Posts Tagged ‘matthew hayden’
Mohammad Azharuddin son hopes to make it big at dad’s happy hunting ground
Posted on: January 5, 2009
His father Mohammad Azharuddin began his career at Eden Gardens and now an 18-year-old Mohammad Ashaduddin, called for the Kolkata Knight Riders selection trials, hopes the venue will do the magic for him as well in his quest to make it big in cricket.
A product of St John’s Academy — a club where VVS Laxman learned his basics — Ashaduddin is yet to make it big anywhere, but he is hpoing that the KKR call-up will help him establish in the big league.
The left-handed opener said: “I have heard a lot about Eden Gardens from my father… It was one of his favourite grounds, having made his debut (against England in 1984-85). “It’s a great opportunity for me to prove myself if I get a chance. It can well be the turning point if I can cash in on the opportunity. I am very excited abou the call-up.”
One of the most successful India captains, Azhar, boasts of a 107.5 average, 860 runs from seven Tests at the Eden. In ODIs, the former middle-order batsman has 332 runs at an average of 47.42 from nine matches. Unlike his father, Ashaduddin, popularly known as Abbas, loves to play attacking shots which he says come in handy in the Twenty20 format.
“I have learnt cricket watching my father…so he is my first coach. But I have my style of play and I don’t want to play like my father. My father had a God’s gifted talent. I will never get there. I just like to be myself and perform well being a cricketer.”
“I think my style of play will suit the Twenty20 format. I have an attacking approach… I like to pull and Ganguly’s stepped-out shot was my favourite,” Ashauddin, who plays for East Marredpally CC in the Hyderabad’s A division league (two-day format) and has four fifties in six innings this year, added.
Ashauddin, who is also a part-time off-spinner, agreed there are a lot of expecations that a star-son has to face but is confident of shrugging off pressure. “There is pressure when you are born to a legendary father. But on the field I will be just a cricketer and try to play as the situation demands.”
Asked to compare his father and Sourav Ganguly — two of India’s most successful captains — the youngster chose to laugh it away: “It’s tough to answer… Ganguly was also a great leader and it was a dream come true for me meeting the former India captain.”
He added that Australian hard-hitting opener Matthew Hayden is his all time favourite, while he also admires Yuvraj Singh among the Indians. Incidentally the KKR probables also includes another cricketer son Shatrunjay Gaekwad, son of former India coach Aunshuman Gaekwad. Left-handed batsman Shatrunjay has played for Baroda.
Ashauddin is part of a pool of 44 cricketers selected from all over the country to go in for a three-day selection trial to be conducted by coach John Buchanan and Ganguly for Kolkata Knight Riders. The camp will begin tomorrow.
Curse of IPL
Posted on: January 5, 2009
Finding it hard to find answers for Australia’s mediocre show in 2008, a leading newspaper in Melbourne said that top players suffered from slump after playing in the inaugural Indian Premier League and associating with the lucrative IPL was like a “pact with the devil”.
‘Sydney Morning Herald’ wrote it could be coincidence but Australian cricketers who played in the IPL in April-May last year were either “injured, worn out or found themselves distracted by intoxications of India”. It then said those who were not lured by IPL money like Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson has been the “saviour” of the team, which is in the danger of losing the world champion tag.
“Whatever the cause, Australian cricketers, at Test and first-class levels, have struggled since their return from last year’s inaugural Twenty20 tournament on the subcontinent. Could it be cricket’s version of the pact with the devil — every incremental increase in the bank account is matched by a corresponding fall in your figures?
“Gone, or at least severely impaired, is the ability to score runs and take wickets. Call it the curse of the Indian Premier League,” the newspaper wrote. “Australia’s elite spent only a short spell in the IPL. It may just be pure coincidence. Cause and effect are notoriously difficult to establish within a cricketer’s career,” it added.
Among the “list of the fallen”, the newspaper named Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee who “have figures showing a remarkable decline in productivity when the year before the IPL and the nine months since are compared”.
Australia retained off-colour Matthew Hayden and replaced the injured trio of Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson with three uncapped players for the third and final cricket Test against South Africa.
Having already conceded the three-match series to Graeme Smith’s men, the selectors today drafted in three uncapped players — pacemen Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus and all-rounder Andrew McDonald — in the 12-man squad. The change in the squad was forced by injuries to Lee, Symonds and Watson.
