This is Worldcup

What an unbelievable match!!!! 4 runs with 5 wickets in hand should make a captain sit back and have his coffee without any doubt. All the fans of the bowling team would be hoping for something great to happen such as Malinga's 4 wicket haul in straight four deliveries. That should have made Smith spill the coffee all over his trouser. What an incredible bowling!The ball was just less than an inch away from the off stump of peterson, if it wasn't for the lady luck, South Africa could have been in danger of another exit from the world cup keeping in mind they have lost the two points which they could carry from the league stage. Personally I don't rate (I know it doesn't matter) malinga as a good bowler. But his recent performances in India and the world cup make me think otherwise. His full length deliveries at such a speed are a delight to watch, of course when the batsmen struggle. Srilanka might have a chance to win this cup if at all Jayasurya finds his grip back again.

PS: For all those who say cricket is something boring, you should have been there at that moment while peterson was batting and you could sense the adrenaline pumping. Thats cricket.

How mad can we be?

Time: 3.00 AM
Venue: TV room
Number of people: 6.

On the TV screen: The dumb Daikin Ad.

All of a sudden the six start shouting like hell and in a span of five minutes, nearly two hundred people gathered in front of the TV wishing something spectacular to be happening, only to notice the comfortable position in which Bangladesh is.

This is madness.
This is INDIA.

So, its official now. India better to be known as the commercial team is out of world cup 2007.

Over and out!

Technically speaking we still have a chance to be in the next stage of world cup. That particular chance sadly and shamefully depends on a small nation some where in the North Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda. We the billion people are forced to watch a league match between two minnows hoping the 'elite eleven' who stumbled under pressure and bowled out for a mere 185 would somehow show fighting spirit in the next stage if at all they are allowed to play for which they have to thank Bermuda. I hope that never happens. We don't deserve to be there. Even if we would be there, it would be more disheartening to see teams like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand thrash us; I cant endure that pain, that heart breaking moments, that sadness I witnessed on the faces of my fellow students yesterday, all that bull shit yet again.

Fuck everyone who points the statistics. We have the three finest batsmen in the world averaging above 55 in the world cups along with four batsmen (batsmen meaning they can actually bat?) and we couldn't chase 255. All we need was singles and we were hapless. Couldn't find the gaps hence went for big ones and ultimately for the glory.

Bowlers were good. Not good enough to contain the opposition for a much lesser total. Why cannot we nail the tailenders the same way as our tailenders give up their wickets to any other cricket playing nation. (needn't even be a test cricket playing nation). It would have been great if the other players supported the bowlers with what they can do on the field. The extras by the bowlers and the runs left in the field by the fielders (everyone even yuvraj) were disastrous. Lankan's too couldn't find the gaps but still found the singles. Hit straight at the fielder and still run. Such is the confidence on our fielders. In the end 255 is not 355. It is so easy a target as a penalty kick. It should have been a cakewalk if its not the pressure that took away the hopes of a billion people with a disgusted look on the players faces. Yes they definitely felt bad for themselves and for India. I don't understand, why the pressure? What happens in the dressing room? Why didn't they feel good about the target while they got a whooping 413 the other day? Everywhere I go today I hear everyone discussing the match and the future of the cricket team. So much for the Cricket Fever and leave the WorldCup, we are not even in the second stage!!!

'I take full responsibility for the fact that we haven't progressed to the next round' -- Dravid.
Don't Mr.Dravid. Don't. Why do the captain himself be responsible for the 'team' defeat. Why make the captains life a hell? Every one is responsible. Every fucking person in the team along with the physio who couldn't get the fitness of the players right, the coach who couldn't get everything right, the players who couldn't do their jobs right, and the media which hypes every single thing... every one is responsible for the worst ever display of the game.

The fielding and the running between wickets was worse. Leave the seniors who conveniently chose the senior ship as a cause not to talk about their lack of ability to field well and run well, but even the youngsters like uthappa, zaheer and Munaf were not able to create an impact in the field.Even Yuvraj showed the signs of a bad fielder during the match. We played just two matches and see the fitness levels of the players. Dammit we are playing the world cup!!!!

