Once again, I start off a post with an apology to you, dear readers, but I hope I can make up for it as the season progresses. Itā..s been a roller-coaster ride for me these past couple of weeks, and unfortunately luck didnā..t smile on me at the start of the tournament and I was out with a bad back just as things were kicking off. It continued, and during our first full practice session after all the international players arrived, Stuart Law was struck on the toe by a Rajamani Jesuraj yorker, giving him a hairline fracture that kept him out for a couple of weeks as well. But our squad has the depth to overcome these challenges, as the start of the tournament proved - we won our first couple of games convincingly, and itā..s always good to get some momentum going early.
Game 3 against the Chandigarh Lions was a bit disappointing though, as we came close to winning and I thought we had gotten a bit complacent and did not do the small things well - we didnā..t bowl the right lengths, dropped catches and didnā..t rotate the strike while batting either. From a personal point of view, it was frustrating - itā..s never a good feeling to be sitting on the sidelines.
Some of the disappointment of being injured was reduced by having my family with me at the beginning of the tournament. Having been away from them for over a month, it was great to have them here and be able to spend some quality time with them. They loved the awesome opening ceremony, which was a blast, with lots of performances from the Shiamak Davar Academy, a great fireworks show, and a spectacular acrobatics performance with an acrobat suspended from an air balloon! On the whole, it was a great show and lots of fun.
The time back in Hyderabad and the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium was also fun, after staying out of the town at the Lahiri Resorts for several weeks. I used the time well, and my fitness is looking good, having worked really hard for the past couple of weeks with my core work aimed at getting my back stronger.
Weā..ve now moved on to Ahmedabad, and I was able to catch up with more of my family as my grandparents and maternal uncle stay here. Another positive is that we have no day games scheduled here, as the weather is absolutely boiling. I passed my fitness test, and was back on the field for what we looked at as a must-win game, since the Hyderabad Heroes are one of the teams who are likely to make it to the top four.
We also wanted to prove a point as we hadnā..t beaten them in any of the ICL international tournaments so far. We won the toss, and Harvs [Ian Harvey] and Bunk [G.Vignesh] got us off to a flying start, getting 70 off the first five overs. Harvs was especially severe on Stuart Binny and took him to the cleaners by smashing him for 29 in an over, the most expensive in ICL history so far. But we lost the plot a bit after they got out and lost too many wickets without building any partnerships. We should have got 180 or more, but ended up getting bowled out for 160 with four balls to spare.
I felt our middle order wasnā..t up to it and we didnā..t have a clear plan: no one took up the responsibility of carrying us to the end. It was still a competitive score, but we knew it wasnā..t going to be easy on that wicket with strikers like Abdul Razzaq, Justin Kemp and Nicky Boje on their side. Fortunately we got off to a great start with Jesuraj getting rid of Razzaq. Heā..s been a real find for us this year and has bowled beautifully throughout. Harris and Boje put up a worrying partnership, but Harvs bailed us out by bowling good stump-to-stump stuff. It was real ā..You-miss-I-hitā.. type of bowling, and thatā..s exactly what happened to Harris, after which we were able to polish them off for a good win. It was good to be back on the field, and the win capped off a great day.
Of course, a lot of the attention of cricket fans in the country is also focused on the Test series between India and Australia, and Iā..m no different. After the tight drawn first Test, I thought Mohali was a good toss to win and it was heartening to see the positive start from our openers followed by the fantastic sight of our old warriors getting back into the groove. I take my hat off to Sachin Tendulkar. He has been a great servant of our country, and I am proud and honoured to have played with him. Keeping him company was the always gutsy Sourav Ganguly, who has taken the lead in announcing his retirement and thus giving Indian cricket its first look into the future. Heā..s always been a leader, and still is. Heā..s still playing like a champion too, and it will be very difficult to fill his shoes. We will certainly miss him.
The bowling looked great. I was very happy for Amit Mishra. Heā..s someone who has toiled hard for years in the domestic circuit without any recognition. A five-for on debut is the perfect reward and I wish him all the luck in his career. Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma were brilliant and looked very hungry and I must say it was very pleasing to see them looking better than Brett Lee and Co. Having said that, I must add that Australia would definitely have missed Stuart Clark, a bowler who is at you all the time, bowling steadily and consistently stump to stump.
