Of things that melt the heart

I came across a few articles today that made me go "aww" (just bear with me):

This one, where Muralitharan has this to say about not playing for CSK anymore:

"I played with them for three years and have several happy memories with the team. My wife is also from Chennai and she is upset with this change but it happens in the game. I will miss Chennai, my teammates and miraculous captain Dhoni," Muralitharan said.

"Chennai had the excellent captain, a wonderful team and tremendous support. We enjoyed playing for them and last year was memorable in which we won the IPL and Champions league. I have taken a lot of wickets for them," said the veteran, who has 515 ODI and 800 Test wickets in his kitty.

Aw, Murali. We'll miss you, too.

And then this, where Dhoni puts in his two cents on Albie Morkel's omission from the Saffer squad for the current ODI series:

Dhoni admitted that he was very surprised that South Africa no longer thought Morkel was good enough for one day cricket, "He is a very good player in the shorter version of the game and I have much respect for him."

[...]

"I don't know why he was not chosen, but I regard him as a very special player and guys with his ability are rare. We would like to have a versatile player with his ability in our team," said Dhoni.

Apparently, Albie responded to this:

In an interview to South African daily Beeld, Morkel said: "It was a great honour to hear that a player like Dhoni had good things to say about me. But I don't think the selectors will change their mind now."

I love you, CSK. I really do.


Which is why I'm glad that this year we managed to retain much of the old group (c'mon, in T20 parlance? Three years = old). I cannot imagine any other people turning out in the Startlingly Bright Yellow. It was rather sad, actually, to see Balaji and Muralitharan go, and kind of exhilarating to see the kind of possessive fondness Chennai fans have got for these people. Not just the Vijays and the Ashwins and the Muralitharans, but also the Albies and Husseys and Dougies (you will not believe just how popular Bollinger is 'round these parts).

Is ANYBODY really looking forward to this series?

What it says on the tin.

Aside from it being Muthu Muralitharan's last shindig in a long and illustrious career, is anybody really looking forward to the India v SL series starting tomorrow? This is the first Test series I'm going to be able to see after a long time - and reading stuff like this and this hasn't been really encouraging.

Particularly stuff like:

Who can stop Tillakaratne Dilshan from smashing a ton against this Indian attack? If he can play with controlled aggression, a hundred is there for the taking. And he can set the tempo by denting Ishant Sharma's already fragile confidence with a few boundary hits. It should be much fun watching Dilshan bat in this Test. Will he be over eager to attack? Can he show judicious shot selection?

Right. Riiiight. That's just gone beyond analysis and straiiight into 'eh-what-the-hell' snark.

So we've got a sucky bowling attack. So what?

I'm holding out for a Ishant five-for in the SL first innings. Why? Because I can. And I want some reason to look forward to the Test cricket, dammit.

(And because if I read "India's problem is its bowling", I'm going to implode. Hi, bandwagon people! Quieten a bit, whydontcha?)

Zip, Zap, Zoom

... and other such onomatopoeic expressions of 'where the hell did all that time go."

'Cause, really? I could've sworn that the Ill-Fated ODI series against Australia finished just now, and already we're in the final Test of a series against Sri Lanka, Dhoni scored his first Test century since the Stone Age (and it is a little scary when I mean that literally), everybody else is helping themselves to centuries apiece, Sreesanth, frickin' Sreesanth, back in the team and producing match-winning performances (not that, of course, I have anything against him or nothin'), India won its 100th ever Test win, and really, what?

Whatever happened to the deliciously slow build-up to Test matches, all that speculation, all that gathering of momentum. Conidering how much resources and how many brain cells are expended on each Test, you'd want to make each of them actually count, yeah?

Honestly? I can't blame Gambhir putting attending his sister's marriage before playing the third Test. After all, your sister gets married only once (hopefully).

Also, it means Murali Vijay gets to open, which, yay! I'd just spent a lot of time arguing with a friend a couple of days ago about how it was certain that Wasim Jaffer would make it ahead of Vijay -- experience, home ground, whatever -- but I'm super-happy he's gotten another chance at wearing the Test cap for India. Hopefully this time he'll get more than a couple of gritty forties and a Run-Out of Awesome.

Also? R Ashwin and Ashoke Dinda in the Twenty20 and ODI squads, leaving out Ishant Sharma. I heartily approve.

I was going to give some -- ostensibly -- deep insight about the first day of play at Mumbai, but then I came across this:



My first reaction was, "Holy hell, that's unhygienic!"

And then it all sunk in and a small part of me died inside.

Bee-yoo-ti-full stuff!

