Indian Cricket Blog - Cricket Fundas

Cricket Digest For Jan 06, 2009

Aus Vs SA, 3rd Test

The Proteas face the Survival Test on the final day of the Sydney Test. They have effectively got 8 wickets in hand considering that Graeme Smith has been ruled out to bat. South Africa do have a decent chance of even winning the test with 314 more to get but the Sydney wicket is not all that flat. There is a bit of low bounce which can be exploited by the pace bowlers and although it will take turn, the Aussies certainly do not have any quality spinner. At stumps on Day 4, SAF have recovered well after losing makeshift opener Morkel and have got McKenzie and Amla batting solidly. The Aussie attack doesn’t have any big names at all and all their hopes rest on Peter Siddle. So I would think a draw is most likely to happen unless SA batsmen play very bad.

I thought it was a pretty bold decision from Ricky to give a target of 376 and leave SA to bat for 116 overs! It is good to know that the Aussies are still playing for only winning Tests and not for draws even if they are 0-2 down! That’s good spirit indeed. The South African bowlers did okay in containing the Australians for 257 for 4 in 67 overs before the declaration.Here is the Live link for this Test Match.

BD Vs SL, 2nd Test

Sri Lanka have wiped out Bangladesh inside 50 overs to wrap up a massive 465-run victory. Tillkaratne Dilshan has made most of his opportunity by scoring a breezy 143 in the second innings and then to take 4 quick wickets in as many overs when Bangladesh came out to bat during the 4th day. Mendis took care of the top order taking three wickets. This match belonged totally to Dilshan as he had also scored 162 in the first innings which helped SL reach 384 from a vulnerable state of 75 for 4. Dilshan has walked away with both the Man of the Match and the Player of the Series awards.Here is the Link to the Full Scorecard.

Ranji Trophy

Saurashtra has shown a lot of courage in giving some sort of fight for Mumbai on the third day. Saurashtra are hanging in there at 247 for 5 in reply to the monstrous 637 from Mumbai. This match surely will end in a draw but Mumbai should go through to the finals unless Saurashtra manage to avoid getting all out in their first innings. Something like that which is highly unrealistic. Veteran left handed batsman Sitanshu Kotak frustrated the Mumbai bowlers with his stubborn defence before he fell towards the fag end making 89 in over 5 hours.

I had a good look at Cheteshwar Pujara for some 30 mins or so. And gotta tell you that this kid is going to last for 10 years of international cricket! He is a tall batsman who has got a good reach forward and gets back in time to fend the rising delivery with a lot of ease. Pujara is blessed with some text book basics and should be comfortable playing against any type of bowling on any type of wickets. He is as good as a Dravid was in defence. Another thing that caught my eye was the free flowing shots that Pujara plays; there is lot of flourish in the shots along with some golden touch. India has got to give him a place whether it is at the cost of Dravid!

And the other match at Nagpur is nicely poised with Uttar Pradesh fighting back after an early loss of both Raina and Kaif. They still managed to get to 253 for 3 from a shaky situation of 63 for 3. Left handed Opener Shivakant Shukla has got an unbeaten century, I am happy to know that he is just 22 years, so we can expect bigger things from him in the future! He is being well supported by No.5 Parvinder Singh who is on 93. Shukla has batted for close to 500 minutes! UP are now 192 runs away from Tamil Nadu’s 445. So you can’t say who will get the decisive first innings lead to enter the Final!

• Here is the Link to the Mumbai Vs Saurashtra - Full Scorecard
• Here is the Link to the Tamil Nadu Vs Uttar Pradesh - Full Scorecard

Getting The Right Domain Name Is a Huge Task

I am gearing up to bring up a brand new website which should be covering all topics relating to India and the world. Of course, it will begin from scratch and should take quite some time before there is any decent amount of content. That should not be a big deal for me however the most difficult obstacle that I am coming across is to find a proper Domain NAME for the site! This is because it seems that most of the domain names have already been taken away, even some of the worst sounding ones have also been registered! Anyway what I intend to do is to drop a few guidelines in registering a website domain for the benefit of starters in this industry. Well these points will be appropriate for content sites and not organizations or any businesses.

