Fun time is the Cricket Time

So we are standing just ahead of Indian Premier Leauge session 2, which is ready to swing once again on 18th April with its second season on course. Not to forget what has happened in the first edition of the cricket saga. Only few teams could live up to the expectations, while some drowned hemselves by their on field poor performance. Chennai Super Kings, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils were the franchises Who did justice to their star hubbed teams while Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers just blew away. We also take a look at how the most under rated team of IPL emerged as the champion of champion’s . It is also an attempt to look at the future prospects of the IPL teams for the second season. The unsung hero’s of the league who put themselves of the radar of success and those big buddies who could not bear the burden of expectations in the inaugural season of IPL have also been covered. Indian Premier League was bang in terms of records and milestones set by the players. Several new records were made and it was raining four and sixes in most of the clashes. Apart from sheer entertainment and excitement, Controversies also laid its clouds on the IPL. There was Asif’s doping scandal to follow with Harbhajan-Sreesanth spat on the field which sent Bhajji out of the tournament.
Controversies kept on coming on a fast track in the cash flowing league. We bring you the best of the best from the first season in terms of Stadiums, Cheerleaders and the spectators. It is well said that failure makes one more determined to achieve success. Taking lesson from the failure in the most talked about league , the owners of the franchises went in quest of what is right for their team to attain much needed life line on the cricket field at the auction held in Goa for the second season. Millions were spent to hire the services of star players who in return can guarantee the winning formula to the team. There were few surprises also in terms of amount spent on players bidding. Kevin Petersen and Andrew Flintoff drew all the attention and attraction by becoming the costliest players in the IPL, both went for the whooping amount of more than seven crore with Kevin going in the kitty of Vijay Mallya and Flintoff to Chennai Super Kings. South African J P Duminy and Bangladeshi tiger Mashrafe Mortaza were the surprise packages at the auction by getting much higher price than their original base price. In our edition we throw light on the life of Lalit Modi, how he slowly but gradually came to power in terms of cricket world and the big tail of controversies attached with him. With all these happenings in the cricket world we bring you our regular columns, Willowy Words
and Greats of the game to keep you intact till the end.

The sheet of snow covering the mighty Dhauladhar is rather thin for this time of the year. It has, however, not affected the scenic effect the snow-clad range provides to the stadium here; it’s still as breathtaking and grandiose as ever.

Now, while the locals and the environmentalists could grumble over the less-than normal snowing and the resultant higher-than-normal temperature, it would suit just fine to the game of cricket, as players would find themselves more comfortable in the relatively warmer climate.

Delhi would be liking the pleasant weather and scenic setting even better after their easy win over J&K, and Punjab too would have surely found their agony of losing a close match waning gradually after they arrived here for their next game against Delhi on the morrow. The victory against minnows like J&K can’t be a reliable yardstick to judge the form and momentum of a side like Delhi, but then the victory as comfortable as Delhi notched up is certainly the start any team would want to have.

And Delhi is not shying away from drawing in as many positives as possible from the easy win, evident in Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya’s refusal to see it as a win offered on a platter. “I don’t think it was an easy win, we simply played well. One has to play well to win matches, irrespective of the opposition,” he said.

“Two of our batsmen got hundreds and a bowler picked up five wickets. So it was obviously a good outing for us and we are looking forward to putting in a similar effort against Punjab as well, the coach said.

Punjab, on the other hand, would be under pressure for they just can’t afford to lose two games in a row. Besides, they are now without Jaskaran Singh who almost saw them through in the last match. The sturdy youngster has been sent home after he got hit in the face in the last game. His absence will further weaken the Punjab pace attack that has already lost quite a bit of sting following the unavailability of Manpreet Goni and VRV Singh.

Given their inexperienced and depleted pace attack, Punjab would rely heavily on their batsmen to put up a fight against the well-balanced Delhi. The batting line-up too is quite inexperienced in comparison to Delhi, but they did show promise and potential when they almost chased down 290 against Haryana. They will need to fire again if Punjab don’t want to see themselves lagging further behind in the race for knock-out stage.

