Down in the dumps

Happy new year to you all.

Our new year celebration plan was quite simple, made extraordinary by the rowdy crowd on Sydney streets. We celebrated with Irish (Ganji/Lal talked to a few of them for many minutes and could not understand a single word - To quote Snatch, bloody pikeys), with Indians (They were doing bhangara on the street and were in serious risk of getting beaten up; so we refused to associate ourselves with them)and of course Aussies (Cheers, Mate). We witnessed the "best fireworks since the millenium" but found it quite ordinary and ended the night wishing for a grand new year for Indian cricket team and development of alternate sources of energy (Dont ask!)

The following day was spent roaming around Sydney. We took a monorail and landed up at the Opera House. Like most great architecture, it looks better in person than in photographs. The walk around was positively energizing and I was silently wishing for the sunset to never happen. It, however, did and we moved to Opera bar which offers a great view of the bridge as well as the Opera house. We mocked around there for a while before having a delicious Korean meal. The night consisted of light poker and I lost for the first time (Did I mention first time?).

Sydney cricket ground is a lot smaller and more uptight than MCG (Surprisingly considering the crowd behavior during new year's). One has to sit in alloted seats and there are hardly any "You are a wanker" or "Show us your handcuffs" taunts. The day for Indian cricket, however, could not be any worse. Having taken six wickets for less than 120, we allowed the hometeam to come back from behind and spit in our faces. Andrew Symonds batted beautifully, although he was probably out caught behind off Ishant Sharma in his twenties but Mr. bucknor was as biased as ever. In any case, truth be told, Indian deserved this. The Indian team was a replica of the "Chak-De" hockey team in the first half. There was Yuvraj Singh not joining in team huddles and celebrations and there was Bhajji stomping in disgust at an otherwise decent fielding from Dada. Misfielding galore; catches dropped; overthrows conceded. All-in-all, it was a miracle we even got the early breaks (More out of bad shot selection than anything).

Can Indians beat Australia? Surely, on an off day, that is. They might even win a series due to individual talent aided by a lucky streak. But they are definitely not a team that deserves to beat the world champions. That would not prevent me from hoping that they do, though.