Struggling to cope in a world without any sporting action? Fear not. In our latest series, we put together a list of videos you can watch right now to fill that adrenaline pumping again. This week's picks feature the best of Ronaldinho, a memorable India v Sri Lanka series and more.
The joy of Ronaldinho
If ever a player lived up to the romantic's notion that football was more than just efficiency, probabilities, tactics and Expected Goal patterns, it was Ronaldinho. That smile, those dancing feet, the nutmegs, the elasticos, the sombreros. Watching him play made you happy.
He summed it up best when he wrote, in a letter to himself in the Player's Tribune -- "Think about what Dad said, to play free and to just play with the ball. Play with joy. This is something that many coaches will not understand, but when you are on the pitch, you will never calculate. Everything will come naturally. Before you have time to think, your feet have already made a decision. Creativity will take you further than calculation."
This 10-minute compilation of happiness-on-video is just proof of that -- of creativity taking him further than calculation. - Anirudh Menon
An emerald isle thriller
Harsha Bhogle once told me that the most memorable cricket tour he ever worked on was India's visit to Sri Lanka in 1993. The significance of this, for younger readers, is that it featured India's only overseas Test win between 1986 and 2000. In fact, Mohammad Azharuddin's men won the Test series, which wouldn't happen again in a bilateral series for another 11 years outside India -- the 1990s were just a strangely repetitive cycle when it came to watching India play overseas. One rarely thought of winning matches; the odd individual achievement was something worth celebrating just as much.
The third and final ODI -- the last game of this tour -- was played at Moratuwa, a beautiful ground that would see international cricket for the last time when West Indies played a Test later that year. With the teams locked at 1-1, Javagal Srinath steams in to bowl the final over, and the clip is a short one, but has a lot happening in it. Sunil Gavaskar cannot help but chuckle on commentary. It tells you why everyone remembers this series -- marked by Manoj Prabhakar's clutch play with the ball as much as Vinod Kambli's batsmanship -- fondly. - Debayan Sen
Djokovic-Del Potro duel on dirt
Almost exactly a year ago, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro played a memorable Friday-night quarterfinal in the Rome Masters. Del Potro came out playing at a surprisingly high level, given that the injury-ridden Argentine had only played six matches the entire year until then. Thanks to his sledgehammer forehand, del Potro got the better of Djokovic in the first set. In the second, Djokovic did Djokovic things by saving multiple match points to edge the second-set tiebreaker. Despite an early break, the third set was still played at a very high level, tight and tense until Djokovic finally emerged victorious. The best shot of the match, arguably, came in the third set when del Potro hit a half-volley, drop-shot winner that was so good Djokovic gave up his pursuit of it, clapped and shook hands with the Argentine. - Manoj Bhagavatula
Murali's method
Batsmen found Muttiah Muralitharan hard to handle all through his career. The unusual bowling action, the prodigious spin, the one that went the other way -- all added to the mystique around the most successful bowler in Test cricket. He explains the secrets behind some of his tricks in this masterclass. Nasser Hussain remembers the immense amount of spin Murali could get even at a young age, but the bowler rates another skill even higher: accuracy. You get a glimpse of Murali's mastery as he shows he can bamboozle Hussain even 10 years after retirement.
Genius though he was, it took him many years to master the doosra -- and what a difference it would make. Murali took about five years to take his first 100 Test wickets. Then, with the doosra finally in his repertoire, the next dozen-odd years brought him another 700 wickets. "If you can bowl one out and one in, it is more than enough to get wickets," he explains. Quite simple indeed. - Gaurav Rai
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