mere funde

As a colleague said yesterday night, “It has not yet sunk in totally.”

I hope no one files a case against the team for spraying champagne on the Indian flag.

… and Indians have kicked some Paki ass to win the inaugural T20 World Cup.

… and Indian’s have finally dropped Agarkar. In tests, his economy is good enough for one dayers and in ODIs for a T20 game. For a T20 the lesser said, the better.

I think they have chosen a good squad this time around, though I think they should have given Sehwag another chance. Here is my squad.

Sachin
Sourav
Dravid
Yuvraj/Gambhir
Uthappa
Dhoni
Harbhajan
Powar/Chawla
Sreesanth
RP Singh
Zaheer Khan

[Depending on the pitch 4-5 bowlers]

A conversation with Ojas from today morning.

Amit Kumar Goyal says:
http://cricketuncut.blogspot.com/2005/09/collossus-shuffling-towards-painful.html
Ojas Sabnis says:
who is this?
Amit Kumar Goyal says:
check out the post first - group blog
Ojas Sabnis says:
hmm
Ojas Sabnis says:
opening
Ojas Sabnis says:
amit varma and company.. i see
Amit Kumar Goyal says:
yeah - and reading the post, you got the same feeling abt Tendulkar some time back, and yet see how Haydos has come back (20-20 WC), and Sachin himself seems to be on the recovery trail
Ojas Sabnis says:
true

Can someone please explain as to why Agarkar and Yuvraj were bowled today, instead of Irfan Pathan?

[tags] Cricket, T20 WorldCup, India, New Zealand[/tags]

The Good: India in tests. Tendulkar, in sublime touch and his responses to the decisions against him, from the disbelief to the smile, priceless. Kevin Pietersen in the first test. Vaughn in the second. Kumble in the third, with the bat. Mascarenhas in the sixth ODI. Utthappa in the sixth ODI, even though many shots were pure luck. Monty’s fielding efforts. Ganguly giving Broad a piece of his mind.

The Bad: India in ODIs. Selection of Ajit Agarkar, some one give me one good reason. The on-field behaviour of both India and England. Indian batting in the final ODI.

The Ugly: Indians on the field. The umpiring. The series has to be the best case for increasing the use of technology in cricket. These umpires could are no Dickie Birds. Dravid’s captaincy - only thing that came close to the umpiring. Matt Prior behind the wickets. Powar, all times except when he bowled, and if I may ask, what’s with the hairband? Paul Collingwood, after his runout, in the sixth ODI. Yuvraj, with the ball, in the sixth ODI.

For a better article on use of tech, go here. And if you are generally fed up of India’s dismal performance in cricket maybe this will cheer you up.

[tags]Cricket, Hockey, Sports, India, England[/tags]

The Indian team is already on a roll in the third test at the Brit Oval.

Imagine India winning test series outside the subcontinent without any century, without any significant contribution from Rahul “the Wall” Dravid (this is the one off thing in a long long time). This is so interesting. Everyone has done his bit and Dhoni has played magically to take the English bowlers to the cleaners.

Even Kumble has come up with a half century. Keep rocking guys!

Update: Hats off to Kumble for his first Test century, the most faithful soldier to Indian cricket.

Offense as they say is the best defense. As Siddharth Ravindran puts it,

What would happen if the non-striking batsman started chatting to the bowler as he was about to commence his run-up? There would be a hell of a fuss, and on-field chatter would quickly cease to be a one-way street.

Totally agree with him.

I have been terribly busy over the past few weeks and the next couple are not going to be any different. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits from the recent past.

• Came across an interesting mail from Anu Vaidyanathan, the interesting bit being her mail signature. Her designation at PatNMarks is “CEO and Chief Herder of Cats“. Very nice.
• India has kicked some serious British ass in the Trent Bridge test. I now hope that India go on to win the series and Zaheer Khan sends the English team some jelly beans.
• The reaction of Ganguly at being give out, caught behind, was priceless. Also, judging by his looks in dressing room, I am guessing that Simon Taufel and he are not going out for dinner sometime soon.

Almost a year back I had written about the doping scandals that had hit the last year’s Tour De France. And I was hoping this year would be better and cleaner.

But no. Team Cofidis has pulled out due to Cristian Moreni’s doping saga. The doping scandals, like Dementors, loom large over the sport I have come to love so much, ready to suck the soul out of it. Vinokourov is out, along with entire Team Astana, and Kloden. And so is Michael Rasmussen. With Robbie McEwen already out, it’s like all the top contenders out. I think the sport is at the lowest levels of credibility. I do not think I will be watching it any more until something drastic is done. Who wins the Tour remains to be seen, but does anyone really care anymore.

Will this be the final kiss of death for this century old event?