What a BLUNDER Dhoni!

If you asked me, I would say Dhoni gift-wrapped the game and gave it away to England.

Sure, we didn't deserve to go through, given the batsmen were so hopeless at managing short-deliveries, even in a form of the game where there aren't 10 people around your bat. Windies showed the world how fragile the much-vaunted batting lineup is. Save for Yuvraj, it would have been an embarassing loss against Windies.

No gripes how they lost to Windies, we were out-thought by a Windies side that planned and executed brilliantly - they took unbelievable catches, bowled with un-Windies-like discipline. On the top of it, it was a great knock by Bravo. Classy, absolutely match-winning. We couldn't have done much there, it was not a bad loss, we were outplayed.

Now the match against England. Indian batsmen knew exactly what the bowlers were going to do. Were there no nets? Ok, there was maybe no time between the matches, but I would disagree if you told me that batsmen of this calibre had no clue how to get rid of the shortish balls. They were stuck to the crease, no aggresion shown.. Brought back painful memories of how we were peppered by the Aussies 3-4 years back. Thought those days were left behind.

Infact, when we lost 2 wickets, the match was still in the balance. Guess who comes out - the newbie 20-year old batsman who has hardly seen the English conditions or played in pitches where 50% of the deliveries shot at your ribcage. I won't blame him at all, he tried his best. He was painfully lacking the skills needed to take the barrage on. Wasn't this the time Gambhir should have taken the initiative and walked down the pitch or moved around the crease, pat it down the fine leg or glide it over keeper etc etc.. No, he got the singles. He is one selfish b******.

But the biggest question is, what was Dhoni thinking sending in Jadeja ahead of an in-form Yuvraj?? He carted the Windies around to give India a fighting chance. No, he was "protected". From WHAT ??? Dhoni didn't want Yuvraj to come in at high-pressure situations always.. Guess what, he came at a point where they needed a miracle to win! A COMPLETE MELTDOWN.. so much for the vaunted "cool, calm, composed" Dhoni.. Bullcrap! Its unfair to say that Jadeja should have sacrificed his wicket, it was a disaster to send him in before Yuvraj. Even if he was sent in as a pinch-hitter, he showed no signs of it.

On the top of all this, Dhoni comes out to give reasons for his gaffe. Ok, everyone makes mistakes. He had his chance to make amends for it. India needed around 11 per over when he came in.. He was with Yusuf Pathan. Dhoni hit one boundary in his whole innings (please don't include the 2 profitable edges he got), that too from the last ball when there was no point.. Such stupid paddle shots directly to short fine leg, for a single. SERIOUSLY?? I was so furious seeing him bat, absolutely no conviction that he could pull it off.

I swear, so much for the euphoria of IPL etc etc. A good reality check. Wish they learn from this.

Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent

Oh My! I got this link as a forward and I'm sure this is kind of setting some records day to day on youtube. In just 3 days, it has logged in more than 3 MILLION views. The view count has doubled since yesterday night when I received this forward from my friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I've never seen Britain's Got Talent show before. When I started seeing this video, I had very low expectations (but had a feeling a surprise was coming).. No offense to the lady, but there are so many crack-pots who come on these kind of shows, just to get air-time. Just search for worst american idol performances on youtube and they all kind of resemble to the first few minutes of this video (till she starts performing that is..).

The video shows the cynicism among the crowd and judges when she introduces herself, she's 47 years old, certainly one of the oldest maybe to participate in any such talent show on TV. As I mentioned before, having seen many crazy self-proclaiming folks on stage, I can't really blame the initial reception from the audience or the judges. But, once she sings her first note, almost the entire crowd and judges rise up to their feet, applauding all the way! Man, what a voice, surely a surprise, very opera-like. Strong voice, huge high-pitches and smooth low pitches. The fact that I couldn't understand much of what she was singing is another thing! :D

Apart from these, man isn't the female judge on the show SO MUCH CUTER than the one we have on American Idol!! Maybe instead of Simon, we must get that chick on Idol! ;)

Airtel Calling Rate - 1 cent per minute to India

Since last saturday, my balance suddenly jumped from 1900+ minutes to 7600+ minutes.. I thought maybe there was some accounting error, wanted to see how long it would last :P .. It kind of kept track of the minutes correctly from that point, assuming starting point of 7600+ minutes, which is unusual, if there was an accounting error in the system.

