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Why invincible?
Though there is no point discussing his skills, his ability and his dominance over clay we can just blindly come to the conclusion that he is the one who will own Roland Garros (henceforth RG) this year also. But when we analyse critically, we can also prove the same logically. Below factors supporting the fact:
1. Never lost in RG
2. Never stretched match to five set in Roland Garros
3. Has the win-loss record of 150-5 since 2005
4. Has the perfect record of 45-0 best of five set encounters in clay
5. Mental toughness, never give up attitude.
6. Focus on the point rather than the set\match\championship
7. Supreme physical fitness
Why vulnerable?
1. Only vulnerable factor is due to long matches he will get tired and run out of gas.
Given these entire scenario, after all in sports no one can judge what will happen in next minute. Odds are pointing to the King of clay to win his 5th consecutive RG but only King of Kings (God) will know the result & he reveal the result on June 7.Lets wait and watch this artist at work.
Vamos Rafa…
After survived the initial threat for 10 minutes from Christiano Ronaldo, FC Barcelona throttled and outlast the Manchester United. Christiana Ronaldo gave United a great start. It looks like United will score at any moment, but the momentum changed once Samuel Eto 'o, whose tenth minute goal put the United on chasing and the United continuous attempt on disturbing the Barca's rhythm was failed. Guardiola executed a great strategy by playing Messi lower in the middle; thereby putting more pressure on United's defence.
A superb pass from Xavi to Messi resulted in 2-0 on 80th minute. 5ft 7inch Argentine completed the goal with miraculous header to give United a knock out punch. Xavi and Andres Iniesta displayed high quality midfield chemistry with some incisive passing and the movement. It seems Sir Alex Ferguson's side is clueless in the middle - unable to play the ball to the box. Arguably Xavi earned man-of-the-match for his splendid performance.
This was Barca's 3rd Champions league victory, congratulations to them.
What a way to comeback by former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova; she battled out to win the French Open 2nd round encounter with her Russian mate Nadia Petrova in 3 sets 6-2, 6-1, 8-6 and eventually advanced through to 3rd round. Arguably, this match is best of the tournament in women's draw in terms of quality.
Maria is featuring in French open after a long lay off period of 10 months due to shoulder injury. Her last match before injury was Wimbledon 2nd round. Definitely this victory will give her enough confidence to go forward to the high level. Wish her all the best to go and win another slam.
We had seen some amazing performance from some of the individuals from each team in the IPL II. Herewith I am presenting the dream 11 in the context of IPL 2009. I am stick with the combination of 7 Indian players + 4 foreign players. Here we go…
1. Mathew Hayden – Gave solid start for CSK and orange cap holder of the tournament. He can give a great start and upset any plans of the opposite side.
2. Adam Gilchrist (Capt. & WK) – His age is 37, but behind the stumps he is just 19 years old. He will fit into world XI of all era. He is a perfect opening patner for Haydos as both of them played for Aus and devastated the opponents for many years. Surely this combo is a scary one for any opposite side.
3. Suresh Raina – This lad is a great No. 3 player and Dhoni found an off spinner in him, which proved very handy in some crunch situations.
4. AB De Villiers – He is a top 5 run getters in this tournament, with his reliable batting performance and great fielding skills (leading catch taker with 13 scalp) he won the race for No. 4 by passing JP Duminy & T. Dilshan
5. Yuvraj Singh – Whole world knows about his batting skills, but he surprised everyone with couple of hat-tricks. So, he is a leading all-rounder in our XI.
6. Rohit Sharma – This IPL is a limelight to this elegant batsman. He proved himself with great batting, fielding and more importantly in bowling; who will forget his match winning bowling performance against Mumbai Indians. One of the great finishers we found in this version.
7. Irfan Pathan – He is in top 5 wicket takers of the tournament and also he will be handy with his bat. He is a clean striker of the ball and can clear the boundaries with ease.
8. Pragyan Ojha – What a bowler he is turning out to be, he is already found his place in India T20 team. Took wickets in crucial junctures to place his team (DC) in winning ways.
9. Anil Kumble – Great bowler India have ever produced; with his vast experience, he will do magic for you in any given moment. Nobody can forget his match winning bowling performance against DC in the final, which gave him man-of-the-match of the final.
10. Lasith Malinga – No one can bowl a perfect Yorker than this man. I would rate this bowler next to Wasim Akram in troubling any batsmen in the world.
11. RP Singh – Purple cap holder of the tournament. We can rely on his death bowling skills. With his penetrating line and length he is a good bowler to have in any side. As T20 world cup is on the way, he can fill the spot of strike bowler incase Zakeer is not recover from injury.
12. Asish Nehra / Yusuf Pathan - Though Yusuf is not in his best of touch in this tournament. He can be devastating, in his day. And these either of this two will be my twelfth man.
Note: When I turn into news channels and sport channels, everyone sit and talk about their dream 11. I too thought and tried here to pick my 11 based on some limited cricket knowledge I posses.
IPL II extravaganza just got over; Attention will be shifted to tennis for-a-while as French open began just last Sunday, next to that ICC world T20 is waiting in the queue once it got over again the focus will be back to tennis when Wimbledon begins in the June end., in-between UEFA champions league final tonight. I will be busy watching all these great sporting events. May-July is great period of sporting action. I can forget of watching movies and tune in before Television set following all these actions.
