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In retrospect - The Cricket World Cup 2003 ...from groups mail| |
Right Arm Round The Wicket
Feb 9, 2003
dear all...
the 2003 world cup is about to begin and to welcome it I played a game of
cricket today...
was after ages and I managed to make about 10 runs not too bad that the
total score was 40... and we almost won... :)
i know ther are quite a few ppl on this groups who would like to talk
cricket and discuss it...
so who do u think will be the 5 most impressive players in this world cup?
here are my choices...
batsmen
- sachin (sounds cliche but i hope he does well)
- mathew hayden
- ramnaresh sarwan
- the sri lankan wicket keeper(i forget his name not kaluwitharana)
- rahul dravid
bowlers
- shane bond (NZ)
- brett lee
- muralitharan
- zaheer khan
- harbhajan
so from my choices it loox like the indian team will win ;)
the only other team i support other than India, is west indies....
lemme know what u guys think
sheece
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hello friends....
Mon Feb 10, 2003 5:06 am
sacrificed the goat today, contemplating on it always makes me thoughtful on
what reason has this idd seen light...
our indian team played cricket and were almost slaughtered, if they would
have lost the game am sure they would meet the kasai's sharp knife soon...
and since the day demanded a sacrifice, i was contemplating on sacrficing
watching cricket if india did lose...
i find the human race amusing, it's supposed to be intelligent but isn't or
thats wat my intelligent brain thinx, so either i am stupid or there is a
class of stupid people whom i think of that way and actually i am stupid and
they intelligent... watever it is i think there are stupid ppl one way or
the other and tht prevents human race from getting any more intelligent...
viscious circle...
had gone to the iddgaah today, one of the rare occasions when i do
the preacher made a couple of interesting statements, he said some ppl come
360 days, some ppl fridays, some 2 days (idds) and some directly on the
shoulders of four people... was scary and amusing at the same time, if it
were not prayers i would have probably clapped (or i take the liberty,
whistled) but cldnt...
the 2nd interesting thing he said, was tht every baal of the khaal (hair of
the skin) of the goat tht is offered to god for sacrfice is equivalent to
one good deed, and i guess there will be atleats 1 million baals on the
khaal...
someone took this statement very seriously and offered about 9 bakras to
god, that is about 9 million good deeds to his benefit... (god williing his
offerings are accepted)
though it did not have an immediate effect coz his 9 bakras were ahead of
our 1 bakra in the line to get sacrificed and my uncle and dad cursed him
for coming about 5 minutes ahead of us... (ironical)
i would conclude by saying 'God bless the souls of all the bakras that have
been sacrificed today and hope theirs souls get peace'
i dont know if at the end it will be politically correct to say 'idd
mubarak'... but magar yuhi kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai
sheece
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Feb 13, 2003
rest of the gang major fire broke out at andheri, near my old place, was
quite a sight, water cld not control it as it was due to the piped gas
line...
the world is becoming very freaky nowadays....
my granny still lives there, the whole area was aked to vacate the flats and
power was cut and stuff like tht
New zealand defeated West indies... i was pretty disappointed, i hoped they
wld win...
ok guys keep writing
sheece
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Feb 14, 2003
loox like most people in the world and our sainiks seem to hate love, what a
shame... it reflects on their lives i guess
hey St. Valentine there aint people who will die for love anymore... well so
i guess theres one spirit which shld really haunt this world...
Happy Valentine's day to everyone...
sheece
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Feb 15, 2003
well i guess we never discussed about religion but with most people I have
talked a lot about it, also I am not discovering Islam too suddenly, it has
been a journey of 25 years, but let me tell you that I am truly discovering
it, turns out I was not too far away from it either but then we are misled
at times...
my path towards God is a little strange though, I question things that
happened around me, at most times I don't recieve a valid answer and when I
don't it is difficult for me to believe what anyone says, most religious
preachers preach with passion as an undertone, they look consumed to convert
people to the path what they think is right, they try to influence people by
scaring them about hell and stuff like that, they fail to be logical and
when you contemplate they appear more like villains trying to say that my
religion is good and urs not so...
:) I am already reading an english translation and what I have read till now
isn't too far away from the Bhagwad Gita, it is like reading over something
i hv before, but the problem lies in our mindset, somehow we have closed our
minds, infact a lot about Islam is misinterpreted and some of it is obvious
but we think it is a patthar ki lakeer and keep following it, it is
necessary for us to question the rites and rituals and understand why they
are done and do it correctly
We have been gifted with the power to think, it is really a bane, we have
conquered the world, animals, trees and trying to conquer outer space but we
live in so much unrest, there is far lesser peace in our lives...
the lion in USA doesnt plan to attack the tiger in Iraq and the cows of US
dont plan to protest this ... what i say is even the deer who is going to be
hunted by the cheetah is at peace before his death...