How much we say and brood over it, its not going to matter, but what the players feel about the loss is something that can be the future of the team. Will they take it as normal as we students take studies or are they really serious? People started talking about the players being normal and would be signing new contracts with the ad agencies after a week and forget the worldcup07. Do they? They are humans, they are Indians. They feel the disappointment and they feel the humiliation too. Some seniors who are at the peak of their careers would never wish such an end to their career even in their dreams. That doesn't mean they should carry on as they were and are;They did a lot to Indian cricket, had glorious times which were acclaimed by every Indian and they were the saviours 'then'. Now they are the demons. Irony! Their future does depend on what happened since few weeks, they should be able to respect the hard decisions that must be taken and this should be the right time.
Isn't it?

Master Selector

The TV room was with people shouting for a boundary to be hit or a wicket to fall. Them watching TV today is quite surprising, India isn't playing today, and quite apalling too for the fact that they did manage to get their ass-glued-to-chairs and eyes-sticken-to-computers out of the rooms!! Some were chanting the name of Dhaniram while someothers came up with some other name which I heard for the first time. I couldn't make head and tail out of anything. Whats happening? Is it because of the Indian defeat that damaged their brains or is Cricket really becoming that interesting all of a sudden!! I dont think, they think its something for which they can give up CounterStrike, AOE or watching Friends. And as my small brain fights to reason out the abnormal behaviour of fellow daiictians, my friend enlightens me about the super selector. What a way to attract people!!

All fired up

413 for 5. The highest total ever made in the worldcup history, as a matter of fact, its the highest total in indian international cricketing history. For those who say its just minnows we have outplayed, let me clear something, we have been outplayed by the so called minnows a couple of days back and by the way, we played the 'minnows' many a times in the recent past but passing the 400 mark is something we have done it for the first time. Thanks to the wonderful knocks by Sehwag, Sachin, Yuvi and partly Dada.

Why the hell we have to a bare a loss for getting all fired up to outplay others? Am bored of watching games where we fight back taking a backstep in the early stages. Recently even my favourite club Arsenal because of which I developed the love towards football started playing similarly. They go a goal down only to fight back playing their normal beautiful flowing football. Ahh I hate it.

Everything seems to be alright with the runrate going up. Yuvi and Sachin getting to bat and infact hitting over the rope for maximum a lot many times. Sehwag getting his grip back and Dada still playing the anchor role good. Uthappa was looking good but yet again fell for a good catch. It was deliberate shot from him pushing the ball into nearly the second slip but aah what a catch from the heaviest man in the present world of cricket, the 120 kg Leverock. Sliding towards his right and puff comes the ball into his hand. Uthappa, how much unhappy he might be, has yet again fell for a good catch.
There are many aspects, god forbid , which may be looked down by the management. Sehwag still looked shaky during the early stages trying to hit the ball pitching outside offstump. Beware we are going to play one of the finest bowlers we have in this era - Chaminda Vaas and Murali. It will not be so easy for sehwag to carry on if he is going to go after every delivery during the early stages. The ball will be moving both away and into him. We know how much problem the inswinging ball has created. There will always be a huge gap between his bat and pad whatever the press and the cricket pundits say. There would also be no foot movement.Never expect that from him. Its the way he plays and will be playing in the future. You cannot change that. Players like Sehwag, Ganguly and Sattagopan Ramesh depend a lot on timing rather than footwork unlike dravid and sachin. The gap, which many bowlers recently capitalized by an inswinger and ultimately gaining his wicket is due to the lack of confidence which didnt allow him to bring the bat in line of the ball in exact time which he used to do so easily when he is 'normal'. He should thank Dravid for being so generous and having confidence in him. It would have been a disaster if he had edged any one of those few first deliveries he faced yesterday. I would love to watch him play a similar innings in the next match getting 'much' better than what he did yesterday.

Ganguly looked out of touch during his loooong stay at the crease. He took his time but its amazing to see him being troubled to find the gaps for singles(leave the boundaries) playing the balls coming at nearly 110-120 kmph. I never expected that from someone with such caliber. He again trusted his natural and favourite shot of coming down the pitch and lofting over the fielders for most of his score. What happened to the God of offside as once described by Dravid. He is not driving the ball. He is tapping the ball into the hands of fielders similar to Adebeyor tapping the footbal back into the net. He should be aware of being that slow and unable to drive the ball can be disastrous while playing the bigger teams. I dont see the fire in him i was used to see and love. He isnt talking much on the field as he used to do. Looks completely concentrated on batting sticking to the wicket. It might do some good if yuvi and sachin fires up.

