What is the first thing that comes in your mind when you think of cricket highlights? Fast bowling wickets compilation? Catches Win Matches? Stylish Cover drives?
How about classic commentary highlights? Well, today we will discuss exactly that!
Last week, we created a Fantasy team of Commentators XI. Harsha Bhogle was our team captain, Gaurav Kapur the opener, and the dynamic duo of Simon Doull and Pommie Mbangwa as the fast bowlers.
So naturally we asked our Twitter audience to respond with #BestCommentary for:
Best #IPL2020 Commentary Highlights
Most Favorite Iconic Cricket Commentary Memory
Commentators come in all shapes and sizes—a few serious, others insightful, and some extremely hilarious.
Who is your favorite commentator? Bill Lawry, Michael Holding, Tony Greig, Ian Bishop, Richie Benaud, Ravi Shashtri? COMMENT BELOW AND LET US KNOW!
Anyway, here are their twitter responses! So, sit back, relax, and watch some of the best cricket commentary videos!
There are lots of videos. Like a lot. Watch till the end for all the good ones.
The Tweets – Commentary Highlights
Here are the favorite IPL and cricketing memories from the fans in their own words. We have categorized the commentary in categories—The Jaw Drop, The Heartbreak, and The Critical, and then, some more.
The Jaw Drop feat Ravi Shastri
Here are some of the jaw dropping moments in recent cricketing history captured by iconic commentators.
My Fav. #BestCommentary will be Ravi Shastri commentating on Yuvraj Singh Six sixes in an over to Stuart Broad in first T20 World Cup. And best #IPLT20 will be First time I saw sunny sir doing Hindi Commentary that was really an awesome moment for me
Yes Really It was very nice especially I was watching this match Live… So still remember those exciting sixes and commentary by Ravi Shastri.
What a great day for cricket. One just imagines what would have happened had Flintoff kept his cool to Yuvi that day?
IPL comms just wash over me a bit. Sunny Gavaskar is the master of the box as much as he was at the crease, especially when he’s annoyed. KP’s ‘Pingo Pongo’ moments are fun. Best ever is Fazeer Mohammed “Why did he do that?!” to Gabriel’s brainfade against Yasir #BestCommentary
Try #RCBvSRH on 21 September as I checked and mentioned it that day. Also you’ve got to have Richie Benaud from Botham Headingley 1981 – “It went in to the confectionery stall and out again…”
For me, #BestCommentary All-Time – by Ravi Shastri Sir on India WC 2011 wining moment (Dhoni’s 6) ~ ” Dhoni finishes off in style..A magnificent strike into the crowd…India wins after 28 years…& it’s the Indian capt who’s been absolutely magnificent in the night of the final
Ian Bishop recently celebrated his 53rd birthday at the IPL. With Harsha Bhogle, Mark Nicholas, and JP Duminy, the banter among the group was hilarious!
He has had so many iconic moments in recent times, that he deserves a category by himself.
My fav in #IPL2020 Bish, Danny M, Mark Nicholas, Sanga . All time Nasser H. Favorite moment :normally love all the 3rd man and Masterclass segments(Nasser and Murali) in sky sports. But generally I think it’s Bishop calling brathwaite and Ravi S in natwest series #bestcommentary
Mine from ipl is AB v steyn(SRH one) 2014.. Simon doull & ramiz raja in comm… All time fav.. Bit biased, will select two: 1) Ravi shastri calling Dhoni’s six, wc 2011 final 2) Bish in manchester 2019 wc “Surely the hopes have been ignited enough for them to be extinguished!”
“Can he? Can he really?” “The dream has diminished for CB, here in manchesterrr..”
Watching late at night.. Was preparing for the exams..but couldn’t take my eyes off.. Even after the fall of 7th wkt.. For some reason didn’t switch it off… Treated with a phenomenal & memorable game.. The heart sank but was a special knock from brathwaitte..
"Grant Elliot: Superman!"#OnThisDay in 2015 New Zealand beat South Africa in the @CricketWorldCup semi-final, one of the most exciting ODIs of all time.
#BestCommentary for me is certainly by Ian Smith from CWC 2019 Final written below:-
“This is the moment – it’s Archer to Guptill. Two to win. Guptill’s got to push for two, they’ve gotta go! The throw’s gotta go to the keeper’s end. He’s got it! England have won the World Cup – by the barest of margins. By the barest of all margins.”#BestCommentary Chilling!
Not all commentary is hilarious or heartbreaking. Some commentary moments deal with serious cricketing issues.
Vandit – West Indies T20 League Exodus
2011 Pakistan Vs West Indies ODI.The highlight was Michael Holding exclaiming, “I was told he played in the IPL this morning. I almost fell over. A feather duster could have knocked me over”
2. Here is another serious commentary by Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain on Muhammad Amir’s comeback following the Spot Fixing ban. Do watch the full interview here.
