Orange Movie is Bhaskar's third film after Bommarillu and Parugu. I am not sure why many people didn't like the movie but it was a different movie and interesting.May be because I didn't spend too much money and time at once for the money, I was ok with the movie. I am not a die hard Ram Charan or Mega Star fan just wanted to clear that fact. The concept was alright but I would have changed a few things for a repeat view.
The things that I would have changed
1) Heroines - Genelia's character is dumber than ever and a fresh face would have been a better choice than Genelia. Genelia already played a similar character in Bommarillu, audience didn't see anything fresh in her characterization. The other heroine is Shazahn Padamsee, Bollywood import who acted in 'Rocket Singh - The Salesman of the year' along side Ranbir Kapoor. She was alright but a fresh face or at least some one who had a similar look of Samantha Ruth Prabhu would have been OK for the role.
2) Choreography - The songs by Harris are good to hear but with Ram Charan in the movie and the image of Magadheera, the audience might have expected really good dance moves but it was a big disappointment watching the songs. I liked hearing to them than actually watching them on the screen.
3) Crisp Editing - There are a few scenes in the movie which should have been edited to make the movie look logical and not painful or illogical.The way the movie has started and ended also didn't look that good. Prakash Raj didn't add any value to the movie.
4) Title - I do not see any justification for the title to be Orange. There is nothing in the movie to make sure the title makes any kind of sense. They could have used Allu Arjun and called the movie as 'Aarya 3' which would have been an apt title for the story & screenplay. People would have been ok with the title and the expectations would have met because they would expect something different in Aarya movies anyways. Orange shocked the audience because of the story telling and being a different love story which they were not ready to embrace from Ram Charan I guess.
Cheers
Vishal
Friday, December 31, 2010
OBIEE Download Data more than 65k and to view all the records at once.
I have raised an Oracle Service Request for one of the user's request to download data more than 65,000 rows. They haven't provided me with solution but discouraged from downloading data more than 65,000 rows. But after looking around online, I have tried this link and it worked.
http://obiee101.blogspot.com/2010/01/obiee-resultrowlimit.html
The default max result rows is 65,000 by adding a value more than the default value would help us download data more than 65k rows but what would be the correct value and what is the purpose of OBIEE needs to be better answered before we make that change.
I have made this change on my local instanceconfig.xml for users who require data for analysis because if we make this change on the server and if there are numerous users downloading data at will, the overall performance would have severe implications.
200000
There has been one more strange requirement by the users to view all the rows at once in table view. In Table view we have a radio button to display all the rows at once but we encountered performance issues and the reasons could be many.
1) The number of fields on the face of the report.
2) The aggregated measures used.
3) The resultant rows.
4) The CPU Usage and memory issues ( IE when downloading would use 70% of the CPU Memory)
Service Request was raised and The Oracle response was OBIEE Reporting tool is for analytical reporting and What is the business requirement to see all the records?
OBIEE is not for general purpose reporting. Though the option is there for all records. It is always recommended to develop reports using various other features (Hierarchy, parent/child reports, drill down, Navigate, filters, etc...)
Depending on the data, performance issues are expected.
If anybody has ways to improve performance or faced similar issue before and were able to resolve could respond to this post.
Cheers
Vishal
http://obiee101.blogspot.com/2010/01/obiee-resultrowlimit.html
The default max result rows is 65,000 by adding a value more than the default value would help us download data more than 65k rows but what would be the correct value and what is the purpose of OBIEE needs to be better answered before we make that change.
I have made this change on my local instanceconfig.xml for users who require data for analysis because if we make this change on the server and if there are numerous users downloading data at will, the overall performance would have severe implications.
There has been one more strange requirement by the users to view all the rows at once in table view. In Table view we have a radio button to display all the rows at once but we encountered performance issues and the reasons could be many.
1) The number of fields on the face of the report.
2) The aggregated measures used.
3) The resultant rows.
4) The CPU Usage and memory issues ( IE when downloading would use 70% of the CPU Memory)
Service Request was raised and The Oracle response was OBIEE Reporting tool is for analytical reporting and What is the business requirement to see all the records?
OBIEE is not for general purpose reporting. Though the option is there for all records. It is always recommended to develop reports using various other features (Hierarchy, parent/child reports, drill down, Navigate, filters, etc...)
Depending on the data, performance issues are expected.
If anybody has ways to improve performance or faced similar issue before and were able to resolve could respond to this post.
Cheers
Vishal
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
NBA Conference Finals
West Finals - Suns vs Lakers
East Finals - Celtics vs Magic
19th May gonna end in 25 minutes. Time's flying and I am aging.
Cheers
Vishal
East Finals - Celtics vs Magic
19th May gonna end in 25 minutes. Time's flying and I am aging.
Cheers
Vishal
Thursday, May 13, 2010
World Champion - Viswanathan Anand
Cricket is a religion in India and people follow the game more than anything else. People follow despite the team's inconsistency @ various events and that's the reason the sport has generated lot of commerce. If India had good players in Hockey, Tennis, Soccer, Basket Ball, Rugby or any other game, the viewership & attention drawn by cricket would have reduced but unfortunately the truth is that India only play cricket. We had Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupati & Sania Mirza gain popularity and win some Grand slam tournaments. Gopi Chand in Badminton was good but Vishwanathan Anand should be on the top for his mental strength and ability to defend championships for couple of years now.
Viswanathan Anand was crowned as World Chess Champion in Sofia after he defeated Veselin Topalov. Not many people realize that he has been World Champion for quite sometime and his achievements haven't seen the kind of lime light and attention that IPL Night Parties have had.
http://sports.rediff.com/report/2010/may/12/congratulate-viswanathan-anand-world-chess-champion.htm
http://sports.rediff.com/report/2010/may/13/aruna-anand-on-vishys-triumph.htm
Cheers
vishal
Viswanathan Anand was crowned as World Chess Champion in Sofia after he defeated Veselin Topalov. Not many people realize that he has been World Champion for quite sometime and his achievements haven't seen the kind of lime light and attention that IPL Night Parties have had.
http://sports.rediff.com/report/2010/may/12/congratulate-viswanathan-anand-world-chess-champion.htm
http://sports.rediff.com/report/2010/may/13/aruna-anand-on-vishys-triumph.htm
Cheers
vishal
Monday, May 10, 2010
T20 World Cup 2010
The T20 World Cup started just after the end of IPL Season 3. The shorter version has already seen three world cups in 4 years which termed as over dose would be an understatement. IPL tournament is a 6 week tournament but has close to 60 matches and difficult for audience to stay glued to the same format after the IPL. Even avid cricket followers just pick the matches they would like to watch and ignore the rest.
People who watched IPL would feel the T20 World Cup standards(grandeur and commercial aspect) to be quite low in comparison.
India has not been up to the mark in this format after their winning campaign in the inaugural edition. What's disheartening for an Indian Cricket fan is that they have been eliminated from the last year's edition in a similar manner by West Indies and England bowling short/bouncers. Even after a year, the team looks the same and they have the same problems of facing the short ball speaks volumes about the gravity of Indian batsmen issues against the short ball.
Everybody in the world knows that all the teams playing India will aim to bowl the short rising deliveries but there has been no improvement from the team which comprises of so many players out of form and bowlers who the captain doesn't trust are included in the squad.
Gautam Gambhir - hasn't been in any kind of form in IPL except a few low scoring pressure innings.
Vijay - Except three innings in IPL, he has always had issues with deliveries outside the off stump and now short delivery adds to that list.
Raina - Genuine Pace & Short ball aimed at the ribs - surely a goner.
Yuvraj - Not in form for quite some time now.
Dhoni - Looked out of sorts most of the time.
Y Pathan - Short ball prone, Not fit for international standards.
Rohit Sharma - Has the technique and can be a good finisher which was displayed time and again for Deccan Chargers but Dhoni sends him 2 down or 3 down.
R Jadeja - Didn't play IPL or any other form of cricket for some time and gets selected ahead of Pragyan Ojha/Amit Mishra leading wicket takers. He is neither a great bowler nor a great batsmen not a good fielder either. Always cracks up under pressure.
Zaheer Khan - Not sure if he was 100% fit. Doesn't look like the bowler he was for Mumbai Indians which reminds the fact that he would need a Malinga to attack and support his bowling cause.
Nehra - Never threatening , average bowler any day.
Harbhajan Singh - I thought Yusuf Pathan was a better option to open instead of Harbhajan bcoz with bhajji the opposition batsmen know if they can get done with his overs, it's a free world out there where as if Y Pathan bowls there is always wicket taking opportunity and he has delivered consistently for Royals in IPL, that way we would always have Bhajji to restrict in the middle overs(8-16).
Praveen Kumar - Injured without playing a match against Quality teams.
Vinay Kumar - Not sure Why he was picked, if the captain is not willing to include him in the team even after loss of praveen kumar, he should not be in the squad.
Piyush - Did his part in the match he played.
Umesh Yadav - Replacement , Nobody ever had a doubt he would only be a tourist.
Dinesh Karthik - Gets picked for no reason, gets dropped for no reason.
