Day 15 - Varuna Defeats Undefeated

3 out of 4 games this week have been washed out.
Reminds me of the Tamil movie Eeram (moisture) in which every frame will have something wet/moist/watery in it! This #CWC19 seems to have taken after that movie!

India did not have to stretch and see how they will perform without Shikhar. New Zealand will be thinking that they probably missed a chance to put one up on India. Something tells me that they will meet in the semis. Let's see!


Quiz Section

The imperfect diamond (Heera Hera) is Zeus' sister. Like Adarsh pointed out Hera is a flawed character/personality apparently. Greek Mythology is full of such personas anyway!

Anyway, while men were fighting naked to win the crown of olive wreath in the ancient Olympic games, the women were not far behind. They had their own games. Dressed in half-tunic, they did pretty much the same as men - albeit for shorter distances and the games were called Heraean Games held once in 4 years in honour of Hera.

They ran around the stadium for varied number of times - Diaulos, Hippios, Dolichos. Google further.

AngelAsh came back quite early and gets 3 points.
Manikandan Ponnusamy came back after a few attempts and decided to accept only 2 points :)
Adarsh and ArunJayaraman used yesterday's clue to get the right answer & 1 point.

Good job, folks!

Now for Question #9.

Watch the video and answer the question that appears in the end. [2 points]

Guess Section

I am thinking of banning the 'No Result' guess... #JustJoking
Latest status here...

Enjoy and keep smiling!!

Day 14 - Dr Paki and Mr Stan

Some days ago, I reminded one and all of the age-old adage, 'You never know which Pakistan will turn up on a given day!'

Now, I have to change that. 'You never know which Pakistan will turn up on a given hour!'

You win the toss. Elect to bowl. Under cloudy skies, pardonable.
Then you bowl short and wide, no-balls, gimme-balls, catch flies instead of balls, misfields as if the white cherry is a grenade, lose a review even as my 77-year-old father-in-law is screaming 'GOING OVER!'... In short, you think that Mr Stan has arrived.

Then suddenly as if by magic, Dr Paki arrives. In 24 fabulous overs, dismantle Australia for a seriously sub-par finish to end up with a gettable score.

On top of it, Dr Paki goes up to 136-2 in 25 overs only to yield to Mr Stan by self-destructing to 130-8 in 20.4 overs!!!

#aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh 

Guess Section

After the two-day detox, the addiction is back. Let us see how England faces Windies tomorrow.

Quiz Section

I will leave the question #7 open for one more day with the following additional clue.

For one point...

• During which occasion did women run in half-tunic for such long distances in honour of Zeus' sister?

Enjoy.

Day 12 & 13 - Do you know...

Do you know the difference between Abandoned & No Result?

Let me tell you. Abandoned is when the players don't even get to enter the field of play even for the toss. No Result is when they have the toss done and some play may or may not have taken place & the gets called off since the minimum number of overs per innings is not done. #Result101

Hopefully tomorrow's game between Australia and Pakistan is played at least! Of course, the two-day detox helped!

And at some stage, there was a record that whenever Yuvi scored a half-century, India would win the game. Probably the record still stands... But who cares. 

Dear Yuvi, Thanks for all the fun! You showed grit when it mattered & that is all that matters.#6x6

Guess Section

I liked the way that people have become more weather-conscious than ever before! Resulting in more 'No Result' guesses than ever before.

Please note that I have not differentiated between Abandoned and No Result in the guesses.
Also, note that when a game is 'No Result', then all the other choices also become NA irrespective of what you have input. #FinalDecision :)

Quiz Section

Answer to Question #6

Well, indeed the grain was a tough one for people.

When I was reading about Herbert Hoover (& when he was helped by Ignace Paderewski in late-19th century at Stanford University), I found out that he was part of Religious Society of Friends - Members of this Christian group are all generally united in a belief of God in every one. #AhamBrahmasmi

Their symbol is the red and black star that you saw in the previous question.
Of course, #Nesamani was made immortal through the Tamil movie 'Friends'.

