The stage was set for India - West Indies match , " THE FINAL " , hope & expectation against strength, confidence and complacency. This was the final , where millions in India were praying hard for the hope to translate into a trophy of credibility. Doordarshan on its part decided to telecast the match uninterrupted and you still had to bear with Anupam Ghulati and Narottam Puri popping now and then indicating that they had lost the feed and it would resume shortly.
Srikkanth started attacking the West Indian bowling as his wont, Gavaskar was in a horror run and didnt contribute much and it was left to Amarnath to do his usual rebuilding effort. When Holding got Amarnath bowled, I still remember seeing the stump cartwheeling towards the wicketkeeper, no one would have thought that India would get a defensible total let alone a winning one. The middle order and the tail made a total of 183 which was not mammoth by the standards of West Indian batting.
After the break when West Indies started batting, all Indians were watching with despair and hope and so was I. Sandhu struck with Greenidge getting a peach of a delivery ( some still call it FLUKE ) but it was one of the game changing moments. The next remarkable moment, the Kapil catch united the Indian team and made them believe that the floodgates were truly open. Lloyd was injured and when batting , Binny produced the best ball to an injured batsman where the batsman had to play on the front foot, leaning forward to drive. The ball as it happens always went in the air straight to the cover fielder .
Dujon started the rebuilding effort and it was Amarnath who deceived both Marshall and Dujon with great bowling ,a traditional outswinger and the usual in cutter and Dujon chopped on. When Holding was lbw, fans storming in to the square and Indian flags fluttering made it truly memorable for every patriotic indian.
There were so many key moments in the match , the first innings was characterised by the West Indies winning the important exchanges and the second winning part all going to India. Of course you could not do anything without that L factor. There was no "CRICKET EXTRA" and " STRAIGHT DRIVE " during those days and all the cricket lovers were awake exchanging views over balconies and porches. The self made experts would make sure that " THE HINDU"s R Mohan concurred with their views and feel elated about it.
The West Indies were wounded tigers and it showed when in the 1984 test and ODI series against India , they won almost everything on offer.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
World Cup Moments - 1983
Compared to the previous WCs , this World cup attracted the maximum attention in India, towards the final atleast and I vividly remember this World Cup possibly for the desperation to hear and later watch each match and the other World Cups were all opinions made on hearsay. This was the World Cup which made me take cricket watching seriously.
The seeds of the Indian triumph were sown much earlier in Berbice where India triumphed in a one day international against the mighty West Indies. India was combined with Australia , West Indies and Zimbabwe ( ICC Trophy winners ) and all the teams were much stronger on paper than the Indian team. As India went into this World Cup, the team believed in themselves which was very rare for an Indian team and that too against the West Indies. This self belief was reinforced in the first match against the mighty Windies. The over confidence of the West Indian line up was shattered in the opening match and probably they took it a little lightly to allow the lowly ranked Indians the taste of victory and probably the sweet scent of the World Cup as well. This contagious positive feeling spread across the team and India began moving forward with every match and achieving greatness and moving to unchartered domains ( where no Indian had every been before !! ).
Along with West Indies , India had Australia in the same group who were quite powerful since the Chappell brothers had returned and Trevor ( the most famous of the Chappell brothers for reasons other than cricket ) scored a century against India . In the match against Zimbabwe at the relatively unknown Tunbridge Wells ground, India was struggling at 17 for 5 and with the top half gone , people thought that the match would be over before lunch. Kapil came in and along with Kirmani slowly started getting the Indian innings back on track. The innings was marvellous , for it involved many phases of reconstruction and then taking control and then moving into an attacking position so that it could result in a victory. For me , it was an old transistor for company and so it was for many people around the world since BBC was on strike that day. It was similar to listening to a HAM broadcast constantly crackling and frequently going off air. Kapil finally made 175 not out and the Nataraja pose of Kapil Dev in B&W photographs still adorns many a house. After scoring 175, he came back to take 5 wickets as well in match making him truly the MVP. India beat West Indies and Australia once in two matches and Zimbabwe twice to qualify for the semi final .
In the other group, Pakistan was making decent headway ( they were always stronger on paper than India) and England was living up to its name as a cricket ODI super power. It was no surprise that Pakistan and England made the semi final from the other group.
The stage was set for interesting semi finals , India vs England and Pakistan vs West Indies. Doordarshan at last started believing that history was beginning to unfold and if they didnt telecast the tournament from then on , they would be at the receiving end of millions of cricket watchers. These were the times when the Govt had to release precious forex to the state owned network to get the overseas feed. We didnt have a TV at home and I had to run across and park myself at my neighbour's house from 3:15 IST to the late hours at night. The interruptions for news and other irrelevant local farmer programmes did make matters easier to time your dinner and snack breaks. Delhi viewers were the priveleged ones since they didnt have local programmes and got to watch the telecast when it was there.
