Le Figaro!

After all that...

This brings us to the end of a very good cricketing season which started with the CCT09, coasted through IPL3 and then limped to a final halt in WCT20.

It was great fun.

There were 12 questions in CCT09, 25 in IPL3 and 7 in WCT20.

And the various winners are:

...drumrolls please...

CCT09: Yadavalli (1st) Amar, Anand Re & Bob (2nd)
IPL3: Siva* (1st) Guru (2nd)
WCT20: Siva* (1st) Anand Re & Ishan (2nd)

Congratulations folks!

After the IPL3, the charity counter is at $147.03. And from WCT20-BQ, Laks (thanks!) has already committed his winnings to charity. Just to recollect, we donated $100 to Singapore Red Cross after CCT09!

And here is the copy of the receipt of the amount that was donated to Project Give of SINDA. (updated on 5/4/11)

Settlement instructions via email.


Thanks and keep up the good work!

Be good and stay healthy!

Inger-Lund, Inger-Lund, Inger-Lund!

No, I have not joined the England soccer patriots! It is just that they played such wonderful cricket over the last two weeks that before you could sing the title, the opponents were blown away. In reality, the only tough game they had was against the Windies. 60 off 6, in retrospect especially after that Hussey Hurricane, is a walk in the park, these days.

Having said that, KP has proved to be a one in a million, what with the new family arrival and all that.

Yes, you can find fault with Collingwood persisting with Yardy for that one additional over or Kieswetter's(what a name!) ugly swipe at Johnson when he wanted to go home in a hurry... but in a first world level victory over the last 35 years, there is no one to blame.

It was funny that Michael Clarke came in at No.3; I almost thought that he was having an alphabetical lineup but then Watson and Warner do not precede Clarke, right? Anyways, Clarke himself has accepted that he is no good in T20. Wish other super stars are hearing that.

Collingwood led from the front and that superb split-second timing catch to dismiss his counterpart was pure magic :-))

Enjoy, dear Pommies! It was a well deserved victory and the English bull-dog spirit was in exhibition aplenty.

That brings us to the end of WCT20 - BQ series.

Oh, forgot!

The answer to the last question is.... wait a minute. I seem to have inadvertently given the answers in the write-up above. Find them out!

Siva*, Rambo and Ganesh Kumar got all five of them correct. There were a few 4.5s and a 4 as well.

Overall, Siva* got all right in this edition - 11 points. Congratulations.

Anand Re and Ishan are the runners up with 9.5 points.

All three of them get a prize.

Other admin details to follow via email.

Thanks for keeping me on the toes. Off to some rest.

SALUTE Mr Cricket!!!

Legend has it that John Wright, that gem of a coach, took the Indians on a movie night to watch 'Remember The Titans' ahead of that greatest of test series in 2000 against Australia. Apparently, the movie kindled the Indians so much that they pulled not one, but two rabbits out of their hats in Kolkata and Chennai.

Move over, 'Remember The Titans'!

Enter 'Hussey's Hurricane at St Lucia'!!

There is no better way to exemplify the spirit of Australians on the sporting arena than to exhibit this innings again and again to all those under-achievers!

See the sequence of RRR: 80 off 6, 70 off 5; 56 off 4; 48 off 3; 34 off 2 and 18 off 1.

I cannot imagine any team other than Australia to have achieved this. The only other team that would not have thrown in the towel under such circumstances was actually bowling :-))

It was sad that Pakistan could not make it. Over the last two years, these are guys who have played less cricket than your average club cricketer from Singapore. You have people being banned for life, years; you have your economy on the brink; your country has pressure from all sides; yet, they not only survived the chaos, but they seem to have thrived in the chaos to reach the semis yet again & miss the finals by the proverbial cat's whisker!

One was ecstatic to have watched such a beaut of a game; Ended up waking people up to blurt the result out - only to be met with 'Oh, ok. Gotta sleep. Don't disturb!'. BKJAKS (Bandar kya jaane adrath ki swaad?)


Read this gem from cricinfo and it just about sums up the whole spirit behind.

"Australianism," wrote Arlott 62 years ago, "means single-minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limit within them. It means where the 'impossible' is within the realm of what the human body can do, there are Australians who believe that they can do it - and who have succeeded often enough to make us wonder if anything is impossible to them. It means they have never lost a match - particularly a Test match - until the last run is scored or their last wicket down."

