A big T H A N K Y O U !!!

It was a big disservice to the great game when the finals was robbed off by more than 25% of the game because of weather. Then what was the reserve day for?

Is it too much to ask to have some foresight to ensure that the games can be carried forward to the next day to make it a full game of 50 overs each instead of one day slam-bang?

(But to associate foresight and ICC, I must be associating Wolfowitz with ethics!)

The umpires definitely goofed up. Rudi is being offered as the sacrificial lamb at the altar by Crowe. 20 overs is all it takes to call the game and we instruct all tyros about that all the time!

In truth, the happenings in the dark at Kensington oval yesterday was truly the icing on the cake for the most bumbling, administratively painful, least imaginative and probably least-followed world event of any sports. India and Pakistan did not help matters when they were dissociated by the future pretenders much early in the day.

But true cricket fans like you and me, persisted. Watched the game unto unGodly hours; put our backsides on the line with guesses and what not? Hopefully the following list was good enough to whet our appetite:

• Woolmer's untimely demise through poisoning, strangling and Pakistani in-fighting
• Ireland's chicken & ferret dance celebrations; thanks Johnston and Smith...
• Gibbs' million dollar charity event of six-sixes-in-six
• Greg Chappell saying that you can't blame anybody for the Indian debacle!
• Malinga's four-in-four against SA
• Google's April 1st Joke
• Ravi Bopara can become the next big English hope
• Slow-left-arm-spin trio from Bangladesh
• Lara's Powerplay goof-up against South Africa (77 runs in five overs!)
• Exit of Lara, McGrath, Arnold and quite a few others who would announce their retirements sooner than later
• Mahela's strut and that classic innings against the Kiwis
• The gulf between Australia and rest of the world *****

The list can go on for some more...

Sometime back FIDE (that is the ICC equivalent for Chess; almost as inept as ICC) did this for determining the world chess champion. The current winner will wait for a qualifying tournament to throw the challenger to face him. Then he gets to play the challenger and the new champion will thus be crowned.

We can do something similar to that in cricket as well.

Call for a championship without Australia. The winner will be called World Challenger Champion. Then the World Challenger Champion will face Australia in a best-of-three to decide the World Champion.

Simple. Less number of once-sided games. All of Australia's 11 games in WC2k7 have been grossly one-sided. (I have a suspicion that it was the same in WC2K3 as well. Lazy to go and do the checking...) Add the Ireland and Bangladesh games, it was excruciating.

As Kent rightly reminded me of the BeeGees lyrics, all the pretenders had was only one thing: WORDS!
"It's only words, and words are all I have, (to take your heart away . . .)"
But the Aussies had the deeds and they are rightly the hat-trick champions.

More about those commentary box comedians later.

Before I sign-off...

A big thanks to all of you readers, participants, contributors and the family for making this exercise an enjoyable one. For those who know me, getting me to be punctual is an achievement in itself. So, all credit goes to you all for your interest was the one that drove me.

Your feedback & comments are welcome [Pls use the comments feature in the blog itself; email also can]

Until the next one...

Stats, Sobriquets and Numbers...

To start with, let me make your Monday more painful by unleashing some useless stats & non-oscar/non-grammy sobriquets about the pool and the participants...




Now for the situation of the finals... remember there was a bonus of 20.00 available. As reported earlier, Anand Re and Sharath walk away into the sunset with their heads (and purses) held high!

Now for the consolidated final position - Polap the fund manager, made it to the top of the list with some very calculated investments. All his investors are definitely happy. Pity that the fellow was not around for the semis and finals...

My views on the finals and the fiasco that the umpires/officials fostered on us in the next post.

G O L D & G R E E N in the dark!

Congratulations Australia for obliterating everybody.



Thanks to Gilly for showing us - once again - of what he could do.


I lost a mini-bet on whether he would make 200 in the innings!



More about the adminstrative bumblings and the pretentiousness, know-it-all-but-don't-know-s**t nature of the commentators later.



But for now, the winners should bask in the glory and that includes our pool winners as well.


Congrats to Sharath & Anand Re for making it a two-some in the final! There were 26 guessers for the finals. You do the math!



More in next.