1. First think clearly as to what topics/subjects you are likely to cover in the website. Figure out what exactly you are going to do in the website. And then try to include your subject name in the domain name. Once you are clear of what your future website is going to contain then you can open up sites like DomainSearch.com, DomainRegister.com etc.
2. In these DomainSearch.com, DomainRegister.com sites, you can see if a particular domain name is available or not. If your desired name is available then make sure that you quickly register it through a proper Domain Registrar company. And if its not available, then keep trying different domain names until you are fully satisfied.
3. Thinking of a domain name will probably give you the same experience of naming a new born baby. Infact it is much more difficult in our case as Domain names have got to be unique! I would say that you need to be extremely patient and allow yourself enough time to come up with proper names. Keep thinking about the various words that you can try in the domain. Don’t finalize a name out of frustration as once you pick a domain name it has to stick in the minds of your visitors and you wouldn’t want to regret of your choice a few years later!
4. The shorter the domain name with your actual keyword, the better it is for your potential visitors to remember it. Try not to be fancy with your spellings as not many people care to remember unless the site is very resourceful to them.
5. The lay man on the internet thinks every website has got to end with a .com, so give preference to the .com extension.
6. Having got to a proper domain name, the next job is to pick the right registrar company to book the domain. Here again don’t pay some Tom, Dick and Harry to get the domain. Ensure that the registrar has a clean record, just run a search on the internet and see what all good and bad things are written about it. There are massive complaints about various companies cheating people so be ultra cautious in picking the right registrar! It is always better to book your domain name at one place and the hosting at another!

Cricket Digest For Jan 05, 2009

Aus Vs SA, 3rd Test

Australia holds the advantage in the third and final Test at Sydney as they have picked up a sizeable first innings lead of 118. They have stretched their overall lead to 151 with all the 10 second innings wickets in hand. But I would say that the Aussies have yet again lost the plot in this Test Series. They have lost a lot of valuable time in this Test match because of a stubborn 115-run partnership for the 6th wicket between the ever reliable Mark Boucher and left handed lower order bat Morne Morkel (who made 40 facing 134 balls). This partnership had taken SA from a precarious 193/5 to 308/6 and has most importantly batted out for over 40 overs! SA folded very quickly after this partnership to 327 with Boucher being the last man out having made a brilliant 89. Peter Siddle picked up his career best figures taking 5 for 59. It was the Jane McGrath day at the SCG with a lot of people turning in pink as a tribute to the late Jane McGrath, the wife of Glenn McGrath.

Well with just two more days left in the match, I think this should head towards a draw. Aus will need atleast a lead of 450 on the board for two reasons – 1. As SA chased a record 418 at MCG and 2. this Aussie attack is very vulnerable with the most experienced bowler being Johnson who is playing only his 18th Test! South Africa’s problem is the unavailability of Graeme Smith, who is out of action for six weeks because of a fractured finger. Here is the Live link for this Test Match.

BD Vs SL, 2nd Test

Not much of excitement on Day 3 at Chittagong with Sri Lanka batting Bangladesh out of the match which was always going to be a formality. The visitors got to 296 for 4 taking their lead to 450 with the overnight batsmen Samaraweera and Dilshan heading towards easy hundreds. This match could well be over tomorrow if SL can declare early and throw the ball to Ajantha Mendis! Here is the Link to the Full Scorecard.

