ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Excitement, Upsets and Turnarounds

Is this an ICC Champions Trophy or an ICC upsets Trophy? Well, this edition of ICC Champions Trophy has an every reason to be called as an ICC upsets Trophy, especially after England were humiliated at the hands of Pakistan in the first semi-final at Cardiff. The results that we have come across since Pakistan defeated South Africa have been quite surprising and shocking and certainly have made a mockery of predications & analysis of Cricket Experts. The Champions Trophy and the results were going exactly in the same way as were expected till that England- New Zealand game on last Tuesday. But, the next three days saw a big turnaround and shook up the cricketing world throwing the Champions Trophy wide open. Out of a sudden, the teams, that started off as reigning favourites were at the crossroads of an early exit. If we closely look at the previous 50-over Tournaments, all the teams were more or less of similar pedigree, but this time around, there was quite a significant difference in class, experience and team balance in between top teams  like England, India, South Africa, Australia and lower ranked teams like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The fact that the tournament is being held in England, nullified whatever advantage Bangladesh and Sri Lanka could have had, had the tournament being played in the subcontinent. And if you closely observed the events before this turnaround, there was no way one could have imagined these kind of results to turn up. Pakistan were comprehensively beaten in every department against India in their first match, but what followed after that was quite remarkable. They made South Africa’s formidable batting dance to their tunes in what was a fine, inspiring display of bowling effort from Pakistan and then held their nerves with the bat in a rain-affected match. We saw completely contrasting Pakistan sides turning up against India and South Africa. Even though they barely scampered home against Sri Lanka on the other day and qualified for the semis, did they stood any chance against formidable, undefeated England? Certainly not, at least I thought that way and many other Cricketing experts too. But what happened in the Semis, Pakistan not only defeated England and made it to the Champions Trophy Final for the first time, they simply annihilated England when almost everyone thought the result would be the exactly other way round. Pakistan’s journey to Champions Trophy Final is certainly incredible, certainly considering the fact that they were struggling to qualify for Champions Trophy itself in the first place. Similar story goes with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka too were outplayed by Proteas in the first game and they were certainly not in the contest till India were batting. Set to chase a stiff total of 322, Gunathilaka, K Mendis, Perera and the skipper Matthews scripted a brilliant run-chase that could very well go down as their finest hour in recent times. Bangladesh’s victory was much more memorable and sweeter considering the fact that they were once tottering at 33/4 and it the end it was a very commanding victory, led by their senior pros Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah, who stitched a massive 224-run 5^th wicket partnership.

Cricket, Pakistan & Unpredictability- We saw all of that in the first Semifinal between England & Pakistan

We have second semi-final coming up, between India & Bangladesh, any comments or predictions? At least not from my side. Just let’s wait & watch and enjoy this Cricketing festival ! 

The SPORT!

The stage is set, you are in the middle of the ring and the people are watching you. Sport is the greatest leveler, perhaps the biggest metaphor for our life. What does Sport not teach you? It teaches you everything. Importantly, it teaches you to accept your defeat with a smile in a Sportsperson’s spirit and asks you to come back harder the next time. It is a kind of a dress-rehearsal for our biggest match- ‘The Life’. Sports prepares oneself to face any kind of situation with grit, determination and in a right spirit. It is a great leveler because you can be hero on one day but it does not take time to be zero on the other if you don’t perform well. However, Sports is not limited to just this, right? It is far-far bigger than one could imagine as it is a form of expression for exchanging cultures, making new friends or rivalries and on a Sports field, justice is always almost guaranteed as it does not discriminate on one’s caste, creed, colour or where you have come from.

South Africa's Inspired Victory inspired by their Youngsters!

