West Indies vs Australia – 1st Test – May 22-26 2008

Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica

Sometimes the mind says : TOO MUCH IPL! But mate, it never is enough, when it comes to pleasures of life. But not in this post. I would try my best!

If you are a Kolkata Knight Rider fan, you would have a bitter feeling now. Bitter as your team has been knocked out of the IPL. Bitter as one of your star signings Ricky Ponting could do nothing to help you in your quest for a semi-final berth. Bitter as the same guy has scored 154 in his very first post IPL stint on the cricket field, albeit in a test match against the null-star West Indies team. Enough about feelings, serious cricket follows:

Despite Hayden not playing due to Achilles, at the end of Day 1, the Aussies were well placed at 301 for the loss of 4 wickets. Other major contributions with the bat : Hussey(56) and Hodge(53)

Looking at the bowling analysis of the West Indies, almost everyone bowled as good, or as bad, though Fidel Edwards was the most successful (and expensive) of the bowlers (2/56 in 14). The day was dull to watch, if not for the exquisite stroke play by Ponting, Hussey and Hodge. Updates Tomorrow.

Photo: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Ricky Ponting Sizzles as West Indies go through the motions

So the Australian Open finished off with the results I had predicted in this post. Masha, aka, Maria Sharapova sailed through to the trophy. As I said, nobody in the tournament weiled the kind of power she did, and on the men’s side, Djoker, aka, Novak Djokovic, got the better of suprise finalist Tsonga. We had been pretty much hooked to the tournament, so much so that we missed out on a lot of cricket. With the Commenwealth Bank Series on, we’re back to bats and balls.

Anyway, lots of things happened during the Border-Gavaskar Series, and some of it wasn’t pleasant. And it lead me to compare a few aspects of our favorite game to tennis. There are quite a few things ICC, the various local cricket authorities, and the players can learn from racquets and balls.

* Off-season: We’re a big fan of this one. There was next to no tennis in November and December. This time of the year is off-season for the game. After the US Open, the number of tournaments declines sharply and by the time it’s November, the tennis world is alreading on vocation. The tennis season, after this temporary halt, unofficially kicks off in January with the tournaments building up to the Australian Open. The players and viewers get back to the game with revived enthusiasm. Cricket is played all the year round with no break in between. There are obvious downsides to this, but they deserve a post of their own.

*Mutual Respect: Respect for opponents is something that has been missing in the game recently. Everyone saw what happened between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds, how Ricky Ponting and other players on the Australian side took to swords. That was the on-field story, but the trend of psychological war of words off the field is worth a mention, too. There is nothing seriously wrong with trying to bring down the morale of the opponent, but look at the tennis players. At pre-match conferences, they’re not telling us why their opponents suck or why they have an edge over them, but why that opponent will be difficult to win over. There’s a sense of respect for the opponents, both on and off the court.

* Women are powerful: Tennis’s popularity today is largely due to the women’s tennis. What if women’s cricket was given equal importance as the men’s cricket? First off, it would encourage women to take it up as a career, and second, it would help the game get female readership. You can’t match the glamour of miniskirts and spaghetti tops with trousers and half-sleeved tee-shirts, but women’s cricket is worth giving a try. The most popular and rich sports have all progressive women’s circuits as well– golf and football being two examples.

* Integrative training: Cricket is both physically and mentally exhausting. Shaun Tait proves that. Besides the usual training, there should be some yoga, pilates, etc. Ingtegrative training is big in tennis. Maria Sharapova spends two hours after every match with her trainer who does acupressure and allied stuff.

Obviously, there are lots of things tennis can learn from cricket, but that’s outside the scope of this talk.

Fan Question: What other sports do you think cricket can learn from?

Post from: EveryJoe

What Cricket Can Learn From Tennis?

Eat Cricket, Drink Cricket, Sleep Cricket

It’s official. Michael Clarke has become an issue of national importance for the Australian media. The players just don’t want to stop debating over him.

The best way to do this would be to elevate him to the vice-captaincy in all forms of the game.

–Shane Warne

I don’t necessarily agree with [Warne],” Ponting said in Adelaide. “I don’t think that needs to be the case right now. Gilly’s not going to play forever, we’re all not going to play forever, but Michael’s opportunity is going to come.”

