Monthly Sports Round-Up - August 2007

India wins test series in England for the first time in 21 years

This was truly an achievement. Though Dravid's decision against enforcing the follow-on in the 3rd test would be a black mark on the otherwise perfect series for India, I was so excited about this victory. And more than anything else, I felt happy for Sachin bcos his cricketing resume now would include a series victory in England. Same goes for Dravid and Ganguly too. These 3 guys have really stuck together after the world cup debacle and have guided this team to an extraordinary achievement. Though umpiring errors cost Sachin 2 centuries in this series, I was very happy that Sachin was able to make some sizeable contribution in 2 of the 3 tests. Zaheer Khan deserves special appreciation bcos it was his spell in the second innings of the 2nd test that ultimately tilted the test & thus the series in India's favor. Way to go, Team India.

Barry Bonds breaks the all-time HR recordSo, there it happened. Barry Bonds finally broke the most significant record in all of team sports, as the ESPN analysts would say. Though it has been only the last 3-4 years that I have been following baseball, I can kind of get an idea what this record means, by watching all the ex-players and Hall of Famers dwell on it. It is definitely a remarkable achievement, given the fact that he has had to maintain his HR hitting practice over a period of well over 20 years. But the one thing you can find when you talk to folks here about Barry Bonds is this - he is an extremely polarizing figure. No matter what side of the fence you are, this is one heck of a record.

A-Rod reaches 500 HRs mark
It was a special week where 3 important milestones were reached - Bonds breaking the HR record, Tom Glavine becoming the 23rd pitcher in MLB history to record 300 wins and A-Rod breaking the 500 HR barrier. He is having a dream season and though I am not a big fan of him, I do follow each one his HRs. He becomes the youngest MLB player to break the 500 HR mark and in all probability, unless a major injury or some scandal impedes him, the experts expect him to break Barry Bonds' record in the year 2013.

Tiger gets one step closer to Jack
With the 13th Major victory of his stellar career, Tiger moved one closer to the most holiest of golf records that stands in the name of Jack Nicklaus. As many ESPN analysts point out, it is now a matter of when rather than if and they are already predicting the British Open in the year 2010 when he will ultimately break the record. Tiger came into this tournament 0-3 this year in majors and by winning it, made sure that 2007 won’t be year when he will go without winning one. The tournament as such was over when he shot a mind-boggling 7 under par in the 2nd round, after which others were merely playing catching up with him. Tiger's record of winning a major when he is leading or sharing the lead at the end of the 3rd round remains intact. This BTW was Tiger's first major victory after the birth of his daughter.

Is he the answer to our prayers?
In a span of 3 days when he beat the top 3 players in men's tennis (Nadal, Federer and Roddick), Novak Djokovic made many experts come out in the open with the very question we all have been asking ourselves the past few years: Have we finally found the answer who can break the monotony of the FedEx? May be it is too early to speak about it but he has done something for the first time in 13 years (since Boris Becker did it in 1994) - a player has beaten the top 3 players in the world enroute to an ATP tour championship. Though he is yet to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament, he has already gotten to the semis twice (at the French and Wimbledon) before losing to Nadal on both the opportunities. This US Open will serve as a perfect platform for him to put all the questions about his true talent & promise to rest. And Oh, BTW, he is all of 20 years old.

The US Open begins
The final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis calendar begins in New York city. Last year, this time around I was in NYC watching the matches, amidst all the rain delays and even as the Andre Agassi farewell story was unfolding. My only wish as far as this Open is concerned is that we should have a new men's champion whereas on the women's side, I would like to see Serena win it all. When the draw was released, there was a headline in ESPN saying that Federer could meet Roddick in the quarters. I was like 'So what?". Like Roddick has any chance against Federer. With the sport losing its ground in the US in terms of both popularity and the quality of up & coming players, the experts do all they can do summon up interest in the Open but then it makes for some awful media coverage when all you can write about is Roddick meeting Federer in the quarters where Federer is most likely to sweep him off without breaking a sweat.

Michael Vick pleads guilty
In a widely expected decision, Falcons star QB, the face of their franchise and one of the NFL's most exciting players, Michael Vick pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and involvement in the killing of 6 dogs. This incident kind of completely took me by surprise. I mean, why would anyone do that when they know it can cost them their whole life. Of course, news of professional athletes getting involved in petty crimes (you know, DUIs, marijuana possession, strip club fights, etc) have been doing the rounds. But then, none of the players involved in them were big time players. Here, the case was different though for Michael Vick is the highest paid NFL player. When you have that kind of money at stake (130 mil in 10 years), it just did not make sense for me as to how someone can risk all of that for something as trivial as this dog fighting? Weird are the ways these athletes behave. But amidst all this, there was something I really liked - when Vick addressed the media, he did not read a prepared statement but rather spoke from the heart. That was definitely rare and the media rightly picked on it. Now the question that is on everyone's mind is - will the NFL let the ban coincide with his jail term? Bcos that decision could well be the difference between his career taking off again or not.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - June 2007

