Virat Kohli vs Hashim Amla: Comparing the two ODI run machines

This first appeared on Sportskeeda.

Kohli and Amla? Too many runs and too much consistency in one sentence already.

When it comes to batting in ODI internationals, very few names crop up when it comes to matching the level of consistency that Amla and Kohli have displayed throughout their careers.

Scoring runs, prolifically at that, has become such a differentia with these batsmen that a 30-odd score is subliminally thought of as an off day for them. And if a few innings pass by without being adorned by a sizable enough score, the anticipation building around those two is palpable. And invariably, they deliver, with eerie regularity. These similarities apart, who makes for a better ODI run machine?

IPL 6: Both Mumbai Crowd and Kohli overreacted

This first appeared on Cricket Tadka

They had booed when Sachin was dismissed after crawling his way to a tardy 1 after batting for 34 long minutes. They didn’t spare Yuvraj when he did a Jonty to deny the MI a last ball victory. And now, it was Kohli’s turn.

The Mumbai crowd, a traditionally miffy one, apparently took offence when a Kohli direct hit had Rayudu scrambling for space to make it back in time to the bowler’s end. Pollard had hit the Vinay Kumar delivery to the cover region, and Kohli effected a direct hit. There was an ugly tangle involving Rayudu, and Kumar who was backing up the throw, and a grappling Rayudu failed to get his bat back in time. The collision was without a hint of doubt unintentional, as Vinay Kumar had his back towards Rayudu. Rayudu was, incidentally, yet to face a delivery.

Kohli went ahead with the appeal, and the television umpire had no hesitation in ruling Rayudu out. And this did not go down very well with the Mumbai crowd.

The dismissal was, as such, a fairly legitimate one. Kumar was in no position to be aware of the fact that he was obstructing Rayudu. But the fans were in no mood to relent, and started firing a barrage of jeers towards a cornered Kohli, and possibly even called him “cheater”.

Abraham Benjamin de Villiers – Defining the AB and D of cricket

This first appeared on Sportskeeda

The customised ‘wall of fame’ is the only raison d'être of my existence in an otherwise nondescript and dingy hostel room. Made up of carefully torn Sportstar posters that I managed to sneak in from the hostel common room, the assortment boasts of Sachin kissing the World Cup, Alonso atop his mean machine, Graeme Smith with the test championship mace et al. And in the midst of this league of extraordinary gentlemen (and a pretty lady in Azarenka holding aloft the 2013 Australian Open Trophy) stands a marauding de Villiers, ‘the man with the magic willow’.

Bursting into the international arena at a relatively tender age of 20, he has carved out a niche for himself that few others could have dreamt of. Speaking of dreaming, I remember reading an article on AB on how he dreamt of being the world’s best batsman. Nine years after he first made an appearance in SA colours, he is third in the list for test batsmen. And as far as the best one day batsman goes, the answer is shorter than ABC.

Of medals and gol gappas : The sorry story of Sita Sahu

This post first appeared on Sportskeeda

Sita Sahu, a mentally challenged teenager from Rewa, is busy nowadays helping her mother sell ‘gol gappas’ in their nondescript ghetto settlement. Well, that is nothing out of the ordinary, considering there are millions of children in our country faced with a similar bleak fate, and their state of living narrates the same old story.

What, then, prompted a leading newspaper to carry a front page article dedicated to delineating her hardships?

Well, she is a precocious talent. Representing India at the 2011 Special Olympics in Athens, she did the nation proud by bagging two bronze medals- in the 200m and 1600m. She was faced with a deluge of congratulatory messages and cash prizes. Her life seemed to have taken a turn for the better.

Sadly, the hollow promises are yet to materialize into something substantial.