I could feel the adrenalin rush when Man Utd takes on Barcelona FC tonight at Rome; eagerly waiting for the contest between C.Ronaldo vs. L.Messi.
Yes, I am too busy for next couple of months.
Clay court season is back and Rafael Nadal, the King of clay was on a roll already winning 3 titles (Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome Masters) out of four tournaments eventually lost the Madrid masters to his all time rival Roger Federer. He has already made clear inroads for record 5th French open title in consecutive years, winning his first round match against Daniel in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, 6-3.
Rafa created history by winning first round match thereby holding a perfect 29-0 record in Roland Garros only the first men to do so since Chris Evert. He is popular figure in Paris and started the tournament as clear favourite. Already Rafa sharing the legacy with legendary Bjorn Borg of winning French Open for four consecutive years; If he manages to win the title in 2009 means, he would became the first men ever in the tennis history to win French Open for five consecutive years (2005-2009)., we will know that by June 7.
Vamos Rafa
Today is a super Friday as far as Indian Cricket is concerned, as Indian lead an upper hand in ongoing Future cup test series with South Africa. Obviously star of the day is Veeru who displayed a furious knock of triple-ton and still unbeaten on 309, that already fecthed him a place in elite players who scored 300 two times and he now joins with Sir Don Bradman and Lara. He is always in my all-time favourites list. Such a powerful striker of the ball; it will be absolute treat for me to watch him in full flow as today, he hammered SA bowlers all over the park.i would rate this innings as one of the best innings i known and better compared to the previous triple-ton for two reasons.Firstly he never has any life or dropped chances in this innings, whereas the old one has. Nextly, he delivered this fabulous knock under more hot and humid conditions than Multan. For me, he is well deserved to score 400 run marks which would get him past Lara's world record for maximum run scored by an individual in an innings.
Though, India starts the series as favourites, we can't underestimate SA as they won their last 3 test series in a row. Clearly it is unfair to prdeict the outcome of this match as lot of cricket left in next two days.
It's a very memorable day in world cricket history as Team India registered an emphatic victory over World Champion Australia in The Gabba, Brisbane and stolen home The Commonwealth Bank Tri Series Trophy. I was watching the Indian innings in my home. After a steady start provided by Sachin and Uthappa, India reached 200/3 in 38 overs. Sachin guided India with his marvellous 91. It's the seventeenth time he got out in nineties. Since he got out India slowly starts lose their momentum and losing wickets at regular intervals. Michael Clarke, who did damage with the ball, crabs 3 important victims. At one stage India threatens to cross over 300 plus as Yuvi throws his willow on everything. Clarke's spell proved crucial as Sachin, Gambhir and Rohit fell to his trap. Thanks to Indian tail as they managed to stay complete 50 overs to make sure India reaches 250 run mark.
Shock waited for Australia as they start their innings. Gilly was made out for duck which eventually turned out to be his last match in International Arena. His wicket was taken by a new born Hero the UP lad Praveen Kumar in his very first over. Then came the Aussie skipper Ponting, he was yet again trapped by Praveen caught brilliantly by Yuvi. I just get a feeling that, it's time for punter to make some technical adjustments. He is not in best of form; after Gilly's retirement it's important that he needs to find himself in the top. Praveen continues to impress by dismissing Clarke and bowled out Lee when India desperately need wickets to clean up. Finally he finished his magnificent spell with 10-2-46-4 dismissing.
Match seems to drift away from India when Symo and Hayden delivered some fearless shots; their partnership was put to an end by a run-out and in the same over Symo was sent back to pavilion by his good mate Bhajji.
When Indians starts breathe little easier after Symo's dismissal; Hussey and Hopes had begun to nightmare them with their excellent stroke play. Match was evenly poised when both of them out there in the middle. Dhoni was smart enough to get rid of this partnership at that crucial stage by shuffling his bowlers; and this time Sreesanth done job for his captain by provided a vital breakthrough by dismissing the dangerous Hussey. Bhajji and Chawla were used effectively in middle overs to cut out the run flow. Pathan once again seems to be more expensive conceding more than 6 runs per over.
James Hopes stayed and panicked India by hitting a six in last but one over; and the climax was decided in the final over as Aussy need 13 runs with two wickets remaining. Indian skipper bangs on Pathan to finish the proceedings. I really get amazed to see such a courage decision from Dhoni as Pathan was proved to be very expensive in his previous overs.
And finally the story ended as Pathan managed to get rid of Bracken & Hopes; it was a thrilling win in the end.
My heart pumped faster for last 15mins of the match. I had seen many close finished games. I am sure this one would be a new entry added to that list. Praveen adjudged man-of-the-match for his splendid spell. Nathan Bracken declared man-of-the-series for bagging 21 wickets in all. Gilly and Hogg bids farewell to ODI, it was an emotional scene though.
There were days when Aussies are considered more formidable and un-beatable; but Indians re-writes the history by striking with a bang. The most debated and the most suspected young Indian squad outplayed the Aussie which was a real treat for me to watch. What I understand from this victory is "Impossible is Nothing"
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