What is the thin line?

What is the thin line between Sledging and banter or abuse they all are talking about all these years? This question is as subjective and as unanswerable as 'Egg or Chicken!' Sledging has gone on throughout the 150 plus years of cricket and it has produced some great as well as funny moments along the way. But there has to be a line where it has to stop, it should not go down the wrong road where either of the players get hurt by the comments made. There has been a lot of talk and harsh comments made on Virat Kohli's attitude for being in opposition's ear all the time. Mitchell Johnson came out and called Virat's behaviour foolish. Being a cricket fan, you have to like Virat's attitude and competitiveness that is actually making our game exciting. If chirping gets the best of him, why not? As long as he is not crossing the line, it's perfectly all right! But this is not about Virat but the game of cricket. There is a thing about sledging. You only ever target the person you think you can affect. There are players like Virat who you don't want to rile up or players like Alastair Cook who are as cool as cucumber and they never get flustered. You don't want to waste your energy on such players especially playing in 40 degrees down under or in the subcontinent. Sir Ian Botham once said -"When I was up against Alan Border, David Boon, Gorden Greenidge or Viv Richards, I wouldn't say anything to them because you don't want to wake them up. Just leave it and hope that they are still thinking about the dinner they had last night or in Viv's case, where he'd been last night!" The exact opposite example of it is the Ian Bell-Shane Warne incident in Melbourne 2006. Warney was bowling a tight length to the relatively new Ian Bell in front of 90000 Australians and the sherminator came on! Belly was trying to figure out what the sherminator was before getting out. He must have googled it at night!
    There is no way ICC can stop chirping and sledging on field but it can reduce the involvement of media in these matters. For example, the chit-chat between Virat Kohli and Tim Paine was exagerrated by media. There wasn't much in it. It was all in good spirit and it was good on umpire Chris Gaffeney's part that he intervened and calmed down both of them. And this is where on field umpires have an important role to play. They talk about the match referees not doing justice to either of the sides but on field umpires have the control and power to calm the players down which they are supposed to do. If you ask any modern cricketer or former cricketer, the only thing they will say is that sledging does go on but it happens on the field and should remain on the field. I know stump mics play a very important role in making the game better but those are controlled only by the producers and the broadcasters. ICC should find a solution in which the words said on the field do not go out. Because if players start getting afraid of the punishment inflicted because of sledging on the field, it will only make our game less exciting if not boring!

Fast Bowling is a mad art and these Indian bowlers are proving it!

