The Best Cricket Match Ever?

Wake up in the morning, check out any news channel, any newspaper, any news site. The top news is the match report of a cricket encounter. Surprisingly, India did not play that game. Still its the top news story. How'z that?

The game had a hot build-up to it. Two teams playing for pride. The grand finale of an evenly matched series hanging imperiously at 2-2. Conditions were perfect on the most beautiful ground in the world - The Wanderers. The bloody cocktail produced an extra-ordinary game of cricket, in which a near-impossible task was made possible - not once, but Twice! Australia scored 434/4 in 50 Overs. The first time any team crossed 400. In reply, South Africa, back to their walls, chased and chased successfully! Can you believe it? NO. No one believed that this was possible. The only men who believed it were the 11 members of the SA team. And it is because of this belief that they were able to pull up a miracle. It was something that could happen only a few times in a century. It was a match to remember. A celebration of a sport. Two thoughts come to my mind here:
"Whether you believe you can do it or not, you are correct". And
"When the going gets tough, the tough gets going".

One performance stands up and away from the rest. On a belter where batsmen murdered all bowlers, Nathen Bracken produced a magical display of bowling. With 5-60 odd, he almost took the game away from the hosts. Ponting, Katich, Hussey, Smith, Gibbs, Boucher played well. They are big names - champions, really. But the guy, who in my opinion turned the game decisively in SA's favour was Van Der Wath. An unlikely hero who came in when the high hopes seemed dashed. And played a gem of an innings, a cameo that took SA so much close, that even a flurry of wickets in the end could not deter them from reaching there.

The margin of victory was the smallest possible: One wicket, One Ball. What a match! Cheers to the (Ex :-) ) chokers. And Cheers to the game of cricket. And while we congratulate South Africa, we must not forget the entertainment provided by the Aussies.

Cricket rocks. Bigtime.
- Tosh

A Cool Dilbert

Quite a good one.
Source = http://www.dilbert.com

Cheers,
- Tosh

Blog Rolling...

Came to know about this cool tool from Mahesh's Blog.

Currently, I am using it to store a list of Links. The tool then powers the 'Other Blogs I Read' section on the Right Hand Side of this page.

Check it out, it's too good => http://www.blogrolling.com/

Cheers,
- Tosh

India Rising -> An American View...

Long but interesting, thought provoking and makes you feel proud :-)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11571348/site/newsweek/

Cheers,
- Tosh

Bharat Uday Mission

Take a look.

http://bharatudaymission.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bharatudaymission/

"Society doesn't go down by the activities of the bad people, but the inactivities of good people" - Swami Vivekanand
"You have to be the change you want to see in the world" - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

We have only one mission. The rise of a great nation.

Team Selection...

Surprisingly, after a long time, I am really happy with the team that the selectors have chosen. The overall Indian team setup seems to be very promising today with some seniors at the peak of their careers and at the same time some juniors being developed alongside the legends.

First and foremost, the most controversial decision. Saurav Ganguly, The Prince of Kolkatta. The man who brought steel into the fading Indian team of the late nineties. The captain who galvanised the unit into a winning combination during the time of 2003 world cup. The man who made Yuvraj, Irfan (probably Dhoni) and Harbhajan. The batsman who stood near the top of one day &/or test batting charts for consecutive years in 2002 and 2003. All his achievements are kind of getting forgotten with his recent outbursts against the coach. However, all said and done, I think his omission is justified, although it should not be used to erase all the good things that he has done in the past. All good things come to an end and end might be near for Saurav Da. In Pakistan, he played not spectacularly, but good enough in the only chance that he was given. His exclusion is based on his previous performances and the theory of developing some youngsters to replace the ageing middle order. I think this was a good decision.

