Suresh Raina Deserved a Hundred ...

Heartbreaking !
The news of Raina missing the century..
What a great knock from Suresh Raina.. and it had to do with the mistake on the scoreboard which wrongly showed him to have completed his century with that four.. and poor fellow.. he did look confused.. yet he raised his bat and also went for that shot which any sensible man on 98 would not play.. after all century is not scored every other day in Twenty20 cricket.. I am sure the keepers of scoreboard need to be penalised for their mistakes too.. if a captain does for slow over rate.. why not the scoreboard erring and devoiding a well deserved century to the young Suresh Raina.. my heart cries for him.. it still becomes the highest score by an Indian in the IPL beating 94* by Sehwag.. yet a century is a century and he deserved it every bit..

The game is far from over.. some may feel that 165 is a big asking I for one do not rule out a great fight being on the cards.. only there should be some support provided to Yusuf Pathan..
Smith has to fire and I expect Mascarenhas could lend the extra bit of support.. A good game is on cards..

Congratulations Raina.. you have been deceived by some conspiracy and denied a well deserved 100... I feel you would get there in this season in one of the games of IPL 2 itself..Well played..

Abhaya India April 30 2009 10:03 PM IST

I shall now address you with some peace of mind returned.. Delhi have registered a comfortable win.. as I noted a little while.. no, they are still not on top of the charts yet they have regained their second slot the net run rate is far too much in favour of Deccan and it will take some time to dislodge them from the top.. Yes.. They did paly well despite the loss with more than an over and two balls to spare.. or had it to be three.. I remember Ravi Shastri mentioning that one of the over from Deccans was called off aonly after five balls were bowled.. if it is true it could have had serious implications.. if not.. it should be important for the commentators to keep a good track of the balls as they are bowled.. and yes Edwards was wrongly charged with tqwo of the wides.. it does mean a lot every single extra that comes to be added to the score.. I had prayed around that the net ryun rate for DD should not climb above 10, somewhere between or after the 15th over.. and Dilshan and Dinesh Karthik probably heard me well.. and in the end did wonderful job by winning the game by 6 wickets and eight balls to spare.. good job.. a tough opponent has been defeated..

I look forward to another thriller between Chennai and Rajasthan.. Warne is good but Dhoni is the best when it comes to captaincy.. even if the points table depict a different story.. Chennai should in all probability have a comfortable win.. yet to predict in cricket and to predict in T20 game could be somethink akin to commit a blunder if not harakiri.. the game is bound to be good in any eventuality..

have a nice time in front of idiot box..

And the story of Lucknow's two Nawabs.. The nawabs of Lucknow are known for their extreme courtesy and providing the other man a first chance.. The pahle aap (you first syndrome ) tehzeeb has come to stick with them..
So the two nawabs were to board a train.. they reached the station.. the two of them were about to put their foot on board.. the other realised his Lucknow tradition.. and reminded of it he offered to the other nawab- pahale aap ( you get in first..) the other nawab was no less a nawab either he too retorted back- nahi nahi Pahle aap (no, no, it should be you first).. The tow of the nawabs were caught in the pahle aap and the other also insisting nahi nahi pahle aap.. in the meantime the train had left the station and two Nawabs of Lucknow were caught unaware.. It is often referred when people insist on pahle aap syndrome.. that pahle aap pahle aap ke chakkar mein kahin Gaadi na chhoot jaye ( in this first you argument.. should not miss the train..)

More later, Rajasthan has won the toss and decided to field first.. and yes.. Is Shane warne reading my writeups here or http://abhayaipl2.blogspot.com .. guess what the successful Siddharth Trivedi finds a place.. and yes Dirk Nannes picked up the man of the match for his cavalier 2 wickets for 16 runs.. A hard worker.. A very very hard worker..

Pathan has removed the danger man Hayden.. that is interesting I must now catch up with the match.. Warne always has something up his sleeve to surprise the opponents..

Abhaya India April 30 2009 8:16 PM IST
Another wicket for Pathan.. Is Warne going to pull off a surprise win over Dhoni..
....
Dilshan-Dinesh duo of Delhi Daredevils deliver a defeat for Deccans...

Earlier I thought I would remain neutral to teams.. that is not possible when one of the teams in an PL 2 game happens to be Delhi.. It is all right.. I think it is perfectly all right.. to back one of the two teams in a game..

