Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #9 of "Think it Over" .

Dear "Think it Over" participants,
It is with much disappointment that we must inform you that due to some resource constraints, we are having to pull the plug on the quiz prematurely.

Consequently, here is the final the tally of "scores":

Congratulations to our top-3 finishers: ROGER, SACHIN and SUPRATIM!

They kept the "overs" interesting right throughout and, as you can see, it ended up being pretty tight at the top.

As per the original announcement of this quiz series, "the quizzer with the most DreamRuns will be allowed to exchange her/ his DreamRuns for items from our PavilionShop online cricket store".

... and that quizzer happens to be ROGER!!

CONGRATULATIONS to ROGER for being the first-ever winner of DreamCricket.com's "Think it Over"

Roger can exchange his DreamRuns for US $30 (at approximately US $1 for every 10 DreamRuns, and then rounded off to US $30) or transfer these points onto the next quiz series that shall begin DreamCricket.com soon.

There are plans to start this new quiz in the near future, maybe as early as the next week (week of July August 1, 2010) ... with a slightly different concept and "quiz master".

So watch out for that one on www.DreamCricket.com

It was much fun bringing this quiz to you over the past few months.
Thanks for your avid rather well-informed participation.

Gokul.

Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #8 of "Think it Over" .

Cricket is a sport where keeping your "eye on the ball" is quite a literal requirement. Batsmen are only as good as they can accomplish this basic task. Of course, there are batsmen who thrive and excel at all levels based on this one ability alone.

So, for this week's quiz, all you have to do is prove to us that you are capable of keeping your eye on the ball.

Each photograph has a grid inside it. Just use the combination of the letters of the alphabet (to identify the row in the grid) and the numbers (to identify the column) and tell us where the ball is. So your answers will simply be of the form: G6, B9, etc.

The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
You will have about one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced.

Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #7 of "Think it Over" .

England recently won their first-ever multi-national (loosely defined) tournament by taking home the ICC WT20 trophy. India had done so famously in the Prudential World Cup of 1983. Pakistan and Sri Lanka scored their first World Cup successes in 1992 and 1996 respectively.

It made us wonder, what other teams have managed to achieve firsts in multi-national tournaments. It so happens none of these achievements have been reprised since, some because those events themselves have since been scrapped, others because the teams have become less scrappy. We’ll let you find out and tell us in this, our 4th over of “Think It Over”.

Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM

The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
You will have about one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced.

Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #6 of "Think it Over" .

Mahela Jayawardena molted out of his ‘non-T20’ skin in one of his last few matches in IPL 2010, a bit too late, some might add. But what he did manage to do is to create a new identity for himself right up the order as a dashing opener in the latest format. This prompted us at DreamCricket to take a closer look at his literal identity, his name. Though referred to commonly as “Mahela Jayawardena”, his name is often written as DPMD Jayawardena, which is short for Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardena. His long-time team mate in his national side and more recently turned foe, Vaas was known quite well for the length of his identity.

So why not, for our 7th over, turn our collective attention to players who are better known to us by certain names but whose real names are often longer or ... just plain different.

Thanks to Google search, we have to be a bit cheekier than we’d like to be. So we are going to give you visual clues – puzzles, if you will – that you have to first crack to get the names and then using those names you can fill in the more famous parts of these cricket-related personalities.

Here is an example of these visual clues:

+

_ _ _

Each horizontal row of clues would correspond to one name of the subject of that particular question (or puzzle). In the above example, the 1st row of images corresponds to Kapil and the 2nd row of dashes to Dev.

Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM

The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
You will have about one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced.

Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #5 of "Think it Over".

The IPL is on full display and, for some time now, the debate rife about the implications for several players from outside India to choose between playing for their country’s domestic league and the IPL and/ or the Champions League.

Even as the fans themselves grapple with the daunting task of choosing between their national heroes and their respective local, villainous versions, we at DreamCricket wonder in this week’s edition of "Think it Over" if the subjects of our 6th over would have had any such moral cricketing dilemmas?

Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM

The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
You will have about one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced.

Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #4 of "Think it Over" .

Sanath Jayasuriya has raised a lot of political and ethical eyebrows since he announced that he would be attempting to ‘run’ slightly differently than one is normally used to seeing him do; and what’s more, he will be contesting in a very different battle altogether! We are talking about his decision to contest in elections for a political party in Sri Lanka from his home town of Matara this month, while still continuing to play cricket for Sri Lanka. Much like his cricket strokes, he seems to have been rather assertive and curt in the immediate wake of his decision leaving the discussions and arguments to others.

In this over of “Think It Over”, we shall recollect other cricketers who have been involved in politics, regardless of whether they did it while still working from their lush green office.

Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM

The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
You will have about one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced.

Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #3 of "Think it Over" .

It is the time of the year when Easter bunnies start becoming ubiquitous (at least here in the United States). Bunnies are not alien to cricket. We have our own share of famous ‘bunnies with the bat’, ala Chris Martin. But that is for another over. Praveen Kumar’s recent ‘hat trick’ in the IPL made us wonder about other magicians in the sport who have managed to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat from time to time by achieving certain things 3 times consecutively. We’ll let you find out and tell us in this, our 4th over of “Think It Over”.

Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM

The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced.

Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #2 of "Think it Over" .

The Academy of Motion Pictures, in their newfound avatar, appreciated the cast and crew of “Hurt Locker” in a big way at this year’s Oscars earlier this month. We, in the cricket world, have not been able to appreciate the antics of our beloved Flintoffs, Lees and Bonds longer than their frail bodies and dangerous vocations would allow us to.

With our penchant for connections between seemingly far-fetched entities, we now present to you the 3rd instalment of our weekly cricket quiz, “Think it Over” that is, at once, a tribute to the aforementioned movie and a quiz about some of our beloved sport’s more famous injuries.

Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM

The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
You will have exactly one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Tuesday after each quiz is announced.

Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #1 of "Think it Over" .

It has already been written, discussed, gushed profusely and waxed elaborately about in the 2 weeks since Sachin Tendulkar boldly went where no other international cricketer has gone before, thereby reminded his few, yet determined, detractors just why he captures the imagination of billions even as he increasingly leaves very little to their imagination as regards what can be achieved on the cricket field.

So, in our own take of this event, here’s an over of queries, all linked by the number 200, hurled in your direction.

Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM

The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
You will have exactly one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Tuesday after each quiz is announced.

At a time when the sport of cricket is simultaneously living out an existential nightmare where its past, present and future are co-happening, thereby baffling all of us that are intricately intertwined with its existence, we at DreamCricket.com have decided to add to the fun ... yes, F-U-N.

Admit it, at some level, short-lived as it might well turn out to be, all of this talk and speculation about which version of cricket will survive and which one will be archived makes for some very entertaining opportunities for thought exchange.

Along those lines, here's an ode to cricket and its vagaries, presented to you in the form of topical quizzes. A "Test" of your knowledge in cricket with a "T20" slant to it.

Starting on Wednesday, the 3rd of March 2010, we at DreamCricket.com will be bringing to you, our weekly - okay, let's call it a - quiz called "Think it Over". [This quiz will appear every Monday on DreamCricket.com starting on Monday, the 22nd of March, 2010, US Eastern Standard Time].

Each of these quizzes shall contain 6 questions related to some recently relevant topic.
These would be the 6 "balls" of the "over".
Needless to say, there are bound to be bouncers, googlies and banana swingers in each over!
You can take a shot at each of these 6 balls in the over by emailing us your answers at: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM.
The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz".
You will have exactly one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced.

Our 3rd umpire, Gokul, will decide how many runs - we like to call them "DreamRuns" - you score in each. The 3rd umpire's decisions will be final. This score would then go into your running tally of DreamRuns that would get added to from week to week. There would be 20 such quizzes or ... overs (remember?).

