In
an Onedayer, Tillakaratne Dilshan urged Suraj Randiv in Sinhala with the
comment “oney nam, no-ball ekak danna puluwan" ( you can bowl a no ball !)
with the fourth delivery of the 35th over to the facing batsman Virender
Sehwag. Sehwag did hit a six – but by a funny rule, the no ball counted
first, India won and the runs scored subsequently were not considered.
Strange, for – the ball was considered but the shot off that ball was not to be
!
Strange
that great batsman recently played his maiden Ranji match for Haryana, having
to move out of Delhi…..
Crowd trouble forced two interruptions in play
during the second T20I at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack as India slid to a
six-wicket defeat against South Africa. Play was held up for more than 50
minutes during South Africa's chase after spectators, largely from one section
of the stadium, began throwing plastic bottles onto the field. There were waves
of bottle throwing – finally play resumed after hold-ups and after the police had cleared the section of the
crowd causing the disruption. Odisha CM Naveen Pattnaik has ordered a probe into the
crowd trouble and the OCA Secretary stated that they have decided to ban water
bottles and water pouches during matches. The height of the fence separating
spectators and the ground will also be increased. Odisha Cricket Association
(OCA) further reacted sharply to Sunil
Gavaskar's plea for banning international cricket at the Barabati Stadium.
“Sunil Gavaskar is not the authority to take a decision about venues. He is
just a commentator,” they said !!
Barbati is
not alone and not the first …. Sunil Gavaskar was pelted in 1984-85 at Calcutta
and he vowed not to play there. 1996
World Cup Semi final was abandoned and Lankans awarded the match. In 1999, Shoaib Akhtar collided with Sachin,
appealed and had him run out – crowd erupted and last stages were played with
all spectators removed out of the ground.
In earlier
days have seen people running on to the crowd ~ remember half a dozen people
running to greet Gundappa Vishwanath reaching milestone in a Test. In later days, the fence was raised and had
another inner ring of fence, making it virtually impossible for anyone to scale
them and enter – further police cops on duty would stand facing the crowd and
would mildly lathi-charge viewers !!
Somehow not
happy in reading that the swashbuckler Sehwag is playing for Haryana – the match
ending in a run feast draw. Haryana made 335 with Sehwag 92 and Rana making
157.
Maharashtra made 570/6 - centuries from Ankit Bawne and Chirag Khurana
ensuring a first-innings lead for
Maharashtra in their Ranji Trophy opener against Haryana in Gahunje. Only two
innings had been possible in the match, with a bulk of the second day being
rained out.
Possibly the
most attacking batsman to play for India, Virender Sehwag made 8586 runs in 180
innings with 23 tons; and 8273 runs in 251 ODIs with 15 hundreds. The most remarkable aspect of Sehwag's career of course has
been his ability to build massive scores at breathtaking speed. Sehwag holds
multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket
(319), which was also the fastest triple century in the history of
international cricket (reached 300 off only 278 balls) as well as the fastest
250 by any batsman (in 207 balls against Sri Lanka on 3 December 2009 at the
Brabourne stadium in Mumbai). He also holds the distinction of being one of
four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket and
the only one to score two triple centuries and take a five-wicket innings haul.
In March 2009, Sehwag smashed the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in
ODI cricket, from 60 balls.
Today, there
is an interesting feature in Cricinfo ~ an interview of Sehwag. Incidentally, he speaks of his Ranji debut in
Feb 1998 at Chepauk. Tamil Nadu
captained by Robin Singh made 473 with Diwakar Vasu making 148. Sehwag scalped the left-handed Woorkeri
Raman. He did not get to bat as match
was halted with Delhi at 183/4 – Ajay Sharma and Mithus Minhas at the
crease. Here are some excerpts from that : Sometimes I get
confused about which exactly should be treated as my first Ranji match. I made
my first-class debut in Chennai, against Tamil Nadu, but didn't get to bat when
the match was abandoned in controversial circumstances. So I had to wait till
the next season to bat in a Ranji game for the first time, so I shall talk
about both the matches.
Well, it was in
January 1998 that I returned from playing the Under-19 World Cup and soon after
coming back was selected for Delhi's Ranji Trophy Super League match against
Tamil Nadu. Those days, Ranji Trophy used to be played on a zonal basis
followed by a Super League. I had missed the North Zone league due to Under-19
camp so was excited to be making my Ranji Trophy debut, alongside some of the
stalwarts who were up against quite a formidable Tamil Nadu team.
We fielded for
one-and-a-half days. I bowled, I got one wicket - a prize scalp of WV Raman. Then
when we started batting and I was waiting for my turn. We were four or five
down, I was padded up and then something happened. On the third evening,
somebody tampered with the wicket and our captain Ajay Sharma and Mithun Manhas
were batting. After that the Delhi captain refused to bat on. We complained
against the Tamil Nadu team that they had tampered the pitch and because of
that we were not going to play the remaining match. As a youngster, I was only
waiting for my turn to bat. I really didn't know what all was happening. I was
sitting outside and I was talking to Mithun because he was my age and he told
me there were footmarks on good-length area. He said the marks will help the
offspinner, if he lands it there, he would be very difficult to face. I told
him, "Why are you worried about an offspinner, just step out and hit a
four or a six. Let's go out and play." He told me that it wasn't in his
hands and the captain and coach would take the decision.
Unfortunately
for me, Ajay Sharma and the coach, Maninder Singh Jaggi, refused to play the
next morning. It was followed by the BCCI banning both the teams for the rest
of the tournament, so we couldn't play any more matches that season. My dream
was still a dream, I couldn't bat in the game. I was still waiting to bat in
first-class cricket. This happened in February and I had to wait till October
or November for the next season to start to have a bat in Delhi's whites. I
played the first game against Haryana. I was still batting at No. 7 and scored
a hundred in my first innings.
Great batsman ~
sad to see him out of Indian Cricket and
playing Ranji
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
7th
Oct 2o15
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