rahul sanghvi

Rahul Sanghvi

Left arm spinners are always a special breed of bowlers in Cricket; one may call them Ivory Bowlers for a lot of reasons: they are different from traditional right-handed bowlers and more so because they are so rare! Right from the days of Bishen Bedi, later Maninder Singh, the left arm brigade has been a rare sight. One such Ivory Bowler who has stepped into the shoes of this rare Class of bowlers is Rahul Laxman Sanghvi.

Having been born in Surat, Gujarat, Rahul Sanghvi played most of his Ranji cricket for Delhi ever since his debut in the 1994-95 season; actually he made his ranji debut for railways, but moved over to play for the Delhi team in the next season.


His bowling action is so uncomplicated, just a walk of 5-6 steps around the wicket, (bowling around the wicket is something one associates with left armers) and his bowling has that loop and flight. One may say he looks a lazy bowler. Sanghvi is a bowler in the traditional mould, he would fearlessly put every ball in that right length, ever always willing to beat and fox the batsmen into mistakes. His way of taking wickets is simple – earn your wicket, stick to the basics.

Rahul’s strength is his line and length; he maintains an impeccable line just outside the offstump of the batsman, with that flighted delivery, he makes sure the batsmen always comes forward and goes for the drive.

Joy is never shortlived, but it comes in a short span of time in every person’s life! More relevant in any One Day game where things happen very fast. Sanghvi had his most joyous moment in First Class Cricket on November 8, 1997, in the Ranji ODI season; it was Delhi versus Himachal Pradesh at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, Una, India.

After being bowled out for 173, Delhi looked upon its bowlers to make a match to do something special. And Sanghvi did not let his captain Ajay Sharma down at all. In fact he had decided that Delhi was going to win that game by all means. After some peppering bowling by the seamers, Sharma and Sanghvi came in as first and second change bowlers. While the others nagged away trying endlessly for wickets, Sanghvi found his perfect rhythm and cast a magical spell of 9.5-2-15-8!

Sanghvi’s harvest of wickets has always been consistent; 87 matches bore him 256 wickets, with 12 five wicket hauls and ten wickets for the match twice.

By far, he has been amongst the best spinners in the domestic circuit with wickets in almost every match. The best bowling of his career has been the 7-42 he got against Services (everybody has something special against that team, it seems!) in mid December 1995.

Sanghvi is more than an useful batsman in the lower half of the batting order and sticks to his task of frustrating the opposition bowlers and picking up the valuable runs. He has a fifty in first class records, when he got it for Indian Board Presidents XI against the visiting West Indies A team.

Sanghvi has played for the National team in 10 ODIs and a lone test match. His performance for India wasn’t all that bad at all. His ODI debut came in 1997-98, while his lone test match came in the 2001 season.

Always handy for the team with the bat and more than a handful with the ball makes Sanghvi a star from Delhi to watch out in the near future. This season’s Ranji holds much more promise to come from this cheeky lad from Gujarat.

With age on his hand (he just crossed 30!), Sanghvi is here to mesmerize us all with lots more cricket to come!

hamish marshall

Hamish Marshall – the Glittering Glider


The cricket world has always welcomed the entry of an enterprising cricketer with open arms and gleeful smiles all around the environment. It is that very eruption of happiness on the faces of many that gladdens and encourages the newcomer to escalate himself on top of the ladder pronto. One such exciting prospect on the cricketing stage is Hamish John Hamilton Marshall.

Hamish Marshall’s career has not been long enough to really gauge him but he has shown exceptional talent and skill in his brief stints – his debut came in the 2000 New Zealand tour of South Africa at Johannesburg in December 2000. He came in at No.7, and had a nice knock of 40. But somehow that battling knock in rain hit conditions wasn’t good enough for the selectors to retain him. He had to wait a long 3 years in the sidelines before he was finally named to play for the ODI series in Pakistan. In his ODI debut itself, he played well for 55, and followed it with a century in his third ODI itself – cracking 101* against Pakistan in the third ODI at Faisalabad. Even that wasn’t enough to save his team win the match, but his name had been locked into the middle order. His good run of form continued when he got a 62 in the 5th ODI.

After that his ODI form has been rather steady with runs now and then, and his good consistent performances have been pretty impressive. In 35 ODIs he has 1031 runs with a century and 10 fifties.

