GIF of the day: Well left #2

Friday, December 27, 2013 dale steyn, gifs, rohit sharma

Well left #1 is over here.

Comic: South Africa vs Australia

Saturday, November 12, 2011 australia, comics, cricket, cricket comics, dale steyn, graeme smith, rishabh bablani, south africa, test cricket No Comments

I like to think that this is how it happened.

RSA v IND: Player scores for the series

Friday, January 07, 2011 cricket, dale steyn, gautam gambhir, india, kallis, morne morkel, rishabh bablani, sachin, series review, south africa, zaheer No Comments

India (average score: 4.7)

8 - Sachin Tendulkar (326 runs at 81.5): Looked the most comfortable (Indian) batsman in the Centurion Test, didn't contribute to the Durban Test victory, and showed a batting masterclass at Cape Town. Points off for not farming strike at Centurion on the fifth day, an innings defeat could've been avoided at the very least.

8 - Zaheer Khan (10 wickets at 24.6): Showed how valuable he was through his absence at Centurion, and when he came back you could see how he is, like, 80% of the bowling attack. He also had an extremely vital partnership with Laxman at Durban. Quick lower-order wickets at Cape Town may have won us the game, though, so points off for not being able to provide breakthroughs then.

8 - Gautam Gambhir (242 runs at 60.5): Very good series for him, barring the first innings of the series. He showed his adaptability to the situation again, counter-attacking at Centurion and knuckling down at Cape Town.

7.5 - Harbhajan Singh (15 wickets at 29.6): Overcame a pretty bad performance at Centurion to take 13 wickets in the nest 2 Tests, including a 7-for at Cape Town. Bowled the best we've seen from him in a while. Scored 40 important runs in Sachin's company, including a stunning six off Steyn.

Statistical Round-up for 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010 cricket, cricket stats 2010, dale steyn, david warner, dirk nannes, graeme swann, hashim amla, rishabh bablani, sachin, shakib al hasan, statistics, umar akmal, virat kohli, virender sehwag, zaheer No Comments

"Sneaky stats are sneaky."

- A close friend of Darren Gough's mailman's brother-in-law

Most Runs

Tests

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave		SR	100	50
SR Tendulkar (India)	14	23	3	1562	214	78.10		55.90	7	5
V Sehwag (India)	14	25	2	1422	173	61.82		90.80	5	8
IJL Trott (Eng)	14	24	4	1325	226	66.25		49.44	4	4
AN Cook (Eng)	14	24	2	1287	235*	58.50		54.76	5	4
HM Amla (SA)	11	19	3	1249	253*	78.06		53.05	5	4

The next two on the list are Saffas Kallis and Smith. Tamim Iqbal could have been higher up the list, but only played 7 Tests, scoring 837 runs at 59.78, with an almost Sehwagological strike rate of 80.71 and a highest of 151. Sangakarra just played 6 games for 695 runs at the lofty average of 99.28. The highest score this year was Gaylestorm's 333.

ODI's

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave		SR	100	50
HM Amla (SA)	15	15	1	1058	129	75.57		104.23	5	4
V Kohli (India)	25	24	3	995	118	47.38		85.11	3	7
AB de Villiers (SA)	16	16	4	964	114*	80.33		102.11	5	4
TM Dilshan (SL)	20	20	2	921	110	51.16		98.92	3	4
Imrul Kayes (Ban)	27	27	0	867	101	32.11		67.15	1	6

There's a huge outlier that I noticed as I scrolled down this list. Lurking just outside the top 20, is cricket's official ball-smeller (ha) Shahid Afridi, who scored 601 runs at 33, but at a crack-high strike-rate of 144.12. 

If you play Jeopardy in Pakistan, "what is Shahid Afridi?" is an official answer to "the definition of insane". Really.

My Top 10 Test Cricket moments of 2010

Wednesday, December 29, 2010 2010, anderson, broad, chris martin, cricket, dale steyn, gayle, laxman, mitchell johnson, morkel, muralitharan, top 10 cricket moments, tracerbullet007, trott No Comments

It’s that time of the year again. By now, you would have been inundated with numerous ‘Top 10s of 2010’, and it would be wrong of me not to add one more to this rabble. Here, I present to you, my top 10 Test cricket moments of the year, in no particular order!

1) Murali reaches 800 wickets: Nobody deserved this milestone more; not even the king of leg spin. In his final test, against the best players of spin, he needed 8 wickets to become the only man in history to get 800 Test scalps. He duly completed the feat; and fittingly, wicket 800 was achieved with the help of a familiar accomplice at slip. As they say, some stories cannot be scripted better.

2) Laxman’s 103* leads India to victory against SL: This was the year of Laxman. It all started with this innings in the final test of the series against Sri Lanka at Colombo. Laxman walked into 62/4, with India still needing 195 runs to win, and draw the series. Against a tricky attack comprising spin and sling, he exhibited a classy innings in a pressure situation and led India to victory. He was just getting started….

Just our luck

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 cricket, dale steyn, funny picture, india, review, rishabh bablani, south africa 14 Comments

India has completely owned this match. As if scoring a mammoth 634/6d isn't enough, 3 South African wickets went down as Zak, Mishra and Harby bowled their best.

Then the rain returned.

No more cricket could be played that day, bar one over. And now India has to take seven wickets to win on the final day, with Hashim Amla, the South African Santa, still out there. Prince the walking wicket has been sent out there in what could be his, and Duminy's, last chance to fight for their spot in this line-up - both have done nothing for far too long, though Duminy seems far more useful because of his ability to turn the ball more than Mindy, the first-choice spinner. They're complicated, aren't they. The other guy left is AB deVilliers, who can definitely hold his own in this sort of situation. The tailenders are no mugs, but the pitch has deteriorated enough for them to not be an issue.

What I'm saying is, India deserve the win, and the weather better not play spoilsport.

Maybe the Steynmeister had something to do with it, angry face and all.

 

"You better make it rain up there!"