Champions League CLT20 2012 winner are Sydney Sixers

It has been a fitting end to the tournament. There has been no team which looked as strong as Sydney Sixers has been in this tournament. This I must say is justice to their potential. The Australian team have played some good cricket in last couple of weeks. And have been awarded with the deserving trophy. 

Saying above it doesn’t mean that Highveld Lions have played bad cricket. They have been second best if you see the matches played earlier. Today wasn’t meant to be their day. Firstly they couldn’t manage a good score when they ended up with paltry score of 120 odd runs, which was never going to be enough.  Sixers  chased down that in 12 overs something.  Michael Lumb was the star with the bat. It was very much a one sided match. Definitely the match didn’t have the grip for viewers but Sixers were a deserving team.

Now it’s time for some real cricket coming up in few weeks time. England is touring India while South Africa touring Australia. So be sure there is something very interesting coming our way.

Please see some images from the match. Couresy: Cricbuzz.com

Michael Lumb was more than enough on the day.

The Sixers team posing after winning the tournament. 

Sebastian Vettel conquers Indian Grand Prix 2012

Sebastian Vettel has done it again. He has repeated his act in Indian Grand Prix at the Buddha International Circuit at Greater Noida, India. He started from the pole position and finished on the pole with no hiccups. His teammate Mark Webber finished third with Fernando Alonso finishing second.

Now Vettel looks very strong in his bid to retain the 2012 GP title as well. He now has a lead of 13 points which is quite significant with only a few races remaining in this calendar year. This win was his 4^th on the trot.

Lewis Hamilton finished the race on fourth position. The british racer started this year quite well but has not been so successful in the later part of the year. Mark Webber overtook him today to grab the fourth spot overall in this calendar year.

This year too was a housefull show in Buddha International Circuit. There was no famine of people. More than 60000 people came to witness the moment. And the event has been nothing but a grand success this year too. Hope there are many more to come.

Please see some images from the today’s race. Courtesy : BBC Images

Vettel having fun with Alonso. 

Vettel with his teammate Webber.

Champions League CLT20 Finalists

After 2 weeks of fuzz and buzz the two finalists have been confirmed. The final will be played between Lions and Syndey Sixers.

This time it was not supposed to be for IPL teams. Delhi team looked good till the semifinals. But in the semi final they succumbed to Lions. To be honest Lions looked a good team to me but I never found them threatening to Delhi Daredevils. But I was wrong. Lions defeated  Daredevils comprehensively. Lions scored  a decent 139 in their allotted 20 overs. For a moment I thought this should be a easy chase. But Delhi made it too hard. Once Warner departed they never could  come back into the match and ended up loosing the match. Kevin Pietersen was the only Delhite who looked in some touch. Only 3 batsmen could score in double figures which include Morne Morkel. You can now imagine that how sorry scorecard it would be to see.

In the other semi final Sydney Sixers defeated Titans in a thriller. That was one of the better matches of the tournament. It was a match which was seen twisting with each passing over. Till the last ball one would hold his breath to know the result. It was nothing but a paisa vasool(worthy for money spent). I would rate this match at the top of the this tournament.  Well there still final is remaining. Even there is no IPL team in the finals but I am not hesitant to say that two best teams Sydney Sixers and Lions have made it to the final.

Below are some images from the two matches. Source Cricbuzz.

Morris - Excellent bowling. Warner's wicket was the turning point I believe.

KP the lone fighter. Wasn't enough on the day. It was definitely one of those days.

Sad moments for the team and Delhi fans.

Wiese played the innings of the day but wasnt enough. They deserved to win for that innings.

Still to be seen who emerges as the commander of the CLT20 trophy. It should be a good contest though. May the best team win. 

Champions League CLT20 Journey to Semifinal

Now when all the semifinalists are confirmed, it is still very tough to say which team is more threatening at this   moment. The tournament so far has not been so good for the IPL teams as only Delhi Daredevils(DD) could manage to qualify for the semis. Other IPL teams never looked to be in contention for a place in semis. To add salt to their wounds a few matches got washed away by rain. So nothing worked in their favour. Daredevils won two matches and two matches were washed away by rain.

I was never convinced by the planning of this CLT20 tournament. The sole reason being it is the time when rain can make a visit any time in South Africa. Rain has contributed a lot to the team standings(points) after the league matches. Daredevils are looking strong from their group but they didn't play Titans and Auckland Aces which I will consider good teams. So I think Delhi team still have a point to prove in the semis.

