Sunday, September 23, 2007

The Game of the Decade!

It was a match unlike any match we've played against Australia for many years. Heres are some moments from a great game of cricket..

India started at a slow pace with just maintaining a RR of 6 in first few overs. Here Sehwag, injured within first two overs walks back to the pavillion after being caught behind. He scored 9 of 13 balls.










Yuvraj came at 2 down and showed Aussies the blitz he started with England. He was in pristine touch, middling every ball and hitting sixes on will. His innings of 70 of 30 balls was a major factor in India posting a fighting total on board.











MS Dhoni for the first time in the tournament played what can be called truly as a captains knock. He was his flambouyant best, sans the hesitancy he has shown in initial overs throughout this cup. He scored 36 of 18 balls.

India finished at 188/5 in 20 overs.











Australia started off well despite some fantastic bowling by Sreesanth and RP singh. Sreesanth first bowled Gilchrist and then later in this picture, he's reacting after dismissing Hayden in similar fashion. He put up his usual histrionics and finally got fined by match referee. He finished with just 12 runs in his 4 overs with two very important wickets.

















After Sreesanth it was time for Irfan Pathan to pick another important scalp for India and thus we saw Symonds off-stump being hit as he tried to make some room for a shot. With this wicket India was back in the game.















After the Symonds wicket clark and hussey went within 11 runs being scored and India was in with a good chance to win by now. In the end with 3 overs to go and the required score looking within reach of Aussies, Harbhajan came up with a great over taking a wicket on the first ball and bowling a tight over. Then Dhoni showed excellent maturity and gave the penultimate over to RP Singh even though he had only Jogindar Sharma as the other option. So instead of keeping the best bowler for last over he gave RP the 19th over and the move payed brilliantly with RP bowling a gem of an over. Finally with six balls to go and 25 to get australia was in a bad position. Joginder bowled what probably was his first dot ball and gave what probably was his first smile in so many days. He finished the over with Aus still needing 15 runs. India had beaten the Aussies and set up a dream final for the first T20 world cup.



Friday, September 21, 2007

Glorious, Depressing and Fickle uncertainities of Cricket

Who could've predicted the outcome of super 8 match between Ind and SA, not many people would put there money on India beating SA and that too so convincingly.

Now, the three words i'v used in the title are for three different teams, first Glorious is for India for their gritty batting which saw India recover from 38-3 to 153 in the end, some very accurate bowling by RP and Irfan and finally better fielding than what India does on most of the days.

Depressing is the word for the luck of South Africa in big tournaments, time n again success elude SA in the later stages of tournaments. They were playing brilliantly in this T20 cup, one loss and they'r out of the tournament. And who can forget the famous tied semifinal between SA and AUS where SA was again the team packing bags early. Anyways, SA is a great team, unarguably up there with AUS, n i'm sure luck can't dodge them forever. They'l get there due soon.

And now the fickle part, this refers to the sentiments of New Zealanders watching Ind Vs SA match. At the start of the match they would've been praying that SA simply win the match putting India out of the cup and securing the Semifinal berth for NZ. But soon into SA inning when they were 31-5, NZ must've started cheering for India to stop SA before 125 run mark, which would've put SA safely into semis. Now when Boucher and Morkel put up a 50 run partenership for 5th wicket, again the NZ allegiance would'v shifted to SA to just win the game. But India with some inspired bowling aided with pretty ok feilding made sure that NZ finished the day while cheering for them.

India had achieved what a few expected them to, a semifinal berth and a thumping victory to put SA out. Lets hope this good run continues and India fights against AUS in semis, coz zim and pak have shown that aussies are not unbeatable.

Good Luck India!!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Aye Aye Captain!!

So Dravid finally( i use finally as i saw it coming) quit the job. Without giving any reasons whatsoever. People are smelling rat here, they say he was forced to quit by some board member. Whether that was the case or not, but it sure will be good for indian cricket in short as well as long run.