I always had doubts with the team selected for T20, all the players have been selected based on their stats and previous performances in this version rather than their current form. Dhoni as a captain(with his team loaded with batsmen) has looked out of sorts and in the super eights won the toss twice and chose to field first. All the teams won the toss have batted first and scored 150 and still won. One time is a mistake but he makes the same mistake again which doesn't speak volumes about his skills as a captain.
Thanks to R Jadeja who single handedly helped us get eliminated in the second edition and did his best in the two matches of this edition as well. His 2 overs for 38 against Australia, Drop Catch of Shane Watson and similar friendly bowling against West Indies and Dropped Catch of Gayle.
In form players like Robin Uthappa, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Ashwin etc should consider themselves as lucky for not being part of a Squad that's not competitive.
Commerce has played such a big role in Indian Cricket that the scheduling of matches has hurt India because if there was a chance for them to make semis, they should have played the match in the evening after the West Indies V Australia match knowing what they need to do t get into Semis but they are more worried about TV viewers watching the match than Indian team situation.
Cheers,
Vishal
People who watched IPL would feel the T20 World Cup standards(grandeur and commercial aspect) to be quite low in comparison.
India has not been up to the mark in this format after their winning campaign in the inaugural edition. What's disheartening for an Indian Cricket fan is that they have been eliminated from the last year's edition in a similar manner by West Indies and England bowling short/bouncers. Even after a year, the team looks the same and they have the same problems of facing the short ball speaks volumes about the gravity of Indian batsmen issues against the short ball.
Everybody in the world knows that all the teams playing India will aim to bowl the short rising deliveries but there has been no improvement from the team which comprises of so many players out of form and bowlers who the captain doesn't trust are included in the squad.
Gautam Gambhir - hasn't been in any kind of form in IPL except a few low scoring pressure innings.
Vijay - Except three innings in IPL, he has always had issues with deliveries outside the off stump and now short delivery adds to that list.
Raina - Genuine Pace & Short ball aimed at the ribs - surely a goner.
Yuvraj - Not in form for quite some time now.
Dhoni - Looked out of sorts most of the time.
Y Pathan - Short ball prone, Not fit for international standards.
Rohit Sharma - Has the technique and can be a good finisher which was displayed time and again for Deccan Chargers but Dhoni sends him 2 down or 3 down.
R Jadeja - Didn't play IPL or any other form of cricket for some time and gets selected ahead of Pragyan Ojha/Amit Mishra leading wicket takers. He is neither a great bowler nor a great batsmen not a good fielder either. Always cracks up under pressure.
Zaheer Khan - Not sure if he was 100% fit. Doesn't look like the bowler he was for Mumbai Indians which reminds the fact that he would need a Malinga to attack and support his bowling cause.
Nehra - Never threatening , average bowler any day.
Harbhajan Singh - I thought Yusuf Pathan was a better option to open instead of Harbhajan bcoz with bhajji the opposition batsmen know if they can get done with his overs, it's a free world out there where as if Y Pathan bowls there is always wicket taking opportunity and he has delivered consistently for Royals in IPL, that way we would always have Bhajji to restrict in the middle overs(8-16).
Praveen Kumar - Injured without playing a match against Quality teams.
Vinay Kumar - Not sure Why he was picked, if the captain is not willing to include him in the team even after loss of praveen kumar, he should not be in the squad.
Piyush - Did his part in the match he played.
Umesh Yadav - Replacement , Nobody ever had a doubt he would only be a tourist.
Dinesh Karthik - Gets picked for no reason, gets dropped for no reason.
I always had doubts with the team selected for T20, all the players have been selected based on their stats and previous performances in this version rather than their current form. Dhoni as a captain(with his team loaded with batsmen) has looked out of sorts and in the super eights won the toss twice and chose to field first. All the teams won the toss have batted first and scored 150 and still won. One time is a mistake but he makes the same mistake again which doesn't speak volumes about his skills as a captain.
Thanks to R Jadeja who single handedly helped us get eliminated in the second edition and did his best in the two matches of this edition as well. His 2 overs for 38 against Australia, Drop Catch of Shane Watson and similar friendly bowling against West Indies and Dropped Catch of Gayle.
In form players like Robin Uthappa, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Ashwin etc should consider themselves as lucky for not being part of a Squad that's not competitive.
Commerce has played such a big role in Indian Cricket that the scheduling of matches has hurt India because if there was a chance for them to make semis, they should have played the match in the evening after the West Indies V Australia match knowing what they need to do t get into Semis but they are more worried about TV viewers watching the match than Indian team situation.
Cheers,
Vishal
Friday, April 16, 2010
NBA - Play Offs Start Apr 18th
NBA Play Offs - Action beings April 18th and there are some interesting match ups that need to be followed.
Lakers and Cavaliers top the standings during the regular season for Western and Eastern Conference respectively.
The Play Off Matches are scheduled based on the standings during the regular season and 8 teams from each conference advance through to the play off stage. The Match ups are
1 Vs 8, 2 Vs 7, 3 Vs 6, 4 Vs 5
West Series Matchups:
LAL-OKC - Last Year Champions and this year winner of western conference LA Lakers against Play-Offs inexperienced Oklahoma City Thunders
DAL-SAS - Dallas Mavericks against San Antonio Spurs
PHX-POR - Phoenix Suns vs Portland Raptors
DEN-UTA - Denver Nuggets Vs Utah Jazz
East Series Matchups:
Eastern Conference Winners Cleaveland Cavaliers vs Chicago Bulls
Orlando Magic Vs Charlotte Bobcats
Atlanta Hawks Vs Milwaukee Bucks
Boston Celtics Vs Miami Heat
Have fun
Cheers
Vishal
Lakers and Cavaliers top the standings during the regular season for Western and Eastern Conference respectively.
The Play Off Matches are scheduled based on the standings during the regular season and 8 teams from each conference advance through to the play off stage. The Match ups are
1 Vs 8, 2 Vs 7, 3 Vs 6, 4 Vs 5
West Series Matchups:
LAL-OKC - Last Year Champions and this year winner of western conference LA Lakers against Play-Offs inexperienced Oklahoma City Thunders
DAL-SAS - Dallas Mavericks against San Antonio Spurs
PHX-POR - Phoenix Suns vs Portland Raptors
DEN-UTA - Denver Nuggets Vs Utah Jazz
East Series Matchups:
Eastern Conference Winners Cleaveland Cavaliers vs Chicago Bulls
Orlando Magic Vs Charlotte Bobcats
Atlanta Hawks Vs Milwaukee Bucks
Boston Celtics Vs Miami Heat
Have fun
Cheers
Vishal
Thursday, April 15, 2010
IPL 2010 - Teams with Semi-Final Chances.
IPL 2010
What the teams need to do to qualify for Semi-Finals
Mumbai: Already Qualified.
Deccan: Deccan's poor NRR means they'll need to win their last two to feel comfortable about qualification.
Kolkata: Like Deccan, they'll want the semi-final slots to be decided on points, not NRR, since they're languishing at -0.632. Kolkata's best chance is for Delhi to win their last two and for Chennai and Deccan to lose theirs. Then, if Kolkata win both their games, they'll be through on points with Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
Bangalore: The win against Rajasthan gave their net run rate a boost which means they're almost guaranteed for a Semi-final Spot.
Chennai: A win in one of their next two matches will almost certainly see Chennai through to the semis, since their net run rate is so high.
Delhi: Delhi's net run rate isn't as good as Bangalore's or Chennai's, which is why they'll need to win both their matches (or win at least one very convincingly) to assure themselves of qualification.
Rajasthan: Even a win in their final match, against Kolkata, won't assure them of qualification, as there could be a scenario with five teams - Rajasthan, Chennai, Bangalore, Deccan and Delhi - being tied on 14, fighting for three places. Their best case will be if they beat Kolkata, and the following happens: Delhi win their last two matches, while Chennai and Deccan lose theirs. Then Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Rajasthan will go through without NRR coming into play.
Even if Rajasthan lose their last match they could be fighting for the last place if Delhi win their last two, while Deccan and Chennai lose theirs, and if Kolkata lose to Mumbai. Then, Deccan, Chennai, Kolkata, Rajasthan and Punjab will all have 12 points, and NRR will decide the final slot.
Kings XI Punjab: Their only chance, a very remote one, is to fight for the last slot on NRR. Refer second paragraph for Rajasthan Royals.
What the teams need to do to qualify for Semi-Finals
Mumbai: Already Qualified.
Deccan: Deccan's poor NRR means they'll need to win their last two to feel comfortable about qualification.
Kolkata: Like Deccan, they'll want the semi-final slots to be decided on points, not NRR, since they're languishing at -0.632. Kolkata's best chance is for Delhi to win their last two and for Chennai and Deccan to lose theirs. Then, if Kolkata win both their games, they'll be through on points with Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
Bangalore: The win against Rajasthan gave their net run rate a boost which means they're almost guaranteed for a Semi-final Spot.
Chennai: A win in one of their next two matches will almost certainly see Chennai through to the semis, since their net run rate is so high.
Delhi: Delhi's net run rate isn't as good as Bangalore's or Chennai's, which is why they'll need to win both their matches (or win at least one very convincingly) to assure themselves of qualification.
