by Divyam Arora Arsenal’s Champions League challenge suffered a major setback after a 2-0 loss to Bayern Munich last night. Arsenal started the game brightly. They seemed up for the occasion and looked full of energy. They had 2-3 good chances within the first 20 minutes but failed to capitalize. In the end they were left to rue missed chances and the penalty miss form Mesut Özil as they failed crack open the Bavarian defence.
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by Aman Mittal The problems at Manchester United see no end at the moment. The gutter only seems to be getting deeper by the minute and the draw against Arsenal didn’t deceive anyone Mr. Moyes. A 4-1 loss to City didn’t surprise me, but now; a loss to anyone doesn’t. Is this what Man Utd have become? Is this what you fans want your team to be? This is what Ed Woodward, Moyes, his staff and players must ask themselves.
by Sajed Ahmed There’s been a lot of buzz and chatter over the IPL auctions for the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League. I have to admit that how much ever I hate T20 cricket, a lot of strategy goes into the purchasing of players and that’s what makes the IPL interesting. Like any other auction, the IPL auctions have basic rules that govern the way the auction is conducted. Every team has a finite purchasing power in the form of a pre-determined sum of money based on their player retentions. A minimum of 14 Indian and a maximum of 10 foreign players can be there in the squad. Another important facility is the right to match card. The number of right to match cards with every team depends on the number of players retained by the franchise. The right to match card allows the team to secure a player from their previous roster by matching the highest bid.
by Vishnu Dev Monaco or officially the Principality of Monaco is a sovereign city-state right underneath France on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s the place where rockstars and athletes live, billionaires park their mega yachts every summer, where Hollywood celebrities holiday and the elite of high end gamblers flock. But that doesn’t really interest me. Monaco is also known for its world famous rally stage; The Monte’ Carlo Rally. It’s a tough stage that drivers look forward to all year and one of the places where automotive engineers test the latest in automotive technology developments to the limit. But I’m not interested in rally. For me Rally had its peak from the late 70s till the early 90s where companies like Lancia and Subaru made some really great cars. Now however the sport has become dull. It’s just a few small hatchbacks getting dirty. I’m not being a repugnant, but for me rally nowadays is like solving a complex calculus problem. I wasn’t really looking forward to it. I just want to get it over with and in the end; I’m not really bothered about the final result. But then that’s just my opinion.
by Divyam Arora José Mourinho claimed his 100th victory in Premier League by winning 3-1 against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, just like he had got off the mark in 2004. He did so in record number of games. It took him 142 games to do so, beating Ferguson’s record of 162. As a testimonial of his contribution to the English game José received an award form Football Writers’ Association just hours after the game on Sunday.
by Sajed Ahmed The Ashes is one of the oldest rivalries in cricket history. For almost 135 years now, the Englishmen and the Aussies have battled it out to gain possession of The Ashes. Countless heroes have emerged, failures have never been bigger, and the performance of a player in any Ashes tour has and will never be forgotten. It’s been a little more than two weeks since Michael Clarke went down in the history books as the third Australian captain to achieve a whitewash in the Ashes after WW Armstrong in 1920/21 and Ricky Ponting in 2006/07.
by Sajed Ahmed I said it right. Murali Vijay has greatly contributed to Team India’s performance in South Africa. I’m not talking about his 97 in the first innings of the second test. I’m talking about every innings of his in this other than the last one. Understanding this requires a look into the dynamics of the South African side, their history and of course some statistics.
The South African team has been quite old school with their approach to test cricket even in the modern era. Their strategy: Brute force, and it has worked out very well for them. Number 1 test team, it doesn’t get any better than that. If you take a look at the top wicket takers of South Africa of all time you would see that all of them are fast bowlers. At the top we have Shaun Pollock with a tally of 395 wickets, followed by Makhaya Ntini with 390, Dale Steyn with 347, my personal favorite Allan Donald with 330 and Jacques Kallis with 292(as of November 2013). South Africa’s most successful spinner is Paul Adams at 134 wickets to his name. This piece of statistic gives an insight into the modus operandi of the South African attack right from the early 90’s. The South Africans have a simple yet effective strategy to get the job done and that is two front line fast bowlers clocking at around 140 kmph, 2 medium fast bowlers and sometimes when playing in Asia, a spinner. by Sajed Ahmed Cricket is a very very unpredictable sport. Just when the games start to get a little monotonous, we witness some games that make us hold on to our seats. Games that leave us in a state of shock and awe. In the games listed below, the stakes of victory are very high and therefore the victory in itself is huge. Men emerging to the occasion and delivering when their team was in trouble. So here it goes, 5. Australia VS Bangladesh, NatWest Series. |