This Week in Cricket ( week ending 28/12/2008)

AUS - SA test series - 2nd test

Awesome test series so far!; Duminy played one of the best test innings to turn the match on its head; he got good support from Steyn; SA seem to be winning all the key battles in this series so far; this is a clear indication that they might win the series. I am supporting them in this series.

I had vacation from 12/22 onwards; we had planned to spend 3 days at Eagle Eye Resorts and then proceed to Shimoga (my wife's home town) from there.


We started at around 5.30 AM; Bangalore-Hassan road was better than expected. We stopped for breakfast at Kamat hotel around 8.45 AM. food and ambiance were really good; their gesture of providing newspaper stood out. We crossed Belur around 10.15; road to Chikmagalur is narrow and not well maintained from there.

The resort is around 45 KMs from Chikmagalur; the road is adequate in certain patches but the route is too scenic to be concerned about the road. This was my first driving experience through hilly terrain and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The sound of birds and trees was magical; most of the villages along the way just have few houses near the road and rest in far off estates.

We reached the resort around 1 PM. The final stretch of the road is really bad; the resort staff were really helpful; the view from the top is awesome; food was fine. I thoroughly enjoyed the morning walks amidst the coffee plantation.

This was the first time we stayed outside with our daughter (1 year 9 months old); she was very co-operative and also seemed to enjoy the close proximity to flowers and fishing.

We took Balehonnur - N R Pura road towards Shimoga; the route was again pleasant with lot of trees around; in fact we started missing them as we got closer to Shimoga.

This Week In Cricket (7/12/2008 - 14/12/2008)

India - England test series

At the beginning nobody expected England team to be a in a position to focus on the cricket let alone winning it. England won the toss (most important thing in Indian conditions) and batted adequately in first innings(second most important thing in Indian conditions); then surprisingly, Indian team decided to gift England for coming back with shocking batting performance; now they find themselves chasing history to save the match on last 2 days.

Rahul Dravid's stocks are falling rapidly; unless he scores big in next 3 innings, his career will be over; it will be sad if India's best ever number 3 batsmen has to bow out this way.

SA - Aus test series

Things are hotting up with both sides dishing out verbal volleys. This SA team seems to be the best suited to win Australian conditions after mighty WI of late 80s. Hope thier fast bowlers stay injury free and trouble Aussie batsmen. Australians have had it too easy for sometime now except couple of series in India and England.

This week in Cricket - 30/11/2008 - 6/12/2008

This week was a dull week for cricket with hardly any action on the field. It is a strange situation after so much action during last few months.

Indian team for England series
No surprises; Yuvraj scored heavily at the right moment to get himself another shot at test cricket. Personally I would have liked to see a technically sound young batsman like Rohit Sharma get that chance but Yuvraj's claim is hard to ignore after back to back centuries( on placid wickets and an England attack not suited to the conditions).

England - India test series
If England return to India for test series, it will go a long way in removing the fear of touring India for countries. Tour looks to be on track at this point of time unless any surprising events take place. I am not sure how much cricket will be on every body's mind as now England do not have any practice match before the first test.

Australia - SA test series
I can't wait to see this series get started; an Australian team that on slight decline against a SA team that is on ascendancy. SA's attack looks enviable in Australian conditions with Steyn and Morne Morkel in their ranks. I think SA's main confidence booster will be from the knowledge that they will not be tormented by Warne again. This is a great chance for SA to put one across Australia.

Wish we had no religions in this world

It has been frustrating last few days watching few miscreants killing lot of innocent people. My first thoughts after seeing was:"why do we have different religions in this world". This would have reduced the unrest we have in our world today.

My condolences to all the people who died or got injured. it is high time we got serious about our internal security. It needs a focus planning and budget.

This Week In Cricket (24/11/2008 - 30/11/2008)

India-England one day series

India seem to be far superior to England in these conditions. India are finding match winners in all positions. Zaheer and Sehwag have been a revelations in last one year. Yuvraj has been unstoppable in this series. Dhoni's captaincy has been adequate so far. England seem to be confused about their best 11 and by the time they figure it out series will be over for them. On flat pitches it is difficult to except bits and pieces bowlers to succeed. England should have had Monty in their lineup.

