Life Etc Etc

I wanted to start off this blog by sharing a beautiful piece on Cricinfo about the redemption arc of Deepti Sharma . If it was South Africa who denied us a place in the semifinals four years ago we paid them back in kind by lifting the world cup trophy. This however was not a resounding performance by any means, there were concentration lapses, nerves and also moments where the pendulum genuinely swung the other way.  Here are some prime examples: Radha Yadav's gigantic no-ball which brought down the target by 13 runs (two consecutive sixes of the no-ball and the free hit) in just one ball Deepti dropping a straight forward chance at midwicket of Dercksen   Jemimah Rodrigues shelling a sitter of the dangerous looking Nadine de Klerk Shree Charani's final over jitters as she offered 10 runs (5w, 1w and 4) on a platter to de Klerk  But we still won chiefly due to the tandem of Deepti's guile and Shafali's guts. Deepti more than made up for her drop by knocking over...

India chased a world record total of 338 to sprint past Australia in the semifinals of the 2025 World Cup. Out of 157 chases, 92 resulted in victories for India.  So this should have been a cake walk for India, right?  Wrong!   Why? Let's take a look at India's successful chases over the last 15 years. Trend line representing India's top 10 successful chases before the semifinal win Until the victory in the semifinals, India's highest ever successful chase was 264 against Australia in 2021. This was also the first ever time that India had chased a total of over 250 Out of 92 victories for India batting second, only 20 (~22%) involved chasing a score of 200 or more Including the semifinal win, India had chased a score over 250 only 4 times in its entire history Until the 2017 World Cup final, India had chased a score of over 230 only once Hence this win over Australia was not only a massive upset but also a gigantic outlier as illustrated on the above graph. Did Austr...

  Until next time, Your quotemaster.

  Until next time, Your quotemaster.

A slew of countries exited the Champions Trophy over the last few days. But wasn't there a Champions Trophy that we hosted where everything turned topsy-turvy for us? A loooooooooong time ago but not that long ago there was one such tournament in 2006 where nothing went to script. I literally had to go to Cricinfo to refresh my memory about this tournament. I do however remember: The promotions which promised a festival of cricket but what we got was a damp squib The interest in the tournament waning once India was dumped out at the group stage That the final was an anti-climax and how Australia briefly let go off their manners while accepting the trophy. After decking us out the tournament they also shoved the then president of BCCI, Mr. Sharad Pawar, for good measure India who were firmly entrenched in the Greg Chappell era vacillated between able and awful.  Sachin was not at his best Dravid was unable to prop up the middle order Irfan Pathan's efficacy was being nullifie...

Plot Outline : When a tech entrepreneur ( Srinivas Avasarala ) gets kidnapped, the officer-in-charge of the security detail ( Meenakshi Chaudhary ) vows to rescue him with the help of her ex-boyfriend, Y.D. Raju (Venkatesh) an ace ex-cop. Y.D. Raju accepts the responsibility and sets off on the mission in tow with his ex-girlfriend, jealous wife ( Aishwarya Rajesh ), father-in-law and son. Venkatesh, Aishwarya Rajesh and Meenakshi Chaudhary in Sankranthiki Vasthunnam <Credits: Dil Raju > I finally had the chance to view this film over a month after it's release. It's a passable fare with a few decent laughs intended primarily for the movie starved Sankranti audience.  However, you do get the feeling that the director was not able to extract the most out of a promising roller coaster ride consisting of people with differing agendas. So here are three things which didn't work for me in Sankranthiki Vasthunnam: Too many gags falling flat: Just like Bhagavant Kesari , th...

  Until Next Time, Your Quote Master.

Plot Outline Chief of Police, Matt Whitlock's ( Denzel Washington ) personal life is in doldrums. His marriage is on the rocks and he's secretly courting another man's wife, Ann ( Sanaa Lathan ). When Ann is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Matt decides to fund her treatment with money that was recovered from a drug bust. But before Ann can proceed forth with her treatment, she and her husband Chris ( Dean Cain ) are killed in a mysterious house fire. The case is assigned to Matt's estranged wife, homicide detective Alex ( Eva Mendes ) and to make matters worse (for Matt), the DEA comes calling for the drug money. If this isn't enough, Matt is the sole beneficiary on Ann's insurance policy which further implicates him in this crime. Will Matt escape from the fix he is in and identify who's behind everything? Or will Alex and the DEA catch up to the clandestine secrets he's hiding?  Denzel Washington navigating rough waters in Out of Time <Credits: Movi...