Archive for the ‘postaweek2011’ Category
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Watching the Indian team during the 90’s was extremely frustrating. The team which functioned like a well-oiled machine at home played like a bunch of novices when they toured abroad. The batting struggled and the bowling lacked any sort of bite. The current series in England brings back the bad memories. It is sad because since the turn of the century, it seemed as though India had left the ghost of the 90’s behind.
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In recent times reading some movie reviews has become a tedious exercise. A normal movie buff looks only for certain things in a review, the positives and the negatives, performance of the lead actors and the music. Basically an outline as to whether the movie is to his/her liking or not. This information should as far as I am concerned be expressed in simple understandable language. In the recent times when I read reviews written by certain writers I feel that it’s an essay for an English literature class. The reviews are extremely complicated to understand and for sure is not in simple language.
I sometimes cannot understand what writers are trying to prove by writing such complicated reviews. No one wants to break their head in trying to understand what is written and for sure none of the readers are here to appreciate your command over English. If your target audience is English professors and literature students then I can understand the logic behind such complex writing. I am not saying that all the reviewers are the same as there are a few who write extremely good reviews without using complex sentence formations.
It’s nice to have great command over the language but one should not lose the basic plot of the task in hand. We need to communicate things which are easily understandable even to someone who isn’t extremely proficient with the language. Writers should keep in mind as reviews are a mode of giving your opinion of a movie to an audience who just want to find out if this is something they want to watch or not. If you are writing these in your personal blogs then it is fine but when you write for a website the accomplishment of the task at hand takes the priority.
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Already 2-0 up in the series, England has no worries ahead of the third test at Edgbaston. For the visitors though the series turned nightmarish when Yuvraj and Harbajan also were ruled out with injuries earlier last week and later Zaheer was deemed unfit to take further part in this series. India will again be missing the services of their premier bowler in Edgbaston and it is hard to see the Indian bowling attack taking 20 wickets in the absence of Zaheer.
England though have no such worries, their bowling is functioning like a well-oiled machine. Even though they missed Chris Tremlett at Trent Bridge, Broad and Bresnen combined well to dismiss the Indian batsmen.
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Wimbledon 2011: Top 3 Seeds in Focus Again on Technorati.
The seeding chart for Wimbledon 2011 was announced couple of days back. Nadal has been seeded number 1 for the tournament followed by Djokovic at number two and Roger Federer at 3. Andy Murray and Robin Soderling complete the top 5.
As usual as it has been the case over the past couple of years, the top 3 seeds will be in focus again. Federer who has won this championship 6 times till now will be one of the favorites. Rafael Nadal is the current defending champion will be the man to beat. Nadal who did not look in great touch during his recent French campaign was still able to win the championship. This says a lot about his skill and determination.
Novak Djokovic is seeded 2 this time and for sure is another favorite to win the championship. Djokovic won the Australian Open earlier this year and had an unbeaten run in 2011 until he ran into a determined Roger Federer in French Open Semis.
In spite of Andy Murray and Soderling having a fair shot at reaching the final stages of the championship, it is very hard to look past the top three as the eventual winners.
Roger Federer reaching the French Open finals against all odd should give him much needed confidence on his favorite surface. Nadal and Djokovic have so far had a great year and have been rightly seeded at the top for their efforts. This is going to be a great championship after a long time. We haven’t had three contenders for the title since Federer won the title in 2003.
The men’s competition is for sure going to be a blast. I am for sure rooting for Roger and I hope that he wins the championship to re-establish his dominance on grass. Go Fedex!
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The West Indies tour continued to suffer as more first choice players from the Indian team continue to pull out ahead of the test series. This time it is the turn of Zaheer and Sreesanth. The Indian team will now be without their first choice seamers for the test series. Abhinav Mithun and Praveen Kumar have been named as the replacements. Sometimes it is hard to understand the thinking behind some selections and Praveen’s is a curious one.
