First of all, there was no Shane Bond. Also, there was no Vettori.

Yet, Dravid was not able to go the distance and win it for India. So much for him being the perpetual matchwinner for India.

Sehwag got among the runs, but again, there was no Bond to take him out early.

Ganguly failed yet again. God, when is he going to get out of his slump?

Kaif capitalized on the opportunity and played a good innings.

Yuvraj got out lbw to Patel. I did not see the game, so I can’t comment on whether he was or was not comfortable against the spin. He usually isn’t, so I won’t be surprised if he got out trying to sweep or something.

Agarkar got 2 wickets - for those who were waiting for a flop show this time after his 4-fer in the match against Zim must be disappointed.

So as expected, it will be an India/NZ final. With NZ at full strength, I doubt if this Indian side will be able to make a dent.

Stumbled upon DesiPundit, a great site for quick news related to India. One of the more recent posts were about Bangalore’s bag of woes and it really looks like the situation is getting really out of hand.

Kamala’s blog rants about the infrastructure problems and of course we know of Azim Premji declaring Bangalore a national calamity and threatening to pull out of there if things didn’t improve.

Some tech bigwigs decided to pull out of BangaloreIT.com (or BangaloreIT.in as it is called now). Seems like a lot of the companies are p-eed off at the promises that were made to them and have not been fulfilled. Damn those politicians - so typical of them to say something to push things out for a while. I am sure that now that a ruckus has been created again, they will come up with some strange 2-year plan and hope that the companies will forget about it.

But the Silicon Valley of India needs to really wake up because it is not only the city’s pride at stake, but the entire country’s reputation of providing a great place to work that is being threatened.

Buckle up, Bangalore. Improve now or regret forever. The China threat is looming and the one place that India does not need to give in to overdevelopment and underplanning is your city. Stand up!!

What’s up with Gap? Who is in their IT department managing this supposedly exciting new site upgrade? They have been out since Aug 24 and have no real idea of when the site is going to be back up and operational.

The site upgrade better be so good that it makes people sign in and buy a lot of stuff because 2-3 weeks of downtime of a corporate website is unheard of, especially from a retailer like Gap.

Or are they setting a trend where having a website offline for an extended period of time is a-ok?

I had predicted that Mig would be the next one to go and that Ty may last longer.

But it was quite shocking that Ty was let go. And that comment he made at the end about how the voters don’t like him because he is black and that he is too soulful, was quite emotional for him. I really felt for him. He was usually one of the best performers every night and yet he kept coming back to the bottom 3.

I also think that Mark Burnett productions probably felt that they should keep Jordis in the running to keep the male to female ratio in somewhat of a balance, and probably keep JD to have the drama going on.

Either way, it is sad that a talented singer like Ty is gone.

But I was right about Suzie getting the encore call! Yay! So from back-to-back bottom 3’s, she went to back-to-back encore calls. That’s quite a turnaround.

But you know what, last few episodes (including the vh1 episodes, of course) seem to be ‘Suzie McNeil show’ episodes….and no wonder she is getting the voters out :-)

And one final thought - I think Marty is probably the most mature individual out there.

As promised, some pictures of Sania Mirza with her bling showing. These are of course not mine, and just got them from the internet. Also, I could not find any good pics of hers from the US Open.

Finally, some ‘journalist’ (aka mainstream media, MSM) hints at what I have been saying for quite some time now - that Andy Roddick does not really have game, but is more a product of the media hype machine.

US is desperate to find some hometown heroes. Tennis is increasingly becoming an international sport with players from more and more countries making it to the main draws of Grand Slam events. In fact today I saw Sharapova playing someone from Madagascar!! (as a sidenote, all USA Network could come up with about Madagascar was their giant hissing cockroaches)

And whichever decent player comes around, the media jumps on them and pumps them up to no end. Roddick is certainly one of those hyped up players. I mean, he has a serve, but no all round game. He cannot for sure beat the top ranked players with just media hype. He’s got to perform and perform consistently to be able to justify the front page coverage he gets all the time.

Overrated.

