cricket at its best

Now I should be thankful to my company's HR team for declaring Makar Sankranthi as Holiday in a short notice. I had cursed them in my mind for swapping a long weekend for a dull day in mid-week. I had cursed them in my mind since I thought I will sit idle on a day where I don't celebrate anything. But it was not meant to be that. Today I am thankful to them because

• For the first time in my life watched a Domestic Cricket Championship match for the entire day.
• I watched a sublime innings from a young lad which almost took his team on the verge of championship.
• I watched the old 'Adelaide' war horse swing his deliveries like banana's.
• I watched a proper cricket match after a long time in the subcontinent
• Last but not the least I saw people thronging into Gangotri Glades Cricket Stadium, Mysore, cheering the home team and standing up appreciating the visiting team's success. They were silent when the wickets went down. They were shattered when the old war horse pounced a return catch from the last batsman. But after that they stood up and applauded the victorious team.

Cricket lovers. If you haven't seen yesterday's Ranji Trophy final between Mumbai and Karnataka then you have missed something great. Mumbai might have taken the Ranji for 39th time, but it didn't come easy. It was not gifted to them, instead they earned it by playing some good cricket against a good team. Manish Pandey was superb and he had all the time in the world to play his shots. Agarkar and Dhawal Kulkarni bowled with vigor. Sathish and Mithun fought it out. And one cannot forget the contibutions of Abhishek Nayar and Vinayak Samant.

It was good cricket all around.

And here is an interesting article from Ramachandra Guha in Cricinfo about the selection decisions.