I must say, my interest level in F-1 has waned significantly since last year, due to the absence of Schumy. But I happened to have recorded the French GP this past weekend, and saw it in “DVR” mode, which is to fast forward after the first few laps up to the first round of pit stops and then again to the next round of pit stops :-)
I was glad to see a Ferrari 1-2, which salvages the season because if in this race they had not got decent points, it would be very very difficult to overcome McLaren, especially with Hamilton going nuts in his rookie season.
That was what a friend asked recently after he sat in the driver’s seat and turned the engine on.
I had to tell him no. The funny thing is that the car engine was on! To be terminologically correct, the engine was “ready”. Yes, we joined the gas mileage-conscious, clean/green generation and bought a hybrid after my recent accident resulted in a total loss on my current car.
Keeping the kid in mind, instead of going for the natural choice of Toyota Prius, we went with the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. So far, it has been great. The listed mileage is 32/28 and we are getting about 26-27 with mixed highway/city driving. Not bad for a 6-cylinder, 210 HP “SUV”.
The engine is so quiet, sometimes it seems like the engine turned off (nightmares of gas-only engines turning off due to cold weather come to mind immediately).
So both of us feel good about the car - from a social perspective and from a personal perspective. And that’s all that matters, right?
It was a relatively busy sporting day for me today, starting with an early morning DVR-ed version of the French Open finals, mid-morning DVR-ed Canadian GP (on Fox, thanks a lot!) and then the Game 2 of the NBA finals in the evening.
I watched the first one almost completely. I could not resist the “30-second skip” on the DVR for some of the boring points in the match, though there were not too many. Nadal is too strong and Federer has only himself to blame for not winning this one. He (Fed) had so many break chances, and if he had converted even a fraction of the chances he had, the story would have been completely different.
But he did not, and Nadal continues his mastery of the French Open. Can’t believe he has not lost a single match at the French Open!!
And then it was on to the F-1 race. Frankly, I am not surprised why I have not missed F-1 so far this year. There is no real “hero”. Excluding the new kid Hamilton, there is really no positive storyline this season. Maybe it is the transition season from Schumy to the next generation, and I certainly hope that is the case, but frankly, Alonso and Massa are just too boring. Kimi has some color and a wild background to make things interesting but after the first race, he has steadily disintegrated and has shown that the last couple of years may not have been McLaren’s fault but actually his.
Of course this Canadian GP was quite eventful and Kubica’s crash was simply unbelievable. With that big a crash, for him to survive and be quite ok in the hospital, shows how far the technology and protection mechanism has come to in the past many years.
In the end it was the new hero in F-1 who won a convincing race - Lewis Hamilton. Congratulations to him, and all the best for the rest of the season!
And finally, the NBA finals. The Spurs are looking just too good and too methodical to create too many problems for themselves this year. Horry is going to get another ring in his collection and the Spurs are going to be the true dynasty in the NBA today.
I am so excited that the Warriors knocked off Dallas tonight!!! I am more excited of course that Dallas lost than that the Warriors won, but both happened, so I am happy!
Isn’t Golden State a fun team to watch? It is unbelievable - you just cannot blink when they are playing (well). Long passes, big threes, fast ball movement.
Australia won the World Cup convincingly, and they deserve all the praise for doing a marvelous job, going unbeaten now for two entire World Cups! What an achievement that is! Granted, the team is almost the same, but to do it and that too without a key bowler, is fantastic.
It was always going to be an uphill climb for Sri Lanka after Australia, riding on Gilly’s masterful knock, got to 280+ in 38 overs. Speaking of a masterful knock, how amazing is it that Australia always finds a way to have one or two such brilliant performances in the big games? They are just too good.
Jayasuriya and Sangakarra gave me some hope of a Sri Lankan fightback, which there was a hint of. But I also knew that once one of them got out, the momentum would be stopped and it would be the end of the chase.
And that is exactly what happened. Sri Lanka ultimately could not keep up with the required run rate and Australia had another final wrapped up.
The question now is, who can challenge Australia? My thought is Australia A. I think Australia’s A team would be better than most, if not all, international teams. Australia/Australia A would be boring to watch for people who follow stars, but would be very exciting to watch for the true cricket lovers.
The day started like any other day - shut off the alarm after 20 snoozes and got up and ready to go to work. Got into the car and started driving.
The traffic on 101 going North was the usual too. Slow going, speed up a little, and back to slow going.
