Answer : 20-6 it is!

Okay I'm ditching my first love, but I really really cant help it!
Thanks to my dear online friends, they keep talking about Rugby and now that Neo Sports has actually put in efforts of telecasting Rugby World Cup 2011, I should really really follow and understand it!

It all started with my tumblr bloggy, people here are so emotional and attached to Rugby, they have their own set of rivals and history, this time, its New Zealand hosting it, so how can I not follow!

This 80 minute game is totally opposite to what you see in BlackCaps, BCs are soooooo down to earth ( not that ABs are not) but BCs would never hurt anybody, never fall on someone for a freaking ball, oh yes this time ball is a bit larger haha! While ABs scare opposition with unique world known Haka, BCs are damn shy and never wanna be noticed!

Oh I'm so not comparing these two amazing teams, just telling you they belong to same country haha...

3 years back I heard from an Aussie that New Zealand sucks at Rugby, its their national game and still they cant beat Australia.

I was quiet, not that I didnt have knowledge of Rugby, but I knew its gonna be like mud wrestling, we waited this long, 3 years or maybe more for the perfect answer.

I dont need to be a Kiwi to support ABs, I just need to believe in them!

Reaching finals…

As most people see it, winning trophy is everything, but to be honest nothing matters, critics will call you lucky even if you win 4 in a row, admirers will call you best even if you lose 11 in a row.
So, after a lot of hard work (BY GAYLE), we reached semis, don’t know what happened, we lost the first play off, we were still excited, we had one more chance, now you ended 1st so you deserve this chance

And RCB had its second play off with winner Mumbai Indians, Gayle snatched that orange cap from Sachin, or maybe he already had it! RCB won thanks to Gayle again and got in finals, we faced Chennai again, 3rd time in that week, we won which didn’t matter at all and lost which mattered the most!

We became SA of IPL, choked in finals twice!

But this doesn’t change a thing about team I love, when we were at a stage when we had to win at least 5 of remaining 6, Gayle came like angel ( oh don’t think about his body build up now), made runs and saved us, he bowled dot balls when no one else could.

Gotta admit, without Gayle that team is half its strength!

Oh AFRIDI!

So, another sad day for Pak Cricket! Their star Shahid Afridi has announced retirement, not test, not just ODI but all forms of cricket! I don’t know how many times he has done this in past but this one seems serious!

So, he is disappointed by the way PCB is reacting, they wanna kick out the man who has won them World Cup (T20) of 2009!

When you see closely, Afridi is the only connection between Pakistani cricket team and ‘winning’ seriously, when was the last they won? How much did Afridi score? How many wickets he got? Was he captaining?

Pakistan loses so called home test series when Yousuf is captain!

They drop catches and look clueless when Younis is captain!

Afridi is someone who would do anything to get a win, even if it includes chewing the ball! Have you see Dhoni/Vettori/Gayle/Strauss or Smith chewing a ball? Nah! No one like our dear Afridi…

My vote – Bring him back, and seriously folks, get a life! Its cricket not politics, let captain and coach decide who will play and who will captain, let ‘recent’ performance be only criteria! So what if you didn't win that golden Cup, even SA could not! Pakistan actually managed to reach semis, one step ahead of SA and Australia!

And you were defeated by better team, so just appreciate both team sand let cricket be fair and pure!

The Tuk Tuk Train Thing

No.333 on his jersey, yup we all know its his highest ever test score, and surprisingly its his highest ever in first class as well!

So, when was the last you saw Gayle getting angry? Or frustrated? That tall dark man is always keeping his emotions to himself but when he is happy you can feel it! I did, not cos I am RCB fan, but I loved the way he smashed every ball outta park, just a day after Sehwag did that cruel thing to Deccan bowlers.

Gayle scored 107 off 49, ha ha I wanted him to get out soon, he was gonna break Baz's record :P
And he is never satisfied, hungry bird, came back and got 3 nice wickets, his celebration with RCB guys made me feel that he is one of us, how does it matter if you are from Windies (which is not even a country, but a group of countries) or India, when you are in one team you play like a single unit!

Sometimes Kohli celebrates getting Gayle's wicket
Sometimes Kohli celebrates Gayle getting a wicket! That is amazing game of cricket!

Moral - Dont go by looks, even the giants have a kid like heart inside!

When Mumbai became HOME for Pune

Pune isn’t far, actually, they are way too close! The Mumbai lads (and ladies) are proud supporters of Pune Warriors, you can see people travelling from Boriwali to Navi Mumbai just to support their team.