Recently a friend of mine pointed out that Airtel are having 1 cent per minute calling to India! There is some fine print, please read it carefully, but I mean, its a steal!

https://www.airtelcallhome.com/

Read it over and see if it works for you..

English Premier League - Turning points of the week (probably of the title race)

2 matches during the last weekend had the potential to change the title race for the Barclays Premier League on its head. Its a race between the Reds and the Red Devils (Liverpool and Man United).

Fulham vs Liverpool

Fulham hosted Liverpool on Saturday. It was a match Liverpool absolutely had to win to keep up the pressure on Man United. They trail them by 1 point (with Man U having 1 game in hand). If they won against Fulham, it would send them to the top of the table (albeit for a day, till Man U played on Sunday). Fulham on the other hand, don't score too often, but defend with their lives. They are capable of pulling off upsets like defeating Man Utd last week. With this pressure on them, Liverpool took field and played the first half like world beaters. They tore open Fulham defense on numerous occasions, but 4 times, FOUR TIMES they hit the post in just the first half. If it had hit the post just half-ball width aside, it would have gotten in. Everyone was beaten except for the stupid post which seemed like it was growing!!

Same in the second half, some good saves by Schwarzer and some bad luck, pushed the game into the last few seconds with score at 0-0. It was the story of Liverpool before their recent surge of form. They drew so many games they could have easily won if not for some bad luck. It cost them their pole position earlier, now it was coming back to haunt them - to cheat them of a well-deserved position on the top of the table. In the last few seconds, literally - Yossi Benayoun pulled out a goal - A GOAL finally! It ended 0-1, in favor of liverpool. Yes they won! It was a HUGE win, hugely important for this year's title race. It meant that if Man U lost or drew their match on sunday, they were going to see their lead dramatically go down.

Check out these highlights:

Fulham v Liverpool


Manchester United vs Aston Villa

After the 0-5 drubbing last week at Liverpool's hands, Villa needed a comeback, to retain any hope of appearing at the European stage. Everton are hot on their heels and have been for a few weeks. Man U on the other hand, needed a win! They had lost 2 games on the trot, to an outstanding Liverpool at home 2 weeks back and a shock loss against Fulham the last week. To make matters worse, they were a hugely depleted side, Ferdinand, Berbatov being sidelined by injuries, Scholes, Rooney, Vidic on red card suspensions.. Liverpool were breathing down their neck, threatening to sneak up on them. Liverpool put added pressure by winning away at Fulham and taking the top position on the league table, just the day before. Would Manchester United survive this rare pressure??

The match started pretty briskly. Aston Villa seemed the more threatening side, but out of nowhere, miscommunication between James Milner and Freidel gave Man U a freekick inside the penalty box. It was a no-brainer for C.Ronaldo. A good finish and to be fair to Freidel, he was blinded by the wall in front of him. But almost immediately, some great work on the right wing by Barry gave Villa hope. He fooled 3 defenders and sent in a delicious cross, which wrong-footed the defender marking Carew and all he had to do was nod in the ball, which he obliged to. Score 1-1.

After the break, Villa took the lead with another great cross and headed over the line by Agbolanhor. Ronaldo was so careless to lose possession and he didn't even bother to chase back. It was a huge shock for Old Trafford and the stadium fell silent - the last 2 losses came back to haunt them. However, the match was far from over. It was just the 58th minute. They could still come back, but needed to show the character. Macheda, a 17 year old, came on instead of Nani. He made an instant effect on the morale, creating more problems for the Villa defenders. Some shrewd passing gave Ronaldo another whiff at the goal and he placed the ball beautifully behind the keeper at full-stretch. 80 minutes over, match was at 2-2.

One final roll of the dice, Fergurson brought on Danny Welbeck in the place of Tevez. He had a great opportunity almost immediately but Villa survived. The clock ticked over 90 minutes. I was elated to see that Man U might drop 2 points, shrinking the lead on the top. 5 minutes were added on. My joy was short-lived. 3 minutes into added-time, an AMAZING piece of work from the teenager Macheda gave Man U the all-important lead. He was on the end of a good pass from Giggs, turned beautifully towards goal and in the same turning motion, curled the ball around a diving Freidel.

It was one of the best goals of this season, considering his age, the pressure of the situation and the gravity of the result. From nowhere to a hero in his first match, Macheda might have just given Man United its season back.

See the highlights below. Don't forget to see the 93rd minute goal!

