Absolute Farce of an ODI at Kanpur...

What an absolute farce of a One-day match we had at Kanpur in the 3rd ODI between India and England. Even though lights are available, you start the match late because of bad light. Then reduce just a single over and in the end with 9 overs to go you declare India as winners by Duckworth-Lewis Rule... I know that crowd wanted to see India win but I'm sure no one liked the way match finished which would have been very different otherwise.

I'll consider two issues which ruined the match. Firstly ICC has a very strange rule regarding the meet of two captains to decide certain rules to be followed in the series. One of the points captains decide is 'whether lights will be used in a day game if game stops due to bad light'. And I don't know for what strange reason Dhoni and KP agreed on 'not using lights' in such situation. And this has not happened for the first time in India. If you remember the third test of Indo-Pak series last year (view scorecard), because lights were not used, match stopped about an hour earlier and India missed a golden chance to win the test. Ravi Shastri hit the nail in the post match comments. He said, "ICC should 'make it compulsory to use lights if they are available' and not to leave it to the two captains. This will help to avoid such matches and controversies it creates about the D-L rule."

The second issue is about the Officials. If the match is starting 45 minutes late due to bad light, you don't need any astrologer to tell that light will get bad in the evening. As Indians knew it, they just wasted as much time as possible and made sure that they were well ahead of the winning score according to D-L method. In India in this season light really becomes bad around 4:30. So why the officials didn’t reduce the match to 45 overs instead of 49 to ensure that it will complete before it gets dark? What is the point of having 'more overs' if they can never be bowled given the conditions.

Although the match was in the favor of India, imagine had it been 55 to win of 9 overs and if they had declared India as winners it would had been really unfair. In the end no one likes to win the way India won the match. Just a small change in rule or one wise decision of officials could have given better match or at least a better end to the match...

Vishwanathan Anand : The king of 64 Squares

I know this post should have come earlier, but since I was to busy solving the 8-Queens problem (For those who don't know it is a very famous Computer Science problem of 'placing 8 queens on a chess board' :P) I didn't get the time...

Anyways, last month India's Vishwanathan Anand won the World Chess Championship against Russia's Vladimir Kramnik (very awkward to spell :P) to successfully retain his title. The Indian won the best of 12 match 6.5-4.5 with one round to go. (You get 1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw and 0 for a defeat.)



Before going further I would like to go in the history of the championships. Before 1993, the World Championship used to be a straight fight between the Defending Champion and the Challenger. In 1993 the world of chess split into PCA and FIDE. In 2005 PCA's championship was won by Kramnik (Classical Champion) while FIDE's championship (this one was a 8 player round robin event held for the first time in the history of the game) was won by Veselin Topalov. The FIDE's next championship was scheduled in 2007 with Topalov as defending champion. But PCA and FIDE reunited in 2006. Thus there had to be a match between Kramnik and Topalov to decide the world champion, which was won by Kramnik. So Kramnik replaced Topalov as defending champion in 2007 world championships. It followed same round robin format as 2005, V. Anand emerging as a winner. But because the controversies due to non-inclusion of Topalov and Kramnik being unhappy with the round robin format, Kramnik was allowed to challenge Anand in 2008 and Topalov will get 'special privileges' in 2009's world championship. After this the World Chess Championship will be held after every 2 years since 2011.

Now come back to the Vishy and Kramnik. After retirement of Kasparov, this rivalry was always on the cards. But Kramnik was a bit disappointing being 3 points down after 6 matches (4.5-1.5). He later won the 10th match to delay his defeat, but Anand kept a draw in next match and made sure to win comfortably with one game to go. No more talking points, the 6.5-4.5 scoreline tells it all. For those who are interested in actual games visit this wikipedia link

For a few years now Anand has been making a mark of India on this Russia dominated game and has again proved that he is the real King of 64 squares. Congrats to this great man....

How exciting can it get.....

