blue vs green for a red hot battle

“They attacked on Tuesday, repeated on Friday and I am replying on a Wednesday”- one of the strongest b-town dialogues of recent times ( Nas Shah to Anupam Kher in the movie- Wednesday). Hope MIB are listening.
I was scanning through today’s newspaper and the three sports pages were almost all about what Mohali is going to unfold in few hour’s time. Y-day’s S/F clash between SL and NZ was reduced almst to a footnote. Such is the hype of this particular game and its impact seems to be second to no other sports news in India.
At centurion few years ago, Akhtar barged in and banged one short that Sahin cut over third man boundary for a massive six to mark the writing on the wall. As if that was not enough, the apprentice photocopied that shot, but this time Waqar was on the receiving end. No matter how hard Akhtar now tries to deny that he does not remember that shot of Sachin, I can bet my a** on the fact that the tailor-made-for-camera-moment will be remembered as long as cricket survives. And ditto for the nightmarish shot of Misbah in the T-20 final which found the waiting palms of Sreesanth. I think even Imran and Javed are also suffering from short term memory loss. 

With team Sachin-Sehwag going great guns and Yuvi giving a performance of his life-time, its everyone’s guess which bowling side wud be under more pressure. Taking no credit away from Afridi’s purple patch ( for a change, its not bang bang Afridi thie time), I feel Indian batters will come on the top. Gul is surely going to pose a potential threat. But didn’t Bret Lee do the same thing the other day. The maturity with which he was tackled by baba and veeru was there for everyone to take a note of.
On paper, it is going to be a battle of Indian batting vs Pak bowling and so on the field too. Torrential rain last night would certainly have forced both the teams to have their plan-B ready. However my tip would be stick to your plan-A only. Its how perfectly you execute your plan-A will help you win more often than not.
It is for the media to keep flashing ‘ it is the mother of all battles”, ‘Epic tussle of nerves and skills’..blah blah.......And, for both the teams, it should be just yet another game. I feel i t is little unfair to pressurize the players who are there doing their jobs in a manner that they know the best. For us cricket fans, its all about fun, beer, friends, pub, and i-know-it-all strategies, post-mortems, half day in office, etc.........But whatever- its all abt blood, sweat and blue today.......Jai Ho.....

choke, bleed and blue.......

The most irritating yet inevitable question will continue to be asked to the Proteas. Thanks to the dramatic collapse at Mirpur against the Kiwis. I had to eat the humble pie when I went overboard after India lost 9 for 29 the other day saying – it happens only in India. Little I knew then that I would proved wrong by the Proteas, one of the favourites for the 10th edition of the World Cup being played in the sub-continent. Pat Symcox says, “ the answer lies not in batting, bowling and fielding, but in the fourth aspect of cricket: in the mind. And at crucial times, it seems that it's the opposition who have the upperhand in that department, despite all the changes South Africa have made”. Hence the only way to shed the inevitable tag is by winning a major ICC trophy.
It was horrendous, least to say, to witness a team collapsing from 108/2 to bundle out for 172. The likes of Kallis, Duminy and also Smith would throw themselves in towel for playing some of the nightmarish shots of their lives. Taking nothing away from the Kiwis, Proteas have only themselves to blame for or may be the history to failing at the knock-out stage. On another note , Kiwis lifted their games when it really mattered. Oram emerged from nowhere to pick Smith and then followed up with 3 more wickets. Much against the run of the play Smith and Kallis were back in the dressing room. As if one of the freakiest dismissal ( of Amla) was not enough for the fate of the Proteas, du Plessis and AB messed up things at the middle. DP tried to wage a lone battle, played sensibly during the batting PP, but guess it was too little too late and the inevitable was already scripted. Kudos to john wright, the silent assassin.
Now going forward, with the mother of all battles shedding its cast over the subcontinent it is going be a edge-of-the-seat battle at Mohali where history is waiting to be written. The great run of Pak notwithstanding, the semi would be a battle of nerves more than cricket. On one side we have a charged up young brigade led by a geared-up Afridi, while on other is a far more balanced team which is so determined to gift the cup to their God. A mouth watering clash indeed in prospect. Just need to see who takes the battle to whose camp. The mere thoughts of mini-battles of Veeru vs Gul, Sachin vs Hafiz/Azmal, Yuvi vs Afridi, etc. are enough value for money. The uncertain game that cricket is, it is surely going to offer the classic battle of the top run-getters so far vs the top wicket taker of the tournament. Not for a moment I am thinking of ‘let the best team win’. You may call me selfish or whatever you choose for that matter. But I want to see the cup that has long eluded the kit of the greatest cricketer of our (modern) times...so for me personally its not 03/30 , rather 04/02- the J-day, the D-day.....! Go, boys go........its all abt blood, sweat and blue now. .bleed blue.........cheers.

