Tribute to Bob

Jimbo, I refuse to accept responsibility for the near-miss on Monday. Pttth. Take it back.
As fellow-heart-shattered-cousins, we must stand together in these difficult times and try and heal the wounds that recent events have wrought upon our tortured souls..... *violin undulates in background*
I must confess that I never prayed your recommended dosage of nafal namaaz. I feel deeply for the international text messages you kept on sending as reminders, but but but... I just didn't. I have so much Qadhaa-e-Umri to make up, it's not funny. Do I make up my Qadhaa or pray Nawafil? Come on, you're a sensible boy. You have to understand! [Saab is becoming insanely defensive now. She must stop.]
But I sent hundreds of Durood, lots of Ayat-al-Kursi and an unending stream of dua'as for things to swing Pakistan's way, esp once Misbah started his match-saving heroics. To think it all came to no good. [Probably on account of all the baddua'as I had been sending their way earlier...] At least we got some sawaab out of it if nothing else.

I can just picture Misbah singing to himself, that fantastic teeny-boppy song by Junaid Jamshed, "Hum kyon chalein uss raah par.. etc".
Which obviously lead him to play that 'SuperScooper, Lights are gonna find me' shot. Gaaaaak!

Anyway, enough. No more. Take it back.

INDIA - WORLD CHAMPIONS, 2007!

Ladies and gentlemen, after the most edge-of-seat, thrilling, gripping few hours of great cricket yesterday, Team India has emerged as the first ICC Twenty20 World Champions, and as Boomsa said, nothing can ever change this fact. Congratulations to the winners. It was a match worth the watching and could have swung wither way towards the very end, which is what I was hoping for in a final. [That I was hoping for many other things from this match is another matter altogether.... *wipes stray tears*]
Excellent write-up here.

Let's look at this match from a PURE MATH angle.

The afterMATHS: [Events not listed in chronological, organized manner since the writer is suffering hugely from emotional trauma and subsequent mental imbalance. Points listed below are coming in short, sporadic bursts like black nauseous waves. Other morbid allusions can be made but there is no time and it won't change anything.]
1. India defeat Pakistan to win the first ever Twenty20 World Cup by a narrow 5 runs in Over Number 40 of the day.
2. The BCCI announces a reward of USD 2 million for victorious Team India. This amount is approximately 0.0083% of what the BCCI actually has in its coffers, classified under the head 'Profits for Eternity'- (Inside sources)].
3. Misbah ul Haq has 5 runs to get in the last 4 balls of the penultimate over. Very doable like the 1 run required off 2 balls in the previous India-Pak showdown. Instead, Pakistan 152 all out.
4. Irfan Pathan deals a heavy match-winning blow, finishing with 3-16 and clinching Man of the Match, and Rudra Pratap impresses as always with a smart 3-26.
5. Shahid Afridi gets Player of the Tournament for his 12 wickets and brilliant all-round play during the entire T20.
6. Underrated Gautam Gambhir never gets more than a cursory mention for his very brilliant top-of-the-innings score of 75 runs at a strike rate of 139.
7. Umar Gul bowls another dream spell as he has been doing throughout the tournament, and he picks up 3 wickets for 28, making him the highest wicket-taker of the T20s.
8. Mohd Hafeez drops Rohit Sharma at long-on on ball 19.2 of the Indian innings. The ball pops out of the boundary giving India 6 more to their total.
9. India get 6 more, and in the end India win by 5 too many? [Aaargh. The hurt....]
10. Afridi throws away his wicket in the 12th over and Pakistan stand at 77-6. It all seems over for the Green Men.
11. Misbah ul Haq, my hero for the tournament, steps in again with a Herculean 43 and pulls Pakistan to the brink of victory, including four very special 6es in the death overs.
12. Sohail Tanveer also chips in with 2 brilliant 6es in Sreesanth's over. He finishes with a worthy 12 off 4 balls. Well done, lad.
13. Ball 19.3 of the Paki innings. 5 runs to win, 4 balls in hand. Misbah plays 'that shot', scooped up backwards over the wicketkeeper hoping to fly by the fielder at shortish fine-leg, but NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
It's all over.....
[Actually it started as "YESSSS!!!! YESS! YES!!!!! Whaaaaaa...? Who's that? Wha...? NOOO... NOOOOO... NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"]

