3 mistakes!

It is rare to see Simon Taufel make a mistake on the field. Yesterday in the CSK v KKR he did not one, not two but three mistakes! First it was the LBW denied against McCullum, then it was the denial of Ashwin hat-trick favouring Angelo Matthews and then then five wides against Chris Gayle when it should have been four leg-byes. Simon, Are You Ready? Having said that, I am assured by all and sundry that he is such a pro and have seen in some of his emails to friends, him readily acknowledging the mistakes that he committed. So, as the saying goes... it does not matter if you make mistakes; own them and move onto the next ball.

SS Hazare also added to the woes of Kolkata by giving the marching orders to Dada for a ball that missed leg by a mile!

Delhi has pushed the self-destruct button so hard, that they are not able to do anything right - bowling, fielding and definitely batting! Imagine Sehwag scoring only 20 off 18! Pathetic. Next time Warne meets Gambhir, he would teach him the spelling and meaning of Ordinary!

And Kieron Pollard killed that game with his 300+ strike rate (I think it is the first one in this IPL). I italicized his first name because someone did not believe that he was called Kieron when I told them so!

And Kalaignar Karunanidhi was there at Chepauk last night to enjoy the proceedings. Chennai did not disappoint him much - except for Murali and Hayden & of course, the two umpires.

You can click here for a poem that MK could have written after the game last night. Sorry, only Tamil version available.


And five teams on 12 points as per my prophecy this morning. CSK in a slightly better position :-) And their NRR is greater than RCB by the proverbial whisker - 0.00494343... - well the whisker is slightly thicker than the Singapore v Nepal run rate that killed Singapore's hopes of promotion to ICC League Div 4. More here.


BQ-16 ka jawaab:

Left of course. And the reason is that there is no door visible. The clue is that the pre-schoolers are in the US. A number of the aficionados had cracked it. Anand Re, Guru, Ishan, Subra and Sukanti cleaned it. Good show!

BQ-17 idhar hai:

At 6 pm, a clock gongs 6 times. The time between the first and last gong is 30 seconds. How long does it gong at 12pm? No tricks.

Normal destinations and expectations.

SPK is at $20.50. Tat-ta-daan!

Power of 12!

Even a 20-20 game is susceptible to the old Warne axiom - "It aint over until the old lady sings!"
I was pretty sure that Deccan are done in this time around, when Steyn blasted off three people in a jiffy. Of particular interest was the mode of Suman dismissal. Pity that they did not try that more on Rohit. Probably, it is being reserved for the game in May ;-)

With four teams already on 12 - possibility of it becoming five tonight if DD loses its plot again, it mind-numbingly shows one thing: All teams are mediocre inspite of all of Danny Morrison's screams & that there are a few sparkles here and there; Kallis' marathon run; Sachin's Nike mantra; Warnie's exhortations and such. Other stuff kind of matches with the axiom: Allow thousand monkeys to pound typewriters and you can get a Shakespearean play. Nothing to take away from the monkeys, that is.

Guru seems to be having a direct line with Modi in fixing the games. Of the seven 10-pointers so far in this edition of BQ, he has got five! No wonder he heads up the winner list by that margin. Boori nazar waale therey mukh kaala!

Answer to BQ-15:

Bhima is the hero who is supposed to have the wolf-like belly - pretty stuck in, even after hogging one full jumbo meal. Hence the name Vrikodara.

Anand Re and Siva* came back fast with the right answers. With that Guru's monopoly at the top has been ended :-)

Ab BQ-16:

Stumbled on this gem on the net.

Pre-schoolers in the US were asked this question: 

Which way is the bus shown travelling? It is either Left or Right. Can you tell the reason?

Be good.
Usual instructions.
SPK is at $19.90

Thus went the last 200 hours...

As I am writing this, there is one team with 14 points; three with 12 and three more with 10. Yuck! And read somewhere that Sachin was 'ordered' to retire against CSK to make them come up... Yuckier!

The week that was in the AyePeaYell-Trey...