After the typical slowdown near Mountain View, I entered Palo Alto, continuing the slow-and-go. And all of a sudden I hear a loud slamming sound from the back, I get shaken up and my car just stopped.
After 2-3 seconds of being totally blanked out, I realized my adrenaline was pumping, and that it was because I was in a car accident. I had someone rear-end me, and just when I realized that, I heard a sound of a guy running up to me and asking me if I was ok. I was shaken up, but was ok. So I got off the car and told him ok. I could never have imagined I would be in the second lane of highway 101 in the middle of Palo Alto, chatting with another guy with our cars stopped!
He started explaining that he may have looked down for a second to pick up his tea from the cup holder and that’s all it took for him to crash into me. I nodded and said yes, that’s all it takes.
Both of us called 911 and an officer came in about 3 minutes, and asked us to pull over to the shoulder. I told him my car was virtually undrivable because the plastic from under the trunk had almost scraped the tire top. There was no way I could drive. He requested to slowly drive and move the car to the shoulder so that the traffic is not slowed down.
Both of us somehow took our cars to the shoulder. After the usual formalities, the policeman took a statement from both of us and registered the report which he said I could pick up from the police station the next day.
I have never been in such a situation before - I had rear-ended my roommate many years back, but it was at a very slow speed and the damage was minimal. This was bad. Very bad.
So the tow truck came and picked both our cars and took his car to the body shop he liked and since I did not want to mess with the insurance company, I requested that my car be taken to the tow garage at that time.
From there, I went to the rental car company near there, and got myself a rental car.
By that time, it was about 11.30am and I decided to work from home and not go to work. Met with some co-workers for lunch and went back home and iced the neck/back.
Recently I have started playing some cricket at work with some of the guys who try to play every week. I have played for 3 weeks now. Last Friday, the team who we play against (a neighboring company), chickened out at the last moment and so we decided to play an internal friendly.
We split the 11 of us into two teams of 5 each and the 11th person being the “jack” who bats and fields for both the teams. Everyone fields all the time except for the two batsmen.
We were able to play two matches - the first one was 8 overs each and the second one was 6 overs each.
In the second one, I opened the batting needing 32 to win from 6 overs. It came down to 7 off the last over and I was on strike.
I got 2 off the first ball to make it 5 in 5.
The next ball, I gave it a mighty heave and got the ball on my leg and because of that, I missed a wide ball. 5 in 4.
The next ball I got another 2. 3 in 3.
The next ball was sadly a dot ball, with me trying to do something unnecessary. 3 in 2.
The next ball was another dot ball, and now I could not forgive myself for the missed opportunity in the previous ball. 3 needed off the last ball.
I had made up my mind to go for it no matter what. Luckily for me, it was a Chetan Sharma-style full toss on the leg stump which I swung over mid wicket for a four.
A FOUR OFF THE LAST BALL! To win the match!! Yay!
Granted, the game was rank amateur level, and the seriousness was half of what we show when we play a true “match”, but still. A game is a game and I was playing the captain of our team in that final over.
Finally, after what seems like ages, the round robin crap is over and the semi finals are set in the Cricket World Cup 2007.
I pick South Africa upsetting Australia (have to stick to my earlier prediction of South Africa winning and Australia not even making it to the finals!) and Sri Lanka beating New Zealand.
I know I am going against the tide by picking SA over Australia. But it is a matter of one day’s play. And I think SA will play to win whereas Australia will play with their minds set on the finals and lifting the cup again.
New Zealand will lose to Sri Lanka on the mental front. Once again, I have to stick to my perception of the New Zealand team - that it is great one day team on its day, but it has very few days on big game days.
So, Sri Lanka-SA will set up a repeat of the exciting game that happened earlier, with Malinga creating a riot!
The NBA playoffs this year are cruel … I don’t know who to really support. Here are my predictions and related predicaments:
Eastern Conference
1. Detroit - Magic: I know it has been a long time since Magic played in the playoffs, but I see no way Detroit is going to lose 4 games to this team. Though I don’t like the Pistons and would love to see Magic create that upset. No such luck here - Detroit in 4 or 5
2. Wizards - Cleveland: I have not seen much of either, but the LeBron hype machine annoys me a little bit. Don’t care as much as I care about Detroit losing the other series. Wizards are a little short-handed, so I will pick Cleveland in 5 or 6