For a change, he has decided to rest and come back only when he is 100% ready.

I guess one of the factors must be the fact that it is Zimbabwe and not Australia. But in any case, I am glad that he is not going to rush into coming back.

As for his replacement, I have not heard much of Dheeraj Jadhav, so I can’t comment. But I guess Kaif and Yuvraj will both be in the XI now and Jadhav may be limited to nets and drinks.

I am not a ‘news’ breaker. My blog is not ‘live’ blog. So this may have already shown up in various blogs already, but I will ‘report’ it anyway.

Sania Mirza has won her second round match at the US Open and becomes the first Indian woman to reach that stage. Ever.

Nice.

Since I took the day off today, I was fortunate enough to see some of her game. Before I get into the game, I’d like the mention that USA Network commentators were raving about Sania. Also, she got a match on Louis Armstrong stadium and did get featured on the USA Network’s coverage despite the fact that Sharapova was playing on the other court.

So having seen her for the first time in action I can say a few things:

1. She does have some power - some of her shots ripped through and I was quite impressed. Her frame does not truly suggest that she could generate that much power.
2. Conditions were quite windy so some of it could be attributed to the wind, but she has a lot of unforced errors. At various important stages of the match, she committed a silly error and gave up momentum.
3. She is certainly not comfortable at the net and with overheads. I know both are special skills and a lot of tennis players are not comfortable at the net or with overheads, and Sania is just one of them. Again, the windy conditions could be a factor there too.
4. She has an air of confidence around her. She does not look like an 18-year old playing her first US Open. (Is it her first US Open?)
5. She has a lot of bling on her! There was so much talk of Serena’s bling, but Sania’s earrings show a lot of bling too! I will try to look for some pics of her and post them to this blog later.

It is heartening to see that she does have the fundamentals to go deep into tournaments and I won’t be surprised if she keeps performing like this or better in the next few years. And I also hope that she creates more tennis players, female in particular, in India. And there is the Russian female revolution to use as inspiration. Now that sponsors are willing to throw some money at them, and with the overdose of cricket, maybe tennis could be an interesting career option!

I was a little skeptical, I will admit. But I think Suzie McNeil completely nailed it. The house band was classic and created a fantastic atmosphere for that song (and others).

I would say Suzie is getting the encore call tonight.

I worship Pink Floyd. So when I saw last week that Wish You Were Here was one of the songs for this week, I was hoping it is not butchered like Jordis butchered Dream On last time around.

But I was first of all relieved that Marty was performing that song. And of course, the rendition was quite a good one. And with the extra string music and the choir joining in, the version sounded awesome.

And I have to say it once more - the house band is excellent!

It was a very good night. Pretty much all of them performed well. I still stick with my previous assessment that it will be Mig’s turn to go this time. He was good, but I guess he was probably the worst of the best.

I would say the bottom 3 may be JD, Mig and perhaps Jordis.

Marty’s performance of Wish You Were Here was also very good. Till Suzie performed, I thought he would get the encore call.

But Suzie’s performance of Bohemian Rhapsody was fantastic - I think she will get the encore call AGAIN!

After spending some time over the weekend at FreshBlog and the network of links from there, I was able to set up my blog so that I could start tagging posts under various keywords (categories).

Once I set most of my historical posts with some relevant tags, I hope to create a drop down on the right, which will help readers (and myself!) to get to all posts with certain keywords, quickly and easily.

Currently, you can go from any post’s “Filed In” section and click on any of the tags and it will take you to my del.icio.us page with the posts that match that tag listed. Clicking on any of the results there will bring you back to this blog.

Also, the little ‘Add to Delicious’ link at the bottom of all posts will let you add my posts to your bookmarks with your own tags. Enjoy!

Many many thanks to FreshBlog!

There was a comment made on one of my earlier posts where I said Dravid failed again and the gentleman informed me that he had scored some fifties recently and all that.

But I think it is fair to say that given the lofty standards he has set, scoring under 20 against a hapless Zimbabwe attack is a failure on his part.

