Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Bye bye Ganguly, bye bye Kumble, bye bye Cricket
Well, I felt indebted to cricket for a lot of my growing up (or lack thereof). I thought I owe a tribute to its demise, but I could not have done any better than this. So I gave up !
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Love all
I have always enjoyed sports.. for one the fervor and enthusiasm of cricket in India was so compulsive to be part of and secondly, for the spirit that brings us bonding together. This has been my primary reason for following ten years of cricket before I gave up around college time, for lack of that support and enthusiasm in my then friends. Then more than half-a-decade later, thanks to my dear hubby, I was introduced to American sports like baseball, football and basketball all of which are quite interesting. Of course topping the list would be THE football, followed closely by basket ball. So however silly it may seem, I think I have been driven more so by popularity than any individual preference.
Tennis always remained a second degree in my sports following, living through Steffi Graf, Agassi, Sampras, Henman (I actually used to follow him quite a bit once upon a time), and then unconquerable Federer (or atleast I liked to think so). But then as always, sports is such a leveler. Who would have thought the world number one Federer will fall in a period of one year from paramount Kingliness?! There was a time a couple of years back that the second ranked player was so back in line that Federer could lose like a million games in a row and still retain the first place for the next few months or so.
After an illness that cost the Australian Grand slam, he lost to Nadal in French (which is forgivable) and Wimbledon (which I still cannot believe). I started watching the Wimbledon final hoping to see a clean sweep after what happened in Rolland Garros to set the records straight, but Nadal was too good. What separates a genius from the greats is often a hairline space and it seemed so true. I remembered his words after the last Wimbledon finals (the five setter) that he wanted to gobble down (win) all he could before Nadal started winning. And it was the last time Federer could really reign over Nadal !
Even then, I was hoping to pay back Nadal at the US open which has never been his favorite. But the games leading up themselves proved too much heat that Fed-Express derailed. What has been his for five years in a row is not his anymore!?
No one in my time (not Agassi or Becker or Sampras) had held on to the spot for as long as Fed did… that we thought he would truly defy gravity and keep it eternally! But we were rocked to remind that nothing lasts forever.
Tennis always remained a second degree in my sports following, living through Steffi Graf, Agassi, Sampras, Henman (I actually used to follow him quite a bit once upon a time), and then unconquerable Federer (or atleast I liked to think so). But then as always, sports is such a leveler. Who would have thought the world number one Federer will fall in a period of one year from paramount Kingliness?! There was a time a couple of years back that the second ranked player was so back in line that Federer could lose like a million games in a row and still retain the first place for the next few months or so.
After an illness that cost the Australian Grand slam, he lost to Nadal in French (which is forgivable) and Wimbledon (which I still cannot believe). I started watching the Wimbledon final hoping to see a clean sweep after what happened in Rolland Garros to set the records straight, but Nadal was too good. What separates a genius from the greats is often a hairline space and it seemed so true. I remembered his words after the last Wimbledon finals (the five setter) that he wanted to gobble down (win) all he could before Nadal started winning. And it was the last time Federer could really reign over Nadal !
Even then, I was hoping to pay back Nadal at the US open which has never been his favorite. But the games leading up themselves proved too much heat that Fed-Express derailed. What has been his for five years in a row is not his anymore!?
No one in my time (not Agassi or Becker or Sampras) had held on to the spot for as long as Fed did… that we thought he would truly defy gravity and keep it eternally! But we were rocked to remind that nothing lasts forever.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Apr 15, 2007
If India fails to make it to the Super8s, the much anticipated and eternally hyped India Pak encounter on Apr 15th will be Ireland vs Bangladesh!!
ok, remotely it may even be Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh !!
All those guyz from the US who spent worthy $$$$ as they must have thought, to watch Dravid and Dada batting away to glory against Imran and Inzy will be kept 'entertained' by Bashar and band battling against the Brien brothers!!
Wow, what a match !!
Also, as Anusha says, line cleared for Shivaji followers !!
ok, remotely it may even be Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh !!
All those guyz from the US who spent worthy $$$$ as they must have thought, to watch Dravid and Dada batting away to glory against Imran and Inzy will be kept 'entertained' by Bashar and band battling against the Brien brothers!!
Wow, what a match !!
Also, as Anusha says, line cleared for Shivaji followers !!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Cricket !!
I remember watching the 1987 world cup as a six-year old. I will ask my folks at home as to whom they wanted to win and then offer my faithful prayers in the Puja room seeking the help of God to make that team win whatsoever. I did not understand the game and all I was worried about was my folks at home being happy!
1992 and 1996 were my best world cups when I followed every match of the tournament. I was still a little too immature that I would make trades with God that he can fail me in History revision exam, and instead make that up with an Indian victory! The Pakistan vs India - quarterfinals at Bangalore is something that I still cherish. Then, I had these amazing friends, with who discussions always revolved around the new boys -Dravid, Ganguly! I was even excited to watch Srinath play for Gloucestershire!!
Then, 1999 and 2003 I was a busy with other things and cricket was sent to the background. I followed the happenings from the next day news and that was it. Guess I grew-up and did not matter really if India won or lost. I never remembered any game until it happened and results were out. If I do get to watch a game, it was fun but that was it – it was no religion that I was so used to following fanatically!
Now, in 2007 thanks to a cricket-buff hubby, I am once again pulled into the magic of cricket, its drama, the fun and feelings. Just as I was thinking that the inclusion of minnows in the world cup diluted the competitiveness of the game, Bangladesh hit me right on and proved a better team than India on a given day in all departments of the game. With the precarious position India is placed now it will be interesting to see if they will make it to the Super8s. The batting looked good against Bermuda yesterday, but you cannot forget the fact it was Bermuda. Even against Bermuda, bowling looked very weak failing consistency and penetration. Fielding was lethargic, compared to those of Ireland, Bangladesh and even Bermuda. With this pack, will this team see through the Sri Lankan line up on Friday? In either case, I hope it turns out into a nail biting contest! Well, not exactly as that will not send us to Barbados. I want a thumping victory, letz see!
Speaking of this, I guess that much of the resentment of Indian fans on the loss to Bangladesh was subdued because the arch rivals Pakis failed to qualify to the Super8s. It was very upsetting to note Pakis’ coach Bob Woolmer pass away after their dismal performance in the world cup especially because we were having a fun time seeing the posters that read – death to Woolmer and death to Inzy by the Pakis’ fans the previous day as they lost to Ireland. It is just a game and it will be good if it is treated so. Anyways, hope his soul rests in peace.
Well, that was a blog that started out nostalgic, got all funny and filled with excitement and finished on a sad note distastefully. That was not how I intended it to be. :)
1992 and 1996 were my best world cups when I followed every match of the tournament. I was still a little too immature that I would make trades with God that he can fail me in History revision exam, and instead make that up with an Indian victory! The Pakistan vs India - quarterfinals at Bangalore is something that I still cherish. Then, I had these amazing friends, with who discussions always revolved around the new boys -Dravid, Ganguly! I was even excited to watch Srinath play for Gloucestershire!!
Then, 1999 and 2003 I was a busy with other things and cricket was sent to the background. I followed the happenings from the next day news and that was it. Guess I grew-up and did not matter really if India won or lost. I never remembered any game until it happened and results were out. If I do get to watch a game, it was fun but that was it – it was no religion that I was so used to following fanatically!
Now, in 2007 thanks to a cricket-buff hubby, I am once again pulled into the magic of cricket, its drama, the fun and feelings. Just as I was thinking that the inclusion of minnows in the world cup diluted the competitiveness of the game, Bangladesh hit me right on and proved a better team than India on a given day in all departments of the game. With the precarious position India is placed now it will be interesting to see if they will make it to the Super8s. The batting looked good against Bermuda yesterday, but you cannot forget the fact it was Bermuda. Even against Bermuda, bowling looked very weak failing consistency and penetration. Fielding was lethargic, compared to those of Ireland, Bangladesh and even Bermuda. With this pack, will this team see through the Sri Lankan line up on Friday? In either case, I hope it turns out into a nail biting contest! Well, not exactly as that will not send us to Barbados. I want a thumping victory, letz see!