Justin Henin wins third straight French Open
Justin Henin wins her third straight French Open title by defeating Ana Ivanovic in the finals in straight sets. My interest in the women's draw extinguished the moment my favorite Serena lost to Henin in the quarters. So, was only academically following the proceedings from then on. And I have to write something about this Ivanovic girl - though I have come across her name before this finals, it was only during this finals that I really did looked up her in Google and was surprised to see how gorgeous she looks. In fact, a poll says that she is the second hottest female tennis player, second only to you-know-who (No, not Anna Kournikova as she has retired from professional tennis). I am sure I will be catching up on news related to Ivanovic from now on :)

Nadal follows suit
Well, what else to say than the fact that I was overjoyed watching the French Open finals. Though the game failed to live upto the hype that was given with both players committing unforced error after unforced error, the outcome of the match left me grinning. So, the one Grand Slam that matters to Federer still eludes him and I am so excited, atleast we get one more year of breathing space before Federer attempts to accomplish the impossible. The game was a huge letdown, and definitely not worth getting up at 6 am in the morning. Federer had an unbelievable 59 unforced errors and no player, no matter how good he is, can win a match after committing that many number of unforced errors. More than the striking number of unforced errors that both players committed, the statistic that stood out for me and the statistic which decided the final outcome of the match - conversion rate (in %) of break points by Federer. And the magic number was 6%. He got a total of ,hold your breath, 17 break points and failed to convert all but one of them and to me that effectively sealed the deal. And yeah BTW, this was Nadal's 3rd straight French Open title and improved his record at Roland Garros to 21-0.

Woolmer was after all not murdered
Finally, after weeks of leaving everyone following cricket feeling bad about the sport and its malice, the Jamaican police comprehensively declared that Woolmer was after all not murdered and he died bcos of natural causes. Though the news would have brought relief to the Woolmer family, those who followed the case were still not convinced of the final observation. On top of this, the man who performed the first autopsy on behalf of the Caribbean police, still insists that Woolmer was indeed murdered by manual strangulation. An unconvincing end to a sordid saga.

Spurs sweep the Cavs
Well, nobody including yours truly gave the Cavs any realistic chance in this series. But even to the likes of us, the sweep of the NBA finals came as a complete surprise. I really thought that the Cavs will steal atleast one game at Cleveland and force a Game 5. But that was not to be. Though the Cavs have to be applauded and appreciated for the progress they have made every single year since they drafted LeBron, unless something drastic is done through player trade or free agency, the Cavs or for that any team in the East is going to find it real hard to overcome the likes of the Spurs, Suns & the Mavericks and thus prevent Western conference team from winning the NBA crown year after year. As for as the Spurs were concerned, they took care of business in a matter-of-fact way. I was glad that they did not end up giving the Finals MVP award to Duncan again and instead gave it to Parker who IMO completely deserved it. The trio of Parker, Ginobili and Duncan was simply terrific and coupled with the perimeter shooting of folks like Brent Barry and Thomas Horry along with the defense of Bruce Bowen, it was all a cakewalk for the Popovich coached Spurs, as they raced to their 4th championship in 9 years. Dynasty, anyone?

BCCI embarrassed
In what turned out to be most telling proof of how the BCCI functions, South African Graham Ford turned down the offer to coach the Indian cricket team, merely hours after the BCCI offered him the job. Though the BCCI's way of functioning is known to all sun and sundry, the manner in which the whole coach selection matter was handled left even the biggest supporter of the BCCI running for cover. From the moment when Dave Whatmore was approached in Dhaka to the point when he was ruled out as one of the contenders to the point when John Emburey's name cropped out of nowhere to the final list, the BCCI just made a big mess of the whole process and were finally left where they started with. So, the Indian team will go to the English tour without a proper coach and Chandu Borde as the manager. What amused was the way in which the BCCI came out with the announcement even before Ford has accepted the offer. Pathetic handling from the richest body in world cricket.

Tiger finishes second best again
Tiger Woods, for the second major in a row, finishes second best to Angel Cabrera at the tough US Open PGA championships as he loses by 1 stroke. There is this one statistic that experts bring out whenever Tigers wins a PGA championship - that he is 12-0 when he starts the final round of a major with the outright lead or atleast a share of the lead. This defeat by Tiger brings to light another statistic that is usually overlooked and that also proves that Tiger is after all human. He is 0-for-19 when he starts the final round of a championship, trailing the leader by a few surmountable strokes. As for Cabrera, he becomes the first Argentine man to win a PGA championship in nearly 40 years. And guess what he was doing before he became a pro? He was a caddy. When asked what was his secret behind winning the Open, the chain-smoker coolly says "Tobacco". It is amazing how every time Tiger comes a close second or third in a major, it is always about how he failed to win it rather than how the actual winner won it.