Paraphrasing, "You do not say -'We will play Sri Lanka on Tuesday and take it as a consolation win before we go home."

MSD - You need some rest, mate!

Leaving BQ-7 open for one more day to enable those who missed out answering yesterday. Remember the last question carries 5 points.

Siva* (11), Ishan (9.5) and Ganesh Kumar (9) are the top-three including BQ-7.

Remember to send in your Finals guesses for a cracker of a game between the Pommies and Ozzies!!

Ciao.

Where is the party?

First signs of MSD's unravelling. Everybody and his uncle are taking potshots at the Indian team.
Rightly so. But for the wrong reasons.

Long and short is that India will never win anything of worth in T20. The reason is quite simple:

The moment they see India, oppositions are going to do two things:

(1) pack their teams with fast bowlers and give 'em the perfume ball as a staple diet
(2) where possible, give them the liveliest of pitches.

Since it is only four overs that they have to worry about, it is almost impossible to see India crossing 160 consistently. Lesser said about the Indian bowling the better.

MSD and Kumble made pertinent points about the pressures of playing for the franchises - we have seen that happen in soccer; only there the itineraries are much saner and definitely the franchisees do not want their wards to attend/adorn 'must-attend' parties!!

England did a fabulous job at St Lucia thrashing Sri Lanka; it will be a good thing to watch them face off against Australia - two good bowling teams with England holding a slight edge of that 'x' factor.

Answer to BQ-6:

Answer is 98,0,1,0,1.
For the explanations check here.

Anand Re, Siva*, Ganesh Kumar, Ishan (Honest: did this in his econs class at the varsity) gave the right answer.

Here is the last one for this tournament: BQ-7:

A bumper one to round this edition off. There are five boxes given below. Each one contains a puzzle. Each puzzle refers to a common expression that we are all familiar with. Your task is simple. Give me the five expressions that these puzzles refer to. There is no connection between the puzzles.

Send in your entries for:

1. Aus v Pak semis#2 - ALL CAN JOIN - No restrictions! Same rules apply.

2. Finals - ALL CAN JOIN - No restrictions! Same rules apply.

3. Answers to the final quiz question

See you soon.

A repeat of last year, perhaps?

LoA has to catch up on Australia at some stage; may be the semis! And they were able to leave out Doug Bollinger :-|

England is pretty hot with Yardy doing the hard yards and Swann swooning people around. KP, the new dad is likely to come and play with gay abandon.

India has a new captain. Suresh Raina. Ha Ha Ha!

Suddenly all and sundry seem have remembered Shakespeare: 

"Is this a dagger I see before me? 

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee!"

Yeah, Dhoni's blue eyes are turning paler slowly.

Answer to BQ-5:

It is not such a devilish problem to NOT give 666 as the answer. Indeed it is the answer. Go figure!

Again a very good response. Anand Re, Bob, Ganesh Kumar, Guru, Letchu (welcome!), Maanasa, Rambo, Shiv and Siva* got it right.  Siva* has answered all the questions and Anand Re, Guru and Ishan are lagging behind by one. 

Let us see if the following cracker - Thanks to Bob, will separate the boys from men.

BQ-6:

A bit long. But quite good, I have to say. Remember the Shooting problem from IPL and its answer? This one goes somewhere along those lines...

There are 5 pirates on a ship, in descending order of seniority, as follows:

Jack (seniormost pirate, Captain)

John (2nd-seniormost)

Jules (3rd-seniormost)

Jim (4th-seniormost)

Joe (juniormost)

They loot a ship and come in possession of a chest with exactly 100 gold coins in it. As the Captain of the ship, Jack has to decide how the 100 gold coins get distributed amongst the 5 of them, without consulting anyone else. Once he announces his distribution decision, all 5 of them (including himself) will vote for/against his decision.

If Jack gets > = 50% of the votes, then his decision stands valid and he remains Captain with honour.

If Jack gets < 50% of the votes, then he is deemded unfit to remain Captain, is beheaded and thrown to the sharks. In that case, John (2nd-seniormost) becomes Captain, and then John has to decide the distribution. John's decision would then be subject to the same voting rule and conditions. If John fails and is killed, Jules becomes the Captain and so on.

