fantastic piece in cricinfo by mukul kesavan

by MaxEntropy_Man Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:12 pm

absolute clarity.

gownder finds some inconsequential news about harbhajan missing the ranji season, but misses this hard hitting piece by kesavan!

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:04 pm

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:absolute clarity.

gownder finds some inconsequential news about harbhajan missing the ranji season, but misses this hard hitting piece by kesavan!

Harbhajan is very likely dropped from the state team for his 3 wickets from 2 matches, and the injury excuse (it is after the fact) is just a way out for him to retire from everything.

by doofus_maximus Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:20 pm

Good article. Thanks for posting Max. But the fans are not going to relent and put SRT in undue pressure.

Hope they do well in Australia. Bowling looks suspect and with GG/Shewag not clicking yet against Windies it is once again on the big three to do well.

I feel Ojha will play all tests with Ashwin sitting out or he may play the SCG test.

by MaxEntropy_Man Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:44 pm

the point MK was trying to make was that equating a test hundred to an ODI hundred is ridiculous (as if the two are equal) and creating a meaningless category called an international hundred is laughable. but what's even more laughable is tendulkar taking that category seriously!

don't know why you think ojha should play and ashwin should sit out. ashwin was the highest wkt taker in the recently concluded series against the windies and can score some useful runs at the bottom if the top order fails to fire. i'd pick him over ojha and i'd play both of them at the SCG.

by Another Brick Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:20 am

this is a good piece but i don't agree with the last part. SRT has not drunk that KoolAid at all! if he wanted to score that 100, he could have played meaningless ODIs against WI (and some against ENG at home with the minor toe injury) to get to it. he did not. i am certain he does not care about this "landmark". if he scores one in AUS, let's watch how he celebrates. it is not going to be any different than the last 51 times.

by Another Brick Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:29 am

also, MK makes a serious mistake of comparing batsmen with bowlers. remember, batsman can commit only one mistake. bowlers can commit as many as them and keep coming back. bowlers have a lot of assistance from the 10 other people surrounding the batsman for his stats, whereas batsman has to score his runs on his own (relying on the non-striker to run, but that's it). it is is foolish to compare batsmen with bowlers. and MK has a pointless argument about catches. the person who is making fun of stats (rightly so) brings out the most meaningless statistics in cricket - number of catches. like that matters. so, a fielder who stands on the boundary can never have a claim to greatness because he is likely to take only a dozen catches in tests in his career. ridiculous.

moreover, he is devaluing ODIs hundreds a lot. it may not be as difficult as scoring a hundred in tests, but it is not a child's play. you have to play fast and take more risks. you don't have 5 days to score there. but agreed that SRT has a distinct advantage of being an opener in ODIs. and in ODIs at least, he has left his peers far behind.

but the gist of the article - meaningless number of 100th - hits home.

by doofus_maximus Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:13 pm

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:the point MK was trying to make was that equating a test hundred to an ODI hundred is ridiculous (as if the two are equal) and creating a meaningless category called an international hundred is laughable. but what's even more laughable is tendulkar taking that category seriously!

don't know why you think ojha should play and ashwin should sit out. ashwin was the highest wkt taker in the recently concluded series against the windies and can score some useful runs at the bottom if the top order fails to fire. i'd pick him over ojha and i'd play both of them at the SCG.

I feel Ojha is a better spinner. Ashwin's wickets in the recently concluded series were mostly tailenders after Ojha had made initial inroads into the Windies line up. I feel Ashwin's stock strike balls (doosra, carrom ball) won't work in Australia. Maybe in Sydney or Gabba but not elsewhere. But like Kumble he can prise them out. Selectors have an interesting choice to make.

by MaxEntropy_Man Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:59 pm

i went to cricinfo and counted the number of wickets of batsmen batting at positions less than or equal to baugh the wkt keeper, that ashwin and ojha had snared in the prior three matches. ashwin -14, ojha - 15. what is true is that ojha's wkts came in bunches whereas ashwin's are spread out through an innings. there isn't much to choose between them in terms of bowling if the measure is top order wkts in the most recent series, and ashwin's runs tip the scale in his favor.

so we are really down to "i feel ojha spins the ball more" and "i feel he will be uneffective in oz" type arguments. from what we saw of him with the exception of the brain fart he suffered in bombay at the very end of the match, one got the sense that he is a smart cricketer with a shrewd brain. if we are going to play one spinner, my choice is ashwin.

edited to add: there is one other argument i'd like to add to this mix. making a guy who's just had a fantastic debut series, and won the player of the tournament award in addition to becoming only the third indian cricketer to score a ton and get a 5-fer in the same innings, sit matches out is bizarre not to mention unfair.

by doofus_maximus Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:12 pm

I counted 15 for Ojha and 13 for Ashwin. Not to nitpick. It is just a feel I have that a left arm spinner would be more effective than an off spinner.

If both are selected then well and good as they have a good head on their shoulders and seem to enjoy each others' success. Hope they hunt in pair for a long time to come. That would be wonderful.

by MaxEntropy_Man Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:20 pm

that depends on the balance of lefties versus righties in the opposition. and oz has four southpaws between positions 1-7 right now.

by doofus_maximus Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:29 pm

I am worried about only Clarke, Hussey and Ponting. Rest are all bunnies. I saw Khawaja struggle against Tahir and get out. Haddin, Watson and others can be sorted out. Clarke played very well against Vettori in the recent test match. Hussey looks out of form and Ponting is still scratching around for his 50s with many lives.

With ZK,IS,PO and RA India can seriously do some damage to this line up. I hope Yadav gets a chance to play the Perth test even though Perth pitch isn't what it used to be.

by Another Brick Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:19 am

i am not reading too much into the performance of IND in the conclude series. it is not too difficult to trick WI batsmen on the turning tracks (or any track for that matter). moreover, it is almost a tradition in IND that when a player performs well in the debut match or the series, he fizzles out right after. pravin amre, narendra hirwani, suresh raina, harbhajan singh, rp singh come to mind. one only hopes that ashwin is not in the same category. what i like about ashwin is his nerve and cool head. even when he was playing his first test, his demeanor was that of a veteran. a cool head is as important as skills. let's see how he bowls to clarke, the best player of spin in the AUS lineup.

by doofus_maximus Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:37 pm

I take everything back. Pattinson is going to fuck us up.

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