Lightning Bolt strikes twice & ‘Man Mountain’ Gayle on a rampage
 While
Jamaicans, lightning Usain Bolt was striking London 2012, with
scintillating victories in the 100 and 200 metre races, supported by his
training partner Yohnan Blake taking silver, and Shelly Ann-Fraser
winning the women’s 100 metre, two other Jamaicans were helping the West
Indies regain their lost cricketing prestige.
They were ‘man mountain’ Chrystopher Gayle and Marlon Samuels.
While Gayle’s return had brought back the lost excellence and thrill
a minute excitement that Windies cricket once enjoyed when they ruled
the cricket world, Samuels helped them wrap up a long needed Test series
win against New Zealand.First to Usain Bolt who took off the blocks
slowly, but raced with the likeness of a Cheetah towards the end, helped
him to create another Olympic record that will be writ and remain in the
books for who knows till when.
Bolt a showman
Like boxer Muhammad Ali of old, Bolt too is a showman. He works the
spectators into a frenzy with his antics who keep shouting – ‘Usain,
Usain’ – and then make the sign of cross asking help from the Almighty,
before settling into his starting blocks.
Lessons were learnt when he inexplicably jumped the gun at the World
Championships and was disqualified. He waits for the starter’s signal
and then although slow off the blocks, strides like a Cheetah midway and
towards the finish and leaves the rest of the field behind and blashes
past the finish like a true champion.
The domination by the Jamaican athletes must be galling to the
Americans whose athletes always dominated the tracks at the Olympic
Games. It was sad to watch the only American survivor in the 100 metres,
Justin Gatlin finishing a poor third with Jamaican Yohan Blake finishing
second.
Do better next time
It is sad that Sri Lanka lost the five-match 50-over one-day series
to India 4-1. But that is how the game goes and the Sri Lankans need not
be unduly worried because they lost to a better side, but learn from
their mistakes and do better next time round.
After the Sri Lanka Premier League, the Lankans will be readying for
the Twenty20 World Cup to be played in Sri Lanka. They had their hopes
dented in this style of game when India beat them in the solitary
Twenty20 game by 29 runs at the Palekelle Stadium on Tuesday night.
But the Lankans must forget those defeats. 50 and Twenty20 cricket
are like lotteries. You need 90 percent luck in these styles of ‘cowboy’
cricket and 10 percent skill.
Captain Mahela Jayawardene and the cricketers must take heart from
these defeats and remember and console themselves in the adage that
failures are the pillars of success.
Mysterious WC defeat
After losing the first of two games in Hambantota and winning the
second one, hopes ran high that the Lankans would win the series and
avenge their mysterious World Cup 2011 final defeat.
But the hopes went up in smoke when the Lankans went off the rails
and lost the three remaining games. Accepted the Lankans were depleted
with injuries to Nuwan Kulasekera and Kumar Sangakkara two vital cogs in
Sri Lanka’s winning machine.
The Lankans must treat these defeats like a bad dream and concentrate
on their next bash which will be the World Cup Twenty20. The winning of
this tournament will mean a lot for the cricketer and the game. Once the
Sri Lanka Premier League Twenty20 is over, Captain Mahela Jayawardene
and Coach Graham Ford must get down to training and fronting up the best
for the WC Twenty20.
Finn hilarious
It was hilarious watching England fast bowler Steven Finn dislodging
the bails at the non-striker’s end with his knee on the first day when
South Africa were batting at Headingley during the Second Test against
South Africa.
These incidents have forced the MCC, custodians of Laws since their
formation in 1987, to review the laws of the game. It was obvious that
every time Finn dislodged the bails it distracted the batsman.
The two South African opening batsmen Graeme Smith and Aviro Petersen
had complained to Australian umpire Steve Davis about the distraction.
When Smith was caught in slips off Finn who had dislodged the bails, the
umpire called dead ball citing Law 23.4(b) (vi).
Dead ball
The Law states that either umpire should call and signal dead ball
when: ‘The striker is distracted by any noise or movement or in any
other way while he is preparing to receive, or receiving a delivery.
This shall apply whether the source of the distraction is within the
game or outside it. The ball shall not count as one of the over.’
If the above law is to be applied, then the deafening noise that is
made, not only in the one-day games, but also Test cricket should force
umpires to call dead ball with spectators lighting crackers, blowing
their horns and beating their drums. Doesn’t the Law look funny?
All that apart, what is inexplicable is the consistent dislodging of
the bails by Finn at the non-striker’s end. It is said that he has done
it 50 times this summer and that none of the batsmen had complained.
What is hilarious is that none of his coaches has seen it right and
urgent to correct the bowler and stop him from dislodging the bails. It
is a sad indictment on his coaches considering the level of cricket.
As a leg-spinner with an exemplary controversy free bowling action,
Australian Shane Warne was a magician with the ball in hand with his
repertoire of deliveries.
The majority of batsmen shun facing a good leg-spinner, especially if
he is a master of the googly – the googly is bowled with a leg-break
action, but once it pitches, it goes the other way, like a doosra.
The googly can make the best of batsmen look funny if he fails to
spot or read it. Warne in addition to a well disguised googly had many
other wicket taking deliveries. That he could not be the bowler with the
most number of Test wickets was just one of those things.
Sweating and toiling
Unlike other bowlers a leg-spinner has to spend many hours, sweating
and toiling to master his art. Warne had another Aussie leg spinner in
Terry Jenner as his coach who spent time with him showed him how and
made him the best ever leg-spinner in world cricket.
But now Warne is excelling in a different ball game and that is
commenting on the game for STAR CRICKET in the ongoing
Test series between South Africa and England which series will decide
whether England will remain top Test playing team or whether South
Africa will zoom to the top.
He is to the point, unbiased and from the moment he comes on keeps
viewers glued to the Telly lapping up his knowledgeable and excellent
descriptions. The biased Brit commentators have lot to learn from him.
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