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Ali’s guile tormenting India
Unlike Olympic athletes, cricketers avoid media glare
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Gavaskar escapes unhurt in car crash
Gurmail finally gets award after applying for 9 yrs
Heena says her hard work has been rewarded
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Ali’s guile tormenting India
The Lord’s Test, in which the Indians battled through difficult conditions, was just an aberration. Worryingly, when the conditions are making the ball swing and seam, Indian batsmen are likely to struggle to survive two sessions, let alone a full day.More worryingly, when the conditions are bland and dry, the Indian batsmen have struggled against spin. James Anderson and Stuart Broad have picked up 37 Indian wickets in the four Tests, out of the 76 that have been taken by the bowlers. This is not a huge surprise — Indian batsmen, brought up in un-swinging conditions, don’t like movement in the air and off the pitch.
It’s clear that the Indians have decided to hit Ali out of the attack — they don’t want him to settle at all. This was clear from the first day of the first Test, right from his first stint, when he came to bowl the 23rd over of the innings, when Cheteshwar Pujara attacked him first-ball. Ali didn’t have much to do on the greentop at Lord’s, but he became a huge force at Southampton; it was the aggression of the Indians, their desire to hit him out of the attack, that gave him more wickets than his bowling merited. He got two wickets in the first innings — and both due to horrible shots by two Mumbaikars. Rohit Sharma went down the track and tried to hit a harmless ball for six, but was caught at mid-off; Ajinkya Rahane then tried to hit a bad ball for six and was caught. India conceded a lead of 239, England set them a target of 445, and were able to bring the fielders in close to the bat when Ali bowled. In the first innings, he got two wickets when the batsmen attacked; in the second, he got six when the batsmen defended. This was salt on India’s wounds. He didn’t have to bowl in the first innings at Old Trafford. In the second, though, he got Pujara defending, and Rahane and Dhoni attacking. Moeen Ali has 19 wickets at 22.94 from the series. This puts him below Anderson and above Broad — but Ali has the best strike rate of the three, a wicket every 38.7 balls. He’s become a threat — and that threat would be amplified here at The Oval, which has a wicket that spinners relish the most in England. What’s the secret of Ali’s success?
Speed is one factor. In late 2012, when Monty Panesar dismembered the Indian batting in the Mumbai Test, he was bowling at a fair pace. Panesar bowled at a speed of 56.7mph in that game; the Indian spinners were slower in the air — Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan bowled at a shade over 53mph in the first innings. The second innings speeds of the Indian spinners makes for fascinating reading — the sample size is small because the England innings had just 9.4 overs, but Ashwin now bowled at 56.2, Ojha at 59, and Harbhajan at 55.5 mph. The three, clearly, were trying to ape Panesar’s method. At Southampton, Ali too was quick in the air — 55.6 and 55.3 mph in the two innings; at Old Trafford, he bowled at 56.8mph. The Indian duo of Ashwin and Jadeja, only marginally slower, were much less effective. After losing at Old Trafford, Dhoni said: “It is important to be positive… we will lose a few wickets, but he is quite consistent, keeps pitching in the same areas. At the same time we will have to put pressure back on him. If in doing that you lose a few wickets that is still good for you because that pushes the opposition to use their fast bowlers more. That is something we will have to follow.” “He’s bowled at a good pace, and consistently in good areas,” says Ashley Giles, the former England spinner. “He challenges both edges of the bat — he can spin the ball, challenging the inside edge. But with the pace he puts on the ball, he can also run the ball pass the outside edge, bringing the slip and keeper into play.” “Moeen is bowling it quicker, so he’s not giving the batsmen a chance to just milk him,” says Geoff Boycott. “He’s getting plenty of revolutions on the ball.” Ali has been working with Ian Bell, a very good player of spin, and has found that he must bowl quicker. His speed, and the carelessness of the Indians, have turned Ali from an irritant to a threat. MSD 3 defeats away from equalling Lara, Fleming's Test record MS Dhoni is on the verge of equalling an ignominious record in possession of Stephen Fleming, the former Black Caps skipper, that of maximum number of away Test defeats while leading his country. Fleming and Brian Lara with 16 overseas Test losses have the worst record among international skippers. Dhoni now has 13 away Test defeats as a leader under his belt. Three more overseas Test defeats would put him alongside captains with worst Test records. Agencies
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Unlike Olympic athletes, cricketers avoid media glare
london, August 12 As Mahendra Singh Dhoni walks in, a very large man shadows him, keeping a sharp eye for fans who might seek autographs, or journalists who might seek a quote. Dhoni is not unaccustomed to bodyguards, but on this tour, this giant of a man — built like the men who bash each other in wrestling entertainment on TV at night — follows him right to the door of the hall in which the captain discusses the day’s play with the media. N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, said last year that press conferences are a “goodwill exercise”. Dr Redhills Baba, the media manager here, is a very efficient and pleasant man; he’s been given the charge of managing these “goodwill exercises”, and he does the job with severe fastidiousness. It might be mentioned here that Dr Redhills Baba is a member of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, of which Srinivasan is the president; and that Dr Baba’s son is contracted with the IPL team Chennai Super Kings, of which Srinivasan is the owner. These are no secrets, and not necessarily irrelevant. These media interactions are carefully managed events, sterile and bland when compared to a chat with wrestlers Sushil Kumar or Yogeshwar Dutt after their bouts, or with boxers Mandeep Jangra or Pinki Rani Jangra after their boxing rounds. A chat on tactics with Dutt or table tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal is enlightening; a discussion with an Indian cricketer can often be mystifying — as when Dhoni said, after the defeat at Old Trafford, that he was “quite happy” with how India have “progressed”. But comments by cricketers follow solid economic principles — the scarcity of an object makes it priceless. The scarcity of a cricketer’s comments, thus, makes them valuable. It’s easy to blame the cricketers for many things, but it’s perhaps not quite fair to blame them for trying to stay away from the media. “At one time, players used to be very close to the media,” Kapil Dev provides a cricketer’s perspective. “In those days, the allowances of the media people used to be very little – so we’d ask them to join us when we would go out for meals, or when we were invited out to lunch or dinner.” However, he says, things changed when the media grew in numbers, and some journalists started “misquoting players, or writing baseless stories, or stories on personal matters”. Perhaps it’s this distrust, plus the feeling that they don’t “need” the media —which has become unmanageably large anyway — which makes cricketers seem quite standoffish. How would, say, table tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal react if he started getting a hundred phone calls a day, or if fans and media dogged him every step each time he stepped out of his home? “Well, cricketers are superstars, they have the money!” laughs Sharath Kamal. “If we too had the money, maybe we wouldn’t be…” he adds before breaking into more laughter. Really? “No, not really,” Sharath Kamal sobers up. “No, it’s just the mindset. If you play cricket, you just feel that you’re a star.” “You cannot have hard feelings about cricket, the sport is popular and it’s earned it,” he adds.
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Gavaskar escapes unhurt in car crash
LONDON, August 12 Gavaskar was in a luxury car with commentator Mark Nicholas and his close friend Chandresh Patel when he met with the accident. It is learnt that Gavaskar was sitting on the left side of the rear while Nicholas was sitting beside the driver when a car coming from the opposite end collided with their car. Gavaskar's driver, who had reportedly dozed off, was slow to react on a wet road and a late manoevre did avoid a head-on clash but the speeding vehicle slammed on to the other car. Incidentally, it was Gavaskar, who had to shout to get the drowsy driver back in his senses as the others were also fast asleep. Though the Jaguar car was badly damaged, all the passengers left unscathed and the visibly shaken trio soon took a train from East Midland Park for London. It was reported that Gavaskar, who had earlier warned the driver of rash driving in soggy and skiddy conditions, was reading a newspaper when the accident happened while the other two passengers were comfortably sleeping. “God has saved us. There was torrential rain and our car was being driven very fast. Thankfully, no one was hurt although the accident was very, very scary,” Gavaskar was quoted in media reports. “I was visibly shaken after the accident,” Gavaskar said. Gavaskar reached his London flat in two hours time after the crash and having left the incident behind is gearing up to take the mike for the fifth and final Test starting August 15.
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Gurmail finally gets award after applying for 9 yrs
Jalandhar, August 12 The Arjuna awardee said that only because the government decided to make the selection on the basis of points from this year onwards, his name was nominated for the award. "As the new system has become more transparent and prevents favouritism, my name appeared in the first list. Otherwise I could have missed the honour this time too," said Gurmail, who is a Superintendent of Police with the Punjab Police. Talking about the current situation of the Indian team, Gurmail said that he did not believe in the idea of hiring foreign coaches. He added that the government should start taking advantage of the expertise and the experience of the veteran Indian players. “We know our boys best and can provide them with the best training. The government spends a lot of money on hiring foreign coaches; the same amount could be spent on upgrading the infrastructure and on the welfare of the Indian players," he added.
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Heena says her hard work has been rewarded
Patiala, August 12 The Patiala girl, the first Indian pistol shooter to be ranked Number One in the world, has been nominated for this year's Arjuna Award. “I am very happy. I have put in a lot of hard work and it's good that my commitment towards the game has been recognised,” Sidhu told The Tribune. “The award will go a long way in helping me stay focused and win many more medals for the country in the coming years,” said the 24-year-old. “I dedicate this award to my husband Ronak Pandit, who is also my trainer. He has ignored everything else just to be by my side. Ronak is always there for me to help me technically,” said Sidhu, who is currently training in Pune. Talking about the CWG, Heena said, “Once I was in the final, I missed out as the concentration and my preparation for the final medal event was simply not there.” Sidhu added that she was totally concentrating on the upcoming Asian Games and the World Cup. Speaking on the award, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh said that the Patiala shooter had put in a lot of hard work to become technically a solid shooter.
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The Lord’s Test, in which the Indians battled through difficult conditions, was just an aberration.
Worryingly, when the conditions are making the ball swing and seam, Indian batsmen are likely to struggle to survive two sessions, let alone a full day.More worryingly, when the conditions are bland and dry, the Indian batsmen have struggled against spin.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad have picked up 37 Indian wickets in the
four Tests.
Jalandhar, August 12
Patiala, August 12
However, the 19 wickets that Moeen Ali has taken should hurt the Indians the most. It was Ali who turned the screws on India on that last day at Southampton, changing England’s fortunes with his second innings 6/67.
God has saved us. There was torrential rain and our car was being driven
very fast. Thankfully, no one was hurt although the accident was very,
very scary.
Harare: