Statistical Round-up for 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010 cricket, cricket stats 2010, dale steyn, david warner, dirk nannes, graeme swann, hashim amla, rishabh bablani, sachin, shakib al hasan, statistics, umar akmal, virat kohli, virender sehwag, zaheer No Comments

"Sneaky stats are sneaky."

- A close friend of Darren Gough's mailman's brother-in-law

Most Runs

Tests

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave		SR	100	50
SR Tendulkar (India)	14	23	3	1562	214	78.10		55.90	7	5
V Sehwag (India)	14	25	2	1422	173	61.82		90.80	5	8
IJL Trott (Eng)	14	24	4	1325	226	66.25		49.44	4	4
AN Cook (Eng)	14	24	2	1287	235*	58.50		54.76	5	4
HM Amla (SA)	11	19	3	1249	253*	78.06		53.05	5	4

The next two on the list are Saffas Kallis and Smith. Tamim Iqbal could have been higher up the list, but only played 7 Tests, scoring 837 runs at 59.78, with an almost Sehwagological strike rate of 80.71 and a highest of 151. Sangakarra just played 6 games for 695 runs at the lofty average of 99.28. The highest score this year was Gaylestorm's 333.

ODI's

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave		SR	100	50
HM Amla (SA)	15	15	1	1058	129	75.57		104.23	5	4
V Kohli (India)	25	24	3	995	118	47.38		85.11	3	7
AB de Villiers (SA)	16	16	4	964	114*	80.33		102.11	5	4
TM Dilshan (SL)	20	20	2	921	110	51.16		98.92	3	4
Imrul Kayes (Ban)	27	27	0	867	101	32.11		67.15	1	6

There's a huge outlier that I noticed as I scrolled down this list. Lurking just outside the top 20, is cricket's official ball-smeller (ha) Shahid Afridi, who scored 601 runs at 33, but at a crack-high strike-rate of 144.12. 

If you play Jeopardy in Pakistan, "what is Shahid Afridi?" is an official answer to "the definition of insane". Really.

My Top 10 Test Cricket moments of 2010

Wednesday, December 29, 2010 2010, anderson, broad, chris martin, cricket, dale steyn, gayle, laxman, mitchell johnson, morkel, muralitharan, top 10 cricket moments, tracerbullet007, trott No Comments

It’s that time of the year again. By now, you would have been inundated with numerous ‘Top 10s of 2010’, and it would be wrong of me not to add one more to this rabble. Here, I present to you, my top 10 Test cricket moments of the year, in no particular order!

1) Murali reaches 800 wickets: Nobody deserved this milestone more; not even the king of leg spin. In his final test, against the best players of spin, he needed 8 wickets to become the only man in history to get 800 Test scalps. He duly completed the feat; and fittingly, wicket 800 was achieved with the help of a familiar accomplice at slip. As they say, some stories cannot be scripted better.

2) Laxman’s 103* leads India to victory against SL: This was the year of Laxman. It all started with this innings in the final test of the series against Sri Lanka at Colombo. Laxman walked into 62/4, with India still needing 195 runs to win, and draw the series. Against a tricky attack comprising spin and sling, he exhibited a classy innings in a pressure situation and led India to victory. He was just getting started….

India's bowling #2

Monday, December 27, 2010 cricket, cricket comics, harbhajan singh, india, rishabh bablani, south africa, zaheer No Comments

Double preview # 2: Melbourne Test and Durban Test

Saturday, December 25, 2010 australia, cheteshwar pujara, cricket, england, india, michael beer, preview, rishabh bablani, south africa, suresh raina, the ashes, zaheer No Comments

Both England and India have had bad outings in their previous matches, but today it's another game on another day on another pitch in other conditions, you get the idea.

Australia v England

The Aussies' four-man pace attack succeeded at the WACA as England collapsed twice, but had things not worked out so swimmingly, their lack of a decent fifth bowler could have been exposed. Neither Watson nor Smith were required to bowl in both innings, but this probably won't be the case in Melbourne, which is more likely to have better batting conditions. They now have the dilemma of sticking with the team that won and leaving the spinning duties to Steve Smith, or they can drop Smith and either Siddle or Hilfenhaus and pick a full batsman (Khawaja) and Beer as the frontline spinner.

Neither Smith nor Beer are established spinners, though, and they will be pretty worried if England gets off to a good start.

England may also want to make a change - Steve Finn may be the highest wicket taker in the series but he has lacked total control and has leaked runs like a great big leaky thing. Bresnan has more control and is likely to take his spot, which also shortens the tail. The batting order is probably going to be unchanged, if they consider Perth to be an exception to their otherwise good form. Which means that Bell will remain at #6, despite looking like the best batsman in the series apart from Hussey.

South Africa v India

Captain Obvious says: India needs to win, Harbhajan needs to bowl, India's #6 needs to score, whoever it may be.

