It was the last match of the maddening IPL -3 season. The MI blondie's were goin to dance & blowkisses at the camera for one last tym. Sivamani was goin to irritate for one last tym. It was the last of many things & beginnings of some new careers, TV soaps, movies & a lyf apart IPL.
It was a perfect day for cricket. Being a Sunday the final was sure to attract some seriouscricket fans, some bored public, some Tendulkar(read: me) & Dhoni fans, some people who juswanted to watch a cricket match live & some stayin close to D.Y.Patil.
Although the first ball was to be bowled at 20:30, spectators began to thong the stadium from 17: onwards or even before. The show started with some interviews of cricketing experts all dressedin classic black. Then there was performance of Bipasha Basu a.k.a kaali-billi. Bips, I loveyou. I love your hot-bod more but enough of that xposure, it's tym to wear some clothes,darling. Jus for a change. A.R.Rahman sung a few notes that were apparently live & Shahiddanced later.If you ask me.. all these weren't required.
I was lookin out if my Zinta babe had turned up.Sadly, she din't. She was required.
It was 19:30 then. I got a call from a friend. He wanted me to join him at a sports bar to watch the final there. This completely disrupted my plans f wearing shorts, sittin with a bowl f chips & watching the match at home.
We arrived at the bar. That friend f mine invited two other friends f his who were unknown to me. Since Im a non-drinker(yes, Im proud to be a non-drinker & yes, Im a self-confessed health-freak), there i was sitting with an orange juice surrounded by delightfully high crowd. By ordering an orange juice I managed to invite a few surprised stares towards me.I dint bother as Im used to this, now.
The toss happened. Tendulkar lost the toss. I got a bad feeling right there & i was not alone. Dhoni decided to bat first. He thinks lyk a fox, Im tellin you.
It was good start. Vijay & the mighty Hayden fallin cheaply. Hayden failed in this year's IPL.Later, Raina dropped. Ball fell in between Fernando & Nayar both f whom thought the other would take the catch. Fernando was the culprit.I got a feelin Raina would make this count. I was wrong.Raina gave a nother chance. This tym, Zaheer dropped. Butter fingers, eh, i thought.I think it was a keeper's catch. Ambati Raydu, if only he were a lil more xperienced he would have known that it was his catch. It's usually easy for keepers to take a catch running backwards. Ultimately, I seemed lyk I wasn't wrong. Raina made MI pay for their sloppy efforts on the field. C'mon now, you can't drop a man-in-form catch twice in a same match.
I dint not quite understand Tendulkar's bowling changes. I mean, giving Bhajji the 1st overwas understood. But why slinga-Malinga was given the next one. When slinga-Malinga is so, so good at the death & Zaheer's so good with the new ball why Slinga instead f Zaheer. Zaheerwas given the 3rd over. Bhajji was taken outta attack followed by Malinga bowlin the 4th.I dint understand this. Tendulkar wasn't allowing his bowlers to settle. Even if its a 20over match, bowlers need to settle.
Dhoni opted to start the bowling with R.Ashwin, understandably, as the guy is in tremendous form & has the guts to bowl at the start. Chubby-Bowlinger bowled the 2nd. Tendulkar played xtra cautiously.Shikar Dhawan forward defencing Ashwin. I mean, the guy's good but man, its a T20. 3 overs for 7runs. Shikar Dhawan played a careless shot thus giving chubby his 1st wicket. Big-eyed Murli bowled well. Jakartiwas courageous. Sending in Bhajji to accelerate the innings was a good move. Bhajji failed. Raydu replaced him.Tendulkar had just hit a six in the over in which he got out why was there a need for him to play the half-hearted shot. Another bad decision. Following this came a nother one when he sent Duminy before Pollard. Duminyis a good batsman but he wasn't required at that stage of the match. What was required was a hard-hittin batsman who cared a damn for the bowler's reputation.
Sometyms you don't need Stewards, you need alsatians. This was jus that moment. Tendulkar failed to read this opportunity & consequently MI lost the finals & won a huge disapointed crowd.
Mistakes was all MI committed during the final but it was the brilliant mind f MS Dhoni that capitalised on those opportunities. Bowling changes, field placements were jus great. Dhoni is a good skipper.
And in the end.. it was all yellow.
Mistakes: 1. Malinga not bowling in the death overs. 2. Zaheer not given the new ball. 3. Raina dropped twice. 4. Slow-start. 5. Failin to convert 1's to 2's by Tendulkar & Nayar. 6. Tendulkar playing a careless shot 7. Pickin Nayar instead of Bravo. 8. Duminy sent instead f Pollard. 9. Ambati Rayudu wanting the strike when he has someone lyk Pollard at the other end. 10. Brilliant captaincy by Dhoni.
.. all this forces me to think -- was the match fixed?
Cast: Matthew MacFadyen, Peter Dinklage, Ewen Bremner, Rupert Graves
Direction: Frank Oz
The actors were British. I could tell from the accent & by their stiff-upper lips which never moved no matter what. The movie was British. I could tell from the type.
Daniel played by Matthew MacFadyen, arranges his Father's funeral at which he gets a wrong casket delivered at first. His Brother, Robert played by Rupert Graves, who is a well known novelist in New-york travels 1st class to get to the funeralbut claims poverty when Daniel asks him to pay half the amount for the funeral. Daniel's wife, KeeleyHawes, stalks him throughout the film asking him whether he booked 'em a new flat after Daniel had once promised her that he would take her out of his mother's house. The reverend adds to Daniel's trouble when he asks him to hurry up with the details coz he has to be some place else by 3pm. The most striking guest is the dwarf played by Peter Dinklage, who shows up uninvited.
The movie's best twist comes when Peter reveals that he was his deceased father's gay-lover & has photos of 'em in compromising positions as evidence which he threatens to show it to everyone at the funeral if he's not payed 15,000 pounds.In the chaos of tying up Peter & not giving him the money and keeping him a secret from other people, Peter accidentally bangshis head against a corner f a glass table and dies. The way they put him off is also fun.
In the meantime, Simon(Mr. Tudyk), Martha's(Daisy Donovan), going-to-be husband is drugged when Martha gives him Valium which actuallyis a illegal experimental hallucinogen found at her Troy's(Kris Marshall) place who is freelance chemist. This drug makes Simon laugh, go naked & threaten to jump off the roof at the funeral. This totally ruins Simon's plan f creating a good reputation in front f Martha's uptight father. Simon is brilliant in the film.
During this Troy looses the bottle f Valium which he carried & searches it everywhere which creates quite a nuisance. Since all British comedies must have at least one cast member of Love Actually in the film (I think that’s an unofficial rule), Kris Marshall plays Martha’s drug-dealing grad student brother Troy.
Another character Justin who is madly in love with Martha & follows her everywhere even when she is dealing with drugged Simon. Daniel's best friend Howard(Andy Nyman), has a skin condition which he's quite concerned about and goes around at the funeral asking if anyone could provide a solution to his problem. Uncle Alfe(Peter Vaughan), is a bad word giving old-head who makes Howard's life miserable.
It was British comedy at it's best. The sometimes predictable script could, however, be tighter.
P.S. Still, in "Death at a Funeral," Oz has created a fun and well-made film, with a pleasant and oh-so-British vibe, transforming what could be the grimmest of situations into a jolly good time.
