India T20

Saurav Ganguly: The World’s Most Scrutinized Batsman??

Over the last couple of weeks I have read at least 3 different newspaper columns by various cricket experts including Ravi Shastri enlightening me about the number of dot balls that Saurav Ganguly has played in the IPL 2010.

Barely a few minutes back, Michael Holding commentating on Set Max in the ongoing Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals match reminded me of the fact even as Saurav Ganguly caressed a second four into the off-side boundary in the very first over.

Michael Holding tells me that at 47% Ganguly has the second highest dot ball percentage amongst all openers in this year’s IPL championship.

( ….yet another boundary preceded by a couple of dot balls..that is 66.67% dot balls…)

If Holding would have added that with 3 half centuries, 47 hits to the fence and 11 over it and a total of 389 runs, Saurav Ganguly is the 7th highest scorer in the IPL 2010, I might have been tempted to forgive him. But he ain’t done no such thing….

Compare this: Ganguly has a strike rate of 114.07  thus far whereas Jacques Kallis has an average which is slightly better at 119.64. Yet, have you heard of any criticisim of Kallis anywhere?

All this is not too surprising if you have been avidly following Ganguly’s career and the scrutiny he has faced throughout.

No one, including Ganguly himself would ever make a case of the man being the world’s soundest batsman. But he has defied critics continuously, and raised the bar, whenever the going has been tough. Two prime examples immediately come to mind….

On that famous tour down under when India crashed into Steve Waugh’s farewell party, it was Ganguly who set the tone with a resolute 144 in the 1st Test after his more cherished, more technically sound colleagues had been dismissed cheaply.

Had Ganguly, and alongwith him India, caved in that morning, the rest of the series would likely have taken a most different route from thereon.

The other less famous but what I consider a greater example was the South Africa tour where Ganguly was summoned midway when each and every Indian had proved to be a miserable failure till our man arrived.

Let me help you recollect some amazing statistics:

Ganguly was not a part of the ODI series and this is what happened – the first match was abandoned, India lost the 2nd One Day by 157 runs, the 3rd one by 107 runs, the 4th one by 80 runs and the last one by 9 wickets! Imagine what carnage must have taken place.

Forget their overall totals, not a single Indian batsman figured in the list of the top 5 batsmen for the series. In all, just 2 half centuries were scored by Indian batsmen in a five match ODI series.

Sachin Tendulkar scored a total of 93 runs in his 4 innings.

Then Ganguly was called at the beginning of the Test series.

First India won the pre-test series warm-up match thanks to Saurav. What happened next was bigger.

India, which had been battered and bruised and annihilated 4-0 in the ODI series came back to surprise South Africa and win the 1st Test Match at Johannesburg - India’s first ever Test Victory in South Africa!

Ganguly scored a half-century and was the highest scorer for India in the 1st innings and his brief cameo in the 2nd innings was the 2nd best effort from any Indian.

Overall, Saurav Ganguly finished as the highest scorer for India in that series and was overall the 3rd highest scorer, and overall had the 2nd best average in the Test series. That India couldn’t wrap up the Test series and actually lost tells you how badly the more celebrated Indian batsmen fared in the tough South African conditions.

This was a small couplet I had written during that series on my man:

Even during this IPL he was being dismissed as ‘finished’ when he failed in the first couple of matches. Look at the comeback he has made.

Did you notice that even while showering all the accolades on Ganguly and making a strong case for the Prince of Kolkata I have not even talked about the areas where Ganguly is strongest?

The above is a tale of his exploits in IPL and Tests, areas where his performance has been the ‘weakest’. Now add to this his exploits in the One Day International arena and his super achievements as the captain of India, and you will get a proper perspective on this much scrutinized player.

Saurav Ganguly finished his cricket career as one of the world’s most successful ODI batsmen of all time. For a number of years, he was far ahead of his opening partner Sachin Tendulkar in terms of number and statistics.

He is still India’s most successful captain ever.

What more do you want?

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Post Script: Did you notice Dada’s fielding in this IPL? 2 Karbon Kamaals (sic) for a man pushing 40… korbo, lorbo, jitbo re

India break T20 jinx in style | Record Highest Chase in T20 Internationals

Match: India vs Sri Lanka, 2nd T20 Internaional, Date: 12th December 2009, Venue: PCA Stadium, Mohali

Before this match it looked like that Team India had forgotten the art of winning T20 matches. They had lost 7 of their previous 9 matches, and those two wins came against Ireland and Bangladesh. But today they bounced back, and how! Chasing a mammoth target of 207, India entered the T20 cricket record books by scoring 211 runs – the highest ever chase in the history of T20 Internationals. Sehwag set the tone with a quickfire 64. Yuvraj Singh then took over and though he scored four runs fewer than Sehwag, it was the pace at which Yuvraj scored the runs that made the Sehwag innings pale in comparison. Yuvraj hit five 6′s in his innings which came at an unbelievable strike rate of 240! That coupled with his 3 wicket haul earlier during the day made the choice of “Man of the Match” a no-brainer.

