Harbhajan takes a digg at Hogg
Posted on Dec 18, 2007 by Scorpicity |
Finally, the series which I have been looking forward is around the corner and the games have already began. Harbhajan on landing in Australia has already taken his first dig at … Hogg! On questions posted on the Australian debate on using an all-pace attack or spin, he said “From our point of view, we would be happy to see how Hogg would go against the best players of spin in the world.” Hogg is “not close to the class of Warne and MacGill”. “It would be a big test for him, and we all know how he bowls.” “If they play Hoggy, I will wish him all the best because I have nothing against him, but I would be happy to see him bowl at our batsmen.”
There he is attempting to play so-called mind games on the turbulent areas of which spinner to use for tests. He claims “Macgill” has “class”… what the…? The Indians sure know one thing that they would be happy playing against Macgill rather than a Hogg.
In the ODI series in India, Hogg was by far the best spinner in the series. He may not have ended up with the highest number of wickets in the series owing to him being mysteriously sitting out for a game but he sure did make an impact in every game he played. The Indian batsmen just couldn’t read his wrong ones… they were struggling to Hogg. And mind you, Australia played spin bowling better than India… they played spin beautifully until Murali Karthik arrived for the last two matches.
There was nothing more shocking to see Hogg then not be picked for the test series against Sri lanka. As far as Macgill is concerned, whenever I think of him, there is a standard delivery of his which comes to my mind… a ball tossed and pitches around off-stump, spins sharply outside off, and the batsman gleefully cuts him for four…. Over and over again! My take… any day Macgill to face!
Coming back to the series itself, for the four ageing power houses of Indian cricket – Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman, this will probably be the last Australian tour for them and therefore am looking forward to hopefully see some inspired performances. I mentioned ‘probably’ because the next Australian tour is in 2011 and if any of these four expresses their desire to play till then, please call the mad scientist at 22, Akaria Avenue and ask him to inject a lethal dose of hernia to these four!
The equation for this series may be summed up as follows:
Australia playing brilliantly + India playing brilliantly = Match drawn
Australia playing normally + India playing normally = Australia wins
Australia playing poorly + India playing normally = Match drawn
Australia playing poorly + India playing brilliantly = India wins
The sum of the equation is that India needs to play out of their hats, tooth and nail to win or draw.
The quality of cricket being played in all the cricket series all over the world has been poor to say the least. And am really looking forward to see some good quality cricket and perhaps India is the only team, since being highly mercurial in nature, blowing hot and cold that can probably beat Australia or at least give it a real contest. For the context of the good of cricket itself, this is a very important series.
It is going to be very difficult to restrict Australia’s batting, as they have an awesome deep line-up and everyone in good form… Yes, even the rookie, Phil Jacques! So the key would again be on India’s batting to match Australia.
The debate of an all-pace attack is interesting and I would like to see that strategy for the first test. The next 2 test venues apparently can assist spinners… The hype around Shaun Tait by the Australians has been running around for 1 year now!!! Jeez!! I saw him play at the world cup and a few matches before it… and I seriously didn’t find anything spectacular about him. Nor did he really trouble any team, as every match he had an economy rate of over 6 and 7. He did pick a few wickets in every game but none all so crucial as in to affect the opposition at all.
So much talk about his pace! He is quick no doubt but he is certainly not the fastest around among his peers… a.k.a. Lee, Akhtar (1 year back). In my opinion I would call the fastest bowler as someone who can bowl consistently over 150 ks over after over… I have seen Lee do it, Akhtar do it… nobody else!! Tait is quick, can hit 150 and even 160… all in a few odd deliveries and mostly he is around the 140s. To me, Brett Lee is still the fastest bowler around followed by Tait. Any takers on this view?
Nevertheless, they say post-injury recovery; he has come back as a better bowler and we are all to see how he lives up to the hype, considering even the fact that this opposition struggles with short-pitched stuff. I watched him blow New Zealand away in the twenty-20 game and this is the best fast bowling line-up in a very long time since the windies era… three guy who hit 150s and a shrewd line & length guy!!
