The Wall !!

The term Wall has been synonym to Rahul Dravid for more than a decade now. Still people talk about laxman's elegance, sehwag's flamboyance, sachin's strokeplay when dravid is batting with either of those. I know when Sachin will score his 100 it will a huge occasion for fans worldwide, including me. But is it fair to keep talking about Sachin even when Dravid is the one scoring hundreds right now and that too at critical junctures?

I have not become his fan recently after he scored two centuries. Have always admired his technique and commitment to his team. I thought its time to look back at his contribution to Indian Test team and briefly(till he gets his 100 ;)) forget about Sachin. Not to start a comparison war but I will try comparing him with Sachin at few occasions in this blog just to lay emphasis on Dravid's contribution to Indian cricket.

Dravid has by far been the most technically correct batsmen in Indian team for last 2 decades now..maybe more...maybe ever. Its amazing that for someone like Dravid, who has scored runs all around the world and is second only to Sachin in number of runs scored in Tests, there is not as much said and written about as about Lara, Ponting and Sachin.

Possible reasons could be:

1) He is not playing ODIs anymore and people see less of him, so have less to say about him.

2) He doesn't score his runs at the same rate as other 3 do, and hence is not someone whom people enjoy watching and writing about.

3) He happens to be playing in the same team as Sehwag, Laxman, Sachin.

4) He is unlucky that whenever he scores runs, someone else also does and at a much better strike rate.

Whatever the reason be, I think he isnt endowed with as much following, love and appreciation as even Dhoni. I have been a avid Sachin supporter. Have switched on the TV when he has come to bat and switched off so many times when he is out. But have I watched any match because Dravid is batting. Nope.

Its time to apologize to the wall for the same and thank him for Adelaide Oval, for Eden, for Lords, for TrentBridge, for Hamilton and many many more when he stood up, sometimes with a teammate and sometimes all alone.

Wisden people have no wisdom!!

For all those Sachin fans who felt as offended as I did because Sachin didnt find place in 100 best test innings.

Following are the parameters on which each innings was judged and then ranked. I am not sure of the weightage given to each so assuming equal weightage to all lets compare two innings.

Lara's 375 against England in 1993 and the other Sachin's 136 V Pakistan in 1999.

1.Batting base points

Assuming that this means absolute runs scored and  considering 400 to be equal to 1, we get  375 == 0.9375

136 == 0.34

So Lara's score 0.9375 and Sachin's 0.34. Lara's innings chosen to be in top100 at this point is fair enough.

2.Pitch index

Again name doesnt help much. Guessing it to mean the no of runs scored/per wicket lost on the pitch.

For WI V Eng Pitch Index comes out to be 81.9333

For Ind V Pak Pitch Index comes out to be 25.9

So sachin scored 136 on a pitch that had average of 25.9 and Lara scored 375 on a pich with a average of 81.933. So sachin' sscore for this one will be 136/25.9=5.21 and for Lara it will be 375/81.933=4.577. Total scores this far. Sachin 1 and Lara 1.

3.Bowling quality index

Its Fraser,Lewis,Tufnell and Caddick V Akram, Waqar, Saqlain and Afridi.

Total wickets, bolwing averages everything will suggest that Pakistan bowling attack is better. So this one goes to Sachin.

4.Percentage of score index

Lara 63.2%. Sachin 52.7. So this one goes to Lara.

5.Point of entry index

Lara came in at 1-11 and Sachin at 2-6 so this one will go to Sachin.

6.After point of entry index

Lara had partnerships of 179,183,219.

Sachin had partnerships of 44,23,9,136,36.

I guess this index means how much support he got from teammates. So this one should also go to Sachin.

7.Wickets falling at crease index

For Lara it was 3

For Sachin it was 4.

So sachin gets this one too.

8.Support index

If you see After point of entry index it would suggest that Sachin got less support and should get the benefit here too.

9.Shepherding of tail enders index

Lara was the fifth man out. So no question of tailenders by then unless they playing 7 bowlers ;).

Sachin was the 7th man out, so only person who could have done any sort of shepherding is Sachin.

10.Highest score index

For both players it was the highest score of the innings. So its a tie.

11.Match status index

WI drew the match whereas India sadly lost it. So this one would go to Lara inpite of the fact that cricket is not a one man's game. And India losing doent make Sachin's innings any less great than it is. Still rules are rules. So this one to Lara.

12.Result contribution index

Sachin definitely didnt contribute to loose but still India lost and Lara drew the match so again Lara gets this one.

So in case i have done my primary mathematics course correctly and assuming equal weightage to all criterias we declare Sachin as winner against 10th best innings of all times. There are still 90 lesser innings than Lara's and no place for Sachin, what a shame!!

PS- Lara is a great batsmen and I am in no way undervaluing his innings. Chose this innings to compare just because it was easy to find stats for it.

People throw stones, you turn them into milestones!!

Long awaited. Had to write about him. My childhood hero whom i grew up watching. Life still comes to a standstill when he bats. So presenting some never fading memories.

# India V SA (Hero Cup Semifinal)SA needs 6 runs of the last over. A million dollar question, Azhar will give the ball to? Answer:How could he? No way, he cant bowl the last over. But in the end it proved out to be one of the greatest gambles ever taken.That curly haired boy bowled a perfect last over to give India a 2 run victory.

