Blog Posts by Prem Panicker

Virender Sehwag The problem with obfuscating — lying, if you prefer to use blunt, direct words — is that no one will believe you even if/when you tell the truth.

You would think the BCCI, which has 'Obfuscate' embedded as its motto on the family crest, would have learnt this lesson by now. But apparently not, if the contretemps with ref Virender Sehwag is any indication.

The BCCI says Sehwag has been rested on the advice of the team physio. Sehwag says he had asked the physio for rest. Trouble is, the BCCI also said, through one of its many voices, that the player is being rested to recover from injury. And that doesn't jell with Sehwag's own essay in sarcasm at a recent press conference — when asked to comment on MS Dhoni's remarks that the seniors were slow on the field of play, Sehwag recalled his diving catch as an example of how fit and quick he personally was — and in his final outing before the selectors picked the team for the Asia Cup, he showed no sign of any injury — unless he had tripped

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Ball Four:

What strikes you, as you watch this master class in leg spin, is how limited Warne's range really was (and that is allowing for the fact that this is a basic lesson, and Warne is not about to reveal all his secrets).

There is a leg break (with variations including the one with overspin, and the one with sidespin), a googly, a top spinner, a flipper, and a slider, which Warne rechristened the zooter.

After his shoulder injury and corrective surgery in the late 90s, though, Warne dropped the flipper almost entirely from his repertoire; and his googly, always easy to pick when compared with say an Abdul Qadir or a Mushtaq Ahmed, was mostly wheeled out against relative novices or when nothing else was working.

So Warne's arsenal, in fact, was a leg break, a top spinner, and a slider – very little, you'd think, to base a career on that resulted in 708 Test wickets and 293 one day wickets, besides a boatload of victims at the first class level.

Today, a legend bows out of the game for all time. All-time great bowler, larger than life character and, in an age that tends to produce cricketers from a singular mould, one of the game's pitifully few rock stars. An attempt to capture the key ingredients of the Warne mystique:

Ball One:

When his captain waves him over to the bowling crease, he bustles up, brisk to the point of impatience. He snatches the ball with one hand; with the other he hands his trademark floppy hat off to the umpire often without even looking at that official. His manner speaks louder than words – and what it says is, 'About time you gave me the damn ball – what took you so long? Now get out of my way and let me go to work!'

He grabs the ball and almost in the same motion, he spins it, whirring, from left hand to right, and then again, and again, the action a bit more emphatic, urgent, with each iteration.

He seems abstracted, almost uninvolved, as his captain discusses his field with him – almost

Meet Charvi.

She is the seven year old daughter of my colleague, Priya. And she stole my heart as the April 2 World Cup final unfolded at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

I remember the exact moment. It was the 10th over; Nuwan Kulasekhara straightened the second ball of the over onto the middle stump line. Virat Kohli, who at that point had gone 10 balls without opening his account, flowed into the shot, and with perfect timing and unsuspected power, flicked hard to beat the fine leg fielder to the fence.

There were close to 20 of us in the Yahoo newsroom in Bangalore at the time, watching on the two screens in the edit bay. And as the fielder retrieved the ball and threw it back, all was silent.

It was a stark contrast to the earlier mood. We had gathered in the newsroom a good hour before the game; as Zaheer marked his run up, the first of many bottles of beer was being opened; as the game progressed and India dominated with the ball and in the field, the beer was supplemented by

India innings: 41-50:

It was almost anti-climactic -- despite Gautam Gambhir's rush of blood charge that saw him bowled three short of what would have been the most memorable century of his career.

Heading into the straight needing to chase down a run a ball, with MS Dhoni stroking in form, Yuvraj replacing Gautam, and Raina still to come, it was India's to lose. And this India is not losing too many, not if it can help it.

Mathematical, it proved. So dominant was India that Murali backed off from bowling in the PPs. And India broke the game open against Malinga, the most feared of the opposition bowlers. Needing 16 off 18 heading into the 48th over, Dhoni smashed the Lankan quick twice to the square leg ropes to turn the chase into a fait accompli, India ending that over with just 5 needed off 12. Fittingly, Dhoni ended it with a humongous hit over the long on ropes, to seal a six wicket win.

Think of that one more time -- just two wickets went down after Sachin and Sehwag, and at the

Pakistan innings: Overs 41-50:

Zaheer Khan set things up with a tight 41st over that produced just four despite all the huffing and puffing; Harbhajan nailed it in the next, when he tossed up a ball way too much; it ended up as a full toss and Afridi, overdosing on adrenalin, heaved where he could have guided, put it up in the air, and down the throat of Sehwag at cover. The ask had topped ten, and the tail had been exposed at one end -- and that put India firmly in the box seat.

From then on, it was almost mathematical: shut them down and take them out. Nehra -- and while on that, it will be a long time before anyone, present company included, questions any decision no matter how bizarre that Dhoni makes -- produced an inswinging yorker onto Umar Gul's front pad to nail him in front of the stump.

Misbah, who had spent much of his innings in an Abou-ben-Adhem like deep dream of peace, woke up when it was way too late, hitting some crisp shots down the line -- but an asking rate of 3+