The prize, you ask? At the end of the 20th over, the quizzer with the most DreamRuns will be allowed to exchange her/ his DreamRuns for items from our PavilionShop online cricket store.

Then we move on to another ... you said it ... T20 match!

So, here comes the first over ... let's see if you can stay on your two feet at the end of these overs and, if possible, maybe even score some DreamRuns!

In spite of the cricket cliché “you need to take 20 wickets to win a Test match” having proved its worth in the recently concluded Test series between the top 2 Test teams in the world, it was also the case that there were some herculean batting feats that were also on show.

Hashim Amla played more than a 1000 balls, scored 3 centuries in 3 innings including a double-ton, amassed almost 500 run and was only dismissed once.

Alviro Petersen scored a century on debut and, that too, in his very first Test innings, a feat only two other South Africans have managed to accomplish before him.

Sachin Tendulkar scored a century in each of the 2 Tests, taking his streak to 4 tons in 4 Tests now.

Virender Sehwag also scored 100+ in both Tests.

Jacques Kallis and MS Dhoni scored centuries at their usual sing-song pace.

But VVS Laxman, in scoring 143* in Kolkata, his only ton of the series, achieved a rather unique feat, at least in the Indian context. He became only the 2nd Indian Test cricketer, after a certain Sunil Gavaskar, to score 1000+ runs at one venue. Gavaskar, in fact, had scored 1000+ runs in two venues: the Wankhede Stadium in Bombay and Chepauk in Madras (those were the names of both the grounds and the cities back when Gavaskar achieved those landmarks).

This brings us to a whole bunch of interesting questions relating to batsmen scoring runs on a certain venue.

Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM

Even as Laxman Sivaramakrishnan kept uttering the name of his own home city, supposedly in his mother tongue nonetheless, that hosted the most recent historic Indian test win as "Chenaaai", the victory itself seemed to have come rather naturally to the Indian team.

In Virender and Gautham, India seems to have found an extremely uncomplicated pair of batsmen who are, more to the point, naturally suited to both face and take the shine off the new ball, be it SG Test, Duke, or Kookburra, and once they have done that, to then also be able to go on until the next time the box with newer ones is brought out. When was the last time one could say this about any Indian Test opening pair without sounding artificial.

In Sachin, India has finally found someone who, for every minute in past 19 years, had seemed a natural "finisher" but could only deliver on that promise on December 15, 2008. It was also quite natural, then, that his accomplice of the moment at the crease could not restrain himself from hoisting him on his shoulder thereby managing to shove the ape on his won back a long distance down. Sachin was performing the last rites of the monkey that he had been busy bringing down from his own shoulder over the better part of the previous 24 hours.

It also seemed natural that the venue for all of this should be Chennai which, with its cricket followers as opposed to fans, hosted a filled coliseum on a working day as the aforementioned natural phenomena played out. And while human nature did have a lot to do with the selection of that venue at the last hour as host of the said match. it was after all here that the said monkey had performed one of its many illusionist acts from atop Sachin's back less than a decade ago. The fact that another favorite son of that land also happens to be at the helm of the team selection itself only adds to the sense of retrospective inevitability that often overtakes pages of public domain, not unlike the one you are reading now, in the aftermath of such events.

Zaheer Khan, having paid his dues on the front lines, then the side lines, then without any line - or length for that matter, has taken back his natural place with the new ball in his left hand and as mentor to the fresher - and longer - legs running in to bowl from end opposite to his.

Another individual who would have moved Barry Levinson to make a sequel to his 1984 drama, had he been a cricket follower himself, seems to have finally secured what many of us have long believed to be his natural, needless to say, very, very special, place not just in cricket, but in life, i.e. the Indian Test team's middle order.

And then, there is their captain. Hailing from at once the "heartland" and the "backland" of India, the most natural candidate to wrench Indian cricket from the clasps of the self-privileged and the self-entitled administrators and bring it back to the players and followers of cricket.