SPURS SLIP UP BIG TIME

Tottenham Hotspurs took on Arsenal at the Emirates stadium and much was expected from the recently rejuvenated spurs.They got some golden opportunities which would have sealed the fate of the match but it was some messy work from the usually reliable and classy Robbie Keane which cost the spurs the match itself.This match was a disappointment in the first half but began red hot into the second half with Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor snatching the lead for the Gunners.Tottenham had a golden chance with Robbie Keane striking the post from the mouth of the goal post.He made amends however after three minutes with a lovely reverse pass to the skilful Dimitar Berbatov who smashed it via the near post past a hapless Manuel Alumnia.Tottenham got a penalty five minutes later but Robbie Keane messed it up.Then the little known Bentdner came as a substitute for Arsenal and hit a lovely header from the corner kick to win the match for Arsenal 2-1.

THE BIG CLASH

The clash is the most anticipated big clash of the Europe and it has been dubbed as the El derby.These two clubs share a bitter rivalry and they are based in Madrid and Catalan.These two clubs have a rich heritage and their names are Real Madrid and Barcelona.The Catalan club held their training session at Nou Camp this season for the much anticipated laliga encounter.Real Madrid leads the contest 66-58.A win for Barcelona will pull them within a point of Real Madrid.Barca will rely on their home advantage where they have been unbeatable this season, winning 8 matches in a row. A win will pull them within point of arch rivals Real.

AUSTRALIA SMASH NEWZEALAND

Australia have given the Black caps the scantest of respect in this series and they have won the Chappell Hadlee series 2-0.Australia in today's third one dayer scored 282 for the loss of six wickets.The highlights of the day was once again a stunning innings from the exciting Ricky Ponting who smashed the Kiwis to all corners of the ground and remained unbeaten at 134. Andrew Symonds smashed 52 off 63 balls with four fours and opener Matthew Hayden contributed 29 off 32 balls.Haddin and Hopes contributed with little cameos of 20 odd runs and the Adam Gilchrist was rested.This was Ponting's 25 th century in ODI.In reply Kiwis were dismissed for 168 runs in 34 overs and Brett Lee and Brad Hogg claimed three wickets each to guarantee the Aussies of an emphatic victory over their bitter rivals.

JUMBO'S PREDICTION

Anil Kumble here today maintained that India will be looking to meet fire with fire against the Aussies in the test series.Kumble acknowledged that the Indians will be looking forward to make full advantage of lack of quality spin bowlers in the Australian side.He also urged the senior players in the ranks of Sachin,Dravid,Sourav,Laxman and himself to make a final push for the coveted series win against Australia at their own backyard.He also urged the players to make more notes and draw more inspiration from their series draw against Australia last time they visited here.To get the latest updates from the Australia series tune into this blog regularly.

LALIGA TOPPERS

In this stage of the season the top laliga goal scorers are the usual suspects and thats the way the league has been going for years.The toppers are

10 - Luis Fabiano (Sevilla)

8 - Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Raul Gonzalez (Real Madrid), Diego Milito (Real Zaragoza), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid)

7 - Kun Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Daniel Guiza (Real Mallorca), Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla), Guiseppe Rossi (Villarreal), Raul Tamudo (Espanyol), Nihat Kahveci (Villarreal)

6 - Fernando Morientes (Valencia), Joseba Llorente (Valladolid), Victor Fernandez (Valladolid), Diego Forlan (Atletico Madrid), Ronaldinho (Barcelona).

Who will capture the golden boot?For latest soccer updates tune into this blog.

AUSTRALIA THRASH NEWZEALAND

Australia have just beaten Newzealand in the opening game of the Chappell Hadlee throphy yesterday.The Newzealanders wound up their innings atleast 30 runs short after they were given an terrific impetus and momentum by the kiwi star batsman Brendon Mccullum who scored a swashbuckling 96.Shaun Tait pulled things back for the Aussies by capturing 3 wickets.

In their reply Aussies cruised home with nearly eight overs to spare.Adam Gilchrist scored 51 off just 29 balls before being cleaned up by Chris Martin.The job was made easier for captain Ricky Ponting who scored an unbeaten107.Aussies now lead the three match series 1-0.

CLASH OF THE TITANS

Its going to be a big super sunday at the EPL this weekend and we are going to witness two of the greatest rivalries of all time in the english football history.Yes,Manchester united is taking on Liverpool at Anfield.The other match is Arsenal vs Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium.

MAN UTD VS LIVERPOOL:The records still favour man united and liverpool are still to register their first win over united since the 2001 season.Fernando Torres and Gerrard are the guys in form for Liverpool and this makes Rafa Benitez confident that they can secure the win.Manchester United are of course tired after their incident marred clash against Roma in Rome.

ARSENAL VS CHELSEA:Chelsea here will look to throw one over Arsenal today and this will give rise to a three horse race for the crown though Chelsea are very much still in the race their performances this season are lacklusture and this win will boost their ego and confidence.Arsenal will go out there to throw away Chelsea from title contention.

