My tryst with run outs- enthusiastix

WEll, theres a 8-8 cricket tourney going on in college right now, and me and aquatix have enrolled. We are part of a maverick team of castaways who werent in demand by any other team (remind you of any other challenging team?). so today was the first match against another team in black, and it was Rc vs Knight riders revisited, we were thrashed (fairly expected, since were playing for the heck of it). Dravid was out to prove that test players can play t20, were out to prove that fellows who havent played in ages can still play.

My own modest part in the proceedings consisted of a dot ball and an ill fated play to mid on that resulted in me being run out. Tad unlucky, since i felt i had a chance as there was only on stump too aim at the non strikers end. But with the history of my cricket career, i should have known better… should have known better than to run.

If case youre wondering, most of my innings have ended in run outs (most of the time by my partner). right from my school days in muscat. Continued on the rare occasions i played in bahrain, even happened the one time we played in nps and the last time was during the last tournament in college where i hadnt faced a single ball.

Of course im not saying my wicket is such a gigantic loss, im no jayasuriya. But once upon i time i could hold my own. ONce held the record for the highest score in my compound in muscat way back in fourth standard. That was the time when the bowling was a lot better mind you, there was some genuine pace to face, with a lot of sweet chin music

Sigh.. theres something about playing cricket that brings out the eternal kid in you, i suppose. Squabble for every run, yell at the umpire, ignore the searing heat, fight to bat up the order, mutiny against your captain and the golden rule-  never ever admit youre out. Theres nothing like playing cricket with friends…. even if they run you out!

1 DOWN HOW MANY MORE TO GO??? by Aquatix

ok i know i’ve been tlaking about nothing but the ipl on the blog,but right now
that’s the only topic of interest happening in and around our society unless there’re people out there who would like to listen to what happens in our hospital etc etc.this is not gray’s anatomy you know. so coming to the topic..the scales seem to be falling from mr mallya eyes. apparently they say that mr sharma played a major role in selecting the team and that’s why he has been dropped,but of course they gave him the choice of stepping down rather thatn publicly firing him. the next in line seems to be venkatesh prasad the coach of the team. the person who replaced mr sharma brijesh patelfrom what i’ve heard people say is that having mr patel seems to be as bad an idea as having mr sharma., the credential mr patel has over sharma is that he actually has played some cricket in his hay days. personally i dont think it makes a difference if you fire the ceo right now.

ps- what do you think prompted mr mallya to take this action?did he read my article by any chance??

HORTON HEARS A WHO AQUATIX GIVES A TWO

This was one of the recent most movies i watched….r\nice movie…but more for the kids though 12 years and below is my recommendation…but if there’s any of you out there who are fans of animation even though we’ve passed that age then it’s a recom for you guys also…the main attraction of the movie is the star cast Jim carrey and steve carrel…both comedians of class….overall i would give the movie a rating of 7.8 on 10……

FROM ROYAL CHALLENGERS TO ROYAL LOSERS!!!

well as my friend Enthusiastix pointed out the last match against king’s 11 punjab was a reality check…the royal challengers are no way close in contention for the championship…5 ducks in an innings….what is that…you hardly get to see such a spectacular sight in a test match itself but our ROYAL LOSERS made it possible for the delight of all those watching and thanks to this our cheerleaders got nothing to cheer about and we dont even get to see them on tv:((….my suspicions in an earlier article that mr mallya is being made an ass of seems to be coming true….so now lets see whether they’ll continue to get thrashed royally…..or they’ll learn something from this…there’s a tiny winy tit bit chance of them coming 4th which is highly doubtful though….

ROYAL BUT NOT YET CHALLENGING!!-aquatix

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog…just been a bit lazy….we’ve got the best cheerleading team compared to all the other ipl teams..we also have an awesome promoter in the person of Katrina Kaif that all points out to qualities of royal but where’s the challenge??..so the Royal challengers did manage to win their second game yesterday by beating the deccan chargers after much drama….it was good to see our cheerleaders back in their old uniforms…this must have motivated the players to do their best so that they were not outshined by the cheerleaders….the other plus points of the match were that…finally our bowlers showed what they’re capable of….second plus point is that joshi uncle was not played…but saying that his replacement kumble did not bowl that well either…there were 2 turning points in the match…no 1 the dismissal of rohit sharma…and the 2nd one was that fantastic catch by dale steyn….there was another clever catch by wasim jaffer at the start of the match…before this game they played the super duper kings and the dare devils not to forget another royal team the rajasthan royals…where luck seemed to be giving the challengers silent treatment…because the match was so much within their grip when it looked like someone had greased it and it slipped out of their hands…also the cheerleaders were wearing white t shirts in those matches which made the challengers sulk….WE are definetly royal as we’re leading in the kingfisher fair play award category…but still not challenging enough to pose a threat in crunch situations….tomorrow we take on the King’s 11 punjab…who’re playing really well now after a bad start….hoping that our players will perform to their potential…

