I’m sure a number of you would raise your hands if I asked who thought that MoYo was a passive captain!

Yes, he was quite defensive in New Zealand but the warmer climates of Australia seems to have thawed the excess ice in his brain!

First, it was the Dhoni-line theory, whereby he posted 8 men on the off side and a solitary man on the leg-side (mid-off) and then instructed Asif to bowl wide of off-stump when Twatto was in his 90’s.

It got to Watson and MoYo nearly got his man, only to see Rauf drop a fairly simple catch.

Today, it was his instructions to the openers.

Oh beard, what say ye now?

Salman Butt and Imran Farhat batted as if they never even knew ODIs existed, let alone T20.

For the record, they scored 70 runs in 33.5 overs at a RR of 2.08!

Yes, Imran had quite some fortune. First, he gets dropped by Marcus North off Siddle, whose face was sizzling so much that, as Warne once said to Graeme Smith, you could fry an egg on his face in 2 seconds!

Later, he came down the track and had a wild swipe at the ball off Siddle, me thinks, and then ambled to the crease, very nearly getting run out off an underhand throw by Haddin.

But, as many Pakistani fans will attest to it, lady luck is on Imran’s side and he sure is making good use of this fortune.

Coming back to the subject, MoYo’s instructions seem to have been to go out there and graft for the first session and graft they did! Didn’t lose a wicket and scored 2.08 per over. It also helped to knock the shine off the ball.

Post-lunch, they came all guns blazing! Off the next 58 overs, they scored 247 at a RR of 4.26! MoYo led the charge with 46 off 56 and Umar Akmal continued it with 48 off 47! Shame, they couldn’t go on and make it big!

However, Doug’s 3 wickets after the new ball was taken seriously impacted them, but, IMO, they’re still in a good position with a lead of about 205 runs.

Perhaps, MoYo got some tips from Younis Khan on how to deceive the media and opponents.

If my memory serves me right, Younis said, after their fairly big loss to England in the T20WC, that T20 cricket is like WWE and that no-one should take it seriously.

The rest is history…..

You've been PWNED, Aussies!

The moment I’ve been waiting for so long has come!

I’ve been a big fan of Mohammad Asif ever since he came over here to SL on a short tour of 3 ODIs and 2 tests. Thilan Samaraweera got a lot of egg on his face during that test series. In 3 innings, he got out 2 times to Asif, both when shouldering arms to a delivery which pitched way outside off-stump, but jagged back in to hit off-stump!

His bowling action is nothing short of deceiving! He ambles in in a manner that seems like he’s bowling his 30th over. However, his bowling has always been like a snake, spitting at unbelievable angles.

However, when he got banned in 2006 for drug intake with Shoaib Akthar, I was devastated! However, the prayers seemed to have worked after it got overturned!

However, a comedy of errors ensured that he didn’t play test cricket for a solid 2 years before the NZ series, and Test cricket was poorer by his absence!

His comeback in NZ was an unprecedented success, having taken 19 wickets at an average of 19.7 and a strike rate of 40. 3 four-wicket hauls, along with a five-wicket haul, completed it.

Therefore, to see him pick a six-fer today was extremely heartening and just goes on to show that, when Asif’s around, don’t put Pakistan in to bowl on a green-top which is damp!

If further proof was needed of his brilliance, he has 79 wickets in 16 tests at an average of 21.78 and a strike rate of 43.9! He hasn’t played against West Indies, Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, further making those stats just plain extra-ordinary!

Punter’s punt must have brought back the ghosts of Edgbaston ‘05 as he watched the carnage unfold.

For the uninitiated, it was the Ashes 2005, the series which many (including myself) consider the greatest test series ever.

The first test match resulted in a resounding win for Australia by 300-something runs.

On the morning of the 2nd test, Glenn McGrath, who took … wickets in the first match, was sent to the hospital after he slipped on a stray ball during practice.

Not realizing that his bowling attach isn’t the same without him, Ponting decided to put England in to bat in conditions which can hardly be described as challenging to the batsmen.

The English openers, Strauss and Marcus Trescothick, replied in kind by getting off to a rollicking start. England ended up with 408 on the first day, which was the 2nd most number of runs made by England in a single day.

It is believed that that was the moment when Australia gave away the momentum built from the first test.

Coming to Sydney ‘10, Ponting must’ve been absolutely stupid to have opted to bat. Not having watched the toss, I was under the impression (for some reason) that MoYo won the toss and elected to bowl, which is pretty much a no-brainer, considering the fact that the pitch was lush green and might have a bit of dampness in addition to the possible moisture in the air.