Here's something encouraging though: In their last two series against South Africa, India has lost the first Test by an innings, just like this one, but they have come back to win the second Test. 

And Zaheer's back. That's 80% of our bowling attack.

Good enough?

Expect a much improved performance by both the batsmen and bowlers, I can say that much. I believe India should pick 5 bowlers, because if our star batsmen can't make a decent total, they don't deserve to win. That won't happen of course, so Raina could well be replaced by Pujara, who is having a baptism by fire so far - final day chase against Australia and now South Africa away.

So much fun.

This really happened

Thursday, December 23, 2010 bradman, cricket, random, rishabh bablani, sachin No Comments

Somewhere in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, a man is walking. Partly because he was afraid of cars, those big noisy machines that he was certain had no future, but mostly because him walking is convenient for the story. In fact, let me make up a name for him. Jebediah. Perfect. Sounds like an old-school name, sounds funny, and is a very unlikely name for a New South Welshman.

Anyway, he's walking. He passes a backyard, or almost passes it. He sees a kid playing with himself on the grass. Playing alone, that is. Playing cricket. Get your mind out of the gutter.

So the kid is playing cricket, but in a bizarre way. He's using a cricket stump as a bat, and a golf ball as the ball. He's throwing the ball at a curved brick facing him, and when the ball rebounds at varying, random angles, the kid reacts quickly to hit it with the stump.

Jebediah is impressed and walks up to the kid. Today, he would be arrested for this very act. But this is 1916, so it's perfectly normal. The kid looks at him, expressionless, even though he's inwardly seething at being interrupted while doing what he considered to be the most important thing in the world.

"That's some eye you've got there! What's your name, son?" asks Jebediah.
"I'm Donnie. Donnie Bradman." says the kid, still expressionless.
"Well, keep at it. Maybe you'll be the next Sachin Tendulkar!" says Jebediah cheerfully.
"Gee, you think?" asks Donnie, suddenly interested.
"Of course!"
"Who's Sachin Tend... Tedu... who's he, mister?" askes Donnie.
"I've no idea! I'm not up to date with the news, I've only just escaped from St. Sainterson's Hospital for the Mentally Ill!" says Jebediah. He cackles loudly, grabs the golf ball, sticks it in his mouth, and runs off.

The Centurion Test

Monday, December 20, 2010 cricket, cricket comics, india, rishabh bablani, sachin, south africa No Comments

Click to enlarge. Pictures from Cricinfo.

India's bowling

Friday, December 17, 2010 cricket, cricket comics, india, ishant sharma, random, rishabh bablani, south africa, sreesanth No Comments

Original from Cricinfo

Time for the puns to stop....and Beer to flow!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010 australia, england, michael beer, perth, the ashes, tracerbullet007 No Comments

Michael Anthony Beer. In any country, that’s a strong name; in Australia, it is a perfect name. Just as well; for a country, known for its fondness of the said beverage, Beer is expected to lift Aussie spirits, in more ways than one.

There could not be a worse initiation possible. Consider the situation: You slog it out in club cricket for many years, move to a state whose team is searching for a front-line spinner, play all of six first class games, take 16 wickets which includes a best of 3/39 and an average of 40.06, get talked up by a spin legend in the press, and just like that: get called up to the national side for one of the most crucial Test matches in a while.

Double preview: India/South Africa and The Ashes

Wednesday, December 15, 2010 australia, captain obvious, cricket, england, india, preview, rishabh bablani, south africa, the ashes No Comments

This is obviously a great big time-saver of a post, so I won't waste time setting it up or explaining it, even though that's exactly what I just did.

Both the first South Africa-India first test at the Centurion and the Australia-England third test at the WACA are scheduled on the same days, with RSA-Ind starting 6 hours after the Ashes. A lot of the 'what to expect stuff' has already been discussed by followers filling up the time in between the cricket, on Twitter or elsewhere, so I'll try to avoid the obvious stuff. Having said that, don't scratch your eyes out if Billy the Worm correspondent Captain Obvious makes an appearance.

I'll start with the more important series, and it isn't between a couple of islands (okay, England isn't an island, but since they can pick players from other parts of the UK, and since the UK is an island, I'd go with it).

Australian selectors' meeting

Thursday, December 09, 2010 cricket, cricket comics, michael beer, rishabh bablani, selection, the ashes No Comments

I really hope I'm the first one to the pun. And I really, really doubt it. It's based, of course, on Michael Beer's selection for the Perth Test.

The Bell tolls for North

Thursday, December 09, 2010 ian bell, marcus north, the ashes, tracerbullet007 No Comments

First of all, please forgive me for the terrible pun. Try as I might, I could not resist the title of this piece. Anyway, as you may or may not have understood by now, this article is about Marcus North, Ian Bell and the contrasting points in their careers.

