Finally …!

Yup, one more “Finally” post :-)

Finally, on 24^th of September 2007, after 24 years, India managed to win the Cricket World Cup. This was a real dream final and both teams made sure that the excitement is maintained till the last over.

Great performance by young Team India.

Good captaincy by Dhoni.

Imagine!

You are leading your nations for the first time and that too in a world cup tournament. You are given a young team with three debutants and three players trying to make a come back in the main team. Your first match, against the weakest opponent and gets spoiled by the rain. In second match you meet your traditional rival team and you beat them in a bowled-out fashion (The most unusual style introduced by this Twenty-20 form of cricket). Then you lose a match against New Zealand. That forces you to beat next two teams that include England and South Africa. Both of them are very powerful teams. And you actually end up beating them as well. And then, in the semis, you meet the current world champions, Australia. And you beat them as well. And you secure place in the final. Once again the opponent is your traditional rival team, who wants to take revenge of the league match loss. And you end up beating them and secure the world cup!!!

What better script you need!

It was pleasure to follow this tournament. And I enjoyed it. I am not sure if I will enjoy the next 20-20 matches. But this tournament was a real fun to watch and follow. Lets hope this will not spoil the test-cricket.

Dream Final !

On 24^th September India and Pakistan will be playing the Dream Final match in the history of world cricket (IMHO ;-)).

After almost 24 years, India managed to secure a spot in world cup final match, and the best part is, it will be played between India and Pakistan. A real dream final!!!

PS: I started my posts with “Finally” and almost a year after that, writing this “Dream Final” post.

If ...

If India fails to beat South Africa in today’s 20-20 world cup match, it will not qualify for the semi final. This question troubled many till some time back.

Then I saw an interesting table that had more complex if conditions. The table was like:

If South Africa fails to beat India (note the changing condition here) then:

If SA scores:

1. 125 runs or less, India (position 1) and New Zealand (position 2) will qualify for the semis.

2. between 141 and 126, India (position 1) and South Africa (position 2) will qualify for the semis.

3. between 152 and 142, South Africa (position 1) and India (position 2) will qualify for the semis.

In case of tied-scores:

4. If India beats South Africa in bowled out fashion, South Africa (position 1) and India (position 2) will qualify for the semis.

5. If South Africa beats India in bowled out fashion, South Africa (position 1) and New Zealand (position 2) will qualify for the semis.

Yup, lots of Ifs.

All these ifs made:

Indians to pray for India win (for sure) and let SA score enough to make them qualify for the finals; finally they are the host for this tournament.

And then there was one more if.

That was, if India gets the position 1, then they will have to play against Australia. Hmmmm, no no, not Australia in semis. So let SA score between 152 and 142.

BOY!!!

Life is strange. We tackle so many ifs everyday that make us forget that there is life beyond all these ifs that we should enjoy!

These Ifs reduces risk taking appetite. Decision making ability is affected. Freewill gets killed and that is the worst casualty.

I had few Ifs that were playing a bit of spoilsport for some time now. They were holding me back from completing few very important tasks in my life.

And when this IF got out of picture, I managed to complete few of my blocked tasks. And I want to finish many more before new Ifs enter my life.

Looks like I am N'joying these holidays!!! But I still do not like 20-20 :-)

What is ghazal

If you want to know more, read this:

Classical Definition of Ghazal