I have chronicled his innings so far and have tried to make a focal point:

* He is dependable, but we tend to get blinded by his successes and ignore his failures. This is perfectly ok with any player, but I think when we compare his performances and Sachin’s, for some reason, Sachin’s are always ‘discounted’. I don’t like it, and hence I had to take this step.

And I think I am making the point. He either has scored against minnows (West Indies) or has failed to take India to the win. Just what the Sachin bashers used to talk about his innings all the time.

Sure, India was expected to beat them. And sure, they bowled well to destroy them with 65 all out.

But was the batting up to the mark? No. It proved that India still has a lot of work to do up the order. The middle order also seems to be sputtering. 200-odd vs Zimbabwe is just not a good thing.

So India proved that they deserve to be ranked higher than Zimbabwe and the bowling will probably get a much-needed morale boost. But I think it is the batsmen that need more of a boost in confidence and morale.

But hey, a victory is after all a victory. Sometimes these things can be quite weird - maybe it will help get the team into some sort of a habit.

And pigs will fly. :-)

Is it me or it just seems like 90% of the musicians are hip-hop/rap artists? There were so many artists that I have never heard of and had names that I would strictly laugh off, that it felt strange.

Kelly Clarkson tried to show a rocker image and I don’t think it worked too well for her.

There was a real overdose of Diddy aka P Diddy aka Puff Daddy aka whatever.

The Killers performed Mr. Brightside from some hotel, and that was a good performance.

Green Day was ok.

All the collaborations were so-so. In fact some of them I skipped through on my DVR.

All in all, I think it was a good idea to have DVR-ed it because I would have given up on it within 10 minutes :-)

Saw the extra episode of Rockstar:INXS this evening and am curious to see how Suzie’s version of the Queen classic turns out. Not sure what others are singing but I know for sure that JD has to have a killer performance or else he may be out.

And from the recording clinic I realized that maybe my picks JD and Marty may not be truly ‘right for INXS’. JD was an utter disaster and he seems to be a slacker - don’t think INXS is going to like that attitude as well as work ethic. And Marty is forcing a modern sound on INXS but he does not realize that a) he is too loud for a band like INXS and b) INXS has not really moved on to the new rock scene; their song both the earlier unnamed song and the new one that they made everyone record, are both kinda mellow and like the old INXS.

I still think though, that Suzie is the leading contendor if they are ok with a female lead and it may end up being a toss up between Ty and Marty if they are going with a male lead.

England has really ripped open the Aussie heart. Their batting has been so good, the Aussies are looking in their pockets, trying to find a way to get some wickets. Ponting had to call upon himself to get wickets, which he did, thankfully for Australia.

229/4 at the end of day 1 was sort of an ok end of the day for Australia. They must have hoped that if they get a couple of early wickets, that they could restrict the first innings total.

Neither of that happened, and England was able to pile up 477. Flintoff probably would be the man of the series, adding a quick century to his name.

And then, I am not sure what happened, but Australia came out completely defensive. I have not seen this happen in a long long time. But the bottom line is that Australia are probably just hoping to not lose the Ashes.

They just lost the woefully out of form Hayden and the problems at the top continue.

So let’s see: Bowling has no firepower, at least not without McGrath. Fielding has given up some easy catches. And the batting has not fired much.

Kinda makes me think I am talking about the Indian team! Did not think that would happen with Australia.

So there is no reason for Dravid fans (most of them also Sachin bashers) to say that Dravid is India’s savior and such. He has not done much meaningful this season and he continues to flop.

But that is not to say that the other top and middle order bats were good. They were all miserable, and/or Bond was too good. I have started not liking the much cliched “The name is Bond, Shane Bond”.

I did not see the match, so I don’t know how the wickets fell and who was responsible. But all I can see is that the Indian innings was at 44-8 at some point and that is not pleasant at all.

This team has reached new lows now and someone has to give that shot of enthusiasm and positivity from somewhere. Desperately.

