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When body building takes precedence

2012-01-14T20:56:00.000-08:00

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Winning is important for WI

2011-11-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

Well winning is of utmost importance for the West Indies especially after the first test ended in a draw and in that test match, the player of the match was given to the Bangladeshi bowler Elias Sunny who scalped 6 wickets in the first innings. More than that, Bangladesh had a first innings lead of 106 runs which definitely draws in a lot of criticisms from all over. On the whole, the West Indies had nothing to take home in that match that lasted for five days. Now, though West Indies have taken a 1^st innings lead, the game still lies in a balance.

In the ongoing second test, outlook suggests that everything is going on right for the West Indies after they had a lead of 231 runs by the end of the third day's play. But, with two more days still to go, a draw can well be expected to be on the cards. Had it been India or South Africa, may be a total of 231 would have solved matters. But, with the opposition being West Indies, nothing can be said surely. Things that are to be confirmed for the West Indies to ensure a win are first, they should put up a more decent total on the board.

And, secondly, they will have to bowl out Bangladesh for the second time in the game which requires a lot of thinking and planning. An ideal approach would be to leave the Bangladeshi batsmen with enough time, batting which requires a lot of hard work and at the same time winning the same needs effort. With little time left for the hosts to bat, the best approach for them would be to stand and see to it that the game gets drawn. And, in case West Indies are to see to it that Bangladesh don't snatch a draw, then a considerable time needs to be given for them to bat.

For that to happen, there needs to be a quickfire batting display from Bravo and co, ensuring the touring nation that they leave Bangladesh with no other option but to either go for the kill or else surrender. The ideal total looking at the third day's play would be somewhere close to 500. In case the match ends in a draw, it is as though Bangladesh have retained the trophy with them whitewashing the West Indies on their previous tour couple of years back. So, that is why winning is important for the West Indies. Still, all is not lost when you can make money online.

Day one has it for Bangladesh

2011-10-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

Usually, whenever there is a test match involving Bangladesh, one can guess that Bangladesh would be hoping for the rains to drop down so that they can end the match with a draw convincing fools that they would have won the game had there been no interruption by rain or bad weather. But, that might not be the case in case Bangladesh are facing Zimbabwe with their chances being high against that trouble torn team. And, speaking present, the latest entry into Bangladesh's wish list would be the West Indies against whom, at least at home Bangladesh can hope to win.

Yesterday in the first day of the first test match against West Indies at Chittagong, until rain interrupted in between, Bangladesh was doing well by not losing wickets at regular intervals and scoring at just less than 3.0 runs an over, which would not have been the case had West Indies been batting. It would not be wrong to say that the pitch also assisted the Bangladeshi batsmen which on the other hand makes the Bangladeshi captain's decision to bat first a mistake. But, it is always good in test matches to opt to bat first no matter what the pitch has got to say.

With repeated bounce, it is more of a certainty that the pitch will start giving troubles to the batsmen who bat in the days to come irrespective of whether a roller has been used or not. Bangladesh were able to cross the 250 run mark on the first day itself without losing too many wickets. If the other side of the cricketing world is considered, Sri Lanka in their first test against Pakistan were bowled out for 197 on day 1 itself. But, Sri Lanka were not playing at home and neither were Pakistan. Moreover, Sri Lanka are considered to be better outfit than Bangladesh.

At the same time, Pakistan are a far better outfit than West Indies. Coming to the first day's play, there were two batsmen from Bangladesh who notched up half centuries when Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal scored 68* and 52 respectively. Despite varying the fielding, Darren Sammy couldn't stop 136 runs in running between wickets not to forget the 23 boundaries scored to keep the ball boys on their toes. Whatever the Bangladeshis do, every effort gets applauded unlike their opponents who take home nothing despite winning and on the other hand get criticized in case they lose. Check out for the latest on Stock Market.

West Indies' real color

2011-10-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

The series against Bangladesh is the third full fledged series that the West Indies team is found playing against sub-continent nations after they had a series each against Pakistan and India. However, the result of the series against Bangladesh was totally different from what happened in the series against India and Pakistan. West Indies won the series 2-1 after losing to the hosts yesterday at Chittagong by 8 wickets. That is not the only reason why I say that the series was exact opposite to what happened in their two earlier series'. It was as though you are searching for gadgets online.

In the earlier two series', West Indies were hosting Pakistan and India unlike in the ongoing series against Bangladesh where West Indies are touring the sub-continent nation. Adding to that, in the series' against Pakistan and India, West Indies won two games against both the sub-continent nations after being totally out of the tournament when they won the inconsequential games in the 4^th and 5^th ODI. This time, they won the series and instead lost inconsequential match against Bangladesh. But, the way they lost the third one dayer speaks it all for the West Indies. West Indies got all-out for 61.

Both India and Pakistan didn't go down to that level of misery despite losing those two games which were inconsequential. It is not necessary for us to go to the details of that series. But, getting all-out against Bangladesh speaks of the true caliber of the West Indies team. It would not come as a surprise had in case West Indies whitewashed the hosts but, they might just have to pray God that even West Indies do not meet with the same fate in case they lose against Bangladesh. Two years back, they had been whitewashed by the same Bangladesh on their home soil.

But, that was a different situation with most of the players opting out of the series owing to some stupid strike against the WICB. Scorecard suggests that only 22 overs of the match were played by the West Indies confusing the viewers whether they were watching a T20 game or a ODI. Should we congratulate Kieran Powell for scoring 25 runs to become the highest run scorer for the West Indies team? When the crowd there would have been cursing for lack of any batting display on the field, a six from the blades of Imrul Kayes was as good as an ocean in a desert.