Manchester United v Aston Villa
by Doleymai

Sachin Tendulkar's interview before Windies tour Jan 1989

I came across this video recently, one of the earliest interviews of Sachin Tendulkar, before he was leaving to West Indies for his first test in the Carribean. This was the era of Courtney Walsh, Ambrose, Marshall - searing pace and bounce.

Have a look below, look at him sipping chai, his still-unchanged-oh-so-teen voice. Listen keenly to what he says in the end about facing Kapil Dev in the nets.. :)

Vintage stuff.

Tiger Woods Remarkable comeback victory

Yesterday, the final day of Bay Hill 2009 tournament, Sean O'Hair had a 5-shot lead over Tiger Woods. Tiger made remarkable strides forward while Sean O'Hair was plagued by mounting pressure from Tiger, falling self-confidence and weak shots. It was still very close, going into the 18th hole (last hole), both were equal. Tiger needed a birdie putt to win the tournament and what a way to win it - a birdie putt from almost 16 feet away. Just stunning..

Take a look at this video below - you will find more videos on youtube.

Tesla Motors - Prescience or Indulgence?

Tesla Motors is a Silicon Valley automobile start up, who have been innovating the art of making high performance, practical electric cars for about 5 years now. They were first founded by a couple of engineers and their initial venture funding came from PayPal founder Elon Musk. It has since received investments from firms like JP Morgan and from well-known entrepreneurs such as Sergey Brin and Larry Page (of Google).

Tesla Roadster

Their first production vehicle was the Tesla Roadster. It is a stunning sports coupe, just take a look at a couple of photos below.

This is a completely electric car, hardly looks like the Priuses (which aren't even completely electric) on the road these days! It has the following vital stats:

• Purely electric
• 0 to 60 mph (100 kmph) in 3.9 seconds
• 220 + miles per charge
• Full torque, all the time, thanks to the electric motors.
• Can be recharged at ANY regular electric outlet.
• $109,000 price tag isn't shocking :)

3.9 seconds is just remarkable, especially at this price. Take a look at the list of top 10 fastest cars of 2009, it gives you an idea of what kind of cars this keeps company with.

According to wikipedia, within 2 months of the first sale in March 08, more than 600 Roadsters were reserved and 400 more were in waiting list. For more details and photos, click on the links.

Tesla Model S

This is the new model that has been announced recently by Tesla motors. It is a big jump from a high-performance coupe to a family sedan (almost a 7 seater - capacity of 5 adults and 2 children). It looks awesome though, its front grille very much like the Maserati GranTourismo. Check out a few pics below:

You can find more details and pics here.

Salient features:

• Upto 300 mile range (they are planning to offer options of 160 mile, 230 mile or 300 mile range options per charge)
• 0 - 60 mph (100 kmph) in 5.6 seconds
• Seats 7 people

It can be charged at any power outlet, as the previous car. It uses Lithium Ion rechargeable battery technology, which doesn't have the memory problems like other battery technologies. They claim it will cost only $4 per complete recharge, which is peanuts compared to what we pay for regular gas fuel. They are estimating the price would be around $57,000 for this sedan. It however qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax refund.

Tesla Motors CEO, Mr. Musk, claims that offsetting these rebates and assuming that gas per gallon is around $4 (which is nearly true for California atleast), would result in the car's actual price being similar to a $35,000 gasoline car. Furthermore, President Obama has been hinting at levying extra taxes / surcharges on fossil fuel usage in the near future, which would only make this a better deal.

GM is also releasing its gas-electric car called Volt in 2010. It has a 40 mile range on a full recharge, however, has a small 4-cylinder gas engine which can generate electricity beyond this and can either charge the battery or provide electric power directly to the drivetrain. This, they claim can increase the range to almost 640 miles (on a full charge and full tank). It is expected to be priced around $40,000. With the $7,500 federal refund, it will bring it closer to $30,000 range. This does seem to be a more practical solution, especially for weekend trip situations and when you just forget to charge the battery.. But is this good enough?

Model S, on the other hand has a very handsome base range of at least 160 miles per charge. But its solely dependent on electric power, no backup gasoline engine. I wonder if you get stranded, if you could call AAA and say "Hi, I need a battery charge" :D.. I'm sure that Tesla will provide backup batteries etc etc.. but it won't happen automatically like Volt, at least from the way I understand the design.

So, is this prescience or indulgence? Only time will say I guess..