Everyone is aware of these rules.

The question is - What should Jack's distribution be, such that:

1) Jack gets the maximum no. of gold coins possible for himself, and

2) Jack remains alive (and thus remains Captain)

There is only one number possible as his maximum limit.

Enjoy your Thursday & send in your entries for the semi#1 + the quiz.

England vs India, anyone?

Pakistan, yet again, has shown that they can never be written off. Congrats to Afridi and Co.
A grand total of 13 spinning overs contributed to the South African misery. Yet another tournament. Yet another early exit. Yet another Choker tag. They are considering renaming their country as 'Choke Africa'.

Having said that, India is in the usual territory. I am reminded of those meaningless triangular/quadrangular tournaments where we used to do all kinds of calculations to see how India can sneak through to the semis or finals or whatever. Just tells one that life does not change much, IPL or not!! And something tells me that Dhoni again will persist on Jadeja and gift even the 'consolation' win away to Sri Lanka. Heart not in it, perhaps?

Is there a connection between the UK hung parliament and England's resurrection on the field? Or is it because KP has become a father? Never know.

Answer to BQ-4:

Green, of course. A number of you got it right. Somebody even said that the fourth clue is redundant. But I like Subra's succint reply - apart from the fact that he took a long time to explain how he his love for puzzles started - for another post!

To the right of the green bowl is the banana. Therefore the green bowl does not contain bananas
To the right of the star-fruit is the green bowl. Therefore the gree bowl does not contain star-fruit
THEREFORE THE GREEN BOWL MUST CONTAIN THE ORANGE!!!

Anand Re, Bob, Ganesh, Guru, Ishan, Maanasa, Siva*, Subra and Sukanti got the answer right. Good show, fellas!

Now to BQ-5: 

What is the value of x?

Be good and you know what to do.

New MCC Rule!

Breaking News!

BQ has got the scoop on the latest round of changes to the cricket playing conditions:

ICC, with immediate effect has amended the Law 42.11 as follows: (changes in blue)

42.11. Damaging the pitch - area to be protected


(a) It is incumbent on all players to avoid unnecessary damage to the pitch. It is unfair for any player to cause deliberate damage to the pitch.

(b) An area of the pitch, to be referred to as 'the protected area', is defined as that area contained within a rectangle bounded at each end by imaginary lines parallel to the popping creases and 5ft/1.52m in front of each and on the sides by imaginary lines, one each side of the imaginary line joining the centres of the two middle stumps, each parallel to it and 1ft/30.48cm from it.

(c) In addition, the entire area of the pitch in which the proected area is contained is to be deemed as 'No Pitch' area. Any ball that pitches as part of the bowling action, in the 'No Pitch area' is to be called as a No Ball by the striker's end umpire. The striker's end umpire will indicate the No Ball by tapping his one of the knees with one hand,while the other hand shall be indicating the No Ball signal by extending it out.

(d) Appendix 73 shows the 'No Pitch Area'.

(e) There shall be clear markings on the pitch to indicate the 'No Pitch Area' to enable the umpires to function effectively.

(f) ICC or any other bodies are to mandatorily implement sections (c), (d) and (e) of this rule ONLY in any innings where India bats.

Appendix 73

Now for BQ-4:
 
There are three bowls on a table, each containing different types of fruits.

To the right of the green bowl is the banana.
To the left of the banana is the orange.
To the right of the star-fruit is the green bowl.
To the left of the white bowl is the blue bowl.
What is the colour of the bowl containing the orange?

[Note: The “right” or “left” here do not necessarily refer to the immediate right
nor immediate left.]

Usual place, Usual time.

Have a great week!

If you can't hook...

After that drubbing by Aus and SL yesterday, India has almost become history. So, something on History for a change...

Harsha Bhogle wrote this.

Apart from Buchanan and Rod Marsh, Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had said the same thing many years ago, to his everything-begins-and-ends-with-marks-educators: "LEARNING OVER TEACHING"

Junior used to mention this more often than not, whenever he was frustrated by his teachers not imparting even the basic knowledge on certain areas so that the wards can go and figure the other stuff themselves. Well do get some bad apples, yeah?

