In your face

I think thats the official term. As i write this Team India are a wicket away from scripting a glorious victory in Dakshin Afrika. To all the critics - this is as fitting a reply as any could be to those critics who wrote them off.

A south african cricket website apparently has a poll to predict the score line. It has the options 1-0; 2-0; 3-0 all in favour of SA. Again the technical term is "In your face"

Ofcourse this win has also meant that i am now the proud winner of a dairy milk chocolate. It pays to always bet on the Indian team. With their extremes - the odds will always be against them and in the long run you would always make more money.

But this article is not about the money. Its about a victory. Its about a victory which qualifies as a brilliant team effort. Its about a victory which had some brilliant individual moments. Its about a victory that had drama, comedy, suspense and twists and turns. Damnit! We have won our first match in SA. It is HUGE. As huge as it gets. Congratulations to the super performance.

I had mentioned earlier that we were probably just one good knock or match away from turning the tables. In this case - the fightback probably started when we lasted the full 50 in the final ODI and then going on to win the match v/s the Rest of Dakshin Afrika. The SA strategy of playing the Indians on bouncy fast bowler friendly pitches to ensure that the batsmen couldnt get in probably backfired with the bowlers gaining confidence. And which fool actually decides to underestimate an Indian batting lineup that includes Sachin, Rahul, Sehwag, Saurav and VVS? Really which fool does that ???

Apparently the South Africans did. What was immediately concluded as a feeble show on day1 when we were 156/5 was actually an exercise in application and patience by Sach, Rahul, Dada and VVS. But what really brought India back was 2 innings - one a fighting for life one by Dada and second - a more funny slam bam thank u ma'am by VRV. That knock had the whole dressing room laughing and in a positive mood. And it showed.

My moment of the match though has to be Sreesanths riposte to Nel. Singularly the most funny moment in cricket that I have seen to date. Again the technical term "In your face"

The Indian team was never bad - just out of form. When they do get back to form they can be devastating. The South Africans now know.

Let me end with the joke of the match. After day 1; Kallis "I dont think there is much wrong with the pitch, We are only disappointed that the bounce is a little less than usual. I think we will wrap them up tomm and put a huge score on the board and put them under pressure in the 2nd Inning"

Some big score. Some pressure!

Dhoom Dvitiya

They had a limited budget. They spent on the actor salaries and the stunts and the locations. They couldnt afford a storywriter. They couldnt afford a good music composer. Hence the only good song in the movie was adapted from last time.

Learnings for the day -

1. You can be a sitting duck for 10 henchmen to shoot you but if you are the hero you can travel to the henchmen in a straight line and ur charisma is enuff to cast a magnetic field to deflect the bullets. Atleast that seems to be the only explanation for so many bullets missing their target.
2. You thank your stars that you watched the movie at Innovative as opposed to Inox. 130 bucks saved can go a long way.

Front Foot Defensive

It was one slower ball that probably changed the course of our fortunes. Dwayne Bravo to a Yuvraj in form and what looked like a brilliantly fought for victory turned into the narrowest of defeats. It was one of those moments. These moments count for a lot in cricket. But that was probably the moment where India slipped - a moment that started to weigh heavy on their confidence and their intent. A 17 match streak ended and doubts crept in. Since then its been downhill.

But before we get into a "abuse-overpaid-players-and-experimenting-coach" mode -lets just for a moment consider what was a purple patch. We had Yuvraj playing the best that he ever had. Dravid was his usual consistent self. Sachin made injury-free guest appearances where he played well. Sehwag fired from time to time, Pathan rocked both with the ball and the bat and Dhoni was well Dhoni.

Now its the same set of players really - almost all out of form and ofcourse out of form players dont win matches. Out of form players with their confidences dented by what seemed to be only a slower ball really dont get around to winning matches easily. Who do we have on the bench? Raina, Mongia and a host of no name no performance players. Lets just accept the fact that wehave no backups - we have no one to bat if any one of our frontline guys go. The option is probably going back to tried and tested old guys. But thats for another day.

However the core set is still the same. In cricket usually if the core set fires, the fringe players derive confidence from the form of the core guys and start supporting the core in-form guys. So perhaps when the moment comes when Sachin Dravid Sehwag Dhoni fire - atleast 2 of them in a match, you got to betthat the fringe guys might chip in with a crucial 20 and maybe we might getback to winning. However we are just that one match away from turningconfidence and forms for the better. Atleast in that case the short term is better.

But the long term is really grim. Even if we do go back to VVS and Dada to bolster the middle order - what next? All these guys are in their 30s and lets face it they wont be playing for long. Do we really have any quality batsmen tore place them?

