" Cricket Etcetera was voted as the Best Cricket Blog by Google during the World Cup 2007 "

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Two flights of future take wing in Bangla

"Look at that, for flight. Beautifully done."
"He has great armspeed. Much like Warnie."
"Another Kumble in the making for India."
"Unless Bollywood snaps him up, he should complete 400 wickets."
"..and he is just 18."
"I would like to see him bowl in a test..that curve..will be a perfect trap."
He has bowled just 37 deliveries yet, and Piyush Chawla has already bowled over the television commentators. Me too. So far, it has been a sheer delight watching the innocent looking Chawla beguiling bastman after batsman, bowl after bowl. There were the classic looped up deliveries and lots and lots of googlies: Ashraful, the finest of the Bangla batters has already been bowled with a ripping googly and young Chawla sure does look promising. Bhajji better watch out.
Not doing a bad job is the rockstar turning his arm at the other end. He's 20 kilos too many, and he insists on wearing those brigh red-rimmed shades even as he bowls, yet one can't but like Romesh Powar - he looks to me a mathematical average of Arjuna Ranatunga and Mark Waugh, in style, weight and substance! Not afraid to toss the bowl up, he has taken a wicket, beating a batsman beautifully in flight but has also been hit over the ropes.
These two, together with Dinesh Karthik have it in them to become a part of the Indian one-day cricket's future scheme of things. Le't just hope that the rest provided to Messers Tendulkar, Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh will be extended further.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Chawla, I've got to agree, is amazing. And I'll be a commentator here "He's only 18..." Anyways I'm really excited for the Bangladesh v. India revenge tour. It will be awsome. I was looking around for a place online to watch the tour (I live in the US) and I found this great site. Not only live streamed cricket, but chat and stats also. Check it out:

India v. Bangladesh Tour is available as LIVE Video and Video On Demand
on broadband at MediaZone Cricket: http://cricket.mediazone.com
MediaZone Cricket is a new broadband service with LIVE cricket, chat and
news. Check it out!

Abu Safiyah said...

It is exciting to see a new breed of spinners coming and taking the challenges.

India was always the nation known to produce the best spinners. But sometimes we get complacent with these things and lo! Suddenly we are deprived of our basic right – a decent world class spinner.

Like the deprivation of express fast bowlers from West Indies. Could Clive or Sobers ever image a WI team and no fast bowler in it? It is like an Indian batsmen who cannot hit in the off (minus Ganguly!) But look at them today – Bravo and Powell are their main bolwers.. Pity.

So it is so encouraging that Powar and Chawla are giving us hope and Bhajji a run

Agyan said...

He looks good, but remember it is against Bangladesh only (no offence meant). Apparently, googlies work wonders in age-group, weak cricket, not so much against top teams who read it better.

Still, Chawla does look the part, although it took Warne also a couple of years to hit his strap (which he lost after his first five years, subsequent to that he survived on his mind and reputation).

As for Powar, apart from those glasses, he is throwback to a different era, where Indian cricketers were unfit, and off-spin was an oriental craft.