First let us look at the fixtures against the Top - 4 plus Liverpool.Yes get used to City being called Top four unlike the traditional top 4 in the recent times Cause i expect them to stay in the top 4 for quite some time.And it looks very much likely to me that Liverpool will finish with a CL position next season.
Here they are..
Sat 27 Aug Arsenal (H)
Sat 17 Sep Chelsea (H)
Sat 15 Oct Liverpool (A)
Sat 22 Oct Man City (H)
Sat 21 Jan Arsenal (A)
Sat 4 Feb Chelsea (A)
Sat 11 Feb Liverpool (H)
A spurs aways and a Sat 28 Apr Man City (A).
Looks good with no tricky fixtures except for the Eastlands visit, towards the last 3 months of the season where the schedule will be tight with CL,FA in final stages (Hopefully a leg in all the competitions till the final stages). Spurs is a good team but i generally feel confident when we are up against Spurs, don't know why.Hence the exclusion in the above list.
Full fixtures
Sat 13 Aug - West Bromwich Albion (A)
Sat 20 Aug - Tottenham Hotspur (H)
Sat 27 Aug - Arsenal (H)
Sat 10 Sep - Bolton Wanderers (A)
Sat 17 Sep - Chelsea (H)
Sat 24 Sep - Stoke City (A)
Sat 1 Oct - Norwich City (H)
Sat 15 Oct - Liverpool (A)
Sat 22 Oct - Manchester City (H)
Sat 29 Oct - Everton (A)
Sat 5 Nov - Sunderland (H)
Sat 19 Nov - Swansea City (A)
Sat 26 Nov - Newcastle United (H)
Sat 3 Dec - Aston Villa (A)
Sat 10 Dec - Wolves (H)
Sat 17 Dec - QPR (A)
Wed 21 Dec - Fulham (A)
Mon 26 Dec - Wigan Athletic (H)
Sat 31 Dec - Blackburn Rovers (H)
Mon 2 Jan - Newcastle (A)
Sat 14 Jan - Bolton Wanderers (H)
Sat 21 Jan - Arsenal (A)
Tue 31 Jan - Stoke City (H)
Sat 4 Feb - Chelsea (A)
Sat 11 Feb - Liverpool (H)
Sat 25 Feb - Norwich City (A)
Sat 3 Mar - Tottenham Hotspur (A)
Sat 10 Mar - West Bromwich Albion (H)
Sat 17 Mar - Wolves (A)
Sat 24 Mar - Fulham (H)
Sat 31 Mar - Blackburn Rovers (A)
Sat 7 Apr - QPR (H)
Mon 9 Apr - Wigan Athletic (A)
Sat 14 Apr - Aston Villa (H)
Sat 21 Apr - Everton (H)
Sat 28 Apr - Manchester City (A)
Sat 5 May - Swansea City (H)
Sun 13 May - Sunderland (A)
Eagerly waiting for the transfers esp a CMF in the mould of Modric than Sneijder.Hopefully SAF
gets one..
GGMU!! GGMU!!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Don't bash Dhoni...Not now
After the suicidal collapse of Indian Middle Order in the Ind vs SA match, lots of fans castigated Dhoni alone.But with all due respect towards your opinion, if you're one among them, I would like to disagree.
-> He might've made a mistake by bringing Nehra on for the last over,who had a bad day
compared to other bowlers and bhajji is having one over left and is already a good spell.
-> He was stupid and I really don't comprehend his intentions behind exposing indian tail to the likes of Steyn.
->Post match interview, he started advising other players.Dressing room is the place not the media, anyways he doesn't have the right to criticise in the first place.Dhoni also failed.
The above points might be a bit confusing as to what I intended to write here, whether I intend to defend/bash further Dhoni.
But my point is what about the rest of the middle order batsmen?In that situation, what do people expect dhoni to do. when others are in a hurry to reach pavilion and relax even before Sachin?You expect him to join them?He could have been better by shielding the lower order even though that means he ends up not scoring runs but prolong the innings.
In my opinion whenever team is having a very early collapse he is the most reliable batsmen to have in the order.Stop looking at him as a hard hitting Dhoni he used to be when he entered the scene.I agree, some times his strike rate can be frustrating but very rarely his strike rate will be low compared to the best strike rate of the innings(probably on slower pitches) but generally at the end of the innigs he ll settle the accounts.Dhoni is one of the best if not the best middle order batsmen at present in the ODI's not in regards to technique and entertainment, but in terms of effectiveness and value to the team.