... Okay. So I spent the last few minutes of the match trying to come up with a witty name for the ecstatic, puppy-on-a-high blog post I was going to write, but in that cycle-gap between the end of the match and the presentation ceremony, Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan, cricket anchor for Neo Sports for as long as I can remember, made up my mind for me: "Bee-yoo-ti-full" he said. The game, the win, the venue, it was all simply bee-yoo-ti-full. He reminded me of a little kid caught in a stuffy suit in a boring studio with a boring-er Javagal Srinath and Dilip Vengsarkar (dude, wasn't he a selector, like, four months ago? No time to waste when it comes to making easy money) who wanted nothing more than to jump about and hoot and dance and scream. His voice trembled on the 'sensational's, his breathy 'phenomenal's had me raise my eyebrows, partly amused, partly wary. I love the guy's enthusiasm, despair for his obviously-wide but sparingly used vocabulary ("at this... point in time...") but honestly? I'm missing Harsha Bhogle. Now there's a guy who knows how to be enthusiastic about the game without sounding young. Plus, he uses the most delicious metaphors. The writer in me loves listening to his commentary.


... But I digress.


So we won the fourth ODI. Yay.


I'm not going to talk through the match, since I didn't see it live throughout, but apparently India won the toss (again, despite Dhoni changing his call out of some vague pity for Mahela) and elected to bat. Before this match, Dhoni had talked very clearly about how the team intended to try out the reserves, having the series won already. I assumed he would rest one of the centurions of the previous game (presumably Yuvraj), Zaheer Khan and possibly Yusuf Pathan, and replace them with Rohit Sharma, Irfan and Balaji. What I did not expect to see was Sachin's name missing from the XI, to make way for Rohit. Zaheer was rested to accomodate Irfan Pathan, and that was all the changes that were made to the team. Confusing, because I'd expected Sachin raring to go out and play and prove that it'd take more than a bunch of incompetent umpires to bring him down.

Plus, Balaji didn't get to play. Dhoni being Dhoni, escapes my wrath. Just about. Although, MS? He'd better be part of the XI on Sunday. Or... or.... I don't know. I just want to see Balaji play again and feel happy about it 'kay? 'Kay.

The batting performance seemed like a photographic negative of the previous one's. Sehwag, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan, who had contributed to the bulk of the scoring on Tuesday, fell cheaply today, while Gambhir, Dhoni and Raina, who weren't substantial last time 'round, had a field day today.

I must admit I was both ecstatic and a little surprised to see Dhoni walk in at number three. Ecstatic because it's been such a long time since I've seen him bat at that position and play a long innings, surprised because it eventually forced Rohit Sharma too low down the order to have any substantial time at the crease - which I thought had the been the point of the whole 'giving the reserves a chance' exercise.

Oh well.

After Sehwag fell early, Dhoni and Gambhir had a huge 188 run partnership for the third wicket - not the first time they're involved in Huge Partnerships of Doom, and certainly not the last - involving some intelligent running straight out of the top drawer, and some lusty hitting toward the end. I know I've complained about the apparent disappearance of the old hard-hitting Dhoni and this was a refreshing reassurance to not only us, but also his IPL bosses. I prayed and hoped for a Dhoni century, and was coming home from college when he was in his 90s. I was barely minutes from the nearest TV when the friend accompanying me received a text informing us that Dhoni had just gotten out for 94. Unfortunately, she told me immediately with an infuriatingly smug grin on her face (she'd been taunting me about the very possibility throughout the hour-long bus ride) and I saw red and boxed her ear and spent the rest of the Indian innings apologising and grovelling (what have you done to me, Dhoni).

Gambhir put up yet another huge score, Raina smashed 49 valuable runs at the end. Gambhir became the 503rd record-breaking wicket for Muralitharan, and although the immediate celebrations were muted because of the sorry position Sri Lanka were in at that stage of the match, it is nothing short of a fantastic acheivement. Muttiah Muralitharan is now the highest wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs, with an astonishing total of 1272 international wickets, and that, at the end of the day, proved to be Sri Lanka's sole reason to celebrate that night.

Praveen and Irfan opened the bowling as India proceeded to defend the 332/5 that they had scored. Praveen bowled tidily enough, but Irfan was simply ripped apart by both Jayasuriya and Dilshan. He finally did get Sanath's wicket, and his first spell figures went something like this: 5-0-45-1. Yeowch. There were parts in the early stages of the Sri Lankan reply when Irfan was being carted around that my gut twisted in trepidation and the sandwich I was eating moved almost warily toward my gullet, like a gate-crasher about to be thrown out by an angry host. I'm not sure why we're even persisting with Irfan anymore. I can't remember the last time he had a good ODI with the national team. If you're gonna nurture him as someone to come up in a say, Andrew Flintoff mould, you might as well give him proper opportunities, not just let him tag along, refusing to let go of something precious that you already spoiled beyond recognition a few years back.

