Well if one can take pains to go through the scorecard of the New South Wales batting, you can see similar scores from the 5 batsmen with a little variation. One would no doubt call that as a team effort. But, one has to satisfy himself only with that. A team work can be considered to be effective only when the effort imposes a challenge on its opposition and not otherwise. There were contributions from the blades of David Warner, Shane Watson, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith and Moises Henriques out of which Shane Watson top scored with 34 for NSW.One does not require the services of five batsmen to put up a score of 135 on the board in 20 overs. The run rate at which the New South Wales team scored was just above run a ball that included six wide deliveries. As usual, the Cape Cobras stuck with the four bowler formula with four of them bowling their complete quota and Justin Kemp bowling three to fall one over short. Likewise, it would have been wise for Justin Kemp to have gone ahead with 5 bowlers instead of trying Justin Ontong who went for 12 runs from his lone over.Scoring or rather chasing 136 for victory should not be tough for any team in T20 cricket. Though there have been many instances where such small totals are defended, in majority of the cases, that total happens to be chased down. The openers - Richard Levi and Herschelle Gibbs laid a strong foundation for the Cape Cobras' win at Chennai scoring 43 and 55 respectively. The latter part of the innings was not a tough task for Ontong and Duminy to give it finishing touches. One can see from the scorecard that the Cape Cobras reached the target effortlessly with 16 balls to spare which is quite obvious.One has to wonder what can a captain of a team do with the scoreboard not having enough runs for the bowlers to take some support from and try doing new things to surprise the batsman. Top bowlers like Nathan Hauritz and Keefe get belted which makes the captain to opt for other bowlers. The only bowlers from New South Wales who could have something to say was Henriques who had the wicket of Levi and was the most economical bowler of the lot giving away runs at just 6.00 runs an over. But, unfortunately, he was the bowler who conceded the winning runs for the Cape Cobras.
Well if any team cannot even chase down a small total of 221 in the quarter-finals of a world cup, then expecting something special from them would just be as stupid as it can get whatsoever. And that was what the South Africans were found doing yesterday against New Zealand at Dhaka. And, with winning being totally out of question, just look at the margin of victory the Kiwis had against the Proteas and you can realize that the Proteas have just been better than the West Indies. I can no doubt say that Bangladesh and Ireland played better cricket than the South Africans.One has to just take a look at how many times in world cups the South Africans have been losing to the Kiwis since their entry into world cricket in the 1992 world cup. If not for the 1996 and 1999 world cups, New Zealand have been able to take home twice of what the South Africans have managed. This was the third consecutive time that New Zealand beat South Africa in world cups. I just felt pity to see Shaun Pollock go in first to the presentation area despite scoring 307 runs and Herschelle Gibbs missing out to Stephen Fleming for the MoM award.You can just go through the scorecard top see that there were no big hitting by the New Zealand batsmen. All the New Zealand batsmen did was to wait for an opportunity and strike at the right time. The entire New Zealand innings consisted of just lone six from the blades of Kane Williamson. There was a 114 run 3rd wicket partnership between Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor which was instrumental in the eventual score of 221.The South Africans couldn't even bowl the New Zealand batsmen all-out and allowed them to play all their 50 overs which laid the foundation to their defeat.The match should not go down as another chucking by the African team for, this was anybody's game unlike in 1992-1999 world cups. The South African scorecard which at one point of time read 121/3 in the 27th over eventually ended at 172 all out meaning only 51 runs could be scored in 16 odd overs at the rate of just over 3 runs an over losing 7 wickets. This was the second time the South Africans were found doing this. Previously, against England as well, they succumbed chasing 173. This time, had this been the score against England there would have been another tie for England.
Well as expected and as usual, yesterday South Africa beat Holland by 231 runs at Mohali to become the fourth nation in this world cup to have registered a 200+ run margin of victory after Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies did it against Canada, Kenya and Holland respectively. Likewise, Holland was the victim of such a batting display for the second time after West Indies did the same to them four days back. It would just be a waste of time to talk about the South African batsmen who notched centuries and a quickfire 40 off 15 balls who was Duminy.