Speaking of this, I guess that much of the resentment of Indian fans on the loss to Bangladesh was subdued because the arch rivals Pakis failed to qualify to the Super8s. It was very upsetting to note Pakis’ coach Bob Woolmer pass away after their dismal performance in the world cup especially because we were having a fun time seeing the posters that read – death to Woolmer and death to Inzy by the Pakis’ fans the previous day as they lost to Ireland. It is just a game and it will be good if it is treated so. Anyways, hope his soul rests in peace.
Well, that was a blog that started out nostalgic, got all funny and filled with excitement and finished on a sad note distastefully. That was not how I intended it to be. :)
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Tale of two teams
Been wanting to blog about this for a while. The Indo-Pak one day cricket series currently on in Pakistan has been an awesome treat to watch.
At Peshawar, India started off with an unfortunate way of losing a match. Paskistan having won the toss put India in and we made what seemed like a mammoth total of 328. With the way India was cruising at 225/2 in the 34th over, with wonderful knocks from out-of-form Tendulkar and raised-up-the-order Dhoni, at this point it was like India was looking at nothing short of 350. But some good work from Pak bowlers saw us short by 20 odd runs. Anyways it still looked like a mammoth total for Pak to chase.
Pakistan managed a pretty professional chase to reach 201/1 in only the 30th over. What seemed like a dead match came back alive with Dravid taking a simple catch at Point off Kartik. The wicket turned tables, Pak came down to 265/5 and then to 311/7. During this fall was an important wicket of Inzamam – given out for obstructing the field. It was hilarious to watch a man with generous dimensions standing right ahead of the stumps well outside the crease and fiddling a ball thrown towards the stumps away using his bat. Little did he realize that he was obstructing a ball hitting the stumps to run him out!
With three overs remaining, three wickets in hand and needing 18 more runs, the match was finely poised to go either way. Nail biting and inching towards the end of the chair sat a half a lakh people at Arbab Niaz Stadium and a million more sat glued to the TV set -- unfortunately the light-meter dipped low and the umpires called off the match due to poor lights. Pak won the match by 7 runs by Duckworth Lewis method. What a pity? The most cursed way to end a to-be-thriller.
At Rawilpindi, once again Pakistan won the toss but this time it took to bat hoping to post a big score. The hope hiccupped right in the second ball in the innings when Pathan swung the ball a wee bit away from the batsman Salman Butt - edged it to the keeper for a simple catch. The biggie scorer in the previous match was gone for a duck. Tendulkar mis-fielding at short-mid-wicket and the Yousuf going for the extra run, ball hitting the non-strikers end and he was out by miles. Pakistan did a great job to each 204/5 from 68/4 but after Shahid Afridis departure, the team just managed to reach 265 all out in 49.2 overs. The Indians were happy to have restricted the home team well with some exceptional fielding performances running out 4 of those Paki batsmen. In the chase, India kept their defense and their offence just in the right manner playing the loose balls and holding back on tougher ones finished a neat job losing only three wickets with seven overs to spare. Everyone visiting the crease contributed and a pretty neat chase executed well. A good toss to lose?!
At Lahore, India winning the toss put Pakis in, India going without a single spin attack and made a mess up of fielding dropping three catches - Kaif raised late on third slip to pouch a outside edge off Afridi in the third over, Dravid dropping a regulation slip catch off Akmal in the sixth over and Gambhir flooring an important Shoib Malik’s edge at Slip, may be a little difficult but definitely a mustaveBeenTaken. It costed India lots. And all the three catches off Sreesanth, the youngster was very frustrated very understandably.