Chennai and Kolkata were bad too. But they played well towards the end of the their respective league matches. But Mumbai Indians(MI) would like to forget this tournament, I suppose. It sounds like a bollywood movie story that reigning champions were not even champion of a single match this time. They would have never imagined that this can be outcome for them.

Well thanks to DD team, hopes are still alive that an Indian team can lift the CLT20 trophy. Coming matches are going to be tougher for them. Sydney Sixers need a special mention, if they meet. Hope for the best.

Image source: Google Images

the primary school in my village

Everybody has his own memories of school days. I too have my share of them. But this blog is not about the primary school where I studied but the school I have seen in my village. I basically belong to a village known as Rampur Binora which falls in Kannauj District of State Uttar Pradesh, India. I didn't get a chance to study in that. Lucky me!!! You might be wondering why I am considering lucky for not studying in the school which was at walking distance to my home. There are two main reasons first my father worked at different location and never was posted near village. secondly I never wanted to study in that school.

The school has a very small building. I never counted but guess there are 5-6 rooms in that school. One of them is a administrative room where the Headmaster(school Principal) along with fellow masters(Teachers) will sit after their class(lectures). The school was meant to provide education from standard 1 to 5. I am not sure if it is still the case or has got any upgrade to provide education till 8th. Nevertheless not only kids from my village but from nearby villages too use to come to the school every morning.

There were no benches for the students but the teachers were lucky to have wooden chairs. If somebody have a look at those chairs one will wonder why they are not breaking down. I reckon most of the teachers will come to the school on their bicycles. Today things have changed some of them have their own motorcycles too.

If you want to identify a student you can easily identify one. He/She will be carrying a midsized jute bag(called as Bori) for their sitting. They will also carry a tiny black board and slate. Students in there don't start using pencil, notebook or pen before 3-4th standard I think. They will use that board and slates for that purpose. Now I think many schools have started using pencil and notebooks. I guess the proof of India shining. One thing that I probably missed was the kohl in their eyes.

The school didn't have any fans or electricity. I think even now it doesn't have it. So in summer time the classes are taking places under the trees. Thank God at least for this reason they are not cutting down those trees. Well to be honest, today trees are being brought down even in villages too. The air is polluted in villages too. The environment has changes considerably in last decade or two. So many villages don't have electricity, proper sanitation, but India is shining.

Most of my friends I know who studied in that school were scared to hell from the teachers. Somehow the school used to get all the frustrated men from the village or nearby villages. I have myself seen them beating kids like animals. I have seen students getting hidden, those who bunked the day, if they even see the teacher is coming. Such was the terror of those teachers. In my opinion, if you scare somebody that is the solution to nothing. But the teachers have different thoughts. After getting beaten by teachers the kohl will expand its boundaries and will be visible on students' face.

Government doesn't do much for the schools but they provide some meals, notebooks, etc free for the students. But 70-75% of that is used by the teachers/headmasters. Such is the depth of corruption in India. There may be exceptions but this is a general trend. And that is true as well because the sole purpose of education is to earn money. I think 90% students in there study to get a job just to earn money not as hobby. Education as hobby happens only in city schools or big schools. Many students just go there because their parents want them to get basic knowledge. They have to end up as a farmer in the end.

The teachers don't like to attend the school most of the times. If all the teachers are present in a school that simply means that there is something on the day like some senior official visit, etc. I have myself seen a teacher teaching to 3 different classes at the same time. One may wonder how is it possible. But they are superman. Teachers will ask the students to bring ciggarettes, tobacco, etc. Yes, there is no age restriction for sale of these things in there. In fact, I think many shopkeepers might not even know that it is illegal to sell these things to minors. What should one expect such students to learn from them? Its really tough for an average student to do good from such schools. Who is to blame here? Presence of so much negativity is affecting transformation of kids into good citizens.

The school is not just a school but is the most favourite activity centre for the village as well. The school is being used for Ramleela(A live drama about lord Ram), Election Booth, marriages, etc. So its serving more than the purpose one should say. It may be used for organising election rally as well. The school doesn't have any boundaries, so you can see some pets cows,buffaloes etc. sitting and enjoying around. Sometimes I feel these pets might be thinking that they have a better life than those poor kids.

The whole system need a lot of basic changes. Hopefully that day will come sometime and the "Education for all" tag will be validated.


There is plenty to tell and share. But I would like to stop here.