Yet the grain?

Well, the Religious Society of Friends are also called as Quakers & now I can hear you swear...no, bad words!

So, the grain that we were talking about is OATS.

Manikandan got the answer correct first & after the clue was given, Sivamani cracked it.
3 and 1.5 point each. Good show.

Now for Question #7

• Which Games of Imperfect Diamond are we talking about through the picture below? [3 points] 

Of course, I wish nothing but fun for all of you!
Enjoy the game tomorrow!

Day 11 - 350 is NOT enough!

At the beginning of the game yesterday, I was commenting, flippantly of course, that there were a total of 15 Australia supporters in the ground and that 11 of them were on the field. Then Michael Vaughan tweeted the exact number: 33 (including the support staff)!! :)))

#PowerOf1point3Billion (And just so she is not lost in the blue ocean, Mrs Dhoni was in a bright red outfit! #StandoutSakshi)

After 352, it was going to be a tough ask anyway.
Of course, what I really liked in yesterday's game was the electric guitar created out of a Gray-Nicolls bat. 💙💜❤️💛

Guess Section

Since India was playing the Guess section had a good attendance. Tukka cleaned it up. Good luck folks!

Quiz Section

Looks like the grain got quite a few groping in the dark. So, I shall keep it open for one more day.

Here is a clue to solve the question for 1.5 points.

With a Red and Black Star peering in a friendly manner, why would there be an earthquake in your mind?

Have a great week ahead!

Day 10 - Clinical Reals!

Regular service resumed for England after that hiccup against Pakistan. My only grouse against Bangladesh was that they could have scored 300+ (either batting first after toss-win or by supporting Shakib), just to reiterate the point that the English bowling (despite Archer) is about as not exciting as as a second run of Petta (which I was subjected to yesterday!) 😥😥 - Fret not, the picture above is a click-bait & nothing more! #TragedyOfLife

New Zealand is providing the early pace in this race and they are doing it quite good too!

Injury front: Hope Rashid Khan recovers fast and Buttler recovers slowly 😆😉

Quiz Section

Yesterday's #groundreality seemed to stumped many.

The analogies are from cities and their respective cricket grounds in England - World Cup related of course!

• If S=RB, N=TB, M=OT then what does L=?? #groundreality

Answer:

Southampton = Rose BowlNottingham = Trent BridgeManchester = Old TraffordLondon = Kennington Oval (Not Leeds due to the two ??; If someone had said The Lord's, I would have considered, though the article is not that interesting ;))

ArunJayaraman, Manikandan Ponnusamy & Guru got the right answer. Good show.

Here is the position of the Quiz Table after five questions:

And here is the next question - Question #6:

• Which grain? #nesamani [3 points]

Guess Section

After the 'No Result' yesterday, a couple of market-followers tried that for AFG v NZL. But little did they realize that Taunton has better drainage facility than Tondiarpet in Chennai 😁😁

Now for the standings...

While 1.339 Billion might be bleeding blue today, don't forget to have fun and to keep smiling!

Day 9 - BrisDriz Takes A Toll!

Momentum is key in life.
Especially sports. Pakistan must have been out to build on that important win against England with a win over Sri Lanka. Alas! Sri Lanka and a particular punter in our group must have felt happy with the overall result. Thus the Vadivelu meme! 😁😁

Guess Section

While a 'No Result' guess almost got SivaMoney the full booty in the AFGvSL game, this time around Guru got to clean it all up with the same guess. #WeathermanZindabad

So much for cricketing acumen 😃😃😃

Quiz Section

Question No. 4 would be a bit tough, I thought. Did not realize that people loved cars so much & as Sridhar Narasimhan put it, with the help of Pichai's pichai, it seemed to have been an easy one.

The first logo is the Chinese marque Roewe (means 'glorious power' in Chinese) & was named after Loewe (the second logo - meaning Lion in German). The difference between the two being:

ROEWE - LOEWE = Six in Chinese - liu (well, technically it should have been 60000 👀👀👀

Since six people got the complete right answer - AngelAsh, Raghavan Mohan, Manikandan Ponnusamy, Sridhar Narasimhan, Adarsh, Ramkumar Badala - decided to give a new question today. 3 points each.