1-1....2-1....3-1....

2011-10-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

It is just some miracle that makes the West Indies bowlers make hay even before the sun has risen when they had their second consecutive victory over Bangladesh yesterday at Dhaka once again.This time the victory margin for West Indies was a mind blowing 8 wickets chasing 221 for victory. No one disputes West Indies' win over Bangladesh like they do for the viceversa. But, with Bangladesh hosting the tournament and secondly winning the one off T20 game, something special would no doubt be expected from Bangladesh whatsoever. But, for all those who expect that there was a disaster waiting.

One of the teams playing which the Bangladeshi team enjoys would be West Indies for, against them at least coming close to winning would be a certainty which can shut up a lot of critics. In the first game at the same venue, Bangladesh were able to cross the 250 run mark and didn't lose more than 7 wickets en route to the same (losing 7 wickets deserves condemnation). This time, the Bangladeshi batsmen were bowled out before 50 overs and the way the scoreboard read with the first three wickets falling was amazing. Bangladesh lost their first three wickets with 1 run on the board.

However, the batsmen who came in later tried to save some face for their team with Mushfiqur Rahim top scoring with 69. Later on for Bangladesh, Nasir Hossain belted 50 runs coming in at number 8 which was the highlight not only in the Bangladeshi innings but also in the game overall. There were 5 batsmen from Bangladesh who did their duty well after the failed top three batsmen. Unlike in the last game, there were a couple of overs maiden in the West Indies side with Kemar Roach and Andre Russel having a ball. West Indies in the end could prove something with a series win.

Shafiul Islam had a confusing spell with him being one of the frontline bowlers for the Bangladesh side bowling 2 overs maiden and still giving away runs at a rate of 7.57 runs an over. Bringing in 7 of his bowlers could not help in Mushfiqur Rahim's men go home empty handed. But, I'd give him thumbs up for trying out too many things that helps a captain in the long run. Scorecard suggests that both captains had other decisions in mind when they had only two bowlers bowling their complete quota of 10 overs. In the end, West Indies have managed to win a series.

West Indies are the new Zimbabwe

2011-10-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

Since the past five years or so, Bangladesh's only win used to come against Zimbabwe to a greater extent and very rarely Bangladesh was found to beat strong nations like Australia and India. Now, with Zimbabwe going out of focus, it looks like West Indies have taken their place when they had a hard fought victory against Bangladesh at Dhaka yesterday. There is no doubt that Bangladesh are not the easiest of the opposition to defeat or rather thrash like they were some eight years ago. They had a win in the only T20 game that was played a couple of days back.

In ODIs, Bangladesh are not far behind the West Indies and one need not find it tough to have betters putting their money on the game. Yesterday, the West Indies piled up 298 runs on the board with century from Lendl Simmons who top scored with 122 followed by Marlon Samuels' 71 off 78 balls. The result is not a tough one to guess but the way matches have been won by West Indies speaks for it. One can go through the entire West Indies team to see majority of the players having their talk only with the bat and the team lacks bowlers.

With as many as eight batsmen in their team, the total should have crossed 350 which didn't happen whatsoever. A score of 298 is no doubt a decent one but not with 8 batsmen in their side and not against a team like Bangladesh. Looking at their bowling chart, it can be said that Bangladesh are no short of talented players but what they lack at the moment is a well planning whether it is defending a total or chasing one. The Bangladeshi captain had only 3 of his bowlers bowling their complete quota of 10 overs out of the 7 bowlers who made it there.

Alok Kapali who went for just 4 runs an over was allowed to bowl just 6 overs while Abdur Razzak bowled 9 overs despite going in for over 7.00 runs an over. So was the case regarding Naeem Islam and Nasir Hossain who were given to bowl just 3 and 2 overs respectively. Bangladesh could have and should have won with the West Indian side having a scarcity of bowlers in their side needless to be said. But, fortunately, the West Indies' bowlers did a fab job in the end with every bowler having his share to the team. You might be interested in Movies reviews here after read and you can watch the movie at theater.

T20 can be anyone's game

2011-10-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

This might not be true regarding the other two formats of the game where Bangladesh winning over West Indies makes headlines. But, in a T20 game that happens to be just a formality with both teams having an equal chance of winning or losing the match. Likewise, even in a one day international, it would not be anything new in case West Indies lose to Bangladesh despite the likes of Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan having their presence in the team. Let alone Bangladesh, even had Ireland been in place, they would have chased down that total of 133 set by West Indies.

It might turn out to be a Romantic's Blog in case I write something favoring one particular team in games which can go anybody's side. The main culprit of the game would be the West Indian batsmen who could not pile up more than 132 runs on the board. I just condemn the WICB for not including Gayle, Sarwan, Chandrapaul etc in the playing XI for reasons best known to WICB alone. If that was one side of the coin, the other side also points fingers towards the batsmen like Barath, Bravo, Marlon Samuels etc who could have got the job done to their team.

You can take a look at the scorecard to see the bowling chart of the Bangladesh team which had just 5 bowlers bowling their full quota of 4 overs each. And, another fascinating aspect would be that every bowler from Bangladesh team returned with a wicket against his name. Perhaps! You could all blame it on the pitch they were playing on which was hosted by Bangladesh. But still, in a T20 game the pitch hardly matters whether it is the home ground to one team or not. This is truer when it comes to games involving Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Likewise, things were not easy for the Bangladeshi batsmen as well when they lost 7 wickets and took until the penultimate ball en route to their successful run chase of 133 on the board. That should not be a matter of worry with the game having been a 20 over affair. Still, Bangladesh have got a lot to improve with their approach not being a match winning one if not for games against West Indies, Zimbabwe and other non-test playing nations. One has to acknowledge the triple contribution of Mushfiqur Rahim who played the role of a captain, wicket keeper and match winner for Bangladesh.