#BestCommentary Harsha Bhogle: “Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seat belts. We are ready for the take-off.” This was when AB started his innings with a bang in one IPL match.
Did not find the exact Harsha video but here is Harsha Bhogle at his very best.
2. Tony Greig – Sharjah Sachin Tendulkar
3. YouTube – Best Commentary
4. Richie Benaud – BBC Tribute
Here is the BBC Tribute to Richie Benaud’s marvelous career, both as a player and a commentator. Here are some of his other Benaud’s other best moments.
5. My Personal Favorite – That. Is. Very. Good.
Any other videos or memories? Comment below and send us your favorite commentary highlights!
What did you think of the videos, the tweets, and the article? Please let us know by commenting below. Subscribe to our blog for more such articles and follow us on twitter/facebook!
In IPL Week 3, there wasMankading drama, catching brilliance, finally some direct hits, and the brilliance of….none other than AB De Villiers. Oh yeah, and King Kohli is also back.
We recap IPL Week 3 via our Twitter dairy with #BCDoftheDay: Broken Cricket Dream of the Day.
We continue our IPL Diary with #BCDoftheDay – Part II – The Halfway Mark. We have several videos linked in the tweet, so you can watch the replay if you missed out.
STAY TILL THE LAST TWEET AND WAIT TILL YOU GET TO DAY 24. WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER TO THE QUESTION?
Comment below your answer as well as your favorite moments of last week. Let us know what you think!
Enjoy the headlines!
Highlights – Week 3
Day 15 – IPL is where you get entertainment, drama, dancing,…,and even comedy!
Broken Cricket Dream of the Day: Day 15
Game 1: #RRvRCB Runout chance misses for Archer and Tewatia.
— Broken Cricket Dreams Cricket Blog (@cricket_broken) October 3, 2020
Day 16 – Dropped Catches and Redemptions feat Manish Pandey
Broken Cricket Dream of the Day: Day 16 #BCDoftheDay: Game 1: #MIvSRH The fielding – 3 dropped catches, even by Manish Pandey.#RedemptionoftheDay: Manish Pandey, Rahul Chahar, and Ishan Kishan taking screamers.
— Broken Cricket Dreams Cricket Blog (@cricket_broken) October 7, 2020
Day 18 – Pollard’s new look trumps Buttler’s brilliance
Broken Cricket Dream of the Day: Day 18#BCDoftheDay: #MIvsRR Jos Buttler – Was brilliant before Kieron Pollard took one heck of a catch. Unlucky Jos there.
CSK has now played 7 games and are ranked 7th with 2 wins and 5 losses in IPL 2020.
A team that has emerged victorious thrice and always qualified for the semi-finals or playoffs are second from the bottom at the half-way mark. Their impeccable record displayed below is in danger.
From the golden days from 2008-2015 to the Dad’s Old Army comeback win in 2018, CSK have managed to find a way. After the pandemic and subsequent international retirements of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, something just does not feel right this time around.
Apart for Faf du Plessis’s acrobatics and consistency at the top of the order and the revelation in Sam Curran, nothing is going right for the Chennai Super Kings. Even Ravindra Jadeja is dropping catches and missing direct hits.
Let us find out why.
After the 7th game, here are 7 Reasons Why CSK Are Struggling.
Chennai went into the IPL 2020 auction with the MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk) in mind. The pitches at this ground are known to be slow and turning.
At the 2020 IPL auction, CSK acquired Piyush Chawla (leg spinner) and R Sai Kishore (left arm orthodox) to bolster their already strong squad of spinners:
Imran Tahir, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Karn Sharma, Harbhajan Singh along with Kedar Jadhav and Suresh Raina
Although Sam Curran and Josh Hazlewood were strong buys, CSK are currently lacking middle order stability and varied fast bowling options on these UAE pitches.
Some of the players they released? Mohit Sharma, Scott Kuggeleijn, David Willey and Sam Billings.
2. Harbhajan and Raina
Before the tournament started, concerns of the bio-secure bubble in CSK’s camp jolted their preparation.
Although 13 players tested positive and later recovered, the casualties were Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh. Both opted out of IPL 2020 for personal reasons.
What are we missing here? Let the stats tell you the story:
Raina: 193 matches, 5368 runs, best of 100*, 1-100/38-50s, and the arguably best IPL inning of all time.
Harbhajan: 160 matches, 150 wickets (5th highest), 7.05 economy, best of 5/18
Suresh Raina has been the best batsman in the IPL and an icon for CSK. CSK are missing a left-right combination at the top, a part-time spinner, and a wonderful fielder.
Ambati Rayudu had led CSK to victory in the opening game with an unbeaten 71. A hamstring injury ruled him for the next couple of games, which further exposed CSK’s brittle middle order.
