Another delayed post

So, its been another one month and a lot of sporting and sport-related actions been happening in and around this world of sports!

What a wonderful season of IPL it was, outside the stadium, of course... My least favourite player Lalit Modi got good beatings from everywhere. I celebrated by giving away sweets to all my friends! And what an occasion to sack that idiot - right after the final was done :-) . Enjoy joblessness, you idiot! I hope the world's worst league goes down the drain soon.

Then came the end of the EPL season... A rock and roll ride for Chelsea, which lost a crucial game to Spurs, and led by just one point with two games to go, one of them against Liverpool. Thanks to Did-yeah (courtesy, Steve-G) and Lamps, Chelsea sped past Liverpool and went on to stamp Wigan for an emphatic victory, the one which sealed the title! Didier Drogba had a hat-trick here, to take his tally to 29 goals, three more than Wayne Rooney, who subbed after Did-yeah got his second... What a season it was for Chelsea! Three games with 7 goals or more (7-1, 7-0, 8-0....also, there was a 6-1). Most number of goals in a premier league season - a whopping 103! Most number of goals at home - 68! a Goal difference of nearly 70! A double over each of ManU, Arsenal and Liverpool (ok, spurs are in the new top-4, and they did get the better of Chelsea at White Hart lane... ManCity is a team i wanna forget this season). This season was truly Chelsea's. Anelka, Malouda, Didier, Lampard, terry, Cole, Ivanovic, Alex deserve special mention in the success. I hope to see more of gael kakuta this season. Also, I should add that Chelsea soon completed the domestic double, with the FA cup also in the kitty soon, after a soft victory over Pompey... Proud to be a True Blue.

The EPL was a real topsy turvy one... Liverpool knocked off the top four, Spurs taking its place. Arsenal continued its seasons of pointless flair capped with nothing but a dunce-cap. Portsmouth with all their nice play could manage nothing but admin, docked 9 points and assured relegation... Lets hope the next season is just as good or better :-)

NBA

This is where I live Boy o Boy!!!

While the Lakers took some time to wake up against the thunders, but when they did, they showed us why they were the defending champions and they showed that possessiveness in those games. With due credits to Westbrook and KD, and their Coach Scott Brooks...I think they were just short of experience.

Utah did Lakers a favour by eliminating the Nuggets. Coming from a game down at home, they battled well to down the nuggets, who were not at their resurgent best. Thanks to this, the Lakers had it easy over the short Jazz, and advanced to the finals.

On the other side, the Mavs were upset (or not) by the Spurs, who again got swept by the exceptional Suns (credits to their bench). The suns had battled all odds and believed in their form to get past the Blazers in round one prior to this.

The East looked pretty much like only the top-4 would get past round one...

The Celtics were too hot for the Heat. The Bucks who seemed to upset all odds and reach a conference semis with a 3-2 lead and home game to play next, lost it all and were eliminated by the Hawks. Cavs had no problem getting past the Bulls, who were expected to put on a show after dramatically making it to the playoffs and also, for their round one show last season...not to happen this time! Magic swept past the Bobcats, who were pitted to be Cavs' best opponent from the regular season match-ups, again, not to happen, and out she went!

The semis were superb...differently so... On one side, the Magic swept the Hawks like they were born to do that. On the other side, the Celtics and Cavs delayed Magic's game plan for the finals. Every single game would yield a lopsided result...home losses... and finally, the Celtics in 6!

I think the Celtics might just have killed a franchise! Mike Brown, the coach of the Cavs got fired the next day, LeBron James might be making choices about his future by now. Shaq and Z might be considering retirement. Lets wait and watch... Conference finals are underway!

oooh yes... the Englishmen won the T-20 cricket world cup title

And, Indian Hockey team finished on top in the most decorated Sultan Azlan Shah Tourney, had a final with Korea, but was washed off, so, ended up being named joint winners with Korea. A good show nevertheless, losing only once over 6 games showed some consistency in Asia's best hockey tournament..the one which is not telecast on Indian TV...just shows you how much these people respect the national sport.