Regarding India, my concern is that we will be in the same position as England when we tour Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa. Key thing is to plan ahead so that you have the best 11 for the conditions from match one.

Australia - NZ test series

New Zealand were competitive for first three days but Australia were much better batting team in the given conditions; this helped them to win the match. New Zealand had promising performances from Tim Southee and Ross Taylor. Australia's batting lineup for this match was really deep with both Symonds and Watson in the team.

My travel log

I traveled for a week to San Francisco (SFO). Here are some of the things I noticed

1.Our(Bangalore) new airport

a. it is pleasant , problem is that again it will be just enough in few years.
b. Immigration was a pleasant experience without any big lines. It felt like I was at some other international airport.

2. Singapore airport

a. Awesome!; feels like a huge shopping complex.
b. While returning, went on a short city organized by SIA (Singapore airlines). City looks like one big park (at least parts shown to us). I felt that Singapore will be nice city to work in; it is closer to India and is a beautiful city.

3. Food and entertainment options from SIA ranged from adequate to good; I can't understand why they have to give yogurt with every Indian meal when there is no rice to eat with.

4. Hotel in SFO was excellent(Hotel Vitale). Close proximity to Autodesk office was a huge bonus.

5. SFO airport looks like a old one in comparison to Singapore.

Cricket updates

I have not been able to blog for last few weeks for couple of reasons
1. I was down with a viral fever for a week.
2. I traveled during the last weekend (SFO) and have been busy with all day meetings till end of this week.

I shall leave for India tonight.

In cricket lot of things happened during this period. Here is my take on main ones.

1. Ganguly's retirement
Ganguly performed admirably in his last test match; playing against turn while facing first ball during second innings showed that he had already lost focus about the match by then; it could have easily been catastrophic if not for lucky partnership between Dhoni and Harbhajan.

2. Kreja
What a debut! he purchased wickets, but showed his potental by troubling Indian batsmen whenever he bowled in the right areas.

3. Ponting
What a miss!; I can;' understand him not bowling Watson after tea; one more wicket at that juncture and they had excellent chance of winning the match. I can't think over rate was the only issue here. I would have treaded missing a test macth against Newzealand( do Aussies need him against them?) to test victory to level the series. is there match fixing in play here?

4. Dhoni
If keeps amazing.; perfect captaincy record so far. He has also scored some crucial runs in this series.

5. India Australia test series

Excellent cricket throughout. Good advertisement for test cricket. I am firm advocate of cricket getting away from toss; this will make test matches more evenly contested. I would suggest that weaker team should always get the chance to decide wheter they want to bowl or bat.

This Week In Cricket (1/11/2008 - 9/11/2008)
Excuse me or not posting for last 2 weeks. I went to Chennai during Diwali and was down with viral fever after coming back. Lot of things have happened in cricket during that period. I shall try to post my take on these events in installments.

Delhi test match
Again an excellent advertisement for test cricket. Laxman and Gambhir batted beautifully to make sure that India were ahead in this match. Indian disappointing bowling and fielding created some tense moments in Indian second innings after Australia posted a healthy first innings score. At least now people should stop questioning Laxman's capabilities; I agree that he is not the most athletic player around but makes up for it with his boundary scoring abilities.

In the end draw was a good result for Australia after losing the toss and considering 600+ runs in the first innings.

Kumble has retired
Kumble's retirement had to be fast tracked as he was not sure of playing the last match of the series after suffering an injury Delhi test match. He chose the right occasion to have a grant send off that he richly deserved.

Kumble is the greatest match winner India has produced so far. I have fond memories of him bamboozling England batsmen during 92-93 series. This was the start of Indian domination on home soil. He has picked up wickets all around the world and has been the first man his captains looked for containing and picking wickets as well.

This Week In cricket(11/10/2008 - 18/10/2008 )

Excuse me for not posting this week in cricket for last week.