• Sachin managed to ensnare the orange cap from Kallis (How can you let go of a record to somebody else?)
• DC and KXIP are out to s***w the s**t out of the other contenders (Isn't DC one of the contenders now?)
• Definite. Neeta A is on Botox. And the brand name is Perma-Smile. (How else can you explain her disposition during those two drab performances from her wards?)
• More definite. MSD has become Ghajini. At the toss, he says that you have to choose the best balanced side rather than the best players. At the loss conference, he says that he was missing a slow bowler. (When did Murali become a tear-away?) 
• Interesting. No major advertisements on 'Bring Home The Cup'  - T20 WC that is. Lalit has allowed any such advertisements only 48 hours after the AyePeaYell-Trey finals.
• Heartening. There has been at least one match which can be called as heart-stopping. Yes, I am referring to that Warnie magic against the Hyderabadis! (Some poker game that was!)
• Even Bhajji and Karthik are not performing from the Indian WC T20 team. (Complete write-off!)

 Answer to BQ-14:

Maanasa, Bob, Siva* and Guru gave the correct answer to the Pictorial Algebra. 24.
Only Siva* was honest to accept that he took 8 minutes; the others did mentally and on foolscap papers!
No, Anand Re: Zero is not accepted.

Anyways, good shows guys and gal...
Btw, Guru and Siva* are tied at six each and Subra at 4.


Here is BQ-15:

Again an easy one. 

According to Hindu mythology, which hero is said to have had a wolf-like-belly and is named as such?

Usual place. Usual time.

SPK is showing a healthy $19.30 at this stage. Need your help to make it a round 30.

Punjab KIX MI...

Continuing from yesterday's sermon, MI seems to be suffering from DLF maximum (Dollar Loaded Fatigue). Ironical they are the lowest sixer-scoring team of the league!

Sachin continues to give his wicket to Piyush - funny, only the ball before his dismissal, I was thinking that Sachin seems to be the only batsman on sight who plays everything with the middle of the bat.

And what a fantastic name: Love Ablish. We (BS, G and yours sincerely) collect some good names and this goes to the list straight away. To give you a jhalak - try naming somebody as Kukka Tuuterri in India...

Cricket yesterday was boring as nothing much was riding on the game and hence the above name digression.

Answer to BQ-13:

Anand Re tried valiantly to say that the months had exactly 13 weeks between them. Good try. But what I was looking was that they all had the notorious Friday the 13th in them. 1st day of a month being a Sunday means that it will have its 13th day on a Friday. Check out for further superstitious details on F13.

On to BQ-14:

What is the value of ? A simple Algebra question. Send in the timings along with your answers. I know that you won't cheat :-)

Usual destination. Have a great weekend. Next update on Monday morning.

PS:

1. Chets also answered the 2 pages question correctly. Missed his name out in the list; Have amended the same.

2. I did not moderate a couple of comments (they are like dot balls = Gold!) earlier. Apologies. Have done so. One of them was a question from Guru on margins. Answered.

3. SPK is at $18.30.

Deccan out of the plateau!

Read this article a few days back.

In reality, the salaries seem to be a pittance if you look at what the players are asked to give back. 14 or 15 games in a little over seven-week period. You can argue that they play for only seven weeks and that is a good time to earn anything from Rs. 20 lakhs to a few crores of rupees.

Flip it around and see. Will you work for 24 hours a day (ok, make it 20 hours...) for two months to be paid your annual salary? Well, I might be OK, provided I don't have to work at least for the next two months. But poor IPYellers have to immediately pack their bags and head to Windies for the WC-T20 only to be followed by myriad of those bilateral series. Tough!

Until the Indian economic powerhouse stepped in, cricket was a poor-man's aristocratic game. Read that in 1964 the BCCI refused to host West Indies for a series because... horror of horrors, they did not have the monies to bear the expenses of a touring team!!!!! It is a different matter that today IPL economy alone can feed a few countries for a year ... Such is the Circle of Life.

What was this long sermon for?

This season, the drunkards' plan has been simple. Lay a fast and bouncy pitch. Use an all pace attack - haven't I told you that Kumble is a medium pacer in a spinner's garb? & get Kallis to knock out the runs.

Yesterday was no different. Only that the first 14 overs yielded a paltry 92 runs. Kohli's heroics in the last six saved the blushes. Having said that Deccan charged well; Symonds amended his 23-run over madness and that was that.

Yes, DC are out of the plateau; whether they run on the flatlands or downhill is to be seen. I definitely want them to run downhill in their next match :-)

And the points table look like a mark-list of a very easy test which every one in the class has cracked - but remember, every class has to have a KXIP!

Answer to BQ-12:

Siva* seems to have found the enthu to give answers & his attempt of "All are different types of batteries" is the correct one. He is tied with Guru now at 5 points. SPK is at $17.80, remember.