Supporting India is always an exhiliarating experience. Its more fun if you stick through the thick and thin for no other team with the prominent exception of Pakistan can give the variety of highs and lows of Indian cricket. You win 17 in a row chasing - you lose many on a trot. Indian Cricket for me will always be the rollercoaster ride i look forward to in an entertainment park.

Champions Tumble

Its disappointing that we lose. More disappointing that we lose and cant make it to the finals of a tournament I can get free tickets for. Life is tough at times!

However the media will be out with its knives and villans will be created readily. It would be funny if I was not so crazy about the sport. Questions will be asked about captaincy coach and players and the advts they do. We do everything but accept the downside with the upside that our team gives us. Life is tough at times!

I know I am boring - hence will leave this post to be picked up in a better way later. I have to rant about the umpires and the ICC. But thats for later.

Anonymous Defenders

Some 4 months after my post on Quota System (http://pushkarsblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/quota-system.html), somebody actually responded to it. Ofcourse this person being the anonymous nameless faceless thing he/she is, commented on one of the trivial points in the post - that of Gagan Khoda being a entry into the cricket team due to the zonal quota.

I quote the comment verbatim

"Gagan Khoda, a right-hand opening batsman from Rajasthan, enjoyed an outstanding junior career before making a century on debut in the Ranji Trophy in 1991-92. A score of 237 in the Ranji quarter-final in 1994-95 further established him as a promising youngster. He represented India in two one-day internationals and scored a wonderful 89 against Kenya. He scored 26 in the other match. He was probably the best of the new openers which India had tried out. He also played in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, without much impact.

Dear Pushkar he is the only player to have scored 300 Runs in Dileep trophy and not played test matches for india that too against South Zone consisting of Srinath Kumble Venkatesh Prasad attack.

hope you do your home work properly"

Now this comment left me in a difficult position. I hate to be in a place where I have a thousand retorts forming at the back of my head and then no one to direct them at - such are the challenges a anonymous faceless (lets get dramatic and call it wajood-less (WL) shall we?) comment presents. So I chose to answer it with another post in the hope that this WL character might come back to my blog and read.

So first things first - the first para is a straight lift from cricinfo - the players page which has a brief description about the player. Hmmm so Mr. Khoda distinguished himself with a well made 89 against Kenya. Yeah major resume point that. Highlight of my career - a brilliant 89 against the fearsome gruesome looking Kenyan attack (yeah black can be a scary colour under lights - damn i hope i dont get sued for racism for this) and then followed it up with a solid 26 against Bangladesh who have had their glorious moments against past world champions. Aah such heart warming accomplishments these! Ofcourse i screwed up in the Commonwealth games but then those matches werent official and hence i dint put in my best - So bloody what if i was representing the country huh?

Being somewhat of a cricket fan and being one who can use the internet a bit - i obviously went to the cricinfo page to turn in my homework late. Ah the price one pays for writing by gut as opposed to actual stats. So then I ran the stats guru for our man Khoda
Here is what turned up.


M I no Runs HS Average 100 50
First Class 114 194 7 7324 300* 39.16 16 37
List A 119 119 7 4487 166* 40.06 10 27

Call me crazy but really i remain to be impressed. This is domestic cricket we are talking about - Indian pitches that arent a bowlers paradise least of all a fast bowlers paradise and an opener generally faces the quicker guys. An average of 39.16 might not be bad but it hardly distinguishes anyone

On the other hand a lad named Amol Mujumdar who plays for Mumbai and never got a lookin for India carries the following averages

First Class 51.17
List A 41.57

Life isnt fair really is it ?

The point is that one really cant look at a players at a stand alone basis. Well Khoda might have been good but was he better than others who did not get that chance to play for India. I love the dramatic but really wearing the blue and the India Cap is an honour which shouldnt be distributed unless that person is the most deserving of the lot.
Getting 95% in an exam is good but if its a qualifying exam for 10 seats - it may not be good enough if 15 others have 98%.

So Khoda hit a triple hundred - awesome stuff. But does that mean a place in the side for him automatically? Do i hear people rooting to get Dizzy Gillespie as a permanent number 3 batsman because he hit a double - in a test match too no less!

Well the fact is that at that point there were players better than Khoda who dint get a look in. It doesnt make Khoda good or bad but the system disallowed better performers to be in the team.

So my dear Anonymous poster (yeah i am using your writing style here), please feel free to comment to the contrary but this time do have the balls to mention your name. I welcome a debate on cricket anytime of the year unless ofcourse I am watching a Sachin special.

Pleasant Surprises

It was 20th Oct and I was back home. Out in the market - this time not visiting retailers on HLL duty but doing the same on Mom duty, buying some chicken to be eaten for lunch.
Dad calls up and asks - I have 2 pavillion passes for the NZ-SL Champions trophy match - u wanna go?
Hmmm i say, would i sit at home and fart or would i rather go watch a day and night international match?
Tough decision but then what is life if it isnt even this challenging huh?