(the Holy books acclaim that human being is a doomed creature)
my mom always says, 'heaven and hell is all here' i agree with her either we
can fill our lives with peace and happiness or either by hatred and fear
and the best part is every man/woman for himself ( what i mean is a person
can chose from either of the two)
Ur belief and strength will take u through this testing time, just keep
working. I have realised that believing in God gives me a great strength and
i dont feel insecure about the future. Trust God for watever is going on and
dont worry too much...
well peace be upon you (all of You) - thats what salaamwalaykum means....
interestingly i have begun to say this more often to people (cast, creed,
religion, no barrier) and everyone thinks I am becoming religious ;)
well thts how we are....
sheece
PS: India v/s australia today - can India rise....?
as j said the little injured man is the key, i also think his double
(sehwag) is also imp.... only time will tell
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Feb 16, 2003
well it started with someone working in oman, a hindu boy recently converted
to islam came to bombay looking for a girl to marry a girl, now this girl
whom he wants to marry is supposed to be muslim, now there happ to be one
such girl right in the next wing where i stay, her father a muslim from
andhra with an irritatingly orthodox mindset and one of the reason for me
having a headache, now me having a head is debatable but lets delve into
that matter some other day. ya this man being all that narrow minded he is
marries a hindu brahmin woman ... don't ask me why, it was God's will i
guess. Ok this girl has a twin sister who has already married some hindu guy
causing her father a lot of heartache, she has two brothers one of whom has
a parsi girlfriend and no idea abt the other, who also for all u know have a
non muslim girlfriend. so this old man pins aal his hopes on this daughter
whom he thinx will not marry against his wishes... ahh a typical hindi movie
plot (not too typical)
heres the twist, this oman guy who comes to see her is a hindu who is awed
by the lifestyle of ppl in Oman has decided to convert himself to islam
thereby rendering himself 'sohail bhaskar' (pls remember this name it has
significance). Now this sohail goes to see this girl and asks her some
questions the chief among them being 'do you offer namaaz and read koran' .
the girl is a little taken aback, she says no instantly, not that she doesnt
but i think there are reasons... but the old man - two sons - mom are all
coaxing her to get married to this guy, well but the girl is supposedly
having an affair with a gujarati guy... dont laugh guys it's sadistic to
derive joy out of a comedy of tragedies... and anyways the climax is
something else
now this old man thinx, sooner or later this girl will agree to marry this
man from oman, now his only worry is when he is printing the wedding cards,
"mein kis mooh se logon ko bataoonga ke ladkey ka naam sohail bhaskar hai"
(i instantly agreed he doesnt have a very charming face)
to this my dad commented well tht shld not be a problem, 'apney mein to
pawaskar, khedekar, pewekar... kaafi log hai' the point being the coastal
muslims surnames end with ...kar, look at Mohsin karjikar'
my mom dint take this very sportingly... she said bhaskar is a sanskrit name
and cannot come in this category the category being konkani muslims, and
then she went on to add that kokanis were maharashtrians converted by
aurangzeb, this stung my dad for some reason he could not tolerate the
remark... i think he took it too personally and told my mom she doesnt know
history and stuff like that and history is being manipulated and stuff..
though he did not actually reveal the true history so no way of knowing if
he has an idea about it, though my guess is he doesnt or atleast aint quite
sure...
the whole thing was pretty amusing and i would be rofl only if my father
wldnt be angry...
now comes the real point, as far as the sacrifice of animal is concerned, a
lot abt it is written in hadiths which a true muslim should not care to
follow, coz they are a human's views and not God's guidance, the most recent
book(as in time fram) which is truly God's word is the koran, again some of
which has been tampered by some people and since u and me have no real
mastery over the Arabic language it is difficult to find what is authentic
or not...
lemme give u an example, while i was reading bhagwad gita i was reading it
in sanskrit(script-english and little bit of sanskrit can e understood) and
simultaneously translated in english ... and there was an explnation down,
but at times the explanation and literal translation dint gel and i thot was
not correct....
my granny says 1/3rd of the meat is distributed amongst poor, 1/3rd to
people u know and 1/3rd for consumption but i believe you could do the same
without undergoing the trauma of holding the knife in ur hand and slitting
the goats throat
so tabs we could have our discussion anytime all i would say and i say it to
my friends who follow other religions, ask urself wat u r doing, search for
answers, there is only one 'Supreme Being' (even bhagwad gita accepts that)
lot of things we do may not necessarily be right.... and lot of things we
might be doing wrong,
though sadly we have to rely on a third party who can translate things to
us, the validity might get lost on the way which is the biggest drawback...
my dad doesnt know what his history was, the man from oman hasnt really
known the real basis of religion...
the point is we have to apply our brains (again dont ask me what brains) and
that too real hard coz zlong the way its only intution and intelligence that
can help us distinguish wats correct and wats not... i agree at times i will
be wrong but i believe i will realise it if i am...(unless i dont care to)
well now to the other hot topic, cricket, well our local raheja vihar team
is planning to take a match aginst the Indian team next sunday since they
wont last long enough there (in south africa), i played a practice match
today and seem to be in really good form, i plan to open against the indian
team attack but we won't take them lightly after all they are the underdogs
and might just spring up a surprise...
also we wld be having a stall of bookies on the ground itself, we have
legalised it for generating some revenue for our building repairs....
peace be upon all of you...
sheece
please note... if anything mentioned above has caused u any offence, am
extremely sorry and dont mean to hurt any feelings, they are purely my
views...