Oden goes number one
As widely expected, Greg Oden was picked by the Portland Trailblazers as the number one overall pick of the 2007 NBA draft, considered by many as the deepest drafts since 2003 when Dwayne Wade went at number 4. Though experts were talking in length both about Oden and Kevin Durrant, it was almost a given in the days leading upto the draft that Oden will be the number one pick. And thus the Seattle Supersonics landed with Kevin Durrant, in what as one ESPN analyst put it, the easiest draft decision that any team has had to make in the last few years. The Sonics in fact went in for a complete overhaul as they traded Ray Allen, arguably the player who was the face of the franchise, to the Boston Celtics, in what was considered as a not-too-smart move by the Celtics. Another first that happened during this draft was that 8 players from the Ohio State- Florida national championship game in April, were drafted in the first round of the draft. That’s a first in the NBA draft history. Yi Jianlian of China, who is touted as the next big thing to emerge out of China, after Yao Ming, was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks as the 6th overall pick.

Sachin crosses the 15000 run barrier
The world got to see some glimpse of the Sachin of the old days as Sachin scored a scintillating 93 off 106 balls, on his way to becoming the first player ever (and in all probability the only man ever) to cross the 15000 runs barrier. At times, records like these do not seem to matter much, just because it is being broken by Sachin, who has made breaking records a personal hobby in his last 10 years. But seriously, if you think what it takes to score 15000 runs over 18 exemplary years as the best batsmen in the world, it is simply amazing. How many players have we seen who have produced consistencies that can be even compared against Sachin? Sure, the likes of Ponting, Dravid, Inzamam, Mohammed Yousuf, Hayden, Gilchrist, Lara have had their 2-3 years of brilliance but none can even come close to the consistency that Sachin has maintained for close to 18 years now. The man has been criticized like no other player but he has just carried on and let his bat do the talking. What he said in the aftermath of the match said it all, about how he views his criticisms: t is their job to have opinions. When I hold a cricket bat in my hand it's a far tougher and bigger job. That is what I will concentrate on. Cannot be said in better words. Here's congratulating the master on yet another milestone achievement in his stellar career.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - May 2007

Warriors eliminate Mavericks
In what is considered to be the biggest upset in the history of NBA, the Golden State Warriors eliminated the Dallas Mavericks from the NBA playoffs in 6 games. The Mavericks, which came in with an NBA record 6th best number of regular season wins and who were one of the favorites to win it all, failed to get past the 8th seed in the Western conference. This was the first time (after NBA went to Best of 7 games format for all rounds in the playoffs) that an 8th seed team had beaten the 1st seed. Dan Nelson simply out-coached the Avery Johnson coached Mavericks as Dirk Nowitzki never found his rhythm during the series, except in couple of games. Baron Davis used to be a high profile player 2-3 seasons ago when he was with Boston but had fallen by the way-side ever since but that was until this series, when he had a monster of a time.

Tiger wins at Wachovia
It was business as usual for Tiger as he won his 3rd PGA title of the year. This tournament, though not being a major, is considered the closest that a non-major can get to the level of a major what with each of the world's top 10 players turning in for this tournament (as were 27 of the top 30) on top of the prize money that the tournament offers. This was also the 4th time in his career that Tiger won a tournament after he had a double-bogey on the back nine of the final round. And now, Tiger gets ready for the Player's Championship scheduled for next week, in what will be his first back-to-back starts of this season.

Clisjters bids adieu
Kim Clisjters retires from professional tennis at the ripe (?!) age of 24. With her suffering form some major injuring over the past few seasons and also hinting about retirement sometime during this season, the announcement did not come as a surprise. She is one player on the women's circuit I greatly liked for the way she conducted outside the tennis court. When she was dating Lleyton Hewitt, I did not like it one bit bcos he always looked like a jerk to me and this lady here is as sweet a person as it comes. I was only happy when they broke up and now she is getting married to a football star in the fall. Here's wishing her the best that life can offer in her post-retirement life. Seriously, retirement at age 24, life just can't get better :) The Hindu had a good tribute to her. Read it here.

Dirk Nowitzki is 2006-07 NBA MVP
In spite of his team’s ignominious exit from the playoffs in the first round, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki was named as the NBA regular season MVP, thus ending Steve Nash’s reign as the NBA MVP for 2 consecutive seasons. I have never been a Steve Nash fan and so, was delighted when this expected news came out. Though he (and his team) failed when it counted the most, I still thought for all that he helped his team accomplish in the 82 games-long regular season, he deserved this award fully. His season average of 24.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game easily deserved MVP honors. For the record, this is only the 3^rd time that the team whose player was given the MVP award, lost in the 1^st round of the playoffs.

NBA Draft lottery throws a lot of surprises
The Pacific Northwest emerged as the clear winner in the NBA draft lottery as the Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Supersonics, both long shots given their last season record, won the most coveted first and the second picks and therewith the right to choose Greg Oden and Kevin Durant in next month's NBA draft. Though being a Seattle native, it was good news in that we got the 2nd overall pick & might most probably land up with Durant, at the same time, I felt that the very concept of the draft helping out the worst teams has been defeated by what transpired at the draft lottery. The Grizzlies, Celtics and the Bucks, who were the teams with the league's three worst records, only managed to bag the 4th, 5th and the 6th picks. Looks like that ever since the weighted lottery system was introduced way back in 1994, only twice have the worst teams gotten the first pick (The cavaliers in 2003 and Magic in 2004). And this is for the time since 1993 that the worst 3 teams failed to get any of the top 3 picks. The calls for the lottery system to be abolished has gotten only louder, after what has just happened. While talking about how remote a chance these 2 teams had a chance of getting the first 2 picks, ESPN analysts were saying that these 2 teams had as much chance, as that of Shaq making 11 consecutive free throws. That was way too funny.

