What an absorbing day of cricket...

What an absorbing day of cricket it was. At the end of the day, it was cricket that was the winner. The match is not over, but I was overwhelmed by today's play. I am talking about the final test between Australia and South Africa. The second day started with an anticipation if there will be a fairy tale in store for the day with this being Punter's last test. But soon we all realized that fairy tales, after all, are fairy tales.

After 12 wickets fell on day 1, and the no. 1 South Africa being bundled out for 225 (thanks to Faf, and his two partnerships with the lower order, else it would have been even lower), apart from Ponting's innings every cricket lover was interested to know how South Africa was going to prevent its no. 1 spot. South Africa already had a good start taking 2 of the Australian wickets on day 1. South African pace battery pressed on the accelerator and induced the Australian downfall. By the end of 17th over, Australia was 45/6. Then some gritty innings from Mathew Wade saved the face of Australia and they finished their innings at a meager 163, good 62 runs short of the Proteas. All this happened before Tea.

With just one session to go and 3 full days left, one would have expected South Africa to build on their lead gradually without losing any wicket. But South Africa had other intentions. Not that they did not want to build on the lead, but the way they approached the game was a surprise, at least to me. Alviro Petersen started from the word go and scored a quick 23 off just 20 balls before being caught and bold by Jhonson's athletic effort. I thought now that they have lost a wicket, they will slow down, but it was not the case. Hashim Amla came and went even harder than Alviro. He was scoring at a strike rate of 135+. On the other end Greame Smith was also scoring at a good rate, around 80+. Their partnership added 178 before Smith got out at 84 with Lyon taking a brilliant catch. He was very unfortunate not to get a 100.

Then came Kallis. He was not as belligerent as his team mates. It was understandable, as the day was about to end and he did not want SA to lose any further wicket and lose the advantage. His tentative approach certainly gave the Aussies a much needed chance to come back in the game but Lyon grassed a sitter. Both the wickets that Australia took in the 2nd innings were a result of brilliant catches, and Australia should have realized by then that it was not going to be a easy way out. Kallis rubbed salt on the wound by scoring three brilliant boundaries in one over and unfortunately the bowler at the receiving end was Starc on whose bowling Lyon dropped Kallis.

Last 20 minutes of the day also did not pass without a drama. The drama was surrounding Amla's century. When Smith got out, Amla was on 92 and at least 6 overs were remaining and Amla scored a 4 in the same over taking his tally to 96. After that Amla did not get enough strike. Smith got out in 33rd over. Kallis played the complete 34th over and took a single on the last ball. Then he played the complete 35th over. Amla faced the first ball of 36th over and as he had been doing throughout the innings, did not waste it and took a single. The remaining over was played by Kallis and again he took a single on the last ball. Again, the 37th over was played by Kallis with three glorious 4s. There could have been two full overs bowled in the time that was left for the day's play, but Clarke deliberately slowed it down with Amla getting a bit nervous. Amla had full 6 balls for him in the 38th over, facing the first ball. He played the first ball without a run. Then, in the second ball, he was nearly caught with the ball falling short of the fielder at mid-off, in an attempt to go over him. Kallis walked down to him to calm him down. Amla played another dot ball before scoring a single on the 4th ball, taking him to 98. Now the question was will Kallis take a single and give back the strike to Amla. Clarke also judged the situation well and brought all the fielders in to prevent the single, but Kallis managed to score a single. Now Amla was facing the final ball of the day with two runs for his well deserved century. It was short delivery and Amla swiveled and controlled the pull, only to pick up a single in the deep, which took him to 99. Now he will face the strike tomorrow. With this the day and the drama ended.

South Africa amassed 206 runs (in 32 overs) in the final session. Yes, we are talking about test cricket. South Africa has a lead of 292 with 8 wickets in hand. When both Smith and Amla were going ruthless, a 300+ lead was imminent but Smith's wicket slowed things a bit, but nevertheless, Proteas are in commanding position at the end of day 2. For sure, whatever South Africa will set Australia as target, Australia will have lot of time to chase. The only question is, how much?

Guys, this is the battle for number 1 spot. Australia has to win this game to regain their glory and South Africa just needs a draw. But the way, SA has approached the second innings, I doubt that they will settle with anything less than a victory. It is a pity that SA-AUS series are just three match series. Out of the last 9 series between them 8 have produced results, Australia winning 7 out of them. Only the last series was a drawn one and it was a 2 match series with a result of 1-1. The last time each of these team won the series against each other, it was on the opponent's soil and here SA has a very good chance of repeating the same. I do not want to jump to any conclusion, but one thing that I am sure of is that, for the next three days, you are definitely going to witness a very good battle. If you are a cricket lover, do not miss it.