Dravid is no doubt an excellent player with skills to match the best in the business, but somehow he doesn't have what it takes to marshall a rowdy bunch of occassional performers that our cricketers are. Never during any match was dravid seen acting like a captain. Going to have a chat with a bowler who just had a couple of boundaries clobbered on initial deliveries of the over, making field changes or bowling changes. He could always be seen just standing with a tense expression on his face and letting things happen as they are. Rarely did we see a bold bowling change or a shuffle in batting line-up to bring about a flip in any game going away. He just didn't have the authority which a captain must command out of his players.

Anyways, i hope he sticks to his decision but that brings us to the new problem. Indian team has been going around without a coach for quite some time now, alas! that can't be done for a captain too. So the names of Tendulkar and Dhoni are being tossed up.

Lets take them one by one. First our little master, well he has been in excellent form off late and it'l be a crime to disturb that with the added burden of captaincy. That too when we know how badly affected his game when he was given the job last time.

Now for Dhoni, first of all if form is the sole reason for presenting a guy with the captaincy then Yuvraj is probably more deserving than Dhoni. His batting in Twenty20 WC has been so self centered, never taking an undue risk and just playing it safe to keep his strike rate above 100. He has never shown the consistency of the time when he was just brought into the team. So giving the ODI captaincy to Dhoni is not something i'l support.

But then somebody has to take the job, well as the board is saying that probably they'l select a captain just for two upcoming ODI series against AUS and Pakistan, my choice would be, none other than Dada himself. First he's indeed the best captain we'v ever had. Second, right now he's the only guy in the team who has experience as well as aggression befitting a captain.


I know this is the last thing to be discussed in the board meeting but still i think some might know this fact in the back of their heads but will be too scared to suggest it, as it will be a very bold move to give Ganguly back the captaincy after the way board treated him. And BCCI is not known to make bold moves if there is nothing monetary to gain in it.



May god give the airheads sitting in BCCI some brain and may they for once think about the country before they think about whats convenient for them.


Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Hey Ram!!!!

Today congress finally put what is gonna be the last nail in its coffin. By saying that there is no proof of existence of RAM or Ramayana for that matter, it shows how insensitive it can be towards the religion which does not form its vote bank. Asking for a proof of God is the height of atheism. The Sethusamudram project no matter how profitable economically must not be built over sentiments of people. There could've been a more respectable way to put things in court, in a way that reinforced the beliefs rather than dismissing a complete religion in itself.

With due respect to all religions, can government produce a proof of existence of Allah or even suggest this!! Can they proove that Jesus existed or was indeed divine. By submitting such an affidavit congress has questioned the faith of thousands of Hindus and by seeking a proof for god they've shown a disregard for every religious man and woman, no matter which religion they may belong to.

Though what has happened is sad, still the protests and violence over it is not good. Ram for us is a faith, a guardian whom we keep in our hearts and we must not let these politicians feel that they can shake our faith by such frivolous statements.

Though this will give the opposition enough reason to raise hue and cry for some more days, the fact remains that they are no better than the ruling party. Our political system has degraded to such depths that there can be no return. Today public has no faith in any political party or politician. We have not even a single person in politics who can be looked up to as a leader.

What we need is, abolition of all political parties and starting the whole process afresh. The current system has outlived its period and maybe a Biparty system might prove better. Anyways, India needs all the blessing of all the gods if it has to survive through this century, otherwise these political vulture will eat away the country inside out.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

The Inf(y)uriating wait......

11th April'06 was perhaps one of the happiest days of my life. I had got a job that too with Infosys, the dream company of so many engineering graduates. As the results were declared i was ecstatic, my joy knew no bounds and i was jumping and screaming. Although it was disheartening to see some of my friends who didn't make it through, but still the joy of getting placed was quite a heady feeling. We celebrated with a dinner which included around 25 people. Afterall we had a job and that too with a reputed company.

