MI vs DC

Nice to hear some Bushism from India.

This pretty TV anchor asked someone from the Mumbai team: “Congratulations! You are the first team that has won five matches in a row, without losing one…How does it feel?”

 

 

 

KKR vs MI

The Knight riders were run to the ground
Mumbai Leaguers have their touch found
Super King Khan was sporting though
He blew kisses to all, a great hero!

Though KKR got Sachin with his scorecard clean
They then ran into to ‘J’ that six machine
Who cleaned up the ground with his boom-boom broom
Jhoom baraabar jhoom khilaadi, jhoom baraabar jhoom.

Jayasurya comes to party…

Tonight it was Jayasurya’s turn
Who bowled to him was no concern
He clobbered them all with utmost ease
Brought the super kings to their knees

He hit a century in just forty five
Hook, pull, cut, glance and drive
Six, six, six, six, everywhere,
The King Bat is back, O ball beware!

 

Times of weed…

   

For the charge of being an O.L. Weed,

“Not guilty”, bhajjee, perhaps cannot plead,

For true to O-weedy chemistry

He’s now gone and punched Codes own country.

 

Ess Ess, the dasher, from Kerala

Cried for the world to see on camera

“Mummee, mummee, boo hoo, boo hoo

I am good boy, he hit me, O what did I do?”

   

Looks like a case of pot and kettle, black and black, 

“Tough luck”, smirked one, and the other said “Whack!”

Come watch this Tamasha of Mohaalee,

Two grown men scrap like kuttha-billeee….

Gilly Danda

Mumbai Indians versus the Deccan’s Charge

Gilchrist’s bat did kiss and tell
Hitting the fastest hundred of IPL
At first for home crowd it didnt jell
But then they stood, applauded, saying what the hell!

IPL after six…

Bala!

You had asked - “What’s your take on the IPL so far after about six matches? Cricket? Entertainment? Cheerleaders?? Bollywood production??”

Well, here goes…

Cricket has been entertaining all right. You get to see Ponting and Ishant on the same side! A horror of a wicket at Eden Gardens, that turns square, keeps low, or bounces high…Some fabulous batting knocks…Lot of intensity…

It is interesting to see the body language of someone like Ponting, who is every inch a ‘Captain’, playing under another captain. Or Aussie fielders for Indian bowlers! Different cultures in one stew! It all seems a bit mixed up, and quite a free for all sometimes! But good for the game!

TV has been a flashy new world. Hunky sort of young guys doing the basic anchoring. Many preferred Mayanti Langer who did that role for the ICL tournament . To my mind, the commentating could have been better…you still hear the same sort of value-less comments like “umpires are very strict to anything outside the legstump”, or “he is a real contender for the DLF maximum sixes award” (Which I think has been mandated for a commentator to say every time a batsman hits a six)…

Ads are just a bit bugging. Couple of times an over the screen will suddenly become smaller and an Ad will take over on a substantial ”L” part of the screen, making noises that drown the commentators words (but they have stepped down the noise now, I think). Replays have not been good enough. Ads come double-quick, and the action replay is often delayed or dropped.  Some commentators have been good, tho.

Cheerleaders… quite a circus! But the choreography of the dance steps seemed substandard. ICL was better.

Bollywood… Pretty Zinta hasnt had much to cheer about! Lalit Modi with his arm around Pretty Z, or Rahul, SRK swinging in the stands, Priyanka and Robert cheering in Kolkata - all great photo ops… Politics-Bollywood-IPL, what a sangam!

So, a quick sum… Good start… but getting to be a bit of an overdose…

 

 

IPL - The Premier’s Premiere

It was the opener for IPL tonight
Entertainment taken to a new new height
McCallum blazed like a new Bradman might
And Ishant Sharma was Lancelot, King Arthur’s Knight.

IPL had all the Kings horses and all the kings men
Pawar, Modi, SRK, Mallya, every cock and hen,
Money rules, money rules, money is God and Zen,
Money has put Humpty-Dumpty together again.

SA vs India - Second Test

Boy! India 76 all out. All done before lunch. Kabhi khushi, kabhi ghum…Tara rumpumpum…

…hum…

Listen to the falling wickets
Listen to it fall!
And with every batsman down
There was one more!
Listen to the wickets rattle
No one came there to battle
They just came to listen to their wicket fall.

Saluting The Sultan

The Sultan of Multan - Virender Sehwag - The Nawab of Najafgad…

We bow to you.

What an innings in Chennai today. He decimated the South African bowling attack. Scoring 300 in 278 balls. The fastest triple century in test cricket. And he joins Sir Don Bradman and Brian Lara - having scored triple century twice in test cricket.

Look at this King’s record. Ten successive times in test, when he went on from 100 to complete 150…

And talking to Ramiz at end of day today, the Emperor of Indian Test Cricket said : “I had to do this today. For it hurt being dropped. I wanted to prove that I belong here.”.

India needs to thank Chennai.

For giving their King of Cricket back to them.

A cricket sunday

One did feel a tinge of regret when SA opening pair of Smith and McKenzie broke the 52 year old record of Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad for the first wicket stand, a few days ago.

 But today, March 2, was a good Sunday.

Indian cricket was on song. India defeated Australia in the first game of the best of three finals. Sachin scored a century and carried his bat to the end. Rohit Sharma announced his bat.

And in Malaysia, Indian juniors won the under-19 world cup, defeating South Africa. 

Chak De India.

Professional media makes a lot of difference. Its good to hear someone like Ian Chappel commentating. It is good to see great camera work. It is also good  to see that they did not cover the streaker who darted into the Sydney Cricket Ground, except to mention that he had been tackled, towel-covered, and escorted out to a fine and a life ban on entering the SCG. A professional media company seems to have some sensible rules. A lesser media might have done differently. I am not so sure what they would have done had this happened in an Indian field. I  would not be surprised if the cameras carry it live. And I suspect that the Indian TV News channels would have shown it (perhaps with some haze) on prime time news, again and again…And again….

Or maybe not.

What say you?