World cup Upset in South Asia

After hearing from everybody that this is an open world cup i.e. anyone can cause surprise for any team, I have been following world cup closely.

Bangladesh caused the tournament’s first upset by beating India. India have been thoroughly outplayed in all departments, exceptional balling, sharp fielding and positive batting. Habibul Bashar, captain of Bangladesh team, inspired his bowlers and three teenagers (Tamim Iqbal, Saqibul Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim) who helped Bangladesh to win against India by five wickets. I certainly believe that Bangladesh deserve this victory. What surprises me it Dravid’s decision of batting first on such a pitch. Now I am not a cricket pitch expert but all the gurus say that it was foolish to bat early on this pitch. The only reason I can think of is that Dravid wanted to give practice to his players. He completely underestimated Bangladesh and took his win as guaranteed. Kudos to Saurav Ganguly on playing patiently in given match scenario.

I am only concerned for those advertisers who spent a lot for prospected India-Pakistan match on April 15th. I can only imagine the amount of money they had already spent on products sponsorship.

Bangladesh have a real chance of qualifying for the Super Eights now. Remember they even beat New Zealand in the warm-ups. India, on the other hand, must win both of their remaining matches – against Bermuda and Sri Lanka – to keep a billion hopes alive. I sincerely hope that we do not play like amateurs in biggest cricket carnival.

On the other hand, Pakistan is on its way back to home after their defeat to Ireland. On the second note, did having a match on St. Patrick’s day (Green Color) helped Ireland to win the match? We Indians certainly belive so when we have India Pakistan match on Friday.

I still believe India can deliver good performance in next two matches, now that they got such kick in arse for starters. They may play with greater intensity against Sri Lanka and Bermuda.

The second tier of cricket, known as the Associates, have make their presence vital and have certainly made an open world cup even more open. Ireland, in particular, have shown a rapid improvement, captained by an Australian, Trent Johnston, a medium-fast seamer and, with a number of players who have county experience in England, they have a very good team. Any side underestimating them will be doing themselves few favours.[Link]

Let’s see if Canada can upset England or Netherlands can beat Australia.

Following is the video of wicket fall of India and Pakistan.

A toast to Irish luck

Well the cliche “You can’t look past the luck of the Irish” has proved itself again in this year world cup.

I mean, who could have thought that Zimbabwe can lose such a handy match. After 43 overs, Zimbabwe required 24 runs from 42 balls with 4 wickets in hand. Stuart Matsikenyeri and Brendan Taylor were putting together a 70-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Zimbabwe were in cruise-control mode until Kyle McCallan got his hand on Matsikenyeri.

Do watch the following two videos, which shows Ireland performance in last two overs.

Nike Did it

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Update :- The Konkani song played in Nike commercial below is Bebdo(Drunkard). The song was customised for commercial. The song can be downloaded here. More details on song and commercial can be found here.

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The World Cup cricket fever is on in India.

Sadly, this world cup will be the last one for Sachin and probably for Ganguli and Dravid. I am waiting anxiously for the world cup to begin. Main reason is that Australia is not a serious contender this time and it gives me hope.

Living in USA, I miss all the hoophallah media creates before World Cup starts. I used to love the talk shows on ESPN, Star Sports in earlier world cups. I miss Mandira Bedi and her noodle straps.. Ahmmm.. ok more on that later.

However, living in the Youtube world has its advantages. I am trying to follow media and their Pre World Cup advertisements.
One ad I noticed was of Nike. Watch the ad below.

Nike has finally accepted that India follows Cricketism more than any other religion. So no wonder, that in order to overtake Reebok (includes Adidas), they need to concentrate on cricket sponsorship and ads. I was so sick of watching Sahara logo on Indian Players that the news that Nike is the official apparel sponsor came as a relief.
I am not sure whether the new apparel will contain that logo or not.
I have never seen Nike Cricket Ad before and I was pleasantly surprised to see the one above. The ad is beautifully crafted in the mean streets of Mumbai. You have to see this ad many times to grasp everything going on. Pay attention and you can see Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth in spectators. Only thing which tells you that this is Nike ad is the last freeze shot, which is again beautifully taken.

Nike Did it and hopefully India will do it in World Cup too.

Trivia — This ad was shot in Karjat, a small town near Mumbai.