England

Why The Boundary Rule Needs To Be Amended

July 17, 2019 Happenings

Firstly, kudos to England on winning their first ICC Cricket World Cup. Both teams played like world champions and it seemed that none was willing to relent despite the pressure situation, obviously since both squads were aiming for their very first world cup success. Nevertheless, let’s say if I had to pick the quality of ground fielding I’d pick New Zealand over England. They were so solid at ball possession that at one time chasing a target of 241 seemed very daunting, no matter how good the running between the wickets was the Kiwis were making it harder to take twos. Then England needed 9 runs off the last 3 balls, and the overthrow gave them extra runs. That fateful overthrow from deep midwicket by Guptill, which hit Stoke’s bat on his second run and went for the boundary, will be long remembered. That opened the floodgates and clinched England that infamous tied score.

Going back in time, I feel for England when they were thrice runner-ups, in a sense of nostalgia, this world cup triumph of theirs was 40 years in the making! In 1979 England faced the mighty West Indies who won their second successive Prudential World Cup. Then in 1987, they were again outdone by Australia in the finals of the Reliance World Cup in Kolkata. Finally, in 1992, it would be Pakistan’s moment to lift the Benson & Hedges World Cup beating England. Their lowest point would probably be the 2015 world cup when England was eliminated in the group stage losing 4 of their 6 matches. All in all, the English were knocking the doors of world cup glory for ages, and it seemed odd for the birthplace of cricket to have never achieved this feat. Well, not anymore! Though I would have loved for them to win without all the hoopla and undue attention on the controversial boundary rule clearly meant for T20 cricket.

Background of The Boundary Rule

The entertainment value of the 2019 World Cup finals notwithstanding, as I mentioned, it came with its fair share of controversies and went down to the wire….or should I say the boundary. YES, I’m referring to the maniacal rule of the ICC in awarding the victory to the team that hit more boundaries in the match. So for the uninitiated, a boundary is not just the perimeter of the playing field but it is also referred to the scoring shot that a batsman hits to for four runs or over and beyond the perimeter for a maximum six runs. That disputable rule from Appendix F – Paragraph 13 says, and I quote:

In the event of the teams having the same score after the Super Over has been completed, if the original match was a tie under the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern method, paragraph 15 below shall apply. Otherwise, the team whose batsmen hit the most number of boundaries combined from its two innings in both the match and the Super Over shall be the winner.

ICC Men’s Twenty20 International Playing Conditions Effective 30 September 2018

Just in case if you’re wondering, that reference to Paragraph 15 further complicates matters in the event everything including the boundaries are tied despite the super-over. It’s so complicated that I just decided to post the screenshot from the rule book.

ICC Rule - Para 15
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Don’t Dream, It’s Over!

July 10, 2019 Happenings
ICC World Cup 2019

As the Indian team was reduced to 5 for 3 wickets in the semi-finals against New Zealand today and as I pretty much shut myself off of every medium that broadcast the match scores, these words from the famous Crowded House song began to linger in my mind. I harboured a dream that India would have a walkover victory of this World Cup the way the team had performed superbly in the big games. i.e. Australia, South Africa, Pakistan. In comparison, a score of 240 didn’t seem daunting with 9 batsmen, huh. But it’s a loss whichever way you look at it and we have to wait for 4 years for the coveted cricket trophy to come home. So don’t stop dreaming until then.

Fans will have funny ways to show their contempt to the losing team, somehow their shades of emotions are always in black and white and they would perhaps judge this Indian team on the wrong side of the game. In all the hoopla they’d be forgetting that the guys held out to the best of the best in the world and put up a fight against all odds to win all except 1 match in the league stage. That’s a great record.

So here’s some pouring of my utter exasperation arising out of India’s loss today. To begin with, no doubt this semi-final match would be best remembered in history for being a ‘two-day international’ due to the inclement weather of England. Whatever advantage that India could have got in the second half was lost completely during the second day’s play I feel. Would I have said that had India won the match? Not at all. Quite honestly, I can assure you, not just the fans but even the players would have felt the fatigue of continuing a match on a reserve day, that’s all. I thought ICC could have allowed a new game from the beginning on a new day, with the idea being, an ODI should be played within a single day’s time frame. But the less said the better about ICC rules now.

I would like to say this without any bias or malice against any other cricketing nation, that India were truly the champions of this world cup edition considering the challenges they were faced with and how they were dealt with by men with sheer teamwork. Kudos to the coaching staff on this too who rarely get the spotlight. Despite the loss by 18 runs I still think Kohli’s men played with all their heart and soul and continued to keep a billion dreams of winning the cup afloat. Nevertheless this is how I will remember this world cup and India’s achievements in the days to come. Or at least until the next big Indian victory in a mega cricketing event!

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India’s Lack Of A Batting Specialist

April 21, 2019 Happenings

The BCCI just announced a provisional team for India that would take on the best teams in the hope of lifting the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, and I feel, they have picked a decent team. Unlike the last time when we won, the matches this time are in a round-robin format so I’m expecting some fierce contest. There were no surprises as far as the composition of the team was concerned but the batting lacks depth. I feel they’re short of a specialist batsman in the English conditions which would mean there’s too much reliance on the middle order, half-bat-half-bowler batsmen like Jadhav, Shankar and Jadeja. Sparing a thought for Vijay Shankar who has been pushed into the spotlight for no reason, but his lack of ODI experience just pales in comparison to Ambati Rayudu for the big stage matches such as the world cup. I think Rayudu’s selection would have made a huge difference when you consider the vulnerability of opening pairs to the seaming balls in the English conditions. And it’s still a possibility because this is just a provisional team.

Let us look into the details. Not only have England changed as a world-class team but if you look at how the pitches in England have behaved since the last world cup and analyze them broadly from the perspective of the home series you’ll realize the gravity of what I’m talking. It’s noteworthy, that there have been no less than 20 occasions in the English conditions where teams have posted 300+ totals, most significantly, 3 of those high-scoring ODIs have been 400+ totals. Under the context, I am baffled with the logic of going to an important tournament with a batsman short. Rayudu could have provided that extra leeway in the middle-order whilst chasing 300+ scores or when the batsmen at the top are struggling. His average of 47.05 in 55 ODIs with three 100s and a strike rate of 79.04 makes him an indispensable no.4 of the Indian cricket team. Conversely, India’s dependency on all-rounders is a worthy gamble given the fact that the England middle-order has promoted the likes of Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, and Moeen Ali. It remains to be seen how our all-rounders manage the world cup expectations playing on their merits. I will be tuned in!

India Batting Depth Analysis
India’s Batting Depth Analysis for the 2019 World Cup