Aah well, here's what's next :-

NBA conference finals, NBA finals

South Africa touring WI,

NZ and Sri Lanka fancy-playing in the USA,

India-Zimbabwe-Sri Lanka trination

Football World Cup

4 nation hockey @ Nederlands/Poland/China

Asia cup in Sri Lanka

and lots more.

Until some more (undecided) time, bubbyeee

End of the Layoff

Sorry folks... Couldn't + didn't blog for a long time due to personal, academic and medical reasons. Its been almost half an year since my last post and a lot have gone past in that window...

I'll try to break things up about what I remember. Please excuse my memory, it became very weak towards the end of 2009.

Cricket - The most boring of all the happening sports in the last six months. There were a couple of good tests every now and then, but overall, the Indian soil cricket spoiled the whole scenario. India continued playing Sri Lanka like it was getting up in the morning and going to brush teeth. Australia victored emphatically over Pakistan and W.I, both of whom tried desperately to win atmost one match of the series...failed to so so. The Kiwis hosted Pakistan for a good series that saw Bond and Asif return to cricket. Bond was there in cricket, but the bunch of bigwigs sitting 

2008. An year that was...

Looking back...this year had a lot for me...

Early in the year, I fell ill. Luckily so, because that way, I could stay back home away from college enjoying Indian youngsters romp home the under-19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia and also India win the CB series down under. Also, Djokovic had his first grand slam at the Rod Laver arena. Some time later, I went for a trip to Kodai, lovely hill station. A lovely trip ruined by stupid seniors. Cometh April, cometh bat swinging ball swatting nuisance of T20 drama named IPL... Utter nuisance extended till May. It was a relief that was over...

Summer! I loved it, for the pure action packed sports that was just jam-packed into the 2 or 3 months. Boy o' boy! I can still remember Turkey's and Russia's splendid outing in the 'England-less' Euro. NBA, Oh My God... I couldn't have asked for a better finale! Old rivalry kindled... After 18 odd years, its gonna be CELTICS up against LAKERS... Lakers faltered at the wrong moment, and the Celtics were champs yet again...and how...after beating their biggest opponent! The Big-3 did it for them! Doc Rivers is one proud man now. Summer in the green cricket pastures of England was just TOO good. Kiwis and then SA had mixed luck in England. Ultimate cricket season. India had tough time, losing in finals yet again. Football. Oh yes... Oh yes yes. EPL has never been that close... Manchester United won the premiership by two points, was almost going to be on goal difference, but for Chelsea's lapse of concentration in the last few moments of the season. Chelsea had a great season in premiership otherwise... It ain't over yet. Lets go over to Moscow for the finals of the UEFA Champions League '08. MANU vs CHELSEA. It cannot get bigger than this. It had to be decided by penalties. And John Terry's unfortunate penaly miss cost Chelsea the title. Tennis this summer? One word for it - NADAL. Wimbledon and Venus go hand in hand, don't they? F1- Hamilton being pursued by Raikkonen,Massa and also Alonso.

Move on Baggie, move on...
Oh yeah... Then the college beckons me back to the den with the sickening mess-food. Some boring subjects, some good ones, a new hostel, a stupid college cricket team captain and my birthday filled my mind for the first few weeks... Then, India was at Lanka, predictable test series (what with Mendis rippin' through any batting line up???), and then a hard fought victory in one dayers for India. Then started EPL, la liga, bundes liga, serie A and etc etc. aaahhhhh.... so MANY changes to teams, managements etc etc. But it all got moving thick and fast from the first whistle... Half way gone, Liverpool leading the table (off the pitch, they sure have some problems), Chelsea losing fort, literally...beaten at Stamford Bridge by Liverpool and Arsenal in quick succession and dropping important points to trail the leaders by three points. Manu looking good as champions of England, Europe and the World and are just on the best form to climb back to the top notch. Arsenal is like a pendulum swinging back and forth from superb form to dismal form. Hull, Everton, Aston Villa, Fulham are all coming good. Hull, just promoted, has been the show stopper.