What a game.. what a great game of cricket.. I was convinced earlier that if someone could dislodhe Deccans from top it could only be Delhi.. atleast in the first part of the IPL 2.. and have they not done it.. or the net run rate still leaves Deccans on top.. I will need to check that later..

More Later I should catch up with you more often later in the day as the second interesting game is also to begin in a few minutes time.. and I have to be there for presentation ceremony.. no, no, not at the SuperSport park at Centurion.. but at the Television set.. here at D-30 Indraprastha of Anushakti Nagar..

Abhaya April 30 2009 7:23 PM ISTRespected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

yes, I did see you cast the vote.. where.. on the tube.. on the same idiot that you mentioned in such great spirit.. yes.. we do tend to depend a bit too much n the tube that has been with us in good bad and every moment.. India is such a large democracy that world definitely has to take a note of it..

I was just removed from the idiot box by virtue of the loss of Sehwag.. his kind of btasman not knowing how to tackle the T20.. is sad.. it was a good call on part of AB to put the Deccans in and yes Delhi had done well enough to restrict them to less than 150.. yet with two wickets gone.. my mobement away from the tube fot not watching wikcets tumbling did not stop by my absence.. so it may not be after all related to my being present to watch the boys doing well..

Yesterday a small total of 119 was ablt defended by the Kings and that too agaionst mighty Mumbaikars.. they are truly the best side in the tournament.. yes better than even Chargers.. who are currently on top of the table.. it will take lot of good work to be able to do so yet the minimised window tells me a third wicket has fallen too.. have they sealed the fate of Delhi.. let me see who has gone.. oh it is outr of form Gambhir.. it is all right.. a game after all is a game and I must return to the tube.. my side need me to watch as they do far worse when I am off it.. with 7 overs gone and Delhi struggling at 50 for 3 needing 99 runs more for the important win.. I take a leave of all of you.. good luck Viru..

Bye

Dramatic Win for Kings XI Punjab

Dearest Brother
and Dear Priety Zinta

Congratulations for Kings XI Punjab bringing up the most dramatic or should I say miraculous and most unexpected kind of victory over Mumbai Indians..

There is strength in unity.. that is what a lesson we learned especially the old father calling his son to break the bundle of woods tied together and their failure at doing so.. and yet each could break the woods once separated.. I think it may seem awkward for some of you to find me teeling this story when brother wanted to tell about Nawabs..

The win was highly improbable as much as improbable as Rajasthan Royals pulled up against Delhi Daredevils or may be slightly more.. the kind of win that has just been crafted a few minutes ago was a great team effort unlike Rajasthan's win that came about from thunderbolt of an inning from Yusuf Pathan.. Punjab used all their resources.. I would say even an over by Mota was important to their scheme of things.. and that master mind move of giving the penultimate over to Chawla by the standing captain Sangkara or were they captains (Sangkara and Mahela) who first decided to go with Abdulla yet as a second thought Kumar called up Chawla to bowl the 19th over.. and he accounted for dangerous Harbhajan.. The catch that Goel took was the defining moment of Kings win.. earlier too Powar and Pathan and the rest of the bowlers did extremely well knowing that their backs were to the wall.. this win would be remembered for long long time in a T20 tournaments.. and everyone on the field was so electrifying.. They all deserve some special treatment from their franchisees.. One would understand the beating of Mumbai Indians on 16th May when they would in all likelihood be contesting for top honours in the Finals.. yes.. this Mumbai side is so well packed with stars and performers.. Duminy was outstanding even in the loosing cause.. His was the best knock from either side.. though Kumar too played an important role earlier for Punjab to be in a position to save their faces crossing the hundred runs mark while batting first..

My man of the match for this game could easily be the whole team.. such wins can not be achieved by a single contribution.. and indeed outstanding amongst those who count a lot would be Kumar, Pathan, Abdulla and Chawla (despite his first over went for 13 runs.. he not only kept his cool he readily came forward to bowl the 19th over of the innings and changed the course of the game.. completely in the favour of Punjab..)

More later.. It indeed is next day the 30th April.. my posts woukld definitely be on such hours.. and would be mostly related to IPL 2.. like it or leave it..

This is the first hand report and I would use it for my blog on IPL 2 a little later.. I have to now update the IPL 2 records page.. for my angelfire website..

पठान की उड़ान

Day XI – Yusuf Pathan Proves his Potential

Pathan’s Six Cross Six finds Sehwag in the Fix..

