Stand up and take a bow, Warnie.

Yu Bewdy Yu.

-Rigged

Apologies for the delay in the appearance of this post. It was originally typed out, in one sitting the day us Injuns pulled off one for the record books by beating the Boks in their own den.

Apparently Wordpress (the chaps wot own the thing that we use when we watchmacallit) had something in for me, for no sooner than I had written my best post ever, it did one of those Error 404 thingumajigs on me and it was lost forever. What do you think? Will I be able to be a successful technical writer?

Now, getting back to the point, the first test was such a blast. No one could have scripted it better.

I have a sneaky suspicion Comeback Man # 1, Maharaj read my ‘Gang-Bang’ post (courtesy Ugly) and responded in the best way that he could - by sticking it out there and scoring an unbeaten half-hundred in his comeback innings. It was thrilling and even I, who likes him as much as I like music by Boyzone, had to doff my hat to him. It was good to see him stand tall, chin out and take it like a Dravid.

What also fascinated me was the innings played by young VRV, who graduated, top of the class from the Courtney Walsh School of Batting. He backed away like a matador dodging a fiesty bull every ball he faced and sent the ball into all kinds of orbit. No sooner had he done his bit that young Comebackman # 2 Zak (so christened by our Zip Code Opener, Veeru) came in and sent Graeme back to the Smithsonian - thus setting the tone for his young Mallu mate, who will be covered in this blog later.

Having sent the Boks packing for less that a hundred and playing out another familiar Indian collapse at the top, it was left to Comebackman # 3, Very Very Special to come up with yet another very very special. He cut, he flicked, he drove and he edged past slip with the same serenity as a Jack Johnson tune, to get himself a well deserved 70 plus.

All this and then my most special moment of the match - the dancing Baby Sreesanth, who having received a mouthful from Nel-anna, not only tonked him over his head for six but also ran down the pitch, brandishing his bat like a Quixotic windmill and giving Nel-anna the best ‘WhoozYerDaddy’ dance I have ever seen.

If you missed it, here it is : Sree-Shake on YouTube

WhooooHooo, a star is born and I see Pepsi, Coke and Mountain Dew lining up to make him India’s next TV Commercial star.

The Boks, now mentally scarred after watching Sree shake his thang, struggled, hung in there for a bit and eventually caved in, setting up one of India’s finest wins abroad. Post all this hungama, my next best moment of the match - Sourav-da, coming on as a change bowler, trundling in with all the zest of a Mohinder Amarnath and delivering a nasty snorter that exploded on Kallis - I have no idea who was more surprised, him or Kallis.

What a game. Lets see what the rest of this series throws up.

-Rigged

Yes sir, Mort, so what were we saying about Nel anna? Were we saying that he’ll trip over the length of his new-found ego and be stepped all over by the Mallu kid? And what a kid he is mon - has got the fight, the hunger and the gumption that reminds one of .. let’s see..umm, a Ganguly? Well, the gumption that is, the dancing reminds one of Mamooty.

Now what does one say about Dada mon. Let’s just reiterate - the guy may be no Bradman but he certainly has what it takes.

Allow me to return to the sights and sounds of what is possibly the most entertaining day of the series. But before I sign off, here’s my next prediction in keeping with my now-established tradition of being right - Dravid’s looking jittery mon, he ought to be careful, wot? More careful than lesser mortals too - the only comeback he is capable of is to come back home to Indiranagar. And they dont have no Karoake bar in that part of town so he could croon away his sorrows.

- Ugly

So he turned away and held his breath for as long as he could. And that wasn’t very long. It’s never easy to hold your breath and count the seconds at the same time. He began counting the seconds instead, and tried to breathe easy. But it’s never easy to breathe easy when you are trying to hold your eyes tight shut.

Count backwards. That works sometimes. It distracts you from how hard you have to try. But it’s hard to be distracted when you’re not letting yourself blink. It’s not easy being accustomed to doing one thing at a time. Especially if you become accustomed to doing it well. For starters, you can’t look for something while you’re being anxious about not finding it. And you cannot really be anxious either. Not very well, anyway.

So he began to not look for it. And he began to think he was going to come through, for once. It was after all, the only thing he was trying to accomplish. For a second, he thought he didn’t see anything. But a passing headlamp drenched it in godforsaken light and he caught sight of it. Just as darkness regained its composure, in comical slow motion. Damn French window. Why could he not have been staring at a wall instead? Now he’ll never know if it really wasn’t there. Now he can’t be sure that he was making the whole thing up.

-Ugly

The Maharaj is BACK!

The Indian selectors have done it again. While the entire cricketing world is taking steps forward in getting ready for the World Cup, we’ve recalled Sourav Ganguly. For a Test series against the South Africans IN South Africa. Now don’t get me wrong. Ganguly IS a special player with special talents. I mean, on his last visit to the said continent, he took more than six hours to score a test hundred versus the Zimbabwe Third XI. I don’t know how many players in world cricket can boast of a record like that!

Anyhoo, I’m not looking too forward to the first test. I just saw our lads get Chitty Chitty Gang Banged by the Boks and it was not a pleasant sight. I also saw Nel-anna saunter down the wicket and have a chat with some of the Indian batsmen. I can imagine what he’s going to try with Sourav.

What’s it going to be? Will Nel&Co cut through our boys like a South African bowling attack going through an Indian batting line-up? Will Sourav-da prove everyone (including himself) wrong by scripting a heroes innings? Will the ball pay frequent visits to his ribcage? All this and more on the Great Indian (S)Laughter Challenge, Jo-berg - Dec 15th to 19th.

Personally, I think he’s going to get some sweet chin music!

-Rigged