Revival of Cricket's Craze!

Hi Guys,

I was quite busy for the past few days and it has been really difficult to think about a topic to write and I was also not able to read my follower’s blogs. It feels so good to be writing something again. Also, I am going to write about Cricket after a long time.

Last time, I cherished watching the match was the 2011 World Cup Final, when Dhoni sealed the Cup with a six. There was no time for celebration and within a week, the players were in IPL. It turned out to be very boring and people hated to see players in different teams. Gayle’s blitzkriegs lighted the tournament towards the end and the last few days were much better than the first few.

Then India went to West Indies and… Well, what happened there? I don’t remember exactly. Many of the key players were down with injuries and some were given rest and young Indian team managed to win the ODi series and test series.

Then came India’s worst ever performance in the last 10 years. A team, that was performing well in overseas failed miserably and didn’t even come close to the performance of the English. Except Rahul Dravid (and occasionally Sachin Tendulkar) no one else seemed comfortable. Contrastingly English Players were so comfortable against our bowling. Even their tail Enders batted well and Indians came back without winning a match.

Then England came back here for an ODI series. I think Champions League was conducted in between. I was expecting some tough competition, but English surrendered without fight. It was tough to believe that the same team thrashed India two months back. So, the hunter became the hunted.

So, slowly my cricketing interests were diminishing and then came the India vs West Indies series. I had no interest in the series. I thought India would be comfortable. But, life is full of surprises.

Indians were trailing by 95 runs in the first innings. I thought, it was tough and Indians may lose. But, then our spinners bundled out the West Indies batsmen and after a long time our top order clicked. Everyone contributed and India won.

Then, it was day before yesterday. I was seeing some video in Facebook, when my friend pinged, ‘Karthi, watching SA vs Aus match?’ I replied no and thought something interesting was going. I just then checked the score and OMG! Aussies were 21-7. I started to type a message to send to my friends and now they were 21-8. I started sending and now they were 21-9.

I had checked the scores in the starting of the day and Clarke was batting brilliantly. So, I was confused how Aussies were playing their second innings. Then, I came to know SA was all out for 96. 17 continuous batsmen (SA’s last 9 and Aussies first 8) were having single digit. It was heaven for bowlers and hell for batsmen (or, was it?)

I thought in the conditions, it was difficult for SA and Aussies had an upper hand. But, then I didn’t know Smith was always brilliant in fourth innings. He hit his fourth consecutive century in fourth innings and increased his fourth innings average to 85. The match was over by the third day. What a match!

Both the matches have some similarities. The team that batted first had a huge lead and then collapsed in the second innings (though the magnitude was different). Both team’s batsmen failed miserably in first innings and came back strong in the second innings. Two debutant bowlers (Aswin and Philander) collapsed the opposition batsmen in the second innings and both of them got Man of the Match awards (only third player in their respective countries to do so).

So, Cricket has again become an interesting game to watch!

Happy Reading!!!