This is what happens

2011-10-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

It always happens that the team that gives more signals of thrashing its opposition in crucial stages of a tournament gets thrashed itself. For instance, one can go through the South African episode in world cups between 1992 and 1999. If anyone calls South Africa as chokers, then here it is; Australia did everything right in the world T20 tournament 2010 only to lose to England in the finals of the same. So was Sri Lanka in the 2009 edition of the World T20 tournament and Pakistan in 2007. This has been the case many times and not once or twice.

I was just thinking about My world this moment before the final match of the champions league T20 tournament between Mumbai Indians and RCB. Rather than going through some other games,why don't we recollect what happened to Mumbai Indians in IPL 2010 when Mumbai were favorites to win the title any finally lost to Chennai? This time, the Royal Challengers Bangalore happened to be the culprit with them having a three successive 200+ total, once batting first and twice batting second. Every time the RCB took the crease, a batting record was rewritten. I just cannot what are these matches made up of?

Coming to the match, needless to be said, the pitch was a bowler's paradise regarding which Harbhajan Singh would be the best person to tell who could bowl successive balls of the ~~century~~ millennium. Luckily or unluckily, nobody got bowled in that fashion. But, the blame should completely go to the RCB team who very well knew what the Chepauk pitch was like. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians were somewhat a lucky team to have played on that pitch a day before in the second semi-finals against Somerset. That match happened to be a practice match for Mumbai before heading to the finals.

Likewise, the Royal Challengers Bangalore played on a pitch which was dead opposite of the Chennai pitch which made them pay the price. Secondly, the toss was a trump card which happened to be on Mumbai's side when they elected to bat first on a track where any total is defendable. However,anybody who saw the match would have seen the RCB batsmen belting the Mumbai bowlers until the tenth over when suddenly things stared to change. In the end, Lasith Malinga got his due when he became the highest wicket taker in a T20 tournament for the 2^nd time after the IPL2011.

Malinga for Gayle

2011-10-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of the 4^th edition of the IPL, two names that have made rounds were Lasith Malinga for his devastating bowling and Chris Gayle for his mind blowing batting. Lasith Malinga was the highest wicket taker in the tournament and Chris Gayle the highest run-getter. And, much to anybody's surprise, those two players are responsible for their teams to qualifying in the finals of the champions league T20 tournament. In yesterday's second semi-finals between Mumbai Indians and Somerset, Lasith Malinga scalped four wickets to see his team make it to the finals of the tournament needless to be said.

In the game, if Bangalore was a batsman's paradise, then the pitch at Chennai was exactly opposite to that when batsmen found it hard to score despite there being several wickets in hand. Most of the time, both the teams had scored equal scores at the end of a particular over. Moreover, the losers of the game - Somerset had been ahead of the Mumbai Indians until the 17^th over if their over comparison is made. But, it was Malinga who completely devastated the Somerset batsmen. The batsmen from Somerset team could not get enough runs towards the end of the innings.

The Mumbai Indians read the pitch well and did most of their scoring towards the end of their innings and not going for the kill right from the beginning. However, looking at the batting of Mumbai Indians, they scored 51 runs in their powerplay compared to 35 from Somerset and were always lagging behind when it came to their scores tally. This clearly shows that the Somerset tried to relax a lot during their batting with wickets in hand during most of the time. In the end, they fell 10 runs short of the total what Mumbai Indians put up.

It was Rajagopal's quickfire 25 off 12 balls which proved costly for Somerset. That was the advantage that the team batting first always has in hand when the last few overs happen to be slog overs where the batsmen go in for the kill which the team batting does not have. However, in the batting of Somerset, if not for Kieswetter and Hildreth no other batsmen could do anything with the remaining batsmen getting little opportunity to show their skills. One thing for which Harbhajan Singh needs to be applauded is for having Malinga bowl the last two overs which were crucial which saw 5 wickets from Somerset falling.

Pitch report was leaked

2011-10-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

It is absolutely needless to be said about players or coaches being find, banned and suspended for leaking the pitch report prior to the game. I remember Shane Warne having been a victim of this subject when he was accused of leaking the pitch report. But, the same thing has found to happen in the first semi-finals of the champions league T20 tournament 2011 when two days prior top the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and New South Wales the pitch was declared to be a run fest at chinnaswamy stadium. Despite that, New South Wales couldn't cash in on that.

It was not only a good toss to win by the Royal Challengers Bangalore but was also a good decision to field first when rumors were alive that a run fest would be evident there in Bangalore and any total could be chased down successfully. Despite losing the toss, the New South Wales batsmen did a fair job by posting a total in excess of 200 on the board. That happened to be a below par total which forms a different issue altogether. There were only four batsmen from New South Wales who made t to the crease and no doubt that they all did their job well.

Majority of the scoring was done by David Warner and Daniel Smith who scored 180 runs between them. There would be no point cursing the New South Wales batsmen for putting up as total that the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen could defend effortlessly. But still, a total of 250 should have made it to the scoreboard when the nature of the track was well in front of them. Scorecard suggests that there were four bowlers from RCB who bowled their full quota of 4 overs and Gayle's on over went for 14 runs. This has been the case whenever Gayle is found bowling.