Now onto BQ-13:

In 2012, what is common between January, April and July apart from the fact that their 1st day is a Sunday?

TGIF.

Be good and send in the entries.

Choking & Sweating Kills !!

It is still April. Agni Nakshatram (read as super hot hot season) has not yet started. Yet the heat and humidity at Chennai straight away took more than 50% of the capacity off the people. No wonder, one Mr Tendulkar was forced to retire because of dehydration; but by the time he was hydrated, his team was on dysentry!

One interesting sidelight of that match: Stephen Fleming, the erstwhile Kiwi Cool captain, when asked about MSD replied: "Compared to Dhoni, I am high-strung!! He is super cool and never displays his emotions on the field!" It is a different matter that Jagati got an ear- and eye-ful yesterday after a wayward throw...

And, did you notice that Mrs Nita Ambani smiles uncontrollably whenever the camera pans on to her. And, did you also notice that her face was glumness (if there is such a word!) personified when MI were crashing to a sweat-induced second defeat in the league!

KXIP resumed proper services today against the Rajputs whose vigour seems to have been renewed.

And for exactly two Dinda overs KKR were in the game against Gambhir's extra-ordinaries :-) Once he had done his stuff with the new ball, KKR shoulders drooped so much that the purple & gold jerseys fell off Dada's men! Then the Rolls Royce struck Viru out; Dada dived twice to save certain boundaries & took a smart catch at short-extra-cover... maan! Matter over...

For three days in a row, the team batting second choked so badly that they all seem to be playing the choking game rather than cricket!

Pool was understandably low-key. With about a third of the games left, people are conserving.

Answer to BQ-11:

Since the editor is not your politically correct one (which one is?), he decided to print the numbers of those who failed and ended up consuming only 2 pages. Guru, Siva*, Subra, Chets and Anand Re came back quite quickly with disdain. Nice going, guys!

Now for BQ-12:

What do these terms refer to: U2, Baby, Mignon? Answers to the usual destination.

PS: SPK is at $17.5o

Worth the Warne!

Finally, a game worth the late night! (No KXIP v CSK super over does not count :-|)

The heart was literally doing the mobius ring trick throughout. Support DC so that they can also queer the semis pitch a bit more; Support RR on seeing Warnie exhorting his wards to give it one more shot! Pheeewwww!

Dhoni is definitely a very keen reader of the game. At the toss in that run-rain match on Saturday, he answered an inane question from the commentator about how that game is being touted as the captaincy war between Dhoni and Warne. He neatly sidestepped the question and commended Warne for helping Indian cricket and supporting youth and fringe players etc. (Is one Mr Gambhir listening?)

Look at Warne's team yesterday: Except for Shane Watson & Mornie Morkel there are no players - including Yusuf Pathan - who would have walked into any team in the world (Warne might still be welcomed with open arms into the Ozzie dressing room; but that is a different story!)

And they kept coming back with that message "RR have not lost if they have to defend anything above 150".

SELF BELIEF!!

In the other games, Mahela played a blinder - vaguely remember that he did the same recently in one of those umpteen Ind-SL ODI series.

RCB is taking it easy and it might become a Royal Challenge if they are not careful. Drop Dravid!

Michael Lumb joins David Warner for being recalled almost from the shower after the fielders claimed desperate catches only for the third umpire to revoke such claims. If there ever was a 50-50 game, Ryan Harris had one yesterday (2 catches; 2 drops; 1 wicket; 1 dreadful search for that floating legbreak from the Master - tells you a story, isn't it?)

Answer to BQ-10:

The immediate-fail-driving-test-route is Lombard Street in San Francisco.

Guru and Siva* got it right. Good show guys.

After ten questions, Guru leads the pack - here also! with four points; Siva* and Subra are following closely at three each.

Now for BQ-11:

Easy one.

In an examination where 50000 students appeared for, 3000 students passed. The local newspaper published the registered numbers of those who passed over three pages. How many pages would the newspaper editor have allocated for publication of the results if 48000 students have passed?

Keep them coming.

SPK is at $16.50.

Vijay Ho!

In the end, the tiff with the home minister to ensure that one watches the CSK game against the Royals proved to be the ultimate 'paisa vasool!'

