Tag: Jonathan Bairstow

The IPL Super Auction

A brief look at the IPL super auction and a special photo gallery.

The IPL Super Auction is over, and all the 10 squads are assembled. I look at some of the key moments and end with a very special picture gallery.

THREE BIG MONEY OVERSEAS SIGNINGS

Royal Challengers Bangalore made the first big money overseas signing of the auction when they went to 10.75 crore INR (just over £1,000,000) to secure Sri Lankan leg spinning all rounder Wanindu Hasaranga. Hasaranga is a superb T20 player and this was probably a good signing even at such a high price. Punjab Kings did good business when they secured Jonathan Bairstow for 6.75 crore. Nicholas Pooran, neither as good nor as versatile as Bairstow then went for 10.75 crore.

DIFFERING STRATEGIES

Punjab Kings were consistent over the two days, making a number of excellent signings. Liam Livingstone was their most expensive at 11.50 crore, and two very different seam bowling all rounders, India Under 19 star Raj Bawa and Gloucestershire’s quirky veteran Benny Howell were both obtained cheaply. Howell at seven, Bawa at eight, Rabada at nine and two other bowlers at 10 and 11 is a good lower part of the order, while Dhawan, Bairstow and Livingstone will all be in the top half of the order (IPL allows four overseas players in a playing XI and up to eight in a whole squad, which can have a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 25 players), and Bairstow, Livingstone, Howell and Rabada would be my four first choice overseas players from their squad.

Mumbai Indians did little on day one but came to the party on day two. They paid 8.25 crore for Archer, who won’t play this season due to injury, but who they can retain for next season. They also secured Tymal Mills and Tim David. They are unlikely to win IPL 2022, but if Archer is fully fit by then they will be formidable in IPL 2023.

Rajasthan Royals left things very late indeed, making a flurry of signings in the closing stages of the auction when nearly everyone else had completed their squads. They got some useful players at this late stage, but overall their approach cannot be said to have worked.

Royal Challengers Bangalore tailed off after a strong start, and exhausted their budget with several places still available in their squad.

Sunrisers Hyderabad did not even make a strong start, and they too ran out of money rather than filling all 25 slots.

The two new franchises, Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans both had their moments along the way but neither were entirely impressive.

Delhi Capitals had a solid auction, and they should do well in the tournament.

Chennai Super Kings had a good second day, and their squad looks decent.

Kolkata Knight Riders had a mixed couple of days with some good signings and some questionable ones.

The tournament should be good, though it is overly long. I will be supporting Punjab Kings – they had a superb auction.

All squads can be viewed here.

A SPECIAL PHOTO GALLERY

I acquired two lots of interesting cricket related cigarette cards, and they are the subjects of this photo gallery…

Auctions, Auctions, Auctions

Mainly concerned with today at work, this post also mentiuons the test match just concluded in South Africa’s favour and a piece by Why Evolution is True about a white giraffe.

INTRODUCTION

I will be mentioning stuff opther than auctions, but it is the auctions that form the basis of this post.

A TRIFECTA

Today’s work at James and Sons featured three different auctions, hence the title both of the post and of this section thereof.

TOMORROW’S AUCTION
(MAIDS HEAD HOTEL, NORWICH)

This played a comparatively minor role, everything having been done save for actually holding the auction. However, it was necessary to get the stuff loaded on to the van ready for being transported to Norwich tomorrow morning and I had to remember to disconnect the mouse from my work computer.

FEBRUARY 24TH (FAKENHAM RACECOURSE)

There were still a few items to be imaged for this auction, and one lot that needed special treatment so that it could feature on the front cover. Thus two photo galleries for this section…

These are some of the highlights from the unimaged lots.

The second photo gallery in this subsection deals exclusively with lot 450, which I was reimaging specifically for use on the front cover…

The photograph was fairly straightforward – although you will note that I edited it a number of different ways. The set of medals was more difficult because I had to prevent external light from intervening and they are attached to a display case that is about an inch thick.

MARCH 30TH (FAKENHAM – POSSIBLY TWO DAY SALE CONTINUING ON MARCH 31ST)

Towards the end of the day I made a start on imaging items that will go under the hammer on March 30th. Thus, here is another picture gallery…

This watch is lot 1
1 of the four images I did of lot 463
Lot 480
The cover of lot 480
Lot 460
Lot 460 closed
Lot 461
Lot 461 closed
The King’s Lynn page of lot 463
This map fis one of the images for lot 470
The front cover of lot 463
These pages happened to be where the describer had inserted the lot tab, and since they were also of significance to the imager here they are.
The title page of 470 – btw Wath-on-Dearne is a nice little town, although it gave the world William Hague.
Inserts in lot 470.