Mithun though I understand as he did not do that badly in the test series against the Sri Lankans last year but Praveen’s selection comes as a surprise. If Praveen gets a game this will be his debut for India in the longer format. Munaf and Ishant are already part of the squad, so I am assuming they will be in the starting X1 for the first game at least. Mishra and Bajji will most probably play in most of the games considering how poorly West Indies batsmen have handled spin on this tour. If the need arises to play a third seamer it will be interesting to see who India will play in the X1. So the Indian team who are already light on experience in batting will be suffering the same in the bowling department too.
The Indian team needs to win 3-0 in the test series in order to not lose any points in the test championship race. With the pull outs it will be miraculous if they achieve the same. The batting now will completely rely on Dravid and Laxman and the bowling on Bajji and Mishra. I hope that the youngsters can perform well and continue the good work they have been doing in the series already. The team under Suresh Raina has already won the ODI series and now Dhoni’s challenge would be to captain a young team to victory in tests. The pull outs though have made the series more competitive and give the West Indies a chance to upset the Indian team.
Test squad: MS Dhoni (capt), VVS Laxman (vc), M Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Mithun, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel.
Article first published as Wimbledon 2011: After Nadal Can Federer Reclaim His Fortress? on Technorati.
Rafael Nadal proved last Sunday that he is truly the king of clay court. Rafa, who admitted ahead of his semi-finals clash that he was not playing well enough to win the title, did exactly that playing a brilliant game of tennis in the finals. Federer who was on a high after defeating the pre-tournament favorite Djokovic found Nadal too hot to handle in the final and went down fighting in a four set battle. It was a brilliant win for Nadal as he once again proved what a great player he is on any surface.
Now after the French open is complete the focus now shifts to grass courts of Wimbledon. The surface which was once a fortress of Roger Federer till it was breached by Rafael Nadal in the year 2008. Federer had won the championship 5 straight times prior to that and that was the time Nadal started to prove himself on different surfaces. Federer though came back to win the title in 2009 but lost in the Quarters last year. That was the first time Federer did not make it to the Finals of a Wimbledon championship in 8 years.
Roger has not been in great form since his fabulous win in the Australian Open 2010. He has been often upstaged by Djokovic and Nadal over the past year or so. He reaching the finals of the French Open against all odd should give him immense confidence ahead of the Wimbledon Championship.
It all began for the Champion in 2003 in Wimbledon and what a great career it has been till now. It has been a brilliant journey and I hope that he has one last hurrah. A win on his favorite surface will for sure give him the much needed confidence to keep going for couple more years.
I hope that we have a great championship once again on grass, a surface I just love watching tennis on. Roger is my favorite tennis player since Sampras and Agassi and I will be rooting for him all the way at the Wimbledon championship. For now let’s congratulate Nadal for his brilliant win on clay and hope Federer can repeat the same on grass in a month’s time.
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The Indian selectors were forced to sort of send an A team to West Indies under Suresh Raina as most of the senior players decided to either rest or missed out due to injury. The biggest offenders were Sehwag and Ghambir as they were already aware of their injuries but still decided to participate in the IPL. Sachin and Yuvraj also requested the selectors to be omitted from the squad to the West Indies. The funniest part is that these same players decided to play through the IPL even though they were exhausted after an emotional World Cup triumph. An international series treated with such scant respect is something hard to imagine.
Even though the seniors miss out from the series, this for sure gives us an opportunity to test out our bench strength. Suresh Raina who will be captaining the side will be aware that this isn’t going to be an easy series. No matter which team turns up for this series, India are expected to win both the test and ODI series comfortably against a weak West Indies side. This will be Duncan Fletcher’s first series as Indian coach and he will get the firsthand account of India’s bench strength. For the youngsters though this will be a great opportunity to showcase their talent at the international arena.
Players like Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, and Shikar Dhawan would for sure get an extended run in the 5 match series and they would hope to cement their places in the ODI squad. The ODI team tough would probably suffer the least as we still have Raina, Rohit, Parthiv Patel and Kohli in the team who has played quite a few ODI’s for India. The bowling also has lots of experience in the presence of Bajji, Munaf, Praveen and Ishant along with Ashwin and Mishra. So the ODI team in all probability should do reasonably well but the major issues will be with the test squad which is missing three major players in the top of the order.