   Right from the stories of Harold Larwood and Sydney Barnes to the great fast bowling quartet of the West Indies to the days of Lillee and Thompson to the glorious years of Waqar and Wasim to the great trio of Lee,Mcgrath and Gillespie and now dare I say the best days of fast bowling in Indian Cricket history, fast bowlers have always made our game exciting. A couple of quick bouncers to keep the batsman on his toes and honest and then fuller length delivery just curling away to get the nick! Wow, is there a better love story! There is something about 'fast' bowlers that you just like at first sight and it's often the speed and the aggression rather than the line and length. We all like to see an out-and-out fast bowler touching 145 clicks regularly, occasionally 150, having batsman hopping and jumping around the crease. Fast bowling is a mad art and fast bowlers are a rare breed. Bowling fast is a great skill and one is blessed if he can bowl fast!
    The terrifying stories of bodyline and Harold Larwood send sheivers down our body but that wasn't exciting stuff. That was some real hostile and dangerous fast bowling which could hurt people and my god it did hurt the Australians a great deal! But the real era of fast bowling began after the second world war when the West Indies were rapidly starting to take over World Cricket from England and Australia. They hijacked World Cricket in 1960s with 3 world class fast bowlers in Wes Hall, Charles Griffith and Roy Gilchrist playing under the great Sir Frank Worell. Then came the quartet of Marshall-Holding-Roberts-Garner under Clive Lloyd which helped West Indies dominate for another decade. And then arrived unfortunately the last pair of great West Indian quicks in Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose who were absolutely world class considering the fact that there wasn't much of a support from the rest of the team. Fast Bowling was even more dangerous when the helmets were not discovered. Dennis Amiss once famously said to Jeff Thompson after recieving a few vicious 150 kph bumpers-" How in frigging hell am I supposed to play this shit!" Facing fast bowling is not easy and Wasim and Waqar bowling in tandem was one of the best spells of cricket to enjoy, with the new ball but more so with the older ball!
    There are probably three recent pairs of fast bowlers that we can think of. One is Lee and Mcgrath. Lee was quick and Sharp while Mcgrath was an artist. Second one is Anderson and Broad, peobably the most successful one as far as stats are concerned. And the third and my favourite one is Steyn and Morkel, two out-and-out quick bowlers who could swing it, seam it and bowl it at 145 on regular basis.
    Now we come to the Indian fast bowlers and boy has there been a better group of Indian fast bowlers in the past. We can stick our tongue out and say no, this is the best group of 'fast' bowlers our country has ever produced. Taking 20 wickets outside of the subcontinent was a once in a year kind of a thing for Indian fast bowlers but these fast bowlers are taking wickets for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They took all the 60 wickets in South Africa, more than 80 in England and now all 40 in the two test matches in Australia which is quite stunning when you think of the days gone by. No matter what the conditions were like, a spinner was always India's best option but Ishant,Shami,Bhuvi and Bumrah have changed all that. And the fact that Virat likes to play with fast bowlers helps them a great deal. But what is it that makes them the best fast bowling line up in the world at the moment? It is the variety becsuse they are all right arm but completely different in some way or the other. Ishant, the most experienced of them all is not as quick as Bumrah or Shami but he is taller than all of them and  the bounce he gets on even flat pitches can be a bit of a problem for the batsmen. The perfect example of it is the spell he bowled at Lord's 2014 when he literally bounced England out to win India a famous test match. Though he hadn't fully realised his potential, he has been a workhorse and the control he brings is invaluable especially while bowling to left handers from around the wicket. Shami is probably the most skillful of the lot. I have not seen a better seam position from any bowler in a long long time. The only problem with Shami is that he 'blows hot and goes cold' often enough to make the captain scratch his head though he has found some consistency in the past couple of tours. Bhuvi is without doubt the most underrated and the unluckiest as well. He played the first test in South Africa, bowled well and was left out for the second test because they thought the pitch might not suit him. He came back in the third test and won India the match! For some reason or the other, they still don't consider him what they call-' the man for all conditions' which is sad because he has qucikened up a fair bit since he came back. He is not the quickest but he can be sharp and quicker than what batsman think and expect. While Bumrah is just 8 test matches old, the maturity he has shown is incredible. Jasprit Bumrah is 'the' fastest bowler India has ever produced. Bowling at 145, with control and that sort of an action can be difficult but he is causing batsmen problems left,right and center! And last but not the least and the one who has to get a mention here is Umesh Yadav because of the way he has bowled in India on those slow wickets. In the home season of 2016-17, watching Umesh Yadav bowl his heart out was one of the most pleasing sights for an Indian fan. It's a shame that he hasn't been able to find the same rhythm when the pitches are actually offering him something.
    The fact of the matter is that with all these fast bowlers playing under a charasmatic leader such as the great Virat Kohli, there are some really exciting days ahead for Indian cricket. Because scoring 600 doesn't win you test matches but taking 20 wickets does!

1-0 UP BUT STILL A LONG WAY TO GO!

