty much sums up life as well as Cricket. Even Sachin Tendulkar has left and it's almost 6 years and India have only got better.

10 Years of Resurgent Indian Cricket

2010s decade started with a bang for Indian cricket. The team led by charismatic Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with his uncanny techniques, tasted quite a lot success in the shorter formats. 

2011, the Cricket World Cup returned to Indian sub-continent and there was a likely chance of India winning the cup, knowing home conditions well. April 2, 2011, 120 crore Indians lived the dream after 28 years of wait. A memory for lifetime.

2013, India added another feather in the cap. ICC Champions trophy, aka mini world cup. India won by defeating the tournament favourites England. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Indian cricket achieved almost everything which was required in the big stage arena. Team was doing well in the shorter formats amid some hiccups in the 2014 & 2016 T-20 World Cup tournaments.

The Twenty19 Lineup

As the year 2019 AD comes to a close, time to take a look back and present the Slipstream Cricket XI of 2019 – things to remember the cricketing year going by. 

1. Men’s ODI World Cup cricket 

England are champions or are they? When Super Over seems an unfair way to decide any game, forget a World Cup Final, Boundary count is just downright crueler. If only Martin Guptill’s throw was off-target. 

2. Performance of the Year 

Kusal Perera’s 153* to win Sri Lanka a Test in South Africa. Close competition from Ben Stokes’s twin feats, at the biggest stages – the World Cup Final at Lords and the Ashes Test at Edgbaston. And of course there was Anjali Chand’s 6/0 for Nepal against Maldives. Which brings us to 

3. Debutantes 

There were international debuts galore with ICC giving T20I status to all. So the new entrant list is huge. 

• Men’s ODI - Oman 
• Men’s T20I – Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cayman Islands, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Italy, Jersey, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, USA, Vanuatu 
• Women’s T20I – Argentina, Austria, Belize, Bhutan, Canada, Costa Rica, Fiji, France, Germany, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Mali, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, Tanzania, USA, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe. Meanwhile Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Uganda, UAE had made their maiden appearance last year itself. 

This created a nightmare for statisticians (And cricket is a game which loves statistics). There were lopsided results galore with many unwanted international records being set. However, there were some stunning results as well e.g. Singapore beating Zimbabwe in T20I, Thailand qualifying for Women’s ODI World Cup and Japan entering the U-19 World Cup. Certainly good for the global game!

Steven Smith and the Extraordinary Story of Ordinary Batting (Around Him)

As Australia wobbled to lunch on what could be last day of Ashes 2019, here is the batting statistics of Australian batting unit. Some stunning facts.

Steven Smith has more 4s and 6s (91 + 5 = 96) in the series than the total runs scored by David Warner (95 from 10 innings), his partner in crime during Sandpaper scandal.

Labuschagne, the Concussion Replacement for Smith is the only other Australian batsman to have 50+ average and 300 plus runs.

Australian Openers scored a total of 197 runs from 20 innings. Warner and Harris ended at the bottom of batting averages with 9.5 (10 innings) and 9.66 (6 innings) respectively, while Bancroft ended up with 11 from 4 innings.

Apart from Smith and Labuschagne, no other Australian batsman has managed to average even 30, third best being 27 by Travis Head.

Mathew Wade has an innings of 110 and then 120 from remaining 9 innings, with a one last chance to improve.

With 769 and still the current innings remaining, Smith overtook Alistair Cook (766) for 5th highest runs in an Ashes series with only Bradman (twice), Hammond and Taylor above him.

Going into the last innings of the series, Smith is yet to be dismissed for a score less than 80 in the series, that in itself another incredible record.

In short, England lost the Ashes to Steven Smith, who exhibited the greatest batting performance in a single series in the new millennium. The humongous performance attains a Cult status when we realise the second highest run getter scored less than half of Smith.

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans

The Tribe of Indian Fast Bowlers

“Jasprit Bumrah you beauty”, “Mohammad Shami is ripping apart the middle order”, Ishant Sharma is making early breakthroughs”, these are some statements acknowledged by great players sitting in the commentary box and rejoicing to see the Indian Fast bowling hunting in the ground.

From the past two years, there has been a dramatic shift in the overall building of the Indian cricket team. The heavy Indian batting order has always been in talks but that has been overshadowed by the tribe of Indian pace bowlers in recent times. Indian fast bowlers have emerged in the International arena and are making inroads to the world dominance. The biggest addition to this pace attack has been undoubtedly Jasprit Bumrah along with Mohammad Shami & Ishant Sharma in the test format.

In 2018, the Indian pace attack combined took around 172 wickets with 133 wickets accomplished by the trio of Shami-Sharma-Bumrah. They have been phenomenal with their accuracy and have been consistently hitting the 140kmph mark and above. The Indian pace bowlers had the average of 23.72 better than their counterparts like NewZealand, England & Australia.

Boom: Once in a Lifetime Phenomenon !

India have played 550 plus tests till now. We've had history of flickers of good to fabulous bowling overshadowed by humongous runs piled by run machines like Hazare, Merchant, Tiger Pataudi, Vishwanath, Gavaskar, Mohindar, Azharuddin, Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Kohli.

Except for a perfect 10 by Kumble, a couple of test hat-tricks and the legendary spin quartet of the yore, Indian Cricket is an enduring story of batsmen lording over barren brown patches and capitulating like greenhorns on greener surfaces. We always lionised our batsmen or condemned them because we never really had a bowling unit that could claim 20 wickets in overseas tests. Ajit Wadeker and Kapil Dev achieved some success in West Indies and England. But consistent success abroad was a mirage for the Indian fans.

Though Ganguly was the first ever captain to dream big and aim for overseas test wins, he never got the bowlers to work as a unit. It was mostly one of them bowling well with others misfiring. That consistent hostility of the West Indies of 1970s and 80s, Pakistan in the Imran Khan to Wasim - Waqar era, Australia in the first decade of new millennium had always remained an elusive dream for Indian Cricket fans.

MSD was a revolutionary Captain in ODI Cricket. But he somehow became a passive spectator in overseas tests as Indian bowlers practically threw in the towel when faced with flat decks. When it comes to Test Cricket, Kohli is a different Captain. He might err with team selection, he may not be quite imaginative in his handling of spinners but he has brought in a hitherto unknown element into Indian Cricket. The consistently aggressive fast bowling unit that can claim 20 wickets in most tests. We aren't talking about the 130kmph variety but those who can keep it above 140 to 150 kmph even in the third session of the day.