What to write about this young and elegant Yuvraj Singh? He smashed the ball over the midwicket for the maximum as if the boundary is some inches away from him. Let me tell you, this is a big ground and he made the shots look so simple. Incredible stuff!! We can sit there for a whole day admiring his shots. They are very limited but its the way he uses them so efficiently to score at a rapid rate that people love watching him bat. He should be doing wonders if we are into the futher stages.

Dhoni was looking strong until that marvelous catch taken by Tucker. I couldnt believe my eyes. He positioned himself very well under the ball and didnt allow the ball to spill down his hands. What a catch to end Dhonis innings. Sachin was great. His maximums over the covers and fineleg were simply superb. I hope him to continue this form as we get into the final stages of this WC and then later on we can start talking about the 2011. Dravid turning the final delivery into a maximum helped us equal the maximum number of sixers in a limited over international. Good.

Nothing much to say about bowling attack. Agarkar was usually bad. He should be dropped for god sake. I used to believe he can play at that level but after this match I dont think so. He should be playing the ranjis forever if at all he wants to play cricket. Zaheer had a wonderful spell so is Munaf. I loved the first over of Zaheer. 5 outsingers and one inswinger. Bang on! Clean bowled. Good for us. Munaf was unlucky though. Kumble proved how dangerous he can be for the right handers.Its as expected from him to get those wickets. Would have a played a vital role in the bangladesh match if he had been in the final eleven. Bermuda's Hemp played a very good innings with all the experience from the county cricket. Bowlers struggled against him especially Agarkar. (By struggling i meant they were now where in getting his wicket. Nothing new they tried to seize him.) I expcet fielding levels to notch up a bit which can find us a spot in the super 8's.

Bottomline: Good match. Boostup for indians making the fans go silent for sometime alteast. Hated Dravid again for his lack of captaincy skills. How much I wish to see other person making the bowling changes rather he handingover the ball to the bowlers. Why didnt he bring sehwag early while the left handed players were playing? Kumble is not that good against lefties. Someone hit Dravids brain with a ball so that he starts thinking for the sake of India. Anyway we got what we required - the netrunrate going up.

Hoo Haa India

Disclaimer: People frightened by the length skip the post and see the bottomline which phrases every misery happened today.

Sounds BS to me. Doesn't it? I might still expect a No from someone who is on a train and had the fabulous opportunity to miss the match between the mighty tigers of India, Ladeega toh Jeetega, and the socalled minnows in the form of 'team' Bangladesh. Its good that Dravid got the pitch report wrong, may be he was busy giving autographs to ladies and has no quality time to spend over it. Its very fine that kumble was on the 'bench'. Its very very fine that Sehwag is still opening. Its better that Dinesh Karthik who played a fine innings in the last few days is not in the final eleven. Despite all the fineness, someone please explain me how fine is it to play to loose an opening match of the worldcup tour!!

Lets start from the beginning. Holy crap! The quick single initiated by ganguly would have been indeed crazy enough if Sehwag was a little late in landing the foot. I dont understand. As if the collision may have caused an injury he tried to place the foot in the crease instead of the bat; shouldn't he be more serious about the match? or did he forget its the worldcup not a gully match he is playing. Ofcourse somepeople agree he is best suited for that. But what matters is Dravid thinks otherwise. Finally Sehwag got one thing right. He didn't miss the ball. He played it on to his stumps. Good enough for mortaza to throw the fists into air and millions of people to go silent and few people beside me to go haywire as they wanted him to depart as quickly as possible also from the team. Never seen much of this kid Uthappa, he looks promising. Liked his front foot shots leave alone the shot he played on the same front foot only to land the ball into the safe hands of Aftab ahmed.

