Cricket @ work

It took 6 days and 10 matches to get a really exciting game in this edition of IPL. It was the mother of all nail biters and the loss KKR suffered made it all the sweeter (Sharukh Khan has single-handedly made KKR into the most hated team in IPL, no wonder he is the Badshah; more Aurangzeb here). I was all the time sitting in my cubicle, cricinfo livescorecard open; refreshing it every second (it auto refreshes but people outside India will definitely know what I am talking about). When ‘Dada’ hit one of his 4’s it was too much to take and I let out a ‘Shahbash’ loud enough to make people across the hall came over and see what was happening.

They wanted to know why I was so excited and the next thing I know I am streaming the game on my laptop with 4-5 people crowded around me. Trying to catch the game and simultaneously tell them what was happening. So from the initial, ‘you got only two bases in this game?’ to ‘how many outs in an innings?’; I answered their questions patiently though a bit irritated as the game was turning out to be a screamer. Rajasthan at one stage were home and dry only to be pulled back into deep water by ‘Dada’. Then Kolkata seemed safe but for the new kid Kamran Khan who got 'Dada' out and tied the match. By this time cricket had atleast 3 more fans and they were standing behind me. All of a sudden one of the guys asked, ‘Dood which is your team of the two’, I casually answer ‘neither’. ‘HOLY CRAP, you are excited about two teams which you don’t even support, don’t give me this SHIT!’ one guy exclaimed. Once he said it, even I was surprised but in my defense I am a true cricket fan :-) and anyway I enjoy seeing KKR loose.

So they were going to have some ‘Super Over’ to decide the winner, about which I had no idea. Thankfully Jamie Alter (if you are a true cricinfo fan, you would know who it is) gave the rules. Yusaf Pathan made my day by hitting Mendis all over the park. Oh I forgot! In the meantime I called Dhake to discuss what would happen. ‘Pathan is a brute’ was the conclusion of that discussion. Then I and Emani had a chat about the match, he is a fellow fanatic, and we relived the entire match and it was time to get back to work.

By the way the other match between Chennai and Delhi went down to the wire too. Flintoff was the man of the match for me, though he won it for the opposition. He went for 50+ runs in his 4 overs and got out at a crucial stage where he could have just pushed for singles and won the game. Does not speak very high of the costliest player in IPL. Today IPL also saw the first century of this season and what an innings by Abe Devillers. He is the most prolific batsman in world cricket only behind Chandrapaul. Watch out for Abe!

Bangalore plays Punjab, a weak team this season. Apart from the changes I wrote about in my previous blog, Pieterson would do well if he could win the toss and bat. All the teams which have batted first have ended up winning (unless the match is decided by D/W method). Best of luck BRC.

Lastly, have you guys seen the blogs of ‘fakeiplplayer’? He is an awesome writer and really entertaining. Though of late he has become predictable and boring, you can read the initial blogs.