A load of crap from an idle brain

3 Asian teams and New Zealand have made it to the semi finals of the ICC World Cup.  No one would have expected such a situation at the begining of the tournament.  Australia was destined to be in the semis and as for South Africa, they have made choking their middle name.  The nail-biting win over India in the group matches was alas, a fluke.

The India – Pakistan semi finals is almost being hyped up to a final.  Wishing that the law of averages catches up with Afridi in the semis.  But they still have enough mavericks in the team to turn the match on its head.

New Zealand is my other favourite apart from India and i would love to see them beat the Lankans, though it would be a tall order for them.  Looking at the way this tournament has progressed, anything is possible though.

May the best team win.

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The Twenty20 Champions League cricket tournament starts off at Bangalore today with a clash between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (India) and Cape Cobras (South Africa) at 2000 IST.

I dont think i need to mention where my loyalties lie.  Go Deccan Chargers Go.

The trophy that the below mentioned teams are playing for; along with the prize money of US$ 2.5 million.

The teams are:

India -  Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils
Australia – New South Wales Blues, VB Victorian Bushrangers
South Africa – Cape Cobras, Diamond Eagles
New Zealand – Otago Volts
Sri Lanka – Wayamba
west Indies – Trinidad & Tobago
England – Sussex, Somerset County Cricket Club.

For comprehensive information about the tournament, go to their official website at clt20.com

All above pictures source: clt20

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Some great news all round. India has taken a series winning 3-0 lead against the Sri Lankans in the 5 match one day series.  Meanwhile, South Africa  humiliated Australia by winning both the one day and test series.  To rub  salt into the wounds, New Zealand forced a win in the first one dayer against Australia on the last ball of the match.

Brad Haddin lived upto his captain’s reputation as a cheater by dislodging the bails with his gloves instead of the ball and had the gall to question Daniel Vettori when his actions were questioned.  Pricky Ricky Ponting followed suit in defending his co-cheatmate.  I was waiting to hear a classic in the lines of

If you are questioning my integrity, then probably you shouldn’t be sitting here.

but, unfortunately no such pearls of wisdom sprouted from Ricky’s mouth this time.  In other news, Ricky Ponting has been asked to rest. Heh.  Great news.  If Australia are really serious about mounting any challenge to South Africa or India, they seriously need to get rid of Ricky as captain.  He’s still a good batsman and commands a place in the team purely on his batting and fielding.  But when it comes to captaincy, he often looks lost when the chips are down.

Roger Federer lost in the finals of the Australian Open and that’s something iam unable to come to terms with.  Rafael Nadal seems to be his achilles heel. Nadal has quickly moved from being a good player on clay to grasscourts too.  So, Federer has lost his monopoly in Wimbledon now having lost to Nadal last year.  Am sure Federer will make a comeback and break Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams, but the delay is the killer.

Watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona last weekend.  Scarlett Johansson is yummy and so is Penelope Cruz.  I still cant get over the evil role of Javier Bardem in No country for old men and had a tough time thinking about him as a casanova in this movie.

Meanwhile, i will have some great 2 weeks starting this sunday.  Biwi ji will join me here in Singapore

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I cant believe my eyes. Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi & Scott Styris for Hyderabad? Faced against real biggies, am amazed at how Deccan Chronicle managed to pull off a coup.

Whoopie. 3 cheers to the Deccan Chronicle Hyderabad team. Honestly, i had no hopes for Hyderabad when pitted against Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya, Priety Zinta, India Cements and Shah Rukh Khan. But this is simply an amazing haul.

Above pictures courtesy: Cricinfo

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