P.S. In classic ICC mode, I had said in email just now, that the final status is available on the blog; but then realized that I needed to do some tinkering, which needs a clear head; that can happen only after a few hours sleep. Hold on!

Quiz Ga Ga!

(c) Wikipedia

The answer to the last question is: Farrokh Bulsara aka Freddie Mercury of Queen Fame (Freddie or rather, Queen got into Guinness records for being the most successful album act in UK History - 150+ million copies sold! Courtesy Time - one of the November '06 issues listing the 60 Asian heroes. Funny, that Freddie was classified as Asian/Indian/Parsi etc in that article; but he was trying to enmask his origins through his work all his life!)

Now for the stats of one of the delightful activities that I undertook during this world cup - The "Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia".

Well, people googled, wikipedia-ed, phoned friends, searched books, used computer software, played scrabble, drew pictures, chased butts (er, cigarrette ones, I mean), used four-letter words... what they did not do I believe was not think about cricket!

In all there were 36 questions.

All except two were answered at least by one person. The two that escaped the net were ironically my favourites: Clock hands & REM Connection

The one that was most answered was : Carnatic Ragas (8 got it right)

A total of 20 people participated in the trivia pursuit over the last month and a half and on an average there were four right answers for each question. In all there were more than 150 responses to the questions! Pretty impressive, folks :-)

Now for the WINNERS:


{Drum Rolls Please}



5. Muthiah (with 11 correct answers)
4: Sivasubs (13)
3: Ganesh TCS (13)
[He contributed the Jaguar question & so...]
2: Guru (23)
1. Anand Re (27)

Congratulations to...
Anand - for faithfully hedging his guesses against trivia;
Guru for admitting to cheating when he does so rarely;
Ganesh TCS for never answering the question direct - a reverse question each time (read as more quizzing!);
Sivasubs for thowing in his experiences amongst which was the WW II & association with Syonan Simbun;
Muthiah for the speed with which he could google and
to all of you.

Special mention about Madhuri for being the only lady to have participated in the quiz. She got the scrabble right! [She wanted some question on cooking; but I know only how to eat :-)]

Also, thanks to Ganesh TCS, Rohit and Maanasa for contributing questions to this meaningless-fact-finding-mission!

How did others fare?

Amar, Bhargav, Madhuri, Praveen, SriniK, SVK - 1 each
Peruri, Polap, Sharath - 2 each
Krish, Laks, Malur, Rambo - 3 each
Aditya K, Rohit - 6 each

Have to say, that I had a great time in exercising the limited supply of grey cells everyday.

Oh, by the way, if I have not given credit to your correct answer anywhere, it is entirely my fault. But the standings stay!

Prizes are being bought from the shop.
Will reach you in good time.
So long, And Thanks for All the Fish!!!
(Could not help it! The last line is the title of the fourth book of the Hitchhiker trilogy ;-)

SF#2: What a SAme...

Some problem in the uploading function in Blogger. Hence delayed update today.

All the people who guessed that Australia will win get 2.63 each plus two points. The ones who said SA lose 7.00 ; zero points.

Also, yesterday Xavier was penalized twice for no fault of his. Cut & Paste Error Again.

In the middle of the night, Ian Chappell quoted one of the rock legends (Words, Words, Finally, I have only them! - or something to that effect; was too sleepy anyway. Somebody who knows the group and the actual lyrics can send it to the usual email address for credit in the next post!) to reflect the pain/plight of Graeme Smith.

The match itself was like reading a Robert Ludlum novel - high expectations, cumbersome to start and endure. SA decided to treat us with the language part of that author and not the content part; All of insanity, craziness, zanyness(?) and no suspense, no thrill, no nail-biting finish :-((

Gross mis-conduct on Gros Islet... hmmmm...

ICC can hold its head high by saying that their seedings have worked. Pretty much the top 2 teams at the time of drawing the fixtures have made it to the finals. Read as 'clutching at straws'.

Finals is on Saturday evening. Was mistaking it to be on Sunday... Probably they wanted to ensure that people all over the globe watch the game in peace with the knowledge that they don't have to work the next day. At the rate the Aussies play, they don't have to worry! All games seem to be getting over with in 75% of the normal duration.

Same rules for the finals guesses.

