Episode 1

Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 : A Little Trip Down Memory Lane

This episode takes us through the last two Border Gavaskar Trophy series played in India.

The series in 2013 when India beat Australia 4-0 under the leadership of M.S.Dhoni who continued his tremendous run against Australia at home. The series score notwithstanding the matches were most certainly competitive and India triumphed by winning the bigger moments.

The series in 2017 was far more closer and could easily have finished with a different score-line than the 2-1 in favor of India. While the first test was a blowout, the other tests were all tight and provided some very interesting moments.

Transcript
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Welcome to the first 2023 series from the West Coast Infidels, which

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is predictably going to be about the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy.

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Over the course of the next five weeks, we will have five episodes

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to cover the series, the previews, the reviews, the postmortems,

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the lamenting, all will be there.

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The episodes will be published before each of the tests, and

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one at the end of the series.

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Ram will kick off this episode with a little trip down memory lane

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back to when not doing homework.

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Got you into trouble and about a fledgling leggy who never ended

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up fulfilling that promise.

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Ram all yours.

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Let's talk about 2013 and 2017.

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One, of course was more than a decade ago, and the one more recent, but you

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will all remember these two series as much as the cricket was interesting.

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You know, so were all the off field events.

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I mean, if you remember, there was homework Gate in 2013 and

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then there was D R S Gate in 2017.

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Some people also refer to it as the brain fade gate.

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That's, you know, a better way to remember it.

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From a cricketing perspective at least in 2013, I have some

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memories of what was going on.

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It's been a while.

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There was a Dhawan debut hundred at Mohali that turned out to be

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the fastest hundred on debut.

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He was on song, played beautifully, had MuVi for company at the other

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end, and they just racked up the runs.

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. This Mohali test, by the way, should not be confused with an earlier Moha test,

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also starring Australia and India, where, if you remember, VVS Luman had Sharma and

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PR oja for a company at, something like 125 for eight or something like that.

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And then between the last two Wicks, they added almost 80-90 runs.

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And finally won that came.

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Our you know, fledgling, leggy actually showed up in that

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game as a substitute fielder.

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Tried to run out Pragyan Ojha, missed the stumps, gave away four overthrows

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and then history sort of happened.

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But anyway the other thing that was back to 2013, there was a Dhoni

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double at Chennai, huge double under the only time he made one.

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He.

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Century plus partnership, almost 150 runs that he added with Bne Kumar, who

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made about 30 or so very one-sided game.

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India, pulverized Australia, in that game.

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There was another test match in Hyderabad where Australia was batting first.

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And Michael Clark in all his wisdom, decided to declare at the

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end of the day with about five hours remaining after getting.

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to 230 ish for nine.

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I mean, he basically assumed that, it would be better to , have five

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overs to bowl at at India and then try and take advantage.

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But India ended up scoring, I think 600 in that, in that dynamics.

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So that I think those were some of my memories.

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Ashwin arrived as a great of the game.

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29 wickets at 20 with an SR of 49 wonderful figures.

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He had Jadeja for company who was very, very close.

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24 wickets, even better, average of 17 Sr of 48.

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And then of course, Harbhajan Singh unfortunately had to make way.

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He played two tests, did nothing of note, picked about three or four wickets

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from memory and was dropped in favor.

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of Pragyan Ojha who played the last two tests.

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So that pretty much I think ends my memories of 2013.

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Yeah.

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For me, 2013 was a little different from what you in the sense it was a

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typical sub subcontinent test series.

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The games are tight in the beginning, the visitors often put a little bit

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of pressure and then the game moves fast and we establish a stranglehold.

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In Chennai, they scored some 300 plus.

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Again, there was a declaration actually, and we were actually struggling along

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a little bit, and then Dhoni just exploded in the company of Bhuvi.

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And what would've been a small lead of say 50, 60 or a hundred

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runs became a 200, run lead.

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And after that, we closed the game.

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And in fact, several of the games went that way wherein there was an

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early what do you call tight contest.

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And then at some point of time the Indian team says, enough is.

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. And boom, the game is closed.

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So that was a standard pattern, very typical to all these subcontinent games.

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The slow strangle in the beginning, and then once the garrotte is

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fixed, one pull and that is the end.

