ChinmayC Blog

Powered by inspired bowling performances by captain Hardik Pandya (3 for 17), Rashid Khan (1 for 18) and Yash Dayal (1 for 18 in 3 overs) Gujarat Titans, joining the IPL for the first time, broke the backbone of Rajasthan Royals restricting them to just 130/9 in 20 overs and won the IPL-2022 Final by 7 wickets, tonight, the 29th May 2022. Playing at 'home' for the first time the Titans have indeed made the Gujarat fans ecstatic, but the match played in a jam-packed 1.2 lakh capacity crowd stadium in Ahmedabad, perhaps the biggest crowd in IPL history, was not a befitting climax of the absorbing tournament as it proved to be a low-scoring and languidly one-sided one. However, the No.1 team at the league stage, GT have maintained their supremacy beyond any shred of doubt. An astounding performance by them in all the departments of the game. A deserving winner indeed, and mind you, I billed them as hot favorites to lift the Trophy! After early jolts Gill and Pandya steadied the ch...

I had the misfortune of going for a movie in 2019 in a big theatre before the Pandemic put a stop to it, titled Pagalpanti (Madness) and was nearly driven mad. It was not my fault as the movie was having a lot of superstars and we went particularly because of Anil Kapoor. But now, after watching the new movie Heropanti-2 (heroism or hero antics) the previous movie seemed to have at least some kind of a method. The question arises then as to why I’ve made the mistake again! Well, firstly it was streaming free where I can ruthlessly go forward at will. And most importantly because I love the kid Tiger Shroff, son of my beloved Jackie Shroff, and ironically, Heropanti (2014) was Tiger’s debut film where his athletic and gymnastic skills plus his lithe, dancing and almost flying body were noticed. I watched only parts of that film some of which seemed a bit sensible, giving Tiger some scope to showcase his acting skills too, perhaps because it was a remake of a Telugu film. Of course, th...

Jos Buttler has notched up his 4th century of the IPL-2022, a new record, and sealed his team's place in the Final on March 29  routing Bangalore by 8 wickets. RR won an important toss on a bouncy pitch and put RCB in. Except for Patidar whose brilliant ton enabled RCB to reach the play-offs all Bangalore batsmen were hopelessly below par. It is surprising how this team with consistent non-performing stars and the worst net run-rate has progressed thus far. Super cricketers like Kohli, du Plessis etc are expected to perform at least in crunch games. Sheer pace of the RR bowlers, Prasidh Krishna in particular, damaged Bangalore  beyond repair. The Qualifier-2 played in the stadium of the country in Ahmedabad has disappointed the huge crowd. The only moment of crowning glory is indeed Buttler who hit 106 not out in 60 balls with 10 fours and 6 sixes including the winning one. He has almost ensured his Orange Cap leaving KL Rahul behind and out. Anyway, we can expect cracker of a...

Led by captain Hardik Pandya and David Miller the No.1 Gujarat Titans (GT) at the league stage beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 7 wickets in the thrilling Qualifer-1 at the packed Eden Gardens, Kolkata tonight and catapult their team in the IPL-2022 Final, playing in the IPL as one of the two newbie franchises. In the last over by Prasidh Krishan GT needed 16 runs to get into the Final and Miller hit the first ball to a towering six.  Tensions ran high for both teams. But the South African southpaw had none of it and hit the second ball too over the boundary almost nonchalantly, reducing the equation to 4 in 4 balls. And then the third consecutive six in the third ball and all was over. No.1 has thus kept up its persistently classy performance throughout and at this stage looks to be the clear favorites to lift the trophy.   Chasing a rather stiff target of 189 runs in 20 overs the consistently successful opener Wriddhiman Saha got himself caught behind for a duck in just the s...

It has turned out the way I’d analyzed in an earlier post that either RCB or DC is going to fill up the only vacant 4 th spot in the play-offs as MI defeats DC at the Wankhede tonight by 5 wickets. In fact, the five-time Champs Mumbai, coming to its true potential much too late with Ishan, Bumrah and to some extent Rohit firing with the batting mainstay of Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav the latter being sorely missed in the last few matches due to injury, has become the virtual eliminator of the tournament: they first threw CSK out of contention; then they nearly did the same to SRH much earlier than yesterday when Hyderabad was finally ousted as RCB defeated GT by 8 wickets; and today they ousted a very deserving Delhi who needed only a win to secure a berth based on its much better net run-rate than Bangalore. Opting to field first Mumbai restricted Delhi to 159/7 in 20 overs thanks to superb bowling by Jasprit Bumrah who took 3 for just 25 in 4 overs. Delhi has been badly missing...

Lord Shiva is believed to be the most powerful God in the Hindu Trinity with Brahma and Vishnu. Lord Shiva is described as a destroyer and also a recreator and transformer. He is also referred to as Mahadeva or Maheshwar—the Great God. In his benevolent form he lives like a simple householder with his family of other Hindu Gods and Goddesses and spends His time in Kailash with the simplicity of an ascetic. But when He is angry, he becomes the Destroyer in which form he can obliterate demons, impurities in human minds and even the whole world. He is everywhere like any other omnipotent and omnipresent God. You can find Him in your heart, in the environs of your home and do your prayers accordingly; and if you want to worship Him in the form of an idol you can install a Shivling or Shiva Linga, the mark or sign or symbol of Lord Shiva, in your home or visit a temple or a shrine or a place of worship even under a big tree that are found almost in every locality in India. There are even ar...