And finally, itā..s great to see Mahendra Singh Dhoni lead from the front and I think itā..s time the selectors thought of him as the future of Indian cricket. On the whole, itā..s superb to see India dominate a Test from day one and play such good cricket. I just want to say all the best, guys, but please donā..t get complacent because you are playing the toughest side in the world mentally. Though this may not be the best Australian side on paper, rest assured that they will come back, and come back hard. Iā..m looking forward to it, and to our next game against Delhi Giants as well. Will be back with more then.
Comments
Posted by: madhukar nekkanti at October 23, 2008 5:45 PM
Hemang i think u really wrote this article with ur heart the way u play with ur heart. keep it coming we need to see u coming now.
Posted by: Sandeep Sundaram at October 23, 2008 6:32 PM
Do well in the future matches , you have always been a very good player dunno were did u loose track in between, I always thought that you will be a permanent fixture in the ODI squad..
Posted by: Yuvan at October 23, 2008 9:58 PM
Hemang you are one of the better cricket players in ODI who was given less chances to play in ODI international compared to many others.Good luck in all your future endeavours and remember there are lot of people who really follows ur cricket and always think u r a better player.
Posted by: Pradeep Atla at October 24, 2008 4:53 AM
Its hard to ignore an article from a professional cricketer...I appreciate cricketers writing articles..Gavaskar, Shastri, Ian chappell... and now Badani. It's easy to connect I guess. Good insights. Would have loved to see you comment on Gilchrist's accusation of Sachin when he himself is not morally correct. ICL is awesome, its hard to pick a favorite team. We (atleast me) has a fondness for the players who I recognise and end up supporting them. Its good you are mentioning about new faces who are performing...wouldn't it be a good idea to drop a few lines about other teammates who are playing with your team...Kind of giving us an edge over people who dont read Hemang Badani's blogs:) Good Luck sir.
Posted by: Dhanpat Jain at October 24, 2008 5:30 AM
Good going Hemang... need to see more of action from Chennai Supestars... hail Chennai... we will rock ICL
Posted by: Sunshine at October 24, 2008 10:38 AM
hey there..
It nice to hear you guys are enjoying the game and playing without so much stress as otherwise.
All the best for all the matches.We watch all your matches very keenly.
Posted by: Dr Jayakumar Singaram at October 25, 2008 3:54 PM
Wonderful game that you played during 24th. Why dont promote bit higher up such that you get to play lot and also look at bowler with care. I wish you play for Chennai Super Kings along with Dhoni, SK Raina and Badrinath. I wish you all the best and i am sure Chennai super stars will be in finals. Wish you all the best and keep spend time to type out your emotions. And also, please tell us bit more about Vignesh. I hope Srikanth does meet Signesh atleast once and pick him up for Super kings as well. In that slot, we dont have people in Super kings.
Posted by: Bala at October 27, 2008 6:24 AM
Hi Hemang Good to cya scoring big against Giants in the league match. Congrats for a good start to ur campaign mate.. Anyways its wonderful to watch all you Tamil Nadu Ranji Players in the foray doing really well in one form or the other in ICL matches.However I have to say that commitment of some of other teams and players in the ICL are below par and this is simply not acceptable.I can see this sending wrong signals and setting up bad examples to the other younger team members. I feel that a set standard has to be maintained if not I dont a see a future for ICL. Moreover there is no regulation if I could find any. I feel that you cannot deny the fact that some of the ICL spinners are simply chucking and I am not aware of whether ICL follows ICC Laws and Regulations that stringent.Infact I will be happy to see on field umpires enforcing the rules instead of the teams imposing them.I would love to hear you on the code of conduct and also on the doping tests and disciplinary actions set
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Hemang Badani played four Tests and 40 ODIs for India. The high point of his international career was his 98-ball hundred against Australia in Pune. In a distinguished first-class career, he scored 5558 runs at 47.91, 3881 of them for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, at an average of 51.74. Among his more memorable knocks was the century in a chase of 377 in the 2002-03 final, but Tamil Nadu fell short on that occasion. After the 2006-07 season, he joined the ICL.
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