2008 was a windfall year for test cricket. On the one hand there was the IPL, which altogether set doubts aplenty about the future of the longer version of the game, so much so that the ICC had to rethink strategies regarding cricket’s future. But on the other hand, as the 2008-09 season began in earnest, the players clad in white flannels gave their everything on the field, to once again uphold the sanctity of the five day game. Plus the wonderful run chases only added to the excitement of it all.
Naturally then, with some amazing cricket played over five days across different parts of the world, the year gone by has thrown up some names. Names that belong to players who will be remembered as the ones who touched the peaks of their performances, justifying their potential and laying down a marker on which they will be forever judged and remembered by. Here are the top test players of the year gone by.
TOP 5 BATSMEN:
1. Graeme Smith: The South African captain led from the front as he saw his team’s stock rise from challengers to world beaters. They went on a spree of nine consecutive unbeaten test series and at the time of writing, were just winding up their tenth one Down Under, having beaten Australia. And it is no surprise that Smith has been hailed as the architect-in-chief of this success. Not only has he led his troops with tactical acumen and street smart guile on the field, his 1656 runs at an average of 72 from 15 matches at the top of the batting order highlight his worth to his team.
Smith recorded six tons in the calendar year and the first was as early as only the second match of the year as he stroked 147 against the West Indies in the third test at Durban. It helped that he was already in the groove by then, having hit more than a hundred runs in the second test as well. The weak Bangladeshi attack only saw to it that he continued his rich vein of form in an important year. But even they couldn’t have fathomed what was to come, as along with Neil McKenzie, Smith broke the long standing record of Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy for the first wicket, as the duo put up 415. His 232 here was the highest score of his calendar year.
Onto more serious challenges then in India, although he didn’t record a hundred, he played a couple of crucial innings, especially the first one in Chennai where he, again with McKenzie laid a good foundation to a huge score. The thing about Smith is that if he is not getting too many with the bat, he makes up with his leadership skills and it showed as South Africa drew India at home. The tour to England was his second tough test on the trot but somehow the Poms bring out the best in him without fail. Two hundreds and a seldom failure meant that he helped his team go one better than their last trip there, this time actually winning the test series. By the way, he also recorded his only duck of the year in England as well.
A century against Bangladesh at home fine tuned his batting for the ferocious tour of Australia in December. Unlike his past visit, Smith was mellower this time round and it showed on the field in the first test at Perth as South Africa chased down a scintillating 414; his 108 laying the base of this brave run chase. And he rounded up the year as he started it, adding more than a hundred runs to his tally in the second match at MCG, 137 to be precise.
2. Virender Sehwag: The ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ or the ‘King of Multan’, whichever way you like it, made his long impending comeback to the Indian team in 2008 and showed every one what we were missing while he was gone. Having spent most of 2007 in the wilderness, he had been finally selected for the Australian tour on the insistence of then Indian skipper Anil Kumble. And how well did it pay off!
He didn’t play the first two matches as Yuvraj Singh was preferred over him, but come the third Test, his presence just couldn’t be ignored anymore. And he showed amply, just why. He played a steady role in the victory at Perth but the changes he had incorporated to his batting away from the spotlight were first seen at Adelaide as he stroked a 63 in the first innings and then played a match saving 151 in the second to draw the game for India. Yes, Sehwag had calmed down a bit.
What’s more he even started valuing his wicket realizing fully that with a longer stay at the crease, he could be even more devastating. And this is exactly what happened as he strode into the record books with a second triple hundred, this time on home soil, a 319 against South Africa at Chennai. His innings was the sole reason why India didn’t lose the first test and although he didn’t score big again in the series, he had pretty much done his part atleast for the time being.
The famed Indian batting line-up struggled in Sri Lanka but that trip was to mark the rise of a new opening partnership that can be easily termed to be the best in the game today. Sehwag and his partner in crime Gautam Gambhir stood tall amongst the ruins in Lanka. The second test was a special high as they were the architects of the Indian win, with Sehwag hitting a double ton; his 201 runs accounting for more than sixty percent of the Indian total.
Sehwag hit 1462 runs in total throughout the year at an average of 56.23, with three hundreds and six half centuries. The ton in Sri Lanka was his last one in the year for he failed to reach the three figure mark in the six tests against Australia and England. However, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t play a part in the memorable winter for the Indian team. He improved his showing in the second innings especially, once again displaying the new side to his play. He came close in Mohali and Nagpur, falling in the nineties on both occasions and then his swashbuckling 83 at Chennai against England set up the huge run chase of a 370-plus target for the Indian team.
3. Ricky Ponting: The fact that he has had a horrendous year as captain of the Australian team will be hit him somewhat less because he has been able to ward off the critics atleast off himself, letting his willow do the talking. And that was pretty much the story for him in the twelve months gone by as he concentrated more on himself than his team notching up 1182 runs in 14 matches at an average of 47.28.
The year didn’t begin that well for him as he had a lot of other things on his mind as the Indian team was running amok on and off the field at the same time. The saga at Sydney had boiled down to a defeat in Perth and only a fitting reply from the bat could sooth his senses as he notched up 140 in the Adelaide test to put India under a tremendous amount of pressure. He carried this form to the West Indies where he scored 158 in the very first test innings at Kingston, but what should have been an even richer haul of runs, and tons, fell silent as he managed to get starts but failed to convert each of them into anything substantial. His next best scored in the Windies was 65 and he arrived in India, where he averages 32 before, with doubts in his mind.
Greg Chappell’s guidance helped him tide over the uncertainties in his mind, as he notched up a first test ton, 123, on Indian soil on a first day pitch at Bangalore. But again, the Indians weighed heavy on his mind as he struggled to get going after that and only crossed fifty one other time in the remaining seven innings. A string of poor scores followed as he was unable to get his form going against the lowly New Zealand attack, home conditions not helping either. And he was under real pressure when he was out to a duck in the first innings at Perth against South Africa. But as is his wont, he kept up the way the year had gone by for him, plundering 200 runs in the second test at Melbourne, scoring 101 in the first innings and following it up with 99 in the second. He missed out on scoring a ton in each innings of a test by a whisker, a feat he has achieved no less than three times previously.
