A bizarre period

Well, I don't know what to call the past month's period of cricket because a lot of strange things have happened. It's been bizarre for more than one reason. I can't recall the last time when such a time was prevalent in the game. There have been moments in matches which have left the players and officials doing some serious introspection and the audience amazed and confused at the same time. Here are the recent instances that have had such effects in cricket fans all over the globe.

• The test series between New Zealand and Pakistan produced a quality of cricket that was unheard of before. Both teams came up with performances that mirrored each other - pathetic batting for pathetic batting and awesome bowling for awesome bowling. The top orders of the two teams failed miserably and it was then the middle orders that rescued them in times of adversity. But it was the bowling that made everyone take some serious interest in watching the series. Bond, Asif, Vettori, Ajmal, Tuffey and Ian O'Brien came out firing on all cylinders and their inspired spells enabled their respective teams to gain the upper hand at various points. No wonder that the final scoreline was a fair one - the series was tied at 1-1.
• One will be wondering as to what is really happening to the Australian batsmen. I personally feel that they take a pledge that they won't score a hundred every time they go out to the middle to face the bowlers. The last time that an Aussie reached the three-figure mark was when Michael Hussey made 140-odd during the final Ashes test earlier this year and that too had come in a losing cause. Since then, there have been a crowd of Aussie players throwing away opportunities to score a test century. The highest since then has been Simon Katich's 99 in the final test against the West Indies. And guess what the second highest is? - 98 by the same batsman against the Pakistanis in the on-going first test! Hope someone is there in the Aussie ranks waiting to break this jinx.
• The third instance is not that unique as the previous ones, but it's been a result of developments over the past few years. Placid pitches, bowlers flayed all over, batsmen's breath-taking stroke-play, atrocious fielding - all these were the ingredients of the India-Sri Lanka series. In particular, India's fielding reached an abysmal low inspite of Mike Young, the former Australian team fielding coach, being there to strengthen the team in this department. India, on an average, missed about 8-10 chances every match and conceded a lot of extra runs. They dropped some sitters which would have made Goeff Boycott to comment on them as "My mum could 've caught 'em". Fortunately for India, all the lapses in the field were compensated for by their excellent batting. India found the right men for the right time - all batsmen piled up runs in the test series, Sehwag ran riot in the 1st ODI, Sachin's fluent 96* in the 3rd ODI and the Kohli-Gambhir partnership in the 4th ODI, while chasing a score of 300+, which sealed the series for their team. If only the Indians had done their basics correctly in the fielding, the margins of victories would have been even more emphatic. Something for the Indians to work on and improve.
• However, the most surprising act came from the West Indians. After having been drubbed in the first test by the Australians, the visitors came out and hit back really hard, with skipper Chris Gayle leading the way, in the next two test matches. They made the Aussies sweat it out for a draw in the 2nd test and almost pulled off a 350+ plus chase in the final test at Perth. Credit should be given to the West Indies for fighting very hard, which none expected them to, and for giving the Aussies a scare in their own backyard. Though the result was as predicted before the start of the series, the manner in which it was achieved by the home team has brought up more problems for them which need to be addressed as soon as possible.
• The 5th ODI at the Kotla between India and Sri Lanka clearly turned out to be the icing on the cake. This was a very rare occurrence in cricket. The match was abandoned because of an "inappropriate pitch". Not often does this happen. The last time such an incident occurred was on Christmas Day in 1997 at Indore, where the same two teams were involved. It's shocking that the BCCI did not see this coming, given the fact that the pitch played poorly during the Champions League T-20. The best the Indian Board could have done was to have scheduled the match at some other venue. Shame on the officials for coming up with such an act of ignorance. Either it's as flat as the one in Rajkot, where 825 runs were scored in 100 overs, or a one which is dangerous to the extent of ending a batsman's career with a single ball! It was a good thing that the Indians won the series in the 4th ODI itself. Otherwise, it would have been even more embarrassing if the decider had been called-off because of a "devilish wicket".