I’ve been looking at Sri Lanka’s lineup and it seems decent for a team I thought had been in a lull since the end of their golden era (currently 7th in the world out of 10). Test stats for their top 7 shows 6/7 are at or nearly at a Test average of 35, which is to say, good enough for Test matches.
I watched Lagaan yesterday and I think was more prepared to understand the rules thanks to this thread. I still don’t fully get it but maybe I’m 80% there.
so some cricket things… im looking into buying a cricket bat and joining up with a league in the area, or maybe just practicing in the nets.
i’ll probably need to buy kid’s gear given how small i am lol
BAN vs SL Test Match: looking very much like a draw going into day 5. fairly unlikely that both sides will complete their 2nd innings in the next day. slow paced innings altho impressive endurance shown by the batsmen, esp Mathews, Tamim, Mushfiqur. the Chattogram heat is mid-90s Fahrenheit, feels like 105.
Sri Lanka 397 & 39/2 (17.1 ov)
Bangladesh 465
Day 4 - Sri Lanka trail by 29 runs.
SL 1st Innings
Kusal Mendis 54 off 131
Angelo Mathews 199 off 397
Dinesh Chandimal 66 off 148 Nayeem Hasan 6-105 (30 ov.)
BAN 1st Innings
Tamim Iqbal 133 off 218
Mushfiqur Rahim 105 off 282
Litton Das 88 off 189 Kasun Rajitha 4-60 (24.1 ov)
thinking about how interesting cricket is as an international sport from an era of a less integrated global economy, where all these radically different countries can still be extremely competitive.
different countries have different dominant body types, different pitch conditions and weather, different ball and bat manufacturers, etc… but a 5’4" Indian will hit centuries with an MRF bat and an SG ball, just like a 6’2" English player can hit centuries with a GM bat and a Dukes ball… AND the Indian can do it on an English grassy swing pitch and the English can do it on a dusty dry spin bowling pitch in India… just really impressive in a way.
(I don’t know many sports where the condition of the ground, the temperature, and the humidity of the air have such a huge impact on gameplay.)
[in fact I don’t know many sports at all where you can be 5’4" and be one of the greatest players to ever play the sport. There’s some talk about shorter players having more solid defense, whereas taller players have more swing power for the shorter formats of the game. similarly, a lighter bat will give you more bat speed and precision, but a heavier bat gives more shot power. interesting tradeoffs throughout!]
Been thinking about this more because I’ve been trying to figure out what cricket bat to buy lol. There’s Indian brands, UK, Aussie, etc etc.
A lot of what you mentioned makes me think of how cool soccer is. When I lived in Namibia, the sport was an obsession for almost everyone. I helps that their time zone makes it easy to watch European league matches live. Kids would play almost every day, even though the field was just sand and the heat consistently got up to 100. It was also cool to go to China, where soccer is also the most popular sport, and play games with my South African and Chinese coworkers.
i liked this piece on the spectacle, hype, and silliness of the Indian Premier League
If you’re privileged enough not to have to take the IPL seriously, don’t. That makes it fun. Considering the other reason for the IPL’s existence - vast amounts of money - is far removed from most of our realities, fun is all we have.
if ur interested in this thread at all, def recommend you pay $7 and check out some IPL matches on ESPN+. the regular season is wrapping up and heading into the playoffs. matches usually air about 10am EST, which is great if you slack off at work, and they have highlights/replays
the other two videos in this series are great as well. Nasser Hussain (former England captain) exploring the cricketing culture of Mumbai, which is to cricket as Rio de Janeiro is to soccer
BAN-SL test match #2 starting soon, will be on webcric as usual
also BCCI released squad lists for India’s T20I tour of South Africa as well as their one-off test against England. most notable is
the return of Cheteshwar Pujara to the test match side (he’s 34 and was dropped but has been killing it in English County cricket, with a 120 average (!!!))
and the international T20 debut of Umran Malik, who has been blowing up the speedometer in his IPL matches. not common to find a guy who can bowl 150 kph at will. one of his coaches said: “I don’t see him slowing down. He was born in a Ferrari and will drive the Ferrari”
it’s nice to see these two teams which are sort of at the periphery of world cricket showcase some good performances. really a pleasure to watch Mushfiqur bat, his technique is really solid
watching these highlights, in addition to Anil Kumble (4th most alltime Test wickets), the wicketkeeper is Parthiv Patel (known for being one of the shortest international cricketers at just 5’3")
things that are interesting only to me:
got on a tangent and decided to look at the top 25 alltime wicket takers in Test cricket, by bowling style
Abbreviations - Pace bowling:
RF = right arm fast
RFM = right arm fast medium
LF / LFM = left arm fast / left arm fast-medium
/S = swing specialist (as opposed to pace or seam)
Spin bowling:
ROB = right arm off-break
RLB = right arm leg-break
/G = googly specialist (turns the opposite direction)
SLO = left-arm orthodox (mirror image of ROB)
thoughts:
You can see cricket’s historic bias towards right arm bowlers, which is only recently being disrupted in the 21st century. Because (a) outswingers are easier to bowl than inswingers, (b) a right arm outswinger moves away from a right arm batsman, which is generally a better wicket-taking delivery, and (c) most batsmen are right handed; So right arm pace dominated.
(although Pakistan, as often with pace bowling, was ahead of the curve - Wasim Akram swung the ball in and out, conventional and reverse.)
this is well known, but you can’t get away with being a great pace bowler if you’re not bowling at least fast-medium.
plain old medium pace (<125 kph / 80 mph) is more commonly seen in club cricket, or a batting allrounder from before 2010: someone like a Ganguly or Waugh who bats primarily but is brought on to give the true pacers a break, and maybe to sneak a wicket through change of pace.
Off break is far more common than leg break, and left-arm unorthodox is so rare as to not be present. altho… maybe that will change.
only name on this list I was completely unfamiliar with was Makhaya Ntini, but it’s interesting to read about him because he was South Africa’s first black cricketer, a legend in the country, and also apparently had a rape conviction overturned (which I have no real information about)
Kumble was really unique, being not only a legspinner but a legspinner who often barely turned the ball, and still getting a pile of wickets. Really really smart use of flight, drift, line and length. By contrast, the other leggie on the list, Shane Warne, was known for getting tons of turn.
Bangladesh (52 ov) 365 & 166/7
Sri Lanka 506
Day 5 - Session 2: Bangladesh lead by 25 runs.
There are nearly 40 overs left in the day, and Bangladesh is crashing… they need to hold on as long as possible and score as many runs as possible, to prevent Sri Lanka from being able to chase their lead before the day’s play is completed
it is… unlikely they will be able to make much out of their last 3 wickets. looking like a likely SL win
England’s vaunted “red-ball reset” begins, and their new captain Ben Stokes hopes to reverse their putrid Test match form (9th place out of 9 in the World Test Championship*)
the report is… mixed.
England bowled out New Zealand for a startlingly low 132, in just 40 overs, on the back of a standout performance by veteran Jimmy Anderson. So far so good? Except they promptly collapsed to 116/7 in their turn at bat. this one might be over by day 3.
The World Test Championship is kind of like… a league competition that was created a few years back for Test matches, which were traditionally just bilateral matches. each WTC sums up all the qualifying Test matches over 2 years and assigns point values for wins/draws, and a global winner. imagine if an F1 season took place over two years.
Jump in physiotherapist please.” / Twitter