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So what we have to remember that MS Dhoni won, eight consecutive

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tests against Australia at home.

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Yep.

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There were two when he was sharing the captain C with Kumble.

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. Then there were two, including the game that you mentioned where

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Laxman took us home in Mohali and then there were four in 2013.

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Vijay.

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What do you remember of that series?

Vijay:

yeah.

Vijay:

2013 you know, almost a decade ago.

Vijay:

But for me, 2013 was about some of the people who kind of lost their way in

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that series, even when India was winning.

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This to me was the beginning of the end of Viru's career.

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He

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actually never got a

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proper farewell.

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And I think this series, he had not yet sorted out the fact

Vijay:

that his vision was fading.

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He actually needed prescription glasses and , right.

Vijay:

To me, at that time, it was astonishing that going into a test series, having,

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I mean, he must have been in the nets.

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Facing his own bowlers, how did they not catch the fact that

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his hand eye coordination is not there and he might need glasses?

Vijay:

Like, you know that, that was like really an eye opener for me . But,

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to kind of talk about this in Viru's own terms like, know, Uhk

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and without hand coordination where, where is right

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And, and his replacement actually turned out to be a blessing.

Vijay:

This guy, at least in Mohali, I think Dhawan kind of just came in and.

Vijay:

You know, that that was like, you know, watching , I, I really didn't

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know what I was watching with.

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Like, he was lacing it through all over the park that came and looked like

Vijay:

he will reach even a double century or triple century in record time.

Vijay:

yeah.

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Musical.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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That, that was a very funny game actually.

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Australia put up a big score, some 400 something big.

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And Dhawan and Vijay completely pulverized them.

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Was more Dhawan, less Vijay, and by the end of that second day or third

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day or whatever, I mean, we had eaten up a lot of that 400 and something.

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Got it.

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And then Dhawan got out very early the next day, but Vijay

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cashed in hit a big one.

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70.

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Yeah.

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And then gradually we did the usual.

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Let's take a small first next lead.

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And then third innings, it was, bye-bye.

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Exactly.

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Mitchell Stark.

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I'm looking at the scorecard.

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This I wouldn't have remembered scored 99 in that game.

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Ah, yeah, that's right.

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That is that game.

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And then of course we, we had a very, very small lead of about 90 runs in that game.

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Courtesy, CEO of Vijay, and Dhawan.

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. Vijay: Yeah.

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And, and Dhawan promptly got injured and didn't play the last game,

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so . But actually, he didn't play, after he got out, he got injured

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in the field while in the first ns.

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Yeah.

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And he never even appeared for the rest of the game.

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So yeah, and then, and then the Indian selectors didn't

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even bother with an opener, they just said, Pujara you go with.

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Exactly.

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. Ram: This was also Ajinkya

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Exactly.

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Mm-hmm.

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in probably in Delhi.

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In Delhi.

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The last game, yes.

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Yes, he's for

Vijay:

the longest time, this was his one domestic series, I think.

Vijay:

Yes.

Vijay:

For a really

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long time.

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Overseas,

Vijay:

but not yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.

Vijay:

True.

Vijay:

True.

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That is true.

Vijay:

Well, the one thing I did, I went and looked at the

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India A Squad for that series.

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Typically you look at India as you know, the incumbents for the national team.

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It had some interesting, I'll quickly go through the eleven.

Vijay:

So the captain was Gautam Gambhir . So he was on his way out . The other

Vijay:

opener was one Jiwanjot Singh for the

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Oh wow.

Ram:

Yes, yes, yes.

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Jiwanjot Singh is still around.

Vijay:

Is that right?

Vijay:

Okay.

Vijay:

The one drop was one Mr.

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Rohit Sharma . Wow.

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Played 77 with a strike rate of 53.

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That was I think Vintage Rohit Sharma.

Vijay:

Unbelievable.

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The mainstay bating at number four, Manoj Tiwari and the tops score with 1 29.

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This was played in Chenai then Abishek Nayar.

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More I p than anything else, I think.

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Then Chitham was the advocate keeper.

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Jalaj Saxena.

Vijay:

Yeah, Jalaj Saxena.

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I think I was in and out in the selection at the time.

Vijay:

I don't recall this guy who came in after him and the one and only

Vijay:

. Manpreet Gony, oh yeah, still me, csk.

