May 19, 2006

Congrats Dravid !!


Dravid... a true enigma he is.. Ask any aspiring batsman what his dream is and invariably he would say "To win Man-of-the-match award for scoring match-winning hundred against test-playing nations." But, can you believe that Dravid could realize this dream only today, 10 years after he made his one-day debut? Nevertheless, his innings was a superb one.. one of the best by Indians recently.. Contradictory to his awards in the test arena, he was always a perfect bridesmaid in onedayers until recently.. Among the four different colored criteria, remove one and you can find enough instances of his reaching three of them, before today's match.

1) Remove red:
He has scored 5 match-winning hundreds against test-playing nations. But, in those matches, either his teammate or someone from the opposition played a blinding three-figure knock to get the man-of-the-match award, the latest one being Sehwag. Saurav did so twice and Sachin, Gayle and Sehwag have done it once each.

2) Remove blue:
He was awarded man-of-the-match award once for scoring hundred in a losing cause - against New Zealand in Taupo (1999). That match was a classic example of how stupid the trans-tasman cricket administrators think when they used to define their own rules for rain-affected matches. The match was evenly poised when NZ, chasing 258 under lights, were 168/3 in the 31st over. They had just lost a wicket and they required 90 off 116 balls. Then, boom... the lights went off.. it took a good 50 minutes for them to come back, by which 11 overs were "lost". Surely Duckworth-Lewis would have set a stiff target, but the NZ cricket board had their own rule, which is just based on simple run-rate.. which meant the revised target was 200 in 39 overs - another 32 off the 50 remaining balls. How ridiculous!! NZ lost Chris Cairns the next over after the play resumed and before victory, they lost Harris also. Who knows what would have happened with more sensible rule.. After the match, Sunny Gavaskar commented that the rule was ridiculous.. the home team can "turn-off" the light for convenient-enough time to menacingly reduce the target.. and then he said he just joked..

3) Remove green:
He has won man-of-the-match award on many occasions for his match-winning two-figure knocks against test-playing nations. Interestingly, most of them have come away from home.

4) Remove purple:
In 2004, he scored a good match-winning hundred against minnows UAE and was awarded the man-of-the match award.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The respect for dravid goes up.
However what was he doing opening the innings? Where are the others (i really do not know who.)

Anonymous said...

Dravid is the man, and kaif is playing decent after a long long time. I was thinking, when are they finally going to kick him out, but hopefully he plays like this in the next few games too. Wonder, when our Sachin will come back to the team in form

tt_giant said...

Dravid engayoo pootaan. range a thani!

Raju: if we were in in FL, maybe we could have gone for one of the matches in the carribean!?

Anonymous said...

world cup 2007 here is the link to buy tkts

Anonymous said...

http://www.circketworldcup.com

Raju said...

Sanjay, with Sachin out of team due to injury, the only other opener we have carried is Robin Uthappa.. He is raw and not tested much.. The team wanted to use 5 main bowlers, so Rahul adjusted the team composition by deciding to open.. he has done that quite a few times in the recent matches.. The series is kinda make-or-break for Sehwag and Kaif.. one of them would lose their position when sachin returns..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nitin, yeah.. Kaif's recent form was horrendous.. even in that game, he was trying hard to get out but WIndies thought may be his presence in the crease is beneficial to them.. ;) sachin was in good one-day form before this injury.. only his test form is worrisome..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deepak, I was thinking about World Cup, rather than this series.. Since my visa has expired, I cant even cross the border to Mexico or Canada before my next India visit.. Carribean-lam chance-ey ille..
-----------------------------------------------------------
anon, thanks for the link..

Anonymous said...

wow, good start for india in the 2nd odi, westindies needs to fight back. 50/4 now. looks like a easy win for india.

Anonymous said...

I take my previous comment back, doesn't look like an easy win for India.

Blabber-blogger said...

Cricket fever mmm ..
There was some hope of me watching it when in india.. here :( no way.. the technical grounds can be covered by you guys.. :))
me just got to say oolaalaa Rahul..

Raju said...

Nitin, heart-breaking loss.. the fortune of the match truly swung from one side to the other.. I dont support the 5-bowler theory in onedayers, in the absence of Sachin..
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nyneishia, the fever is catching up..