So much news. This is some of it.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments

Plenty happening in the cricverse (cerse for short, pronounced the same as curse). Contrary to what some may think, the season has not ended with Chennai being crowned champions of everything.

Time is scant, however. Here's a possibly inaccurate graph to emphasize the scantiness of time relative to the news being coughed up by cricket.


Right. Now here's some of that news, in point-form to make it look more professional, to go with the graph.

  • Chennai Super Kings have won the IPL for the second year in a row. No surprises there. Around a 100% of the people I asked correctly predicted that Ashwin would get Gayle early for a duck.
  • Some changes were made to India's squad for the West Indian tour. With Gambhir and Yuvraj being ruled out and Sachin not playing the Tests, doors have suddenly opened for Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan and - the biggest one - Virat Kohli in the Test squad. Raina gets another shot at ODI captaincy, which is unfortunate for Kohli but ultimately fair. Also, Gayle hasn't been picked to play us in the LOI's, which is one less reason to actually watch and one more reason to check the results online afterwards.
  • England surprised themselves, Sri Lanka, and the 4 people who follow cricket in Brazil by winning at Cardiff, with Tremlett and Swann nipping out the Lankans for 82. Prior to the fourth innings, the match had not just been heading for a draw - it had long since reached it, taken a nap and was heading back to the draw. I can only assume that the strong Lankan top order had already switched off in anticipation of having some of their finest island curries for dinner (I don't really know their food).
  • Shahid Afridi has retired, in protest against something the PCB did at some point when he didn't want those things to happen. I've set a timer for 71839 minutes from now for his unretirement - if the event doesn't take place I think something might explode. Seems like a safe bet.
  • Here's a couple of pieces I liked: Aakash Chopra's analysis of Chawla, Mishra and Pirate Sharma (get it?). And Warne has some wise words for us legspinners.
I guess that's it for now. 

When Warne met Tendulkar

Saturday, May 21, 2011 , , , , , , No Comments





During the last league game featuring the Rajasthan Royals in this year’s IPL, it was not just the last sighting of Shane Warne the player; it was also the last time that he squared off against the greatest opponent of his era – Sachin Tendulkar. While the contest itself was nothing to write home about, for those who had witnessed some of the most memorable duels between these two over the last couple of decades, it was hard not to feel nostalgic about the times gone by.

The first meeting between these two legends was all one way traffic. In Warne’s first match for Australia, he took one wicket conceding 150 runs. In the same innings, Tendulkar, all of 19 years, scored an unbeaten century to draw first blood in the personal rivalry which would capture the imagination of a generation of cricket watchers.

India's squad for the Windie tour

Saturday, May 14, 2011 , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments

India's selectors threw up a squad for the tour to the West Indies today - and there were no surprises. Partly because Srikkanth and Co. have lost the ability to shock us, but mostly because it is, after all, a tour to the West Indies.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (c), Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha (wk).

With MS opting out (I presume), Gambhir will be the skipper (Fact: this originates from the Dutch word 'schipper', meaning 'shipper', or captain of the ship. I know there's a joke in here somewhere, about one-legged captains who can't run.) Raina will be the eager deputy, hoping to learn many things, like how Powerplays aren't magically constant.

Spot Dada

Saturday, May 07, 2011 , , , , No Comments

Click to enlarge, to be able to see anything (that is not a guarantee of comedy gold).


Couldn't think of another way to fill a blogging hole.
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