India stared against SA on a green pitch, which had plenty of seam and bounce. As usual India lost 3 quick wickets and started struggling against the likes of Pollock, Morkel. There's a lot of positives about bringing in fresh blood into the team. Innings which Robin Uthappa showed a lot of maturity, very high for his age. I've seen him play in Eng, India and now in South Africa. This guy has a terrific foot work, plays with a straight bat and good on both sides of the wicket. He should be a handful for the Australia series. I knew SA would have a hard time chasing 150+ in Durban but did not expect them to lose ;-). Pace bowling and India are two hardly related terms. Thanks to Greg Chappell (or the person who got RP.Singh and Sreesanth into the side), for the first time I see these two hitting the deck very hard. On a average both bowl 83-84 mph with good seam positions. Real surprise was Irfan Pathan, short stint at MRF Pace Academy with the likes of Dennis Lillee and Troy Cooley seems to have restored confidence back in the young man. He has improved his pace quite a lot, currently faster than both Sreesanth and RP Singh. The ball he cleaned up Andrew Symonds was 140Kmph. I saw the highlights again just to confirm if it was Irfan Pathan bowling at 140 and indeed he was ;-).
Rohit Sharma, another youngster seems to enjoy pace and bounce the most ;). His shots were mostly from the middle of the willow except for 1-2 edges which are always bound to happen at Kingsmead. Yuvraj's 6x6s needs a mention. It's hard hitting 6x6s in an over, be it against Zimbabwe or Kenya or England. This guy's splendid timing was back in groove and all he needed during the semifinal was to middle it and Aussies pace will do the rest.3 gorgeous sixes, 2 off Brett Lee and one off Clark's short ball. Chasing 180+ under lights was never going to be easy, I knew Aussies would fold, thanks to Hayden they did put up some fight.
Coming to the finals. It's always a pleasure playing Pakistan and beating them that too in the finals. For a moment I thought Joginder messed up and the 3rd ball of the last over would land just in front of ropes, fortunately it went straight to Sreesanth and India won a major tournament after years . Is this dawn of a new age for Indian Cricket?, may be. I'd like to Closely watch the forth coming Australia series (both home and away) to confirm it. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
ODI Series in England 6th ODI
Yes the talk today is about 6th ODI in England (vs India). I still can't comprehend how England made 310?, thank God they did not hit all sixes in the last over, would have been an embarrassment to the cricketer's bowling career (Yuvraj).
Just wondering what makes a good bowler. I can't help but think about how Michael Clarke and Symonds would have handled the situation, pls note that I'm not talking into consideration Mcgrath or Tait as it is not fair to compare them to Yuvraj Singh (as a bowler). Clarke or Symonds would have never gone for more than 12 runs in the last over, I'm pretty sure. Both are shrewd enough to vary their pace sufficiently. So what it takes to be a very good ODI bowler?.
I've been closely following Nathen Bracken and Brad Hogg lately. Bracken toured India in 2003 and proved handful with his medium pace (He bowls round about 120s most of the time and sometimes 110s for ppl who believe pace is a must and Irfan Pathan gets the treatment only because of his medium pace). The latter was a pretty much 5th bowler till this World Cup. To watch these 2 in World Cup was a real treat!. The former was lethally accurate and varied his pace and pitch of the delivery beyond any one could comprehend. The latter who was pretty much one dimensional since his career began showed beautiful variations in spin, pace and bounce that even batsmen of Flintoff's calibre struggled to read him. From a fifth bowler he became an unsung hero for Australia. He took 20 wickets in WC (too much for a fifth bowler, pretty much same as Muralitharan at a better average) .
Coming back to Yuvraj's bowling, I think Ajit Agarkar himself would have bowled better in these conditions. Dravid's ODI bowling rotation has been pathetic. But atleast they won the match. Good temperament from Uthappa handed us the match!
Just wondering what makes a good bowler. I can't help but think about how Michael Clarke and Symonds would have handled the situation, pls note that I'm not talking into consideration Mcgrath or Tait as it is not fair to compare them to Yuvraj Singh (as a bowler). Clarke or Symonds would have never gone for more than 12 runs in the last over, I'm pretty sure. Both are shrewd enough to vary their pace sufficiently. So what it takes to be a very good ODI bowler?.