One thing that once again falls into dispute is the man of the match award given to Virat Kohli. Our man of the match should have been either Chris Gayle who did most of the scoring or else David Warner who posted his second hundred in this tournament. Anyone who turns down that citing the batsmen friendly pitch on which they were batting, one has to acknowledge the fact that Virat Kohli was awarded the man of the match for his batting. If those performances are not convincing, Pat Cummins could have been given the award for his bowling figures of 4-0-45-4.

The excitement is intolerable

2011-10-07T05:03:00.000-07:00

The moment I witnessed the last ball six that was hit by the tail-end batsman of Royal Challengers Bangalore - Arun Karthik the excitement has reached a new level. Added to that would be the fact that rumors say that a batting fest is to be expected in the semi-finals which is due in hours to come. That makes the excitement more intolerable for all those crazy fans who just want to see the ball cross the ropes and more so without pitching in between. Without any doubt I can say that champions league T20 rules over women penny loafer, web hosting, flowers and gardening, online money making opportunities.

However, along with the excitement, as a compliment there would be more trouble for cricket fans who expect a lot from their players and team. In case their favorite team fails in the league stages itself, the enthusiasm dies down there itself and fans would concentrate on their work after a few actions and reactions of disappointment. But, in case the team qualifies to the next round, once again the fans have to keep their fingers crossed regarding what would happen to their favorite team in the crucial matches. However, needless to be said, that would also die down after some disappointment.

Anyways, back to the tournament, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will have to win the semi-finals (of course) failing which their effort of winning two games after posting totals in excess would go unrewarded. Needless to be said, Royal Challengers Bangalore won their match against Somerset and South Australia after posting totals in excess of 200. The Royal Challengers Bangalore have made news for the good reasons in both their earlier games. In the game against Somerset, the RCB became the team to have scored the highest total in a champions league match. And then against South Australia their story is well in front.

Still, the remaining three teams have also come to play good cricket. Looking at the other teams, the Mumbai Indians are one of the teams who have beaten CSKs after a successful run chase of 154 in the last over of the innings similar to RCB's win over South Australia. Or else, Mumbai have reached the semi-finals by fluke after gasping for breath against Trinidad&Tobago where they had to wait for the 120^th legal delivery to be bowled chasing 99 and were bowled out for 100 against New South Wales. Can you answer the Q: Should the ruler thirst around the humane refund?

No scam or spam

2011-10-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

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Injustice to the Warriors

2011-10-06T03:18:00.000-07:00

It is absolutely unfair for a team that has had challenging wins in the first two games it played to be knocked out of the tournament with two losses by small margin. Yes, Warriors won their first two games against Royal Challengers Bangalore and South Australia respectively. The Warriors had beaten the RCB after a successful run chase of 173 on their home turf and South Australians at the same venue by 51 runs which should have boosted their run-rate. But, unfortunately two wins got overshadowed by two tiny losses to Kolkata Knight Riders and Somerset yesterday.I just cannot read the calculations.

Looking at the game, it is evident that the pitch had hardly anything to offer for the bats,men when chasing 147 happened to be tough. If not for Peter Trego, all other batsmen from Somerset had their bat do the talking when four of their batsmen scored decent runs. Neither could the Somerset batsmen score runs at else nor could the Warriors' bowlers bowl them out at regular intervals. One has to appreciate the batsmen from Somerset for standing at the crease and waiting for an opportunity to strike. Had the Somerset batsmen gone reckless, they would have been bowled out for less than 100.

As usual, it has become the way captains go about their bowling when they have four bowlers bowling their complete quota of 4 overs with one other bowler bowling three and one bowler bowling the remaining over and Warriors were not anything different. Finally, looking at the bowling chart of Warriors, it was a mistake that Parnell was given the ball when he gave away 13 runs from the one over he bowled. But, who on earth knows what would happen with any bowler on that day. Looking at the batting of Warriors, it can well be understood that they never read the pitch thoroughly.

It was as though the Warriors only saw the score of 146 which has been chased down in many occasions. The top three batsmen had success initially not because they read the pitch or were suited for the challenge but more so because of the powerplay. After the top three batsmen vacated the crease, the rest of the batsmen could only get confused and nothing else. Eventually, the Warriors fell short by 12 runs which make the difference between qualifying and non-qualifying. However,even Somerset stuck to the same formula but Peter Trego didn't get the treatment that Parnell received.

West Indies knock off South Africa

2011-10-05T06:27:00.000-07:00

That was the match which kept on swinging both ways with at one stage being as though the Trinidad&Tobago would just thrash the Cape Cobras and at another stage, it was as though Cape Cobras might pull off a thriller. In the end, as only one team can emerge victorious, it happened to be Trinidad & Tobago who beat the South African team by 2 wickets. One has to once again see a South African team choking in the crucial stage of a tournament. They have no one else to blame but themselves for their debacle who ended their innings with 137.

It is just confusing to see Cape Cobras neither losing wickets nor being able to cash up on the wickets in hand by going in for a kill towards the end of their innings. The main idea behind having wickets in hand is to go for it when the innings approach an end when there would be no idea in having wickets in hand. Looking at the way the Cape Cobras played, it was as though they had come in for a one day match rather than a T20 one. With this being a decisive match Cape Cobras' effort was simply not enough.

The Cape Cobras maintained a run-rate of 6.85 runs per over at the end of their innings which would have fetched a score of 343 had it been a 50 over match. But, that run-rate could get in just 137 on board in a T20 game chasing which is not at all an issue. However, chasing the same total demanded a lot from T&T who took it to the last over with just two balls left for the game to conclude. Trinidad & Tobago lost 8 wickets en route to their successful run chase of 138. One can imagine the fate had the score been slightly more.