Await for bonus declarations in the next post. One point: The first day of the WC saw the maximum guesses (23) and I hope that we can beat that on the last day! Your help needed.

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: 1. hungry mek cat eat salt (necessity makes people do things that they normally won't do) 2. whoever got clothes hang out does look fuh rain. (whenever people starts getting defensive then they have something to hide)

Guru, Muthiah and Rambo answered the question(s) correctly. Guru even invoked Murphy's law for the rain proverb; didn't fit too well, yet a different approach, I would think. Good show guys. The origin of these proverbs - of course, from the land of WC Finals - Barbados. These are bajan proverbs made out of hundreds of years of wisdom and probably a century of pidgin English :-) Btw, I read them in the latest issue of Readers' Digest.


Last question for the World Cup 2007!

Today's question (read somewhere):

• Who is this cult figure? Zanzibar-born Gujarati Zorastrian Indian, Educated in and around Mumbai, got a statue of him in Switzerland, was one of the greatest voices in music, Guinness record holder.... if I give one more clue, then my mail box will be full with the correct answers!... Give the stage and real name of this person.

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

SF#1: Kiwis - the Eternal Bridesmaid!

It was a true Captain Marvel innings. Mahela was the guy who had struggled to put bat to ball in the previous two editions of the world cup and now he seems to have struck gold. I think the Kiwis were overwhelmed by the emptiness of the stands and started spraying the ball all over.

And 289 is a daunting score against the constrictors aka Sri Lankan bowlers sans Dilhara.

I can't fault an innocent bye-stander thinking that it was just another game and not THE semi-finals of the World Cup ! Aaargh...

Some of you wanted to know how the semi-final line-up guess was decided etc. I have provided the same above. It was simple; Each correct Team + correct Position combination gets 2 points and correct team + wrong position gets you 1 point. And hence Karri and Guru walked away with the booty.

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: Place 2 coins on each edge of the square and the remaining two coins on the edge of one of the two diagonals.

Anand Re, Guru, Aditya K, Laks, Sivasubs and Sharath answered the question correctly. An interesting representation of the same by Laks shown above. Good show guys.


Two more questions to go!

Today's lingo question (read somewhere):

• What do these proverbs mean? 1. whoever got clothes hang out does look fuh rain. 2. hungry mek cat eat salt. More about their origin tomorrow.
  

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Semi Finals #1 Rules

1. Please send in all your entries by 8.30 pm SGT to lnspatta@gmail.com
2. Please ensure that you give both the ranges, run-margin & wicket-margin (Ranges have differed now)
3. Please do not invent your own margins; stick to the published ranges shown below
4. If you are using Excel to track your guesses, when you cut-and-paste, please use Rich Text for pasting; the PCX format is painful from gmail.


You are expected to provide all the following five pieces of information for the cost 7.00:

Winner, Run Margin, Wicket Margin, 1st Innings score if Sri Lanka bats first, 1st Innings score if New Zealand bats first

Run Margin Ranges:

• Between 1 to 50 runs (both inclusive)
• Between 51 to 100 runs (both inclusive)
• Between 101 to 150 runs (both inclusive)
• Between 151 to 175 runs (both inclusive)
• Above 176+ (176 and Infinity inclusive)

Wicket Margin Ranges:

• By 1 to 2 wickets (both inclusive)
• By 3 to 4 wickets (both inclusive)
• By 5 to 6 wickets (both inclusive)
• By 7 to 8 wickets (both inclusive)
• By 9 to 10 wickets (both inclusive)

Number of runs scored in the first innings of the match:

• Less than 125
• 126 - 175
• 176 - 230
• 231 - 280
• 281 - 300
• 301+

Each guess costs 7.00; Please ensure that you give all the information. Five pieces of information in all...

Let the semis begin....

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: Tembusu Tree on the back of SGD 5 note.

Anand Re, Guru, Aditya K and Sharath answered the question correctly. The daughter is happy to see that at least four knew the right answer!


With three more questions to go, Anand Re is in pole position followed closely by Guru; Sivasubs and Ganesh TCS are neck to neck in the third position.

Today's easy question:

• You are given ten coins. Place all the ten coins along the edges of a square in such a way that there is the same number of coins along each edge. You are not allowed to place one coin on top of the other. [Pictures & Drawings welcome.]

