Technology stops Tilak Varma !! - what is a dead ball ??

Technology has changed the game a lot !  in 1983 tense WC finals – with mighty West Indies tottering, remember a moment, Krish Srikkanth picking up the ball and throwing down  the stumps at non-striker end, most of us believed Faud Bacchus was short of crease ! – he was not given out in an era when we thought every direct hit earned a run out ! – we cursed the Umpire.  Now a days, many a decisions are overturned by referrals with the use of technology.  Yet Tilak Verma would be cursing technology and hopefully, it may not have any impact in the result of today’s match at Mullanpur.

 

Surprisingly in a Team that boasts of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Tim David,  Romario Shepherd – and a team that had big hitters like Kieron Pollard – Tilak Varma has a milestone of 50 sixers – the quickest to reach that target for MI.    

Whether or not technology is a blessing or a curse has been a heated debate for a while. In cricket, the answer is pretty straightforward. Now that cricket matches are regularly recorded and aired, cameras are an expected feature on the pitch. Today towards the end, when MI was hurrying, Tilak Varma hit Harshal Patel hard and high, but it did not reach any fielders in the long !!   - reason it hit the Spidercam and had its direction changed.   It was declared a dead ball – whether it would have gone for a 6 or 4 or would have landed in the hands of a fielder – not known !!  

Day before at Eden Gardens, there was a man   turning down singles in the 18th over, after Rovman Powell got out following a decent cameo. He later clobbered two sixes and a four off the penultimate over, to get the equation down to nine off the final six balls.  Despite a grand performance by Sunil Naraine, it was Butler show.

Jos Buttler started slightly slow as Rajasthan Royals (RR) aimed to travel at more than 11 an over, making only 25 off his first 18 balls. He was at the crease during what seemed like a debilitating mid-innings slowdown, in which Royals scored only 30 from six overs, and lost three wickets in that time, and with a stunning unbeaten 107 he ensured a dream victory.    Varun Chakravarthy  bowled the final, was hit for a 6 off the first then bowled three dots but Butler finished in the final over. 

Today at Mullanpur, MI put into bat by Sam Curran finished at 192/7  with Rohit, Sky and Tilak Varma contributing. In the final over (19.4 to be precise)  an aerial shot by Tilak on its way to long-on struck the spider camera.    Rule no. 20.1 : defines when ‘Ball is dead’  

20.1.1 The ball becomes dead when

20.1.1.1 it is finally settled in the hands of the wicket-keeper or of the bowler.

20.1.1.2 a boundary is scored

20.1.1.3 a batter is dismissed.  The ball will be deemed to be dead from the instant of the incident causing the dismissal.

20.1.1.4 whether played or not it becomes trapped between the bat and person of a batter or between items of his/her clothing or equipment.

20.1.1.5 whether played or not it lodges in the clothing or equipment of a batter or the clothing of an umpire.

.. ..  and there are many more circumstances when the ball is deemed dead, ie., no runs, no wickets, no action, the delivery too is not counted.  Today it was by hitting an equipment.

 

What would have happened if on the final over needing say 4 – a clean hit, moments before crossing the boundary hits the equipment.  Rule would say a dead ball and what would be fate, if the batsman thus denied legitimate runs, gets out in the next and Team loses !!

 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
18.4.2024

  

leaf battle !! ~ வட்ட செயலாளர் வக்கீல் வண்டு முருகன்

தாவரவியலில் வண்டு தெரியாதவர்கள் கூட இருக்கலாம் !  வட்ட செயலாளர் வக்கீல் வண்டு முருகனை தெரியாத தமிழன் இருக்க முடியாது !

வண்டு என்பது ஆறு கால்கள் கொண்ட ஒரு பறக்கும் பூச்சியினம். இவற்றிற்கு, முன் இறக்கைகள் இரண்டும் பின் இறக்கைகள் இரண்டும் ஆக நான்கு இறக்கைகள் உண்டு. முன்னால் தலைப்பகுதியில் இரண்டு உணர்விழைகள் உண்டு. வண்டுகளின் முன் இறக்கைகள் கெட்டியானவை, பின் இறக்கைகள்தான் பறக்கப் பயன்படும் மென்மையான படலத்தால் ஆனவை. முன் இறக்கைகள் வண்டு பறக்காமல் இருக்கும் பொழுது பறக்கப் பயன்படும் மெல்லிய பின் இறக்கைகளை மூடிக் காக்கும் உறை போல பயன்படுகின்றது. இந்த முன் இறக்கைகளுக்கு வன்சிறகு அல்லது காப்புச்சிறகு (elytra) என்று பெயர். இவை வளைந்து குமிழி போல இருக்கும். இப்படிக் வளைந்து குமிழி போல் இருப்பதால் இவற்றிற்கு வண்டு என்று பெயர். 