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) opener Quinton de Kock, the South African southpaw and keeper, created an incredible chapter of a superlative batting display in the Indian Premiere League history by scoring an unbeaten 140 off just 70 balls with 10 fours and 10 huge sixes. He has become the first cricketer with the highest individual score of IPL-2022 so far and the third highest in IPL history after Chris Gayle (175 not out in just 66 balls with 13 fours and17 sixes) in 2013 and Brendon McCullum (158 not out in 73 balls with 10 fours and 13 sixes) in 2008 editions. Quinton has also created the highest opening partnership of 210 runs with captain KL Rahul (68 not out in 51 balls) in IPL history, this being the first time ever when not a single wicket of a team fell in the full 20 overs. Both of the openers showcased a batting display that can give precious lessons in cricket to the budding cricketers, apart from entertaining cricket lovers to their heart’s content. This is indeed the triump...

Against my wishes as a true lover of the game of cricket, I’ve still preferred to use the word ‘dubious’ in the title of this piece. This is essentially because what happened in the 18 th over in the match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) belied all logic and tenets of professional cricket. Further, this basically business-driven tournament has had its long history of controversies and scandals over the decades. Even now, if you surf the internet over IPL matches, you’ll find a whole lot of sceptics who think most the matches are always stage-managed, primarily through the scourge of the game called spot fixing. Well, their views cannot be correct in general, because we’ve been witnessing fiercely competitive cricket in most of the IPL seasons, and on many occasions this writer has commented about the triumph of cricket over business. Okay, now to that moment that happened last evening at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.   Mumbai, opting to field first, ev...

I did indeed have some regrets though as I couldn’t pay my homage to the legendary Santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma on time, and as an aftereffect failed to write about the Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds. Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma passed away in a Mumbai hospital on 10 th May 2022 after a prolonged period of kidney ailments and dialysis, at the age of 84. The glowing and flowing tributes paid to him from the music world, particularly the field of Indian Classical Music, and from all other fields which are still continuing show what a music stalwart he had been since the fifties. Panditji had introduced a folk string instrument called Santoor that used to be played in Kashmir and had Persian origins to Indian Classical Music and popularized it immensely with his learning, concerts and fusion all over the globe and through an invaluable collection of albums. At his very initiation to this instrument by his vocalist father Uma Dutt Sharma young Shiv Kumar observed the playing st...

Rajasthan Royals thanks to an intensive bowling effort by all their pacers and spinners, Boult, Prasidh, Ashwin in particular, easily defended their score of 178/6 against the Lucknow Super Giants beating them by 24 runs at the Brabourne stadium on 15 th May 2022. By this super victory Rajasthan moves to the second spot in the points table with 16 points with a healthy net run-rate while the newbie Lucknow slides to the third position, remaining with 16 points. Bangalore in the fourth spot has to win their final match against Gujarat convincingly to move to 16 points and better their sluggish net run-rate. Once they achieve that it’ll be very difficult for the other 4 teams to have any chance of making it to the play-offs. Essentially, with three teams on 20 and16 points each, it means that only one spot is up for the grabs for four franchises with a possibly 14-point deadlock between them.   The real contest is now between Delhi and Punjab, both of them with 12 points and each h...

Putting ‘goodbye’ in the headline could have more significance than perhaps you can possibly imagine; of course, the very few who ‘read’ these pages must have understood. Yes, we’re referring to the Goodbye post a few days back. However, that apparently painful post did not contain any kind of commitment or decisive action on the part of the writer which is significant in light of some famed international cricketers saying quits to the game through public announcements and then coming back again as if nothing was the matter. Therefore, that ‘goodbye’ meant nothing to the public, even if it could’ve hurt this writer a lot since he’s been rather harassed four times in the last four months for the purportedly suspicious visitors to the site who never read, but don’t care to go on a sabotaging rampage. Out of a morbid fear I've stopped posting my links on the social media too. What a pity! But still, why should I care who read and not read but try to damage! This site is very dear to m...

The cameras involved in the coverage are extremely sensitive and emotive. They capture all emotions of the spectators. When a wicket of a certain team falls its supporters look as if they'll drop dead in grief, but the moment they see themselves in the big screens they burst into uncontrollable cheers! So much for IPL loyalties.  😀😀😀 Several times during a match the umpire raises his hand and points a finger very emphatically to his watch. The gullible might feel that it reminds them for how long they've been couch potatoes. No! It's a reminder of a very strategic kind like that of Putin, Biden and the like. For the knowing watchers it could be a signal for a tea or drinks or snack-chaat strategy. So much for strategies.  😀😀😀 The phenomena called The Cheerleaders have not been seen in the three editions, due credit to the Pandemic. With crowds allowed in this edition they could very well have been imported. However, the bio-bubble involved in the cheering process coul...

Right from the beginning of the IPL-2022 Ravindra Jadeja who was handed over the captaincy by Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) had been going through an extremely lean patch. Being one of the greatest all-rounders of the game he had been consistently failing with the ball, with the bat and failing even in his specialty in fielding, dropping catches that is rare in his international career. Under his leadership CSK lost the first five games on the trot, then won the next two and again lost the 8 th ; and Jadeja hardly contributed anything worthwhile in those games. So, it has been on the cards that something is going to happen as a captain cannot possibly be dropped. Finally, on Saturday, the 30 th of April 2022 Jadeja called it a day as captain and requested his leader-mentor MSD to take over again. And Dhoni obliged, and he will be leading CSK again in a crucial game against the tough SRH tonight. However, it’s not clear if Ravindra Jadeja was forced by the team management to step down or ...