And more than everything it would be apt to once again quote Harbhajan on this series… “If somebody gives it to us, we will give it back. We have the quality in our side, and if we all stick together we can give the Australians a good fight. We respect their team and the kind of cricket they play, but we don’t fear them.”
Game on! A fight is what we want…. Now walk the talk!
by Ottayan, on December 19 2007 @ 12:41 pm
Scorpi,
Fighting words from Bhajji.
Your equations were excellent.
Cheers!
by scorpicity, on December 19 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Hey Otts… but the funny thing is Bhajji has not played in Australia at all! And he may not even this time around!
by Ottayan, on December 19 2007 @ 3:05 pm
Scorpi,
You are right about Bhajji. Do you think Karthik will play or is it going to be only Kumble?
by Ratan, on December 19 2007 @ 3:20 pm
Bhajji has started the first round of Indian verbal attack.
by scorpicity, on December 19 2007 @ 4:52 pm
Otss, looks like Kumble only this time too! They might play pathan for the extra batsman
by scorpicity, on December 19 2007 @ 4:53 pm
Welcome ratan!! yes indeed he has lol… let’s see how they stick it out at the field
by Dinnie, on December 19 2007 @ 5:45 pm
I didn’t see much of a point in this digging, since we all know how good Hogg had been during the India series. And if he is not played at all, Bhajji, he’d make a joker of himself. I think Indians are yet to master the art of psychological warfare.
That’s good left-brain thinking on the equations. Very well.
by scorpicity, on December 19 2007 @ 7:19 pm
Hey Dinnie… that’s exactly what I felt… they are trying hard… rather unnaturally to master pyschological warfare but making a joke of things… It’s on par with South africa who are another set of jokers when it comes to psy. talk. It looks to be a toss of a coin now between Hogg and tait. Though honestly, want tait to play the first test.
by Dinnie, on December 19 2007 @ 11:26 pm
Yeah, I’m really for Tait, though. He’s great for the game. One focused and dedicated athlete.
And a hunk. Um.
by scorpicity, on December 20 2007 @ 12:19 pm
ha ha… hunk alright
!! BTW how are your exams going?
by Uncle J rod, on December 22 2007 @ 4:16 pm
There are a couple of flaws in your arguments, the first test won’t be a draw unless it rains, based on the results there this year. Victoria has scrambled to 400 twice, no one else has got close. Western Australia had a batting line up of Hussey, Langer, Shaun Marsh (son of geoff and future prodigal son), voges, pomersbach (top run scorer before being dropped for being a drunkard) and gilchrist and still only made 280 odd. It’s not a batting pitch, its slow and hard to get comfortable on.
As for Tait, he got out gibbs in the semi final (SA’s best bat) and McMIllan & Fleming in the game before that. Against England he got out Vaughn, Strauss & Collingwood. Alot of these were matching changing wickets. Only Sri Lanka played him well in the world cup, and probably cause they have a similar bowler. In that world cup he took as many wickets as Murali (23), and his economy rate was 5.50, which for a bowler of his action is pretty good. He bowls quicker than Lee almost everytime they are in the same game, Lee quite often bowls in the 140’s, for Tait it is much rarer.
by scorpicity, on December 23 2007 @ 9:42 pm
Uncle J, this is a long response to your comment. I appreciate your view points and enthusiasm for the game a lot.
You seem to have misunderstood the equation part … Like this equation is not a prediction or anything of that sort… of what will happen in the order of the matches played etc… it is a simple analysis of the effort of the two teams required which concludes that if Australia plays normally, they ain’t gonna lose no matter what and India has to play their very best to even draw. It is a reality check to what the media is building on people’s expectations. As a supporter of India, I am being realistic in my expectations and would be very happy if they can salvage a draw… a win is a different thing all together.
