Life Etc Etc

"You aren't done until you tell yourself that you are done!" September 2022 Joe Joyce outlasts Joseph Parker in a war of attrition. Joyce keeps coming forward taking everything that Parker threw at him and delivers a vicious knockout to end the contest. This was the first knockout of Parker's career and many thought such a deflating loss would end his stint as a respected heavyweight contender. Joyce on the other hand was crowned as the mandatory for the WBO Heavyweight Championship. He was proclaimed as the rising star of the division and a serious threat to the reigning champions. April 2023 With the mandatory title fight still a long way away, Joe Joyce took on the dangerous but unproven former Olympic Silver Medalist, Zhilei Zhang in a stay busy fight. To everyone's dismay, Joyce wilted under the onslaught of Zhang's power punching who took the possession of the WBO Interim Heavyweight title and the mandatory status. Like Parker, this was the first sto

India wins another Test and wraps up another series. With the series score line reading 3-1 , I was wondering how fortunate we are today to be watching Test matches which actually produce a result. This was really not the case when I was a kid with many Tests ending in a stalemate. A draw, back then was considered to be an acceptable result and in many cases also treated on par with a victory. Those were the days when neither sporting declarations nor spirited chases were in vogue. A Test match on the 5th day would typically meander meaninglessly allowing those playing to get to some personal milestones and thankfully end before the scheduled close with the customary handshakes of opposing teams. That's probably the reason why I don't remember too many drawn test matches from that era. The only memorable draw that comes to my mind was the one in Sydney where Vihari and Ashwin stalled Australia's charge . Since a draw has become somewhat of a rarity these days, I wanted to

It took me sometime to collect my thoughts after the utterly disappointing World Cup final on Sunday. I needed this break to objectively wrap my head around what might have happened and also listen to the analyses from various sources before writing this piece. Within the last week, I've seen  several experts  claim that a slow track was intentionally prepared to provide an outside advantage to India with that strategy ultimately backfiring on the hosts. I don't know how true these allegations are but more than the pitch I single out the team's performance as the primary reason we lost that day . Here are three things which our team could have done better.  1. Firstly, we did not read the pitch as well as the Australian team did . Rohit Sharma revealed that he would have batted first had he won the toss on a surface which played better in the second innings. Considering the fact that we played more international matches than any other team at the venue we should have had a

Before the first ball is bowled in the final tomorrow, I would like to have my final say on this World Cup. We've seen a tournament where the Indian Juggernaut has rolled along thumping teams across the Indian sub-continent. Come T20s or ODIs the core of this team has largely been the same since 2019. After some misguided attempts to bag a World T20, the team is finally flourishing in a format which suits its strengths. One thing which we could have done without, were the repeated tributes to Virat Kohli. Conversations on/off the field inevitably centered on him, fall of wicket montages unfailingly transmitted his reactions and the preview packages to all matches featuring India were replete with his references. Virat is a great player, no doubt, we just don't need to be reminded about it every other minute. Cricket World Cup 2023: Grandest prize of them all <Courtesy: Logowik >  Our opponents in the final, Australia started listlessly but found form at the right time. Th

India have finally recorded a victory against New Zealand in a ICC Championship tournament but here are three frustrating things (ordered from the most frustrating to the least) which I observed in our victory: 1. Throwing away starts: Shubman Gill's unnecessary swipe at a wide delivery, Shreyas Iyer's mistimed pull and Suryakumar Yadav's frantic runout could have cost us this match if New Zealand had more runs on the board. Team management should urge players to put a higher price on their wickets. Just forsake the sizzle for the substance and don't throw away a solid platform at the cost of making a statement. 2. Bumrah's fielding: Bumrah's bowling is world class but his fielding left a lot to be desired today. The dropped catch of Daryl Mitchell  might have cost us at least 50 runs. That coupled with the fact that he was always one step slower on the field makes me wonder about his fitness and his presence of mind. The fielding coach needs to have a c

Wimbledon 2023 final is done and we have a new champion nullifying all the pre-tournament predictions. In a thrilling merry-go-round of a match, the young contender, Carlos Alcaraz took down the reigning king of Center Court , Novak Djokovic .  Carlos Alcaraz after second set tie-break <Courtesy: Wimbledon > The decade long undefeated streak of Novak in which he took on all comers is finally over. But how good did Novak really have to be in order to maintain his supremacy at Wimbledon? Let's take a look at the stats and facts pertaining to his grand slam exploits since the pandemic: Won six out of the eleven grand slams he contested Reached nine grand slam finals (including Wimbledon 2023) Lost only four grand slam matches since the pandemic ( not counting the disqualification loss at US Open 2020 )  Rafael Nadal contributed to two of those defeats while Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz were the victors on the other two occasions All of the defeats except the most recen

It's unfair to talk about someone when they are not doing well. Therefore the intention of this blog is not rant on KL Rahul or his performances of late but to lend some statistical evidence as to why ordinary cricket fans like me are pining for a change at the top of India's batting order. I will also urge my readers to look up Jarrod Kimber's video  which presents a very interesting take on KL Rahul's performances. In order to help my analysis, I visited Cricinfo to garner some vital stats about Rahul's career.  I looked at his overall numbers and came up with a scatter plot of his batting performances in tests.  Rahul's test career average from 2014-2023 Scatter Plot of KL Rahul's test performances from 2014-2023 When I analyzed Rahul's entire test career, 64% of his innings yielded less than 30 runs. 86% of these innings produced 20 runs or less.   Rahul's test scores' breakdown When I confined my examination to his 3rd and 4th innings'