ps.. what really surprised me during the match was…that last over where dravid smashed 2 sixes..quite unbelievable…if he could do that again this time…i might get to see sreeshanth cry again:))

throw the book at him!

Well the first major controversy of the ipl has reared its ugly head. Some would say it was a matter of time but i never expected it to be as severe as this.

to go over the facts, prima facie evidence confirms that Harbhajan slapped or punched sreesanth in the face after the mohali match. Harbhajan claims to have been provoked by sree. While this is very plausible, there certainly can be no defending harbys actions. Assaulting a player on the field is a very serious offence (contrary to what his mother says) and should be dealt with severely. Harbhajan it must be admitted has been let off in the past. Im referring to the Monkey issue with symonds where harbys defence was that he said teri ma ki. what was surprising that that time was that everyone including the bcci acted as if this was a perfectly ok thing to say and he didnt even get a reprimand from the board. These are the people influencing the cricketers coming in are influenced by (a shame since there seem to be very few ppl who want to emulate sachin or rahul, and instead are attracted by sree and harby).

If the bcci lets him off easily, it will be one fo the worst precedents set for the gentlemans game (if you can indeed call it that anymore). In my view, a ban of at least a year is forthcoming, anything less will be a travesty. Reliance industries ahould also drop him from their squad for the disgrace he has brought. Indeed the loss of money is prehaps the only thing that will set this renegade straight. frankly i dont hink it will be such a big loss for the team either beacuse i cannot remember the last time harbhajan won us a match, and we have an undervalued spinner in murali kartik waiting in the wings.

A word on Sreesanth. If youre going to act aggresive on the field, you have to back it up. Not bawl like a baby once some one hits you. Can you imagine hayden or symonds bawling the way he did (one wonders what sree would have done if it was symonds delivering the blow). His interviews after the incident also leave a lot of explaining. IN the morning, harbhajan was his elder brother who “pushed him in the wrong place” and “didnt need to apologize”. In the evening “it was a slugfest”. What the Crap?!

This is the best oppurtunity for the bcci to staighten out the two most volatile players we have and they should not let it go abegging!

Phoenix from the ashes- A and E

Aquatix:

ah!a good comeback for the royal challengers..what with the changes they made by bringing chanderpaul and ross taylor in..the run rate increased reasonably..awesome contribution from boucher…and even though kallis’s role might have seemed insignificant…his was the most important one over there…ok i’ll take back my words about dravid and charu sharma making a fool out of mr Mallya…dravid was also quite unbelievable played pretty decently…and the best part was the mr mallya’s best investment had something to cheer about today..now we have to sit back and see how the other matches go…

Enthusiastix:

I have always maintained that one match is no yardstick to judge any team in any game, least of all in t20. Yeah the changes were pretty crucial. Once steyn and kumble return (and hopefully remove joshi uncle) well be even stronger. Hope this shuts some naysayers mouths. I tell you its damn irritating to listen to ppl who dont follow the game, become cricket experts after one match and start passing judgment. Its even more irritating to watch ppl cheer whoever happens to be winning at the time without any sense of loyalty and then act proud when ‘their’ team wins. Support isnt about jumping on the bandwagon of the winning team. Its about staying loyal to your team even when theyre down (thats when support counts the most). Achtung baby, bangalores on its way!

