One of my friends, Manda Srinivas seen on TV9 today protesting for Telangana at Warangal.

One of my friends, Manda Srinivas seen on TV9 today protesting for Telangana at Hanamkonda, Warangal.

India makes a strong statement in its WC opener

India makes a strong statement to the teams participating in WC 2011 with an impressive win over Bangladesh at Mirpur in its first league match today.

Though the pitch appeared to have prepared for a batsmen friendly, Bangladesh decided to put the opposition in as they won the toss considering the due factor that comes into play in the second innings of the match.

With the result is out, I think now that they should have evaluated the pressure against the score board vs the due factor that comes.

Especially when playing against a strong country like INDIA, they should not have given more weight to the Pressure on the score board that India could put.

The conditions right from the word go, favored Batsmen. The opening duo Sachin and Sehwag utilized them for the best of the team.  The score board was hopping at it’s ever best.

A good indication was, Sachin found his feet moving at their best. Sehwag too was in a bright form.

When it appeared that only a self -mistake can separate the duo, we lost Sachin to a run-out.

Gambir was too at his best until he fell for a decent spin delivery.

Virat was a class act as usual. The best part of his innings was, he never came under the influence of Sehwag. He was playing his shots within his strengths to complete his first century in the WC.

Sehwag’s innings scared many a sachin’s fans like me as he was nearing to a double but it was at 175, he lost his wicket.

India concluded it’s innings at 370.

Bangladesh started well and continued to be well all the way. Especially the batsmen showed their courage and made a statement to the world of cricket that they are no more cubs… they have immense talented people in the team.

I liked the way they tried to come close to the target.

Indian bowling too was good except Sreeshanth, who is a bit off-colored.

A bit concern to be given for the Indians is on the extras being given. It contributed 24 in the match and really a cause of concern especially in big matches that are coming.

Munaf was excellent with his line and length, which rewarded him with 4 wickets.

Zaheer was too impressive so as Harbhajan, who is after a long time, coming closure to his best of late.

Over all, Fighting Bangla and hot Indians and off-colored Sreeshanth were the real features of the match in which Sehwag was declared “man of the match”.

Pictures courtesy: ESPN

A disappointing win by INDIA , review on the practice match between IND and AUS

Before to the practice match between India and Australia match, I was excited to see the Indian Cricket team’s  preparation for the forth coming mega tournament WC.

We won the toss and elected to bat first. I was surprised to see the pitch report. This pitch was amazingly changed. As Sanjay Manjrekar and Ian Chappell were doing the pitch analysis, I could not believe if we are in INDIA or in AUS.

First time, a pitch in INDIA laid to suit the fast bowling and batting. (For batting only if you can apply your skills.)

As Sehwag and Gambhir were walking in, I never got confidence for the first time in Gambhir. Like I felt, he lost his wicket in the early stage of the innings.

Sehwag was out of strike for most of his time at the crease for the first 5 overs at least. The strike was kept by Kohli, who looked confident and was making some strokes. But at the same time, Sehwag was not happy at the non-striker’s end.

A couple of times, he was running for a no-run putting himself, INDIA in trouble.

Though Sehwag scored a half-century, he was never a old batsman. He could not time the ball well until he started middling in his second half of his innings.

I thought Sehwag was eyeing to play a long innings and as part of that plan he cut-down the shots.

Australians were good in their bowling and looked to be ready for the challenge.

Our batsmen were never on the button.

There were a lots of run out chances missed (lucky for us). There seem to Indians were never ready for the challenge. They need to be a little more serious particularly when it comes for the running between the wickets. The lack of communication between the batsmen were one of the concern seen in the last match.

As long as we are winning, fingers never point towards Dhoni but can you guys tell were you able to see old Dhoni or at least batsman Dhoni of late? At least I could not get a sign on him working hard in the future too. Of course he is working hard but not in the cricket ground it is in the ad-film making. He needs to be more responsible. Too much are the advertises, too less are the performances..

Yuvi’s out was really a result of an outstanding effort from Michelle Johnson.

All the other Indian batsman were lazy... No one cared about their wicket except for a few in the tail.

Especially Suresh Raina needs big lessons to learn. I don’t know why he is not been able to learn from his past experiences. There would be 2 places to claim from 3 players in the final 11 with Sachin coming into.