As for Tait in the world cup, he did well in a couple of matches in the later half of the tournament. I agree he picked wickets. My emphasis that he did not have so much of an impact on the tournament considering the lengths of the hype around him hold true. If you notice in most of the matches , by far, there has always been a better bowler than Tait on that day! Nathan Bracken did brilliantly well! It is one thing to have a look at the scorecard and read the figures or play it out on who made the bigger impact while the match was played out. In many of the matches, the pressure was sheerly built by Bracken and Mcgrath, while the opposition had to pick on Tait to score runs! The pressure was too much to hold on too long!
I agree that I have inflated his economy figures in this post a bit… But I stick to my intent and analysis that he was expensive by far! You are saying that the total economy rate of tait in the world cup - 5.50 is good! Those figures sound nice but don’t look “good” to me considering the opposition totals were 215, 149, 133, 226, 91, 247, 104, 219, 294, 129, 131, 197, 184. 8/13 matches, the opposition were bowled out for less than 200!! And only 1 250 plus score!! Considering these scores, 5.50 is far expensive than what it translates into!!!
I agree he genuinely did make an impact in the few matches you pointed… why… even in the match against Bangladesh, he picked up the most crucial wicket of Shakib Al Hasan who top-scored for Bangladesh with 25… Bangladesh scored 104. Tait’s figures read 4 overs 28/1 at an eco.rate of 7!! I can assure you Sri Lanka was not the only team that played him well!!
In the world cup, there were 3 other Australian bowlers who did consistently better than Tait! Even if Tait had sat out, it wouldn’t have had an impact of any acknowledable significance! Considering the length and breath of all the hype and build-ups which the Aussies were throwing, Tait certainly did not match up to any of those descriptives!!
“Lee quite often bowls in the 140’s, for Tait it is much rarer”… Is 4 out of 6 balls at 140s in an over a rarity? Jeez!! I watched him keenly in all the matches of the just concluded Aus-NZ series… and his speeds on an average were far from what you described as rare!! In fact in many of the overs, there were balls around the 130s!! And no they were not his disguised slow ones either!! He was faster than Lee in those matches… I agree and but I was never arguing about who can “now” bowl faster between the two!!
Tait also in those matches bowled some quick ones over 150 and but my point was am yet to see spells where he has consistently delivered at very high speeds. Lee has lost a few yards of pace… I noticed that also. But like said in my post, my opinion i.e, I would call somebody the fastest ever only if they consistently bowl at over 150s overs after overs… I know theortical this sounds rubbish… what I mean is some genuinely fast spells from the word go!! I have seen Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar do that in a not so distant past! Tait may do it… he has the potential. But Until he does, in my opinion he is not the fastest… just like I don’t consider Thomson the fastest ever either!
I personally like exciting fast bowlers… even played at lower levels as one… so can assure you that I too have very high hopes on Tait. But I felt things were being spilt a bit too much about Tait that such an overdose on him will kill his young career… he is an improved bowler after the world cup! There was a time when Akhtar was trying hard to hit the magical 160 that he lost his sight on other essential requirements of his bowling! Am hoping that they don’t kill Tait’s talent to something mindless!
Is Tait the best fast bowler in world cricket among the new breed? Nope.. let’s watch “Dale steyn”… may not be remotely as quick but certainly has made a far better impact and start than Tait!! Let’s see how these 2 hold their brew!!
Cheers Buddy!!
by Uncle J rod, on December 24 2007 @ 1:54 pm
I agree with you that Bracken was a better bowler in the world cup, but i think your missing the point of Tait. He was told to go out there and bowl as quick as possible and not too worry about runs. He did that. personally i think that without him Australia wouldn’t have won the world cup, as he was the one bowler who wasn’t bowling line and length at a playable pace.
I never thought there was that much hype on him, in fact, mitchell johnson had far more hype than tait. Tait and Steyn are still a long way off, they have both had one good series, but that does not make the man.
by scorpicity, on December 24 2007 @ 3:27 pm
Uncle J,
This debate may go on LOL… let’s hope Tait reaches the levels everyone including myself expect.
Cheers mate