South Africa have already sealed the series with a crushing nine-wicket win in the second Test today and will now aim for a whitewash which will help them dethrone the Aussies as number one Test team. NSP Chairman Andrew Hilditch said all the new faces in the squad earned their place by virtue of their impressive show in the domestic cricket.
“The National Selection Panel has introduced Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus to the squad. Both are having exceptional Sheffield Shield seasons and their ability to move the ball will add depth to the bowling attack, albeit that they have big shoes to fill in those of Brett Lee.
“Andrew McDonald has been a very consistent all-rounder for Victoria for several seasons. He is in very good form and as well as batting in the top six will give us the flexibility we need with our bowling attack,” Hilditch said.Hilditch was effusive in his praise for the Proteas.”While we are obviously disappointed to lose the series to South Africa , the reality is we have got ourselves in very good positions to win both Test matches. It must be said that South Africa has played extremely good cricket and is a very strong side,” he said.
The 27-year-old McDonald has featured in 42 shield games, with a batting average of 39 and has also taken 93 wickets at an average of 20. He had an impressive season as he scored 324 runs at an average of 46.28 and took 15 wickets at 23.93 in six matches for the table-toppers Bushrangers.
Bollinger, who opens the bowling for NSW, took six in the last match against South Australia to bowl his side to victory and has claimed 14 wickets in total at 22.14 while Tasmanian Hilfenhaus has taken 24 wickets at 18.66.
Opener Gautam Gambhir’s stupendous year with the willow today (December 24) helped him jump 10 spots to 10th in the ICC Test Rankings, making him the highest-ranked Indian batsman in the list.
The diminutive Delhi batsman has scored more than 1000 runs this calendar year, including three hundreds in his last five Tests.
Gambhir, who made 179 and 97 in the second and final Test against England at Mohali, amassed 361 runs in the two-match series against England at an average of 90.25.
The 27-year-old was in 37th place in October but had rocketed 27 places since then after scoring 824 runs in five Tests at an average of 82.4.
However, it is down-slide for his more famous team-mates. Virender Sehwag (13th) and Sachin Tendulkar (18th), who scripted a memorable win in the first Test against England in Chennai, as also VVS Laxman (18th), have slipped outside the top 10.
Rahul Dravid, who ended his extended lean patch with a century at Mohali, climbed two places to 28th. The same is for another star performer in Chennai, Yuvraj Singh who jumped 10 places to 46th.
Among bowlers, India’s player of the series against England, Zaheer Khan, has gained two places to 12th position while his team-mate Harbhajan Singh has gone also up two places to eighth.
Meanwhile, Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies has strengthened his hold on the top of the batting chart by becoming only the 25th batsman in the history of Test cricket and the sixth West Indian to reach the magic 900-point mark.
The 34-year-old Chanderpaul, who won the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2008 award at the ICC Awards in Dubai, reached the milestone while making 126 not out in the first innings against New Zealand in the Napier Test which ended in a draw.
There was no good news for Australia whose captain Australia captain Ricky Ponting has dropped three places to ninth — his lowest ranking since October 2002.
Mike Hussey has slipped two places to sixth, Michael Clarke has dropped one place to 12th and Matthew Hayden has slipped three places to 16th.
England captain Kevin Pietersen has returned to the top five for the first time in 14 months and now sits in fifth place after jumping three places due to a magnificent innings of 144 at Mohali against India.
Another new addition to the top 20 is South Africa’s AB de Villiers whose 63 and 106 not out was the cornerstone of South Africa’s six-wicket victory over Australia in a record final-innings run-chase of 414.
This performance has lifted him seven places to 17th in the rankings.The bowlers’ list is still headed by Sri Lanka’s iconic spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.
Australia’s Mitchell Johnson has broken into the top five for the first time after his man-of-the-match performance in the Perth Test where he had match figures of 11/159.
South Africa’s Makhaya Ntini recorded figures of 4/72 and 1/76 which have helped him rise to third place and is now just behind second-placed team-mate Dale Steyn who had figures of 4/162.
There is no change in the top five in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders as South Africas Jacques Kallis enjoys a commanding lead over New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori.
Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma wrecked Australia’s top order to leave India on the verge of victory in the second Test in Mohali.