Those 3 players are Kohli, Yusuf Pathan and Raina. With the kind of form they are in, I guess for Raina, it would definitely a dream remain for him to be in the final 11.

Looks like the pitches have been improved at Bangalore to support fast bowling. Surprised to see such a pitch in India. Good job done by Bangalore cricket board. Australians utilized the bowling conditions well and applied themselves to extract the maximum from the pitch.

Indians have shown problems with the short pitch deliveries. And Australians definitely have got plans for the Indian Batman

The game plan for Australians was to bowl short-pitch deliveries and they executed it well. Consistent short pitched deliveries troubled Indians.

Ashwin and Yusuf shown determination, guts and maturity to extend the innings,  which lacked with the other players.

Tail that followed too demonstrates the batting to the top order on a tough pitch

Though we won the match with the amazing spinning abilities of the Indians, there is something which is still pricking in a common Indian fan, are we losing out our best strength, Batting.

It’s the time to the management and players go back and re assess what went wrong and work on the area of improvements.

The pic was taken while Siddhi was seriously watching the practice match

Rash Driving of Satyabham University Bus Drivers in Chennai

Today I was coming to office in the afternoon. By 03:20 (approx), I was at Kathiparah Junction's signal at Olympia Tech Park. The signal was open and still 27 seconds were left. I saw the green 27 at the signal and was coming cool on 40. I usually do not cross 60 in any situation on bike.

All of a sudden I saw in my left mirror a bus coming with super speed right behind me. Because there was a right at the signal, I was maintaining my path to the middle of the road.

I was shocked with the speed of the bus and was about to adjust my speed and the way to get away from the bus and I had to do that with no time left.

The bus passed rocketing from my left and I could not believe that I was safe and I could hear my heart beating very clearly.

As the bus was crossed me, right in front of the main gate of Olympia Tech Park, there was a bike with two people on it was on the road with a decent acceptable fast. The road was cramped for space coz, there has been the metro train work happening. If you are familiar to the area I mentioned, you would know that this is not be a right place for over taking.

The bus crossed the motorist from his left with high speed and they remain clue - less for some time.

I was really angry and want to note down the number of the bus and if possible to speak to the bus driver. Though it was a narrow road, on my bike with my top speed, I could not get to the front of the bus.

Finally I happened to see the glimpse of he driver. He is into his early 20s.

As my office is at Ekattuthagal, I had to stop chasing the bus at Kasi Theater bridge but noted the bus number. It is TN 22 BX 8088. The number marked on top of the rear mirror was 21. The bus belongs to Satyabhama University. The students were enjoying in the bus sitting on the foot board with the head phones on.

As soon as I came to office, I called “just dial” for Satyabhama University numbers and got them.

I called up the numbers and finally after a series of calls, I happened to speak to the person in charge.

Each time I called up different number I had to explain the problem right from the beginning.

When the person in charge picked up, while I was explaining the problem to him, he was much reluctant and finally I told him to take some action on the driver so next time people on the road are safe. He told me in a sarcastic way that he will take care of this issue.

The way he answered me really irritated me and wanted to bring this issue to the next level. I called up again Just Dial for Times of India News Paper, Chennai. Explained the issue and the response I got to the Business Editor of TOI.

The business editor took my number and said he will pass my number to the City crime bureau.

Finally, it is not a open ground for the young drivers of Satyabhama University to practice on. They can’t play with the lives of the people on the road.

Polio drops needed for the system

A news that came in tv9 today was really heart breaking.

A 5 month old little girl dies off improperly handled polio drops in Krishna district of andhrapradesh and more than 30 are judged critical. A similar news came a couple of days back from Tamilnadu.

When the officials and the doctors are not capable enough to handle such a simple vaccine properly, not sure why they have to be part of the program.

It's all good for some officials, who get their bank balance increased very soon and the people, doctors and officials responsible for this resume normal life but think about the parents, who lost their cute little one and the pain they are going through.

Don't you feel the system should change?

INDIA clinches yet another nail-biting one dayer

India wins yet another nail-biting match against SA and takes the lead of 2-1 in the on-going ODI series.

Harbhajan, Nehra took the match to the final overs and ensured India is home with almost 2 overs to spare.

Yusuf starred the Indian innings with 59(50) with 3 sixes and 6 boundaries. He also took 1 wicket.