Harsha Bhogle's note after Ind-SA match

Remember when you failed an examination. How many people recall that, your class, friends, relatives? You failed to make it to the IITs or IIMs. Who remembers. How many times have you had the feeling of being the best in your class, school , university, state….., you failed to get a visa stamped this quarter…, you missed a promotion this year…, how did it feel when you dad told you in your early twenties that you are good for nothing…..and now your boss tell you the same... You keep introspecting and go into a shell when people most of whom don’t matter a dime in your life criticize you, back bite you, make fun of you. You are left sad and shattered and you cry when your own kin scoffs at you. You say I am feeling low today. It takes a lot from us to come out of these everyday situations and move on. A lot??? really? Now here’s a man standing on the third man boundary in the last over of a world cup match. The bowler just has to bowl sensibly to win this game. What the man at the boundary sees is 4 rank bad bowls bowled without any sense of focus, planning or regret. India loses, yet again in those circumstances when he has done just about everything right. He does not cry. Does not show any emotion. Just keeps his head down and leaves the field. He has seen these failures for 22 years now. And not just his class, relatives, friends but the whole world has seen these failures. We are too immature to even imagine what goes on in that mind and heart of his. That’s why I would never want to be Sachin. True, he has single handedly lifted to moods of this entire nation umpteen number of times. He has been an inspiration to rise above our mediocrity. Nobody who has ever lifted the willow even comes close to this man’s genius. His dedication and metal strength is unparallel. This is specially for those people who would have made fun of him again last night when India lost. They are people who are mediocre in their own lives. Who just scoff at others to create cheap fun. Who have lived in a small hole throughout their lives and thought they have seen the oceans. Think about the man himself. He is 37 years of age. He has been playing almost non stop for 22 years. The way he was running and diving around the field last night would have put 22 year olds to shame. The way he played the best opening quickies in the world was breathtaking. He just keeps getting better which is by the way humanly impossible. Its not for nothing that people call him GOD. But still I don’t want to be in those shoes. We struggle in keeping our monotonous lives straight, lives which affect a limited number of people. Imagine what would be the magnitude of the inner struggle for him, pain both mental and physical, tears that have frozen with time, knees and ankles and every other joint in the body that is either bandaged or needs to be attended to every night, eyes that don’t sleep before a big game, bats that have scored 99 international tons and still see expectations from a billion people. And he just converts those expectations into reality. We watch in awe, feel privileged. Well I think its time that his team realizes that enough is enough. They have an obligation, not towards their country alone but towards sachin. They need to win this one for him. Stay assured that he himself will still deliver and leave no stone unturned to make sure India wins this cup. This is not just a game, and he is not just a sportsman. Its much more than this. Words fail here..... --- HARSHA BHOGLE

good, bad and ugly ( so far..)

Mid-term evaluation
With the ICC WC-2011 more than half-way through and more half of the quarterfinalists already decided, its not too many surprises so far. I know some must be giving knee-jerk response as most Indian fans would have post SA tie at Nagpur, some would have simply jumped the gun like Ian Botham did and some may have. But then, its always fun to wait and watch .
Ozs have been unbeaten so far, but the juggernaut is far from what it used to be in last 3 editions. Sub-continental teams have excelled in patches. Indian batting looks ok so does the protean. NZ has done every bit possible to get back to some kind of shape after the initial blues. Most of the matches in Group A went almost as per the prescript. But the other one has offered the real excitement. India beat Bangladesh, Bangladesh beat Ireland, Ireland beat England, England beat SA, SA beat India and this goes on to make one believe that one goes around also comes around. The uncertain element of the game at its best. The men in blue which was sitting pretty safe now faces a mathematical possibility of getting ousted. Well, i don’t see this happen as my gut feeling says its India all the way this time. I brushed off the Nagpur loss putting all the blame on a dear friend who flew all by himself from Bhubaneswar to watch the match without even bothering to leave slightest of a hint. I had earlier blamed him for India’s mixed fortune against Eng as he was sitting by my side at my home all thru the match. Superstition to be core!!!
A lot has been spoken and written about on the use of power-plays. So i don’t have anything much to say on that. Talking of individual glories, Sachin, AB, Veeru, Watty, Yuvi, Pollard, Trott have so far provided what was expected off them. However, in the bowling dept. its been pretty interesting. People who have historically been the bashers of pitches of this part of the globe are left completely clueless. We saw Afridi and Imran leading the pack initially and then two fiery hat-tricks by pacers provided a lot to fellow fast bowlers a lot to cheer about.
Now it would be interesting to see what this weekend has in offer as the Q/F line-up is all set to be decided as we go to the nest week. Right now I am enjoying Somedev’s run at the ATP masters @ Indian Wells. Oops he lost to rafa this morning, but it was worth spending 2 hrs this morning glued to the TV. He gave his idol a real run for his money. And interestingly, Somdev ran better than Nadal on many occasions. Just that Rafa won couple of points when mattered more. No worry- it was a brave-heart show by the Indian qualifier..well done dude, we are so very proud of u! cheers