4. Hashim Amla: With 1161 runs at an average of 52.77 in 15 test matches, 2008 will be the year that Amla will always remember, when he came of age as a test player. The potential was always there when he first came onto the international scene. His ability to play pace as well as spin with ease off the front and back foot were enough reasons to groom him into the side but everything happened too fast for him. Consequently h went back to domestic cricket and etched out the gremlins from his mind, and returned a more complete player.
He was always made to hover up and down the batting order and this was more because while he had the potential to excel as a top order batsman, the line-up already had a fine number three batsman in Jacques Kallis and it was very tough to dislodge him. But where the story started taking bad turns for Kallis, it turned upwards for Amla. All through the year, Kallis has struggled with form and this only saw Amla sent up the pecking order at number three more and more. And how well he has used it!
He began the year not fully confident as he was just on his return to the team, especially against West Indies at home. But once he reached Bangladesh, his ability to bat on the slower pitches came in handy as he readied himself for the tour to India. Here he showed his mettle in the first test at Chennai, scoring 159 in the first innings to first take his team to a position of strength and then followed it up with another 81 in the second to see to it that they maintain the upper hand. He scored a fighting half century in Kanpur but it wasn’t enough to stave off defeat in that test. The tour to England followed and he began well and with a purpose, scoring an unbeaten 104 at Lord’s but then fizzled out a bit as his form fell off the charts, scoring only one other fifty that too in the lost game at The Oval in his last innings there.
He re-assured himself in the home series against Bangladesh that he was good enough for a place in the side as he stroked a century and a half century in only the two innings that South Africa batted in the series before flying to Australia. Although he failed to get big scores in the first two tests there, he made sizeable contributions to the victories in both the matches.
5. Gautam Gambhir: Had he played an equal number of matches as other top batsmen in the list, there is no telling how many runs he would have ended up scoring. Already in 8 test matches, he notched up 1134 runs at an astonishing average of 70.87.
Gambhir played his first test of the year only in the series against Sri Lanka and by that time, his team mates had already played six tests in the months gone by. Obviously then he had some catching up to do and he didn’t disappoint. He was in good form in the limited editions of the game and brought it to the test arena as well. He was consistently amongst the runs in Lanka, notching up three fifties in six innings and was easily the second best batsman in the team there after Sehwag as the seniors struggled to get going. In fact, it was his partnership with his Delhi team mate at the top that helped India equal the series in Galle.
Back home, he began with purpose against Australia, first scoring a fifty in the first innings and then going one better in the second innings, getting 104 as he help set up a massive 340 run win over the Aussies. Then he went one better, spurred by playing in front of his home crowd at Delhi, as he stroked a masterful career best knock of 206. His stock now at its highest, he remained true to his form against England as well rounding up the year in an amazing display of batting. First, his half century set up the historic Indian chase at Chennai and then he repeated his feat at Mohali, the one against Australia from earlier this year. It seemed as though he had indeed taken a liking towards the PCA ground as only this time, he hit 179 in the first innings and then almost matched it with 97 in the second.
TOP 5 BOWLERS:
1. Dale Steyn: If it was Graeme Smith in the batting charts, then another South African dominates the bowling charts and it clearly spells out why the Proteas are dominating test cricket at the moment. Steyn, with 74 wickets in 13 matches at 20 apiece, has been one of the most important kegs in the wheel that is now constantly moving towards the top spot in the world rankings. He began the year terrorizing the West Indies with his pace at home. Eight wickets in Cape Town and then another seven in the Durban test spelt quick end to the Caribbean hopes in the series. But how would he shore up to the challenge of bowling in the sub-continent remained to be seen.
And he didn’t let his team down as he scalped 13 wickets in two tests in Bangladesh, the highlight being 7 for 66 in the second test. India posed a different threat though and that was the real test for him. Eight wickets in Ahmedabad where he made full use of the juice in the track won South Africa a test match in India and take a 1-0 lead in the series. Although they could only draw the rubber, it was proven beyond doubt that Steyn was indeed the new fast bowling threat throughout the world.
England though provided an anti climax to the highs in India as he was forced to miss the last three tests due to injury. Even then he had played his part already, taking eight wickets in three innings, bowling his team to victory in Lord’s before retiring hurt in Leeds. 12 wickets at home against Bangladesh rejuvenated him for the toughest test of his career yet which was to come in the form of Australia. Success had long impeded South Africa Down Under and Steyn, alongwith a couple of other players, held the key to unlocking that success.
He picked four wickets in Perth as the hosts lost the first test but it was his performance in the second that indeed marked him as the new ‘White Lightning’. Swinging the ball at a fast pace ala Allan Donald, he scalped ten wickets in the Boxing Day test at MCG to get a firm grip on the series. An unlike Donald, he can bat a bit too, as it was his partnership with Duminy in Melbourne that turned the tide in his team’s favour.
2. Harbhajan Singh: If you look at the wickets column, then his 63 sticks from 13 matches at 31.53 put him at number two in the top five bowlers of 2008. But then there is also circumspection in one’s tone as to the mode in which he got those wickets. The judgement should be out only when a bowler has consistently taken three or more wickets in an innings and in his case, he has done that no less than 13 times in 23 innings this past year. Add to it the fact that he is miles ahead of any other spinner and this then proves that he has had a decent year.
Five wickets in two tests in Australia showed that he is still some way off to regaining his best form on away tours, but once back home he was back amongst the wickets. He started with five in the first innings against South Africa in Chennai and then took three more in the second. Eight wickets at Kanpur helped India level the series as he ended with 19 wickets for his efforts. He then took four wickets each in his first three innings in Sri Lanka, the last two helping India clinch the Galle test. He took five more in the last test even as India went down 2-1 in the series. His consistent run of from continued against Australia as he snapped another 14 against Australia and then rounded off the year against England with another rich haul of 15 wickets.
Clearly he was there and there about in each of the series that India played in the year. But what should irk him the most is his average where each wicket costs him 31 runs apiece which is not that great for a spinner of his class. Much of it is to blame on the fact that he starts bowling short and quick as soon as he is hit for runs and this is one area he could really improve upon.
3. Mitchell Johnson: 63 wickets in 14 matches as 29 apiece meant that the young left arm fast bowler finally fulfilled his potential and rose to lead the attack in a year that was full of woes for his team. He enjoyed playing against India at home, taking thirteen wickets in three tests as other Australian bowlers struggled alongside. West Indies though proved to be a tougher task as three tests yielded only ten wickets, the pitches having lost much of their juice in recent times.
