Deep Backward Point

Blog against the machine.
March 22, 2011

Three Sentences That Capture the Debate Over Walking

Tendulkar Walks

Tendulkar Walks

Last week, Tendulkar walked after edging the ball to the ‘keeper, but Ponting didn’t. Andy Bull sums it up:

By walking [Tendulkar] gave a wonderful example to hundreds of millions of fans and spectators, which is more than you can say of what Ponting did. At the same time, what would those same fans think if he did it in the first over of the World Cup final? Ponder that, and you get close to understanding the merits of both sides of the argument.

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March 21, 2011

An Extended Moment of Almost Illegal Pleasure a.k.a. Virender Sehwag

Daniel over at Test Match Sofa on Virender Sehwag:

Perhaps he deserves a top ten to himself starting with the first ball of each of his five innings to date, all of which have been dispatched for four. That in itself is ludicrous, as if he is toying with us, suggesting he could in fact hit every ball for four but decides against it for the good of cricket.

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March 18, 2011

Choosing to Lose

Kartikeya at A Cricketing View analyzes the possibility of a team choosing a tactical defeat in the remaining four games:

In this post, I contemplate a few tactical defeats . A tactical defeat is one in which a team which has a realistic chance of winning, chooses to lose a game by resting key players, or simply by experimenting with batting orders and bowling orders, and letting the other side win in the interest of their position in the tournament. Australia, Pakistan, India, South Africa and West Indies all have this opportunity. [..]

Tactical defeats are unlikely to be of benefit to any side over the remaining three significant games.

Baazigar

Haar kar jeetne wale ko Baazigar kehte hain. (Loosely translated, the one who can lose to win is called a gambler.)


Even though he makes a thorough analysis, he’s wrong. There is one team that can strategically benefit from a defeat– India. They will know the result of all other matches and can choose who to face based on a win or defeat.

∞

Kartikeya is also trying to put together the top team compiled from players at the World Cup based on voting– go vote!

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March 15, 2011

Look How Far We’ve Come

The 5th Test: South Africa v England at Durban, Mar 3-14, 1939:

The “Timeless Test” [was] 10 days long and finally called off because the Englishmen had to catch the boat home. At a rate of 2 runs every 6 balls, they scored over 1800 runs in 10 days.

Sounds like the current World Cup. Except no one has a boat to catch, so it just keeps going…

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March 14, 2011

Unbowlable

Steven Lynch digs up an interesting bit of trivia about batsmen who could not be out bowled:

The rather unlikely name at the top of this list is Courtney Browne, the recent West Indies wicketkeeper who has just been named as a selector. He had 30 innings in Tests, six of them not out, and was never bowled. [..] Pakistan’s Rashid Latif, a wicketkeeper like Browne, had 57 innings and was only bowled once.

I wonder if wicketkeepers are less liable to be bowled, perhaps because they are trained to call the play early. This would mean they know what kind of ball was coming, but not necessarily how to play it.

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March 12, 2011

Gallery: England’s Unlikely Nemeses

Four unlikely heroes who have put England on the verge of elimination from the World Cup:

Ryan ten Doeschate

Ryan ten Doeschate's century against England almost got the Netherlands the first upset of the tournament

Kevin O'Brien

O'Brien's 50-ball century helped Ireland chase a mammoth 327 against England

Shafiul Islam

Shafiul Islam followed his 4 wickets against Ireland with a phenomenal finish against England

Mahmudullah

Mahmudullah held his nerve with Shafiul to get over the line against England

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March 11, 2011

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Worse

When associates play each other, it can either produce Ireland v. Bangladesh style hard-fought matches.

Or it can produce a comedy of errors, where each races to the bottom.

When Kenya faced Canada earlier this week, Gunasekara and Ouma found themselves in such a race. Here’s the text from Cricinfo’s live commentary, when Gunasekara got out to a wide ball:

This is Bizarroworld. Ruvindu might be out stumped. Shambles from Ruvindu. Shambles from Ouma. Shambles all round. Stupidity, says Ian Chappell. It slips down the leg side. Ruvindu misses the flick. And looks back. He can’t see the ball. He thinks it has trickled away to fine leg. Ouma, cunningly, hid the ball in his left glove. Once Ruvindu strayed out of the crease, Ouma looked to flick the bails off. And missed! He then flicked again. This time he hits the stumps. Ruvindu is still not in! Haven’t seen something so bizarre from a batsmen since Inzamam tumbled onto his stumps, attempting to sweep Panesar.

 

Gunasekara v. Ouma

Gunasekara v. Ouma

 

 

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March 9, 2011

India’s Harbhajan Problem

Sharda Ugra writes what I was going to, but better:

In the last 12 months, [..]  Harbhajan has nine wickets with an economy rate of 4.30, but an average and strike rate that has gone through the floor of his career figures.

At the World Cup so far, it’s two scalps in four games, with an economy rate of 4.07. Were his role just to contain, in this age of heavy bats, small grounds and Twenty20 attitudes, the economy rate could be something he could boast about. For a strike bowler not to be striking, though, is an indication that something is blunted.

Dhoni’s argument is that the batsmen have been content with seeing him off, and then taking on Yuvraj. Which is why Harbhajan is economical, and Yuvraj gets the wickets.

It’s a sound argument, and one that Sangakkara may be trying to make with respect to Muralitharan as well. And as long as India is winning, the argument will stand unchallenged.

As long as India is winning.

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March 9, 2011

What if everyone could compete for the Ashes?

Nick Barlow asks (and answers) a fascinating question:

A thought struck me as I was looking at the Cricinfo archive yesterday – what if the Ashes hadn’t stayed as purely England vs Australia series, but – when other countries started playing Test cricket – had been seen as an accolade everyone could play for?

He then proceeds to track this “alternate” Ashes from 1891 to 2011, when India retain the Ashes by drawing the series against South Africa.

Not a bad idea for a a Test Championship– you could always have a reigning heavyweight champion of Test cricket, with contenders clamoring to knock them down.

Of course, in Barlow’s “alternate” Ashes, Zimbabwe held the Ashes from 1998/99 to 99/00 by beating India at home.

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March 8, 2011

Pakistan’s Weakest Link

Can a team with such a poor opening pair be contenders in the World Cup? Since the series against South Africa last year, here is the run of opening partnerships:

26, 8, 12, 6, 82, 7, 31*, 2, 43, 20, 14, 11, 28, 16, 5

Of those, the current pair of Messrs. Shehzad and Hafeez account for: 31*, 2, 43, 20, 14, 11, 28, 16, 5

Shehzad has a career ODI average of 27.50. Barring his one (exceptional) century, his average is 20.0 for his remaining innings. But he’s young, he’s only played 13 matches. Hafeez, on the other hand, has an average of 22.22 after 68 matches. That is untenable.

∞

Today, however, their weakest link was Kamran Akmal behind the stumps.

 

Kamran Akmal: Oh no, not again

 

 

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