Life Reloaded!!!

It has been pathetic 3 weeks for Indian cricket. Till the second day of second week, nobody would have thought India was going to lose the series like that. Problem isn't losing, it is the way we lost the 2 tests. Before the series, the kind of tactics we used, by denying England any spin practice during the practice games, were all waste when think of them now. What was worse is the way our batsmen handled English spinners. How can English spinners take 19 wickets in a test against India in India? Unimaginable to me!!  Hoping for better series against the Aussies!!! But, with India losing the series (again), it will be NO more HT for a week (again) :(

It is going to be a cracker of a day tomorrow at Wankhede. It has already witnessed a World Cup final with memorable finish. I hope it has the fate to host Century of Centuries!!!!

A group of Indian teenage girls squeaked "Jitega bhai jitega Pakistan jitega (Pakistan will win)." As soon as they started chanting in support of Pakistan, the Indians around them rolled their eyes. But the girls had not yet delivered the punch line. "India ne joke mara. Ha ha ha (India played a joke)," Given his consistency, Simon Taufel should raise the middle finger when giving OUT after a review of his decision Teams whose Captain's name initials starts from S are out of World Cup, Strauss, Sammy, Smith, Shakib & Shahid. Next in line:Sangakara !! It's time to show who the Real Blue Blood is .Come Saturday the darker shades will fade away . @ lanka : Just bring it !....Roger That ! चिऊच्या मित्राला म्हणतात काऊ .. . . . वाह वाह . . . चिऊच्या मित्राला म्हणतात काऊ .. . . . . . . आता तरी नेहराला शिव्या नका देऊ :D :D But best one caem from Aditya Sahastrabuddhe - 1996 : Srilanka vs Australia 1999 : Pakistan vs Australia 2003 :...

Respect !!!

This was shared by my friend on FB - Sachin's statement - "I was still only changing out of my sweaty clothes and taking a shower and was shocked to see the whole team back in the dressing room showering too!"

Isn't this WC boring? Why do we have just 1 match per day? And why all the initial matches have been between a Test playing nation and an Associate nation? Booooo..............

What a superb start to the WC. Kudos to Viru and Virat for magnificent tons!

Recently, while reading about the Kolkata Test, one thing came to my mind. I had read the tussle that was created between Laxman and John Wright after Laxman was left out of the 2003 World Cup squad. After searching Wikipedia and Cricinfo, I found that Laxman is one of the very few and unfortunate cricketers who played more than 100 Test matches but never played a single World Cup. It is pity, when you see that even the likes of Parthiv Patel were part of the squad at some point of time :( Update: Even Sanjay Bangar was part of that team!!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:India_Squad_2003_Cricket_World_Cup)

It was nice surprise to see Indian spinners bowling so well in the 2 warm up matches. Yes, the tracks were spinner friendly but it has been a long time since we saw such dominance of spin. The Aussies and the Kiwis had no clue whatsoever :)

It was fascinating play of cricket in the southern hemisphere, for last few days. India and England beat South Africa and Australia respectively with in 4 and half days. I will always remember the ball Srisanth bowled to Kallis, it was punch which was needed to show SA that they are still no. 2 in the world. In fact, in today’s newspaper I saw some blabbering by Darren Gough (who was part of unfortunate England teams which never won won Ashes). He says that England can beat India every week in a test. Well, when was the last time England beat India in a test series? Forget about tests in India, its been a decade since England beat India in a test series in England.

Many years ago a young Jonty Rhodes was batting with the legendary but ageing Graeme Pollock. After Jonty had called him for one single too many, the great man called him mid-pitch and said: " Young man, the athletics stops now and the cricket begins! " Source - http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/480388.html

Hope you all have been watching IPL. Well, if you have been watching, did you see Collingwood's dismissal against Kings XI Punjab? That was one of the "plumbest" LBW I have ever seen. He had no clue about the delivery. He assumed it was a leg spinner and got down on back foot to play a cut. But you know what, it was a googly and by the time Paul realized it, that ball had hit the back-leg in front of middle stump! Superb dismissal!! P. S. - Even Vettory's wicket was classic.

It was really pathetic batting display by one of my favorite batsman Saurav Ganguly. 33 of 29 balls might seem respectable for some, but by his reputation it was humiliating. The number of times he missed the balls in the final overs, really set the nails in the coffin for KKR. He wasn’t able to pick the slower balls at all. I think it is time he retires from IPL, may be not this season but certainly by next one. I just hope he ends on a high like he did in his test cricket.

  I never saw the complete match, but I saw the highlights on “HITZ”. I will remember the six hit by Kemp of the bowling of Shane Bond. Check out the shot (It is in the middle of the video). Amazing clean hit. Their next series was against India in India, but we were lucky he didn’t fire enough. I hope he shows his real “self” in the IPL in Chennai Super Kings. He has been a cheap buy but I feel that he is going to be a hit this IPL.

Ever since I started playing cricket again here in NITIE, I desperately get back to Wilson Gymkhana and play one last match there with my school friends. There are 3 reasons for this – I love cricket With 3 of my best friends leaving to US this year, there is little chance we would be able to play again. I have lost last 3 matches at Wilson Gymkhana and would like bid adieu to the ground in a respectable manner. Now, I would like to elaborate on the 3rd point. Worst of these 3 matches was – I was the captain in all 3 of them and we lost the matches more or less because of my goof-ups. In the 3rd last match, I dropped 2 catches on consecutive deliveries of the “hitter”(Umesh Vichare) in the opposite team who literally hit us of out of the match. The 2nd last match made me infamous “cheater” in cricket. We bowled well in this match and needed just 35 in 6 overs. I came down as an opener, Vikram and I played out most of the overs carefully with 7 to win in the last over. A...

Why is Vridhaman Saha is in Indian test team when Parthiv Patel scored highest runs among the Wicketkeepers, in fact he was among top 10 run getters this season!!!

Manish Pandey at his best!!!

Mumbai lifted the Ranji trophy for the record 39th time!!! Here is the news - http://www.cricinfo.com/ranjisuperleague2009/content/current/story/444048.html Something from the archive which shows the spirit of Mumbai Ranji Team - http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/331177.html

Just saw the Aussies beating Pakistan in a test match. Australia were bowled out for a paltry 126 and conceded a deficit of 206. They were 260 odd for 8 and it looked certain they were on the verge of losing a home test against Pak after 14 years. But an amazing century by Hussy (with a help from Kamran Akmal who dropped him thrice in a day) who pushed the score to 381 along with Siddle and Bollinger. And then an all round performance by their bowlers brought them an unlikely victory. Congratulations to the Aussies!!!

Interesting article about Dravid - http://www.cricinfo.com/page2/content/story/436289.html