Dilshan left playing the mother of all Stupid and Irresponsible Shots, and although Jayawardene and Sangakkara threatened briefly, the spinners came in and tied down the Sri Lankans so much they were never able to recover - Pragyan Ohja in particular bowled beautifully and the left arm spinner deserved more wickets in his eventually tally of 1 for 34 - and eventually folded up for 265, 67 runs short of the Indian total. There was a brief disruption in play as Dhoni led his team off the field in the middle after someone in the crowd apparently threw stones at Indian fielders fielding in the deep. Not the first time there've been similar complaints of crowd trouble on this tour, and it is most surprising and mildly disturbing, as Sri Lanka has always been touted as a great place to watch and play cricket.

And so the Indians completed a record 9th consecutive win, under Dhoni's captaincy. I love that this team shows no complacency and goes from match to match with the same insatiable thirst for runs, wickets, and eventually victory, the intensity and energy never flagging. Keep it going, guys!

Bee-yoo-ti-full times, indeed.

So. Much. Joy.

The buzz, the adrenaline, the expletives, the jumping, the screaming, the restless pacing, the constant assessment of match situations, the rapidfire math going on in the head... people, I just realised how much I missed all of it today. Online commentary and surreptiously checking out mobile phone updates in the middle of class... can't compare. Only thing better is going to the stadium. Of course, it helped that we won today.





And how!





So Dhoni won the toss (yet again - this is getting funny, poor Mahela looked so helplessly frustrated and MS so adorably bemused), elected to bat and I had to laugh at Dhoni's line about checking for superglue on the bails, considering they hardly seemed to move in the previous match. That's right, MS. Keep smiling like a kid in a candy store, you beautiful boy.





The first half hour was Weirdness. Kulasekara bowled a tight opening over and then Dilhara Fernando, (coming off an injury layoff I think, replacing Thilan Thushara) sent down his obligatory no-balls. I might've whooped and laughed at that point, but I think I was too distracted by his ear-stud (mm). Free hit was hit out of the ground by Tendulkar - most unexpected, I nearly fell out of my chair. Didn't score much after that, though - last ball of the over Fernando extracted revenge, and Sachin was out lbw... or was he? Ball was full, hit him low on the pads as he tried and failed to work it to the onside, but surely it looked like it was going down leg? Too much doubt to give? Hawkeye later showed that it was indeed missing leg stump, and by some way too, so this is the third time in as many matches that Tendulkar has been wrongly adjudged lbw early on. Unlucky much? Not really. Incompetence from the umpires? Perhaps.





Gambhir came over and began to bat in this pseudo-aggresive way, trying too much too soon. As it was, he was dropped on 0, and was lbw off a no-ball, and my friend watching the match elsewhere in the city was texting "has something crawled into Gambhir's head and crapped there?" and I was inclined to agree. Finally, just as he looked to be settling down, Gauti was run-out in the most unfortunate manner - a delivery hit straight back by Sehwag brushed Fernando's fingers and crashed into the stumps at the non-striker's end before Gambhir, who was backing up too far, could get back in time. 24/2, and I was huffing. Yuvraj walked in, scratched round a bit - some thick edges falling short of slip - but soon settled in.



Cue for chaos.



The cricketing excellence of the whirlwind 221 run partnership likely has been and will be well-documented by souls better at the stuff than me, so I'm going to talk about the pure joy that partnership caused me. I haven't jumped on a sofa since I was eight, and ten years later, I found myself doing the same, cackling in joyous disbelief as Sehwag and Yuvraj picked up boundaries at will. Maybe it's because I haven't watched live cricket in a long time. Maybe this much awesomeness in one go after such a long lay-off was too much to take. I don't know. But it was a brilliant feeling.



The bowling powerplay (overs 12-16) fetched 40+ runs, and Dhoni surprised me by taking the batting powerplay immediately. The five overs fetched more than 50 runs, though, and it was that period where India really damaged Sri Lanka. It was a good move in retrospect, and served the basic principle behind a batting powerplay - make the most out of two settled batsmen having the time of their lives in the middle, rather than take it late with too much pressure and the fall of wickets. Yuvi and Viru were helped tremendously by bouts of wayward and Wholly Crappy Bowling from the Sri Lankans, of course. Farveez Maharoof started his spell well enough, but later on seemed determined to keep bowling a horrible leg-stump line, which the two batsmen - especially Yuvi - made the most of. Strike rates and bowling economies bloated to unseemly figures, and when all the powerplays were done with at the end of 21 overs, the scoreboard read 167/2, and I proceeded to pick up my dislocated jaw from the floor. None of the SL bowlers seemed determined in bowling to a field, and stuff predictably went downhill for them.