India takes sweet revenge
Well, I felt corny writing that title to describe India's win over the Bangladeshis in both the ODI and test series. India, though a clear winner in both the series, never were ruthless in their demolition of our neighbors, given the fact that it is our loss to them that ultimately spelled doom for the team in the disastrous WC campaign. Though the victory in the 2nd test match was as good as it could get (in terms of victory margin), at the same time, we should not overlook the fact that the Bangladesh batsmen were done in not by any great bowling by the Indians but by their own poor shot selection. I was happy that Sachin got centuries in the 2 tests and at least help the call for his head to die down for the time being, though I have to say that none of them were memorable innings by any means. Now that the team has got some well deserved break (both physically and mentally from the ever scrutinizing eyes of the Indian public), this break should hold them in good stead for the grueling and tougher series ahead.

Defining moment n Lebron's career?
Lebron undisputedly produced the most stellar display of his short NBA career in Game 5 of the Eastern conference finals as he scored a career playoff high 48 points to guide the Cavaliers to a double overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons. It was almost surreal basketball as he scored the last 25 points that the Cavaliers as a team scored, starting from the 4th quarter of regulation. As I type this, the Cavaliers have finished the Pistons in 6 games and are headed to the NBA finals for the first time in their franchise history. But will Lebron be enough to overcome the solid Spurs? The answer is just a matter of few days away.

Monthly Sports Round-up - April 2007

Florida does a repeat
3 national titles in 12 months. No wonder ESPN.com called Gainesville as Titletown, FL. The whole athletic department of the Gators deserve all the praise they are getting for putting together this Championship run in these days of so much competition where there is little to choose between the top tier college teams in terms of talent and effort. In a game where the Buckeyes never really had a chance, the Gators pulled away for a 84-75 victory to win their second consecutive national championship. I am no big SEC fan and definitely not a Gator fan. So, it wasn't a pleasant watching the Gators win. Every time the Buckeyes pulled to within 5 to 8 points of the Gators, Humphrey will sink in a 3 and effectively douse all their hopes. The Buckeyes were one tired team and with Billy Donovan wisely rotating his players, this was as good as a no-contest mid-way through the 2nd half.

Zach Johnson wins the Masters
Tiger flops in the most prestigious of golf tournaments as he fails to reach par in any of the 4 rounds and finally ends up 3 shots behind the eventual winner Zach Johnson. Tiger's quest for an incredible 5th Master's championship victory thus came to an abrupt halt. He could not get his driving right all week long and he ended up finishing 46th in the field when it came to the number of fairways that were made during the week. It was a bad weekend in the office for all the big-name players and so it was indeed a minor consolation for Tiger fans in that he finished runner-up.

Australia completes a hat-trick
So, my prayers of Australia not winning a 3rd consecutive World Cup were not answered, as the Aussies completed a clinical demolition of the Lankans in the finals of the 2007 ICC World Cup. Though the Aussies were head and shoulders ahead of any other team in the tournament, I was still hoping for a miracle where the Lankans would pull off a surprise. But it was not to be. Gilchrit's 149 will find its place in the list of unforgettable knocks ever produced in a World cup. Even after Australia put together 281 on the board, as long as Jayasuriya and Sangakkara were knitting their little partnership, I was carrying faint hopes that we might be in for something special. But ultimately, the target of 282 in 38 overs proved to be just too much. The way Gilchrist bulldozed through the Sri Lankan bowlers, I was really looking forward to the Aussies breaking the 300 run mark but somehow they did not go for the whole hog in the final overs bcos may be they thought a score of 280 is more than enough for these Lankans.

End of a forgettable World Cup
What a chaotic ending to an already uninteresting World Cup. I really thought that this world cup almost deserved such a rain shorted game in the finals and absolute chaos towards the end of the game. To me, this World Cup has to be THE most forgettable world cup, ever since I started following cricket in the early 90s. The most obvious reason is the fact that India was knocked out in the first round. Looking beyond that, the other reason why this World Cup will be forgotten by me in a matter of weeks is the fact that apart from couple of games (one of them being a dead rubber), there were no real close games and last-over nail-biters that are usually what World cups are remembered for (South Africa – Australia semifinal in the 1999 WC, anyone?). Add on top of this the literally empty stands that watched the games, day in and day out. But if there is one thing this World Cup will be remembered for (apart from the unfortunate murder of Bob Woolmer) is the fact quite a few legends of the game called it quits at or after the World Cup. Lara, Inzamam, Kumble and McGrath - that is quite a list.

