We Indians are known for our Love-Hate relationship with cricket and all the 1 billion of us have our our opinions and this blog is one more in the list. Feel free to post u r comments in the comment section and blast me if you have too. Here we go..
The IPL season II has finally got off to an excellent start.Even though IPL II was shifted out of India because of the elections is a well known fact, not many people know that South Africa itself is holding an election :),so much for the political reasons and all the crap that was played out wasting enormous amount of time and money.
All right enough of bashing, now let me move on to the topic:Has IPL changed the way cricket is played and has cricket become yet another side kick of bollywood (which in the name of entertaining churns of flop after flop with a few good film very few and far in between).
I was waiting for the first day to know first hand.I must confess that i did not watch the first match completely (I woke up late - thanks to the weather here which was soporific and missed the little master's masterly innings). After i dragged myself out of the bed i searched for a website link that telecasts the match and finally plunked down in front of my laptop to follow the match.
I saw the score of Mumbai Indians 165/7 with Sachin 59 not out,was really happy that sachin had scored nearly one-third of the runs. Then started the second innings and by this time i was fully awake. No big hits no sixes and fours every other ball and most of all NO MINDLESS slogging.In the recent years cricket has been reduced to just batsmen hitting the ball.Yes previously the bowlers used to knock batsmen over with fiery fast bowling and the game was on. Now all we see is sixes and fours, rarely do we see good pitches which deliver a good contest between the bat and the ball.
The entertainment value of cricket comes from the way it is played and not the format where batsmen on lifeless wickets tear into the bowlers at will.
As Sachin later pointed out, one could not mindlessly slog and the result was for every one to see.
At the end of the day after the two matches people who stood out where those who had class and those who played intelligently. All those batsmen who had sent their common sense to shut down mode, got out in the most ugly fashion with ill-timed swipes and what not.
I breathed a sigh of relief,cricket has not changed. What ever the format is, cricket remains simple i.e, score runs and take wickets to win a match.
The total wickets that fell were 32. With most wickets falling to those who bowled intelligently. Those who saw Warnie bamboozle Kohli will know what i am talking about and Kumble is still a handful.
The arrival of the big-hitting guns did nothing to change the games course. Intelligent batting carried the teams on both occasions.Warne again showed with the planned dismissal of KP what Australia had missed. They missed the best captain they never had. Warne's field placings were impeccable and he had all the angles figured out, gave a single to Dravid and denied KP scoring opportunities and forced him to go for big shot and got the wicket.
I do not know how many people noticed his field placings and his constant corrections on the field, the guy never stopped thinking for a nano-second. I was amazed at the speed of his grasping of the situation on the field.
I was very happy that both the matches were a even contest between the bat and the ball and not the usual tamasha which used to be dished out in the name of cricket.
I have nothing against big hitters, but the way cricket is going its getting loaded in favour of batsmen and runs, bowlers are reduced to being mere puppets on the show.
Nonetheless,in the end Cricket won and i am sure that people will start appreciating the intricacies in the game and not just seeing the ball being hit out of the park.
The IPL season II has finally got off to an excellent start.Even though IPL II was shifted out of India because of the elections is a well known fact, not many people know that South Africa itself is holding an election :),so much for the political reasons and all the crap that was played out wasting enormous amount of time and money.
All right enough of bashing, now let me move on to the topic:Has IPL changed the way cricket is played and has cricket become yet another side kick of bollywood (which in the name of entertaining churns of flop after flop with a few good film very few and far in between).
I was waiting for the first day to know first hand.I must confess that i did not watch the first match completely (I woke up late - thanks to the weather here which was soporific and missed the little master's masterly innings). After i dragged myself out of the bed i searched for a website link that telecasts the match and finally plunked down in front of my laptop to follow the match.
I saw the score of Mumbai Indians 165/7 with Sachin 59 not out,was really happy that sachin had scored nearly one-third of the runs. Then started the second innings and by this time i was fully awake. No big hits no sixes and fours every other ball and most of all NO MINDLESS slogging.In the recent years cricket has been reduced to just batsmen hitting the ball.Yes previously the bowlers used to knock batsmen over with fiery fast bowling and the game was on. Now all we see is sixes and fours, rarely do we see good pitches which deliver a good contest between the bat and the ball.
The entertainment value of cricket comes from the way it is played and not the format where batsmen on lifeless wickets tear into the bowlers at will.
As Sachin later pointed out, one could not mindlessly slog and the result was for every one to see.
At the end of the day after the two matches people who stood out where those who had class and those who played intelligently. All those batsmen who had sent their common sense to shut down mode, got out in the most ugly fashion with ill-timed swipes and what not.
I breathed a sigh of relief,cricket has not changed. What ever the format is, cricket remains simple i.e, score runs and take wickets to win a match.
The total wickets that fell were 32. With most wickets falling to those who bowled intelligently. Those who saw Warnie bamboozle Kohli will know what i am talking about and Kumble is still a handful.
The arrival of the big-hitting guns did nothing to change the games course. Intelligent batting carried the teams on both occasions.Warne again showed with the planned dismissal of KP what Australia had missed. They missed the best captain they never had. Warne's field placings were impeccable and he had all the angles figured out, gave a single to Dravid and denied KP scoring opportunities and forced him to go for big shot and got the wicket.
I do not know how many people noticed his field placings and his constant corrections on the field, the guy never stopped thinking for a nano-second. I was amazed at the speed of his grasping of the situation on the field.
I was very happy that both the matches were a even contest between the bat and the ball and not the usual tamasha which used to be dished out in the name of cricket.
I have nothing against big hitters, but the way cricket is going its getting loaded in favour of batsmen and runs, bowlers are reduced to being mere puppets on the show.
Nonetheless,in the end Cricket won and i am sure that people will start appreciating the intricacies in the game and not just seeing the ball being hit out of the park.
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