ChinmayC Blog

Photo: latestly.com The cricket mandarins of India, if as short sighted as the shorter formats, might as well gloat over India’s 5-0 whitewash over New Zealand in the shortest format that is the T20I Series, and might as well reason that the process of experimentation has finally given a team for the T20I World Cup coming up in October this year. However, the said team is yet a team of probables only, and the IPL starting later this month might as well throw up again a plethora of new ‘talents’ for the ‘choices’ of the worthy Indian selectors; therefore, the experimentation is far from over yet.   In the second test match played in Christchurch New Zealand has beaten India by 7 wickets in just the third day today thus achieving the third whitewash of the tour of 2-0—the second whitewash being the Kiwis’ triumph of 3-0 in the shorter that is the ODI Series. New Zealand had earlier won the Wellington test by 10 wickets. India had had their chances though in both the Tests—in the firs...

Photo: en.wikipedia.org After presenting two well-crafted socially relevant films ‘ Mulk ’ (2018) and ‘ Article 15 ’ (2019) filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has given to us one more realistic cracker of a family drama ‘ Thappad ’ which translates to ‘a slap’. The movie centres on a slap administered by a ‘loving’ husband Vikram played by Pavail Gulati to his dutiful but self-respecting wife Amrita played by Taapsee Pannu. Although based on this protagonist couple the movie also delves into the lives and times of several other couples ranging from a housemaid, continuously abused and brutalized by her husband for all her domestic labour and also earnings, to the lawyer-wife of a ‘ khandani ’ family, constantly advised by her business-tycoon husband to capitalize on the family name and her hard work and efforts being nuanced with a businesslike elan. Director Sinha also adds to the charms of the film by his keen eye for details and subtleties involved in domestic matters. To the credit of this mo...

Arrogance is one of the defining characteristics of human beings. Arrogance can be easily discerned or felt by us in every word or act or posture or gait displayed by the inflicted persons. We confront them everywhere—at home where the arrogance of the head of the household is as ancient as the homo sapiens; at workplace where the arrogance of the boss percolates down the line very often apart from the others in various sycophantic roles; at educational institutions where the most scholarly often displays the most arrogance apart from the others in various emphatic roles; in the ruling class hierarchy arrogance has been a trademark notwithstanding the transformation from monarchy/dictatorship to democracy in many nations of the world; and so on. Of course, no generalization has been attempted here: else, how on earth can we have the magnanimity of discussing it! The word ‘arrogance’ has, logically, numerous synonyms. Here we’ll mention a few examples so that our discourse is easier to ...

Photo: timesofindia.indiatimes.com After India whitewashed New Zealand by 5-0 in the T20I Series now New Zealand whitewash back with a 3-0 triumph over India in the 3-match one-day international (ODI0 Series. In the third and final match today at Mount Maunganui New Zealand thrashed India by 5 wickets, despite a challenging target of 297 put by India. With NZ openers Guptill and Nicholls going-great-guns the Kiwis overtook the target with relative ease. In the first match the hosts assailed India’s target of 347, the stiffest and highest of the series, with quite a few balls to spare exposing the visitors’ bowling woes. Some Indian commentators have once again played with the word ‘complacency’ saying that perhaps the Indians were a bit complacent after the T20 whitewash! Well, over the decades this writer has been utterly unable to understand how a professional team affords to be complacent against another professional team in very competitive international matches. The hyped products...

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today presented the Union Budget for 2020-21 in Parliament. A few novelties are seen immediately: the Minister’s budget speech of more than 160 minutes proved to be the longest one in history; for the first time the Budget was presented in three innovative categories—Aspiration India, Economic Development and Caring Society with their divisions and sections; a new scheme of setting up solar pumps for farmers having barren lands thus allowing them to earn even without cultivation; identifying 100 water-stressed districts of the country for action in light of the looming water crisis; and a lucrative income tax regime of lower rates which only turns out to be optional. While economists and corporate stalwarts had been shouting all these months about boosting up the demand factor in view of a slowdown and growing unemployment the Budget didn’t list out specific measures to increase consumption or to provide more employment opportunities apart from...

Two days back I wrote ‘You hardly come across tied T20I matches…!’ now; circumstances force me to cancel that kind of condescending writing style and write ‘the tying spree…’! Because, after the Hamilton tie you get on your platter another Wellington tie—the second successive tie with, as usual, New Zealand snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and India winning again in the super over. Thus, winning the Wellington 4 th T20I match today Team India makes it 4-0 in the five-match Series. Hamilton: the Kiwis win toss, elect to field first, India set a target of 179, New Zealand lose two wickets in the 20 th over, fail to score 2 runs off 4 balls and ties the match at 179; in the super over New Zealand set a target of 18 runs, India overhaul it winning the match and the Series. Wellington: the Kiwis win toss, elect to field first, India set a target of 166 runs, New Zealand lose four wickets in the 20 th over, fail to make 20 runs off 21 balls with seven wickets standing at one stage...

You hardly come across tied T20I matches any part in the cricketing world; but today the third Twenty20 International match between India and New Zealand in Hamilton became one, and incredibly so. Indian opener Rohit Sharma starred in the Indian innings after being put into bat with 65 off 40 balls in a team total of 179/5, and yet again in the super over overhauling the New Zealand challenge of 18 runs with two sixes in the final two balls. A terrific 95 off just 48 balls by Kiwi captain Kane Williamson was in vain as he fell to Shami with just 2 runs needed off 4 balls of the final over. New Zealand needing 9 runs to win, Shami started the 20 th over conceding a six to Taylor, then 1 run to Taylor that brings Williamson into strike, third ball gets him out caught in the gully, next ball dot to Seifert, fifth ball yields a bye, and the sixth ball bowls Taylor ending the match in a tie allowing a super-over finish. Mohammed Shami was justifiably the Game-changer of the match while Roh...