13 B - Hindi Movie - hindi version of Tamil Movie Yaavarum Nalam

I recently heard from a couple of my friends about this tamil movie "Yaavarum Nalam" - a new horror/thriller movie. This genre hasn't been exploited of late, atleast not in tamil. I read a few reviews, they were all pretty good, saying that this movie was a good watch.

Personally, I am scared of these kind of movies but somehow can't resist watching them. Just for the heck of it.. It wasn't playing in any good theaters nearby (the one I heard about is a horrible theater, I'll never go there even if I'm given money to sit and watch there). I tried to see if there are any "online" copies of Yaavarum Nalam available for watching, found only one version available. It was pretty poor quality and audio was pretty bad. I mean, the spine of any horror movie is the sound effects.

I then read in wikipedia that the same movie was shot in Hindi, with similar cast (Madhavan and Neetu Chandra still play the main roles), called as 13 B. I then searched for this movie and found this link containing AMAZING print of the movie. I am half-way through the third part, it has been kind of "predictably scary" so far. Let me see if it can shake me up before it ends.

Scroll down on THIS LINK for this movie. Have a good watch and share your comments!

TED.com videos

Demo videos on TED have been mind-blowing. Researchers from almost every domain you can think of present their research - in infant stage or in production stage on TED. The tag line for TED is "Ideas worth spreading" and how true is that!

For example, take a look at this video: This researcher Johnny Lee demonstrates how he has utilized the ultra-powerful IR camera sensor in the tip of a Wii remote to do some wacky stuff like create an "e-whiteboard". This video is actually quite old - It was filmed in Feb 2008. I saw this for the first time now - will be really interesting to see what all has been done in the year after this.




I will keep posting more such interesting videos from TED on the blog.

New useful feature on Gmail

Google labs has SO many pet projects, a few are very useful, a few very whimsical.

How often do you regret after hitting the Send button in Gmail? You either hit reply-all when you didn't really want or sent a mail to the wrong person etc etc..

Recently they have introduced an "Undo Send" option in Gmail. When you enable this option, it will let you prevent the delivery of the message, if you undo it within 5 seconds I guess. Remember the top of the browser where Gmail says "Sending message..." or "Loading.." in an yellow background? It shows the "undo send" option here. It can surely save a few blushes! To enable this, in Gmail, click on "Settings" and go to "Labs" tab. Scroll down and you will see this option, just enable it.

They might be allowing for a larger window for undoing, but naturally that means there will be a lag in delivering and receiving a message. For more information on this read http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10200370-2.html

While I was scrolling down the Labs tab in Gmail, I found so many other little tools, worth spending a bit of time over them too, just to spice things up :)

Useful Financial Tools online

There have been a couple of pretty good websites which have helped me clean up my finances. Just wanted to share it with others, incase they aren't aware of them already.

1) Mint.com (http://www.mint.com/)

It is free, of course.

This website is an excellent example of clean usage of Web 2.0 technologies. It is primarily designed as a one-stop-shop for all your bank accounts, loan accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts, 401(K) etc. It requires a one-time setup and after that, it refreshes the data automatically from all of them everytime you login.

The beauty of this website is its simplicity and self-explanatory menu options. It gives me a holistic view of my finances. The first time you set it up, it downloads a certain amount of existing financial data (depending on how much the respective institution allows it to) and as you go forward, it keeps tabs on them. It gives you the ability to categorize them easily and once you name say "Shoprite" as "Grocery", it does the labeling automatically from that point onwards - no need to "create" a filter or any circus like that. It has its own dictionary too, so it does a decent job of labeling by itself.

These labels are central to the usability of this website. It provides nice pie-charts to show your spending trends. It compares your category-wise expenses to US Average and so on. You can create your own budget and monitor how you are sticking to it. I used to visit multiple websites - american express, chase, bank of america, etrade and so on, this saves a bunch of time on all that. It could also sync up with my car-loan account, which was pretty cool.

Another useful aspect is the alerts part. It will alert you if any payment is coming up - you can set your alerts as you wish. It helps prevent missed payments. It shows up all hidden fees charged by your bank that might escape your attention. If there has been any anomalous charge or spending trend, it shows that up too - but more often than not, I find this type of alert a bit too silly (it is comparing it to my limited history, so it gives false alarms at times).

It shows up the "Net worth" which is a useful feature - showing us where we really stand on the balance sheet. Its fun to explore this website. It can provide you with saving techniques by suggesting some credit cards with good points / cash-back feature, savings accounts with better interest rates etc. - but I guess this is the part where they make their money through "suggestions", so I'll read it with a grain of salt.


