My wife has a love – hate relationship with Cricket. She loves it when she goes shopping. Because the shops and malls are relatively empty. She hates it when she is free, because I am not ! She looked menacing tonight, “Seriously, what is this going on ? You said it will all be over on 2 April and that you’ll be a relieved man. As you were hoping, Sachin’s team won. Then what is this thing going on now ? What is he playing for ? Don’t they have any other thing to do ? Cricket, Cricket and Cricket !”
I had to tell her something. She was standing right between me and the TV. So I goaded her out of the away, “This isn’t Cricket Honey, It’s just IPL !”
There are so many things that come with IPL. It’s like “It’s all happening here” to borrow from Ravi Shastri.
The cheer girls and the beer girls. Why do people hate girls ? Yes, GIRLS ! Beats me. Just can’t imagine. If you want serious stuff, go watch Satyajit Ray’s movies on DVD without subtitles.
From whatever happened so far, one thing is quite clear. Delhi are going to be the bottom team this time. Mark my words. Sorry Sehwag, this is not your Cup of anything !
Shane Warne looks like his own wax statue from Madam Tussaud’s. Even Thiazide isn’t going to help him. He will need some kind of ‘Detox’ from ‘Botox’. Seriously though, he still is the best leg-spinner on the planet by a few light years !
Rahul Dravid looks to be in good touch and so did Laxman before Parnell. Old wines in old bottles, still delicious even in ‘limited editions’ format.
The other single Master Piece of limited edition continues to flourish and enjoy the jamboree.
Venugoapl Rao seems to be finally coming of age. Will he be the next Robin Singh of Indian Cricket ?
Paul Chandrashekar Valthaty was unknown even in his own street till yesterday. Today, he is the hottest ‘Item Number’ on news channels. Where is Manish Pandey ? Every Valthaty has his day !
I am also waiting to see following guys: Deepak Chahar [to see how he swings them up], Shane Watson [fresh from his earth shattering innings against the mighty Bangladesh], Abu Nechim [to seehow a Kashmiri Pacer looks like] and Mohammed Kaif [just to see if he still has the fire in the belly].
Malinga wants to retire from longer versions of Cricket. Do we know the reason now ? Mumbai and Malinga seem to be unbeatable at this point of time.
Poor Mayank Agarwal. He was over the top when he whacked Murali out of the ground facing him for the first time. Malinga knocked him down with the first ball.
Vettori is a great captain. He wanted to boost Abhimanyu Mithun’s morale. So he forgot Dirk Nannes who ended up with bowling figures of 1-1-0-1 to Mithun’s 3-0-31-0 !
There are two Shauns playing for Rajastan Royals. One is Shaun Tight. He bowled a first spell of 2-0-11-2. Then came Shaun Loose. He let loose a 157 kmph monster ball and then gave away 2-0-29-0.
Saurabh Tiwari looks like he might any time cut loose and play a DLF maximum shot and then pats one to short covers for a single.
In spite of their win against lowly placed Chargers, KKR don’t look like serious contenders. And it all boils down to SRK and his preference for Hockey. Cricket Gods haven’t forgiven him for making a movie on Hockey and ignoring Cricket.
If anyone has doubts, just look at the other Khan. Aamir made ‘Lagaan’ and then witnessed India Captain Dhoni do a Bhuvanin the World Cup finals !
Yes, coming to Captaincy, Sehwag wants to lead from the front. But he just doesn’t have a back. Gambhir has a front as well as a back, but he prefers to lead from the middle.
Sanga and Gilly haven’t had great opportunities to lead so far. But it is too early as we are still in the first week of what is going to be a 7 week long affair.
Dhoni on the other hand has lead from behind the stumps. And then in front too. The Yusuf Pathan run out was classic Dhoni; just enough to change the course of the match.
Mahela is entrusted to lead a group of Tuskers. Can he do the ‘Mahout’ act ? Can he get Sreesanth to fire ? Or will it backfire in the Kochi backwaters ? Let us wait and watch !
Yuvraj has whole of India for Sahara today. In 2010, he had no team, no form and no home too as he was dumped by his IPL Masters. What a turn around in 2011. He has won a World Cup and now avenged his humiliation of last year by whacking the Punjab team.
And one man is silently leading from the front and winning matches with ease for his team.
I will come back !
Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans
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