While this gallery brings today at work to a close I have one last James and Sons item to share…

JAMES AND SONS ON ANTIQUES ROAD TRIP

Regular followers of this blog may recall that James and Sons feature in an episode of Antiques Road Trip. I can now inform you that this particular episode will be shown on February 1st at 4:30PM (meaning that it will be available for watching on i-player by 6PM that day for those like me who refuse to pay for the ‘privelege’ of watching live TV)

ODDS AND ENDS

In a post I put up yesterday I expressed the opinion that England were headed for defeat in the final test match of their series against South Africa. This became reality reamrakably quickly – by the time I left for work at 8:30 this morning our time England had plunged from three down to six down, with Kagiso Rabada picking up his 10th wicket of the match just before I left (Bairstow, morally out twice – saved first time round one the TV replay umpire picked up a no-ball and then done in precisely the same way by the very next delivery). A discreet check while eating my sandwiches confirmed that end had come swiflty thereafter, with Rabada taking a further three wickets to give him 13 in thge match and, of course, the player of the match award. For full details on events please visit the official cricinfo report.

Also from the continent of Africa but otherwise utterly unrelated to the above, the good folks at Why Evolution is True have come up with this offering about a rare white giraffe which is now fifteen months old.

 

A Wonderful Weekend of Sport

INTRODUCTION

As well as the sporting events that I shall be writing about I have some important links to share. Faced with more sport than I had time to follow I had to make choices, and with I settled on cricket and athletics (in the form of the European Team Championships). I will write about each in turn starting with…

A FINAL MATCH THRILLER

To set the scene for Saturday’s action, the series was level at 2-2, and records had been tumbling left, right and centre throughout. The actual result was pretty much a secondary consideration given the quality of the cricket that had been on show through the series.

NEW ZEALAND BATTING

Very early on in their innings New Zealand passed their all-time record aggregate for a five match ODI series, a feat that England had achieved in the previous match. For the first time in the series batsmen found it difficult to really get going, and it took some big hitting in the closing stages to get New Zealand to their eventual 283-9, the lowest first innings score of the series.

THE INTERVAL AND DUCKWORTH-LEWIS

During the interval between innings it rained, and it kept raining for some time (this is England after all). Eventually, by the time play was possible again there was time for England to bat for 26 overs, and the Duckworth-Lewis calculation (a very complicated formula that has produced the least unfair way for resolving rain affected ODIs yet devised) gave England a target of 192 off 26 overs.

ENGLAND’S CHASE

The England innings got off to a disastrous start, with three wickets falling in next to no time. The fourth and fifth wickets did not take a whole lot longer to fall, and at that stage England were looking down both barrels. Then Eoin Morgan and Jonathan Bairstow, the latter only playing because of an injury to Jos Buttler (scorer of the first and second quickest ODI centuries by an Englishman) shared a good partnership. When Morgan was out, England were still second favourites, but Adil Rashid joined his fellow Yorkshireman Bairstow for a partnership that gradually brought the asking rate back to manageable levels. Seventeen were needed off the last two overs when for the first of them the ball was given to a debutant who until his late call-up had been playing Devonshire League cricket. Bowling the penultimate over in these circumstances would be tough for anyone, and in the end the last over was not required, as a combination of fine strokes from Bairstow and Rashid and a loss of nerve by the bowler settled the issue.

A RAPID TURNAROUND

Just a few months ago England were having their all-time worst ever World Cup campaign, being hammered by all and sundry and being exposed as being sadly behind the times in their approach to one day cricket. To have come from that to even taking part in a series that is a jewel in the crown of international cricket (and ultimately winning it) is an extraordinary transformation. What brought this about? Well England were forced to recognise by the sheer awfulness of that World Cup campaign that they had to change. The new picks for this series were guys noted for 20-20 (ultra-short form) success. Also, however there has been an attitude change. In this series, England never went on to the defensive, there was never a period of seriously slow scoring. Even when those three early wickets went down on Saturday, there was no ‘consolidation’. In the second half of the summer England have another set of visitors from the antipodes to contend with, and it will be interesting to see what kind of account they can give of themselves in that situation.

EUROPEAN TEAM ATHLETICS

The European Team Athletics championship, which I watched on i-player, is decided on a points system. The top nine countries from last year, plus three promoted from the second group, do battle. Twelve points are accrued for winning an event, down to one for finishing. A disqualification in a track event, or a failure to record a valid distance/ height in a throwing or jumping event results in a zero.

In the end, after a some excellent results, and some very bad ones, Britain finished in fifth place, behind Russia (winning comfortably on home  soil), Germany, France and Poland.

Probably the person who overachieved the most for Britain was Rhianwedd Price who, on international debut, came third in the 1,500m.

LINKS

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT THE FAIRY POSSUM

This tiny marsupial is on the critically endangered list, and the campaign to protect it by creating a preserved environment for it is being run by The Wilderness Society. I have two important links for you:

1)The article which gives full detail about what is happening.

2)A petition which I hope you will sign and share.

WAR ON WANT PETITION TO CANCEL GREEK DEBT

Just a single link, which I urge you to follow up.

AN ACCOUNT OF A TRIP TO THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

This is an excellent piece detailing both the visit and what was seen, and the differing approaches taken by Autism Mom (the author of the piece), the Navigator and Autism Dad. I have already shared this piece with my twitter and I am delighted to include this link to dinos-photos-and-his-own-world.

CONCLUDING REMARK

I hope that you have all enjoyed this post, and that you will be encouraged to share it. For those of you who have stayed with this post right to the end I have a final message…

TY3