Most matches being played at 8, you need to leave at 4!!! Plus wait in queue even after getting it booked online, WOW! Well lets not get negative, but one should see the environment, Yuvraj aint Marathi, nor is Jesse or Graeme but we were all cheering for them…

If you love cricket you can add years to your life, because only a healthy person can travel that long, sit/stand and keep shouting for 4+ hours.

And I should mention, you cvant get rick outside D Y Patil Stadium, bus, if lucky and train, well, is there any direct bus to Andheri or Boriwali? Nah! After 11.30 you cant get any train!!! Not even to CST!!!

Wait, am I Marathi? NO! But I’m proud Pune supporter :P

The 2 'C's and patroitism

On second April 2011, we won the World Cup, that golden trophy we have all waited for, soooooo long! No words to describe the feeling. After that six whole Mumbai turned into Diwali place, fire crakers, hugs all around, doesnt matter you know the person or not, you are all Indians so a hug to banta hai!!!

We forgot everything, how irresponsible the team is, how arrogant, the lose in 2003 final, being kicked out by Bangers 4 years back, now it doesnt matter, we are the World Champions!!! We defeated Aussies, and then the Pakis, finally dear neighbours and then emotional wave across India, people calling and texting, facebook full of status updates!!!

Cricket was the common link between all of us, where else can you find 1 Crore people doing same thing? Feeling same way?

And everybody from 12 year old to 82 decided to fight against corruption and support Anna Hazare, this was fight against Corruption that united us all.
India was once again a united country with everyone feeling the same, wanting a better system where there is no corruption, no controversy, no critics saying crap about country that we belong to!

But how long will that wave remain? No idea :(
JAI HO!!!

Holi and BLACKCAPS

So, my favourite team was here, at Mumbai, and Holi, the festival of color didnt leave out anyone, the team enjoyed maybe their first Holi in a way noone would like to forget. As cricket is not just about scoring runs and getting wickets, its about developing the team spirit and global friendship, ha ha, Blackcaps dont sledge anyways :P

When Southee saved us...

When was the last you saw a team scoring 200+ in T20 and still getting defeated?
It was Yuvraj going crazy on his birthday and we chased down 215 successfully vs The Lankans.

Another day was in New Zealand, Brendon McCullum, the danger man was on his usual smashing form, smashing every ball outta park, Tait and co frustrated, the scoop, the square cut, every shot was adding to Australia's tension!

It came down to last over, a T20 opener batting there till 2oth over? With his brother on other side, Nathan was tring hard to give strike to Brendon, so that Brendon can get past Gayle's record of 117 in T20 Internationals, Brendon was 1 run short, but never mind, he was 116*

All of us knew strengths of Aus team, they can get any damn score, they just dont give up. 214 is nothing if they are on fire.
So, we got 214 with Dan and Southee yet to bat, Bond bowled well to keep economy low, but rest of our bowlers were still getting smashed.

It came down to 82 from 36
66 from 30
49 from 24
36 from 18

And now Dan and co were tensed, 3 overs left, who should bowl, what should be done, Nathan has already given 17 off 6 balls, Franklin and Oram dont know what Aussie batters are doing, Dan is done with his overs! And so is Bond.

Southee was given next over, guess what, he gave just a run per ball, funny he didnt leak runs, he aint Bond, he is a new comer! He just played in our Under 19 WC team but he is barely 20!!!

Now this was close
30 off 12

Oram couldnt do justice, gave away 18 in an over and we Kiwi fans were again disapponited :(

Southee, the saver, Aus needed 12 off last and looking at past overs they will get it, guess what, Southee did let go just one boundary and ran out Carkie to make sure they dont get last run,

214 - 6 Nz
214-4 Aus

And the SUPER OVER

Whom to be trusted? Southee, of course! He had the ball and Aus sent its two top quality batters (all of their batters are top quality anyways)

2 1 0 W 1 2
Aus 6-1

Baz came to open with Guppy
But any run Baz gets here will not be added to his total :(

Bowler being Tait, the danger man

1 wd 1 wd FOUR
And Nz was 9-0 after 4 balls

They say game is tied, but its not, we have won the points and so tied the series 1-1
Southee saved the team when noone else was able to.