Rajasthan: Even a win in their final match, against Kolkata, won't assure them of qualification, as there could be a scenario with five teams - Rajasthan, Chennai, Bangalore, Deccan and Delhi - being tied on 14, fighting for three places. Their best case will be if they beat Kolkata, and the following happens: Delhi win their last two matches, while Chennai and Deccan lose theirs. Then Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Rajasthan will go through without NRR coming into play.
Even if Rajasthan lose their last match they could be fighting for the last place if Delhi win their last two, while Deccan and Chennai lose theirs, and if Kolkata lose to Mumbai. Then, Deccan, Chennai, Kolkata, Rajasthan and Punjab will all have 12 points, and NRR will decide the final slot.
Kings XI Punjab: Their only chance, a very remote one, is to fight for the last slot on NRR. Refer second paragraph for Rajasthan Royals.
Friday, April 9, 2010
UEFA - Semis
UEFA Semi-final match ups are ready. The most exciting Quarter Final match up was the Bayern Munich against the Red Devils Man U, Man U was ousted based on Away goal aggregate when Arjen Robben scored a superb goal. Arsenal vs Barcelona was supposed to be a thrilling contest but Messi cleared that with a Four-midable victory scoring 4 in the second leg and confirming that he is undoubtedly the best soccer player in the world at the moment.
Semi-finals , 1st leg : 20 - 21 April 2010
20 April 2010
Internazionale 20:45 Barcelona
Stadium: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan (ITA)
21 April 2010
Bayern 20:45 Lyon
Stadium: Fußball Arena München, Munich (GER)
Semi-finals , 2nd leg : 27 - 28 April 201027 April 2010
Lyon 20:45 Bayern
Stadium: Stade de Gerland, Lyon (FRA)
28 April 2010
Barcelona 20:45 Internazionale TBD
Stadium: Camp Nou, Barcelona (ESP)
Semi-finals , 1st leg : 20 - 21 April 2010
20 April 2010
Internazionale 20:45 Barcelona
Stadium: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan (ITA)
21 April 2010
Bayern 20:45 Lyon
Stadium: Fußball Arena München, Munich (GER)
Semi-finals , 2nd leg : 27 - 28 April 201027 April 2010
Lyon 20:45 Bayern
Stadium: Stade de Gerland, Lyon (FRA)
28 April 2010
Barcelona 20:45 Internazionale TBD
Stadium: Camp Nou, Barcelona (ESP)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals
UEFA Champions League, The Path to MADRID has been finalized. The Match-ups are as shown below.
Olympique Lyon Vs Bordeaux
Bayern Munich Vs Manchester United
Arsenal Vs Barcelona
Inter Vs CSKA Moscow
No doubt that Arsenal Vs Barcelona appears to be the best of the match-ups and will be an interesting contest to follow.
Mar 30 14:45 ET Bayern Munich v Manchester United - Allianz Arena
Mar 30 14:45 ET Lyon v Bordeaux - Stade de Gerland
Mar 31 14:45 ET Arsenal v Barcelona - Emirates Stadium
Mar 31 14:45 ET Internazionale v CSKA Moscow - Giuseppe Meazza
Apr 6 14:45 ET Barcelona v Arsenal - Estadio Camp Nou
Apr 6 14:45 ET CSKA Moscow v Internazionale - Luzhniki Stadium
Apr 7 14:45 ET Bordeaux v Lyon - Stade Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Apr 7 14:45 ET Manchester United v Bayern Munich - Old Trafford
Cheers,
Vishal
Olympique Lyon Vs Bordeaux
Bayern Munich Vs Manchester United
Arsenal Vs Barcelona
Inter Vs CSKA Moscow
No doubt that Arsenal Vs Barcelona appears to be the best of the match-ups and will be an interesting contest to follow.
Mar 30 14:45 ET Bayern Munich v Manchester United - Allianz Arena
Mar 30 14:45 ET Lyon v Bordeaux - Stade de Gerland
Mar 31 14:45 ET Arsenal v Barcelona - Emirates Stadium
Mar 31 14:45 ET Internazionale v CSKA Moscow - Giuseppe Meazza
Apr 6 14:45 ET Barcelona v Arsenal - Estadio Camp Nou
Apr 6 14:45 ET CSKA Moscow v Internazionale - Luzhniki Stadium
Apr 7 14:45 ET Bordeaux v Lyon - Stade Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Apr 7 14:45 ET Manchester United v Bayern Munich - Old Trafford
Cheers,
Vishal
Friday, March 12, 2010
IPL 2010 - Go Chargers Go
IPL 2010 is kicking off in half an hour time. The Inaugral match is between the last year Champions Deccan Chargers and the last year Bottom Ranked Kolkata Knight Riders.
Deccan Chargers squad
AC Gilchrist*†, A Ashish Reddy, Anirudh Singh, AA Bilakhia, HH Gibbs, Harmeet Singh, RJ Harris, VVS Laxman, MR Marsh, MD Mishra, PP Ojha, DB Ravi Teja, KAJ Roach, R Sharma, RG Sharma, RP Singh, DR Smith, TL Suman, B Sumanth, A Symonds, WPUJC Vaas, Y Venugopal Rao, AS Yadav
Kolkata Knight Riders squad
SC Ganguly*, VR Aaron, AB Agarkar, AB Dinda, Eklak Ahmid, RS Gavaskar, CH Gayle, BJ Hodge, Iqbal Abdulla, M Kartik, HH Khadiwale, CK Langeveldt, BB McCullum†, AD Mathews, BAW Mendis, CR Pathak, CA Pujara, WP Saha†, OA Shah, I Sharma, LR Shukla, MK Tiwary, G Vignesh
On a Separate topic which is still related to cricket but not IPL,I was reading Harsha's Three captains and one bat. Harsha made some good points but I do not agree with all of them. The match fixing Saga has always been a mystery not just to me but many avid supporters of the world cricket. We are still not sure about what really happened and got transformed in case of the Indian Side of the story then how can we comment on Pakistan's side of the story. BCCI is stronger, richer and has control over the cricketing decisions that India takes where as the same doesn't hold right with PCB. Azhar and Jadeja were banned from International cricket but I always beleived that there was more to the match fixing saga than just the named players. My assumption was that the ICC, BCCI and Cricketing Officials had to make some tough decisions to save the sport and they had to set threshold for banning the players and may be the named players have crossed the threshold. Otherwise, if the fans get a clear picture of what happened they would definitely lose the interest in the sport itself.
Anyways I ll restrain myself from trying to dig deep into unknown territories and let's Njoy IPL 2010.
GO Chargers GO!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers
Deccan Chargers squad
AC Gilchrist*†, A Ashish Reddy, Anirudh Singh, AA Bilakhia, HH Gibbs, Harmeet Singh, RJ Harris, VVS Laxman, MR Marsh, MD Mishra, PP Ojha, DB Ravi Teja, KAJ Roach, R Sharma, RG Sharma, RP Singh, DR Smith, TL Suman, B Sumanth, A Symonds, WPUJC Vaas, Y Venugopal Rao, AS Yadav
Kolkata Knight Riders squad
SC Ganguly*, VR Aaron, AB Agarkar, AB Dinda, Eklak Ahmid, RS Gavaskar, CH Gayle, BJ Hodge, Iqbal Abdulla, M Kartik, HH Khadiwale, CK Langeveldt, BB McCullum†, AD Mathews, BAW Mendis, CR Pathak, CA Pujara, WP Saha†, OA Shah, I Sharma, LR Shukla, MK Tiwary, G Vignesh
On a Separate topic which is still related to cricket but not IPL,I was reading Harsha's Three captains and one bat. Harsha made some good points but I do not agree with all of them. The match fixing Saga has always been a mystery not just to me but many avid supporters of the world cricket. We are still not sure about what really happened and got transformed in case of the Indian Side of the story then how can we comment on Pakistan's side of the story. BCCI is stronger, richer and has control over the cricketing decisions that India takes where as the same doesn't hold right with PCB. Azhar and Jadeja were banned from International cricket but I always beleived that there was more to the match fixing saga than just the named players. My assumption was that the ICC, BCCI and Cricketing Officials had to make some tough decisions to save the sport and they had to set threshold for banning the players and may be the named players have crossed the threshold. Otherwise, if the fans get a clear picture of what happened they would definitely lose the interest in the sport itself.
Anyways I ll restrain myself from trying to dig deep into unknown territories and let's Njoy IPL 2010.
GO Chargers GO!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Countdown to Oscar Night
Oscar fever is catching up and there are 5 days for the live event to be telecasted.
I haven't had a chance to watch a whole lot of English movies to make my assessment of the nominations but I would try to watch the Oscars just for the buzz and glossy look.
Few of us would have doubt that the major awards would be swept by the James Cameroon team of Avatar but we should watch and confirm the same. For a full list of Oscar nominees click down on the link.
All Oscar Nominees
I wanted to watch Inglourious Basterds but I didn't may be I will in the near future. What more? Meryl Streep is nominated yet an other time for her film 'Julie & Julia' in the Actress in a Leading Role Category.
Wishing all the nominees best of luck and viewers fun time for the Oscar event.
Njoy
Vishal
I haven't had a chance to watch a whole lot of English movies to make my assessment of the nominations but I would try to watch the Oscars just for the buzz and glossy look.