Gambhir Agarkar and Zaheer were dropped. Ajith and Gautam were given a lot of chances and they couldn't grab many. Hence that decision is also justified. Kiran More said that he wants a backup of 8-9 fast bowlers in the country ready to play at the highest level and this vision is commendable. It will also create a healthy competition, as is visible from the present of VRVSingh and SreeSanth. I will really look forward to VRV. Sreesanth is an exciting prospect since he is not a left arm swing bowler and hence adds a vital veriety to the pace attack. I would love to see him bowl the second over at Nagpur.

Kaif and Raina were also automatic selections. Raina seems to me to be the most promising of the lot in this team. He must be nurtured and developed. But the most stunningly good decision was to get in Piyush Chawla. India is in dire need of more good spinners once Anil Kumble hangs his boots. Chawla could be an answer. Added advantage with him is his batting, something he has proven in the U19 World Cup.

Now comes the difficult part. Which 11 to play? Given that Dhoni + Pathan make up more than one batsman, should India go on the attack and play five bowlers? I suggest Yes. There is nothing better that being positive especially in the first game of the series and I would love to see the following team in the playing 11: Veeru, Jaffer, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Dhoni, Pathan, Chawla, Bhajji, Kumble & Sreesanth.

Till then, Cheers and All The Best in the City Of Oranges :-)

C r i c k e t

India-4, Pakistan-1. That was completely unexpected. Expecially after the consecutive losses in the last Test and first ODI. However, Pakistan went in Over Confidence, just the same day as India did on the opening day of the last test. For four consecutive matches, India chased successfully and now have done so more than 13 times at a stretch now. That's a great achievement given that their record earlier was very very poor while chasing.

A couple of interesting things came out during the series. Pakistan writers wrote off Sachin with comic columns alleging that he feared Shoiab and all... Sachin answered them with two superlative knocks that setup the successful chases. Yuvraj and Dhoni finished off two hard chases easily and that looks very promosing for the future. It will be very interesting though, to see how they perform on pitches outside the subcontinent, now that these two have ruled on all the flat tracks.

One matter of concern. Because Dhoni was promoted, Raina and Kaif did not get enough match practice and this is little risky. If they come in early after a collapse some day, then they will be short of experience, something that the team should think about pretty soon enough.

Agarkar (My Favourite) was promising but not very effective while Zaheer looked out of sorts. Most likely, both of them are on their way out of this team based on their current form. Pathan RP and Sreesanth will make up a good trio, though we do need another FAST bowler. Romesh Powar bowled very well and should be in contention for selection against England, along with Kumble and Piyush Chawla.

The team against England will be chosen today and I am very keen to see Raina in there. Ganguly is still the center of attraction and controversies and it remains to be seen what the selectors do to him now.

More after the selection meeting...

The Uprising of Rahul Gandhi

Do we have a future star in the making?

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article about him in Outlook. From that, I gathered, Rahul has started on the correct note. He has worked at grassroot levels in his constituency-Amethi. Around himself, he has a ring of both junior and senior knowledgable party workers willing to train him and support him at the same time. He is known to have a craze for techno-gizmos: a natural for any youth.

The big positive that I see in him is his age and his willingness to build up a team. If projected as the next PM candidate in the general elections, I think he has a big chance to win Congress party more than 50% of the Lok Sabha seats. While that will take some doing to happen, if it does take place, it will be a great positive. For the first time in about more than 15 years, India will have a government that will not be bound by coalition jokers. They will be able to take, approve and implement decisions without hinderance. And wouldn't that be a further bonus to the economy?

Plus, looking at the professionalism in which Rahul is going about his task, it will not surprise me if he becomes the most effective PM till date. The question is Will He? And for the first time, if that be the question, I will support the Congress party for that to happen. For the simple reason that he seems to be the only person capable to lead a stable government to make hard decisions for five continuous years.

At the same time, India have, once again replied spendidly to the huge Pakistani total and IMO are in with a small chance to win the test match - with not one but two Pak batsmen likely to miss out in the second innings. If India can convert this opening into an opportunity, I will call that team Champs.