Add to that Dwayne Bravo’s knee injury that kept him out of the first five games, CSK really did not have much of a squad to play with.
Without four of their key players for the majority of the first 5 games, it is not difficult to see why CSK are in the current position.
4. Lack of Gametime
In March, the world stopped and so did cricket.
Courtesy England, cricket restarted in the middle of the summer. England, West Indies (international and CPL), Pakistan, Ireland, and Australia had all played some cricket.
Rajasthan Royals have Jos Buttler, Steven Smith, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran, and now Ben Stokes – all having played intense international cricket for the past few months.
CSK is just another story. Sam Curran and Josh Hazlewood (common theme, isn’t it?) are the only two players with decent domestic and international cricket behind them.
Most of the other players have retired from international cricket or domestic cricket. Players like Watson only play IPL and PSL in the entire year.
Dhoni has not played since that run-out. Yes, that one. You know exactly what I am talking about.
Dhoni’s previous game before the IPL? 9 July 2019
Ambati Rayudu? 17 November 2019
Murali Vijay, just a tad better. 9 December 2019
Kedar Jadhav – played 2 ODI’s in February 2020 with returns of 26*(15) and a patchy 9 (27) against New Zealand. Before that 25 December 2019.
That was 4 of CSK’s top 6 at one point. Just digest that for a second.
The other one in top 6 being Shane Watson, who except for one innings, has looked out of sorts.
5. Bravo
509 T20 wickets and 6331 runs. What a player.
Dwayne Bravo’s designated role is to be the death overs bowler and lower order finisher for CSK.
He was one of the players expected to be in rhythm with some game time under his belt from the CPL. What actually happened?
He sustained a knee injury in the later stages of the CPL with TKR’s unbeaten run to the top. He was in the team in the final but did not bat or ball.
Hence he missed the first few games for CSK. So apart from having a struggling top 6, CSK were also missing the services of talisman Dwayne Bravo at No. 7.
Botched chases have been common for CSK this year. Taking the game deep is no longer an option. Here is CSK’s score at the halfway stage (10 over mark) in each of their games:
70/2 chasing 163 vs. Mumbai Indians (Won)
82/4 chasing 217 vs. Rajasthan Royals (Lost)
47/3 chasing 176 vs. Delhi Capitals (Lost)
44/4 chasing 165 vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad (Lost)
101/0 chasing 179 vs. Kings XI Punjab (Won)
90/1 chasing 168 vs. Kolkata Knight Riders (Lost)
47/2 chasing 170 vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore (Lost)
Two phrases that have come up in every post-match analysis thus far?
Lack of urgency and lack of intent. On air, Kevin Pietersen was extremely critical of Ambati Rayudu’s absence of intensityand energy in running between the wickets in his innings of 42 (40) against RCB.
In each game lost, there has been similar innings’ from the middle order.
Dhoni 9(12) (before hitting 3 sixes to get to 29 (17) and the team to 200 vs RR)
Vijay’s 10 (15) and Watson’s 14 (16) vs DC
Dhoni and Jadeja pushing the required rate up. Needed 78 off 24 before accelerating vs. SRH
Kedar Jadhav’s 7 (12) vs. KKR
Rayudu’s 40 (42) vs. RCB
The lack of game time is causing each batsman to bide their time, which is hurting the team’s overall performance. Maybe Sam Curran and Ravindra Jadeja should be pushed up the order in the next few games.
You can play for the Net Run Rate as much as you want….but you need the points on the Points Table in the first place for all that to even matter.
Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni are known to back people even when they are struggling. The most famous example is the team management persisting with Shane Watson. Watson repaid the faith in 2018 qualifiers/finals and almost took them home in 2019 as well.
Even this year Shane Watson came back with an unbeaten 83*(53) after struggling initially.
The downside of backing match-winners? Players of the quality of Imran Tahir, Lungi Ngidi, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Santner are warming the bench and young Indian talent like Jagadeesan not getting many chances.
And of course, the older the squad, the lower the fielding standards.
Where Can CSK Go From Here?
Is there still hope? Yes. CSK fan’s are recalling the 2010 campaign, when they came back from a similar position to win their maiden IPL trophy.
The Chennai Super Kings can still win, but they need to up their intensity, correct their batting order, put faith in youngsters, utilize the mid-season transfer window wisely, and some magic.
My take? Every great team has its ebbs and flows. Even a once-in-a-generation Spain football (soccer) team of the 2010 FIFA World Cup glory had to bow out in the group stages after an unbeaten run.
Every good thing comes to an end.
Some people are calling Shane Watson to retire. Others have been calling for Dhoni’s. I think it is time that the entire CSK team just retire.
Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni have led CSK to greatness consistently for over a decade. It is time the Chennai Super Kings start afresh again.