Funny, Harsha mentions learning History - true, it is a mundane thingy in India; mug and regurgitate!

It is precisely with this view that I was approaching Junior's history lessons a few years ago, when he first had the taste of the subject. And in no time, my entire (Indian) notion of history education went out of the window. It was so refreshing that sooner than later Junior was swearing by History and to-date he loves History more than anything else.

Case in point: There was this exercise that the students were asked to do in one of their tests. Remember these are 12-year-olds hardly out of the nappies.

You are to write two-100-word paragraphs about David Beckham - one as a ManU fan (yes, he was playing for them then!) and one as a Liverpool fan. Fine! Your average football fan will go ballistic at such an assignment. But the twist was in the next part of the question. Now wearing a historian's hat, analyse what is right and wrong about the two writeups.

The last part, definitely gave a very good chance to the pupils to put into use what they have learnt about respecting the sources, getting the right perspective of the material, how to achieve a balanced-view from two contrasting pictures etc.. All important for Historians in particular and Humans in general.

Just a thought...

Enough sermonizing.

********************************************************
Answer to BQ-3:

No, it is not what Napoleon told his soldiers before that ill-fated journey towards Russia. It is the Maori war dance that was made famous by the New Zealand All-Blacks Rugby team. Check the Haka here.

Anand Re, Ishan and Siva* got it right. Go do the dance in front of your kids, guys! Ishan: If you don't have one, then the girlfriend is the most obvious choice. ***dread*** ;-))

No quiz question today.

See you tomorrow.

Day of Clinical Reals!

First things first.

• BQ is a non-profit, non-mandatory, voluntary participation event.
• You can take part either in the B or the Q part.
• The winnings are all actually part of a zero sum game.
• And many a winner from the past events have donated all or part of their winnings to Charity with top-ups from the bank.

So, do not fret. Just go ahead and enjoy the fun!

Having said that, if you missed the bus on the semis line up and would want to join the fun, write to me.

********************************************************
 
It is really Cricket Crazy on Star Sports.
Firstly you have Cyrus the virus (serious offence to the Boman Irani).
Then you have Shonali the snake queen - who follows Gandhiji sartorially speaking - less is more!
And on top, there is Danny Morrison of double-D fame!
Our father in the heaven...


The super-8s started as the Brits are trying to elect a Gardener of Brown stuff or the almost-avatar-director or the one with the nice leg.

And this is the Pakistan that Balasaheb would have loved; as flat as the beer that he likes to drink; spills all over the place; incorrigible running between the wickets; more incorrigible shots... yet, they will come back.

England were clinical, in fact a bit too clinical to my liking. But something in the stiff breezes of the Windies always make the English men mad and my bet is that they would lose their marbles sometime in the next few days - say against NZL!

SA were again, for the lack of a better word, clinical. Southee, after that brilliant catch to dismiss Kallis, made amends by donating all those sixers at the death. After that sleep took over :-)

********************************************************

Answer to BQ-2:

Really a large number of correct answers. If BQ-1 was easy, then this seems to have been downright Primary school stuff. 12, you read it right, twelve people got it right.

Anand Re, Ananth, Bob, Ganesh Kumar, Guru, Ishan, Laks, Maanasa, Saran, Shiv, Siva* & Yadavalli comprise the cricket team that gave the right answer which is 1. Good one, folks.

 
And here is BQ-3:

Hopefully a tricky one...

The rough English translation of a famous exhortation is given below. Which one?

I die. I die.

I live. I live.

I die. I die.

I live. I live.

This is the fierce and powerful man

Who made the sun shine on me again

Up the ladder, Up and Up

The sun shines and Rise!!!

  Be good and send in the entries asap.

PS: Why watch BB McCullum's tattoo when you can enjoy Tata Docomo tattoo ad?

Super-8, Here We Come!

The chaff has been separated from the grain - though I have to say that England is high on the chaff-o-meter; if England had had two full games, then life would have been interesting. Funny, Ireland seems to be complaining about D/L method - somebody: please tell them that D/L comes into picture only after five overs. Whining - a favourite British Isles pastime :-}

Group E: England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa
Group F: Australia, India, Sri Lanka and West Indies

Afghanistan were first Stenyed, then Mortared Morkeled and subsequently Veldted. Almost all of the Afghani batsmen while facing the ball were initially moving towards... square-leg; almost like my ill-advised attempt many years ago to pick up the cricket bat again! Liquid pace :-|

Interesting to note that India has to play its next two games at Barbados and even a normal bouncer on that wicket seems to be going above the head! I see a repeat of 2009 WC T20 for the Indians!