His second test match came after 3 years when he took the field in the 2nd Test versus Bangladesh in 2004-05 at Chittagong. He made a solid 69. he was retained for the Trans Tasman Trophy. His handling of the Australian bowlers was tremendous for someone so new to world cricket and that too against the Mighty Aussies – really commendable. He pulverized the best bowling attack in the world and his first ever Test Century came in his 3rd test in the form of a magnificent 146 (from the Number Three position) in the First Test at Christchurch.

Marshall’s record is interesting – he made his first century in ODIs and Tests in his Third match. Hmmm, I wonder how many people have done something like that! Then again a fine 76 in the Third Test made him a super batsman for the series laden with Aussie victories all over the park. He showed tremendous temperament to stay in there and make valuable runs for his team when all the senior players themselves were struggling.

Now he has once again proved his mettle with a classy (though it was rather slow) century against the Sri Lankans on their Run of Completion of an unfinished test series.

Hamish Marshall displays an exhibition of free flowing strokes with the exuberance of youth mixed with the flair of a student set to scorch the scorers with huge scores. He has the strokes all around the park, and has the patience to put a Run-tag over his bat everytime he has walked in to bat before he ultimately exits. He is rather stylish and yet has the copybook shots.


Along with his twin brother James Marshall, the look-a-like twins really catch the eyes for their distinct resemblance to each other. That is quite a sight for the commentators and scorers when the two bat together!


Again the chances of Hamish Marshall shine everlasting in this team are even-handed, somewhat totally in his own hands rather than anyone else’s. If he carries on in the current fashion and maintains and works on his scoring rates, he may very well be the perfect answer to New Zealand in search of a solid batsman in the middle order in the wake of the seniors in the evening of their careers.

grreat games of cricket

From Loyal Noughts to Royal Knights overnight…

Yesterday’s NOBODY becomes today’s SOMEBODY and EVERYBODY wants to be this SOMEBODY for ANYBODY to see.

The most recent NOBODY converting his religion to SOMEBODY that EVERYBODY knows, was Ian Bradshaw… a total stranger to many, now a household name…

For ODI cricket this conversion factor from an unknown to a Known-to-all is not new! This has been happening right over these fine years..

Cricketfundas would like to relive for the benefit of the readers, the stories of these guys on their super day out. When cricket reached its finest moments, the heights of its glory:

The Viv Richards Story: World Cups 1975, 1979 and thereafter

Purely in the side for his fielding… that was something really amazing in those days, talking about a quarter of a century ago. Sir Vivian Isaac Alexander Richards… that is a name associated with batting, and plundering runs at will. But when he first came into a WI side known better for the quick mean bowlers spitting fire, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts… he wasn’t such a great batsman.. He did not impress anyone really. People wondered why at all pick this ragamuffin with a beard! But fate has other ideas for people.. His fielding was outstanding in the World Cup of 1975 and 1979.. TWO Run OUTS was all it took for him to arrive in international cricket. Later on, he let his batting do all the talking… and his bat sure has the gift of the gab.. His sheer arrogance, no mercy for the bowlers.. All hallmark of this commanding Chevalier.

The story of that last ball sixer: Javed Miandad

Well, one ball to go, six runs for a win; that leaves almost all of us stumped with questions of our abilities to heave that one ball over the fielders caps and hands.. And safely outside the boundary ropes.. Hearts will thump at that moment, race the 100 meters dash looking for answers about what stroke to play, how to play that, and create all sorts of doubts about oneself.. Not one Guy: Mr. Cool Headed Guy who answers very arrogantly to the name of Javed Miandad. And way back in the 1986 Australasia Cup when Pakistan needed a Four off one single delivery, he pummeled that bowler Chetan Sharma, (who incidentally features in this series) for all the nightmares in a packed Sharjah Stadium… that stroke defied all odds of a win with a sixer.. That was the rarest occasions, that in the hour of need that a player had done it. That launched him into the world of ODI Cricket.. Opening a new chapter of playing the slog overs, not caring for the name on the bowler’s shirt, not caring for what reputation they hold until hurling that one final ball! His exploits in the World Cups are only too well known.. In a league game against England in the 1987 World Cup is only part of folklore.. When he openly challenged the Umpire’s decision. And finally, he had the tenacity to imitate a jumping Kiran More in the 1992 Indo Pakis clash in the World Cup. He is the picture of fearlessness in the extreme right frame!

