Everyone should have a friend like Hardik Pandya. Someone who will be a calming influence in any crisis. So was the tense situation with a wide smile on Hardik’s face. Once again, Virat Kohli was the keynote speaker at the pre-match team huddle. He did the same against Pakistan. He ended his passionate monologue with his right hand karate chops landing on his open left palm to make a point. But it was Hardik’s battle that shattered the tight circle. Earlier, in his sleeveless vest, tattoos glowing in the sun, he was talking to Nasir Hussain. Hardik told him why these high-pressure games didn’t drag him down. “I depend a lot on my preparations. If you prepare well, tick all the boxes, are confident about your skill set, you know your time will come,” he said. By the way, he ended the chat with a hipster casual tone – “Thanks Nas.”
— Sandeep Dwivedi
Gorgeous Crunchy Six; yes ok VKO, go ahead
It was a six over by a fast bowler. And everyone went on as if there were four. How does time change? In the 80s, once when Raman Lamba hit a six over a fast bowler, it was strange. Especially for an Indian. Did Vivian Richards even imagine he could do it – and some of us at school had such chatter. Now, ah we go, Woakes shouldn’t have done it in the slot. It was a scintillating hit from Kohli. First pressing backwards as he had been doing over the net a few days earlier and then proceeding to lift it up and over.
– Shriram Veer
Tracer Bullet: Shastri’s catchphrase; when lightning strikes multiple times
When Nasir Hussain joked with Ravi Shastri while imitating his “tracer bullet” line in the air, Shastri laughed. The mind went back to his reaction to his famous lines on the comment. Like this tracer bullet.
“It just happened. With the flow, you can’t plan what to do now. When it really goes like a bullet, you can say it. Someone told me once (a lot of that word) about to use), I told him, ‘Enjoy it!’ Every day, you can’t think of new words. Some guy came and told me about Tracer Bullet. In that match I told him, “You’re watching this for the 15th repeat, it’s not my fault !” When they keep showing the match 15-20 times, and off you go, it’s called Tracer Bullet again! I said it once, you’re watching it 20 times! That’s not my headache, isn’t it!” They told Indian Express, Take care Nasir.
– Shriram Veer
Bad batting: Rohit
Adelaide: India’s Rohit Sharma walks off the field after being dismissed during the T20 World Cup cricket semi-final between England and India in Adelaide, Australia, Thursday, November 10, 2022. AP/PTI photo
And then Rohit Sharma Arguably the ugliest shot of his career. Sam Curran had a plan, toss one of his fast swinging deliveries to Rohit’s pads and swung a short mid-wicket. The India captain loves flicks and is not intimidated by the little English pacer. The second ball of the over is on the pads, it’s a good delivery but Rohit takes it over the head of short-mid-wicket. On the field, Woakes jumped as high as he could to give the impression that it was a missed opportunity. Now, Rohit had to cement his position as the world’s leading white-ball batsman. On the next ball he takes at least three steps to meet a shorter ball and delivers a stroke that would have made the logger proud. His left foot is parallel to the ground after he hits the ball. It was not a spontaneous “minimum effort maximum result”, but someone playing in the parking lot of their building. Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis—Lessons from a Master was a book written by veteran tennis star Brad Gilbert. It was a bestseller.
— Sandeep Dwivedi
Artist turned Rohit fell while chasing a wild
His timing was off, he was a bit late on the ball and the runs were not flowing the way he would have liked. Rohit Sharma was not at his best in the knockout semi-finals. Chris Woakes’ slog sweep was attempted at the thumb end of the bat and Sharma nodded in despair for the second time in the game. Four overs were over and something had to be given. In the next over, he hit Sam Curran for a four at short midwicket. But the next stroke was very non-Sharma-like. The fluid artist decided that getting himself out of bad form was the only way out. He went down the track and hit the ball horizontally with the bat. He pivots on the other leg as the hind leg is in the air. Sharma had given up on elegance for the sake of effectiveness.
After covering it over Chris Jordan, the Englishman will have the last laugh. Continuing his off timing, he used to swing wildly on one, which backfired after three balls. It came off the bat, and Sam Curran dived to end the painstaking struggle.