Get ready to send in your 

• semi-finals line up & 

• today's matches guesses. 

By 8.59 pm SGT please.

Answer to BQ-1:

There is nothing wrong with that dismissal. It seems weird that a batsman has gotten out stumped and yet is marked as not having faced a ball.

Guru, Siva*, Yadavalli, Subra, Ishan got it right. Pollard was stumped off a wide. I have not given credit to those answers which said that he was out off a no-ball on three counts. (a) You can't be stumped off a no-ball (2) A no-ball is added to the batsman's balls-faced count and most important, (iii) if I were to commit that mistake on the field, then I will be quartered and strung high by all and sundry!

Good start to the quiz. Keep it up, fellas.

Now for BQ-2:

How high will Shonali Nagrani go in her daring baring attempt?


No erase that. I said that the grey cells will be exercised. Did I not?

In the grid shown below, each square is filled with number 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 in such a way that no row, column or the two main diagonal lines contain the same number more than once. Find the value of x.

To usual place by usual time. Hafun!

PS1: By the way, I like Kabir Khan's dress code - In a suit and tie; a la Football manager. Refreshing!!
PS2: Have you heard of the expression "Behind the Eight Ball"?

WCT20 - BQ is on!!

As promised, the next edition of BQ is back.

Before we go on to the rules, here are my two-paise worth observations over the happenings in the Carribean...

• India is flattering... hope they don't deceive!
• England is at their favourite sport again... whining!
• South Africa is making the right noises... choke, cough, choke!
• Australia almost did the impossible of losing six in six against Pakis. Still five out of six is creditable:-) Ominous!
• Cheerleaders are scary. Yes, I am racist! What kind of guys chose those colours - cyan and mithai pink...You can see the impact of these colours on this post :-)) Mr Ambani: Here is my opthalmologist's bill...

BQ is on. Here is the first one.

BQ-1:

What seems to be wrong here? How is it possible?

An easy one to warm up those grey cells.

***********************
 
Now for the B- part:

Rules are pretty much same.

Moolah involved: 
Minimum 30 bucks

That gives you:

• one semi-finals line up guess (5 bucks) and
• any eight matches from super-8 till finals (3 bucks each) and
• one buck worth of Quiz prize money

Please note that there are a total of 15 matches from Super-8 till finals. So you can pick and choose.

Would appreciate if at least 10 get involved in the B-part; Naheen to majaa naheen hai!

* You are free to exceed this minimum by guessing the results of more games and more semis line up guesses etc.
* But if you intend taking part part in the BQ, then you commit to the minimum set of numbers mentioned above.
* Final winners give a commitment of donating at least 10% of their winnings towards charity. (I know, I know, almost all the winners from last time have donated it to charity Thanks to them! :-))

Framework upto Semi-Finals:


1. Send in the semi-finals line-up. [Winners and Runners of Groups E and F]

To be sent in by 8:59 pm SGT, Thursday 6th May 2010

1. There are five things that you need to respond for each game:
Winning team, Winning Run Margin, Winning Wicket Margin, Max number of wickets by which team, Number of Sixers in the match

2. Please send in all your entries by 8:59pm SGT everyday to lnspatta@gmail.com
3. Please ensure that you give both the winning ranges: run-margin & wicket-margin
4. Please do not invent your own margins; stick to the published ranges shown below
5. 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.

Run Margin Ranges:

Between 1 to 20 runs (both inclusive)
Between 21 to 40 runs (both inclusive)
Between 41 to 60 runs (both inclusive)
Above 61 runs (61 and Infinity inclusive)

Wicket Margin Ranges:

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

Which team will take the most number of wickets in the match?

Either of the team names OR Same

Number of Sixers (No, not DLF Maximums!!) in the MATCH:

0-3 (both inclusive)
4-7 (both inclusive)
8-11 (both inclusive)
12++

(btw, BQ stands for Bets and Quiz; what to do, we are like Brits only!)