This was the first time I had watched the World Wrestling Championships end to end and my interest was obviously in the Indian wrestling team which had a stupendous time in the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham . Now I am no wrestling expert, but I thought that the Indian team underperformed. If you look at the medals tally we ended up with the same number of medals as the 2021 edition where we had one silver and one bronze compared to the current edition where we managed to secure two bronze medals. But both of these tallies are behind the 2019 edition where we won five medals (1 silver and four bronze). Since 2018, at least one of the Indian wrestlers has been making it to the finals at these championships but that run was halted in 2022 which makes this edition the worst since 2017 where the team had won no medals at all. The Disappointments  None of the winners from 2021 could build upon their success in this edition with last time's silver medalist Anshu Malik pulling out

It has been a topsy-turvy year to say the least. Things have started to open up, people seem more relaxed, there's also a hint of normalcy yet there is more to it than what meets the eye. We are not fully out of the pandemic but sport along with its myriad incarnations is back in a major way. This in my opinion has been a substantial factor in driving out the gloom that had settled in since the onset of the pandemic. But sport by itself is nothing without the unbelievable individuals who permeate its every fabric. I was fortunate to witness the fascinating stories of some very talented sports people this year. Here in this blog I will try to do my best to not only recount those stories but also the various lessons that can be gleaned from them. So let's begin! Lesson 1 - You can't have it all Rarely has a tennis player looked so complete and as perfect as Novak Djokovic in full bloom. The year 2021 was set to be his signature year. He trampled competition at the Australian

Yet another loss to New Zealand in an ICC tournament but this didn't sting as much . Probably because we were outplayed the moment we picked two spinners on a green pitch under overcast conditions or was it when Indian batsmen lost their sense of purpose when all they had to do was bat for time on the all important final day. No that's not it, what beat us was our scheduling! We didn't even have a practice match while New Zealand was preparing itself for the WTC Final with a series against England . That's not it too, we picked three guys who hadn't bowled together as a unit for the past one year and left out the in-form Siraj. That's it, that's the reason we lost.  Mace of the champions (Courtesy: Free Press Journal ) The reasons could be many but the fact is we lost to a better side. Through all the rain and numerous interruptions one side never lost its focus and that side won. This is an undeniable fact and unlike the 2019 semi-final we were never c

Italian Open Final : Third Set, One set All, Two games all and 30-40 in favor of Djokovic Djokovic had Nadal in all sorts of trouble forcing him to retrieve a down the line shot. Nadal could only get a one handed backhand to it, the ball looped up into air with Djokovic setting himself up for a crosscourt forehand smash. Djokovic never misses shots like these, I certainly expected him to make it but Tennis Gods probably had other plans for him. Nole's safe hands deserted him as he promptly deposited the ball into the net. It was a lucky reprieve for Rafa and I remember telling my father that the shot could probably cost Nole the championship. In half an hour's time my words would be vindicated as Rafa found his form and thundered away to his 10th championship at Foro Italico . This wasn't the first time I seemed to read the minds of tennis gods, my words would prove fatal in the semifinal too. Lorenzo Sonego was about to complete a remarkable turnaround with three break

In the year of COVID, the last thing on my mind was penning a sports commentary. But I had to, considering the incredible one-sided French Open final I had just seen. Incredibles and Unthinkables have kind of become the norm this year: We had a US Open before empty crowds We had the World No.1 being defaulted just when his 4th round match was beginning to catch some steam We had a French Open in the Fall We had false positive COVID tests with irate players threatening lawsuits  We had hand sanitizers being handed out to the presenters who had come to present the trophies We had a lop-sided final, where the world number 1 Novak Djokovic  whose 36 (completed) match winning streak was broken and destroyed by one Rafael Nadal I am a huge Rafa fan but a score line of 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 was far away even from my imagination. I still remember the disappointing  2019 Australian Open Final . I had woken up early to catch a glimpse of the final but could only watch the presentation ceremony after

I woke up to a morning which no other Indian fan would have liked to wake up to . Chasing a modest total India were 100-odd for six wickets. There was a faint ray of hope however in the form of Jadeja and Dhoni. An hour later when I reached the office that ray of hope burnt like a flame when the partnership brought the target down to about 40 runs. But it didn't last much longer when everything was snuffed out in the matter of a few deliveries. 2019 World Cup Semifinal: When Jadeja and Dhoni kept us in the hunt <Courtesy: ICC > The first thing I did after the match was to attend my morning meeting, thinking that only some positivity in the form of work would allow me to drown the negativity of this defeat. The next thing I did was to reach out to my brother whom I knew had watched the match in its entirety. I also tried to console my best friend who was disconsolate that India had come so close only to lose the match. I  naturally felt bad for the disappointment they experi

Life and sport rarely offer a sequel upon request, but today the 2019 Queen's Club Championships delivered a heart-warming and larger in every sense sequel to the 2017 edition. The hero on both occasions being our man of the moment, Feliciano Lopez. There's something in the hallowed lawns of Queen's Club that spurns the genius in 'Feli' (as his friends on the tour call him) and transforms him into a mythical hero who scripts incredible sporting moments every time he sets foot on this court. Champion again! (Courtesy: Sportsnet.ca ) The History: But let's rewind a bit, Feli had just concluded winning the 2017 Queen's Club Championships in a thrilling fashion. As an avid tennis fan I was extremely excited about his prospects at Wimbledon 2017 but no sooner had the first round begun Feli was forced to retire with an injury. The next time I saw Feli was in the 2018 Queen's Club Championships where he was in decent form but couldn't get past Ni