WARNE VS MURALI

The master has finally decided to hang up his boots.probably,the most decorated bowler of all time announced his retirement which was long over due.700 would be a personal milestone for him and he would go down as "the first player to take 700 test wickets".when pics of shane warne are being flashed in newspapers across the world,we would in all probability hail him as "the greatest ever",but the stealthy progress of a man named murali is being ignored here.the guy has already taken a handfull against kiwis who have put the best dancers across the world to shame.all too easy for murali....no surprise...its been like this all along for him....so,where does murali stand in comparison with warney?statistics say he's second to warne,but a sneak peak at his test record reveals certain startling contrasts between the two....zimbabwe,bangladesh!!!!hmmmm,these are a bunch of guys who make up the "mazzacane" and "gene"(for all those who have forgotten the two F1 greats,these guys fought with great determination for the last two places in the qualifying rounds week in,week out,yeah...they made minardi proud...dint they????) of cricket....these countries have been happy hunting grounds for murali....also,murali should be thankful to his cricket board who further helped his cause by inviting these teams on a return series...almost like following the ashes suit....the lad has captured 137 wickets against the two as opposed to warne's 17....murali truly is nowhere in the picture....i hope critics start looking at statistics closely and analyze them....also,murali and warne have probably been the two most controversial bowlers of our generation.murali's "hand of god" has produced magical deliveries in the form of "doosras"....the chap is still waging his battle against those opposing it....fresh appeals have been made,the latest to question being martin crowe(who would probably have danced better to murali compared to the present lot....and this guy talks???)he's defy not a chucker,but a more controversial bowler compared to warne,on-field....we all know who the winner is when it comes to controversies off the field....does it even matter?...no,i guess....warne's is not the "hand of god" and cannot defy science by rotating 360 deg....u know where im getting at....his action is clean and has never been the subject of a talking point....as navjot sidhu would have it "as clean as a whistle"(can't quite get the comparison,but anyway we ll take it,given sidhu)....and so as the legend may have it,"warne is the best".

THE CHELSEA-ARSENAL GAME AND A WINNER!!!!

The chelsea-arsenal game might have ended in a draw,but it had a winner in man utd.with half the premiership over,utd are 8 pts clear with chelsea having a game in hand.but it is premature to predict who ll win the premiership,for there may come days when utd hit the post 3 times and fail to find the back of the net.chelsea having done just that have a right to feel disappointed,but spare a thought for arsenal and arsene wenger.ashley cole "the hero turned villain" for asenal clearly fouled an arsenal player right in front of the referee on course to that superb strike by essien.a goal that should never have been in the first place.the surprising fact was that of all people,arsene wenger,so far away on the bench from that tackle by cole "miraculously" spotted it,much to his frustration.this is a man who turns blind to tackles right in front of him when his own men are the aggressors.but,yeah,he can have his say and all that.but when jose speaks?...."we listen"....
here it goes...."i sink eh...we dominated second half,the better team dint win"....so damn predictable.isnt he tired of the same thing over and over again?..ask him about ashley cole's tackle and he would have muttered

"footh-ball is footh-ball,and for you its a different kind of footh-ball...."(?????confused????do excuse,after all its manager-speak....)

SANIA LOSES AGAIN!!!!





Well this is my first entry on tennis.thought i'd start off with the best INDIAN TENNIS has to offer at this point of time.It is undoubtedly Sania.Just after her tremendous display against hingis,she faltered,and faltered at the hands of a lower but seasoned campaigner by the name of Ruana Pasual.High on confidence you would expect her to win.i dont like to talk about facts here and i'd rather try and arrive at a plausible answer to why she is not right there at the top,considering the game she has.The best part is she is only 19 and its all fair to say she has a bright future.But lets not playact nostradamus here and predict her future.a few points to be looked into closely.here it goes.

