The community shield finale

Wat a match it was! Saw my first football match at IIM-S TV Room! And not a bad way to start!! Man-U ended up in the wrong side of a penalty shoot this time. :( But the Rooney last minute goal ensured it did not turn out to be a damp squib!!

Hoping to see the entire season if there is time amidst the busy schedule here :)

Moment I was waiting for..

In the earlier post, I made it clear that I am no fan of Dhoni and for me and millions of my kind, I think the moment has arrived!! We were eagerly waiting for the extended lucky period of Dhoni to vanish. The buddha types emotionless face which he tries to sport during good times just to show that he is a steve waugh in the making is giving away to his true self that of a rugged guy with absolutely no humility.

Since the intial days of his captaincy, Dhoni has been committing gravest of blunders but was able to come out of it unscathed and our media even started hailing them as out of the box thinking.. Giving the ball to joginder sharma in the final over of 2007 T20 finals was the most blatant of them.. I still cant comprehend what made that poor misbah to squat on his crease and turn that dumb ball to sreesanth(appam ... ) at short fine leg!

Dhoni has been very clear about whom he wants in the team and whom he does not for purely personal reasons so that he can wield his sword freely and call the shots. First in this mission was to dump two stalwarts Dravid and Ganguly unceremoniously. Especially showing Dravid the door was very very bad. What has not Dravid done for indian cricket - captaining, most consistent batsman for the past ten years, wicket keeping and occassional bowl as well!! After all this, if a bhachchaa can come and ask him to get out of the team.. well it can happen only in india..

If he had asked Ganguly and Dravid about their plans and taken this move then it is a different story altogether. I still remember a combined Ganguly-Dravid interview after the adelaide fourth test in which both were puzzled over the team selection and appeared irritated to say the least.

The most irritating thing about Dhoni is that he does not try to be himself on the field. Why that saint like calmness? Composure is different and it comes in the genes. Just wearing a gogles and being very silent when bowlers are spraying balls everywhere does not mean he is composed. Only the poor bowlers know what dressing down he gives them in the dressing room.:(

And what is all this spat with Sehwag all about? :-0 . and that too making it public.. In the process Dhoni has antagonised the media by not being able to maintain his so called composure in the media interview. This act is going to cost him dear in the rest of his career.

With his stupid english, It will be better off if he shuts his mouth in the interviews and speaks little but this fella does not bother at all and keeps blabbering using some stupid phrases and continuously gives gyan to Ravi shastri. Next time you see a Dhoni interview after any match, just see how the interviewer struggles to get the mike back from our laloo yadav. :)

The Ravindra Jadeja move was just horrendous and he was as usual unrepentant. Saying "T20 is an unpredictable game and Jadeja tried but it was not his day" coolly.. But Indians were not going to let this fellow escape this time and effigy burning ensued. and for the first time our buddha had to apologize to the nation. :)

I fervently wish India loses more and more matches under this fellow and that his crew of hyped idiots continue to fail under all conditions. But I would still support India in matches in which "God" plays but in all others I will just hope they do badly.

Yeah, she can be humourous :)

I used to adore steffi graf for her game. Till today I have not seen any woman(I narrow it down as federer beats her ;) ) playing the game as gracefully as this pony tailed beauty from germany.
Except for wimbledon 1995 where in she was shocked by Lori Mcneil in the first round, she was the undoubted queen of the nineties. Also to be noted is that she won all the four granddlams and the seoul olympics gold in 1988. A feat that is unmatched to this day.
Her rivalry with Monica seles was what drew towards tennis! If only monica had not been stabbed in hamburg, we could have seen many more years of intense rivalry :(
But, The match I would remember will be that wimbeldon finals between Jana navotna and Steffi in which steffi comes back from 2 - 5 in final set to clinch it 7 - 5. Navotna just does not control her emotions and cries on the shoulders of the british queen!!
Jana Navotna was a goran ivanisevic in women wimbledon tennis as she too finally won the wimbledon after repeated faltering at the final hurdle. That too when she was the least favourite to win that year.
When Steffi called it quits after her 1999 wimbledon finals with Lindsay Davenport, I stopped viewing tennis until king roger came into his own in 2003. :)
I dont think there can ever be another steffi graf with beauty, grace and power so nicely distributed in her game.
I would like to include two very interesting videos which you will love watching!
First one shows how humourous she is! A lesson to be learnt for our own consistently inconsistent, second round losing sania who has attitude written all over her :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlA_hL3NyyU
Second advertisement is also too good.. Just see it for yourself. :)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2DfTU9bCh0
The other player playing with the kid is Taylor dent who had talent but did not quite make it big. Taylor dent was actually compared with federer in his iniitial days but later he lost his way..

