Author: Bharath Ramaraj

At the fag end of November last year, there was enough excitement surrounding a potential trade in the IPL. Eventually, Hardik Pandya, the then Gujarat Titans captain, shifted over to Mumbai Indians. Cameron Green, who used to play for MI, was bagged by Royal Challengers Bengaluru. So, what does Green make about all the hectic back-channel negotiations? “I was very excited. Found out at the very last minute when the deadline of retention was happening. There were a lot of things happening at that time, I wasn’t too sure. “I had a first-class game the next day. I just wanted…

If you’re interested in some number-crunching, here is a task that could keep you engrossed: Pore through text commentary stints over the last decade to collect information on Sunil Narine and fluffed chances. Most likely, you would end up with enough evidence of dropped catches. The long-serving Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder is not exactly known for his fielding efforts. Narine’s woes continued in KKR’s game against Royal Challengers at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where he dropped a sitter to give Glenn Maxwell a reprieve. It came across as a lazy attempt to catch the ball. Narine’s night with the ball…

The distance between the famous Cubbon Park and the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru is roughly around 1 km. But even while nearing Cubbon Park, one could feel the buzz of an IPL game taking place at the nearby stadium. Right from hundreds of fans wearing Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell’s jerseys to policemen practising how to handle drones, the build-up to any IPL game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium is worth watching. In that sense, it is difficult to visualise the kind of frenzied atmosphere inside the stadium, especially when Kohli is playing a volley of strokes. On a pleasant night,…

What could be the major talking points about a typical Virat Kohli innings? One would be eye-catching shots. There is also something else to look out for: The cut-and-thrust activity before he takes strike. The way he sprints to the crease. The bat moving to-and-fro from one side to another. Perhaps, a bit of shadow practice — perfecting the alignment, like head position and front shoulder. The subsequent trigger movement, albeit a little less these days, followed by the deafening noise of the crowd after playing a stroke, are all part of a familiar Kohli-batting-manual. To sum it up,…

A soft-spoken Harshit Rana requested this writer while taking an interview at the Chinnaswamy stadium: “Can we sit on the grass and talk?” He had just bowled at full tilt for seven overs in a Duleep Trophy game. From round the wicket, Rana had mostly banged the ball on back of a length or it was short. It was interesting to note that Rana got more bounce than his teammate, Baltej Singh, who in turn has also gained a reputation for hitting the bat hard on impact in domestic cricket. Although the opposition was weak – North-East Zone, it would have…

In a game that had plenty of outstanding performances, Harshit Rana became the toast of Eden Gardens by picking up the crucial wickets of Shahbaz Ahmed and, more importantly, Heinrich Klaasen (63 off 29 balls) in the last over to power Kolkata Knight Riders to a thrilling four-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad. Andre Russell also played a decisive role with a blazing 25-ball 64. So near, yet so far At the completion of the 17th over, SRH seemed to be going nowhere. They needed 60 off just three overs. Enter Klaasen. The wicketkeeper-bat, renowned for his pyrotechnics, matched Russell’s big…

What is the first image that you visualise while assessing Shreyas Iyer and his batting? Perhaps, it is that daring upper cut he played against Pat Cummins in an ODI in Bengaluru in 2020. Iyer had sort of got into line against a short ball, before suddenly backing away to crack the stroke. He did all of it in a fraction of a second. Make no mistake, it was a jaw-dropping stroke but that is where the crux of Iyer’s problem lies. Iyer tends to stay leg-side of the ball, so pace bowlers are bound to pitch the short delivery…

A few years ago, Umran Malik, the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir and India fast bowler, had said to this correspondent: “The batters were saying, ‘don’t bowl that fast’. But I had come to bowl fast, so I would bowl fast.” Here, Umran was referring to bowling to some reputed batters at the SRH nets. In a nutshell, the essence of Umran’s bowling is summoning quick spells on a consistent basis. The first impression of Jammu and Kashmir’s bowling coach, P Krishnakumar, was no different. He witnessed a bowler who was geared up to bowl at rapid pace, not…

It was akin to languid poetry as Ellyse Perry approached the crease to bowl at Mumbai Indians’ Sajeevan Sajana. A few seconds later, all one heard was the ball rattling timber. Perry, playing for RCB in the WPL, went on to bag six wickets in the game, all of them coming through the LBW and bowled modes of dismissal. She had married precision with skill to run through the cream of the opponent. Here was a bowler who had bowled just six overs before that WPL game. But right after Perry pouched a fine catch in the deep, Smriti Mandhana,…

“I love listening to music, and that includes any song in Tamil,” says Baba Indrajith in an exclusive interview with RevSportz. The rhythm of music also connects with how Indrajith goes about scoring his runs in first-class cricket. A case in point would be the 2024 Ranji Trophy semi-final between Tamil Nadu and Mumbai at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy Stadium, where Indrajith’s willow seemed to be in tune with a mixture of intense and soothing music. Tamil Nadu were three down for just 10 in their second innings and were already in arrears by more than 200 runs. Indrajith,…