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It's Just Not Cricket
Feb 19, 2003
I think our captain is as good as our team
and our players are as good as we Indians
ok our cricketers didn't play well against the aussies
well but wat about the black paint thrown on kaif's house and wat abt those
last rites of the indian team head by the crazy kolkata fans (same guys who
make them sit on top of the pedestal) well we perform worse...
ok if u think they concentrate more on advertisements don't buy the products
they endorse they will stop coming in them...
The prince of kolkata (Ganguly) had his posters burnt and it lookx like he
faces exile, Tendulkar who most of us worship had to request the fans of
India, "please support us"... what a day...
India play Zimbabwe, its do or die time again, lets just hope they put some
spirit in their cricket... whether they win or lose les hope they put up a
great fight.
Lets just say "It cant get any worse"
peace...
sheece
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Feb 22, 2003
hohoho
well watever tomm match against namibia is going to be interesting, its a complete mis-match but india might just make it interesting.... 's' i hope it is like ur fav game tht gets over in 40 mins, this has a chance of being a samll one...(just in case u want to watch) also if u want to see a more interesting match, u shld watch 'lagaan' it is cricket for dummies (pardon my offence) but them u must have started with oracle for dummies (again i seek pardon) and now as 'sh' suggests its stronger than that...
:)
sheece
PS: sorry guys, henceforth shall avoid religious discussions
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for those who dint see the match...
Feb 23, 2003
first of all guys a bow to John Davison or 'Bhuvan' of Canada, wat an amazing batting display by him against the west indian bowlers... i was actually watching tht guy play when sehwag and sachin were batting on another channel... though canada lost badly this man showed that mebbe in some more yrs they can be a real threat to other nations
and for indian cricket lovers sachin and ganguly getting hundreds... was a good day but the most remarkable part of the day was a zaheer khan spell ... where he injured the toes of two batsmen and made two of them fall by yorking them, used to only dream abt an indian doing it some day when i saw imran and akram do tht quite a few years ago...... extremely pleasing :)
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cheetah scares the lankans
Feb 24, 2003
well well well sri lankans go down to kenya, it will end up with about 16
points and may get a berth in the super six (nz forfeited their match
against them) i am sure this is a big problem for west indies & south
africa... interesting aint it?
there was a cheetah in the security team of kenya was quite a sight and
probably scared the sri lankans.
its going to be a strange world cup..
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Feb 25, 2003
Dear Cricket Lovers.........
Analyze this
Am talking abt group B (which doesnt have India)
Lets just hope that rain does not play spoil sport and we have a clear
winner in all matches
Kenya have 12 points from 4 matches (4 points per win)
they still have to play WEst Indies & Bangladesh
likely results of those matches wld be
Kenya lose to WI & win against Bangladesh and it will take them to 16 points
New Zealand hv two matches to go (bangladesh & Canada)
if they win both the games they too will be on 16 points (but since they
have forfeited their match against kenya in the event of a tie Kenya will go
through)
South africa(8 points) & West Indies(10 points) have two matches each to go
SA shld win against Canada & West Indies against Kenya so it will take them
to 12 & 14 points respectively
Now the foll are goingto be very crucial matches
Sri Lanka v/s South Africa
Sri Lanka v/s West Indies
If Lanka wins both then Lanka(20), New zealand(16) & kenya(16) enter super
six
if lanka win against SA and lose to WI
then West Indies(18) will surely go through and Lanka(16), New zealand(16) &
Kenya(16) will be tied but kenya will surely go thru coz they have defeated
both new zealand & sri lanka and lanka will go thru having defeated new
zealand
if lanka win against WI and lose to SA
then S.Africa(16), Lanka(16), New zealand(16) & Kenya(16) >>>>this is the
most interesting situation
SA 2 wins (against lanka & kenya)
Kenya 2 wins (lanka & new zealand)
New zealand (1 win against S.Africa)
Sri lanka 1 win against NZ
then i guess SA, KEnya & Lanka
(am not sure wat rule will apply in last 3 cases as more than one team will
be tied on tht spot, it will be prob be as i said or it will be the net run
rate, the organisers will be confused themselves am sure)
and the last scenario
Lanka lose both matches
then WI (18 points fo thru), SA(16 pts), Kenya (16pts), NZ (16 pts) fight
for next 2 positions
and since each have won one match against the other it will go on the net
run rate and in tht case NZ & SA will prob go thru the only case where wldnt
go thru
so interesting times ahead, and one more upset by a minnow cld change the
scenario completely....
and as they say cricket is a very funny game u can never say what will
happen....
sheece
PS: well shweta the cheetah is an animal with spots on its back and its the
fastest on land, it is one of the big cats and a tamed version of it was
with the security of the kenyan cricket board
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Feb 25, 2003
thanx v... not that i need any encouragement to go on...
but i agree the coverage has been pretty poor by SET MAx & the hosts of the telecast have been particularly disappointing the lesser said about them the better, in Times too there is only Ayaz Menon who comes up with something interesting...