Olympics. China hosted, China Won! So many records, so many memories.

Federer pulled one back towards the end of the year! But, lost out on rankings.

Hold and Behold... The King of all Kings... NBA starts! Friday and Saturday mornings will be sweet again!

Aaaah... holidays.

Moving one. Cricket had its share soon. Australia were humbled in India, and also back home, when SA treated Aus like bunnies. England were humbeled too, in India.

So many other things happened in this year, which ended in a not so good manner. Mumbai was a target of terror attacks. This was a big thorn. Hope we all will head into the New Year on a happy note and resolve to "live and let live....in peace"!!!

See ya all in 2009! Have a great year ahead!

2009

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2009!

OH MY GOD!!! A LOT IN A LITTLE WHILE!

Yes... A lot of things just happened in a little while.

The Bangladeshis toured Australia for a 3 match ODI series. No comments. No surprises in the result there...

Graeme Hick had retired from all forms of cricket, after playing nearly 24 decades, scoring 100+ domestic centuries and 40000+ domestic runs. The Worcs will remember him for ages. A king, has retired. Even though, he was around 45 years old, he was just as competitive as anyone else in the team. And, along with him, retires Darren Gough, whom England will remember as one of the most efficient bowlers of this past generation.
The US open!!! Federer won it... How many times on a trot? 6? Guess so. It was a much needed victory for him, after the traumatic Roland Garros and the epic Wimbledon defeats. Andy Murray was his opponent this year, who had crushed Nadal's dream of booking his first US open finals spot A not so difficult victory for Federer, but, it was interesting to note that there were not more than a couple of aces altogether in the whole match (one each, note pls)! And, Serena defeated Jankovic for the ladies' title. The American Bryan brothers had it easy in the men doubles finals.

The Barclay's Premier League got underway a little more than a month ago. After 6 matches, the big four are placed pretty well on the top half of the board. Manchester United, having played a lot away from home, a little behind the other big names though. Arsenal suffered two defeats, the one to Hull city (What the HULL happened???), will be having more impact on them, I guess. Liverpool and Chelsea are having an easy time. Chelsea have improved their scoring rate dramatically this season. I don't remember the Blues leading on goal difference at any stage of the tournament anytime before! This season is just getting hotter, with team like Manchester City eyeing top spots.

The F1 is going tight, with very less space to guess the championship winner. Hamilton is leading by 7 points, with around half a dozen or so races to go. Raikkonen, Massa, Kubica, and more in hot pursuit. The Singapore Night race was Awesome!!!

In the Major League Baseball, the Yankees had an emotional time last week, when they bid adieu to their historic Yankees Stadium, where their superstar, Babe Ruth hit the first homie! Alex Rodriguez was expected to hit the last, but the Orioles' pitcher made sure he only had a walk to get the bases loaded in the bottom ninth, scores level. One out! Two out! Were the emotional crowd going to have to wait longer for the farewell party??? NO! The batter hits the ball past the gaping pitcher, and the match was Yankees'. A fitting ending to the monument of the game.

Cricket again, India hosted Australia and New Zealand for a List-A tournament. Kiwis were subdued and India chased an emphatic target in the last league match (a dead rubber) to reach the final with all hopes up. The finals, was a hopeless show. Australia scored 300+, India skittled for a paltry score less than 150. The jinx of the Finals is not restricted to the Indian seniors' cricket team alone!!!

As many as thirteen Bangladeshi cricketers have signed up with the ICL, the so called rebel league after being overlooked by the IPL and having rows with their own cricket managing board. Now, they host the Kiwis, with the ICC keeping an eye over their test status, where they have no victory to rejoice,

One day after the above news was out, Sri Lankan Cricket board headed by their world cup winning Captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, lifted the ban on the Lankan ICL players from taking part in their domestic league.