Few of us would have doubt that the major awards would be swept by the James Cameroon team of Avatar but we should watch and confirm the same. For a full list of Oscar nominees click down on the link.
All Oscar Nominees
I wanted to watch Inglourious Basterds but I didn't may be I will in the near future. What more? Meryl Streep is nominated yet an other time for her film 'Julie & Julia' in the Actress in a Leading Role Category.
Wishing all the nominees best of luck and viewers fun time for the Oscar event.
Njoy
Vishal
Thursday, February 25, 2010
First Double Hundred in a ODI
Sachin Tendulkar scored the first ever double century in a One Day International. The Gwalior one day also saw a few other records tumbling while Sachin was on his way to his record breaking knock. Robin Jackman said we could see a double from Sachin during the 28th over of the match when Sachin was on 104 and we did at the end of the innings. Watching the Indian Innings of 400 runs was like watching the highlights package. Some of the shots that Sachin played were mind boggling and there were anxious moments for all the fans and Sachin till he got to the double century because Dhoni played 21 off the last 30 deliveries. Sachin became the highest scorer in a ODI in the 45th over but he faced only 9 deliveries from overs 45-50 and finally he got to it in the 50th over. It was a moment to cherish for all the Indian cricket fans and Sachin fans across the world.
The most disappointing part was the crowd behavior around 37th over when some one from the crowd threw somthing @ a SA cricketer and its so sad Because India were playing well(well placed to score 350), Sachin was in ominous form and Pathan scoring runs @ quick pace not sure what prompted them to display such kinda behavior.
Breaking the Barrier
A selection of tributes on Sachin Tendulkar's double-century
History as it Happened
Most runs in an innings in ODIs
The most disappointing part was the crowd behavior around 37th over when some one from the crowd threw somthing @ a SA cricketer and its so sad Because India were playing well(well placed to score 350), Sachin was in ominous form and Pathan scoring runs @ quick pace not sure what prompted them to display such kinda behavior.
Breaking the Barrier
A selection of tributes on Sachin Tendulkar's double-century
History as it Happened
Most runs in an innings in ODIs
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Facebook - Farmville Fever
Last couple of weeks, I have started using my Facebook account more frequently ever than before just because of Farmville. Farmville is fun to play and is my current flavor for the season. I have kinda become addictive to it during weekends and tune my game to suit my work timings and it has been working out well for me. I am trying my best to get rid of the addiction because even when I have things to do, I am getting tied upto my farm and the activities required to keep my level up and compete with my friends and wife on farmville.
I have watched the movie Dev-D after a year from the film's release. It's a decent movie with commendable performances from Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin. Dev-D is the Modern version of the classic 'Devdas' written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. The movie received critical acclaim for a different kinda story telling and presentation. I liked the screenplay and direction of the movie,so I wanted to watch one more movie of Anurag Kashyap and I found out 'Gulaal' was the film that I need to watch. I have heard good reviews for Gulaal as well which forced me to watch Gulaal and the movie was not bad at all. I am planning to watch other movies that Anurag Kashyap has directed namely 'Black Friday', 'Paanch' and may be 'No Smoking'.
Have fun
Cheers
I have watched the movie Dev-D after a year from the film's release. It's a decent movie with commendable performances from Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin. Dev-D is the Modern version of the classic 'Devdas' written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. The movie received critical acclaim for a different kinda story telling and presentation. I liked the screenplay and direction of the movie,so I wanted to watch one more movie of Anurag Kashyap and I found out 'Gulaal' was the film that I need to watch. I have heard good reviews for Gulaal as well which forced me to watch Gulaal and the movie was not bad at all. I am planning to watch other movies that Anurag Kashyap has directed namely 'Black Friday', 'Paanch' and may be 'No Smoking'.
Have fun
Cheers
Kolkata - Second Test - Ind vs SA
India won the second test match and squared the series, it was not about the test match win or squaring the series that mattered to Team India and the Indian Cricket fans but it was about India getting dislodged from the Number 1 spot in the ICC Rankings. India always have been bad starters in a test series and to India's disadvantage India never played a long test series like the Australian-English Ashes series(5 match test series)that could be one of the issues winning a test series outside India.(I know guys would argue there are practice matches but the practice matches are used to select the team's strength and not many players take those matches seriously).Team's mindset has changed from Ganguly's Captaincy and they have taken winning outside the country as a challenge and that's when the chase for the number one ranking started. Dhoni might get a chance to win the Test Team of the year award but the ground work has been done long time back.
Coming back to Second Test Match, the Indian team looked more desperate for the win than their counterparts. India won the test match but still not sure why there were so many changes for the second test but there was only one change in the playing eleven(VVS in palce of Saha). I thought Murali Vijay, Ishant sharma and Amit Mishra should have been replaced by Dinesh Karthik, Sreesanth and Ojha respectively but Dhoni thought otherwise.
Analysis of the match:
Day 1: Peterson and Amla scored tons and SA were cruising @ 218/1 but the last session changed things for India and they were reduced to 266/9 at the end of day.
Day 2: Tailenders added 30 more runs for SA and India's openers added 78 and Sehwag blasted quick 165, Sachin scored one more ton and India ended the day @342/5.
Day 3:VVS scored a patient century and Dhoni gave him good support and India declared late and they could only bowl 5 deliveries before bad light stopped play.
Day 4:Rain and wet outfield forced the teams out for most of the day and only 35 overs were bowled and SA were 135/3 at the end of the day. Amit Mishra got the most important wicket of Kallis before close of play.
Day 5:India needed seven more wickets to win and SA needed to score more runs or occupt the crease to force a draw. Zaheer couldn't bowl which meant India were one bowler short and Dhoni had only three regular bowlers to get the remaining seven wickets. I wanted to witness Team India's Victory but for the first one n half hr session, I didn't see any wicket falling that forced me to bed but I wanted to see the last few overs,so I got up early to watch the match. There was lot of drama towards the end, Indians were getting more and more desperate for the win, Amla was rock Solid reached one more century in the series and almost forced a draw but Harbhajan's 5 wicket haul, two wickets from Ishant and good support from Amit Mishra sealed an Innings victory for India and more importantly they held on to their top spot in the ICC Rankings.
Man of the Match and the Series: Hashim Amla for the number of runs he scored and the amount of time he spent @ the crease.
Player's performance analysis has been done by the cricinfo staff and they were accurate.
India Win Thriller despite Amla's Heroics
Cheers
Vishal
Coming back to Second Test Match, the Indian team looked more desperate for the win than their counterparts. India won the test match but still not sure why there were so many changes for the second test but there was only one change in the playing eleven(VVS in palce of Saha). I thought Murali Vijay, Ishant sharma and Amit Mishra should have been replaced by Dinesh Karthik, Sreesanth and Ojha respectively but Dhoni thought otherwise.
Analysis of the match:
Day 1: Peterson and Amla scored tons and SA were cruising @ 218/1 but the last session changed things for India and they were reduced to 266/9 at the end of day.
Day 2: Tailenders added 30 more runs for SA and India's openers added 78 and Sehwag blasted quick 165, Sachin scored one more ton and India ended the day @342/5.
Day 3:VVS scored a patient century and Dhoni gave him good support and India declared late and they could only bowl 5 deliveries before bad light stopped play.
Day 4:Rain and wet outfield forced the teams out for most of the day and only 35 overs were bowled and SA were 135/3 at the end of the day. Amit Mishra got the most important wicket of Kallis before close of play.
Day 5:India needed seven more wickets to win and SA needed to score more runs or occupt the crease to force a draw. Zaheer couldn't bowl which meant India were one bowler short and Dhoni had only three regular bowlers to get the remaining seven wickets. I wanted to witness Team India's Victory but for the first one n half hr session, I didn't see any wicket falling that forced me to bed but I wanted to see the last few overs,so I got up early to watch the match. There was lot of drama towards the end, Indians were getting more and more desperate for the win, Amla was rock Solid reached one more century in the series and almost forced a draw but Harbhajan's 5 wicket haul, two wickets from Ishant and good support from Amit Mishra sealed an Innings victory for India and more importantly they held on to their top spot in the ICC Rankings.
Man of the Match and the Series: Hashim Amla for the number of runs he scored and the amount of time he spent @ the crease.
Player's performance analysis has been done by the cricinfo staff and they were accurate.
India Win Thriller despite Amla's Heroics
Cheers
Vishal
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Colts Choke ,Saints Shine - Super Bowl XLIV
Saints Super Bowl XLIV Champions
Highlights of the game
Sound FX from NFL.com
Colts were favorites to start off and the NFL stats for fantasy has given a spread of 5.5 with NO Saints as under dogs.
First Quarter - 10-0 Colts: The game started as expected and it looked like one sided with Colts scoring a field goal followed by a touch down.
Second Quarter - 6-0 Saints: Saints scored couple of field goals had a chance to score a touch down but Colts defense denied them.
Half Time: Few years back people used to wait for Super Bowl's Half Time Show to get entertained but after Janet Jackson's wardrobe feat the Super Bowl half time shows have been uninteresting would be an understatement.
Some of the Super Bowl's Commercials were good but not memorable.
