Bhains Ki Taang, We Won!!!

It was the Great Indian Wet Dream, having an India-Pakistan WorldCup final, and surely proved to be one. Starting with the resolution this tournament has been quite up on its sex quotient. This was twenty twenty is all about, its what Sex and Violence do to frigid cinema, its all about adding that extra much needed masala to a great game going through its worst phase after a uber-boring World Cup and suppa-disappointing Champion's Trophy last year.

It hits back badly on purists, most notably the well known Greg Chappell, last employed on the post of decimator of Indian Cricket Team, the one who thought Tendulkar lacked attitude and skill, Pathan is always low on confidence and I won't mention what he did to my favourite cricketer Dada. According to that guy this is just hitting, I just pity him now that this team which doesn't include his favourite player Suresh Raina (wtf) won the world Cup without the coach.

Match Day

Superstitions, a Mallu Star, a Mazdur and a back in Form Pathan

Venue- Quark's Den
Edibles- Veg Puffs, thums Up, Some Desi Namkeen, Some Haldiram stuff and those cheesy chips by Lays (which give me a nauseating hit)

Match started on a poor note, our Match routine which involved,

• a can of Kingfisher for the quark.
• a bottle of Knock Out again for quark.
• a bottle of Fosters/Budweiser for Daisy. ( no Fosters in Australian Match)
• Mast Mirchi Bhajji worth Rs.15.00

was missing. As if this was not enough our sitting arrangements were much more varied then the previous ones and I think that lead ton India's debacle.

Although the Pakistani Bowling was superb. Main mast moments were the opening sequence(run out appeal against Yusuf Pathan), six hit again by him and Rohit Sharma's mast knock. I like this guy because his favourite dish is Kanda Poha which his family was telling the recipe on AajTak. I love Poha(also called Pouva someweher). Just one of many reasons why I simply adore Shara-Pova ;-)...

The second one was the real thing, RP was up right from the word go, it just took an innovative profanity(read Mayawati ka Bhai) to generate that spark and make him pick up the first wicket.

Sreesanth according to me was the real match winner for us, offlate we have compared him to a dangai (rowdy or something, the one involved actively in riots) who can't even throw stones properly. They are all over the place. The Mallu Star is as unpredictable as one could get. Ok he is a match winner if can bowl well, but that rarely happens as it happened against Australia. But I don't really see him out of the team too. surely we have next Ajit Agarkar ready.

Anyway in case these kinds of bowlers are more popularly known as Rhythm bowlers, who bowl when they are Rhythm, utter crap, even I can bowl 6 yorkers an over if I am in Rhythm. Also I think Agression is OK as long as you have stuff within, a samosa without aloo can't even become a papdi.

So such a bowler didn't even hear to all the profanities flying all around the room like charms were in Howgarts (refer final few chapters The Deathly Hallows). In came a new idea to call on Sankatmochan and a round of Hanauman Chalisa brought calm and produced a maiden and another good over.

Similar chants were fixed for each and every bowler,

• Irfan- Jai Dada, with dashes of Jai Dona-Dada
• Sreesanth- Hanuman Chalisa
• Bhajji- Nothing really worked, we tried everything from Jai Siddhu to Jai Monty Panessar to Jai Bhajji himself.
• Joginder- Main Mazdur mujhe devo ki basti se kya- "Ramdhari Singh Dinkar". Refer Bal Bharti NCERT, Class VII. It seems people identified him as a Mazdur from that poem.
  

We were damn superstitious with sitting arrangements fixed, a particular person locked inside a room and me diving at every lofted bowl to the foot of TV stand.

Anyway all this crap somehow worked till the deadly bhajji over and then it were the Indians who won the game. Although I should Pakistanis were an awesome side. Misab is surely the new age Miandad (he almost did a name change from Joginder to Chetan...)

The end would have been surely a disastrous one, all the mantras failed in final four overs, so our brave Sreesanth didn't find his Rhythm and jerked of few forgettable ones. He took a wicket later with a sensible one. RP's next over was again a mast one.

Then came the final one, I have backed Joginder throughout this tournament, according to me belongs to the league of Gavin Larsen/Chris Harris kinda bowlers who can suck of the runs in the middle overs for opposition by their slow line length bowling. Although when his first wide happened, I thought its over, and then a six and it WAS over.

The End couldn't have been this bigger, bigger than the Jim Morrison the end or a Hindi Cinema The End. Or much ironical as Sreesanth held on to an awesome catch (whatever it be it was still awesome for me). In the words of one of my friends company mate,

Misbah thought he was sending the ball to a place where there was no one. He did not know that there is a Malayali in every corner of the world!!!