Yuvraj, amazingly, reached his century before Viru - not that Sehwag was too far behind. After the powerplays, the run-rate lessened and the two batsmen went into consolidation mode - that is, if scoring at 7.5 an over instead of 10 an over can be called that. When Yuvraj finally cut Murali to point - fetching him his world-record-equalling 502nd wicket in the process - the partnership had 221 runs in 160-odd balls. Sri Lankan fielding sucked, too - Sehwag was dropped thrice (late into his innings, mind) - by Maharoof, Fernando and Jayasuriya. Gambhir was dropped. Run-out chances were muffed. Just chaos.



Also Mendis later picked up a wicket - that of Raina - but went for more than 7 an over. Has the "Mendis code been cracked" finally? Hard to say without seeing him being played in a Test scenario, but was he walloped today! He bowled a lot of rubbish deliveries as well - come on, buck up, Mendis! But it was beautiful to see how disdainfully Yuvi handled his biggest nemesis - gone from bunny to freakin' Godzilla!



After Sehwag was run-out and Raina was stumped, Yusuf Pathan joined Dhoni in the middle. Dhoni seemed extra-sedate - even played out a freakin' maiden in the 40th - and that disappointed me a bit. Don't get me wrong - I've always been a strong supporter of the 'new' Dhoni, the Dhoni that stabilises the innings, guides the team through middle overs and so on and so forth, but sometimes I yearn to see the Dhoni of old, at least in situations like this. Just to remind everybody that the Dhoni who could tear apart bowling attacks with his trademark helicopter shots, the Dhoni who could hit near-perfect yorkers for six is not buried so deep that he can't show every now and again and thrill like he used to. Luckily, however, we've now got in Yusuf Pathan a man who can come in at seven and biff a few and do the job that used to be pre-captaincy Dhoni's, like he did yesterday, dominating a quickfire 85 run partnership with his captain, scoring a 33-ball 50 in the process. India finished at 363/5, way, way ahead of the previous best totals at the Premadasa.



Obviously if Sri Lanka were to make a fist of things, they had the perfect two men opening - Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillekeratne Dilshan, both of them in good form. Happily for the Indians, however, Jayasuriya was bowled for a golden duck by Praveen Kumar in the second over by a ball that swung in a bit. Forget happy, they were ecstatic. Understandably so. Sangakkara joined Dilshan, and the latter decided to take a leaf out of the Indians' books and began to counterattack. He played some super-shots before becoming too ambitious and was clean-bowled by an accurate Zaheer Khan, leaving SL 51/2. The till-now out-of-form Jayawardene joined Kumara Sangakkara, and started the only session of play that even hinted at threatening the Indians. The bowling powerplay (overs 11-15) fetched close to 40 runs with both Mahela and Kumara playing some scintillating shots. However the runs that came in that Powerplay had more 'good shots' involved rather than 'bad balls'. After 15, SL was 95/2, a very similar position to India at the same stage. So the difference had to be then. India had to bowl better than the Lankans did at the same stage. Mahela decided to ape Dhoni by taking the batting Powerplay (go trendsetter Dhoni! \o/) immediately, but those 5 overs fetched only 26 runs as Praveen and Zaks did an excellent job. Plus, Jayawardene's wicket was taken then, and with him gone, all chances of Lanka running India close were too. Kandamby looked good only to fall to Sehwag. Pragyan Ohja, despite an expensive start, did not lose heart or confidence and finally ended up with 4-38 at the end of his spell - excellent. Sangakkara tried valiantly with an 83, but there wasn't a single moment where it looked like the bright smile was going to disappear from Dhoni's face. Eventually SL was bowled out for 216, and India won by a whopping 147 runs, sealing the series win in the process.

I'm not one for pseudo-psychoanalyses made based on what we see of the players on TV, but even I couldn't deny that there was something infectious about the camaraderie that the players shared on the field. The perennial grin on Sehwag's face, in particular, was contagious and had me grinning like a maniac, with an inexplicably overwhelming love for humanity and everything concerned with it. I love the togetherness of this team, how it is so obvious that they like and support each other, without having to say it in cliche-ridden press conferences.

Uh... sorry for the uber-long ramble, but I enjoyed this game so much, I really did. I probably won't be able to watch another live match after this series gets over for another couple of months at least, so I'm extra glad that the boys made it extra-special so it stays an evergreen memory (because, obviously, the world revolves around me :p ).

Plus, Balaji can bowl in the next couple of one-dayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *dances*