If Tendulkar’s feats last year were awesome, this year it got even better - five centuries in seven Tests with an average of 84.25 and more than 900 runs at 65.28 from 17 matches in ODIs! The heartbreaking 175 against Australia was bettered by the super human 200* against South Africa. And, he has left his impression on the newest format ofTwenty20 cricket as well, topping the batting charts in IPL2010.
Thanks for the runs, Sachin!
There are chick flicks, romantic comedies that target the female audience. And then there are dick flicks, raunchy comedies that target the male audience. The Hangover, falls in the second category.
Set in Las Vegas, the gags involving a missing groom, Mike Tyson, a tiger in the bathroom, a missing tooth, a baby, a stripper and a naked Chinese villain among others are outrageous and funny. The jokes are raunchy but not juvenile. And, the script is clever enough to keep you engaged. The guy who plays the oddball Alan (I have no idea who he is) in the movie is brilliant!
The good thing about the last ball win in the previous match is that it exposed the folly of going in with only three specialist bowlers in the playing XI. I don’t understand why we need eight batsmen to bat out 50 overs, especially when batting is our strength. On the other hand, more often than not we have seen one or more of our specialist bowlers have a mediocre outing. Going with one bowler less only further exposes the weakness in the bowling department. Hopefully, one of the specialist spinners – Mishra/Ashwin will replace Yusuf Pathan for today’s game.
After an incredible nail biting finish, Indians have retained their spot at the top of the ICC Test cricket ratings. Congratulations Team India! My wishes came true - Paul Harris was treated like the mediocre bowler that he is and to add icing to the cake, the umpires even wided him quite a few times for negative bowling!
Just when the teams seem warmed up after a win each, the series has come to an abrupt end and that is hugely disappointing. Just one more match to crown the true series winner would have been great.
Essentially, the matches were a tale of two first inning batting collapses. While the Indians collapsed in Nagpur unable to cope with Steyn’s outstanding swing bowling; the South Africans collapsed in Kolkata, to some mediocre batting (the bowling was good, without being great).
Despite the positives – centuries by Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman, Dhoni; good bowling by Khan and Harbhajan, there were a few disappointments. This was a wonderful opportunity for the youngsters – Ishant, Mishra, Vijay and especially Badrinath, to shine but all failed to grab. The opportunity, that is. And personally, I had hoped to see more of the battle between the no.1 batsman (Gambhir) and the no.1 bowler (Steyn).
After a tightly fought Test series, it’s time to move on to the ODIs.
