Cricket - The Gentleman's Game

What should be an Alternate system to toss 'THE TOSS' in cricket? In this technological and modern era of how the game of cricket has evolved with "Pink" ball, day night test match cricket, dynamic t-20's and power plays, tossing the coin before a cricket match is still in place which every Classic cricket fan loves to see. With so much of pre-match analysis even a person who is acquaintance to cricket will predict how would the match progress based on result of the "TOSS" . Before toss: Both the team gets chance to look at the pitch to assess how would it behave during the course of the match and decide what they need to do if they win the toss. It also has impact on the selection of the playing eleven. Does toss really have an edge? Yes. Batting first: •         If the team is uncertain about the nature of the pitch or simply wants to play safe, they often bat first.  •         If ...

LAXMAN, Very Very Special name in the Indian Cricket Team has announced his retirement from international cricket on 18 August 2012, Although he was selected for the upcoming New Zealand series, he opted not to play in the series. It was announced that the Northern Stand at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium will now be named after him Laxman bats right-handed and occasionally bowls off-spin. He is noted for his superb timing and the ability to hit against the spin, reminiscent of his role model Mohammed Azharuddin. Laxman is particularly noted for the skilful use of his supple wrists, which allow him to flick the ball to various places, but usually through the leg side. This also helps in his catching, and he typically fields in the slips or in a bat pad position. Laxman is widely criticized as a slow runner between the wickets and he is one of the few players who have played 100 Tests but have never played in the Cricket World Cup. "If you get Dravid , gr...

Rahul Dravid was probably one of the last classical Test match batsmen. His progress into the national side may have been steady and methodical, he has always tried to hold his place with aggressive and calculated performances within and outside the country. Dravid's immense levels of concentration also came in handy while he fields at slips. He holds the record for the most number of catches taken in the slips. Here is another example of his concentration and precision on saving his wicket, look at this and you will defintely have a one step higher respect for the classic batsman. You will feel interested to know : Records of Sourav Ganguly - India's Best Captain Why Tendulkar is God of Cricket The Funny Warney

AWARDS TO SOURAV GANGULY Sport star  Person of the Year - 1998 Awarded by the Sportstar Magazine Arjuna Award -1998 For outstanding performance in cricket CEAT Cricketer of the Year 99-00 , Cash prize of 5 lakh rupees and a trophy CEAT Indian Captain of the Year 01-02 For outstanding achievement as leader Award for Cricketing Excellence 2003 Presented to men who made "the difference" Padma Shri 2004 4th highest civilian award in India Rammohan Roy Award 2004 For outstanding performance as captain SOURAV IN WISDEN Sourav has 4 of his innings in top 100 ODI innings declared by Wisden Cricket and 3 in top 25. Ganguly S C 141* Ind vs SA, 2000, Nairobi. Ganguly S C 141 Ind vs Pak, 2000, Adelaide Oval. Ganguly S C 183 Ind vs SL, 1999, County Ground. Ganguly S C 153* Ind vs NZ, 1999, Captain Roop Singh Stadium. Sourav has 3 of his innings in Top 5 ODI innings played by Indian batsman as declared by Wisden Cricket. Ganguly S.C 141* 196.71 India V...

Mahendra Singh Dhoni , The richest cricketer and the richest sports person in India has performed to some excellent performances. Listed are the milestones that he has achieved as a wicket keeper batsman in ODI format.  On 31 October 2005 Dhoni scored 183* runs of just 145 balls against Sri Lanka in Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, which is the highest score made by any batsman in the second innings (surpassing Lara's previous record of 153). His Helicopter shot became so famous during this season. http://crickitter.blogspot.in/2012/07/cricket-dhonis-special-helicopter-shot.html The innings featured 10 Sixes – the most by an Indian in an innings, and the fifth highest in ODIs. He broke Adam Gilchrist's record of 172 for the highest score made by a wicket keeper. The innings set the record for the most number of runs scored in boundaries (120 – 15x4; 10x6) breaking the record held by Saeed Anwar. However this was later broken by Herschelle Gibbs (126 runs i...

Rahul Dravid , The wall doesn't need an introduction to the cricket field. He established himself as an best middle order batsman, He also holds the record for the most number of catches in the international cricket. He has also served the nation keeping wickets during the world cup which helped the team to have an extra batsman.  Here is another avatar of the best cricketer as a bowler and what more you expect from him, he claims two wickets against South Africa, one of the best batting line ups in the world cricket. Watch, Jammy bowl with passion Related posts: MS Dhoni Bowling Shane Warne Funniest bowling Adam Gilchrist Bowling

Dhoni is a right-handed batsman and wicket-keeper. Dhoni is one of the number of wicket-keepers who have come through the ranks of junior and India A cricket teams to represent the national team – Parthiv Patel, Ajay Ratra and Dinesh Karthik also followed this route. Dhoni, referred to as ' Mahi ' by his friends, debuted in the Bihar cricket team during the 1998/99 cricket season and was selected to represent India-A for a tour to Kenya in 2004. Along with Gautam Gambhir, Dhoni made multiple centuries against the Pakistan-A team in a tri-nation series and was selected in the Indian national team later in that year. Dhoni tends to play mostly from the back foot with a pronounced bottom hand grip. He has a very fast hand speed through the ball which often results in the ball racing across the ground. From this initial stance his feet do not show much movement which sometimes results in chasing balls while not coming to the pitch of the ball or to some deliveries catching th...