India Australia first test match

This was a good test match with gripping action till last day. Pitch was slow and did not permit fast scoring. I watched the action live in stadium on Saturday (3rd day). India batted poorly after a good start. It was fascinating to watch Ponting set different fields for different batsmen. They almost has sweeper cover stationed for all the batsmen to reduce the number of boundaries. This ploy was to a good effect by Australia during last series. Over all, India did well to salvage a draw. Ponting put to rest his doubts about his ability in these conditions with a fine century. I think India would have won the match if we had batted first considering the amount of spin available during later half of the match.

Ganguly is retiring
It was coming; it was unfortunate he was not picked for Irani trophy match. Ganguly added a different dimension to Indian cricket when he took over captaincy from Sachin in 2000. He was one of India's smart one day batsmen; he took aerial route to a good effect. After watching him field and run between wickets during Bangalore test I feel that he has made the right decision; his batting might have been still fine for one more year but his fitness levels are going down rapidly.

India Australia second test match
Dhoni won a good toss; won winning toss is like winning half the match in our conditions. Amit Mishra came in for Kumble, I sincerely hope that we not pay for choosing him over Chawla as backup spin option. Match is well balanced at end of day 1. We would have been in good position if Tendulakar was still at the crease.

This Week in Cricket (28/9/2008 - 5/10/2008)

Indian Team for first two tests

Even though selection panel and its working process were changed, team is on expected lines except for the side kicks and Ganguly. Only beneficiary seems to be Badrinath in the place of Rohit Sharma; looks like extra batsmen is selection committee chairman's pick;). Having said that, Badri deserves his place on merit alone; he has one of the top averages in Indian domestic cricket. Not sure what special Amith Sharma has done recently to pip Chawla and Ojha for third spinner's position.

Bringing back Ganguly holds no logic after he was dropped from the team for Irani trophy. This shows lack of understanding between different selection panels.

India - Australia test series

This is India's best chance to defeat Australia if batting clicks and right pitches (spinner friendly) are provided. Australian batting looks little shaky and bowling is heavily dependent on pace. It will be foolish if pitches have any resemblance of grass. Series against Australia is not the time to provide sporting pitches for game's development; India never gets batting wickets when we play at Perth or Durban.

Indian 11 for the first test looks well settled with 6 batsmen,4 bowlers ( Zaheer, Ishant, Kumble, and Harbhajan). Australia on the other hand will have to think whether it makes sense to play spinner for the sake of variety.

Australia Vs Board President's XI

Highlight was RIcky Ponting' struggle against Chawla. Rohit Shrama and Virat Kohli batted with lot of confidence and got deserving centuries in first innings. I was surprised to see that, this was Rohit Sharma's second first class century; some of the youngsters like him and Kohli have got thier chances very early; it is up to them now to justify their fast tracking to big league. I almost forgot: Yuvraj scored a century in second innings; as things stand now, Badrinath and Rohit Sharma are ahead of Yuvarj in the race for extra batsman's in the test team.

This Week In Cricket(21/9/2008 - 26/9/2008)

Irani Trophy

This is our traditional season opener that puts previous season Ranji champions against rest of India (ROI). Main reason for starting this tournament was to challenge Mumbai (then Bombay) Ranji team during their domination of Indian first class scene. This time it is more colourful due to the availability of all the Indian test team players except for Tendulkar. The match so far has been keenly contested with ROI having upper hand at this point of time. It has been fascinating to see Indian batting face up to Ishant and Sehwag against Zaheer, Kumble ,and Harbhajan Singh. Dhoni has been the stand out batsman so far with Munaf and Ishant sharing the spotlight on bowling front. There was also a verbal spat between Munaf and Sehwag that has taken interesting turn with Delhi team lodging complaint against Munaf.

Akash Chopra's cricinfo blog

This week I came across this blog (http://blogs.cricinfo.com/beyondtheblues/). It is a interesting read with insights from a player's view.