From the days of Lillee and Thommo to the glorious days of Warne and Mcgrath and to a more recent whitewash in 2011-12, Australians have always dominated India in Australia. But this time and for the very first time, an Indian team was labelled as favourites to win in Australia. After watching Steve Smith and David Warner do what they did, it was very clear that they would struggle to be available to play against India and that was a massive dent in Australia's hopes rather than a boost to India's confidence because I think this Indian team is good enough to beat Australia with Smith and Warner playing. Indian batters had a decent outing in the practice game but the bowlers got some bashing from a pretty inexperienced batting line up. But came the Adelaide test and boy, didn't they turn up! Indian bowlers were magnificent and if it wasn't for them, there was no way India were getting a 15 run lead in the first place. Cheteshwar Pujara again proved his worth in this team with probably one of the best innings of his life. His 123 in the first innings turned the match on its head. India looked set to finish with a score that would have been well below par but Pujara with the help of tailenders got the crucial runs to drag India to 250. Ishant was probing all the way, Bumrah was nasty and hitting 150 clicks at times while Ashwin toiled hard and kept one end tight. Shami was blowing hot and going cold as always is the case with him but he was handy as well in the 2nd innings so it was almost a complete bowling performance from India except the fact that the tailenders again proved difficult to be removed becsuse the match should't have ended as close as it did. Indian batting collapse in the 2nd innings is also a bit of a worry becsuse in the position they were in, India should have batted Australia out of the game and should have set a target of around 400 which would have been way beyond Australia's reach.
     But this is the first time I remember that India have won a test abroad without playing the perfect game. In this year only, India dominated throughout the test matches when they won in Johannesburg and Trent Bridge. This surely wasn't a complete performance but this extremely vulnerable Australian batting line up helped India a great deal. But we all know-"These Aussies never give up!" and how perfectly the last 2 hours of the test match summed up this statement! Cummins and Starc are capable batsmen so they were expected to hand around and they did! Lyon is not great defensively but he is a mighty tough character and a gritty cricketer and didn't he brought out some emotions out of Virat Kohli! Although he is better than our number 11, Hazlewood isn't the one you would trust on 364 days of a year but he was playing Ashwin and Bumrah as he was batting there all day. This is the character and fight everyone expects from any Australian team and this side is no different.
    Virat Kohli's burst of emotions after the final wicket summed up what it meant to him as a captain. Having experienced what it feels like being on the other side of the result 4 years ago after smashing 141 in a massive run chase, ending up on the better side of the result this time around must be the greatest feeling of all. Adelaide has been a happy hunting ground for 'The King'. Though he didn't quite turn up with the bat in this test match, Adelaide owed him something and it is very pleasing that it has gifted him back a test victory!

These Aussies never give up!

This is the first time an Indian team is touring Australia and are being labelled as favourites to win everything but especially the test series. It is true that this Indian team has a bit more potential but they are a million miles ahead than this Australian side as far as confidence is considered. If we look at the recent form, Australia haven't won anything since the series of events in Cape Town. They lost to England 5-0 in June and then they couldn't win a game in UAE. Australian batting looks more vulnerable than ever before. On the other hand, Indians are coming on the back of a very successful and dominant home summer. Though this year was supposed to become one of the most glorious years in Indian cricket, it wasn't to be so. Scorelines in South Africa and England don't really show the quality of cricket India played. 1-2 in South Africa could so easily have been 2-1 if the first innings of the 1st test had gone well and 1-4 in England could have been 3-2 or even 4-1 if they had snapped the crucial moments. These ifs and buts matter almost nothing once the match is done and dusted but they go a long way in teaching a team how to tackle tricky situations. Based on the current form, India start favourites in all three formats. If the Aussies have any chance, its in the T20 format.
      But these Aussies don't give it up, do they? From all these years, the one thing we have known all along is that you can not take any Australian side lightly. I know there is only one world class test batsman in the Australian top 6 and that's Usman Khawaja who is doubtful for the first test. Rest of the batting is incredibly fragile and vulnerable but at the same time Australia probably have the best bowling attack in the world right now. The trio of Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins along with their best spinner Nathan Lyon is an incredibly dangerous attack to deal with. If Australia bat first and put some good runs on the board and these bowlers get on a roll, Indians will have a difficult job on their hand. India depend massively on Virat Kohli in the test format as we have seen in the past 11 months. He is without doubt the best batsman in the world but he needs support from the rest of the batting and Australian pitches will be a good friend for the likes of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant who are natural strokemakers and like to take the attack to the bowlers. If India negotiate the new ball well and put runs on the board, then India have the bowling to take 20 wickets now. So the batting counts for more than the bowling for India. Another thing is that I have never seen Australian media and pundits give so much respect to the touring team and praise any foreign player as much as they are praising Virat Kohli. With the bans on Warner and Smith not getting reduced, this is the best chance for India to win their first ever test series in Australia but even if both of them were there, I don't think anybody could have questioned India's potential to win this series!