West Indies vs South Africa 1st Test
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Kahin aag lage (Taal)
Topic: Cricket
Well, yesterday was the first test WI vs SA. Chanderpaul selected to bat first after winning the toss (its his home ground so he should know best!). Boy, was I worried especially as since we were not playing with our full team (Gayle, Lara and Sarwan are not playing because of conflicts of sponsors i.e. Digicel and Cable and Wireless). We have a number of persons I've never heard of on the squad or have a limited test career. Anyway, we did surprisingly well yesterday, Chanderpaul who was captaining the side (debut) made a century yesterday, and Hinds have 182 at the moment, but that was a long battle. We had lost 2 wickets in the same over when we were at 24 (Devon Smith and Ganga) - that got me worried - thought we were gonnas after that ... but then one of the debut guy, Pagon came on and put in a solid 35, so that built some confidence in the camp. Besides, we have batted a whole day (we survived!) and we now stand at 347/3 ... I thought we might not have lasted a whole day much less make 300 .. but we did it ... but the announcers are hoping that we make a score of 500 ... although that will be great ... anything can be expected from the West Indies!

Anyway, waiting to see what this day's play holds!

WI vs Australia - match washed out!
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: Dil Mein Jaagi (Sur)
Topic: Cricket
So, Angela's parents left this morning ... was supposed to get up and watch the match at that time ... but felt sleepy ... so snuck back into my bed after saying bye to them.

Deciding to catch the second half of the match about 7:00 am ... at that time Australia, was 12/2 ... or something like that ... when rain deciding to come pouring down ... supposingly some storm ... so to keep us occupied they showed back the morning's half of play ... so you see it was a good thing I didn't stay up and watch it. Lara got a horrible out decision ... they appealed for a catch ... and he didn't even hit the ball ... there was like maybe 6 inches bwt the ball and bat ... he was not pleased!!

Well ... eventually they decided they could play ... overs were limited to 35, with a run rate of 8.75 (or somewhere about there) required. I thought we were over, when Ricky Pointing ... gave us a blast off Dillon's first over with 11 runs ... but then we pulled back with Collins picking up 2 wickets in the next over. I was getting excited (before in the previous over I was so frustrated I was gobbling down caramel and potato chips) ... I figured we had a chance to win ... so, ran upstairs and grabbed my phone and wallet (for the telephone card) ... because I was poised to call Ritch ... to shout how we won if we did ... a Dillon over, produced another wicket ... we had them at 45/5 at 11 overs ... and then the most horrible thing happened ... rain came pouring down ... so, I waited to see if it will abate ... but eventually the match was called a 'no result' ... the Australians must be thanking their lucky stars at the moment! Does WI have any luck whatsoever in this series?? Excepting for Hinds century?? Because without that century we will be in a horrible position, considering we had only one wicket remaining at the end of 50 overs. Anyway, so bit frustrated about that ... since I stayed home to see the match ... and then I had to hurry to the OU.

West Indies vs Pakistan
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Ackamilai ?? (a song from Raja)
Topic: Cricket

Well, who thought we could have outdone ourselves!! We've did it again ... we've lost against Pakistan ... I mean we did make a respectable score of 273 .... but it seems respectable is not enough these days .... we had to defend that ... and with our bowling line up ... hmmm ... what can you say ... we don't have the type of attacking bowlers needed. Can't say we should have chased because we had that opportunity against Australia ... and still lost miserably ... this lost wasn't too bad (never mind they won by 6 wickets in 47 overs).

Anyway, I really shouldn't rant and rave, since I didn't actually see the match ... just the scorecards ... I got up at about 6:50 am this morning to catch the last half hour supposingly ... was suppose to up at 4 am to watch the last couple of hours but was feeling to lazy ... well, now I'm glad I didn't - because it would have been utter disappointment. Anyway, there was just some commentary in the studio at that point on the cricket coverage .. and the coverage ended at 7:00 although scheduled for 7:30 am ... so it was with bitter disappointment we lost again! Anyway, I think we have a match on Friday against Australia - hopefully we can redeem ourselves (doubt it highly - but miracles can happen). Anyway, got to win the next two matches each bwt Australia and Pakistan ... if we expect to feel any sort of hope!

First ODI Match WI vs Australia
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: Pyar kiya to dewaana
Topic: Cricket

So, our first ODI was today with Australia ... after a long time ... and WI did not disappoint - we went out in style!We out down in our 46th over with 116 runs yet to be made! At least Lara made 58 ... disappointed that Chanderpaul got out on 46 - could have at least made his half century. Well at least we did better than I thought when I first put on my computer (yup I had to use live cricket scores from Cricmania and ball by ball commentary from Cricket.org ). I was trying to see if I could find a live radio station on the internet with the cricket commentary ... I think Ritch used to know one - so got to contact him find that one ... because this ball by ball commentary is fine for a test match ... but I need live commentary for an ODI ... to feel the excitement. Well ... all this searching for radio stations have not been vain either, since I found a radio page that is playing Indian music! I am not sure if it is just one string of songs that will loop ... but will have to see ... it turned out to be a Guyanese radio. So, far it is good ... lots of old songs ... and interspersed with some songs from the 90s ... got no problem so far. Anyway, got to go do some work ... this was one of my procrastination schemes.

Append (17 Jan): Turns out the website on which the radio I found is just a link to the real radio station ... which is Curry Radio ... turns out the site just usually plays that radio when you open that page ... but the radio is actually a Trinidad station ... but it plays mostly remix and some soca and chutney ... must have been lucky to get pure film music that day ... but it is not too bad ... since it reminds me of home