Semi-Final 1 - India Needed Another Gujju!

In a parallel universe, right now Kohli and his men are making merry after winning the first semi-final.

But in this universe where we are living and dying, the only thing that the #MenInBlue are able to enjoy today would have been some ‘bits and pieces’ of Jaddu magic. But then, we needed at least one more Gujju, preferably ‘the’ Gujju!

The intent was there.

The classic-Dhoni take-it-as-deep-as-Mariana-Trench was there (only that this time – as in a few times over the last couple of years, the oxygen cylinders were a bit faulty!)

But, what can you do, if your top-three score a big Naamam (Nelson in Tamil!) and are back in the hut even before you can say ‘Kiwis are underdogs!’

Quick post-mortem of the Indian performance. Suffice it to say, they played well given that their batting was always shaky except for Rohit and Kohli. Go look for some good solid batsmen, BCCI!

Also, as the wife said sometime back, there was too much of negative energy around the team 😊

• Rayudu-Vijayshankar
• Pant-Dhoni
• Dhoni-Everyone
• Jadhav-DK
• Rohit-Kohli (don’t be fooled by the ‘he is the best ODI player’ baloney! Did you notice that Rohit was the only one who wasn’t listening to Kohli during the team huddle today just before the resumption!? #Conspiracy)

Clean them up, the team is on the right path.

Oh, by the way, bring the IPL-like, Qualifier, Eliminator concept. Makes it more consistent & kinda eliminates the freak results 😊

Onward to 2023!

Meanwhile, my bet is on a new team to win the World Cup; heart says Kiwi – mind says England. Game on!

Talking of bets…

Guess Section

Arunsankar cleaned up the pool with a precise guess – though he had a few other hedges. But at least this brings him into black.

Let us see what happens in the ENG vs AUS game.

Quiz Section

Only Sivamani got the right answer & 3 points. It is an anagram of the Nato Phonetic Alphabet of the four pictures there… Foxtrot (dance), Oscar, Lima (that beautiful Peruvian city), Whiskey (sure you all got tipsy!) – FOLW on anagramming gives WOLF (hence the #Wallstreet reference!)

The last quiz question will be released tomorrow after the Semi-final.

Have fun!