खेल डेस्क

[dipu]

टेस्ट क्रिकेट में बल्लेबाजी के लिए बेहतरीन तकनीक की जरूरत होती है। तकनीक के साथ बल्लेबाज का सतर्क होना भी आवश्यक होता है। लेकिन इस खेल के इतिहास में कुछ ऐसे दिग्गज भी हुए हैं जिन्होंने मदहोशी की हालत में भी बेहतरीन पारियां खेली हैं। वेस्ट इंडीज के पूर्व दिग्गज सर गैरी सोबर्स इन्हीं में से एक हैं।

गैरी सोबर्स ने अपने टेस्ट करियर में 26 शतक लगाए। सोबर्स की बल्लेबाजी कितनी शानदार थी यह सभी क्रिकेट प्रशंसक अच्छे से जानते हैं, लेकिन यह बात बहुत कम लोग जानते हैं कि उन्होंने अपना अंतिम शतक नशे की हालत में लगाया था।

सोबर्स को पार्टियों का बड़ा शौक था। वो टेस्ट मैचों के दौरान भी शराब पीने से नहीं चूकते थे। 23 अगस्त, 1973 को इंग्लैंड के खिलाफ हुए लॉर्ड्स टेस्ट के पहले दिन सोबर्स 31 रन बनाकर नाबाद रहे थे।

दिन का खेल खत्म होने के बाद सोबर्स और क्लाइव लॉयड एक नाइटक्लब चले गए। वहां उन्होंने जमकर शराब पी। शराब का दौर कुछ ऐसा चला कि सोबर्स सुबह 9 बजे तक पीते रहे।

जब उन्हें याद आया कि उन्हें बल्लेबाजी के लिए भी जाना है, तब वो ठंडे पानी में शॉवर लेने के बाद मैदान पर चले गए।

गैरी सोबर्स उस पारी को याद करते बताते हैं, "जब मैं बल्लेबाजी क्रीज पर पहुंचा तो मुझे गेंदबाज बॉब विलिस के सिर्फ हाथ और पैर दिख रहे थे। मैं पहली पांच गेंदे खेल नहीं सका। मुझे ऐसी हालत में देखकर हमारे कप्तान रोहन कन्हाई और इंग्लैंड के सभी खिलाड़ी ठहाके लगा रहे थे। जैसे-तैसे मैंने छठी गेंद को बल्ले से मारा।"

जब तक सोबर्स को थोड़ा होश आया कि वो बल्लेबाजी क्रीज पर हैं, तब तक उन्हें दूसरी समस्या शुरू हो गई। उनके पेट में तेज दर्द होने लगा। लेकिन इसके बावजूद वो बल्लेबाजी करते रहे।

शतक के करीब पहुंचने पर सोबर्स का दर्द असहनीय हो गया। उन्हें लगा कि उन्हें रिटायर्ड हर्ट हो जाना चाहिए, लेकिन उन्होंने आगे खेलने का फैसला किया और बेहतरीन सैकड़ा लगाया।

उस पारी में सोबर्स 150 रन बनाकर नाबाद रहे थे। वेस्ट इंडीज वो मैच पारी और 226 रन से जीता था।

[bindujain]

Imagine a game like cricket or baseball but without a ball! That’s what ‘Gilli Danda’ is like. Gilli Danda requires two wooden sticks – a ‘Gilli’ and a ‘Danda’. The ‘Gilli’ is a small wooden piece which is about three inches long with tapered ends. The ‘Danda’ – a stick, about 2 feet in length, is used to strike the Gilli.
The game is called ‘Dānggőli’ in Bangla, ‘Vhinni-dandu’ in Kannada, ‘Viti-dandu’ in Marathi, ‘Kitti-pullu’ in Tamil, and ‘Gootibilla’ in Telugu.
The demeanor of this sport is such that every individual that plays it once gets fond of it. The challenge of striking the gilli after it’s in the air is very stimulant.

[bindujain]

How to Play:


A small circle about four feet in diameter is drawn on the ground with a small oval-shaped hole in the centre (the hole should be smaller than the gilli). The gilli is placed across the hole.
Two teams are formed. One bats and the other fields.
Fielders stand in a position from where they can catch the gilli. The first player places the gilli in the hole and lifts it quickly high in the air with the danda and then strikes it. If he fails at first, he gets another turn. If the fielder catches the gilli before it touches the ground, the batsman is out and the second player tries to hit the gilli. If the gilli is not caught, the distance from the hole to the place where the gilli falls is measured with the danda. Each danda equals one point.

The fielder stands where the gilli had fallen and tosses it to the batsman. The batsman tries to hit the gilli while it is in the air. If it falls, he taps the tapered end and lifts it in the air and strikes while it is in the air. He gets three chances to hit the gilli. If he does not hit it, or is caught, he is out.