I always believe that "Catches win Matches". In the game of Twenty 20 every ball is so important and the players always need to be sharp at field either to steal a run from the opposition or to throw their body at the ball to stop a single. Here is one of the instance, where the bowler bowls with such an accuracy and speed and the batsman slashes hard at the ball. It requires such an concentration to pull a blinder like this when you field at the slip. This blinder of a catch was taken by the Indian, Dinesh Karthick at slip to get rid of the South African Skipper Grame Smith, the bowler was RP Singh. For me, this is one of the best ever catch considering the situation of game, where India was defending a little more than 150 which was so easy for the formidable home side to chase. Look at the catch and know the importance of it. Eventually, India won the match convincingly. Thanks to Rohit Sharma, brilliant half century and he was declared the MoM. You will al...

Wicket Keeper :  The wicket-keeper (also spelled wicketkeeper and often shortened to keeper) in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike.  The wicket-keeper is the only member of the fielding side permitted to wear gloves and external leg guards.The wicket-keeper may also wear a helmet with a mesh face guard to help protect from injury. Keep's Functions: The most common dismissal effected by the keeper is for him to catch a ball that has nicked the batsman's bat, called an edge, before it bounces. Sometimes the keeper is also in the best position to catch a ball which has been hit high in the air. More catches are taken by wicket-keepers than by any other fielding position. The keeper can stump the batsman by using the ball to remove the bails from the stumps, if the batsman has come out of his crease during a delivery. When the ball is h...

One Day Internationals :  A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, and now a days it is fifty over per side, earlier it used to be 60 overs per side. The international one-day game is a late twentieth-century development. The first ODI was played on 5 January 1971 between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . When the first three days of the third Test were washed out officials decided to abandon the match and, instead, play a one-off one day game consisting of 40 eight-ball overs per side. Australia won the game by 5 wickets. That's the small history of how the one day international game evolved. From then, the game has improved vastly along with the aggression of the batsman to score run against the bowler. Here are listed the five fastest half centurions(50 runs) in one day internationals Sanath Jayasurya : He scored the f...

Cricket, There are few unknown facts about this game and I have listed down here, and I assure this post will get updated frequently as I collect interesting updates. OMINOUS OLYMPICS Cricket has only ever appeared in the Olympic games twice. The first time was in 1896 in Athens; however, there were not enough teams to truly compete so the competition never occurred. Once again, in 1900, cricket made a reappearance in the Paris Olympics but only 2 teams were able to compete: Great Britain and France. The winner, Great Britain, received the gold medal.  FIRST FACE-OFF Geoff Boycott was the first cricketer to face a ball one-day cricket history. Graham McKenzie was the bowler. SUNNY GOES LOONY It has been stated in the past that Sunil Gavaskar was so ill-tempered that his parents had to take him to a psychiatrist to get checked out. We can believe this one for sure! BORROWED CENTURY Shahid Afridi’s epic 1996 37-ball century, the fastest in one-day history at t...

Yeah, Every time we hear the term body line bowling, it reminds of the England tactics used against Australia for the Ashes. History of Body Line Bowling: England toured Australia in 1932, England were worried because they couldn't get Sir Donald Bradman out, everything they tried, Bradman had the answer too. So the England players devised a tactic in which they would bowl short and aim the bowling at the body of the batsmen, then they would set a field with 5 or 6 men short on the leg-side, they would do this, because when the batsmen had no choice BUT to fend off the short ball (or they would get hit in the head or body), and when they fended off the short ball, the fielders would be ready to take the catch. This tactic worked as England beat Australia. BUT still all the England players were hated in Australia, and the relations between Australia and England worsened. Bodyline is NOT short pitch bowling, short pitch bowling is called a bouncer !!!!! In 1935,...

Irfan Pathan, India left arm medium fast bowler made his debut against Australia at Adelaide and he made an impressive start to his career. He was considered to be the best talent after Kapil Dev a bowler who can swing and seam the ball. Irfan Pathan came into limelight during the test series against Pakistan, their arch-rivals. He also started contributing with the bat and was used as a pinch hitter in the few matches and the result was in the favor of the home team. Coach by then, Greg Chappell helped him turn a better batsman but by then, the focus of Irfan Pathan lost and he is still missing the clever swing that he had, which trouble most of the top order batsman. As a Cricket follower and a fan of Irfan Pathan, I wish he comes back with the same old swing that he possessed few years back. Just a reminder of his best swing bowling for the audience to enjoy.

Aaqib Javed of Pakistan bowling the most clever ball in a cricket match. Aaqib Javed is a great Pakistani bowler who has bowled alongside with Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. This was bowled during the world cup 1992, against the New zealand and the batsman who got trapped to this clever bowling was Mark Greatbatch, He was a well known Pitch-hitter who tried to accelerate the scoring rate. Watch this clip to know, how clever a bowling it was...! You will also be interested watching Curtley Ambrose best bowling 7 wickets for just one run Kevin Pietersons switch hit for six

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who sworn in as the Rajya Sabha member on June 4 2012, has taken the first political move, which is as good as his straight six. Sachin Tendulkar has opted not to stay in the Bungalow(5, Tughlaq Lane) allotted to him by the Indian Government. The allocated Bungalow was opposite to that of Rahul Gandhi's, the Congress General Secretary. Sachin quoted " I am not keen on staying in any government bungalow, when I will be in Delhi for only a few days. I feel this would be a waste of tax payers money and it would be better if the bungalow is allotted to someone else who needs the bungalow more than me ." The God of Cricket also added, " He will stay in the Hotel every time he is in Delhi " and re-iterated " The   honour of being nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP matters much more than the perks and privileges like being given a government bungalow " After this, there are few things that pops into my head, 1. Can Sachin...