-Nihal Koshi
Tight, slow, stood by all widths: Ro-Miss
The pitch-up offcutter is a vital weapon at the Adelaide Oval – the lack of pace combined with long straight boundaries makes it difficult for batsmen to hit sixes. For on-pace full deliveries, the ground presents a dilemma, especially if there is not much swing, as in this semi-final. Bowlers can exceed that length and try to block cross-batted shots to the short square boundary. and as borders on additional cover from Virat Kohli And as Rohit Sharma showed, the on-pace full length can also disappear when associated with some width. But Chris Jordan’s slow, pitch-up delivery to Rohit was on the stumps, denying any width and forcing the straighter to hit the long rope, causing the Indian skipper to collapse.
– Abhishek Purohit
Argh! Bharat Swing and Miss
Short of a run-a-ball at the half-way stage, a juicy full toss, Kohli fails to connect, and a loud ‘Argh!’ Kohli’s heavy load on his legs only cost him one run and that display of emotion, not rare for Kohli, captured the sentiments of even an Indian fan, who had been dismayed by the batsmen’s incompetence. During the drinks break, Dravid had an animated discussion with Kohli and Skye, but after that the first ball was the same – a wide ball, a big swing and another miss.
– Mihir Vasavadan
Indians are trying and hacking; Rashid doing star turn
Yesterday New Zealand batted cautiously (critics called cowardice) as if they had misread the pitch and set a total of 160 types. Today the Indians are batting as if their mind is telling that we need a big score here but lost on a slightly slower track. They are working very hard in their shots led by their captain Rohit Sharma. A touch desperate because they are not sure of the right target to set and worried that perhaps the pitch might intensify under lights during the chase. Came in to show Suriya that you can wait and time the ball here for the big shots. No need to hack. But under pressure to increase the run rate, that too will pierce for sweeper cover. It was a lovely delivery from Adil Rashid, slowing down the pace yet bouncing it, dragging Surya out of shape and getting into the shot at the wrong time. Through Rashid – called a “match winner” by his teammates Sam Curran and Mark Wood the other day – showed why he is so valued by his team.
– Shriram Veer
Jose… Dhoni? But not Pandya, Pollard
India’s Hardik Pandya batting during the T20 World Cup cricket semi-final England and India in Adelaide, Australia, Thursday, November 10, 2022. AP/PTI
Hardik Pandya hit a straight boundary on the head of the umpire. Liam Livingstone seemed a little upset. And Butler was doing Dhoni. On the next ball, the England captain found a fielder just behind the umpire, knowing that Pandya gets most of his runs. It was a step right outside Dhoni’s playbook – the same was done by the former India captain two years ago to dismiss Kieron Pollard in the IPL. West Indies then hit the fielder directly. Pandya, however, was more prudent and rotated the strike. Not the wicket, as Butler would have expected, but at least maintaining the leash.
– Mihir Vasavadan
Tough length for hearty?
Despite a short square boundary at the Adelaide Oval, Chris Woakes started with three consecutive short deliveries to Hardik Pandya, whose strong suit against the pace is fuller length. The teams have successfully brought back Pandya with tough lengths in this tournament and Woakes was looking to do the same. However, given the dimensions of the field this approach comes with a small margin of error. But even Chris Jordan, who favored pitch-up deliveries and yorkers, was ready to use a hard pull-back length to Pandya.
Sam Curran tried the same tactic, but at his pace, it didn’t come, as Pandya was able to ride the boom and throw him flat at extra cover for six. Karan had to convert to fuller length.
Then Pandya also hit the bat in Jordan when he bowled full.
– Abhishek Purohit
Kohli expresses himself despite being a non-striker
Hardik Pandya of India bats during the T20 World Cup cricket semi-final between England and India in Adelaide, Australia, Thursday, November 10, 2022. (AP/PTI)
A short film needs to be made on Virat Kohli’s feelings while batting. Kohli talks a lot to himself these days while getting out in the middle. Before he went behind Haris Rauf in the Group 2 game against Pakistan and took the famous victory, Kohli was pumping himself, talking, waving a fist, nodding his head. Against England in the semi-final, Kohli was animated. When Hardik sent Sam Curran into the cover area for a six, it was Kohli who was at his best. It looks like he’s feeding his teammates to get his adrenaline rush going. Even when he got the boundary, Kohli was telling himself that he should have hit a six. He used his index finger to point the direction in which the ball should have landed.
– Nihal Koshi
Source indianexpress.com
