Wednesday, May 28, 2008

DIL(HARA)JEETA RE!!!!!!!


What might have been going in Dilhara Fernando's mind when he came to ball against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. In the last match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) , Dilhara last over not only cost Mumbai Indians (MI) the match, but also knocked out his team's chances of making to the semi finals of the inaugural IPL. But in the very first over he showed his character and gave RCB a double blow including getting the wicket of Birthday boy and dangerous Pakistani Batsmen Misbah Ul Haq. RCB never really recovered from this blow and ended up scoring just 122 runs in 18 overs. Fernando ended with his best figures of 4/18, his best ever in T20 format.
A target of 123 in 18 overs never looked difficult with the batting line up of MI which includes Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasurya, Robin Utthapa. And the way Sachin and Sanath started the innings, at one point it seemed that MI would cruise to a 10 wicket victory. Sanath was at his best sending the RCB players on a leather hunt. Well not really as he hit four huge sixes and four dashing boundaries leaving the RCB players standing on their spot. However he got after scoring his 50 but Sachin and local lad Robin Utthapa ensured that MI cruise to victory.
Well the match was an inconsequential one as both the teams were already out of reckoning for semis, but match for pride for the skippers of both teams-Sachin(MI) and Rahul Dravid (RCB) who wanted to end their IPL campaign on a winning note.
Dravid couldn't but later he admitted that he has learnt a lot from this tournament and that he is here to stay despite his team finishing second from bottom this year.
But undoubtedly this match belonged to Dilhara who despite being the culprit just two days ago, proved his mattle to give MI a deserving victory.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

2008: Year of Indian Badminton?


Well the IPL fever is undoubtedly caught the imagination of the entire country. But just thought of thinking beyond cricket and who know that 2008 may just go on to become the year of Indian Badminton. The dream seems to be realistic specially after meeting India's all time great Badminton player Prakash Padukone, who believes that this year in the Bejing Olympics, India might spring a surprise in form Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal. Well speaking about Prakash Padukone, he could well be regarded as the most unlucky Indian sportsperson. In Badminton he has won all, whether its the World Cup or the All England Championship and in the early eighties he was the man to beat in the badminton world. However he could not participate in the Olympics as Badminton became an Olympic sports only in 1992 at Barcelona. Who knows Prakash would have won the gold at Moscow (1980) or LA (1984). But he doesn't regret, but he feels that he would loved representing the country in the Worlds biggest Sporting extravaganza. But since 1992, India has represented in every Olympics, however the best ever result came only in 2000 when Pullela Gopichand reached the Round of 16. But no one ever came close to winning a medal. However this year could be different, both Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal are known to be world beaters and both of them have defeated top ranked players on their given day. So all eyes including that on Prakash Padukone will be on them and who know that they may turn 2008 as the year of Indian badminton.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Royal Challengers Bangalore V/S Mumbai Indians in 2 days

Well my first day of blogging and just two days left for the Mumbai Indians (MI) to take on rejuvinated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their last match of IPL in Bangalore. Well for RCB captain Rahul Dravid, he would obviously want to end a disappointing IPL season with a win just like Dada did for Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) last night, but for Sachin's MI it will be crutial match if they want to reach the semis. (Provided they win tonight against Rajasthan Royals). An exciting match on the cards. Infact RCB are already in town, but are resting today (A much needed one after their back to back victories against Chennai and Hyderabad).
As its my first day of blogging, I would like to introduce myself. I am a Sr. Sports Correspondent of NewsX, India first HDTV news Channel am based out of Bangalore. I will be covering sports in the South, so to catch up all the action of sports activities in the region, one could visit this site.