When you wake up early and listen to Scarlett sing 'dekho baarish ho rahi hai", there will be no mood to go to office. More than the rain, the most important day of the year (or till next world cup at least) for Indians had arrived. Schools and colleges and companies were closed. Media had gone nuts, Poeple were going nuts. At 5AM my time, India played pakistan and whoever has heard of geography and cricket knows that it cannot get better than that. That is the biggest it we know. It may try but it really should not. From past few weeks, I had heard "Do bhai aur laDaayi, hindustan aur Pakistan", "kaun jitega yeh mahasangram" etc again and again. Finally that was going to end. (But with every end starts a new beginnning. Now I see many have started the comparison with Ramayan. Dhoni is hanuman and world cup is Sanjeevini? WTF!).
Coming back to the sangram, India won.. As expected. Pakistan lost. As expected. Sreesanth and Shoaib did not play. As expected. The expected mini collapse was there. Some got starts and some barely started. He exploited lady luck like a Indian movie villain does a hero's sister. Catches were dropped like hot potatoes. Still let us not take anything away from him or the importance of the innings. 85 aganist arch rivals is as good as it can get (except for something more than 85). Overall it was decent performance by batsmen. The fielding was better than usual. There were few good moments but you could see that they are still reluctant to dive. Raina and Kohli were exceptions though. As usual, Zak bowled well. Munaf and Nehra did even better. I was really surprised to see Munaf charged up. Normally he sleep walks throgh the runup. Yuvi again proved that he is the second best bowler in team India though everyone took 2 wickets apiece.
For Green Goblins, Hafeez and Shafiq were impressive but both gave away their wickets in a moment of stupidity, which they will regret. As will Younis and Misbah, for not getting out in a moment of stupidity. The middle overs overs where these two tried to asphyxiate (Better word for choke...) their own team was interesting. Its a world cup semifinal. The 50 over kind. You do not play the way you want, boys. Unless your last name is Afridi. The ferociously talented Umar Akmal and Sahebzada Afridi tried the heimlich maneuver but the senior members did not let it succeed. Spare a thought for Umar Akmal. He tried his best to resurrect the cause, only to see his senior teammates destroy the hopes. They were so good at it, rumour has it that Graeme Smith has new role models now. Also, South African cricket team has asked them to coach the team once they retire (which would be anytime now).
Also, there was something wrong with Star Cricket database. When Afridi came to bowl, it showed age as 31. Now thats just absurd. Everyone knows that Afridi should either be 18 or 24. There are no other age windows for him. He is like an elf. He has Super strength, does not age and never understood human concept (for sensible cricket). See, he does not understand what logic is and is capable of hitting the ball far and wide and shoot the ball out of his hands at great speeds. Jokes apart, it was good captaincy from him. Leading a time bomb of a team which can destroy everything including itself (and presses self destruction button so often) is not easy. They always had good players take up captaincy but nobody was good as a captain. Sahebzada has always been passionate for the game (he even bit the ball when he felt that it was a threat, a la Mike Tyson) and at times makes surprisingly intelligent decisions. There is some logic there somewhere. Need to get that out more often then.
What happens when you have Sunny, Shastribot , Rameez and Wasim Akram in Commentary box? Yes, exactly. Cliches and biased opinions. Thats what happened. Noone was ready to let it go. Rameez kept telling this was Pakistan's game to lose. In the end two senior members showed him he was right. They even Saurav Ganguly with them. He struggled with words like he did with his contacts. He never looked comfortable with them. But it was refreshing to hear a new voice. And he is yet to learn the cliches used by the others. Aaand hey. No Arun Lal or Siva. It was good.
Did you see Soniyaji madam and Rahul baba watching the match? Mr Singh was behind a bulletproof glass wall with his Pakistani counterpart. But Madam and baba were with the crowd. More brownie points. I did not see any BJP leaders. I'm sure its a conspiracy by the governement. Ms Swaraj (Ashish Shakya, the best blogger according to me, calls her Raghu Ram of Parliament. Could not agree more) and Gadkari have not said anything till now. But truth will come out soon. I had few questions. Do they play cricket in Italy? Who explained the rules and scores to the mother and son? Was Mr Singh ready with his apology speech in case India had lost? Would Thackeray have allowed Pakistan to play in Mumbai if they had won? Why is Raj allowing Non Marathi players and commentators? Will there be Marathi commentary?
There was another rumour that Rahul baba was there to see Poonam Pandey. The lady who looks like a malnourished kaamwali bai and was unknown till few days ago, came to news by telling that she will bare it all in case men in blue win. (Congrats Poonam. You just got selected for next Bigg Boss and You are prettier than Dolly Bindra. well.. I take that last comment back. Who isn't.) Poonam was ready to give a 'private' show to the boys or do it right in the stadium if rules allowed. She was not there in stadium. Poonam, some advice, include Sharad Pawar next time. Im not saying Mr Pawar is not of good character, but he will not let go of anything that can bring some publicity.