ArunJayaraman gets one point for getting Roewe alone right.

Now for Quiz Question #5: [Inspired by GCHQ] 
For 2 points...

• If S=RB, N=TB, M=OT then what does L=?? #groundreality

Have fun & Keep Smiling. 

Day 8 - Short, Wide and Impatient!

(Click the picture for a beautiful video!)

Don't you all love the #SheldonSalute?? 💛💗💙❤️💚

There are shorts.

There are mini-shorts.

There are micro-shorts.

And then...

There are Windies shorts.

Their bowling was short. (So short, that the bowlers were practically pitching the ball on their own toes!!)

Their batting was short. (So short, that even the normally impatient wife was pleading them to be patient!)

Then all those wides!! #Prodigal

They will ruefully look back at this day later in the tournament on what should have been a cake walk.

Aussies were typical. Never gave up. Admirable!

Guess Section

Life is a circle. Arunsankar would vouch for it. From being the last, he has jumped into black with a nice sweep; so did Achanta! So, keep plugging at it folks!

Quiz Section

Here is Question #4...

• Explain the equation below for 3 points.

Enjoy and Have Fun!!

Day 7 - Tale of Two Rusty Wins!

At various times yesterday, while flipping the channels, one was feeling like watching the above car bumbling along the pot-holes of Chennai roads. All four teams were making one's bones creak & sometimes, where the contractors were kind enough, the ride was smooth too!!

After the self-imposed vanvaas India came out and slayed some demons, the pitch, rustiness, a juicy Southampton pitch, an impressive Rabada-Morris combo... 

#RoHitMan capitalized on the goof-ups (How many more mis-fields and dropped catches are we going to see from South Africa!?) 

#KulCha is well-cooked on one side and so-so on the other side. Better than under-cooked!

At the Oval, the Kiwis did a sluggish clinical (that has a different meaning, Ross Taylor!) job of shutting out the Tigers with their own share of hiccups. With their interesting pace lineup and brave batting, they do look threatening in this tournament. But spin doesn't mean close-eyes-and-swing!!

Guess Section

Some really good clean-sweeps today. Hardy won the India game single-handedly while Adarsh and Pavan shared the spoils for the Kiwi win.

Quiz Section

Answer to Question #3

Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia is the person. The first woman to have received a PhD in Philosophy from University of Padua. Yesterday was her 373rd birthday. As I wanted to google for something, her face popped up on the Google Doodle. Hence the question.

Adarsh, AngelAsh, Manikandan Ponnusamy, Hardy Jadeja and K Sivamani  managed to crack the question. Good show, folks!!

Next quiz question tomorrow.

Enjoy and have fun!

Day 6 - Great Lankan Escape!

Before the tournament started, they said that Afghanistan probably has the best spin attack of all the ten teams. Quite true. But for a bit of a captaincy #brainfade of not bringing Rashid Khan earlier, Afghanistan would have chased a much smaller total as Sri Lanka proved that they can be as bad if not worse than a Div 3 team in the great Singapore Cricket league!

Thanks to some similar Div 3 batting by Afghanistan, SL escaped the ignominy.

Now onto the big one stepping in.
After the Supreme-Court-of-India-induced forced rest of 15 days, India plays for the first time in #CWC19. SA with two losses so far and about 793 injuries in the team, will be keen to push back hard. That will be the danger for the men-in-blue (or is it Orange!?)

Guess Section

For a brief while out there, SivaMoney had another cleanup due to his weather-reading abilities. But then, he probably did not bet on the excellent drainage facilities in Cardiff!

Now on to the two big ones today:

India vs South Africa

Bangladesh vs New Zealand

Google Form sent already. Use the second one!

Quiz Section

I like hashtags.
Today's question is purely based on hashtags. Easy one. 2 points.