Amidst a day of many swings Delhi found themselves at the losing end of the battle.. not so much for yet another failure of Sehwag and Gambhir.. not really for the brains of Warne.. but for the sheer brawns of a Pathan..

Yusuf Pathan found in him the true devastating potential to register a fine and convincing win for his team Rajasthan Royals.. They make a first time entry to the top four slots in the tournament.. thanks to some incapacitated thinking on part of Virennder Sehwag.. Now you can not tell me that he had no idea of the skills the senior Pathan possesses when it comes to brutal hitting.. the former chose to err yet again.. not only in terms of his winning combination theory but also in the deployment of his bowlers.. Vettori had to bowl a bit earlier if he was to be ptoductive.. atleast in tandem with Mishra if not still earlier.. yet it is too easy for Abhaya Sharma and paper tigers to say things aftr the end of the game..

I must say that Delhi bowlers did a commendable job till the wicket of Warne fell.. it was the turn of Rajsthan to have the last laugh.. their errors got hidden once they won the game comfortably if not exactly as easily as it might have appeared when the Delhi innings came to a stop with only a meager 143 on the board..

Yes.. this game had two or maybe three gross umpiring errors that could have changed the course of the game even if not change the winner.. first AB de Villiiers found himself unfortunate in being given out to warne.. it could have easily culminated into additional 10 runs that could have proved decisive and yet again a reprieve to Smith when he was plumb lbw to Dilshan.. it saved the Rajathan the blues it could have faced.. Smith anchored one end admirably from there on.. leaving the art of clean hitting to his more illustrious partner Pathan..

All said and done.. Pathan was in no mood of applying any brakes and wait for the slog towards end.. I am sure that was what on the minds of Warne and Smith.. even if they deny my theory now.. yet Pathan took the first over of Vettori for the kind of punishment that would have seldom come his way in his career.. There was no way he could have been stopped and additional 15 or 20 runs had they come probably could not have deterred a determined Pathan.. who failed to deliver the other day in a similar situation against Punjab.. where his own younger brother had known how to keep the elder one from picking up his bowling to be hit over the ropes..

Pathan, Pathan and more of Pathan.. this tournament could well signal that daring does not stop with daredevils.. If I have to add any other name for a positive contribution to the winning Royals.. it has to be the bowling efforts of Munaf Patel.. the other day he had proved me wrong with his catching abilities taking a fine diving catch in the game against Punjab XI.. and today he provided the real stuff with his uncanny bowling abilities.. yes Patel.. I did not rate you very high for whatever reasons.. yet I am forced to change my opinion of you..

Suddenly.. the Shane Warne’s magic has returned to the field at the most appropriate time.. this should also enthuse more interest in the game for other low lying teams.. every one could learn a lesson or two from the gains of Pathan and the follies of Sehwag..

Sehwag.. I do not want to be too critical of you.. yet probably I would hard find a reason for late induction of Vettori into the bowling and also his early induction into batting.. would anyone agree with your move of sending Vettori ahead of Manhas.. even with his 29 runs and holding the wickets from falling like nine pins the cry of the hour was to have someone explosive at the end.. and Delhi miss that option entirely.. it is time to do some thinking.. probably he could himself bat lower down the order.. a theory I had put forth even during last year.. and at the time when he was struggling in the India XI a couple of years ago.. It is upto you Sehwag to decide but to have the same XI against all the opponents not only are you doing any analytical thinking you are also exposing your team with little of the surprise element for them.. a team that could not surprise can not win.. can not win every game.. to be more correct..

I think Kings XI would have seen the game yesterday and learned a lesson or two.. Mumbai have too many stars to pick from and that they would in the end find themselves in the last four is undoubted.. atleast that makes the competition tough for the last slot.. there are now Kings XI, Chennai and TRajasthan vying for that spot.. ( I have assumed that Delhi despite their loss today would maintain themselves in the top four.. for that matter Deccan and Delhi may be difficult to be pushed out of contention (the top four teams) at any stage of the tournament..

Mumbai Indians should start as favourites aginst Kings XI of Punjab. The other game is a battle of minnows they would have to decide which of them would not want to be a the rock bottom in this tournament.. I find it difficult for the two sides to fight out for such a cause as that.. that is what it appears at the time of the first leg as the tournament is almost halfway in the first round of the first games.. I would not be surprised if Pietersen pulls out this one as he has more stars in his armoury than the struggling McCullum.. SRK has not been right in triggering the most controversial decision to silence Sourav the way he did in the captaincy counterplots.. Yet How did Pietersen leave out Praveen Kumar during the last game.. This Abhaya scanner is far too magnified in finding and pointing the mistakes the teams are making..

