Moments

Poor bowlers!! What else to say when the batsmen complain when they cannot play properly on a tough pitch and lobby together to force the match referee to call off the match. The 5th and final ODI of the India Srilanka ODI series was called off by the match referee citing 'the pitch is dangerous and unplayable' as the reason. Sure it was unplayable because the batsmen's quality has deteriorated over the years. The don't feel comfortable when they cant hit freely through the line or can't judge the ball correctly. But what is dangerous about a pitch? Just because you cant predict the bounce makes it dangerous to face fast bowlers? What if the fast bowlers start extracting more swing and you cannot judge that and get hit in between your legs? And what if the bowler is fast enough that you don't have time to put the bat down quickly? You tell the bowler is unplayable and dangerous and ban him? Charge him with a ticket for over-speeding? Alas gone are the days...

When I had written a post on how Sachin missed all his centuries in the last year, how can I refrain from writing something today. A day that will be remembered by all the fans all over the world who consider "Cricket is RELIGION, Sachin Tendulkar is GOD. It was a day when Sachin started off very carefully with Ganguly blasting at the other end (Something has seriously happened to our Dada. He is in such a terrific form), and then allowing all the tail-enders an extended session of batting practice, in the meantime getting that ever elusive golden figures of 100. As Cricinfo editor Siddharth Vaidyanathan (he shares his last name with me) describes, I would also put it as one of the greatest knocks of the little Master. An innings of such precision and measure and such flawless execution that even the aussies had left hope of finishing the Indian innings at his end. A banner at the ground summed up everything. "Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting," it read. ...

Oh yes! You guessed it right. It is about cricket. And in cricket if you talk about century then who else can it be other than our own great Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin has been in a great touch in this calendar year, yet this is the year in which he has missed out on scoring centuries on so many occasions. A little bit of statistics of this year's performance of our Cricketing GOD: Tests 2 centuries - both against Bangladesh scores of 91 and 82 against England 56* in first test against Pakistan (cant blame him for not scoring a century there :-) ) Again an 82 today against Pakistan ODIs Lone century (100 not out) against WI at Baroda in January 2 half centuries against WI and SL in India 1 half century against Bermuda in the pathetic ICC World Cup 6 half centuries in England Tour (2 against SA and 4 against ENG) out of which 4 were in 90s 2 scores of 70s against the Aussies 2 scores of 90s against the Pakistanis And out of the 6 nervous nineties 3 times he went back to the pavilion o...