BILLA 1980 vs BILLA 2007

We know that BILLA the Ultimate star's latest movie is releasing today.It has brought everyone to its peak expectations as the movie was given a very big hype,because it was a remake of our one and only SUPERSTAR 'RAJNIKANTH's movie BILLA.The Basic story is as same as that of superstars BILLA with minor changes. ULTIMATE STAR 'AJITH KUMAR' is playing the role of BILLA.

Billa' The very name immediately brings before our eyes the tall, dark, young and handsome Rajinikanth with his typical 'style'. A movie to reckon with in the history of Tamil cinema, Billa was a cult movie in the early 1980s, which brought stardom to Rajinikanth.

After almost two and half decades, 'Billa' revisits Kollywood. But this time in a different form. The blockbuster is remade in Tamil cinema to suit the contemporary audience in the same title. The handsome Ajith takes up the mantle from Rajinikanth to play the amiable don 'Billa'.

A heady mix of commercial cocktail, the original version of Billa won the admiration of everyone for the 'Rajinikanth magic' worked well on screen. Hoping to recreate the magic is Ajith. The latter reportedly called on Rajinikanth and sought his blessings and advice on performing the roles before commencing the shooting.

We hope the history is gonna repeat with the grand success of the movie.As im a Die Hard fan of Ajith Kumar i hope it will be a biggest hit in the history of tamil cinema.with that i pray god for Ajith to bring all success to him.

DAY NIGHT TEST MATCHES?

Cricket Australia has suggested playing day night test matches.This is something peculiar and never attempted in international cricket history.The Australian cricket board has suggested that there has been a steep fall in ticket sales for test matches and day night test matches can add charm to the matches.Many first class test played at Perth,Melbourne,Brisbane were played as a day night matches on a experimental basis.Ricky ponting has voted against this decision saying that the day night test matches are an absolute nightmare and he has been a traditionalist.The difficulty of playing matches day night with the red cherry has been well elucidated in the past where it is an absolute nightmare for the batters to identify the seam of the red new ball.Anyway the new venture seems highly unlikely according to me as it requires all the test playing nations' approval.

POMERSBACH'S DREAM COMES TRUE

Luke Pomersbach got what he didnt expect in the wildest of his dreams.Yes i am true.He came into the ground as a spectator and ended up playing the match for his country!Brad hodge got hurt and one hour before the start of the match he was informed that he would be making his debut.He had been suspended by the Western Australian board due to drinking heavily in a night club.Pomersbach didnt bring his gears and so his brother Gavin had to be called.Pomersbach hit a towering six and made 15 runs off seven deliveries before being cleaned up by Mark Gillespie.This is one of the most bizarre and unexpected events to occur in this beautiful game.Micheal Clarke's Aussies went on to beat the Black caps by 54 runs and the youngster would be happy that he got an opportunity and ended up on the winning team.

BABAYARO TO BE RELEASED

Celestine Babayaro is to be released by Newcastle and the club will pay his wages upto the remaining months of his contract which expires at the end of the season.Babayaro started playing Champions league football as a teenager in Andrelecht and then became a popular player and household name of EPL at Chelsea.After the Chelsea revolution he was purchased for 1 milllion pounds by the Magpies.He has not been able to show his best form and hasnt been a popular player with the fans.He last played for the club on march 31 against Manchester City.He has been deemed surplus to the requirements by the Club after the arrival of Jose Enrique and the rumoured switch of Wes Brown.He was noted by the fans for his loyalty during the 2-1 win over Liverpool when his brother just died few hours earlier.

ALONSO TO DRIVE FOR RENAULT

Fernando Alonso has just signed up to drive for renault in the upcoming season.He has put an end t o the speculation that he might be taking a sabbatical for the following season and then join Ferrari.He had to leave Mclaren as he was unhappy with the preferential treatment that Hamilton got at Mclaren.Mclaren had to hand over the championship to Ferrari because of lack of unity and cohesion in the team.Alonso will be joined at renault by 22 year old rookie Nelson Piquet junior,son of former three time world champ Nelson Piquet senior.Now the biggest challenge for Renault is that they must provide the double world champion with the car that is capable of contending for the title.The below par Giancarlo Fisichella has been disposed off and that is a big move of the team so far in this season.Alonso it seems this season may have to be content with a mediocre season.

GANGULY,YUVI SHINE

Pakistan held the upperhand in the first session with the innings tottering at 61-4.Yasir arafat was the star of the show and he claimed three wickets and Sami got two wickets.Ganguly and Yuvraj responded by giving a stinging counterattack and they stung together 300 run partnership for the 5th wicket.Yuvraj got out of Sami for 169 runs in an innings which was studded with 28 fours and a solitaty six.He was very aggresive on the spinner Kaneria and the part time bowlers like Hameed and Younus Khan.Ganguly played the sheet anchor role to perfection and stayed unbeaten with 125 runs in a innings studded with 20 boundaries.Earlier in the day 4 wickets fell in the first session with the in form guns Wasim Jaffer and VVS Laxman falling very early to debutant Arafat.Now the situation is that India must add atleast 120 runs on the board and this might set the opposition on the backfoot.The star performer of the day without a shadow of doubt was Yuvraj and his swashbuckling innings.For more cricket updates visit this blog regularly.

