Quote on Cricket

George Bernard Shaw: 'The English, not being a spiritual people, invented cricket to give themselves some idea of eternity'

Left is right

Akash Chopra once again with his highly informative column, this time talks about facing left arm bowlers.

But as soon as the ball starts swinging in to the right-hander, in the air and off the surface, a host of new possibilities open up. As a batsman your first instinct is to get the pad out of the way, because the leg-before is a left-arm swing bowler's bread-and-butter dismissal. So you tend to play inside the line, and sometimes even with a short forward stride to ensure that you play with the bat.

It's easier to go a lot more forward, and probably outside the line, to a right-arm inswing bowler, but you can't do that with a left-armer for two reasons. One, since you're standing with your stance open, it's almost impossible to go that far across, and second, and more importantly, the natural swing tends to finish within the stumps because of the angle the ball is bowled from. A right-arm inswing bowler tends to bowl from wider of the crease and the angle takes the ball down the leg stump, but that's not the case with the left-arm bowler.

The toughest part of facing a left-armer is when the ball is swinging in the air and off the surface. This allows the bowler to pitch it way outside the off stump. Sometimes it shapes back in and on other occasions it just holds its line. Both can be dangerous. Under normal circumstances, if the ball is pitched way outside off stump it doesn't come in enough after pitching to be lethal. It's a fine line, though. An inch to one side is too much, and an inch to the other puts it in the danger zone. We saw the batsmen feeling for the ball a lot in the last two Tests. It wasn't because they couldn't judge the line; it was more because they were worried about these crucial inches.

If all this isn't complicated enough, there's more in the left-arm seamer's armoury. Once the ball gets a little old, he can come around the stumps and cause problems of a different sort. The law that says "the ball doesn't come in if it pitches this far outside the off stump" doesn't hold true anymore because of the point of delivery. The natural angle takes the ball into the batsman. So even if it doesn't really swing, the angle is enough to put doubts in the batsman's mind

http://content-www.cricinfo.com/columns/content/current/story/305838.html

Moores' solution to England sledging row: turn down the mics | England v India 2007 | Guardian Unlimited Sport

Moores thinks that stump mikes have to be turned down. What a ridiculous idea ? Classic case of cutting nose for the cold.
he is not saying that it reduced the sledging. In fact I say keep the mikes on all the time so that everyone including the TV viewers can hear the inane and banal chatter that goes on. That will be more effective in reducing the chatter.

Extract:
The England coach, Peter Moores, has responded to criticism of his side's non-stop chatter during the second Test against India at Trent Bridge by suggesting that the game might be better served if the stump microphones were turned down.

Speaking in the aftermath of the fractious seven-wicket defeat by the tourists, Moores said: 'There must be some things that are left on the field to be fair to the players. They should be allowed to go out there and play the game without being worried that everything they actually say is going to be broadcast. It's something we've discussed as a management team and we've spoken to the match referee about it.'"

Moores' solution to England sledging row: turn down the mics | England v India 2007 | Guardian Unlimited Sport:

ZK and RPS...hunting together.

Ram Mahesh writes on the classic swing produced by Zaheer Khan and RPSingh in the first two matches against England.

Disguise is everything. Neither changes his action or slants his wrist noticeably: for the batsmen looking for cues, few, if any, appear. Zaheer, at times, drags his fingers down the inside of the ball for the outswinger to the right-hander, but it’s done so fast, it’s barely detectable.

The least discussed aspect has been their pace. Swing bowlers tend to hold the ball further back in their fingers — Damien Fleming said he rested it in the hollow between the thumb and his first two fingers — to release the ball with back-spin. This controls the seam, keeping it upright, but robs the delivery of pace.

R.P. Singh has hit the high 80s (mph), while Zaheer has been timed in the mid 80s. It’s an exceptional effort to produce swing at this pace. And at this pace — as quick as their English counterparts, incidentally — the batsman has little time to adjust; his already difficult task of playing as forward as possible as late as possible made incalculably harder.

Length is crucial, and it is here that many falter. Swing presupposes a full length; but, a full length permits driving. It’s the classic contest — the drive against the swinger. It makes for enriching viewing, having as it does levels of strategy, skill, bluff, and execution.

Only bowlers of confidence and daring can play at this table; pertinent then that no English bowler, not even Ryan Sidebottom, landed it as full and swung it as much as Zaheer and R.P. Singh.

URL : http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/02/stories/2007080261742000.htm