3. New Jersey - Toronto: Who cares?
4. Chicago - Miami: I would love to see Miami repeat but I know that is absolutely unrealistic. Chicago is a tough team this year and I suspect they will win this series and knock the defending champions out. Chicago in 7
Western Conference
1. Dallas - Golden State: I do not like Dallas. At all. Actually I don’t like them since the days of Don Nelson (who had said he hates everything about the Lakers). But here is my first predicament - Dallas losing would mean Nellie winning. And getting all the credit for turning things around at Golden State. I’ll take that over the overhyped Dallas Mavericks. Golden State in 6
2. Phoenix - Lakers: I would love to see Phoenix go all the way and win it this time. But sadly, here is the second predicament. It will be at the expense of my Lakers. Oh well, let us be realistic. This Lakers team has no chance. Phoenix in 4 or 5
3. Denver - San Antonio: I would love to see Melo and Iverson for one more series, but again, it would have to be at the expense of the team I would like to win it all. They have already won the first one, but I think Denver will not be able to win 4 against the Spurs. Popovich is going to turn it around pretty quickly for the Spurs who seemed to be sleep walking the other night. Spurs in 6
4. Houston - Utah: This Utah team has completely spiraled down in the last few games and even though I would love to see Sloan win another playoff series, I think I would pay to see T-Mac for one more series. Houston in 5 or 6
Will talk about the next round after this round is over …
Between the social activities and family responsibilities and in general, a lack of decent topics to write out, I have completely blogged out. It means I have had no inclination to blog much even though I had some time, but frankly I did not have that much time.
I hope to get back into rhythm now that the cricket semis are here as well as the NBA playoffs.
Completely missed writing about this … McLaren Mercedes is back! From all the engine and car reliability issues that they had last year, it is a significant move up to P2/P3 in Australia and P1/P2 in Malaysia.
This Lewis Hamilton kid seems to be good, proving his P3 in his debut race was no fluke by finishing second after a huge run by Kimi.
Meanwhile, it is still way early days in the season but it seems it may be an exciting season this one. I wish I can avail of some alternative to bloody Comcast because I just don’t believe I should be paying as much as I would have to pay, to get Speed channel (and not get the NFL network in that package because they don’t have enough bandwidth!) …
In any case, hope to catch some of the races that CBS tends to show in the middle of the year.
As I read yesterday’s cricket headlines, I could not imagine the amount of bad news that started coming out. It shocked me that there was a problem between the senior members of the team and the team management (Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid). I would have thought it was coach vs the team or some members of the team against some other members of the team, but this clearly seemed like a division in the team.
The sad part is that the “senior” players referred to, were Bajji, Sehwag, Saurav and shockingly, Sachin. I always thought Sachin was the non-political types, but in fact his interview was published by TOI and he started talking when otherwise he would have simply gone home, taken a vacation and came back to practice when required. The other three were close without a doubt, so I don’t doubt that group. But how did Sachin end up in that group? Also, if I were Sachin I would not be speaking out with Bajji and Sehwag because their places in the side have been questioned for the longest time and if some selector with some guts comes to select the team, they are the first 2 I would fire. So it is quite surprising that Sachin first of all is becoming political, and secondly, is ready to be associated with a group of 4 where two are about to be fired from the team.
The next bit of bad news I read this morning is that Greg Chappell has requested that his contract not be extended and it seems to be triggered by Sachin’s interview. I think Greg Chappell was a must-have for this team of babus. I have already written about it in the past and I continue to say so. What the players don’t like about him, behind the scenes, is something I cannot comment on. But if they don’t like his disciplinary attitude and taskmaster-ish ways, then it is silly to protest against him. Of course, if he really is a power-hungry control freak who overrides the captain’s thoughts and ways, I agree, there is no need for him. But I doubt he was like the latter.
The other bad news is that the task force created by the BCCI to talk with the captain and the (ex) coach, contains Sunil Gavaskar. He clearly is not an unbiased party and he should have been left out of it. The report that this task force produces, is not going to be impartial and I for one will certainly “send it to the shredder” without reading it. As a result, there won’t be a decent recommendation for the next steps to be taken. And we will be back to the drawing board, but this time, without anything to write with!
I am not going to talk about the next steps and stuff here (maybe another post later), but I can only hope that we do not go the “old Indian” way or the “Pakistan” way. The old Indian way would be to chop and change and bring the sentimental captain back (Sachin Tendulkar). The Pakistan way would be to make sure there are no foreign coaches in the future. Ever! Neither of these are required, and hope there is some sense in the decision-makers.
