A match lost and Sergei Bubka

India again lost the match yesterday to Pakistan. Its was a close match, but it always looked like Pak had the match in total control.

For the good news, Sachin finally got his long awaited century yesterday. That means another world record..he will continue to create a record with every additional century that he scores. Such is the greatness of the man. Reminds me of an old pole vaulter from Russia (or Ukrain, I am not sure. this was probably before the disintegration of the USSR). This guy, whose name I think was Sergei Bubka, had this habit of bettering his own record a lot of times. Maybe I should write a post on him sometime soon.

Pak need to be applauded for their disciplined innings at the field. The Pak scoreboard was a delight to watch.. their whole top and middle order managed to get into the 40s. No big scores, but a consistent and sincere contribution from everyone took the match away. It was certainly not a fluke victory for them.

Now, is 2-2, and that means the stakes have just gone up. Both teams cannot afford to lose a match because that would effectively mean that they then cannot win the series. Remember, this is a six-match affair. Kanpur is up next !!

Oh.. one thing: Saurav again was hauled up for a slow over rate. I dont know why that happens to the Indians so much. This time, the punishment is severe - he has been banned for 6 one dayers. Need to wait and watch if the board can show some mercy and maybe decrease the sentence? Here is a link for the article on TOI: ICC bans Ganguly for six matches