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Oshane Thomas: New kid in the fast lane

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Written by Bharat Sundaresan
|

Published: October 21, 2018 2:00:21 am





Jamaica’s Oshane Thomas has the pace to hurry batsmen. 

ONE AFTERNOON in mid-2016, Oshane Thomas came back from school to play a practice game at the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) ground in Kingston. In the audience were Chris Gayle and a couple of officials from CPL franchise Jamaica Tallawahs’ ownership group. Thomas, then just 18, bowled like he usually did, with a lot of pace and fire, and intimidated and bullied the batsmen into submission. His performance left Gayle so impressed that the West Indian batting superstar immediately recommended that the Tallawahs sign the teenager up for that year’s CPL season.

“I had just come back school, was bowling quick and next thing I know, I’m in the CPL,” Thomas recalls to The Indian Express. He played two matches that season, the preliminary final and the grand final, which Jamaica won to lift their second CPL trophy after the youngster got them going by dismissing veteran Dwayne Smith.

A year later, Thomas was back at a packed Sabina Park, where thousands of Jamaicans had gathered to welcome their beloved Gayle, who was now in a St Kitts & Nevis Patriots jersey.

And the tall, lanky fast bowler would provide the T20 phenomenon a personalized reminder of what had impressed him 12 months ago. Thomas welcomed his benefactor with two quick away-going deliveries before the third ducked back so sharply and so rapidly at nearly 150 kph, that the ball rammed into Gayle’s pads before he could even bring his bat down past his ribs. And the left-hander just stood there shocked at having been vanquished by the same bowler that he’d discovered. Thomas went on to dismiss Carlos Brathwaite and Mohammad Nabi too to be named man-of-the-match.

“It was a great ball but not my best ball. I liked how I set the wicket up. He was very appreciative though and gave a speech later saying I was one for the future,” says Thomas now with a chuckle from Guwahati, where the West Indies play India in the first ODI of the five-match series.

This is Thomas’s first tour with the senior West Indies team, and he’s yet to make his international debut. For now, he’s still getting acclimatized to the surroundings of the biggest stage having endured the “longest flight journey” of his life—“we left on the 13th and finally reached on the 15th but it felt a lot longer” as he puts it.

He’s no stranger to being the centre of attraction when he has a ball in hand or in showing off his pace in front of large crowds. “Jamaica people always love to see fast bowling, especially if someone’s bowling bumpers and hitting batsmen. A crowd used to gather around to watch me bowl, and they would get really excited when they would see me,” Thomas, now 21, reminisces.

The once brimming fast bowling cupboard in the Caribbean has been experiencing a serious drought, especially in the raw pace section, for over a decade now. The likes of Fidel Edwards, Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel have made their presence felt, but only intermittently. So it’s only natural that the emergence of Thomas—who took a wicket off his first ball in first-class cricket—has ignited considerable excitement around the West Indian islands. While he’s consistently hit speeds of over 150 kph, he’s flirted on occasions in the late 150s too, reportedly touching 160 kph in a domestic game.

Cricket-mad family 

Thomas, who grew up in a cricket-mad family playing in the backyard with his brothers, also recalls having watched a lot of footage of Courtney Walsh and Michael Holding—former MCC players themselves—as a kid. And he’s had the fortune of interacted with both his heroes, with Holding having personally sought the youngster out for a chat at the MCC ground.

HOT DEALS

The youngster displayed a lot of maturity and new-found control to go with the genuine speed during this year’s CPL, where he finished with the most wickets for a fast bowler—18 at 17.66—and overall second only to leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed. But despite the hype around his speeds, Thomas wants to focus more on maintaining control and “hitting the stumps”.

“I practice my yorker a lot. Bowling the short-ball is the easiest to do for a fast bowler. But I don’t use my bumper to scare batsmen, I only use it to get batsmen out.”

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Asia Cup 2018: Indian, Afghanistan cricketers console Indian kid after tie

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By: Sports Desk | New Delhi |

Published: September 26, 2018 9:56:45 pm





(Source: Screengrab/Twitter)

The match played between India and Afghanistan on Tuesday, which was a dead-rubber, turned out to be one of the most exciting game of the tournament. The match ended up in a tie as India failed to chase down 253 in the 50 overs. While the Afghanistan cricket team and fans were overwhelmed with the outcome, Indian fans looked a bit unsatisfied from the turn of events.

Right after the match, the cameraperson took a shot of a young Indian fan crying in the stands while the man he was with is trying to console. The moment which has gone viral is being widely shared on different social media platforms.

However, while Afghanistan players were returning to the hotel, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Shahzad stopped to click a selfie with the young fan. The gesture shown by Afghanistan cricketers has been widely appreciated by people belonging to both the nations.

Indian pacer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar also tried to cheer up the young fan as he spoke with him on the phone. Spinner Harbhajan Singh on Tuesday had tweeted out the picture of the boy saying, “Koi na putt Rona Nahi hai final aapa jittange (Don’t cry boy we will win the finals).”

Amarpreet Singh while responding to the spinner’s tweet said, “@harbhajan_singh Paaji he is happy now and looking forward to the final on Friday… Really kind of @BhuviOfficial as well to call and console him… We will surely bounce back and it will be our “Fateh” on Friday ?????? Go Team India @BCCI.”

India, who are undefeated in the tournament, will meet the winners of the Bangladesh vs Pakistan match on Friday.

