The Third Umpire

[thethirdumpire]

Selection Day, Ind vs Aus 4th Test

Yesterday, I have watched a cricket series on Netflix called Selection Day based on the Aravind Adiga book: Selection Day. The show was about dad hell-bent on making his sons big on international cricket, however, conflicts arise. One of the sons, Manju, doesn’t like cricket despite his immense talent, and questions arise of the coach’s corruption. Being a cricket lower I watched all of the episodes of season 1, and hope they make a new season ASAP. I would recommend to any cricket lower or at least someone with an interest of Indian or Indian aspired shows to watch the series.

Moving on, India vs Australia 4th test will be a deciding factor whether India has their first series win in Australia. It is the second day of this fourth test and India are 426/6. Personally, I think India would play for a draw. India has such a high score with four wickets left, I think they would go for 600 declared in the first session of the third day. If you are making history in cricket why take any risk if you have such a high chance of winning the series. If India plays for a win, they would probably be accelerating their runs, having the risk of losing wickets early and let Australia bat earlier. Sure it may go against the spirit of the game, but history is being made.

[thethirdumpire]

Today’s Practice

Since it is winter in the US, I haven’t practiced or played much cricket because of the rainy and cold weather. All I could watch is the India vs Australia matches, but I’m getting nothing out of it except blog material. So too kill time and be productive in the winter break I decided to go to the cricket nets to improve my batting. I batted against the bowling machine at 50 mph. I may not have told you, I’m not the best at batting. I usually bat at the lower order, but I can either stay or get some quick runs. I struggled somewhat with the bowling machine. One person from the adjacent net help me on my batting stance which somewhat improved my batting. Then my friend came to the nets with his private coach and invited me to bowl. I bowled well with good pace, but rather full.

I haven’t practiced much at the nets, but the culture there is good. You get to know people and learn from them. You get exposed to different bowling styles and practice against them. If your lucky, you could meet an international player like Alvin Kalicharan I saw a few years ago.

[thethirdumpire]

Ind vs Aus 2nd Test

When this post was written it was the fourth day of the India vs Australia 2nd Test. I believe that India decisively lost this test match. But there is no point in making a prediction within the fourth day of the test match so I’m going to discuss the probable reasons why we lost if we were to lose.

1. The openers are laughable.

KL Rahul and Murali Vijay displayed atrocious batting making up only 2 runs combined. If they made at least ten runs, then India would have only been 20 odd runs behind. Even the worst batsman right now, Bumrah played a confident shot to surpass their combined total. Even Umesh Yadav could defend 150 kmph Mitchell Stars yorkers on a Perth pitch.

2. Lack of a Spinner

Although Vihari has been promising, the lack of a strong specialist spinner like Jadeja and Ashwin have negatively impacted India. The Perth pitch have provided bounce that could assist the spinners as well. Look at Vihari’s first wicket and Nathan Lyon’s five wicket haul. With the cracks, the spinners could prove effective in this pitch, and could add variety to the bowling line up.

3. Yadav over Bhuveneshwar

Although it wasn’t a bad choice as Umesh would prove effective in fast pitches like Perth. The grass would help the wily pacer Bhuveneshwar Kumar for assisted seam and movement. Yadav was expensive and kept on bowling short.

[thethirdumpire]

The 2019 Cricket World Cup Trophy.

[thethirdumpire]

Performance Slump and The 2019 World Cup Cricket Trophy

Recently, there has been a tour of the 2019 Cricket World Cup Trophy and my academy had the privilege of seeing it. The trophy was the original trophy in which it the ICC Headquarters keeps it, not the winners of the world cup. 

Lately, I have been having a performance slump, mostly in batting. I’m not known for my batting but in the last four matches, I have only scored a single run. It has been frustrating for me and I will try to improve my batting in the future. In the last month, I have been playing with a new team in adult league. I have only bowled 2 overs in the last month and I have gotten a wicket and a dropped catch. 

In the future, I hope I’ll get more chances than only 2 overs in one month. I’m pretty upset.

[thethirdumpire]

Transfer of My blog

I acidentally started my blog on my secondary account so I transfered it to my primary account. Here’s the link for my earlier posts. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/thesecondumpire