Ranji Trophy

I am disappointed with the way Mumbai has been playing in this match; they are not bothered about forcing a win but just intent on piling up a massive first innings total. Remember this is a 4-day match and the team getting the first innings lead will be through to the Final! The Mumbai batsmen cashed in against some flat lackluster Saurashtra bowling. The two pacers, both left armers had been hardly bowling at 125kmph! Wasim Jaffer helped himself to a triple hundred while Sachin Tendulkar entertained the crowd with a busy century before retiring hurt to the comfort of the dressing room. For the record, Mumbai ended Day 2 at 637/6. Tomorrow should be fun watching how the bright young star Cheteshwara Pujara performs against a decent quality Mumbai attack that includes Zaheer Khan!

In the other match at Nagpur, Tamil Nadu have been restricted to 445 and Uttar Pradesh who have Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif could try and beat that total. This is going to be another drawn game. Uttar Pradesh in reply have lost one of its openers in a very cautious chase.

• Here is the Link to the Mumbai Vs Saurashtra - Full Scorecard
• Here is the Link to the Tamil Nadu Vs Uttar Pradesh - Full Scorecard

Ricky Ponting’s INBOX!

Lolz, found this hillarious thing while browsing today. Here we have got a sneak peek of the Australian Captain Ricky Ponting’s inbox! Look at the various subjects and senders of the mails! Find that out here

Cricket Digest For Jan 04, 2009

Aus Vs SA, 3rd Test

Well the most important match of the day is at Sydney where the South African batsmen are grinding the inexperienced Australian attack pretty well. However, the homeside had a slightly better day as they stretched their first innings total to an impressive 445. Australia had a disappointing first day ending at 267 for 6. So they will be happy with what they have got. They wouldn’t have got so many runs as yesterday Hashim Amla had put down a dolly of a catch offered by Michael Clarke. The overnight pair of Clarke and Johnson frustrated the Proteas with a 142-run stand. Clarke went onto make 138 and Johnson scored 64, Nathan Hauritz, the off spinner joined the party with 41 and so did Siddle with 23.

The Proteas had a solid opening stand until Graeme Smith was forced out of the first innings atleast with a nasty blow on his finger. Smith had to retire hurt and is unlikely to return back in this match. At stumps on Day 2, SA are well placed at 125 for 1 with Amla and Kallis looking good with their 30s. The only wicket to have fallen has been that of Neil McKenzie. Well happened to see the bowling of two debutants – Doug Bollinger and Andrew McDonald. Bowlinger, the left armer bowled at around 135 kmph and does look a fine bowler. McDonald on the other hand bowled at a military medium pace of 125 kmph, his strength lies in swinging the ball in both the directions. Here is the Live link for this Test Match.

BD Vs SL, 2nd Test

There is another Test Match going on between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at Chittagong. The Sri Lankans have been put in the Driver’s Seat by the Mystery bowler – Ajantha Mendis, who has straightaway made the impact by taking 4 wickets. Mendis didn’t play in the first test match at Mirpur which saw the Tigers pile up over 400 in their second innings. This time though Bangladesh folded for just 208 in reply to SL’s 384. All rounder Mortaza did some damage control by scoring 63. At stumps on Day 2, SL have got to a second innings lead of 189 with all their 10 wickets intact. Here is the Link to the Full Scorecard.

Ranji Trophy

Well India’s premier Domestic Tournament has reached the Semi-Finals stage with Mumbai taking on Saurashtra at Chennai and Tamil Nadu taking on Uttar Pradesh at Nagpur. Both the matches have seen the batsmen dominate totally on the opening day’s play. The biggest attraction is the participation of Sachin Tendulkar who had just finished his holiday in Mussourie. Sachin didn’t get a chance to bat at all as Mumbai ended the first day strongly at 268 for 1 with Skipper Wasim Jaffer on an unbeaten 162. The Mumbai team also has Zaheer Khan for this match! It will be a big test for India hopeful Cheteshwara Pujara, who has been getting tons of runs for Saurashtra in this season. Well in another match at Jamtha in Nagpur, Tamil Nadu are sitting pretty at 296 for 2 against the Mohammad Kaif led Uttar Pradesh. Left handed Opener Abinav Mukund has notched up a century while Murali Vijay, Badrinath and Dinesh Karthik have scored 50s.