Vijay:

So these guys had more I p Life than in the big stage.

Vijay:

Oh, why am I calling this the big stage?

Vijay:

That is a huge stage.

Vijay:

This is just the big stage

Vijay:

So yeah, I just did that.

Vijay:

And yeah, the India AA squad was.

Vijay:

Trash , but they still held the Aussie.

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So there was like signs of things to come, but that poor team was able

Vijay:

to hold off this Australian team.

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These

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were the days when the Australians believed in playing tour games,

Vijay:

unlike these days.

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. That's true, that's true.

Vijay:

True.

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For Australia.

Vijay:

I just remember that Pattinson did.

Vijay:

Yes, in parts as like he, he was kind of really like in that Jason Gillespie move.

Vijay:

He was running hard day in and day out for them, and Henriques was doing the job of.

Vijay:

Vintage Green.

Vijay:

You can call it a vintage.

Vijay:

Cameron Green

Vijay:

. VK: Yeah.

Vijay:

So those are my memories of Yeah.

Vijay:

Closer to Rishi than anything else, but still

Vijay:

. Vijay: Yeah.

Vijay:

But, but if it backed well in Chennai, if I remember right.

Vijay:

It did.

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It,

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it so

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fantastic.

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So that's 2013.

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Lovely.

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Nice nostalgic trip there.

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20.

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Oh,

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we forget the homework.

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Get remember.

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Oh yeah.

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Five guys were suspended because they didn't finish their homework.

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You're right.

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James Pattinson was one by the, which best?

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Usman Kaja

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was another, and Usman Kaja.

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And then Shane Watson was, and typically Shane Watson went and told his dad, his

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dad got very upset with Principal Mickey Arthur , and then asked him to come

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back and there was this whole drama.

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And the best part is the, the next.

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The captain was correct.

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, Ram: after all this

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, Vijay: The joke at that time

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That is basically, 20 13, . 2017, which is in more recent

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memory was a much closer series.

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It ended two, one in favor of India.

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To me, the cracker of a game was the one in Bangalore.

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There was this very interesting Ashwin interviewing Pujara.

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This.

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Came out in the middle of the pandemic when Ashwin was big into to doing all

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these interviews with his fellow players and stuff, where they dedicated an entire

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section to just discuss this one test.

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And, for good reason because again, very close game.

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India had conceded a lead almost hundred runs lead in the first innings.

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India was all out for 105.

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After winning the toss, KL Raul made 60.

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The rest of them put together made 40 rounds, how can we associate

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with these sort of things in 2023?

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And then of course, you know, conceded a lead.

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And then I think on the fourth day somehow Pujara and

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Rahane pulled things back.

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They got things to about.

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Two hundred and thirty, two hundred forty for five or something to that effect.

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So, you know, 300 looked good and a possible 200 plus target

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for Australia looked good.

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But all of that didn't happen.

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I mean, suddenly they were all, all out.

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And then Australia was set a target of 185.

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I mean, they were making a extremely good progress.

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And suddenly out of the blue Umesh Yadav comes in and takes two wickets, both lbw.

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One of them leading to , d r s Gate because, Steve Smith certainly thought

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he was the umpire and went upstairs to ask what happened, and that didn't

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land well with any of our chaps.

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And then of course, right after those two twin breaks from Umesh

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Yadav, Ashwin simply crushed.

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I mean, he just ran through the rest of the people.

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Six for.

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, and Australia, all for less.

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Less than 120, 30, something like that.

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Cracker of a game.

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That one I remember.

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Vasant

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? VK: 2017 was a much tougher series.

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I think Australia came better prepared.

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The first test was a disaster at Pune.

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Yeah, again, we scored 105 hundred and seven.

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This guy called Steven O'Keefe.

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Who probably took more wickets in that one match than he did in his entire career.

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, he just routed the Indian batting.

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It was terrible.

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It was an absolute bunsen.

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And Steve Smith showed how to play spin, and we had all our guys, it's

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not like we were short on players.

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It was very ironic to me because the curator of the Pune ground at that time

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was this guy called Pandurang Salgaonkar.

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. And back in the seventies, he was India's fastest bowler.

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I have seen him bowl in Sri Lanka many, many years ago.