I didn't really feel bad after the match because
1) India should have these learning experiences before reaching the knockout stages.We can perform only under conditions where people seriously doubt our abilities rather than with a favorites tag where we are expected to remove all the teams like dust and claim the title and 2) because I predicted that Ind loses to SA .. :D..Dont bash me now..That was just gut feeling...
Cricket is my religion (just a convert for these 2 months) and Sachin is my God(Always)...
-> He might've made a mistake by bringing Nehra on for the last over,who had a bad day
compared to other bowlers and bhajji is having one over left and is already a good spell.
-> He was stupid and I really don't comprehend his intentions behind exposing indian tail to the likes of Steyn.
->Post match interview, he started advising other players.Dressing room is the place not the media, anyways he doesn't have the right to criticise in the first place.Dhoni also failed.
The above points might be a bit confusing as to what I intended to write here, whether I intend to defend/bash further Dhoni.
But my point is what about the rest of the middle order batsmen?In that situation, what do people expect dhoni to do. when others are in a hurry to reach pavilion and relax even before Sachin?You expect him to join them?He could have been better by shielding the lower order even though that means he ends up not scoring runs but prolong the innings.
In my opinion whenever team is having a very early collapse he is the most reliable batsmen to have in the order.Stop looking at him as a hard hitting Dhoni he used to be when he entered the scene.I agree, some times his strike rate can be frustrating but very rarely his strike rate will be low compared to the best strike rate of the innings(probably on slower pitches) but generally at the end of the innigs he ll settle the accounts.Dhoni is one of the best if not the best middle order batsmen at present in the ODI's not in regards to technique and entertainment, but in terms of effectiveness and value to the team.
I didn't really feel bad after the match because
1) India should have these learning experiences before reaching the knockout stages.We can perform only under conditions where people seriously doubt our abilities rather than with a favorites tag where we are expected to remove all the teams like dust and claim the title and 2) because I predicted that Ind loses to SA .. :D..Dont bash me now..That was just gut feeling...
Cricket is my religion (just a convert for these 2 months) and Sachin is my God(Always)...
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Rescue Missions in the mysterious trails of OG
After all the build-up to the trek, the time has arrived to start.With the inexperience sitting on my shoulders supplemented by the common food, noudles and soup packets i volunteered to take up contirbuting in a heavy backpack which i realized only after 3 hours of hiking.I always learn things the harsh way (#1).
At 7AM (19/2) Started along a rough jungle path aiming for the first peak at height of 1100m and by 10AM we came out of the forest cover and should hike the broad sun light.
Plan is to conquer 4 adjoining peaks all approx at height of 1000m and then by 2 start descent and get to the stream by nightfall and camp there for first night.So till 4PM we wont have a sight of a drop of water and the insructions were clear for all to carry atleast 3 litres of water at the start fo the trek.(You may ask why not more, but the heavier the more problematic it is to hike).There are 2-3 people who didn't carry any water and the explanation given is that they didn't listen the instrctions.Rakesh, unfortunately was sent back just one hour after of hiking, decision taken in the best interest of the whole group.Sorry mate.People started to slow down once we are out into the scorching sun and water was drained away from body and bottles in equal amounts.By 12:30 first batch of people got to the first peak,I reached there by 12:45 types, and the last one reached by 2.Our organizer biju lost his camera, he went all the way back to track it down and he came back only with his camera in his hand.WILL.
An interesting thing happened during this interval.The terrain is basically small rock boulders (smaller ones are the dangerous ones) and grasslands to a large extent.But it was all very steep ascent as we have to ascend 1000m in 4 hours.One slip and you don't where you'll end up.I was taking pics of a person and suddenly heard shouts of ROCKS and what I saw made me had goosebumps.Ramesh and sundar are separated by 10m and a rock double the size my head was accidentally set-off by ramesh and when i turned my head, sundar already bent down with the bag on his head, but luckily the rock slit into two just before him and the two pieces rolled down from either side of him.Pure luck it was.Don't know how sundar felt but i had goosebumps..Pics of the terrain and the path
continuing...
Had a pack of chappathis, had an intersting chit-chat about ticks, snakes, some horrifying bee experiences, tick allergies.. Very intriguing stories.At around 2 PM,started to conquer 3 more peaks.In this path of journeys sole of my shoe came off completely and my worst fear came true.I took out my sandals, thinking that if it gets very difficult, will leave the next day.In 2 hours finished all the 3 peaks and at the end of the 3rd peak.Some pics of the vast, steepy grasslands..