Let there be no bias in the minds of viewers of the IPL 2 yet I can always add here that local players of South Africa have been doing well in front of home crowd and one should expect some more of the Proteans tio be in the thick of things.. Ntini, Pollock and Morne (Morkel) probably have not got a game for themselves yet.. I could be wrong on some of these.. yet the way Kallis has performed.. the genuine cricketer may well be asked to take a break..

Oh! That is too much of writing.. and yes I am not supporting any team particularly.. for me even KKR could still pull up some surprises in the days to come.. Rest of the teams are more or less capable of tripping every other team on a given day..

Congratulations Pathan (Yusuf)! I feel your efforts were shade better than AB de Villiers the other day.. scoring the runs is going to be more difficult in the second essay yet determined cricketers like you can still take pride in the fact that the grass is always greener on either side of the innings.. Keep the good work going..

अभय शर्मा 29 अप्रैल 2009 8.51 प्रातः

Day 10- Deccan and Mumbai Coast Home

The Deccan Chargers made a shortwork of Chennai Spuer Kings beating them by 6 wickets and Mumbai Indians beat the pulp out of already too much beaten down Kolkata Knight Riders. yet the kind of error made by Gilchrist could have proved expensive- the mistake of not giving the ball to highly successful Pragyan Ojha who had 2 wickets for 11 runs from his 2 overs is quite inexplicable.. only that he agreed to his mistake immediately after winning the game.. That they went to the 20th over despite the most blistering opening of the IPL proves me right..

Mumbai Indians has a champion like start 111 runs in the first 10 overs clearly lost the way later .. they had best chance of posting the first 200 plus total on the board yet they missed the golden opportunity.. again inexplicable.. despite the fact tha Mumbai had a comfortable 92 runs with exact number of balls remaining to have the biggest margin by runs still being shared with Chennai Super Kings.. that is all right a handsome win in any case.. yet they had two records for taking the biggest partnership for the first (or any wicket) and maximum number of sixes in an innings by any team (10 sixes in all) .. Mumbai led by Sachin and Sanath left too much to be desired from the beleagured Kolkata attack.. the along with Bangalore might have qualified to be out of contention in the long run of IPL 2.. I would not mind if the two teams could still turn the tables on some of the more solidly placed teams..

Here in the only mach of the day 11 of the IPL 2, If Delhi Daredevils have to match the Deccan Chargers Eye for Eye, they must also register a fourth straight win.. yet they may still be forced to remain second as Deccan has a high positive net run rate compared to them.. one man who could change this could easily be Virender Sehwag yet with two failures against his name from three games.. it is time for him to straighten his record to suit his Wisden Cricketer of the year 2009..

I had earlier written that McGrath and Warner need to be roped in as also Bhatia.. in the hindsight I feel that now it may not seem plausible with the great reputation that even part time spinners have enjoyed so far.. Vettori can not be left out.. and Mishra had only done well enough to continue to be there.. Nannes is such a fine bowler that it appears that Delhi could ill-afford make changes and may be forced to stick to the same set of their foreign component.. maybe even Indian counterparts as well.. yet complacency should notcreep into the mind of Delhites as tournament is still too young to take their places in semi-finals for granted.. work hard and work well with a sure intent to win anything and everything possible.. the points scored now would allow for a possible margin of errors in future games which could necessarily become tougher and tighter as and when Australians join the IPL 2 from once their national duties get over soon..

Sehwag is the key.. he must not make too much bones about the strong middle order.. runs against his and Gambhir's name are the most needed thing of the hour if they have to create some sort of fear psychosis for the day after encounter with their equals Deccan Chargers.. yet to be treated equal they should first win their fourth game today as they play Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals in the day/night encounter..

Again, I have to point out that Warne has been commiting more mstakes in this edition than last year.. disrespect for Siddharth Trivedi is not at all a good sign.. similarly fewer games fro Asnodkar would not have helped the dashing opener.. where was the need for sending back Mohammad kaif.. he is still one of the top fielders that India has produced and mind you only a good fielding eleven can stop the onslaught of runs in this kind of tournament..