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Yeah, I know I'm dating myself, but still, I mean, he was super quick,

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much, much, much quicker than the likes of Madan Lal and everybody else.

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But I guess he didn't have the necessary support.

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to get selected for the England tour, that terrible England tour that followed.

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Remember the zero three ah under Wadekar's captaincy.

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The second test, as you say, it is a cracker.

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It was a fantastic game.

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Remember one very distinct wicket or dismissal Ashwin bowling

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to Warner and getting him LBW.

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Now, what was interesting here, both the impact and the ball hitting

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the stumps were umpire's call, so that was like super close.

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Ashwin was absolutely brilliant.

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I still remember one return catch of somebody he took, like

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that was a last wicket some.

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Yeah, somebody just laced it back him and booked, gone, finished.

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And of course Peter Hans comes suggesting to Steve Smith that, Hey, let's go and

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look at the videos before calling the drs.

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First we had Kohli?

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Blow a gasket.

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And then then the long Michael Long, whatever his name is, Nigel Long.

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He said, nothing doing, you're not gonna do any of that stuff.

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In fact, that series, steve Smith was caught also swearing at Vijay

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calling him a cheat and all that stuff for one low catch that, I mean,

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Vijay took the catch and went, and then the replays said, said not out.

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And then they went back out under the field.

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I think it was probably at Ranchi.

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But that series was very tight.

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It was very typical, like the England series in 2016, that lower middle order

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of Saha, jadeja Ashwin, just again and again, just drowned the Australians by

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extending the innings by a good hundred, hundred and 200 runs at times, built out

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the leads and then comes the third innings and ashwin and jadeja just like run.

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amok, but the first game was badly lost.

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The second game could have gone very, very easily.

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Very easily.

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Yep.

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Very easily.

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And I still believe that Umesh getting Steve Smith was the turning point.

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Turning point, yeah.

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In Ranchi, our bowlers failed to close out the Australians.

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On a final day, they had some 88 overs to get eight wickets on a track

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that was giving a little bit of help.

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They didn't.

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In Dharamsala.

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I know, yes.

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Kuldeep bowled beautifully.

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He made the first inroads, but it was actually some action later,

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largely with the spinners who took down Australia in the third inning to

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set up an easy chase in the fourth.

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So that was very, very tight.

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So, in my mind, that was a very poor series from India.

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Raul was the only guy who batted.

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PJAK had a couple of good knocks.

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Correct.

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And some like the, some of the other batters, like Karun Nayar, Virat

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Kohli were absolutely pathetic.

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They were averaging 10.

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Thankfully the two senior spinners and Umesh Yadav made

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sure that we remained in the hunt.

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Otherwise , this could easily have been a zero three or a zero or one two series.

Vijay:

Yeah.

Vijay:

Things that stand out for me from 2017 is obviously the

Vijay:

Sharma Goglia thing at Smith.

Vijay:

Oh my God.

Vijay:

I was scared, stiff.

Vijay:

Looking at it, it kept coming

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back as a nightmare to me.

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, Vijay: Till date, I'm

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not entirely clear what he was trying to do.

Vijay:

And you guys can correct me.

Vijay:

I think this was around the time that whole intent thing started happening

Vijay:

in the Indian camp quite a bit.

Vijay:

And they, they started commenting about Puja strike rate.

Vijay:

These were all kind of background noise that was going on and

Vijay:

I think this poor amiable lad Ishant Sharma, he's actually not.

Vijay:

That aggressive on the field from what I know.

Vijay:

So he was trying to kind of keep up with the Jones there and tried something.

Vijay:

Anyway, cringeworthy, . And then for me, the other thing that , stands out

Vijay:

is the, the test which could Easily been Sharamsala for us as we lost it.

Vijay:

We haven't had, I mean, in, in the years and years of test cricket,

Vijay:

we have not had that many Chinaman bowlers, if you think about it.

Vijay:

And I remember even at the time I was trying to go back and see who

Vijay:

has been the most prolific Chinaman bowler in test cricket before

Vijay:

Kuldeep, and it turns out wait for it.

Vijay:

None other than Michael Bevin.

Vijay:

Oh, Bevin was oh, the, the one or two series against the West Indies where his

Vijay:

spin was called upon by Steve Waugh and.