This Week In Cricket (13/9/2008 - 19/9/2008)

Ganguly's exclusion from ROI team

This is a bold move from selectors. Last time they did this rest of the batsmen performed so badly that they were forced to recall Ganguly. We definitely need to start finding replacements for 'fab four' and hopefully more deserving candidates will get a chance instead of Yuvraj, who has been found lacking time and again in test cricket. Kaif looks to be in good form and can be a good replacement at no.6 if he tries to be solid instead being flashy..

exodus in Bangladesh

Bangladesh along with New zealnd and Pakistan is more vulnerable to ICL due to lack of financially lucrative domestic competitions. Bangladesh cricket will fell the pressure due to their small talent pool. Sooner or later some board has to allow players to play in ICL and represent their countries as well; other option is for IPL to have more players from these countries in their league; this potentially can harm free market promise of this league.

This week in Cricket (9/7/2008-19/12/2008)

ICC annual awards 2007

Chanderpaul getting recognized as the premier cricketer of the year was the highlight of these awards for me; he has been veryconsistent over last few years amidst heavily inconsistent Westindies batting line up. Dhoni's stocks in world cricket are soaring by every passing day, one day cricketer of the year award is another step in the right direction. It is hearting to see a bowler (Dale Steyn) get test crickter of the year award;Dale Steyn at full flight is a sight to behold; his performances with the ball over last year have been phenomenal.

Australian team for Indian tour

Leaving out Symonds from the team was a statement from Cricket Australia to rest of the team and aspiring Australian players that discipline is top most priority irrespective of the stakes involved. Another point to note is the eagerness of Aussies to start the tour early with an extra practice match. This kind of attitude to game and team is what makes Australians the great team that they are irrespective of the individuals.

I have Blackberry 8320 Curve now

Yesterday I received 8320 curve model for official usage. It feels very intuitive to use from the outset. I have not explored the phone features of it as yet; I have started to like the keyboard and trackball capabilities.

This Week In Cricket (1/9/2008 - 7/9/2008)

England SA one day series

Last match of the series was abandoned. This allowed SA to stay in 2nd position in ICC rankings. This brings curtains to busy international summer in England. For England, return of Flintoff and Harmison looks promising along with confident start by KP on captaincy front.

For SA, as hinted by their coach, Micky Arthur, it is time for some seniors to give away for youngsters in shorter form of the game. The most likely ones to get the axe seem to be Ntni, Gibss, and Kallis to a certain extent. SA should give chances to Prince as he seems to read situations well and is an excellent runner between wickets.

Australia - Bangladesh one day series

Aussies have completed 3-0 whitewash. I doubt whether these kind of tours help Bangladesh to improve their cricket as they hardly showed any kind of resistance. One clever thing on CA's part is to host smaller teams during off season; this allows them to avoid small teams during their summer calendar and hence helps preserving public interest and money.

EventHandler generic delegate for events

While reading one of dotnetslackers article, I came to know that now we have a framework defined generic delegate for events. This will reduce the need for having delegates for common events that you have to in your code.

This Week In Cricket (8/25/2008- 8/31/2008)

India – Srilanka one day series

India won the one day series against all expectations mainly due to the presence of Dhoni in the middle order and some excellent bowling performances from Zaheer & co. The manner in which India lost the last match drives home the point that ‘toss’ should have been the man of the series. Day/night matches provide lot of advantage to teams winning the toss ; considering the fact all major tournament finals are day/night fixtures, we need a better system to provide equal chances to both the teams even after the toss.

My idea: Allow teams to choose alternately what they want to do in a series and if the last match is an odd number then allow the lowest ranked team to take advantage of the toss. This will make matches/series interesting and evenly contested. Even we can go one step further and have the visiting team start with an advantage in the first match.

England – SA one day series

What a surprise, this is the reason we follow cricket. England’s dominance in the series has been exceptional. KP's dream run with captaincy continues and England are leading the series 4-0 with a chance to climb to second place in ICC one day rankings if they win the last match. KP’s personal batting form has been excellent and makes me seriously wonder what he would achieved by now if he had started playing international cricket when he was 21/22 instead of 26.

On lighter note, main motivation for England players to do well in this one day series may to secure places for the Stanford 20-20 match and stands a chance to earn big money!