Cricket & Tennis

Its a dream time for sports enthusiasts. The Australian Open http://australianopen.com/en_AU/index.html and the VB Series is rocking on! While the India Pakistan Test Series is also underway, it is of least interest because of the nature of defensive pitches prepared by Pakistan. It seems Pak is worried about the good show put up last time by India seamers and hence they have purposefully prepared placid pitches hoping that the sheer pace of their bowlers will be enough to take 20 wickets in a match. Meanwhile, India displayed great attitude by dropping a batsman and picking five bowlers while Pakistan took a step back by doing the revers. The presence of Geoffrey Boycott has really added value to the broadcast. He was, is and will be The Best.

About the VB Series, its very precariously poised with almost every team standing at the same level in the points table with half the prelim matches being over. I hope that SL and SA kick out Aus in these stages. Both the teams look good enough to do it but its just a matter of having the killer instinct for long enough. Australia are in the middle of a selection crisis due to rotation and this I feel is the biggest chance for world cricket to pounce on them. All the best to SA and SL.

Not much to write on the Australian except the exits of Sania, Rodick and Wlliams sisters. The second week now promises to be thrilling with many top seeds making their way into the final sixteen. That Martina Hingis is back is a great news for many tennis lovers :-)

Meanwhile, I found a pretty interesting group from the article in Sakal. http://www.esakal.com/static/raviwar11.html The group is located at http://bharatudaymission.org/ In my opinion, it is a very promising concept.

The Rise & Fall of my Favourite Political Party

Welcome 2006.

Top story at the start of the new year. BJP chief L K Advani steps down. Vajpayee calls Advani as Ram and Mahajan as Lakshman. It was really disheartening to see my favourite Bharatiya Janta Party crumble on its own weight.

BJP started from Jan Sangh on the ideology of the Sangh Parivar. Within a period of around 10-15 years, they rose from 2 to 200 members in the Lok Sabha and ruled the government for more than five years. That was a phenomenal performance. However, with power comes Responsibility. And that's where BJP failed. As is clear from the latest revelations of bribery and corruption in the party, it has lost its Different image. This is its biggest blow.

For me, the Vajpayee government did quite well when in the office. Except one blunder. Gujarat riots. More than the inability of the government to control the situation, it was the involvement of everyone in the system from the police to the CM to the Home Minister in the riots that was shocking. It was I think a prime factor behind BJP loosing the next general election although they were able to win the Gujarat assembly. However, it must be noted that BJP handled their coalition partners much better than what the UPA govt. is doing now (Please refer LEFT) :-)

More important than loosing the elections, it was the later events that did the party in. Uma Bharati sulked. And again, And yet again! Advani's Jinnah remarks were used by Sangh to re-establish their stronghold on the party organisation. Though NDA won a few assembly elections, their public image kept going down.

The biggest problem was they were not accepting their mistakes. Advani did not agree with the expulsion of the corrupt parliamentarians but instead took their side. Instead of doing some introspection, the party kept critisizing the UPA govt. during its national executive in Mumbai. They were unable to break the RSS shackles and could not install a dynamic president like Jetley or Mahajan. The party did numerous unnecessary and exaggerated dharnas in the Parliament and blocked its workingfor too long in the sessions. That is an unforgivable sin.

Overall I think the popularity of the party has suffered a big blow and Cong would win all hands down if a general elections were to happen right now. However, time makes people forget things and it will be interesting to see what happens in the Rajnath Singh-era. I am sure L K Advani is not finished. He will come back, and so will Pramod Mahajan who I think will become a good leader of the party and the nation.

Talking about Cricket, the Ind-Pak series is setup perfectly well. The excitement has reached a peak. In Australia, SA have hit hard on the 2nd day of the 3rd test. Aus will need to fight very hard to save the match from now on. It makes for a thrilling three days of attack and defense. If SA is able to beat Aus, then they will become the 2nd team after India last year to hold Aus in their home ground. And that will be some achievement. Earlier I was sure that Aus will run over SA. But now the recent form from SA makes me believe that they have it in them to come out better from this match. Lets see what result is in store.

Till then, wish you all a very happy new year.