Earlier, Zaheer was impressive with his imaculate line and length and his impressive first spell itself set the SA on the back foot.

The debutant from SA, du Plussas made an impressive 60 and was the top run scorer for SA in the current match.

The man of the match for today's game was an obvious choice, Yusuf for his alround performance.

Pic-- curtosy: Ten Cricket

Mrapakai Losts it's Spice

Definitely this “Mirapakai” lost the spiciness of Raviteja.

As always “Maas Maharaj” Ravi Teja did his best in the movie. The only feeling I have is that the film is lacking the comedy as expected out of Ravi’s films.

Sunil’s role does not add any value to the comedy in the film.

The screen play is good so as the heroines. Ravi is seen powerful in the police officer role but at times, he is seen tired, could be because of the hectic schedules of the film making.

Music is good but not to the extent that audience could hum as they come out of the film except for the title song.

Twist towards the end of the story on Bramhaji’s role made us sit till to the end of the movie.

Over all, this is a 50 day movie but not a 100 day one and scores 3 on 5 scale according to me but is much much better than “Anaganagaa Oka Dheerudu”.

WC 2011 Squad --The News is Out

FInally, the news is out... Chief Selector for BCCI, Chris. Srikanth announced the squad for the world cup for INDIA with some surprises and some compramises in it

The team looks like this.

1. MSD(Captain / WK)
2. Sehwag (VC)
3. Sachin
4. Gambhir
5. Yuvi
6. Virat Kohli
7. Suresh Raina
8. Harbhajan
9. Yusuf Pathan
10. Zaheer
11. Praveen Kumar
12. Munaf
13. Nehra
14. Piyush
15. Ashwin

The players left out : Sreeshanth, Rohit, Parthiv, Ishanth

Surprises:
                1. Rohit has been left out.
                2. Considering 3rd Spinner by taking in Piyush
                3. No backup / reserve wicket keeper in the team (either Parthiv or Dinesh)

Cause of concerns:

               1. No pace bowler, other than Zaheer Khan looks like who can bowl in the slog overs.
               2. having no Reserve wicket keeper in the team, can be fetal if MSD gets injured
               3. The current of injuries for the players who are in the squad

I guess the selectors have taken the luxury in the spin department while compramising on the batting department. It indirectly indicates that the team will get the spinning tracks or the kind of tracks they wanted during the up coming WC.

Also this luxury is needed as we don't have a powerful 5th bowler, who can take wickets in the middle overs and our 5th bowling options do't seem to be effective enough to take the wickets. For the same reason, we were able to take quick wickets in the initiatal overs but allow the opponent to settle down and establish huge partnerships in the middle overs.

Except for un availability of reserve wicket keeper, the team satisfies all of the parameters of the game.

Let's hope how this team help Sachin fulfill his dream of winning home the worldcup.

All the best TEAM INDIA.

My Team for WC 2011

The news flashed on the news channels sometime back that India to announce it's WC squad tomorrow in Chennai....

Before the list could come up, I just want to check my skill of selecting the team for WC-2011.

Out of the 15 berths almost 12 berths are confirmed accrding to me.

1. Sachin
2. Sehwag
3. Gambhir
4. Virat Kohli
5. Yuvraj Singh
6. Suresh Raina
7. MSD
8. Harbhajan
9. Zaheer
10. Nehra
11. Ishanth
12. Yusuf Pathan
13. Pragyan Ojha
14. Munaf
15. Rohit Sharma
Possible surprise entry: Irfan Pathan.

For Opening slot I choose 3 players: Sachin, Sehwag,Gambhir (one of them as a backup also all of them are brilliant in any slot if needed)

Kohli will be at No.3 based on his recent phenominal performances. He is probably the best No.3 for any country at the moment.

Yuvi followed by Raina and MSD makes it a good sequence.

Until now we have 7 speialist batsman in the team.

I feel adding Rohith Sarma to the squad makes it a Plus in both ways. He is a good batsman and can share the attack as a 5th bowler. For the same reason, I want to add Yusuf Pathan too.

On a sub-continent conditions, if we need a specialist spinning capability to share the attack with Harbhajan, We have 2 options. Piyush Shawla and Ojha but I recommend Pragyan Ojha based on his spinning capabilities and the exposure in the international arena.

The seemers slots are a bit tricky. As of now we have 5 contenders for 4 slots.

