When Australia was on the verge of losing to Zimbabwe , my GChat status message was - will it be a repeat of 1983? , but I had no inclination of what was to happen with the Indian team. All I had in mind was Zim Beating Aus in a first round match like in 1983. A week and a half later , it was India doing that 1983 Jig. India had beaten England , South Africa , Australia and Pakistan in a series of must win matches to win the inaugural Twenty20 World Tournament.
Some similarities with the 1983 World Cup.
It was a Team performance , with no major person standing out
One of the openers was the top scorer in both the finals (Srikanth and Gautam Gambir)
Just when needed , Yuvraj played a couple of Blinders just like Kapils 175 against Zim when India were down at 17/5
India had batted first in the finals and had managed a below par score. After a couple of wickets early on ,Imran Nazir threatened to get the game away before brilliance on the field stopped his innings short. Similarly - India made 183 in the 1983 finals and after a couple of early wickets - Richards threatened to take it away before , Kapil's Brilliant catch stopped his innings short.
Karunanidhi - The legend of two tongues.
The recent Ram Setu 'debate' is not a debate anymore. It is a public slandering match played out in front of the media and The Honorable Chief Minister of Tamilnadu wins the battle for making the ugliest and most insensitive statements on record. Even for a guy who has thrived on suppressing the Hindus in order to gain an electoral advantage from the numerical majority of the state , the recent statements are insensitive and inflammatory. Mr. Karunanidhi might be an atheist but in a secular country , It is only fair to respect other people's faith - especially when you are in a public position of respect and power.
Every election that he had stood for in his initial days - the promise was for a dravidanadu. He won his elections based on promises that he never upheld. (I am not even for a minute suggesting that sedition was a good idea - It never is and it never will be - a united India moves forward much better than the multiple factions that can be created out of it). The Sangh Parivar has also brought to the attention of the media the foreword written in the Gazeteer of Ramanathapuram district in 1972 by Karunanidhi. Well - Perhaps there was enough scientific evidence for Karunanidhi to change his views. There are multiple cases of his flip flops and one more would be his welcoming of Indira Gandhi to power although he had criticized the establishment of dynasty rule before she came to power (transfer of power from father to daughter - eh? what has he done to Tamilnadu Politics now?).
Perhaps people will start realising that the days of winning people with just words is over and vote them out of power.
Here is the video in which Karunanidhi calls Rama a drunkard and the Rama being a lie
Every election that he had stood for in his initial days - the promise was for a dravidanadu. He won his elections based on promises that he never upheld. (I am not even for a minute suggesting that sedition was a good idea - It never is and it never will be - a united India moves forward much better than the multiple factions that can be created out of it). The Sangh Parivar has also brought to the attention of the media the foreword written in the Gazeteer of Ramanathapuram district in 1972 by Karunanidhi. Well - Perhaps there was enough scientific evidence for Karunanidhi to change his views. There are multiple cases of his flip flops and one more would be his welcoming of Indira Gandhi to power although he had criticized the establishment of dynasty rule before she came to power (transfer of power from father to daughter - eh? what has he done to Tamilnadu Politics now?).
Perhaps people will start realising that the days of winning people with just words is over and vote them out of power.
Here is the video in which Karunanidhi calls Rama a drunkard and the Rama being a lie
Biggest Sixes Funda
Watching all the matches in T20I World Cup , there is this interesting part of biggest sixes statistic. Misbah-ul_haq has scored the biggest six at 111m so far. How do they measure these distances once the ball is out of the ground? If it is inside the ground , I agree that you know which stand it fell in and you know the distance from that stand to the center of the pitch, but how do you measure the distance traveled by a ball that is hit out of the stadium? - If I had to venture a guess , I would think that just like Hawkeye traces the motion of the ball from the bowler's hand , there would be a technology to track the ball after it has hit the bat and will extrapolate the distance based on the speed and elevation it was traveling, when it left the ground. The commentators at Cricinfo (read people who write the commentary while I keep hitting that F5 button) commented that it might be out of luck. Anyone knows how it is done?
Yuvraj - Imperious
Dot , Four ,one , Four , Four , one , Six , Six , Six , Six , Six , Six, dot , two , Six , Out.
No no no- That is not me playing stick cricket. This was how Yuvraj's Innings panned out. The fastest fifty in T20I ( forget it - in any form of the game) , First person to hit 6 , sixes in one over in T20I and the so the record books went on. Stuart Broad who had the rather respectable bowling figures of 3 overs 0 for 24 till he started his last over must be wondering why Mascarenas hit 5 sixes of Yuvraj in the last over of a match that they eventually lost. Boy o Boy was that some hitting or what!!! waiting for the clips on youtube to see them :)
Update: -- Got the Youtube video and would you believe it - The man who was doing the commentary at that time was another slugger who hit 6 sixes of an Over - Ravi Shastri. You can listen to him getting charged up after the 4th six. he shouts the 5 and 6th even before they are sixes - he absolutely enjoyed that. Tilak Raj refused to pose with Ravi Shastri after the 6 sixes - would Broad be gracious enough to pose with Yuvraj and the bat he used? :)
India Against England at Kingsmead ,Durban in a WorldCup
Memories from a glorious night for Indian Cricket and Ashish Nehra.
