Ashes 2nd Test Day 1 - The Edgbaston gang-bang

"I've been letting my side of the bargain down for a while now, haven't I, so it was nice to spend some time with him in the middle. If we bat together, I think we're going to score quickly. He's in fine form, and hopefully I'm coming into some myself."
-Andrew Flintoff

If God writes a script for the perfect start to a Test Match, then Lords would have been his trial production and Edgbaston would be his finished product. In keeping with the nature of this series, the opening day produced some of the most bizzarely thrilling moments seen in a test match since another day in Calcutta in 2001 when VVS Laxman weaved his magic. And somehow the Aussies seem to bring this quality out of opponents; the need to do the extraordinary to get on top. 407 scorching runs were scored in 79.4 overs and 10 wickets fell. And it wasn’t so much the run rate, which was an equally unbelievable 5.13, but the way they were scored, inclusive of 55 fours and 10 sixes. And it’s a tribute to this Aussie team that at the end of the day, most pundits believe that they have the edge going into the second day.

The day started bizzarely enough when Glenn Mcgrath was ruled out of the match having twisted his ankle after stepping on a cricket ball and then Ponting misread the pitch and invited England to have a bat. The decision probably came looking at the history of the ground where only twice before had a team batted first and won. Steven Rouse, the curator, was wary about the pitch but obviously the batsmen thought nothing of it as they battered Gillespie, Lee, Kasprowicz and Warne around the park. None of the batsmen, stung by some of the criticism heaped on them after Lords, took a backward step against this attack. Obviously they were blessed by the absence of Mcgrath, against whom this tactic might have backfired. But they also discovered the caveat with this approach when a day they could have ended at about 360/4 with some measured batting at the later stages, ended up at 407 all out. Flintoff and Pieterson produced the most breathtaking passage of play before tea, when they put on 103 runs in 17.3 overs. Flintoff was especially brutal on Brett Lee hooking him for three sixes, all of ‘em with his eyes closed, and conjured visions of doing another Botham. But it wasn’t to be and his knock reflected the England innings at the end of the day; short, but boy was it sweet.

The Aussies were given a painful glimpse into the future with life without Mcgrath and Warne. If not for Warne, the score might have been higher putting huge question marks on the rest of the bowling. Gillespie looked a lot better with a little extra responsibility and Kasprowicz was steady despite the madness around him. But Lee needs a lesson in defensive bowling, especially when he is losing the battle against a batsman. England should be disappointed at not batting enough when they had the Aussies on the run. And they need to pray for a huge cloud cover tomorrow for Hoggy, Harmy and co., as there is the very real danger of seeing Hayden or Gilchrist blast back to form on this pitch. And looking at the corker Strauss got, Warney might easily get his 600 in this match. Final shot...

"Yeah, it was a pretty amazing day all round," he admitted. "I turned up expecting to have plenty of coffee and tea, and cake - and end up playing in a Test match."
-Michael Kasprowicz

TMS quote of the day:

Selvey: “Hoggard’s last four innings have produced 0, 1 and that pair at Lords”
Maxwell: “Well, he’s due for a big one isn’t he?”
-as Hoggard prepared to take strike for his first ball

Indian Oil Cup - Ind vs. SL

Match Review
There come times when Mahela Jayawardene decides that he wants to remind people why he is so highly regarded in Sri Lanka. His lopsided stats in one-day and tests suggest that he suffers from serious concentration lapses in the limited overs version of the game. And that sometimes hurts Sri Lanka because he is a vital cog at no. 4. But today he kept his cool and his wits about him as he dragged Sri Lanka from dire straits at 95/6 in the 25th over to an absolutely stunning victory with 13 balls to spare. And he exposed a vital ingredient missing from Greg Chappell’s pre-tournament checklist for the Indian team; the ability to keep one’s wits in a pressure situation. Jayawardene and Chandana played beautifully and made this win possible by not only attacking the fifth bowler in Ganguly and Sehwag but also dismantling Harbhajan Singh’s spell with clinical precision. And once again, it wasn’t the lack of runs that hurt India in the end; it was the lack of another bowler. The inherent problem with Suresh Raina coming in at no. 7 is that he gets too little time to contribute anything substantial and more often than not will only have a fantastic fielding effort to show for the game. Irfan Pathan’s relative solidity with a bat should be encouraged a little more and it’s vital for India to bring Anil Kumble into the picture. If flexibility is the key Greg Chappell is looking for then it’s also responsibility at the top that he must emphasize. The top teams today are successful not because they are flexible but they have well-defined roles for the players. And that is the goal that this Indian team should hope to achieve…and hopefully also learn the art of mental strength along the way.

Won't be able to give more updates. It's 8:00am in the morning here in the US and I need to get to work. I'll give a match summary later.

Ind innings

50 overs 220/8 - Brilliant stuff from Irfan Pathan. He hammered 38 from 26 balls and has dragged India to a total that gives the bowlers something to defend. I think Dravid would think he is still 20 runs short on this pitch especially after a fairly decent if slow start. This certainly looks a much better pitch than the first time these two teams met. India now has had enough batsmen getting a hit in the middle and they should now look at playing a more attacking game as the tournament progresses. The tournament shifts to the Premadasa after this and that has traditionally been a good batting wicket. No Zaheer in the team today and Balaji needs to take a page out of Pathan's book and start landing 'em from ball one. Again, a weak fifth bowler for India might make the difference in this match. But then again, SL are without Jayasuriya.