Anyhow no qualms against Sreesanth as of now, he is the part of the best cricketing moment we ever witnessed. Pathan's comeback has been the most delightful thing which happened, amazing comeback to prove his strength as a bowler and fowl all attempts made by Chappel to destroy his career. Also RP has been awesome throughout the tournament. all in all our bowling looked nice and quite non-scrappy.

What we witnessed was the Best Blue Film ever with 11 Men in Blue completely You-Know-What the pakistanis...

Post Match

It was surreal, completely unbelievable, we were dancing, hugging each other, the neighbours and their kids came out to the balconies, everyone was dancing running around, firecrakcers all around, millions of SMS's being sent around. And when Dhoni lifted the Cup, it was just so GREAT.

Shoaib Malik's post match comments etc...hmm, they were extremely disappointingly. I won't reiterate the same but with so much ire back home it must have been something to avoid it. Pakistan has always been my favourite team when it comes to any tournament (obviously after India) and the only thing I sometimes not so like about them is the importance religion takes in the proceedings. Cricket is the last thing we want to be hampered by such differences. Also I think that it would be better if players are allowed to speak in language of their own choice, it avoids confusion and players can speak out what they feel properly. With Ravi Shastri up their a normal conversation could have been struck and maybe what Shoaib actually wanted to say would have been much more clearer. Even French, Russians, Chinese etc. do it in every game, I think Cricket should get past its colonial hangover of English usage.

Aur Main Ban Gaya Dhoni!!!

Dhoni is here to stay, after Dada he looks the only guy who suits the job. Dravid's captaincy should be forgotten as a pathetic phase in Indian Cricket(though I don't have anything against Dravid the batsman). Dhoni is calm on field, he TALKS, shows less of emotional jhol jhaal, has loads of ads under his tummy (he too has one) and quite unlike most of the Captain brigade he is much more fit.

He has lead India to its greatest victory after 83 world Cup, the first big Indian victory in my life span and many others. Add to that the batting by Yuvraj and comeback of Pathan and you egt the best three things to India this World Cup.

What Next???

Nothing let us roll our Aussies in India, about Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar I won't comment much, but for people already starting to shout in favour me not so much in agreement with them.

All in all a great victory and a moment to cherish throughout our lifetime. But all this makes the next year for me and few of my friends so much difficult following celibacy as fallout of the victory.

Never mind anything for the country...:)


Pics from WorldTwentyTwenty

Technorati Tags: Cricket, TwentyTwentyWorldCup, Final, India, Pakistan, Dhoni

Shoaib Malik and his remarks

First of all, I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world,” Malik said at the awards ceremony on Monday night.

This comment cannot be attributed to the poor english of the pakistani captain but this was intentional.

Islamist pakistani cricket team this is what I can interpret from this statement. Earlier the team under Inzy used to show its religious side by praying on the field and doing other Islamic rituals but now they have openly declared that they only play for Islam.

How will Dinesh Kaneria , Iftikar Rao and other not Muslim players react to this i don't know. Above all this statement has shown that sentiments of people of other religions who support their cricket team have no value.

Shoaib Malik your please remember that India has more Muslims that your country. Though there is no gainsaying that many muslims in India support the pakistani cricket team. Many time my colleagues who stay near Jama Masjid area have told me how the muslims play crackers when India looses. When Pakistan defeated the NZ in the semis sweets were distributed in the area. When you congratulate a Muslim (not all but there are few like this) on India victory they will feel sad.

But I reckon these unpatriotic people to be very few in India the supporters of the India will be far more then those not supporting.

This islamic sentiments and jehadi feelings will surely lead the whole pakistan to doom few years down the line. You don't have a political stability you allow militants to grow in your county. Though under General Pervez your country has grown because of his dictatorship but the same militants who were allowed to grow as they had to attacks other nations will attack your country in few years and spell doom.

You represent your self as a Islamist first not as a pakistani and this is the real difference between you and us. (Chak De !!!) The Indian team members see themselves as Indian first then from different states and the religion would be the least in their mind I am sure.

Cricket Unites India and Cricket has now Divided the unsecularized Pakistan

Hail the Team and Hail the Indians

Technorati Tags
Twenty20 T20 WorldCup SouthAfrica Pakistan India Islam ShoaibMalik

Awards Now

Awards are being announced each hour since the team won the World Cup. Apart from the hefty cash prize by the ICC prizes are pouring in from all the corners of India.

