THEY DID IT, AGAIN

The star was out nursing his elbow.

Could Team India do it? They'd got the 6-6's in an over boost, but they were up against the home team. Home turf always changes stuff. There is the adrenaline charged crowd backing you and hoping the visitors just don't get make it. You know your turf best. The odds favour the hosts.

That was the situation facing our young team, who didn't make the most promising of starts having won the toss and electing to bat in the final Twenty20 World Cup Super Eights group E match against South Africa.

It was a do-or head home situation for India. They had to win to stay afloat. They had to hit back to tame South Africa, they simply had no choice but to oust Graeme Smith's home team out of the tournament.

India struggled with the bat when they took to the crease. None of the first four batsmen could inch towards the 20 mark. In fact, three wickets fell for one run in four balls following a double strike by veteran Shaun Pollock in the fifth over. That was well before the newly crowned skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma arrived to add 49 for the fifth wicket. Dhoni hit 45 off 33 balls in style. Not quite lightening Yuvraj stuff, but four boundaries and a six were enough to keep the fans happy. 20-year-old Sharma was a sight to behold. Batting for the first time in the tournament, he made an unbeaten 50 off 40 balls, reaching his half-century off the final delivery with a six to mid-wicket. India posted 153 for five. Not the most challenging of totals. It looked like South Africa would take this away.

Fired by their skipper, one reckons, the bowlers arrived and started unleashing magic all round. Left-arm seamer Rudra Pratap Singh led India's charge with 4-13 from his four overs. Sreesanth and Harbhajan claimed two wickets each to send the Proteas packing by restricting them to just 116 for nine.

Up next, another edge of the seat clash. Tomorrow's semi-final sees India take on mighty Australia at Kingsmead while New Zealand meet group F leaders Pakistan at the Newlands in Cape Town.

In a rather bizarre turn of events, South Africa not only lost a match they appeared to be winning but failed to make 126 that would have helped them beat New Zealand on run-rate.

It's unfair, it's unjust, it's sad, but such is the nature of sport. We haven't forgotten the World Cup, have we? So, what's gonna happen next? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Though I can tell you that keeping those toes and fingers crossed does bust that stress.

HIT IT LIKE YUVI

Moments like these come once in a lifetime.

Ask any batsman timing his shot against a fast bowler. One shot hits the boundary, followed by yet another. Can there be a third? A fourth? A fifth? A sixth?

You see the first two, then start praying for the third. It's edge of the seat stuff. It's what fans wait for. It's what gives a team more than just hope. It's what a nation prays for.

This morning we saw all of that thanks to the spectacular knock by Yuvraj Singh.

First there seemed to be a bit of an altercation, the next thing you knew Yuvraj was on fire.

He smashed a record six sixes in an over against England in their Twenty20 World Cup match at Kingsmead, Durban. Fast bowler Stuart Broad took the brunt. 36 runs it was in the 19th over, making Yuvraj the first player to achieve the mark in the shortest form of cricket.

Broad saw his deliveries disappear over the mid-wicket boundary twice, over backward square leg, extra cover, backward point and wide mid-on. No place was safe as the fireworks continued both on and off the field.

He boosted India's total to total 218 for four in 20 overs, England went on to lose the match by 18 runs.

At the elite level Yuvraj became the fourth man to complete the feat.

Ravi Shastri and West Indian Garfield Sobers had achieved the record in first class cricket, while South African Herschelle Gibbs reached the landmark at the 50-over World Cup earlier this year.

And one could not have asked for a more appropriate commentator than Shastri on this day. "Ballay, Ballay," yes Shastri set things on fire too.

Expectedly, all rights have been violated and the sixy knock has made it to You Tube. I'll do the right thing and tell you to go watch it there.

But don't go anywhere before reading what the man of the match had to say:
"Actually, you know, I got hit for five sixes by Dimitri (Mascarenhas) in the sixth ODI (One Day International against England) and the amount of 'phone calls I had after that, if I get a hundred, I don't get so many 'phone calls. So, after that I thought, 'God, this isn't fair. You've got to give me a chance.' So I guess I got the chance."

What's not to love about such chances? Here's hoping for several more, Yuvi.

MATCH POINT WITH HARSHA BHOGLE

The only saving grace of India's pathetic show against Sri Lanka was watching at least part of the game in Harsha Bhogle's presence. For those of you who know your sport, the voice of cricket needs no introduction. He's passionate about the sport and it clearly shows.

When we booked a table at The Grand Copthorne Waterfront's Piano Bar we certainly weren't expecting celebrity. And with our collective brushes with celebrity (between our table we had a fair bit of media and a fair bit of PR covered), when Harsha was doing the introductory rounds, we just weren't sure how this was going to turn out. In fact, we thought he's do his Hi's and his handshakes and move on. So when Tripta asked Harsha to join us we half expected him to say no. Some folks take celebrity status rather seriously, Harsha clearly doesn't.