1962ல் வெளிவந்த சுமை தங்கி படத்தில் ஜெமினி கணேசனும் தேவிகாவும் நடித்து இருந்தனர்.  விஸ்வநாதன் ராமமூர்த்தி இசையில் PB ஸ்ரீனிவாஸ் S  ஜானகி - குரலில் ஒலித்த கண்ணதாசன் பாடல் : 

மாம்பழத்து வண்டு - வாசமலர் செண்டு

யார் வரவைக் கண்டு - வாடியது இன்று !  

சிலப்பதிகாரத்தில், ‘உங்கள் ஊர் எது?’ என்ற கேள்விக்கு, ‘தாமரை எது? பெண்களின் முகம் எது என்று தெரியாமல் வண்டு திண்டாடும் பூம்புகார்தான் எந்தன் ஊர்’ என்று இலக்கியச் சுவையுடன் சொல்கிறார் இளங்கோவடிகள். 

மாதரார் ‌கண்ணும்‌ மதிநிழல்‌நீர்‌ - இணை கொண்டு மலர்ந்த நீலப்‌

போதும்‌ அறியாது வண்டு ஊசல்‌ – ஆடும்  புகாரே எம்‌ஊர்‌.

Pictured here is Cryptocephalus, a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Cryptocephalinae and belonging to the group of case-bearing leaf beetles called the Camptosomata. The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, includes thousands species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle families.  

Leaf beetles are partially recognizable by their tarsal formula, which appears to be 4-4-4, but is actually 5-5-5 as the fourth tarsal segment is very small and hidden by the third.  Adult and larval leaf beetles feed on all sorts of plant tissue. Many are serious pests of cultivated plants

Interesting !

With regards – S Sampathkumar

17.4.2024

  

God particle ! Nobel laureate Peter Higgs is no more !

Remember reading about ‘God particle’ !  -  On April 8, 2024,  the man  who first theorized the existence of the same, passed away at the age of 94. His passing was announced on April 10.

The Higgs boson is the fundamental force-carrying particle of the Higgs field, which is responsible for granting other particles their mass. This field was first proposed in the mid-sixties by Peter Higgs and was named after him. The particle was finally discovered on July 4, 2012, by researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — the most powerful particle accelerator in the world — located at the European particle physics laboratory CERN, Switzerland.

The LHC confirmed the existence of the Higgs field and the mechanism that gives rise to mass and thus completed the standard model of particle physics  —  the best description we have of the subatomic world. The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. The Higgs field is a scalar field with two neutral and two electrically charged components that form a complex doublet of the weak isospin SU(2) symmetry. Its "Sombrero potential" leads it to take a nonzero value everywhere  .. .. … ……..

Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the study of combination of protons and neutrons is called nuclear physics.The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and bosons (force-carrying particles).

I do not understand most of whatever is above, the name reminded me of the leg spinner who played in that Chepauk test in Sept 1979 when a 32 year old bespectacled Dilip Doshi made his debut.  It was arain affected match and a decisive result was not possible. This Higgs played in that Test and also in that Melbourne Test of 1981, much remembered for the Kapil 5 wickets and the second innings collapse of Greg Chappel Aussies.

Peter Ware Higgs CH FRS FRSE HonFInstP was a British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh, and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the mass of subatomic particles.

In 1964, Higgs was the single author of one of the three milestone papers published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) that proposed that spontaneous symmetry breaking in electroweak theory could explain the origin of mass of elementary particles in general and of the W and Z bosons in particular. This Higgs mechanism predicted the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson, the detection of which became one of the great goals of physics. In 2012, CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider.The Higgs mechanism is generally accepted as an important ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics, without which certain particles would have no mass. For this work, Higgs received the Nobel Prize in Physics which he shared with François Englert in 2013.

On 8 October 2013, it was announced that Higgs and François Englert would share the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles", and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider". Higgs admitted he had gone out to avoid the media attention so he was informed he had been awarded the prize by an ex-neighbour on his way home, since he did not have a mobile phone.

Higgs turned down a knighthood in 1999, but in 2012, he accepted membership of the Order of the Companions of Honour. He later said that he only accepted the order because he was wrongly assured that the award was the gift of the Queen alone. He also expressed cynicism toward the honours system, and the way the system "is used for political purposes by the government in power". The order confers no title or precedence, but recipients of the order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CH. 

With the introduction of World Series Cricket,  there were many opportunities  in the Australian team, especially for the spin bowling spot, as Kerry O'Keefe, Ashley Mallett and Ray Bright were all banned and no longer considered available for selection. James Donald Higgs (Jim Higgs) took 6–131 against the touring Indians, pushed him to limelight, however Tony Mann was selected instead. Mann kept his place for the first four tests before being replaced by Bruce Yardley in the fifth. Both were better batsmen than Higgs, later Higgs was picked on the tour to the West Indies as the second spinner apart from Yardley.  Jim Higgs ended up playing 22  tests between 1978 and 1981. In the words of Gideon Haigh "Jim Higgs was Australia's best leg-spinner between Richie Benaud and Warne. His misfortune was to play at a time when wrist-spin was nearly extinct.

With regards – S Sampathkumar
16^th Apr 2024. 

where is beauty ?

 

Beauty lies everywhere ! – it is We who fail to notice !! – start the day happily