Santhosh's Blog (2009-2018)

Note: this blog post was written and published prior to the 3rd India-England Test at Mohali, and excludes his performances in the IPL and other similar T20 tournaments This year may have been terrible in many ways for a lot of us, but I'm sure Virat Kohli isn't complaining. He has indeed had a fantastic 2016, and the numbers speak for themselves! The reason why I'm writing this post is because I was just very curious about what the numbers have to say about Kohli's nearly perfect 2016 and his career in general. So I went on looking online for the various statistics, and they were SO phenomenal. Moreover, from looking up his 2016 success online, I ended up getting stats about his career itself, and my jaw kept dropping even lower and lower every single time. So I thought to myself "Why not just share these thoughts I have on Kohli's career thus far in a post on my good ol' blog?" I have not published many cricket-related posts on the blog off l...

The man who has given India numerous victories with his captaincy. The man who has re-written the rulebook of wicket-keeping. The best ever finisher in world cricket. The coolest mind of the game. All these claims and titles go along with results and records for the Indian cricket team. Despite all of the various elements described above, there is no doubt that MS Dhoni is a man who is an easy target for haters. (contd.) Read the full article here: http://www.sportskeeda.com/cricket/thoughts-from-a-dhoni-fan-on-why-he-should-not-be-put-under-pressure-ahead-of-the-4th-odi (Originally posted on Sportskeeda on 25 October 2016)

The World T20 is here! And it's IN India! The first round of matches played between the "smaller teams" just got over. Keeping aside the rain which played spoilsport, the matches were really entertaining, with Bangladesh qualifying to India's group, and Afghanistan going to to the other one. Now that the main games are about to take place, Team India will be in the spotlight, and I'm hoping there will not be too much of pressure on them, since they have been called "favorites" by many, and they are the hosts. But why would not there be so much of confidence in this side? The Asia Cup recently got over, and India are in GREAT form, as they were crowned "Asian Champions". This has been a great start to 2016 on the whole, especially after facing a 4-1 loss to Australia in the ODI series. But ever since that 5th ODI, India have been on top, whitewashing Australia in the 3 T20Is which followed. The question remains: can India lift the World Cup ...

And IPL season is here again! This looks to be a massive one! And it will be quite a mood-fixer for the disappointed Indians after that heart-breaking World Cup. It's indeed one of my favorite sports tournaments, where you see Australians, South Africans, and players from other such big cricket-playing nations, fighting alongside Indians in Indian franchises. And we see some usual big names performing, but we also see some relatively "unknown" Indian faces come up and do good, which is also very good to see! This post will give a quick preview of each IPL side, to see who all are playing, and what we should be expecting from each side. Will also give my personal predictions and thoughts for each side. Enjoy the read!

So the ICC World Cup is finally over. Firstly, congrats to Team Australia for the big win! Well deserved, no one can deny that! Personally speaking, the way this World Cup ended, made me more sad than happy. To elaborate more on this, and other aspects, I have divided this blog post in 4 parts. One part per semi-finalist. Will speak of my thoughts on each of the teams which made to the semi-finals, including the one I supported, India. Hope you enjoy this read! Thoughts on India's exit This was truly sad, for myself, and I'm guessing for Indian fans all over. I honestly didn't expect the Men in Blue to be rolled over by the Aussies, to end up being "thrashed" so badly in the semis. © AFP All that having been said, we had a fantastic World Cup! Kudos to the whole Team and Management for having played so beautifully till the semi-final! Our batsmen were good, and the bowlers were excellent. Fielding from the Indians was also brilliant, we were...

Introduction Hello dear readers, and fellow cricket lovers! Well... we're just 2 days away from that big eventful day. Wait, what? Valentine's Day?? No silly, I meant the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 *insert dramatic echo* This is cricket's biggest tournament, and it indeed does look promising! This post will mainly cover Team India, and my personal thoughts on it, and its chances. This post is coming late (as of now, 2 days before the tournament kicks off), because I was waiting to watch the warm-up matches to have a better idea of what to expect from each team in this tournament. The Indian players have been in Australia for around 2 months (or more, I think). They're exhausted, away from their families, and have been winless  throughout their entire stay in Australia. Despite being World Champions, it will be a tough ask for them to defend the title - no doubt about that! I agree that our Indian team is mainly dominant when playing at home, ...

Disclaimer: My blog, my space, my choice. Deal with it. Hateful comments will be deleted with pleasure! Preface "Oh Kohli is so Handsome" "Dhawan's moustache is sexy" "Dhoni is so COOL" "Yuvraj is TOO GOOD, man" NO! For Heaven's sake... we are about to play a T20 World Cup, it's not a fashion show. Ah well, just have a look at the squad I would opt for, in this massive tournament played in Bangladesh.

Hello all! It's World Cup time! And that too T20 World Cup time! :D I had made predictions for last year's 50-over World Cup, and they mostly came true, with the main one being India winning the cup. So I guess I've started believing that my predictions can be lucky for the Men In Blue! :) Thus why I decided to do an encore for this year's T20 World Cup. So here goes, the predictions for the winner of the World T20 2012! :)   Chak de India! :D (Sorry if this was a biased post... just felt like acting like Paul the Octopus for a second time. Let's hope it works again for the Indian team :D )

We got thrashed in England. We lost a Test series 5-0. We lost an ODI series that was almost ours. We lost the T20 match too. We were even ridiculed by English commentators, accused of Vaseline-usage, and called donkeys by Nasseer Hussain. They had the psychological advantage. We lost out on our best players - Sachin, Sehwag, Zaheer, Yuvraj. We had a whole new bunch of youngsters coming in to replace them. Then comes their turn to come to our own backyard, expecting a good contest. Five matches they had, and here's what happened: Thrashed at Hyderabad by 126 runs. Chased down beautifully at Delhi by 8 wickets. Took the series at Mohali, by 5 wickets. Chased a total with 10 overs to spare in Mumbai. And then saved a thrilling victory for the end of the series, to win the 5th one at Kolkata by 95 runs!! What was shocking, was that not even a single match was a close one... all were one-sided, and won comfortably in the end by India. And one can't even say "Ah, this i...