South Africa’s Test win in Wellington against New Zealand was perhaps their most defining Test victory since their mighty win over Australia at Perth November last year. I used the word defining so as to emphasize the circumstances under which this victory was obtained and the persona who inspired this victory. Take you back to lunch on Day 2 and South Africa were in jeopardy at 104/6. Amla, Du Plessis, Duminy; they had all gone and onus was on two young boys in the form of T Bavuma and Quinton de Kock to rescue the Proteas from this potential match losing situation. But as young budding sportspersons, you always dream of thriving under such challenging situations and coming out of it victorious and Quinton de Kock and T Bavuma certainly rose to the occasion and delivered when it mattered the most. Their styles of innings were distinct but both being equally effective with Bavuma scoring a patient 89 while Quinton de Kock being the aggressor, finishing with 91. Now, here is an interesting aspect of which we can take note of, with the kind of knocks that the likes of Bavuma and de Kock are playing of-late, we wonder whether is this the time where the baton of South Africa’s batting in Tests which was responsibly shouldered by Amla & de Villiers for so many years is being passed on to these young shoulders as the aging warriors gradually begin their journeys into the sunset. It may be far too early to call but Quinton de Kock certainly has the potential to fill in Boucher’s shoes and in fact better him down the line as his numbers suggest so far. Then in the bowling department, there is no Dale Steyn for quite a while now and you could hardly realize it, but they have got the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj and you could sense that the fate of South African Cricket looks safe in the hands of this young talent. The Proteas team is led by Faf du Plessis, who is not only new to his captaincy role but also relatively new to Test Cricket, but, is quite influential not only with the bat but also as a skipper as the team seems to be excelling under his leadership. The fact that many of the recent South African Test victories have been inspired by the performances of their youngsters brings a lot of fresh air in the Proteas camp and augurs well moving into the future. This team will be tested and its depth would be sternly scrutinized, especially in the sub-continent, but as of now, they are playing exceptionally well and they have done well in Australia and also in New Zealand so far. 

T Bavuma & Quinton de Cock- Chief Architects of South Africa's inspired Victory!

Warner Special on offer on Australia Day!

What a January David Warner is having! Started off by scoring a scintillating hundred within a session at SCG, hit another ton at the same venue in the 4th ODI and today scored a breathtaking 179 at the Adelaide Oval on the occasion of Australia Day!

There are very few batsmen in World Cricket today who keep you on the edge of your seats and David Warner is certainly one of them!

His journey from being just a smasher to becoming an all-round batsman is not only remarkable but also a trend setter!

His career so far is perhaps a torch-bearer and represents batsmanship of this generation as people start off by being T20 specialists but will eventually end up becoming Test Match greats!!!

Salute to this freakish talent DAVID WARNER!!!

The redemption of Intimidation-Mitchell Johnson

When you think about fast bowling, you immediately tend to think about the bowlers from West Indies from the 70’s and 80’s-the Holding’s, the Garner’s, the Roberts’s and the Marshall’s and so on. And to that list, also add the names of the Lillie’s and the Thomson’s and you would quickly realize that it was perhaps the most decorated era of fast bowling. And when I mean fast, it’s uncomfortably fast. The art of fast bowling is all about intimidating the batsmen, inducing fear into their mind and when a batsman tries to think about protecting himself from the ball rather than focusing on the next ball, a fast bowler has won more than half the battle. But, as the time passed by and as the game started becoming more and more batsmen friendly, the weapon of fast bowling and the art of intimidation started to vanish. We had the likes of Donald, Wasim, Waqar, Brett Lee in late 90’s and early 2000’s but by the end of first decade of 21^st century, fast bowling almost became extinct. Due to excessive workload and constant cricket, even the bowlers themselves started to cut down on pace and concentrate on line and length, but, what all this did was not only left the batsmen with less challenging situations but also to cricket fan, made the experience of viewing the game, especially the Test Cricket, inferior. It’s quite absorbing and engrossing to watch a tear-away fast bowler unleashing his pace and intimidating the batsman in a Test match, perhaps quite a rare commodity these days.