The number 6 position in the batting line-up is perhaps the trickiest of all. If you are part of a strong batting order, more often than not, you walk into a situation, where your captain wants you to score quick runs before a declaration. If you are part of a weaker team, your job is usually, to shepherd the tail and muster as many runs as you can, before your team is bowled out. Sometimes, it can be a thankless task. You are just expected to turn up and perform, regardless of the situation. If you score runs, you are considered to be just doing your job; if you fail, you are easy pickings. Just ask VVS Laxman. Despite an impressive record over the years, whenever there is talk of dropping batsmen, his name is one of the first to be bandied about.

IPL 4: Player Retention. Even though it's all hypothetical.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010 bangalore royal challengers, chennai super kings, deccan chargers, delhi daredevils, IPL 4, kings xi punjab, kolkata knight riders, mumbai indians, rajasthan royals, rishabh bablani, virat kohli No Comments

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga

They've released Zaheer and opted for Harby. Maybe because Harby is a 'confidence bowler' (cliche alert) and being released would make him bowl like a buffet. Oh wait, that's already happening. Bad call. Also, MI now have spent half their budget of $9 million, so they now have to buy the rest of the squad with half the money.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, M Vijay, Albie Morkel

The only other team to retain all four players allowed. I didn't think they'd go for Albie, since Ashwin and Murali have perhaps been more crucial to their success. As they say in Austria, "Votever."

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne, Shane Watson

So Warne will be back, which is awesome. They keep Watson, which is not so awesome. And no Yusuf Pathan? Whoa. Seriously, whoa. It'll be interesting to see if they get Rajasthan quick Deepak Chahar.

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag

But no Gautam Gambhir, who was their captain last season, and is Viru's hunting partner. No Nannes, no Mishra, no Dilshan.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli

They wanted to keep their finances flexible, so out with most of the squad that was so successful. No Kallis, Pandey, Taylor, Vinay Kumar, Dravid and no Kumble!

Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers released everyone, and the Kings XI Punjab were kinda forced to.

Remember, it's all hypothetical.

IPL 4: Fact or Fiction? (working title)

Sunday, December 05, 2010 cricket, indian premier league, IPL 4, kings xi punjab, kochi, pune, rajasthan royals, rishabh bablani No Comments

I've noticed that some people are finding the website via several different Google searches, almost all of them seeking information about IPL 4. Now I won't pretend I know what's going on, but I will summarize everything I've read or heard into an (un) impressive-looking list of bullet-points, so that you, 3 and a half readers, can be as confused as I am.

• There were going to be 10 teams this year.
• The new teams were the Pune Pratfallers and the Kochi Katerwaulers.
• Suddenly, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab had their names erased with the back of a pen because they were corrupt.
• The Kochi Katerwaulers were asked to give a bunch of reasons why they might be allowed to stay, because they were corrupt too. Easiest punishment ever?
• Wrong. They argued so much that they broke their only pencil and couldn't come up with anything.
• But they were allowed to stay.
• The Rajasthan Royals clawed back in after some judge let them remain a franchise. For six weeks. And they have been allowed to participate in the auction.
• Meanwhile, the Kings XI Punjab won't go away quietly and are still on hunger strike trying to take legal action.
• The player retention deadline for all teams was tomorrow, but the Bombay High Court postponed it to the 8th
• There really shouldn't be an IPL this year because of the World Cup.

And now, to summarize in one paragraph of gibberish, if you don't get it yet.

The IPL supposedly will happen but we don't know how many teams are there because there were to be ten but two were removed and then one was allowed back so now there are nine and they can all take part in the auction so next month they may all have players but then one team may still be kicked out and then what will happen to their players will they be given to the other team that was kicked out and has not yet been allowed back or will they be distributed like maltesers among the other teams or will the auction not even happen because we aren't certain which teams are in it and there are a buttload of court cases happening which keep getting delayed and the IPL may not even happen in the end which would be good because all the players would be tired from the World Cup anyway.

That should capture the theme effectively.

A Tale of Two Captains

Thursday, December 02, 2010 andrew strauss, australia, captains, cricket, england, ricky ponting, the ashes, tracerbullet007 No Comments

Classic test series are defined by the men who are in charge. Think of the two best series in recent times - Ashes 2005 and the 2001 Australia tour of India. While players like Flintoff, Harbhajan, Laxman and Hayden deservedly walked away with all the plaudits, their performances were shaped by the men who led them. Men who believed in their abilities and knew how to get the best out of them. Michael Vaughan’s best contribution to English cricket might have been his handling of Big Freddie, who responded to his captain, like he did to no other. Harbhajan and Laxman were backed tirelessly by Ganguly, who was repaid for his unwavering support, with once in a lifetime performances. Likewise, Hayden who was in and out of the team till the 2001 series, credits Steve Waugh for the faith reposed in him, during the tough times. Great performances are dime a dozen, but great leadership is harder to find.

Times have changed since then. Australia is sitting at an unfamiliar position in the rankings, England have managed to develop a semblance of consistency and India are at the top of the table. These teams are well reflected by their leaders.