Of all those million sixers (no, I will not call them DLF maximums :-) Vijay hit, one shot proved to be the cynosure... 3rd ball of the 13th over; Vijay on 46; Warne floats one on middle and leg; Vijay waltzes down to make it half-leg-break than the full one if he had stayed back, and deposits the ball right beyond the sight screen... then I knew that the boy is in 'da zone'!!

That the Yellow Jellies dropped so many while defending (more like sleep walking) was incidental and hope that they do not make the same mistakes in future!

Deccan was good in patches. Ojha came back strongly after the barracking by Dada; but again the batsmen failed to capitalize. VVS is as comfortable as the cat on a hot tin roof in T20 & his run out was a real comical one. But full spirit-of-the-game marks to Gilly for that non-obstruction movement! And Rohit Sharma is in the WCT20 team.... aaargh!

Answer to BQ-9:

Blind leads Blind - not andhon mein khana raja.

Subra and Ganesh Kumar got this one right.

Answer to BQ-10:

Where is this twister? Name and City please. (and the wife quips: Thank God! my driving test was not on this street!)

Next update on Tuesday morning.

PS: SPK is at $14.70

Hope At Last, I thought. But...

...it ended up as Hope All Lost for KXIP.

I am a firm believer of cycles - if something goes up, it has its time to come down at some time in the future. On that game at Eden Gardens, there was this nice stat on Dada which said that he was one of the three batsmen (whether in KKR or across the IPL3, don't know that) who has a strike rate of less than 100. Then that one over of Ojha corrected that anomaly.

Sachin used to gift his wicket to every left-arm spinner plying his trade - remember Ray Price, Mohd Rafique... and in contrast, Ganguly has buried many a left-arm spinner's careers in the real estate beyond long-on and deep mid-wicket.

The week that was in IPL3:

• Last week saw some big wins from the teams both in terms of wicket margins as well as run margins. Shows that the game is turning to be more digital with lesser and lesser shades of grey in between
  
• DC is running out of steam
• KXIP's signal strength is at a death-whisper level
• KKR is flashing in the plan along with CSK; while Dada is conspicuously present with his gung-ho comments, Dhoni is definitely absent in many aspects - batting, captaincy, winning... Tells you much about the fact that a captain is as good as his team's performance!
• Murali and Malinga are flying the Lankan flag high while Vaas, Sanga and Mahela are trying extremely hard to bring it down!
• Gambhir called the Royals as duds and promptly got reprimanded by the Commissioner - Lalit Modi that is! Heard that Gauti will not be allowed to speak for the rest of IPL including the call at the toss! He will tap his head for "Heads" and do a coily-motion with his hand from the posterior to indicate "Tails"
• Except for Bhajji and Karthik the Indian team for T20 failed consistently last week
  

Answer for BQ-8:

The answer is Batsman No. 8. Not 2 or 7 or 11. Finally good response to the quiz. Seven, oops got it wrong, eight got it right. Bhargav, Bob, Guru, Ishan, Rambo, Siva*, Sivasubs and Yadavalli are those magnificent seven! Kudos, fellers.

Now on to BQ-9:

What is the correct - or the more common, form of this re-written idiom?

• One suffering from macular degeneration is guiding one with less than 10% normal vision

Answers to the usual mail box.

PS: SPK is at $13.70 and will make it to at least 25, I hope.

Shit Happens...

...said Virat yesterday on air. Quite candid, future captain! For those of you who did not see that happen, you can satisfy yourself with the written account here.

And shit did happen for the drunkards yesterday after Vijay suddenly decided that he is no-Srikkanth-chela. CSK is behaving exactly like the Indian team of yonder - contriving to lose easy wins and managing to stretch walk-in-the-parks!

KKD (not KKR lah!) gave enough reasons (69 of them actually) to pitch in his claim for the Yuvraj slot. Especially the way he killed Tait yesterday was a sight to behold. Of course, Rajasthan decided to take a day off against some very accurate leggie by both Amit and Ladda (what a name!)

Answers to BQ-7:

Firstly the good news: for for the first time in this edition, a question has been answered completely correctly by two people - Guru and Siva*.

Yes, Sachin does not have any Hummer. Now that you know the answer, have a re-look at the statements and work backwards!

Here is BQ-8: (Thanks to Sarika!)

You should take exactly 15 seconds to answer this question. No cheating.

It was a strange innings. All the batsmen got out bowled of the first ball that they faced. There were no extra balls bowled. Which numbered player will be the not out batsman? Standard cricket laws and playing conditions apply.

