Cricket T20 World Cup: Super Eight Big League Starts Today!

The Super Eight stage matches of the ICC World Cup T20 2012 in Sri Lanka start today with the big one coming between hosts Sri Lanka and spirited New Zealand in Pallekele. In the last match of the group league on 25^thSeptember buoyant Pakistan beat a fighting Bangladesh by 8 wickets. Bangladesh fought very hard trying to win by more than 36 runs which would have taken them into the Super Eight stage.

There is hardly much to choose between the two teams. While Sri Lanka would be looking for the home advantage with their specialized slow bowling that suffocates opposition on various occasions New Zealand is set to benefit too as they played their two matches here in Pallekele where they crushed Bangladesh and ran Pakistan to the wire in the second. Sri Lanka on their journey to the Super Eight bulldozed Zimbabwe in the first match of the tournament and then lost to South Africa in a ridiculous 7-over encounter.

The biggest plus for Sri Lanka would be the return of the magical spinner Ajantha Mendis who had the tournament best bowling figure of 6 wickets for 8 runs against Zimbabwe and was not fit for the South Africa match. If the out-of-form Dilshan delivers along with Mahela and Sangakkara in batting and if Malinga gets his ferocity back Sri Lanka looks formidable. With Brendon McCullum firing again if New Zealand can overpower their batting inconsistency they look formidable too. In fact, the Kiwis have won five out of the 9 T20 international encounters against Sri Lanka and won both matches played in Sri Lanka. In all, a tremendous prospect to look forward to today.

The second encounter tonight defending champions England will take on West Indies in Pallekele. While England would be smarting from their crushing defeat against India in the group league the West Indies team has not really been tested so far in the tournament. A surprise package this that could very well be a thriller or a hopelessly one-sided encounter. 

Mohammad Hafeez

AB De Villiers

And, tomorrow in Colombo there are two mouth-watering encounters coming up. The daytime match will be played between South Africa and Pakistan at 3.30pm Indian time.

Shane Watson

MS Dhoni

The day-and-night blockbuster will be between India and Australia at 7.30pm. All these four top teams have won all their group matches and are the toughest unbeaten rivals. While Pakistan must get on with their current super cricket show South Africa looks the most consistent with incisively intense bowling and power packed batting. Indian skipper Dhoni must set his priorities right and field the best team possible for the day. Australia who never made it good in T20 World Cup so far has everything to gain from their powerhouse cricket. Meanwhile India climbed up to the third position in Reliance ICC T20 rankings thanks to their thumping victory over England. South Africa in No.1 and Champions England slips a position to second spot.

When rivals of super class clash with each other it no longer matters what format of the game they are playing in. It is only cricket that triumphs all the way. Enjoy!

Humor: The Absent Minded Professor And The Adamant Elevator!

That was a very hectic day at work and he got really late. Finally he cleared the last file on the desk, picked up his briefcase and hurried towards the elevator or the lift as you may prefer to call it.

His office was on the fourth floor and naturally he was headed for the ground floor. He pressed the down button outside and the elevator came up promptly with the indicator showing down. His mind still going through the bits and pieces of the day yet he could not help but feel happy at the elevator’s perfect timing.

He pressed the number four button in the panel and then the door-close button. The number four button flickered red briefly and blanked out, but the doors closed immediately. The lift did not budge and the doors opened up a moment later. Dumfounded, he repeated the act with the same result.

A man came in and asked if it was going up, the professor replied authoritatively that it was in fact going down. The man looked desperate to go up just one floor and finding all floor buttons untouched he pressed fifth floor button. Annoying the professor a great deal the lift this time went up obediently. The man left quietly as his floor came.

The absent minded professor pressed the number four button, then the close-door button, and this time the elevator started going down. But it stopped again at the fourth floor. He thought somebody must have been waiting there. Finding nobody he promptly pressed the fourth floor button, then the close-door button. The button flickered red briefly and went blank, the doors closed. But the elevator did not budge and the doors opened up again.

Exasperated and his patience running thin now, he pressed the fourth floor button again with the same chain reactions. He finally decided he would do it one last time and if the same thing happened he would call it day. He was also getting worried a little, because he thought the lift might not be working properly and he might get trapped midway.

He pressed the fourth floor button again and then the close-door button. The fourth floor button flickered red briefly and went blank, but the doors closed promptly. The lift still did not budge. He cursed the unpredictable elevator loudly and ran down the four flights of stairs to the ground floor safely.

                               (BTW, this is a firsthand report of a true experience. LOL, you are permitted anyway!)

Politics: Dial M for Music of the M3 Kind!

Article first published as The M3 Riddle Of Indian Politics on Technorati.

This one is the farthest removed from the musical Mp3s! Yet, there is a striking similarity between the two if you want to behold at all. Concentrating on the ‘music’ commonality the whole nation and the people of India have been facing the music thanks to M3.

While many of the states of India, the economists, the industrialists, the farmers, the sensible leaders within insane groups, the opposition parties that can sense a good thing and the ‘uncommon’ people within the ‘common people’ syndrome have all hailed the new steps of the Government of India as very necessary for a stagnating economy and to avoid a crisis in the long term, the M3 and its like-minded followers had been splitting the hapless ears of the unwilling listeners with its draconian music.

M3 is consisted of naturally three basic political ingredients...



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