Speaking of Sachin Tendulkar, there are a lot of rumors I hear about his performance and his attitude and now of course I read his vocal opposition to the coach’s ways. Is there an agenda? Is there someone pulling some strings behind the scenes? I know he is indebted to Sunil Gavaskar, but could be so bad and completely out of character that he would actually informally “fix” the games so India loses terribly in the World Cup and as a result Greg Chappell ends up having a bad legacy in India and is buried forever? Could he?
And of course, an interesting perk to Sachin in that conspiracy theory is Rahul Dravid may be fired from captaincy and Sachin may end up getting it to end his career as a captain of the team.
I would be very very shocked if that were true, and I would definitely end up NOT watching/following Indian cricket AT ALL. But you know, wonders never cease, especially when we are talking hundreds of crores of rupees!
I was extremely excited to read this morning, that Zee head honcho Subhash Chandra has decided to form the Indian Cricket League, ICL, as a professional cricket league separate from the BCCI’s structure.
While I am not a big fan of professional leagues like the NFL and the NBA because they truly do not encourage loyalty, I am also sick of having to play domestic cricket for your “state” side. Automatically, as a player playing for a “state” side, there is a tendency to believe things do not need to be fixed immediately. For example, if there ia a fielding problem, I doubt if someone is going to step up and say we need a fielding coach. If the team loses in the first round or worse, gets relegated to the second tier, the coach may not be fired at all. And of course, there is absolutely no passion among the fans today and it could be because of lack of interest in the domestic circuit but more interestingly, it could be because of lack of exposure to who is playing. How many of us know the #15 player in the Indian team? How many of us know, on the other hand, the captain of the Mumbai Ranji team? Worse, the winner of this year’s Ranji team?
But with the creation of a television network-sponsored league, there is an expectation now that there will be extensive coverage on a well-known television network, and since it is going to be a professionally run league, there will be accountability. The babus of our cricket team and the ones who aspire to be there, cannot simply say they are going to pass on the domestic circuit because now that is going to be their bread and butter. The professional league will then also need to have professional support staff. No more nominated managers and physios acting like trainers. If it is anything like the other professional sports, there will be a strict contract whereby the cricketer may not be able to do skydiving, for example. In short, the teams' interests will drive the cricketers' interests.
And those are all the good points. Not all is good though. Playing for the “state” does inculcate some sort of loyalty within the team. So when Sairaj Bahutule went to play for Maharashtra, there was some level of disappointment as well as a feeling that he had ditched “his team”. Whereas in a professional scenario, trades are part of the game. You play for one team one day and due to any situation with you or the team, play for another team another day. You are simply a resource that has to start working at 100% from day one and you may have many day ones in your career.
But besides the loyalty thought, there seems to be nothing wrong with a professionally run league and in fact, it may be a good idea to keep the BCCI on its toes, even though Zee has said that they are not competing with BCCI but complementing them. I don’t know how BCCI will let its contracted players play in a separate league with different commitments, but we’ll see how this plan unfolds and what happens next. I can’t wait to see it happen, if it materializes.
Yes, I said it. The tournament has lost a lot of the luster due to the absence of India (and to a certain extent, combined with the absence of Pakistan). So grudgingly, I follow the scores, just to keep my fantasy team adjusted to current form.
Some of the highlights so far:
1. Australia seem to be unbeatable at current form. It is scary to think that they have beaten everyone, where except for Hayden, there have been different star performers every game! No wonder McGrath claimed they can go unbeaten through the tournament. They are not my favorites when I think with my heart, but they are when I think with my brain (and if there is money to be put!) ;-) 2. South Africa is a close second among the teams and probably in their best form currently. They have only lost to Australia and they can comfort themselves that at least it is the clear #1 team in the Cup. 3. Sri Lanka may be the dark horse in the tournament. Before Sri Lankan fans burn me, I would like to clarify why I say that - I think they have been hidden under the aura of Australia and it may be good for Sri Lanka to have it that way. The pressure will be lesser and once you reach the semis, it is anyone’s game on any day. For now, I am keen to see what happens when they play Australia on April 16th. Of course we know how exciting the Sri Lanka/South Africa ended up being! 4. New Zealand may be the only other team with any chance of making some noise. Yes, sorry England and English fans - you guys are just not consistent and talented enough to beat the above three teams. You will be a distant 5th or maybe even 6th after West Indies, though it looks less likely the way the West Indians are playing!
Bangladesh and Ireland are probably just happy to be where they are, and should not be a cause for concern to the top 4.
