Thursday, March 31, 2011

SF2: Miserable-Ul-Haq!

Q Part:

Probably a tough question. Probably it was the nerves. Probably it was the Indo-Pak game that made people miss the question.

I will leave it open till Friday.


Go ahead and have a go at it. Actually easy, if I have to say. How many Yorkshire famous men do we really know? But there is a twist, I have to warn...


Whose voice is this?
I am sure you will enjoy the joke!.



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Raghu's golden shirt worked. Apparently, he wore that shirt when blues defeated greens in 1999 WC game and he seems to be wearing that shirt only on such occasions when the two South Asians meet in the WC. 


I have to say the shirt was attractive and still in good condition.


So was the Indian performance today. Good, solid and reminded of the earlier WC Ind-Pak games! 5/5 - an excellent grade, the teacher says!


In my mind, Sehwag should have been the man-of-the-match - well at least half-of-the-trophy :-) For the kind of impetus that he gave the innings and killed Umar Gul, it was a nerve-jingling stuff from the Nawab. 

All the conspiracy theorists will start the swirls by looking askance at Sachin's drops, Pakistan's powerplay  delay etc. But they will be well within their right to question Misbah's motives, for the kind of digital innings that the MBA graduate played. Block or Boom... only problem was that even after all the booms, his strike rate was only 60+. Mama mia!


Final between India and Sri Lanka. 
You see, they haven't played each other for a looong time ;-) Yeah, right! Heard that Sanga can speak fluent Punjabi and MSD can speak spot-less Sinhalese. 


Let us see which will be a fitting farewell - Murali's or Sachin's? I kind of prefer Sachin's - as he hasn't won the WC yet. But then, to borrow Harsha's words, cricket is not perfect as in life! Fingers crossed.

Side note: Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were amongst the masses - sufficiently insulated by the security - yet not inside the aircon room! And when India finally won it, Sonia did a pretty good X-man (X-woman?) impersonation that Shahid Afridi made into his own! And Amir Khan was there with that hideous fungus above the lips!

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B Part:

Status:



Please note the timings for the next game on Saturday - The Final:

India v Sri Lanka 16:25 hours SGT Saturday
(Remember: Final guesses cost 5 bucks)

Go ahead and open your purses for the finals. Open for all!!

Answers and guesses to the usual place. 

(The usual place is my email address, which you can find along with the ranges etc., at http://sribees.blogspot.com/2011/02/world-cup-here-we-come.html)


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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

SF1: Colombo Constriction

Q Part:

AdarshB, Guru, Raghav and Sharath got the right answer which is:

Common Man cartoon (Image 1) drawn by RK Laxman (Image 4) which was chosen as the mascot of Air Deccan by its founder GR Gopinath (Image 3); Air Deccan was later acquired by Kingfisher Airlines CMD Vijay Mallya (Image 2). 


Whose voice is this?
I am sure you will enjoy the joke though!.



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Indeed, it turned out to be a cracker; only problem was that the Sri Lankan bowlers poured lots of water on them to make them never go!

The only fire-works that was of any note was the one that woke Aleem Dar up just when SL was three runs away from victory. They told us during umpiring courses that the umpire invariably should call 'dead ball' for any other unforeseen situations - and the example that was used was always, what if fireworks go off suddenly! How very true!

Sri Lanka somehow has turned into this formidable unit now - and this happens around the world cups. They might lose all the inane bilaterals etc., but come WC they are always on the boil! Great team!!

The way Malinga came back to bowl those yorkers at will was a sight to behold.

A word of praise to the kiwis is due: They fought hard; introduced the mandatory flutter into the opposition camp. But SL was way too powerful for them. But the New Zealanders can hold their heads high and walk into the sun-set knowing that they have shown the 'Kiwi Spirit'. So much for all those people who ridiculed the team on their 'sheep'ishness! 

Form points to Sri Lanka lifting the cup and making it a fitting farewell to Murali. 
Let us see!

No, my keyboard is refusing to type anything about the second semi. Can somebody wake me up on Thursday morning? I want to do a mini-rip-van-winkle :-)

Side note: Bumble, after a particularly crazy period of Sri Lanka batting, when they lost four wickets, said: "The fat lady started to sing; but she decided to sit down and take some rest!" Cute, ain't he?


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B Part:

Status:



Please note the timings for the next game on Wednesday - Semi-final #2:

India v Pakistan 16:25 hours SGT Wednesday
(Remember: SF guesses cost 4 bucks)

Go ahead and open your purses for the B Part!!

Answers and guesses to the usual place. 

(The usual place is my email address, which you can find along with the ranges etc., at http://sribees.blogspot.com/2011/02/world-cup-here-we-come.html)


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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Time for no Semi Measures!

Even Income-tax officers are appearing on TV (at least their voices) and confirming that the game on Wednesday is fixed!

Sangakkara is asking his players to keep cool - as if they aren't. In the heat of Ind v Pak, the SL v NZL game is completely under-rated and under-estimated.

Something tells me that tomorrow's game will be a cracker and the one on Wednesday will be a damp squib.

Talking of damp squibs, will Shoaib be in the final XI? Can Pakistan afford a d.s in their team? Heard that he used a number of unparliamentary expressions at Kamran Akmal (and therefore fined and dropped) after that gloved-gentleman dropped Ross Taylor so many times that even the CRAYs are finding it difficult to count them! Can't fault Akthar though!

And the comedy of the day was the Internal minister of Pakistan warning his players not to 'fix' the game and that he is watching. AAAAArrrrgggghhhh! Very motivating.

Q Part:

Simple question.

Connect the four..






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B Part:

Please note the timings for the next game on Tuesday - Semi-final #1:

Sri Lanka v New Zealand 16:25 hours SGT Tuesday
(Remember: SF guesses cost 4 bucks)

Go ahead and open your purses for the B Part!!


Answers and guesses to the usual place. 

(The usual place is my email address, which you can find along with the ranges etc., at http://sribees.blogspot.com/2011/02/world-cup-here-we-come.html)


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