Cricket fever

I have spent a lot of hours this week watching cricket.
How could I not?
India playing in the cricket world cup final against Sri Lanka on home turf--that's just huge!

So yeah, I watched the game. Nothing else happened in the entire country for those eight and a half hours.

And it really was good game, beautifully won at the end with a ball into the stands.
A billion dreams come true for India's cricket-mad citizens.
The streets around India Gate went crazy with celebration.


And I tell you, I'm so relieved that pressure is over. If they'd lost...oh I can only imagine the disappointment.
Instead, the euphoria in the air today is palpable.
As I walked out this morning there was a guy wearing the jersey of one of the cricket players. Everyone he passed stopped to shake his hand.
The Indian girl I talked with this morning had half a dozen videos she'd taken on her phone of the celebrating that she wanted to show me, she was that excited about it--just a couple weeks ago she didn't care about cricket at all (I relate :) ).

Ah cricket.
It can unite this country like nothing else.

Cricket brush up

Are you ready for tomorrow's game?
India vs. Sri Lanka.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe this video can help you...



Seriously, though. I'm still confused about the over. How do you know when it's over?

Cricket semi-finals

Okay, so it's an epic game, right? Or as the commentator called it" "the number one cricket clash".
India vs. Pakistan.

If winning the quarter finals elicits fireworks and midnight cheering, what does playing Pakistan in the semi-finals mean? I do know that for schools and government offices, it was only a half day.

So yeah, I am watching the game.
And I have no idea what these sports commentators are talking about:
"Running on the wicket" which apparently is "a very, very dry wicket".
Somebody is having "trouble with the line". There's a bunch of lines...
Overs. When does one begin...and when is it...over?
"Straight drives" and "boundaries".
It's a foreign language to me.

I admit that I fell asleep for an hour, but when I woke up again Sachin Tendulkar was still batting--so did I really miss anything?
Don't think so...

Still waiting to find out who gets to go to the finals...

Cricketeers

I was watching a couple of nomadic shepherd boys play cricket.
One of them was really good. It was hard to tell how old he was, since he seemed to be small for his age. He looked to be about five or six. But he might have been small for his age and really be closer to eight.
Here he is pitching (or bowling).
And here is his friend trying to hit the ball.