#India V NZ (Auckland)Sachin sent to open the innings for the first time due to absence of Siddhu. Some players are known for strokeplay, some for timing, some for sheer butchery. Tendular displayed all three traits at will.

# Australia in India (1998)No cricket lover can forget this. This was the year in which Sachin scored as many centuries and runs which many people do not score in their whole careers. Publicised as Sachin V Warne series. Warne definitely had a dream start in Chennai Test match first innings. But after this he started dreaming about Sachin. Sachin hit him all over the park with utmost authority,grace and ease. This didnt stop in India ,later in Sharjah he played two of the best innings in ODI. Sharjah series will be remembered for two things. Sachin and Tony Greig.This was the headlines "Sachin Tendulkar beat Australia, and won the Coca-Cola Trophy for India, on his 25th birthday.". Such was the Sachin storm that even 11 Australians, a Pakistani umpire and even a sandstorm werent enough.

# India V Zimbabwe(1998, Sharjah)You can call it Olonga's bad luck or whole Zimbabwe's bad luck that Henry Olonga got Sachin out of a short ball. Anyways what followed in the next match will haunt Olonga throughout hs life, in other words Warne has company :P. Sachin singlehandedly humbled Zimbabwe. He hit olonga,strang to every part of the ground. Even Ganguly's words could not abate the storm.

#Pakistan in India(1999,First Test)India needing some 271 runs to win were the favourites until they were 6/2 and then 82/5 but still match was not in Pakistan's hands as Sachin was still at the crease. He single handedly with a little support from Mongia took India within striking distance. India were 254/6 when the pain became unbearable. Years and Years of carrying Indian team on his back could be seen today. And in a rush to get over with it he played a shot which he would wish he never played. Our last 3 batsmen couldnt score the remaining 17 runs and in the end it was just 12 runs short of being one of the greatest innings of all times.

#World Cup 2003 Tendulkar's return was written off by everyone. And after the dismal NZ series Indian team was struggling. But Champions are those who rise when everone else is falling. He came back all guns blazing. A six of caddick through mid-wicket was a sight to watch. But the moment was India V Pakistan. India were chasing 287. Pakistan could hope for an easy victory especially when you have Wasim,Waqar,Shoaib,Razzak. But do these matter? The day belonged to someone else. He derailed Rawalpindi express in his first over itself with a six over deep point and followed by a classical straight drive.Rest is.....history.

#VB series final 2007.So Dhoni's young brigade wasnt showing much promise. What do we do now? He rose to the occassion yet one more time. Mind you, he is going to do the same again in next final ;).

Duckworth-Lewis System Revisited.

For the benefit of those who dont know what Duckworth-Lewis system means..It is a method used in the game or cricket to derive approximate score a team needs to score if match is shortened due to some match interruption.

The two main assests that duckworth system looks at are:

• Wickets
• Overs

Fair enough as these two are the most important assets in a cricket match. 

Now look at the scenario Bangladesh has 5 overs left and 3 wickets remaining(doesnt matter whoever it is) against Australian bowling and say if Australia has 5 overs remaining and 3 wickets remaining (Ricky Ponting,Craig White,Brett Lee, Stuart Clarke) against Bangladesh bowling.

Which one would you think more favourable to get to the target?? ;). Current duckworth-lewis system rates them as equally favourable by giving them equal targets. But shouldnt we take care of the fact that may be Australian wickets are valued more than the Bangladeshi wickets.

So you have the problem statement. But whats the solution to it? Okay i am not just a quizmaster here. Lets try to solve this together.

So what are the most important assets in a cricket match.

• Wickets
• Overs

Did I write the same as Mr Duckworth and Mr Lewis? :P.  Okay, lets give these guys credit for guessing the right assets. But these assets are not of equal value for each team. Take this for example:  Is a 2-bhk in Delhi  same as a 2-bhk in New York?? If your answer is no, your answer is same as mine.Okay lets start then.

• Overs are important but we should also take care whether out of the remaining overs we have a powerplay? What say? If first batting team had got 3 powerplays and second team got 2 and match is shortened, it doesnt look fair.
• If batsmen to follow is Rahul Dravid or Yuvraj Singh. I dont mean any disrespect for Dravid, infact i am a great fan of him and his game. I just meant to bring to notice the strike rate and form of batsmen to follow. So we can look at str. rate/ Bat Avg of the batsmen to follow for last 5 innings.
• Opposition bowling. However great a batsmen is, you always have a greater chance of scoring against Sreesanth than Brett Lee or Nathan Bracken or Dale Steyn. So we can incorporate last 5 innings of bowler.
• Or if its difficult to include individual performances...lets take average runs made by the team in last 5 innings and average runs conceeded by bowling team in last 5 overs.

I would just like to conclude by saying that Duckworth-Lewis system is by far the best system we have now for ODI but i think due  to changing environment like inclusion of powerplays and  increasing differences in talent pool of different countries, its time we include these factors in calculating the total. We dont want some day Hongkong beating Australia just because they had wickets left even though those wickets are not worth it.