Zaheer, whose palce is un questioned. Next comes is Nehra. He has done well with the new ball in the recent past and so can never be ignored.

Ishanth and Sreeshath. To share the new ball attack with Zaheer, Ishanth or Munaf is best compared to Sreeshanth. We are definetely lacking and could not find a fast bowling alrounder for INDIA after Kapil Dev. There can be a surprise entry for Irfan Pathan.

Let me check how good I am as a selector tomorrow.

Bad experience at RTO, meenambakkam, Chennai

Very recently I had been to RTO office at meenambakkam, Chennai for an address change on my drivers licence.

My previous address was Keelkattalai and the new one is too Keelkattalai.

The moment I had been to the counter, the person over there mentioned that they moved my areas' location to Tambaram recently. He was explaining this to me in Tamil.

I could understand Tamil but just to re-confirm, I asked him in English.

He then wanted me to talk to his supervisor, who sits in the next counter.

This guy in particular wanted me to talk in Tamil. I replied to him that I am comfortable in English but he told me firmly that it is only when I speak in Tamil, they can help me. Even after a couple of requests from my side, they were insisting me to speak only in Tamil for any information.

I had to try my little Tamil to satisfy their ego for the info. I need.

Question to be answered here is...what if I don't know Tamil. Also, they need to know that people from Tamilnadu stay in other parts of India and its nowhere heard about they being harassed like this....

People from Tamilnadu...just wake-up... We are first Indians then someone else....

Definition of humanity and civilization from 2012

Last night, I along with my family watched 2012 movie for the first time in HBO, which got telecasted by 11:30 PM.

The movie was really scary but more than the scary truth that the movie is intended for, I like a couple of dialogues from it.

When one of the character fights for the people, who are denied to board the survior ships, he says the below;

1. The moment we stop fighting for others, it's the end of humanity.

2. The humanity is to care for others and the civilization is working together to build a better life

Not sure if these are the exact words but they carry the same essence.

Let's be a real human and be more civilized....

Anaganaga Oka Dheerudu Review

By Seeing wonderfully created trailer, I was so pround to have a telugu film, which seems like a hollywood film.

Even what made me excited is the Walt Disney's tag with the film.

We booked the ticket on the very first day at Mayajal, Chennai.

I was waiting at the entrance of the screen for the previous show to finish. I was curios as the door opened and was watching the faces of the people coming out.

I could see hardly someone with a smile on the face. Also the fact that stunned me was the count of the people. Hardly there were 20 to 30.

From the moment the movie started, I was waiting for that Jhalak of the graphics and the touch of Disney. The story was an old one but the way that was shown was sick.

It appeared that becasue they could do some graphics, they started on a project not becasue, they have a story.

The graphics did not come to elevate the story. They just came to prove that the unit can do graphics.

Yodha (Siddharth) never looked like a real fighter in the movie. He was just a plain young man, who was lacking the toughness of the character.

For Sruthi hasan, this film does not add any valule to her career. She is in becasue the movie needs a heroine.

This is a major break only for Manchu Prasanna Lakshmi. Her acting skills are good for a debutant but still needs a fine tuned modulation in the dailogue delivery.

Coming to the debutant director,Prakash, who is the son of a great veteran, Raghavandra Rao scores only 50%.

Towards the end of the story, the creative director / Creative unit failed to visualize "Maha Sapam"(The big snake). Considering the level of graphics that we have in the film, the one that they showed us proves the point that they were actually lacking ideas.

Coming to the music, no one remembers the songs once out of the theater. In fact, for most of the songs, people were managing their mobiles and kids.

Fights,  I don't know what fights did the hollywood fight masters composed but it's all regular fights in the movie... In fact in some of the ordinary ran movies have much better fights.

Over all, a big disappointment from Disney and Raghavender Rao... Out of 5, the score stands at 2 for the movie.

Sachin Takes himself off from current SA ODI Series

Sachin takes himself off from the current ODI series with a hamstring. Definetely, INDIAN chances on winning the series get an impact with this.

Parthiv Patel will be replacing Sachin in the team.

Also it is a bad news that the Indians now left with only 1 regular opening batsman, Vijay Murali, who looks off color in the on-going series.

Sachin joins the injured players list with Shewag, Gambheer, Praveen who are already part of it.

With WC starting soon in the sub-continent, the news above will definetely is hurting an indian fan.