Another post-mortem

India were thrashed. Thrashed by a huge margin. Thrashed by a team that some pundits had labelled,rather unfairly, as a "B" Team. A 213 run defeat is too big to overlook.

It's time for retrospection for guru Greg and Rahul.  His  decision to bowl first was poor to say the least.But the Indian team composition was such, that Dravid thought batting first might prove risky, India remember fielded 5 bowlers, so as a result were a batsmen short.
India in the past have managed to draw games because they did not have 5 bowlers, but ironically they have lost one because of that.  Also Dravid should remember that he has to utilise all 5, because invariably one bowler gets underbowled example Chawla, Harbhajan, Pathan in various innings during the series.

India though have some positives to take out of the series. For the first time in India,  you almost felt that a fast bowler would provide the breakthrough.Something which traditionally has been the spinner 's dept in India.Kunble in his own style pegged away. Harbhajan to me was the biggest  dissappointment. He needs to take some time off. Get some wickets at the domestic level , get his confidence back. He somehow never looked like getting a wicket in the first 2 games. In Mumbai he suffered a bit due to India's pathetic catching.

I beleive somehow India should stick to it's 5 bowler strategy. It is going to win them games. But they should remember that of  the 5 batsmen atleast 3 should be in decent knick at the time. Otherwise it might be fool-hardy. Thats why I beleive there was a case for 6 batsmen in the Mumbai test. Sehwag, Sachin, Yuvraj were not in the best of forms. That left only Jaffer and Dravid. I beleive that India could afford going in with 6 batsmen, because the were 1-0 up in the series.

And a word for Freddie Flintoff. An outstanding performance by him. He just looks so relaxed leading the side. His field placings are rt on the money because he is  a bowler , and the added responsibility has made him a calmer, responsible batsmen. A lethal combo.


Heres to the ODI's..

An accidental quizzer

Hello people. Yup thats me. The year 2003. I am in TE, first semester. It's an inter-college quiz,IEEE(I think), in MESCOE. I along with Kartik decide to go to the quiz as it will save us from the misery of attending a certain "tiger"'s lecture. We ended up doing well in the elims and got on stage. Hurrah!!! The second quiz of my life and I go on stage! "It's like scoring a century in my 2nd innings" , I grin to myself. Well as things turned out, it was anything but a "century". Pitted against possibly the best college teams , needless to say we struggled to a fourth position. At the same quiz met a few (would be) friends for the first time. Salil, Dani , Ganesh. In fact the funny thing is Salil and Dani I think did not even get off the mark in the entire quiz, thus commencing the famed "Curse de MESCOE " thing for Dani. That was till his TE.This year he has finally managed to win a quiz in MESCOE. Anyway coming back ,we were thrilled at having made it that far. It was not till , Inquizzition 2004 , that I went for another quiz. There watching the BEST teams in action was exhilarating. I never knew of BCQC before that. I never knew we had a Mastermind winner amongst Pune quizzers. I never knew quizzing was FUN. Udas and Shriniwas teamed up together for the first time. I was with Neel , another "casual" quizzer. But since then, I really got hooked onto quizzing in a big way. Shriniwas was an excellent quizzer in school, what with his NIE exploits,and none of his panache for quizzing was lost. Udas also it seems was involved in quizzing in school. Here I was at a greater disadv , because I never quizzed during school days. [Actually took part once , but as a substitute quizzer, a sad story for another time ] In 11th and 12th, I was in SP College. That would .pretty much give u an idea about my quizzing ,in my pre-engineering days. But then on I participated for 2 years in most quizzes, In the world of college quizzing , I think every quizzer will have their day, some good victories , and guaranteed many 2nd-3rd place finishes, thanks to certain gentleman, on whom I am sure the IT dept is keeping tabs . I was lucky that I had, the great Sudarshan Purohit as a partner for one quiz , the Music Quiz in VIT 06, which BTW proved to be a dud. It was an experience nevertheless. I have attended 5-6 sessions at the Boat Club Quiz Club. The informal nature of the meetings is very pleasing. All people assembled there are genuinely into quizzing. My first session at BCQC was rather horrid though. I had no inkling of what was going on. There were some "sitters" that were answered , even before the question was completed , and in 1 distinct case , a quizzer actually corrected , then went on to complete a question and then,not surprisingly went on to answer it, I actually wonder how many of the quizzers at the Boat Club are like me, someone who has no pre-BE quizzing experience. I know Meghashyam is also a relatively new quizzer , I have no idea about the others. In Open Quizzes I have hardly done anything till now. But what the heck, I like quizzing and will continue to participate whatever be the result. The thrill of thinking and working out an answer is irreplacable. To quizzing!!!