Third Quarter - 10-7 Saints: The story changed after the half time and Sean Payton did the unexpected. A Surprise side kick sparkled the comeback of the Saints and it was risky but now that we know it was worth taking. The mindset changed and Colts were in a shock tried their best to recover. Peyton Manning had frustrating time sitting out waiting for his turn. Saints scored 10, Colts managed a touch down.
Final Quarter - 15-0 Saints: Saints played like do or die from the start and they were rewarded for out-thinking the Colts major portion of the game. Colts didn't lose the Super Bowl but Saints snatched the victory with some trend setting decision making. That's why the final score read 31-17.
Brees MVP
Coach Sean Payton
I had a chance to do my part of betting on the Colts, Colts lost but I still ended up on top due to defensive betting by others in our league.
Had fun watching this year's Super Bowl? I guess not if you are a Colts Fan.
Cheers
Good Night
Highlights of the game
Sound FX from NFL.com
Colts were favorites to start off and the NFL stats for fantasy has given a spread of 5.5 with NO Saints as under dogs.
First Quarter - 10-0 Colts: The game started as expected and it looked like one sided with Colts scoring a field goal followed by a touch down.
Second Quarter - 6-0 Saints: Saints scored couple of field goals had a chance to score a touch down but Colts defense denied them.
Half Time: Few years back people used to wait for Super Bowl's Half Time Show to get entertained but after Janet Jackson's wardrobe feat the Super Bowl half time shows have been uninteresting would be an understatement.
Some of the Super Bowl's Commercials were good but not memorable.
Third Quarter - 10-7 Saints: The story changed after the half time and Sean Payton did the unexpected. A Surprise side kick sparkled the comeback of the Saints and it was risky but now that we know it was worth taking. The mindset changed and Colts were in a shock tried their best to recover. Peyton Manning had frustrating time sitting out waiting for his turn. Saints scored 10, Colts managed a touch down.
Final Quarter - 15-0 Saints: Saints played like do or die from the start and they were rewarded for out-thinking the Colts major portion of the game. Colts didn't lose the Super Bowl but Saints snatched the victory with some trend setting decision making. That's why the final score read 31-17.
Brees MVP
Coach Sean Payton
I had a chance to do my part of betting on the Colts, Colts lost but I still ended up on top due to defensive betting by others in our league.
Had fun watching this year's Super Bowl? I guess not if you are a Colts Fan.
Cheers
Good Night
Snowy start to 2010
Last year the weather was lot better in NJ compared to this year. I think we have seen enough snow for this season but I guess there is more to come next week as well. Roads blocked, Train stations closed and I worked from home for the last two days.
How much more snow do we have this year? Do we have an answer? some weather channel pleaseeeee
Few of the pics taken are uploaded to my Picasa web album
Njoy
Vishal
How much more snow do we have this year? Do we have an answer? some weather channel pleaseeeee
Few of the pics taken are uploaded to my Picasa web album
Njoy
Vishal
Consistenly Inconsistent - Team India
SA defeated India convincingly in the first test match. They have been the best overseas team against India for sometime now. It's not about the defeat that the Indian Cricket fans would be disappointed about but the way the team lost and the margin of defeat(Innings and 6 runs). The defeat definitely showed the ability(rather lack of ability) of the Indian batsmen against quality fast bowling and the quality of the bowling attack between the two teams; It also provided a good overview of the bench strength that India possess in the absence of Test Stalwarts like Dravid and VVS. As mentioned in my previous post, the team selection was defensive(if not a blunder) and they had to settle for Saha because Rohit Sharma(missed a definite chance of Test Debut)the stand by batsman also injured himself during net practice playing some other game(soccer or kho-kho).
How many times Indian players get themselves injured playing sports other than cricket during net practice? Yuvraj Singh injured his knee playing kho-kho few years back and has never been the same fielder that he was years back and could never ever recover. Instead of learning from the mistakes, players still commit the same mistakes.
How good are the ICC Test Rankings? How can a number one test team lose to the number two team by an innings and six runs at their own backyard? Smith claims that SA deserve to be number one and not India.
Kris Srikkanth has mentioned that he is ready to take the blame for the team selection but the changes made to the team for the second test are not justified at all.
Why were the cricketers selected in the first place and why were they dropped?
Dinesh Karthik for Saha -(Exclusion of Saha doesn't make sense because Saha was primarily selected as backup for MS Dhoni not tested for his wicket keeping skills, Karthik's included for the second test because he scored couple of centuries in his two innings in Duleep trophy final)
Sreesanth for Sudeep Tyagi(If they wanted to include Sreesanth, they should have dropped Ishant and not at the expense of Sudeep who wasn't even given a chance)
and Raina for Mithun (Raina still has issues facing short pitch stuff and has been included at the cost of Mithun who didn't even get his chance)
Indian cricket fans still think that India can square the series @ Eden Gardens where as our senior cricketers skip practice. Let's wait for the Valentine's day to look at the team that India would field for the second test and obviously follow the test and wait for the result.
Cheers
Vishal
How many times Indian players get themselves injured playing sports other than cricket during net practice? Yuvraj Singh injured his knee playing kho-kho few years back and has never been the same fielder that he was years back and could never ever recover. Instead of learning from the mistakes, players still commit the same mistakes.
How good are the ICC Test Rankings? How can a number one test team lose to the number two team by an innings and six runs at their own backyard? Smith claims that SA deserve to be number one and not India.
Kris Srikkanth has mentioned that he is ready to take the blame for the team selection but the changes made to the team for the second test are not justified at all.
Why were the cricketers selected in the first place and why were they dropped?
Dinesh Karthik for Saha -(Exclusion of Saha doesn't make sense because Saha was primarily selected as backup for MS Dhoni not tested for his wicket keeping skills, Karthik's included for the second test because he scored couple of centuries in his two innings in Duleep trophy final)
Sreesanth for Sudeep Tyagi(If they wanted to include Sreesanth, they should have dropped Ishant and not at the expense of Sudeep who wasn't even given a chance)
and Raina for Mithun (Raina still has issues facing short pitch stuff and has been included at the cost of Mithun who didn't even get his chance)
Indian cricket fans still think that India can square the series @ Eden Gardens where as our senior cricketers skip practice. Let's wait for the Valentine's day to look at the team that India would field for the second test and obviously follow the test and wait for the result.
Cheers
Vishal
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
RGV's RANN
I have always liked to watch movies directed by Ram Gopal Varma. I watch his movies because he has this ability to surprise the audience with his kind of story telling. I have read people write that RGV can make three genres of movies
1) Under World (Satya, Company, Sarkar, Sarkar Raj)
2) Horror (Raat, Bhoot, Phoonk)
3) Musicals (Rangeela, Naach, Mast)
But following RGV's movies for a good period of time, I think he makes two categories of films.
1) Serious
2) Experimental
The difference between the two categories would be the story, screen play, star cast and budget selected. To give an example Satya was experimental (turned out to be successful) but Company was serious (Experiment was successful so tried to master it with a different view @ the same topic).In his Serious movies, he has a plot and he is well prepared starting from star cast, budget etc where as in his experimental films like Phoonk, Agyaat, Darling mostly goes by his instincts. Some of his experimental movies became huge hits when he thought he became a master he failed because he couldn't surprise the audience.
Generally, I do not prefer to read reviews of the film that I would definitely like to watch; so I would read them after I watch the movie to find the gaps.
I had a chance to watch the movie RANN yesterday and after watching the movie, I read the reviews.
Full Hyderabad- Deepa Review
Bollywood Hungama - Taran Adarsh Review
Rediff - Sukanya Verma Review
India Glitz Review
Bollywood Hungama's review is exaggerated Taran kind of gets biased reviewing Big movies, Rediff's Sukanya Verma didn't like the movie, Full Hyd Deepa's review was too difficult to understand for a regular movie buff, I thought the India Glitz's review was kind of close to my thinking. The movie had a tight screenplay, good background score, commendable performances from the lead cast (Big B, Sudeep, Riteish, and Paresh) but the main story had its own flaws. Few to mention are
A) Harshvardhan Malik doesn't try to verify and validate the news (or check within his publishing team if it was manipulated) before he publishes in front of the camera to the whole world.
b)Nobody investigates about the news read by Harshvardhan Malik(except for Purab)but everybody(public, other news channels etc) believe him without any questions.(No media person interviews or no cop interrogates him for making such a serious statement)
c) Jai Malik doesn't investigate how the programs that his channel was planning to telecast are being telecasted by other channels.
D) Expected Climax (Suicide, Purab to take charge, etc)
You could still watch the movie for the performances put in by the principal starcast and captivated screenplay.
1) Under World (Satya, Company, Sarkar, Sarkar Raj)
2) Horror (Raat, Bhoot, Phoonk)
3) Musicals (Rangeela, Naach, Mast)
But following RGV's movies for a good period of time, I think he makes two categories of films.
1) Serious
2) Experimental
The difference between the two categories would be the story, screen play, star cast and budget selected. To give an example Satya was experimental (turned out to be successful) but Company was serious (Experiment was successful so tried to master it with a different view @ the same topic).In his Serious movies, he has a plot and he is well prepared starting from star cast, budget etc where as in his experimental films like Phoonk, Agyaat, Darling mostly goes by his instincts. Some of his experimental movies became huge hits when he thought he became a master he failed because he couldn't surprise the audience.