Now analyze this ...
again assuming (cricket is seeming more and more like physics) rain doesnt spoil and minnows dont win (zimbabwe is not a minnow)
Aus v/s Namibia - 4pts to aus
Pak v/s Holland - 4 pts to pak
Zim v/s Holland - 4 pts to zim
well so now the pts table will read like
Aus 5 games - 20 pts
Zim 5 games - 12 pts
Pak 4 games - 8 pts
Eng 4 game - 12 pts
Ind 4 games - 12 pts
so the foll would be the big games to follow
Eng v/s Australia
India v/s Eng
India v/s Pakistan
Pak v/s Zim
If Australia & India win the rest of their games they qualify at 24 & 20 pts respectively, australia carry 4 pts to the super six stage and India carry 2 pts (the rule being the teams will carry 2 points for each win against the other qualifiers of the super six) so aus having defeated both the teams carry 4 pts ahead... if they do this they are almost assured of a place in the semi finals. But I don't know how much points are awarded to a team if they win in the super six stage, if it is 4 then the 1st round record is not of that much importance and almost every team wld prob have an equal chance. Australia though will mostly go thru even if they win one match... if it is '2' then we having those two points defeating the other qualifier are very important... (coz the 3rd team has a very rare chance of making it)
there will be a good fight for the 3rd berth between eng, zim & pak
Now I am assuming another scenario to make my job easier, lets say Australia defeat england and pakistan defeat zimbabwe, if zim defeat pakistan, pakistan is out for sure... so lets keep them alive
the points table will now look like this
Aus 6 games - 24 pts
Zim 6 games - 12 pts
Pak 5 games - 12 pts
Eng 5 game - 12 pts
Ind 4 games - 12 pts
that shows how crucial these two games are
India v/s Eng
India v/s Pakistan
both teams will like to defeat India and secure a berth in super six and india and zim will be stranded on 12
if we win 1 and lose 1 we still go through but we will be last in table at the beginning of the next round as the team beating us will also go through, which could be crucial
england will be gunning for india tomorrow (as i dont think they hv the confidence to defeat Aussies) and for pak they have to win every game... so guys the indian cricket team isn't going to have anything easy in its next two matches and tomorrow we play england....
so its really an interesting stage and am happy to be unemployed and dedicate my whole time to the world cup... thts one reason why I can afford to write these long mails....
while writing this mail i just get a good news tht sidd, a friend of mine has just got placed from his MBA institute, so iend this mail on a happy note and in a hope that i keep getting such news....
sheece
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Feb 27, 2003
If Zim beat Pak & Holland, Aus-Ind-Zim go thru to the super sixes (the rest
of the games will being inconsequential),
India will go through to the super sixes unless they lose badly to
Pakistan(but even if tht occurs, they still hv a chance)
I take sadistic pleasure in analyzing Englands chances, for them to go thru
the foll has to happen
-1st of all zim have to lose to Pak come what may
- India have to defeat Pak if India lose to Pak then Eng have to defeat
Aussies (quite unlikely)
- also if the above happens then too England only have an outside chance
- the best scenario for them wld be, Pak defeat Zim, Ind defeat Pak & they
defeat Aussies
- if the above happens then England have the prayers going for them and they
can probably win the world cup ;)
Pak too is in a soup
- If they lose to Zim they are out
- If they lose to India and win against Zim then the run rate comes in play
- if they win both matches and Eng defeat Aus then the run rate comes in
play again
Watchout for Holland & Zim clash, if Zim lose then i have wasted my time
hving them in my statistics....
And the last & the least statistic for group A, the most inconsequential
match in the world cup will be the Holland & Namibia Match, but it will be
an interesting watch
Now lets see group B
- If kenya defeat WI (highly unlikely) kenya march on without doubt even if
they dont beat them and just beat bangladesh, they have 75% chances of going
thru
- Assuming kenya lose, WI win and then WI defeat Lanka then WI surely march
on and New Zealand get eliminated
- If SL win against South Africa they safely go ahead (even if they lose to
windies)
- Sri Lanka and Kenya seem to have a strange kind of relationship, if they
beat south africa, windies or both they will take Kenya with them to the
next round. (this i think will be the most unique observation and in a way
will be good for group A teams)
- If 3 good teams have to advance to super six then sri lanka would have to
lose both their games thus paving way for WI, SA & NZ, kenya wld lose out on
run rate...
- if South Africa win both their games then they are most likely to go ahead
due to their high run rate...
New Zealand will be the most nervous coz their fate depends on how others
perform and not they themselves
And let me sign off by saying
All of the above holds no water if God decides to water plants on a
particular day.
Sheece
PS: key matches ahead
SL v/s SA
SL v/s WI -- (Dont miss this one)
Pak v/s Zim
India v/s Pak -- (and u wont miss this one)
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Feb 28, 2003
had the dentist work on my teeth yesterday, the dentist is my friend from
bhavans, a lot more appointments are scheduled for removal and rescue of my
teeth, hesterday he made a filling in my mouth, it feels like chewing gum is
stuck there...
ya shwets, as u were asking abt the cheetah, well it was code signal by the
kenyans to sri lankans, see the sri lankans call themselves lions, the also
have a lion on their flag, now the lion is supposed to be stronger than the
cheetah and wont let it come in his territory. Now the lions were playing in
the cheetahs territory and the cheetah showed he was not afraid of the lions
infact they managed to win.
As for u seeing cheetahs in ur dreams, it's a sign, you are probably living
a very fast life....
sheece
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India v/s Pak
Mar 1, 2003
Incase u missed SL v/s Windies i must say u prob missed the best match so
far...