It might not be right now, it might not be six months’ time, but that opportunity will come and he will step into the vice-captain’s role. Hopefully I can stay around for another few years and keep him out of my position for a bit longer.

– Ricky Ponting

Post from: EveryJoe

More Conflicting Tongue-Wagging on Clarke

It’s official: Kenya are world’s most successful ODI side. And no, this is not a joke. Their success rate so far in 2007 has been 77%, better than Australia’s 73 something.

They played 17 ODIs in all and won 13. Only two matches were against Test-playing nations–England and New Zealand–which they lost, of course.

Ohkay, busted. Some kidding there, but I thought this discovery by folks at Caught Behind needed some word-of-blog spreading.

Anyway, just in case you don’t already know this: Kenya also beat Bermuda by eight wickets in the Intercontinental Cup recently.Thomas Odoyo hammered 111 off 113 balls to help Kenya clinch the match by six wickets after being reduced to 49/5 in their first ODI against Canada.

I won’t fake knowledge about their history (I am no Stuart), but I and most of the world remember them for two upsets in cricketing history, basically.

* They reached world cup semis in 2003. On their way to the semi-final spot they beat Zimbabwe, a team supposedly better than them. New Zealand refused to play on their land for security reasons, so Kenya pocketed bonus points that helped them further. Some luck, some bravo, and they made it pretty neatly.

This reminds me of some interesting dialogue that took place between Ganguly and Ponting.

Ganguly: We’d prefer to meet Sri Lanka in the final.
Ponting rebuttal: We’d prefer to meet Kenya in the final.

India breezed past Kenya in the semis. No surprise there. And Oz made it to final. No surprise again.

*70-run win over India at Port Elizabeth on 17 October 2001 during the tri-nation series in South Africa. John Wright’s was India coach.

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Due to several personal reasons, I am extremely interested in the advent of cricket. I would like to, but I don’t usually follow the minnow cricket very closely, but this is funny that this post is coming at a time when I am actually looking into what’s going on for the associates.

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We are desperate to topple Australia. And it can’t hurt if it takes some stat hacks to do that.

Btw, the headline is ominous of what’s to come in the near future (except the Kenya part). Didn’t I ever mention I have intuitive powers? Anyhoo, take the poll.

I had put in Kenya and Bangladesh just for fun in the current poll, and Kenya even has a vote.

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BRING THEM ON: India meets Australia. A month and a half to go.

Post from: EveryJoe

Move Over Australia (Kenya’s the New King)

“I was surprised Panesar didn’t start and I couldn’t really work out why Read didn’t start, either. He certainly looks the part with the gloves and he did OK in the Pakistan series with the bat. At the end of the day, you have to pick your best players and in the last couple of Tests it became pretty apparent that Read is a better keeper than Jones. When those sort of things happen in a team, it unsettles a few players.”

I don’t actually need to say anything else, do I? I just hope someone calls Ponting as an expert witness at the inquest. Full article by Angus Fraser at The Telegraph.

Post from: EveryJoe

Ponting says it all

Indeed, England struggled with the pitch in the same way the Australian bowlers had toiled. Hoggard was the pick, but Harmison looked considerably better than at Brisbane. Flintoff was perhaps below his best, and you can’t help wondering why he’s bowling so many overs. Yes, he’s our best bowler, but I still believe he needs to spread himself a little more thinly if he wants to be around at the end of the series. Anderson, Harmison and Giles should be made to do the work. Giles, in particular, looked out of sorts, and was responsible for dropping Ponting before he’d really got going. To only bowl 16 overs out of a days play wasn’t enough.

England will be very happy with the days play. Despite Australia moving close to the target required to avoid the follow on, to have them 5 down by the end of the day with the last 2 recognised batsmen at the crease (out-of-form Gilchrist and something-to-prove Clarke) and so if England can grab early wickets tomorrow morning, England would definitely be in with a shout of winning this match. Should Australia still be batting in to session 3, then a draw is the most likely result.

Post from: EveryJoe

Adelaide: Day 3: Close and far