BCCI has now allowed foreign players to take part in the Ranji Trophy tournament, presently one foreign player a team! That'll be almost twenty. I hope they choose good ones from countries like Bangladesh, Kenya or Zimbabwe. Or other member nations affiliated to the ICC.

The United States lifted te Ryder Cup this time around in their European tour!

Coming soon... UEFA Champions League, the European domestic soccer leagues, Europa Cup, The cricket's Champions League (oh Hell!), the all new NBA season (oh yea!!!), Australia tour of India and much more...

Stick around!!!

Chinese Fireworks brighten Beijing Games

The Chinese did prepare well for the Olympics, they had the city of Beijing at its scintillating best and so were the other host-cities; but the icing on the cake was the splendid performance of their athletes to bring home (BRING home????) their first Olympics victory. They were so dominating, that the Olympics looked like ‘no-contest’ to them. When was the last time the U.S. of A. were so far away from the numero uno spot, in terms of the number of Gold-medals won.

Take a bow, China!

The Chinese dominated many fields, like, table-tennis, badminton, floor gymnastics and of-course, sync swimming. They also had a nice time in other fields, which was a major factor to overtake the haul of the U.S. of A. this time. The U.S. of A. had a good run, but in most cases had to settle for silver or bronze.

From the point of view of not-SO-great stats and follower of athletics, but just a guy who enjoys the Olympics, I can chart just a few things. A non-exhaustive list of achievements, of course…

First of all, if at all this Olympics is to be remembered by an athlete’s name, you can call it Phelps’ Olympics without a second thought. 8 games he participated in, and 8 gold medals he did win. He is one man who kept his promise even in a world class competition. At-least 6 of them were in world record time! Ask him about his daily schedule, surely you won’t believe your ears. I would say. If he can cover himself with gold every Olympics with that sort of schedule, I’m considering the option of trying to participate in the London Games. 16 Olympic medals and 8 golds in one particular edition, both became new records. The record of 7 golds held by Mark Spitz since ’72 Munich was unimaginably broken!

The 100m men dash! Three names will flash in your mind immediately, whether or not you know them. Before the final, there came one blow – Tyson Gay did not qualify for the finals! Then came the second blow… in less than 10 seconds of the finals, the world was to be shocked again to find Asafa Powell not on the podium. But, I don’t think that was the reason for that shocked, stoned, gasping, ‘searching for oxygen’ look on the face of 90000 odd people in the artistic Bird’s Nest and probably another few billions of international viewers and followers. It must have been Powell’s fellow athlete, Usain Bolt, who had enough time in the world to start late, race ahead of 7 others, look back over his shoulders and start celebrating atleast 20 m before the finish line and still finish with a world record time of 9.69 seconds!!!!! He also had a world record lead over the second placed athlete! Unbelievable? Believe it! (sorry, Repley’s! but, you would’ve said the same). And he came back again to win the 200 m gold too! His lightning-bolt celebration was an instant hit!

In tennis, debutant Nadal made this year even more special, clinching the gold. Federer, who was beaten by Blake, won the men’s doubles gold with Stanislas Wawrinka. In the women category, the all-Russian final saw Elina Dementieva clinched the gold medal, defeating Dinara Safina. If my memory serves me right, I think the Williams sisters clinched gold in doubles event.

Soccer saw Brazil winning the final, and after a long wait, the U.S. of A. won the basket ball event.

The U.S. of A. though didn’t have anything to cheer in the field of boxing this time around. Holifield didn’t seem to be happy at all. He blamed boxers’ hunger for money more than glory for this bad patch in their boxing history.

Kenyan, Samuel Wanjiru was the winner of the marathon event, considered to be THE race of any Olympics, hence he can be proud to be the winner of the Olympics! The Ethiopians, Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba won both the 5 km and 10 km in the men’s and women’s category respectively.

An important point to be noticed, the Beijing games saw 32 records being broken, a record in itself that it now shares with the Munich Games!