The game continues till all batsmen are out. The team changes side and continues the same way. The team with higher score wins.

Whenever the game gulli danda is mentioned we recall the dialogue in the Bollywood movie lagan when bhuvan (Amir Khan’s character) mentions the traditional sport of gilli-danda as similar to cricket.

When you are in a lone battle to fight with the loneliness and boredom of an urban life, I am sure the memory of your childhood in a dusty village surely gives you some feelings of the relief. When in a long holiday, there is no work in your hand, there is nobody to talk with, the fun play afternoon with friends.

Gilli Danda is surely pass through your thinking process like a cool splash of fresh air

[dipu]

Tim Southee took ten wickets in the Lord's Test - but New Zealand still lost. Has this ever happened before in Test cricket? asked Simon Hood from Australia
You'll probably be surprised to discover that Tim Southee's valiant effort at Lord's - he took 10 for 108 but lost - was actually the 69th occasion on which a bowler has bagged ten or more wickets in a Test but finished up on the losing side. Wasim Akram took ten but lost three times, while Muttiah Muralitharan, Tom Richardson, Saeed Ajmal, Hugh Trumble, Daniel Vettori and Shane Warne have all done it twice. The best match figures in defeat are Javagal Srinath's 13 for 132 for India against Pakistan in Kolkata in 1998-99.

[dipu]

New Zealand's team for the Lord's Test was unchanged for the fourth match running - was that a Test record?
New Zealand kept the same team for the first Test at Lord's as had done duty throughout the three-Test series against England earlier in the year (injuries forced changes for the second Test, though). It was a new national record - New Zealand had only once before gone even three Tests with an unchanged side, in the West Indies in 1971-72. The overall Test record, however, is six successive Tests with the same XI, achieved by England in 2008 (that run included five matches against New Zealand and one against South Africa).

[dipu]

Who has taken the most wickets while captaining in Tests?
Leading the way here is Imran Khan of Pakistan, who took 187 wickets in Tests while captain. Richie Benaud is next with 138, and in fact there are only six other bowler-captains who took more than 100: Garry Sobers (117), Daniel Vettori (116), Kapil Dev (111), Wasim Akram (107), Bishan Bedi (106) and Shaun Pollock (103). Of these, Imran also has the best average (20.27) and strike rate (49.26 balls per wicket) while captain.

[dipu]

Which father-and-son pair played the same number of Test matches?
The answer to this neat little conundrum is the Kanitkars from India: Hemant Kanitkar won two caps against West Indies in 1974-75, scoring 65 on his debut in Bangalore - and his son Hrishikesh (a left-hander, unlike his father) also won two caps, in Australia in 1999-2000, making 45 on debut in Melbourne. Hrishikesh, who's now 38, still captains Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy - he scored his 33rd first-class hundred last December.

[dipu]

Sachin Tendulkar has now been playing Test cricket for more than 23 years. How many people have longer careers?
Sachin Tendulkar is one of only 16 men whose Test careers have lasted longer than 20 years - the last one to complete two decades before him was John Traicos, of South Africa and Zimbabwe, in 1993. At the moment Tendulkar lies fifth on the all-time list - but he's going to have to hang on until he's 47 if he wants to claim the longest Test career of all, which is currently held by the Yorkshire and England allrounder Wilfred Rhodes. He made his Test debut in 1899 (in WG Grace's final Test), and won the last of his 58 caps in the West Indies in April 1930, when he was, at 52, the oldest man ever to appear in a Test. In all Rhodes's Test career lasted 30 years and 315 days.

[dipu]

Robin Smith
England

Full name Robin Arnold Smith

Born September 13, 1963, Durban, Natal, South Africa

Current age 49 years 267 days

Major teams England, Hampshire, Natal

Also known as Judge

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Legbreak

Fearless yet fragile, much-loved yet mucked about, Smith's England career was a curious catalogue of contradictions. At his best he hammered fast bowling with supersonic cuts and hooks and visibly enjoyed the regular snatches of chin music from the West Indian quicks. At worst those rigid forearms were a handicap against his Achilles heel of slow bowling, and when he thrust forward hopefully even part-time offspinners fancied their chances. Even so, when he was dropped after the 1995-96 series in South Africa, Smith possessed the highest average of any contemporary England player. It did give him more time to concentrate on his various business interests and captaining Hampshire, but the feeling persists that England could have got more out of him. Lawrence Booth

Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 4s 6s Ct St
Tests 62 112 15 4236 175 43.67 9279 45.65 9 28 558 11 39 0
ODIs 71 70 8 2419 167* 39.01 3473 69.65 4 15 239 22 26 0
First-class 426 717 87 26155 209* 41.51 61 131 233 0
List A 443 423 60 14927 167* 41.12 27 81 159 0

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