This Week In Cricket (18/8/2008 - 24/8/2008)

Champions Trophy
Thanks to situations, this tournament that nobody wanted, has got rescheduled to next year. I dountwhether it will happen next year also as situation will more or less remain same in Pakistan in 2009 and finding time for this tournament during busy year will not be easy.

Cricket in Pakistan is reduced to only Asian teams at this point of time; Indian team is bound to tour without any issues as BCCI needs Pakistan vote in ICC to call it shots.

India - Srilanka one day series
Indian leads the series 2-1; this is a big surprise considering the mismatch of talent that suit Srilankan conditions. So far, Viral kohli and Badrinath have given good account of themselves. In third match (D/N), toss played an important role as batting second was considerably tough. Having said that Dhoni batted well along with Raina and Rohit Sharma.

England - SA one day series
Anybody who has followed KP's career will be least surprised to see him win man of the match in his first match as full time one day captain. England won the first match comfortably with useful contributions from Flintoss and Hanmison along with KP. Till now, KP's biggest achievement as captain is his ability to get 100% from Flintoff and Harmison, two key players for England's fortunes during next Ashes.

This week In Cricket(11/8/2008 - 17/8/2008)

India - Srilanka 3rd test

As expected, India did not score enough runs in their 2nd inning to make it tough for Srilanka. Main difference in the series was Mendis to state the obvious; he just did no let Indian middle and lower orders flourish in any of the matches.

England - SA 4th test

As usual, England performed well in last match of a dead rubber. I am not sure what works for them in these scenarios: less pressure or it takes time to adjust to opposition and conditions. KP, as expected, (based on his fairytale career do far) started spectacularly on captaincy front. His masterstroke was to get Harmison back in England setup and provide him with all the confidence by allowing him to bowl with the new ball.

Champion Trophy

It will be interesting to see how other teams tackle Mendis in Champions Trophy ; at this time, there are serious doubts about this event happening at full strength in Pakistan.

Indian team for Srilanka one day series

Virat Kohli was a surprise selection, considering that he has not done all that well in IPL and subsequent emerging teams series in Australia. Pitches are expected to low and slow in Srilanka; 270-280 seem to be on par score a this point of time. My concern is that every time India will have to bat around 1.5 times better than Srilanka to negate Mendis factor.

My prediction: 4-1 Srilanka.

England - SA T20

This is just a festival match before the one day series.

This Week In Cricket (4/8/2008-10/8/2008)
This week we enter the last matches of excellent test series between SA - England and India-Srilanka. All the test matches have been interesting except for the first one in SA-England series. Last few weeks have been good advertisement for test cricket; this again emphasizes the point that test matches between evenly matched (little difference is also fine) teams and sporting wickets produce good contests.

India-Srilanka 3rd test

Series is evenly poised at 1-1; India and Srilanka made single change to their playing elevens. I am not convinced about India bringing in Parthiv for Karthick, because at least on batting front Karthick has faced Mendis and Murali during last 2 matches and this would have been handy. At the time of writing, Srilanka are well placed to wrap the match on 4th day. Indian batting is too dependent on runs from Sehwag in this series, but this is tough to expect on consistent basis, mainly due to the manner in which he plays. Sangakkara played excellent innings; this should be sufficient to win the test match for Srilanka. On Sunday, it was painful to see Tendulkar struggle again against mendis and Murali.

England - SA 4th Test
England have done well so far with KP scoring century in his first match as captain. England bowling looked good with Harmison looking in good rhythm and Anderson swinging both ways at good pace. England batting looks shaky with 5 batsmen, but may be over a period of time they can manage with Flintoff, Stuart Broad and wicket keeper filling the role of sixth batsmen collectively. England are well placed for a consolation win needing 197 to win on last day, but things could change if SA can remove England top 5 for less than hundred on board.

This week in Cricket 1 (28/7/2008 - 3/8/2008)

India in Srilanka second test match

Coming in to this match Indian chances were written-off(as happens all the time after a defeat) and this was justified to a certain extent. Indian middle order did not have a clue about how to tackle Murali/Mendis combination in first match. Real pace or mystery spin always help teams to remove second half of batting order quickly. This is a great advantage in test matches because a good contribution from the lower end batsmen can dent the confidence of the fielding team and also creates tentitiveness in fielding team's opening as they will be thinking about thier batting for sometime.