2) Buxfer (http://www.buxfer.com/)

Another great website, helps me track shared expenses. This used to be a big pain, if you frequently share expenditure with say your room-mate, colleagues at work etc. This website lets you stream-line them and you can easily add/delete/modify/settle expenses.

The person you are sharing expenses with needs to create an account too, but its hardly a stumbling block. When I was in Minneapolis, we used this website called "Buddy Bills" (http://www.buddybills.com/), but it wasn't as user friendly as this. Balances carried across months used to be a bit problematic to resolve etc etc. I'm not sure if they fixed that. But buxfer has proved to be a great solution. My colleagues at work use it. They used to manage expenses with an excel sheet. Luckily for me, my friend Neela suggested this website as a replacement to buddy bills and we haven't looked back since.

Try it out! And yes, its free too :)

Weird - Dark humor you could say!

I wasn't sure I would write anything in my blog today.. My team-mate at work saved my day :D
He sent me a news link. The article claims that an Iraqi soccer player was shot dead while attempting a goal! He was a striker, one-on-one with the goalie, his goal would have brought the game level between two rival clubs Buhairat and Sinjar! Phew!!

http://www.dcexaminer.com/breaking/Iraqi-soccer-player-shot-dead-attempting-goal-41320572.html

I mean, the guy who shot him must have been a real good shooter! To pick out the striker when the defenders couldn't catch up with him and shoot him dead, man reminds me of that scene in Saving Private Ryan when the American sniper shoots the german sniper through his lens!

Sadly funny!

Take THAT Man U !!!!

Wow! I rubbed my eyes a few times, it was early in the morning.. it however wasn't because I was sleepy.. It was freakin because I couldn't believe the way the match was going!! What a dominant performance by Liverpool! Defeating Man U 4-1 in Old Trafford happens not too often, not when they are fielding their best team, not even the bookies would have predicted such a score-line.

Alright alright, it wasn't as good a performance as against Real Madrid - there they were really turning the screws on RM. Here at least 2 goals for Liverpool were because of poor defending by an uncharacteristically unaware backline of the Devils. Vidic couldn't keep up with Torres, it was an absolute gift. Vidic has been one of the best defenders all season, you don't expect that from him. He has been the first player on my fantasy team weeks in and out. He isn't any frail guy either.. But fate it seems and some intense pressure from El Niño, he gave it away.. Second goal - Evra didn't notice Stevie G ghosting from his blind spot I bet. The through ball from Torres was great and Gerrard pounced on it, it was make or break for Evra and he broke it. The all crucial penalty was taken with aplomb.

It was still jittery, just a 1 goal lead at OT is never enough. Man U came forward wave after wave - Rooney and Park Ji Sung were absolutely brilliant. But they never manufactured anything to cross the goal-line. A few lucky breaks for Reina and he kept the lead intact. The red-card for Vidic was the real turning point for me. Not only did it give the chance to score the 3rd goal, it sent out their best defender (probably for 3 games, unless Man U win the appeal). The red card was a bit harsh, but a sublime free-kick from Aurelio all but sealed the win. Rooney still didn't give up, he was by far the best Man U player on the pitch today. And finally some rather innocuous defending from part-time defender OShea meant Dossena could also join the party, but what a finish, would have made Torres proud. He just lobbed over Van der Sar, who has the record for longest clean-sheet run. If only he started more regularly, I would probably add him now to my fantasy team :)

All in all, it was a remarkable win, a double against Man U for the season. Liverpool already have the double against Chelsea. Hmm., then one might wonder why the hell aren't they leading the table!!! Wonder what goes wrong when some of the tail-end teams step up in front of Liverpool, loads of bad luck and poor finishing never gets them the points they deserve.

This win might not change the title race. Man U still have a 4 point lead over Liverpool, with one game in hand. Unless Man U melt down from this point on, its unlikely anyone else will get a sniff at the League title.

e-cigarette - Interesting..

I recently read about this device called an e-cigarette. It claims that it is completely harmless to the individual smoking it or the persons around him/her. No second-hand smoke. Some of the benefits over traditional cigarettes claimed by this e-cigarette:

• No tar and other carcinogenic substance or harmful ingredients to human body .
• No ignition required , without the danger hence will not lead to the of over 4000 chemical substance produced by the ordinary cigarettes .
• It is harmless to other people and the environment , without the danger of second - hand smoking .
• No possibility to cause fire . It can be used safely in most NO-smoking places .
  