The next tour to India should also have gone the same way, for rookie fast bowlers don’t have the best of times in the sub-continent. But he proved his detractors wrong and saying that he was his team’s best bowler in the series would be an under-statement. He was actually their only proven wicket taker with clever mix of pace and length as he ended the series with 13 wickets.
Back home against New Zealand, he fine tuned his skills with 14 wickets in two matches, to prepare for the all important home series against South Africa. He took his first five wicket haul of the year at Brisbane in the first test but his summer had just about started. He routed the Proteas in the very first match at Perth taking 8 for 61 but his team still couldn’t muster enough effort to win the match. Ever since losing that test with the visitors chasing 414, he seems to have lost his confidence as the wickets almost dried up.
4. Brett Lee: A lot more was expected of Lee than just 57 wickets in 14 matches, especially since he had been handed the responsibility of leading the attack. But even he would commit that he fell short by the standards that he sets for himself.
He started well against the Indians at Sydney, picking five wickets in the very first innings of the year and continued with his rich vein of form, picking 13 more wickets in the next three tests. He took this form with him to the West Indies where he picked another rich haul of 16 wickets.
But this is when it all dried up for him and his personal life became more important than his actions on the field. Obviously the problems off the pitch were affecting his game as he had a torrid in India. So much so that his captain lost faith in him at times and turned to part time bowlers to deliver the goods. Only seven wickets in the series hurt him and his team immensely as they went down 2-0. He showed signs of a turn around against New Zealand as he picked 12 wickets in two tests but again the South African batting line-up exposed his frailties as he picked just one wicket in two year-ending tests against them.
5. Makhaya Ntini: He played a strong hand along with Dale Steyn in the rise of South Africa in the last twelve months as the duo hunted in pairs. Ntini picked 54 wickets in 15 games to play the complete foil to Steyn’s showing.
He bowled within his limitations, being on slower legs than his younger team mates. He made a conservative start to the year with just six wickets against West Indies and then five against Bangladesh in two tests each. And then in India, while Steyn bowled his heart out, Ntini toiled hard on dry pitches and ended with ten wickets from three matches. His support role in Ahmedabad was especially commendable as both he and Steyn shot the Indians out for less than hundred and scripted a South African win.
This set the tone for the England tour, where Steyn withdrew due to injury. It was then that Ntini took over the mantle of strike bowler again and rocked the English with 14 wickets in the series including a five wicket haul at The Oval, helping his team win a series in England after a long time.
He prepared for the Australia series with 11 wickets at home against Bangladesh and it seemed that the Proteas were taking a very potent attack Down Under. With eight wickets in two tests against Australia, he played second fiddle to Steyn but played a crucial role nevertheless in their series win over the world champions.
TOP 5 ALL-ROUNDERS:
1. Jacques Kallis: although he had a horrible run last year, he still found time enough to be the best all rounder there is. His 665 runs and 29 wickets surely make him a candidate then.
As it seems, he excelled with both the bat and ball, but not both at the same time and this explains the patchy performance. A half century against West Indies was accentuated by a five wicket haul against Bangladesh. His 132 at Ahmedabad still rankles Indian minds as they remember the crushing loss inflicted on the home side. Then the dry spell really started in earnest as he could contribute a highest score of 64 and just ten wickets in a five match test series against England.
The story repeated against Bangladesh at home but then it would have been foolish to go to Australia without a player like him. And this is where he came back into his own as he hit two half centuries in the first two tests to play his part in his team’s historic win.
2. Daniel Vettori: The New Zealand captain stood tall amongst the ruins of his country’s cricket in the year 2008. Thanks to the exodus of players to ICL, the Kiwis have suffered a lot and it has shown in their results over the year as it was clear that the team had taken two steps backward instead of taking one forward.
Nevertheless, Vettori played out his heart as he notched up 672 runs and took 54 wickets in 14 matches to desperately up the ante for New Zealand. He was in great form with the bat as the year began, scoring three half centuries against Bangladesh and England and his bowling began to take shape as the year progressed.
He was instrumental to his team putting up a fight on the tour to England with two more fifties and 12 wickets to his name and when the Kiwis landed in Bangladesh next, he took his bowling to another level. 14 wickets on that trip meant that New Zealand were able to win a hard fought contest as they returned home to face a depleted Australia who had just lost to Bangla-neighbours India. But that series was a total loss for him and his side as Australia began to prepare for the tougher challenges ahead beating them squarely.
3. Andrew Symonds: Symo had a nasty year by all standards. It began with the monkey gate fiasco and it continued to rumble in his mind till the year ended. Naturally then his performances on the field suffered as a result and he was not the same force that Australia had in their middle order, and yes his team missed him sorely.
He began the year in Sydney surviving on umpire errors and went on to make a big ton and followed it up with two more fifties against the Indians. The after effects of the debacle with the Indians wasn’t showing up as yet as he struck three more fifties in the tests against West Indies but then a fishing trip cost him his ticket to India where he missed four tests and his team missed his all round abilities. And he hasn’t been the same player since. He came back against New Zealand and South Africa at home but failed to make any lasting impressions finishing the year with 762 runs and 10 wickets.
4. Stuart Broad: This young English kid knows that he has a legacy to keep up with and he gives his hundred percent every time he is on the field. Though many feel that he is yet to do justice to his talent, given time he ought to improve on the 371 runs and 25 wickets he got last year.
He batted at Lord’s for his highest score of the year against South Africa, 76 runs and followed it up with one more fifty against the same opposition later at Leeds. His best figures of 3 for 44 also came against the South Africans at the Oval against who he played the bulk of his test matches this year.
5. Shakib ul Hasan: In a team ravaged by inconsistency and then the riches of the ICL, this young man provided the brightest spark as he hit 414 runs and took 30 wickets in 8 matches to carry the burden of Bangladesh cricket alone at times.
His best knock of the year was actually his last test innings of the year, 96 against Sri Lanka at Dhaka as Bangladesh attempted to chase an impossible 500 runs plus target. His other good brilliant performance with the bat was while making 71 against the Kiwis at Chittagong earlier in the summer. Prior to that innings he had first rattled them with the ball taking a career best seven wicket haul and then took three more five or more wicket hauls in the year. But his best performance with the ball had to be his 11 wickets against South Africa in hostile conditions.