New comers can do a lot, now he is inevitable part of our team, noone can replace him! He is just 22 but he is worth the place, Baz knows Southee is equally creditable for the win. Without Baz we could never had that many runs, without Southee we could have never kept it so tight, without Dan, Southee wouldnt have got hat last over, his talent could have been never found and without this team effort, we could have not won!

Thanks Aus for finding this gem for us :)


Baz's inning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Qa17dzhwM

Southee's last over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghg_Dparjcg&feature=related


Do thank the people that have uploaded this, I just found, these are not mine :D

And you cant get away with it!

As a Blackcaps fan, it will be totally bitter for me to mention this post, but I should, because I’m a management student and Ethics is something we would all need to deal with, at some point of time.

So, to sum up, it’s a real story about a team, trying to win by unfair tactics, but losing everything in the end.

It was 2008, Blackcaps toured England, the NATWEST series, umm National Bank Series? 5 Match ODI

Eng won first one, second was washed out, Nz won third, so series evenly balanced, and then this low scoring match, when we needed almost run a ball with just 5 wickets left, there was a dot ball, Grant Elliott was batting with Kyle Mills, Elliott being only recognized batsman for us, Kylie can hit, but he will? We all doubt (Well he did)

So, the ball was bowled, didn’t go anywhere far, no chance for a run, but Kylie called Elliott for a single, Mills reached the second end and Elliott collided with English fast bowler Ryan Sidebottom, weird name, but okay bowler, Ryan elbowed Elliott and both of them fell down, Elliott got up and ran to other end only to find KP (Kevin Pietersen) removing the bails and then the bigh question…

Umpires asked then captain Paul Collingwood to think over it, a collision, does he want to appeal for run out?

Collyu didn’t think twice and they appealed, Elliott, our last hope was gone, for first time I saw fire and aggression in Blackcaps dressing room, they are gentlemen, but this reaction was obvious. Everybody shocked at Colly’s decision, me, cursing the Colly/Sidey and feeling sorry for Elliott who was really trying hard and he was not at fault at all.

Millsy was trying to talk with umpire, no use. The rain that washed our game, we were so close, and then this unfair treatment, we were alls ad and disappointed.

It came down to last ball, Colly himself bolwed last over when we needed more than run a ball.

Millsy brought us close, made sure we are not bowled in before 50 overs, he did hit Colly for a six after so many trials, he aint Sehwag, he is our genuine fast bowler!

And then it came to series of dot balls at Gillsipie, how can he get runs, he is No.11, this aint his job, but what option do we have?

Finally when we needed 2 off last ball, I was in mixed state of mind, “We wont win, how can he get 2 off this ball, he cant ball, he can only defend”

“We will win, why not? We have worked hard, we have come close, how can I be negative? I’m a Blackcaps fan”

And he did touch the ball with his bat, didn’t go far enough, no single possible, but they ran, and then a GIFT

OVERTHROW!!! Overthrow by English lads, 3 men behind stumps, bowler, Luke Wright, KP and don’t know who all, but they all missed it, ball went ahead when they attempted to run out Gillispie, and we got second run!

My, oh my, what a victory!

We won on last ball with 0 wickets left! Look at the expression of New Zealand dressing room, everyone shouting, as if they are all 17 year old teenagers, or gangsters?

But we rule! We won the series, Colly admitted having made wrong decision, but we don’t have any grudges against him J

Honesty wins!!!

The K Factor

No its not Ekta Kapoor, its our Kevin O’Brien! So before you all ask me how Kevin is ours, I can tell you that most cricket followers support a minnow team or a team ranked lower as compared to its opponent, same was the case with England, England is test playing nation, invented cricket and they now look so confused and lost, they need a guide maybe, anybody with nice resume?

So, coming back to topic, KO was in best form that evening, England gave them a tough target to get, 5 down for just 100, no one believed Ireland can get remaining 220+ with just 5 wickets left, but cricket fans that have watched Ireland play in T20 WC know what the O’Brien brothers are capable of! KO stands next to his brother, at slip, taking awesome catches, the pinkhead is a mystery because how times have we played vs Ireland? 3? 4? What can you know about a batter in that short time!

So, the pinkhead decided to take the game away from England, honestly, they were not winning anyways, less than run a ball and just 5 wickets left, if you look for partnerships you get required run rate climbing up and up and then beyond reach, KO just wanted someone to support him at other end and give the English bowlers a taste of Ireland tadka!

For the biggest upset in this WC, our dear pinkhead played inning of his life, so what they didnt make it to quarter finals, they did leave a mark!

GO IRISH!