A Yaaawn Fest!

The current test match being played between Sri Lanka and India has got to rank among the top 10 most boring matches ever played despite some excellent batting performances by Sanga, Mahela, Tendulkar, Sehwag and Raina. Neither team showed any urgency or plans to have a result at the end of the fifth day. The pitch of course hasn't helped either and is as firm as the tarmac on a German autobahn. But again, the ICC I am sure will not look seriously into this and there will be a few comments here and there, the experts will give their take on how boring the test was and how it's killing the longer version of the game, the purists will cringe, shake their heads and remember bygone days when test matches were an even contest between bat and ball. Then, after a few days everyone forgets about this one and moves on. Has been the story of how cricket has been run as a sport over the last couple of years especially in the sub continent. But a pitch that allows Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ohja to bat for 30 odd overs against 2 spinners without having any trouble, calls for some action to be taken.

The master notched up his fifth double hundred and as usual his knock was a exhibition on occupying the crease, concentrating and grinding down the opposition. Raina looked as though he's been playing test cricket for ages and a hundred on debut was well deserved and I for one would be tempted to go in with Raina instead of Yuvraj for the next few tours (please note - Tours, not just the next few matches).

Watched a little bit of the match between England and Pakistan. Aamer looks very impressive and will be a handful for anyone under favorable conditions. However I have doubts as to whether his body an keep up with the pressures of almost non-stop cricket. England have unearthed a gem in Morgan. Cool, calm and collected and has every shot in the book. Impressive!

Ten Sports, can you please have someone replace Russel Arnold at the commentary box? The test match was boring enough and having to listen to Arnold's commentary was rubbing salt, pepper and hydrochloric acid to my wounded brain. Tony Grieg, who normally is good was pretty lack lusture too and seemed to suddenly have developed something against Tendulkar (not directly but there were comments here and there that suggested that he maybe is beginning to questions Tendulkar's place in the record books?). I wonder why channels like Ten Sports and Neo Cricket pay so much to get telecast rights and then mess it up with poor commentary teams. I thought the commentary team doing the current England-Pak test series is top class (Warnie, Bumble, Holding, Beefy!)

The house hunting has lead to a dead end. Seem to have a shortfall of ten grand and the plans are now in the back-burner. I will let the lords will play on this one for now.

I brought a copy of James Rollins' new book titled The Garden of Eden and ended up cursing myself for having spent 400 bucks on it. The Bangalore skies have opened up and looks like I'll be holed up at home for most of the weekend. Looking forward to the Hungarian Grand Prix.