And then there was Rahul Dravid

There have been many batsmen in India and the world who with their cricket book shorts and their flamboyance have made a mark on world cricket ; be it Bradman, richards, gavaskar, border, tendulkar, lara, ponting and there are batsmen whose flamboyance has formed a potent mixture with their elegance and they too have made a mark like Laxman, Ganguly , jayawardene or Sangakkara and then there is a guy called RAHUL DRAVID one of its kind.

Dravid does not belong to the two kinds mentioned above , he on the other hand has evolved his own game playing method. First things first his technique is flawless , temperament superb and commitment to the game and team unmatchable. He grinds his opponents and makes the job easier for the batsman at the other end. Imagine plight of bowler like Lee or Akhtar who ran more than 20 yards to bowl every time only to meet the solid defence of dravid and this irritated the bowler so much that they started trying too many things and in result lost the control over the ball. Such was his game.India started winning overseas coz a guy like Dravid was always there to hold one end and allowed guys like Sehwag,Sachin,Saurav and Laxman too play their natural game And whenever he failed the Indians never got going and because of all this He was nicknamed 'THE WALL'. There were criticism that his style of play doesn't suit shorter formats of game but he proved his critics wrong by amassing more than 10000 one day runs at an healthy average of 39.44. His performance were instrumental in India's road to final in world cup 2003 and it was under his captaincy that India made a record of winning 17 successful matches while batting second. This speaks volume of his contributions.

It is said that he never got the limelight he deserved , this may be true because some of his best innings have been overshadowed by his peers; when he made a well compiled 180 against aussies in kolkata his partner Laxman made 281. Against Sri lanka in world cup 1999 his 145 were not the talk of the town because Ganguly made 183 and same was the story when his 153 were surpassed by 186 by tendulkar against New zealand , but dravid was happy playing in shadow of his peers playing for the team. The one incident when he got the limelight was when he single handedly got Australia out of the game in Adelaide but such incidents are very few.

There have been lows as well for him such as early first round exit of India in world cup 2007 under His captaincy, his spat with team mate Saurav Ganguly and his loss of form from 2009-2010 but such incidents cannot deny his contribution to Indian cricket and world cricket.

he has been an ambassador for the game and role model for youngsters like me.

this incident was at the time of 2003 world cup. My friend told me the batting order India must follow. He said " India must open with sachin and ganguly and if sachin gets out send in sehwag and if ganguly gets out send in Mongia(dinesh mongia).Then if sehwag gets out send in Kaif or if mongia gets out send in Yuvraj, this is to maintain left/right combination."

I asked what about Dravid???

He simply replied"he is the wall so whenever the scoreline reads 23-2 or 33-3 we'll forget the left/right combination and send him in to hold one end and anchor the innings."

salute to a legend known as Rahul Dravid or THE WALL.

BIG MATCH

Big picture:Australia,India and SCG.Together these three produced the most controversial test seen in the recent times.But the scenario has changed now.Monkeygate,umpiring blunders have become a part of history now..Two key figures Andrew Symonds(busy in BIGG BOSS and BIG BASH) and Harbhajan Singh(no more best Indian spinner) are missing and the teams are in much cordial relationship now.Its also 100th test match to be played at Sydney.Hope this match will also be a thriller like the previous one played between these two teams at this very ground(of course minus controversies)

What to watch for:The Pitch;everyone after the Indian batting collapse in Melbourne wants to see how the pitch behaves, fast and bouncy than India have their task cutout but such pitches could backfire as the hosts have four scores of less than 100 in last few months playing on such pitches.

Will he or won't he;big question is SCG the ground where the 100th century will come,look out for answers tomorrow.

Key Clashes: Virendra Sehwag vs James pattinson-this could well decide the course of match.if sehwag sees through new ball in his signature style its India's upper hand if he won't Pattinson would break the back of Indian batting with new ball.

Zaheer Khan vs Ponting/Hussey- he is fit,he is back and he can destroy any batting line-up and thats why the two oldies are important for Australian campaign.

Expected Line-up:India- Dhoni will field the same side as in melbourne only change could be Rohit Sharma replacing Virat Kohli.

Australia-no need for the Aussies to change the line up but if the pitch suits for fast bowling expect them to field Ryan Harris in place of Nathan Lyon.

Wait for tomorrow , the game would be exciting.

The year that was..........

the year 2012(as the year of doom as many would say) is just round the corner,so I decided to look back at the year 2011 from my perspective.

WARNING: This blog is has been written for personal satisfaction not to disregard a particular person.

JANUARY- the year started with a bang as me and my family celebrated new year at a party at my place.

after my exams I quiet stayed low as I overreacted to a situation that should have been dealt smartly.I faced its consequences later in the year.

FEBRUARY-this month I was totally involved in preparations of my cousins wedding and was getting ready for the cricket world cup 2011.I to certain extents made amends to a souring friendship .

MARCH-this was the time when the world cup was in full flow and I got emotionally attached to the result of every match India played and this was the time I started making plans for preparation of my exams (mind you only made plans not implemented them)

APRIL- 2nd of april was a night to remember as we the Indians were crowned world champions.It was joy all around. After that day it was mainly studies until the news breakout that the finals were postponed,after this whole of my month was dedicated to IPL.