• Here is the Link to the Mumbai Vs Saurashtra - Full Scorecard
• Here is the Link to the Tamil Nadu Vs Uttar Pradesh - Full Scorecard

USB Light Is A Cool Device!

Well I am basically a nocturnal animal. I somehow feel at peace when working on my laptop during the night time but the issue all this while was that I was disturbing others who have been sleeping in my room. That is because I would require the tube light so that I get to see my black colour keyboard properly while typing! Well now I don’t disturb anybody in the room at all because of this cool device called the USB LED Light! At the same time I am also able to reduce my electricity consumption! Well let me give the features of this wonderful product here.

1. The USB LED Light is a plug and play device! You don’t have to install any damn software, just plug it in one of your USB ports and the light glows!
2. This device doesn’t take any external power as it takes the necessary power from the notebook or PC.
3. I love the Flexibility of this device, it can be adjusted to whatever position that we want.
4. The life of my LED light is of an average 8000 hours of use.
5. The device is very light and can be accommodated easily and carried anywhere.
6. I was quite thrilled to have bought this product for just Rs.300 (INR, converts to roughly 6 USD)! For its utility, I think 300Rs is nominal I guess.

Earn Money Online | Earn Money From Your Own Website

I had started a website four years back without knowing where the money would flow in. My only investment was time and I was quite motivated to bring up the content for my website. My site did top the results in various search engines but I was still struggling to convert the traffic (visitors to a site) into serious cash. During that period, I thought the only way was to put up the commission basis ads which pay webmasters only the share of the sale that happens through a visitor’s action. One needs to be very lucky and at the same time have huge traffic to get such ads work. The other option was the Google AdSense which has some stringent policies and needed to be used with a lot of care. Well in this post I would like to share certain basic information about making money from a website.

Before all that, let me tell you that I am writing this mainly for the sake of upcoming Indian bloggers and site owners. So I will stick with the Indian Rupee wherever possible. This article however will be handy for any website coming from any country as the basics are the same wherever you are.

In these last four years, there has been a rapid increase in the Online Advertising Networks. These Networks have been providing Webmasters (who are called as Publishers) the various models of Ad inventory. Some of the most common models are the CPC, CPM and the CPA. I shall give a brief info about all the three models here.

For getting more revenue, the mantra is to gather more traffic and at the same time to strategically have the right kind of advertisement placements. Webmasters do need to experiment a lot with different banner sizes and positions of advertisements on their pages and come to know which style suits them well. Anyway, back to the three general Ad models:

CPC: This stands for a Cost per Click ad. The CPC kind of ad model is loved by my most of the publishers. When a visitor to your site happens to click on a graphic/textual banner of this model, then you get a fixed rate for the visitor action. This fixed rate can vary according to the campaign. For instance, publishers are paid higher rates for NRI Campaigns say 10-14 Rs per click compared to the India-targeted campaigns that can be around 2.50-6Rs. My guess is that even an advertising agency would like this sort of CPC model but the advertisers could be slightly pensive, especially the medium size ones.

The CPC model has an element of suspense I guess for the advertiser. He wouldn’t be sure as to how quickly his budget can get exhausted. The bigger advertisers who have plenty of money perhaps go for a time-based period and end up paying for all the clicks that are generated during that period say 1-month or 3-months or whatever.

CPM: This kind of model stands for Cost per Thousand Impressions. To be more precise, a publisher gets paid a fixed rate (again according to the specific campaign) for showing 1000 UNIQUE impressions of the Ad banner. This is irrespective of whether a user clicks the banner or not which is quite a good thing for the publisher. But strangely I notice that the revenue generated out from CPM ends up almost the same as CPC! Probably this applies for the medium size websites. I can give a bottom line though and that is – Sites with heavy traffic benefit hugely from this CPM model where every single unique impression counts! The usual rates that I have encountered for the CPM is 15Rs or so and for NRI Campaigns, it could well be 60Rs!

