Cricket: India thrashes Zimbabwe

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jai hind.jpg I know nothing about cricket. In fact, whenever someone mentions it, I’m sorely tempted to chirp, “Now THAT was a wicked googly!” a la Seinfeld repping for AmEx. Forgive me for writing this post anyway? 😉

From the Beeb:

India thrashed Zimbabwe by an innings and 90 runs in Bulawayo despite a brave lower-order resistance from the hosts on day four of the first Test.
Resuming on 67-6 and still 208 runs shy of making India bat again, Zimbabwe managed 185 in their second innings with skipper Tatenda Taibu making 52.
Harbhajan Singh finished off the tail to return figures of 4-59.
The match was over when the off-spinner trapped Gavin Ewing lbw for 34 to end the hosts’ last-wicket stand of 47.

Words from India’s Captain:

“Zimbabwe were a good side a couple of years ago and now they’ve lost some players for whatever reasons, so a series win over them won’t be so significant.
“What is more significant is the way we’ve played Test cricket for the last four years.

35 thoughts on “Cricket: India thrashes Zimbabwe”

  1. Ha ha, I must say I never expected THIS post on sepia… 🙂

    One “backstory” as far as Zimbabwe cricket is concerned is that because of Mugabe’s policies, a number of the team’s white players left, protesting over his inclusion of black players who weren’t yet of international calibre (Mugabe for his part wanted a team that looked more like Zimbabwe)…combined with Mugabe’s human rights record (or lack thereof), a number of teams refused to tour or play Zimbabwe (indeed England chose to forfeit their matches against them in the last World Cup)…the result is that the current Zimbabwe outfit is not of international standard…on the other hand, one wonders about English qualms when one considers that they continued to cheerfully play against apartheid South Africa until 1970 or so…(to be fair to them, I doubt they would do that now, and SA was banned from ’70 until about ’91)…

  3. cricket….if you can get a guest blogger who is a cricket fan, i am telling you guys your audience/ readership will increase 10x overnight.

    i get my cricket info from india today. is any of the magazine like sportsweek or something like that online? – let me know.

  4. English qualms when one considers that they continued to cheerfully play against apartheid South Africa until 1970 or so

    Umair, they never played formal test matches. they used to play unoffically and more importantly, in the county cricket, and also at kerry packer’s series.

    at one time, barry richards and roy fredericks used to open Hampshire county.

    ps: one thing that binds south asia together is cricket – it took sepia mutiny a year to figure that. any way, good start.

  6. Correction, Correction, Correction……..

    Umair is right. I slightly misread his post about South Africa and therefore, the above reply.

    I just got distracted by the bouncer that hit me

  7. ps: one thing that binds south asia together is cricket – it took sepia mutiny a year to figure that. any way, good start.

    hey! i’ve posted about cricket before! 😉

    honestly, i think all of us have at some point…while doing research for this article (i wanted to make sure i hadn’t hallucinated the seinfeld ref) i ran across this quote:

    For many people in the U.S., quite possibly their only experience with cricket is an American Express ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld.

    yeah. pretty much. i wrote this post b/c i was scanning “latest headlines” in firefox and it caught my attention. i thought the people up at this hour would be cricket fans, so…i got whimsical. 🙂

    it’s not like i’m against learning about it, you know. i have chased a boy who teased me to the point of no more fun around an apartment while wielding a kookaburra bat (all the while resisting the urge to scream, “cap-tain…cavemaaaaan!”). so i’m obviously open to the sport. 😀

    p.s. if you think there’s a blogger out there who does cricket well, let us know.

  8. Ahh, Anna, saw your earlier post on (my idol) Sachin…wasn’t aware of sepia at the time…

    Yeah, cricket’s image in America is stuck in a time warp; most seem to think it’s still a genteel game (if it ever was) played without much athletic exertion…my non-cricket-crazy friends are often surprised to hear about how demanding it is…

  9. i thought the people up at this hour would be cricket fans, so…i got whimsical. 🙂

    i was watching blade runner for the 10x th time and on west coast, it is not that late.

    if i find a real cricket blogger, i will let you know.

    cricket in south asia = basketball + football + baseball + cheerleading all combined and some more

    rick dekard

  13. the british left india tea, railways and cricket. but the thing which ties the Indian subcontinent together isnt cricket/bollywood/religion/language or food. its the monsoons (i picked this up from Alexander Frater’s – Chasing the Monsoon)

  14. monsoons (i picked this up from Alexander Frater’s – Chasing the Monsoon)

    Sure, monsoon is very exhilarating. I haven’t experienced monsoons in close to 20 years and I am thinking of making one of my yearly India trips (next year one) during the monsoons.