One trend I have seen among the Indians at work and otherwise, is that they have stopped caring about the World Cup in general. The standard question I get is “So what the heck is going on with the World Cup? I stopped following you know .. damn .. those idiots!” and I think they assume I am following it closely so they can get some updates :-)
Some other friends were telling me that they were having trouble getting rid of semis and finals tickets they have since the package they bought included many games and they were not going to hang around for the semis and the finals. Can you imagine - there are tickets for the semis and the finals and no one wants them! And its not like the stadiums in the West Indies are all 100K capacities! Its just sad for the country and the board that such a spectacle is reduced to such shameful mess. Even Brian Lara was disappointed with the attendance for the HOME team!!
On a lighter note, I am languishing in the Cricinfo Fantasy League because I kept Chanderpaul for a long time and I had Stuart Clark for a while in the Super 8’s. Dropped them and got Graeme Smith and Makhaya Ntini. Let’s see how it goes now.
The Florida Gators are double champions this year! Congratulations to them. They played awesome basketball. Unfortunately, I did not see their BCS National Championship game against Ohio State, but I saw some of their NCAA Finals game against the same team and I saw most of their game against ucla.
I must say, this team is rock solid. What a terrific defense they have, and if the other team is crowding the basket there are enough weapons to shoot from outside and kill the opponent with 3’s. That’s exactly what they did against ucla and from the little I saw in the Finals, that’s what they were doing against Ohio State too.
What a year for them, to come back and defend their title from last year. Great coaching, and good use of the talent pool. And of course, superb execution.
Congratulations once again!
And not to jinx it but can some other team repeat what Florida did this year - be National Champions in two prominent sports in the same year? I am not saying anything. :-)
So from all that I have read so far about the iMacs, especially the dual core intel-based imacs, I thought it is a must-have for anyone interested in the new digital lifestyle. And with the new addition to our family, we have been a little busy with some video recordings.
My Dell laptop started screaming for help when I tried to import the 30-minute miniDVD into Roxio Easy Media Creator 8. First of all, it took 45 minutes to import a 30-minute clip, which sounds unreasonable to me. And the laptop is not that old - it is only 1.5 years old and it was not on battery power, but AC power.
After one or two such experiences, I started thinking about possibly getting a mac mini or imac. I went to the Apple store and talked with some of the sales people there and they talked about how easily and quickly I will be able to import the videos into iMovie and I was almost sold then. I asked them what was the return policy in case it did not work out for me and they said that for any opened box, there was a 15% restocking fee! So I walked out of the store with nothing.
Then, I started scanning other stores' return policies and found out that Best Buy had a reasonable return policy for desktops - no restocking fee if returned within 14 days. So I went to Best Buy #1 near my office and asked for the iMac and they said they do not stock it. So I stopped by the Best Buy #2 on the way to home, and they said the same thing. They asked me to order it online. So I came home, ordered it online and chose in-store pickup as the delivery option.
I picked it up yesterday and came home and immediately hooked it up. I needed to resolve two important issues - can I run windows xp reasonably fast, hopefully side-by-side with OS X, and of course how quickly does it import the movies and how easy is it to clip some parts and create a decent movie package.
So the first thing I did after hooking up (took no time at all to hook it up) is download Parallels trial version and installed Windows XP with SP2 on parallels. That step really took no time (maybe 15-20 minutes?) and I was all set with my windows xp. It looked and felt like a PC and I was able to browse the web from there. I tried to set up a PPTP VPN connection to the wife’s office because she would end up using it for work. It did not connect. Bummer #1. I said lets forget about VPN for now, and let’s check the more important thing - videos.
The first big surprise in my video importing experience was that slot-loading optical drives that come with the new macs do not support miniDVD! My Sony camcorder writes to miniDVD and since I do not have an option to return that anymore, I had to make do with miniDVD. But the iMac would not support it out of the box. There were plenty of suggestions online about what to do in order to read the miniDVD including buying an external DVD (tray-type) drive! Are you kidding me? I want to lose the wires around the computer and reduce the clutter in general and the suggestion to work around the miniDVD issue is to buy another piece of hardware with the appropriate cables? SHUT UP!
Another option I entertained was to use the camcorder as a USB drive, but no matter what I tried the mac just did not recognize my camcorder over USB. I pretty much gave up after 45 minutes of trying to get the damn thing recognized and realized it was not going to work and even though the machine is a fabulous piece of hardware, I was not ready for it yet.
Maybe my expectations were raised by the ads on TV that make it seem like connecting a new piece of hardware is a pain with Windows but is a breeze with macs. I had heard/read so many good things about the macintosh OS and the simplicity of use.
I may be the exception, but the imac just did not work for me. I am going to return it to the store today.