Send in your answer and the time that you took to arrive at the answer to the usual place.

PS: SPK stands at $12.40 at roughly the half-way mark of the tournament. Make it big, friends!

P.P.S: Six games in the next four days.

• Apr 1: KKR v DC (Roach to nuke KKR!)
• Apr 2: KXIP v RCB (Last chance parlour for Yuvraj)
• Apr 3: CSK v RR (Still no Bollinger :-()
• Apr 3: MI v DC (Didn't they play just now?)
• Apr 4: KKR v KXIP (Battle of duds!)
• Apr 4: DD v RCB (Sehwagalicious...)

Keep the guesses rolling ... Happy Easter.

Hussey the magnificent!

In an otherwise lacklustre game where David Warnered KKR, there was one thing that stood out. David Hussey's magnificent catch to dismiss Collingwood.

Yes, Angelo Mathews showed 'em how to do in England last year; but David's was equal if not better.

Have a glimpse!!

And last night, Malinga was slinging it as if yorkers were going extinct! As usual he got 3 wickets out of four - actually the hat-trick ball missed the stump just by that much!

And Tiwari-ji is proving that he can match Dhoni in Samson-like locks as well as pyrotechnics. The boy did mention one pertinent thing few days back - "IPL has more visibility than domestic matches."

You bet! I like the hinter-land candour from the youngster. Hope he bashes a few more!

Pool is languishing at about half-way stage. Hope the tempo will pick up in the second half of the tournament!

Answer to BQ-6:

The gentleman introduced Googly to cricket. Check Wiki on how he came about that innovation.

Only Bob managed to googly it correctly ;-) Congrats.

Now for BQ-7:

Dhoni, Bhajji and Yuvraj are talking to each other about the Hummer collection of Sachin: Dhoni says: "Sachin has at least four Hummers." Bhajji says: "No, he has less than four Hummers." "According to me," says Yuvraj, "Sachin grandpa has at least one Hummer."

Question is: If you know that only one of the three friends is right, how many Hummers does Sachin possess?

Have a good Mittwoch.

Entries and Answers at the usual place.

PS: SPK stands at $11.50 & nobody has a clear lead. Four people with one correct answer, so far. So, it is up for you to grab by answering the questions, folks!

And at the end of Week #2...

Here are the W2 highlights from my perspective:

1. CSK's jaundice has relapsed very badly. Desperate for any remedy - including praying for Srikkanth to pad up and Bollinger to arrive early - all for what? Just to end up one place above KXIP, I suppose.
2. KKR seems to be lesser and lesser wickets only to lose - the last win is an aberration
3. Warnie has gotten out of his Poker stupor to make it four-in-a-row for the Royals.
4. PZ has proclaimed that Yuvi is (like) her brother - Yewwwviii...
5. Piyush Chawla for the world cup? Cheeka what were you smoking?? Until Albie smote Warnie for three consecutive DLFs, Piyush has conceded more sixers than anybody in IPL. Go figure!
6. Best Commentary: MI v CSK game: LS and Danny Morrison - After Shikhar Dhawan holed out tamely to Raina at mid-wicket, LS says: That is the first Karbonn Kamaal Catch of the day! to which Danny pipes in - Actually Shikhar wanted to hit a DLF maximum but it ended up as a Karbonn Kamaal Catch making it a Citi moment of success for the Chennai Super Kings!!!
Oh, my Gawwwddd!!
7. Something tells me that Gambhir will not be able to play WCT20 and Sachin will be air-lifted to the Windies!
8. And people are right to crib that both Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa have missed out to Yuvraj Singh who seems to be growing day-by-day - around the waist, that is!

Now for the answer to BQ-5:

Not Los Angeles or Salt Lake City.

The only famous pan-handle in the USA, to my limited knowledge is the Florida Pan-Handle and it has the capital of Florida i.e. Tallahassee, the Godly city. Didn't I ask you guys to google? Hmmmm...

And here goes BQ-6:

A simple question....

What is Bernard Bosanquet's contribution to cricket?

Have a good week.

PS: SPK is at $ 11.20

35 v 35 or CSK's Full Toss Mania!

In a game between two 35-year-old damsels, the Big Boss lady won it, all thanks to some Kal Ho Na Ho type of batting by the KXIP-ians.

