Noumpere - the UDRS

MSDhoni's rant of "whether it is 2.5m or 2.4 or 2.6" had the ICC throwing the rule book at him which had the BCCI solidly defending. The media and expert commentators have done hardly anything to dispel the confusion surrounding the technology. I do wish that Cricinfo had taken the lead to explain the rule book and clauses therein. Instead we have Grey is the colour of DRS. Everyone now knows that 2.5m is a criterion but how many talk of the associated 40cm sub-clause?

Elementary, my dear captain!

Let me make a layman attempt at explaining the rationale for the having numbers like 250 and 40 ...

After pitching the ball hits the pad after 40cm. The ball has to travel a further 250cm, another 6.25 times the distance that it has already travelled (2.9m from the point the ball pitches to the stumps). Hawkeye has 40cm in which to judge the trajectory of the ball and extrapolate it to 250cm! If there is an error of 0.5cm in determining the point of impact of the ball on the pad, then the error will also get multiplied by 6.25 times (about 3+cm - which is about the radius of the ball). If Hawkeye determines that the ball will hit leg stump, a provision of 3+cm error has to be made. So in reality the ball could be missing leg ... The umpire's original decision could stand. Whereas if it hits anywhere on the middle stump, despite the 3cm error it will hit the stumps almost surely ... Thus the DRS can be used to overrule umpire's decision in this case and rightly so. With this recent change, I'm glad that ICC has acknowledged the prowess of Hawkeye through this change, while the common man sees it as an admission of the failure of technology :-).

What happens if the ball hits the pad closer to the stumps?

If the ball hits the pad 60cm after pitching and there is a further 2.3m to go (2.9m from pitch to the stumps), then the error is multiplied only about 4 times. And Hawkeye has 60cm (50% more than 40cm) of video frames in which to determine/estimate the point of impact of the ball on the pad! The error would be less (say ~0.35cm) instead of the earlier 0.5cm ... The accuracy of Hawkeye's prediction in this case would increase drastically, wouldn't it?

2.4, 2.5, 2.6 does matter, doesn't it?

The geometry of the problem!

A bit of geometry illustrates the small margin of error that Hawkeye has got to play with ...

Consider the large triangle BCE.  BC=290cm, CE=11.5cm.  At point p1 on BC (Bp1=40), there is a line parallel to CE of length 'd', which cuts BE.  What is the length of 'd'? What would be 'd' at points p2 (30cm from B), p3 (50cm).  If instead of 'd' and error of 'e' is added at p1, CE would become longer by 3.5cm.  What value of 'e' would result in 3.5cm at CE?  Would the tolerance 'e' be higher at p1 or p2?

Thoughts on the technology front

There is unlikely to be a foolproof prediction mechanism, let's make best use of what we have!  In my view the makers of Hawkeye would be glad to put the 'confidence factor' on screen along with the trajectory displayed but would the experts/cricketers/arm-chair pundits be able to digest this?

Insignificant test career and Stumped!

Of what use is a Test career with zero runs, zero wickets, and zero catches? This has featured in Cricinfo's Ask Steven recent columns. Patrick Kidd in his Times column mentions that only TASekhar has a 2-Test career.

One of those who qualifies for this 0,0,0 career, Rajindernath, actually has no catches but 4 stumpings :-). Some interesting ones that can stump you ...

PWSherwell   20  16
TAWard       19  13
PKSen        20  11
AH Jarvis     9   9
EFS Tylecote  5   5
Rajindernath  0   4

No stumping list is complete without Bert Oldfield (78, 52).
And there's Anju with 51 stumpings and 30 catches in her ODI career :-)

Stump the Bearded Wonder ...

Bill Frindall is no more. I always enjoyed reading his 'Stump the Bearded Wonder' column.

We will miss his knowledge and the humor that he brought to the seemingly dry subject of scoring/statistics.

Great win for Test Cricket!

India, England, and Test Cricket won the first Test at Chennai.

England had the upper hand for a good part of the Test.  387 is a good target but when Sehwag gets going there isn't much that can be done!  Sachin played a winning knock, Gambhir, Yuvraj contributed a good deal too.

Strauss joins an elite list of Herbert Sutcliffe, George Headley, Vijay Hazare, Clyde Walcott, Sunil Gavaskar, Andy Flower, and Brian Lara with two centuries in a losing cause!

Thank you, England

We are grateful to the English Cricket Team for agreeing to play the Tests in India. It is a very courageous decision and India appreciates the cricketers for being united during the tough decision making process.

I hope that the does very well. You've won already!

Statistics, where does it lie?

Consider that a team has lost 5 wickets, where is the final score likely to lie? The last 5 wickets are likely to add only ~113 runs (110-116) irrespective of the starting scores (e.g. 300/5, 400/5, 500/5, 600/5). Strange but true ...

Charles Davis, on Cricinfo's It Figures, does a fine statistical analysis of the likely final score for an unfinished innings!

Which would be a bigger final score, SL's 952/6d or WI's 790/3d? SL might've reached 1028 vs WI's 996!! WI's chances of exceeding 1028 is 24% ...

Can this technique be applied to 'not out' innings as well? We could possibly determine Sachin's final score for 248* but it would be tricky for 400*, I guess. Would the averages be affected drastically?

Who says that cricket is just aggression? In this case, it is regression ...

New Zealand's Ire on Ireland!

An Ireland vs New Zealand ODI match entered the cricket record books.