South Africa were facing Holland for the third time in a world cup and all three world cup games have been memorable ones for the against Holland. In 1996 world cup no matter that South Africa under Hansie Cronje did well to beat all five teams in the round-robin stage but their highest team total came against Holland when they ended their 50 overs piling up 328 runs which was one of the highest team total at that time. South Africa won that game by 160 runs needless to be said. Then in their next encounter in 2007, Herschelle Gibbs smashed 36 runs off an over.
This time, the record for the highest victory margins is seen getting better and better as matches go by. First, it was Sri Lanka who inflicted a 210 run defeat on Canada which was followed by but not bettered by Pakistan who did the same to Kenya when they washed them by 205 runs and then there was the West Indies who crushed Holland by 215 runs to better Sri Lanka's record by another 5 runs. Now, that record as well is broken with South Africa bettering that record by 16 more runs when the margin was 231 runs but of little use.
It is not a match that anyone on earth would cherish no matter what the record books have to say. In 2007, South Africa fell just short of making it to the history books for yet another reason when they ended their innings at 353 at the end of the stipulated 40 overs with still 7 wickets in hand. Had there been further play possible, may be the target of 414 runs set forth by India against Bermuda might have been surpassed. In addition to Gibbs' 36 runs over, Kallis had a 30 run over in the 40th. At the end, with games against England & India yet to come, who cares what happens against Holland?
Well, yesterday in the third day of the 1st test match between India and South Africa, SachinTendulkar recorded his 47th test hundred and Virender Sehwag his 19th test hundred, which is not the discussion here. But, Sehwag's feat of 100 in just 87 balls is one. It has been almost a decade since the newspapers make headlines whenever Sachin Tendulkar scores a hundred. On the otherhand, whenever Sachin Tendulkar used to get out in his nineties, that used to make headlines. So, would be Sehwag whenever he scores a fastest hundred or a fastest double hundred.In the ongoing 2nd test at Kolkata, Sehwag made headlines for not scoring the fastest fifty when at one stage of the match he was found having a score of 44 from just 22 balls. This has been the usual way that Sehwag's innings have been in the recent past. If anyone scores a hundred with a strike rate of more than hundred the first name that would strike anyone's mind would be that of Virender Sehwag. This can never seems to be broken atleast in the near future. So would be the number of matches played, number of hundreds scored and the number of runs piled by none other than Sachin Tendulkar would be hard to even come closer.It would take more than a century or even more than that for anybody to come closer to the batting records held by Sachin Tendulkar. The other record that still stands unbroken is the batting average of 99.99 held by Sir Don Bradman that can never be beaten. Then comes the unbeaten score of 400 by Brian Lara and his two scores above 350 and 375 (to be precise). Then on the list would be the perfect 10 taken by Jim Laker and Anil Kumble that can happen only may be once in a century. One has to be lucky to have survived throughout the nineties to have witnessed two such feats. Scoring 36 runs off an over may not be a distinct feat though it is spectacular and might raise eye brows, with teams like Bermuda and Holland out there. A Last ball six to win a match is also a record of the past when at present there are three such records held by Javed Mianded, a batsman from Zimbabwe (name unable to be recalled) and by Shivnarine Chandrapaul. Though there has been a chase of 400+ total, in the coming years one can expect few more such chases. Some unclaimed records are a perfect 10 in LOIs, 6 wickets in an over, a double hundred in LOIs and a 1000 run in an innings of a test match for a winning cause to mention a few. Are we lucky enough to see them in our life time???