One can hardly understand why Sherwin Ganga was made to bowl 3 overs when he gave away runs at a rate of 12.66 runs an over with his third over fetching 16 runs. The pitch was a tough one to bat on and Sherwin Ganga giving away so much runs cannot be let away. The Cape Cobras have themselves to blame when only two of the four batsmen stood to the occasion and neither did they play up to expectations nor did they allow other batsmen to do the scoring. Concluding the post, hats-off to T&T for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Somer-Set Gayled by RCB

2011-10-04T02:26:00.001-07:00

It is not something new to the viewers of either the IPL or the ongoing champions league T20 tournament regarding the fate of Royal Challengers Bangalore who have smiles on their faces whenever they win (obviously) and more so when Chris Gayle blasts the bowlers from the opposition the way he wants all over the field and at time outside it as well. Yesterday, in the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Somerset, needless to be said, Chris Gayle blasted 86 runs off just 46 deliveries to see the Royal Challengers Bangalore record the highest total in Champions League 2011.

Looking at the scorecard, taking confidence and support from Gayle at the other end, there were batsmen like Dilshan, Kohli, Mayank Agarwal and Saurabh Tiwary who did their part of batting which was not the case in the previous matches that the Royal Challengers played. There was a six from every batsman who had aggregated more than 6 ruins which happens very rarely in any form of cricket. Wickets were registered against those names in the Somerset side who had bowled their complete quota of four overs. This is another point to be noticed from the match not knowing whom to thank.

With Gayle in full bloom, there was nothing much the Somerset bowlers could do when Alfonso Thomas could not take risks with the bowlers. Whatever, the pitch never looked to compromise with the bowlers by any chance when even the Somerset batsmen had an easy going until the 13^th over when the run-rate was maintained close to 10.00 runs an over with 7 more batsmen to go. It was after the fall of Buttler that all things started deviating away from Somerset. In the end, it was fascinating to see all batsmen from Somerset getting bowled out with them falling 51 runs short of what the RCB ~~managed~~ achieved.

Another fascinating aspect of the match was that the batsmen who made the game watchable were equally disastrous with the ball in their hand. As all of you know, Chris Gayle had an awesome time with the bat but was equally generous with the ball with his only over gong for 24 runs. That was a "TIT FOR TAT" message that was being delivered to Gayle by the Somerset batsmen. On the other hand, the least successful bowler from Somerset namely Peter Trego who gave away 50 runs from three overs happened to be the most successful batsman in the Somerset side.

Mumbai finally show their true colors

2011-10-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about Mumbai Indians who with great difficulty chased down a total or 99 runs against Trinidad&Tobago last week at Bangalore. That was the lucky game for Mumbai who should have lost that had T&T played their full quota of 20 overs. And, that game happened to be completed yesterday at Chennai when all that Mumbai Indians could manage was a mere 100 runs on the board with no strike rates worth mentioning and no good scores as well. The highest individual score from Mumbai happened to be from James Franklin who scored 42 at number 4.

Mumbai Indians has entered the champions league tournament being placed third in the domestic T20 competition ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders. But, fascinating thing is that Kolkata are found putting up a better performance compared to the other three teams from the country. Yesterday, the Mumbai Indians had a total of just 58 on the board deducting James Franklin's 42 and removing the extras, the score drops to 51 runs from 69 balls at a run rate of 4.43 runs an over. Even with Franklin's 42, the run rate was just 5.00 runs an over which is not the latest run-rate in test cricket.

Looking at the way the Mumbai batsmen played, the New South Wales' captain - Simon Katich did't opt for more than 5 bowlers by having all five bowlers bowl their full quota of 4 overs. One has to wonder as to how come the Mumbai Indians didn't get bowled out when they had 3 wickets still left in hand? Moreover, there was only one over maiden which meant that 19 overs had atleast one run in it. This is a special case of batting where neither overs go maiden nor does the team gets bowled out nor is there any high scoring involved whatsoever.

If that was Mumbai Indians, the New South Wales also never had a ball with their batting. They too had initial blows when the top four batsmen namely David Warner, Shane Watson, Daniel Smith and Simon Katich had to depart scoring single digit scores. The New South Wales had to wail for Steven Smith to cut loose along with Ben Rohrer. After that, there was only one wicket that fell. The entire match consisted of just one six from the blades of Steven Smith. However, the most economical bowler happened to be from Mumbai Indians when Abu Nechim had figures of 4-0-23-3.

Kolkata on a ride

2011-10-02T01:39:00.000-07:00

One need not consider the Kolkata Knight Riders to be lucky to have the D-L method being responsible for their win over Warriors last night at Bangalore. Kolkata would have emerged as winners at any cost irrespective of whether there was rain or not. One has to congratulate the Kolkata Knight Riders for coming this far when they were at one stage not even thought to make it to the champions league tournament after being placed fourth in the IPL. Now, the same Kolkata Knight Riders have outraced their competitors namely Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Superkings in the champions league.

A score of 155 put up by the Warriors was far from satisfactory which was easily chasable. In the past in the tournament, the Kolkata Knight Riders have chased down a total of 169 with 9 wickets to spare and few balls left against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Prior to that, they have beaten made 169 against South Australia. Though they lost to South Australia by 19 runs, they managed to go past 150 which was a positive sign. Now, the Warriors had to shed their sweat and blood to reach the total of 155 which was a result of late strikes by Mark Boucher and Colin Ingram.