I presume Rajasthan in all probabilties would like to bat first simply to deny Delhi daredevils mounting too much pressure on them.. Sehwag in 9 out of 10 cases would like to bat first as well.. Dilshan should possibly try to earn the orange cap soon. In fact even AB de Villliers is also in the race for the same.. Vettori may have to wait for the purple cap yet this match could take him closer to the other leading wicket takers in the tournament.. the final word.. Vettori has to be in the eleven..

I must congratulate Adam Gilchrist for maintaining great strides in the first leg of the tournament.. thay have completely overturned from their bottom rank in the last edition.. and are strong contenders to lift the IPL 2009.. they will have to match the powers of Delhi on 30th April.. that should be a virtual final of the first leg.. too ascertain the supremacy..

Best of Luck Viru and Delhi for taking your winning streak one more step further..

Abhaya India April 28 2009 1:46 PM (IST)

The Day 9 at IPL 2009 - Delhi join Deccans at top..

The Day 9 of IPL 2 – Delhi and Mohali Emerge Victorious

The day 9 of the IPl 2 had two ganes which both escaped from rains.. It was the frist game that I watched from ball to ball.. any doubts anyone that I support Delhi Daredevils..yet I ma here to first lambaste my hero – Virender Sehwag. First of all he is not doing any great to his reputation .. his scores in the second and third games are far from what one expects the swashbuckling Sehwag. Second, why on earth can not he find place for Glen McGrath.. he may be old.. yet I can vouch that he could be the most successful bowler in such south African conditions.. thirdly.. David Warner deserved a game after his stupendous efforts in the second game where he actually clicked as a substitute.. I know with only four foreign players being allowed it is difficult enough to pay heed to my second and third requests.. Yet I would not mind if he could make adjustments in the fourth game to accommodate both Warner and McGrath.. in place of Nannes and Vettori.. not contesting the genius of the two men.. it is better for Delhi to experiment a bit to surprise the opposition with its plans.. I would thus not mind having the following combination at work in the game #4 against Rajasthan Royals-

Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Tilkaratne Dilshan, Gautam Gambhir, AB de Villiers, Bhatia, Karthik, Mishra, Sangwan, Glen McGrath and Nehra

I had to include Bhatia to incorporate the extra bowler in the side and he is a useful bat as well.. I am little at pain to leave out Vettori and to some extent even Nannes (for his beautiful first ball dismissal of Kallis yesterday.. yet one can not be sentimental in such matters.. they have plenty of games ten more to be precise to get their chances.. surprise the opposition with new combinations all the time.. by bowling someone who is a batsman.. (guess who!).

Yes, the win yesterday was due to Tilakratne Dilshan and the experiment of playing two regular spin bowlers.. it was heartening to see the way Dilshan paced his innings.. he is having far better tournament than in the previous edition.. if he continues the way he does Delhi would remain a formidable combination for all the teams in the IPL 2. Yes.. Viru don’t have to follow me word for word.. I know you are bigger cricketing genius than an Abhaya Sharma could ever be.. my only cricket credibility comes from being a student of Hindu College who produced Sunil Valson, Hari Gidwani and Tilak Raj and Subir Gupta.. I also had witnessed some of the best palyers from St. Stephens on the other side of the road – including Arun Lal, Kirti Azad and Pravin Oberoi and Piyush Pandey..

Now coming back to Yuvraj Singh’s fine win over Rajasthan.. The younger of the Pathans put all his experience behind him over his more prominent (T20 player) yet less experienced in terms of matches played Yusuf.. The other major factor in their win was provided by Sangkara and penetration powers of Abdulla.. to be frank I had not heard of him before.. ( before the IPL 2).. He has some substance in him.. Yuvraj like Sehwag is having poor time with the bat.. somehow the captains here have been a bit of failure.. are they overburdened with strategizing.. time to think for four or multiple captains theory by Buchanan.. if ganguly had not opposed him.. he could well have replaced McCullum in a couple of games.. barring Gilchrist and Sachin to some extent rest of the captains have yet to deliver truly.. yes the genius of Warne included amongst the list of failures.. though he did manage that fine win in the tenth game with his experiment with Kamran Khan and Yusuf Pathan in the Super over.. he is still to deliver primarily with his bowling abilities..

If I were to suggest alternative captains.. I would not mind picking Sangkara for KXIP, McGrath for Delhi, Dravid and Ganguly for RCB and KKR respectively, Graeme Smith and Harbahjan for Rajasthan and Mumbai respectively.. not as a punitive measure for the present captains but for relieving them off the pressures that has been affecting their utility to the teams.. Though I must say that Warne is by far the smartest captain even in this edition and his team’s position..

