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Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
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13 Nov, 5 tweets, 1 min read
T20 cricket came too late for Brian Lara.

In fact, he made his T20 debut two decades after his international debut, and over three decades after his retirement.

And that debut happened on this day, 2010.
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Before that, Lara had played for Mumbai Champs in the 2007-08 ICL, but these matches do not have T20 status.

It had been a forgettable tournament for him.

In all, Lara played only three T20 matches, all for Southern Rocks, at Harare, in the 2010-11 Stanbic Bank Twenty20.
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He scored 65(47), 23(28), and 11(11) – a career aggregate of 99 runs at a strike rate of 115.

Nothing outstanding, but not bad for a a man of forty-one either.

Shortly after this, Lara had a bidding price of USD 400,000 for IPL 2011 but went unsold.
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What if the Mumbai Indians had signed up Lara?

What if he batted alongside Tendulkar for one full season?

What if they raced each other for the Orange Cap?

But then, at least we have him on Dugout, which is better than nothing.
Three *years after his retirement.

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More from @ovshake42

Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
15 Nov
Several cricketing incidents took place in Karachi on this day, 1989.

Two of them changed the course of Indian cricket for the years to come.

One was, of course, Tendulkar's debut.

The other took place earlier that morning.
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Some back story is required to explain the enormity of the incident.

Another genius had broken through to the Test side five seasons before the incident.

Three Tests and three centuries later they hailed Mohammad Azharuddin as the next big thing in Indian cricket.
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But that aura had worn off.

At this point he had not scored a Test hundred in almost three years.

Worse, his vulnerability against fast bowling had been exposed.

He had got only two fifties in six Tests against the West Indies.

And Pakistan was the land of fast bowlers.
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Read 13 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
14 Nov
Harold Larwood was born on this day, 1904.

Eye-witnesses have often called him the fastest they have seen.

But very few have seen *both* Larwood and Shoaib bowl, so that is hardly conclusive.

There was no sophisticated way to measure Larwood's pace, so we can only speculate.
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But I can share some anecdotes on the same topic.

They do not tell a lot, but nice stories are always worth sharing.

*

A Larwood yorker once hit Wilfred Rhodes on the boot.

Off came the pad, the boot, and the sock, as the great man limped around in agony.
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The umpire asked Rhodes politely whether he could walk.

Rhodes said yes, he could.

"Walk right back to the pavilion, you re out LBW."

*

The touring Indians of 1932 were playing Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

Among the tourists was Joginder Singh, who batted in a turban.
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Read 10 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
14 Nov
Chances are that you have not heard of Manish Majithia, a left-arm spinner who played for Railways, then Madhya Pradesh, in the Ranji Trophy, mostly in the 1990s.

On this day, 1999, however, Majithia set two First-Class records that still stand.
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Interestingly, he was playing for Madhya Pradesh (his new side) against Railways (his previous side) at Indore.

He had figures of 12.3-9-3-1 in the first innings of 216.

Railways followed on but saved the match, crawling to 86/5 in 109 overs.
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Of these, 83 (in 104 overs) came on the last day.

This was, at that point, the fewest runs in a complete day's cricket.

Majithia returned 20-20-0-1.

In the history of First-Class cricket, this is the most balls bowled by anyone in an innings without conceding a run.
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Read 4 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
13 Nov
John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, was born on this day, 1718.

Yes, the sandwich is supposedly named after him, though historians do not agree on the reason.

He was appointed 1st Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for Northern Department, and Postmaster General.
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Unfortunately, he was both corrupt and incompetent.

And despite that, he left behind two legacies.

We have already discussed the bread-based food product.

Montagu/Sandwich was also a patron of Captain Cook. He helped fund Cook's second and third expeditions.
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Cook thanked him back by going on a naming spree.

The Sandwich Islands in Hawaii, South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, and the two Montague Islands, off Australian coast and off Gulf of Alaska, are all named after Sandwich.

There is a cricket connection too.
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Read 6 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
12 Nov
This day, 2001 witnessed one of the greatest days of Test cricket to end one of the great Test matches.

It was also one of the greatest 0-0 drawn Test series.

And that happened because of two captains who wanted to play positive cricket.

Here is what the captains had to say.
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Waugh: "We're here to play cricket, to entertain and enjoy ourselves. You want to try and win a Test if you can. I don't see any point in playing out for a dull draw."
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Fleming: "It was fantastic, great to play and I'm sure pretty good to watch. I'm convinced it's the way Test cricket has got to go, entertainment-wise."

When the fifth day's play began, the score read Australia 486/9 declared, New Zealand 186/5.
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Read 16 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
8 Nov
There are so many things about the phenomenon that was Martin Crowe.

Consider, for example, what he did on and around this day, 1992, at Harare.

The schedule was crazy.

New Zealand and Zimbabwe were supposed to play two Tests and two ODIs between October 31 and November 12.
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Basically 12 days of cricket out of 13. The only off-day would involve a Bulawayo-Harare travel.

How many cricketers from ICC full member sides would have agreed to this in 2020?

Things were normal in Bulawayo:
The ODI on October 31, the Test between November 1 and 5.
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Harare was different:
The Test on November 7, then 9-12. The ODI on November 8. Like the Sunday League in England.

Crowe won the toss in the Test match, batted first, and scored 140 in three hours. Of these, 96 came between lunch and tea.
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Read 5 tweets

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