Finally It Was An Easy Victory For India Over Sri Lanka!

Gautam Gambhir who missed centuries on at least two occasions in the recent Australian tour made exactly 100. Virat Kohli continuing from his brilliant match-winning knock of 133 runs in the last league tie against Sri Lanka at Hobart hit another super ton. Between the two they had a 200 runs plus partnership helping India post a big total of 304. Only Sachin Tendulkar looking for his hundredth ton missed again falling cheaply and tragically to a full toss. The second match of the Asia Cup today between India and Sri Lanka in Dhaka, Bangladesh posed to be a humdinger, but finally gave a clear verdict.  

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first--maybe due to the Hobart experience. Malinga was also not in the side again maybe due to the drubbing he got from the Indian batsmen, particularly Kohli. The Indian innings started on a steady note thanks to some tight Sri Lankan bowling. In the sixth over with India's score at 19 runs Tendulkar fell to Lakmal caught by skipper Jaywardena who smartly planned for it by putting himself at short extra cover. Distraught Tendulkar appealed to the Umpires to consider if it was above waist level in which case it would be called a no-ball. But unfortunately for Sachin the sailing full toss fell below his waist when it came in contact with his bat. Gambhir and Kohli slowly opened up and began to score runs freely. After their respective tons Gambhir (100) and Kohli (108) both fell in the 43rd over at 226/3. 

Dhoni and Raina took over and they seemed to be in a great hurry to hit the 300 mark. Back to 'home' conditions Dhoni (46 off 26 balls) indulged in his usual power-hitting joined lustily by Raina (30 off 17 balls) and they took the score to 304/3 in fifty overs. For Sri Lanka Maharoof took 2 wickets for 57 runs and all of the other bowlers proved to be quite expensive. But considering 'home' conditions the total was not an impossible one.

And Sri Lanka proved it immediately by getting after the Indian bowlers selecting Pravin Kumar in particular for some rough treatment. Irfan Pathan tried to put a brake on the scoring rate by capturing the early wicket of Dilshan, but Sri Lanka proceeded on course to overhaul the target in 40 overs! They raced to 150 in just  the 26th over when in-form Chandimal fell to Ashwin for 13 runs. The turning point of the match came when Sangakkara got out to Ashwin again for 65 good runs at the team's score of 196 in over no.36. After that Sri Lankan innings broke with wickets falling in heaps. Remaining six wickets fell for the addition of only 58 runs. India won by 5o runs with nearly five overs to spare. Irfan became the most successful bowler for India with 4 scalps for only 32 runs followed by Ashwin and Vinay Kumar with 3 each. Finally it was an easy win for India in a match that was moving towards a nail-biting finish. Scorecard:

Vice Captain Virat Kohli was adjudged the Man of the Match—his second consecutive award.

 NSNE8ZQF8VST

Asia Cup Cricket Begins! India Vs Sri Lanka Tomorrow!

The four-nation Asia Cup for one-day internationals began on March 11, 2012 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In the inaugural match host Bangladesh met Pakistan. It was a thriller to kick off the tournament with both teams undergoing the extreme highs and lows of performance and swinging fortunes. 

Pakistan looked to dominate at one stage with 135 for no loss, but Bangladesh reduced them to a hopeless 198 for 7. Then, Pakistan bowler Umar Gul played a brilliant cameo of 39 to lift the team to a challenging 262 for 8 in fifty overs. Bangladesh decided to give a healthy chase as they always prefer chasing. 

But when after a relatively good start Bangladesh got reduced to 135 for 5 the old script was about to be written. Then again, Shakib Al Hasan had other ideas and partnering with Razzak brought the team within striking distance of victory with only 39 runs needed off 40 balls and five wickets still remaining. But experienced Pakistan had the last high with Umar Gul as a bowler now combining with Saeed Ajmal gulped down all five Bangladesh wickets for the addition of only 18 runs. Thousands of Bangladesh fans were stunned and felt totally let down. Scores: Pak 262/8, Bangladesh 241 all out--Pak winning by 21 runs. Mohammad Hafeez of Pakistan was declared Man of the Match for all-round batting and bowling performance.