Yet I must say that the day 9 was a good cricketing day where spin department proved yet again that not only is T20 having a role for bowlers it probably has bigger role for quality spinners.. Kings XI have replaced Mumbai Indians from top 4 teams.. yet they have to work hard in order not to be replaced by another team including Mumbai.. My observations at the beginning are really getting some footings in the tournament..

The best performers I feel so far have been Tilakratne Dilshan with the bat and RP Singh with the ball.. there has not been any outstanding fielder so far in my view.. even Raina is fielding below par.. though he did involve in couple of important run outs.. have organisers asked to be less alert in the field.. Kohli did took two good catches yet the catching has generally been poor..

IPL 2 is getting into grooves and it is going to be tough for every team to match the every other team in business like manner.. Viru.. I do not believe in winning combinations theory.. either you experiment further or you perish.. that is true for all the teams.. yet I find that RCB, KKR and RR are probably out of contention already.. unless they pull out some big wins against the top five teams..

I know it is suicidal to predict and regret your words.. but speculations besides statistics are the two important factors for which I love cricket as much as I do..

So in all probabilities we can assume that Delhi should be able to beat Deccan Chargers in the finals.. it would be difficult especially when Symonds too returns to their side in a week’s time or so.. Kings too should find the return of Marsh and Hopes as a matter of raising their hopes to pip one of the Mumbai or Chennai for a place in the semi-finalists.. whichis still very far away..

Cricket love of South Africans was on greatest display in some of the last four or five games.. was it the weekend syndrome.. I doubt.. Is the reason for rookies not able to perform is the lack of home crowd support.. I again doubt..

Congratulations Priety Zinta - Winning Game 11

My Prayers have been heard!

Kings XI Punjab have finally had a win against their name as well.. ab aayega mazaa.. the competition is going to grow from here..

No, this time I am not maintaing the database.. I found it took lot of time to reneter the data that was available elsewhere.. I can instead provide the links to various pages.. if people love it..

Thanks to Ravi Bopara (Not Malhotra.. Your thanks too would be on way some day soon..) for the magnificent and well paced innings of 84 valuable runs.. This then is the highest total that has been defeated.. 168 runs were not less on Durban kind of ground..

Yuvraj, if you are listening.. please don't take the Bose out of this XI.. I did not see him on the field though.. had he injured himself.. a bowler of his calibre should have got chance in the last season itself.. it is all right.. good job at the end.. Though I do find that you interact much less with your players during a game.. the boys need constant inspiration rather than hard looks.. remember some like Salvi he went for 24 runs in one over in the initial stages in the game against Chennai for Delhi.. yet he cam back to bowl a superb last over for himslef.. and I can tell you that it was one of the turning point..good luck for the next game..

Pietersen did not listen to me and continues with Robin Uthappa as the keeper.. and as a result the guy is too tensed up.. not able to concentrate on either his batting or keeping.. Rope in Mark Boucher.. Uthappa's keeping cost you the game.. so many wides went past for boundaries.. it was the most atrocious keeping today..

Anyway.. the tournament is getting stronger and rains too have subsided for the time being.. I wait for the Delhi Daredevils third game the day after ( not quoting the movie featuring nuclear holocaust! referring in the the normal literal sense.. with or with little sense of humor..)

I think I shall atleast try to cut short my lengthy posts atleast once in a while.. and so I take leave of all of you for the day..

TTYL, Das vi Danya

I think my Russian and German friends are not so happy with me.. Zhenya if you so wish that I should have a similar desire to meet brother as you and others on the blog do.. I will generate that willingness.. Did I ever say I am not going to meet him.. I only meant I will go and meet him only when it is essential.. and if it has to be for Carla or one of you.. that I should go and shake hands on your behalf I would not mind doing that.. (haaHaa, impersonation of yet another kind.. ) Take it cool I know you all are much more closer to him than me ..

Again some old habits from blog continue to be creeping up here.. I had said TTYL and I keep talking.. (remember some of the times my post scripts were longer than the posts themselves.. )

Kishore, Rose or Reshmi.. any one of you got in touch with brother during his current trip with Teen Patti.. Cambridge Kishore is also another famous MA city where at MIT I have this Guru I have never met - Dr. Har Gobind Khorana at MIT, Cambridge.. I think Teen Patti is based on an incidence related to the students of MIT cracking some code for winning at Casinos.. I ain't sure..