2020 has been a grim year. CSK not qualifying for the playoffs will just set that in stone.
Broken Cricket Dreams of the Day will be a diary of IPL 2020.
Every day, we tweet #BCDoftheDay or #BrokenCricketDreamoftheDay and capture some of the most unfortunate events of the day.
We have already had some interesting ones – David Warner run-out as a non-striker, Hardik Pandya’s hit wicket, Ishan Kishan’s and Mayank Agarwal’s broken dreams to name a few.
Highlight
In any case, the IPL is finally back! We have so much drama already.
A couple of Super Overs, Rahul Tewatia’s magic, Pooran’s effort,CSK’s downfall (too soon?), and my favorite of all – the youngsters on the show.
Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Shubman Gill, Mavi and Nagarkoti repaying KKR’s faith, and today Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma with SRH. Several like Yashashvi Jaiswal and Tom Banton yet to fire, but we will definitely be watching.
For every match of the IPL, we start with leading question or highlight of the day.
What was YOUR highlight of the day or do you have a response to the question?
COMMENT BELOW On YOUR THOUGHTS AND BROKEN DREAMS from IPL 2020 so far!
Well anyway, here is my take on the first two weeks of the IPL through tweets!
Broken Cricket Dreams of the Day – IPL Edition Week 1
Day 1 – The IPL is back!!! The fitness is not (except for Faf, of course)
Every match of #IPL2020 we will do this hashtag for a broken dream during the match It could be one moment like a dropped catch or a missed hattrick or a general theme like today's fielding.
— Broken Cricket Dreams Cricket Blog (@cricket_broken) September 19, 2020
Day 2 – Super Over Loss for KXIP. Can Punjab bounce back?
Broken Cricket Dream of the Day: Day 2#BCDoftheDay: Mayank Agarwal and Mohammad Shami. Great innings by Agarwal, single-handedly got KXIP through and what an opening spell for Shami.
Broken Cricket Dream of the Day: Day 14 CSK's Dad Army vs SRH's young guns.#BCDoftheDay: #CSK and #CSKFans. For years, day in and day out, CSK has comeback and won.
Now that every team has played at least one game, we are releasing the #IPLPredictions by our Twitter followers.
We asked our viewers to respond to who they think will be IPL 2020’s:
#Champions
#OrangeCap
#PurpleCap
#FairPlay
#EmergingPlayer
#SurprisePackage
Forgot to send in your responses? Do not worry!
COMMENT Below with these # and we will post it on this page as well. We also have an ongoing poll throughout the IPL which IPL team will win.
*VOTE in the poll below the article (if mobile) or on the side bar (desktop).
It has only been 5 days, but boy, were we missing this. Three close games to start #IPL2020, a controversial run/not-run, and Dhoni at #7 and DK at the top debate once again. At the end of the one game, KXIP, KKR, and SRH are yet to trouble the points table, while MI have finally won their first game at the UAE.
Anyway, without further ado, here are the twitter predictions. We will see who was the closest at the end of the IPL!
In that final conversation, there were mentions of the Deccan Chargers and Gujarat Lions as well. Kochi Tuskers Kerela anybody?
What Can We Learn?
It seems that DC and SRH are popular predictions for the winner. KL Rahul is the #OrangeCap favorite, while legspinners like Rashid Khan seems to be the popular #PurpleCap choice. Finally, Abdul Samad, Devdutt Padikkal (as he rightly showed on debut), and YashasviJaiswal are the youngsters to watch out.
My favorite was the #SurprisePackage. Daniel Sams, Isuru Udana, and Moeen are among the picks for this category. Will any of them even get a game?
For me personally, in the KXIP vs DC game, my orange cap Mayank Agarwal was hitting my surprise package candidate Anrich Nortje, while Ravi Bishnoi had a decent game himself.
Who do you think will be the winner, orange cap and purple cap winners? Comment below, subscribe to this blog, and share ahead!
MI All-Time XI—we are finally to the end of the road.
They have won 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019 so definitely odd champions so far. Post 2010, Mumbai Indians have put faith in their stars like Pollard and Malinga while giving space for youngsters like Bumrah, Pandyas, and Ishan Kishan/Suryakumar Yadav.
This balance has reaped them rewards. Their consistency will probably make this All-Time XI a little predictable, but let us wait and watch.
ALSO VOTE BELOW WITH YOUR MI ALL-TIME XI!
The Catch
One of the biggest headaches for MI has been Rohit Sharma’s position. Opener or #4?
Both Rohit and Sachin saw several opening partners from Jayasuriya to Lendl Simmons even to Ricky Ponting briefly and now, Quinton De Kock. Do any of these make your list?
How low do you bat Pollard? Remind you of 2010?
The battle of the Mitches – Mitchell Johnson vs Mitch McClenaghan.