Generally, I do not prefer to read reviews of the film that I would definitely like to watch; so I would read them after I watch the movie to find the gaps.
I had a chance to watch the movie RANN yesterday and after watching the movie, I read the reviews.
Full Hyderabad- Deepa Review
Bollywood Hungama - Taran Adarsh Review
Rediff - Sukanya Verma Review
India Glitz Review
Bollywood Hungama's review is exaggerated Taran kind of gets biased reviewing Big movies, Rediff's Sukanya Verma didn't like the movie, Full Hyd Deepa's review was too difficult to understand for a regular movie buff, I thought the India Glitz's review was kind of close to my thinking. The movie had a tight screenplay, good background score, commendable performances from the lead cast (Big B, Sudeep, Riteish, and Paresh) but the main story had its own flaws. Few to mention are
A) Harshvardhan Malik doesn't try to verify and validate the news (or check within his publishing team if it was manipulated) before he publishes in front of the camera to the whole world.
b)Nobody investigates about the news read by Harshvardhan Malik(except for Purab)but everybody(public, other news channels etc) believe him without any questions.(No media person interviews or no cop interrogates him for making such a serious statement)
c) Jai Malik doesn't investigate how the programs that his channel was planning to telecast are being telecasted by other channels.
D) Expected Climax (Suicide, Purab to take charge, etc)
You could still watch the movie for the performances put in by the principal starcast and captivated screenplay.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
First Test - India vs SA @ Nagpur
The Current Top two test teams (based on ICC Test Rankings) are competing against each other for the Top Spot. India couldn't field their two important test players Rahul Dravid & VVS Laxman due to cheek bone injury and finger injury respectively. The Team that India selected for the first test doesn't look any where close to winning the test match. The composition of the team speaks defensive mindset of MS Dhoni, when the opposition has a strong batting line up like what SA have, India should have opted for the fifth bowler(either Tyagi or Ojha based on pitch conditions) instead they went for the wicket keeper batsman Saha which is kinda strange.
South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first as expected; as the sub-continent pitches are good for batting for the first three days and later on spin will come into play. Zaheer got the break throughs that India needed but they couldn't hold onto the advantage till the end of the day. Amla and Kallis escaped the few good deliveries initially and they scored unbeaten centuries. Indian bowling doesn't have the depth and variety to trouble good batsmen because of which the score reads 291/2 at the end of Day one. I am sure this test would be a dull draw unless quick wickets tumble tomorrow or India succumbs to the pressure of retaining the number one position.
South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first as expected; as the sub-continent pitches are good for batting for the first three days and later on spin will come into play. Zaheer got the break throughs that India needed but they couldn't hold onto the advantage till the end of the day. Amla and Kallis escaped the few good deliveries initially and they scored unbeaten centuries. Indian bowling doesn't have the depth and variety to trouble good batsmen because of which the score reads 291/2 at the end of Day one. I am sure this test would be a dull draw unless quick wickets tumble tomorrow or India succumbs to the pressure of retaining the number one position.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
126 days to Soccer World Cup 2010
Soccer World Cup 2010 starts after 4 months and FIFA already have the teams organized in to different groups namely A-H. The dates for the round robin league matches are also finalized and the schedule is available @ FIFA.com. Without actually looking @ the squads and recent stats, just glancing @ the teams in different groups, Group D, G, A look like the difficult ones but I may be wrong.
If some one already had a chance to analyze the groups and interesting matches link would have been great.
Cheers,
Vishal
Saturday, January 30, 2010
IND-BD Test Series Review
India won the Test Series against BD 2-0. India was dominant to an extent but not to the level that they should have been against a weak BD side when compared to their respective standings in ICC Test Rankings. Sehwag's statements made before the start of the series made him sound arrogant and disrespectful but people forgot his non-nonchalant nature on and off the pitch facing a Brett Lee delivery or media's questions; Sehwag still doesn't care about what others think about him.
Sachin came back for the test series got the two centuries he needed to continue marching forward in tests against the cricketer of the decade Ricky Ponting. Gambhir continued his rich vein of form in tests but missed out on a great record to equal Don Bradman. Dravid, Laxman scored runs but I still think Yuvraj's place is up for grabs(Rohit Sharma or Badrinath, Murali Vijay should be considered). The bowling department is still weak and Zaheer was the pick of the series supported by Ishant Sharma.
Harbhajan, Ojha and Amit Sharma were mediocre, I guess they need helpful tracks to get wickets.
India is ahead in ICC Rankings but the series is against SA is very crucial not just because India is 1 and SA is 2 but also because India doesn't play too many tests after they play against SA to maintain the Numero UNO status. India already had a big blow in terms of the team selection to play against SA because Dravid got injured. SA always played well against India in India and I hope atleast India dominate SA this time in the test series.
Have fun
Cheers
Sachin came back for the test series got the two centuries he needed to continue marching forward in tests against the cricketer of the decade Ricky Ponting. Gambhir continued his rich vein of form in tests but missed out on a great record to equal Don Bradman. Dravid, Laxman scored runs but I still think Yuvraj's place is up for grabs(Rohit Sharma or Badrinath, Murali Vijay should be considered). The bowling department is still weak and Zaheer was the pick of the series supported by Ishant Sharma.
Harbhajan, Ojha and Amit Sharma were mediocre, I guess they need helpful tracks to get wickets.
India is ahead in ICC Rankings but the series is against SA is very crucial not just because India is 1 and SA is 2 but also because India doesn't play too many tests after they play against SA to maintain the Numero UNO status. India already had a big blow in terms of the team selection to play against SA because Dravid got injured. SA always played well against India in India and I hope atleast India dominate SA this time in the test series.
Have fun
Cheers
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Super Bowl XLIV Preview
Weekend's NFL Game between Vikings and Saints was interesting. If Brett Favre made one sane decision of throwing the ball out or gaining a few yeards and holding on to the ball instead of getting intercepted, Vikings would have made it to the Super Bowl. They have done everything wrong but were far better than Saints and then the crazy OT rule led them down.
Over Time rule in NFL sucks, there are no two opinions on that. I have expressed the same when Packers lost to Cardinals in the Play-Offs. The team that wins the toss most probably will take minimum risks and score a field goal to win the game. Packers lost the same way and so did Vikings. The rule sucks because it doesn't give a fair opportunity for both the teams to compete. If I were to compare it with cricket, the team that wins the toss would select batting and play for 5 overs and scores 50 runs but the opposition is never given a chance to chase 50 or bat for 5 overs and see how much they score which doesn't make any sense.
The NFL OT rule should be changed just to give both the teams a fair chance. I would suggest either giving one drive chance to each team or one more quarter(with two 7.5 min sessions). Imagine this scenario during the super bowl game, how painful would that be for both the teams not getting a fair chance to score and win.
Coming to the Super Bowl game, I have placed my bet on Colts because they have shown better performance under pressure compared to Saints. Unless Saints pull out something extra ordinary or improve their game drastically from their previous games, We have Colts as the Champions.
Cheers
Vishal
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tennis : Australian Open 2010
Women's Singles: Henin is back and reached the semis defeating the Russian Petrova and she will face the chinese Zheng. The other quarter final match ups are between Serena and Victoria Azarenka , Venus against the chinese Na Li.
Semis might be yet an other Serena V Venus affair and final may be between Henin and Serena. That's my guess.
Monday, January 25, 2010
IPL-III Auction
Indian Premier League Edition 3 is starting March 2010 and there were a few vacant player positions in the franchises for which there was an auction. There were around 66 players and 16 positions to be filled, out of which 11 were Pakistani. After multiple attacks and reported evidences, there was no peace between the two countries and there was never a consensus on any statement that either country's Chief made. No one would deny that there are issues between the two countries and that might definitely be one of the main concerns for not been selected by any franchise. Probably Umar Gul, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi would have been selected if there were no tensions between the two countries. IPL owner Lalit Modi was not very keen before the start of the auction and they declared that there will be no pakistani players months before the actual auction date and he gave a lame excuse saying it's because of the paper work, Visas etc. PCB and Pakistani players were very interested and they came back with Visa's, NOC's but ultimately found humiliating and snubbed because there were no takers for them.
Different people reacted differently to this situation, former Pakistani players like Miandad, Zaheer Abbas became strictly against IPL after this incident and they are taking it to the next level. Ramiz Raza and Wasim Akram are commentators and they also might feel the same way but they are trying their best to be politically correct in this situation.
Shah Rukh Khan gave his very own politically correct and honest version.
IPL Second Edition had no players from Pakistan and everybody was okay with that because the attack was fresh in everybody's memories and no one raised eye-brows that time.
IPL Third Edition things haven't changed much and no action was taken by either sides to improve the relations between them and it doesn't mean that things have smoothened between the countries. If there were issues and if everybody knew that Pakistani cricketers will not be selected in the auction, then they shouldn't have been included for the auction itself.
People who think Sports and Politics shouldn't be interlinked together, this is a twist to the story for them. It doesn't make sense to enjoy cricketing ties when there are terror attacks and political tension between two countries.