A good spinner is always a luxurious commodity. A great one is rarer. That is why, a certain Rajinder Goel has the most plausible reason to be as heart-broken as a lady who has lost her first love; having snatched 750 wickets at the domestic level and yet, that opportunity to play for the country at the highest level proving to elusive. He may have consoled himself with the fact that he had suffered the misfortune of been a contemporary to four rare gems in Bishen Singh Bedia, Chandrashekhar, Venkat and Prasanna and hence this end-result. After all, no spinner after the four had ridden high into their respective dusks, could ever capture the imagination of world cricket – let alone India – over such a sustained period of time apart from the sporadic existence of Abdul Qadir. Other than Qadir, the purists world over had begun to worry about the slow death that this great art was besieged by. Till…

…till a certain trio of Anil Kumble, Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralitharan began an almost two-decade long sojourn, which was a recovery path for the spin bowling that left the world of cricket a much richer place to live in. Kumble and Warne have left the scene with more than a lot, while Murali may be scalping and erasing newer records by the buckets, but what they have also done is revived the spin bowling department. They spawned enough interest amongst youngsters to pick up the baton and deliver that finger-lickin’ wizardry that makes the inventions of latest technology like ‘slo-mo’ as thrilling as it is! hanks to the three, the art is, now well alive and kicking his piece features the spinners who took the world by storm in the year 2008, or exhibited enough potential to do so in the years to come.
Ajantha Mendis: A Rich Man’s ‘Tendulkar-the-bowler’:
For those uninitiated, this title needs an explanation or two. When Sachin Tendulkar was a more regular ‘irregular’ bowler, the television broadcasters had a serious problem in defining a suitable caption for him while describing his bowling when he came on to roll his arm over. Ajantha Mendis posed the same riddle to TV guys the world over. And the reason? He, like Tendulkar before him, bowled a variety of deliveries; one that spun back into the batsman, another that left him, a third that endeavoured to leave him but came back, and vice-versa, along with the usual bag of straighter ones, googlies, flippers and the Doosras and the Teesras of the world! Let me assure you, its not as simple as it is writing about it!
The best part about the whole thing was that his consistency over his lines and lengths was almost Glen Mcgrath-like. And this was reflected in his figures for the year, as he ended the year 2008 with an average that was so George Lohmannesque in nature, that everyone had to take notice. Such was the sheer bizarreness of his bowling and the corresponding result – most batsmen would have thrown a white handkerchief in surrender if they had been allowed to – that ‘google’ searches were dominated by keywords like ‘Ajantha Mendis video’!
Unfortunately, Sourav Ganguly and his men hadn’t had the opportunity to play Mendis in a lot more than what he did, otherwise, the results may have been a little different for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
He first made his mark in his debut ODI against the West Indies, where, on an unhelpful pitch he bamboozled Ramnaresh Sarwan enough to have elicited a quiet little snigger from most watching him bat. Sarwan had kept plodding and prodding, waiting in rapt anticipation for a loose delivery, but it never came and Mendis ended with figures of 3/39 off his ten. There was no looking back for him.
The final of the Asia Cup saw India get their first little dose of this wily, ‘you-name-it-I-bowl’ spinner, as he tickled the Indian line-up into surrendering to his magic; Mendis ending with a six wicket haul. But if Team India had thought that they were done with him, they were proved to be wrong as the very vaunted line-up of the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman found the going difficult in the test series in the Island Nation; all thanks to this man.
And that is putting it mildly.
26 wickets at around 17 runs per wicket broke the Indian back to splinters, and had it not been for one crazy inning by Virender Sehwag, it could very well have been a 3-0 whitewash for the Sri Lankans.
These were the only three test matches that he featured in the year, but one would be interested to watch his progress over the next couple of years. Especially against the teams that are not-so-proficient against the slower ones. A delicious battle lies in store ahead!
Amit Mishra: Out of wilderness, into Kumble’s boots
Anil Kumble’s retirement was around the corner for a couple of years now. And the one huge reason why he would have had extended his playing career would have been the absence of a leggie who could, if not replace, at least give a semblance of hope for the future. And after five years of toiling away at the domestic level, Amit Mishra had finally captured his skipper’s imagination enough to return back to the team at the oldest format of the game.
Rather ironically, it was not only at the domestic level, but also his performance in the first season of the Indian Premier League that had changed the direction of the wind in his favour. Playing for the Delhi DareDevils, Mishra featured in only six of the 15 matches that his team played in – surprisingly, one must add – but when he did, it was his hat-trick against Hyderabad that stole the thunder. There was no looking back after that for this orthodox leg-spinner.
However, it had been the season before he was selected for the IPL that would have tilted the scales in his favour, when he had picked 27 wickets in the five matches that he featured in, at a rather measly average of 15 runs per wicket! And all this translated into Mishra getting a nod over the likes of Piyush Chawla and Chetanya Nanda for the home test series against Australia.
There were a few questions asked about his inclusion, so to say, pulled out of the blue, but all of them disappeared when he mixed his leg-spinners – that spun a mile on occasions – with his difficult-to-pick-up googlies and stunned most of the Aussies on his debut. Michael Clarke was dismissed off the last ball of the day off one such delivery that did not spin from around the wicket, as he picked a fifer in his very first inning.
Five tests and 20 wickets later, Mishra seems to have established himself as the number one leg-spinner in the Indian side, and knowing Dhoni’s penchant for continuity, it may just be a difficult task to get him out of the side now!
Jason Krezja: One Match Wonder?:
Shane Warne’s retirement, and Stuart MacGill’s sudden loss of form, confidence and self-belief left the Australians in dire straits this year. But what would have not helped matters was the unwarranted frequency with which they shuffled around with their spinners throughout the year. After MacGill’s full-tosses had been dispatched from the scene, along with the bowler himself, Beau Casson was tried out for a match, but then dropped for no apparent rhyme or reason. Bryce McGain was an injury-free week away from making into the test team after having only recently quit his software job, while the likes of Cameron White got a look-in for four tests in India.
Amongst all this melee, the one bowler who outshone everyone else – and by miles at that – was Jason Krezja, who finally made his debut in the final test match of the series, and captured a mind-boggling tally of 12 wickets against a team that was once a great player of spin bowling as a whole. India.
And then, for reasons known to the selectors only, he was dropped to make way for Nathan Hauritz, after one bad test match against South Africa at, the mother of all spinner-graveyards, the WACA in Perth.
What had stood out in his debut match was his ability to continue flighting and looping the ball amidst the barrage of shots that got played against him by the likes of Virender Sehwag and company. Whether he is able to maintain the same in the year to come is a question-mark, but a huge part of it would be answered only if the selectors decide to groom this very orthodox, but effective spinner.
Samit Patel and Graeme Swann: English Spinners, an oxymoron of sorts!
Till before the advent of Monty Panesar, an English spinner was anybody who had a run-up of less than five steps and delivered the ball at less than 100 km/hr! Such has been the paucity of the tweakers, that this year must rate amongst the best when it comes down to the spin bowlers. Apart from Panesar, the likes of Samit Patel and Graeme Swann made their mark this year, though, it must be said that it had a trifle lesser fan following than what Mendis would have had, and for obvious reasons.
The left-arm slow blower Patel was more of an ODI bowler with his strong hitting down the order to boot, but the real surprise was Swann who had made his debut eight years back and had then disappeared away into wilderness. His return to international cricket happened last year, and based on some of the excellent spells that he bowled against Sri Lanka, he was picked for seven ODIs against the Kiwis. With his ability to flight the ball and extract some turn, he played against India in the shorter version, and then impressed all and sundry with his bowling in the couple of tests he featured in. So much so that there were talks of dropping the more experienced Monty Panesar for the second, Mohali test and retaining Swann, and picking a quick bowler instead.
Shakib Al Hasan: The Surprise Package:
There is no doubting the fact that an year ago, not many would have given a Bangladeshi too much hope of featuring in a list of top play-makers in the spin department. In fact, most would have scoffed at the very suggestion. Shakib Al Hasan seems to have upset many an expectation with his all-round performance during the year. Hasan, the batsman was impressive enough, but it was as a bowler that he captured everyone’s imagination. 30 wickets at an average of less than 26 in tests would read good in anyone’s cricketing dictionary, but when one factors in the fact that he bowled without too much support from the other end and played against all his matches against stronger oppositions like the Kiwis, Proteas and the Lankans, one cannot help but doff one’s hat to him.
His best performance, though, came in a match against the Kiwis, when his seven-wicket haul had the tourists on the mat, before a one-man showing by Hasan’s left-arm spinning counterpart, Daniel Vettori helped them scrape through. He ended with match figures of 9/115, and for posterity ended with a neat half-century.
In the end, Hasan proved to be Bangladesh’s lone knight in a very shining armour; unfortunately, it was never enough to see the team through to a win.