Lambuji.. take a break.. You stretched far too long..

Love again to all of you.. I am able to hear the youtube song at my home PC..

I Hope Kashmira didi is still enjoying the exceptionally longer posts over here.. I am sorry.. If I am over the top.. forgive me..

Bye

Abhaya India 24/25 April 2009 12:11 AM IST

Congrats Viru AB de Villiers did an Amitabh Bachchan on the field yesterday. My specail thanks to him and also to yoing Pradeep Sangwan.. (Below is an account that I posted on Facebook).

Hi! all!

yesterday, I wanted to see the match between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings so I hanged around for a little longer after lunch..

you know what I did not see the opening of the game and when i did open the set.. Gambhir was gone.. so also I decided that I must be gone.. fear psychosis.. if I am watching my team would not do well.. I started and packed up to go.. my work place is seven to eight minutes walking distance.. i still use the car for the kind of temp.. So I reached office..

I could not keep off the game completely.. put on the cricket.org.. you know what to discover that Sehwag was gone too.. then I thought what good of my leaving home.. if it did not make any difference to my team's chances.. my superstition could not do the trick..

Yet.. Yet I had not lost hope and Dilshan and AB (He was Amitabh Bachchan of this game) de Villiers consolidated the innings.. slowly and steadily taking the score to respectability.. at the end of ten overs. they now have a seven and half minute break between the innings.. I decided again to rush home.. in between intuitionally I had a bet with a colleague that Delhi is still winning the game..
What a treat from AB de Villiers bat.. I think knowing South African grounds and conditions could have helped him a bit.. yet could it be so helpful that he went on to score the first century of the tournament.. a 105 runs off the just 54 balls faced.. for a comparison let me tell that in Test cricket most of the batsman take more than 100 balls sometimes someone like Dravid could take even upto 300 balls.. with due respect to him.. he is doing quite well in the shortest version of the game..

Oh! my post is becoming marathonic than cricketing in nature.. Yes the 189 runs I thought were still not quite sufficient and I was in doubts.. my doubts were proved right by Matt who given his form could have matted any score.. fortunately for Delhi Daredevils that he did not last beyond his 57 runs.. yet he with Patel and Raina had provided a base which only needed simple sensible cricket to floor the Delhi out of any daredevilry..

I am particularly happy for Sangwan.. If I were the judge.. I would have given him the man of the match his 3 wickets were the most precious for the win.. Delhi would superb last four overs.. who says T20 is not a bowlers game.. Just 42 runs required off the last 4 overs.. that is no Herculean task.. yet Delhi did manage to win was miraculous..

I did see only first 1o overs of the next game between Rajasthan and Kolkata.. I discovered that it was a thriller too.. being tied they had to go to the super over contest.. a feature that I was not aware.. this was the first time.. and Yusuf Pthan of the Pathan brothers did royal acts to grab first win for his team.. that leaves only Kings XI Punjab out of any wins in the tournament so far.. best of luck Priety.. I would pray for your team to perform well.. a win or loss is secondary..

More later..

I don't know some of you would be thinking that Abhaya of the blog has reincarnated over facebook too.. I can not help without detailed depth of an issue that I cover..

My love to new cricket lovers in Carla and Rochelle I don't think Rose can not be knowing the game living in England..

Reshmi.. I could not have joined the Air Force as I had failed in Pilot aptitude battery test.. more about that later..
kashmira di.. I wa told that I missed the call by four positions.. Had i been four strungs higher I might have been Brigadier Abhay Sharma today.. It si all right even a Colonel would not have been too bad..

I have to be careful of the spiderwoman and spy and who all.. Joker.. he is from my clan (I would nnot be so afraid of him..LOL)

I am extremely sorry for the long post.. it just occurred to me I could use it for my ipl2 blog and also post at brother's blog..hopefully people do not take offence to such privileged conversation being taken out of the four walls of our sphere of friends here on the facebook..

could someone tell me if I could invite more people to this thread.. I somehow misssed Ravi sir from being included at the initiation stage..

More later

Abhaya India April 24 2009 9:14 AM IST

Post script: Today is Sachin Tendulkar's 36th birthday, he is the captain of Mumbai Indians in the IPL, he also has maximum number of records in Test and one day cricket.. he is yet to play in his second T20 game for India. Happy Birthday Dear Sachin..