The next company took time to come and so for a long time the few of us who were placed were seen with special admiration. With time many students from our batch got placed, some in good companies some in bit smaller ones. Some even got two jobs. The ones in infosys weren't allowed to sit for another company!! All said and done though the image of infosys had taken a beating with time and due to thier practice of mass recruitment, still it was considered among the best which came to our college. Our seniors in infosys told us about the rigours of training at infosys and how they didn't get time to unwind after exams, how they had to join within 15 days. All this made us anxious and we prayed for a breather between the exams and joining.

Today after more than 3 months of end of final sem exams, i'm still to join the company. The time we once prayed for has stretched so long that the wait has turned from anticipation to frustration.. The offer letter says that tentatively the date of joining will be intimated by month of may. A few people got it.. but a major proportion were left in the lurch. A mail from infy HR said that all will get DOJ by may end. May end came and went away without a word from the company. In june we got a reply that the joinings will be in the month of june/july. The june/july turned into july/aug which turned to aug/sept and finally into sept/oct/nov.

Right since may the company has created an uncertainity in the minds of recruits regarding the DOJ. All we ask for is a date of joining which may be in NOV or DEC, but a definite date of joining. So that i can plan my time and put it to some good use. Due to this uncertainity i couldn't join a two month foreign language course which was too expensive to be left in the middle in case joining came as per the mail from HR. IT companies have recruited so heavily from campuses that there is hardly anything left for freshers(from lesser known colleges) in off-campus recruitments.

Thus Infosys "powered by intellect, driven by values" has shown niether intellect in managing those recruited nor values by creating this confusion and robbing people of precious experience which would've helped immensely in furthering their career.

If u're a fresher recruited by infosys for 2008..get another job as an alternative in case infosys again Bites more than it can chew.....

I hope Mr. Narayan Murthy or someone higher up the ladder at infosys is reading this. I hope they do something concrete about it. In case they don't, all i can do is..again hope!!

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Have we forgotten how to watch movies..???


Its an experince of mine, of watching the same movie in two different environments. The movie here is Chak De. First i saw it at Raj Mandir in jaipur arguably the most beatiful cinema hall in our country. And next i saw it at a Multiplex in Delhi. Difference i’m talking about was not in the cinema halls but in the people watching the movie.

At Raj Mandir we had all kinds of people from all stratas of the society. It was like going back to the old times, standing in rows to get the ticket, waiting for the ticket window to open, fights with people trying to jump the qeue. Well all that aside, once we’re inside the hall, thats when the real story starts. Now the movie is an as-gud-as-it-gets patriotic flick. Every patriotic dialogue was cheered and clapped while every joke was heartily laughed upon. It was an emotionally charged atmosphere with people really feeling the movie. Now cut to the multiplex experience. Its inhabited by only middle and upper class people who in big cities are always trying to put up an act of fake sophistication. So there was no reaction for subtle jokes, only silent smiles for obvious ones and bit of muffled laughter for very good ones. I can’t believe that nobody understood or found it amusing when SRK said ” Humari hockey mein chakke nahi hote”. When india was winning matches in the second half of the movie nobody was cheering. Nobody clapped when SRK says “pehli baar kisi angrez ko tiranga lehrate dekha hai” and only in the end when india won the world cup that a few people managed a clap.

Did these people not like the movie?? or did they not enjoy the patriotic sentiments portrayed in the movie?? Well the answer to both questions is NO. People are just plain embarassed to laugh out loud or to clap when they feel like. And in this urge to behave sophisticated they’v forgotten to enjoy, the basic purpose of watching a movie. I won’t say i didnt enjoy the movie second time, but the level of excitement and joy was missing. And if i had seen it first at multiplex then i’m sure i wouldn’t have liked it this much!!

To all the people who supress emotions, are afraid to laugh loudly or clap or cheer, i’d just say that go to a cheap movie hall and learn again how to watch/enjoy a movie from a rickshaw wala..!!