SriBees Random Ramblings: Day 13

Two matches. Two victories. One will remain in your mind for ever. And you will be pardoned if you feign ignorance about the other result!

The Afghans gave us a spread of veritable feast - great bowling, spirited fielding, shambolic batting, gutsy batting, jangled nerves and finally the just desserts of a sweet victory!

An Afghan win - and by corollary the top performances by the Associates this World Cup has proved one thing. When your backs are to the wall, you throw caution to the wind and perform. The Irish, Scots, Emiratis, Afghans and even the Zimbabweans - all of them knew of one thing: this is probably the last time that they might play in a Cricket World Cup. They must have thought: while we are at it, let us throw some eggs on the faces of the powers-that-be!

What was missing so far from the so-called Elites (or super-8s, for the pedantic ones!) is the visible passion, discernible romanticism and above all their indomitable spirit. One may say that their tanks will run dry sooner than later; that their initial enthusiasm will wear off next week. However likely that may be - I doubt that though, it is only right that we give due respect and more opportunities to the teams that have managed to produce the only two close games of this cup!

As somebody tweeted, "the big 3 should allow these guys to tour them!"

In the meantime, MCG saw the third one-sided game this tournament...tsk tsk...

G-Section:

A couple of brave souls put their money on AFG and one bravado-soul thought that SL will thulp BAN.

So, Guru, Yadavalli and Siva* reap the harvest.

Tomorrow's game might see another testimony of Newton's law of Universal Gayle force. No Philander. No Bravo. No boredom.

South Africa vs West Indies @ Sydney by 1100 SGT

Your guesses are as usual, always welcome!

Q-Section:

When I think that a question is tough, the answers pour in. And if I expect a down-pour it scorches. So this easy question seems to have stumped more. Only Raghav, AngelAsh, Bhuvana (these three are quite busy with work, I suppose :-)) got the answer after substantial struggle.

So, get ready with your missiles to throw at me after you read the answer :-)

Now, the clue had a book's name written by Fukuyama which also happens to be the name of a city in Japan and that city's flag has a...you got it right! - a bat.

I initially thought that I will leave the question open for one more day. But two of the three above, came with the right answer as I was writing this. So here goes the next question:

An easy one. [3 points]

What is the three letter word that you would associate with these three? Need the explanations too.