Note: This post was composed before the Bermuda/Bangladesh match today. Regardless, the point remains the same. India played like losers. They just did not bat well enough against Sri Lanka on a great batting pitch for me to hope for a Bermuda upset on Bangladesh. They bowled ok in that match, but the batsmen let us down once again (after the Bangaldesh debacle).
It was a bad loss against a team which was truly beatable on the day. And if you consider that it was a must-win for India, the way they batted was simply unacceptable. What were the top order thinking? Uthapa and Ganguly seemed to be in a lot of hurry to score quick runs and Ganguly did not realize even after losing Uthapa to a bad shot that he needs to be there till the end. He gave up with a lazy shot. What was the rationale?
Anyway, even though there is a theoretical chance that India can make it to the Super 8, I would believe it would be unfair for India to go through because of the way they have played.
And a final note - looks like once again I jinxed India. I “worked from home” and made it a big deal at work the previous day, and as usual overplanned the whole thing. And now, I am afraid the world cup package on willow is not going to be worth it :-)
Now, on to the thoughts on the match:
Objective #1 - Restrict Jayasuriya and the other big guns from getting a big total The good: It was a great opening spell in which not only did Ajit, Zaheer and Munaf keep the batsmen quiet, but also got a few wickets at the top to continue the pressure on the middle order. My fear was that Sri Lanka, after being put in to bat, would get off to a flier and make 300-320 and easy target to achieve. From the first few overs, it was clear that at least it would not be easy to get to 300-320+ target.
Objective #2 - After restricting initially, don’t let them get away to a huge score The good: The innings was mainly controlled by India. The bowlers all did their job well and kept the batsmen in check. There were no huge overs and there was no real momentum built for a true slog over launch. The bad: There were not enough breakthroughs taken in the middle to truly cause a collapse. Harbajan was useless and too predictable. If we were ok with predictability, we should have pursued the Kumble option, where he could at least slip a fast flipper through to get a wicket or two. Of course, the last few overs were pathetic because instead of limiting Sri Lanka to maybe 220, India had to live with a target of 250+.
Objective #3 - Get a decent start to launch the chase The good: Not much good here. The only thing we can talk about is the positivity shown by both Ganguly and Uthapa. But I think the exuberance was ok till it caused their downfall. The ugly: The way in which the top order got out. Uthapa was living a charmed life and the wily Vaas eventually got him with his mind. Uthapa was bent on hitting Vaas straight through and succeeded once or twice and Vaas finally got the ball closer to Robin’s body making him scoop it up straight at the bowler which ended up being a nice reflex catch. Ganguly was also looking very impatient. Unlike his previous many innings where he dropped anchor and started to accelerate only after settling in completely, here he started stepping out randomly. This was one innings where he should have hung around, being the only man in form, and should have let the other end keep hitting out and maintaining the strike rate. He would have been ideal against Jayasuirya’s spin in the middle. But he got out lazily and created a sudden sense of panic in the team. Sachin probably got a wake up call about his age with the ball he got out to. He had no business to miss the ball due to the pace, but it did seem like he was just a little late to play at the ball, causing an inside edge to the stumps. Once again, just when he needed to fire, he did not. I don’t know, this inning and his form of dismissal may end up creating a bad World Cup legacy for Sachin like Gavaskar’s dismissal off DeFreitas. Yuvraj’s run out was unfortunate, and definitely at the wrong time (is there a right time for a run out???). Dhoni’s wicket was also a pathetic shot attempt - why did he have to try such an extravagant shot off the back foot against the world class spinner? Can’t expect much from anyone else down the order, but Ajit’s dismissal was also quite sad. He tried to hit out the first few balls and I think I saw Dravid at the other end come and ask him to not hit rash shots, but he did not listen and ended up stepping out and hitting the ball straight to a fielder.
Objective #4 - Win the match and virtually eliminate Bangladesh from contention Mission a thorough failure!
I know that it is hard to overlook one of the worst performances we have seen from the Indian team, especially given that the nucleus of the team is completely going to change come next World Cup, but now at least I can watch the rest of the games with a real outsider’s point of view. :-)
Yea, take that, South Africa. If you could demolish your opponents, we could too! The Indians came back big time against an opponent who was just happy to qualify for the World Cup. Now the Indian team has created a whole bunch of optimism in fans' hearts. Now their destiny is part in their own hands (beat Sri Lanka for sure) and part in others' hands (if Bermuda can beat Bangladesh or Bangladesh can beat Sri Lanka, for example).