If they do become world number one, then team India will probably remember 2008 as the year when they began their quest for the number one title in the world.
They began the year in Australia, then immediately played South Africa at home. A couple of ODI tournaments including the Asia cup in mid year after which the horrible tour to Sri Lanka happened. Later, they hosted Australia to play the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the second time in ten months, followed by an ODI series whitewash over England. In between there were the two leagues, the Indian Premier League and the Indian Cricket League.
At the turn of the year, Australia were one up in the series, having won the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. The New Year test at Sydney went down in the history books as one of unforgettable ones but for all the wrong reasons. A host of decisions from umpire Steve Bucknor went against the Indians and at the end of the game, they were left questioning the spirit with which the Aussies played the match. Grounded catches were claimed on more than one occasion and it all got out of hand as Andrew Symonds alleged that Harbhajan Singh had racially abused him.
The tour was in danger of being called off as Harbhajan Singh was banned by match referee Mike Proctor, but further investigations meant that the off spinner was let off and the tour continued. However stung by the happenings off the field, the Indian team brought about a stunning all round display at Perth, beating Australia by 72 runs; this was the home team’s first loss at this ground in more than a decade. The next Test saw them lagging behind Australia once more, only a Virender Sehwag ton, his first in more than fifteen months helped India draw the match, the result meaning the series had been surrendered 2-1.
MS Dhoni took over from Anil Kumble for the CB Series, which also featured Sri Lanka. The team played both Australia and Sri Lanka in four matches each in the league phase. While they beat Australia only once in four games, they won twice against their sub-continental neighbours; thus qualifying for the best of three finals. In the first match, chasing Australia’s 239 for 8, India rode on a Sachin Tendulkar century to win by six wickets. And the third match wasn’t needed as they won the second final as well. Tendulkar was once again the architect of the win, scoring 91 as India put on 258 in their fifty overs to beat the ODI world champions by nine runs in the end.
Surprisingly, Australia had reversed the tables on India in the lone T20 match before the CB Series, where they beat the T20 world champions by a huge nine wickets margin.
Immediately after the Australian tour, South Africa visited India for a three Test series and this was going to be a hard fought series, for the visitors were going unbeaten for six Test series on the run. And so it turned out that in the first match at Chennai, South Africa piled up 540 runs and the hosts were on the backfoot ever since. However, they were shown the light of the day by a second triple ton from Virender Sehwag who scored at an astonishing rate to get India in with a chance to get something out of the match. His 319 is only the second ever triple century by an Indian Test batsman, his very own 309 against Pakistan in 2004 being the first. Coupled with Rahul Dravid’s 111, India reached 627 in reply and were able to exert pressure on South Africa, who had Neil Mckenzie and his unbeaten 155 to thank for the draw.
The second Test saw a green top at Ahmedabad and like always the Indian batting just wilted under the sight of the same. Sachin Tendulkar pulled his hamstring and went missing for the last two tests as India crashed to 76 all out. The Proteas then scored nearly five hundred runs in their first try, thus winning the test by an innings and 90 runs to go one up in the series.
The third Test in Nagpur saw a dustbowl laid out for India to get even in the series and so they did. MS Dhoni led India for the first time in Test cricket as Anil Kumble missed out due to injury. Riding on 87 runs by Sourav Ganguly in the first innings, India registered a 60 run lead which helped them beat South Africa by 8 wickets and gain a 1-1 drawn series.
The Indian Premier League then took centre stage as the new tournament based on the T20 format enthralled one and all. The eight city based franchises did battle over the course of a month across the Indian subcontinent as they played for both cash and a diamond crusted gold trophy.
The tournament got off to a roaring start in Bangalore, as Brendon McCullum murdered the Royal Challengers bowling to score the highest individual T20 score in the world and leading his team Kolkata Knight Riders to a massive 140 run victory. The Knight Riders led by Sourav Ganguly however lost steam in the middle stages of the tournament and failed to make the cut for the semis, even after this gem of a start.
Accompanying them were Mumbai Indians who missed their captain Sachin Tendulkar for a major part of the tournament due to his enduring hamstring problems and the Bangalore Royal Challengers, led by Rahul Dravid were labeled a Test team in T20 attire, as they failed to get going after the mauling, literally and figuratively, in the first match.
The biggest disappointments of the tournament were, however, the Hyderabad based Deccan Chargers who had an assortment of the best players T20 cricket could offer. Andrew Symmonds, Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Scott Styris, VVS Laxman and Chaminda Vaas, all in the most expensive team of the IPL, yet they ended up losing twelve of their fourteen league matches to end up last in the league. Yet another dark spot on an otherwise brilliantly staged tournament came up when Harbhajan Singh allegedly slapped S. Sreesanth after an altercation following their match in Mohali as a result of which the young spinner was banned for ten matches of the IPL.
The Delhi DareDevils led by Virender Sehwag and Mohali based Kings XI Punjab led by Yuvraj Singh were the losing semifinalists. In the final, MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings lost to Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals, in a pulsating final. It was indeed a sight to see Australian, Indian, South African, Sri Lankan and Pakistan players in the same team, fighting for the same cause and then celebrating as well as commiserating at the same time.
The Indian team began the 2008-09 season with a couple of ODI tournaments. First the Kitply cup in Bangladesh where they began with an easy win over the hosts in the first game and then an immense victory over Pakistan, who were on a twelve match unbeaten run. But all this came to naught as India lost to their arch rivals in the final.