When did India become so liberal? Sure there are lot of things going on in private. But public announcement of such things were frowned upon at one time. Now we have Sherilyns, Rakhis and Mallikas blurting out so many 'liberal' statements. Indian media talks so much about values and morality etc when someone attacks them. But they glorify these people. Ash has put on weight? Amitabh went to loo? There you go half an hour covered. Everyone needs news. Media to fill the time and Celebs to fill the bank accounts. All western influence you see. Where are the Mutaliks and Thackerays?
Coming back to the sangram, India won.. As expected. Pakistan lost. As expected. Sreesanth and Shoaib did not play. As expected. The expected mini collapse was there. Some got starts and some barely started. He exploited lady luck like a Indian movie villain does a hero's sister. Catches were dropped like hot potatoes. Still let us not take anything away from him or the importance of the innings. 85 aganist arch rivals is as good as it can get (except for something more than 85). Overall it was decent performance by batsmen. The fielding was better than usual. There were few good moments but you could see that they are still reluctant to dive. Raina and Kohli were exceptions though. As usual, Zak bowled well. Munaf and Nehra did even better. I was really surprised to see Munaf charged up. Normally he sleep walks throgh the runup. Yuvi again proved that he is the second best bowler in team India though everyone took 2 wickets apiece.
For Green Goblins, Hafeez and Shafiq were impressive but both gave away their wickets in a moment of stupidity, which they will regret. As will Younis and Misbah, for not getting out in a moment of stupidity. The middle overs overs where these two tried to asphyxiate (Better word for choke...) their own team was interesting. Its a world cup semifinal. The 50 over kind. You do not play the way you want, boys. Unless your last name is Afridi. The ferociously talented Umar Akmal and Sahebzada Afridi tried the heimlich maneuver but the senior members did not let it succeed. Spare a thought for Umar Akmal. He tried his best to resurrect the cause, only to see his senior teammates destroy the hopes. They were so good at it, rumour has it that Graeme Smith has new role models now. Also, South African cricket team has asked them to coach the team once they retire (which would be anytime now).
Also, there was something wrong with Star Cricket database. When Afridi came to bowl, it showed age as 31. Now thats just absurd. Everyone knows that Afridi should either be 18 or 24. There are no other age windows for him. He is like an elf. He has Super strength, does not age and never understood human concept (for sensible cricket). See, he does not understand what logic is and is capable of hitting the ball far and wide and shoot the ball out of his hands at great speeds. Jokes apart, it was good captaincy from him. Leading a time bomb of a team which can destroy everything including itself (and presses self destruction button so often) is not easy. They always had good players take up captaincy but nobody was good as a captain. Sahebzada has always been passionate for the game (he even bit the ball when he felt that it was a threat, a la Mike Tyson) and at times makes surprisingly intelligent decisions. There is some logic there somewhere. Need to get that out more often then.
What happens when you have Sunny, Shastribot , Rameez and Wasim Akram in Commentary box? Yes, exactly. Cliches and biased opinions. Thats what happened. Noone was ready to let it go. Rameez kept telling this was Pakistan's game to lose. In the end two senior members showed him he was right. They even Saurav Ganguly with them. He struggled with words like he did with his contacts. He never looked comfortable with them. But it was refreshing to hear a new voice. And he is yet to learn the cliches used by the others. Aaand hey. No Arun Lal or Siva. It was good.
Did you see Soniyaji madam and Rahul baba watching the match? Mr Singh was behind a bulletproof glass wall with his Pakistani counterpart. But Madam and baba were with the crowd. More brownie points. I did not see any BJP leaders. I'm sure its a conspiracy by the governement. Ms Swaraj (Ashish Shakya, the best blogger according to me, calls her Raghu Ram of Parliament. Could not agree more) and Gadkari have not said anything till now. But truth will come out soon. I had few questions. Do they play cricket in Italy? Who explained the rules and scores to the mother and son? Was Mr Singh ready with his apology speech in case India had lost? Would Thackeray have allowed Pakistan to play in Mumbai if they had won? Why is Raj allowing Non Marathi players and commentators? Will there be Marathi commentary?
There was another rumour that Rahul baba was there to see Poonam Pandey. The lady who looks like a malnourished kaamwali bai and was unknown till few days ago, came to news by telling that she will bare it all in case men in blue win. (Congrats Poonam. You just got selected for next Bigg Boss and You are prettier than Dolly Bindra. well.. I take that last comment back. Who isn't.) Poonam was ready to give a 'private' show to the boys or do it right in the stadium if rules allowed. She was not there in stadium. Poonam, some advice, include Sharad Pawar next time. Im not saying Mr Pawar is not of good character, but he will not let go of anything that can bring some publicity.
When did India become so liberal? Sure there are lot of things going on in private. But public announcement of such things were frowned upon at one time. Now we have Sherilyns, Rakhis and Mallikas blurting out so many 'liberal' statements. Indian media talks so much about values and morality etc when someone attacks them. But they glorify these people. Ash has put on weight? Amitabh went to loo? There you go half an hour covered. Everyone needs news. Media to fill the time and Celebs to fill the bank accounts. All western influence you see. Where are the Mutaliks and Thackerays?
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