The India England match was characterised by good swing and middle overs bowling,Kirti Azad was playing the spinners role with great aplomb and Mohinder Amarnath was swinging the red cherry a great deal with a red handkerchief tucked in his pocket. The bowling attack which was supposed to be toothless suddenly had fangs of a serpent all ready to attack. England was contained to a manageable total but it did require a good determined batting effort to make sure that India finished on the winning side. The middle order of Yashpal , Mohinder and Sandeep was not the batting which the opposition would panic especially since they had Botham , Willis , Dilley and Allott. India went hard at the Englishmen and were rewarded with a place in the World Cup final .
The other semi final was eagerly followed where many an Indian did not want the wounded West Indies in the way and would have gladly swapped it for Pakistan instead. West Indies didnt break a sweat brushing aside Pakistan and the stage was set for another India - West Indies match . The match merits a separate blog post and so continue reading on to the next one.....
The seeds of the Indian triumph were sown much earlier in Berbice where India triumphed in a one day international against the mighty West Indies. India was combined with Australia , West Indies and Zimbabwe ( ICC Trophy winners ) and all the teams were much stronger on paper than the Indian team. As India went into this World Cup, the team believed in themselves which was very rare for an Indian team and that too against the West Indies. This self belief was reinforced in the first match against the mighty Windies. The over confidence of the West Indian line up was shattered in the opening match and probably they took it a little lightly to allow the lowly ranked Indians the taste of victory and probably the sweet scent of the World Cup as well. This contagious positive feeling spread across the team and India began moving forward with every match and achieving greatness and moving to unchartered domains ( where no Indian had every been before !! ).
Along with West Indies , India had Australia in the same group who were quite powerful since the Chappell brothers had returned and Trevor ( the most famous of the Chappell brothers for reasons other than cricket ) scored a century against India . In the match against Zimbabwe at the relatively unknown Tunbridge Wells ground, India was struggling at 17 for 5 and with the top half gone , people thought that the match would be over before lunch. Kapil came in and along with Kirmani slowly started getting the Indian innings back on track. The innings was marvellous , for it involved many phases of reconstruction and then taking control and then moving into an attacking position so that it could result in a victory. For me , it was an old transistor for company and so it was for many people around the world since BBC was on strike that day. It was similar to listening to a HAM broadcast constantly crackling and frequently going off air. Kapil finally made 175 not out and the Nataraja pose of Kapil Dev in B&W photographs still adorns many a house. After scoring 175, he came back to take 5 wickets as well in match making him truly the MVP. India beat West Indies and Australia once in two matches and Zimbabwe twice to qualify for the semi final .
In the other group, Pakistan was making decent headway ( they were always stronger on paper than India) and England was living up to its name as a cricket ODI super power. It was no surprise that Pakistan and England made the semi final from the other group.
The stage was set for interesting semi finals , India vs England and Pakistan vs West Indies. Doordarshan at last started believing that history was beginning to unfold and if they didnt telecast the tournament from then on , they would be at the receiving end of millions of cricket watchers. These were the times when the Govt had to release precious forex to the state owned network to get the overseas feed. We didnt have a TV at home and I had to run across and park myself at my neighbour's house from 3:15 IST to the late hours at night. The interruptions for news and other irrelevant local farmer programmes did make matters easier to time your dinner and snack breaks. Delhi viewers were the priveleged ones since they didnt have local programmes and got to watch the telecast when it was there.
The India England match was characterised by good swing and middle overs bowling,Kirti Azad was playing the spinners role with great aplomb and Mohinder Amarnath was swinging the red cherry a great deal with a red handkerchief tucked in his pocket. The bowling attack which was supposed to be toothless suddenly had fangs of a serpent all ready to attack. England was contained to a manageable total but it did require a good determined batting effort to make sure that India finished on the winning side. The middle order of Yashpal , Mohinder and Sandeep was not the batting which the opposition would panic especially since they had Botham , Willis , Dilley and Allott. India went hard at the Englishmen and were rewarded with a place in the World Cup final .
The other semi final was eagerly followed where many an Indian did not want the wounded West Indies in the way and would have gladly swapped it for Pakistan instead. West Indies didnt break a sweat brushing aside Pakistan and the stage was set for another India - West Indies match . The match merits a separate blog post and so continue reading on to the next one.....
Thursday, January 20, 2011
World Cup - 1979
Since my earlier blog on the 1975 WC did not attract many eye balls and comments because it was history and in a decade when I was born, here goes the next one about the 79 World Cup.