Russell goes first
Jamarcus Russell, the heavily built LSU quarterback who led his team to last year's Sugar Bowl victory, was drafted as the number 1 overall pick by the Oakland Raiders, ending months of speculation as to who among Russell or Quinn would be the number 1 overall pick. Brady Quinn fell all the way to the 22nd pick where the Browns traded a pick to draft him, after failing to draft him with their 3rd overall pick. Other than Brady Quinn, there were very few surprises in the draft and going by popular consensus, it is the Carolina Panthers who emerged as the clear winners with them stealing among others, WR Dwayne Jarrett and center Kalil from USC with their late 2nd round picks. Though the Seahawks did not reach out and draft any big-name college player, they did what they had said they will do - take players they had on the board that they liked. They added 4 players each on both sides of the football, also making sure they drafted players at positions which cost us games last year.

Moss goes to New England
Bill Belichick is just not done as he made the biggest of his off-season moves to sign Randy Moss from the Raiders. Though talks of Moss going to New England (or to the Packer nation) were doing the rounds during the free agency market frenzy couple of months back, it did come as a surprise when the Patriots, after completely revamping their receiving core earlier by signing folks like Daunte Stallworth and Wes Walker, chose to further strengthen their receiving core and decided to rope in Moss. If Belichick with his debilitated offense of last year could take the team to the AFC Championship game where they gave the Colts a close call, imagine what the Patriots can do with such a star-studded and healthy looking team. It is safe to say that the Patriots will start as the pre-season favorites of the 2007-08 NFL season.

Nadal's unbeaten streak continues
It is a well-known fact that when it comes to clay court tennis, Nadal is simply the king. So, him winning a 3rd straight Barcelona Open on clay is not really news. But what about his streak of unbeaten matches on clay court that stretched to 72 with the win, isn't that something to rave about? After upstaging Federer in last year's French Open's finals, many believed that they had their someone-please-stop-Federer prayers answered but he kind of withered off in the subsequent Grand Slams, failing to make it to the semifinals of the 2006 US and 2007 Australian Opens. But that was until now when he started playing on his favorite surface. My only wish is that he carries this form of his into the upcoming French Open and further stretch his streak.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - March 2007

The ICC World Cup begins
Though did not watch the complete opening ceremony, managed to catch some action of it. Should say wasn't very impressed. Somehow all the opening ceremonies of major sporting events (soccer world cup, the Olympics and the Super Bowl to name a few) are all getting very monotonous and I am no more excited to watch them as I used to get, say a decade ago. All these opening ceremonies seem to have a preset readymade template and the WC opening ceremony was no different, with it religiously aping that template. There would be lot of fireworks, display of a wide range of colors, some music band will be playing hit music and last but not the least, some selected locals will be dancing near the stage. The organizers sure put in a lot of effort behind the show but I am guessing as long as there is nothing new or unique in the show, it is going to be tough to attract the audience.

Federer's 41 match winning streak ends
Anytime Federer loses a match, it is news and not the other way around (I had written the same words about Tiger in my last month's write-up but I think this is applicable to Federer much more than Tiger). Guillermo Vilas' record of the longest winning streak (at 46 matches) was the one which I thought will be the next one to fall in the Federer era that we are living in. Thankfully, Guillermo Canas who got in as a lucky loser knocked out Federer in straight sets in the Pacific Life Open masters series tournament at Indian Wells and has given all tennis fans some hope for the future. It really felt so good to know that someone can indeed beat Federer and that Federer can have a bad day at work, just like any other player. Here’s hoping for many more such bad days :)

Patriots on a free-agent signing frenzy
If you are a big NFL fan, there is no real off-season to relax. Ever since the free-agency signing period opened up, every team has been signing up players like crazy but none did it like the New England Patriots. They have completely revamped their wide receiver core, by signing some prominent names like Daunte Stallworth (who had a big year with the Eagles last year), Kelly Washington and Wes Walker. Other big name trades involved Thomas Jones signing with the Jets who were in desperate need for a running back and the Browns signing their once chief tormentor Jamal Lewis, which BTW I thought was a stupid move since Jamal Lewis is well past his prime and he is hardly going to have a handful of 100 yard games the coming season. As for the Seahawks, they made one big move by signing DE Patrick Kerney of the Atlanta Falcons in a fierce fight involving the Broncos, who settled the score by signing TE Daniel Graham in whom the Seahawks were interested in. Overall, the Patriots were the big winners in the free agency signing and looks like the loss to the Colts in the AFC Championship game has hurt Bellichick just a wee bit more.

Gibbs sets World record
Hitting sixes off all the 6 balls in an over is a dream for every cricketer and to be able to do it in International cricket is just next to impossible. But Gibbs just accomplished the impossible task by hitting 6 sixes of the 30th over in their contest against Netherlands. Poor Dan van Bunge was the one who endured the ignominy of seeing his name being associated with such a humiliating record. Though records like these are highly entertaining, ironically, it is also exactly feats like these that completely dampen one's expectations from these early stages of the world cup. One boring and insipid game after another.