Sarwan would have been the biggest hero if he would have pulled up a victory
after being retired hurt and coming back to almost finish it. He was hit on
the head by Fernando.... though i feel windies made a few mistakes i am
terribly disappointed tht we wont see them in the super six, though they
have an outside chance (kenya lose to bangladesh + sri lanka defeat
s.africa) but highly unlikely...
if India dont defeat Pak today well we will have trouble in the super six
stage (last in the table and leats points) and thats why India have to win
today, else we might not find a place in semis.... Bombay roads are
deserted, traffic running at abt 20 % of regular saturdays and the match has
not yet started. Ok friends I will be a little harsh, if India lose today I
am sure the world cup is rigged, all of it... I have heard rumours (bookie
favs) tht Pak is going to win the world cup and itwont happen if India win
today coz if India do Pak is out...
I think India should win comfortably unless the reason i cited above...
(I have some crackers ready for tonight)
Just got the news, India have lost the toss and are going to field,
Venkatesh Prasad is worse commentator than a bowler, i guess u can imagine
how bad he is then...
Well I dont mind if the rain washes out the match today, coz i dont hate the
pakistanis as much as i hate match fixing....
Sheece
PS: Super six statistic coming soon...
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How about some Nariyal 'Pak' for sachin
Mar 1, 2003
Hey shreyas sachin kay khella aahey re.... ekdum sahi.... missed u guys
man... shahid-shweta-vinay-anush-ajit-and sunil this was the best bowling
attack but our mumbaikar was on song....
yuvraj-dravid-kaif all played important roles not to take anything from and
so did chota sachin, same six by both guys was like deja vu...
pakistan are not out of it yet, if they defeat zimbabwe by about 300 runs
they havve a chance... also england have to lose to australia which is more
or less going to happen..
Kenya in super six (shweta i am sure u will have the cheetah dream again
tonight) west indies out.... :(
congratulations once again and happy diwali (seems tht way here atleast)
PS: I was wrong abt things being rigged, the stronger team won
comfortably... also sabah i think was wrong abt being not passionate abt the
outcome (am but only a lil ;) )
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Mar 2, 2003
setmax is telecasting the matches so harsha bhogle and company aint into it
(though they have analysis of the game on their channel but the commentary
is a pain)
if u want to know whome we have to tolerate heres the list
Venkatesh Prasad
Mandira Bedi
charu sharma
Maria Goretti
Arun Lal
Kapil Dev (in English)
Kapil Dev (in hindi)
Srikant (he also called umpire Asanka Desilva - Arvinda Desilva and Shane
Bond - James Bond and when he talks in hindi it seems like roshan mahanama
understands it better than most others)
L Sivaramakrishnan (who always thinks tht when someone hits the ball it is
going to be a boundary and is mighty surprised when the thirdman fields it,
infact he is surprised when anyone does, must have been a real bad fielder)
Sanjay Manjrekar( i must say he has improved or must be the case of andhon
mein kaana raja, but this character always insist on callin Laxminathan
Sivaramakrishnan by his full name including the middle which isnt mentioned,
I am glad VVS laxman is not there, also he is a tendulkar dictionary and
have heard him talk abt tendulkar extensively in the bangladesh-canada match
too, and never calls him sachin)
Robin Singh (this guy is actually pretty sensible but talks as if he is
padded up and planning to go in next)
Ramiz Raja
to add to the confusion i think tony greg is flirting with mandira bedi and
i could really imagine things here but bettr leave it to u to imagine,
though there are some good guys... ravi shastri is there ian bishop, tony
greg and couple more good guys... so at times its tolerable...
and i will tell you the best part... this happ on tv, DD happens to be
telecasting the match, after the match was over i was surfing and I saw DDs
expert panel, the hosts were Atul Wassan, a lady and they were asking
questions u know to whom... their most expert person on panel was....
....Saba Karim (not u Sabah, this is an old Indian wicket keeper, who lasted
for 10-15 matches at max, and frankly u would prob be better than him,
seriously... if u dont agree (i meant commentator) , strange resemblance in
the name though)
well as i was saying this prob was sometime after Vaas's hat trick, Oh I am
sorry i think it was chetan sharma and not saba karim well watever they r
discussing the hat trick and Atul Wassan says u know wat an Indian hat trick
is? ...3 runs in 3 balls and started laughin, i almost smashed my TV....
Apparently Srikant took some tips from siddhu before leaving for the tour of
south africa and it seems he has become the most devastating part of the
commentary team...
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Pakistan's Chances
Mar 3, 2003
well... just to give u the idea of the run rate scene
Pak-5matches-2wins-8pts, 0.23 NRR
ZIm-5matches-3wins-12ts. 0.50 NRR
Eng-6matces-3wins-12 pts, 0.82 NRR
for the net run rate to come into play Pakistan have to defeat Zim,
the foll is taken from the site as to how the run rate is evaluated,
"a team's net run rate is calculated
by deducting from the average runs per over scored by that team throughout
the group matches, the average runs per over scored against that team
throughout the group matches"
i cannot comprehend how it is done... funnily enough after aus-eng match
which australia won, australias NRR decreased... coz they scored at a much
lesser pace against england than with any other team...
pakistan hasnt been scoring too well, though they restricted sides to low
totals... so i feel a 300 against Zim might get them in with a chance, Zim
have to lose by a very small margin or win to stand a chance... else England
goes through which i feel at the moment is the most likely thing to
happen....
