ChinmayC Blog

The end came much sooner than expected to cause a lot of embarrassment for the Michael Clarke led Australian cricket team. Powered by the Indian spinners Ravindran Ashwin (another five wicket haul) and Ravindra Jadeja (three wickets) Australia never gave a worthy fight and folded up for a miserable 131 in 67 overs with more than one and half days to spare. India crushed Australia by an innings and 135 runs in the second Test in Hyderabad taking an unbeatable lead of 2-0 in the four-match cricket Test Series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy being played in India. It was indeed sweet revenge for the absolute drubbing India received at the hands of Australia in Australia. While England spinners denied India a similar revenge in 2012  Australia has failed to deliver in batting and in pace or spin bowling so far and thus face a looming Series defeat in the last frontier they always wanted to conquer.  It was also a huge relief for the troubled Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who ...

India continued to dominate Australia in the four-match cricket Test Series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to be in a position to go up 2-0 on the third day of the second Test in Hyderabad today. At close of play Australia reeling under Indian spin were 74 for 2 still needing 192 more runs to avoid an innings defeat. Earlier after a record breaking partnership of 370 runs between Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara the Australian agony lessened considerably as India folded up quickly for 503 runs losing the last six wickets for only 43 runs. At the moment the speculation going around is that of the margin of Australian capitulation—an innings defeat or by some number of wickets. Barring a dramatic batting recovery it would be extremely difficult for Australia to prevent India taking an invincible lead in this Series. Yesterday had been a tremendous day for Indian cricket as the much talked about Indian batting matched the reputation with an incredible display all through the day except...

You cannot call them criminals or gangsters or thieves though their job is to steal only! They are all educated, suave and very intelligent. They show tremendous zeal, patience, will power and even ‘patriotic’ feelings. Their conviction is that they are only trying to mop up the surplus money or plainly speaking black money from corrupt politicians, unscrupulous traders and opulent businessmen. They are not the Robin Hood type either as they use their booty to maintain themselves rather than helping the poor and needy. Problem is you cannot help but love them and love-adore-enjoy this heist-drama-thriller movie ‘Special 26’ because of them!   The movie written and Directed by Neeraj Pandey released all over on 8 th February and is declared a super hit—one of the finest from Bollywood this year. Special 26 is not a suspense flick, but you are sure to be regaled with a huge twist in the very end. The leader of this pack of thieves…sorry…con artistes is Bollywood action-comedy- masa...

Morning did not quite show the day on the third day of the first Test between India and Australia in Chennai today. India not only had to overhaul the Australian total of 380, but also had to take a substantial lead for any chance of turning the match in their favor. The crowds wanted Sachin Tendulkar to do it for India notching up his 52 nd Test hundred in the process. But the Australian bowlers maintaining a tight leash right from the morning checked India effectively and the early exit of Tendulkar who added just 10 runs to his overnight score of 71 put paid to fans hope and also for hope of a dramatic turnaround the Indian way. However, Virat Kohli went on patiently, and suddenly he found a very determined partner in the form of his captain MS Dhoni who egged him on to become more aggressive Morning still did not show the day though. Kohli and Dhoni launched an assault on the Australian bowling attack and built a partnership of 128 runs with Kohli completing a brilliant century. ...

The focus had been on off-spinner Harbhajan Singh staging one more comeback in his 100 th Test, and the place for local boy Ravichandran Ashwin, another offie, did not look guaranteed. But as it happened on the first day of the Chennai Test between India and Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Ashwin captured the very first five Australian wickets to fall and reduced Australia to a precarious 153 for 5. Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s ‘first day turners’ did seem to help his spinners after all, though the man of the moment Harbhajan went wicket less on the first day and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja chipping in with just one.  That India could not capitalize on Australia’s capitulation had been the usual story for quite some time now, first day turner or not. The Indian camp tended to put the blame on a glaring umpiring decision when Aussie captain Michael Clarke while on 39 was not given out caught and the replays later confirmed the nick. But nowadays such decisions have been a par...

Just when the politics of terror seemed to have subsided allowing the Budget Session of the Indian Parliament that started on February 21 2012 with the President of India addressing the joint session maybe to work a little better than usual,   the terror struck back in full ferocity, venom and revenge. Two massive blasts ripped apart a prime market locality of Hyderabad, a major city of Southern India, around 7 pm yesterday. The victims caught unawares could hardly recover from shock and trauma of the first blast when another high-intensity bomb went off just 100 meters away. Fortunately a third bomb discovered in the same locality was defused in time. In a kind of a vicious circle of terror the city of Hyderabad got hit in 2002, 2007 and now 2013. The real face of the terror got exposed one more time. It did not discriminate while ripping apart the innocent victims—killing 14 and maiming over 120 so far. The Home Minister of India, Sushil Kumar Shinde, whose comment was utilized...

One of the richest states of India, Maharashtra, has been reeling under unprecedented power cuts for over a year now (events relate to the summer of 2007 when power shortage was most severe). The supply of power was not sufficient. There had been a shortage of about 4000 megawatts. The average cuts are for 4/6 hours a day. The worst affected areas suffer load shedding to the extent of 16/18 hours daily. The ruling party was at its wits end and the opposition was at its attacking best. But there had also been a sweating dilemma. While the whole of Maharashtra was subjected to load shedding Mumbai had been spared so far. Top ministers were stoutly defending that Mumbai just could not afford it. Mumbai is the pride capital of the state and is also called the financial capital of India. The city municipal corporation here has an annual budget that beats the combined budgets of many states of India. Apart from trade and industry highs Mumbai keeps on making national or international headli...