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On July 19^th begins the first Test Match between England and India at the historical cricket ground of Lord’s. India’s tactic shall most likely be consistent of 6 batsmen, 4 bowlers, and a wicketkeeper.

It would seem that this time the Indian team management won’t have to go through the pain of selecting final XI for the First test match, except for the debate between VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh. The classy century crafted by Laxman in the practice game against Essenx must have earned him his chance to be included in final XI. On the other hand it means that Singh will end up warming the dressing room chairs. Otherwise master blaster Sachin, former cap. Sourav and Dravid are the certainty in the middle order with Mahendra Singh Dhoni acting behind the stumps as the Wicket Keeper.It also seems certain that the Indian team management won’t trick anything with specialist opener slots in seam friendly English Conditions. Everyone is well aware of the fact that India has never enjoyed sound opening partnerships in English Conditions till date. This will influence Indian team management to persist with the specialist openers Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer. In spite of having poor practice games, Wasim Jaffer’s place in the final XI seems to be a done deal ahead of Gautam Gamhir. Jaffer has had the archive of two hundreds in his last three Test matches, turning things in his favor.

In the bowling department India will most likely go with 3 seamers and 1 spinner. Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, and R. P. Singh should be the first choice of team management, since other seam bowlers like Ishant Sharma and Ranadeb Bose failed to grab the opportunity they were given during the practice games. In spin department Anil Kumble would definitely be a wise choice over Ramesh Powar. On the positive side Tendulkar and Ganguly might also turn their arms (and actually bowl) as a leg break bowler and a medium pacer respectively.

To register the second win at Lords after 1986, India will have to take 20 wickets; it would be a tough task for the Indian bowlers to take 20 wickets as England batsmen are performing top notch. They had an excellent series against West Indies though, Andrew Strauss was an exception during that time but recently he had made made solid half century against the Indian bowling attack.

Zaheer Khan will have to repeat the magic that he worked last year during his stint with Worcestershire. Anil Kumble being a leg spinner can cause a few problems to the English batters since they become uncomfortable against such a style. On the other side Sreesanth still has the same pace and swing and R. P. Singh might end up also playing an important role in the “Mission 20 Wickets”

I would also like to clarify that it won’t be the bowler’s show all the way. The batsmen must be able to pile up high scores in the first inning, so that bowlers can keep pressure off to the batting side by showing aggressive fielding. The good news for India is that Sachin is back with a bang. He has shown excellent batting skills recently and the saying “form is temporary and class is permanent” fits the master blaster perfectly. Sachin may have in the back of his mind the thought that he hasn’t scored a century at Lord’s in the five innings he played, but he should also keep in mind that this will Probably be his last opportunity to play a test at Lords before its time for him to hang his shoes. Let’s switch the spotlight to other batsmen. As always we can expect some good knocks from Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly since they possess the feats to do so. I would also like to take this opportunity to applaud Dinesh Karthik because I had really appreciated the way he bounced back and secured his place as a specialist batsman. He is really enjoying this form of his life and his healthy rivalry with Dhoni is working out as a favor to the Indian team.

Since Flintof and Harmission, Hoggard has also joined the list of injured players. at this moment it is highly unlikely that he would have recovered tomorrow; opening up a crack in England’s bowling department. They will be left with only two in-form bowlers, Monty Panesar and Sidebottom, both with an excellent series against West Indies. Panesar is improving his performance day by day, but since the Indians are good at confronting the spin bowling, I don’t see him as a major threat.

In my opinion India has a very good chance of winning this Test at Lords after the huge gap of 21 years. Lets hope for the best!

My Team for first Test Match at Lords

Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, RP Singh and Yuvraj Singh (12th man).

I will come up with Day 1 Review of first Test Match at Lords

Cheeni Kum

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Paresh Rawal, Zora Sehgal, Swini Khara
Director: Balkrishnan
Producer: Sunil Manchanda
Year: 2007

Hello again friends.

