Straight forward at the Oval?

Amazing Game. On the second day, 8 wickets fell in a session. Today, on the third day only 6 wickets fell in the entire day. In between all that, Jonathan Trott got his maiden Test hundred.

England we not nearly as aggressive as they should have been before lunch. At lunch they had a lead of about 330 and Australia must have harbored their chances if they could get few quick wickets. During post lunch session England consolidated their lead by scoring 130 odd runs. After Tea, thanks to a wagging tail, England smacked 83 of 12 overs to take the lead past 500.

I am not a cricket expert by any stretch of imagination, but I could not quite understand one thing. I know Michael Clark went for 20 in the 3 overs that he bowled before lunch, but after lunch should he have been the one to come and bowl instead of Simon Katich. According to me, he is a better bowler than Simon Katich. They needed some quick wickets at that time to keep the lead in check.

So England left Australia with 546 runs to get and Australia ticketd 80 of them off by the end of the days play. England’s day without a shodow of a doubt. But have the left Australia with too much time? Will it be a straight forward win for the Englishmen? Only time will tell. What we know for sure is that we are in for a hell of a finish.

Hitting Top of Off

The second session on Day 2 of the 5Th Ashes Test was certainly one for the memories. Australia lost 8 wickets for 72 runs in that session thanks to an inspired spell from Stuart Broad.

I am not going to go into the details of his spell. I am sure that every fan of game of Cricket, Test Cricket that is, must have watched and enjoyed the proceedings at the Oval.

Every once in a while you get a session in a match that makes Test Cricket more interesting than One Day or Twenty-20 Cricket. And this session was certainly one of them. Every ball seamed and swung and the spectators expected a wicket every ball. Looking at the spell, I was drawn towards the controversy currently raging between Indian Cricketers and WADA. WADA wants all the cricketers to comply with their policies.  They fear that drugs in Cricket could be a serious issue. I Just have one thing to say to WADA and it is this. No amount of drugs can make a bowler bowl a spell like the one we saw from Stuart Broad today. Nothing apart from the skill of a Cricketer.

Drugs can make a person run faster, jump higher or Shot put a metal ball longer. But no drug can make bowler pitch the ball on a good length which hits the top of off stump. Its an art. Drugs can help you hit the ball out of the ground, but only of you get to the pitch of it. So the art is not in hitting the ball out of the ground and it is to get to the pitch of the ball. If you don’t, the ball goes a mile in the air and down the throat of a fielder.

You see that’s where cricket is different from other sports. Great innovations in technology have made sports apart from cricket turn into science. Cricket is far away from science. It will always be. There is one way though where a drug can help a cricketer, especially a bowler. It can make a bowler bowl fast. But in the history of 100 odd years of cricket, rarely a fast bowler has been the best bowler of the team. Ask Shaun Tait after the Perth test in 2008.

And the cricketers are not against the tests. They welcome it. So can we please sort out the minor differences that exist and get on with the game.