And finally, Delhites showed some spunk to make the Bengaluru Udugaru look like the drunkard that their owner showed himself to be. By the way, no prizes for guessing what Vijay Mallya was drinking the other day - when he had to hurriedly put the glass down as the cameras were zooming in on him. Whyte and Mackay of course! But G tells me that it would be some single malt and that Mallya-saab would not drink his own poison - and I have to respect his judgement in this matter! STOP DIGRESSING NOW.

Now that Dhoni is back in the team, CSK seems to be on Liv-52 already. But then his bowlers had other plans. வேணாம்... வலிக்குது... அழுதுடுவேன்... (Don't bother for the translation... you know the feeling!)

Answer to BQ-4:

It is not a clip, not an instrument to clean ears (ooh!), not an instrument by ancient gynaecologists (yewwwwww!) but a musical instrument called Morsing.

While Ganesh Kumar, Guru and Chets tried to be innovative, only the old-young man Sivasubs gave the right answer. Good show!

Now for BQ-5: An easier one. Ok lah! Go Google.

• Which is this 'Godly' US city that is on something that resembles a handle of a pan?

Be prompt.
Be good.

PS: SPK is at $9.10

CSK Jaundiced?!?

I have to say that I was too distraught on seeing my beloved CSK losing to KXIP - that too through the Super Over and that too by a hitherto hidden reverse sweep by Yuvi. Just goes on to show the utility of one Mr MSD. Hmmmmm...

By the way, have decided that the margin of victory for this super over shall be NA (so in future, if you think that a match will be decided based on super over, you can put in NA!)

KKR is getting back to its good habits ;-)

Cheeka (our beloved chief selector) has already approached Sachin for the Windies trip. Apparently, the thinking goes along these lines in the shady corridors of BCCI: If 2007 T20 was all about youth and inexperience, then 2010 will be all about oldies and experience.
You can never write off these guys :-)

Answer to BQ#3:

Most of you did not read the question right, I think. I had asked for the most common IPL uniform colour and its wavelength - of course in a long-winded way :-)

By a distance, it is Blue or cousins of Blue - so the right answer should have been 380-495 nm. Wiki is correct for a change here.

Only Guru and Anand Re attempted to get the wavelengths right. Half points guys!

Now onto BQ#4:

Simple one. What is this contraption?

Usual Place. Usual Thing.

P.S. Special Price Kitty stands at $7.20. Keep the guesses coming guys, so that you get better prizes for the quiz winners...

Delhi Mongoosed!

There are bats and then there is the Mongoose!

Maan!

What Hayden did yesterday to Delhi was to show that apart from Nannes there is hardly a bowler in their side! Parnell to come in, perhaps!

And Deccan continue to stutter and move on.

KXIP seems to sound and like a defunct FM station from the states. Preity Zinta's expression after Mahela's dismissal said it all.

Here is the W1 Highlights of IPL3 from my perspective:

1. BQ came back with - er, not exactly a bang, but with at least a small roar!
2. Mongoose has arrived
3. But Dilshan and the scoop are yet to be seen.
4. Tendulkar pitched hard for a spot in T20 India team
5. Kallis has forgotten how to get out (Like Adam - the first man lah, not knowing how to die!)
6. We know what Lalit Modi liked when he was a teen ager (Abba, UB40...)
7. There are less number of Citi Moments of Successes and DLF Maximums, from the mouth-pieces that is - even though the number of sixers of the tournament stands at a whopping 131 right now!
8. Only one 100 thanks to Yusuf madness (by the way, the best comment of the week was from Harsha: Yusuf likes to bat in binaries!!)
9. And Deccan Chargers are still to win at their real home - Hyderabad!!

Have fun.

Answer to BQ#2:

The house was supposed to be the dream home of Sachin Tendulkar. But unfortunately, as in life, it was a hoax. It is the Nautilus house in Mexico City. Go figure!

Only Rajesh got the first part right about it being touted as Sachin's new house. Congratulations to you, for giving the first correct answer to this edition of BQ!

Now for BQ#3. An easy one.

What is the most common wavelength of the visual effect that is caused by the spectral composition of the light emitted, transmitted, or reflected by IPL3 uniforms?

I need a number or range of numbers with proper units.

Enjoy.

Dilli Ki Batti Bandh!

Dilli Ki Batti Bandh!

(Delhi's Light was off!)

