Ravindra Jaded Jadeja

Just wrote this while watching the match .. not a BLOG blog :) ..
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India has over 60 years of independence and over 20 years of dependence - Sachin!

So! .. It's India chasing 350. Nail biting match. Sachin goes berserk. Hits a fifty. Sehwag did a little blitzkrieg.

Oh! and the second wicket fell. Tense situation. India sad. Revital guys happy. Yuvi is the man in. Hits boundary. Over ends. Revital Advertisement. Yuvi says Jeeyo Jee Bhar Ke. Next over. Yuvi out, goes back. Pops the pill.

Sachin still berserking. Hits a ton. MRF sad. Adidas happy.

Dhoni in. Dhoni out. Bhajji in. Bhajji out.

Enters Ravindra Jadeja, the pop-eye. Hits a four, Indians amused. Punches Sachin, injury averted. Keeps strike. Powerplay on. Keeps strike. Powerplay on. Keeps strike. Indians abused. Sachin out of flow. Sachin out.

Praveen Kumar in. Hits a six. Fire in the eye. Jadeja still there, pops the eye. Wants strike. Jadeja out. Indians abused.

Nehra in. Indians pick the remote. Lofts 54 meters. Indians throw the remote. Nehra out. Nehra amused. Indians abused.

One Day Cricket, One Day!

If you ask me what i love the most about One-Day cricket, i would say the first and the last 10 overs. Basically a the subset of One-Day cricket, those 20 overs. When you remove the in between 30 (sorry@Rahul Dravid), there's your product: T-20 format.

Where else do you get to see funny shots, huge run rates, loads of sixes and cheerleaders!. It's an energetic party. When it started, some feared that One-Day cricket will have to fight for food. Within a few years, T-20 has beaten One-Day format inside-out, putting up a BIG question on its survival. Caught and Bowled!

What holds up a certain format of the game? The fundamental question here is what exactly does Cricket offers us. The classic form and the evolved forms have offered us a display of technique and speed. Test format predominantly offered us technique and class. One-Day offered us a relatively higher fraction of speed, yet giving technique due importance. Now we have T-20, which is predominantly speed.

When One-Day cricket started, some feared that it will eat up the Test form. It couldn't, because Test is a sheer display of what's the heart of Cricket, the technique. Do I want to see some classy centuries and consistent A grade bowling? Yes I do. Now, we have the sheer display of speed in our hands, the T-20 format. Do I want to see nail biting and high paced cricket? Yes I do.

Sachin recently said that we need to protect the One-Day format. He suggested to split the 50 overs in to 2 innings of 25 overs each, where each team plays its innings alternately. He explained why the splitting was important but did not stress on why to save the format? ... fear of losing all the records?

Do I need a "Test T-25"? Not sure.

Cricket Commentators ..

What's prompted me to write this is the stating-the-obvious and irritating nature of some commentators:

X-Batsman, Y-Bowler.

Situation 1: X couldn't middle it, but it's one bounce to the fielder in the deep extra cover. 2 runs.

Ravi Shashtri (cunning): "Chance for a catch. No, it lands short. They'll have to hurry for 2. Safe"

Harsha Bhogle (smart): "Up in the air, the fielder takes it in one bounce. One bounce, one hand, that would have been out in GULLY cricket"

Tony Greig (The master): (shouts)That could be out !!!! .. no it's 2 runs.

Arun Lal (garbage): "That was not a good shot, couldn't middle it, not any foot movement, this has been his problem for a long time now, good fielding by the fielder, throw comes in, batsmen have to run hard and they did, it's 2 more runs for X, but lucky, he should not take risk right now"

LSRK (Laxman Siva Rama Krishnan, the whining god): "It counld be a boundaryn, no no, it counld be a cantch, no it fenll shonrt, it's a single, no no, it's two runs"

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Situation 2: X hits a clean six over the extra cover.

Ravi Shashtri: "Bannnnng !, Stands tall and it's gone 100 miles .. "

Harsha: (shouts)"What a shot ! .. whhat aa shott ! Y will have to do something special now"

Tony Greig: (shouts)Oh Boy ! It's gone, gonnee, smashed out of the park for a six !!!!!

Arun Lal: "That was not a bad ball by Y, but look at X, look at the way he middles it, look how fast the bowl is travelling, its gone far, magnificent shot by X. I think this is a good innings"

LSRK: After 10 seconds "Thant wans an goond shont, thant wans certainlyn an goond shont, a wenll densenrvend sinx"

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What will guys like Sunil Gavaskar, Ramiz Raja, Geoffery Boycott, Michael Holding etc. say in these situations? .. anybody?

-x-