Which position do you think is the most difficult for a batsman?

Having seen (followed essentially) India's reply in the last two tests, I was wondering as to which batting position is the most crucial for a team's success. I am going to split the entire argument into

two factors:
1. Stability and
2. Ability to take the attack to the opponents
So logically if I have to dissect the importance of each position, I would have to first come up with a break up the role for each slot.

Openers(1,2): See the new ball off and provide a good base.
Middle order(3,4,5): Build on the platform provided by the openers or re-build a top-order collapse.
Lower Middle order(6,7): Rebuild a horrendous top and middle order collapse or hit out/late surge to score quick and eat less time.
Lower order: Pointless.

Building on the same grounds, the deal with the openers is that they are always in a frame of mind to face the music from the quickies. They always start from square one, 0/0. You might argue that if the opponents post a huge score, the openers are under huge pressure. I could argue that the pressure is even more on the person coming next with the burden of an early loss and a tall score to chase. And hence I think that number 3 is the most crucial position for any team and has to be the most technically gifted player in the side. It has more often than not been the case... Dravid, Kallis, Ponting, Sangakarra etc.
Effectively the have no clue as to when they would go in next after the start of play.

Another position which is very important is number 7. Essentially where Dhoni/Gilly play. This is so very important because they have to play with the rest of the lower order. Also they are expected to do damage control with a minimal set of resources in trying conditions (the bowlers are all fired up at the propsect of wickets with the tail in to play :)) when the top order has failed the expectations of them.

Not to undermine the importance of the middle order .. but it seems to me that these two are the most critical positions or should I say the ones with the most responsibility.


Credits : Bala for writing most of the blog. :)

african proverb

a very nice and thought provoking verse i came across ...

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesnt matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

Sports in 2005

We did see a lot of sports last year. I would like to recount some sporting events which were surprises and some not so surprising.

Formula 1

Michael Schumacher fails to win a single grand prix this year. Ferrari fails to win a single Gran Prix. He did win the Indianapolis but then that doesnt count with hardly any opponents. All credits to Renault and Mclaren for a strong showing. Alonso and Raikonnen shares most of the honours.

Tennis

Federer wins Wimbeldon Championship 3rd time in a row. And not to say of Sania Mirza coming in the 25 in the WTA rankings.

Soccer

Liverpool wins Champions League. Infact, they win as Schevchenko fails to convert a penalty. Do remember that a couple of years ago, Schevchenko scored for Milan for their Champions League win.

Cricket

Australia loses Ashes to England after winning for who knows how long.
Sachin crosses Gavaskar's Record to make his 35th Century.
Lara crosses the Allan Borders Highest test score.

Ice Hockey

NHL Professional Season for 2005 was not organized due to player union and organiser standoffs.

Lets see what this year has in store

The Two Brothers - Welcome Home (Sanitarium)!!!

Background :- You have been introduced to who the freaks are in the post "The Freaks" and then the tale starts with the first installment - "Brotherhood of the Freaks" where Brothers, Step Brothers, Leeches, Paparazzi's, Tapeworm's and Ammas were introduced. We will now move ahead to the second installment in the tale "The Two Brothers".

This tale starts from the fag end of the Brotherhood of Freaks, where as the Freaks were parting ways, Two Brothers, Balls and Yatin decided to call the brotherhood for a reunion and house warming party at their new house. Aup was returning back to the cherished land so he would not be able to join the brotherhood pilgrimage but all the other Brothers decided to be a part of the pilgrimage. Brothers on the West Coast would understandably not be able to join while Balls dream of catfight between two ammas were not to be realized this time around.

The Two Brothers wanted the Brotherhood to join them before the new year to help them shift but brothers being intelligent themselves decided to join only after the entire shifting to the new house was complete. Still afraid of helping the Twins, vcd decided to dropout at the last moment so only Bhaiyya, Srikant and KK made the pilgrimage to Raleigh from Baltimore where the Twin Brothers were waiting.

The Festival (Plan of Action as scripted by Balls)

30th December
Brothers from Baltimore reach Raleigh as early as possible (by 6pm atmost), get rest for the mind with some music, stomach with some home cooked Pav Bhaji (courtesy Balls), some drinks to go with it and innumerable Beedis to sooth the fraying nerves. Keep talking late into the nite before we sleep.

31st December
Lunch at Tower of India a desi place in Raleigh. Go for shopping to prepare for the New Year Eve Feast and then prepare the feast. Celebrate the new year with Beedis, Drinks and food. Yeti playing the Base guitar on

1st January
Relaaaaaax after a overcoming the huge hangover. Talk/ Chat/ Listen to Music/ Watch Movies.

2nd January
End of the pilgrimage. Wake up late, have lunch, pack up and return back to Baltimore.

What Actually Happened

30th December :-
I am trying to reach Bhaiyya and Srikant from 9am. No response until 10.30 am when finally Bhaiyya wakes up. Srikant is still sleeping or dazed. We discuss on leaving at around 12 after which Bhaiyya with such heavy planning feels tired and takes a power nap. Finally, eveybody rose around 12 where they pick me up, Srikant packs his stuff. After that we all go to Bhaiyya's place for Bhaiyya to get ready and pack his stuff. We also stop over at Vcd's place to carry Balls last remains from Baltimore.