48 overs 194/7 - What's the deal with SL and caught and bowled? Kaif gone caught and bowled for 33 off Maharoof. Good innings from Kaif, not fast but not Ganguly slow either. India should make it over 200, but how much will depend on Irfan Pathan who's batting well. Harbhajan Singh in now.

41 overs 161/6 - This is unbelievable stuff. Dilshan gets number 4. Raina caught and bowled off a brilliant catch. The Indian batting is falling off drastically. SL into the tail and India in real danger of being bowled out below 200 and before their 50 overs are up.

40 overs 157/5 - Dilshan is really hurting India. Dhoni goes caught and bowled. Came down the wicket and hammered him straight back to the bowler. Dilshan has 3. Raina coming in and India need to get it into about 220 for a competetive total. Even without Murali and Vaas, this SL bowling attack just squeezing the runs.

33.2 overs 128/4 - Dravid gone first ball to Dilshan. Very very dubious decision by the umpire. The ball hit outside the line and the umpire walked around a little bit before he gave his decision. Big wicket and India in big trouble. Again puts Ganguly's slow-go in perspective. Kaif in and another big opportunity for Kaif.

33 overs 127/3 - Ganguly gone for 51. Chandana getting one through the gate and this was always the danger of going slow. The run rate has been low and this is the time he should ideally have been wanting to accelerate. Dravid is coming in and these two should look to bat for the next 10-12 overs.

29.5 117/2 - Big off-spinner from Dilshan and Laxman is bowled through the gate. Big opportunity lost for Laxman. He was starting to look good there and played himself him. Surprise, surprise! Dhoni in. I think in a quest to up the momentum a little bit. And also get him to run into some form. I think this is a good move.

10,000 runs for Ganguly - Becomes the third batsman after Tendulkar and Inzaman to get there. I believe he's also the fastest of the three. His innings of 33 so far has been painstaking, off about 80 balls. Laxman still doesn't look like he's liking it in there. He's been beaten umpteen times outside off. This pitch looks a little better than the previous games. 240-250 looks par for the course.

18 overs 69/1 - Laxman got a huge letoff off the last over from Fernando. A big sound but Daryl Harper probably didn't hear the nick. No foot movement from Laxman in the dozen odd deliveries he's faced. Ganguly has developed a strange habit of falling over when hitting his leg-side shots. He plonks his right-leg in front of middle and tries to hit the leg side balls around that front foot. Wonder if that is a habit he picked from county cricket or just an after effect of playing really cautiously.

15.1 overs 67/1 - Sehwag finally decides that if the fielders aren't catching 'em then he will drag one onto his stumps from a foot outside. First international wicket for Jayaprakashdaran. This should bring Laxman in. Another batsman making a comeback and hopefully Atapattu should attack more. He seems to be held back with no Murali and Vaas in this team. Probably feels he doesn't have enough firepower to blow this batting away.

13 overs 50/0 - SL has helped India reach 50/0. Helped because there are clearly two out of form batsmen here and 2 catches have gone down, several misfields and Atapattu just refuses to attack. The SL captain seems to be playing this by the reputations of Ganguly and Sehwag. Sehwag decided that he wanted to hit his way out of trouble. The concering thing for Greg Chappell is that Sehwag especially doesn't seem to spend some time in the middle and play the ball around a little bit. Ganguly meanwhile is 12 short of 10,000 runs.

The Art of Criticism

“If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim”
-Margaret Thatcher

So what is a critic? I looked up Webster and came up with these definitions.

1. One who expresses a reasoned opinion on any matter especially involving a judgment of its value, truth, righteousness, beauty, or technique.
2. One who engages often professionally in the analysis, evaluation, or appreciation of works of art or artistic performances.
3. One given to harsh or captious judgment

“Reasoned opinion”, “judgment of value, truth…”, “analysis, evaluation, appreciation”…naah can’t be. Webster probably added the third definition looking at what the art of criticism in the present day has become. The story of a sportsman is defined not only by his performances but also by the media’s perception of his performances. It doesn’t take much to induce the seeds of doubt in a reader and being read is a quality analogous to gaining an individual’s trust. Which is why in the big picture, handling the media becomes a skill as important to the sportsman as the skills he displays on the field.

The Ashley Giles double outburst, at first glance, not only sound like the little-boy cries of a hurt ego, but are a damaging preamble to a test match that desperately needs England to perform out of their skins. But dig a little deeper and a visual of a moderately gifted cricketer emerges; having to constantly lift himself to a level deemed acceptable to play among the sea of talent in his side. Cricket has many such dark stories of men more talented than Giles broken down by the might of the media attack, justified or not. A few days back I read a post on Prem Panicker’s blog about how the dignity of a former Indian fast-bowler on the fringes of national selection was played around with by a cricketing legend turned popular commentator. His words were and still are deemed gospel for most Indian cricket fans, and he abused that trust to achieve a laugh and fulfill his own agenda. The English media covering the Ashes has a bunch of former players, captains and legends who were responsible for building this series as a changing of the guard in world cricket. They sneered at Hayden’s anger, laughed at Gillespie’s form, snickered at Warne’s broken marriage and had a dig at virtually every Australian player. After just one test match, they turned to what was easy for them as it is for cricket writers in most countries; pick a player and blame him for everything that went wrong. And it’s safe because if the player does perform next time, the readers forget the previous lash outs. And if they don’t, it’s always food for their next column.

I had speculated on Giles’ future in a previous post and it’s unfortunate that he has been made painfully aware of his limitations. His frustration is understandable but his method of dealing with it was daft. But to put him in a situation from where he can’t defend himself was irresponsible by the same men who condoned his performances over the last 18 months. Unfortunately, that is what the art of criticism is all about.