Everybody wanted Sehwag to do the needful chasing the highest IPL3 score. There was initial euphoria due to those crazy no-backlift, no-follow-through legside pickup shots off Zaheer and Malinga. It soon faded as a jet-lagged Bravo bowled slower than usual and Viru played so early that his first shot was completed by the time ball arrived within his reach :-)

And the rest, as the saying goes, is philosophy.

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

By the way, what is the side bet that Sachin will be in the World T20 squad?

Response to the pool - ahem, can improve.

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

Answer to the BQ1:

Don't come around looking for me with bricks :-)

Lalit and Utsav are two of the famous models of HMT watches from India.

Unfortunately, nobody even attempted in spite of the two hints along with the question.

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

Now for BQ2: (Courtesy Biju)

This zany house was in the news recently. Why?

Answers to the usual place.

PS: SPK is at $3.80.

Kya Hua Tera Wadah?

Kya Hua Tera Wadah?

(What happened to your promise?)

It is 8.25 pm SGT.

Still not COB for yours sincerely!

Regular service to resume from tomorrow after the DD vs MI game tonight.

Quick update on the points:

Winning team: 2 points
Winning margin: 4 points
Maximum wickets: 2 points
Sixers: 2 points

Total: Maximum 10 points

Question #1 of the quiz shall be answered tomorrow. (means, you can still send in your answers!)

Enjoy.

Oh! by the way, the Special Prize Kitty (SPK) stands at $3.50

Promises... Promises...

It is good that CSK is winning against Dada's purple-heads... one sort of gets into a better mood to promise that:

- by tomorrow close of business, the latest updates to the positions will be published in the blog.

And you shall promise to send:

- the semi-final line up - revised or new!
- answers to the question #1 from previous post...

Deadline for the match on 17th March 2010: DD vs MI - 10 pm SGT


Enjoy!

Doggy delays!

The past few days have been hectic and hence could not update the s/sheets and therefore the pool is in a kind of blind spot right now. Of course, the fact that there were dogs on the hallowed grounds of MAC did not help!!

And on reasonable demands from a few of the players, you can submit the Semi-Finals line up guesses until 17th March 2010 - Wednesday 10pm SGT. Those who have already submitted their guesses are allowed to change the same before the above dead-line.

Fret not! While the 'B' portion is languishing from lack of attention from my side, the 'Q' portion is off with this post...

Question #1:

What is the timely connection between our dear IPL Commissioner and the Umrao Jaan girl, Rekha?

PS: By the way, Lalit Modi wanted to have Rekha do her Umrao Jaan or Utsav dance number along with UB40, Lionel Riche, Abba... aaaarrrgghhh! Can't write anymore :-)

(c) Thanks to Cartoonstock.com for the picture above.

IPL3 - BQ is back!

Ok, here we go on the simple rules:

Framework upto Semi-Finals:

* At least ten games & one semi-final line up commitment needed
* 3 bucks per guess for the games / 5 bucks per guess for the semis lineup; thereof 10 cents per guess goes towards special prizes
* Final winners give a commitment of donating at least 10% of their winnings towards charity

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 8pm SGT 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.

Over and above that, you need to give me the Semi-Final line-up by 12th March 2010 10 pm SGT via email as above. Each Semi-Final line up costs 5 bucks.


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 (ya lor! DLF Maximums mah!!) in the MATCH:

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

Don't Fret! The Quiz is on :-))

(btw, BQ stands for Bets and Quiz; sounds British, eh?)

'Laloo'isation of Tharoor

Once upon a time, (before Laloo started dabbling with Railways balance sheets), there used to be a joke going around.

There was a meeting between visiting Japanese authorities and Laloo.
Japanese Makacho and Bokacho challenged Laloo, "Give Bihar to us for three years and we shall make a Japan out of it!"
To which our man replied ever so nonchalantly, "Arrey! Theen saal kyon? Mujhe Jaapaanko theen maheeney ke liye dey do! Usko Bihar banwaadhoo(n)!!"

[Loosely translated: Hey! Why three years? Give me Japan for three months and I will convert it to Bihar!]

That is precisely what seems to be happening between our dear media and politicians. At this rate, they will make Tharoor into one of themselves!

Hence this open tweet to Mr Tharoor:

Shashi: As u r 2 educatd 4 India media n Polits y not donate em a dictionary to find meaning of interlocutor? No. Might as well carry 1 arnd..

