Last Ball Six

It's hard to be a casual cricket fan, there are so many things you don't know when you don't watch cricket regularly. I watched a grand total of half a cricket match in the last one year (the Indian Chase in the ICC Cricket World Cup for Women) before watching the last three overs of today's final. The last ball six revived my interest in the game and here are some of the most important things I've learnt about today's cricket in the last few hours since the final:

Washington and Sundar are one and the same person.

Suresh Raina has not retired and still plays occasionally for India.

'DK' is the superhuman alter ego of mild mannered Indian wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik and when he's in full flow he can hit sixes about as easily as Vijay Shankar can miss them.

Vijay Shankar is not a relative of Indian sitar stalwart Ravi Shankar even though I almost felt he was using a sitar to bat after missing the number of balls he did. Vijay Shankar's unheroic misses reminded me of Yuvraj Singh's floundering act in the 2014 T20 final. I am happy to announce that if the boy keeps up this level of incompetence he will surely be inducted into my most painful performances in cricket hall of fame.

Danielle Wyatt who proposed to Virat Kohli is not a Hollywood actress but an English cricketer. I know Danielle has nothing to do with this match but there's no harm in mentioning a beautiful young lady on my blog (I am sure the gentlemen reading my blog will understand).

Bangladeshi bowlers need a drinks break three balls before the innings is set to finish. Whatever happened to designated drink breaks? Why don't we get masseurs out too so that the bowlers can get a nice massage right before bowling the most important balls of the match?

Soumya Sarkar is brave enough to announce his bowling plans to the entire world. Yes, right before bowling the last ball of the Indian innings Soumya stretched his right hand wide to let everyone know that the next ball would be delivered wide off the off stump. You don't believe me? Check the pic out below! It's a pity that more cricketers in the world are not following Soumya's example to make Indian win more matches.

Soumya's divine gesture

The Nagin Dance is not an Indian classical dance but a send off created by the Bangladeshi team for fallen players. I only wish they danced with more devotion coz only the snake gods could have saved them from losing this one.

The Nagin Dance (Courtesy: Hindustan Times)

Shakib Al Hassan likes to chew on towels whenever he gets nervous. How do I know that? Simple! I saw him almost bite into his towel when he saw two of his fielders collide into each other while taking a catch.

Chewing away the tension (Courtesy: NurPhoto/Getty Images)

The 1980s have well and truly graced cricket once again. We have Vijay Shankar who bats like he's in the 80s, we have DK who hit a last ball six like Miandad in the 80s and above all we have the Nagin Dance which was introduced to us by the 80s hit Nagina.

Well, it's nice to see the boys get crazy during this time of the year because all this craziness will be a great practice for IPL. Here's hoping for more last ball sixes and less of the Nagin Dances.

Until Next Time,

Your Casual Cricket Fan,

J.J. Chaitanya

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