Willow and Leather - A Cricket Blog

Lawson gets his wish.. almost

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:35:00 +0000

"I would like to score a 150-run win over India on Tuesday."
Geoff Lawson, the Pakistan coach

Almost there. Missed by just 10 runs (albeit the other way) - would be nice to know what he would like to score in the next game.. How about a 10-wkt win?

Bracelet impact?

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:34:00 +0000

Courtesy: ANI

A small fabric bracelet is England cricketers’ latest secret weapon that has boosted their performance levels.

The Trion-Z ‘magic’ bands are being tried by the team after cricketers James Anderson and Stuart Broad said they were huge fans of the bracelet.

Using incredibly high-powered magnets, the bracelets are medically proven to increase blood flow around the body, improving concentration levels and rates of cell-regeneration.

Stuart Broad and James Anderson registered their career best test scores with the bat. Anderson followed it up with a career-best bowling performance. Guess, it is time Bracewell bought a few bracelets for his wards.

Search for the next reality Cricket Star

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:53:00 +0000

Courtesy: Samachar/PTI

Australian spin legend Shane Warne will oversee the selection trials of the third season of a nationwide talent hunt, the winner of which would get a contract with the Rajasthan Royals team in the 2010 Indian Premier League.

'Cricket Star Twenty20' was launched by Royals team owners Emerging Media on Thursday.

Warne, who is the captain-cum-coach of Rajasthan Royals, and Emerging Media Chairman Manoj Badale unveiled the Cricket Star Twenty20 Season 3 trophy.

The boys chosen through the hunt will be a part of the Cricket Star Academy and will also have the chance to interact, train and play with the Rajasthan Royals team.

If you haven't played first class cricket and if you haven't represented India at the under-19 level and if you aren't Lalu and Rabri's son and if you really want to get an IPL contract as a player, this is what you need to be participating in.

Keralathinte Sreesanth

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:35:00 +0000

Courtesy:Express India/Agencies

A book on Indian pace bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, titled Keralathinte Sreesanth written by Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi's Sports Magazine editor K Viswanath, was released in Kochi.

Do you think Harbhajan Singh was approached to write the "ForeWord" for this book? Would be nice if it has (dont think it is there though) a chapter on the impact of the "slap" and how it transformed Sree from a clown to a serious ambassador of his state.

A great day for Delhi Cricket

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:17:00 +0000

Yesterday (Jan 19 '08) turned out to be a great day for Delhi cricketers. The Ranji team emerged victorious in the domestic trophy finals after 16 years. Viru Sehwag and young Ishant Sharma played key roles in India's historic win at Perth. And also their other 19-year old star, Virat Kohli led the Indian under-19 team to a test-series win against South Africa in South Africa.

How can they?

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:52:00 +0000

Courtesy: Rediff

"How can your selectors drop a bowler of Harbhajan Singh's quality? He has taken wickets in a heap against the best sides. That is the hallmark of a great bowler," a surprised Saqlain said.

What Saqlain (the new Brit) is trying to say here is this -"How can the Pakistani selectors drop a bowler of Saqlain Mushtaq's quality?".

India's tour of Bangladesh '07: Test Series - Grades

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:21:00 +0000

Part 1
Part 2

India's tour of Bangladesh '07: ODI Series - Grades

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:18:00 +0000

Part 1
Part 2

England's next best thing?

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:10:00 +0000

James Alexander Russell Harris

Hope the Welsh teenager goes the Fredalo.. sorry (I never uttered that word).. the Freddie way.

The Ranji-Duleep Trophy

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Wed, 30 May 2007 19:20:00 +0000

Read it here.

Looking Ahead: The likely five

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Wed, 30 May 2007 19:18:00 +0000

Read it here.

Whatmore? Say Who?

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Thu, 24 May 2007 21:44:00 +0000

Kapil Dev, who once asked, "Who is John Wright?", now asks, "Who is whatmore?".

Paaji, you ask too many questions..