Well, well, well... It looked like dream over for a British, when a Polish man in German machinery looked to ruin the day and was joined by a German with Italy powered constructor, effectively helping another Italian constructor with a Brazilian operating for them in Sao Paolo, Brazil. But ultimately tide turned in the last moments when another German with Japanese power ailing due to slick rubber and came to the rescue of the British... Ultimately the British won in one department against the Brazilian but lost it to the Italians in the other.... What? Confused? Let me explain you.......

It was the occasion of last F1 GP of the season at Interlagos Circuit, Brazil. Before the start of the race it was a straight fight between Britain's Lewis Hamilton and Brazil's Felipe Massa. With Hamilton of McLaren on 94 points and Massa of Ferrari on 87, it was must win race for Massa (10 points) while Hamilton needed minimum 5th place finish (4 points). It was poised very well before the start as Massa on pole and Hamilton starting 4th on the grid. But it was no way a normal race. Just 5 minutes before the start of the race it started raining, race was delayed for 10 minutes and all the teams rushed for a tire change. Finally race started and unfortunately David Coulthard, who has now retired after the race, crashed out and couldn't even complete one lap in his final race. Safety car period but the race though goes on....

It's now about 10-15 laps remaining in the race. Even after so much drama Hamilton still 4th and Massa leading the race. Things look in favor of Hamilton. But wait... Oh no... Oh yes.... RAINNNNNNNNN..... It starts raining.... All the teams rush for a tire change including Massa and Hamilton.... But wait, Timo Glock in Toyota doesn't come in. So he goes ahead of Hamilton on dry weather tires. Hamilton rejoins in 5th place just in front of Vettel in Torro Rosso who stopped few laps ago. Vettel is closing in on him. But Hamilton will still win at this position. Nobody noticed but the lapped car of Robert Kubica is closing in on this duo. He wants to unlap himself. Goes past both of them but slows down Hamilton in the process. Vettel takes benefit and goes past hamilton. Goshhhhhhh..... Just 2 laps to go, now Massa will win the Championship (both on 97 points but Massa has won more races). Hamilton has thrown it away again in the last race (he did it in the last season too). Track getting wet due to rain. Massa takes Chequered Flag to win the F1 World Championship. All the Brazillian crowd in the groundstands starts celebrating. Ferrari pit crew starts celebrating. And suddenly..... why are the McLaren people celebrating. Oh... as I mentioned Timo Glock didn't change the tires. So he was on slick tires which give absolutely no grip on wet surface. This slowed him down so much that both Vettel and Hamilton passed him in the last section of the lap. So Hamilton finished 5th with 98 points and Massa's race victory (finished on 97 points) was in vain. Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 World Championship for year 2008.

However Italian Ferrari managed to win the Constructor's Championship (for the best team) with 172 points (against 151 of British team McLaren). Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. But in the end you really feel sorry for Massa. So near... but yet so far.....

Do it the Redknapp's way

It has just been a week that Harry Redknapp has taken over from Junade Ramos as Manager of Totenham Hotspurs and he has already done something that Ramos couldn't do; to win a Premier League match. Not once but twice. Since he has taken over Spurs have scored 7 points of 3 matches as compared to 2 points of previous 8 matches in the Premier League.

Keeping aside the controversies he has been drawn into, I have always been an admirer of Redknapp's coaching style. He has not only helped clubs to come out of relegation threats but also has helped them to win trophies, including Portsmouth's FA Cup win last season. Although Totenham is bigger club than Portsmouth, moving from a descent Portsmouth side to a Totenham side rooted at the bottom was a big risk. But Redknapp was ready to take it and looks like the move has proved very wise so far.

Before he took over last week, Totenham had won only 1 match (that too in UEFA Cup first round against some small club in Europe). But since then they have registered a comfortable 2-0 win over Bolton last week. Then came back from trailing 4-2 against arch rivals Arsenal to draw the match 4-4. But yesterday they did something that even Man Utd or Chelsea couldn't do. They beat Liverpool 2-1 who had undefeated season till date. This has been a big boost to Totenham with most of the fowards and midfielders scoring and assisting but most importantly playing together as a team.

It looks like they will be out of the relegation zone by the end of the month. Although a top 7 finish and to aim at Europian Cup will be too much to ask for, Totenham can definitely hope for a top half finish.