The Warriors didn't try too many things and settled with a slow ticking of the scorecard. They lost only 4 wickets to do so keeping batsmen like JJ Smuts, Botha and Boje warm the benches. Prior to this match, there was rain which spoiled the previous match between South Australia and Somerset was washed out which gave a hint that the same might happen to the next match as well. Some thinking by the match officials could have made the match a 16 over affair to see both teams complete their innings. There were 29 overs of play meaning, 16 overs per innings was possible with the break reduced appropriately.

Coming to the man of the match debate, it was unfair to give the award to Colin Ingram who scored 61 runs. There is no doubt that his score laid the foundation for Warriors' total but, there were the likes of Kallis and Gambhir whose confidence saw their team total go past the required total by 22 runs. Looking at the way Kallis and Gambhir played, they would have reached the target in just 16 overs with just 72 runs being required off 60 deliveries. The run rate at which the duo were scoring was 8.3 an over and with 9 wickets in hand, the run rate could have only reduced.

All down the drains

2011-10-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

There is no guarantee that a team scoring 176 will definitely end up as winners because, regarding the very same Mumbai Indians, chasing down a mere total of 99 took their breath away in that game against Trinidad& Tobago and a couple of days back Kolkata Knight Riders with little effort chased down a target of 170 against Royal Challengers Bangalore by 9 wickets. But, in majority of the cases, a target of 177 has been tough to reach batting second. Also, setting up a target of 177 requires effort and pain and a lot of team work and planning at the same time.

In yesterday's match between Mumbai Indians and Cape Cobras, the Mumbai Indians did everything right to see a stiff target on the board which would make every team raise its eyebrows. But, eventually what happened was something which Mumbai Indians never expected. The result of the huge target was not a one man show but a series of performances from the blades of Sarul Kanwar, Andrew symonds, Kieron Pollard which was assisted by James Franklin along with 11 wides that were bowled by Cape Cobras. All these happened with just 5 batsmen stepping out of their dressing rooms to take to the crease.

May be to a greater extent the pitch assisted the batsmen which becomes evident with all batsmen showing confidence with the bat. But, at the same time it is to be accepted that players like Andrew Symonds, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu are exceptional hitters of the cricket ball. Of course, Ambati Rayudu didn't put up a promising knock but instead there was Sarul Kanwar who replaced him by scoring a 21 ball 45 at a strike rate of 214.28. Something that happens very rarely in a limited overs cricket match is that a fielder is responsible in majority of dismissals.

Yes, Owais Shah was instrumental in taking four catches out of the five dismissals which took place in yesterday's match against Mumbai Indians. Owais Shah should consider himself lucky enough to be that fielder when it was the bowler's effort and thinking which forced the batsmen to land the ball safely in the hands of Owais Shah. One can see Justin Kemp bowling just one over when he gave away runs at 2.00 an over and taking the wicket of Franklin. But, Langeveldt and Philander bowled their full quota despite giving away runs at 11.25 and 9.00 respectively. This questions Kemp's caliber as a captain.

Shame for the RCB

2011-09-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Well one would have not even in their dreams would have thought that the Royal Challengers Bangalore would lose to the Kolkata Knight Riders and that too mu such a huge margin making it a one sided contest. All these happened despite the presence of Chris Gayle though the entire Royal Challengers Bangalore's innings didn't consist of Gayle's contribution to much extent. The RCB struggled to cross past 150 when they ended at 169 with a last moment effort from Daniel Vettori. But, the Kolkata Knight Riders chased down the target losing just 1 wicket of Brad Haddin not before scoring 42.

In most of the cases, a total of 169 is thought to be a match winning score but not yesterday when that was not even considered to be a score. When a team like Kolkata Knight Riders can chase down the target comfortably, one can just think about the caliber of the score. For the 1^st time may be that some captain has used his brains in choosing the bowlers who would be bowling their spells out. All the bowlers had decent run ups with Shami Ahmed going in for 10 runs. And Gambhir showed his captaincy skills by removing him after that over.

Though Unadkat went for 11.66 runs an over from his three overs, he was able to capture two wickets. That made sense in using his bowlers which much captains doesn't seem to do quite often. There were 7 bowlers who took the ball in their hands. It was nice to see Kallis, who is more of a one day batsman taking the charge of Kolkata's run chase and emerging successful at the same time. Kallis' efforts deserve praise when he assisted Brad Haddin in his big hitting and then did the same when Gambhir entered the crease after Haddin's dismissal.

This would be a tough job to stand and support the other batsman and for this, it was right in judging Kallis as the man of the match. On the other hand, Vettori's efforts as a captain needs some applause when he stepped in and scored a handy 44 when big guns like Gayle failed at the top. But, later on, Vettori tried everything to contain the Kolkata batsmen by bringing in players like Bhatkal and Kohli to bowl when top bowlers like Nannes and Aravind got belted for 13.00 runs an over. Vettori was the most successful bowler as well returning with figures of 4-0-27-1.

One bowler who was the difference

2011-09-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday, the match between Trinidad & Tobago and New South Wales ended in a tie which was finally decided by a super over where an extra over is bowled and the team which scores most number of runs in that over is declared as the winner. Not many people would accept that theory with one over being unable to predict or decide who the winner of the match would be. That super-over theory is nothing but a sort of lucky dip. Whatever, a score of 139 should have been chased down by New South Wales. Thank God! The match ended in a tie.