Inspite of sloppy fielding, wickets kept falling at regular intervals and runs kept coming. With an important knock from Shoib Malik and a great supporting role from Abdul Razzaq Pakistan set a competitive target of 289. In response, India struggled with the initial pace bowling, lost Gambhir and Pathan for only 12, Dravid got beaten every other ball and eventually dismissed at 84/3. By this time the pace attack had lost juice. Tendulkar having provided a strong platform missing his century by five runs was out and India was 189/4. When around 17 overs remaining, 104 runs required Kaif had a great chance to prove which he let slip away. India was 190/5. A real pressure situation. Yuvraj and Dhoni at crease, asking rate raising to 7.3 runs an over, runs not flowing, Dhoni had to pick his play. He did not want to do what he doesn’t know to do. He wanted to play his shots, take his chances, rely on his muscle power, have confidence in his strength and it did play off. Power play is where Dhoni is there. It was indeed a pleasure to watch Dhoni play the counterparts in Afridi and Razzaq. He championed the team to 2-1 up in the series. Hats off Dhoni!
The next match going on at Multan could be the decider. Will India wrap it up? This is the question. I know the match is over but I haven’t seen it yet, not even the score. I am watching it deferred live right now with fingers crossed.
At Peshawar, India started off with an unfortunate way of losing a match. Paskistan having won the toss put India in and we made what seemed like a mammoth total of 328. With the way India was cruising at 225/2 in the 34th over, with wonderful knocks from out-of-form Tendulkar and raised-up-the-order Dhoni, at this point it was like India was looking at nothing short of 350. But some good work from Pak bowlers saw us short by 20 odd runs. Anyways it still looked like a mammoth total for Pak to chase.
Pakistan managed a pretty professional chase to reach 201/1 in only the 30th over. What seemed like a dead match came back alive with Dravid taking a simple catch at Point off Kartik. The wicket turned tables, Pak came down to 265/5 and then to 311/7. During this fall was an important wicket of Inzamam – given out for obstructing the field. It was hilarious to watch a man with generous dimensions standing right ahead of the stumps well outside the crease and fiddling a ball thrown towards the stumps away using his bat. Little did he realize that he was obstructing a ball hitting the stumps to run him out!
With three overs remaining, three wickets in hand and needing 18 more runs, the match was finely poised to go either way. Nail biting and inching towards the end of the chair sat a half a lakh people at Arbab Niaz Stadium and a million more sat glued to the TV set -- unfortunately the light-meter dipped low and the umpires called off the match due to poor lights. Pak won the match by 7 runs by Duckworth Lewis method. What a pity? The most cursed way to end a to-be-thriller.
At Rawilpindi, once again Pakistan won the toss but this time it took to bat hoping to post a big score. The hope hiccupped right in the second ball in the innings when Pathan swung the ball a wee bit away from the batsman Salman Butt - edged it to the keeper for a simple catch. The biggie scorer in the previous match was gone for a duck. Tendulkar mis-fielding at short-mid-wicket and the Yousuf going for the extra run, ball hitting the non-strikers end and he was out by miles. Pakistan did a great job to each 204/5 from 68/4 but after Shahid Afridis departure, the team just managed to reach 265 all out in 49.2 overs. The Indians were happy to have restricted the home team well with some exceptional fielding performances running out 4 of those Paki batsmen. In the chase, India kept their defense and their offence just in the right manner playing the loose balls and holding back on tougher ones finished a neat job losing only three wickets with seven overs to spare. Everyone visiting the crease contributed and a pretty neat chase executed well. A good toss to lose?!
At Lahore, India winning the toss put Pakis in, India going without a single spin attack and made a mess up of fielding dropping three catches - Kaif raised late on third slip to pouch a outside edge off Afridi in the third over, Dravid dropping a regulation slip catch off Akmal in the sixth over and Gambhir flooring an important Shoib Malik’s edge at Slip, may be a little difficult but definitely a mustaveBeenTaken. It costed India lots. And all the three catches off Sreesanth, the youngster was very frustrated very understandably.