This time I bring to you the review of a movie that should make a place for itself right in your hearts. The movie is called Cheeni Kum, but let me tell you the movie is an absolute sweet sensation. The cast may be very small but all of them have delivered an excellent performance. All of the Big B fans should not be disappointed because you will see Mr.Bachchan in an estatic performance. He is playing a character that is just his age, 64. But his love Tabu is not a white wigged old lady but is rather playing a realistic age of 34. Tabu seemed to be losing her charm as an actress since Maqbool, but she is back and better than ever. She sways big B into loving her and the two decide to get married. YES! Believe it or not, the two are planning on getting married. Tabu’s dad happens to be none other than Paresh Rawal who is playing a 58 year old man. The story begins as a synopsis of Mr. Bachchan’s character named Buddha. He is a restaurant owner and he just has a little bit cheeni kum in him. He is always mad at everyone, and what his complaint is no one knows. Then comes the character of Tabu who is a charming bright lady named Nina ready to bring a change to Buddha’s life. The first half revolves around how their relationship develops into a decision to get married. It also consists of a very sweet child nicknamed Sexy. She also happens to be my favorite child artist from a TV drama called Baa Bahoo Aur Baby on Star Plus. She is the sweet and witty Swini Khara, whose character in the movie is diagnosed with blood Cancer and is on the verge of dying. She is the one part of Buddha’s life that brings him happiness and a sense of childhood even at his growing age. Everything seems nice and sweet but there has to be a complication and so the evil man enters.

Paresh Rawal refuses to have his daughter marry a man that is six years older than himself. His character is also one that gives great importance to the ideals of Gandhi Bapu. His tactic to stop his daughter’s marriage was to go on a food strike just like Bapu. This is where relationships take an awkward turn and many arguments are raised to make him understand. The outcome is a very complex combination of sweetness and sadness. What could Buddha do, after all his life did lack some sugar.

One thing that many of you may not enjoy is the music. It lacks the characteristic of an album that you can listen to over and over again, but it does fit the situations. There are a couple of songs with a melody that seemed to be made only for the character, not for any fans. The director has also done an excellent job because with two major and a couple of minor characters, the movie never seems to stretch on which is very important nowadays. There were a couple of mistakes that I saw with the lighting but maybe its due to the location of London, but after all some mistakes are allowed. All on all you get a good feeling after having seen them movie that has a tablespoon of laughter, teaspoon of smirks, and just a drop of tear. It is my friends Cheeni Kum.

The Train - Some Lines Should Never Be Crossed

Cast- Emraan Hashmi, Geeta Basra, Sayali Bhagat
Director- Hasnain Hyderabadwala
Production- Siddhivinayak Creations
Year- 2007

Hello again friends,

Some of you may remember that my last post was about a movie I had really enjoyed. Many of you might also know that Bollywood isn’t known for making continuous hits therefore this is the review of a movie that I very much disliked. The movie is called The Train: Some Lines Should Never Be Crossed. The star of the movie was Emraan Hashmi who has never really given us a huge hit continues to fail us with his performance. I am also a huge fan of Hollywood films and as Chocolate was a partial remake of the Usual Suspects, and The Killer was a remake of Collateral, this movie was again a sad remake of Derailed. I’m sorry but there was a difference to the amount of sadness in this movie due to the fact that the creators couldn’t even think up of a better name. Derailed (dealing with trains) and The Train, no wonder many have said that Bollywood has no imagination.

Enough about the story and names, let’s talk about the actors. I must admit that in her first movie I thought Geeta Basra was a good looking woman but I had also learned that she was a terrible actor! My opinion remains exactly the same. She tried her best to be a Jennifer Aniston but just lacked the charm. Then the serial kisser could never equal out to Clive Owen who I think is a fantastic actor. Emraan still needs to work a decade more to come closer to the perfection that Clive Owen brings to the screen. I am also going to criticize on the director cause he had a simple job to prepare the actors. It should have taken them about two and a half hours to prepare since that’s how long Derailed was. All they had to do was watch the movie and begin shooting because every shot seemed exactly the same to me. As Owen’s character throws the car with a dead body into the lake, Hashmi’s character does the same ecxact. The director could not have thrown it off of a mountain or a bridge or anything. Sometimes I felt that they had used the exact sets to shoot. I also learned an amazing thing about Hong Kong. There are more Indians living there then there are any other races. At a party scene, the motel, Hashmi’s workplace, everywhere seemed to be full of Indians. There was one thing about the movie I liked which was the little girl who I thought was very cute, but her mother didn’t seem like a mother at all. She was mostly wearing revealing outfits, even at a PTA meeting she left with a red plaque skirt that was half way above her knees. What mother dresses like that to a school meeting I would love to know!

Hashmi not only kept his record for being a bad actor but also kept his place as the lucky charm for the music director. There were two songs in particular that I loved. One was Woh Ajnabee, and the other was Mausam. Mithoon, K.K., and Silpa Rao are just wonderful in them.

Well, that’s all folks, and I will take this opportunity to thank all of the previous visitors for coming and many more would be appreciated. Please tell us how we are doing!