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Excursions

The ICC World Cup deserved a better end than what played out on Sunday between England and New Zealand. All the debates and controversies around the match marred what was a very well fought match. It soured what England achieved and left New Zealand with lots of ifs-and-buts 🏏

India's loss in World Cup Semi-Final ๐Ÿ

So India lost to New Zealand in Semi-Final of the ICC world cup 2019. I have some thoughts.

  1. It’s heartbreaking as hell. Almost at a level of 2003 Final defeat to Australia.
  2. Fact that India lost doesn’t make it a bad team. They had a couple of shortcomings — all surfaced together at the most inopportune phase of the tournament.
  3. India had a light middle order, fear was top order failure would be challenging for them to handle — exactly what happened.
  4. You can’t call yourself the champions as long as you keep depending solely on your top 3 and bottom 3 players for majority of the matches. It was always risky going in. There are no bowlers who can bat or batsman who can ball. Something that 1983 and 2011 WC winning Indian cricket teams have in common.
  5. Players like Sachin and Sehwag and Yuvraj and Raina who could always spring a surprise and give you a wicket - in addition to the runs they score - were dearly missed.
  6. Specifically this match was a series of wrong choices - review lost unnecessarily on the first ball. Tweaking of the settled bowling unit, and also the team towards the later part of the tournament. Dhoni’s batting position, especially after early wickets - he had to have walked in at 5/3.

Anyway, all said and done, India remain a very good cricket team. They need to work on the middle order - identify those players who bring in a secondary skill. They haven’t lost any respect — it’s a sport afterall. For someone to win, someone’s to lose.

This ICC Cricket World Cup is of One Day International (ODI) cricket — one day. Deciding finalist via a two-day match just doesn’t make sense - plus it isn’t fair to either side. But then it is the price to pay for scheduling one in England 🙄🏏

Came across this essay on how it is never too late to be successful and, hence, happy. It made me wonder what exactly is the relation between success and happiness? What leads to what? I continue to believe success is subjective, happiness, the state of mind.

It’s good to be back to a healthy lifestyle. For past few months, my routine had been completely screwed, plus I had a mind full of stuff. Eventually, it was the health that got neglected. No control on what I eat, minimum exercise. That does not bode well for one’s spirit.

If you have watched or are watching the Chernobyl series, you just can’t miss the companion podcast where the creators talk about the show. It is absolutely fantastic - thanks @Bruce and @vasta for recommending it. Makes me wish every show out there had such a podcast.

I wish there was a clean Micropub client which could handle long form posts - especially saving drafts. I usually use the self hosted Micropublish instance for notes, likes etc as I prefer the interface. But not for long form which Quill does handle better. However, it just isn’t right.

There have been times - like now - when I think I should just attempt to create one Micropub client focused primarily on long form posts. My needs are simple - a clean, distraction less interface to write. Support local drafts. But then had to stop myself and wonder, may be there does exist such option out there which I just am not aware of?

With Ive gone, will we see Apple embracing more colors in their designs - especially hardware? Choice of monochrome, aluminum look for all products is getting boring. I wish we start seeing some bold choices — somewhat similar to what we saw with software recently.

I started watching Chernobyl this week — 3 episodes in and it has already made me realize how grave the effects of the disaster was. I went in without any idea what the show is about. So, I just wasn’t ready for the hard-hitting aftermath it started with. But am hooked.