I've been closely following Nathen Bracken and Brad Hogg lately. Bracken toured India in 2003 and proved handful with his medium pace (He bowls round about 120s most of the time and sometimes 110s for ppl who believe pace is a must and Irfan Pathan gets the treatment only because of his medium pace). The latter was a pretty much 5th bowler till this World Cup. To watch these 2 in World Cup was a real treat!. The former was lethally accurate and varied his pace and pitch of the delivery beyond any one could comprehend. The latter who was pretty much one dimensional since his career began showed beautiful variations in spin, pace and bounce that even batsmen of Flintoff's calibre struggled to read him. From a fifth bowler he became an unsung hero for Australia. He took 20 wickets in WC (too much for a fifth bowler, pretty much same as Muralitharan at a better average) .
Coming back to Yuvraj's bowling, I think Ajit Agarkar himself would have bowled better in these conditions. Dravid's ODI bowling rotation has been pathetic. But atleast they won the match. Good temperament from Uthappa handed us the match!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Is there anything called Luck!
Sometimes I wonder if there is anything called luck. But lately after seeing a live example I found it is very much true. Yes I'm talking about Shivaji the movie and it's success run. If at all I wished that I could have had one hundreth of luck quotient that this guy has I would have been a millionaire by now :)
Shivaji's success run aside, I'm wondering if any actor could do the same and get away with it. The answer is *no*. I see some of you guys are mumbling Simbu, Vijay etc. Vijay gives only masala movies agreed but the guy seems to think a little and he has had his own share of flops. He had the same situation when Youth, Bagavathy, Vaseegara all went for a toss. Poove Unakkaga, Kadhalukku Mariyaathai, Love Today, Thullatha manamum thullum were good films. Simbu probably worked harder in his childhood days itself. All this guy needs is to keep away from direction and work under a few good names in the industry. Ajith had his own golden period too, like KanduKonden, Aasai and Vaalee. Without doubt those were good films.
I'm trying to think when Rajini gave a flop since he stepped out of Balachander films (except Baba ofcourse, which was pure shit), answer is some time in 1992 (Pandian?), even Uzhaipaali was not a flop. The pattern superstar chooses a movie is it should meet the following criteria
a) Acted by Amitabh
b) should have been a hit in Hindi
and thats all, you are all set and he's got a hit. Coming back to the million dollar question, I just want to understand only this, when your superstar is capable of doing only this, why the f**k you expect other artists like Vijay, Ajith, Simbhu and Kamal to give movies based on logic, or criticize them for their punch dialogues :-) ofcourse superstar was the one who started it.
Shivaji's success run aside, I'm wondering if any actor could do the same and get away with it. The answer is *no*. I see some of you guys are mumbling Simbu, Vijay etc. Vijay gives only masala movies agreed but the guy seems to think a little and he has had his own share of flops. He had the same situation when Youth, Bagavathy, Vaseegara all went for a toss. Poove Unakkaga, Kadhalukku Mariyaathai, Love Today, Thullatha manamum thullum were good films. Simbu probably worked harder in his childhood days itself. All this guy needs is to keep away from direction and work under a few good names in the industry. Ajith had his own golden period too, like KanduKonden, Aasai and Vaalee. Without doubt those were good films.
I'm trying to think when Rajini gave a flop since he stepped out of Balachander films (except Baba ofcourse, which was pure shit), answer is some time in 1992 (Pandian?), even Uzhaipaali was not a flop. The pattern superstar chooses a movie is it should meet the following criteria
a) Acted by Amitabh
b) should have been a hit in Hindi
and thats all, you are all set and he's got a hit. Coming back to the million dollar question, I just want to understand only this, when your superstar is capable of doing only this, why the f**k you expect other artists like Vijay, Ajith, Simbhu and Kamal to give movies based on logic, or criticize them for their punch dialogues :-) ofcourse superstar was the one who started it.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Dasavatharam vs MMKR
Last Saturday I was watching MMKR (I've already watched it plenty of times). The movie is all screenplay (no big story). Thanks to the complicated screenplay, most of the tamil audiences stamped this as yet another masala movie (I hate when someone says that it's just another masala movie). The movie is way ahead of it's time(for a 1989 release I believe). I have not seen a tightly scripted comedy movie in Tamil since then. The movie had no lagging moments at all. Avvai Shunmugi was a bigger hit that MMKR (with due credit to this movie, MMKR is a much better movie).Thats why I wonder whether Kamal needs a person like KSR to present his ideas to front benchers. KSR is a master of that, see Avvai Shunmugi to get what I mean. The movie was a personal milestone for the actor and did very well in BO.