In any case, yesterday’s match was worth watching because of the execution - everyone (except Uthapa) in the batting order fired and created a world cup record total. The acceleration at the end was fantastic and I even watched the whole innings again after going home!
What sucked was that the bowling gave up runs and was not able to close it out early. Kumble should have been brought in earlier and he could have cleaned up the innings.
Anyway, now that the net run rate is sort of healthy, India has something to play for in the tournament rather than just wait and watch.
Some key thoughts on the game …
Objective #1 - Bat first and bat big to get a bump in the net run rate The good: Lost the toss and were invited to bat first. I can’t imagine India making up a decent net run rate while chasing. So thanks for the gift, Bermuda captain. The bad: Uthapa failed again and it meant another one day innings for India without a decent start. The ugly: In retrospect of course it was not such a bad thing, but I really was shocked that Sehwag was included in the team, and more so when I saw him walk out at 1-down! What are Dravid and the team management (no, only Dravid) seeing of Sehwag in the nets and off the field that they keep taking him in the XI?? I know he scored a century and now he is all set for another year or something, but still, it is a question of principles after all. I am disgusted with that though as a fan, I am ok because he fired and got India off to a great start to set up the unbelievable finish! The great: What a finish to the innings. Yuvraj and then Sachin really crushed the bowling in the last 10-15 overs. Unbelievably clean hitting in the death. Made for awesome viewing!
Objective #2 - Get them out quickly and again, bump up the net run rate The good: India scored the highest margin of victory in one day internationals. The bad: Why couldn’t we finish them off earlier? Kumble was the trump card because no one in the Bermuda team perhaps knows his bowling and most likely no one has ever faced him in person. He could have run through the innings. I think he was brought in quite late. We could have had them out for under 100. It would still not have bumped up the net run rate above Sri Lanka’s but we would have come mighty close.
Objective #3 - After the debacle against Bangladesh lock up a big win Mission accomplished!
Now, we need to take care of business against Sri Lanka and of course hope for some help from Bermuda and maybe Bangladesh! :-)
I may need to subscribe to Speed Channel after all. Looks like the first race of the season was an exciting one, and Kimi won! Kimi won! Yay!
I have always liked the guy. Unfortunately, he was getting tripped up by the reliability of the McLaren car. Hopefully, Ferrari keeps up its technical abilities and supports Kimi like it did Schumy.
And what a story Lewis Hamilton has been. I hope he is not a one-race-wonder type of thing. It is not easy to get podiums in F-1 today, much less on your debut!
And one final thought - looks like Alonso is not going anywhere after giving up his championship-winning team Renault. He was on the podium with the same McLaren that Kimi kept crashing out with.
Still not sure if I am going to sign up or not. I am leaning towards no for now, but who knows?
I knew there was some problem brewing. I always get that feeling about India games (and in a similar fashion, about USC games). The feeling I get when I over-plan the viewing of the game itself. Plan a sports bar meeting. Or some drinking games. Or simply idli-dosa breakfast along with the game on TV (as opposed to my internet-only subscription).
That feeling is that India (or my favorite team in other sports) is going to have a bad day out. I tried to slow it down towards the latter part of the week by forcing myself and the cousin whose house I saw the match at, to behave “normally”. Oh by the way he feels (corrected since: he felt) that India will win the World Cup this year! So naturally the expectations were raised for this supposed gimme game. Of course, as we know, things did not quite turn out the way it seemed to have been set up.