Every week, Rockstar:INXS keeps impressing me more and more. I keep comparing it to the obvious comparison to it - American Idol, and then I also compare it to the other reality-based competition-style TV shows. And there are so many things Rockstar:INXS does so much better than the others:

1. Songs are all classic rock songs. American Idol can get weird in terms of choice of songs.
2. Nothing is too predictable. Like the choice of original songs last time. Like the unplugged night with ballads the other time around.
3. There is no drama among the judges. Dave Navarro is pretty darn good in terms of his comments, and so are INXS. They really sound sincere, and I wish there would be a Rockstar:INXS every year.
4. Brooke Burke is not just eye candy. She does a great job of hosting the show, and being eye candy is just a bonus. She may be reading the stuff off the teleprompter, but she does it well and makes the transitions seamless.
5. There is not much drama in the behind the scenes coverage. There is just enough shown of life at the house to create some conversation in the studio. No extended episodes about just how the contestants prepare (except the 30 minute show on vh1), and no unnecessary controversy.
6. The house band is unbelievably awesome! How they are able to play so many songs flawlessly, I don’t understand. But a huge part of the enjoyment of the show (classic rock songs as well as INXS stuff) is the excellence of the house band.

So many reasons to like the show. I love it. Two thumbs up.

WOW! I could not believe it! There was tension in the air when they were about the announce the encore performer. And it was Suzie McNeil! She had a great performance with that body surfing at the end being pretty cool! But frankly, I thought Ty would get the call tonight. What happened afterward was of course shocking.

Firstly, Ty was in the bottom three.

Secondly, Marty was in the bottom three.

And most shockingly, Jordis was NOT in the bottom three.

What the heck! Are you kidding me? Marty had a solid performance and Ty had a darn good show. Still, I guess the public does not see it that way. The problem for the rockers is that they have to first please the band members of INXS and at the same time understand that ultimately, the voters are the general public. And what INXS likes in the hall may not be what the public would like outside and on TV.

Its a tough show.

Anyway, I knew for sure that Marty would be safe. I have said before that my personal ‘last 3 standing’ would be JD, Marty and Suzie.

Last night, during and after the show, I told the wife that Deanna would be the next to go and she was. I did not guess the encore correctly because I thought Ty would have the encore. And I thought Mig, Jordis and Deanna would be in the bottom 3. I was so wrong there.

I think the next to go logically would be Mig. We’ll see what happens next. Now that the field is decreasing, I suspect more trickery coming into the competition.

Kim Clijsters got the better of Justine Henin-Hardine and will be one of the favorites at the US Open.

Its good to see non-Russians in the finals, after a long time.

So, with neither Lindsay nor Sharapova playing this week, Lindsay lost enough points to let Sharapova overtake her and become world #1.

I guess congratulations are in order.

Saw the ‘masala’ episode of Rockstar:INXS yesterday on vh1. It just seemed like it was devoted to Suzie. She was understandably bummed about being in the bottom 3 again despite a strong performance and the drama that followed with the original song writing and how Suzie did not get it and wanted it, was unncessary.

But I guess they have to do such things to keep the momentum going.

Anyway, looks like the next one out is Deana. She has some problems portraying a rock act, and now she has her own composition which was basically Ty’s composition. So it does not look good for her.

Yay!! What a race it was for him. Got badly passed at the start by Fisi and then did well to pass him and then just build on the lead.

JPM got too close to the Jordan and basically gave up #2. That was bad for McLaren as a constructor and also for Kimi’s chances for drivers' championship.

Also, need to say that the Turkish GP track was much better than most others … mainly because there were so many places to pass on the track. And we did see a lot of passing. Button had some good passes, and so did Kimi of course.

What can I say about Michael Schumacher? His accident was just his fault. He closed it on Webber for no reason. And then sadly for him he had to come back just to get a better qualifying position for next race. Times have changed big time for him. Maybe that will be his motivation going into next year.

Tendulkar further said that his role in the team was vastly different from what it had been in the start of his career. "I was aggressive when I started off, with others like Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, playing different roles," he said. "Then there were Azhar and Sidhu. Now I have reached that level, with Veeru (Sehwag), Yuvraj playing different roles. It's what the team needs and not about an individual. Eventually when all the things come together, it clicks."