Cricket: India Level ODI Series Crushing England By 127 Runs In Kochi!

Kumar Strikes For India!

After losing the ODI Cricket Series against Pakistan and then the high scoring first one day international against England in Rajkot Team India at last found its winning ways in Kochi today when they crushed England by 127 runs and drew level at 1-1 in the five-match series. The victory came thanks to a positive MS Dhoni (72 off 66 balls) batting well with 7 fours and 2 sixes, and captaining his team well, and of course, the flyer from the Player of the Match all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who made 61 in just 37 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. India plundered 108 runs in the last ten overs and 68 off the last five thus neutralizing their tentative finishing blues of late and posting a competitive 285/8 in allotted fifty overs on a pitch that promised to help the bowlers in the second session. Though the Indian opening pair struggled again, the team progressed predictably to 174/4 off nearly 40 overs and the worries about Virat Kohli continued despite his 37 runs, India finally did well winning the toss. For England Finn and Dernbach captured 2 wickets each while Chris Woakes, playing his first match in India replacing injured Brisnan, did not have a memorable experience.

Shami Ahmed who replaced off-color Dinda struck first for Indiacapturing Bellcaught by Dhoni with the score reading 4/1. Then India’s exciting newcomer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar dealt England deadly blows by capturing three top order batsmen bowling non-stop 10 overs for just 29 runs to reduce England to 73/4 in the 15^th over—a position England could not recover from. Though Kieswetter and Patel tried to build a partnership the guiles of Ashwin and Jadeja did not allow that. Englandcrashed to paltry 158 with 14 overs to spare. There were two umpiring blemishes in terms of lbws, but fortunately these were shared evenly by both teams. While ominous looking Yuvraj Singh (32) suffered the first, England captain Cook (17) jolted his team with his. The Scorecard:

If Team India can stick to its newfound confident ways the five-match ODI Series would really promise to open up with England led by top-form Alistair Cook never willing to do the double of Test and ODI Series win against India in India. The teams next go to Ranchi, Dhoni’s hometown, for the third one day international on 19^th January.

Comments

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!

Kolkata: Cancel the Commerce of the Durga Puja Carnival!

Yes! We ask why shouldn't the pure Commerce show of the Durga Puja Carnival in Kolkata be canceled in view of the worsening medical crisis? For how long this cruel irony of continuing the worship of the Mother Goddess and continuing to torture/kill the Mothers in human forms going to continue? Greed, limitless greed of humans! Dear God! This time Goddess Durga came in a cradle which in itself implies ominous times, and further, the tithis from Mahasaptami onward came mixed in such a way that you get three days of worship, technically. Yet, the greedy and selfie-social-media-crazy crowds of 'devotees' were still not satiated, descending on the Puja pandals in uncontrollable hordes for as long as seven days, and to pander to their greed and to have the maximum of business, most of the Puja organizers disregarded the tithi break-up completely and have been celebrating Bijoya Dashami or the Dussehra well into Ekadashi, the eleventh day! They expect the hordes to descend tonigh...