Four years ago , it was the same headline. India were starting their roll with impressive victories in the 2003 World Cup. On that night however Ganguly called the toss right and was well rewarded. The Kingsmead ground is notorious for its producing prodigious swing under the lights. India batted first and made 250 thanks to some belligerent batting from Tendulkar ( how can anyone forget Tendulkar hook off Caddick for a six ) and the reconstruction effort of Yuvraj and Dravid. 250 was a decent score we all thought, something that was defendable but also overhaulable easily. It was the final year of my college and watching with friends was the joy. Srinath and Zaheer produced one of the best opening spells that I have seen by an Indian pair. The ball whizzed around for the first 10 odd overs and it was time for a bowling change. I had never been a great believer in Ashish Nehra's talent. I always felt he was overrated and feared that all the good work done by Srinath and Zaheer might be undone by Nehra. I even voiced the opinion and crossed my fingers in the hope that that wouldn't happen. My roommate in college - Vijay - just had this to say - He bowls quick and it swings for him. He is bound to bowl well today. That was a sort of premonition as Nehra hit the straps and ended up with 6 wickets and the best spell by an Indian in a world cup match. Puking on the ground , eating bananas didn't seem to affect his bowling that day. it was on the off , it either swung in suddenly or moved away from the batsman very late. Batsman after batsman succumed to that clinical display of swing bowling. Ashish Nehra as the picture shows was unstoppable
With another match today with the same title as this one , I hope India can win this match which has become a must win for them to stay in the tournament.
Lewis Hamilton - really good
There is a lot of activity going on off the field in Formula 1 and quite a few questions need to be answered after the recent hearings at Paris and the decisions by WMSC. There is however a lot of action on the grid , which has sadly been overlooked because of this spying scandal. Lewis Hamilton's manoeuvre showed what a true racer could do. I didn't buy into the whole Hamilton Hype and the driver of the future Hype , until I saw the USGP at Indianapolis earlier this year. This chappie was fast and he was fast even if he locked up his wheels from time to time. I moved through the infield and saw the car with the yellow helmet , send out fumes of smoke from time to time. Alonso was however never had a chance. Hamilton just soaked the pressure without letting it affect his speed.
ITV has a nice article on what it takes to overtake in Formula 1. It is not easy to overtake in Formula 1 these days with all the sophisticated aerodynamic packages and the drivers have in most cases chosen to create a procession on track and fight out for the places in the Pits. The Pit Strategy had become more important than , actual racing on tracks. I like to watch Formula 1 , for the crashes, the overtaking manoeuvres and hard charges. I don't mind seeing a race in which the order remains the same as long as there is always action in it. Over the last two years , watching F1 has started becoming a chore , rather than a fun time. There have been far few battles on the track and it is good to see hard racers take up the tracks. It is also good that the racing committee is looking into keep the safety as well as aid overtaking.
Meanwhile let us toast to the arrival of a racer in the form of Lewis Hamilton. Although I am of the opinion that , Hamilton and Alonso also had to be expelled from the championships , I believe , it is a treat to watch Hamilton race. 3 points separate the top two drivers and this by itself makes for riveting drama. If Hamilton continues to make moves like that one at Monza , I might just consider it sad that he was not able to share one season of racing with Michael Schumacher.
ITV has a nice article on what it takes to overtake in Formula 1. It is not easy to overtake in Formula 1 these days with all the sophisticated aerodynamic packages and the drivers have in most cases chosen to create a procession on track and fight out for the places in the Pits. The Pit Strategy had become more important than , actual racing on tracks. I like to watch Formula 1 , for the crashes, the overtaking manoeuvres and hard charges. I don't mind seeing a race in which the order remains the same as long as there is always action in it. Over the last two years , watching F1 has started becoming a chore , rather than a fun time. There have been far few battles on the track and it is good to see hard racers take up the tracks. It is also good that the racing committee is looking into keep the safety as well as aid overtaking.
Meanwhile let us toast to the arrival of a racer in the form of Lewis Hamilton. Although I am of the opinion that , Hamilton and Alonso also had to be expelled from the championships , I believe , it is a treat to watch Hamilton race. 3 points separate the top two drivers and this by itself makes for riveting drama. If Hamilton continues to make moves like that one at Monza , I might just consider it sad that he was not able to share one season of racing with Michael Schumacher.
Luciano Pavarotti - The first among the 3 tenors
The first time , I heard about Luciano Pavarotti was when the Pavarotti and Friends concert was aired on STARTV. It was the time when television opened up a whole new world. There was this craze for Yanni , and then the Spice girls ( yeah yeah , I listened to them , when we got cable connection for the first time in my house). But there was always something special about Luciano Pavarotti. Celine Dion for some reason was a pretty known face at that time in India ( I believe this was even before Titanic was released) and I found her singing while I was flipping through thr channels. And then there was this booming voice in the background - and the camera focused on a portly man. I was naive to believe that Celine Dion was the star and he was just accompanying. But after a couple of songs I realised that Mr.Pavarotti ( note the respect that I had after juat 2 songs) was the main act and others where just making fleeting appearances.Over the years , Pavarotti became synonymous with Opera and for all quizzers weak in Opera and the likes , if an operatic piece was played it was always Pavarotti. Such was his influence - Just like the villagers in Morning raga think any song with beats in a Michael Jackson song - our guesses were always Pavarotti . BBC recently had this obit. for Pavarotti and there have been many obits. on blogs and the papers , but no amount of writing will ever capture the magic of the voice. R.I.P Mr. Pavarotti.
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