Some of my thoughts (besides extreme anger at the team’s performance):
Objective #1 - Pocket the win The ugly: It was not only a loss, but it was a loss in ALL departments of the game. India was never in the game except for a very brief period where Yuvraj and Ganguly seemed to have some control over the bowling. Starting from the top order collapse to the lack of a decent middle consolidation to the surrender of the lower order except the 10th wicket partnership, there was really nothing in the batting. The bowling failed to turn on the screws when needed and to add insult to injury, the teenagers from the Bangladesh team were actually stepping out to India’s pace bowlers and whacking them all over the ground. And finally, the Bangladesh fielding saved I would say at least 20 runs in the field, whereas India failed to convert a few half chances that came their way. Pathetic loss to start the campaign and frankly, I have written the team off as long as Sehwag continues to be part of the XI. And that brings me to the next point …
Objective #2 - Bat well and accumulate a good net run rate in case of tie breaker situation Here I need to start with the most burning situation first and therefore, go in reverse order. The ugly: Virender Sehwag. That’s all I can say. He was almost run out without facing a single ball for lack of basics like dragging bat in the crease and rather trying to jump over the fielder. And then, in trying to cut a ball too close to him, chopped it on to the stumps! Un-freaking-believable shot from a guy who clearly needs to get back to the drawing board and save his PR money for when he actually gets back to some sort of form. Seriously, India really needs to drop this guy from the XI. I believe Pathan at #6 is better than Sehwag anywhere in the order and of course in pure batting terms, Dinesh Karthick will be better anywhere in the order than Sehwag. The bad: The top order unnecessarily put themselves into a hole by trying to exaggerate the devil in the pitch. At the same time, Robin Uthappa and the lower middle order got out to unnecessary shots and create more pressure for everyone else. The good: It continues to be the return to the team of Saurav Ganguly. What a turnaround he has had! I, among many others, had proclaimed that he is out of sight and therefore out of mind. Now he is not only back in the team, but essentially the only batsman in form today! And of course, he is one of the few stars in my Fantasy Team ;-) Also another good thing with the batting was Zaheer and Munaf who showed it was not that bad to bat on the wicket.
Objective #3 - Bowl and field well to show the world that defense wins games The bad: The initial few overs were key but the young opener (I deliberately refer to him without name) had other ideas. Even though Zaheer got a wicket, both he and Ajit strayed once in a while and it gave Bangladesh enough comfort in an over to chance their arms here and there. The fielding was the other aspect that classifies as ‘bad’. Dravid should have somehow created a catch out of that lunge at mid off. Dhoni should have scooped up that dying caught behind chance. So the defense showed it was not up for the challenge and it let some young guns in the opposition take over the game. Of course, it is not their fault that India lost. If the batsmen had put up 30-40 more runs, it would have been a better total to defend.
The bottom line was that India had absolutely no answer to Bangladesh’s energy, fighting spirit and overall preparedness for this game.
So where do we go from here? We have a theoretical chance of making it to the next stage if we beat Bermuda (and it has to be BIG) and then of course, we have to beat Sri Lanka. Of course, there is one other thing that we can hope for Bangladesh beats Sri Lanka, but I don’t think that is going to happen.
As for the next game’s team, I hope Sehwag is dropped. Also, we may see Kumble coming in for Ajit. I fear that Dravid may give Sehwag one more chance against Bermuda thinking he can strike his form against the lowly team. I hope it does not happen.
On a big sidenote (and hopefully not inviting any flames), I am glad that at least our rivals Pakistan are out of the Cup losing to Ireland! :-) For quite some time, Indian fans had only Pakistan to watch if their team was out - did we beat Pakistan, and is Pakistan still alive in the Cup? And in this case, the former will not happen but the latter is in our favor.
So for now, here’s hoping that India scores a big win tomorrow!
South Africa totally demolished the Netherlands today. They were expected to win, yes, but the way they went about it, showed that they do not consider any opponent less serious than the others.
To start with, the game was shortened to 40 overs. South Africa batted first and unfortunately, my browser had the England/NZ game on. After a while, I checked the score for the South Africa game and realized that it was an exciting game too. So I simply had 2 games going on with audio on in both the games. The reason being I was at work and I could not afford to keep a cricket match as my “primary browser window” ;-) So I would just wait for the excitement in the commentary and switch to the appropriate window whenever needed.
Herschelle Gibbs' rampage was worth watching … luckily, I switched to that game just when he had completed the world record of 6 sixes in an over so I was able to see it in replay right after he did it.
And that was not the only exciting batting effort! Boucher came out and hit the fastest fifty in one dayers and I think if it was a 50-over game, many more records could have been made/broken.
It was a fantastic batting effort, where Kallis' century was almost a sidenote.
The result was of course beyond any doubt and South Africa completed the rout. After Sri Lanka’s destruction of Bermuda and this game, questions would surely pop up if there is any meaning in including so many smaller teams in the World Cup.
Meanwhile elsewhere, England top order collapsed and only some small face-saving partnerships made it possible to get England to a decent total. Pietersen seems to be a machine which goes on and on but if the rest of the pieces are rusted, like it is the case with England, his efforts are usually going to be in vain. His fifty was good (I have him in my fantasy team!), but all useless in the end.
New Zealand went about the chase rather casually but in the end Scott Styris steadied the ship and took them home. Damn, how did I overlook Styris for my Fantasy League?? I guess Tikolo wasn’t that bad a choice ;-)
So England have an uphill battle now, and so does Pakistan. Let’s see how the games unfold.
