Cricket's new home! » Muttiah Muralitharan

The next Muralitharan on the horizon

prasad — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:06:26 +0000

The 23^rd over the Indian innings in the second one-dayer saw Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara unleashing his surprise weapon in the form of 24-year-old Suraj Randiv, touted by pundits as the next Muttiah Muralitharan. With an action that resembles India’s yesteryear off-spin wizard Srinivas Venkatraghavan, Suraj made a mark with his 15^th ball when he trapped Virat Kohli leg-before to give him his debut wicket. Whilst he took a pasting in the hands of M.S. Dhoni and Suresh Raina but the lion-hearted youngster came back to get rid of a tired Dhoni in the final over and also bagged Bhajji’s wicket to end his first game with figures of 10-0-51-3.

On the eve of the Nagpur game, Suraj in a brief chat had said that he was a big fan of Murali and wanted to emulate the legendary offie. “Murali has always been an inspiration. He has been a great player and a great human,” said the 24-year-old. Interestingly, the tall spinner began his career as a fast bowler in the junior level in Sri Lanka. “During an under-15 match, my coach asked me to bowl off-spin as there were none in our school at that time,” Suraj reminisced. Thus, began Suraj’s spin sojourn which saw him represent Matara SC while at school. He steadily climbed the cricketing ladder putting up some notable performances both the ball and the bat that caught the attention of Sri Lankan stalwarts Mahela Jayawardene and Marvan Atapattu.

“He is one of the most promising off-spinners that we have in Sri Lanka. He has been around for sometime. Selectors have labelled him as the next Murali. He is tall guy and is very handy with the bat too. He has scored a couple of centuries too in the first class cricket,” said Mahela Jayawardene on the eve of the second one-dayer.

Speaking about the variations in his kitty, “The off-spinner and top-spinner is something that I am comfortable with,” was Suraj’s reply. Unlike most off-spinners who want to bowl the Doosra, Suraj seems to have left it for Muralis and Harbhajans of the world to master. “I will stick to what I am good at,” Suraj said.

On the most heartening aspect of Suraj, Mahela mentioned, “He not only has the talent but also the right attitude to excel in international cricket.”

The Matara lad has been amongst wickets this season and his all-round show in the Sri Lankan domestic circuit automatically got him the ticket to the big league. On playing for Sri Lanka, Suraj said, “Every player dreams of representing the country at some point of time. It is the same with me and I just hope to make a mark.”

With an impressive outing in his very first international game, Suraj looks on the right track to emulate his idol.

Top 10 moments of 2009 in World Cricket

prasad — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:15:42 +0000

As the year is coming to a close in the next week, www.cricforu.com analyses the top ten cricketing moments of the year. The moments are purely based on teams pulling off unlikely wins, individuals literally putting their teams on the forefront with their brilliance.

Deccan Chargers winning the IPL-2

It was a fairytale ride for Deccan Chronicle’s team that catapulted it to stardom and success. After having finished at the bottom in the first edition of IPL, Deccan Chargers went through an overhaul and brought in Australian legend Adam Gilchrist at the helm and with Coach Darren Lehmann in tow, the new recruits got together and did the unthinkable. They not only won the second edition of IPL but also ensured that the old adage on cricket stays justified—cricket is indeed a funny game.

Pakistan wins the World Twenty20 in England

Pakistan has remained an enigma ever since its independence. Their cricket too has remained one and just when the world thought that the team’s unpredictability was suffering a sorry end, came Younis Khan’s men who trounced the much-favoured Sri Lankans in the final to not only win the World Cup T20 but also ensured that the premier tournament now in its second edition did not travel away from the sub-continent after India had won the first edition.

Sachin Tendulkar completed 20 years of international cricket

The little master completed two decades in cricket and how. A cracking 175 against Hyderabad marked yet another decisive year for the champion player in cricket. Much like an old wine, Sachin seems to be getting better and better with each passing year. Take a bow! For cricforu.com’s special coverage on Tendulkar, click on http://www.cricforu.com/2009/11/14/super-sachin-sensational-sojourn/

Australia wins the Champions Trophy and the seven-match India series 4-2

Ah! The Aussie attitude shouted Ricky Ponting as his side finished the formalities in Guwahati, venue of the sixth ODI against India as the side won the series by a handsome margin. With injury concerns looming large with almost half the premier side not in attendance, the win in the sub-continent ought to have tasted sweeter.

South Africa wins the Test series 2-1 against Australia in Australia

Winning a Test series in Australia is not a thing which has happened often. In fact, apart from India and South Africa, not many teams have even notched up a win over Down Under. The win for Graeme Smith’s boys was a result of careful planning which began over three years ago. Interestingly, Australia went on to win the Test series against South Africa in March this year, in their own backyard. Some revenge this!

Attack on Sri Lankan team

It was a winter morning in Lahore when 6 Sri Lankan cricketers and their assistant coach were injured while their security guards were among eight people killed in the first ever terror strike in the history of cricket. It was a blatant reminder on the powers to be that Pakistan was far away from being secured. Skipper Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis along with Thilan Samaraweera, Tharanga Paranavitana, Suranga Lakmal and Thilina Thushara were injured in the attack.