Rahul Dravid - concentration personified

Recently Rahul dravid conquered the peak of claiming the most number of catches by a non wicket keeper surpassing the 181 of Mark Waugh. Mark Waugh summed up rahul dravid in the following words, " Rahul dravid is not a natural slip or close in fielder(Mark was definitely one), but he has made up for that with his enormous concentration ".
Just imagine the plight of a close in fielder who has to concentrate literally the whole day and make split second reflexes on that one or two occassions in a day when someone might get the odd nick.
Mark waugh had, apart from the great shane warne, classic fast bowlers like McDErmott, Gillespie, McGrath and Lee. Hence large share of his catches came from them that means for most of his catches, he had enough time to react. Imagine Rahul's plight. All along he had to field for kumble( with his jumbo deliveries) and Harbhajan. I just want to emphasise the significance of his catches, nothing to take the credit away from the stylish Mark.
If one kid wants me to show a cricketer to follow, It wont be a lara or a sachin, It would be Rahul. Because Rahul was a person who maximised the what he had at his disposal and conquered the highest peaks. The former two were born genius.
He was a batsman who re-invented himself in the 1999 newzealand tour with a chanceless 123 at taupo. This was a time when there was sharp criticism on his pace of runs and he was dropped. There were two pathetically slow innings from him against Kenya( 1 from 21 balls) and Bangladesh( 5 from 33) which lead to his exit for almost six months.
But his status as THE WALL in the test arena was unquestionable throughout. We talk of the brilliance of sachin in the odd one innings in a series. There were umpteen occassions when the whole team except Rahul faltered. People talk of grinding the attack and here is a person who mastered it. The picture of Rahul tapping a scorching high riser from donald right back to the pitch will just be etched in the memories of all those who grew up in the 1990s period.After the 1999 Newzealand series, he was a completely different batsman who could bat in any role. In 1999 world cup, he emerged as the highest scorer( 145 off 129 at taunton!).
The first half of this decade clearly was Rahul's centuries after centuries: 153in the eden gardens epic, 233 Adelaide, 270 rawalpindi, 4 consecutive centuries against westindies & england. That is being prolific for you! Gillete advertisement along with tiger woods and federer was an honour for this smart cricketer from Bangalore..
There was period of 2 to 3 years in which he also acted as the team's wicketkeeper. Selflessness cant get better. We talk of ganguly's captaincy exploits, Rahul played an enormous role in that. But for that wicketkeeping services of dravid, India would have failed miserably as the team balance would have got tilted.
We won our first english series in england under him. 2007 flop was a black mark. Then, after he relinquished his captaincy, there was a lean patch compared to his high standards which led to his unceremonious ouster from the ODI team. But he has realised that his ODI days are over escpecially with the game taking a new dimension under the T20 influence. True, It is not quite a sight if rahul is going to do pure slogging.
I hate dhoni to this day for the way in which he dealt with Ganguly and Dravid in this ouster episode. That was not a way to treat two icons. sudden dropping is reserved for the younger lot. Dhoni could have consulted them, asked them their roadmap and then arrived at a decision or probably he could have made them announce their retirement from the ODIs. I will write another blogpost about Dhoni's hypocrisy and cunningness.
Vintage Dravid was again on display from the english home series and he has been near his best in the current Newzealand series with absolutely no failures. I just fervently hope he carries on for another 2 years.
Coming to his memorable catches.
1) His catch of Nasser Hussain to open his account in 96.

2) A blinder of Moin khan off srinath in Australia in 2000.

3) The controversial catch of slater in Mumbai in 2001.

4) Martyn's crucial catch off sachin in australia' 2003

5) And the unforgettable catch of gary kirsten at short leg position in the effort making kirsten fall on the ground in south africa 96 :)