Ivanoviced!!

To be frank, I never follow tennis. But I do catch up for some important games. This time it was a Serbian popcorn on song. I saw the French open Ladies finals. Ana Ivanovic, seen her in Wimbledon finals and some other finals that I don't remember, but she had finished both the times on the loosing side. All I remember was a girl with a very puissant forehand. A shot that can take your racket back when it comes to contact.

On the other side was Dinara Safina, determinant young girl from France was quiet an opponent, standing 6 feet and 2 inches tall. Very gusty young girl, was very nervous during the finals, as it was her first. My all time favorite player is and will always be Justine Henin Hardenne. The grace and fluency she bought to tennis, I have never seen that kind of a game ever in anyone else. Ana was close, her movements were impeccable.

She swayed away from the balls and nailed it across to the back-hand of Safina. Those inside out shots had quiet a thump in them. Both the player were nervous, which resulted in many unforced errors. Ana won some crucial breaks, in the second set. to take it 6-4 6-3. Safina lost some important points when the ball was on her half.

Ana Ivanovic smiled her way through, with ease and grace, barring some tense moments. I fell in love with her smile and grace. Quiet a classy women, who is now the number 1 seed after this French open win. Bravo to Ana!! A french open final victory, 4 million dollars, number one seed, got to say she must be in the tenth moon. She has Ivanoviced to glory!!

Chennai Super kings win hearts with Fair play!!

Taking away nothing from the Rajasthan Royals, who were the run away favorites in the finals due to their group stages performance, spare a thought for CSK. Starting the league, with 4 consecutive victories, made CSK the favorites. But then Hayden and Hussey parted ways to defeats, as CSK could not handle the hole created by them. It was back to drawing board. Captain cool MSD stayed calm and took his team through tough times.

Then came the spark of victories, which took Chennai up the ladder in the points table. Many doubted that CSK were not that good a team to make it through, but what they have done is proved their critics wrong. It was very dis-heartening to see, many were against Chennai Super Kings as a team rather than for Rajasthan Royals. The team had done so well on the field with umpires and players that it won the "Fair play award" for the tournament.

The regional slurs were all out. People supporting Chennai were more disappointed by the slurs they got rather than the team's defeat. Cricket is just a game, battles on the field are not to be taken personal. Igniting personal wars, goes no where but destroy relationships and partnerships. Just adding ghee to fire of fury. People never can accept a guy from down south being successful or say being happy.

Seems like some kind of genetic disapproval, which does not accept the fact that people are not as happy or successful (to add even intelligent) as a South Indian. Being a Chennai supporter, I got a taste of all the above. ( I am not intelligent though, but most of my friends are) I was disappointed by the Chennai Super King's loss 'as a team' as MS Dhoni rightly put it. I have never seen a fielding captain smile when the opposition need 1 run from 1 ball.

MSD blamed no one for the poor show and said it was a team effort all throughout. The speaks volumes about the man and his captaincy. Rajasthan Royals won the game, but the Chennai Super kings players were in a huddle reciprocating what could have been a sure victory if they would have played better and too take this defeat on its strides. Rajasthan Royals were amazing on field, their bowling in the death was really remarkable considering the pressure of finals. Their batting looked good in patches, but lost important wickets at crucial situations.

Finally, the match ended tantalizingly close in the last ball. A sure humdinger, which draws crowds aplenty. The final could have never been scripted better than this. The IPL has been a talent identifying event. Manpreet Goni, Yusuf Patan, Gautam Gambhir, Daval Kulkarni, etc.. and the list goes on. This very much shows Indian cricket in future is in safe hands!!

Mumbai Indians go down!!

Mumbai Indians commanded by Sachin Tendulkar, one of the greatest cricketer the world has ever seen, met a sad demise in the group stages and were not able to propel themselves into semi-finals berth!! Indeed it was a very poor show by the team, considering the fact that there were stalwarts aplenty and one of the costliest team in the league.

The start of the tournament was quiet a nightmare, as they lost 4 games in a row, which no Sachin in them. Then came the Sreeshanth-Harbajan incident, when the later game the former a kiss on his cheek. The start of the league meant, the MI were in the news all for wrong reasons. At this instance, nobody felt MI have got the killer instinct in them to challenge the big guns in the tournament.

Then came the amazing turn around, that no one expected. Harbajan's ban came as a blessing in disguise for the Indians, as Pollock lead the team to 2 consecutive victories. Then as they say, the legend Sachin Tendulkar took over as the captain, gave a calming influence on many of the players. Jayasuriya just shoot up from no where. His golden touch of the 1996 was back. It was as if we were seeing vintage Jayasuriya!!


Sachin Tendulkar just took MI to this magic run of 6 consecutive victories in a row. He surely wove his magic thread, to take MI to a commanding position, where they had to win 2 out of their 4 games, to get to the semis. That is where the luck seemed to run away from Sachin and his boys. The game with Punjab XI was lost by mere 2 runs, ending MI's six consecutive winning streak. Yuvraj Singh had the last say!!


Then the loss against Delhi, Mumbai almost took it away, but on their way came Dinesh Karthik. Came out of know where and took the game away from MIs. Then the Do-or-Die game versus, Rajasthan Royals. When Shane Watson was spectacularly caught by Sachin, everything seemed according to a script. An adrenaline pumping Sachin will always be etched on everybody's mind. I have never seen Ashish Nehra field so well as he did in this game. Sloppy bowling and fielding, ensured that they gave the game away to RR.

