Cricket World Cup T20: India Just Manage To Beat Spirited Afghanistan!

Yuvraj Singh Takes Crucial Wickets!

India struggled to beat Afghanistan in their first match of the ICC World Cup Twenty20 in Sri Lanka yesterday in Colombo. When finally they won by 23 runs it was not at all worthy of the current one-day Champions.

India huffed and puffed to 159 for the loss of five wickets in allotted 20 overs with the openers Gambhir and Sehwag failing again. The pitch could be a valid reason, because the Australia-Ireland match was played in the same track a little earlier. Just to exploit the wear and tear of the pitch Afghanistan must have decided to send India in after winning the toss. But equally important was the sheer pace of Afghan pacer Shapoor Jadran who accounted for the both the openers and the energy of a spirited Afghan team. The openers departed for just 22 runs on the board in the 5^th over. Yuvraj Singh in his second major comeback match made 18 off 20 balls with one six. They could have reduced India to 79 for 5 if the catches were taken and fewer extras conceded. There was just a solitary half century by the ever dependable Virat Kohli in the Indian innings. Raina made a neat 38 and Dhoni added a quick-fire 18 off 9 balls to set a somewhat respectable target of 160 to win for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan started in a whirlwind fashion notching up 27 runs in the fourth over when Balaji struck for India. But the momentum was never lost though wickets started to fall at regular intervals and in the form of a gallant Mohammad Nabi (31) Afghanistan kept fighting to the end. Slow and spin bowling had the better of the Afghans as Yuvraj Singh exhibited his all-round abilities by capturing three wickets at a crucial juncture. The comeback medium pacer Balaji too came up with three wickets and R Ashwin got two scalps. Finally India just managed to win by 23 runs and the underdogs Afghanistan proved its point very emphatically to the cricketing world. The Scorecard:

Indian captain Dhoni would still be a worried man on his team’s batting and bowling against a qualifying team. India has almost ensured a place in the Super8, but they must set things right in the match against England on September 23 to get ready for the final stage. Man of the match Virat Kohli cannot be expected to come to the team’s rescue every time. Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan continue to be big worries too.

The results in ICC World Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament so far: * On the first day that is September 18 hosts Sri Lanka crushed Zimbabwe by 92 runs riding on the incredible performance of spinner Ajantah Mendis who created T20 history by capturing 6 wickets for 8 runs in 4 overs. Scores: SL 182/4 and Zimbabwe 100 all out in 17.3 overs. * On September 19 Australia registered an easy win on qualifying Ireland by 7 wickets. Scores: Ireland 23/7 & Australia 125/3 in 15.1 overs.

The VIP Brat: A Study in Contrast!

Here we’re talking about only two compartments inside a particular AC 2-Tier coach in a particular daily train under the Indian Railways that departs a particular originating station at around noontime and reaches the destination city early morning the next day. The train is popular because it is superfast and always on time. That fateful noon too, the train was ready for boarding about one hour before departure. We cut to the inside of that particular coach having those two compartments for our contrasting study. Two elderly couples were in a state of considerable distress. One of them, both technically senior citizens, had been allotted two upper berths and the husband was at his wits end how to proceed, because his wife was being taken for check-up after surgeries in both of her knees—she could hardly walk and her climbing up the berth was a sheer impossibility. The husband was also on the wrong side of the sixties, but he thought he could manage the climbing once he managed a ...

Mitali: The Trauma of Losing a Sibling

Maybe I lied to her when I used to reassure her that she was going to be alright and was going to resume her life in some measure of normalcy in the future years; maybe all my gestures/expressions were false when I used to run my fingers across her forehead or embrace her on occasions when she was able to move around a bit; and maybe all my exhibitions of love care and responsibility were exposed as superficial when I failed to turn up in Delhi where she along with my mother were treated during September-October, 2022 (my mother Urmila Chakravarty was also diagnosed with dental cancer the same month the same year as she was) and when all the members of my parental family and the in-laws converged. Since that fateful day in August, 2022 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer to that disastrous day of March 6, 2025—the day my younger blood sister Mitali (Mainu) Chakravarty Sarma (November 2, 1963—March 6, 2025) passed away in the wee hours in a hospital in Guwahati after giving a bra...

Release of Book 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories'!

The fourth collection of stories titled 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories' by Chinmay Chakravarty has been released on Amazon KDP just now! This collection, short stories in a lighter vein plus with mild satire like the previous collections, has been published in both the E-book and Paperback formats. The links are given below: International: Click Here ! India: Click Here ! Other collections of short stories by the same author: The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales(2021)--Notion Press. Funny and Fishy Tales(2022)--KDP. The Weirdos(2022)--Ukiyoto Publishing. All books of the author are available on Goodreads, apart from Amazon and other outlets! Have a look!