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Should have been the captain.

Vijay:

Maybe pointing.

Vijay:

Yeah.

Vijay:

So that was like interesting and even after that, right?

Vijay:

We have you, we haven't had many Chinaman bowlers come in either.

Vijay:

So Kuldeep is in a sort of world of his own oftentimes.

Vijay:

The selectors also let him be in his own world.

Vijay:

So , but in a different one, obviously.

Vijay:

Yeah.

Vijay:

in a different . So 2017, those are my takeaways.

Vijay:

So I'll do that quick exercise of looking at the India, A team for 2017 as well.

Vijay:

This looks for much better read than 2013 away with a few surprises.

Vijay:

So the openers for were Ah, and

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Priyank Panchal

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. Priyank Pancho, of course.

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So

Vijay:

been in the reckoning for about five years at least.

Vijay:

Now he's been

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a team forever.

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I'm pretty in the 2027 series.

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Again, he'll be talking about Priyank Panchal.

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I did not know he played the a, even back in 2017.

Vijay:

So, I mean, we just talks about selection process, right?

Vijay:

And then somebody who grabbed the opportunity with both hands at

Vijay:

number three scored a double century.

Vijay:

Mm.

Vijay:

Not out on top of that.

Vijay:

The number four was one

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interesting.

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Very domestics.

Vijay:

didn't do much in this game.

Vijay:

The captain was Hark, hark, Pania.

Vijay:

Interesting.

Vijay:

I, I, I actually thought this whole T 20 thing was his very first time at captains

Vijay:

at any level, but looks like they, he has been given official reason before

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Actually, I don't think even he remembers because he said

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that he started Cap Captain Gu.

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He says the first time a captain, any

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team, he said at hundred 15 or something.

Vijay:

But chances are he was just namesake captain.

Vijay:

He didn't do much possible in this game, so he doesn't remember it.

Vijay:

Number six was Rishabh Pant.

Vijay:

And number seven was Ishan Kishan.

Vijay:

So they, they were like that idea of playing all your keepers or

Vijay:

none of them kinda started here.

Vijay:

I think

Vijay:

Then Krishna 74 of 68 from the number eight slot the per Mr.

Vijay:

Shaba, Naim, ah chairman of Dinda and Dnda associated Ashok, Dinda, . Oh,

Vijay:

and, and that number 11, promising Mr.

Vijay:

Navdeep Saini.

Vijay:

Wow.

Vijay:

So, Some of them are still promising.

Vijay:

Saini, of course, was our stop promising . Yeah, I know.

Vijay:

, you did show some promise as the understudy of the

Vijay:

understudy of the understudy in

Vijay:

The,

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in the, in the last

Vijay:

Fiji.

Vijay:

Yeah.

Vijay:

Resulting

VK:

in his understudy, making it to the.

Vijay:

Right.

Vijay:

There you go.

Vijay:

Yep.

Vijay:

Well, what are team , some of them have made the ranks, so I think our

Vijay:

selection process kind of started working at this point it looks like

Vijay:

For Australia, I think it's more like they there's some warning signs.

Vijay:

Steve O'Keefe was among the not as bad as we made him out to

Vijay:

be, but did, did take threes.

Vijay:

But their bowling order was Jackson Bird, Mitchell Marsh.

Vijay:

Nathan Lyon, Steve O'Keefe and Glenn Maxwell.

Vijay:

So they did not take this

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game seriously right?

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He was there.

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. That's really speaking of Steve O'Keefe.

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I read this very interesting article Australian perhaps involving our

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friend Sridharan and Sriram, who I think is the fielding coach or

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assistant coach, something like that.

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He was, he was

VK:

a spin bowling coach for a long time for Australia,

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right?

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, apparently it was Sri Shira's job to figure out a way to make Steven

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O'Keefe effective in that punnet test.

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And just before lunch.

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And he says this as part of that interview, just before lunch

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you know Steve O'Keefe comes to ball and he gets hit around.

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He was, people were milking him at four plus.

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. And then the lunch break comes in and Steven O'Keefe rushes tore and

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sheam and says, what's going on, dude, this is gonna be a disaster.

