What A Match!!!

Pictures Courtesy © Getty Images

India Vs Australia, 5th ODI, Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hydrabad. Australia had posted 350 in their assigned 50 overs with all players contributing with a ton from Shaun Marsh & 93 from Shane Watson. At that time i thought to myself that it would be a SEHWAG day as he was long overdue, but what followed was the best 3 hours in my life. A godly innings from a godly man. SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR. It all started slow an then the batsmen raised the tempo a bit and just when it all looked a bit easier aussies dismissed Sehwag. Oh! i thought it would be tough and it was looking that way when we were 140 odd for 4 , but Sachin was still batting though. And what followed later was HISTORY. I mean i have never seen someone play with that much grit & determination. Sachin is a class apart. Sublime strokes,aggressive batting,motivating the others,classic batting. He was playing as he was 25. As Raina chipped in, Indians were close,very very close. With Raina out it all looked a bit out of control and then Bhajji’s wicket added to the pressure. I was biting away my nails as if it were chips. Will they or will not? And then the big blow…Sachin dismissed.Period. everyone thought. But Praveen Kumar pulled things back with a 6 but it was all too late. India lost eventually by 3 runs & more than half the team total was scored by SACHIN. That tells a story. A story of a Legend. I feel privileged to have witnessed one such innings in my life. It was more Sachin Vs Australia than India Vs Australia. Such was the way he played. A day when even cricket would be proud that Sachin played it!!! A day that will go in the history books as a win by Australia but Sachin was the real winner, a winner of more than a billion hearts all over the world!!!

The match can be summed up as TEN-DO-LITTLES + WON-DULKAR = INDIA. Just simple math that even a child would know. I felt for the first time why 10 others were even playing cricket. It was a Shame we didnt win after all what Sachin did and all came back to say Sachin didn’t finish it off. All of u who say so Get a Life!!!On a signing note i would like to add that even if someone els had chipped in with a little cameo like Raina did Team India could have GIFTED this game to the Little Master. After all Cricket is a TEAM game!!!

Good Night & Cheers

DADAGIRI-A FIRE WITHIN

“The Prince Of Kolkata” as he is fondly called by all his fans Saurav Chandidas Ganguly surprised everyone last week by calling it time to quit. He declared that the Australian series would be his last. Even if this is his last series he will always be fondly remembered. Who can forget a cricketer who had passion,fight,aggression and desire both on and off the field. Named the King Of Comebacks, he is surely one man i would always associate with the word COMEBACK. Thrown out the Indian Cricket team after a spat with the then team coach Greg Chappell, he showed resilience and patience(i can never forget the PEPSI ad which featured him just before the world cup) and after 16 long months proved all his critics wrong once again!

The video ad by PEPSI featuring DADA:

He is one of the finest or should i say “THE BEST” captain India had ever produced. He captained India for a record 49 matches and led them to victory 21 times which is yet another record. Of these 21 victories 11 came in foreign soil which in itself is a special distinction for any captain. He captained India to almost the pinnacle of glory in the 2003 WC. How can anyone forget the “Payback” incident. Here are pictures and an extract from a local daily that stresses the importance of that act.

The Payback

If you ever wonder who provoked this reaction, this picture will answer all your queries.

The Incident that deserved the Payback

Which captain would give an eye for an eye, i can’t name many since there are really few of them and Ganguly would top that list. If it wasn’t for him the present Indian captains won’t be half as aggressive as they are now. Such was the impact of Saurav Ganguly.

He was insulted again and again by the Indian Cricket Board, was dropped on numerous occasions accusing him of the most dubious of things, but still it was always dada who bought glories to Indian cricket everytime. History repeated itself many a time when he was at the helm of his career and captaincy. If ever there was a “Maverick” in the Indian cricket team, worthy of our respect for exactly those qualities, then it had to be Saurav Ganguly.

This is the story of a Phoenix who emerged from the ashes. Once it was almost declared that his career is was over but he was back in the team. He made a comeback yet again and repeated the history of his own comeback in 1996 after being dropped in 1992. He surely is the king of all comebacks. His comeback is an inspiration not only to his fans but also to his critics.

DADA-A FIRE THAT BURNS FOREVER IN THE HEARTS OF MANY!!!

WE WILL MISS U DADA…

JULY…AS IT WAS

Many a happenings takin place in this past month…some good,some bad but all u could ask for…lets peek-a-boo into the past months happenings in a flash

NADAL mowed FEDERRER to lift the Wimbledon trophy…so long for the Federrer era.

Jaane tu…ya jaane na…released and Imran Khan won accolades all over.

The music kings were back with their albums…be it Ilayaraja,ARR,Yuvan or Harris…all gave their best shot in their released albums.

Men in Blue lost as usual in yet another Final…Asia Cup was the occasion and SL,the opponents.

Lewis Hamilton was back in the title hunt after a couple of wins in F1.