Champions League CLT20 KKR vs PRS

Sad exit for Out-of-Form Kolkata Knight Riders from the CLT20 2012.  It was a must win game for KKR to make any chances to be part of tournament semis. But it was not bound to happen. The match between KKR and PRS was abandoned because of the rain. So KKR run short of luck when they were already struggling with the form of their players. It was a good decision to bowl first when rain was expected. But rain came too early and denied the possibility of any result.

Image Source: Cricinfo

KKR still have a match to play but that is inconsequential as far as the team is concerned. They can only go there and play for a win. It would be good if they sign off the tournament with a victory. There will be questions about the team but for the time they are 1 match away from the flight back.

None of the Indian teams (IPL) has shown any rush for the semis so far. In fact none of our teams have won against any foreign teams yet. That is not a good phrase to listen but this is the case. Chennai Super Kings are also very much not in contention for semis.

Teams to watch out for me are DD and MI. Hope they can produce something interesting for Indian audience. I seriously want them to do good in this tournament. Good Luck to them.

Champions League T20 Bad day at office

Today there were two matches played involving two IPL teams Mumbai Indians(MI) and Chennai Super Kings(CSK). But It was a bad bad day for both teams as they both lost their respective matches against Lions and Sydney Sixers respectively. All the Indian fans must be sad today and Sunday may not be that relaxing for them.

I was wishing the other way around on this super sunday. Though the only good thing today was too listen that Yuvraj Singh has scored a scintillating ton in Duleep Trophy semifinal today.

Nonetheless CSK match was pretty exciting even they lost. But Mumbai Indians almost surrendered in both the innings. They batted poorly and bowled poorly as well. I reckon the main problem with IPL teams is that they rely highly on the foreign players. Our teams want to win matches riding on the performance of foreign players, specially when it comes to bowling. The sad thing is that IPL has been up and running for more than 5 years now but still there is no bowlers I can see who has become star because of IPL. Indian team still have the same bowling options as they had before IPL barring Ravichandran Ashwin. That is nothing but a shame because I expected IPL to produce stars.

I was deeply disappointed by the our Indian pace bowlers Yo Mahesh and Dhawal Kulkarni. They seems no where close to their overseas counterparts. Let alone the experience they don't even seem to be on the right path. I am still not sure what is the reason that we are not able to produce good pace bowlers.

Some years back when Kumble and Harbhajan were playing together for India, at least we used to win matches because of spin.  But today Mumbai Indians played 2 spin bowlers but they failed miserably. On the other hand Phangiso was brilliant. These days we are rarely winning matches because of bowling. I think its because of foreign players IPL teams seem to have good bowling.

BCCI definitely need to plan something to nurture Indian bowlers. I am myself not sure what is missing.

Nevertheless please see below some images from today's double encounters. Thanks to Cricinfo for the images.

Henriques was the star for Sydney Sixers from the bat as well as the ball.

Raina was the only hope CSK had on the day. Nobody else could provide any hope to CSK. Not to forget Faf Du Plesis played well too at the start.

Sachin too looked out of touch today. May be because he hasn't played for sometime. Hope he can come back for form soon.

I hope they can come back before its too late. Its a wake up call for all IPL teams in this tournament.

Champions League 2012 KKR vs Daredevils

Today was the first match for teams from India when Delhi Daredevils (DD) took on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

After winning the toss Gambhir decided to bowl first. DD team played beautifully to set a target of 161. Everybody contributed from the DD team but Ross Taylor and Unmukt Chand played specially well with individual scores of 36 and 40 respectively. Narine was the pick of the bowlers from KKR side who grabbed 3 for 21 runs in 4 overs. Kevin Pietersen scored 14 off 18. Today he was playing for the first time after being dropped by the English Team during the series against South Africa.

Kolkata started the way they would never have imagined. They were 3/3 at one stage with Kallis retired hurt. I was sure that the match is almost over. and I was right. They could only manage 108 runs from 20 overs for the loss of 7 wickets. So they received a big defeat from the DD team.

Both of these teams are my favourites. I just want any Indian team(IPL) to win the CLT20 title.

Below are some images for today's match. Courtesy: Cricbuzz

Jayawardene  played a good sensible innings at the top to provide DD the start they wanted.

Narine bowled brilliantly.  

Taylor batted well for DD in the middle overs.

Morne Morkel nothing but a gem for DD.

Manoj Tiwary the only positive for KKR apart from Narine.

Brett Lee bowled out by Umesh Yadav.

Well still its just the start of the tournament. There are plenty of entertainment on the plate. Tomorrow is another IPL clash. :) Chennai Super Kings(CSK) will take Mumbai Indians(MI).

Good Luck to both.