I have been following all sorts of sports since as long as I can remember, sports involve victories and losses, there are two opponents and both want to win and no one wants to lose, but one must lose… over years we have seen teams being edged over, beaten or at times embarassed…
But the Champion teams are the ones who show their resolve after a setback… the way they will react after this loss will in a lot of ways tell us what the team is made up of…
This is Dhoni’s first Test Match loss as captain and people who understand the game will also understand that all good things come to a halt. The fact of the matter remains that Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman are the biggest pillars on which this Indian lineup has been standing. Yuvraj has still not filled Ganguly’s spot perfectly… and than suddenly when the two champions are out a team that has not played a test match for 10 years without one of those two does become vulnerable.
Losing the toss did not help as Kallis and Amla piled on the agony… Once they scored over 550 there was only one team that could lose and with India already having their batting order in shambles thanks to Laxman injury and add to that the Rohit slip up all was pinning on Gambhir, Sehwag, Sachin and Dhoni… to be fair Badrinath and Vijay both showed that they belong and perhaps with time they will perform… !
Steyn and Morkel bowled well wicket to wicket where as I always felt Zaheer and Ishant opted to go outside the off stump.. In India bowled and lbw are more dangerous than slip catches with mostly the ball not carrying… quite strange that Steyn and Morkel figured that out and not Zaheer and Ishant who play in India.. !!!!
However coming to spin, lets be frank… Harbhajan has not been at his best for quite a few years and with no Kumble India might actually do well to change tactics… If you have followed Indian cricket closely we are doing actually better on seaming tracks rather than on spinning tracks. Our strength actually lies in giving our seamers something rather than spinners.
In the first innings the ball was turning, Mishra beat Kallis and Amla many many times, but the consistency was severly lacking after beating them he would pull one ball short and they would punish him and hence Mishra couldnt create any pressure. Leg spin is a difficult art to perfect and it needs time to be nurtured. However the fact of the matter is time is running out for India as this is a two test series and we have to win in Eden.
I have no doubt in my mind that at Eden we will perform better, Nagpur was as low as it can get, its time for Dhoni and his man to do some soul searching and they need to rally and put up a much better show… How I wish Rahul would call Krishnamachari Srikanth and just tell him, “I will play at Calcutta.!!” India’s number 1 ranking is at stake and Rahul has put in a lot for us to reach there… suddenly you feel the loss of Kumble and Ganguly too dont you ???
India need some inspiration… where is it coming from ??? Perhaps winning the toss will help at Eden… Folks the sterner test is ahead… stand by your team… its not time to castigate them… its time to support them… !
I was tagged by this cool blogger… jiska asli swaroop maine abhi abhi dekha hai.. 
Well coming to the tag… the movie buff in me simply loved this idea… so here we go…
first the rules :
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1. On your blog, provide a link to this page. (http://greatbong.net/book). Embedding the above picture in your blog would be nice but not needed. http://greatbong.net/2010/01/31/may-i-hebb-your-attention-pliss-contest-1/
2. Then write down your top 10 Hindi movie lines or top 10 English movie lines (You can do both if you want. Only one set is required for the contest). If you cannot think of top 10, make it top 5. Cannot think of even 5? Make it top 3. No problem. Only restriction: no two lines from same movie. This done to make it fair for other movies so that they dont get swamped by Gunda or Loha or Sholay.
3. Tag five friends to do the same.
4. Come over to the comment-space of this post and post your blog’s link so I can go and read it.
Remember: Before starting the tag, paste points 1 and 4 on your blog so that the rules are available to anyone who wishes to pick the tag up from your blog.
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I havent read any other person’s tags apart from goofy, coz I didnt want to get other peoples favourite dialogues in my mind… lets see which ones are the most famous and for me the top lines…
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1.) Kitne Aadmi they … ??
This is an immortal line for most hindi film goers, Gabbar Singh asking Kaaliya. All Gabbar lines in this movie are cult, as a kid I remember vaguely, we had a cassette of Sholay in our house and I would keep listening to it again and again… ! Sholay released in 1975 and I was born in 77 !!! I have so many lines from this one movie alone that can be an entire post… but the rules say we shouldnt have more than one line from the same movie ! I infact can speak the whole movie … I must have seen it atleast 30 times plus !!!!!! 
but still some memorable lines I must remind readers :
a couple of cults from the same movie :
Yeh haath nahi faansi ka phanda hai…
Isme mere bechare dost, veeru ka kya dosh hai..
Aadhe idhar jao, aadhe udhar jao, aur baaki…. mere peeche aao !!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:
Itna sannata kyon hai bhai ?
bahoto ko to inhone do ghanto mein sikha diya hai…
Yeh haath humko dede thakur
Sholay was not a movie… it was an EPIC…. !
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2.) balki main to kehta hoon aap purush hi nahi… aap maha purush ho… !!!!!!
This mad comedy from Rajkumar Santoshi was a fabulous laughter riot… and this line by Aamir while praising people… always remains in my system… and I use it a lot too…. !!!!
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3.) She talks in her sleep…
The expression on Harrison Ford’s face after hearing this line spoken by Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is something I can never forget… !!!! The utter dismay at knowing that his dad too had slept with that woman…
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4.) are you talking to me… are you f**king talking to me…
Another legendary dialogue by my favourite Robert De Niro Taxi Driver…. how many people have you seen imitating this dialogue ?? huh ? Tell me honestly how many have said this to themselves in the mirror ?? seriously !!!!!