There you go! My first tweet, though not on Twitter, meeting the 140-character tyranny!

(c) Thanks HT for the nice picture!

Power of One... (weep, weep)

Just saw the results of the ICC World Cricket League Div 5 tournament in Nepal.

It is Heart-Breakville for Singapore.

With the top two countries qualifying for the next division, Singapore missed the berth by the proverbial 'coat of paint'.

USA, Nepal and Singapore ended up with eight points each and the NRR (Net Run Rate for the uninitiated) looks as follows:

USA: +1.371

Nepal: +1.351 (actually 1.3505)

Singapore: +1.347 (actually 1.3472)

That is a total difference of less than 0.004 - in fact 0.00333 :-((((

AAARRRGGGHHHH!

To put it in perspective...

If Singapore had:

scored one run more at any stage in the tournament OR

scored their runs consuming one less ball OR

given one less run to their opponents...

they would have been through!!!

Maan, my heart goes to Munish and the boys...

I don't know what to say to console them other than F*** it, guys!

Definitely, Nepal should be penalised for the unruly crowd behaviour in their final match against USA.

ICC, are you listening?

Probably this is how South Africans felt after their one run loss at Jaipur?

Hmmmm...

9-11 Lingers On...

Bob is a great colleague thrashing about in the Big Apple.
And whoever goes to NYC invariably gets affected by the nineelevenitis.
Only the degree of infection varies.
Looks like Bob has gotten inflicted badly by the two beams soaring into the sky.

Here is as fantastic and as fabulous a poem as you would have ever read.

http://www.bobtimes.net/2009/09/weightless.html

Weightless? Yes.
Speechless? Definitely.

Where was it hidden all these days, Bob?

Talking of LBWs

There is something about the LBW that makes cricket probably the most subjective sport/game around. After having done years of umpiring at reasonably varied levels, I am yet to come across

(a) a batsman who does not complain about his LBW dismissal and
(b) a bowler who does not complain about his LBW appeal being turned down

Even the greatest are susceptible to this as I saw over the weekend.

There was the bowler who felt thoroughly aggrieved when I turned down his appeal against the marauder. What can I do if the ball pitched outside leg stump?

And then the marauder himself seems to have indicated that the title of the last post should never have been - as he had 'supposedly' played the ball before it hit his pads...

There are LBW complaints and there are LBW complaints.

Next!!

Jayasuriya lbw Dharmichand 102 (Given out by...)

That is precisely what happened on Saturday.

The consummate player that he is, he reduced some of the best Singapore bowlers to pie-chuckers (thanks KP for the term!) when he thrashed something like 242 runs in about 100 balls over two innings today in the IA 20/20 Olam Cup tournament.

After thrashing everybody out of sight at IA for his second century of the day, the marauder got a bit tired and missed a wrong 'un from Dharmi leaving me with an easy decision. (giving me yet another topic to boast to my grand-children - that is IF they understand cricket ;-)

That said, Upul Tharanga was a bit of a let down - caught behind off Shoib (again, yours-sincerely had to do the exercise of lifting the index finger ;-) He did come back strongly with two excellent run outs to push the Southern Kings back strongly.

Apart from cricket, there were a few things that could have been avoided...

The toss had to be delayed because the great man did not happen yet at the ground :-() - Don't remind me that anybody can toss for the team... such is our pandering to stardom...

Anand and I goofed up on the elementary counting of men outside the circle - resulting in a delayed no-ball call. Pressure, Pressure!

And a fair bit of the gamesmanship from the great man - when he tried to bowl even before the batsman was ready, not once, twice... but five times!! Happy that one stood upto him; but it was sheer nonsense. May be I should have put my ample waist in front of his two-step-runup? I think Sarika and Ramesh handled him much better today. To be fore-warned is to be fore-armed, definitely.

Reminded of what Sarika said, "When star players pressure you, cover the face!" (their face, mentally, that is!)

But the cricket was absolute fun; thanks Sanath!!

As expected Eastern Riders won the Olam Cup on Sunday - albeit a major hiccough in the middle order after Upul blasted 84 in no time. Probably Chetan missed a trick by making Arun cool his heels when the two Oldies were batting in the end. Otherwise, East literally limped to the victory post - James was having a sub-runner, Harish: ditto and Sunder is no spring hare!
Anyway, it was a great two days.

Thanks to IA for arranging the fab event. Looking forward to the next one!