Onto the Sports Arena!

This summer has been celebration time for all genuine lovers of sports- IPL 2, followed by Rolland Garros and now onto IPL T/20 World Cup- there has been enough to lap up for the genuine sports enthusiast! IPL 2 started slow but started getting better and better as it progressed. By the time of semi- finals, it had seen quite a few ups and downs. Chennai and Delhi which were considered the super contenders for the title had to bow down and the inevitable finals had Hyderabad pitted against Bangalore! The stakes were high for Bangalore but in the end Gilchrist lead his team to victory while bagging the "Man of the Series" himself. Till IPL 2 happened, T/20 was considered the "young" thing but Gilly, Hayden, Sachin and Kumble proved that wrong and how- probably this was the biggest lesson that IPL 2 taught us!

Rolland Garros was not free of surprises either. All eyes were on Rafa to lift the trophy for the consecutive 5th time and create a world record of sorts but it was another gentlman who equalled another record- of winning 14 grand slam titles just like Pete Sampras and the man in question was Roger Federer who finally lifted the French Open Title that has been eluding him ever since he jumped into the international arena! Soderling who upset Rafa tried his best to match Federer's skills with the racket but had to bow down to the king himself! The competition in the category of the fairer sex was also as intense and finally, Dinara Safina had to bow down to Svetlana Kuznestova who lifted her first French Open Trophy! Sania Mirza did very little to make us Indians proud but that was more or less compensated by Leander Paes who lifted the doubles trophy- exciting times those were...

And now the focus is completely on ICC T/20 World Cup on at England- Whether or not India will make it past the Super Eight will be decided tonight when they meet the hosts. India is definitely not playing the champions game this time- sample that difficult win over Bangladesh and that pitiable show opposite the West Indies. South Africa is in crackling form and so are the Lankans! Pakistan did the unimaginable by scoring over the Kiwis- only time can tell who will make it to the Semis.

I am looking at SA, Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies in the Semis. That would make the Semis and the Finals interesting! If it is WI v SA in the finals, I really dont care who wins at the end out of the 2 deserving teams that have not made any big news for quite sometime now. Lets keep our fingers crossed...