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2-3. And an opportunity, at home, to square the ledger.
In the meanwhile, a 99 run victory for the Mumbai Indians. As emphatic a statement as can be expected from the most improved squad in the IPL.
Next up, Bangalore. And another opportunity to let Robin Uthappa know that his squad lost the Ranji Trophy to us. And why he is not good enough to wear Indian ( both Mumbai and Team India) colors.
"How many times they have won is only for the record books. I don't think it counts for this game." Karnataka captain Robin Uthappa plays down Mumbai's formidable Ranji record
"But I believed we handled it better and we didn't go making statements. We understood there would be a certain amount of banter but, in all honesty, I never expected a Mumbai side, which has claims of such a great attitude, to go out and report a few issues that seemed very silly."
We remember. Oh yes, we do. And Robin, we sure as heck wont make you forget.
Round 1 to the good guys!
Cricket connection to Indian triumph in F1 and Football
It's been a great week for Indian sport. First a second-place finish for Force India at the Belgian Grand Prix and then the win at the Nehru Cup football after a tense penalty shoot-out against Syria.
Interestingly, there is a cricket connection to both these triumphs. As far as Force India is concerned, it is owned by the same man (Vijay Mallya) who owns the Bangalore Royal Challengers IPL team. As for the Indian football team, the BCCI recently announced a grant for the All India Football Federation in pursuance of its latest policy to support other Indian sports.
However, no cricket connection to Sania and Somdev Devvarman's first round wins at the US Open.
Bharat ke taare bulandi par lag rahe hain... For all you know the Indian cricket team might also have a good start to the season as the stars seem to be favouring Indian sport at the moment.
John Buchanan: The juicy bits and prejudiced opinions
We are a bit emotional, that is part of our sub-continental DNA I presume.
This time around I don’t think Buchanan has said anything wrong, or for that matter there is nothing new in what he has said.
When he says Sachin is too old for the new format, there is nothing wrong, this is not something we don’t know. How many of us were WOW-ed by the way Sachin batted during the IPL ?
How many of us think Gavaskar is an unbiased, open minded person ? I am sure we would all stand up with respect the moment this name is mentioned when it comes to playing cricket.
But at the same breath many of us still remember things like (even if it was a rumour, it wasn’t refuted at any point in time) “Gavaskar might not play in Eden Gardens even if India progresses to the final of the 1987 world cup finals” Why because someone let a dog (which I think Gavaskar is paranoid about) into the field when he was batting or someone booed him.
This is the same guy who sometime later packed his son off to the same Koltata to play cricket. A land he proclaimed he would never venture to play again. Of course we can be a bit hypocritical and say he didn’t, only his son did !!
About Yuvraj Singh, the accusation that he leaves his kits and trash behind to be cleaned up by someone else is not new. We have heard it before also, the Indian cricketers become too big after a couple of good matches. They then need people to assist them on everything including wiping their backsides.
Tell me why a team would need a logistics manager in the forefront ? Have you seen a logistics manager of any other team smiling ear to ear for photographs once his team wins a match ? Such is the comfort our cricketers live in.
So what is wrong in Buchanan’s words there ?
And Yuvraj, we have read about his attitude (towards cricket and also other things). So why are we perturbed when a westerner says something about what we already know ?
And Pieterson, is he Saint Peter ? A man who wants a two day off in the middle of a tour to watch his wife dance in a reality show, a man who cares more about IPL than Ashes, a man who vacationing in his native South Africa taking potshots at his own coach who was nowhere in the picture, a man who tried mustering support among players to ouster a coach he didn’t like. The list will go on.
And Harbajan, do we really need an introduction about him ?
Shoaib Akhtar ??
Let us not form prejudiced opinions even before the book is out and we read at least a page of it. All we see now are excerpts or juicy bits, which our journalists think would get them maximum eyeballs.
In my opinion finally Buchanan has made some sense, let’s hope he has. This we would know only when we read his book in its totality.
Indian T20 Team = India Kiddie XI!
I was watching this particular news channel about MSD's press conference and Team India's T20 Squad's photo session! Of course you don't care which news channel it was, because all of them are the same!
(That photo can be seen at SP's)
What interested me, was Team India's enthusiasm through out the photo session. It reminded me of those photo sessions, we all had back in our school days, the ones that were taken for the annual mags!
Indian Team's stars were behaving those school kids after all! The team had all of them!
The guy laughing all the way about how funny this photo session is! Read Harbhajan there!
The guy making sure he is looking all good! Read Zaheer Khan!
The guy making sure he is looking straight into the camera with a broad smile! That was Irfan Pathan!
The guys talking slyly just before the photo is being taken, looking in to the camera, and their lips moving, giving each other last minute gyan! May be Yuvraj was telling MSD how hard captaincy was for him during the IPL!
The guy looking at the camera, with a derisive look, like how all of this is such a pain in the backside! Of course, who could that be, but Jatman!
Yes, Indian T20 squad is India's Kiddie XI! Not because you have seen most of them progress from the under-19 levels, right before your eyes! But, that is what the photo session says!
Everything but the Dog.
Soak it in at Bored Member Achettup's backyard, he's packed in all the IPL wow, except the bow wow! Who let the dog out?
And while you're at it, how about some Q Angles. But no aunties, even though it was an all-south affair. And hell, still no dog.
But this no China. We don't serve dog. Even if it's one from the IPL.
Wait a minute we did. Here's looking back at that dog day afternoon!
PS: Incredible but the moment I completed this post @2.31 AM, the devil got into the delhi dogs, how they barked.
Another IPL Player, as if you care now
What timing: The IPL is over and there's a comment on a blog here linking up to anotheriplplayer. I'm done with the IPL, if you aren't go look at another. He claims to write badly. If nothing else, that should pull you there. Even better if you are a bad reader.I don't know whether you guys have heard of him
anotheriplpayler.blogspot.com
he had predicted the results, of not one or two but last five matches, and all of them turned out to be true.
Boss, it's all fixed.
(comment by Anon linking to Another's blog)