Frankly speaking of what i have seen of pakis, they are demoralised and need
to be 200% mentally when they play Zim, and Zim with Andy Flower and
Blignaut doing well with the bat and playing at home atleast will put up a
good fight, as far as batting goes the Pakis can only rely on Saeed Anwar,
though Zim's attack isnt so great...
So it will be a good game neverthless,
Todays match, Slanka v/s Safrica - i am hoping slanka wins
& Newzealand-canada- hope canada pulls off an upset
if the above happens west indies might still scrape through....
but not likely...
sheece
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more on pakistans chances
Mar 3, 2003
well was wastching star plus just now, where harsha bhogle and co. give their views
it seems in the Pak - Zim match... pak almost have no chance if they bat first, even 350 will not be enough,
if they ask Zim to bat, they have to restrict zim to 100 runs
and get them in 10.4 overs
if Zim makes 200 runs they have to get it in 12 odd overs...
so its a mammoth task and siddhu says not possible, I tend to agree...
there is something more controversial happ in Group B
if SA defeat Lanka today...
there will be a four way tie, betwn kenya, SA, Lanka & NZ..
SA & Kenya go thru coz amongst these four teams kenya and SA have won 2 each and NZ & Slanka 1 each
Ken-SA - SA has won
SA- Lanka - (assuming SA has won)
Ken - Lanka (kenya won)
Ken - NZ (kenya won)
SL - NZ (Lanka won)
Now i think the two teams which remain also shld be judges on head to head merit (in tht case lanka goes thru), but for some reason they say it shld be run rate... so it leaves NZ with a chance.. i disagree and harsha bhogle thinx like me too (happy tht am not alone)
but said tht canada has scored, 196 runs and new zealand need to get it in 22.4 overs to have a chance on NRR
though new zealand have some good news, lanka has won the toss and are going to bat and south africa are going to bat undr lights,,, so its tht much more diff for SA to win today...
sheece
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Mar 4, 2003
hey vinay... well u got that wrong
if south africa defeated lanka in less than 34.4 overs they and New zealand would have gone thru... (south africa wld have gone thru anyway)
but now as u say tht all doesnt matter...
Zim v/s Pak.... and coz of them england might benefit
well it reminds me of a story where two cats are fighting over a roti and a monkey eats it all...
sheece
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Super 6 sans super 4
Mar 6, 2003
first of all lets observe a 1 minute silence for the following teams...
South Africa (jinxed aint they, seems like its one ball or one run that
strangles them)
West Indies (some said it was lara's world cup (i didn't) sadly it was not
to be, the only team to have not done any blunder and missed out a place, i
was supporting this team after India and i feel bad for them, the next world
cup (2007) will be in their land, lets hope it will be a better show)
England (apparently they were under threat in Zim, i guess cricket is not
serious in their lives that they will risk their lives for it, watever i
aint sad that they are out,i think in a way they deserve it)
Pakistan (lets just say it was the worse pakistan team (as a team) ever, now
no more will i give the example of pakistanis as the team that plays with
will to any young and budding cricketer)
so lets observe silence for a team that invented the game, a team tht won
the cup twice in a row, a team that taught the world the art of fielding and
a team where reverse swing was mastered and practiced like black magic...
Its been a disappointing world cup so far and the blame is going to the
rules, i don't agree to it, i think the points system has been perfect in
its position and it reveals that if you dont respect it you will lose out.
Amongst all teams in the super 6 i dont like to see New Zealand in it coz i
think they were cowards in not going to kenya to play for security
reasons... i guess they were scared of the cheetah too (shweta remember him
 ) ...their team hasnt looked convincing in any of its wins and it has
been individual performances that have carried them to the super 6
sri lanka played good cricket except for their loss to kenya, lets give some
credit to kenya for defeating sri lanka, maybe it was a flash in the pan but
they did their part well by defeating bangladesh which is supposedly a
better team than them and canada, who werent playing too bad and kept their
hopes alive...
sri lanka won against the windies in a crunch situation and south africa
gave them 2 points on a platter, vaas has destroyed bangladesh and canada
and has been bowling well to the good sides too, it will be interesting to
see what happens when sri lanka meet australia... (that will be the
beginning of the end for one of the two teams)
Australia has played perfect cricket so far and their bench strength is also
formidable, they look 3 times as good as the next best side in the super
six, i am sure they will reach the final and if are defeated there i would
say they will be unlucky (though i hope they get unlucky sooner than later)
Zim seemed to have bought a super lotto ticket for an entry to the semi
finals but only managed to get one till the super six... I dont see them as
a threat to any of the teams in group B (except kenya) and might as well
play as if they have nothing to lose or buy another super lotto ticket for
the semis... anyways good luck to them...
lets talk about India now, well i will give some credit to Ganguly for what
has happened to the fate of India in the tournament. If you observed (i dont
think anyone can miss) tendulkar hadnt been opening the innings and he dint
seem happy down the order as we wasnt getting his runs as he would like
them, Ganguly must have told his boys I want to make India tendulkar
redundant, assume he isnt in the team, its your responsibility to make the
runs, so we found sehwag, yuvraj and kaif - grab the oppurtunity, dravid was
told to focus on what he could do best, stand there but was told to start
taking the singles, ganguly himself tried to take on sachin's role as the
person who gives a great start... most guys did their job except prob
ganguly...