#padua #tantiauguri373 #phd1

• Find the person

Some of you had complained that the emails did not reach you. Please check the /Spam folder and 'UnSpam' the emails from me (though you might consider that the email providers are filtering them correctly!!)

Have fun!

Day 5: Pakistani YoYo continues!

Two things were quite interesting in today's game.

England's innings.
Over 43.4 Moeen Ali bunts a delivery over mid-off. Wahab Riaz chases the ball to the boundary and saves one.

I clapped involuntarily.

Over 47.1 Asif Ali drops Woakes.

I swore involuntarily.

Over the years, somewhere along the line, the wounds of Miandad's last-ball-six seem to have vanished :))

Of course, today's victory over England has officially made the #CWC19 'open'!!


Guess Section

Guru and Chets decided to bet on Pakistan and bet right through and through to harvest the dough! Well done!!

Quiz Section

The iceberg question (Question #2) really floored the people I think.

Let me try to explain. Whether to send the troops to take me out is up to you! :)))

The tip of the iceberg that is visible and above the water is our Conscious Mind.
The one that is submerged is our pre- & un-Conscious - which are broadly split into Ego, Super-Ego and ID 

ID is the shaded portion of the picture. Naturally, I decided to shape the ID portion to my liking and soon found that it could take the shape of the Gem State - Idaho (ID).

But then we could not stop there, can we? There is this new-age Idly-Dosa joint in Chennai and other places which seem to be converting idly-dosa eating a hep thingy! They call themselves iD (no prizes for guessing what i and D stand for!). They are headquartered in Mahadevpura in Bengaluru and thus the connections.

Naturally, a few people got ID; missed out on Idaho & only a couple went to eat I & D.

AngelAsh & Manikandan Ponnusamy get 3 points.
ArunJayaraman & Sivamani K get 2 points

I liked Sivamani's doodle on how he arrived at the answer. Super! Here it is...

Next question after AFG vs SL game.

Enjoy and have fun!!

Day 4 - There are no Tigers in SA!

You all know that there are no tigers in Africa. 

Not the captive ones that is.

Then I found the above picture. Captures the mood of the game so very well!

Poor South Africa, they are paying the price for some bad selections, worse fielding, worst batting! Where is ABD and Jonty when you need them?

Agreed, it is still a Looooooooog way to go. Yet...

Guess Section

While the match was eventually easy-peasy for Bangladesh, the three people who fought for the winnings of our Guess section must have been on tenterhooks! Finally Sivamani (who the wifey calls as SivaMoney!) cleaned it up all again!! Impressive!!

Quiz Section

The #iceberg question seems to have affected people mentally. They are still struggling to get to the bottom of their minds to find the answer. After all it is neither as easy as eating Idly and Dosa nor as hard as the state of a Gem, right? 

Enough clues above.

Question remains open for one more day.

I have increased the points to 3.

Enjoy!!

Day 3 - Asian Woes & Neighbours Pride!!

Don't worry Pakistan! You Never Walk Alone!! Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will accompany you in being woeful!

Yes, the Asian teams continue to be woeful.

And on show, Afghanistan seems to be the best of the lot! Not surprising though!

Let us see what Bangladesh does today against the hurt South Africans!

Could not watch any of the games yesterday. Not that I missed much except the Smith acrobatics.

Both Warner and Smith seem to have not missed anything at all during their absence.

Absolutely un-sandpaperish! 

So smooth! 

Trouble for others!

Guess Section:

The games were so one-sided, people went to sleep quite early - just so they could catch Liverpool victory over the Coys at UEFA Final!!

FYI: Points are calculated as follows. If you guess the correct answer for...

Winner: 2 points
Margin: 4 points
Maximum wickets: 2 points
Total sixes: 2 points

Also, as requested by Yuva, have sorted the Summary table according to the winnings. Hope it helps.

Quiz Section:

Here is Question No. 2

• What is the connection between US, Mahadevpura and the picture below? #iceberg [2 points]

Answers through usual channels.

Have Fun!