Stunning view of a train passing through the mountains opposite to us.
We didnt have peter or biju or anyone to guide which way to descend to get the water stream.We found a dry stream with full of boulders and a gang of 16 people proceeded along that dry stream, under the inference all the dry streams would/should lead to the main stream(which is at ~200m).Ascent was just energy sapping, the terrain was not that difficult.But the descent, full of bushes, we are inside the green cover, so in a way descemt was difficult than ascent.At one point we hit very dense bushes and had to come out of the dense stream.Me n durai went around and found a way back into the dry stream though the detour was very thorny we went ahead and kept trekking.At around 4 30 we found a small trail of water, which was flowing just drop by drop but that was enough to revivify the 16 dried up souls.Some of us had a bottle filled up.We had no idea where the other 20 people are, but at around 5 PM we heard 6 others and waited for them and we proceeded.It was getting dark and we took our torch lights out.At one point of time,owing to the darkness and my sandals i slid into a pool of water losing the grip.Had no idea where i was going until i reached the bottom.Around 6 40, concluded there's still a long way to go and waited for a regrouping.All the count we got is 31 with peter at the back helping Sinu who saw her Hip pain restricting her to move
freely.We had 5 people missing and have no idea whether all of them are together or not.Among those 5 guys excpet Biju, rest all were amateurs like me.Two of the friends of one of the 5 started to panick and even started praying that they all are with Biju.Anyhow nothing to do in our hands, we started cooking soup, then noodles with the small trails of water available to us.Had a tasty food and slept.
My bed for the first night with OG.
Next day morning two of the friends started to contact shashidhar(their dosth) and biju too with the feeeeeble signal available on Airtel but with no luck.Somehow Biju got the info and messaged to that number that all 5 r together and that Rajeev is hurt.They are in another parallel stream(Later came to know it's all the power of BSNL).With our first aim being to reach the main stream we continued along the stream which got broadened fairly as we got lower and lower and the trail was relatively easy.We had a mini pool in b/w to relax.
By 12 the next day (20/2) we reached the main stream.Cooking, bathing, swimming, sleeping everyone was doing whatever they wished to.
Intersting stats came up.
Durai, our chief chef was asking people to take out the noodles packets out and ll we got is 5 apart from 3 we had on the night, the day before.So total 8 out of the 15 we had.7 are with Biju and co.Then comes milk powder to make tea(we had rest all sugar, tea powder) and surprisingly those are also with Biju and co. Then soup pakcets 2/4 are also with Biju & co.They even had one of the pair of vessels we
brought.In a way we are happy they had enough food.Anyways at around 3:30 a rescue mission started in their search but owing to my cut and the bleeding i could hardly walk(mind you the First aid kit is laso with Biju).I cudnt go in the rescue mission.Another group opted to go out,following the stream into the village and get food supplues for that night.By 7:30 botht he groups returned.Rescue mission with no luck, but the food group gt rice, ifsh curry(cooked one, they got it from a very kind village woman) and then eggs.Had a great dinner and all the guys slept off i guess around 9 30.But 6 ofus stayed awake because 9 eggs were remaining :D and we made an egg masala curry and had them with yummy chapathis which are otherwise iedible.
Some stunning views of the Stream
(20/2) Morning another rescue mission started for Biju and this time I joined them:total of 11.My leg was ok if not perfectly alright.Peter: "we are not coming back w/o them".Instructions were that by 11:30 if we won't return, sibn will be there with our bags, rest all should leave as we have bus to Bangalore at 2:30.We started and we were literally running along the rocks.After 1 hour,2 of them unable
to keep up with the pack, went back to the stream.9 of us kept going and kept going and at around 9 30AM me and Raj spotted Biju and surya.I hardly knew them for 4 hours before they went missing for 46 hours.But the rush of adrenaline at seeing them is still surprising to me.We both just hopped on from one rock to another, ran like deers and rushed to the bunch and hugged them one after the other.That emotion alone is worth the two days trek.