One can go through the scorecard to see that none of the batsmen from both the teams managed to score a half century with the highest individual score of the match being scored by Lendi Simmons from Trinidad & Tobago. A fascinating aspect would be that the very first batsman to take to the batting crease happened to be the top scorer of the game. With both teams being unable to strike the ball at will, it can be concluded that batting was not an easy job on that track and bowlers could have done anything to the batsmen there.

It was Ravi Rampaul towards the end of the innings who started to strike the ball not because the pitch had deteriorated but because it was the fag end of the innings and going for big shots was the need of that time. Or else, none of the batsmen until then had a strike rate of even 150 with the highest one being Kevon Cooper's 133.33 who came in just behind Ravi Rampaul. The second highest individual score was the top score in New South Wales team which was scored by the New South Wales' opener - David Warner who scored 38.

One reason why the match ended in a tie is because the T&T captain didn't go in for a sixth bowler by sticking to a five bowler theory. All was well until Ravi Rampaul's 4^th over went for 16 runs which made him the most expensive bowler. And, much to anybody's amazement, that was the final over of the game when New South Wales needed 17 runs off the last over. Until then Ravi's bowling analysis showed 3-0-26-1 still under just 9.00 an over. Having such a bowler bowl the last over was a mistake. Added to that, Rampaul was the one who bowled the super over.

South Australia just unpredictable

2011-09-28T03:11:00.000-07:00

Last time when South Australia played their match against Warriors, on one hand South Australians were first punched everywhere when by the Warriors' batsmen for 171 and then their batsmen were restricted to just 121. Now, the same South Australian team happened to score a mammoth total of 188 against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Hyderabad yesterday. There can hardly be any question of a team chasing the total and needless to be said, Kolkata lost the match by 19 runs. Well, that was too low a margin to achieve victory. The margin of victory should have been atleast 51 runs like it was the case for Warriors.

Whatever, I am not the person to predict or rather dictate that by how much margin should a team win a match. Coming to the match, it was not a one man show like it was in the match between Warriors and South Australia where ~~all~~ most of the scoring was done by JJ Smuts who scored 88. This time there was contribution from Michael Klinger, Daniel Harris, Callum Ferguson and Daniel Christian with Ferguson's 70 being the highlight to bring the team total to 188. The only batsman who disappointed was Tom Cooper who got out scoring just a single.

As usual, the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders namely Gautam Gambhir stuck to the age old theory having four of his bowlers bowl their full quota of 4 overs with Laxmipathy Balaji falling one over short. Trying to shift from Balaji who gave away runs at 9.00 runs an over, Gambhir turned to Rajat Bhatia who was even more intelligent and gave away 10.00 runs from his only over. Still, that was better than 10.75 runs an over given by Yousuf Pathan. Adding to the excitement, there was equal contribution from most of the batsmen of Kolkata but none of them were highlights.

The top scorer from Kolkata happened to be Manoj Tiwary who had 40 runs to his credit. In a game of cricket, in addition to team work, there should be regular partnerships and one man should take complete responsibility of his team in order to be victorious. Whatever, Kolkata Knight Riders came close to the target which will stop critics from pointing their fingers towards them. There were back to back wickets for Kolkata which halted their advance in the game when Ryan ten Doeschate and Lee got out in 18.2 and 18.4 over respectively. Or else, Bhatia had a great going with 21 runs at number 10.

Alas! Mumbai couldn't lose

2011-09-27T23:57:00.000-07:00

One has to wonder is it because of the absence of the star batsman Sachin Tendulkar which is responsible for the Mumbai Indians to perform so badly despite winning the match. There is absolutely no doubt that towards the end of the match all the fans and supporters of Mumbai Indians would go home with a smile on their face but that would not be the case with their heart beats. They heart beats might have simply doubled looking at the way the batsmen of their favorite team played. Mumbai Indians did Warriors (who got their winning runs in the last ball of the game against RCB) yesterday.

One can go through the batting chart of Trinidad & Tobago to see that they couldn't play their complete 20 overs. This is one mistake that teams seldom do. Yesterday, it looked as though Trinidad & Tobago had accepted defeat even before half of the match was still awaiting. They played just 16.2 overs with 3.8 overs still left in the play. Anytime, in cricket, more scores on the board makes the opposition to concentrate more and work more in an attempt to achieve victory. At the end of the game, no doubt T&T would be cursing themselves for their debacle.

With a total of 98 giving the Mumbai Indians a run for their money, one can imagine what would have happened in case the T&T had played their full quota of 20 overs. The T&T team kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and even the batsmen who came in later didn't ever think of undoing the damage that their seniors did. They could have just played their natural game when at that point of time, winning was totally out of question for T&T. There have been many matches where mere totals have been defended and huge ones chased down successfully.

It would be worth mentioning Yuzvendra Chahal's 13 run over in that 98 ball innings of T&T that managed only 98 runs. However, coming to the Mumbai's innings, criticisms would have poured in from all over for such an approach. A win at the end might not be able to stop all tongues from wagging against Mumbai. Two sixes from Mumbai came in from number 8 and 9 batsmen when Harbhajan Singh and Malinga were the ones who were responsible.Another major mistake that T&T made was opting for only 5 bowlers like a programmed device. In the end T&T got everything wrong which doesn't mean Mumbai had everything right.

One scores and the rest support

2011-09-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Well in the beginning of the second stage of the champions league T20 tournament, there was a game where the Royal Challengers Bangalore put up a score of 173 on the board only to see the Warriors snatching the game away from them in the last ball of the innings. Yesterday, at Hyderabad, the same Warriors put up a score of 171 which was two runs less than what RCB had piled up a couple of days ago. But, that score was not only enough to confirm a victory for the Warriors but that happened rather convincingly with the margin being 51 runs.