• My state government (Haryana) has been the most generous announcing 21 Lakhs for Joginder Sharma
• Delhi lads Gambhir and Sehwag will be given 5 Lakhs each by Delhi Government
• RP Singh 10 Lakhs UP Government
• Sreesant 5 Lakhs
• Agarkar and Rohit Sharma 10 Lakhs each
• Uthappa 5 Lakhs
• Dhoni has been awarded Jharkhand Ratna by his state government

Gujarat CM has not offered any congratulations and not announced any awards because the Pathan brothers are Muslims and his hindu vote bank might be affected in the coming elections.
Tamil Nadu government is also quite because they are busy in launching their channel and agitating against the sethu issue.

Now BCCI has also opened its coffers 2 million dollars for the team and One crore for Yuvraj and a sports car promised by vice president Lalit Modi.

You deserve all this but be generous and give some to Misbah who gave you the cup in the last moment :)

img: cricketNext

India comes to PARTY!!!

ChakDe took another toll on Indian junta as India lifted Inaugural Tournament of World T20 championship.


The contest couldn't be more even...no match would have witnessed more turning points, lesser to mention there couldn't be a final more closer than this. Nobody can single-out an individual effort, as it was an altogether India's party who held their nerve in this there-couldn't-be-more-surprises encounter, and came out victorious & worthy of the occasion.

The bunch of youngsters had their high-time learning moment in South Africa, as the whole world witnessed them coming out of shell under the inspired leadership of Mahinder Singh Dhoni who has helped India reignite that fire that we once saw in Dada's men. Regarded as one of the weakest combination in the tournament, supposedly these boys had nothing to loose. Not only they have defied their critics, the whole nation couldn't be more proud of them as they retained their supremacy over Pakistan twice in the tournament. Shoaib Malik's side who looked like another good team into making after their dismal show in 2007 WC (ala India), showed a better character and were a deserving second-best in the tournament.

Even a 1000 words or 1000 pictures would be less to define this nail-biting encounter between the teams who eliminated (South Africa, Australia) & (New Zealand, Sri Lanka) apiece on their way to the finals. And what a match---where Asif started with his normal routine of taking wickets (Point-to-Mention, Yousuf Pathan got off the mark after hitting him for SIX)---Gambhir composure helped him anchor the innings in the middle order using some lightening footwork---Hafeez restricting Yuvraj (who went without hitting a six today [plus] strike rate < 100)---Gul taking out late scalps with his consistent yorkers---Rohit Sharma again providing a cameo burst of late.

But Dhoni's men meant only business today. Not wanting to be left behind, Pakistan innings witnessed many if-else moments. Rudra was at his nominal best as he got rid of Hafeez n Akmal early---But this doesn't stop Nazir who carried an injury from semis agains NZ and was denied the runner two balls before he was run-out---followed by dollies from Joginder Sharma being left away by Younus before himself giving one to Yousuf Pathan---then some decent shuffling of pace n spin from Irfan Pathan to get rid of Afridi especially (in the same over in which Shoaib Malik also departed)---then came one defining moment when Misbah-Ul-Haq hit Bhajji for 3 sixes in an over followed by Tanvir hitting another 2 off Sreesanth in next over. Dhoni played his trump card with RP Singh bowling penultimate over to reduce Pakistan to 9 wickets followed by Joginder Sharma with only 13 needed off last over. He was hit for a six off full toss and then came that scoop which could have been a four off even Bhajji but with that over pitch delivery from Joginder Sharma sans pace rise high in the air and even cameraman expected it to reach the boundary as he kept his camera high but it landed safely in the hands of Sreesanth who started (rather restarted) the joy among Indian camp as they all celebrated this occasion by doing a lap of honour around the ground carrying Indian flags high.

There couldn't be a better turning point.

The tournament also proved to be fruitful for the comeback trio of Sehwag-Bhajji-Pathan. Now is the time to let go off the fireworks, champagne all around, big hit slogans before it gets down convincingly among Indian camp as they are deservingly crowned as Champions today against a really good show being put up by their neighbours. Hope this win helps India secure a better future of Indian Cricket, as we treasure this one for the rest of our lives (ala Dhoni).

Images: cricinfo
Videos: dipvid
Technorati Tags: India, Pakistan, Twenty20, T20 World Cup

Pen The Game's Resolution

Cricket is back and whatever have been the debates going around this blog all of us want Indian team to go and win the the Twenty-Twenty World Cup. For Indian team to win it has to play, and play better than it has done anytime in the past year. But all we can do is pray.

So all of us at Pen The Game take the resolution that if India wins the Twenty Twenty World Cup, all the members of this blog would follow Celibacy for the next one year. For those who don't understand what this means Celibacy refers to the act of Sexual Abstinence and we are surely doing it if Indian team win the tournament. Ronaldo did it for Football World Cup, and it worked, we are doing it for Cricket and our Country.

Let us all pray for the Indian team in whatever way possible, the evil of Chappell is gone, the days of hope are here.

Go India Go...