A short and informal post

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Ok, due to time constraints, this post is going to be short and snappy. It is going to be a departure from the usual.You can argue that this could have passed off as a couple of Facebook statuses, but lets not think about it.
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If any of you were expecting anything on the recent Test match at Johannesburg, sorry to disappoint you. My mandai is slightly 'cricket mazhungified'(meaning my mind has slightly lost its sharpness in cricket matters[at least according to me :p]) at the moment, as you all are already aware. Despite yours truly watching every single ball of the match in question, no emotion, I repeat, no emotion was felt that would have been felt by any cricket fan on this earth who would have watched this match. Nothing could cause a single scratch on this stone-like heart of mine. This was partly because of the wonderful Maths exam that I had to appear for on the 23rd. I just wish I did not have anything to study during this match. I would have been able to enjoy it thoroughly, then. The joke is, I could not do much justice to the studying either and might just salvage a pass mark in the exam. As Sambit Bal once said, once a student of the game, always a student of the game. 

What to do. Sigh.

Anyway, I can give you a small and cliched verdict on the result and the forthcoming match that can occur to even the most 'mandai mazhungified' person on this planet:

 It was an absolute humdinger and probably one of the most exciting draws in history. Shame that there can be only 2 Tests in this series. A festival of T20 cricket is hardly a compensation for a proper New Year's Test at Capetown. However, the Test match that is going to begin tomorrow at Kingsmead promises to be an exciting one with South Africa forced to make some changes due to the injury to Morne Morkel and the poor showing of Imran Tahir in the first test. When India last came to Durban to play Test cricket, they did very well to win a closely-contested encounter. The sight of Cheteshwar Pujara running out Lonwabo Tsotsobe to clinch the victory still remains fresh in memory.
 I was surprised that South Africa went for the draw with 16 runs to win and two overs to spare. At that stage of the match, it made sense if India were playing for the draw because they had 3 wickets to win with 2 overs to spare. On India's part, the decision to not bring Shami Ahmed on immediately after the tea break on the 5th day was questionable as he had been India's best bowler by far in South Africa's second innings. When JP Duminy got out, there was a sense that much water had flown under the bridge, though we were in for some drama later. Had Shami Ahmed been brought on earlier that session, he could have had an impact on the game earlier. 

 Anyway, it was a great match.

Merry Christmas and a happy Boxing Day Test match eve.

Like there are Boxing Day Test matches in cricket, I have a Boxing Day exam tomorrow...... 
And the worst part is, I don't even feel like studying.