I believe the best attribute a tennis player needs to possess above all is good discipline and hingis is an epitome of just that.in her early days,she never focussed on hitting the ball hard and rather concentrated on placement and court coverage.She still has it in her to be no.1.Talking of discipline,Sania still has to learn a lot regarding this aspect of the game.its not fair to say her game is erratic at times,but it might seem so to an onlooker new to the game and who by chance,happenned to occupy the front row in the very match against pascual.Her power game i thought let her down badly as much as her serve.She has to learn to be more patient at times and just try and play the ball in at crucial times of the match.Her serve too needs to be honed further.It really is a treat for any player ranked anywhere in the top 1000.It is that bad.She loses her serve,breaks back and forces herself into tie breaks.Imagine when she does hold her serve.But there is still a lot of time and it probably is right to assume nostradamus here and say to a fair extent that she can only get better.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES!!!!

Matchday 2 is over.its worth having a look at how the english teams fared.

MANCHESTER UNITED:

All through the match,one could possibly not have escaped the daunting memories fresh in mind after man utd registered its exit from last year's champions league at the very stadium of light which serves home to benfica.they sneaked in a goal,courtesy louis saha.was not the greatest of strikes,the curl ensuring that even the slightest of deflections was enough to deceive the goalie.the best player was undoubtedly ronaldo.
the witty tricks he flaunted yday were enuf to bring any top draw defender to shame.Rooney was disappointing again.was all over the place.This line up still hasnt been very formidable though.

CHELSEA:

another day at the office.not for sheva,but for drogba as chelsea thrashed sofia by three goals.the only concern for them wld be the ugly defending from carvalho.frankie lampard went about his usual business.they were not very attractive,especially the back four and i though sofia could have netted in one or even two.sheva has still not got used to the english kinda game.but when jose speaks,we listen
"when sheva doesnt score goals,we win,imagine when he does!!!!"

ARSENAL:

personally,im not a big fan of arsenal,but i cant help but accept the fact that they are probably the best passing side in the premiership.the amount of first passes they make is quite amazing.the mastermind is obviously wenger and with thierry henry netting in with his not-so-likely source of head,the future could only look better for them.a comfortable win for them in their first ever match against porto fc.

LIVERPOOL:

Benitez seems to have done the trick,but only just.two goals from crouch and one from luis garcia.if you see a better goal from crouch this season,put it in your collection.this one is for your scrapbook.truly awesome.galatasaray came back strong with two wonderful headers from karan.but it was all too late and liverpool held on for the win.

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE:

MAN UTD 1 - 1 READING.





Hoping to make amends for their loss at home to arsenal,manager Sir Alex was looking to set things back on track.A tough away match against new boys Reading was nothing short of disappointment for the men from old trafford.The match started of in a lively manner with man utd setting the tone as expected.They did everything right except find the back of the net.but reading were not to be written off.with grit,fervour,determination they fought back.The first half could have gone either way,but 0-0 was not a fair reflection of the performance of both the teams.

2 mins into the second half and reading find themselves 1 up.a ball truly meant to be cleared by rio ferdinand was missed completely.a poor and ball-blinded gary neville stuck his hand out only to give reading a penalty.but man utd fought back as always,pushed harder for the win.i thought neville and rooney had a bad game and should have done a lot better.from a presonal view point,i feel rooney has become predictable.his movements are well monitored and as a result,he finds himself well marked.ronaldo just needed a break from the left a truly wonderful goal was the result.

a lot of positives can be taken into confidence though.heinze and vidic are back.carrick had a good game and has settled down well as a defensive midfielder with occasional breaks into the channels.if they desire of lifting the premiership,they should make a few purchases when the transfer window opens in januray again,otherwise ,its chelsea all the way.

CONFESSIONS OF A CONFUSED MIND....

UN-COMFORTABLY NUMB PART 1....

This is not abt footbal or man utd....

I have not the slightest idea why im blogging now....probably coz im feeling down,i dunno....my mind has been filled with thoughts,thoughts and thoughts....so thought it would be good to save my thoughts before it meanders through the valley of thoughts again(ore flow la vandhurthe)....ok,these thoughts may mean nothing to you....