Get-together snaps
Then Biju started explaining how Rajiv sprained his ankle, how badly it was swollen,how he was not able to move, how they reached our camp fire by 11AM the prev day and the way they are conserving their food for a plan of 2 more days to get to the stream.That calculation was perfectly spot-on given the speed at which the he was locomoting.Can't use 'walking' here because he was using all his body parts including his bum except his legs, to move.Anyways luckily biju found an ancient jeep trail on which it was easy to carry him.Biju reckons it's easily a 100 year old trail.Learnt many more interesting things.We carried him on our shoulders for nearly 1.5-2 hrs, though Raj and Peter for the most part bore the wrath of 85Kgs of Rajeev. (Yeah, he was that heavy..No offence mate, Rajeev :D).I just pitched in
for some time.BY 11 we were back at the camp site.A stretcher was made to carry him along the trail along the stream into the village.
Here are the pics and the video.
Link1:Carrying him on stretcher:
Link2:Carrying him on stretcher:
Link3:Carrying Rajeev on stretcher:
And thus came the end to one of the most thrilling treks of my life.Thankyou Biju and Co.... :D
Interesting facts
#1 Biju had everything to cook and eat as I said above.The point where we felt happy, but we came to know that they didnt have the match box. They wnt back tot he stone age and triend generating fire but with no luck.They had everything to eat but not fire.All the way they were carrying the supplies futiley.
#2 Because of BSNL, Biju came to know that someone is trying to call him and he sent a message.He had signal for most part of the trek it seems... BSNL \m/ :)
At 7AM (19/2) Started along a rough jungle path aiming for the first peak at height of 1100m and by 10AM we came out of the forest cover and should hike the broad sun light.
Plan is to conquer 4 adjoining peaks all approx at height of 1000m and then by 2 start descent and get to the stream by nightfall and camp there for first night.So till 4PM we wont have a sight of a drop of water and the insructions were clear for all to carry atleast 3 litres of water at the start fo the trek.(You may ask why not more, but the heavier the more problematic it is to hike).There are 2-3 people who didn't carry any water and the explanation given is that they didn't listen the instrctions.Rakesh, unfortunately was sent back just one hour after of hiking, decision taken in the best interest of the whole group.Sorry mate.People started to slow down once we are out into the scorching sun and water was drained away from body and bottles in equal amounts.By 12:30 first batch of people got to the first peak,I reached there by 12:45 types, and the last one reached by 2.Our organizer biju lost his camera, he went all the way back to track it down and he came back only with his camera in his hand.WILL.
An interesting thing happened during this interval.The terrain is basically small rock boulders (smaller ones are the dangerous ones) and grasslands to a large extent.But it was all very steep ascent as we have to ascend 1000m in 4 hours.One slip and you don't where you'll end up.I was taking pics of a person and suddenly heard shouts of ROCKS and what I saw made me had goosebumps.Ramesh and sundar are separated by 10m and a rock double the size my head was accidentally set-off by ramesh and when i turned my head, sundar already bent down with the bag on his head, but luckily the rock slit into two just before him and the two pieces rolled down from either side of him.Pure luck it was.Don't know how sundar felt but i had goosebumps..Pics of the terrain and the path
continuing...
Had a pack of chappathis, had an intersting chit-chat about ticks, snakes, some horrifying bee experiences, tick allergies.. Very intriguing stories.At around 2 PM,started to conquer 3 more peaks.In this path of journeys sole of my shoe came off completely and my worst fear came true.I took out my sandals, thinking that if it gets very difficult, will leave the next day.In 2 hours finished all the 3 peaks and at the end of the 3rd peak.Some pics of the vast, steepy grasslands..
Stunning view of a train passing through the mountains opposite to us.
We didnt have peter or biju or anyone to guide which way to descend to get the water stream.We found a dry stream with full of boulders and a gang of 16 people proceeded along that dry stream, under the inference all the dry streams would/should lead to the main stream(which is at ~200m).Ascent was just energy sapping, the terrain was not that difficult.But the descent, full of bushes, we are inside the green cover, so in a way descemt was difficult than ascent.At one point we hit very dense bushes and had to come out of the dense stream.Me n durai went around and found a way back into the dry stream though the detour was very thorny we went ahead and kept trekking.At around 4 30 we found a small trail of water, which was flowing just drop by drop but that was enough to revivify the 16 dried up souls.Some of us had a bottle filled up.We had no idea where the other 20 people are, but at around 5 PM we heard 6 others and waited for them and we proceeded.It was getting dark and we took our torch lights out.At one point of time,owing to the darkness and my sandals i slid into a pool of water losing the grip.Had no idea where i was going until i reached the bottom.Around 6 40, concluded there's still a long way to go and waited for a regrouping.All the count we got is 31 with peter at the back helping Sinu who saw her Hip pain restricting her to move
freely.We had 5 people missing and have no idea whether all of them are together or not.Among those 5 guys excpet Biju, rest all were amateurs like me.Two of the friends of one of the 5 started to panick and even started praying that they all are with Biju.Anyhow nothing to do in our hands, we started cooking soup, then noodles with the small trails of water available to us.Had a tasty food and slept.