This whole IPL experience has been a nail biting one. Just an over of 25 runs can change the whole scenario of the game, like a hat-trick in an over can. There has been 3 hat-trick's in this IPL. The orange cap and purple cap is also a feather on IPL's cap. Throughly flabbergasting experience. My favourite team Chennai super kings, has finally made it to the semis, but I guess Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi are the hot favorites to take away the glory of the first IPL.

Forcing India

Adrian Sutil, almost plucked the fourth place at Monaco, to give the Force India team their first ever points in FIA Formula One World Championship. Keeping his cool in the changeable wet-dry conditions put Adrian into an unprecedented fourth position in the closing stages of the race, but it was not to be as, following a restart after a safety car period - tragically on lap 67 of the 78 lap race - Adrian was hit from behind by Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn ran into the VJM01 that had kept him at bay for so long, puncturing the rear tyre and damaging the rear suspension. Adrian returned to the pits to retire from his finest race performance to date.




This is what Adrian had to say-
'I can't believe it, it was so close. It feels like a pain in my heart. It is like a dream gone to a nightmare - suddenly you are in the car and it looks all fantastic, then you have to accept it is not going to happen. We had a really good strategy and it seemed to work and we were so close to the podium and the points. It was after the restart after the final safety car that Kimi had a problem under braking and crashed into the back of my car. The race was over and it was a real shock. A few tears came out as the adrenaline was high - I just can't explain it. All the same I am so pleased that we did show what we can finally do as a team.'

Cheering Cheerleaders

They lead the cheer for their teams, by dancing when a four or a six is hit or an wicket of the opposition falls. They cheer their team . It has become quiet an issue, when mumbai police wanted the cheer girls to cover up when they were performing during the mumbai indians games. There were many questions raised as to if such cheer party were required at all.

Is indian tradition of saree and salwar not accepting the more explicit dressing of the cheer leaders? When such dresses have become usual in bollywood, then what is the fuss all about. Why can we not accept with the cheerleaders? Yes there is an extent to which the dressing can be acceptable......

Some say as the game itself is so colourful, why should we add such an element, which is objectionable. Some say we are copying the americans like the cheerleaders in baseball and basketball. Is it that we are still those kind of people who will resist a change?

This tournament is being watched not only by the indians, but also the international faternity. For a person for whom cricket is similar to baseball; who does not know the ABCD of cricket; might want to compare it with the sport he knows. It is a great time for them to know the game!! For such people a test match or say even a onedayer is too long a game to watch...

Coming back to the cheerleaders, I like this funda of girls dancing cheering their team. I think this can be made more controversy free; if we can bring in traditional music and dance for the corrrespoding teams. Say if the Chennai team is playing; there should be indian cheerleaders who are showcasing Brathanatayam. This can add some regional spice. Even the music played can be made southindian. There are many dance forms in tamil nadu which are still not known to many. This will certainly spice up the T20.

Cutting out the girls with skin; we can still make cheerleaders look awesome. Teams like Mumbai indians and also Chennai super kings, have opted for indians in their ranks, and also guys to dance with gals. Something the other teams must learn from.

But all in all, with cheerleader or without cheerleader, this event has come across as a hit. But one might feel it has dragged a little too much though, as there are a lot of games, where some have to take a miss.

Chennai Superior Kings

The IPL has been a big hit. It has taken cricket from sports to entertainment category. How much money has been pored into such an event. To be the first ever event, of its kind, it has got all the accolades to be a great tournament every year.

A great deal of international players; playing in this event, has made it even more enjoyable and thrilling to watch. The added attraction of cheer girls, cheering for their respective teams, the dug out; the vibrant colours of the teams, flood lights, wow that sounds electric. These are the new attractions that have been added since T20 games.

I guess the 50-50 games will become boring now. It would feel quiet lengthy format as compared to the fast paced T20 games. Who wants to see a 100 overs game, when you can get results in 40 overs.

Such IPL games have normalized relationships between international teams. Say India and Australia; there has been too much rivalry and speculation among each teams after the recently concluded Test series and One-Day international games in Australia. The India-Pakistan rivalry has to take a back seat, as there are not a lot of games between Pak now a days. With both the team members jelling with each other in different teams has brought this stirfe among India and Australia to some kind of a normal. (for the time being)

There is one more debate, which says that IPL is creating a rift among Indian team members; after the Harbajan-Sreesanth incidence. Players of the respective teams should not take these games very seriously to their heart, as these games are played for entertainment cause. May be they can show some of their past rivalry against each other during domestic competitions. To sum this debate, players come into the Indian team after playing domestic games; like the Ranji and Irani trophy games, wherein they must have played against each other.

The IPL has give pure entertainment all these days, and it continues to defy the logic in attracting more people towards it!! The game between Deccan Chargers V Mumbai Indians, was watched by more than a million people in Australia. Gilly redefined gravity in this match as all the balls from his bat were always reaching the skies.

Even girls how have not watched or followed cricket, have been made to turn their heads as lot of bollywood masala has gone into the preparation of IPL. My heart wants Sachin to score a century everytime he plays in these games and make Mumbai Indians the champions, but the strongest team that has emerged so far is the Chennai Super kings, winning all their games.

Dhoni and his battering players, might have played really well in their games so far, but the withdrawal of strong players like Hayden, Oram and Hussey, has surely created a big rift. With the Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians winning their first games and catching up some impetus, other teams beware........the best is yet to come!!