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #38: So Long Lara!

So Lara got run out by Samuels in his last international innings. KP managed to end up on the winning side with a round 100 and the Super 8 has come to a conclusion at last.

Australia seems to be the overwhelming favourite now, with only the Sri Lankans expected to have some firepower to slow them down. For all practical purposes, this will end up as the most one-sided of them all events.

Semis on Tuesday (SL v NZL) and Wednesday (Aus v SA).

The consolidated figures above includes the Semis guesses. Only Guru and Karri got the semis line up right.

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: Those four guys are from the music group REM. But no one got what the graphs represent and therefore the connection was missed out. The graphs are the EEG (Electro Encephalo Gram - aka brain waves) under various sleeping stages. The last graph (e) represents REM - Rapid Eyeball movement stage of our sleep. I thought that the 50 microvolts at the bottom of the graph would be a give-away. But it was not to be.

So no one got it.

Today's question - courtesy Maanasa, a Primary 3 student:

• What is the name of the tree that you can find on a SGD 5 note?

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #36: Hop, Stop and Jump!

I wanted to have the title of today's post as "A hat-trick of massacres!" But then that would have shown the truth - a thorough lack of imagination on my part. So the brain cells were exercised a bit more to come up with an equally lame title.

The truth was that. Bangladesh - like their sub-continent brethren were imitating the cat on a hot roof against a surprisingly accurate and hostile bowling from the Maroon army.

Earlier Sarwan showed glimpses of his form that he possessed about an year ago against India. Too little, too late.

Bangladesh can go home with the safe feeling that their houses will not be looted, vandalized and that their effigies will not be burnt - at least not this time. But the Banglas learn pretty fast from the big neighbour surrounding them, and you know that bad habits are easy to pickup ;-)

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: All are chillies or peppers. These hold some very important position on the Scoville scale for measuring how hot a chilly pepper is. It is pretty interesting reading the entire stuff from here.

Reasonably easy one. Anand Re, Guru, Muthiah, Sivasubs got it right. Sivasubs did some interesting studies on the individual chillies and provided the information; he was not happy that he had to google rather than ogle ;-) Carry on, Young man!

Today's question - an old favourite of mine:

• What is the connection between the four guys and the funny looking graphs? (Refer to pictures at the top of the post)
  

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #35: Yet another M...

This seems to be a week of them... massacres :-(

First that insane act in Virginia Tech [Our heartfelt condolences to all those affected; there was a nice article in one of the newspapers - 33 reasons to ban guns in America; are the authorities listening?]

Then day-before-yesterday, SA pulverised England and to prove that they are no slackers, Sri Lanka yesterday got their A team minus Malinga to thrash Ireland.

Thank You, Ireland: For providing a refreshing approach to the game and more importantly a degree of amateurism to the game - sure to be lost once the heroes get into the counties and more stars flock to Ireland claiming Irish descendancy and wives and what not.

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: Barry Bonds - the (in)famous baseball player scored 737 career home runs and that 10% of Kilchipur's (a small town/big village in Madhya Pradesh, India) STD code (7370). STD stands for Subscriber Trunk Dialing similar to the area codes in USA.

Looks like it was a tough one. Several got upto the home run connection. But they could not make the STD connection except.... Anand Re! Brilliant work, mate!

Today's question:

• What are these associated with: Pimento, Poblano, Serrano, Dorset, Red Savina.

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #34: Trivia - Here it is...

There we go...

Today's Question: [I am a bit skewed today... ]

• What is the connection between Barry Bonds and 10% of Kilchipur?

Answers to the normal location.

Until the next one...

Day #34: Massacre!

As far as massacres go, this one compares favourably with Australia's thrashing of India in the last world cup (125 all out and win by 9 wickets)...

Poor England, they were Halled and Smithed to pieces.

Better luck next time!

Answer to yesterday's quiz: Soap Operas

Anand Re and Guru got them right.

Today's question a bit later.

Ciao.

Day #33: Playing not to win!

I could understand that Sri Lanka did not want to face Australia at any cost in the semi-finals. With South Africa, England and West Indies fighting for the fourth spot, Sri Lanka worked nicely yesterday to almost ensure that they will end up second and more importantly Aussies will end up first. That explains why they hid their top bowlers. But the way the Sri Lankans started to bat, I was beginning to think that they did not want the Aussies to have a good look of their batsmen as well!

