The Battle of the Best………

Prologue (Which was actually not a part of this blog):

This blog of mine comes at the end of the 1^st test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008, which is too late by my standards.

Two reasons:

• I was contemplating over whether to write a blog (very long one, to be split in parts) on Sourav Ganguly before or after the series, I decided on the latter.

• I depended on the internet connection of my office to upload it on the day before the series, but found that www.blogger.com was blocked on that day!!! HUH!!!

Here’s a look back at the amazing rivalry with some memorable pictures…

History:

India - Australia rivalry in test cricket is now THE watched, THE most enthralling, and THE most promising contest (not to forget about THE Financial aspect) in international cricket. As a young cricket follower in the 1990’s I grew up looking up to India-Pakistan contests as the “Mother of all battles”. As time grew by, it was India v Australia that took center stage.

1996:

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy was launched in 1996, with India winning the one-off test, enabled by a Nayan Mongia Century.

1998:

Next stop was supposed to be Australia , however it was in 1998 that Aussies revisited India. This series is remembered only for one man-Sachin Tendulkar. After getting caught off Shane Warne at 1^st slip by Mark Taylor for 4 at Chennai,and sending Warne berserk, Sachin went on to flay the aussie attack all throughout the series with aplomb. Not to forget the permanent scars he created in Warne’s minds…

1999-2000:

India next had a forgettable 1999-2000 tour of Australia, getting whitewashed 3-0. Only stand out points for the tourists were Sachin’s Melbourne hundred and VVS Laxman’s 167 at Sydney, the latter being the sign of things to come in future….

2001:

Then came the biggest of all series in 2001,which included the best test match I ever saw-at Kolkata…..Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist pulled the Mumbai test away from India with a sensational counter attack and India pulled off a thriller from the brink of losing hopelessly, thanks to career defining innings from VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. Sachin Tendulkar took the baton at Chennai, Harbhajan Singh ran through the Aussies and fittingly hit the winning runs, to clinch a cliffhanger. Lots and lots can be written on this series….Probably I shall write about this to commemorate the completion of 10 years on March 22, 2011.

2003-2004:

The 2003-04 series down under began with predictions of India losing 4-0, and ended up with India dominating, yet drawing the series 1-1.Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar –all plundered the Aussie attack and Anil Kumble almost single handedly won the series , but for a farewell innings from Steve Waugh.

2004:

The Aussies came to India in 2004, completely ready with a plan. India were clearly under prepared, with Sachin Injured, yet if not for a rain wash out on the 5^th day at Chennai, the series would have been drawn 2-2.However, all credit to the Aussies for out-witting India and winning after 35 years on Indian soil.

2007-08:

The recent 2007-08 series was the most intriguing of them all both on and off the field, culminating in the retirement of the great Adam Gilchrist. India started badly at Melbourne, Aussies retained the trophy after a non-deserving win at Sydney(For reasons everyone knows), India won at Perth for the first time and Aussies saved themselves some blushes with slow, defensive un-Aussie cricket at Adelaide.

Current Series-2008:

Indian Fab-Five are under pressure to deliver one last time and have the last hurrah, Australia are weakened by retirements of greats, yet extremely formidable and hence this series is definitely the end of an era of a fantastic decade of India-Australia rivalry. Ironically, it also is the end of the career of India’s finest captain ever, Sourav Ganguly, for he was the one who orchestrated the beginning of this rivalry.

Predictions:

To speak the truth, I made a prediction 3 days before the series began, to one of my best buddies, Prashanth Salian, who is an avid non-supporter of everything that I support.

My Predictions were:

• Ponting, Hussey and Katich will be the key players for Australia…Hayden and Clarke will fail
• Sourav Ganguly will score at least one hundred in the series, and it will be at Nagpur
• Australia will not win a single test in the series.

To add these I will add few more:

• India winning the series will entirely depend on the batsmen. Because this series will be played on dead slow wickets (exception being Delhi) and hence the India need to out-bat Australia and score quickly. The Fab-Four(rather Fab-Five) know this and will go all out to prove critics wrong!!!

• The openers-Sehwag and Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar and the fast bowlers will be the stars for India (Yes … Dravid, Laxman and Sourav, will play their roles neatly though)

• No team has kept the Border-Gavaskar trophy with them for more than two consecutive series, hence India will win this test series

Final statement: India will win the series 2-0, with draws at Bangalore and Nagpur.

Overdose...Overdose....Overdose.....

Overdose...Overdose....Overdose.....

HUH!! Beginning this blog with a sigh might make the readers of this blog, get some negative vibes...However, my main idea of this blog is only to put across some things in life ,as i am experiencing,which are in "overdose",with no novelty!!!

Firstly, let me mention that this blog will have the least mention about sports, as compared to my other blogs...But let me begin with with it..

* Overdose of Cricket: Phew...Too many cricket matches going on nowadays.Same teams playing each other very often in different forms of the game,(with the exception of Ashes) is making the game lose its gloss and making it extremely dull.To experience this myself took a longer time,even though soem of my friends already have felt this, since I am a fanatic to such an extent that even a Kenya v Bangladesh or a Somerset v Nottinghamshire( The latter match has better quality of cricket!!) match would keep me involved.But now its getting difficult to keep track of things like statistics,predictions,comments,on field happenings etc....Simply speaking, CRICKET is slowly getting towards the level of extreme OVERDOSE.

* Overdose of Work: Well nothing official about this...Being in the IT industry,this is nothing but a given!! Need not explain much about this...

* Overdose of Bombs: This is something which i am not be treating in jest, but venting out my frustration on the miscreants.India's security has been badly hit and damaged..People are roaming around freely carrying destructive elements..every alternate fortnight throws up "breaking news" on News channels( By the way there is an overdose of these news channels as well!!)People courageously get back to daily life with fear still in their minds, but still the government still is "running around the bush"... !!!