Balls informs us his the confirmation of getting the job. So now the trip had 3 main purposes:- New Year Party, Housewarming Party and Balls Job Celebrations

When all this is completed it is already 2.30pm and we head to Chippotle's for lunch. After around 3.30 Srikant sees that his cell is in the house and we go for the pickup. Balls calls around 4pm where we are having beedi and we decide to tell him that we have already covered 70 miles on road and stuck in slow moving holiday traffic. Balls being the persistent kind wants more info and Bhaiyya with amzing dexterity gives non-existent information and factually incorrect. (Balls unaware of it until he reads it on the blog)

Finally, leaving at 4.30pm from Baltimore, we are on the road and we do get a good paced holiday traffic and no delays until Raleigh where we finally reach 9.30pm.

When we were at the outskirts of Raleigh, we hear a horrible news. Balls was still at work. There went our dreams of reaching and having hot Pav Bhaji. Now we knew food would be a distant dream. We brace ourselves for it as we reach the Sanitarium.

Entering the fabulous house and having a tour of it Srikant's first comment which sums up the description :-

" You guys have got a very good setup. Good Jobs, Good place, Home theatre System, Patio & a nice View, Good Rooms, attached Bathrooms, cheap rent and to top it all .... A Bai* ...."

After sometime Amma decides to encourage the Two Brothers to finally cook as she was famished and the brothers take a cue and around midnight we finally have an awesome dal from Yeti and Aloo ka sabzi from Balls and Ras Malai as dessert.

We retire late in the nite to have Balls initiates a discussion. When we were discussing we hear the sounds from the other room ... Srikant snoring away to glory. Actually he was suffering from cold and that amplified the snores.

Balls makes a comment on my and Bhaiyyas snoring and says he never snores. Late in the nite, I and Bhaiyya are still continuing our discussion when we hear another snoring sound in the room. Balls asleep and snoring loudly.

31st December
We wake up early in the day (1pm) and by the time we rise and shine Tower of India decides to close its shutter. Undeterred, Bhaiyya decides to cook Egg Bhurji while Srikant makes tea and we eat Lunch.

Yeti arrives with ingredients for the feast. Main Course was Pulav(Balls), Gobi Manchurian(KK), Chikken Tikka (Bhaiyya), Mutton Nihari (Yeti), Raita (KK). While drinks included Beer and Brandy. Not to Mention Amma did most of the cutting and cleaning of vegetables and rice.

The new year was heralded with smoking a couple of Cigars and after that we started with Heavy Metal session with Yeti playing the Base Guitar for most of the songs. It was really awesome. The brotherhood also sang to songs and did a pretty decent job.

1st January
National Hangover Day. The brotherhood rose after 2pm. Amma rose at 1pm to fall asleep again after talking to Balls, until 5pm. Lunch was yesterday's leftovers. After that a Shtaarbucks trip for fresh air and Balls deciding to make the Pav Bhaaji. Yeti decides to make Turkey Kababs and brandy to go with it. We also started watching movies from Balls DVD collection as we had dinner. I also got my ROCK 101 lesson.

We all went to sleep and I started snoring so loudly, that Srikant infact had to go to a different room to sleep. It was that bad but when he changed rooms he heard Bhaiyya and Balls discussing about Voltage Transformers ... he just could'nt believe it .... Was this a dream ? He still asks himself till this day.

2nd January
Gorging on the fabulous Kababs from yesterday and Pav Bhaaji we give the Twin Brothers Housewarming gifts before we head back for our karma-bhoomi. On the way we do have serious discussions on patriotism before we stop at waffle house for dinner and we realize the dream-trip was over.

I hope the third installment of the tale would soon be out. The Return of the Baba.

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*Bai :- Also referred to as Amma-II. She was arranging Yeti's closet when we met her this time. Apparently, she did most of the moving of the Twin Brothers stuff to the new place. We did hear the incident of Balls unable to pick up the TV and infact getting crushed by the sheer weight of it before Amma non-chalantly picks it up to move it. Also, were several similar incidents about the sofa etc.

Always nostalgic ...

I got a mail from Kausum today which had a picture of a rekdiwaalah making tea somewhere in Bombay. That got me thinking as to why do we always have to feel nostalgic about anything related to Bombay or India. Pictures of a cutting chai waalah, Marine Drive, a BEST bus, local trains, a boy flying kite standing on a platform roof, anything and everything to do with Bombay/India ... why do they have to make us nostalgic and if they don’t then people make us believe there is something wrong with us, that we are unpatriotic, that we have become Americanized, in short ... we have lost it.

According to me this all-the-time nostalgia is not justified at all. 3 or how many ever years back we had 2 choices in front of us; either continue studying/working in India or come to the US for studying/working. We had 2 clear choices. We understood the consequences of picking each choice. And we chose to come over here for earning those American Dollars. And that’s what we are doing right now. Now if we think that we are missing so much by staying over here then we should move back. But no, we don’t want to move back also, we want to earn dollars.

In that case, we should get over this all-the-time nostalgia phase and accept the present as it is. We should learn to live in the present. We are in the US and that’s the present. India/Bombay is a thing of the past and maybe (hopefully ... definitely) of the future, but its certainly ain’t the present. We are losing precious present over a thing of the past; past which will always be there, past which cannot be changed.

Nostalgia is just glorified cribbing .... methinks.