Whatmore is a SriLankan born Aussie cricketer, who coached a world-cup winning SriLankan team and is now very likely to coach your home team. What more do you want to know ji?

Coach-cum-Umpire

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Wed, 23 May 2007 14:06:00 +0000

Courtesy: Express India

Satrajit Lahiri is aware of what the word ‘coach’ exactly means. The 39-year old former Ranji Trophy batsman — he played for Tripura from 1991 to 1998 and turned up for East Zone in the 1996-97 Deodhar Trophy — recently earned a double distinction unique in eastern India’s cricket history.

He became the state’s first ever Ranji Trophy elite panel umpire to also complete the National Cricket Academy’s (NCA) coveted Level III coaching degree, at Bangalore. The twin distinction apart, Lahiri also boasts of the Level III coaching degree that he picked up from the English & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) last year.

When Lahiri is umpiring, how hard would it be for him to restrain the coach in him? If the batsman gets beaten outside the off-stump and the bowler starts appealing, would the umpire first tell the batsman that he needs to move his feet a bit and then turn to the bowler and say that it is not-out? If the bowler is chucking, would Lahiri correct the bowler's action right there and then tell him that it is a no-ball? If he feels that the fielding captain is not attacking enough, would he ask the skipper to place a slip and a foward-shortleg?

I know Lahiri is a professional and he would know exactly how to separate the umpire from the coach, but it does make you wonder. Doesn't it?

Blogging for AOL India

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Fri, 18 May 2007 10:36:00 +0000

I've signed up to blog for AOL India's new cricket blog. My first 2 posts are up for reading - 1. a la Pietersen, 2. World Cup 2007: Ten Most Enjoyable Pieces Of Action.

Life comes at you fast

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Thu, 17 May 2007 17:42:00 +0000

The folks at Nationwide should seriously consider asking Manoj Tiwary to appear in their ads. Everything seemed to be going Manoj's way until he went and injured himself just before his international debut. He is supposed to undergo surgery (apparently there is some controversy regarding the surgery - check this link) pretty soon and from the looks of it, might have to be out of action for about 4-8 weeks.

Of blogging-breaks and sharing-birthdays..

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Sun, 06 May 2007 15:14:00 +0000

I realize that I haven't been posting as regularly as I possibly can. I sincerely hope that this is just a temporary slump in form and that I would be able to make a decent comeback to prime-form blogging pretty soon. I really don't need to be "rested" or "dropped" to rediscover my bearings.

On a personal note, I became a father this week. I've been told that becoming a father, makes you more responsible and focussed in life. I do hope that this is true and the renewed focus would get reflected both at work and also at making inane blog-posts. Ever since the doctor told us that the due-date would be some time during the last week of April, my wife and I wished the kid would be born on April 24th. The thinking was that if he has to be a Taurean son of a cricket-blogger, then why not share his B'day with Sachin Tendulkar. I narrowly missed being born on the same day as Kapil Dev and I've blogged earlier about feeling bad about it during my growing years. The caring parents that we are, we didn't want our son to feel the same. April 24th came and went and there was no sign of him stepping out of his cozy pavilion. He leisurely ventured out eight days later. He probably believes in doing things on his own terms or probably isn't going to be a big SRT fan - only time will tell. All we know for now is that he shares his Birthday with Brian Charles Lara. May 2nd also happens to be the birthday of David Beckham and Satyajit Ray. I don't know how much thrilled I would be if he becomes as popular a soccer star as Beckham or as creative a director as Ray (btw I never understood his movies), but I sure would be a lot happier if I get to see him cover-drive with a flamboyant touch and an exaggerated back-lift. What more can a father ask?

Indian Bowling Coach - Prasad vs Sekhar

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:11:00 +0000

Chappell's support staff included some quality professionals, but it lacked a bowling coach. It could be argued that had there been a good bowling coach, Irfan Pathan wouldn't be in the quagmire that he finds himself in right now. The same could be said of Harbhajan Singh.

