It’s over !

We are witnessing cricket history being made in England right now. The current champions are being rolled over, and a new champion is all set to take the top spot in test cricket.

Australians have been but a pale shadow of their former selves all tour. Right from the first game, the “20-20″ which was laughed off, the batting has struggled. Gone are the days of dominance from the top order, and the best wicket-keeper batsman in the world. Instead, the runs have come from the tail, not a good sign for any team.

Bowling has struggled (apart from Warne, of course). Add to it the extra-thick layer of butter on the hands of the fielders, and problems have been plenty. No wonder, they are right now staring at a defeat in this test, and still seeing nothing to suggest a win in the next one and a possible 2-2 result. Indeed, if the aussies manage to save this test and the series this would be an injustice to england, who simply have been superb in the field.

Aussie fans (self included) would point to the decisions that have gone against them, esp. the lbw decisions off inside edges. Why the heck can’t icc let the third umpire see if there is an inside edge, and if it’s there, recall the batsman ? “Glorious uncertainities of the game”. Bull. I call it plain incompetence of the umpires (esp bucknor, who just cannot see or hear nicks) , and the ICC sitting on its backside doing nothing.

Still, England deserve to win this series, just for their intensity, passion and spirit. They did not lose heart after lords, and have come back strongly. Good luck pommies ! I am sure we will start beating you again pretty soon. But right now, enjoy the success.

And for the aussies, thanks a lot for all those sweet memories. The world cup win, win in India, some “attack is the best form of defense” knocks from Gilchrist, guts from Waugh, grace from Junior, magic from Warne and McGrath. Thanks guys. Its been wonderful watching you and supporting you.

Hairdo

I dont think I’ve ever grown my hair long. As long as I can remember, I have had haircuts that would make a marine proud. There would be just enough hair on my scalp to indicate I am not bald. But otherwise, for 2 months, I would be free from the pain of having to wash my hair, dry it, comb it etc….

But then, I am beginning to get a bit bored by the routine hairstyle, and decided to grow it a tad longer. Not very long like a pony tail, but something that would definitely be classified as long. Want to see the reaction in trivandrum to the new hairdo. Mom already hinted that she is unlikely to come out with me anyplace. This tvm visit is going to be fun . (Photo of KP on the right side. Courtsey kevinpietersen.com. KP’s mom’s words – “When he asked me what I thought about his hairstyle I said, no matter what happened, a mother would always love her child”. Strong words . Wonder what *my* mom would say if I turned up like this . ).

Fourth ashes test starts today. Nervous times back again. I dont know how I am going to survive the next 5 days . Esp with Glenn nursing an elbow trouble. Hope he becomes fit to play in this test.

Saw the scores of the One day between NZ and Zim. NZ bat first, rake up 397. Skittle Zim for 205 to win by 192 runs. A win by 192 runs is a result that we see normally in tests…. Says a lot about the standard of the Zim team.

Got net connection

Finally, got the net connection at home ! Had to shell out a bit, but, in exchange, got a 256 kbps, unlimited connection . Downloading debian cds right now.

Also got the first taste of spyware and adware. Connected to the net without any firewall installed. Just out of curiosity, checked the list of tasks running in the pc, and was surprised to find tasks like “Internet Optimizer”, “Search assistant”, etc running in the pc. I fail to understand what sort of an optimization it was doing since the only effect i noticed was, ironically, a drop in the network throughput.

Spent a painful 3 hours cleaning up the pc. Started off by installing spybot and adaware. Then had to make several forays into “Safe mode”, “Safe mode command prompt” and “Safe mode with networking”. Finished off by installing sygate (a free personal firewall) and avg anti-virus. A virus scan revealed a few more unwelcome guests : trojans. Sigh ! And to top it off, every time I log in, I have to manually kill and restart explorer to see the start menu !!

Anyway, PC is in pretty decent shape now. Bought diablo 2 yesterday. Have to log into battlenet tonight. Gotta talk TK into joining me for a multiplayer game.

600 !

Shane Warne becomes the first cricketer to take 600 test wickets. Marcus Trescothick will go down in history as the first “600th” test victim. (Photograph courtsey cricinfo) Warne took the wicket at Old Trafford, where he had delivered the “ball of the century” back in 1993 to Mike Gatting.

Aussies will be kicking themselves after play yesterday. They dropped 5 catches, took a wicket of a no-ball, and were generally ragged in the field. They were especially generous to Michael Vaughan, who had 3 lives before he was finally dismissed for 166. A good knock, but it should go down as 4 separate knocks in the same test innings .

The dismissal of Hoggard has given Aussies a slight advantage. New ball, a bit of movement in the morning, McGrath and Lee fresh. If they can get the wickets of Bell and Flintoff quickly, they would be right back in the game. If England see them off, no reason why they cant post a colossal score and bat Aussies out of this test.