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5.) Aaye to kehdena k Chenu aaya tha… agli baar mere kisi ladke ko haath lagaya to pure ka pura mohalla uda ke rakh doonga…
I dont like Shatrughna Sinha but this line spoken by him in one of my favourite movies Mere apne while rubbing his neck… sooooper !!! Ise kehte hai Dada giri…
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6.) Yeh angrezi bhi ajeeb bhasha hai… T.O to, D.O. do, to phir G.O go kaise gu hona chahiye na…
Dharmendra as driver Pyare Mohan in Chupke Chupke asking OmPrakash the weirdness of english pronounciations… this utterly hillarious question… !!!! 
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7.) Arre kya khakh team ko sambhal liya… popat to sambhal nahi paaya… !!!!
The parsi candidness displayed most naturally by Ashok Kumar when his son returns home injured from a cricket match after winning the match and being hurt at the unmentionables in Khatta Meetha… !!!!!
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8.) Babu Moshai…
This is not a line… its just a name… Rajesh Khanna calling Amitabh… but how much emotion does it arouse… this last scene from Anand which I have seen numerous times still has me tears everytime…
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Okies I’ll stop at 8… Cant really think of anything more instinctively… !!!! had Mogambo Khush hua in my mind… but Goofy did it so I left it out… !!!!!
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Hope you guys liked it… Now normally I dont tag people .. but I will tag atleast two movie buffs I know… apparently both are suffering from bloggers block… and I sure hope they will take it up…
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Rakesh (dude its about movies and you havent blogged in ages now..)
Shilpa ( now no need to hide, come on… )
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All those who like this tag are welcome to take it up !!!!! 
I simply loved doing this… !!!!!!!
When I see the news or read the papers I am amazed to see how much little coverage is India/South Africa Test Series is getting. Difficult to say why is this happening in a cricket crazy country… maybe its T-20 or maybe its SRK vs Sena… I cant guess…
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But what I can tell you is come Saturday in Nagpur, not one quarter will be yielded by either team, this is going to be one hell of a battle. The Proteas are an invigorated bunch and expect them to come hard at all Indian players. The good thing about this Indian team is it does not get intimidated, infact when ever needled, it rises and plays much much better. Infact I at times hope the opposition players would abuse and sledge our players all the times coz somehow when our players play with full intensity no team is able to match us… the problem is we do not get that intensity all the time unless when provoked, India and Indians by nature I guess are laid back people. At times team India has this bad habit of making contests exciting, when we play against Australia we have close encounters and sometimes shockingly enough when we play Bangladesh we tend to lower our level of play and make that match close and exciting too…
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The Aussie ruthlessness and ability to maintain the same standard is still to be mastered by Dhoni and his men… The Australians have proved that no matter how close the contest against the West Indians and Pakistan in the Tests at the end what matters is who won.. and they won just about everything.. !
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An opportunity of a life time it is for Badrinath, he has done whatever a domestic cricketer in India should do and that is score runs all the times against all the opposition. It is a just reward for this really talented and hardworking cricketer and I hope Dhoni plays him for both the Test Matches.
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Murali Vijay could be Dravid’s replacement as he is an opener and again while Sehwag and Gambhir are going the way they are its an opportunity Vijay should take with both hands because sooner than later the middle order is going to be vacant.
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Now with Laxman also under the injury cloud we might have Rohit Sharma batting in the Test XI and I love this batsman and he is probably the most talented batsman in India at the moment, but he needs to be shaken up, he gives it up too easy and is very laid back. I hope being out of the team and scoring his maiden triple in Ranji trophy would have taught him a thing or two and he will not take anything for granted and perform and ensure he doesn’t go out of the team.
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A lot though for India will depend on the openers, amazingly India’s fortunes in Test cricket have turned since Sehwag has been opening, the rate at which he scores, the fear he puts in the opposition bowlers, the fielders he scatters… goes a looong long way in helping team India’s chances and as always he must in this series too LIVE BY THE SWORD OR DIE BY IT… ! Though going by his consistency in Test Matches it is very difficult to imagine that he will let 4 innings go by without something special. He has an amazing sense of occasion and I expect some fireworks from him.
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South Africa’s main worry would be their middle order’s form, Duminy and De-Villiers have been lacking runs but they are two genuinely talented blokes and you can expect them to come good. Plus Kallis is playing like a dream these days. If Smith gets over Zaheer’s first burst the batting line up would suddenly seem very very long.
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Before the series I used to think even if the South African batting sorts itself out I still doubt if they can consistently get 20 Indian wickets, remember Dhoni comes in at no. 7 and the ball wont swing or seam as much nor will it bounce as much and I don’t think Paul Harris or Johan Botha can run through our batting. I would really like to see how Morket and Steyn go when the heat goes up… Parnell though I think might be the surprise packet and India would do well to watch out for him. But now with the Laxman, Yuvraj and most importantly Dravid out it will be an even battle.
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Dhoni’s biggest worry will be the spin department with Harbhajan not looking too inspirational and a toss up between Ojha and Mishra. Although Ojha merits a place in the team by performance, Dhoni would do well to pick Mishra as South Africans have had a long history of problems playing wrist spin. Mishra can leak runs but might pick wickets. Ojha will give Dhoni more control as he bowls much tigher.
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In many ways picking Ojha or Mishra will tell you a lot about Dhoni’s approach… whether he is going to be conservative or be prepared to gamble…
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I cant wait for the first ball to be bowled tomorrow… Bring it on I say the World Championship of Cricket at Neo Sports calls it !!!!!!!!!
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I’ll sign off with this small article I read in cricinfo today about who will conquer my most favourite Indian batsman, this if anything should tell you how important and precious is VIRENDER SEHWAG :
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