He's like your friend next door, the expert who stays grounded and doesn't brusf off any question as stupid enough. A lot of experts in his shoes definitely would. So the questions flowed through the night:
- Why is India batting first?
Pat came the analysis about the pitch and how it would work to our advantage.
- Can Sri Lanka last through the game?
Yup, the cricket line goes all the way down to Russell Arnold.
- Is our fielding good?
No, not when you compare it to the other teams, its just that our standards have been lowered.
- Why are cricket commentators always kissing their mikes?
Sure they seem like they are from another age, but they still have the best sound quality and don't pick up background sound.

Thus, it went through the better part of the night. We had our own live analysis as the did the table next to ours. Such was the charm of his personality that you could see people walk through with a warm smile and a handshake, some of course resorted to donning fake Amrikan accents - quite a spectacle that sounded. There were crazy comments all round, as can only be expected when winners fail to work that spell. In the midst of all of that, Harsha remained perhaps the only oasis of sanity.

What impressed me most about the man was the fact that he sat through it all. I'm pretty certain he did because when we called it quits, soon after Yuvraj's inexplicable run-out, he was still there alert (despite a morning flight), making mental notes of what would go into his show the same morning at 11am. How often does one see that kind of commitment these days? Which is why when you hear him talk you already know that this is one voice in a class of its very own. The kind of voice you hear when passion and vision come together. The insights then can never be better than Harsha Bhogle's.

A VOICE SILENCED

All week, I've been at the edge of my PC, hoping not to hear the worst. Sadly it was not to be. The official statement released by the Jamaican police tells us his death was due to "asphyxiation by manual strangulation." I shudder to think what his last moments were like. Here's my remembrance:

BOB WOOLMER (1948-2007)

For the longest time, we have been taught sports is about team-building, partnership, winning, losing and taking it all in our stride. Not any more.

After well-publicised reports of match-fixing, cricket - the sport that I love - has seen its image take the biggest blow of all. Murder. Strangulation. Asphyxiation.

Sadly, these are the terms that are being associated with the tragic death of one of the greatest coaches of our time, Bob Woolmer. And just what was his fault? That his team lost and badly at that to debutants Ireland.

Yes, it was shocking. How could the early favourites, Pakistan, be the first to bow of the world's finest cricket contest? How could the 1992 world champions be dumped out of the World Cup by Ireland's part-timers? How did it come to this?

But it couldn't just be blamed on Woolmer. The Pakistan Cricket Board has been roundly criticised for its failure to come up with a World Cup winning strategy in the running up to the contest. Two keys players including bowler Shoaib Akhtar were caught in the midst of a doping investigation. Pakistan had a run in on the pitch in England. One of the images that has been replayed over the past few days is that of Akhtar pushing Woolmer during a training session and Woolmer standing firm.

That was what Woolmer did in the time that he was the Pakistan cricket team. He put a team together. A team that like all teams has its good days and equally bad ones.

Quick with his analysis even while the match was on, Woolmer never once minced his words. Ironically, just days before his death, he had talked about the stresses of his coaching job: "doing it internationally, it takes a toll on you - the endless travelling and the non-stop living out of hotels."

In last media conference following Pakistan's World Cup exit, he said, "I am deeply hurt and cannot tell you how it is going to affect me."

Hours later, he was found unconscious in his hotel room and pronounced dead with an hour of being taken to a hospital in Kingston, Jamaica.

Initial reports that came out on Monday morning (in Singapore) said the 58 year old former England test batsman could have died of a heart attack. But the traces of blood and vomit in his room made this sound suspect. The rumour mills went into over-drive soon after. Five days on, it was made official this morning (Friday, 23rd March 2007) that Woolmer had been murdered. The Jamaican police stated the official cause of death was "asphyxiation by manual strangulation."

An end that sounds even more horrific than it reads. And to think this came to a man who took the sport of cricket to great heights. A man who coached South Africa from 1994-1999, who took the hot seat in Pakistan in 2004, who worked on three continents to help develop cricket across the world. A man who lived his life for the love of cricket.

Fate brought him to Pakistan as coach. Many didn't expect him to last. After all the country's hottest post had seen five changes since 1999 until his arrival. But Woolmer was known for taking on jobs that weren't reserved for the faint hearted. His Vaio laptop in hand, he pioneered the use of computers in cricket, he forged a strong relationship with skipper Inzamam and he didn't let anything get in his way as he steadily strengthened his position as coach.

He was busy at work on a book that could have possibly told us all about the inner workings of cricket. If Woolmer's death is any indication, the details might have been murky. The story must have been about more than just sport. Sadly, we will never know.

Whoever silenced Woolmer's voice, silenced something that was bigger than just his coaching brilliance and his presence on and off the pitch. They silenced the spirit of a sport and for that there should be no forgiveness.

This piece appeared here.