Well last night, South Africa thrashed the West Indies by a mammoth 188 runs in the warm up game just before the Champions Trophy at Potchefstroom. Not only was the margin that set the tone but it was also the mammoth score of 388 that South Africa put up on board for the under rated West Indian batsmen to chase. This shows how inhuman are the Proteas to expect such a thing from a minnow like team in West Indies. May be this is the reason as to why the Proteas go home upset when it comes to the crucial stages of a tournament. Anyway, I was just kidding.However, some thing regarding both South Africa and the West Indies need some special attention whatsoever. South Africans have a habit of making hay while the sun shines. Good! But, succumb at situations when it really matters, which is evident from their on field performance i mega tournaments in three world cups since 1992, 1 ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 and the 2 T20 world cups that have been played, that has earned the proteas' the chokers tag. And the South Africans do deserve it. In the 2007 world cup, South Africans thrashed minnows Holland & Scotland, in the former by a mile when Herschelle Gibbs blasted 36 runs from 1 over and in the end, could not even win all matches in the first stage.The South Africans just managed a win against Sri Lanka in the super eights of the same, following by thrashing weaker teams like England and the West Indies and they were no match for either Australia or New Zealand. Not to forget their loss to Bangladesh. It was India & Pakistan's early exit that led South Africa through to the semis of the same. And this time i their warm up match, South Africa thrashed the West Indies by posting 388 first and then following it up with by bowling them for 200 with almost 9 overs to spare. Is this all what the South Africans are capable of doing?No doubt that all teams make this, whenever they get a chance to take the opposition for a ride. I even remember India thrashing Sri Lanka and Kenya in the league stages of the 1999 world cup only to lose to Australia and New Zealand in the super sixes that followed. With the home side advantage still with the Proteas, West Indies should not have been their target whatsoever. In most of the cases, teams that have ended up victorious in the warm up games crash land in crucial stages and the team that loses become more cautious. This might not be the case with the West Indies atleast in this tournament. But, in case the Proteas get carried away by their splendid performance against the West Indies they are simply bound for yet another shocking experience.
There was a time in the start of the second edition of the Indian Premier League where the Deccan Chargers along with the Delhi Daredevils were at the top of the points table having beaten almost all the teams out there convincingly. However, as time passed by, both these teams started losing games in the very same manner as they used to win previously. It all started with the Delhi Daredevils losing their first match to the Chennai Super Kings and the Deccan Chargers losing out at the hands of Delhi Daredevils. Now, it is rather doubtful whether the Deccan Chargers would make it to the last four or not.Owing to the fact that the Royal Challengers Bangalore have realized to start winning matches before all becomes lost for them. The only team at the moment who are yet to make a come back are the Kolkata Knight Riders, regarding whom the discussion for the moment is just a waste of time. Let us leave the discussion of the KKR to the team owner himself. Otherwise, the remaining teams are faring better than they used to in the beginning of the tournament. The other exception being the Mumbai Indians. But, I don't think that all is lost for them as well for the moment.When fate doesn't want something to happen, all effort goes fruitless. This was what happened to the Deccan Chargers at East London. Explosive openers namely Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs who set up the match in the first encounter against the same CSK were found getting out for a golden duck at East London. Of course, VVS Laxman is new to this format of the game and is suitable for only test cricket. I wish to ask the DC captain-Adam Gilchrist a concrete reason for the inclusion of VVS LAxman who is not believed to even be included in the ODI squad for the past four years.Despite giving the Deccan Chargers lives after lives by the CSK the Deccan Chargers' score never went past 100. Just imagine had these chances not been wasted the the CSK fieldsman? Anyway, ifs and buts can change the entire story. One has to salute the way the Deccan Chargers' batsmen Rohith Sharma and Dwayne Smith put on a 50 run partnership after losing the first three wickets for just 3 runs on the board at the end of the second over. One must indeed appreciate the guts that Dwayne Smith showed when he pulled off 19 runs from the over bowled by Albie Morkel and maintained a strike of 213 when he got out. The 50 run partnership mentioned above took just 21 balls.This is no joke, for the pressure that mounts with the initial loss of wickets cannot be overcome by many. And such a thing to have been done by the two deserves much applause. The knock shows the class of the Deccan Chargers, which will help the team in a match or two.
Well if one can take pains to go through the scorecard of the New South Wales batting, you can see similar scores from the 5 batsmen with a little variation. One would no doubt call that as a team effort. But, one has to satisfy himself only with that. A team work can be considered to be effective only when the effort imposes a challenge on its opposition and not otherwise. There were contributions from the blades of David Warner, Shane Watson, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith and Moises Henriques out of which Shane Watson top scored with 34 for NSW.