We didn’t lose. They won.

Sometimes it isn’t meant to be. The eventual winners just find that something special that nothing you can do is good enough. Last night, Stuart Broad and Ravi Bopara got England from 114-7 to their 213 target in difficult conditions. They have a combined age of 43.
We’ve had similar moments. Yuvraj and Kaif getting India [...]

Short handed …

Walking into the third ODI at Edgbaston of what was effectively now a best of 5 ODI series, India should really have had the upper hand psychologically. As it turns out, England have won what ultimately seemed like such an easy victory that India seem one batsman, a couple of bowlers and a team of [...]

B +ve

So One All with 5 to play in the one day circus.
One suspects though that even if its coloured by hindsight, the Bristol game was decided as much at the team compositions stage as by the fantastic batting displays that were put on later.
India chose to drop Gambhir. His performances at this stage [...]

About Influences …

Growing up, all kinds of things shape you. In different doses. People do it without realizing the impact.
Sportswriters were obviously an important part of the ones that shaped me and I consider myself fortunate that a large period of when I was most impressionable coincided with when Indian sports writers were at their most celebratory.
This [...]

Rosebowl-ed … An unseen view.

9.30 pm to 5 am.
Those are the timings of the day night games in Singapore. So yes – with a 5 am start to work everyday, I was dozing off just as Matt Prior was walking back to the pavilion. I woke up to India 8 for- and that was pretty much that. The markets [...]

An August Performance …

Well done India. For all the BCCI baiters and slow-on-the-coach-bandwagon red rag wavers, this was a truly independent Indian performance. It does not matter that it was 1-0 and could have been 2-0 and it does not matter either that we got out of jail at Lords. All that matters is that we won. Fair [...]

You won’t get square at the Oval …

This Oval Test first innings performance is a classic example of what one would like in a batting card. Not just in terms of the consistency, but more importantly because its done exactly what was required. From pace of innings, contributions of all batters, partnerships and contribution to the team cause for the series (and [...]

My Twenty/20 blur …

Even though I’ll say that I could see the Dhoni appointment coming a while ago, and I’ll even give the selectors a bit of credit for it, I’ll admit that the rest of the selections are beyond me.
For the record, this is our squad. MS Dhoni leads and Yuvraj Singh is his deputy. The rest [...]

The King Of The Sports Page …

The thing about Jim Murray is that he lived “happily” but somebody ran off with his “ever after.” It’s like the guy who’s ahead all night at the poker and then ends up bumming cab money home. Or the champ who’s untouched for 14 rounds and then gets KO’d by a pool-hall left you could [...]

Sledge v/s Cutting Edge

Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Men, all this stuff you’ve heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of [...]

Palmolive da jawaab – and then some …

Grappled for a while with posting about the Kapil Dev jab at Sachin. How does one call a World Cup winning captain’s judgement “hideous” ? It doesn’t matter. It is.
We should really be getting ready for a standing ovation for the guy. Shame on those who’re concocting reasons to boo.
Anyway, here’s another Brijnath piece… reproduced [...]

The Best of the Best … (made better)

For many in my generation, Sharjah was long synonymous with a cricketing nightmare that started and ended with a Chetan Sharma full toss. Then, one evening, in April 1998, a desert storm blew across Sharjah and changed the landscape forever. The following is an article (from the archives) which captured the essence of that innings by a [...]