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New ‘fast’ kid on the block: Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi ready to torment batsmen

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Written by Shamik Chakrabarty
| Dubai |

Published: September 23, 2018 3:43:52 am





Afridi was drafted into the playing XI against Afghanistan on Friday at the expense of Mohammad Amir.

His figures read: 3.4-1-4-5. It was one of the most devastating and economical spells of bowling T20 cricket ever witnessed. Shaheen Afridi of Lahore Qalandars had scythed through the Multan Sultan batting in the second edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Dubai earlier. And as he expectedly became the hero of the match, the teenage fast-bowling sensation thanked Rahul Dravid.

“I’m grateful to him (Dravid) for having spoken to me (during the U-19 World Cup). That was a big boost for a youngster from a senior player, and I would like to specially thank him on this occasion,” Afridi was quoted as saying.

The 18-year-old has seemingly developed an uncanny knack for impact performances. Last year, when he made his first-class debut in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the left-arm pacer returned with 8/39 in the second innings, playing for Khan Research Laboratories against Rawalpindi.

On Friday, Afridi made his ODI debut in the Asia Cup Super Four match against Afghanistan and took 2/38 in 10 overs. It could well have been a five-for. Three catches went down off his bowling.

Little wonder then that former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif was full of praise for the youngster. “He is a very talented bowler, but if they (selectors) were to pick him for the Asia Cup, they should have taken him to Zimbabwe as well. That would have set him up nicely for the Asia Cup. But he is a good bowler and I think he will cope with the pressure of an India game (on Sunday),” Latif told The Sunday Express. “Boys from Landi Kotal are mentally tough. They don’t wilt under pressure easily,” he added.

India are the form team in the Asia Cup and their batting boasts of the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and MS Dhoni. It could be a completely different ball game for Afridi. “He should concentrate on not giving the batsmen any room to free their arms. Afridi moves the ball. He extracts bounce off the deck. Also, he bowls good yorkers from around the wicket at the death,” Latif said.

Afridi was drafted into the playing XI against Afghanistan at the expense of Mohammad Amir. The latter has been going through a lean patch. But Latif is not happy with Amir’s exclusion. “Both should play. Amir is Pakistan’s best option in the death overs.”

The Landi Kotal boy

Landi Kotal is a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It was where he was born and raised. Those who followed his career from the beginning would tell you that he barely had the opportunity of playing on proper turf pitches while growing up. He came from a very humble background. Afridi, however, had an advantage. His brother, Riaz, played for Pakistan in the 2004 U-19 World Cup and then went on to play for the senior team. Although Riaz played just one Test, he did enough to inspire his younger sibling to get attracted to fast bowling.

“Riaz bhai was a Test cricketer, so watching him, I developed this liking for fast bowling. He says always follow the plan your team sets for you. Never let negative thoughts come to your mind. Always remain positive and concentrate on line and length, go after the wickets. He keeps in touch over the telephone even when I am on tour. He is my first coach after all,” Afridi told the International Cricket Council website during the U-19 World Cup earlier this year. Riaz is still Afridi’s personal coach.

For an 18-year-old, Afridi is very tall; six-and-a-half-foot. Bounce automatically becomes his key weapon. At the U-19 World Cup, he took 12 wickets in five matches, with an economy rate of a shade over three runs per over. It was where the youngster impressed Dravid, the India U-19 coach.

Afridi didn’t have a good game though against India in the semifinal, where Shubman Gill outshone everybody with a sublime hundred. But Dravid saw the spark in the Pakistan quick. “Rahul Dravid came to me after the match and said Shaheen has all it takes to be a future star and become a real asset to the national side,” Pakistan U-19 team manager was quoted as saying after the tournament.

The boy has now entered the man’s world. He will turn up for his biggest game yet tomorrow – a contest that separate the men from the boys.

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India vs England: Virat Kohli receives custom jersey from Southampton Football Club, see pic

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By: Sports Desk |

Published: September 4, 2018 7:39:22 pm





Virat Kohli received a customised football jersey from Southampton FC

India captain Virat Kohli received a customised jersey from Southampton Football Club on Tuesday. The jersey was presented to him by forward Danny Ings. This after team India finished the fourth Test at Rose Bowl and succumbed to a bitter 60-run defeat against England. “It was great to welcome @imVkohli and @BCCI to Southampton last week! 😇 #saintsfc,” Southampton wrote on its Twitter handle. Southampton FC is currently playing in the Premier League, the top tier of English football.  They lie twelfth on the EPL standings with one win in four matches. Earlier, Kohli became the second fastest Indian batsman to score 6,000 Test runs during the fourth Test. The Harbour hotel in Southampton, where team India were staying, presented him with a cake to commemorate his achievement.

Meanwhile, India’s loss against the Three Lions in the third Test meant that once again they failed to win a series away from home. Reflecting on the bitter defeat the Indian skipper said, “I thought England did well to give us that target. They batted well in third innings. Seeing how the pitch was, how the ball was turning, they applied themselves and got to a total that was challenging. Thought we were in with a fifty-fifty chance last night. Didn’t get a good start, England applied a lot of pressure.”

“All in all it was a challenging day, we put our best foot forward but it wasn’t good enough. Don’t think we made too many mistakes today. Credit to them. We never thought like that (of an impending collapse). Me and Jinks did well with that partnership, but if you don’t have a partnership before or after it becomes difficult. But we were always under the pump. The pressure was non-stop. We felt the passion of eleven players on the field, wanting to win the Test match for their country,” he added.

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