It was the Australian summer of 2013-14 and England were touring down under for an Ashes series. England lost the Ashes 5-0, but they did not lose to Australia, they lost to a man called as Mitchell Johnson. Gabba, Adelaide Oval, WACA, MCG, SCG, Test match after Test match, English were tormented by the lethal pace of Johnson. Johnson induced fear into the minds of English batsmen, bamboozled them with serious pace and made them dance to his tunes. His short ball stuff was nasty, thunderbolts bowled at 145 clicks and above whistled past the noses of Englishmen. His pace and aggression was too much for the English. And it all started at Gabba, where Johnson took 9 wickets in the Test match, 4 in first and 5 in second innings. But it was more to it than just wickets, Johnson’s uncomfortably quick spell of fast bowling was now England’s psychological problem more than a technical one, as they were just not mentally prepared to face it. Jonathon Trott’s exit from the tour just after the first Test citing mental illness was the last thing England wanted and it surely had to do a lot with him being peppered with nasty short-ball stuff from Mitch. From Gabba to Adelaide, Mitch just got better and better and perhaps bowled the most hostile spell in recent times on the flat deck at the Adelaide Oval. His ball to Cook in the evening session on Day 2, that shaped away just at the last moment, bowled at 148 clicks to castle the timber was simply unplayable. And on day 3, on a hot Saturday afternoon, just after lunch, we saw the very best of Mitchell Johnson. Johnson was steaming in, bowling pace like fire and blew England away with match-winning figures of 7/40. Johnson to Broad and Mark Nicholas’s words “the crowds are with Johnson, this is like the days of Lillie’s and Thomson’s, in comes Mitchell Johnson” still reverberate in my ears and the whole atmosphere around the Oval was magical, fast bowling at its very, very best. Johnson continued tormenting England and picked up his third five-wicket haul of the series at the MCG in the boxing-day Test match. Johnson’s spell with the second new ball late in the day on boxing-day was lethal and Bairstow and Bresnan, in particular, had no clue whatsoever what they were up against. By the time the Ashes series ended, Johnson had finished with 37 wickets in the series and had broken down the fulcrum of English batting line-up.

Johnson returned with 37 wickets in Ashes series down under in 2013

After making the mockery of England’s Ashes campaign, Mitchell Johnson yet again in his moustache look was fit and ready for team Australia’s next Test campaign, the tour to rainbow nation in February-March 2014. In the first Test at Centurion, on Day 2, Mitchell Johnson set the tone for Australia with a spell that wrecked havoc. The deliveries, especially to Skipper Smith and Du Plessis, bowled at 150 clicks were uncomfortably quick. The one to Du Plessis was a lethal back of a length delivery that was directed near to his rib-cage and there was hardly anything that he could do about it. Johnson in the first innings bounced out Smith, Du Plessis, Robin Peterson and Morkel to finish off with superlative figures of 7/68. He backed it up with another five wicket-haul in the second innings to hand Australia a comprehensive 281-run victory. Now those 12 wickets that Johnson bagged weren’t just wickets, those were speed-breakers, confidence-crushers, mental block-holes in South Africa’s pursuit of home series victory against Australia that evaded them since 1969/70. Johnson in that first Test got rid of skipper Smith twice, bounced out the tail and his ferocious bouncer to Ryan McLaren that hit him on his head was enough to keep him out for the remainder of the series, in fact, for the entire domestic summer. After a bit of a wobble in the second Test, Australia came back to win the third Test with Australia’s bowling department being spearheaded by who else other than Mitchell Johnson as he picked up 7 wickets in the match and finished up with 22 wickets in the series.

Now those 8 Test matches (5 Vs Eng and 3 Vs Sa) were by far the golden Test matches of Mitchell Johnson’s career. He picked up as many as 59 wickets in those 8 Test matches and various spells that he bowled across those 8 Tests were kind of spells every child who wants to become a fast bowler would imagine. It was like a dream and perhaps the most hostile, lethal and tear-away spells of fast bowling of this decade so far.

Now in the time before and after those 8 Tests, Mitch was already good, could vanquish his opposition with serious pace on his given day, like the spells at Perth against South Africa and England in 2008 and 2010 respectively, but was inconsistent and his performances swung from being exemplary on one day to being preposterous on the other. But, those 8 Tests and those 59 wickets certainly made him immortal in the department of fast bowling.

Johnson retired from all forms of International cricket in November 2015 at the age of 34 and left the cricketing community in a bit of a dazzle. Everyone would have wished may be he could have played for a little longer, but we have to respect the big man’s decision and just cherish some of the fine, fine spells of hostile fast bowling that Mitchell Johnson has produced.