Do you call this dedication or plain foolhardiness?

Here’s the story of David Morrison, who has broken every single one of his fingers playing cricket.

Hat Tip: Alex

The Keys to winning Twenty20 World Cup

Scyld Berry, in the Sunday Telegraph lists the ingredients of success in 20-over international cricket.

He says that the one key to winning is, building a partnership. Of nine century stands before the semi-finals, eight went on to win the game.

The other key to winning is to hit sixes. Of the 23 games played before yesterday, with one game abandoned, the side hitting more sixes won 15 of them.

This was closely allied to allowing fewer 'dot-balls': 15 of the 23 matches were won by the side scoring off more balls than their opponents.

Get live cricket score through Google

Amit Bajaj says the fastest way to get live cricket scores on the net is through Google.

Find out how by visiting his blog Cricket Etcetera

Will the ODI’s Survive?

You can gauge the success of the Twenty20 World Cup by how people worry about its impact on Test Cricket.

Surprisingly, everyone seems assured when it comes to the fate of the ODI’s. According to me Test Cricket will flourish, the ODI’s will die unlamented.

The change I envisage will be in the duration of the Tests. With Twenty20 taking the centre stage, Test Cricket will be become more frenetic and batsmen will be hard put to play 3 days.

Two years down the road, 4 days should suffice for a Test Match.

Ian Healy - the last of the great wicketkeepers?

Bob Simpson points out what is wrong with the current crop of wicket-keepers.

Much of the wicket-keeping problems today stem from the 'keepers' desire to take
the ball on the drop below their knees. Great wicketkeepers of the past always
took the ball about waist high on the rise.

There is no doubt in my
mind that there is not a wicketkeeper in Test cricket today who can be termed
truly great, and the question remains, will Ian Healy be the last of the great
wicketkeepers?

As usual he makes a lot of sense, but I find his claim that Ian Healy is the last of the great wicketkeepers, contentious.

For me Kirmani was the last of the great ones.

How do you rate him?

Venkatesh Prasad Talks Science or is it BS?

Venkatesh Prasad reflecting on what went on behind the scene in the selection of five bowlers for the 'bowl-out' talks science.

 

"You see, the idea is to pick guys with the straightest action, as in revolving around the principle of gaining the shortest distance between two points. Sometimes, regular bowlers can get the ball to swing automatically, so I had to take into account even that," he explains.

 

But then why did he choose Uthappa of all people?

 

"Actually Uthappa was the easiest choice for me, he has been consistent in our practice and there was no pressure on him. So it clicked perfectly," he says.

 

He also added that there was planning in the order in which India bowled in the bowl-out— and the parameter was confidence and to that may I add ice water in the veins and pride in playing for the country.

 

 

 

Agarkar – a double agent?

I have always wondered whether Agarkar plays for us in the nature of a double agent. He takes a couple of wickets and lulls us into thinking that he is our man and then when we need him in the crunch he doles out runs by the ladle.

Is he a double-agent?

India -why are we not No.1 in Cricket?

If you take the recent past there is not much to differentiate between India and Australia.

Statistically to they literally stand toe to toe when it comes to both bowling and batting.

With a much better record for the batsmen and
not much seperating their most successful bowlers, India should have been able
to match Australia's record, if not better it.

Then why are we not the No.1 team?

India can be more successful

Don't forget our 'terrific' bowlers

Image flicked from bbc Image flicked from bbc

It is but natural to conclude that we won the match, because we bowled the last five balls precisely.

Surely, that is condensing the truth.

Our bowlers were superb, excepting my pet peeve Agarkar. They fought tooth and nail and brought the match to a great end.

Don't you think our bowlers were great throughout the innings?