The beforeMATHS:
1. 10 dosas to Robin Uthappa courtesy Ravi Shastri. Recreated by SamGoose, Boomsa and a Sharmon Legend.
2. Yuvi sits pretty on INR 1 crore after his magic six sixes in one over against England.
3. Approximate betting on the India-Pakistan finals: INR 1500 crore. In India alone.
4. Betting odds: Illegal betting space - India odds on favorites to win at 1:1.55, Pakistan close on heels at 1:1.80. Legal betting space, Bet365, offers odds of 1:80 for India, and 1:90 for a Paki win. Skybet is more conservative with the same rate for both.
5. Wanderers Stadium has a sellout crowd of 30,000 plus.
6. Hearts broken worldwide: 165 million [primarily Pakistani hearts, but other hearts like mine are included here too.]
7. Hearts filled to bursting with elation: 1 billion [primarily Indian hearts, but other hearts worldwide too beat for the Men in Blue.]
8. Losers in India and Pakistan, or Indians and Pakis worldwide who didn't care which way the match would swing: 234 [Including the scientists in Antarctica].

Here's a short post-match interview of some very miserable Pak fans. The gentleman is a Suhail Qasim Malik and the lady is a Nida Haji. Interview by this very saddened writer.



Also, at the end of all things, I am very fond of MS Dhoni who has turned out to be a stellar captain of the young Indian side. [On an aesthetic note: It certainly helped that he took the trouble to wax/shave, and was in prime physical condition since he was letting go of his shirt. Nice biceps, Milkman.]

Final note: Am glad I watched the match in the confines of my own home with like-minded SPORT-LOVERS, because I know this is the only way I could watch the game objectively without being irritated or disturbed. I say objectively, in spite of supporting Pakistan yesterday, because that is how we have been raised to watch and play sports. If someone plays a good stroke, it doesn't matter what side they're on, we'll be applauding them. Indian, Pakistani, Arab, Israeli, American, Aussie doesn't enter into the equation. I hate the Aussie team in totum but I know a good shot when I see it, and I'll know to clap for Gilchrist, PONTING EVEN, if he plays a sweet shot.
It has happened so often that a good game has been spoilt for me by fanatics [and not fans], idiots shouting obscenities, cheering blindly for their own side, not appreciating any move by the opposition, drowning out commentary with their uneducated opining or arguing loudly with expert opinion based on their overheated sentiments... But what really bothers me most of all is obscenities. I don't like potty-mouths around when watching sports. It's a different ball-game, as it were. Don't sully it with $##$@!!!

Thanks to Shro for being my shoulder to cry on late last night when I called her for late-night-emotional-support dinner meals. The original plan was for me to pick her up and drive to Ulsoor Lake where I would take the final plunge, with suitable accessories as rocks, an anvil and strong rope. And Shro would then take the car back home. Boomsa was to collect my remains the next morning.
As it turned out, this did not happen. We went to KFC instead.

Very cute scenes on the roads of Bangalore after the victory: Fans of all ages took to the streets brandishing the Indian flag, stopping cars to give high-fives, yelling and cheering ecstatically all over the city, sharing unadulterated joy with complete strangers on the roads and not misbehaving at all. When my car was stopped, I was treated with great deference and joy after it was noted that I was a lady. Yay. I love that we don't have hooliganism here, for the most part.

"Hazaaron khwaahishein aisi ki har khwaahish pe dum nikle;
Bahut nikle mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle."
-Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib
[What I was crooning myself to sleep with last night.]

What Dreams May Come....

By this time tomorrow night, millions of people all around the world, especially in India and Pakistan, are going to be either deliriously happy or inconsolably heart-broken.
We will hear of and witness on the one hand, cussing of the lowest, vilest, blush-inducing-est order, of TV sets being destroyed, tempers hitting stratospheric levels, unbelievably biased, stupid criticism, and allegations of match-fixing from couch-potato-know-it-alls, and on the other, yelps of uncontrollable joy, humanoid roaring and cheering, goofy patriotic/non-patriotic fervor, intelligent, sportsmanlike and objective remarks on the nobility of the game etc.....
I belong to the latter group. I might throw in a well-meant cuss or two but on the whole I'm going to really, thoroughly enjoy the game. I nose it.

Read here.
Here let me help you. Focus on this especially fascinating section: "Pakistan remains the only unbeaten side in the tournament, having defeated Scotland, tied with India – should we count the 3-0 bowl out verdict as a loss? – and then topping its Super Eight group with victories over sides like Australia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It has scripted its wins on some fine shows by its middle-order batsmen and the bowlers."

Teee heee.
Play val, bwaiiz! Please.....

Will we have the perfect final?