MAY-time to get serious as the month of may with its scorching heat brought with itself second year exams of B.com(hons).Me and my friends started to feel the heat and it began to show up.

JUNE-exams continued and ended on 19th of june.Couldn't get time for rest as I started preparing for CAT(ON PAPER)

JULY-there was much time in commencement of new session and I started my MBA preparations on a good note.Made new friends and some of them are looking till now as they would remain my friends for time to come.Well only time will tell.

AUGUST-this month was full of surprises my result gave me a shock,never expected whole country would come out in support of an old gandhian and England would run down India in a four match test series.phew....but a good thing happened I changed my cell phone from an older C100 to new trendy Wave 2.

SEPTEMBER-few more shocks E and Y rejected me in campus selection and two so called best friends had a fight over some issues and the differences still exist. hope new year brings a stability and settles the differences.

OCTOBER-another of my friend joined in the fight among my friends and one on one became a handicapp match-up. I and Aneesh(my friend not involved in any of the matter listed above and the only person I can name here as he won't mind) try to settle the dispute but our efforts went in vain and both of us wouldn't forget a telephonic conversation :-). And yes I gave my CAT on 25th a day before Diwali.

NOVEMBER-finally the dispute was settled and differences....... no they still exist.Settlement was just on surface. I got to know who my friends were and an old friendship was reignited. I celebrated my 20th birthday this month.

DECEMBER-few more entrance exams ,my birthday celebration a month later and my first football match that

was viewed by me in a football stadium.And another failure in campus selection but the time moves on ,so do I.

OVERALL-it was a below average year for me as there were more failures than success but I learnt how to stay positive in adverse situations .Developed my interest in football as cricket took a backseat.

GRATITUDE-my family as they helped me out in difficult situations and Aneesh Gupta,Surbhi Aggarwal for being with me and supporting me throughout the year. Thank you all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all.

The wall is still strong

The test ended in a draw,finally after a thrilling fifth day.So what were the outcomes

Ashwin got a double,Sachin missed another opportunity to score his hundredth century and yes yes the most important the wall is still strong.

Amidst all the speculations of Sachin's hundred the silent performer known as the wall reached a landmark which only Sachin can boast off 13000 test runs but more than applauding this great man we were all busy praying for the little masters ton.Well this has always been the case with Dravid that whenever he has played well his performance is eclipsed by someone else and due credit is not given to him be it in TAUNTON where he scored a brilliant 145 but a BENGALI southpaw scored 183 or Kolkata where his 180 were overshadowed by Laxman's 281 .

But he continues providing his valueable services to Indian cricket.this year in Westindies and England he showed the world and Indian fans that WE STILL NEED THIS MAN

and we also need him because sometimes EVEN GOD NEEDS BACKUP

vatsal's mind: THE CUP OF UPSETS

vatsal's mind: THE CUP OF UPSETS: "When the world cup 2010 started on june 11 it was termed by the Africans as THE CUP OF JOY.As we progressed to the business end of this edit..."

THE CUP OF UPSETS

When the world cup 2010 started on june 11 it was termed by the Africans as THE CUP OF JOY.As we progressed to the business end of this edition many of the previous predictions were proved wrong and hearts were broken. I personally feel sorry for DUNGA and MARADONA whose teams were at the top till quarter finals but faltered at the big stage, both Messi and KAKA failed to live upto their reputation.ENGLAND as always, came as the favourites and lost the way in the knockout stages . FRANCE and ITALY were the ageing teams but were not expected the first round exit.HOLLAND were the surprise package as no one expected them to play in soccer city stadium on july 11. GERmany AFTER LOSING TO SERBIA came back very strongly knocking out ENGLAND and ARGENTINA but lost at the big match to SPAIN. SPAIN proved that their europeon title wasn't a fluke but they were also a part of upset against the SWISS . ASIAN teams reached the round of 16 but couldn't get through to quarters. URUGUAY was the lone latin amerians in the semis but were demolished by the DUTCH.ON july 11 when SPAIN will play HOLLAND in the penultimate final many predictions will be proved wrong and the hearts will be broken as the 201 edition would be remembered as THE CUP OF UPSETS

First timer

I always felt that or i can say that asked myself that is writing blogs gives u some pleasure or satisfaction or its just that 'everyone is doing it so you also join it' but slowly i understood that it can be used as a platform(not related to any railway station) for an average person like me to share my views or my life experiences with more average blog writers. My first post is only about how i started to follow a trend that helps me to connect my feelings to every blogger out there.When i first heard abot blog, it was from Mr. Aamir Khan when he launched his website so that he can connect with his fans through his BLOG.AS every other fan of his i too searched for the site and wanted to log in but blame it on server or my POOR BROADBAND connection i wasn't able to open that site and my frustration kept me distant from blogcast and any other networink site until today. My friends often talked about blogs which helped arousing my curiosity about it. One day my friend Aneesh told me that he was caught travelling without ticket in DTC and was fined rs.100 .He later told me that he wrote a blog about it recounting the whole incident, i just i laughed at him not for the fine but about him writing the blog. It took time for me to understand about the blogs and its uses(if it was useless i would rather waste my time watching movies) . Finally i have written my first blog.