How can i miss this, the political drama unfolded in the trust vote which eventually the Govt. survived but left thoughts pondering in many a minds.

INDIA was having a BLAST, 25 bombs in a space of 2 days at 2 different locations, Bangalore and Ahmedabad were made scapegoats. And Surat had scares of unexploded bombs, 20 bombs found and defused.

The Dark Knight released all over and the late Heath Ledger frightened all over with his dark potrayal of THE JOKER…an OSCAR in the reconing.

Federrer is on the Verge of being dethroned from his Numero Uno position.

South Africa won against England to gain the lead in the test series.

India saw their batsmen fail by being crushed to their third worst defeat in all cricketing years…thanks to magical spin bowling by the Mendis-Murli duo…both being equally deadly.

Dasavatharam completed 50 days worldwide and is breaking all records worldwide.

Kuselan has released and is recieving rave reviews.

So with an action packed July all we expect is August to be much more thrilling and rivetting as July…watch out Federrer is going down!!!

THE WEEKEND BLAST

If the high electricity drama of Indian Politics was not enough to make a perfect weekend, the things that followed made it one. For all those who witnessed the great Indian tamasha(the trust vote of course!!!) it seemed much like a reality show. After all that happened during the tamasha the blame game began. MP’s were expelled, some were even arrested. The only positive for all we thought was the survival of the government, but the very next day the inflation fell(at least a few points) which brought in a few smiles. with all this happening in politics there was much more in store for the weekend.

Friday saw 9 low intensity blasts ripping thro the center of India’s IT hub Bangalore(or is it Bengaluruuuu) Saturday was even worse. Gandhiji’s home turf Gujarat(Ahmedabad) was held prey to 17 blasts of similar intensity. All the politicians did was stayed safe in their A/C rooms and made sure that their stereotypical sympathy dialogues(u know wat???) flashed across all TV screens. India’s war against terrorism will be waged and blah blah!!!. And the BJP wants tough terror law(biggest joke!!!). All the Govt. could do is sound a RED ALERT!! in these areas and compensate the family of the dead. Can money compensate lives of the dead??? Can money give the love and affection the dead would have poured in if he weren’t dead. The irony is nobody knows if these people are compensated for sure and those who are compensated accept the loss and take the money.  That as such tells you why the nation is the 2nd largest in corruption(in the world). Money is the language spoken and is the buzz word to close matters out of hand and if all this wasn’t enough the CPI-M says the blasts are to destabilize the nation and a conspiracy to unsettle the country(now when was my country stabilized????). A statement no one could accept after the trust vote tamasha. This is all u will get in democratic India.

And it wasn’t a great start to a weekend for the sports lovers too with India crashing to their third worst defeat ever in test cricket. The so called gurus of spin(the Indians of course!!!) felt Murali was too hot to handle. if Murali was trouble Mendis was double trouble. The double M factor shared 19 off the 20 wickets to fall and made sure Sri Lanka wrapped up the test match in 4 days(or 3???). The funny side of it is that all have come out guns blazing to criticize India for their poor show(where where they when my team was performing???cowards). A few comments i read in cricinfo about the Indian team hurt me a bit. My team will get revenge in the next test(or will they???).

As for my weekend it was near perfect with a lot of travelling and hogging. A couple of parties attended made sure i gained atleast a few kilos. Such was the effect of the food i ate. And finally i have fixed the codec problems which was haunting me from playing divx discs. As i pen this down the acoustics inside my stomach isn’t too good(not after all i ate!!). So i sign off for today. I had a weekend blast and so did India!!! Irony isnt it??

SUPER DOOPER SUNDAY!!!

The past Sunday was the best ever day a typical sports fan would ever ask for…i was stuck to the TV screens the whole day occupied with F1,cricket & tennis all happening on the same day and all with the championship at stake…a look back at the events that unraveled on SUPER SUNDAY…

TENNIS:MEN’S WIMBLEDON FINAL: Here it was the end of an era…the Federrer era as everyone calls it…as the lights faded in center court, Wimbledon had a new King…RAFAEL NADAL dethroned ROGER FEDERRER 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 9-7 on a history defining day in one of the longest matches Wimbledon has ever seen…it lasted about 12 minutes short of 5 hours…such was the competition between the two players…thanks to the rain delays we were able to catch our breaths and root for our favorite player and on Sunday there was only one…RAFAEL NADAL..RAFA was only the second man to have a FRENCH OPEN & WIMBLEDON DOUBLE after Bjorn Borg in 1980…as the match ended it was late, very late, but not too late for the coronation of a new king to begin. I m happy that my predictions were bang on!!!…Fed up wid Federrer,try Nadal…and VAMOS RAFA!!! is all i can say…