India won the toss (it is crucial as both teams are spin heavy) and Sehwag and Gambhir rode their luck in this initial phase to provide good start. Sehwag was his usual self and took every opportunity to score. Personally, I enjoy watching him create shots that can fetch two instead of a single against spinners. His innings was extra special considering the lack of runs from middle order. After this India could exert pressure and win the test match with some excellent bowling from Harbhajan and Ishanth Sharma.

I think result would have been different if Srilanka had won the toss and batted first, often this is the fine line between winning and loosing in cricket;).

South Africa - England 3rd test match

Usual England performance; some solo batting contributions (Cook in first innings and KP ,Collingwood in second) and a bowling burst from Flintoff. In the end SA were better team and won comfortably with Smith playing an excellent knock. During England's second innings Collingwood saved his test career by scoring a fine century. Morne Morkel looks like a good prospect and will be handful on pitches that offer some bounce.

This is week in Cricket
I am planning to write about my take on things happening in the cricket world once a week from now onwards. My sincere endevour over the course of this weekly roundup will be to bring those small things that define a cricket matche to your notice.

Am I qualified to do this?
Dont know; I have been following cricket since the time I can remember ,and also have been playing cricket for last 13 years with few years in state level top division and inter-university competitions.I feel I can offer a combination of player's and follower's take on the events.

Central Government trust vote
While watching trust vote pictures on TV, following things stood out for me.

1. Somnath Chatterjee seems to the most stressed out person in this world. . Every attempt by him to create some order in the house fell on deaf ears. I was left wondering what keeps him engaged in his role
2. BJP trying to project that the member by Congress/SP as new low in Indian politics; this is just few days after the incidents in karnataka.
Finally...
3. Program caption in CNN IBN read "Singh is King"; I am sure movie makers will be happy for the kind of marketing their movie name got from this episode.

on serious note.

Omar Abdullah's speech was hard hitting and fluent. IMO, he looks like one of the leader to watch for in the future. Unfortunately he will not have enough clout like Mayawati or Mulayam due to less number of MPs his party will have in parliament.

I felt blessed

On Wednesday I had to visit a temple deep inside K.R Market area in Bangalore. En route, I happened to pass through small lanes, where I saw people working in completely unhygienic and polluted conditions. At that moment, I felt blessed to have good working conditions for last 10 years.

I thanked almighty and my parents for all the good things bestowed on me.

We were cheated by YMCA and Rajajinagar Colts - 7/6/2008

Sunday was my darkest sporting day. We were cheated by two 3rd division teams YMCA and Rajajinagar Colts (RC ) in state cricket league. This resulted our team (Vijaya cricket club) denied a chance to get promoted to 2nd division, instead YMCA got there by fixing their match with Rajajingar colts.

Let me explain in details.

Scenario before Sunday's match; these were last round of fixtures for this season.

1. If we (Vijaya) beat Young Cricketers(YC) (already confirmed to get demoted), and YMCA loose to RC, then we will go through.
2. If we (Vijaya) beat YC and YMCA/RC match ends in draw, then also we will go through.
3. If we (Vijaya) loose to YC and YMCA loose to RC ,then RC will go through.
4. If YMCA beat RC, they will go through irrespective of result in our match.

How things unfolded on Sunday

1. We won the toss and got YC team all out for 224. We were worried of rain interruptions, and made sure that we got to the target ASAP (in 22 overs); in the hindsight this was our mistake.
2. In the match between YMCA and RC, YMCA batted first , and had to declare around 185 to have a chance of bowling out RC to win their match.
3. When we finished our match, RC 40/0 chasing 186, and reached 130/1 by the time we reached near the ground where their match was being played. In the drinks break YMCA team members, lead by Santosh vadeyaraj (played few matches for Karnataka ranji team) convinced RC team to throw the match by stating that we had fixed our match. After this, RC batsmen threw their wickets and made sure that they lost the match; even score was not updated when ball went for 4 byes.
5. Finally, YMCA won that match; they will play in 2nd division next year. The look on their faces after the match said it all; they were worse than a demoted team.