Match Scorecard: Sri Lanka: 206/7 off 20 overs ( Sangakkara 59) | India: 211/5 off 19.1 overs

Series Result: 1-1, Man of the Series: Kumar Sangakkara

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Highest Totals made by a team batting second to Win a Twenty20 International Match

1. India – 211 ( today’s match, details as above)

2. South Africa – 208 /2 vs West Indies at Johannesburg | Match Date: 11th September 2007

3. India – 174/7 vs Sri Lanka at Colombo | Match Date: 10th February 2009 ( Interestingly, this was the last T20 match that India won against a major Test playing team before today’s win)

Besides the above, there have been 6 other instances when a team has scored 174 or more batting second in a T20 International match but on each one of these six occasions, the team has lost the match. Beat that!

India vs Sri Lanka 2nd T20: India will aim to halt its T20 slide

Match Preview: India vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Twenty20 Match, Date: Saturday, 12th December 2009

Venue: PCA Stadium, Mohali. In a game that will start only in the evening, dew could become an important factor. The team winning the toss is likely to bat first.

Immediate Past Twenty20 Form Guide: Sri Lanka – Win, Loss, Loss | India – Loss, Loss, Loss

Teams have been known to underplay the results of T20 matches citing the short and upredictible nature of this shortest version of cricket. But it would now be foolhardy on the part of India captain M S Dhoni and the BCCI to ignore the fact that there is something seriously wrong with the way team India is playing T20 cricket – afterall India’s performances are becoming increasingly predictible and bad. When you have to go a year back in history to recollect your last win in a T20 game over a major team the picture becomes clear.

If Indian cricket has done well in the past couple of decades, it has primarily been because of a solid middle-order. Surprises of surprises, it is a weak middle order that is hampering India in twenty20. A number of choppings and changes have been made, with not much effect. Yuvraj, Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan and Suresh Raina have all done well in the past, but not consistently enough. Plus there is no consistency in the batting order. Sometimes you see Dhoni walking out at 3, while he can come much lower down at other times. The fielding has been the other big area of concern, as was visible in the 1st match at Nagpur. There were misses in the outfields, run out chances missed and catches dropped.

Sri Lanka too had entered the previous match after three consecutive T20 defeats, but were successfully able to halt their slide in conditions which should have found favour with the other team. The old warhorse Sanath Jayasurya chipped in with good contributions with bat, and especially ball to show why it is not necessary to be 20-something to succeed in twenty20. Even after the two Delhi boys gave the Indian innings a super-quick start, the visitors didn’t lose their motivation and managed to claw back in, ball by ball, over by over.

If Dhoni and men don’t get a basic game-plan in place, they will be dependent on individual brilliances to carry them through. In a team studded with more than one star, that is quite possible. But Dhoni would know, more than anyone else that that is not the best way to approach a match.

Likely Teams: Rohit Sharma is likely to step out due to injury and will be replaced by Dinesh Karthik. Don’t be surprised if Karthik manages to make it difficult for Sharma to get back in! Yusuf Pathan may find it difficult to retain his place in the final XI, but may not go for lack of an alternative. Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has already indicated his willingness to retain the winning XI from Nagpur.

Another T20 defeat for Team India | 4th T20 defeat in a row

Match: India vs Sri Lanka, 1st T20 Interanational on 9th December 2009, Result: Sri Lanka won, Man of the Match: Kumar Sangakkara

What’s going wrong with Team India’s T20 campaign? A team which is doing brilliantly in Tests and One Day Cricket seems to be badly struggling in Twenty20 cricket. The bowlers are getting belted all over, and though a couple of batsmen come to the party every time, they are not clicking together as a batting unit. The lack of a game-plan was obvious in yesterday’s match. Every batsmen, barring Dhoni seemed to be trying hit sixes all the time. Someone, for example,  needs to tell Yusuf Pathan that he needs to spend a little time in the crease before trying to hit the ball out of the park.

Is the IPL actually harming the cause of India’s T20 team? The Indian IPL teams fared poorly in the Champions League – that is a good indicator of the quality of the IPL Teams. Probably the Indian batsmen and bowlers are not appreciating that IPL T20 games and International T20 matches are different ballgames. In the IPL, the batsmen often face mediocre bowlers making hitting easy.  Even the international stars may not be putting in their best during IPL.

In their last 10 outings, India have lost 7 times now. That’s quite odd, for a team which is doing great otherwise in the game. A deep analysis is called for.

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Guess who acccompanied Sangakkara to collect the award for maximum sixes in the match? None other than Ashish Nehra!