CPA: CPA stands for the Cost per Action model. A similar model to this is the CPL model which means Cost per Lead. Well these are the ads that suck if you are a publisher! You might give tonnes of impressions to those wonderfully attractive banners and you can generate a few hundred clicks but all that costs to a big ZERO if you didn’t have any luck. This type of ad model requires the user to not only click the damn Ad but also end up buying something on the advertiser’s site through his credit card!

A slightly better model from the CPA is the CPL which requires the user to click the ad and mostly fill up a big form and sort of register himself or providing some essential details in the advertiser site. As I keep saying one needs to be very lucky to make all these happen as a publisher! Only yesterday I was discussing this with one of my colleagues who asked me “who has the time to fill up these forms?” But of course if you have a lot of inventory on your site, then it’s a NO LOSS situation in keeping one of these banners. This model can work at times when the Ads are relevant to the topic of your website.

Paid Text Links: Well the above are the three regular models found in the online industry. There is one more Ad Model which isn’t a main stream one but can be handy in being a second alternative source of income for publishers. It is the Paid Text Link model which is offered by very few Ad networks in the entire world. I have been a big fan of this model but unfortunately it is fading away because of the strict rules of Google. Okay before that I need to brief what it is actually. Well there is something called the Google Page Rank which is measured on a scale of 0 to 10 for every site. The higher the rank, the higher are the chances of a website in getting the top listing for various search terms. So new websites tend to climb up the ladder quickly by buying Text Links for a period of time say 1-month, 2-months etc on the already established websites that have good Page ranks and other factors like thousands of webpages indexed in various search engines etc.

As a publisher if somebody decides to buy a text link on your homepage or sitewide or for a few number of webpages, then you get paid a fixed amount of money every month. It doesn’t matter if your user clicks the Text link or not, you stand to get an amount end of the month! Isn’t that cool? It feels as if you are renting your house to somebody and the great thing is that they pay you decent amounts for just a word or two! A Link Broker does the sales, payments, providing reporting, publishing interfaces to both the advertiser and the publisher. I am afraid this model seems to be disappearing with Google blacklisting websites that sell Links on their sites!

Well this should be enough from me in this post; I shall come up with some more stuff relating to this topic in the near future like giving information about the various AD networks…

Australian Empire Crumbling Down Quickly

The mighty Aussies are no longer that mighty, their domination over world cricket for the last decade and a half has officially ended. Ricky Ponting aka the George Bush of World Cricket has now realized that he is as good a captain as his team is or was. With two series defeats against India and South Africa, the confirmation has come that this current Australian team is quite a vulnerable opposition. They have suddenly forgotten how to wrap up victories when their opposition is on the mat. Take the case of India at Bangalore in the 1st Test (Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan defying them to force a draw) and that of South Africa’s in both the Tests at Perth (failing to defend a mammoth 418) and Melbourne (allowing SA in the first innings to get out of jail and take a lead) respectively which would support my views. It wasn’t long back that the Aussies would have converted even a sniff of a chance to clinch victories.

Many would say that the Australian domination over oppositions has been beaten black and blue because of the retirement of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne which is 100% right. These are two deadly bowlers who know how to plan and execute the downfall of each and every batsmen. The present bowling attack though lacks the vision of outsmarting the batsmen. The Captain - Ricky Ponting has been left to ponder about the over rates and how to stop the boundaries. The opposition batsmen have understood that if they can see off some 40 overs or so then the Australian attacks turns out to be very flat. The opposition bowlers on the other hand know that they have to get rid of Hayden and Ponting cheaply and then there isn’t much quality left. On the batting front, the Australians are missing the rescue acts of Adam Gilchrist that would blast them out of trouble with his carefree batting at no.7. Read More…

Get Rid Of Tooth Decay As Good Health Depends On Good Teeth!