Australia was 5 for 141 at the close of play on day four after India set an improbable 516-run fourth innings victory target, giving themselves four-and-a-half sessions to seize a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
At stumps, Michael Clarke (42 not out) and Brad Haddin (37 not out) were waging a grim battle after adding 83 runs for an unbroken sixth-wicket stand.
Off spinner Harbhajan took 3 for 23 and Sharma 2 for 29.
Led by opener Gautam Gambhir’s 104, India raced to 3 for 314 before stand-in skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted to end the second innings an hour after lunch.
Harbhajan removed both Matthew Hayden and Simon Katich in the last over before tea and then trapped Michael Hussey lbw soon after the resumption of play.
The very next over, Ishant Sharma clean bowled skipper Ricky Ponting for 2 with a magnificent cutting delivery.
Shane Watson was the last to fall, departing lbw to Sharma also for 2, as Australia lost 5 for 9.
Both Hayden and Katich took to the Indian attack early, smashing eight boundaries between them before being dismissed by Harbhajan in the off spinner’s first over.
Hayden was the first to go for 29, given lbw attempting a sweep shot before Katich (20) edged a loose drive to gully where Sachin Tendulkar took a brilliant diving catch.
Hussey fell for 1 when he was caught plumb in front attempting a slap through the onside.
India compound the pain
Earlier, opener Gambhir’s 104 and a breezy 68 not out by captain MS Dhoni helped the Indians to an intimidating final day target.
Australia’s bowlers toiled with little success on a dry and slow Mohali pitch where India scored 130 runs from 26 overs in the first session.
Left-hander Gambhir, who made his second Test century, and fellow Delhi batsman Virender Sehwag piled on 182 runs for the opening wicket after India had resumed on their overnight 0 for 100.
Sehwag was dismissed for 90, edging paceman Peter Siddle to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin to miss out on a 16th Test hundred on his 30th birthday.
The aggressive opener, who survived a caught behind appeal on 88, hit eight fours from 122 balls in three hours.
Gambhir hit seven fours and one six facing 138 balls as both openers fell before lunch chasing quick runs.
Ponting spread out the field but could not really stem the flow of runs.
Brett Lee, who has been below his best in the series and needed two stitches on an injury to his right hand, removed Sourav Ganguly for 27 in his only spell of the second innings.
Not many could have thought that young Matthew Hayden, who was considered ‘too fat’ to play for Australia, would go on to become one of the best opening batsmen Australia has ever produced.
The majority of the players in our Australian team have come through the ‘traditional’ pathway program, from the under-17 Australian championships to the under-19’s and then the Centre of Excellence (or what was then called the Cricket Academy). The interesting thing about ‘Haydos’ Matthew Hayden is that he was overlooked at almost every stop and was even thought to be overweight and not the ‘right’ build to play for Australia, Aussie coach Tim Nielsen wrote in his column.
Yet after breaking in with Queensland, he made so many runs at a state level in his first three seasons he forced the selectors hands and earned his Baggy Green against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1994.
Struggling for his first few Tests, the ‘nay sayers’ probably thought they were to be proven correct but as is typical of Matthew he never took it lying down, he wrote about the gritty batsmen.
Continuing to dominate at state level after being dropped, he got himself a trip to India with a development program in 1999 and worked hard at adapting himself to the conditions on the sub-continent. Refining his game, we started to see more of the sweep shot, better use of his feet and he got another chance in 2001. The rest as they say, is history, he adds.
Scoring the most runs in a three-Test series for Australia against any opposition he set himself on the way to becoming maybe the most successful Australian opening batsman in history, he wrote.
That first day I saw him I noticed the same determined look in his eyes when he crossed the white line that I still see today. Maybe it was that early rejection that first got him motivated, but in some ways I think it’s one of his best attributes, he adds.
He’ll aim to keep proving people wrong as he did when they said he was couldn’t play spin, couldn’t adapt to turning sub-continent wickets or couldn’t win the battle over any particular bowler, he wrote.
I remember during the 2003 World Cup when I was an assistant coach with the team, Zaheer Khan had stated before the final that he felt Hayden struggled against him. After watching Matt plunder twelve of his first over on his way to a match defining opening partnership with Adam Gilchrist, I’m sure Zaheer regrets throwing out the challenge, he added.
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