Whadddaaaa Team ...!

Therez  this  fantasy league type competition thats going on at our workplace for IPL season 2. Ahead of every match every member who has registered, can select a team that comprises of  3 batsmen, 3 bowlers, 4 allrounders and a keeper.  Take a look below at the team , that a colleague of mine came up with for the first of the double headers , Punjab vs deccan.  She obviously din have a clue of the playing XI's and  dragged & dropped players at random. Gosh u gotta take a look at the awesome  DREAM (NIGHTMARE ?)  TEAM. I couldn suppress my laughter, Not even one figured in the playing XI !! Herez the team for you (Click on the image for a better view)

Goat Mowers !

Am sure for most of us, even entering the google campus is a dream come true. The chances of that becoming possible is gonna be real easy. No algorithmns, No data structures, No programming .. nothing at all.  All you have to do is hurry up, rush to a nearest farm and get a coupla goats. yes GOATS !! With everyone trying to do their bit for reducing the carbon footprints they are leaving behind, the googlers have decided to use GOAT MOWERS instead of the traditional lawn mowers.  

Though it costs them the same  as the lawn movers , "goats are definitely cuter to watch" , says an entry in the official google blog !  Interestingly yahoo has been a harbinger in this approach as the goad to use goats for mowing has come to them pretty early! 

Thats a Ripppperrrrrr !!

Whoa.. wat a contest it was today. Absolute cracker of a match on a superb pitch that  was a heaven for batsmen and had a bit in it for the disciplined bowlers as well. 

It all happened for CSK today. Runs from Mighty matty's blade, raina's consolidation in the middle overs,  amazing hits from badhri, unexpected contribution from the dark horse - JAKATI at death. Though the flurry of wickets in the middle overs , was a terrible set back, CSK wrapped up the innings with a pretty defendable 163, given the bounce in the wicket.

 The daredevils  certainly pulled things back  after the strategic break and wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals.  Got a feeling that the CSK batsmen went for shots, one too many. One disadvantage in batting first on belters like this is, you never know what is a competitive total.  In the process of finding out  that , team chennai was in too much of a hurry. Thanks to the lusty blows from the top order  failing which chennai would have only managed to fetch a below par score.

If there is onething that kick started the momentum in the second half for the csk,  it could be none other than the absolute blinder of a catch from the superman raina. "you are not gonna see a catch better than this in the IPL this time" screamed danny from the commentary box.  Next came a peach of a delivery from tyagi for which ABDV din have a clue. Pitched in line , moved  away a lil and left him flummoxed.  Dilshan threatened for a while before he was  beaten by a corker from jakati. This time it was i who shouted "Thats a ripperrrr.." having robin jackman in mind.  Amidst all this warner was waging a lone battle on the other end before he found a able partner in DK. Gosh, you gotta give credit to DK (wat a shame- this chennaite almost knocked CSK outta the match), who took the pressure of warner's shoulders so quickly and gave a mild heart attack to  millions of chennaites.  DK played a gem of a knock, getting the boundaries early in the over and running well between the wickets.  When warner reached fifty, a placard in the crowd read "Don u dare. It's delhi". 

It was jakati again, who gave us the break through. Warner went down the pitch to hit jakati out of the park and it took dhoni's street smart work to see warner's  back.  The much unexposed daredevil's lower order couldn handle murali who was too hot for them.  In the process of  keeping up with the RRR, DK too perished after a magnificient innings, held in the deep by murali. Wow, murali went cock a hoop after taking the crucial catch. Guess it was danny again in the commentary who said "Look at that.Can you imagine Hayden hugging murali and saying You little beauty. IPL, Take a bow".  

At last CSK moves to the top  4.  In the other match, the rajasthan royals have beaten the deccan chargers and the royal challengers have had 2 wins on the trot as well, akin chennai. Season 2 of the IPL is gonna be a cracker of a competition. The gates are wide open now and lets wait and watch whoz gonna make it to the semis. But beware folks, as ravi shastri said towards the closing moments of the match today  "The Super kings are back in business. Make no mistake on that !!".

Are we Back ?

At last CSK has registered  a win, its first ever against the defending champion royals.  This should definitely be a morale booster for team chennai.  The man with the midas touch, dhoni, finally got  what he wanted from his bowlers and fieldsmen yesterday. To put it simply, CSK clicked as a unit 

Though matty and li'l parthiv din trouble the scorers much ,  raina certainly did. What  a match he had. You could never miss him in action yest - Be it the mighty hits while batting or  with the wily spinners and catches during fielding. It was absoutely his day (and mine too - I added raina as the last player, in my fantasy league and i needn say that my points soared). Dhoni and badhrinath too chipped in with useful contributions. 

Bala gave us the breakthroughs at regular interval, ably supported by morkel and oram.  Grame smith failed again at the top and that opened the flood gates.  After their match winner - yousuf pathan departed, it was virtually curtains for the royals. They sorely miss the services of tanvir and watson. One can see the heavy reliance on pathan. He just has too much to do and you can't expect him to win them match after match. Shane - Law of averages ain't spare neone mayte ;)

So that gives us 5 points from 6 matches and the 5th position in the table.  We meet the daredevils tomorrow and its a more of  must-win match for us.  The momentum is defintely with us but then lets hope that gauti,viru and ABDV dont  break it.