Now came the world cup and Ganguly told Sehwag am happy with u boy but u hv
to come 1 down and carry on from there coz I have kept the lion (sachin)
hungry enough and now I plan to unleash him on the world... the lions hunger
was indeed endless a lil bit of indigestion at the beginning (holland and
australia) but then he had tasted blood and now he turned into a man-eater
from bombay... the lions hunger grew but the bengal tiger seemed to be
failing... so he told sehwag u need to get back on top so up went sehwag and
lions cub is learning... yuvraj, dravid and kaif dint have the best of times
but they are amongst the few indian cricketers who dont buckle under
pressure and this species has been a rarity for a long time... ganguly told
dravid we dont have a gilchrist with a talent for bat, u need to do the job,
dravid said anything for the team...
Srinath the old war horse, he had called it a day but ganguly told him you
have to come back I will take you to south africa and u need to put those
blinkers on and run, mebbe not as fast as u once were but run straight...
khan and nehra were being bred by dennis lillee and ganguly told them
oppurtunity knocks once...
the wily old fox kumble is getting old and is not as wily as he was but
nonetheless he is a key figure in team strategy and am sure whether in
dressing room or on the play ground he makes himself useful...
and then there is the spirited young fox, the turbanator, the DCP from
punjab, i salute his spirit, he plays for his country like he will die for
it...
and ehh mongia well i dont know y ganguly has so much confidence in him, but
mebbe its easy for me and you to talk ant what he shld do and whaat he
shldnt....
india have played like a team and have taken joy from each others
performances, they want to win the cup...
indias loss to australia cld be a wake up call for them... they need to keep
winning the matches ahead only then will their confidence increase and can
keep up the drive to win....
i wld say this is the best side in the tournament and if they perform to
their optimum level will cause tremors to australia.......
sheece
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The Bright Side of the Jinx
Mar 10, 2003
Its been a jinxed world cup... hasnt it?
and India is probably on the brighter side of the jinx,
reminds me of floyd's dark side of the moon (and what its exact opposite
would probably be)
I still dread that moment when Jayasuriya was hit on his hand by a brett lee
express delivery.. I thot he had broken it and felt he was out of the world
cup, but he braved himself by playing India today, the rest of the lankans
should have picked themselves up and rose to the occassion and supported
their captain today, they dint... sadly
Sri Lanka lost the game more than India won it, they made far too many
mistakes, I don't think the Indians should celebrate this victory too much
today coz they just did the things right and how they had to be done (they
do have scope of improvement, everyone does)
What I am saying is if every member does his basic job well only then can
India win consistently...
As for Sri Lankas chances they dont seem very good, they have a game against
a pumped up Zimbabwe coming and if u ask me, I would say Sri Lanka will be a
demoralized lot and may not win against Zim, though they will start off as
favorites...
New Zealand play aussies tomm and India on Friday,
both extremely difficult games and they need to win one of them and i dont
think India or Australia will take it easy against them, mebbe the jinx will
take their toll too
So if Zim beats Lanka & kenya
NZ loses to both Ind & Aus
the Semi finals may look like
Australia v/s Zimbabwe
India v/s Kenya
MAY WELL HAPPEN, THE WORLD CUP IS HOSTED BY A COUNTRY WHICH HAS A HISTORY OF
A WORLD CUP JINXES (or JINXEN) ON THEM, SO WE CAN EXPECT IT.....
so all u superstitious ppl practice ur superstitions.... :-p
sheece
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zara hatke zara bachke yeh hai Bombay meri jaan
Mar 17, 2003
well tabs and shweta these bombs are pretty routine in mumbai now, no one
even bothers, no one even cares if death is awaiting them in some corner of
a local train or under buses, life has to go on and these terrorist have not
managed to scare a single ant in mumbai, tht is the spirit of bombay
amongst the people tht died (mentioned below)
>
> The names of 11 deceased are:
> 1. Reena Patnaik
> 2. Shobha Shinde
> 3. Vidya Kashirana
> 4. Swapnil Ravindra Kambli
> 5. Nanvani Namdeo
> 6. Ashok Namdeo
> 7. Shirish Nukund Agashe
> 8. R V Salvi
> 9. Jagdish Ramchandra Bhatia
> 10. Jagdish Ghai
> 11. Ashok Kumar Dhomse
I was watching a local channel and they were showing the family of Reena
Patnaik, my heart bleeds for them coz the TV showed them seeing her old
photos, apparently she was out distributing her wedding cards when she
happened to be in the unfortunate train, she was supposed to get married
yesterday, The family showed no sign of venegance and on TV requested the
terrorists to stop these activities.
sheece
PS: there is a severe water shortage in Mumbai, i guess it will be a dry
holi
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Raheja Vihar Burns
Mar 19, 2003
...yea shweta u r missing the action in town, another fire broke out today
due to a leak in the mahanagar gas pipeline and a pan beedi shop was
completely burnt, dont know if any life damage occured, i hope not... this
happened right outside the entry to Raheja vihar (the place where i stay)
and if any of u remember the board directing raheja vihar it was burning for
some hours...
