Man of the Match..

-- Man who is worshiped by country of 1+ Billion

-- Man about whom Barack Obama says: "I don't know much about cricket but still I watch cricket to see him play.. Not b'coz I love this game, its b'coz I want to know the reason why my country's productivity goes down by 5% when he's batting".

-- Man who has enough Cricket World records in his name that no one even thought would be possible by any individual.

-- Man about whom Andy Flower says: "There's him on one hand, and then there are the rest of us."

-- Man who made ME along with countless others Wake Up before DAWN to watch him play.

-- In India Cricket is a religion, by saying that all the Cricketers are God & if so, He's The KING of all other Gods.

-- Man Beyond any comparison.

Ladies and Gentlemen he's none other than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Today was the World Cup Cricket Semi Final between India & Pakistan.

I don't remember when did I watch any cricket match before today, All of my friends / colleagues discuss about it but I never gave any attention till now. I do know any cricket match between India & Pakistan has been special, This was even more important because both the teams were clashing in World Cup semi finals. With the popularity of social networking I could feel the importance of this match even more. Decided not to be clueless about today's match and set an alarm for 04:00am. By the time I switched on RIGEL match had already started. Got connected to the Internet site (streaming with 30 seconds delay). Moment I got connected saw Opening bats man LBW out, simultaneously one of my friends pinged me and wanted to confirm if I'm also watching the game.
yea I'm UP too, first time :)
I told her the moment I got connected Virender Sehwag is declared out.
She suggested me to logoff..
What did I do ??? :D

Next few batsman kept coming and going but Sachin was consistently batting well even after 6 close calls: 1 LBW, 1 Stumping attempt & 4 Catch drops.

I heard commentators saying:

What did he eat for his Breakfast ?
-- must have had lots of Curd (Yoghurt) [in India it's believed that, having little curd before any important task brings success].

What would have Pakistan team had ?
Must be lots of Butter.. lol

I was not too interested in win or loss of any team but wanted to see Sachin complete his 100th Century. The way he was playing, The Confidence & Experience he has, didn't leave any doubt in me that he won't be able to do it today. He was still there in the ground after 6 close calls, Got assured that he's there for a big reason: Alas!!! It was only 15 runs left to mark his 100th Century he was caught OUT. I lost all interest and didn't bother what's going on afterwards. At the start of the game heard that The Mohali pitch where this game was going on 313 run has been average and it's considered a batting pitch. When Sachin was caught out India didn't even score 200. I posted my first FB status update "Sachin's caught.. nothing to watch now..." & stopped watching the game... Couldn't resist for long time and started watching the game again after 15 - 20 mins (yea yea.. because... I was already up early morning and I didn't want to sleep again).

* and I didn't have to go to office because I took off (remember Obama's saying above).

Anyways don't wanna get into too much of details about rest of Indian batting. Overall India could score 260 after playing all 50 overs which I was sure would be piece of cake for Pakistan team (considering 313 as average score on pitch).

2nd Inning: Pakistani opening batsman hit the very first ball towards boundary line and it was like start with a BANG. Team Pakistan looked very strong initially but Indian bowlers just smashed them all one after the other. "Easy Piece of Cake" looked like "Impossible to Achieve Apple".

Finally India won the match by 29 runs & Sachin was declared "Man of the Match".

India goes to world cup final and will play with Sri Lanka on April 2nd 2011 in Mumbai.

While watching the Game I clicked more than 200 shots, Best of the shots are collected here:
Album of WC-2011 Semifinals [India vs. Pakistan]

Not to underestimate the importance of social networking (specially Facebook) in today's society but to mark it in my blip: As I mentioned I was getting streaming with 30 seconds delay (wasn't instant live broadcast); To my surprise I could see the updates in Facebook before I could see the event online :)
I told my friend about this social networking madness this way "People go to Six Flags and post comment saying I'm in a Roller Coaster.. They get more thrilled posting the comment than enjoying roller coaster" :)


Signing off for today. Have a wonderful time ahead.