Zing Zing!

"I think Gautam played an innings of a lifetime," Sehwag said. "I can say that because hardly any player plays for almost 11 hours nowadays. He is the one who saved the game for us. I think we can call him the second Wall of the Indian cricket team. This one comes from north."

Thus spake Sehwag.

Ross o' Ross!

Diffusers or not, the one-month old team has left us gaping.

Brawn Mercedes, can I call you Chelsea?

We are outsourcing! Howzzat Mr.Friedman!

Can I please laugh out loud?

While we are at it, let's also get the Pakistani league matches scheduled in India so that the grounds are kept occupied and Mr.Modi can sell the television rights to PTV.

Wait, that is almost a brilliant idea.

Don't you think Jesse Ryder looks a bit like the circa 80's Hindi film villain? I mean.. er, jus an observation. No?

Screen-grab from cricinfo.com (click for bigger image)

Another win (play a Red Sparowes song)

It is less probable that we will live past this purple patch Indian cricket is going through. But it is special the way we feel today with all the success and glory. Its the sorta day when you look at these guys and tell yourself (and everyone around you) that they are monstrous giants of world cricket who will prevail anything. Its the sorta day when you breathe in short bursts and smile like a jackass. Its like a day when SRT scores a 100.

So what has changed? You dont feel surreal when India wins anymore. You dont crap on the world when they lose. You still toast their success, forgive their failure. You see them as amiable hard working people who will try to do their job when they go out there. The whimsical Gods have vanished. The romanticism has been lost to respect.

Something about MS ticks. Karma? Grit? Dunno, I dont worry too much about it. But he is a curious case, so I ask myself again. Is it jus him? What makes MS work? Karma? Luck? Limitations? Or the hidden scars from the last World Cup as he still clears the rubble in his head after we pelted his house down. May be that's why MS is so much like Dada, but not really. (This of course, comes from a disease that I have where I compare every successful Indian captain with Ganguly). People have written about the captain in MS, other gifted writers will (continue to) sketch a zen-like legend for the "little town boy". His dropped catches and missed stumpings will be forgotten. Every series. He will make you. But its alrite. He is someone who we will forgive. Coz he wins.

Success.

We like winning. It might not be ingrained in our culture (like Hayden's), but we like to win ever so often. And we do that a lot now. So, getting drunk on this feeling that the billions have waited for decades now, seems only appropriate.

Hic.

Tongue in cheek?

"Maybe they all think it's my last tour."
Sachin Tendulkar on the standing ovations he gets wherever he plays in the world.

The man is indulging in humor, oh well, as long as it doesn't turn into "foot in your mouth"!

The travelling goon

BCCI is going to absurd levels to stamp its authority on the cricketing world. Niranhan Shah is going around threatening people in Newzealand:

"It's one thing to pull two players out of a festival match in case they're contaminated by ex-ICL bacterium Hamish Marshall.

"It's two things to have New Zealand Cricket general manager of cricket Geoff Allott ring ICL virus Daryl Tuffey to ask him to withdraw from a State Championship match. But it's a truly absurd thing to flex their muscles in the commentary box for fear that Ravi Shastri (IPL) and Craig McMillan (ICL) might accidentally exchange bodily fluids that could eventually infect all the right-thinking people of the cricketing world," the newspaper wrote. [link]

I dont know about Ravi Shastri and Craig McMillan exchanding bodily fluids but I can say this - Lalit Modi does force a lot of this body fluid exchange with anybody and everybody who doesnt accept that BCCI is the unchallenged ruler of the entire cricketing world.

Elsewhere in the world..

the good women continue to do well.

Nice to see Anjum Chopra get some runs.

Oy! Teri maaki...

......erm.....I mean monkey, god

OT, meet Jose..

Ek, bas ek goal dede Thakur!

In other news, RM was blanked out yesterday. Kicked outta their misery, I could almost cry.. if I were a Spaniard. But, nevermind. Back to La Liga.. senores.

Image courtesy: mirror.co.uk

I believe (?)

Will the real RM please stand up? It's been a season the Los Blancos won't particularly be bragging about. Injury worries, management issues, yet another season of turmoil in Madrid.. and still 6 points behind Barca in the La Liga. But when tomorrow the less than impressive Juande Ramos takes his team to Anfield for the Champions League knockout, nothing less than a victory will get the Spanish champions through. The question however, is.. do they deserve to?

Picture courtesy: www.europeancuphistory.com

Free Kiwis

Looks like our cricketers are finally getting to breathe some air:

Sachin Tendulkar can afford to sit in a roadside cafe near the Wellington city centre, Irfan Pathan can shout to his brother Yusuf from across the street to ask for his fruit juice of choice, and Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir can have lunch together at a crowded food court above the Christchurch bus terminal.

... and that would make NZ the perfect post-retirement home for all of us super popular sportstars, what say partners?

Me first, me first!! =)

First things first.. wtf s with the maiden NZ century hype.. the scribes are getting so bored with the 43.. soon we ll be reading "first with a yellow grip.. first with his new helmet..".

Talking about new helmets, what is McGlashan doing on a cricket field with a baseball helmet? I am telling you, it s only a matter of time before the batsmen start taking the axemen stance and start holding the bats over their shoulder.. swinging it in the air, as they take an open stance facing the bowlers. The Yanks are ruining the game, machas! Please shake your heads in disapproval.

Yeh sabb t20 ka kiya karaaya hain, I tell you. Which brings me to the slog over bowling when Mills and Southee were batting.. t20 champions DO NOT bowl/field like that!! So much for Dhoni's promise of not taking it to the wire.. hmpf! I nearly died in those overs due to sheer nerves.

But, but.. at the end of the day.. WE WON! And coz this is an ODI, that's all that matters.

P.S. Next time, bigger grounds please.
P.P.S. Partha will write about Yuvi's exploits later. =p

Too easy!

Imagine this happening in a men's match!

"Tremendous! Tremendous!", as Harsha Bhogle would explode in such situations.

And I'm a bit amused by the title of the scoreboard. I also demand a ICC Hijra World Cup immediately. Cant you imagine Arundhati Roy shriek in yet another scream-and-shout rally near JNU, "What is this, if not blatant gender discrimination, to have matches only for men and women, and not the other gender!", as several pinko friends approve, much to the surprise and amusement of a few Hijre passing by.

Casabianca?

Decidedly so.