Second thing I'm wondering about Dasa is screen time each character will occupy. Michael did not have much screen time in MMKR. Assuming it took 2:30hrs to exploit 3 characters potential to the fullest (specially that of Kameshwaran and Raju), it's a pretty serious task to present 10 characters in 3:00 hrs time. In their recent interviews Oscar Ravi and Kamal look extremely confident of the end product, lets hope for the best :)
You must be wondering what started this. I'm just wondering what it takes to be successful both as an Actor and at the BO like Aboorva Sagodarargal (ideal mix of both?) did. I was'nt bothered much about Virumandi, Anbe Sivam (both would have costed 10 crores a piece max( I heard Kamal took a pay cut for the latter. Most of Virumandi was shot at sets in Guindy) and would have recovered most of it). When the budget crosses 50 crs it's important that the movie does well commercially and to be frank I'm relying totally on KSR to do this (and more ofcourse :-)
Second thing I'm wondering about Dasa is screen time each character will occupy. Michael did not have much screen time in MMKR. Assuming it took 2:30hrs to exploit 3 characters potential to the fullest (specially that of Kameshwaran and Raju), it's a pretty serious task to present 10 characters in 3:00 hrs time. In their recent interviews Oscar Ravi and Kamal look extremely confident of the end product, lets hope for the best :)
You must be wondering what started this. I'm just wondering what it takes to be successful both as an Actor and at the BO like Aboorva Sagodarargal (ideal mix of both?) did. I was'nt bothered much about Virumandi, Anbe Sivam (both would have costed 10 crores a piece max( I heard Kamal took a pay cut for the latter. Most of Virumandi was shot at sets in Guindy) and would have recovered most of it). When the budget crosses 50 crs it's important that the movie does well commercially and to be frank I'm relying totally on KSR to do this (and more ofcourse :-)
Friday, August 10, 2007
India's series win!
Well, Cricket, F-1 and Tennis are my favourite sports. I lost my interest on tennis ever since Sampras retired, not that Federer is not as good as Sampras :-), Infact he is better in many ways. Anyway I like Sampras better, that's the bottom line. Can't help thinking about Pistol Pete most of the time. Federer will soon surpass Sampras as a player, if that will keep Roger fans happy.
Coming back to the original subject, I'm immensely pleased with India's win in England. I felt pity for Dravid after India's shocking defeat to B'desh. Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar deserved this win, for it's most probably their last series in England. They have started firing as a team after a really long time. Australia do this every match, and India need to do it quite often. I'm also happy for Freddie Flintoff who worked his butt off for 2005 Ashes (He himself would be pretty pleased with series loss :) . Mr.Vaughan better realize that your team isn't going anywhere with out Flintoff, Simon Jones and to some extent Harmison and Hoggard. People often hail Anderson as a good bowler, for me he is far from a test bowler. Monty and Sidebottom are really good uns though were unlucky through the series. Tremlett is kinda 50-50. It's an Alarm bell for England, clearly indicating that their bench strength is *zero* and they sorely miss Troy's services.
Come August, should be an exciting year of Cricket starting with 20-20 world cup. Should be interesting to see how Aussies will perform with out *Great Glenn* and Master spinner Warne. Stuart Clark is good but I haven't seen him much outside Australia, same goes with Lee and Tait. Gillespie is doing well for Yorkshire, it will be interesting if he will offered test spot this year.
Coming back to the original subject, I'm immensely pleased with India's win in England. I felt pity for Dravid after India's shocking defeat to B'desh. Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar deserved this win, for it's most probably their last series in England. They have started firing as a team after a really long time. Australia do this every match, and India need to do it quite often. I'm also happy for Freddie Flintoff who worked his butt off for 2005 Ashes (He himself would be pretty pleased with series loss :) . Mr.Vaughan better realize that your team isn't going anywhere with out Flintoff, Simon Jones and to some extent Harmison and Hoggard. People often hail Anderson as a good bowler, for me he is far from a test bowler. Monty and Sidebottom are really good uns though were unlucky through the series. Tremlett is kinda 50-50. It's an Alarm bell for England, clearly indicating that their bench strength is *zero* and they sorely miss Troy's services.
Come August, should be an exciting year of Cricket starting with 20-20 world cup. Should be interesting to see how Aussies will perform with out *Great Glenn* and Master spinner Warne. Stuart Clark is good but I haven't seen him much outside Australia, same goes with Lee and Tait. Gillespie is doing well for Yorkshire, it will be interesting if he will offered test spot this year.
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