India after a disastrous Australian tour is meeting their opponent in the CB Tri-Series, Sri Lanka in the second match tomorrow. Thanks to 'seniors Vs juniors' plus the 'rotation' controversy dashing opener Virendar Sehwag is not in the team and Zaheer Khan too is out due to fitness problems. Sri Lanka seems to be confident after a good performance in the Tri-Series just failing to win the third final. But India does have the satisfaction of winning two out of the four encounters with Sri Lanka, one match ending in a tie. In all, it promises to be a big one in subcontinent conditions and crowds.

The main attraction of the tournament is going to be the India-Pakistan match on coming Sunday. Any such encounter between the classic arch-rivals is awaited with bated breath. Significantly such encounters are very rare nowadays because of strained bilateral relations. Meantime the ghost of match-fixing has also staged a comeback with a bookie making allegations that match-fixing has been the norm and that the World Cup Semi-final between India and Pakistan was fixed. The subcontinent cricket is always under suspicion and any big losses or wins for India generate rumors of match-fixing instantly.


Anyway, now it's time to enjoy the Asia Cup--2012!

The Wall of Indian Cricket Retreats! Joy of Hindi Cinema Vanishes!

Fondly called the ‘Wall’ or ‘Mr. Dependable’ Rahul Dravid retired from international and first class cricket on Friday, the 9^th March, 2012. Early morning the same day ‘Joy’ Mukherjee of Hindi Cinema (not called Bollywood in his time) passed away at a Mumbai hospital. These two events are not linked, but may impact a large mutually inclusive community to which this writer belongs.

The news was doing the rounds almost the whole day on Thursday that Rahul Dravid had called a press conference at noon the next day. Almost all in media knew what it would be about and the preparations began in earnest.

Rahul Dravid, the consistently No.3 batsman in India’s test matches and in one-day internationals too to a large extent, announced his retirement at a press conference in Bangalore around noon. The end of an era.

For the last 16 years we had been watching him, witnessing him and adoring him in all of India’s cricket matches here or abroad. We always looked to him for guiding India—first to safety and then to victory. A batsman with a solid 55+ average in away matches, 80 century partnerships with Sachin Tendulkar that is a world record and in all 80 century partnerships with 18 different partners, the world record holder for most number of Test catches taken, only the second cricketer in total Test runs scored, a good fielder plus a wicket keeper in need and solidity that was never questioned.

And, the superb cricketer had only a brief aberration in the recent Australian tour. He was the star in the previous away series in England. But age was not on his side and since all senior players did miserably in the Aus tour the heated controversy of ‘seniors Vs juniors’ must have pained him. When the Indian cricket Board dropped him or picked for one-day cricket at will Dravid retired from that in 2011 in disgust. A true artist with the bat just cannot take on politics. We are going to miss him terribly. Whenever we had to go out on some work in between watching matches we used to be assured if Dravid was at the crease. We salute the Great Cricketer and wish him all well for the future. 

Joy Mukherjee, one of the greatest classic romantic heroes of Hindi Cinema of the sixties, called it a day at the age of 73. His main attraction was his immense likeability. You just could not help but like him dancing or jumping around or just delivering dialogues. His disarming smile and a bright-jubilant countenance filled you with joy instantly without you knowing about it. His unorthodox acting antics, dress code and gait appealed enormously to the younger generation of the bygone era and even now. In this he can be realistically compared with the energetic Shammi Kapoor and the stylistic Dev Anand.

By the early seventies fitting roles for Joy Mukherjee dried up and he left acting focusing on film-making where he was not a huge success. Slowly, he faded from public gaze, but lived on energetically in his movies. If his movies like ‘Shagird’ or ‘Lovein Tokyo’ are screened or shown somewhere you are drawn in irresistibly compelling you to relish it one more time.

While grieving for his demise we get assured by the fact that he is immortalized in his movies. So, who can stop us from enjoying an evergreen super-hit song ‘Japan…love in Tokyo’! This might even inspire the Japanese people solemnly observing today the first anniversary of the dreadful Earthquake-Tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 in 2011.

 Let the ‘Wall’ and ‘Joy’ inspire all to better times.