"na jane kab se"
"umede kuch baki hai"
"mujhe teri yaad kyun aathi hai"
"na jane kab se"
"dhoor jitna be ....i dont remember"
"ab so aadat si....i dont remember"
"i dont remember...shikwa nahi...i dont remember"

these are excerpts from the song called "aadat" by jal....amazing song....rocks....u will defy reach the "valley of thoughts" as u listen to it and i ve been there a couple of times....here it goes....transistors and resistors no longer interest me(not that it always used to)....iam not going places or so to say,im not going
to US,doesnt interest me now....MOCK CATS seem to be mocking me everytime and the last was nothing short of just that....just like when i thought i was getting better,i messed up....hate to tell u stories,so will stop with that....hate to say
"i ve lost it"....i have not actually....IIMs may seem far,its not...the nearest being banglaore...talking of bangalore,on my way back from the "land of the nearest IIM fom chennai",Paulo Coelho took me to slovenia and Veronica decied to die....
halfway through the book,thought i was in ljubjana,but had actually reached katpadi....thought i cld find veronica and tell her "why did u do this?"(before she died ofcourse)....since i dint find her,got no reply....so got on with the book again....as i finished the book and got down from the train,thought i cld find "veronica" or atleast "veronica like" people....vent in vain....amid all the
hustle and bustle at chennai central,no one can find veronica,i thought....do these kinda people really exist?....i have no idea....i got lost..i came to the conclusion there were no veronicas in this world and that was when i realised where the bus
stand was....

Came home,of course not to find veronica,but to listen to eddie vedder to see if he can spring up with answers....all that he cld tell me?...."worldwide suicide"....what is he trying to tell?...terrorists,jihadis,mujahideen?....wotever....is there
something in common between terrorists and veronica apart from suicide?....nothing i guess....suicide bombers and the like kill other people and themselves too....veronica fortunately just herself..."veronica like" people are expected to fall off from the edge of the "flat world" coz of changes?....changes like the boom of the internet,outsourcing,the techno progress,in short the globalisation as cited by tommy friedman in his book "the world is flat"(he was very optimistic though!!!!)....but veronica never lived the fast life like these people who underwent changes lived....she was much different from what times demand and of course much different from terrorists....yet she wanted to die....as vedder started with his next
song,my senses resurfaced....the song?...."alive"....

THE MEANT TO BE STUDY HOLIDAYS

the last time i logged on to blogger.com and type in "baddy_k" and "********" i dont remember....but i now take this vow that i'll update my blog regularly for the sake of my ever so "loyal" readers who visit my blog every now n then and say "why dont
you ever update your blog"....these voices have been ringing in my ears day after day after day and finally the day has arrived for me to do the needful....with a tearful end to the premiership and to rooney at stamford bridge,i guess i shdnt
talk football,the disappointing season can be just as sweet if 17th can be turned into a nightmare for arsenal and im sure i'll stop watching football if "arsenal" do a "liverpool"....well my pracs got over 10 days back and from then on,ive been
hibernating with either "led zeppelin" singing "stairway to heaven" evoking memories of pramod mahajan or with T.Rajendran doing his usual rounds of so called "campainging"....the last i saw,he sang a song on "kalaignar" much to the elation of people watching him on tv and to the distress of the two anchoring the show....how i really pitied them...."TR FOR CHIEF MINISTER"....meanwhile,i saw CAPOTE and CRASH and read this book called FREAKONOMICS....will be talking more abt these in my later blogs....for all those who are writing your GRE this analogy is a give away

KAAVYA VISWANATHAN:HARVARD;;

1.DEVA :KOLLYWOOD
2.ANU MALIK:BOLLYWOOD

CHOICES:
a.1
b.2
c.both
d.none of these
INFERENCE:

if you go for a,you like anu malik.
if you go for b,you like deva.
if you go for d,then its not worth spending 6000 on GRE.
if you go for c,then you're like "if opal mehta really got kissed,got wild and got a life",wheres the problem?you are one person who will score 1600 on your GRE....

the corect answer is "c".

i seriously hope AUG 10th will turn out to be a good day for me and my pals.

do drop in and comment if you have a different answer....