So predictably i said YES - all who thought otherwise and read this blog please put your hands up. Fine maybe i shouldnt be using the "read this blog" condition - not the best way to retain the already rare readers of my blog.

But anyway i rush out from my home just as the match is about to start with believe it or not NO company with me - my friends are either working or out of mumbai that day. Such is Life!
But nevertheless i manage to make it to the stadium (after collecting tickets) only to realise that these arent pavillion tickets. One should have been really disappointed with that but really one cant argue with free tickets that seat you right over the sightscreen opposite the pavillion.

So that was it - NZ were 60/3 in the 17th over or so and they crawled and they crawled and they crawled. The bright point was one Murali who bowled a splendid spell and regaled the crowd with wickets. How the crowd found wickets more intersting than runs is beyond me but then to each his own i guess. It was 118/9 and death for NZ till Patel and Vet played sensibly
Vettori finally blew some life into the stadium with an assault on Vaas - 19 runs in an over is always good to watch unless you are Vaas in this case.

The second inning was more entertaining with Jaya(s) and Tharanga playing well. The Jaya(s) include both of the Jayas. Also with Muthu joining in there was some company to see the match with.

The interesting part was when in the second inning not much was happening - so obviously it being an Indian stadium ppl were entertaining themselves by making some noise with the whistle. Here then was a lady dressed in attrocious red pants (no it wasnt spunky - not this one atleast) who thought the sound was maddening especially when nothing was happening. "whats the point in proving ur foolishness" i believe were her exact words. I wish i had a whistle to blow into her ears then but then such is life! If you want to clap politely for a 6 - you are better off at the Lords in 1970. Let Indian Grounds be the celebration of life that they are.

It was a slightly boring match. But a day-night international watched from over the sight screen on a free ticket is a day night international watched from over the sight screen on a free ticket.

Sales Stint Learnings. ed.1

1. They said that the fun is not in the destination but in the journey. They obviously havent been on bad country roads in ST buses.

2. You dont need to know a language to know that the shopkeeper is abusing you.

3. Stomach upsets can drive you to wait for 15minutes to get into a veggie restaurant alone.

4. TV is a basic necessity, right up there with roti, kapda, makaan, bijli aur internet

5. CUG connections rock - they make std calls really cheap

6. Never underestimate the importance of home food and someone doing your laundry for free. Never!!

141*

He should retire they said
Ha!

Campus Sarcasm

This post is meant purely for those in the know (read IIMB students). I hope you have fun reading it. Cross Posted from BRacket

-----------------------------------------------
Dear Sir,This is in regard to the tradition of L2 parties which has been in vogue in IIMB over the past many years. I write this letter strongly imploring you to ban this evil tradition with immediate effect as i have learnt that it has far reaching impacts on our lives.Let me use my own example to illustrate. I was very happily a teetotaler before joining IIMB. However these evil L2 parties which have alcohol very easily available and horror of horrors on some occasions even free - led me to try alcohol. This led into a pattern wherein i was used to loud deafening music and alcohol almost every week. Life then was happy still but with a new entrant into my life thanks (or so i thought) to L2

But after college, work life started and transferred me to Gujarat - a state that is dry on alcohol. Now the only way to get alcohol here is to break the law and IIMB very conveniently got me on to alcohol but did not train me to break the law. So I am now in a situation where i cant get any alcohol - the loud music can be arranged though. Now this has led to considerable amount of discomfort and has taken me to a point where my thoughts drift to those days of L2. This obviously has led to drop in productivity during my work hours and hence a lot of uncomfortable questions from my superiors. The amount of trauma is unbelievable.

I have also attached an excel sheet of people who i believe are facing the same fate as me. Notable amongst those is Mihir Saxena (aka EthanHunt) who made a 2 day visit to Ahmedabad and had to go without alcohol for that period - longest he has been without it. All this thanks to the evil L2s.As a responsible senior, i cant see my juniors and their generations undergo the same levels of trauma and in this light i implore you to take strict action against L2 - if possible launch a qualitative investigation against it and ban it for ever. We have to make the earth safer for our following generations.

Comeback

Given that i am posting after one and a half months, this would probably count as my comeback post. However given that there is a far more important comeback in the offing, i would only be deluding myself. Yes SRT is back and this probably will be his last comeback ever, any further injury will probably signal the end of a glittering career. So this makes me look forward to this one even more.

This one is in Srilanka where Sachin scored his first ODI century - i hope its more than a happy coincidence. Lets just hope that this last lap will be his most glorious one yet and boy that will take some doing.

*Quote for the day*

My favourite one ofcourse is the one by Michael Kasprovich after the 1998 season where he had gotten the beating of his life in India and Sharjah- "I am tired of that little motherf****r"