Reminded me very much of the Tamil saying:

ஓடு மீன் ஓட உறுமீன் வர வாடி இருக்குமாம் கொக்கு...

(roughly translated: a crane waiting at the river, preying on the fish, usually lets the smaller ones go and awaits for the big fish!)

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: All are Carnatic Music Raagas (Scales of music from the classical music form originating from South India)

Definitely one of the easier ones. Eight people got it right; the highest since the tourney started. Apart from the usual suspects such as Anand Re, Guru, Sivasubs, there were Aditya K (induction), Rohit (Phone a friend), Rambo (first to answer via SMS!), Muthiah (wants an automatic script to click on ads - not allowed!), Bhargav (years of Carnatic music learning has not gone waste!).

Today's question:

• Apart from purportedly taking care of our hygiene, what other important contribution have the FMCG giants Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Pepsodent et al made to us?
  

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Ad Kitty: USD 3.84 [Hardly 0.08 in a day; Go clicking fellas! :-(]

Until the next one...

Days #31 & 32: Ireland shows the way!

Firstly apologies for not publishing the results yesterday. A combination of busy schedule, health and lethargy - not necessarily in the same order caused the delay. Hopefully, I did not cause any heart-attacks and heart-burns to those winners and losers.

I read somewhere that all the Indians were supporting Ireland yesterday (because they defeated Pakistan in the prelims) and all the Pakistanis were supporting Bangladesh (because they defeated India in the prelims). But then, you can't match a billion wishes and so, it was not the Irish spirit that won the game; not the painstaking 85 from Porterfield that won the game; but it was the billion wishes that won the game for the Ireland (Trust the Indians to claim credits :-)


Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: RINK, CABINET, MAIZE, SOUTH, NAVEL, DECOY, FOCUS, GLAZE, JINX, BEWARE, EQUIP, OTHER, CAST, ROAST (It could also be OTTER and CASH)



Anand Re and Sivasubs (with the help of Pan Crossword Solver) got it right. Good effort guys. On the cartoon quiz of Day 30, I have been corrected that Hot Dog is also the pet dog of Jug Head Jones. Hence credit goes to Ganesh TCS and Sivasubs as well, who had given their answer as Hot Dog. Thanks Ganesh TCS for pointing it out. Will be careful in future :-)

Today's middle-of-the-month nut:

• What are these: Kokilarava, Nabhomani, Paadi, Ramakali, Gurjari, Bangala?
  

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Ad Kitty: USD 3.76 [Hardly 0.46 over the weekend :-(]

Until the next one...

Day #30: Exactly after a month...

... It has been one month since the tournament began and one month since we started this journey. Thanks to one and all for making this one a memorable one...

There was a sense of inevitability that could be discerned very easily at the Barbados ground yesterday. The wicket had so much that all the bowlers had to do was to 'put the ball in the right places'. (God! I hate these cliches...) And the Irish obliged very nicely to finish the game before lunch. Still I maintain that the Irish are a fighting lot; it took 27 balls for the powerful Ozzies to get their first boundary! Some great fielding efforts all around. (It is a different matter that Gilly pounded the next three balls to the boundary!)

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: All are comic/literary characters; All except Belle are cats; Belle is Snoopy's sister; Arlene used to be Garfield's girlfriend before Penelope came along; Dinah is the pet of Alice of Alice in Wonderland; Hot Dog from Dennis the Menace.

Aditya K, Anand Re, Guru, Rohit got it right. Guru managed to get the pedigree behind the canine and felines; others, I guess, resorted to guesses!

Today's Vishu toughie:

• Using all of the English alphabets, each once only, complete these words (14 words; each dash represents a letter):

r__n__

__a__i__et

__aiz__

s__ __th

na__e__

__eco__

__ocu__

__la__e

__ in__

be__ __re

e__ui__

ot__er

cas__

__oast

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Ad Kitty: USD 3.29 [Keep clicking :-)]

Until the next one...

Day #29: The Kiwi Prey

Usually, the Ananconda called Sri Lanka, bats first and then squeezes the life out of the opponents. This time around it was done in the reverse order. First it squeezed the life out of the Kiwis. Then slowly devoured what was left of the black caps.

