Shabbas India

Today, I ended up at Chittaranjan Vatika again. Warmed up with my usual one lap walking, stretches, squats, etc. Ran the first lap in 4:06 which is better than the last time (4:30), stayed on pace for the second lap as well to complete it in 8:09, slowed down in the 3rd lap marginally to complete in 12:21, going on to finish five laps in 21:11 mins. I ran at slightly faster than my usual pace so I was huffing and puffing by the end. Stretched a little at the end, caught my breath and ran half a lap just for kicks :o). Tomorrow is most likely a rest day and Long Run on Sunday.

"Inspired India evict South Africa" is cricinfo's headline this morning. The Times of India had this: "India help Kiwis fly" In South Africa, The Daily News in Durban carried this headline:"Gloomy Smith heaps praise on Indian players" and finally Mail and Guardian Online (Johannesburg) said "India send SA packing". India's Twenty20 game last night against the favourites- South Africa was extremely entertaining and a great sporting event to watch. At one point, India had lost 3 wickets at 33 and I (and I am sure a lot of Indian fans) groaned. Karthik was out first ball and I truly wondered why the hell the Indian cricket still continued to have this guy in the team, Yuvraj or no Yuvraj. After struggling, India managed to get the counter ticking over and Rohit Sharma in his first match played a chipper knock, unbeaten at 50.

(Picture Copyright Rajesh Jantilal, AFP)
Even with a 153 on the board, I wasn't so sure - there was more hope than certainty about India being able to do anything with it. Sreesanth firing off five wides in the first over did not help quiet the butterflies in my stomach. At the end of the first over, South Africa 11 for no loss looked to be set to cruise and then....RP Singh bowled a lovely delivery to send Herschelle Gibbs back. Jubiliations and joy. Karthik then took a brilliant impossible catch in the slips to send Graeme Smith to the dugout and I found myself willing to forgive Karthik's duck. Next over, de Villiers was trapped in front of the wicket by Sreesanth. 12 runs for 3 wickets and there definitely was a game ON. More jubiliations and joy. Two dismissals later, South Africa with 31 runs on the board were in BIG trouble. Morkel and Boucher stabilized the innings, adding 65 runs to get South Africa to 100 in 16 overs. After being wicketless for 10 odd overs, India finally got Boucher out, him dragging a Sreesanth delivery back to the stumps and then at regular intervals South Africa lost wickets. In the end, India won by 33 runs.

From tracking the run rate required to win the game, the commentators started tracking the number of runs required to qualify for the semi-finals, which demonstrated how effectively India had strangled South Africa.

Another "paisa vasool" experience. India play the Aussies on Saturday for a berth in the finals. Fingers crossed again....