That's it...WE WON!!!

I can barely define the shape of this moment in time...
-- Pink Floyd

We won't get bullied again... :)

If you saw the India vs Australia match, you'll know what I am trying to say. I have not screamed so much during a cricket match in a long time. The commentator said it right, the big teams like South Africa and the Aussies have tried to bully India off the field but our guys have stood there and took every punch thrown at them. And how we've hurt them back, first sending the hosts SA and now the Aussies packing home with one the most amazing string of victories...

The match against the Aussies was such a hard fought battle. Batting first, India had a slow start but lost two quick wickets. At this point the Indian team of the past with all its so called 'senior' players would have been expected to crumble like a house of cards, but no! Like in the previous matches, the team stood strong. Yuvraj swung back in style and strung two critical partnerships with Uthappa and Dhoni.
Then while India was bowling Australia again tried to intimidate us. Again the young guns of India stood their ground. Time and time again Australia would send one bowler packing for 15 odd runs in an over but instead of losing heart and standing at the boundary, Dhoni made changes and brought the bowlers back with amazing results.
Australia was literally home needing only 30 runs from 3 overs with 6 wickets in hand, that's when we turned the tables on them. We tightened the screws so much that it was Australia, just like South Africa, that crumbled like a house of cards...

Australia has defeated India so many times in world cup matches. They've thrashed us before, but the way this young Indian team gave it back to them, was a sight to see. We gave them back what they deserved...what a victory!!!

T20

I have been sucked into watching cricket all over again. The way India has been playing in this shorter form of cricket, not ODIs, even shorter, Twenty Twenty, has been really invigorating. Except for the match against New Zealand, we have played 3 awesome matches. The players are playing with purpose, grit and determination. Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly not coming to this tournament was a great idea, these young bunch of kids are really worth watching. Something I have never ever seen before in Indian cricket...
In the last match Dhoni injured his back so he was fielding at the boundary instead of wicketkeeping. At one point the ball came towards him and it was easily going to beat him to the ropes but he flung himself flat towards the ball, it still was a four but the effort was worth watching. And this has been going all around, they are throwing their bodies everywhere to stop the ball. The catch by Dinesh Karthik to dismiss Graeme Smith was stunning…

Our bowling is weak and strong at the same time. RP Singh and Pathan have been bowling superbly. On the other hand Sreesanth and Agarkar have been horrible. Harbhajan is trying hard, he got hit for 15 runs in the first over but came back real strong in the next two overs, so he doing ok. But that is still leaving us nearly 2 bowlers short and that is a real worry...

We threw the NZ match, with an awesome start chasing 191 to win, we finally lost by 10 runs. In that match I didn't see even 1 wicket earned by NZ, our batsmen gave away all their wickets, terrible performance. But the other three matches, defending 140 against Pakistan, 218 against England and 153 against South Africa have totally worth watching. Maybe defending is the key, should we defend against Australia? Maybe, given that we have won 3 matches defending and lost 1 chasing…

So let's see how we play against Australia today in the semi finals. But for me as long as there is effort on the field like they have been putting in this tournament, cricket is worth watching all over again...

Sucker Train Blues

That's the name of Velvet Revolver song, anyway...New template!!! Used one of my own pictures...

Blue because we live on a blue planet and trees because we need them so badly...

Cheers!

...gone, going, gone...

Greenland's ice cap is melting at a frighteningly fast rate

...The vast ice cap that covers Greenland nearly three miles thick is melting faster than ever before on record, and the pace is speeding year by year...Greenland's ice is melting at a rate three times faster than it was only five years ago...

...If the Greenland ice cap ever melted completely -- a highly unlikely event, at least in the foreseeable future -- the scientists estimate it would raise world's sea level by an average of 6.5 meters, or about 21 feet, more than enough to drown all the world's low-lying islands and even some entire nations, like Holland...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/11/MELTING.TMP&type=science

Not so skrood...We won!!! The batting had to click today and it did! The start by Sachin and Saurav was like old times. And the finish by Robin Uthappa...wow! Heart stopping stuff after a long time and it feels good to come out on top ;-)

Cricket: skrood again!

How do you let an opposition team go from 228 in 43 overs to 316 in 50 overs? Well if you have a bowler like Agarkar it is not too difficult. Dravid also helped, he gave the 50th over to Yuvraj instead of Powar who had 1 over remaining and Yuvraj in the process got hit for 5 consecutive sixes in that over. But what happened before that is key...

India played with 3 specialist bowlers and Agarkar as the 4th specialist, if you can call him that. So what does Agarkar that a-hole do? Read this…
At 228 for 5 in 43 overs Agarkar comes in and gives up 14 runs in the 44th over. Zaheer who had just given only 2 runs in the 43rd over, comes again and bowls another beauty of an over giving up only 3 runs. Then that jhakki Agarkar comes in again and merrily gives up another 13 runs in the 46th over. Again Zaheer comes and gives up only 7 runs in the 47th over. That too because off the 2nd ball the batsman played a cheeky shot for a 4 but Zaheer still managed to come back strong to bowl 2 dot balls. Now Dravid had no option to bring in Yuvraj and Tendulkar to bowl overs 48 and 49. They did whatever they could but then Dravid gave the 50th over to Yuvraj again instead of Powar and so 5 consecutive sixes were hit off Yuvraj. And this magical moment can all be attributed to our so called 4th specialist bowler Agarkar (63 runs in 8 overs), f$#$er...

The commentator said “Agarkar looks like a bowler who doesn’t know where to bowl…he is running in with fear…fear of where the next ball will be hit!” Can someone explain how can that a-hole Agarkar, a mediocre bowler even by domestic cricket standards, have such a long career with our team? He keeps making a comeback into the team, on what basis does he get selected again and again???

Earth's Environment

There is a day coming up next month sometime, when everyone around the world will blog about one topic, the environment. A good move to increase awareness...let me, start now.

First off, to the uninitiated, go see the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth'. A good movie but it is just on the surface of the whole thing. What this movie should do to you is to incite you to dig deeper for yourself. Take the environment issue personally and become aware of what is happening. Because if you don't then all the hard work you are doing, all that you are spending on yourself, saving up for a rainy day trying to ensure your future, your children's future and so on is of no use…in the next 50 years something's got to give. The environment and the Earth cannot keep taking the pressure we put on it. The amount of carbon gases we have already put into our atmosphere is enough to melt everything, remember we live in a greenhouse. It is not enough to just stop the emissions but also there is a serious need to somehow remove these greenhouse gases. In theory the Earth can enter an ice age very easily and the signs are all there. Not early signs...grave signs. Wake up and smell well errr...see the melting of the polar and Greenland ice caps. Also it is not just the melting, when temperatures rise things expand, so even the existing water in our oceans is going to expand and water levels are going to rise.

So do something about the environment, see it as an investment and it is the best one you can make today...

Took this picture from a flight that was just about to land in Jaipur.

The reason I post this is because it is so representative of India. The hundreds of fragmented farms in just maybe 10 square kilometers is so typical and can be found all over. These small farms are the backbone of the country, they probably cover 90% of our country, can you imagine the sheer number of these farms?!?!