From an Indian’s point of view, this Olympics, by far was the best one, as India won a gold and two bronze medals. A country of 1.1 billion odd people managed 3 medals, and this happens to be the best performance. It will be some time for India to make a memorable performance in the Olympics. Prior to the Olympics, I was very disappointed as India failed to make the cut for hockey, the event in which India has won numerous gold medals.

So, the Olympics was a grand success. The Chinese government and citizens of Beijing made the Olympics a memorable one for all athletes. The Games had it all – success, failures, shocks, both sweet and bitter, glory and above all, pride!

Net edition, four years later, will be held in London. Only time will tell what is in store there…

Photo : Telegraph.com

Summer or Revival, Resurgence, Revenge!!!

This past summer, a lot of sporting action rocked the earth... The actions were larger than life, the players were supernaatural and all-in-all, the summer became even hotter.

Revenge took place, first in Los Angeles, and that episode rightly ended in Boston, when the NBA "Invincibles" of the season defeted the LA Lakers in a manner which is undescriptive. Seeing is believing. Knocking out Lakers at the Staples Centre, coming back from a 23 point deficit can only be dreamt of... What Boston Celtics did was an exhibition of class, authority, experience, unity and style and won back, rather, snatched back the NBA title from their biggest rival after a gap of almost 2 decades.

Tennis... Talk about comebacks... Dinara Safina played like a never-say-quit war-horse in the French Open and defeated big names and compatriots en-route to the finals. Though she lost in the finals, she will be remembered for her games she won prior to it. Having come back from being a set down twice in the tournament to win the matches in comprehensive style, she gave the Russians another reason to cheer about. And she eventually turned out to be the factor who could cheer up her brother Marat Safin. And, he showed up with some tricks up his sleeve in the prestigeous Wimbledon. He defeated three seeded players on the trot to book a match with defending champion, Federer, to whom he lost. But, the way Safin was playing, he sent shivers down the spine of many prominent players, especially after defeating the Australian Open champion, Novac Djokovic. He added some Safinism to these plays too. It was interesting to watch him go for a challenge when the ball was "obviously" inside the court. But, the biggest one was yet to come in the tournament. It was Rafa who finally achieved what has been eluding him for atleast three years. He defeated Federer in an epic final, probably the best one in the Open era. He is now all set to take over the No. 1 spot from Federer, being the first one to do so in more than 4 years. his next target - clinching gold at his maiden Olympics in Beijing, this August.

Talking about Soccer, the Euro was provided the summer bonanza. Spain finally got their crown after a long last wait and many choking experiences. The best elements of the tournament were Turkey and Russia. While Russia, under the guidance of "magician" Guus Hiddink, kept a good pace in the tournament and made sure they made a good mark in the tournament by beating even sides of the calibre of Nederlands, Turkey made sure that the spectators stayed in their seats till the very end of the game. The Turks....aaaahhhh... You'll never know when they are gonna make their come back. You take at the 120th minute, Turks will equalise the next minute. Ast a Croatian how it feels to have experienced that. The Turks bounced back in 3 games after trailing for most of the duration in two of those, and conceded a late, errr, very late goal in the third. All in all, they were very impressive and created a great impression. Now, every club will be vying fro Russians and Turks.

Now, coming to cricket. The long summer in England saw the Kiwis first lose the test series to a tough and building English side. the kiwi test side had been shaky ever since the English tour of the Kiwis. But, then, the Kiwis gave a great reply in the ODI series. Having lost the first one in a very pathetic manner, they came back well to emerge winner in all the other games (one was rain-affected, though that match all seemed to be heading NZ's way). Then came the South Africans and had a tough first test, where they had to stay put at the wicket day and night to save the test after they were made to follow on. The English test team lost all the form it had over the past 5 or 6 test and lost 2 test in a row to the resurgent Proteas before pulling one back for pide. SA hence came back well into the Basil D'Oliviera trophy after the horrible first 3 days of 1st test to clinch the title, winning the series 2-1.