India V Australia 1st test so far

India at Lunch on day 3 has lot of work to do. The Pitch is getting slower and slower and run making is really difficult. The bounce is not true. The wicket keepers have a really difficult time and their backs are going to take a toll.
Ricky Ponting and Micheal Hussey played outstanding test cricket and showed tremendous temperament and patience to reach a big first innings score. Ishant Sharma got two wickets with the help of slower balls in the form of Brad Haddin and Cameroon White. On this pitch varying the pace is very important as there is not much in the pitch to offer for the seam bowlers. Ponting has got a very interesting field setting with a short extra cover and short mid wicket as the ball is not coming on to the bat. Johnson has varied his pace nicely it and got the maestro Tendulkar playing an early shot. Sehwag was frustrated as runs had dried up and thats what happens when you see a wide half volley- the carrot ball you nick it to slips. The old ball is reversing and Mitchell Johnson will be a threat if he is more consistent with his line and length because of his slingy action.
Nine out of the Australian ten wickets were taken by fast bowlers with Harbhajan and Kumble taking 1 wicket in 43 odd overs.Australians have 4 decent fast bowlers. With 2 spinners in the team it becomes very important that we have enough runs to bowl at and that seems virtually impossible at this stage with Dravid back in the hut. Hence the first innings score was very important as batting second time against Kumble and Harbhajan will be rally difficult. Stuart Clark is a very dangerous bowler on this pitch with the ball keeping low as he bowls wicket to wicket and as the game progresses we will see more and more LBWs and Bowled.

Fine with Over stepping

Vekatesh Prasad- the bowling coach of the Indian Cricket Team has announced a fine for the Indian bowlers bowling no balls. Every bowler has a partner in the form of a batsman and every time a bowler oversteps he and his partner have to pay a fine of 50 dollars each. I guess the partner of Ishant sharma is Gautam Gambhir. I don't know the partners of other bowlers.

Only time will tell whether this fine will help in bringing down the no balls. Also the players have to be fine with the fine. I am not sure what happens with the 100 dollar so recovered.

Had the fine been imposed by West Indies in the 80's and 90's I wonder the batsmen will be fighting not to be partners with Curtly Ambrose and Partick Patterson.

Come Home Early

A Mail I received. Too good not to post.

Son: "Daddy, may I ask you a question"

Daddy: "Yeah sure, what it is?"

Son: "Dad, how much do you make an hour"

Daddy: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?"

Son: "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"

Daddy: "I make Rs 500 an hour"

"Oh", the little boy replied, with his head down.

Looking up, he said, "Dad, may I please borrow Rs. 300?"

The father was furious,"if the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or other nonsense, then march yourself to your room and go to bed. Think why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior"

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions.

How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think:

"May be there was something he really needed to buy with that Rs. 300 and he really didn't ask for money very often!"

The man went to the door of little boy's room and opened the door.

"Are you asleep, son?" He asked.

"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, may be I was too hard on you earlier", said the man, "It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the Rs.300 you asked for"

The little boy sat straight up, smiling "oh thank you dad!" He yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled some crippled up notes.

The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.

"Why do you want money if you already had some?" the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied.

"Daddy I have Rs. 500 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?

Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you"

MORAL OF THE STORY

It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life.
We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.
If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days.
But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.
And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family....