DECIDING TEST TODAY

The decicing test between India and Pakistan gets underway today at Bangalore.India are caught in injury problem while Pakistan have rumours of rift in their side.

Indian Problems:Sachin Tendulkar will likely miss the test and Yuvraj will likely accomodate that place.Sachin has been carrying a knee injury which he aggrevated during the test match at Kolkata.Dhoni has an injury to little finger and Karthick will keep wickets.Gambhir or Murali Karthick will come into the team depending on Kumble's instincts as a captain.

Pakistan Problems:Pakistan side is experiencing rift in the team and they are playing under a reluctant captain in Younis Khan.Now they have been given a major boost in the likely absence of Sachin Tendulkar they should comeback at India with a lot of vigour.For updates throughout the test match visit this blog.

GERMANY REACH FINAL

Germany reached the finals of the champions trophy hockey as they defeated malasiya here3-2.Two goals were scored by their penalty corner specalist Florian Keller.Germany are at the top of the round robin standings and they can reach the final even if they get defeated by Aussies in the remaining match.South Korea is with 11 points and Australia are with 10 points and Dutch are with 9 points.The top two teams play for the gold medal while the next two play for the bronze.South Korea are the favourites to advance to the finals.Australia must now beat Germany and hope that Koreans either draw or lose to the Britain.Netherland must beat Pakistan and hope both Aussies and Koreans must lose to get through to the finals.As hockey is an unpredictable game and so anything can happen.So everyone must enjoy the hockey fiesta this weekend.

INZAGHI BECOMES THE HIGHEST GOAL SCORER

Super 'pipo' Inzaghi became the highest league goal scorer in UEFA champions league.Inzaghi scored in the 63rd minute and Milan won against Celtic 1-0.Inzaghi overtook Gerd Muller and has both Raul and Ruud fast approaching his tally.Benfica beat Shakhtar Donesk 2-1 and advanced to the UEFA CUP and Celtic was the second team to get through to the knockout stage of the league.These two matches were played up a week to accomodate milan participation in World Club Championship.Earlier in the day Kaka was presented with a golden ball award to a tremendous ovation from the crowd.Kaka is a perfect role model to emulate as he does not get caught in any kind of contrevosy.Milan had 13 points at the end of the match while Celtic finished with nine.Milan rested Dida for this game.

TEAM SELECTION TODAY

Indian team selection for the australia tour and the third test match takes place in bangalore today.The main worry for the selectors is the bowling department and only Zaheer khan seems to be fit and available for the tour and now the selectors are considering the reentry of Ajit agarkar.Well i always feel sad for bowlers like Amit Bandhari,Ashish Nehra,Rakesh Patel,Ranadeb Bose,Ishant Sharma but it seems that Agarkar was born at the BCCI office in Mumbai.He has a poor test bowling record and to reconsider him on the basis of experience and all the blah balah...is criminal and simultaneously denying other players their chance.Irfan Pathan has been bowling steadily though not threatening and anyway he should squeeze into the 16 for his three dimensional abilities.Coming to the batting point of view I think selectors should persist with Dinesh Karthick just to give him one more chance.The chances he has recieved are miniscule when compared to the likes of Agarkar and Suresh Raina who played poorly in so many ODI's prior to world cup and i lost count of it.The propable 16 will likely be

1.Wasim Jaffer
2.Rahul Dravid
3.Sachin tendulkar
4.V.V.S.Laxman
5.Sourav Ganguly
6.Yuvraj Singh
7.Dinesh karthick or Badrinath or Raina
8.Dhoni
9.Anil Kumble
10.Harbhajan Singh
11.Irfan Pathan or Ajit Agarkar
12.Zaheer Khan
13.R.P Singh
14.Sreesanth
15.Ishant Sharma or Ranadeb Bose
16.A bowler or a Batsman (Extra depending on selectors).

YOUNIS KHAN DEFIANCE SAVES PAKISTAN

India wasted a golden opportunity to win the series and Pakistan played out of their skin to draw this match.Well credit should go to the pakistanis who displayed remarkable resilience and character to draw the test match.India should rue the fact that they let the cup slip in the key moments of the match and Sachin dropped Misbah early on in the first innings and he strove to make full use of sachin's butter fingers.Dravid dropped Sami and he played out a full session.With this match I think Munaf patel should be conferred the title "Grandpa of Indian Cricket".His fielding is ridiculous and he is bowling at a speed near to kumble.Well he is a far cry from the days he burst onto the scene against England.Now at Bangalore Pakistan have a good record and dont be suprised if India mess up at Bangalore.I think India lost their grip on the match on the third day afternoon and our grandpa dropped Kamran Akmal.Overall India played well but not well enough to defeat pakistan.One hopes that India does'nt falter in the final hurdle and loses the plot.Well the huge debate is that whether Karthick will make way for Yuvi.To get the latest info on sports just tune into this blog.