Cigarettes are such a bane and the worst part is, its addictive part - Nicotine isn't really the killer. Its the carcinogenic substances present in traditional tobacco cigarettes which causes health issues like cancer and respiratory issues. Nicotine is about as addictive as caffeine is. It is however absorbed much much faster by the body than caffeine, causing almost instant increase in blood pressure. Nicotine also has the effect of increasing alertness and enhancing mental performance. In the cardiovascular system, nicotine increases heart rate and blood pressure and restricts blood flow to the heart muscle. The drug stimulates the release of the hormone epinephrine, which further stimulates the nervous system and is responsible for part of the "kick" from nicotine. It also promotes the release of the hormone beta-endorphin, which inhibits pain.

Quite a few quit-smoking aids are available these days - nicotine patches, pills etc. This e-cigarette is a newer smoking-replacement aid. See this video for more information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U81x8t2iMhw

I wonder how effective this is going to be. FDA still hasn't approved it by any way. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/13/ecigarettes.smoking/index.html

Champions League Highlights

Barca vs Lyon - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53941097

Roma vs Arsenal - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53942677

Man Utd vs Inter - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53943464

Watch them quickly before they are removed.

Champions League - Round of 16

I personally favor Liverpool. I am certainly a late bloomer in terms of following soccer, pushed into it by a few of my friends in Minneapolis. Funny part is, while I spent nearly 20 years in India, where its much easier to follow soccer than in US, it was here that I started taking interest.

Well, we did have a wonderful set of matches in the Round of 16. Not surprisingly, 4 of the 8 teams qualifying for quarter-finals are from English Premier League. I don't know where to exactly point the finger at for this of-late-all-too-common phenomenon, but probably thats the reason why it is becoming an expected event. People say its the strength, slick passing and now an increased tactical awareness. Whatever it is, its proving to be the Molotov cocktail for the rest of Europe.

Its quite obvious that I'm so totally buoyed by the Kop's performance at Anfield. Real Madrid are legendary in terms of European successes, but over the last 3 (or 4) years, they haven't been able to progress past this stage. Nevertheless, inflicting such a demoralizing loss on RM was no ordinary feat. I was screaming out loud seeing the way the reds pushed RM in the first half hour. I think the last time Liverpool started this well AND finished the task was a few weeks back when they defeated Chelsea 2-0. It was delightful to see Torres and Gerrard tear up the RM's touted defensive line-up. Torres had a score to settle with RM from his Atlético Madrid days and what an occasion he chose! One of my fav moments of the match was early on when he so non-chalantly turned around Cannavaro leaving him all but dead. But the only hero RM had came to its rescue and Casillas turned it over for a corner.

My other favorite has been Barcelona FC. If any non-EPL team has the ability to defeat one of these 4 premier league giants, it is the Catalans. With Eto'o, Henry and Messi going great guns for nearly the entire season so far, they are big favorites to progress to the finals. However they will have to lay down the ghosts they face from time to time, looking like a shadow of their own very best. Messi has proved to be such a catalyst, I hope he can push Barca as far as expected. I really really want Messi to take away the crown from the not-so-deserving C.Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a great talent, no questions about that. But its the arrogance he carries off and on the field hasn't won him as many fans as talent demands. I am hoping for a Man U and Barca show-down and want to see the Catalans tear apart the defending champions. Remember how Ronaldo was crying after missing the penalty in the last year's finals against Chelsea?? I hope it happens again and the world sees how he pales in comparison to Messi.

Bayern München have been blowing away their opponents. What a dominant performance over Sporting Lisbon. Granted, Lisbon aren't the toughest opponent they'll ever face, but to demolish a team like this requires a hunger for more. 12-1. Phew.

Inter Milan disappointed tremendously. They came so close to scoring so many times. A single away goal would have changed things quite a bit, but it turned out to be a reasonably comfortable victory for the holders.

Chelsea have been catalyzed by the return of Didier Drogba to his terrorizing presence up front. Although they had to scrape past Juventus, improving form in the EPL will certainly inspire them to achieve something this year. I just hope that they don't sack their manager again!

Arsenal held their nerve in a rather boring encounter. Lets hope we get to see more of their slick passing game.

It is going to be an interesting Quarter Finals matchup. Lets see who stays and who goes. I wish Liverpool go all the way :)