Sam Roy

@imVkohli @BCCI I still hope that Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan and Washington Sundar are picked for SA tests. It will be another blunder like WT20. Nobody to bat at 7. Can't trust Pujara, Rahane, Ishant & Saha in SA. Even Mayank & Shreyas have issues vs pace, bounce & swing.

Me running 23.4 through 200m has me gagggeedd lmao, sometimes I surprise myself!!!??!!😂😂

@Fancricket12 The tail with the old ball likely helped him in his accuracy of landing them..

@Fancricket12 Unpopular opinion (since only I have it). Prabhakar is the most accurate yorker bowler among Ind pacers I have seen in my 30+ years of watching cricket. Yes, many bowlers yorkers were more dangerous when they landed them but Prabhakar was very accurate in landing them.

1992-93, Cape Town ODI. Watched it on highlights, the next day. It looks very bad but some of those lights in SA during that time resulted in absolute sitters being dropped. I remember players complaining about it. Just a point.

@Fancricket12 slight pause -- mostly a visual illusion — but probably built on a real micro-slowdown at the top of his gather.

@Fancricket12 Absolutely. Sir, you described it much better than I could. I was thinking front arm, standing tall at the crease, the slight pause and more usage of wrists.

Better use of the front-arm (improved version) and standing tall at the crease... transferring kinetic energy.

@Md_ZishanH @Fancricket12 @amittalwalkar This is one of my favs stances of all time.. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I first saw it 🤣🤣🤣🤣.. It aided Bailey in hitting the cover drive vs pace by getting in a favorable position for himself at time of delivery which he couldn't previously hit....

@Fancricket12 @amittalwalkar Completely opposite of George Bailey stance of 2017 vs South Africa

See this. Chanderpaul in India in 1994, facing Sri. @amittalwalkar

@Fancricket12 This is probably his 3rd or 4th reincarnation of his stance. That stance went through several changes over the years. It became more and more front on over the years but he always got in a more or less conventional slightly front on position at time of delivery.

When I first watched him in 1994, he wasn't this front-on. Even when I saw him v Pakistan, somewhere in 2001-02, he wasn't this front-on. During that tour, Razzaq in particular troubled him again and again. A few months later, the trigger had changed a bit!

@Fancricket12 @amittalwalkar 🙏... As I always say, insane memory.

Precisely my batting order too for RR.

@_cricketsparsh Mine too

IPL is here and I've got the Optimal Batting Order app up and running with updated data. A v1 this as I plan to build more with @Vasanth494949 . The number 3 spot in the Royals batting unit should go to Hetmyer according the optimizer. Check it out for your fav teams - ordertoolkit.streamlit.app

It is still not good. Better than before.

@Fancricket12 I would say in his batting, he has improved enough to not just survive but on occasions thrive and for some reason thrives on big occasions very often.

He has improved (enough) to survive. That is all he needs. Rocks back just enough. He understands his strengths a lot better now. And he is willing to take the odd* single against a short of a length ball.

@CricketopiaCom @Fancricket12 Sir, notice the change in Ambrose's action from early 90s to say in 96.

A classic moment from Curtly Ambrose He took a return catch so cleanly that no one noticed at first. The confusion lasted only a second… until his big grin gave it away 😄

@Md_ZishanH @dweplea @CricRP0511 @ABsay_ek @NotTheStarlord Nope Sir, I disagree. It's not a stats longevity thing. It's the threat level posed on average. Yes, stats longevity thing is an advantage on greatness IMO only when both have comparable threat levels.

@SamRoy84 @dweplea @CricRP0511 @ABsay_ek @NotTheStarlord He was a good to great bowler by then but since 2024 BGT he has become an all timer .

23 March 2016, Bengaluru, India Vs Bangladesh. A game that people remember in fast cuts. Dhoni’s last ball sprint, Pandya’s last over, Mushfiqur’s celebration that arrived a few seconds too early, Ashwin doing careful work in the middle. But games like this don’t turn in the last over. They turn earlier, in smaller moments that don’t look like much. Jasprit Bumrah started badly. 1st ball of the innings went through him at fine leg for four. Soon after, Tamim Iqbal gave him a chance. Straightforward. Down it went. For a young bowler in a T20 World Cup, that’s usually where things begin to unravel. You expect a reaction; A stare, A kick at the turf. There was none. He just stood there. Like he was buffering. Same straight face. Like a character from a Nolan film who knows the ending but won’t spoil it yet. Tamim didn’t miss his moment. Next over, he lined Bumrah up. Cuts through point. Drives past the bowler. 4 boundaries, 16 runs. The chase had rhythm now. It felt like they were ahead of the game without having to force anything. Bumrah, though, didn’t change expression. And more importantly, he didn’t change plan in a visible way. When he came back in the 17th over, nothing in the figures suggested he should be trusted with it. No wickets. Already expensive. But this is where T20 games often hinge. Not on reputation, but on who can still execute when things have already gone wrong... He bowled fuller, faster. Into the base of the stumps. Just 7 runs conceded. Bangladesh needed 27 off 18 now. The equation has changed but nobody has noticed yet. It is like watching Neo stop bullets in The Matrix. The threat is still there. But somehow the bullets are falling to the ground. Next over from Nehra tightened it further until the last ball boundary. Suddenly it was 17 off 12. Now Bumrah again. This is where most young bowlers either chase wickets or miss their lengths. Bumrah didn’t do either. Yorkers, almost all of them. Not all perfect, one dipped into a low full toss, but the idea held. Six singles, No boundary. He finished with 0 for 32. It reads like a forgettable spell. But it wasn’t. He didn’t win India the game in a visible way. He just made the last over what it became. That’s often how his bowling works. Not always about taking wickets, but about removing ease. Like in cricket video games, when you reduce the required run rate just enough so the opponent starts pressing the wrong buttons... 10 years later, we remember the chaos at the end. But go back a little, Just before that madness. There was a young bowler, having a bad day & deciding it won’t end that way.

@dweplea @Md_ZishanH @CricRP0511 @ABsay_ek @NotTheStarlord so much better in Aus, he was the best fast bowler in the world and best of his generation. Since then many more reinventions. I can write pages and pages on him and Ashwin and Kumble in terms of their reinventions.

@dweplea @Md_ZishanH @CricRP0511 @ABsay_ek @NotTheStarlord He had the skills of a great bowler by his 3rd test. Not 1st - where for me he was disappointing (had high expectations), got better in 2nd and I told my mate (Prithvi) in our private conversation Boom is looking like better version of Walsh in 3rd. He got even better in Eng and