Inspite of sloppy fielding, wickets kept falling at regular intervals and runs kept coming. With an important knock from Shoib Malik and a great supporting role from Abdul Razzaq Pakistan set a competitive target of 289. In response, India struggled with the initial pace bowling, lost Gambhir and Pathan for only 12, Dravid got beaten every other ball and eventually dismissed at 84/3. By this time the pace attack had lost juice. Tendulkar having provided a strong platform missing his century by five runs was out and India was 189/4. When around 17 overs remaining, 104 runs required Kaif had a great chance to prove which he let slip away. India was 190/5. A real pressure situation. Yuvraj and Dhoni at crease, asking rate raising to 7.3 runs an over, runs not flowing, Dhoni had to pick his play. He did not want to do what he doesn’t know to do. He wanted to play his shots, take his chances, rely on his muscle power, have confidence in his strength and it did play off. Power play is where Dhoni is there. It was indeed a pleasure to watch Dhoni play the counterparts in Afridi and Razzaq. He championed the team to 2-1 up in the series. Hats off Dhoni!
The next match going on at Multan could be the decider. Will India wrap it up? This is the question. I know the match is over but I haven’t seen it yet, not even the score. I am watching it deferred live right now with fingers crossed.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Sachin, the little "genius"
~! With due regards to the creator of this piece !~
Kudos to Sachin for battling and fightin off a torrid last session inMumbai...
Coming at 11/2, and immediately under pressure, the little "genius"decided to play off the rest of the day (around 25 overs projectedinitially) and save his wicket for a better day...Scrathing around with the confidence he has been having in the last 6test innings, he firmly avoided the ignominy of getting run out for aduck. He tapped the ball to the off side and set off for an improbablesingle (lucky for him, Rahul responded since Sachin was no meansGanguly) and was half way down the pitch when his bat came between theball and the stumps. He eventually slipped and fell awkwardly into thecrease, and cheers pounded the stadium! Sachin was off the mark!!
Later he managed to see off some excellent bowling of McGrath andGillespie by leaving outside off, ducking, padding, and edging.. It wasone of those days where he had all the luck to go with his magnificentform, that the edges fell short of the slip fielders, and the umpireswere intimidated by his sheer presence.
Tendulkar decided to pad-off a perfect McGrath incutter, coming straightto crash on to the stumps, and fortunately the umpire Rudi Koertzen wasbored giving LBW for Sachin these days, that he thought of not giving inthis time. Sachins face said it all. The master batsmen, the littlemaster, did not even have the courage to look at the umpire, because heis so sharp to realise he was lucky. Frustrated McGrath walked awaythinking it would just be a matter of time..It was not to be..
Not many would realise the value of 2*(31) innings Sachin played lastevening, but I believe he would rate it high amongst the toughestinnings he has ever played.
Kudos to Sachin, fighting for India's pride and self-redemptiom!
Kudos to Sachin for battling and fightin off a torrid last session inMumbai...
Coming at 11/2, and immediately under pressure, the little "genius"decided to play off the rest of the day (around 25 overs projectedinitially) and save his wicket for a better day...Scrathing around with the confidence he has been having in the last 6test innings, he firmly avoided the ignominy of getting run out for aduck. He tapped the ball to the off side and set off for an improbablesingle (lucky for him, Rahul responded since Sachin was no meansGanguly) and was half way down the pitch when his bat came between theball and the stumps. He eventually slipped and fell awkwardly into thecrease, and cheers pounded the stadium! Sachin was off the mark!!
Later he managed to see off some excellent bowling of McGrath andGillespie by leaving outside off, ducking, padding, and edging.. It wasone of those days where he had all the luck to go with his magnificentform, that the edges fell short of the slip fielders, and the umpireswere intimidated by his sheer presence.
Tendulkar decided to pad-off a perfect McGrath incutter, coming straightto crash on to the stumps, and fortunately the umpire Rudi Koertzen wasbored giving LBW for Sachin these days, that he thought of not giving inthis time. Sachins face said it all. The master batsmen, the littlemaster, did not even have the courage to look at the umpire, because heis so sharp to realise he was lucky. Frustrated McGrath walked awaythinking it would just be a matter of time..It was not to be..
Not many would realise the value of 2*(31) innings Sachin played lastevening, but I believe he would rate it high amongst the toughestinnings he has ever played.
Kudos to Sachin, fighting for India's pride and self-redemptiom!
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