Sachin and Ganguly were playing while we safely handed over the remote to football lovers to watch manUnited over Bolton not knowing how cheaply sachin can give up his wicket. He speaks about 2011 and Sir please tell us something about 2007. The ball is not turning much and what was he trying to do? looking for a single? He again falls for a left arm spinner while the ball which is almost a straighter one touches his bat to fall on to the pads and then into the wicket keepers hands. One of the softest dismissals in the match.

Dont let me get started on Dravid or even Dhoni. The best part is not to talk. I hope dravid too follows the same after the match. Does he even have a place to hide? Not on earth, maybe. Partnership between Yuvi and dada is something that gave life to the audience as well as the scoreboard. Another good innings from yuvraj who has just returned from an injury and dont forget his limited choice of shots while he playes the spinners. Still he managed to survive while the top order has collapsed. Dada is the top scorer. Its fine that he scored slowly given the situation but why 0 why did he say no to certain doubles and even some singles were turned down. Threes were converted into two's. May be he doesnt want another wicket to fall inform of runouts but thats pure neglegence towards the running between wickets. Ten to fifteen runs might have made a huge difference. Alas he has been the anchor of the lineup until he gave up like that. That was a clever delivery from Razzak seeing him charging down the pitch and in the end a good catch. bangla's were very good in the field. Managed to stop some spectacular shots from Yuvraj and saved nearly twenty runs.

I think oxford might add a word to dictionary 'indollapse' meaning the so-indian-alike-collapse which we get to see yet again this day. I sat there amidst the silent five hundred people watching the match in the open air theatre as dhoni looking for a single pushes the ball into the hands of Aftab while Agarkar adds another jewel to his extraordinary batting career by yet another duck and bajji carrying the hopes of dravid, who helds him highly whiletalking about the tail enders, only to find the late cut he tried to play was indeed very late to be played and ended up edging on the stumps to cheerup the already in high bangladeshi players.

159/8. So far so good. People started giving chorus to the dermi cool ad as the lady says tanda tanda cool cool and shouting ooooooh aaaaah india instead of the regular hoo haa india. Then we get a single and there was joy around as if they had never seen a single taken. A wide by mortaza was welcomed by another couple of ooohs and aaaahs. A four by munafs sweep shot(is it?) was getting the loudest of the cheers than what a young 'beautiful' woman cheering india received while shown on the screen. Last wicket partnership of 31 runs might have got some hope in the indian team which was shattered by the splendid batting performance by the seventeen year old Tamim who smashed the spineless bowling atatck all over the ground with agarkar rocking line and length and zaheers inconsistency. When does our bowlers learn that six good balls turn into a good over but not few good balls and few bad deliveries begged to be hit.

Munaf was ok with his spell but still the few bad deliveries and there goes the hope of indians not only the people watching but even the players on the pitch. It was clear by the body language of sachin and dravid. The fielding was usually casual. Couple of fours and a bunch of catches left for the bowlers distress. Haribajan lack of wicket taking ability... everything contributed by everyone towards the loss. Bangladesh played well and made indian play lokking bad. People who think bangladesh has won because india didnt play well.. go to hell! They outplayed india in every ascpect. Wonderful fielding, probably the age is doing wonders for them.They deserved a win and they got it.

I wonder how dravid comes out of this scenario. Does he alike Haq leaves it to God? I hope he doesn't.

Bottomline: Pitiable Decision after winning the toss. Pathetic Batting. Spineless Bowling attack with wonderful bowling changes (pun intended) and piteous fielding performances. India lose to the Bangladeshis who showed woderful spirit and composure. I wonder who are the kids? Indians or them? People who critisized for ICICI letting the minnows play the worldcup can now be satisfied with their performances I suppose. Pakistan out of the worldcup is something that makes today somewhat better. Hope Indians don't face the the similar situation coming week.

This defeat will definitely haunt us till the end how far we might go.

random 'heavy' junk

Overweight?
May be yes may be no! Everytime I go home, Mom says aren't you eating in your college? Is deepu eating your food too(ok ok I made it up). Grandma simply stuffs something or the other every fifteen min or so.
Everyone has their own opinion in the matter of weight. But what counts? I think the only opinion that counts is of your pants'


While my grandma feels am not 'fed' properly my favourite pair of pants thinks otherwise. It says

"Stop playing FIFA and get some exercise you fatso!" :((