It took one dismal world cup performance to finally convince the BCCI to appoint separate coaches for bowling and fielding. Thirumalai Ananthanpillai Sekhar, the chief coach at the MRF Pace Foundation would have been my choice for being the bowling coach of the Indian Cricket Team. But Venkatesh Prasad is not a bad choice at all. He has been coaching the junior teams over the past few years and has been doing it really well. Bowling coaches are usually fast-bowling coaches - the reason probably being that modern day teams have very few slow bowlers in their ranks. Sekhar has been instrumental in moulding the careers of quite a few fast-bowlers of this generation, but doesn't really have much to offer to the spinners. Prasad holds the slight edge here (not because he used to bowl quite a few slow deliveries towards the end of his career) because he has a bit of experience at wholistic coaching. Another reason could be that Prasad (given his age) is being seen as someone who could handle the mantle of being the full-coach at some point down the line.

Whose son?

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:30:00 +0000

Courtesy: Cricket Next

Tamil Nadu’s left arm spinner Vidyut (three for 14), son of former Indian leg spinner and TV commentator Laxman Shivaramakrishnan, K Vasudeva Das (two for 20) and U Mahesh (two for 29) then bowled a tight line and length to restrict Haryana to 111 all out off 19.4 overs.

41 year old Laxman wouldn't be too thrilled to know that he has a 25 year old son. This is just another case of bad journalism. For the uninitiated, Vidyut is actually the son of Venkatraman Sivaramakrishnan, the former Tamil-Nadu player.

Dilhara robbed of a MOM award

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:45:00 +0000

England lost to Sri Lanka in a last-ball thriller yesterday. The young Bopara and the old Nixon hustled together a run-a-ball 87 run partnership for the 7th wicket and brought England very close to victory. 12 were needed off the last over, 9 came off the first 5 deliveries - Bopara had to face the last ball with 2 runs required to share the points. Call it nerves or call it a tactic, Dilhara Fernando (the giant with the baby voice) ran in hard and went through his motions without actually releasing the ball. He went back to the start of his run-up, took a few deep breaths and bustled through all over again - this time he did release the ball - elementary line and length - Bopara missed and the ball disturbed the furniture behind the batsman and then ran away to the boundary.

Ranjit Fernando, the easily excitable commentator from the Emerald Island overlooked the disturbed stumps and commented (yelled rather) something on these lines -- "Oh itz a 4.. Bopaara.. Oh its bowled.. I thought it hit the bat and went for a 4". Well, he doesn't fail to amuse you (if you want to call it a torture, I wouldn't blame you), does he? I'm really looking forward for the day when someone like Sangakkara or Jayawardene gets to represent Sri Lanka behind the micro-phone.

Coming back to the game, didn't understand why Bopara won the MoM award. Agreed, he brought England back into the game and without him the game would have ended much earlier. But he didn't win it for them, did he?. Dilhara, on the other hand picked up 3 crucial wickets at crucial times and won his team a couple of points. As far as I'm concerned, he was robbed off a maiden world-cup MoM award.

Murali-ed, Vass-ed, Malinga-ed, Fernando-ed and Jayasuriya-ed

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:38:00 +0000

Courtesy: Cricinfo

A banner that read "Murali-ed" probably got it just right.

Add Vass-ed, Malinga-ed, Fernando-ed and Jayasuria-ed to that.. That really was an outstanding fielding performance.

I spent about 5 years of my early childhood in Sri Lanka and do have a great affinity towards anything remotely connected to the Emerald Island. No prizes for guessing which team I would be rooting for from now on.

20-20 WC draw

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:34:00 +0000

The 20-20 World Cup matches will be played at Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban from September 11 to September 24, 2007.

Group A: South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh.
Group B: Australia, England, Zimbabwe.
Group C: New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Kenya.
Group D: Pakistan, India, Scotland.

Pakistan and India are grouped together - seems like the officials did not want to take any chances this time and end up again in the scenario where there would be no Indo-Pak game.