Tiger goes from boom to bust at the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Not often do we see Tiger going from within 1 shot of the lead mid-way through the final round and finally ending up a whopping 11 shots behind the eventual winner Vijay Singh. It was a completely un-Tiger like performance from the golfing maestro who is known for his patented Sunday march. Every time he has been in the lead entering the 4th day, he has managed to win the tournament except once. Though he wasn't sharing the lead entering the 4th round in this tournament, the fact that he was just 1 shot behind the leader midway through the 4th round should have made all Tiger fans to anticipate another charge by Tiger. Unfortunately that did not happen and instead Tiger ended up tying his career-worst score in a non-major, finishing off with a bogey, double-bogey and triple-bogey finish. With just 1 tournament and 2 weeks between now and the Master's, it is going to be an interesting 2 weeks to see how Tiger bounces back from such a performance.

A billion hopes dashed
In a do-or-die game against the neighbors from the Emerald Islands, Team India folded without putting up a fight and thus were sent packing out of the tournament even before the Super 8 stage began. This is India's earliest exit from the World Cup tournament since 1991 where again we were knocked out in the first round. Before anybody could wake up to what was happening, India was out of the World cup. The bowling was decent in all the 3 games but it was the batting that let us down inexcusably in both the games we lost. Just like how Azhar and Ganguly's decisions to field first in the 1996 & 2003 World Cups have notoriously become part of the history of Indian cricket, Dravid's decision to bowl first against the Bangladeshis will forever be remembered as his biggest blunder. But as always, there was a bright side to the whole sad saga - our other neighbors Pakistan too lost, though unlike us, they had match-fixing to be blamed for the loss against the Irish.

Tiger express back on track
After losing at the Arnold Palmer invitational tournament the week before in a very un-Tiger like performance, Woods comes back strongly to win the WGC-CA Championship in Doral, with a comfortable 2 shot margin. When Tiger started the final round with a 4 shot lead, none had any doubt as to who is going to win the tournament. But Tiger & his fans had to go through some nervous moments before clinching the title. Now, everything is set for the big daddy of them all - The Masters, which begins this week at the Augusta National Golf Club, GA.

Kobe goes berserk
Scoring 50 points in a game in the NBA is not easy. But Kobe just went on a scoring rampage and scores 50 points in 4 games on the trot. This was Kobe at his best. After the Lakers lost 7 consecutive games (a first in coach Jackson's illustrious career), Kobe decided to take matters in his own hands and went on this scoring spree. And no wonder, the Lakers ended up winning all 4 of them. The streak ended when he could 'only' score 43 points in another game against the Warriors. The experts of the game were so much awestruck that they even started comparing him with the best of them all MJ (which would be considered sacrilege if anybody else had been compared to MJ). The Lakers are now well in the playoff hunt but once they get there, I feel that they have no chance against the Big 3 from the Western Conference - Mavericks, Suns and Spurs.

Canas does it again
Looks like God has answered my prayers. As though beating Federer 2 weeks ago at Indian Wells was not just a flash in the pan, Canas does the improbable once again by beating Federer at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, FL. This time around Federer puts up a better show and took Canas to a 3rd set tie-break before losing eventually. These 2 defeats of Federer have given me the hope that the monotony that we have been witnessing the last couple of years - in the form of Federer winning every game and Grand Slam he plays - might come to an end. But the problem with this reasoning is that Federer lifts his game up couple of notches above whenever he plays in the Grand Slams and so beating him in a Grand Slam tournament is still going to be an uphill task. But till then, lets enjoy this well-deserved break for the moment.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - February 2007

Tiger loses at the Dubai Open
These days, anytime Tiger loses, it is news (and not the other way around). Hence this entry. Tiger loses in the Dubai Desert Classic, coming behind winner Henrik Stenson and second placed Ernie Els. Since the Dubai tournament is not officially part of the PGA tour (it is part of the European tour), Tiger's streak of 6 continuous wins on the PGA tour is still safe. The final day saw Tiger staging his popular comeback once again before poor putting let him down and as he fell short by 2 strokes at the end. The presence of stars like Federer and Schumacher at the tournament not only increased the glamour quotient but also was a telling proof of the growing popularity of the tournament in the desert.

Manning finally gets the monkey off his back
In a Superbowl that was as sloppy as the South Florida weather, the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears to win their first Championship in 31 years and their first since moving over from Baltimore to Indianapolis. Critics and Nay-sayers had repeatedly asked questions if Peyton Manning, arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the game, would be able to win the big one and Manning responded in kind with a MVP performance in the Super bowl. Though I will have to say that IMO the MVP award should have been given to the Colts RBs - Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai. The organizers just went with the more popular and emotional choice, that is Manning. Like I had written here, the way the game would be decided, depended heavily on one man - Rex Grossman. And unfortunately for the Bears and their fans, the terrible Rex showed up to work and once Dungy sensed that, the game was good as over. I mean, the guy couldn’t even collect the ball cleanly from the center. The Bears defense stayed on the field for a whopping 36 out of the 60 minutes and with no help from their team-mates on the offensive side, helped the Bears stay within 5 points until the 4th quarter but finally gave in. So, there it is - Manning & Dungy get the monkeys off their backs and the NFL has a new champion. (On a side note, if you are a NFL fan, this one is a good read)

