Just Cricket

Game 6 of the 2017 season for the in-form Falcons was as simple as it could get, as the Falcons wrapped up another victory making it 6 wins in 6 games for the season. With 15 overs to spare and the Tuscon Cricket Club, 175 runs behind their target of 302, if one thought the high of the season was already attained, new members from the squad came to the fore finding form and familiarity in their new roles to top it off on a cold and windy afternoon at Mansfield park. Ending 2017 on a high (From R to L: H. Shahriyar, R. Mehta, M. Rohit, Dixit, J. Patel, Y. Sharma, H. Mistry, M. Manikarnike (squatting), C. Dekhne, A. Tummala, Siva) The Falcons won the toss on a cold morning, elected to bat first. C. Dekhne walked in to open with a new face on the other end, H. Shahriyar. The innings started off with W. Papria keeping a tight hold from one end, while M. Lateefuddin leaked runs at a brisk pace helping the Falcons' openers maintain a moderate run rate until C. Dekhne fell aga...

The Falcons brought a lot of interest to  Game 15 of the Arizona Cricket Association 2017  season  on November 12, 2017  by losing wickets in a heap, leaving the lower order batsmen and tail-enders to take them over the line as the daylight seemed very minuscule  for the last few overs of the game. The game started off on a partly cloudy day at the Chapparal Elementary. The Falcons coming in to their fourth game of the season with victories in all of their past three games, winning by 176 runs, 116 runs and 244 runs respectively. The Titans would have been determined to get a win under their belt, given the fate that they met in just their previous game against the Falcons when the game slipped from their hands with a few bad umpiring decisions going against them.  The Falcons started off with leaking a few boundaries in the first few overs. But, the control was immediately arrested when opening bowler, Abhishiktha Tummala, picked up wickets of th...

Here’s a thought. There has been a gap of 95 days since the last test was played on March 5, 2014. Although this is a sign of what people want to see and what the administrators want to provide the world, it is important for test cricket to survive and most people who follow cricket would think that. That is something that is obvious and is not going to be the subject matter of this post. What is probably important and has escaped the eyes of cricketers, cricket enthusiasts and administrators is having a mechanism where all formats co-exist, different cricket enthusiasts get to see the formats that they want to and the shortest form of the game being the most popular format is played for the longest duration in a year. Cricket, for years has tried to emulate football to attract more viewership and has always failed. Maybe, it’s time to think differently and accept the fact that it’ll never be as big as football. Accepting that doesn’t necessarily mean that cricket isn’t doing wel...

It has been a good fortnight of cricket. Scintillating test cricket in the northern hemisphere, display of authority from a top class side in the south. For about three days in what one could call the Valentine's day Test, Pakistan looked like they had the upper hand, courtesy the partnership between Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq. It was very uncharacteristic of Pakistan to show such grit and determination, putting up such a big partnership after having been 33-4 on the first morning. Pakistan further dominated with the ball showing signs of making a strong comeback in the series. South Africa were still a worrisome 174 behind Pakistan when Peterson walked in with just four wickets in hand. But, there is just something about top sides as South Africa are currently, that they are always there or thereabouts even when the opposition is on top, waiting to seize on any opportunity presented and that's what they did, not just in this test in Cape Town, but in Adelaide last year as w...

India have finished their so called revenge series against England today. From the moment the Test series ended in the lifeless fashion that it did in Nagpur, India have won and lost five Limited overs International matches in the space of a month. Even though the numbers don't show much, there have been quite a few positives for India in the month that has gone by. For starters, India have found decent enough pace bowling replacements for Umesh Yadav and Zaheer Khan, Ashwin has been bowling slower through the air, getting more purchase off the pitch. Ishant Sharma too has hit a purple patch getting his consistency in line and length, the only question being whether he can keep it going till the Tests against Australia. The biggest positive of all has been that Ravindra Jadeja has sort of established himself as a decent enough bowler to bowl 10 overs in a One Day International Innings.  The batting however remains a worry with Dhoni and Raina, the only 2 batsmen who have impre...

There was this thought that came to my mind while watching the first T20 International between India and England last week. The face of the English T20 squad had changed completely, whereas India were still fielding a fair amount of players who had played in the Tests. Some numbers would give one a fair idea of how the Indian and English squads compared. The Englishmen had retained just the one player, Tim Bresnan to play in the first T20 whereas India had retained six, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Piyush Chawla. This brings us to the point that has been made a million times by thousands of cricket experts all over the world since the advent of T20 cricket and the IPL thereafter. The point being there has been too much cricket and players run out of steam at one point. The length of the IPL and the ICC's Future Tours Program have been questioned in this regard which is fair to a certain extent. But, there are teams wh...

I was really looking forward to watching a test match at the Eden Gardens. The first look at the Eden Gardens doesn’t really give you the feeling that it’s huge. It looks very new though, with it being renovated very recently. The arrangements for the match looked very much in order at the outset. Things were about to change very fast. The Cricket Association of Bengal and Kyazoonga do not have the courtesy to inform people that the tickets that they have bought are no longer available because of a mistake that they had committed. It’s just ridiculous how people get treated here in India.      The hour long queue I stood in How would anyone want to watch a match at the ground with such treatment from the management!! Clearly no one cares about it and writing more about it wouldn’t solve any problem. But, I still would just want to put my experience out there so that people know. There was just one queue to pick-up tickets booked online an...