Still Ranatunga was not happy. They should have scored it much faster. If in the process they had lost more wickets, Laks would not have spared Arjuna!

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to yesterday's question: Forrest Gump

Anand Re, Guru, Malur, Rohit, Ganesh TCS (Life is like a box of chocolates - the feller never answers the questions straight; always a reverse question - good fun!) got it right. Good show.

Today's Friday-the-13th horror question:

• Find the odd person out: Belle, Arlene, Dinah, Garfield, Hot Dog

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #28: After Shock

The only heroes of this world cup seem to be wearing Green, Red and Yellow and speak the musical Bengali. Of course, there are the ones who wear Green and Green with shamrock albeit at a lower scale. Unless any of the non-Australian sides win the World Cup, the hero-board is going to remain the same.

Little bit of bounce in the wicket and everybody hops. Did that deter the Left Arm Orthodox Tigers? Nah... I am sure they will come back stronger against the Windies and Irish. If India thinks that they can avenge the much-deserved KO in May against Bangladeshis, they have not learnt their lessons yet!

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to the previous question: Jaguar - all others are car-models from different makers (Barracuda: Plymouth; Cougar: Ford; Impala: Chevrolet; Rabbit: Volkswagen; Viper: Dodge), but Jaguar is a car-maker with its own brands/models.

It is a good one. Thanks Ganesh TCS for getting it out. Anand Re and Aditya K got it right. There were a few other options such as Rabbit, Viper etc. Better luck next time guys.

Today's question:

• Which baby-boomer was credited to have given Elvis Presley his slick dancing moves, inspired John Lennon to write "Imagine", kick-started Watergate scandal investigation, got a Medal of honour in the Nam war, defeated the Chinese in Table Tennis, made it to the All-American Football team and an original investor in Apple Computers?

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #27: Trough and Crest...

After that ebb against Bangladesh, SA got it right today. Or should I say that Lara got it all wrong? Win the toss and elect to field? Hello! EEG please! Don't remember who said it - probably WG Grace - "Win the toss! Think long and short and... BAT FIRST!"

Well, one thing for sure. Bravo was put in place. He was treated basically as a spinner who could throw it at 125 kmph sometimes. That simplified matters for ABDeV and SA. 50 runs in 5 overs is no mean task ;-) (though I have given 44 in one; that was in a masters, six-a-side, wide=4 runs game; hmmmm... those were the days!)

One thing for sure, the atmosphere was much better yesterday with enough WI supporters dancing and making music!

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to the previous question: Formerly Hill Street Police Station but now home for MICA - Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, National Arts Council, National Heritage Board, Media Development Authority and Singapore Kindness Movement; phew ... a colourful past and present... Sivasubs tells us that it used to be the national archives as well; he should know :-)

Looks like a very easy one. Seven got it. Anand Re, Guru, Ganesh TCS, Muthiah, Polap, Rohit and Sivasubs - all seems to remember the building.

Today's question [Courtesy: Ganesh TCS]:

• Pick the odd one out of the following:
  
  Barracuda, Cougar, Falcon, Impala, Jaguar, Rabbit, Viper

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #26: The Irish are good...

...triers. Honestly. In the end, a half-throttle New Zealand did the needful. At about 100+ for 3, Ireland had a sniff of a chance; but then the smiling-model(!)-cum-spinner Vettori wrapped it up pretty soon. [By the way, Daniel: Lose the fungus on the face - that is the wife's request :-)]

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to the previous question: Simon from Cyrene helped Jesus carry the cross up the Way of Sorrows on to Skull, Calvary

Looks like a tough one. Only Guru got it.

Today's question:

• Which famous Singapore landmark is the building at the beginning of the post? What is there now?

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #25: When 25 is not enough...

England were dominating exactly for 25% of the game against the Ozzies yesterday. Chappelli was saying that 275 would have done and dusted Australia; absolutely no chance. The way they had paced the innings, 330+ would have stretched them a wee bit, me thinks.

I remember a US Marine saying: "If it is difficult, it can be done; if it is impossible, then it takes a bit longer!" The Aussies did not even enter the difficulty zone fully yesterday. So much for chances :-)

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to the previous question: $18.56 (basic algebra + a bit of trial & error).