aaj tak (the news channel) reached the spot before anyone in raheja vihar
came to know abt it, in the morning that very same channel was covering the
Iraq war saying "yudh ka countdown" huh!!! 2 days to go...?? is it.
seems like world cup...
the way ppl are acting around me is making me a cribber and bickerer of the
greatest degree, not that all that improves mankind but then atleast i am
doing my duty...
delhi celebrated holi today, there were a couple of women dancing (more like
belly dancing) with advani on TV, they were probably ministers themselves,
thank god their faces were coloured, ya it was aaj tak again...
tulsi from kyunki saas bhi bahu thi (a gujarati tv serial in hindi on star
plus) was still cold crying today(means no tears only a very penisve look
and eyes looking into wilderness as if it was her last episode), the reason
bcoz her husband is having an affair in australia with a supposedly dead
female from the past and as usual she is talking abt some strange kind of
bonding with other actors in the serial supposedly her family.... see shweta
u r miles better than her, my mother apparently watches the serial coz she
likes to hear me crib when its on....
and at last bush wants to play war with saddam, bill cosby should invite him
to his show someday (kids say tthe darnest things), first he played
chor-police with osama, then hide-neseek with the same guy
vajpayee and musharraf are busy playing monopoly... laloos playing the mad
game...
now while the common man still plays strip poker.... i shall sign off
sheece
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and 'Finally' analyze this
Mar 22, 2003
This world cup has not been worth its money apart from the fact that the two
best teams are playing the finals.
Indians would be happy to see their team in the finals after a disastrous
second match against the Aussies. Life has come a full circle for them. It
is like a movie script where at the beginning the team loses its first match
and then due to some inspirational moments they pick themselves up and fight
hard. they keep winning over the course finally to see the very same team
that had defeated them blocking their victory path. It's easy to predict who
will win if you look at the scheme of things in this manner.
Saurav & Co. will remember what had happened the last time around when they
had lost to the very same team. Saurav's last rites were performed, kaif's
house was blackened, so much so that sachin (generally avoids talking to the
press) came out in a press conference asking India to support them. Look out
for these 3 names tomorrow, they will have something to prove.
Australia have won the world cup on the last occasion and will try their
best to win it again consecutively, if they do that they would have won the
cup thrice and beat the Windies record (and theirs too) of 2 wins. Also they
will set themselves up for a hat trick. They have won 16 games in a row and
are in that sort of mood (making records).
But something has to give...
one team will win and one will lose, one country will rejoice one will
despair, one country will take the outcome with the opening of champagne
bottles and the other will have to with a pinch of salt.
Failure is an important stepping stone to success, Australians are last
world cup winners, they have won 16 games on the go, they really havent
tasted failure, maybe they will drink it tomorrow...
"Yesterday has been good to me
Today I discovered today
Tomorrow is tightly locked behind a big wooden door
I am searching for the key
hahahah"
God-willing it won't rain tomorrow at the Wanderers and we have a game....
Good luck to both teams, hope both fight their best and the team which
fights the hardest wins...
Sheece
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Mar 23, 2003
Justice was done, the team that deserved to win the cup won it, Sachin won
the man of the tournament (though dint come off today), they won each and
every game of the tournament... phew
The cup goes to Carribean Islands in 4 years and Australians will be playing
for a hat-trick of cups...
As i helplessly watch Bush commit murder of so many human beings, I realise
he is as big a terrorist as Osama Bin Laden... or bigger. Can't say much
more.
I heard a mother of an american soldier on the TV whose son died in a plane
accident and she was saying how he died for a cause. All I would say its no
cause my American friends, don't be a part of this massacre.
sheece
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Mar 24, 2003
Vinay rightly said, kaif, sachin and saurav dint do much yesterday. I hate
to do post match analysis but I will like to defend the Indian team on
whatever they did yesterday, let me explain,
Srinath thru the tournament has bowled a nagging line, little short of
length, with little adjustment Gilchrist thrashed him and he wasn't the same
bowler we saw in the rest of the world cup.
Zaheer as has been thru the tournament tried to go for wickets and in doing
so put in a lot of extras (which he has been doing thru the tournament) and
since he didn't get any wickets he could not make good of his performance
Harbhajan & Nehra bowled well and in particular Nehra was economical seeing
the kind of batting track that it was.
Sachin perished in doing what he had done against the rest of the sides, i
didn't expect him to be quiet and sehwag the hitter, coz that was not what
we saw through the world cup. He was the more agressive one and if he would
have come good yesterday it would have been 100 runs in first 10 overs.
Ganguly perished in the same cause.
One mistake that I thot was having kaif come in at no. 4 yesterday, I wld
instead have liked to see Mongia and go for the hitting, kaif is a slow
starter and he tried to go for it too and it did no good. The heartening
fact was India thot they could achieve the total and went for it, they
didn't submit to fate.
Frankly speaking seeing 360 on board I was happy, I thot there was no
corridor of doubt and Indians would have to go for it right from start, I
hoped they would come good... they didn't
Another 4 years now... :)
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