Mumbai - Ranji trophy champions again
Well, Mumbai does it again. Ranji Trophy finals is something which we rarely talk about but not when a resurgent Sachin and comeback kid Ganguly are squaring off on the opposite sides. Sachin plays 2 crucial innings in both the innings, including a well-made century in the first innings for Mumbai while Ganguly, after falling prey to Zaheer Khan for a duck for the umpteenth time in domestic cricket, almost accomplishes 'Mission impossible' of helping Bengal chase an improbable 472 in the 4th innings. Ultimately, Bengal's first innings capitulation for 143 proved to be the decisive factor in the final outcome of the game and Zaheer with 9 wickets deservedly won the man-of-the-match award. It was a riveting game to follow and a game that surely lived up to the billing it received prior to the game. Fittingly, the channel that telecast the game saw it ratings take a huge jump for the game. It is amazing how Mumbai continues to dominate the domestic cricket scenario in India, with this 37th Ranji trophy championship in the tournament's 70+ year old history.

England salvage some pride
First time in 15 years, the Aussies have been beaten at the annual tri-series tournament where they have always dominated. That tri-series usually follows the test series where the Aussies in the last decade have made it a habit of decimating the opposition that the opposing teams would be already waiting to go home by the time the ODI series starts. Then, the Aussies provide the killer punch. The teams change - India, Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka but the scenarios have played perfectly to script. And that's how the 5-0 drubbed Englishmen started the ODI series too, in complete shambles. Things didn’t get better even half-way into the series. But in a remarkable transformation, they came back and won the last 3 games of the round robin phase and qualified for the finals. And it was the finals where they managed to do the impossible - sweep Australia 2-0 in the best of 3 finals. Even a 2-1 victory in the finals would have taken some gloss out of this victory. Beating Australia exactly the same way they have been beating all other teams (drubbing in the finals) was such a sweet thing to watch.

India warms up to the big dance with a series win over Sri Lanka
In a series that was billed as the warm-up to the World Cup, both the Lankans and the Indians played their hearts out. Inspite of a phenomenal collapse in the first ODI that handed the game on a platter to the Lankans, Team India came back rather strongly and finished off the series in style in the 3rd and final ODI. Almost all the missing pieces of the puzzle seem to have been solved and Chappell & Dravid should be happy men, as far as their mindset for the big one goes. Ganguly continued his dream return to the Indian side with a man-of-the-series performance. But personally to me, what was more heartening to see was the return to form of Yuvraj, who is going to be the mainstay of our lower-middle-order along with Dhoni. The World Cup squad that was announced mid-way through the series did not hold any surprises. The only thing that caught everybody’s attention was Kumble’s inclusion and Powar’s exclusion. But Powar’s failures with the bat haven’t helped his cause and Dravid’s affinity towards Kumble made sure that Kumble found a place in the squad. IMHO, the squad looks pretty balanced (atleast on paper). My starting XI would be something like this: Ganguly, Robin, Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Zaheer, Agarkar, Munaf and Harbhajan.

Longest tenure at number 1 for Federer
Another long held tennis record falls, as Federer's tenure atop the ATP men's ranking stretches to 161 straight weeks, thus beating the previous 30-year old record of 160 weeks that was conjured up by the legendary Jimmy Connors. As I read somewhere, if only Jimmy Connors had done a better job (of coaching Andy Roddick so that he could have beaten Federer), his record would have been safe. The way this guy is playing, it is only a matter of couple of years before every conceivable record in the tennis history books will be in his name, including the most treasured of them all - most number of Grand Slam victories, currently held by the inimitable Pete Sampras. Federer has 10 titles against 14 held by Sampras. Nobody is going to beat him at Wimbledon and even assuming he loses at the French Open, both this year and the next to Nadal (or some other Spanish player), the 2008 US Open will see him breaking Sampras's holy record. My prayers to God are only getting more earnest - Dear God, please send someone to stop this guy. It is getting plain boring to watch this disaster unfold.

NBA trade deadline passes away without incidents
This is not something I would be very excited about. Not certainly something I would write about in my monthly sports round-up. But I am writing about this here bcos of the potential trade between the Nets and the Lakers which would have sent Jason Kidd to the Lakers. I am a big Lakers fan and I seriously felt that Kidd would have filled in the last piece that the Lakers team is missing. Though many were skeptical about how Jason Kidd would have been beneficial to the Lakers with their triangle offense, I was so much looking forward to the spectacle of watching Jason Kidd feed off passes to Kobe. Even the other potential big trades didn’t go through - Kevin Garnett did not go anywhere and Mike Bibby stayed put at Sacramento. Overall, the NBA trade deadline turned out to be one big anti-climatic day.

Monthly Sports Round-up - January, 2007

Nope, I am not going to write about the joke of a game that was last night (If you still want to know what I felt last night after watching the letdown unravel, read this and this). Instead, here is my usual monthly sports round-up.

