17 Oct 08 Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - God of Cricket
“If cricket is my religion, then Tendulkar is my god”.. These are the non famous words uttered by totally non famous person living in a small suburb area, not visible on Google maps, with the name “Hariharan”. Yea thats me!
Today, Sachin scored the elusive 14 runs needed to overthrow the record made by my yet another favorite Brian Lara. When he reached 11954, there was no stopping him. He went on to make 88 runs from 111 balls, today before falling to Peter Siddle (Congratulations mate, you’ve nailed the big fish). I always thought 111 was an unlucky number, like the umpire David Shepherd does. Yes, it was truly unlucky as Sachin happened to get out in the closing moments of the day.
Albeit scoring a bit slow, It was a welcome change to see thalaivar tendiya batting positively. Thalaivar played like the god he is, smashing 10 sweet fours in a juicy pitch. India sauntered to a good first day score of 311/5. Hope they keep the pace up tomorrow as well and reach a possible 600.
Tags: australia, brian lara, cricket, god, sachin tendulkar
18 Aug 08 Mendis continues to torment Indians
Surely the word ‘Mendis’ will strike fear among the players in the Indian dressing room and I, for one, wouldn’t want to be in their shoes now. The team has no clue to his ‘carrom’ ball release and succumbed to his bowling yet again. Indians put up a below par performance and scored a humble 146 runs in the first ODI. Sri lankans, whose batting is as good as their bowling licked up the Indian bowling attack with ease.
Murali and Mendis are still a mystery, waiting to be unravelled. I don’t know how long the players are going to take to attack them, but I sure wish that should happen soon. It is not a good sign for the players to surrender meekly to a puppet boy’s bowling.
Tags: cricket, india vs srilanka, Mendis, Muralitharan, odi
02 Aug 08 Harbhajhan on song
Bhajji is on song and that can mean only one thing. I let you to pick one among the following as the Catch phrase or one liner (whatever you may like to call it)
- The turbanator strikes again.
- The Return of the Turbanator.
- Turbanator forever.
Till now he has 6 wickets under his belt and Indians have a handsome lead. Let hope they make it up well in Innings number two.
Tags: cricket, harbhajan, turbanator
01 Aug 08 Bright start - Wasted.
Indians are known for clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is just the case now. With a sorry performance from the senior players, Indians puffed and puckered to a sorry score of 329, with sehwag on 201 not out. That means, the rest of the team managed to contribute only 128 runs! Gambhir obviously taking up a lion’s share of 56 runs. Sachin, Saurav and Dravid have to move on I guess.
Consistency is the element in the game. If you don’t have what it takes, why do you even step on the turf?
Tags: cricket, india, srilanka
30 Jul 08 India take on Srilanka tomorrow
The second test of the series is going start tomorrow and like any other indian fan, I hope that they don’t fall for the spinners like they did in the first test. (19 wickets taken by spinners!). India is known for playing well against spin. But last test match proved the statement otherwise. So lets put our hands up for the indian team and wish them the very best for a good match. This time around, lets hope that they put up a fighting total on the board or do well in the bowling department.
Tags: cricket, india, srilanka, test match
26 Jul 08 Indians fall like Ten pins
Well, we already saw what happened in Asia cup finals. Indians had no clue to Mendis’s ‘Carrom’ like release of the ball. AND, still they don’t have a clue. The team performance in batting, bowling and fielding were thoroughly dismal (Maybe because of the missing Dhoni charm). Adding insult to injury was Mendis and Murali’s bowling. 22 wickets were taken in 2 days. 19 wickets were taken by spinners and Kulasekara (Fast bowler) took the first wicket in the first innings. Murali, the Wizard of Lanka, scalped 11 for himself and Mendis helped himself to 8 wicket haul in two innings.
Seriously, I don’t know what the confidence level of Indian team is, but I’m saying that they are pretty much over confident. Its not the loss that makes me say this, but even after the loss, Anil Kumble claims ‘We have the best technically equipped side’. Technically equipped side only fell to the novice called ‘Mendis’. Kumble, if I were you, I’d play it safe.
Tags: cricket, defeat, india, srilanka
27 Jun 08 India defeats Pakistan
After 20 years in Asia Cup, India defeated pakistan with ease in a jam packed stadium @ Karachi. Pakistan, hosting the tournament has never lost to India in an Asia cup match, since 1988. The Indians, however, rewrote that record yesterday when they won with 7.5 overs to Spare.
Match Summary:-
Pakistan 299-4 in 50 overs. A brilliant 125 by Shoaib Malik. Indian bowlers after containing pakistani batsmen upto 25 overs, gave the game away as the latter amassed huge total in the final half of their 50 overs.
India 301-5 in 42.1 overs. Sehwag and Raina in a blistering partnership that featured heavy blows on the pakistani spinners took the game away. India were cruising along, when Raina and Sehwag got out in quick succession. However Yuvraj continued the momentum with dhoni and in the end, All’s well that ends well.
Result: India win comprehensively by 5 wickets with 47 balls to spare.