My game number 50

Wishing you and your family a very happy new year!

Amidst the euphoria and anticipation of Sachin Tendulkar's 100 th century, I quietly completed my 50 th one day game as an umpire on January 8, 2012. It was so quiet that even I did not realize that when I was doing my game. It was only when I tried to work with some statistics for this post, that I realized it. At the same moment, I realized how much pressure Sachin must be feeling now. Going in any game without having any expectation apart from just enjoying the game in hand, makes you give the best for the game. Since I did not associate any milestone with my game, for me it was just another game and I enjoyed it thoroughly. More so, because I was doing a game after a gap of two months.

My journey as an umpire started in 2008 when I cleared the examination held by Belgium Cricket Federation. I started it just as pastime. But then it turned out to be a passion. I cleared the examination conducted by Tamil Nadu Cricket Association in 2009. In 2011, I passed the BCCI Level 1 examination. When I started, I never thought that I will come this far. Though it has been a slow progress, but I must admit that it has been a steady progress. I did 17 games in 2008 with BCF, 4 games in 2009 with TNCA, 14 games in 2010 with BCF and 14 games in 2011 with TNCA. With the circumstances that I had been in, I believe this is a good number. The season 2011-12 has not yet ended, so I will have few more games on grab.

My last game was on October 23, 2011. After that till December first week, almost all games were washed out because of excessive rains. In December, I was a bit busy with my work so I did not do any game. I even declined the posting on January 7, 2012. Had I known it would be my 50 th game, may be I would have accepted it :). So, finally after a gap of 2 months, I did a game.

It was a division 4 game, between Magnet Cricket Club and Madras United Club. It was held at CLRI grounds. My colleague for the day was K. Manoharan. He is a Division 2 player and also my batch mate as an umpire. We passed our TNCA and BCCI exams in the same year i.e. 2009 and 2011 respectively. It was nice to see him as my colleague. We were doing a game together for the first time. It was a bright sunny day and no sign of any dark cloud, so I was confident that the game was on.

Magnet CC won the toss and elected to field first. The bowling started from my end and I had the chance of calling 'Play'. On the third ball itself, a chance went begging. The opening batsman nicked the ball to the first slip and the slip fielder was late to react and dropped the catch. Then the batsman started scoring freely and there was no chance till the 16 th over. I was at the square leg and the very first ball, the batsman stretched forward to reach for the ball and in the process, dragged his back foot outside the crease and missed the ball. The keeper collected the ball and whipped the bails off in a flash and appealed to me. It was a close call but I had no hesitation in giving him out and my index finger came back into action :).

Madras United Club then lost another wicket in the same over and then they kept loosing wickets on regular intervals, but at the same time they were scoring freely. In spite of losing wickets on regular basis, their inning spanned till the 50 th over, but they could not completely play the 50 overs. They were all out for 262 in 49.3 overs. The innings ended 5 minutes before the scheduled time for lunch (1300 hours). It was a very competitive score. I thought that either the game was going down the wire or it would be a one sided game. But it was neither of the two.

Nevertheless, Magnet CC did not have the best of the start that they would have desired for. They lost their opener in the very first over. The batsman who came as one down was in a murderous mood. He was swinging at anything and everything, but unfortunately for him, he did not connect most of the time. In the 6 th over, when I was at bowler's end, this batsman missed the ball in one such swing and the ball hit the pad. As expected there was a huge appeal and without any hesitation, I gave him out. But the surprising part was that the batsman started walking as soon as it hit his pad. It was for the first time I saw someone walking for a LBW :). Here again, Magnet CC started losing wickets on regular interval. Though their scoring rate was better than their opponent throughout their inning, but loss of wickets were not helping their cause. Finally, their innings folded in the 35 th over at a score of 147. The match ended at 1603, more than an hour before the scheduled finish of the game (1715 hours).

It would be a cliche, but as I had mentioned in my previous posts, every game offers a new experience. In this case it was for the first time that I saw that both teams were very disciplined in their bowling efforts. Both teams were always ahead in their over rates (15 overs/hour), that too without any interference from us (umpires). It was very sunny day and thus we had to allow for drinks in between the game in addition to the regular drinks break. The regular drinks break also lasted its full 5 minutes each time. But it did not impact the over rate in any way. It was a very nice feeling. I wish every team does the same.

The game was played in good spirit and that is what an umpire desire for. So my game number 50 went on smooth. The year has begun well and I hope to do as many games as possible this year.