1) Buckeyes buckle under Gator pressure
This was a game that the Buckeyes were expected to just bulldoze through. I am a big Michigan fan and naturally I have to hate the Buckeyes. But I was actually rooting for the Buckeyes bcos I completely detest any team form the SEC, which keeps boasting that they are the best conference in college football. The Gators coach Urban Meyer is a known tactician but everyone thought the Gators would be no match to the overwhelming talents present on both side of the football for the Buckeyes. But what happened during the game was something nobody was prepared for. The Gators completely dominated the Buckeyes, scoring at will and also not letting the famed Buckeye offense get into any sense of rhythm. The Heisman trophy winner, Troy Smith, was made to look pedestrian and he easily had the worst game of his college career. The pressure the Gator defense brought on Troy Smith was relentless and except for the one drive when the Buckeyes looked comfortable, it was Gators all the way. After so many years, the Gators become the first school to hold on to the 2 most prestigious achievements in college football - National Champions in both football and basketball.

2) India squander lead and lose to South Africa in the test series
This was our best chance of winning a test series against a really good quality side (FYI, I do not count WI among the good test teams of today) and I had even predicted an Indian victory in the test series. And how badly did we screw it up. All they had to do was to bat sensibly on the 4th day of the final test and we could have made sure that we atleast came out with a draw. Instead, our batsmen, including Sachin, bungled in a dramatic fashion and finally, South Africa wins the series quite easily on the 5th day.

3) Australia whitewashes England
I knew this one was coming. Ever since the defeat at the hands of the Englishmen in the last Ashes series, you can sense the fire and the hurt in the eyes of every single member of the Australian team. And when McGrath talked about a whitewash much before the series actually began, many did not take that comment seriously. But I always had a bad feeling that this Ashes series is going to be one of the most one-sided series in recent memory and it was exactly what it turned out to be. The phenomenal collapse of the English batsmen in the 2nd innings of the 2nd test is where it all began and it only went downhill from that point on. England is literally down in the dumps right now, having lost whatsoever credibility they had with an abysmal performance in the ODI series too.

4) Beckham signs with LA Galaxy
Clearly aimed at increasing the popularity of the sport here in the US, the Englishman has been signed to an astonishing 5 year 250 million USD deal, which many say is actually more than the combined salaries of players from 5 MLS franchises. Looks like Pele was brought to do the same many years back, in which he was partially successful. But over the years interest in the sport dwindled and now it is the turn of Beckham to try doing the same. It remains to be seen if he will be successful to revive interest in the sport here in the US. A not-so-impressive performance at last year's soccer world cup by the US team does not help matters.

5) Serena wins Australian Open in style
Serena wins her 8th Grand Slam championship of her career in an unbelievable fashion. In a tournament which she entered ranked 81st in the world and in which nobody gave her a chance, she improved with each passing round and knocked off one seeded player after another, finally getting to the biggest of them all, Maria Sharapova, in the final. It was easily the most lop-sided Grand Slam final that I have seen in a long time, a game in which Serena just conceded 3 games. It was immaculate tennis from the American woman who had gone out of the radar of women's tennis for the last 2 years. She says she is here to say and that she is more determined in her comeback this time around. Lets just hope that she means it, which would only be a great news for tennis fans in the US

6) Federer completes another fortnight in office
OK, this is getting ridiculously monotonous. Federer wins his 10th Grand Slam in the Australian Open. It sucks. Period.

7) Tiger does what he knows best
Tiger begins his 2007 season in right earnest as he registers a come-from-behind victory in the Buick International PGA tournament. This was Tiger's 7th straight PGA tournament victory, which started all the way back in the US Open, last September. There has been this comparison between Tiger and Federer on how these 2 guys are dominating their respective fields. But I frankly believe that Tiger, for all his accomplishments, is not as dominating as Federer. Watching Federer win tournament after tournament, grand slam after grand slam is becoming plain boring, while Tiger's victory in all of his 7 consecutive victories (save for the British Open where he ran away from the field right from day 1) has provided us some great entertainment in the form of the important aspect that sport offers called 'competition', something that is sorely missing in men's tennis right now.

8) Team India back on track
After months of frustration when questions were raised as to how good the Indian team really was, the Men in Blue finally overcame their latest nemesis, West Indies, in a dominating fashion. I was particularly impressed with the way India won the 2nd ODI, when they defended a sub-200 total. That is where the character of a team really stands out and I was glad that we won it. I am no Sourav Ganguly fan (alright, I should word that better - I belong to the Ganguly haters club) but nevertheless, it was good to see him bat the way the used to bat during his glory years. This was clearly not the Ganguly we all saw during the days when India were winning under his captaincy and clearly not the Ganguly who got on our nerves with his repeated failures to go his callous attitude. Apart form that, the biggest news for me was Sachin's coming back to form and his innings in the 4th ODI. He was batting on 85 with just 8 balls remaining and it was gratifying to see him get his century off the last ball of the innings. Perfect script. It was also great to see him win the Man-of-the-match and Man-of-the-series awards at the same time, after so long. Like Dravid said in his post-match press conference, everyone can breathe easy and not talk about Sachin's run of low scores for a while.