* Overdose of Reality shows on TV:Few days back I watched the Grand finale of "another" reality show,where one team backed out in protest of the judges' decisions,which made me think..WHAT A WASTE THAT I WATCHED THIS SHOW ALL THESE DAYS??? There was a case of a girl losing her speech due to some comemnts by judges,there was a madness filled fight on another show...HUH!!! These reality shows are doing nothing for anybody...except for the TV channels and the Mobile sevice providers!!

* Overdose of Bollywood movies: There's too much of movies coming out these days...close to 250 bollywood movies a year,i.e an average of about 5 movies per week...too much...!! There were times when about 2 movies used to get released every fortnight,which was a considerable gap between movies.Being an ardent listener of Bollywood music,i used to have most of the lyrics byheart due to consistent listening of good songs..Nowadays there's too many songs releasing,to hear them all continuously..even A R Rahman will have 4 releases for the year by the end of 2008...!!! By the way we are having an overdose of Pritam Chakraborty now, in the same way as we had an "Himesh Reshammiya overdose"!!!

* Overdose of Unnecessary Controvesies: The latest being the Singur controversy, which could have been avoided if the government had stepped in rightly.The government is more involved in getting the Nuclear Deal through...which again had its share of controversies. I do not have my own opinion on the N-deal, for i have read lots of pros and cons about it for India in newspapers..and hence making my mind up on it, has been confusing...Another big controversy is the Attack on churches across the nation...I know what is right about it and what not...hence no comments on that..

* Overdose of Roger Federer v Rafael Nadal: This is one overdose which i can say is a bitter-sweet overdose.Bitter because of the Rafael leads Roger 12-6 in head to heads...Sweet because it has made me watch tennis with that much more excitement than ever before.This is one battle that the tennis fans will enjoy for many more years to come....

Overdose.....hmmmm...simply putting it across,its just that nothing new is coming up as i look down the past few years...its those same old things...is creativity and innovation suffering? Or is it that i am seeing the world from my own cocoon???

PS: Comments/Advices are most welcome.....

Rafael Nadal…… Is he the best all round tennis player in the world now?

This blog is the outcome of banter I had last night with my room mate, Prasad. We were watching the opening few games of the repeat telecast of the French Open 2008 finals between Nadal and Federer, which led to my previous blog, where I mentioned had that, Nadal won the Wimbledon final mainly due to his power game.
His argument was that Nadal has improved even with his all round game, in comparison with Federer, and hence won Wimbledon. His meaning (as I interpreted) was that Nadal hit most of his winners with passing shots, down the line returns, delicate touches and corner shots. Yes there were few shots he hit during that final.
But my point is that Nadal won the match mainly due to Federer’s mistakes and not only due to his improved game. Yes, his grass court game has improved leaps and bounces, thanks to his 3 year planning, by training on a specially made personal grass court at his home town Mallorca, Spain. There were only 5 service breaks, which reflect in the final scores. Both were neck to neck with winners, Federer was miles ahead on aces. Nadal’s service aces were not too many, and more than 50% of his serves were into Federer’s body or his backhand, without giving him any room to hit winners.
To put it straight….Federer was mentally beaten at Wimbledon, more than at tennis.

His main argument was that
• I must get rid of the “Power” word associated with Nadal in that blog.
• Further he went on to rate Federer at 9 on 10 on all round play and Nadal at 8.9 on 10
My counter statements:
• If one has a careful look at the entire paragraph, my emphasis also is on the fact that, the French Open drubbing was a major reason for Federer’s fall.
• Also I still want to stress here that Power and speed are Nadal’s biggest weapons, without which he cannot be the player he is now.
• My rating is Federer at 9.5 on 10 on all round play and Nadal at 8 on 10.
(Djokovic comes third at 7 on 10)
Because, Nadal at 22, has to go a long way with his service, backhand, volleys and service return winners.

Nadal had to improve his tennis to this extent only for one main reason, to be World No.1, which meant he had to play better than Federer. He has done this partly now, with his main challenge being to retain it for more than 237 weeks (Remember, Federer was No. 1 for this many weeks on the trot!!) Some people might argue that Federer did not have tough challengers for the No.1 slot. But it is mainly because he was consistent at the top and he was the best in the world, not because opponents were weak.

Federer has stayed free from major injuries; Nadal is struggling with his knees(One can see him play matches with taped knees). His game is more physical hence he shall have to be watchful with his fitness. He is as fit as a bull, but has to retain it for more years to come.

Finally, to sum it up, Nadal, with French and Wimbledon titles and the Olympic gold, looks to be the best in the world on current form, but Federer at number two does not mean he’s finished. He lost the medal at Beijing, but fought back in doubles to claim the Gold. The US open still is beckoning. However this time I shall be watchful by not jumping the gun. I will term Nadal as the favorite to win at Flushing Meadows, on current form. But my support always shall be for Federer.

To me, Nadal is still not the very best, so that he can be categorized as one of the tennis legends. He has miles to go, while Federer is already one. Federer never came across this challenge of getting his no.1 spot back, so this will be a big battle in store.

I must confess here…I was a big fan of Sampras before Federer came. Even when federer beat Sampras at Wimbledon in 2002, I did not suddenly switch sides. Federer became a great player for me only after he won his 3rd straight Wimbledon in 2005.Yes Nadal has won 4 straight French Opens, beating Federer thrice in finals, which makes it even bigger. But for the 1st time he has won a non- French open Grand slam. So he’s the one under pressure now to win more Grand slams.

And to make it clear, one year down the line if Nadal is still the world no.1 player, I will not hesitate to label Rafael Nadal as a legend…..