It’s all about a tiny hole in the tooth that can take the life out of you literally! It starts off with a slight discolouration in the tooth, and then becomes a tiny black dot to a tiny cavity! If you still don’t visit your Dentist at this stage, then be prepared for unbearable pain and swelling almost regularly, and this is when the infection gets spread into the pulp of the tooth. This is a common disease among several people of all ages and is termed as Tooth Decay or Dental Caries.

Causes of Tooth Decay or Dental Caries:

Dental Caries is a basic result of teeth being frequently exposed to foods containing high sugar content and starches. So next time you see a Jam bottle or plenty of chocolates in front of you, then do remember about your innocent teeth! Human mouth as such contains natural bacteria (like mutans streptococci and lactobacilli) and once that combines with the sugars and starches, it produces “dental plaque”, a substance that holds the bacteria tightly against the tooth.

The Process of Tooth Decay:

The left over food debris, which are stuck in between the gaps of the teeth, react with the plaque to form acids. It’s the role of the formed acids to damage the mineral structure of the tooth and soften it. As a result of this, a cavity is formed on any region of the Enamel (the outer surface of the tooth). The cavity region is the cause for sensitiveness towards anything hot, cold or sweet. Saliva present in the mouth dilutes the acids but this process of neutralization can take more than two hours.

“Decay occurs in those areas where dental plaque lies on a tooth’s surface.”

Treatment for Tooth Decay or Dental Caries

The starting stage of Tooth Decay is the discolouration of the tooth, followed by formation of a cavity. According to a well-known Dentist, it can take several months or several years to form a cavity from the discolouration stage. It’s important that at this stage, the cavity is filled up by the Dentist, usually with Cosmetics (previously it was with cements). If the cavity stage is neglected as well, then next is the most painful stage known as Tooth Abcess. Openings in the tooth enamel allow bacteria to infect the center of the tooth (the pulp). Infection may spread out from the root of the tooth and to the bones supporting the tooth. Treatment for Tooth Abscess is done by Root Canal Treatment, which is done for a period of 4-5 days. If prompt treatment of Dental Caries is taken, then Tooth Abscess is prevented to a large extent.

Agar aapki muskaan Sachin ki tarah chaahiye tho follow these General Tips and prevent Tooth Decay or Dental Caries :

• Brush twice a day – once in the morning and once after your night meal.
• Avoid sticky foods in the nighttime.
• Brushing in the opposite direction of the teeth results in an effective way of removing the left over food debris.
• Clear your teeth of all the left overs after you eat any sticky food like chocolates etc.
• A regular check up with the Dentist is essential.

New fraud on internet using Saddam Hussein’s treasure?

Well just now I get this mail which I straightaway think is fraud. But what is interesting is that the URL used in the mail is a genuine one dated back in 2003. I do find that a lot of people (through newspaper reports), perhaps newbies on the internet getting lured by such spam/scam mails… Here it goes…

Dear Friend, Good day to you, My name is JAMES RESTO. I am an American soldier serving in the military with the Third Infantry Division in Iraq.My Superior and I currently moved some funds belonging to Saddam Hussein,to the tune of $10,000,000.00 (Ten million US dollars) this money is being kept in a secured place.Please check the below web link to read more about the cause of the event: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm Basically since we are working under the Government we cannot keep these funds,My Superior and I need a good partner, someone we can trust to actualise this venture.Due to the amount of money involved and for private and confidential reasons we are transferring it through a Diplomatic Courrier Services to your location,which means it is 100% safe and secured. Your primary assignment is to stand as our contact during the process time of tranffering the fund and to provide a secured place in your location.We garauntee there is no risk involved in this. If you are interested to serve reply to my private email below with effective immediately to discuss your benefits and furnish you with more details. Sgt.JAMES RESTO sgtjames.resto@Safe-mail.net

—-> Here is a resource at theinternetpatrol where this scam had been discussed before…