CRICKET:ASIA CUP 2008:Hmmn…i am wondering wat to write here, india had a taste of MENDIS-CINE and thats it…i will still keep backing India anyway but for everyone who thought murali was dangerous…enter rookie AJANTHA MENDIS and indian wickets fell like 9 pins…i had said in my earlier blog that it was a moment of magic from a single person that could win the team the ASIA CUP ‘08 and mendis just proved it rite with his CARROM BALL he pocketed 6 wickets and it was all over before it began…at the end of the match his figures read 8-1-13-6…no surprises then that MENDIS was also MAN OF THE MATCH & SERIES…

CRICKET:AUS Vs WI:It was just another day in the office for Clarke as captain and he lead his team to a 5-0 whitewash over once invincible now just in rubble WI team…WI are going nowhere with this kind of cricket…they were smashed everywhere with D HUSSEY’s 52(21) and LUKE RONCHI’s 64(28) and FIDEL EDWARDS returning with figures of 9-0-86-3…the costliest by any WI bowler…their batting was nothin much to talk about as they were bundled out for 172…the test series victory scoreline 2-0 didn justify what it showed but with the ODI series it was just what the doctor ordered for the upcoming young aussie side…

F1 RACING:BRITISH GP: It was one of the seasons tight races and LEWIS HAMILTON tasted victory at home…it was not just any victory, it was a well timed victory, an important one that put him right on top & back in contention for the coveted Driver’s championship…it rained in Britain and it was tough driving conditions…but Lewis was determined…he was a man on a mission…nothing could stop him on Sunday as he laughed all the way to the podium as KIMI “ICEMAN” RAIKONNEN could only finish 4th owing to a  bad decision over tyres and teammate & french GP champion MASSA a disappointing 14th…that was all enough to keep all three of them TIED at 48 points each at the end of 9 races & with 9 races left in the season it could be anybody’s and all we could expect is a speedy battle!!!…btw there was a man called ALONSO…where is he???

TENNIS:WOMEN’S WIMBLEDON FINAL: It was yet again a family affair at Wimbledon finals as the Williams sisters battled it out for glory on Saturday ,it was VENUS WILLIAMS who rose on the all Williams day winning her 5th title at Wimbledon…VENUS played some top tennis to see the back of her sister…it was a close match but ended in just 2 sets…SERENA rued her loss tellin that she was not at her very best but u cannot take away anythin from VENUS…i got my predictions right here too…and it was a double treat as the sisters then pairing up for the LADIES DOUBLES won that too…wat more can we ask in an all WILLIAMS day…

Wat more do u want in a weekend like this…just amaaaaaaaaaazing!!!!

ASIA CUP: IND Vs SL- WHO’LL BE CHAMPS???

ASIA CUP 2008

FINAL

INDIA Vs SRI LANKA

DATE: 06-08-08

VENUE: THE NATIONAL STADIUM, KARACHI

The battleground is ready…the captains lock horns…come tomoro and the battle begins…the fight for pride…the fight for glory…the fight to become ASIAN CHAMPS. It has all come down to this, a nerve racking final showdown between two Asian heavyweights…INDIA Vs SRI LANKA

TEAM INDIA: With their bowlers looking quite ordinary, India will rely heavily on their in-form batsmen to do the job. India’s batting line up will face a stern test in the finals although all the batsmen can switch around positions amongst the top seven and still be comfortable. Suresh Raina finally seems to be coming of age and the pair of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, regarded as the top opening combination in world cricket today, have been absolutely devastating. Yuvraj till now has had a quite tournament but the finals will be the stage which he might want to make it his own. Skipper Dhoni has marshalled his resources quite well but the bowling department is a worry. The Indian bowlers have not made much of an impression on the batting-friendly track at the National stadium, the batsmen have made amends by chasing down big totals in the tournament so far. The script could unfold in a similar fashion in the summit showdown, though the Indians will be keen to improve their bowling and fielding to be able to counter the islanders.

TEAM LANKA: Sri Lanka is looking strong. Kumar Sangakkara has been in prolific form, having hit three centuries in five matches. Jayasuriya has also given starts that he is so well known for and if both of these were not enough Skipper Jayawardene gave all signs of him returning to form with a fifty against the Indian attack. They also have a few batsmen like Chamara Kapugedara and Tilekeratne Dilshan who can get stuck into the Indian bowling attack and be thorn in the flesh. Mendis, the highest wicket-taker in this tournament and Muralitharan are in top form and they are sure to make run scoring in the middle overs extremely painful for the Indian batsman.

THE STATS: Previously, Sri Lanka and India have met five times in the Asia Cup Final, with India having a 3-2 advantage over their opponents. Interestingly, Sri Lanka have only won the Asia Cup playing in their own backyard, so this will be something that they will be looking to change come the final at Karachi.

THE BATTLE: It promises to be a hotly-contested affair with both sides keen to stamp their authority on subcontinent cricket. The better team will take the title for sure. But with the wicket being a batsman’s paradise so far, one can expect a high-scoring affair. All we can expect is a good game of cricket. Let the best team win…The chase is then on!!!