Which is to say a World Cup India v Pakistan?
Can such things be?
Will this Saturday be a great day for the Asian subcontinent and a terribly morose one Down Under?

Will Pak down the Kiwis?
And can India pull a win over Ozz?
Will they, won't they?

Here's a nice montage of recent Indo-Pak series, with Salman Ahmed and "Ghoom Taana".

D-d-d-dil, dil, Pakistaaaaannnn!

The title is an old Vital Signs song [1989 release] that has since become a background score for most of Pakistan's cricket tribute videos and promos. It has the whole '80s organ, synthesizer sound going. ;-) [For those of you who know it, you have to be smiling already.]
Have a look at one of the many cricket montages with this song as b/g.



As to last night: Excellent, lads! But, this is almost too good to be true!
Pakistan pulled another superb six-wicket victory, this time over Australia at Jo'burg yesternight. Shoaib and Misbah did their magic with a 119-run partnership after the Pakis were tottering early on in the innings. Things started off pretty well with Mohd Hafeez in to open instead of Salman Butt. But, as expected, one quick wicket followed another and the score suddenly stood at 46 for 4. Us Pak fans were in the familiar posish of biting nails, experiencing belly-flutters and in general thinking up various ingenious ways to kill ourselves. "NOT AGAIN!", was the general cry.
And then, and then...... this happened!


Apart from the dreamy Misbah-Shoaib partnership, Shahid Afridi shone out in his performance once again. Great bowling, superb fielding and that oh-so-sweet squint-eyed smile. This Pathan has come into his own in the T20 format. All we need now is a really berserk batting innings from him to bring us to tears at the pure joyous madness of it all.
InshaAllah!
Did you see him hit the stumps quickly, calmly and with great smoothness to run Clarke out? I did. Vaav!
Cheers to you, boys. Try for the Cup, why not?

In the meanwhile, India has just pulled off a great victory over England. They posted a huge total of 218 in their 20 overs, thanks to a fantastic half-century by Yuvraj in just 12 balls. This included a goosie-inducing six sixes in one over off poor, poor Stuart Broad. India now have a crucial match against SA tomorrow which will decide whether they continue in the tournament or not. I hope they make it through- it means another possible India-Pak play-off.

Which reminds me- India v. Pak series coming up in November-December in India. Will they come to Bangalore? Will they? Will I get the chance to stalk the Pakis at their hotel and scream shamelessly during matches LIVE AT THE STADIUM? .......
Here's hoping.

Finally!

WARNING: This is a pro-Pakistan-cricket-team post. Narrow-minded bigots should leave off reading now. Because they won! They won! They played great! Wooo hoooo!

A thrilling match to watch for Paki fans last night, as the Little Green Men finally pulled together and brought down the Lankan Lions with a superb all-round performance on the field. This level of play is what makes it all the more painful to watch when Pakistan loses matches because they do have it in them to win a lot.
Stars of the night:
1. Younis Khan: Brilliant batting and fielding, nut-case smiling, and just great fun to watch. Very well-deserved Man of the Match and I loved his acceptance speech later. :)
2. Shoaib Malik: Superb captain's knock. Younis and him took it all away at a deadly Twenty20 pace.
3. Shahid Afridi: The cocky Pathan does it again. He helped with the bat and then got three very crucial wickets, esp Jayawardene and Silva who were looking to make trouble.
4. Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul,Mohd Asif and Mohd Hafeez: "Vaaal done, bwaaiz!" as the very cute Kamran Akmal loves to say.

The fielding was great, as was the running between the wickets. This young, fit Pak side is looking really good, throwing themselves at the ground and at stray balls and scooting across to convert a single into two runs (or a double into three) with a disdain that is heartening to observe.

All the raving for last night's performance concluded, the fact remains that this evening is a whole different ball game and we might very well see our favorite unpredictable boys scatter in the wind against the Aussies, as is their wont after a dreamy victory.

Hoping for the best....
*fingers crossed*

PS: Also, it HAS to be said. The Pak side is probably the best-looking team in world cricket right now. Easy on the eyes, if you know what I mean.

Unbelievable

I thought SA had NO chance of a win today after the fabulous Chris Gayle went berserk and splattered shots all around the Wanderers, but I was forgetting that this was the same team that did this back in 2006, and on the same ground.

Full match report here. Tough luck, Windies. Maybe that's why you shouldn't drop catches and bowl wides?
Well done: Gayle, Gibbs, Kemp. [But mostly Gayle. :)]