Other links related:
IPL Auction 2010
PCB to lodge complaint with ICC
Ain't nobody rock a party like Pakistan can
Pakistan's reaction to IPL 2010
Franchise Perspective
Different people reacted differently to this situation, former Pakistani players like Miandad, Zaheer Abbas became strictly against IPL after this incident and they are taking it to the next level. Ramiz Raza and Wasim Akram are commentators and they also might feel the same way but they are trying their best to be politically correct in this situation.
Shah Rukh Khan gave his very own politically correct and honest version.
IPL Second Edition had no players from Pakistan and everybody was okay with that because the attack was fresh in everybody's memories and no one raised eye-brows that time.
IPL Third Edition things haven't changed much and no action was taken by either sides to improve the relations between them and it doesn't mean that things have smoothened between the countries. If there were issues and if everybody knew that Pakistani cricketers will not be selected in the auction, then they shouldn't have been included for the auction itself.
People who think Sports and Politics shouldn't be interlinked together, this is a twist to the story for them. It doesn't make sense to enjoy cricketing ties when there are terror attacks and political tension between two countries.
Other links related:
IPL Auction 2010
PCB to lodge complaint with ICC
Ain't nobody rock a party like Pakistan can
Pakistan's reaction to IPL 2010
Franchise Perspective
Sunday, January 24, 2010
NFL Championships - AFC & NFC
NFL Championship games namely the AFC and NFC championships are to be played today. I have selected Colts and Vikings as my picks for today's games.
Matchups
From the last week's games, only Jets and Chargers game was interesting and the other three were pretty much one-sided. I was able to correctly guess the winners of all the last week's games by virtue of which I am at the top of our fantasy league. I have two more games to win and pray other players in our fantasy select wrong teams to stay at the top. So it's not straight forward, lots of permutations and combinations.
Have fun watching the games.
Cheers
Vishal
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Telangana - Regional Terrorism ??
I am a Hyderabadi Telugu and I was a frog in the well because I have spent 21 years of life in Hyderabad strictly restricted to 'to and fro' travels from my dwelling place to School, Junior College and Engineering College and a few trips to religious places like Tirupathi, Shiridi, Vijayawada and Srisailam. Hyderabad is a metro city, people in most cases do not worry about asking your caste, religion, region etc. So my knowledge about this topic was very minimal.
I never had a chance to look at the things like Caste System, Regionalism, Religionalism(Regional Terrorism) etc until I reached the land of opportunities U.S.A. Telugu people get divided between themselves because we always have different reasons that avoid us from being united.
M.S in US - As soon as I started interacting with students from other parts of Andhra Pradesh, I started to realize the part that people tend to defend their own caste people, own state/region people and are biased with their opinions which was very difficult for me to digest initially but I got used to it later.
First Scenario: Chiru fans vs Balayya fans
First such scenario that I encountered was the famous Chiranjeevi-Bala Krishna fans supporting their respective hero's in every day-day activity that they get involved. We went to watch 'Tagore' and my friend got this poster of Chiranjeevi for free and he sticked the poster in our living room. A few days later we had a Birthday party at our place and everybody arrived(telugus, northies, tamilians, etc). After the cake party, everybody left but Bala Krishna fans were hurt to see Chiranjeevi's poster in our living room and they wanted us to remove the poster, if not either they will do it or they will not visit our apartment again.
I used to watch movies which were hits. Initially when I was young because I liked dance, I wanted to watch Chiranjeevi movie songs at the minimum and watched couple of Bala Krishna movies because they were hits and also he was next to Chiranjeevi in his dances.
Second scenario is related to idol worship(Chiranjeevi fans). One of our consultancy room mates got a job and he threw a party; the party started off well and during the party, there are so many different topics that people discuss and once such discussion thread started between two persons.
A: Did you guys read Great Andhra news,Ravi Teja is 47 yrs old and he still looks so young.
B: Who cares how Ravi Teja looks.
A: He is 47, Chiru is 53 but man there is no comparison in fitness.
B: Why are you comparing Chiru with Ravi Teja? Ravi Teja has one or two hits and people give a damn about his films and he doesn't care about other people.
A: Chiru should stop films,he is so fat.
B: What do you know about Chiru?
Arguments get heated up and B attacks A. Other people stopped them from fighting and then B calms down and both tell sorry to each other.B explains if you do not know about something, please just don't comment and I like Chiru because he is a social worker. End of scenario 2.
Third Scenario: Kamal fans Vs Rajni fans.
Similar to second scenario but this time it was strictly restricted to discussions and arguments which started around 10 pm and lasted till 4 am in the morning. The conversation basically started from Actor vs Star but ended up with arguments/counter arguments 'Who is the bigger Icon in Tamil film Industry?'
Fourth Scenario: Cricket Sachin fans vs Ganguly fans.
People tend to forget the contributions made by the players to the team and country's popularity in the sport and they are more inclined in their favorite player's stats and comparison with other players.
Fifth Scenario: Cricket India vs Pakistan 2003 World Cup Match
During my MS days, we subscribed for the world cup and everybody used to come by our place to watch the matches. India Vs Pakistan Match and we had few Pakistani students watch the match with us and it was a communal riot @ our place. The match was like a see-saw and people couldn't control emotions and it was a war or words.
There are many such scenarios namely Northies Vs Southies, Brahmins Vs Non-Brahmins and the list goes on. The spice of the season is Telangana Vs Andhra. The topic has gained center stage for quite some days now and yet there is no solution. Being a frog in the well, I never had an opportunity to look at a map like shown below until the Telangana Revolution started.
Not sure how much it affects the country overall, not sure how much it affects both the regions, not sure whether Telangana has a leader in case if a separate state is formed.
Our PM termed demanding a state in the way it is being done as 'Regional Terrorism'. There are more questions to get answers for me than to think of a supporting separate state at this moment. I wish there was some one who already put together a detailed analysis of pros and cons, otherwise I would have to find this info myself and discuss in a separate blog based on my collection of information form various websites.
Have fun
Cheers
I never had a chance to look at the things like Caste System, Regionalism, Religionalism(Regional Terrorism) etc until I reached the land of opportunities U.S.A. Telugu people get divided between themselves because we always have different reasons that avoid us from being united.
M.S in US - As soon as I started interacting with students from other parts of Andhra Pradesh, I started to realize the part that people tend to defend their own caste people, own state/region people and are biased with their opinions which was very difficult for me to digest initially but I got used to it later.
First Scenario: Chiru fans vs Balayya fans
First such scenario that I encountered was the famous Chiranjeevi-Bala Krishna fans supporting their respective hero's in every day-day activity that they get involved. We went to watch 'Tagore' and my friend got this poster of Chiranjeevi for free and he sticked the poster in our living room. A few days later we had a Birthday party at our place and everybody arrived(telugus, northies, tamilians, etc). After the cake party, everybody left but Bala Krishna fans were hurt to see Chiranjeevi's poster in our living room and they wanted us to remove the poster, if not either they will do it or they will not visit our apartment again.
I used to watch movies which were hits. Initially when I was young because I liked dance, I wanted to watch Chiranjeevi movie songs at the minimum and watched couple of Bala Krishna movies because they were hits and also he was next to Chiranjeevi in his dances.
Second scenario is related to idol worship(Chiranjeevi fans). One of our consultancy room mates got a job and he threw a party; the party started off well and during the party, there are so many different topics that people discuss and once such discussion thread started between two persons.
A: Did you guys read Great Andhra news,Ravi Teja is 47 yrs old and he still looks so young.
B: Who cares how Ravi Teja looks.
A: He is 47, Chiru is 53 but man there is no comparison in fitness.
B: Why are you comparing Chiru with Ravi Teja? Ravi Teja has one or two hits and people give a damn about his films and he doesn't care about other people.
A: Chiru should stop films,he is so fat.
B: What do you know about Chiru?
Arguments get heated up and B attacks A. Other people stopped them from fighting and then B calms down and both tell sorry to each other.B explains if you do not know about something, please just don't comment and I like Chiru because he is a social worker. End of scenario 2.
Third Scenario: Kamal fans Vs Rajni fans.
Similar to second scenario but this time it was strictly restricted to discussions and arguments which started around 10 pm and lasted till 4 am in the morning. The conversation basically started from Actor vs Star but ended up with arguments/counter arguments 'Who is the bigger Icon in Tamil film Industry?'
Fourth Scenario: Cricket Sachin fans vs Ganguly fans.
People tend to forget the contributions made by the players to the team and country's popularity in the sport and they are more inclined in their favorite player's stats and comparison with other players.
Fifth Scenario: Cricket India vs Pakistan 2003 World Cup Match
During my MS days, we subscribed for the world cup and everybody used to come by our place to watch the matches. India Vs Pakistan Match and we had few Pakistani students watch the match with us and it was a communal riot @ our place. The match was like a see-saw and people couldn't control emotions and it was a war or words.
There are many such scenarios namely Northies Vs Southies, Brahmins Vs Non-Brahmins and the list goes on. The spice of the season is Telangana Vs Andhra. The topic has gained center stage for quite some days now and yet there is no solution. Being a frog in the well, I never had an opportunity to look at a map like shown below until the Telangana Revolution started.
Not sure how much it affects the country overall, not sure how much it affects both the regions, not sure whether Telangana has a leader in case if a separate state is formed.
