Cricket trivia

Was kinda jobless when I got enthu to do some queries on Statsguru at Cricinfo and I have come up with the following interesting facts -
1. How many of VVS Laxman's 48 test match scores of 50 or above (35 fifties and 13 hundreds) as on 30th Oct 2008 contain a sixer?
None! His highest score that contains a six is 44
2. Sticking to VVS - How many of his top 4 scores in Test cricket have come against Australia?
All four! and 5 of his top 6 scores are also against the Aussies.
3. From 2001, How many boxing day test match hundreds has Mathew Hayden scored?
Six! The only year he missed out was 2004, when his top score in the test against Pak was 56. He averages 102.4 in the MCG from 2001.
4. Hayden has scored 17 of his 30 hundreds to date in just 4 grounds.
MCG - 6, SCG, Gabba - 4, Adelaide - 3. This I consider as quite staggering. And in Australian venues - he has 100s in all venues but Darwin.
5. A strange coincidence is that Ponting too has scored 17 of his 36 test hundreds in the same 4 grounds :P (Adelaide, SCG - 5, Gabba - 4, MCG - 3). No wonder they are so strong at home.
6. Sticking to Ponting - 24 of his 36 hundreds have been scored in 4 calendar years (year wise split 2002-5, 2003-6, 2005-6, 2006-7). Quite amazing runs of form in those years.
7. When a similar analyis was performed for Hayden, it was found that he too has scored 21 of his 30 hundreds in 4 calendar years. But what is really striking is the fact that, Hayden and Ponting together have scored 11 hundreds in each of 2002, 2003, 2005 (2002 - Hayden 6, Ponting 5; 2003 - Hayden 5, Ponting 6; 2005 - Hayden 5, Ponting 6). This was and still is truly a pair of devastating batsmen, much like McGrath and Warne.

Will post more as I find interesting stuff...

"Bad"-ting woes

Looks like my batting skills (if ever I had them) are on the run downhill...
0(1) - caught at cover thanks to a woeful miscue .
1(4) - bowled attempting a swipe across the line.
5(7) - caught behind in what is my only regret-less dismissal.

These have been my returns in my last 3 innings in tennis ball cricket. Whatever happened to the run machine that I was a few years back. Hmmmm....

Random thoughts

1. I had blogged 4 years back about Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's achievements (It was a young Harish blogging his opinions away then. Can't imagine such an entry now). I really don't use the blog for covering my opinions on current affairs anymore, but still, PRIDE ARE THERE in Bindra's achievements. For posterity's sake here goes a tribute to Abhinav Bindra for his awesome achievement.
2. Atthini Chitthini (Tenali) is a great song. Completely out of the world and unique. The guitars in the start rock. Memories of those times where Girish and me used to listen to it came back. Good stuff.
3. Super singer on Vijay TV Monday- Wednesday evenings 9 pm - Watch it. Great timepass and some seriously good songs get thrown back into my consciousness.
4. Jaane Tu - is good fun, but one should watch it with the right company to enjoy it better :), as the rest of the crowd in INox demonstrated.
5. Badrinath is in the Indian team. Finally. Good luck to him.

List of movies to watch - Poi Solla Porom (Khosla ka Ghosla's remake which incidentally will also do just fine, I haven't watched it either), Aamir, Azhagiya Theeye, VaaraNam Aayiram.

IPL Trends - Part 2 of 2

Here are the observations on the other four teams, as a continuation to the previous post.
Kolkata -

• On the face of it, Kolkata's strategy in the auction seems to mirror that of Hyderabad with the focus on entertainers and explosive batsmen. However, Kolkata's focus on marketability of the players is also obvious - Ponting, Ganguly, Ishant, Shoaib, Gayle, Agarkar - and I guess it is to do with Shahrukh's persona and intent that these guys ended up being taken for high prices by Kolkata.
• In terms of Chemistry - Kolkata seems to have made a few blatant errors, Ganguly's equation with Murali Kartik or the lack of it is a known fact, Shoaib is not really the team man Ganguly would have looked for, and Ponting is not really the guy Ganguly will be most comfortable leading. It was a joke seeing Ponting set Kartik's field when he came in to bowl as late as the 11th over in Chennai.
• Unless Ganguly leads by example and focuses on the team spirit, culture etc. this might end up being a gallery of stars who underachieve as a collective unit. I dont think marketability alone will guarantee financial feasibility in the long run. It however helps that Kolkata as a franchise could break even the earliest given the 120000 capacity of Eden Gardens, and that the fans are known to be the most partisan in India.

Mumbai -

• Another team that played it strange in the auction. However judgemental it sounds, the choice of overseas and Indian players seem to be governed by their compatibility with Sachin, given that Sachin is not the most authoritative captain in the fray. The focus seemed to be on getting "team-men" when it came to recruiting senior foreign players (Jayasuriya, Pollock, Bravo). Bombay was one of the few teams (Mohali being the other) that invested in young, relatively unknown foreign talent. Clearly, the team wants to build a strong case for the second or third edition, rather than go all out in the first year. Sachin has to do a Warne and groom this team with inputs from Jayasuriya and Pollock - and given the youth in hand, one might see Bombay improving with every match and they might be a team to look out for in the seasons to come. It would be interesting to see if there is a distinct culture and team spirit being developed gradually.