My bed for the first night with OG.
Next day morning two of the friends started to contact shashidhar(their dosth) and biju too with the feeeeeble signal available on Airtel but with no luck.Somehow Biju got the info and messaged to that number that all 5 r together and that Rajeev is hurt.They are in another parallel stream(Later came to know it's all the power of BSNL).With our first aim being to reach the main stream we continued along the stream which got broadened fairly as we got lower and lower and the trail was relatively easy.We had a mini pool in b/w to relax.
By 12 the next day (20/2) we reached the main stream.Cooking, bathing, swimming, sleeping everyone was doing whatever they wished to.
Intersting stats came up.
Durai, our chief chef was asking people to take out the noodles packets out and ll we got is 5 apart from 3 we had on the night, the day before.So total 8 out of the 15 we had.7 are with Biju and co.Then comes milk powder to make tea(we had rest all sugar, tea powder) and surprisingly those are also with Biju and co. Then soup pakcets 2/4 are also with Biju & co.They even had one of the pair of vessels we
brought.In a way we are happy they had enough food.Anyways at around 3:30 a rescue mission started in their search but owing to my cut and the bleeding i could hardly walk(mind you the First aid kit is laso with Biju).I cudnt go in the rescue mission.Another group opted to go out,following the stream into the village and get food supplues for that night.By 7:30 botht he groups returned.Rescue mission with no luck, but the food group gt rice, ifsh curry(cooked one, they got it from a very kind village woman) and then eggs.Had a great dinner and all the guys slept off i guess around 9 30.But 6 ofus stayed awake because 9 eggs were remaining :D and we made an egg masala curry and had them with yummy chapathis which are otherwise iedible.
Some stunning views of the Stream
(20/2) Morning another rescue mission started for Biju and this time I joined them:total of 11.My leg was ok if not perfectly alright.Peter: "we are not coming back w/o them".Instructions were that by 11:30 if we won't return, sibn will be there with our bags, rest all should leave as we have bus to Bangalore at 2:30.We started and we were literally running along the rocks.After 1 hour,2 of them unable
to keep up with the pack, went back to the stream.9 of us kept going and kept going and at around 9 30AM me and Raj spotted Biju and surya.I hardly knew them for 4 hours before they went missing for 46 hours.But the rush of adrenaline at seeing them is still surprising to me.We both just hopped on from one rock to another, ran like deers and rushed to the bunch and hugged them one after the other.That emotion alone is worth the two days trek.
Get-together snaps
Then Biju started explaining how Rajiv sprained his ankle, how badly it was swollen,how he was not able to move, how they reached our camp fire by 11AM the prev day and the way they are conserving their food for a plan of 2 more days to get to the stream.That calculation was perfectly spot-on given the speed at which the he was locomoting.Can't use 'walking' here because he was using all his body parts including his bum except his legs, to move.Anyways luckily biju found an ancient jeep trail on which it was easy to carry him.Biju reckons it's easily a 100 year old trail.Learnt many more interesting things.We carried him on our shoulders for nearly 1.5-2 hrs, though Raj and Peter for the most part bore the wrath of 85Kgs of Rajeev. (Yeah, he was that heavy..No offence mate, Rajeev :D).I just pitched in
for some time.BY 11 we were back at the camp site.A stretcher was made to carry him along the trail along the stream into the village.
Here are the pics and the video.
Link1:Carrying him on stretcher:
Link2:Carrying him on stretcher:
Link3:Carrying Rajeev on stretcher:
And thus came the end to one of the most thrilling treks of my life.Thankyou Biju and Co.... :D
Interesting facts
#1 Biju had everything to cook and eat as I said above.The point where we felt happy, but we came to know that they didnt have the match box. They wnt back tot he stone age and triend generating fire but with no luck.They had everything to eat but not fire.All the way they were carrying the supplies futiley.
#2 Because of BSNL, Biju came to know that someone is trying to call him and he sent a message.He had signal for most part of the trek it seems... BSNL \m/ :)
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