Sehwag’s special knock at Brabourne Stadium against Sri Lanka

It was one of the fastest double centuries in terms of time and the fielders, teammates, commentators and the viewers were left spell-bound by the array of strokes and the aura of this man from Delhi who hit those super fast 293 in record time. There was not one uncouth shot in the entire innings and it left an indelible blot in spin king Muttiah Muralitharan’s career. At the end of the day’s play, teammate Angelo Mathews had remarked fittingly, “I have seen Murali being bashed all over the park.” Well, we could not agree more.

England winning the Ashes

The much awaited Test series of 2009 saw the Englishmen winning the Ashes and inflicted Australian skipper Ricky Ponting with an dubious record —of having lost two consecutive Ashes in England for the first time in over 100 years. Punter surely wouldn’t be amused with this record.

Symonds gets a red card from Cricket Australia

He has always been a free-spirited soul in cricket and when the Cricket Australia snapped Andrew Symonds’ contract on the eve of the World Twenty20 in England on charges of being drunk, the cricketing world was in utter shock. Symonds has always followed his instincts and this move by CA did not auger well for the other members of the side.

India becomes the No.1 ranked team in ICC Test rankings

A process that started under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly finally saw the Indian team finishing the year 2009 on the pinnacle when they sealed the win against Sri Lanka in the final Test at Mumbai. Kudos to Mahi’s men!

Chokers receive yet another drubbing!

prasad — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:56:31 +0000

Aah! what a start for Sri Lanka. After scoring a whopping 319 for 8 batting first after being asked to, they proved too good on the field restricting their much-favoured opposition to 202 for 7. Rain might have saved the hosts from an embarrassing defeat but the ubiquitous Duckworth-Lewis method meant that the South Africans ended up on the losing side with the match being lost by 55 runs. The two people Sri Lanka need to thank are Tillakaratne Dilshan and Ajantha Mendis who were outstanding on Tuesday.
If south Africans went with two spinners Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, the Lankan lions went in with more lethal and outstanding spin duo–Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis. The South Africans did have a cameo from their skipper Graeme Smith who scored a fighting 58 after losing Hashim Amla early in their chase got superb support from Jacques Kallis who made 41. But once Ajantha Mendis removed Smith off his first ball, the match was literally out of their hands. Mendis showed why he can be dangerous when he bowls under the lights and his googly and the carrom ball were literally unplayable by the Proteas.
Earlier in the day, it was Tillakaratne Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene all the way after Graeme Smith won the toss and chose to field on a wicket that played true and Proteas’ plans backfired and how.

The hosts started well when their pacer Dale Steyn removed Sanath Jayasuriya cheaply, but that was the one of the few good things they did right on the field. Mahela and Dilshan batted beautifully, mixing caution with aggression and the hold which the hosts had in the game vanished off swiftly. Dilshan made 106 while Mahela was solid in his 77. The other contributors were Sangakkara who made 54 and Samraweera made 37.

One of the biggest blunders which Graeme Smith did was choosing Wayne Parnell over Makhaya Ntini which was a shocker. While he might have removed Mahela and Thilan Samaraweera, he went off for one too many. On a wicket which required common sense to be used in abundance, the South Africans were falling short. South Africa appeared to the cuts, ferocious pulls, quick singles taken by the Sri Lankan batsmen helped them to surge ahead and they ended their innings with 319 for 8 and Dilshan continued to impress everyone who has hailed him as the newest batting baron on any wicket. While he played his natural game throughout, what was impressive about his batting was his application and his aggression which yielded him yet another hundred that was going to go on a winning cause.

The areas for concern for South Africa are as follows:

1. Will Herschelle Gibbs be fit enough for the next match?

2. Makhaya Ntini MUST replace Parnell and right away.

The hosts will need to pull up their socks to hit back or else they will continue to remain ‘Chokers!’

Cricket tit-bits

prasad — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:09:15 +0000

‘Gambling is here to stay’
The dark world of gambling in cricket will remain if illegal bookmakers are allowed to flourish in India, avers a prominent Australian sports bookmaker.
Gerard Daffy from betting agency ‘Sports Alive’ also maintained that the phenomenal surge of Twenty20 cricket was majorly responsible for the rise in illegal betting activity in India.
“There’s rumour of thousands and thousands of illegal bookmakers in India alone. Nobody knows the transactions they do, who they deal with. This is where the problem started and it quite clearly still exists in this day and age,” Daffy was quoted as saying by the ABC Online.
Daffy feels T20 format offers easy way for batsmen to get involved in the menace because of the slam-bang style of batting.
“I guess if you are a cynic on the outside looking in, it’s easier to hide a poor display in Twenty20 cricket. A player goes out to a rash shot and nobody asks any questions because that’s the way the game is played. But who knows what’s going on in the background?” he said.

Another feather in Muttiah Muralitharan’s cap

Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan on Thursday surpassed Australia’s Shane Warne in creating a new world record by bowling the highest number of maiden overs in Test cricket.
Muralitharan, playing in his 128th Test currently underway against New Zealand, overtook Warne’s record by bowling his 1752nd maiden over at the Galle Stadium. Warne has bowled 1751 maidens in his 145-Test career.