The Great Indian Hat Trick

Well, folks, we have heard of the Great Rope Trick, done by the fakirs of India. Whether that is a reality, I do not know, but there was one Indian Hat trick way back in the glorious 1987 Reliance World Cup. This did not involve a Hat nor did a fakir do it. A bearded Chetan Sharma created magic against three batsmen who decided: they came, they saw, and they were conquered by three magic balls hurled by Chetan Sharma. In the space of three balls, such a miniscule time period of say, 5 minutes, he had grabbed and gripped the minds of many of us, right from toddlers to the elderly grandpas and grandmas… all raising their voices like the glee of a hungry goat which just found the finest blade of grass to munch! Indian Cricket came alive.. A new star is here with a small talisman that reads “first Hat trick by an Indian” on one side, and “first World Cup hat trick” on the flip side. Chetan did an Indian Vini, vici and vidi??? (Julius Caesar said that phrase after capturing Gaul, and it means, “I came, I saw, and I conquered”!)

A new ball bowler: Aqib Javed

Pakistan has the uncanny knack of launching their super fast bowlers even in big matches. An India Pakistan match is the ideal situation for a new hero to launch himself. That is the passion, the glory, and one’s finest moment to bask in the sunlight, the limelight.
Aqib Javed was no player one will think of at any point of time as a legend, a show stopper… but that one dayer at Sharjah turned the spotlight.. The lights, camera and Go-get-‘em kind of approach.. With as many as seven wickets for a mere 37 runs, this 19-year-old guy from the gallis of Pakistan struck it rich. Well, that’s not quite the whole picture: that had a hat trick of the Big THREE of Indian Cricket… 3 cricketers who are pure Legends: Ravi Shastri, Mohamed Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar. (All three lbw, which is also a first of its kind for hat tricks!) From a total nobody, he became a FrontPage newspaper item. That is why this game gets all the glory. That is why this game is so queer, so unique.. So unpredictable.. An underdog has its day and say time and again!

Jonty Rhodes, the Flying Machine

Just talking about this great fielder leaves me awestruck… He is the games greatest fielder ever. And with his heroics first up in the World Cup game versus Pakistan 1992 world cup, he announced his name to all the newspapers all across the world. His photos were best sellers and still are… just purely played for his amazing, gravity defying, acrobatic fielding.. One would love to travel the entire world to see his catches, or just his stops at backward point…. Later he settled in as a middle order batsman. But that first time as SuperMan was truly spectacular… as he threw himself onto the stumps to race a not-so-fat Inzamam (1992). Truly memorable moment in anyone’s life to see that one scene any number of times!


Boundaries in the dark – 1: Hrishikesh Kanitkar

Well mates, time for a bedtime story… well not really, but that was so dark on that day in January 1998, the little ones could have been tucked away in bed..
Well it was India versus Pakistan for a summit clash at the Bangladesh 25th Independence year celebrations.. A tri Series involving these archrivals and hosts Bangladesh. Pakistan had put up a steadfast 312, and India needed to chase that for a world record and the title. The start was brisk (an understatement, as Sachin tore open every bowler for a 40 off 25 balls!) the score steadied and due to slow over rate by Pakis (boasting of many medium pacers!) the match continued into the shadows of the evening. As the light faded more and more, it finally dawned on everyone that floodlights were not available. On a football stadium converted into a cricket stadium, lights were just a few bulbs, looking like streetlights! The match continued though, and it was very exciting. In the end, finally, it was time for a boundary for a win… and Kanitkar, a total newcomer had to face the wily off spin of Saqlain Mushtaq.

And when that white little orb spun from the hand of Saqlain Mushtaq into the dark shadows, a bat swung hard and met the ball in the meat. The sweetest sound for any batsman, and it sounded melodies for the Indian team! The world record for the highest by a team (at that time) chasing successfully!


Boundaries in the dark – 2: Ian Bradshaw

In the same vein, Ian Bradshaw… a Loyal Nobody far less known for any prowess to wield the bat. He would rather wield a shield to protect himself from the meteors in the dark flung at him at astronomical speeds! But he flung himself to face the fire; the bat became a sword; the criss-cross and the cling-clangs! Finally a Knight to face the fire of the Dragons! Cometh forward, thy Hero… and saveth the team! And that he did, like the man on the flying trapeze, he came through the ring of fire… out as a Hero, unconquered! To show that the fire in his belly is more than the fire outside…

In all that darkness, the fire in him was the light to guide him to hit that one final Square Drive… that saved WI Cricket from crumbling like a stuffed crust pizza!


We wish to see more of these great moments… and Cricketfundas will be the first to present these to you… the great fans of cricket.