    However, I just cannot even explain the grip cricket has on South Asia – it is used for diplomacy betwen India and Pakistin (like table tennis was used for Great Wall diplomacy), and everything else.

    I think the unifying power of cricket is most amazing – that is only place you see an Indian panwallah in small village in North India (or South) telling you the fine, intricate points of Imran Khan’s (Pakistan) bowling technique or Vivian Richard’s (West Indies) batting technique in most admiring terms. You walk in any corner in South Asia, kids are playing cricket and laughing – for a moment caste, religion, wealth, and everything else does not even matter.

    It is something like soccer in South America.

  15. A gora dude I knew, who was kinda riled by the Indian infatuation with Cricket once told me, “A football game would on average take, say 4-5 hours and one side wins and the other loses. In cricket, they play for 5 days and they still can’t seem to figure out who won”. 🙂

  18. Well ok, credit to the team – I just wish the scorecard could look like this against a REAL team like the Aussies or the English! Nice to see that Ganguly is getting his groove back – he should focus on team politics less and just play the game.

  19. India beats England and almost beat Australia no? but yeah I thought Zimbabwe is like beating a minor league team

  21. I’d like to see how they match up to this new English squad. The Indian team has also changed since the last Aussie series.

  22. cricket in south asia = basketball + football + baseball + cheerleading all combined and some more

    Couldn’t argue with this but a wicked idea then emerges Cricket + cheerleading = Wow !!!

  23. I’m glad England are a good team, it’ll make cricket that much more interesting. I felt the england team’s lack of success prevented more exposure for cricket

    overall i think its good for the game

  24. Cricket + cheerleading = Wow !!!

    I am up for it. Didn’t Kerry Packer started something like that in Australia during the drink breaks and it still contunues.

  25. For many people in the U.S., quite possibly their only experience with cricket is an American Express ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld.

    Man but no all especially believe it or not in Compton

    Cricket + cheerleading = Wow !!!

    Cricket and WOMAN ! ARE YOU MAD !

  26. Couldnt resist posting…. Personally,this Indian win was a farce and I find the Indian cricket scene depressing to say the least…..a nation of a billion people obsesses about just one sport and still barely struggle to make to the power-rankers in that game…….a prime-example of the ‘loser-mentality’of Indian culture if there was one…..

    The recent Ashes series on the other hand must count as one of the best sporting drama ever….too bad we couldnt get live coverage here….anyone know if the DVD is out yet??

  27. As of a few years ago, the appallingly sexist cheerleader routine has also arrived in India: most one-day internationals played in India feature cheerleaders at drinks breaks; I’ve never seen these in other cricket-playing countries (though someone told me Sri Lanka also has them)…

  28. The bigger picture that seems to have been missed in the above post is the ongoing tussle between Indian captain Ganguly and the coach Chappel. cricinfo.com has a nice article right now on its homepage.

  31. if you can get a guest blogger who is a cricket fan, i am telling you guys your audience/ readership will increase 10x overnight

    Pick me! Pick me!

    I feel like pinching the virtual cheeks of Sepia Mutiny. “Aw how cute, little SM is talking about cwicket! Aw sho shweet!”

  32. South Africa is the only African team that rocks! Why, cos…we dont like cricket…we LOVE it! The last World Cup was held in SA. Insanely alot of South AFricans support the Indian team. Everyone hates Australia!!!!

  33. pretty sad that it took for India to beat the lowly Zimbabwe to make the headlines…thats how low team india has sunk

  34. India thrashed zim when ganguly was the captain, lets see if dravid can repeat the performance versus pakistan now!