Yet Another Weekend of Watching Sports
This post is a few days late. India has won its first test match in South Africa, and Shane Warne has announced his retirement from international cricket. None of this was in the air as I settled down on Saturday morning, to watch sports on TV.
The day started with Australia batting their way towards winning the third test match, and with it, the Ashes. Unfortunately, I missed most of Adam Gilchrists' scintillating second - fastest hundred in test cricket, but trust Australia to really hammer the nail on the coffin! England really had no chance of recovering from that onslaught, though they fought bravely, through Ian Bell, and Alistair Cook. But any faint hopes of saving the test vanised in the last few minutes of plan on Saturday. Not surprisingly, the bowler to do the damage was Glenn McGrath.
But the real surprise was Indias' performance in the first test match. It started enjoyably, with the lustly blows of VRV Singh. I dozed off to sleep as South Africa started their innings, and when my eyes opened, South Africa were 5 for 3! Amazing. And it only got better! Hats off to the Indian team for engineering a complete turn-around from the dismal performance in the one-day series.
My 2 comments are related to this test match. The first is regarding commentator Wasim Akram. The incident was an appeal for leg before against Jacques Kallis - the bowler being Zaheer Khan. All the initial replays seemed to suggest that the batsman was plumb out. But the umpire, Rudy Koertzen, turned the appeal down. The next ball, Kallis hit a lovely straight driven four. Wasim Akram was extremely vocal in his criticism of the umpire. Then, the super slow motion replay showed that Jacques Kallis actually had nicked the ball on to his pads. It was an excellent decision by the umpire. Instead of admitting his mistake, which would have been the gentlemanly thing to do, Wasim Akram went completely silent. Not a squeak! Come on, Wasim, this was not expected of you.
The second related to Sachin Tendulkars' dismissal in the second innings. Once again, he played on a ball on to his stumps. And once again, he tries to deceive the public into thinking that the ball kept low, by falling on his knees, after the ball has hit the stumps! Replays clearly showed that the ball was not any lower than other deliveries. It was a bad shot by Sachin. Surely, one of the best batsman of our times does not need to resort to this kind of school boyish behaviour!
I also enjoyed the English Premier League matches over the weekend. The Arsenal - Portsmouth clash was a pulsating one, as was the Everton - Chelsea match. Both of them were fast paced, and had some great individual moments of brilliance. I am more convinced that it is only a matter of time, before soccer overtakes cricket in popularity in India.
The day started with Australia batting their way towards winning the third test match, and with it, the Ashes. Unfortunately, I missed most of Adam Gilchrists' scintillating second - fastest hundred in test cricket, but trust Australia to really hammer the nail on the coffin! England really had no chance of recovering from that onslaught, though they fought bravely, through Ian Bell, and Alistair Cook. But any faint hopes of saving the test vanised in the last few minutes of plan on Saturday. Not surprisingly, the bowler to do the damage was Glenn McGrath.
But the real surprise was Indias' performance in the first test match. It started enjoyably, with the lustly blows of VRV Singh. I dozed off to sleep as South Africa started their innings, and when my eyes opened, South Africa were 5 for 3! Amazing. And it only got better! Hats off to the Indian team for engineering a complete turn-around from the dismal performance in the one-day series.
My 2 comments are related to this test match. The first is regarding commentator Wasim Akram. The incident was an appeal for leg before against Jacques Kallis - the bowler being Zaheer Khan. All the initial replays seemed to suggest that the batsman was plumb out. But the umpire, Rudy Koertzen, turned the appeal down. The next ball, Kallis hit a lovely straight driven four. Wasim Akram was extremely vocal in his criticism of the umpire. Then, the super slow motion replay showed that Jacques Kallis actually had nicked the ball on to his pads. It was an excellent decision by the umpire. Instead of admitting his mistake, which would have been the gentlemanly thing to do, Wasim Akram went completely silent. Not a squeak! Come on, Wasim, this was not expected of you.
The second related to Sachin Tendulkars' dismissal in the second innings. Once again, he played on a ball on to his stumps. And once again, he tries to deceive the public into thinking that the ball kept low, by falling on his knees, after the ball has hit the stumps! Replays clearly showed that the ball was not any lower than other deliveries. It was a bad shot by Sachin. Surely, one of the best batsman of our times does not need to resort to this kind of school boyish behaviour!
I also enjoyed the English Premier League matches over the weekend. The Arsenal - Portsmouth clash was a pulsating one, as was the Everton - Chelsea match. Both of them were fast paced, and had some great individual moments of brilliance. I am more convinced that it is only a matter of time, before soccer overtakes cricket in popularity in India.
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