The test team will mark the debut of Abhinav Mukund, the dashing opener from Tamil Nadu who has a brilliant domestic record. He will join Murali Vijay at the top of the order. Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and captain Dhoni will have to probably guide the middle order which might consist of Kohli/Badri/Raina in the mix. The bowling though will be at its full strength in the presence of Zaheer, Sreesanth, Ishant, Munaf and Bajji. The selectors have done a decent job with the team selection considering that they were left with no option.
The ODI series begins tomorrow and it gives a depleted WI team a great opportunity to challenge an under strength Indian team. The series for sure will be competitive and Raina will surely want a better series as captain than the one he had in Zimbabwe last year. The series will be important for few youngsters who would want to impress with some good performances. This series also gives us fans a peek into the future, a future without Sachin/Dravid and Laxman in the squad. This will also give us a chance to look at the options we have when the greats eventually hand up their boots. The series starts tomorrow with the one-off T20 game, which will be followed by 5 ODI games. The test series begins on the 20th of June for which Dravid, Dhoni, Zaheer and Laxman will join the team. An interesting series in the offing and in spite of the big names missing from the squad, team India should win both the series comfortably. Good luck to Raina and hopefully he can complete the ODI series with a win under his belt.
- In: Cricket and Sports | French Open | Nadal | Novak Djokovic | postaweek2011 | Roger federer | Sports | tennis | Tennis
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Novak Djokovic’s dream run came to a grinding halt when Roger Federer defeated him in the French Open Semis. Everyone was expecting a Djokovic-Nadal final once again but Roger had a different idea. The former French champion played a fantastic game of tennis to halt unbeaten run of the Serbian with a clinical 4 set victory.
This set up an exciting contest between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the Finals. This is some sort of a renewal of the rivalry as recently Djokovic has been dominating the tennis scene. So we have yet another great game in the offing between the two modern greats of the game. Will Nadal win his sixth title or will Federer continue his dream run on clay? We will know the answer to that on Sunday. Go Fed-Ex.
Emerging Talent makes IPL special
Posted on: May 31, 2011
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I call myself as a cricket fanatic. Give me any cricket game and I will watch it. It may be a International game or a domestic game or even a club level game, if it’s on TV then I will give it a go. It’s just the love for the game which drives me and not the level at which it is played. So IPL is something which I cannot let pass. Who wouldn’t want to see legends of the game all under the same roof? Even though I don’t agree with the elaborate and boring format of the tournament overall but watching young Indian players locking horns with International stars is something which makes IPL special.
Franchise based sport is new in India and it will take a little time to catch on. The American style will not work in India as the country has a national team which is playing throughout the year. So the Indian fans will be mostly loyal to the Indian team rather than Chennai or Mumbai or Kolkata. The fact that the teams are shuffled every three years also makes it hard for the fans to relate to their teams. You suddenly have Rohit Sharma playing for Mumbai Indians while he was playing for Deccan Chargers in the previous editions.
For me watching IPL is an avenue to have a look at future Indian prospects. It’s an opportunity for the youngsters to get noticed. This year has thrown some interesting names too. There were some known names that reaffirmed their status and there were some new names too. The biggest impact this year was made by two cricketers, one was Paul Valthathy and the other was Rahul Sharma.
Paul Valthathy did an excellent as an opener for Kings X1 Punjab this season. He was explosive and impressed one and all with his stroke play. He even held the orange cap for the while during the course of the tournament. Now we have to wait and see if he is a one tournament wonder (Asnodkar, anyone?) or if he would back up these performances in the domestic arena. The other standout performer was Pune Warriors Rahul Sharma. The young leggie who fought a career threatening injury to stage an inspiring comeback to competitive cricket was absolute joy to watch this season. A bowler of Anil Kumble mould was brilliant and one of the most economical bowlers of the season. He was the only shining light in an otherwise disappointing season for Pune Warriors. The other bowler to impress was Varun Aaron of Delhi Daredevils. Varun bowled with extreme pace and troubled the batsmen with bounce. It was unfortunate that we did not get to see more him in this IPL. I just hope that he keeps working on his bowling and hopefully will get selected for team India sooner than later if he maintains his consistency.
Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary were others who impressed with the bat. Both these youngsters are rated highly by the experts and we got to see why during the course of the IPL. The others such as Iqbal Abdulla of KKR, S Aravind of RCB and Abu Nechim of Mumbai Indians impressed in the IPL 4.
There were few comeback stories too. RP Singh and Ishant Sharma made a great comeback after being out of radar for the Indian team selection. Ishant was brilliant with his bowling and it seems like he has regained his pace and control which he had lost about a year back. He has been rewarded with an Indian call up for the upcoming West Indies tour. RP Singh too was brilliant for Kochi Tuskers. He bowled with pace and troubled the batsmen with movement of the pitch. I hope that he continues on this trail and makes a comeback to the national side in the near future. The others who were consistent among bowlers were Ashwin, Mishra, Bajji and Munaf, all of whom will be travelling to West Indies earlier next month.
In the batting front, Subramaniam Badrinath was rewarded for having a brilliant domestic season and for performing brilliantly for CSK in the current IPL. His selection for the West Indies tour was a great reward for his consistency. Rohit Sharma also continued his great form in IPL and we have to wait and see if he can translate that form to International cricket. The biggest disappointment of the season was Irfan Pathan, who albeit returning from an injury was way off color with both bat and ball. He did bowl some good spells but lacked consistency with the ball. Ambati Rayudu was brilliant once again for Mumbai but Saurabh Tiwari was unable to replicate his success from last year for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
All in all IPL 4 was great as it threw some new names into the mix of youngsters. Even though these names add lots of spice for the future we have to keep in mind that IPL performances cannot be considered as a yardstick for national team selection. I guess this just gives the selectors a list of names whose progress needs to be followed in domestic cricket. All these players are extremely talented but performance in domestic cricket and “A” tours need to be given more importance for the Indian team selection. IPL 4 has been great for the new talent but I am still disappointed with the franchises reluctance to try out young players. A tournament which began as platform for young talent has just become a money making exercise. The teams are mostly interested in playing established International stars. Players like Varun Aaron did not get enough opportunities due to the same reason. Even though long, IPL 4 has been good viewing this year and if the organizers can cut the tournament little shorter we might actually have more people interested in the same.
- In: Cricket and Sports | French Open | Nadal | Novak Djokovic | postaweek2011 | Roger federer | Sports | tennis | Tennis
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Article first published as French Open 2011: Exciting Semi-Final Lineup on Technorati.
So the French Open is in its final week and the top 5 have made the Men’s quarter-finals. We are still on track for yet another Nadal-Djokovic showdown in the finals which will be 3rd in the last one month.
Djokovic, who is already in the Semis, courtesy a walkover from Fabio Fognini, will be awaiting the result of Roger Federer Vs Gael Monfils game with lots of interest. If Roger does come through that game, he will have to face up to Djokovic in the semis, which again throws up a great contest.
The other quarter-final which will be interesting is the game between Robin Soderling Vs Rafael Nadal.
Nadal himself will admit that he has not had a great tournament by his own standards. He barely scraped through in couple of earlier round games and hasn’t looked completely convincing reaching the quarters.
Robin who has been playing exceedingly well over the past couple of years will not be an easy opponent to face in the quarters. Nadal faces the prospect of meeting Andy Murray in the semis if he does get through the quarters.
The Semi-Final lineup looks incredibly exciting if the things go according to the script. We might have a Federer Vs Djokovic and Nadal Vs Murray Semis which will be a dream come true for the fans.
Now the question is that whether Nadal and Djokovic will meet once again in the much anticipated clash or will Murray and Federer spoil the party to make the finals themselves? We will have to wait and see; hopefully we will see some exciting games in the coming days.
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