Thank God this is not baseball!

Came back from US on Saturday and turned on the telly to see the opening matches. I was praying dearly that this does not turn out to be the "get the leg out of the way and smash the ball" type of tournament which was the bane last time around. And buy was I so not disappointed.

Thank God, the ball does spit and bite and move around and seam in SA and thats what separates men from baseball players! The few opening overs which Tendular and Jayasuriya played sort of helped me ease nicely into my chair and say - this tournament seems watchable and will not be a slugfest!

The million calculations inside Tendulkar's brain must have told him how to improvise rather than perish in bravado. You see I have this bad disease - I tend to turn off when Sachin gets out - thankfully he stayed on for full 20 overs. If you have been paid 1.5 million Dollars, how would it feel to be the only bowler to get smashed around for sixes - Freddie cannot even feign all others are getting it plead - he was the only one to get brutally smashed by Nayar - he looks like a good talent to me.

when bowling, I liked the way Slinger Malinga was bowling fast and furious and seaming it all ways - the look on Dhoni's face when the ball swung - clipped his legs and then the stumps was a joy to watch. This is a different ball game Mr D - so get prepared. Your coolness and luck may run out soon.

The second match - I was hoping my other favourite cricketer - Dravid does something as he has a point to prove to Mr Whisky - and did he do it in style - the coolness the assured nature and scoring at fair clip including the whack over mid-on - just makes you say what the hell - this guy is good and will continue doing well in this tournament. KP was OK - did shuffle and move across to his offstump trying to convert everything to leg side shot (I dont particularly enjoy seeing this - quite Dhonish in approach at times). Once they crossed 100+ I knew RR are not going to get it in face to Styn, Kumar and Kumble. So I swicthed off and went cycling - came back to see Kumble has cleaned them up. Surprise Surprise. On the only positive note for RR - Warne's two magical deliveries

Second day - prospect of rain - and jetlag creeping in - I could barely keep my eyes open as I played board games with my daughter and tried to catch whatever farce was being played out between Delhi and Chandigarh - and as expected, Mr Vittori shined through - and made it easily for Sehwag to cream the ineffective chandigarh bowling to all parts.

The second match was more interesting. I have to admit that I HATE Kolkatta team - partly because of the owner (whose movies I ignore and his megalomania is something I admire and detest at the same time), the coach (bird brained aussie at it again), the players (Mccullum is overrated, Gayle will do exactly one breathtaking innings and then listen to music for rest of the time, Ganguly is no Dravid or Tendulkar but his guts will see him make couple of good scores, Shukla will be flash in the pan, Agarkar and Karthink are yesteryears babies). The only good players to watch out for are Hodge, Ajantha Mendis (why didnt he play????) and Dhinda (big heart). So busy were these guys digging each others graves with multiple captains that they forgot that there was a cricket game to be played. And it showed - against a swinging fast and furious Fidel Edwards and only swinging (not fast) Rp Singh - they just showed that they are no bodies. How come the camera ignored SRK - he must have gone into hiding smoking 10 ciggs and wondering how come cricket is not the same as Movies - the fact is Mr Khan - there are no retakes - you better get your team focused on cricket and not junk ads.

Truth be told - I am in Hyderabad - and I would like Hyd to do well - so pretty happy to see Rohit sharma and Gibbs combine well in field and the in batting. Rohit is a cool guy with good technique and a good swing of the bat. I generally tend to like cricketers who play with the swing of the bat - Gilchrist, Lara, Rohit, Laxman, Dravid, Sehwag, Tendu (to a large extent), Yuvraj and not who push and plod around - like Dhoni, Ganguly, Miandad, Shastri, Boycott, Karthik etc. The swingers tend to show a good eye and ahdn coordination. Rohit is a good example of follow through with the swing when he sees something to be hit - Agarkar found that out what picthing a loosner does - it sails right over the fence with minimum fuss. Gibbs supported him well. Laxman - where did that six come from? Even the commentators had it all messed up confusing him for Gibbs.

As of now, I think the teams that went through in first four matches should see the semis - chennai will be disadvantaged by loss of Freddie, I hope Hyderabad makes it for senti reasons, Mumbai are too powerful, Delhi will get there by strenght of batting, Bangalore I hope they survive loss of KP. Chandigrah and RR are defintiely out this time.