Ram:

So immediately they, they both decide to let go the whole lunch break, rush

Ram:

to nets where Sheer and Siam helps him work out where to pitch the ball

Ram:

at what pace and at from what angle.

Ram:

They do like a 30 minute session where.

Ram:

It's a combination of some g and some demo.

Ram:

And then then the lunch break is over.

Ram:

Steven O'Keefe comes back to ball, and then whatever that session

Ram:

did, he picked up six tickets.

VK:

Wow.

VK:

Wow.

VK:

6 4 35 In

Ram:

both Inns.

Ram:

And so, and Shira basically says that, look, I mean, the Indians were handling

Ram:

him so comfortably before lunch.

Ram:

And that was all a function of the fact that Steven didn't know

Ram:

how to bowl or what to bowl.

Ram:

It's a very interesting read.

Ram:

I'll, I'll see if I can find a link in.

Vijay:

Two things.

Vijay:

1, 3, 3.

Vijay:

Ram can afford to miss lunch.

Vijay:

Second thing he, he's with Bangladesh these days, right?

Vijay:

Oh, he part of their coaching squad?

Vijay:

I

VK:

think so.

VK:

He actually, he was there just for the world.

VK:

, just the cup.

VK:

Okay.

VK:

Yeah.

Vijay:

Just, just a side note in our youth cricket situation, there, there

Vijay:

are kids who try to be the teacher's pet.

Vijay:

I'm trying to make a point and I'll come to the point eventually.

Vijay:

So these kids, you'll find them.

Vijay:

Either in the nets or at the game, staying very close to the coach,

Vijay:

asking intelligent questions.

Vijay:

And if there is a group photo, they'll be front and center, all of those things.

Vijay:

, every time I see such a kid, a, and I can tell you they'll be

Vijay:

pretty much average on the field.

Vijay:

Jesus.

Vijay:

Every time I see such a kid, I utter under my breath.

Vijay:

There's another Sridharan Sriram, if you recall, when they started the National

Vijay:

Cricket Academy, he was the poster chair.

Vijay:

You'll see all this.

Vijay:

His he'll have this intent look standing next to KA and talking about stuff.

Vijay:

And you know, even in the ramji situ, he's, he'll be the only guy

Vijay:

who will be tucking in his shirt.

Vijay:

Oh.

Vijay:

So I'm like, you know, And the one chance he.

Vijay:

Was in that ink one day International, where Jasu hit something like

Vijay:

what, 180 or something like that?

Vijay:

. And we got bundled out for less than hundred 54.

Vijay:

So

VK:

Something like that.

VK:

And then finally we repaid the favor a few days ago.

VK:

Right?

VK:

The 300 plus run win.

Vijay:

I had to revisit that game for that.

Vijay:

And of course, there he was in the middle order,

Ram:

India.

Ram:

Wow.

Vijay:

I think that probably is the one time he actually played.

Vijay:

Yeah.

VK:

So Riam has a good domestic record.

VK:

Hmm.

VK:

Lots

Ram:

of hundreds.

Ram:

Yeah.

Ram:

Yeah.

Ram:

50 plus average batting

VK:

average.

VK:

Yeah.

VK:

Yeah, yeah.

VK:

And he's taken wicked good player.

VK:

But like many.

VK:

players in the domestic, they're all the

Ram:

what

VK:

Sharma of this of this generation.

Vijay:

Now the point is these, these guys will make it.

Vijay:

And they have a cricketing career, right?

Vijay:

He's now a coach here, a coach there.

Vijay:

They have the mulk coming in.

Vijay:

and somewhere in the cracks you miss like really talented players.

Vijay:

Mm-hmm.

Vijay:

The selectors miss them, the local coaches miss them.

Vijay:

They're not pushed in the way they should be.

Vijay:

So that team balance.

Vijay:

So I, I personally have nothing against Sridharan Sriram, but he has

Vijay:

become my metaphor for people who get.

Vijay:

All the right push che, but they just don't take take it for, yeah.

Vijay:

. VK: No, but it's always

Vijay:

I mean, I've heard stories of LSiva.

Vijay:

A whenever you take four it became five when the reporting happened,

Vijay:

they used to ensure that these guys really got a big opportunity to play,

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Cricket with the West Coast Infidels
Thoughts and musings on cricket from the US West Coast

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