Anand Re, Ganesh TCS, Guru and Peruri cracked it.

Today's question is in line with the Easter spirit:

• Which biblical character was supposed to have said, "Remember! I am innocent! He is convicted and I am forced to do this for Him!" And what did he do? [I have paraphrased the exact words lest it reveals the answer]

Your answers via normal mode of communication. Keep them rolling in.

Until the next one...

Day #24: Chomp... Chomp...

Well, that is the sound of me eating my own words...

An excellent victory by the Tigers. Garroting via left-arm orthodox spin. Many of the deliveries kept so low that they almost reflected the mood and morale of the South African team.

How the media hypes up the coaches was pretty evident during the dying stages of the match. Of course, Barry Richards, Ian Smith, Darryl Cullinan - all of them were still hoping for a SA victory when the asking rate was about a dozen per over. Well, blame that on backing the top seed. What followed was hilarious... A few balls before Ntini's dismissal, the camera panned on the forlorn face of Mickey Arthur, the SA coach. He definitely looked like a man who was facing the gallows and was for all practical purposes doodling and dawdling on the paper in front of him. But what does Cullinan have to say about Mickey the Mortimer: "Oh, there he is taking notes of everything and strategising!" Not sure whether Darryl was having his tongue firmly in the cheek or not.

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to the previous question: 78.

Seems to be an easy one. Sivasubs cracked it in the first 30 minutes after publishing. Others who got it are: Anand Re, Guru, Muthiah, Ganesh TCS, SriniK (new entrant). Funnily, the number of correct answers have been split equally between smokers and non-smokers! Rohit thought that it was a trick question and that you can't make ciggies with ends; Beedi ka Tukda, anyone?

Today's question is also from math:

• A confused bank teller transposed the dollars and cents when he cashed a check for Ms Tan, giving her dollars instead of cents and cents instead of dollars. After buying a newspaper for 50 cents, Ms Tan noticed that she had left exactly three times as much as the original check. What was the amount of the check? (Note: 1 dollar = 100 cents)

Keep the answers rolling into the usual mailing address. Three prizes at the end of the world cup for the best performers.

Until the next one...

Day #23: Finally....

... a game that was worth all the WC hype...

The famed English bull-dog spirit was there. The Anaconda went for a power-nap after six English wickets fell. A dodgy Murali-groin and a foot-off-the-pedal Mahela almost costed the Lankans the game. Man of the match, Ravi Bopara, who idolizes Sachin Tendulkar (not sure whether he still does so after SRT's duck :-) played a beautiful innings. Paul Nixon should actually be termed as ambidextrous; so much so, he thrashed two of Murali's last over for six and four playing reverse sweeps!

Hope the next games follow the same pattern on the excitement quotient. Don't hold your breath... coming up next is Bangladesh v SA on Saturday.

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to the previous question: Mickey Mouse.

Guru guessed and confirmed; Anand Re rememberd the quiz from Rec Club and Ganesh TCS posed a reverse question about Operation Overlord. Only the first two are right. Good show folks.

Today's question is from math:

• In a fit of recycling, a tramp found 786 cigarette ends. He knows that for every 11 cigarette ends he can make a new cigarette. How many cigarettes can the tramp make and then actually smoke? [Remember: Quitting is hard and Not-Quitting is harder. This is only a message and not a clue!]
  

Keep the answers rolling into the usual mailing address. Three prizes at the end of the world cup for the best performers.

Until the next one...

P.S. By the way, how many of you fell for Google's April Fool Joke on the Google Paper stuff? Of course, you would not admit it :-)

Day #22: The Irish are definitely stout!

I meant stout-hearted actually.

With a bit more experience, they can do wonders to all and sundry.

In reality, England did not fare badly the other day; the Irish were doing good. Some crumbs of comfort.

Heard that the Graeme Smith catch by Johnston was a stunner. Should check that out in the highlights.

Aiyah! the timing sucks...

Saw this interesting innovation from Google. All ye luddites out there can utilize this...;-)

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to the previous question: Hammer (Malleus), Anvil (Incus), Stirrup (Stapes) are the bones in our ear; they are the smallest of the 206 that we have. Especially Stirrup which is about the size of an 8-point Arial letter.