The sub-continent’s cricketing nations then descended on Pakistan to play yet another edition of the Asia cup. After wins over minnows Hong Kong and Pakistan in Group B, India made it to the Super Four stage. Here, they easily beat Bangladesh yet again but against Pakistan, they couldn’t quite repeat the performance of the group stage, losing by eight wickets. Yet, with a win over a weakened Sri Lankan team in their next match, they were still able to make the finals of the Asia Cup at the expense of the hosts. However, in the finals they succumbed to the guile of Ajantha Mendis who took six wickets to help Sri Lanka successfully defend their trophy.
India against Sri Lanka was to go on for a bit longer as the team arrived in the Emerald Isles for a Test and ODI series tour. Here they faced the double spin threat of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, and the famed Indian batting line up were rolled over like nine pins. Mendis took 26 wickets in the three Test series, which is a world record for a Test debutant, and with Murali scalping another 21, India lost the rubber 2-1 as only their openers, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag had a memorable series.
They went down in the first game by a massive innings and 239 runs but staged a comeback in the second Test thanks to some gritty batting by the openers and some equally good bowling by pacemen Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan, winning by 170 runs. But a repeat in the last match proved too much with the middle order continuously not firing, and they lost the third Test by 8 wickets. The only consolation came in the ODI series where a change-in-guard under skipper Dhoni meant that the young Turks of Indian cricket were able to pull a rabbit out of the hat as they flayed Sri Lanka 4-1.
Australia arrived in India in October to play the Border Gavaskar Series for a second time in ten months. But there were many off field issues surrounding the Tests. The pressure had increased on the India’s ageing stars after the debacle in Sri Lanka and Sourav Ganguly duly announced that the series against Australia would be his last series indeed, in the wake of being kept out of Rest of India team for the Irani Trophy tie. The first Test at Bangalore was drawn. Ricky Ponting hit his 36th test ton laying to rest his dismal record in India but let the advantage slip as first Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh revived the first innings and then Sachin Tendulkar batted five hours in the second to save the game for India.
In the second Test at Mohali, Sourav Ganguly hit his 16th test century in his farewell series and Sachin Tendulkar crossed 12000 test runs enroute to 88 in the first innings as India scored 469 and 314 in their two innings. They eventually beat Australia by 320 runs as debutant leg spinner Amit Mishra, playing in place of the injured Anil Kumble, took seven wickets.
The third Test in Delhi was drawn inspite of double centuries from Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman as India piled up continued to pile on the runs against a clueless Aussie attack. But a flat pitch meant that the visitors were able to crawl back into the match which will forever be known as the game where Anil Kumble took an abrupt retirement from international cricket, his decision influenced by a hand injury which needed eleven stitches.
MS Dhoni led India in the final match at Nagpur as full time captain and recorded his third win in three matches as skipper. Sachin Tendulkar’s 40th Test ton set the stage for an Indian win as Ganguly was out fifteen runs short of a century in his last Test. He then went on to score a duck in the second innings which was also his last innings in international cricket. Meanwhile, offie Jason Krezja made a dream debut in this match for Australia as he snapped twelve wickets in the match, including a first innings 8 for 215 but it couldn’t prevent an Australian loss by 172 runs, the series surrendered 2-0.
England were the next victims of a high flying Indian team as they were white washed 5-0 in the ODI series beginning immediately after the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Yuvraj Singh hit back-to-back blistering centuries in the first two matches and also took a handful of wickets as England surrendered an early lead. In doing so, the south paw laid claim to the spot made vacant by Ganguly in the Test team’s middle order. Ever since then, England were playing catch up as first the Duckworth-Lewis system and then rain plus a host of factors such as bad light lost them three more matches. The last two matches of the seven match series were called off as the English team went home after the Mumbai attacks, but returned to play the test series.
Andrew Strauss hit two centuries in two innings to give England the upper hand in the first Test at Chennai, but they were poor in the last two sessions of the fourth day when India came from behind and wrested the initiative from them. Sehwag scored a tremendous half century to set up the Indian win and then Sachin Tendulkar steered the Indian home with his 41st test ton to take a 1-0 series lead, Yuvraj Singh keeping him company till the end with a gutsy half century.
The second Test at Mohali was always headed for a draw due to the mornings’ foggy conditions in North Indian winters but if any one came out with a win from this match, then it was Rahul Dravid. The Wall had been facing a lot of flak off late for his poor run of scores and this was going to be a last chance for him. But he didn’t disappoint as in the company of Gambhir, he ground the English attack into the ground. He was out for a duck in the second innings though, even as Gambhir missed his second ton of the match by just a whisker. Kevin Pieterson provided the pyrotechnics in the match as he smashed an entertaining ton when England batted.
Last but not the least, there was also the Indian Cricket League, which played out two seasons in the same year, one in February-March and the other in October-November. The Hyderabad Heroes beat the Lahore Badshahs in the best-of-three finals in the T20s challenge, before ICL India upset both ICL Pakistan and ICL World to lift the ICL World T20 trophy.
The second season saw a new team Dhaka Warriors added to their lists. The Lahore Badshahs and Hyderabad Heroes met in the finals once again, but this time Imran Nazir’s brilliant century in the second final sealed the win for the Lahore team. The ICL World series was called off midway because of the Mumbai attacks as an eventful 2008 came to an end for Indian cricket.