Opening ceremony- by aquatix

ok we were live witnesses to what happened at the inaugural IPL match…the opening ceremony was something which i’ve not seen in india before..though the one at the afro asian games had similar fireworks…it started off with snakar,eshaan and loy singing 2 dance numbers…then nfl’s washington redskins cheerleaders entered the ground to entertain us…this was followed by various acrobats…which was just amazing…this was followed by the introduction of all the captains…mr tendulkar got the loudest cheer easily….following this mr gavaskar read out regarding the ethics about the game…and he specifically stated taht each team should respect their opponents…later on mr sharad pawar,the icc president and mr modi spoke to a crowd who were bored to tears thanks to those trio..

finally we got on with the toss…mr dravid despite winning the toss elected to field..which i knew was a disastrous decision for the royal challengers…1 mistake had already been done…but we still had a chance or that’s what i thought until the 2nd over started and brendon mc cullum went bonkers…even though the royal challengers were the team subjected to the ROYAL THRASHING by mc cullum..it was a sight to see someone hit a 150 in a t20 match…that’s like hitting more than a triple century in a 50 over match…i’m quite sure you people’ll know the scores so there’s no point going into that sector..it also hurts to type that stuff….coming to the best investment mr Mallya made…the redskins cheerleaders..they were our best buy:):) no doubt about that…initially they had no idea what was happening on the field so they were cheering for the works of mc cullum…later on someone told them that they were supposed to cheer only for the royal challenger’s exploits..and the poor girls had nothing to do after that than swat mosquitoes around them…the other positive thing of the match was the presence of the glamorous MISS KATRINA KAIF..though she did not make her presence felt..like Mr khan and local star Mr upendra who were dancing’n all….

coming to think of why the royal challengers lost so badly..the toss was 1 thing i agree…but what about the team they had chosen…Mallya spent the 2nd highest amount during the bidding…and what happened after that??beats me…looks like mr Dravid and Charu sharma made a fool out of him(lets hope its not that)
hopefully we’ll have stern and bracken back in our future games to salvage some broken pride for the royal challengers….

Dont count out the challengers- by enthusiastix

Loads of interest in the ipl, now that its only a few days away. And our very own royal challengers are involved in the opening fixture itself. While not the strongest side on paper, i feel they arent as ‘chanceless’ as people are making them out to be.

For starters, predicting anything in this format of the game is near impossible. Who thought india would win the t20 cup? who thought zimbabawe would beat australia? who thought south africa would crumble the way they did (ok… perhaps some ppl thought that )

Secondly, bangalore is taking a very different approach to this tournament (mainly thansk to martin crowe and dravid me thinks) that might just work. Seems to me they think the key lies in outbowling the opposition. I mean, bangalore has a very good bowling side, perhaps the best in the competition with Steyn (red hot right now), Bracken, Kumble, Khan, Kumar and even kallis.

As far as the batting is concerned, i agree it looks like a test squad and was also disappointed when i first saw it. On thinking it over, i realized that all our batsmen are class players who have proven themselves in pressure situations (chanderpaul recently hit a six off the last ball).  Still, glad we got Ross Taylor and Misbah (cant understand how we got him so cheap, think his purchase might prove crucial)

Thirdly, it must be remembered that only four international players can play per match and this means that in reality, the team with the strongest indian players is most likely to win the cup. This factor greatly weakens the overwhelming superiority teams like chennai and hyderabad enjoy on paper. One wildcard is the fact that mnay players will not be available for the first few matches cos of domestic commitments. The team that does well in the early stages might hold a big edge.

So all systems go for the first match, myself and aquatix will be there lookout for us on tv. Really really want kolkata to lose (im sick of watching srk promoting his team like some karan johar movie). Go bangalore!

PS- watch out for the chap named “napoleon einstein” in the chennai super kings. no joke!

Social commentatory……..TAP TAP TAP

this is where we’ll be commenting/commentating on various social and entertainment topics…it’ll be ranging from movies to serials…sports to products;)…also there’ll be reviews of movies watched…trust me reading these reviews of movies’ll definitely be worth it..as you guys know’ll whether to go for that movie or not…lets start of this one i watched yesterday…

The Bucket List- this movie is a must watch…there are many reasons as to why you should watch this movie…. 1> the story line itself is really catchy…2>with 2 oscar winners like jack nickolson and morgan freeman starring there’s no way anyone can miss it out…3>as i’ve already told you about the star cast,there’s no need to describe how brilliant their acting is….4>you thought tare zameen par was touchy touchy ,well then you’ll know what touchy touchy’ll be after watching this movie ,…it also comes with a lot of comedy ….overall i would easily rate the movie a minimum of 8 on 10:)….