World Cup- Bangladesh V Ireland- 25th February

The Bangladesh cricket fan has got a sharp sense of memory. If on the opening day of the World Cup they were never shy of reminding India of 2007 then today they were literally whooping for revenge on the Irish, for the defeat inflicted on them in the same World Cup

You would not be mistaken if you thought you entered a boxing arena or a staged WWE arena going by the din at the ground today. It has become a popular phrase for the Indian Test team to describe the partisan home crowd as their invisible twelfth man. Bangladesh can also say the same about the Mirpur crowd

But it wasn’t all rosy going for the home team. The batting was a collective failure today and the partnership between Rahim and Raqibul gave not only some respect but also something for the bowlers to bowl at. Tamim started off in his customary aggressive fashion and it was his wicket that sparked the collapse

The fielding and the bowling of the Ireland team improved as the match went on. Dockrell impressed of all the bowlers and Rankin was dishing out freebies that Bangladesh capitalised on

Perhaps the players themselves were egged on by the pin in the battle as their exaggerated celebrations on wickets showed. Naeem would be lucky if he did not attract some fine for the way he celebrated a wicket

The batting of Ireland showed up what exactly ails the Associate nations- stomach for a fight or rather diplomatically put, experience in tougher conditions. They stuttered but were then controlled by a partnership between the O’Brien brothers and then the dismissal of Kevin combusted the innings in such a way that it lasted till the end. Whereas the bigger countries tend to rely on four to five players, it is only limited to a couple of players for the associates

The good thing for Bangladesh is that they are still in hunt for the quarter-final berth and with the advantage of playing all their matches at home and also the quarter-final if they don’t face Sri Lanka, Bangladesh have a good chance of making it big with the ‘invisible twelfth man’

Comments

Enthiran

There was a time , when I was a Chiranjeevi fan, to an extent that I even defended his flop movies such as Rickshavodu, Big Boss and others of the same ilk. For me he was was the ultimate star- the superstar. And hearing tales of Amitabh Bachchan from my father did nothing to alter my views on Chiranjeevi's superstardom Towards the end of my graduation, that is circa 2005 in April, two movies released- Mumbai Express and Chandramukhi. I went to Mumbai Express for the first day first show and was not impressed. Rajnikanth, coming off a colossal flop called Baba and Chandramukhi was touted to be his comeback vehicle. Since we had nothing to do, we dragged ourselves to Chandramukhi and I was impressed with the fact that as a superstar, he allowed the female protagonist to run away with the credit Well when Sivaji released, I got to see Rajni mania first hand and what a sight it was! I was in Bangalore and there was a serpentine queue to procure the tickets. The sheer ...

Who is Shane Watson?

There is a dialogue in the novel Atlas Shrugged , which goes like this “If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders-what would you tell him to do?" "I . . . don't know. What . . . could he do? What would you tell him?" "To shrug." You would not be mistaken if you can put Shane Watson in the place of Atlas in the above dialogue, just that as an Australian fan you would not want him to shrug It became more apparent from yesterday's match that Watson is the premier Australian cricketer now. That's quite an achievement from where he found himself in the early and middle part's of the last decade Watson was basically hyped up as the next all-rounder for Australia as soon as he en...

Jab Harry met Sejal

I am writing this after Shahrukh Khan came out of the box-office rut with a movie called “Pathaan”. I am writing this about a movie that contributed to the box-office rut; Jab Harry met Sejal. What can you say about the movie that’s unsaid? It’s an Imtiaz Ali movie. It will showcase travel. It will have the protagonists mouthing philosophical dialogues about love, life and relationships. It will have the protagonists “finding themselves” during the journey. Shahrukh Khan and Anushka Sharma put in earnest efforts in the movie, but the movie lets them down. While I was watching the movie, the person next to me (who wasn’t even watching) asked if Anushka Sharma was playing a Gujarati in the movie. That in my eyes is Anushka Sharma nailing her bit. The problem with the movie isn’t the premise but how the director deviates from the premise often. While it may be deliberate, it does seem that the director wants to leave his “signature”. At times, the mo...

Apocryphal Stories !!!

Search This Blog