Four got it. New entrant Praveen seems to have mugged it in his school; Guru got help from the doctor; Anand Re from Wiki? and Sivasubs from his teaching days. Good show folks.

Today's question [Courtesy: Rohit]:

• Which fictional character started his life with the name of Mortimer but got re-christened to a more famous name because the creator's wife did not like Mortimer?

Keep the answers rolling into the usual mailing address. Three prizes at the end of the world cup for the best performers.

Until the next one...

Day #21: A chasm

Don't remember when I have last seen so many left-arm bowlers in a match. Two from New Zealand and four from Bangladesh. On second thoughts, the India-Bangladesh match had the same number of south-paws. Well there goes the useless stat. The match was very close to that... being just a stat and completely useless. Kiwis had a couple of injury scares and Bangladesh did not do themselves any favour with a (yet another?) loose display.

Oh, ye administrators! Think of a better way of killing the flash-in-the-pans. We have lost 12 potentially high-quality games because of the Indo-Pak harakiri. Actually it can be termed as 11; Ban v Ire can be a cracker - but does that qualify as a Super 8 game? Nah.

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Answer to the previous question: Paul McCartney wrote the song Hey Jude to comfort John Lennon's son Julian after Lennon and his first wife Cynthia Powell were divorced.

Reasonably difficult one! Again the current top-3 got it right. Guru (googled as he knows only desi music), Anand Re (doesn't know whether to call this tragic!), Ganesh TCS (his guitar teacher would have been proud with this answer, I believe). Rohit actually killed Cynthia (that could have been tragic)

Good try folks. Keep pounding at it. At this stage, Anand Re leads followed very closely by Guru and Ganesh TCS at joint second.

Today's question:

• Where in the human body can you find a hammer, an anvil and a stirrup? What are their Latin names? What is their speciality? (People with doctor friends/spouses/fiancees/fiances are not allowed to use that connection for this quesiton; Just joking, lah!)

Keep the answers rolling into the usual mailing address. Three prizes at the end of the world cup for the best performers.

Until the next one...

Day #20: Anaconda!

The more I see this Sri Lankan team, the more I am reminded of the South American species of Anaconda. It is as if eleven of them have migrated up-north from those thick Brazilian forests to play this colonial game of cricket. First they encircle you. Then they send in the constrictor-in-chief Vaas for almost the entire power-play. Then they bring in the deputy Jayasuriya, who not satisfied with his bone-crushing innings earlier, squeezes further. If you have still an iota of breath and therefore life left, twirler-in-chief Murali eyes you with glee, as if you are the delicious Kiri Pani that they serve in those Sri Lankan restaurants.

Another thing that is interesting is that Sri Lanka are the only team who have not opened their mouths about the Australian fallibility - so far. As some one said yesterday at the ground, their feet are firmly on the ground and heads screwed right on their shoulders.

Now for the Can-You-Do-It-Without-Googling Trivia...
(Just to show that there is life outside cricket, however small! No points; Pure quizzing!)

Today's question:

• A bit of music. On which tragic incident was the classic Beatles song "Hey Jude!" based on? Who does "Jude" refer to?

Keep the answers rolling into the usual mailing address. Three prizes at the end of the world cup for the best performers.

Until the next one...

P.S. Kiri Pani is a traditional Sri Lankan dessert made of buffalo milk-curd and treacle.

Day #19: Being put in place?

Today everybody was a winner and hence nothing to share. Hence I have ploughed the additional ten bucks that the Zbank had into the shared pool for not sending the guys empty-handed. Can't promise that all the time, eh!

It is all about putting things in place. On a surgeon's table, everything has its place. If the Ozzie game is like a surgery, the surgeons viz., the players know exactly where to put what and they definitely knew where to put Bangladesh yesterday - in the dustbin for the time being and next time I guess it will be the incinerator.

Today's game between Sri Lanka and West Indies promises a lot and I hope that the Caribs do not do a KLPD! [can't expand that on this family-friendly blog!]

NO TRIVIA TODAY.

But yesterday's trivia question drew correct answers from Guru, Muthiah, Laks, Anand Re, Ganesh TCS. The answer is Bangladesh.

Until the next one...