Bob Woolmer, Rest in Peace

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:09:00 +0000

I really don't know how to put what I'm feeling inside in words. Bob held one of the two (Greg C being the other) most difficult, demanding and stressful coaching jobs in the whole wide world of sports. He is no more and the mere knowledge of that fact is bound to deeply hurt and sadden all those genuine lovers of the game. When the Pakistan team assembles together for its next practice session, there would be no Bob to give them catching practice and fielding drills. When Pakistan plays Zimbabwe in its final group match on Wednesday, there would be no Bob Woolmer, sitting with his laptop and peering through the LCD for a solution to the team's problems. He will not be there to be happy for them if they do well or to share their grief if they don't.

After the Irish skipper hit that winning six yesterday, the cameras zoomed towards the Pakistan dressing room - a grim looking Bob Woolmer, stood up packed his laptop and walked away. That was the last time, most of us saw him alive. He has finished his innings and walked away to a better place - a place from which he would never return. Probably, a place where his effigy wouldn't get burnt, where his motives and intentions would never get doubted and where he would finally relax and rest in peace..

We'll miss you, Bob. May your soul rest in peace and may your family and friends have the strength and courage to deal with this tragic loss.

The million dollar over

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:54:00 +0000

Courtesy: Cricinfo

29.1 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Violence! Gibbs charged down the track and hoicked it over long on.
29.2 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Murder! Floated on the leg and middle stump line and Gibbs sends it soaring over long-off.
29.3 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Carnage! Flatter one this time but it makes no difference to Gibbs. He just stands there and delivers. This one also has been sucked over long off
29.4 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Wah Wah! Low full toss and guess where this went Yep. A slap slog and it went over deep midwicket! He is going to go for 6 sixes in this over!
29.5 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Short in length, on the off stump line and Gibbs rocks back and swat-pulls it over wide long off. SImply amazing. What a batsman. This is pure violence!
29.6 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, He has done it! One-day record. No one has hit six sixes in a row. GIbbs stands alone in that zone. And the minnow bashing continues! Full and outside off and bludgeoned over deep midwicket

This is the first time that anyone has ever scored 6 sixers in an over in international cricket. By doing this Gibbs has not only worked his way into the record books, but also has won the Johnnie Walker Sixes Challenge. The tournament sponsor Johnnie Walker had announced earlier this week that it would be offering $1 million to Habitat for Humanity housing projects for the first batsman to hit six sixes in one over at the World Cup.

It was absolute carnage at Bassaterre - 198 runs were plundered in the last 13 overs with South Africa finally finishing at 353/3 in 40 overs.

World Cup 2007: Day 3 - Ireland vs Zimbabwe - Notes

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 10:54:00 +0000

You would be forgiven if you thought that St. Patrick's day came a couple of days early this year. The green brigade cheered and celebrated every move that their team made and that vociferous support was largely instrumental in the Irish team pulling off a dramatic tie. Zimbabwe was cruising along quite well and at one stage required just 19 runs off 40 odd balls with 5 wickets in hand. Brendan Taylor then got runout at the non-striker's end and Zimbabwe started to lose the momentum dramatically. 9 were needed off the last over, they managed 8 off the first five but Stuart Matsikenyeri (who played really well for his 73) just could not get the ball away for a single. It was a fiting end for an entertaining game - both the teams dropped too many chances and played badly enough to lose. Ireland just did slightly better to hold their nerves when it really mattered. Jeremy Bray won the MOM award for carrying his bat earlier in the day.

Complete the progression

noreply@blogger.com (vishnupavan) — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 18:37:00 +0000

Dennis Amiss (ENG), Glenn Turner (NZ), Alan Turner (AUS), Clive Lloyd (WI), Imran Khan (PAK), Kapil Dev (IND), Dave Houghton (ZIM), Gary Kirsten (SA), Aravinda De Silva (SL), John Davison (CAN), Feiko Kloppenburg (NET), ------- (IRE)

Fill in the Blanks..