Sports Update: Cricket, NBA, Formula 1, Soccer

As Bill Lawry says, 'Its all happening out here!' Just look at what had happened this sporting weekend. A few ups and lots of downs!

Cricket:
The biggest upset has been with the Aussies been taken to the cleaners by our neighbours - the Bangladeshis!! The funniest part is that Ponting wanted to bat on a green top as if to suggest that he was creating a challenge to play Bangladesh (they are just not good enough). Ok, maybe they are not most of times (at least compared to the Aussies), but who in his right mind gives an inch...winning is a habit...losing is too (ask the Indian teams). So it wasn't a huge surprise that they lost their 4th straight match (the earlier two before the Bangla game being the 20/20 match against England and the game against Somerset)...and note that in all the last 3 matches the opposition has chased successfully the Aussie target! Pietersen is a monster of a hitter and he showed that yesterday...he dished out the same fare to men from Oz (who do it on a routine basis with Gilchrist/Hayden/Ponting/Symonds)...taste of the same medicine eh? Which leads me to think that the secret of success against the Aussies is to take the game to them (to the point of being arrogant) and f*** their happiness...remember Sachin in Sharjah? or Dravid/Laxman in Calcutta...they just lose the plot! And yes, they are all growin old...though they would take offence to this! So this hopefully builds up to an exciting Ashes series (a competitive one for a change)!

NBA (The Finals):
Robert Horry has done it again...stealing a one point win over the Pistons in Game 5 in OT. He's doing what Steve Kerr did with the Bulls in the 90s. Its the 3 pointers at the dying seconds which make it that more exciting! So with the series at 3-2 (Spurs) this one is going down to the wire!!!

Formula 1:
Or was it Formula None??? The whole race was just a sham!!! Think of the pairs of Ferraris/Jordans/Minardis racing and am sure you would have been jumping in your seats...ya sure!!! On one hand Bernie's planning to popularise the sport in the land of Nascar and Indy...and 14 cars don't race because of Michelin deciding that ts tyres would not be able to take the 13/14th corners...please tell me that building a chicane was not the only answer!!! People pay hundreds of dollars to watch the sport (forget how much the team spends on their equipment at each circuit) and TV revenues get generated by races like in Nurburging...not by people turning off the sets seeing only 6 cars. One friend text'ed me saying think about Karthikeyan's chances of finishing third. That really didn't stop me from turning off the TV..who wants to see him finish third out of Jordans and Minardis (with Ferrari taking up the first two)? Am sure he would get his chance sometime in the future hopefully. (He couldn't even keep up with Moneteiro!). All in all it was the most forgettable races of all times...hope lightening does not strike twice!!!

Soccer:
Greece were the Euro champions but frankly they never impressed me...they played like Jim Courier...pegging away...taking the pressure and scoring the crucial goal off a corner or a freekick. They just can't seem to win any more matches (neither here in the Confed Cup or in their World Cup qualifers) losing to Japan 1-0 last night. Their play doesn't inspire any confidence and their goalkeeper needs to figure out that he isn't at a volleyball championship (with him looking to come flying to punch balls and coming up second best most of the time)!
Next were Brazil who were upset 1-0 by Mexico. I didn't see the game so am not sure if the win was a fair result, but the previous games showed that the Brazilian spunk is missing..of making their opponents dance. And while Adriano and Robinho can have their days in the sun, Ronaldo is still the real deal...and Kaka improves with every game. Look out for Diego when he starts more games in the right wing.