Knowing that Asif could well exploit it, it came as a shock to me that it was Ponting who decided to bat first. It was a clear over-estimation of the capabilities of his batsmen (esp. Phil Hughes, the most overrated batsman in Australia).

This could also be exactly the point where he gifts the momentum to Pakistan.

Granted, Pakistan’s batsmen are liable to collapse any moment, but even if they do so for about 300 or so, they still have a hefty lead of 180. Considering that the bowling has been reinforced with the addition of Gul and Kaneria, I can’t imagine how Australia could possibly win this match.

BTW, for the curious bunch, Sami’s average is still under 50 (49.85, to be precise)!

I’ve actually been quite surprised as to how less attention has been paid to the fact that Mohammad Sami is the only bowler to have a 50+ average in Tests after taking 50+ wickets.

However, after cleaning out the top three in the current New Year Test against Australia, his average has dipped to 49.59!

Good on ‘ye, young lad!

PS – I knew there’d be plenty of y’all who wouldn’t believe me, so here’s proof…

The unthinkable happens! Mohd Sami's average plummets to under 50!

Frankly, I’m tempted to pull Mohammad Yousuf’s beard till he squeals like a pig for his stupid pessimistic comments to the media!

First, he’s moaning about the fact that T20’s ruining Pakistan cricket.

It brings, to my mind, something which Gayle said when West Indies toured England last year.

When Andrew Strauss said that the England team valued playing tests over T20 and questioned Gayle’s priorities, Gayle fired back, saying that, if Test Cricket actually died, Strauss would find it difficult to keep his place in the side.

Now don’t get me wrong, I truly love test cricket and do, once in a while, mutter “Bloody T20 cricket, ruining cricket” with a Clint Eastwood-like face.

However, T20 isn’t necessarily to blame for players not being good at Test Cricket. In fact, T20 cricket has made test cricket better in that scoring rates have increased and lesser test matches are being drawn.

However, in Pakistan’s case, it’s a matter of not having played enough test in the past couple-of-years.

The way they played in the 1st test was nothing short of encouraging. Yes, the dropped catches were alarming. However, the batting and the bowling were quite good, especially the bowling.

I’m pretty sure that they’d put up a good fight in the 2nd test. After that, perhaps Yousuf can shove his comments up his …!

His comments on the fielding were also quite stupid. He says that the appointment of a fielding coach is pointless. He refers to the period when they had Johnty Rhodes as the coach.

However, it was only for a very short period of time.

If you look at it that way, then Mike Young has effectively contributed to the drop in fielding standards of the Indian side.

He came in recently for a 2 week assignment (which is barely enough time to make a significant impact). However, during the limited-overs leg of the recent SL tour of India, India’s fielding was absolutely atrocious!

However, I remember the time when Trevor Penney came in as the fielding coach for SL during 2005-2007.

IMO, that was the best period since the 1996 World Cup in terms of fielding. Old veterans like Jayasuriya and Murali were hitting the stumps from deep mid-off and they were taking really high catches.

However, Penney left with the then-head coach Tom Moody and, since then the fielding standards have gone down again.

Therefore, I’m quite sure that Pakistan’s fielding would improve much more if they could get a good fielding coach on board. Mike Young might not be a bad idea!

Just checking out whether the new feed works! Don’t get excited and all, k?

The 2000s has been quite a decade for cricket, changing it in ways that could’ve never been imagined. Flat pitches, T20 cricket, decline of Aussie cricket, rise of Indian cricket, you name it, there it is!

However, the coming decade promises a lot. The UDRS will, hopefully, be perfected by the end of the decade and I sincerely hope to see Bangladesh and Zimbabwe become more competitive Test nations. I also hope that Ireland get test status, for that matter.

However, the ultimate hope is to see Twenty20 cricket in the 2020 Olympics, so let’s start the campaign NOW!

Note: Detailed post on the noughties and 2009 coming on Sunday!

Nope, I shit you not!

Let me introduce you to Tillakaratne Sampath, who is TM Dilshan’s brother.

I was so dang surprised. I never remembered seeing a link to Sampath’s profile on Dilshan’s profile on Cricinfo.

However, a Cricinfo report which mentioned a big score made by Sampath, brother of TM Dilshan, is what drew my attention.