©AFP (pic courtesy Cricinfo) Dear Mahela Jayawardene, Kochi Tuskers Kerala was a Franchise that not many people were trusting to go far in this competition. But THANK YOU for having proven those folks WRONG. Your very justified field-placements, your unusual bowling changes, your interesting team selections (bringing in Sreesanth at the right time in the team, and introducing us to Parameswaran), your constant energy on the field, and your level-headed attitude, are all part of a great Captaincy-combo that ensured us few victories, that nobody expected! (Against Kolkata, Mumbai AND Chennai!) Add that, to a great captain's knock whenever it was needed, and you have a player who has done his job perfectly. As a batsman. As a captain. As a Tusker. I am not a resident of India... I am an Overseas Citizen of India, residing in Geneva, Switzerland, but originally from Kerala.. and very frankly, even I wasn't too sure of KTK's fate in this tournament. And before this IPL, I...

©Cricinfo Dear Readers, Firstly, sorry for the delay in writing this blogpost. I was wanting to write it since quite some time, but was travelling, so didn't get the opportunity to write it down. And as the saying goes, "Better Late Than Never!" So here goes. Here's dedicating this one to Team India. Chak De! Content: Analysis of the Indian Squad - Plus and minuses of the Indian team: what to look out for in the coming weeks. World Cup Predictor: my predictions of Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final Concluding note   Analysis of the Indian Squad   To begin this blogpost, let's have a look at the 14-member Indian squad.     MS Dhoni (c/wk) Virender Sehwag (vc) Ravichandran Ashwin Piyush Chawla Gautam Gambhir Harbhajan Singh Zaheer Khan Virat Kohli Ashish Nehra Munaf Patel Yusuf Pathan Suresh Raina Sreesanth Sachin Tendulkar Yuvraj Singh A great squad, to say the least. The bes...

Salutations readers! :) Hoping that all's well for everybody. Really feels good to be back on the keyboard for whipping up yet another blogpost! :D Sorry for having not written a "general round-up", like I usually do, in my last two blogposts. Since Champions League happened, and since Anjaana Anjaani's music happened, I really felt it was worth writing special blogpost dedicated to them only. And WOW, am I glad with the response to my two blogposts, or what! Especially the combined music review one. Was appreciated by almost everyone who read it, and also by the very same Shekhar Ravijiani, who is indeed the composer of Anjaana Anjaani's music! Thanks a ton to Shekhar sir, and all of you who liked my blogpost. Cheers!  Now, here's the contents list of this blogpost: Cricket: India-Australia test series 2010 Commonwealth Games 2010: Delhi 'Endhiran - The Robot' : a great step forward in Indian Cinema! Bollywood: forthcoming and current releases...

   *WHISTLE PODU!* Hello readers! How you all doing? Well well well, it's already September 2010... and cricket fans, you know what that means! Champions League T20 is here again! And this year, the champions of the IPL, CHENNAI SUPER KINGS, have qualified for it! My full support goes to them this year, even though it has been subject to criticism. Criticism, because there are people out there who believe that IPL teams don't have the potential to defeat other world-class teams. I'm sure you that you all will agree with my Disagreement to those people. And well, I don't know about the other two teams, but CSK definitely has the upper-hand on ALL the participants of the CLT20! And that's what makes me want to support them. Few factors which make me stick to that opinion: - Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Captain cool. Mr. Safe Hands. Batsman who has the best temperament. What more should I say? He led his team to victory in the first T20 World Cup, and now he led his I...

Salutations Readers!  How y'all doing? My life's pretty much the same... in other words, there is still as much Bollywood, Cricket and Happiness as there usually is! ;) In this month's post, I will briefly talk about the current biggest event of Cricket, the T20 World Cup of course, and I will also mention few Bollywood films that released, and those that are going to release! So fasten your seat belts, coz' the ride is just about to begin ;) Cricket - T20 World Cup Well, India failed... yet again... and this time also, they couldn't win any of their Super 8 matches... Here are a few factors that caused our downfall in my opinion: - Ravindra Jadeja: he couldn't bat well, he couldn't bowl well, and he couldn't even field properly. Total failure. - Yuvraj Singh: his batting was simply pathetic this time... and to believe that he was the man who hit those six 6s against England in the first T20 WC. - Yusuf Pathan: his terrible economy in his bowling...

Salutations to all! For those only interested to read on the IPL, I suggest you jump to the 3rd paragraph of this post, lol! Well well well... looks like I'm back, after many months... First of all, I apologize for not having kept my word, and for not writing as promised, the mentionned blogposts... Usually, people would say 'Better Late than Never', but here it is really too late to write on things like the 'Shiv Sena vs Shahrukh' controversy... My final opinion on it: Justice always triumphs! Well, that was for one of the 3 topics... The others are very out-dated... Introduction Well well well, let's come back to the main topic... Three letters that rock the nation: I-P-L. According to me, IPL 2010 was the best of the lot, compared to the previous years. Mainly because of one reason: the audience was treated to an excellent performance by many previously unknown young players, and to master-class perfos by the experienced aces of the game... A good bl...