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!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Holiday Season didn't Disappoint
What an end to the year...
India beat England 1-0 in the two test series (that FINALLY happened). India won the match at Madras ( Chennai) after England controlled the match for 3 days 2 sessions to be exact. After that was something no one would've expected... India had to chase down a total of 387, if my memory serves me right. Sehwag tore apart the English pace attack and gave India a big chance to win on last day. Gambhir caressed on. Then came the man and the hour. Sachin guided India to victory in the company of strokeful Yuvraj. Rightfully, Sehwag was the man of the match for literaly taking the match away from England... One up, going to Mohali for the second test, England brought in Broad for Harmison. Panesar was still not at his best. India went in unchanged. The second test saw fog, more of Gambhir, return of Dravid, switch hit of KP, another episode of Flintoff vs Yuvraj, ft. KP, more fog, some more Indian batting, more fog, some more Indian batting, a HUGE target under the circumstances and then the draw... India won the two test series 1-0. With this victory, India moves to number 2 spot on the test charts after displacing South Africa. Australia and South Africa locking horns down under presently.
Australia beat New Zealand 2-0 in the two match home series. New Zealand sent another cold thorn into the stumbling Australian side which was trying to get back its form after being drubbed 2-0 in India. After a poor first innings batting erformances by Australia in the first test, their bowlers put them back on track and there was no looking back. New Zealand continued their search for an opening pair. Jesse Rider and McCullum came good with batting at times, but ran out of help from the other end... In the end, it was an easy series for Australia.
West Indies were in the beautifuls Isles of the Kiwis for a two test series. First test was just a match for the count, nothing much happened in it, as Dunedin was under rain clouds more often then not... The series moved to Napier, and though both teams tried their best, result ws not to come and the series was all square. This series saw brilliant performance from the new face Tim Mcintosh for the Kiwis, who filled in for the dropped Redmond. Chanderpaul tutored Taylor to a century while he was moving along in a style of his own. Gayle was superb with both bat, ball and also with captaincy. Iain O'Brien had some good spells to remember.
WI will be playing a five match ODI series in NZ after a couple of T20s I think. South Africa and Australia are fighting to end the year on a high, testing each other in the 4 match test series prior to the one day series (hey, no more jan-feb tri nation series down under, remember!!!). Sri Lanka are touring Pakistan in January '09 after India pulled out. SL are presently playing test series in Bangladesh.
India beat England 1-0 in the two test series (that FINALLY happened). India won the match at Madras ( Chennai) after England controlled the match for 3 days 2 sessions to be exact. After that was something no one would've expected... India had to chase down a total of 387, if my memory serves me right. Sehwag tore apart the English pace attack and gave India a big chance to win on last day. Gambhir caressed on. Then came the man and the hour. Sachin guided India to victory in the company of strokeful Yuvraj. Rightfully, Sehwag was the man of the match for literaly taking the match away from England... One up, going to Mohali for the second test, England brought in Broad for Harmison. Panesar was still not at his best. India went in unchanged. The second test saw fog, more of Gambhir, return of Dravid, switch hit of KP, another episode of Flintoff vs Yuvraj, ft. KP, more fog, some more Indian batting, more fog, some more Indian batting, a HUGE target under the circumstances and then the draw... India won the two test series 1-0. With this victory, India moves to number 2 spot on the test charts after displacing South Africa. Australia and South Africa locking horns down under presently.
Australia beat New Zealand 2-0 in the two match home series. New Zealand sent another cold thorn into the stumbling Australian side which was trying to get back its form after being drubbed 2-0 in India. After a poor first innings batting erformances by Australia in the first test, their bowlers put them back on track and there was no looking back. New Zealand continued their search for an opening pair. Jesse Rider and McCullum came good with batting at times, but ran out of help from the other end... In the end, it was an easy series for Australia.
West Indies were in the beautifuls Isles of the Kiwis for a two test series. First test was just a match for the count, nothing much happened in it, as Dunedin was under rain clouds more often then not... The series moved to Napier, and though both teams tried their best, result ws not to come and the series was all square. This series saw brilliant performance from the new face Tim Mcintosh for the Kiwis, who filled in for the dropped Redmond. Chanderpaul tutored Taylor to a century while he was moving along in a style of his own. Gayle was superb with both bat, ball and also with captaincy. Iain O'Brien had some good spells to remember.
WI will be playing a five match ODI series in NZ after a couple of T20s I think. South Africa and Australia are fighting to end the year on a high, testing each other in the 4 match test series prior to the one day series (hey, no more jan-feb tri nation series down under, remember!!!). Sri Lanka are touring Pakistan in January '09 after India pulled out. SL are presently playing test series in Bangladesh.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
No New Year Pak tour!!!
hmmmmmm....
Can't say one didn't foresee this. Indian govt and BCCI have taken the decision to cancel the tour of Pakistan early next year. All the security promises from the PCB fell short of changing the mindset of any offficial, in the wake of the terror events that wrecked havoc in the city of Mumbai in the last week of November. PCB and Pak govt are unhappy about the tour being cancelled, but Indian counterparts saw no other way out of the scenario. The ties between the two boards may weaken due to the current developments.
Sri Lankan Cricket Board headed by ex-captain Arjuna Ranatunga has offered to tour Pakistan if India doesn't. It'll be known in due course if that tour is brought up on the calendar.
Pakistan desperately needs a home series to put itself back on the cricket map. But, constant radical activities in and around the nation in the recent past has kept many nations away from it. Champions trophy had to be postponed to next year. The only good thing that happened in '08, was a good conduct of Asia Cup. Lets see how things go from now on.
Can't say one didn't foresee this. Indian govt and BCCI have taken the decision to cancel the tour of Pakistan early next year. All the security promises from the PCB fell short of changing the mindset of any offficial, in the wake of the terror events that wrecked havoc in the city of Mumbai in the last week of November. PCB and Pak govt are unhappy about the tour being cancelled, but Indian counterparts saw no other way out of the scenario. The ties between the two boards may weaken due to the current developments.
Sri Lankan Cricket Board headed by ex-captain Arjuna Ranatunga has offered to tour Pakistan if India doesn't. It'll be known in due course if that tour is brought up on the calendar.
Pakistan desperately needs a home series to put itself back on the cricket map. But, constant radical activities in and around the nation in the recent past has kept many nations away from it. Champions trophy had to be postponed to next year. The only good thing that happened in '08, was a good conduct of Asia Cup. Lets see how things go from now on.
Pushing daisies...
The Champions League T20 cricket tournament has been pushed to as far as October '09. That was the best bracket the ICC could find. Now, I think the whole scenario would change. Its a whole new season, and there will be new winners in every domestic competition. In this year's version, the Pakistani Champions, Sialkot were invited over West Indies Stanford champions and New Zealand's domestic table-toppers. This year, it may be different. Middlesex has already complained that they missed out on nearly $ 2m which they could've been richer had they played in the tournament.
The IPL trade window was postponed by a week to begin from Dec 22nd to Jan 22nd. Later on, auction will start. Many players in the fray, and many are showing their best talent in the end of the year series' around the world. The teams will have some thinking this season prior to picking the players. Lets wait and see who gets to wear which jersey this time around
The IPL trade window was postponed by a week to begin from Dec 22nd to Jan 22nd. Later on, auction will start. Many players in the fray, and many are showing their best talent in the end of the year series' around the world. The teams will have some thinking this season prior to picking the players. Lets wait and see who gets to wear which jersey this time around
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