Our PM termed demanding a state in the way it is being done as 'Regional Terrorism'. There are more questions to get answers for me than to think of a supporting separate state at this moment. I wish there was some one who already put together a detailed analysis of pros and cons, otherwise I would have to find this info myself and discuss in a separate blog based on my collection of information form various websites.
Have fun
Cheers
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
NFL Play Offs and Divisional Rounds
Did you guys get to watch weekend NFL Play off games?
We have invited my school friend for lunch and he visited us on Saturday. I have been playing NFL fantasy of the Play off draws with in our community. I got two right and two wrong. I took suggestions from two of my friends who are avid NFL followers. One said NYJ and the other said CIN, so I went with CIN and they lost the game comfortably and packers lost. The best play off game during the weekend was Cardinals vs Packers. The game was even steven till the last quarter 45-45 and Cardinals went on to win during the OT.
I don't quite like the OT rule that NFL has in place for now. NFL is no soccer game to decide the winners by golden goal rule, when questioned about this some avid NFL followers have a counter argument saying that NFL is not just about Offense or Quarterback but also about defense. They have a point but if one team gets one good run and score a field goal, then there is no chance for the other team to fight back and score a touch down. I don't think it's fair to decide the winners without giving a chance to the other team and see if they can score.
My Fave Team Pats lost at home for the first time this season and had their first defeat in Play Offs @ home in 30 years. Fans may have witnessed the end of dynasty of the decade.
The games are decided for the AFC and NFC divisional rounds. Saints will play Cardinals, Vikings play Cowboys, Ravens play Colts and Jets play Chargers.
We have invited my school friend for lunch and he visited us on Saturday. I have been playing NFL fantasy of the Play off draws with in our community. I got two right and two wrong. I took suggestions from two of my friends who are avid NFL followers. One said NYJ and the other said CIN, so I went with CIN and they lost the game comfortably and packers lost. The best play off game during the weekend was Cardinals vs Packers. The game was even steven till the last quarter 45-45 and Cardinals went on to win during the OT.
I don't quite like the OT rule that NFL has in place for now. NFL is no soccer game to decide the winners by golden goal rule, when questioned about this some avid NFL followers have a counter argument saying that NFL is not just about Offense or Quarterback but also about defense. They have a point but if one team gets one good run and score a field goal, then there is no chance for the other team to fight back and score a touch down. I don't think it's fair to decide the winners without giving a chance to the other team and see if they can score.
My Fave Team Pats lost at home for the first time this season and had their first defeat in Play Offs @ home in 30 years. Fans may have witnessed the end of dynasty of the decade.
The games are decided for the AFC and NFC divisional rounds. Saints will play Cardinals, Vikings play Cowboys, Ravens play Colts and Jets play Chargers.
Tri Series Cricket
There are a few players who always play well against India, Dilshan joined that list and they have most of their top scores against India and most teams can select an alltogether different team when they play against India. Few names that come to my mind are Salman Butt(8 ODI Centuries total , 5 Vs Ind), Dion Nash (64 ODI wickets 20 vs Ind), Chanderpaul, Younis Khan(16 centuries total ,17 Test Innings vs Ind 5), Jayasurya, Saeed Anwar(top test scores and ODI innings reserved for India) and there a few more if I get into Stats.
From the last time I have posted about Tri Series Cricket until today, India played better in the league matches but lost the final. Indian team lacks all round consistency and they have been able to display consistently inconsistent performances.
India's batting fails when it really matters
Finals and the top order collapsed, except for Sehwag, Raina and Jadeja. Two ducks and one single digit score in the top 4 batting order doesn't give a great chance to setup a huge total but Raina's century gave a respectable total to atleast put forth a trial to defend. Like I said in my earlier post with the kind of bowling attack and fielders, India can never win a match without any extra ordinary individual performances. Since there were none, India lost the match. Team composition was allright except for Sreesanth, I thought Sudeep Tyagi was bowling better than him and also provided early strikes in each of the innings he bowled.
Well done SL, thank god the series ended. I hope to see India play other SL and Bangladesh for sometime now, there is only so much an avid cricket fan can take and I guess the limit has already been crossed over.
From the last time I have posted about Tri Series Cricket until today, India played better in the league matches but lost the final. Indian team lacks all round consistency and they have been able to display consistently inconsistent performances.
India's batting fails when it really matters
Finals and the top order collapsed, except for Sehwag, Raina and Jadeja. Two ducks and one single digit score in the top 4 batting order doesn't give a great chance to setup a huge total but Raina's century gave a respectable total to atleast put forth a trial to defend. Like I said in my earlier post with the kind of bowling attack and fielders, India can never win a match without any extra ordinary individual performances. Since there were none, India lost the match. Team composition was allright except for Sreesanth, I thought Sudeep Tyagi was bowling better than him and also provided early strikes in each of the innings he bowled.
Well done SL, thank god the series ended. I hope to see India play other SL and Bangladesh for sometime now, there is only so much an avid cricket fan can take and I guess the limit has already been crossed over.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
OBIEE Dashboard Max Before Menu
We had a requirement where we wanted to group the dashboards that were built based out of the same business area and show a dashboard menu like structure. I have seen that in the OOTB(Out of the Box Analytics applications) version but I tried to replicate that in my stand alone local OBIEE server and I couldn't do it and then I was told there needs to be a configuration change in the Presentation Services Configuration file(instanceconfig.xml). The default dashboards required to max out before they turn to a menu is 15, so we can't see a menu even though the dashboards are built off of the same shared folder/same business area until we create 16 dashboards. So we need to change the instanceconfig.xml available in InstallDir\OracleBIData\web\config and add the following line in the server instance part.
Once we add the line shown above in instanceconfig.xml, we have to follow the regular dashboard creation process from the same shared folder.
As shown above in the last dashboard display the dashboards ABCD, ABDE and BCDE are grouped as part of the Business Area ABC folder and the names of these dashboards are arranged alphabetically in a menu(folder like structure). So if we need to show ABDE ahead of ABCD,we have to rename them using 01 ABDE, 02 ABCD and 03 BCDE based on your requirement and shown in the example below.
I tried to search dashboard menu on various OBIEE blogs and I couldn't find related stuff, that's the only reason I wanted to post this.
Once we add the line shown above in instanceconfig.xml, we have to follow the regular dashboard creation process from the same shared folder.
As shown above in the last dashboard display the dashboards ABCD, ABDE and BCDE are grouped as part of the Business Area ABC folder and the names of these dashboards are arranged alphabetically in a menu(folder like structure). So if we need to show ABDE ahead of ABCD,we have to rename them using 01 ABDE, 02 ABCD and 03 BCDE based on your requirement and shown in the example below.
I tried to search dashboard menu on various OBIEE blogs and I couldn't find related stuff, that's the only reason I wanted to post this.
Dew Factor? Tri-Nation Cricket IND-SL-BD
'Dew became a huge factor' - Dhoni . Shakib made a similar comment when they lost to SL the other day and what did Team India learn from it? Nothing :). I was never a big fan of MS Dhoni's captaincy because like most Indian captains, he always has a defensive mindset. In his earlier days, he used to have an aggressive mindset with a cool head which helped us win more matches when he batted in the middle order chasing good targets. Once he injured his back, he stopped all the big bottom hand strokes which are his signature shots and now he is an accumulator and he needs hitters Yuvi or Raina to bat with him otherwise there would be no chance for the tema to win with his scoring rate, the latest example would be his 70 ball 37 run knock against an ordinary SL bowling on a good batting pitch. India never produced quality fast/spin/medium bowlers who can rip through the batting order or give consistent break throughs at the start of the innings over a consistent period of time. Indian bowlers always run through a good patch for a very small period and after that good period they don't even find place in the squad of fifteen. Of course there are always exceptions, a Kapil Dev, Kumble and some times Srinath and Zaheer(who finds himself more in the injury list than in the squad) but other than the mentioned names we have bowlers like Ishant, Irfan, Praveen Kumar, Sreesanth, Nehra etc who are not consistent. I didn't mention Bhajji because he has never been a wicket taking bowler in ODI format, he throws in fast and tries his best and mostly succeeds in stemming the run glut. For Indian cricket fans, it's a punishment to make them sit through and watch India bowl their quota of 50 overs. The Indian Captain's thinking would always be how to get through the 50 overs rather than restricting the batting team by consistently taking wickets or making plans to get the in the opposition team batsmen out and in case if there is an occassional good delivery then forget about it Indian fielding is so reliable that they can spill any catch and Mr Sunny's comment about Team India's catching was humorous.
"The way they are going about it, despite the cold weather I doubt if they will be able to catch a cold."
My point is that India did not score enough against SL and Indian bowling & fielding can't win matches if the score is less than 300 ; Even MS Dhoni knows the fact but I am not sure who is he trying to fool. Dew can be a factor but not the major factor which can decide a team's win or a loss.
"The way they are going about it, despite the cold weather I doubt if they will be able to catch a cold."
My point is that India did not score enough against SL and Indian bowling & fielding can't win matches if the score is less than 300 ; Even MS Dhoni knows the fact but I am not sure who is he trying to fool. Dew can be a factor but not the major factor which can decide a team's win or a loss.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Ready for NFL Play Offs Yet??
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