• The 290 run victory is the biggest ever!
• Both openers scored 150+ runs, the first such instance. Dravid and Tendulkar had scored 154/186 in an ODI but this is the first by the openers.
• 154 runs were scored in the last 10 overs, beating the earlier record of 146.

Why are these matches official ODIs? They aren't worthy of being one!

Chanderpaul - The long lasting ...

... Duracell of all time?

During the Aus-WI series, Chanderpaul repeated his long standing ability! During his 18 hours between dismissals, he had seen 18 wickets go down at the other end!! It is an extremely rarely incident. Against India (2002) he saw 21 wickets fall, which could be the record! He had 20 wickets in 2007.

This is his fourth stint of 1000 minutes between dismissals, which is a record!!! Nasser Hussain, Sachin, Dravid, Kallis have all done it once each ...

Sangakkara had a streak of 18 wickets during his 100*, 156* knocks where he had scored over 50% of the team's score in two consecutive innings! Jacques Rudholph had a streak of 18 wickets between dismissals too.

What is in Flynn's name?

Q: Daniel Flynn of New Zealand made his Test Debut on May 15. What is the significance (since the days of C.B.Fry)?


A: Flynn probably has the longest name with no vowels (beat Fry?).

Flynn is not first one with 5 consecutive consonants in the name. Notable ones with 5 consonants include: WW aRMSTRong, STRYDom, CoNYNGHam, LiLLYWHite, etc. The ODIs have seen DaLRYMPLe (6!) and Eric SzwaRCZYNSKi (7!!)


Of course, I should Ask Steven this! Ah, that reminds me that Wisden has SYCLD Berry and Steven LYNCH ...

Outscoring themselves in the second innings!

In the recent SA-India second test, the Indians recovered in the second innings. Each batsmen scored more than their first innings score!

How often does that happen? I think that SL did that recently. Bangladesh swapped the innings in their very first test (first innings was better)!


Earlier in the first test, the first seven partnerships were each worth at least 47 runs!! Nice team performance indeed! The Indian team on the other hand scored 86/8 (sans Jaffer, Sehwag, Dravid); is the 76/10 of the second test a big surprise? ;-)

Boos is the secret of my energy!

Huge boos as Harbhajan walks out to the crease
47.3


And later in the day ...
25.4 Harbhajan Singh to Symonds, OUT, got him! ...
ML Hayden run out 55 (68b 7x4 0x6) SR: 80.88
Australia 121/4 A Symonds 40* (54b 2x4 1x6) Harbhajan Singh 4.4-0-21-0
25.6 Harbhajan Singh to Symonds, OUT, ...
A Symonds lbw b Harbhajan Singh 42 (56b 2x4 1x6) SR: 75.00
Australia 123/5 MEK Hussey 0* (0b) Harbhajan Singh 5-0-23-1


Harbhajan wants it louder! (Cricinfo image)

later, India wins the finals ...
(on Cricinfo) Harbhajan loves it, watch out for the pics on this website and in the papers tomorrow, grabbing a stump and celebrating hard and harder with pure joy in his eyes.


Boos is the secret of my energy!

Heavy weight Indian team!

In the 3rd test at WACA ...

1. 9 Indians have already scored centuries in their career! Ishant & RP have some catching up to do :-)
2. 6 double centuries! (309, 212, 270, 248*, 239, 281, 148, 102, 112*)

It doesn't happen often. 9 centurions in a team is the record, I think. I recall reading about one of the NZ teams having 10 players scoring a century (Shane Thomson or Adam Parore scored his century later).

Ponting Code of Conduct!

Would this fit on a Placard?

Ponting Code of Conduct

"offend, insult, humiliate, intimidate, threaten,
disparage, vilify"
Taunt
SLEDGE
Listen (for racist words)
Complain

The first set of words are taken from the ICC Code of Conduct :-)
And Ponting is larger than the Code of Conduct ;-)

Johnny's integrity

Just a rhyme of yore ...

"Johnny, Johnny"
"Yes, Papa"
"Eating sugar?"
"No, Papa"
"Telling Lies?"
"No, Papa"
"Open your mouth"
"I think if you are actually questioning my integrity ..., you should not be standing here."

Disclaimer: The people and events in this case are fictional. Resemblance to real events or to names of people, captains, living or dead or a bad spirit, is entirely coincidental.

Patent on Sledging?

During the English Test Series (~Aug 2007), Indians were pretty chirpy on the field. They were very excited with their own efforts. "Let's file for a 'patent' on 'sledging'" they chorused!

The lawyer had a look at the patent application and quickly rejected it! Why?

Sledging cannot be patented! You cannot patent a Prior Art!

The Indians were left stumped ;-)

India's 664/10 trivia!

India holds the record for most runs without a century (524/9). That looked likely to be broken today but Kumble had other dreams. He aimed for a century and made it! He took the most innings before his first century (150 vs Vaas' 140)!

All Indian batsmen got to double-digits!

10 Englishmen got onto the Batting Scorecard (except Bell).

Most runs without a sixer?

My friend Swami observed that Cook has ~1500 runs without ever scoring a six and wondered "Who has the most runs without a six in their Test career?".

Everton Weekes came to my mind but he had 2 sixes in his ~4500 runs. Neil Harvey has only 1 six in his 6000+ runs. David Boon hit only 2 sixes in his 7000+ runs!

I've to research a bit more to find the answer. Does anyone know the answer off-hand? Who would be good guesses?