Dhoni is supposed to be very happy with his team’s winning streath as on thursday he conquered the record of ninth consecuitive victory. But it seems that it has not ended his winning spirit as he is waiting for fifth and last match of the ongoing series.

India’s one step ahead of becoming the no. 1 team : It smashed down Sril Lankans

THE FEW thousand in the stands was perhaps the lowest turnout Sri Lanka has seen since the teams World Cup triumph. The two most obvious reasons were that the match was inconsequential and fans were tired of seeing their team getting drubbed. They were again on Thursday but what the crowds missed, however, was Muttiah Muralitharan becoming the highest wicket-taker in ODIs and a brilliant 150 by Gautam Gambhir.
Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan began the 333-run chase with flamboyance. But losing wickets regularly ensured the asking rate kept getting beyond the hosts. The 21-minute stoppage when Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the team out following another stone-throwing incident at Pragyan Ojha was enough to mess up the batsmen’s concentration and with Kumar Sangakkara caught at long-off Sri Lanka’s receding hopes faded into a record-breaking ninth consecutive win for India.
Dhoni kept calling light at the toss and India utilised the conditions at the Premadasa to the hilt. Ruthless hitting by Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag had set up the series win on Tuesday. On Thursday, it was the turn of Gambhir and Dhoni, albeit in con-trasting styles. Superb running between the wickets was the hallmark of their 188-run stand. Sri Lanka’s patchy fielding oitf y iivflat-ed the partnership.
Things had started creeping out of Mahela Jayawardene’s hands as both punished every loose ball. Getting to 50 with a six over long-on and reaching three figures with a lofted shot to the extra-cover fence, Gambhir showcased his full assortment of shots. He did slow down approaching his century but after crossing it dissected the field in all possible angles to get to a career-best 150 off 147 balls. Fittingly, his wicket was the record-breaking one by Muralitharan in his final over. A forgettable series for the Sri Lankan made memorable.
The India skipper’s walking in at No 3 did come as a surprise, but the blistering 183 at Jaipur against the same opponents four years back connected immediately. Sri Lanka’s decision to ‘rest’ Ajantha Mendis and play allrounder Angelo Mathews, who bowls medium-pace, was justified by the extra bounce and movement the new ball offered on this strip.
India rested Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan and brought in Rohit Sharma and Irfan Pathan. So once Sehwag was dismissed in the third over, Dhoni must have promoted himself to keep the left and right hand combination going.
Gambhir took the initiative initially but once the ball stopped moving around, the skipper took charge. Dhoni brought up his SO with a six straight back over Muralitharan’s head. Dhoni was dismissed more out of fatigue than the quality of the delivery which he top edged for a clumsy looking one-handed catch at short third-man.