He, too, converted from Islam to Buddhism, like big bro, and he was born in Jaffna (which, for the uninitiated, is a place where there are barely any ethnic Sinhala people)!

The plot thickens!

Edit: Anonymous points out the actual source, which is an article from a local daily, Daily Mirror.

I also noticed that Cricinfo have put a link to Sampath’s profile on his page! So it’s me and Daily Mirror fighting over who get’s the credit for the future increase in the number of hits on Sampath’s profile page!

Before this tour, I really have never got the chance to watch matches at a stretch due to the interference that my educational ventures kept presenting. However, after 13 straight years “on the mill”, I’ve finally got a 2 month break, which happened to coincide with this tour.

Watching the innings MS Dhoni played in the 2nd ODI (which, sadly, was in a losing cause), it really did leave my mouth gaping for the best part of 3 hours (and let a family of flies breed in my plentiful stomach).

Firstly, his constant prodding at the ball, rather than hitting it, really makes Paul Collingwood look like VVS Laxman.

Come’on, you have to admit, his technique is so ugly that you might be well off donning a pair of shades when he’s batting in order to protect yourself from permanent eye damage (which could also result in you mocking VVS as disgusting).

However, that shouldn’t be an excuse to diss him as he still gets runs, and that’s all that matters. If I really need to give you an example of how even a bad technique isn’t so bad, look at Rohit Sharma. People purr when he bats, but does he perform?

If I’m not wrong, this horrendous technique infiltrated his mind ever since he was made captain. He decided to cut down on the slogs (which, IMO, looked much more pleasing) and decided to start prodding at the ball.

Add to this prodding, his ability to run lightning fast runs, and the end result is that he manages to push back the field.

It, honestly, is awe-striking to see the way he sets off as soon as he prods it. It really does put the fielding captain on the defensive, which just makes it easier for him to take singles.

Getting the stats from Cricinfo’s Statsguru, it’s worth noting that his numbers haven’t taken such a huge dent since he donned the captaincy (i.e. after he start his prodding).

When not as captain, he scored 2,477 runs in 75 innings @ an average of 44.23 and a SR of 96.26, with 206 boundaries and 71 sixes.

When he got the captaincy, he has scored 2,656 runs in 61 innings @ an average of 59.02 and a SR of 84.15, with 184 boundaries and 39 sixes.

He’s actually scored nearly 200 runs more in 14 less innings so far. You could say that the only notable dent in his figures is the number of sixes he’s hit. However, I’d be willing to exchange sixes with reliability, any time of the day!

I suppose his super-fast sprinting is down to the supposed 8 or 10 glasses of milk he allegedly drinks every day. Whatever it is, it’s working and I just wish that some of the SL batsmen could at least try to emulate him with regard to the running-between-wickets.

I’m not trying to pigeon-hole Dhoni as a limited-overs batsman, but I’m penning this post to emphasise exactly why Dhoni is the batsman every limited overs player should aspire to be.

Cricket journalists previewing the second test between England and South Africa could do well to flick through their archives and, dare I say it, use the cut and paste button, as once again a familiar story surrounds the match build-up.

Ian Bell, the extremely talented but frustratingly inconsistent England number three (or is it four, five or six?) finds himself ‘under pressure’ going into the test and needed the support of coach Andy Flower after the inevitable questions flowed in at the pre-game press conference.

Flower backed his man of course, stating how Bell scored some runs in the warm-up game and was confident about his batting despite his howler at Centurion Park.

For those who didn’t see it, it was one of those moments it seems a safe cricket bet an upper order batsman dreads. Bell completely misjudged a Paul Harris delivery, kindly leaving the ball and watching it take out his middle stump, much to the delight and amusement of the South African fielders. Seven runs in two innings has once again put the spotlight on Bell, who has been dropped and recalled several times in recent years, but just can’t seem to nail it at international level.

Technically, you cannot really argue. He is seen as one of the more technically gifted of the group and regularly scores runs at County level and, as Flower said, in warm-up games. But when it comes to the games that matter, Bell always flatters to deceive and I wonder just how many more chances he will get; match psychology and self-confidence is just as important at the highest level as your ability to pick up the bat. You can be as calm under pressure as you like but if you can’t hit the ball you won’t be picked. The same has to be applied the other way round.

I don’t feel dropping Bell ‘to rediscover his form’ will work. England have tried that before and the familiar innings of woe continue. Instead, I fear Bell is running out of lives and one in-form batsman away from dropping out of the team permanently.
If that doesn’t force a return to form then nothing will.