Nothing changed when compared to 1975 in the cricketing world during this period except for Kerry Packer becoming one of the household names, Australia fielding a weak team and Channel 9 getting into the act in Australia.
Australia was just stepping into the " Border" era and was weakened by the Chappell brothers moving over to the Packer circus. Obviously that left only Pakistan and England as the leading challengers to the West Indian title defence. England had a balanced side , Geoff Boycott opening ( in a one day !! ) and the middle order comprising of Gooch, Gower and Botham was solid .
Collis King and IVA Richards quashed any dreams of other teams of winning . King was destructive and the West Indian batting added to their 5 pronged pace attack made sure there were little hiccups in any match.
The notable moments for me were the word " Minnows" came into being with Srilanka coming into the one day equation. They were no minnows since they beat India in the round robin and had an interesting line up of attacking stroke players like Roy Dias. Roy Dias was class personified and would probably inspire the likes of Aravinda De Silva while Duleep Mendis would do the same to Arjuna Ranatunga (looks as well !! ).
India did not do any damage to their reputation of being poor in limited over games , BTW. Venkat was still captain and Sunny was still the opener and improving his averages and strike rates. Surinder Khanna was the wicket keeper and would eventually play a part later opening the batting in 1984 Asia Cup which India won.
Nothing changed when compared to 1975 in the cricketing world during this period except for Kerry Packer becoming one of the household names, Australia fielding a weak team and Channel 9 getting into the act in Australia.
Australia was just stepping into the " Border" era and was weakened by the Chappell brothers moving over to the Packer circus. Obviously that left only Pakistan and England as the leading challengers to the West Indian title defence. England had a balanced side , Geoff Boycott opening ( in a one day !! ) and the middle order comprising of Gooch, Gower and Botham was solid .
Collis King and IVA Richards quashed any dreams of other teams of winning . King was destructive and the West Indian batting added to their 5 pronged pace attack made sure there were little hiccups in any match.
The notable moments for me were the word " Minnows" came into being with Srilanka coming into the one day equation. They were no minnows since they beat India in the round robin and had an interesting line up of attacking stroke players like Roy Dias. Roy Dias was class personified and would probably inspire the likes of Aravinda De Silva while Duleep Mendis would do the same to Arjuna Ranatunga (looks as well !! ).
India did not do any damage to their reputation of being poor in limited over games , BTW. Venkat was still captain and Sunny was still the opener and improving his averages and strike rates. Surinder Khanna was the wicket keeper and would eventually play a part later opening the batting in 1984 Asia Cup which India won.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
World Cup Moments -1975
The World Cup 2011 is here and so the advertisers say. Heard that Sachin is looking down from an ad and announcing it with huge countdown boards in the various stadia in India. ICC at last has taken the event to where it should belong. Cricket is not a universal game like football and has more followers in Asia-Pacific than anywhere else. It was logical that this part of the world should host the premier event atleast every decade.
The event takes me back many years to the times when I was a kid when tests were the TEST and one day was just another format played once in four years. The world cups of 1975 and 1979 though I was too young to comprehend ,was characterised by the complete dominance of West Indies. The two other teams which were just about competing with them were Australia and England. These teams were competing more against each other than against the mighty Clive Lloyd's team as they were called.
I remember watching some of the highlights from these matches on a video cassette called "Wills video of One day Cricket". The sight of Dennis Lillee running up and bowling to Roy Fredricks , Fredricks hit wicket falling over on the hook shot, Clive Lloyd's century characterised by brutal and assured strokeplay, Gilmour's five for and of course Richards' fielding to get the most important Aussie wickets.
Many people would remember the Indian lows , where Sunny scored 36 when we were chasing England's 300+ runs , Glenn Turner hitting a century in the India-NZ match. Few would remember that Venkatraghavan was the captain and Mohinder Amarnath played as an opening bowler. Those were the days when it was a 60 over contest and where conditions were more favourable to swing and India had spinners who found it difficult to grip the ball. Does that explain India's poor showing ??
What remains etched however in us from this world cup is Sunny Bhai's 36 which Sunny himself tried to undo in the later part of his one day career and was fairly successful.
The event takes me back many years to the times when I was a kid when tests were the TEST and one day was just another format played once in four years. The world cups of 1975 and 1979 though I was too young to comprehend ,was characterised by the complete dominance of West Indies. The two other teams which were just about competing with them were Australia and England. These teams were competing more against each other than against the mighty Clive Lloyd's team as they were called.
I remember watching some of the highlights from these matches on a video cassette called "Wills video of One day Cricket". The sight of Dennis Lillee running up and bowling to Roy Fredricks , Fredricks hit wicket falling over on the hook shot, Clive Lloyd's century characterised by brutal and assured strokeplay, Gilmour's five for and of course Richards' fielding to get the most important Aussie wickets.
