Category: Sports

India wins Twenty20 World Cup!

24 Sep
Raju Alluri Entertainment, Sports

What a thrilling finale it is! India won a final match after a long time, that too against a relatively friendly Pak. The victory oscillated between the teams with increasing amplitude closer to the end of the game. India, after a considerable time, bowled out opposition to win a match. I think the last few overs, except the last ball, took the match to Pak but the last wicket made a difference.

In fact, India almost gave the match away by

  • Not scoring 170+ on a batting-friendly wicket
  • Over agression of Sreesanth leading to a couple of costly overs
  • These couple of overs from Harbhajan et al costing too many runs
  • Not experimenting with part-time slow/spin bowlers

However, the last wicket mattered.

Good game teams, worth spending 3 hours!

Cricket: First Twenty20 match

24 Sep
Raju Alluri Entertainment, Sports

Watched first ever twenty20 match played by India on Saturday. I was in US while the other matches are played, so couldn’t watch any of the previous matches. Couldn’t watch most of the Australian innings though, due to bursts of sleep after the journey. Good to see India win, lot better to see the aggression of the players. Yuvraj, Pathan, Srisanth, etc. displayed great amount of aggression and zeal to win. It is okay even if they loose matches while playing like that.

Now, twenty20 seems to steal the limelight from its ancestral roots like Tests and Oneday matches. However, I have a feeling that the statistics in twenty20 are lot about the chances and choices than about the talent. I have seen more talented bowlers succumb to good batting, less talented bowlers getting prize wickets due to choice of bad shots or choice of fielding locations. So the wins seem to be a reflection of the choices the individuals and captains made, not a pure reflection of the talents of the players involved. Talent matters here too, but not the only factor.

This week, it is time to watch the grand finale between the arch rivals from subcontinent in cricket, India and Pak. Hope they play an enjoyable match.

Congratulations Shaun Pollack

06 Jun
Raju Alluri Entertainment, Sports

Congratulations to Shaun Pollack for his maiden ODI century in his 285th ODI. He walked in at 31/5 and took the team to 283, scoring 130 runs, almost twice the runs of next highest scorer in the match. Even though Africa XI lost the match, Pollack provided the necessary ingredient of the match, the fighting spirit. Great match to watch over dinner!

How Come, Lara?

10 Apr
Raju Alluri Sports

Brian Lara is very difficult to understand. His delayed declarations in Tests have kept cricket experts wondering for quite some time. Now for one dayers: What is the best time to take the third power play? He started in the 45th over against South Africa today and paid the penalty. 77 runs in those 5 overs!

45th – 18
46th – 07
47th – 17
48th – 09
49th – 26

As one of the commentators noted:

77 runs in this Powerplay, possibly the most ridiculous calculation in Powerplay history.

that too, given that the opponents are 36/1 in first 10 overs!

India Team’s Bad Performance in Cricket World Cup

24 Mar
Raju Alluri Sports

Well, India team’s bad performance in their latest match against Sri Lanka is not at all a surprising one. The team that has more stars than players is likely to end up with these kind of results. Am I feeling bad about India? Yes. Am I feeling bad about the India Team? No. Except for Dravid and the determined tail-enders, no one deserves a applaud for trying their best. Shewag might have scored good amount of runs and might have looked determined to score, but he never looked determined to stay. Rest of the frontline batsmen never showed an intention to stay and take the game as it comes. Nothing much to say about the fielding, except for a great catch by Dhoni. Bowling? The intentions are never put to work. All in all, this is the team that deserves a loss on the day.

With this, hope there will be some good things on the horizon. We will stop following the stars and start recognizing the players.

Messed up exams timetable

19 Mar
Raju Alluri Personal & Family, Sports

The confusion around the right date of Ugadi and the recent elections in AP caused a big problem for kids exam. As per the original timetable, the exams are lined up on alternate days, 15th, 17th, 19th, 21st, 23rd. This is assuming that the Ugadi holiday is on 20th of this month. Due to unprecedented intervention of the AP state government, now the holiday on 20th is shifted to 19th, making the exam on 19th to be now held on 20th.

In addition to that, the announcement of elections for MLCs on 17th caused the exam on 17th to be postponed to 24th. This is another blow to the schedule.

Now the examination timetable looks like this: 15th, 20th, 21st, 23rd 24th. Two sets of consecutive days of exams. Moreover, the night of 23rd, with its big cricket game between India and Srilanka, is now to be spent with exams mood for kids.

Darn!

They lack a Laxman!

19 Mar
Raju Alluri Sports

India’s dismal performance against Bangladesh in Cricket World Cup is not a reflection of its potential, but a mere reflection of lack of balance in the team. Out of the top order of seven specialist batsmen, only three could show enough determination to take the match seriously and rotate the strike. Only Ganguly, Dravid and Yuvraj, as long as they were there, have shown the tendency of taking it as business as usual. Rest of them are out of business, taking it as casual as they could.

Look at Ganguly. He is not at his best, but he tried to give his best on the day to be there and make India reach at least a respectable score. He might have been lucky a few times, unbelievably missing those edges, but he is determined to stay for 43.2 painful overs. Dravid is not that lucky and missed connecting his bat to be adjudged LBW, but as long as he was there, he rotated strike well.

What is team India missing there? They may qualify for the Super-8 even now, but they miss a Laxman in the middle order. May be 1-down or 2-down. The man who could adjust easily to the bounce or lack of it on foreign pitches. I thought Team India learned a lesson when they called back Ganguly and Laxman to the squad a few months ago. But it appears that the selectors are fascinated by popularity of players than the experience and talent of the likes of Laxman. If they have a good time, the current sqad may as well win World Cup. But if they are having a bad day, there are not that many in the team to rescue (like WIndies had in their match against Pakistan.)