Request.
If you see any of the YMCA or RC players (listing the prominent ones below for easy identification) anywhere in offices, cricket grounds, or other social gatherings, please let them know that they have let our favourite game down by not playing according to the spirit of the game.
1. YMCA - Santosh vadeyaraj - works and represents Vijaya bank
2. YMCA Jayakumar, Srinath - work and represent karnataka forest department
3. RC- Samarth Hegde - works and represents ANZ IT in corporate cricket. ( I have played quite a bit of cricket with him)
4. RC- Rakshan Rai, Manikant

In the end, cricket was the loser at the hands of manipulative people.

2008 season - my cricket statistics

I have been pursuing an application development to track cricket statistics for some time now. While searching regarding this, I found a website (cricktrack.com) that facilitates maintaining individual's cricket statistics.

You can view my performances this year at http://www.crictrack.com/games/shared/327

I am in Shimoga

This Sunday(6/29), I traveled to Shimoga with my wife and daughter. We were pleasantly surprised to see the road (if we can call it as road) between Birur and Badravathi patched. This reduced our travel time by almost 45 minutes. On the way we stopped by a farm house near Gubbi (taluk in Tumkur)district) to show some of the farm animals to our daughter;she finished her breakfast in 45 minutes, as there were lot of interesting things to see around.

We reached Shimoga by afternoon; it has been drizzling intermittently till Wednesday morning. This weather is execellent to enjoy masala mondakki and menasinikai bajji (Davanagere special).

Euro 2008 was entertaining

Euro 2008 was very entertaining with most of the matches being competitive. This was possible due to fewer weak teams compared to any other tournament of this magnitude (except for Greece and co-hosts). I thouroughly enjoyed the hammering Ronaldo & co (portugal) got from Germany ( I am a Chelsea fan). In the end Spain were the most consistent team in the tournament and deserved to be champions.

2008 Cricket season - 29/6/2008

I represent Vijaya cricket club in 3rd (we got promoted last season) division cricket league coducted by Karnataka state cricket association. This season has been excellent for me. I am the highest wicket taker for our team (26 from 10 matches) , and also have contributed with bat in key matches. Going into last match of the season, we still have a chance to get promoted again if we win our last game, and other YMCA (competing team for other promotion spot) either loose or draw thier last match. I shall keep you updated on what happens next week.

My Hyderabad trip

I had been to Hyderabad for a day on 29/5/2008. I am listing here few of the things that stood out for me.

1. Reluctance by KSRTC (volvo) driver to give me one extra bottle of water when he had many of them lying unused. (delighting the customer)

2. Shared autos in Hyderabad that work very professionally, effectively, and efficiently; probably quality of the vehicles could be better.

3. While coming back, KSRTC bus stopped at a location for dinner where anybody with any sense of hygiene will not eat.

4. It took 11 hours from Bangalore to Hyderabad where as return trip more than 14 hours.

I was happy to see my daughter cry (2008 champions league final)

I stayed up till 3 AM (22/5) to watch my team (Chelsea) loose to MU (team, I hate most) on penalties. Game was excellent with both teams going for it unlike other regular big cup finals. MU could have been 2/3-0 by half time if not for Peter Cech's brilliance and lots of luck. Frank Lampard equalized just before half time with a lucky break. Second half was completely opposite with some excellent football from Chelsea and it was time for MU's share of luck to keep them in the match with Drogba and Lampard hitting the wood work. Finally it all ended with a penalty miss by Mr.Chelsea (John Terry) that would have won them their first European cup.

After the match I was left wondering about the fine line between victory and defeat as one strike from JT would have resulted in Chelsea being the winners instead of MU. I did not watch the presentation as I was heartbroken and was wondering how to forget the match ASAP, fortunately for me, my daughter got up and I had to rush to console her. First time in last year, my daughter has cried when I wanted her to;)..