Many people would remember the Indian lows , where Sunny scored 36 when we were chasing England's 300+ runs , Glenn Turner hitting a century in the India-NZ match. Few would remember that Venkatraghavan was the captain and Mohinder Amarnath played as an opening bowler. Those were the days when it was a 60 over contest and where conditions were more favourable to swing and India had spinners who found it difficult to grip the ball. Does that explain India's poor showing ??
What remains etched however in us from this world cup is Sunny Bhai's 36 which Sunny himself tried to undo in the later part of his one day career and was fairly successful.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
First ball blues
Players in whites and the red ball makes a huge difference, so they say and I feel it is more in the mind and less about solid technique especially in the opening overs. Openers walking out into the middle, butterflies in the stomach after the captain has done the honours with the toss, crowd backing the home team, nerves everywhere, bowlers and batsmen alike , fielders feeling their palms and making sure everything sticks. The conditions are tailormade for you to fail as an opener. Test matches are the real test and compared to the instant quick formats they make for a delightful concoction if the curator has left a bit of grass and the weather is kind to the faster bowlers. The first ball which you face up to after the umpires and the crowd have settled down adds that extra dimension to viewing both in the ground and on the television.
Was watching the first ball of a test match , Zak running up to Smith , a left arm bowler bowling to a left hand batsman , how many times has it happened before ,was tempted to check the statsguru on cricinfo for more details. Thought it would be better to feel the experience and remember the past which transported me in the time machine back several years to the Dyanora T481 black and white television, the cricket addiction and the inner feeling on whether it would be a wicket first up.
Many first balls dismissals immediately came to mind , Kapil Dev to Mohsin Khan in a match where a wicket was as rare as rain in Pilani and Mohsin was out lbw. Sunil Gavaskar, the master technician nicking Malcolm Marshal to Dujon in Calcutta, the first ball of the test match again. Two great bowlers who used to be bang on from the first delivery, Marshal with his pace and bounce and Kapil Dev with his accuracy and swing. Kapil had to make use of the new ball as much as possible, would probably be bowling with a spinner at the other end , and would get only 5 to 6 overs to get all that he could in terms of wickets. Marshal in contrast used to be warmed up and raring to get at the batsman with his brutal bouncers and swing at a pace above 140s. Contrast this to Shoaib Akhtar who runs up full tilt and bowls the first ball well wide outside the off stump and Sehwag lets it go or upper cuts it for 4.
The modern day test cricket has no express bowlers , no uncovered pitches, Kookaburra balls are used where swing lasts only for 10 odd overs and wickets in Australia are as barren as Faisalabad in Pakistan. The pitches have become batsman friendly some would say, still the first use of conditions from a bowlers point of view makes a huge difference to the outcome of the match especially with early moisture and cloud cover.
All said and done watching the first ball in a test match is a feeling unmatched by any other.
PS : Just watched Anderson bowling to Shane Watson in Sydney as well !!
Was watching the first ball of a test match , Zak running up to Smith , a left arm bowler bowling to a left hand batsman , how many times has it happened before ,was tempted to check the statsguru on cricinfo for more details. Thought it would be better to feel the experience and remember the past which transported me in the time machine back several years to the Dyanora T481 black and white television, the cricket addiction and the inner feeling on whether it would be a wicket first up.
Many first balls dismissals immediately came to mind , Kapil Dev to Mohsin Khan in a match where a wicket was as rare as rain in Pilani and Mohsin was out lbw. Sunil Gavaskar, the master technician nicking Malcolm Marshal to Dujon in Calcutta, the first ball of the test match again. Two great bowlers who used to be bang on from the first delivery, Marshal with his pace and bounce and Kapil Dev with his accuracy and swing. Kapil had to make use of the new ball as much as possible, would probably be bowling with a spinner at the other end , and would get only 5 to 6 overs to get all that he could in terms of wickets. Marshal in contrast used to be warmed up and raring to get at the batsman with his brutal bouncers and swing at a pace above 140s. Contrast this to Shoaib Akhtar who runs up full tilt and bowls the first ball well wide outside the off stump and Sehwag lets it go or upper cuts it for 4.
The modern day test cricket has no express bowlers , no uncovered pitches, Kookaburra balls are used where swing lasts only for 10 odd overs and wickets in Australia are as barren as Faisalabad in Pakistan. The pitches have become batsman friendly some would say, still the first use of conditions from a bowlers point of view makes a huge difference to the outcome of the match especially with early moisture and cloud cover.
All said and done watching the first ball in a test match is a feeling unmatched by any other.
PS : Just watched Anderson bowling to Shane Watson in Sydney as well !!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)