Mohali -

• The team whose strategy is not clear to me. Yuvraj is not exactly captaincy material, and the team is not built for him or anything like that. They seem to have recruited glamourous, marketable guys in the first auction (Lee, Sangakkara, Sreesanth) but have recruited young international stars who provide utility for low prices in the second auction (Marsh, Pomersbach, Hopes, Katich (I am not sure which auction he came in)) - these choices seem to be governed by Tom Moody's presence at the helm. Overall, the team seems to be balanced with strong local bowlers (Chawla, VRV Singh, Pathan, Powar) and promising local batsmen (Karan Goel, Srivastava). It would be interesting to track this team's progress.

Chennai - (I know Girish is eagerly waiting for this one, here we go...)

• Chennai's buys in the auction seem to mirror final selections into IIM. Guys who have made it are those who would have been in the shortlist of atleast 4 other teams. (Parthiv Patel, Raina, Oram, Hayden, Hussey, Dhoni, Fleming to name a few.). Chennai seems to have bought solid candidates who are "fail-safe". The better part of their strategy is that they have also invested in a few other cricketers of GOOD potential and utility (Badrinath, Morkel) and a lot of local young exciting talent. Chennai has to play as Dhoni's unit and as long as Dhoni is able to lead the team from the front and foster good spirit and unity, Chennai should be a strong contender. I see a couple of bowling chinks being ironed out when the transfer window opens, and a fresh investment in a few bankable stars and a couple of new faces.

That's it from me guys...

IPL Team trends - Part 1 of 2

I have restrained myself from blogging about cricket primarily because Cricket opinions are all over the place, and I do not really want my blog to be a "What do you think will happen in the match today?" or "Should Sachin play today?" kind of place. Having said that, I still post this IPL entry - after some of what I discussed with Ganesh the other day seemed too interesting to not talk about.
We were having a discussion on emerging trends with respect to each team and also on whether the auction - the way it panned out for each team was random or were there any patterns to the auction. I am now partly convinced that each team had clear motives to pick the kind of players they ended up buying and that these choices will hopefully pave the way for some very different team cultures and reputations as IPL reaches its second or third seasons. I hereby present our observations on each team -
Bangalore -

• All the world has been critical of its penchant for taking test match players - what it does hide is that Rahul Dravid could have looked for players with proven CVs. Such players could turn out to be reliable bets who would eventually groom the young brigade in Bangalore while also performing well in crunch situations.
• Picture this - while Chanderpaul, Kallis, Misbah, Dravid and Jaffer are not really big hitters - I am sure they will be the kind of guys (if you add Boucher to it) any captain would look for in big games.
• I see them as enablers of a young brigade, and I see Bangalore having a great team spirit and in the years to come - the team that is the Italy of Football - strategy kings.

Hyderabad -

• Flair, entertainment, explosive power, crowd pulling - these seem to be the buzzwords. Deccan Chronicle seems to have gone into an overdrive to pick the players that would serve as great ambassadors to drive its sales and branding. As a team - I still see it packing enough punches (Gibbs, Symonds, Gilchrist, Afridi) to do well. Thankfully - they have invested enough in good local players, but again they seem to go by entertainment value and buzz - Rohit Sharma and RP Singh are hot picks in any list. They could well turn out to be the Real Madrid of the IPL if they keep performing and keep the cash registers ringing.

Delhi -

• The team that I think has invested the smartest. There are enough patterns to conclude that this team wants to be the choker of opposition with its solidity. McGrath, Asif, Sangwan, Maharoof, YoMahesh, Amit Mishra is a solid and varied bowling attack and it is the team rich in its fundamentals. They have interestingly picked a solid batting line up with a lot of good local talent. This team wont suffer much from attrition and has a GOOD selling proposition in terms of attracting crowds (Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhawan, Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas are all Delhi ranji players). It did help that Delhi are the Ranji champions though. I see this team as being a ManU of cricket with enough all round ability, solidity and pedigree to serve as a bastion of solidity and flair in the future. GMR seems to play cricket like its construction business - a strong focus on solidity and foundations.

Jaipur -

• Shane Warne's team - He clearly wants to build this team as the quintessential unit. The team is full of young talent who are raring to go. The captain calls all the shots, even the international players are not the kinds who will do their own thing. They all seem to chip in as per the captain's mandate. I see Gerrard in Warne and a lot of Liverpool in Jaipur. The conservative spending seems to be strategic given that Jaipur is not going to generate revenue to the same scale as say a Kolkata or a Chennai. And they have clearly chosen to invest in bright young stars (Taruwar Kohli, Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan, Pankaj Singh) and enable these guys to literally grow with the team. This is a team very close to my heart. My best wishes to Warnie and I sincerely hope his inspiration, tact and vision serve his team well in the years to come. Emerging Media seems to be a fine name for the company that has backed this team.

Part 2 coming next.

Please feel free to voice your views on the same.

Twenty20 Rare Event

This has to be a once in an eternity thing.
My country India is World T20 Champion
My state Tamil Nadu is Indian First Class T20 Champion
My city Chennai's team "Chennai Superstars" has won the ICL T20 Championships
My current place of work Victoria has just won the "KFC T20 Bash" (The Aussie first class T20 Championship)