This is one of the biggest margins of victory as far as a T20 game is considered. And this is the highest margin of victory in terms of runs in this competition. I am not questioning the credentials of entire Royal Challengers Bangalore or the Warriors. I just mentioned how two similar scores can make a huge difference in two different games for the same team. In the first innings where Warriors batted, there was a solid stand for them given by JJ Smuts who scored 88 runs at a rate of 135 runs for every 100 deliveries he faced.

Smuts was supported well by Colin Ingram and Mark Boucher both of whom scored in 30s. Neither of them got into any sort of big hitting and at the same time were not even ducking the ball unnecessarily. Two Daniels - Daniel Christian and Daniel Harris bowled superbly by not giving runs at will which was spoiled by their partners with Shaun Tait playing a major role in them. Shaun Tait was given to bowl 4 overs despite going in for over 13.00 runs an over. May be it was his international appearance that made the captain to go i for him to bowl 4 overs.

Looking at the score of 121 at which South Australia ended their innings, nothing needs to be said regarding them in particular. Rather than giving due credit to the Warriors' bowlers, one can blame the South Australian batsmen for not standing up to the mark and losing wickets at regular intervals. Michael Klinger had a good going but lacked support from Daniel Harris and Tom Cooper. Borgas, Christian and Ludeman tried to do something but failed after they started feeling the pressure with the required run rate mounting and with it the pressure as said. There was nothing tough for Warriors' bowlers to do with Smuts doing the job.

NSW together not enough

2011-09-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

Well if one can take pains to go through the scorecard of the New South Wales batting, you can see similar scores from the 5 batsmen with a little variation. One would no doubt call that as a team effort. But, one has to satisfy himself only with that. A team work can be considered to be effective only when the effort imposes a challenge on its opposition and not otherwise. There were contributions from the blades of David Warner, Shane Watson, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith and Moises Henriques out of which Shane Watson top scored with 34 for NSW.

One does not require the services of five batsmen to put up a score of 135 on the board in 20 overs. The run rate at which the New South Wales team scored was just above run a ball that included six wide deliveries. As usual, the Cape Cobras stuck with the four bowler formula with four of them bowling their complete quota and Justin Kemp bowling three to fall one over short. Likewise, it would have been wise for Justin Kemp to have gone ahead with 5 bowlers instead of trying Justin Ontong who went for 12 runs from his lone over.

Scoring or rather chasing 136 for victory should not be tough for any team in T20 cricket. Though there have been many instances where such small totals are defended, in majority of the cases, that total happens to be chased down. The openers - Richard Levi and Herschelle Gibbs laid a strong foundation for the Cape Cobras' win at Chennai scoring 43 and 55 respectively. The latter part of the innings was not a tough task for Ontong and Duminy to give it finishing touches. One can see from the scorecard that the Cape Cobras reached the target effortlessly with 16 balls to spare which is quite obvious.

One has to wonder what can a captain of a team do with the scoreboard not having enough runs for the bowlers to take some support from and try doing new things to surprise the batsman. Top bowlers like Nathan Hauritz and Keefe get belted which makes the captain to opt for other bowlers. The only bowlers from New South Wales who could have something to say was Henriques who had the wicket of Levi and was the most economical bowler of the lot giving away runs at just 6.00 runs an over. But, unfortunately, he was the bowler who conceded the winning runs for the Cape Cobras.

Curse the Challengers

2011-09-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

As their name gores, the Royal Challengers Bangalore royally challenged their opposition-Warriors by setting a target of 174 on the board and taking them till the last over ball of the match to secure a win. Speaking with the spirit of the game, a win is a win, no matter which team it is and at which stage it has been achieved. One need not come to the conclusion that the Warriors had their luck on their way which the Royal Challengers Bangalore were missing. The game consists of 20 overs and if at all a team can win, it can do it even in the 120^th legal delivery.

It absolutely makes no sense in bringing in some invisible luck factor into the game where both teams are equipped with 11 best players who are thought to be fit. However, it is such games that keep the minds of a fan swinging like a pendulum. At one moment, the situation would be as though RCB would win and in another moment, Warriors would have made the equation theirs. Whatever may be the case, one thing that was seen in the game was the true spirit which usually lacks in a T20 game. There was a series of 20s and 30s from RCB with some hiccups.

A total of 172 is indeed a decent one. And, the reason for that were the five batsmen as mentioned who scored in 20s and 30s. Asking something more from RCB batsmen would not be fair. If not for Mayank Agarwal, the rest of them never deceived. But, if the scorecard of the Warriors is considered, there were only two batsmen in Ashwell Prince and Johan Botha who scored 74 and 42 respectively. If these two scores are removed from the Warriors' squad, the total reduces to 57 runs from 41 balls that included 5 wides as well. The Warriors no doubt lacked team work to a great extent.

By now, readers would have gone sick with me always highlighting about the lack of experimenting with the bowling. But still it is worth mentioning that Smuts was underrated when Tsotsobe was allowed to bowl 10 overs despite going in for 31 runs from 3 overs at over 10.00 runs an over. There was a splendid performance in the bowling department with Rusty Theron bowled a magnificent spell of 3-0-29-4 which stood apart from all major performances with the bat. In my opinion, Theron should have been given the man of the match and not Ashwell Prince when batting was not at all tough.

As fast as a T20 game

2011-09-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

Well it has been just three days since the third edition of the Champions league T20 tournament has begun and one has to wonder how fast days have gone that the second round of the tournament has already begun or will be happening in the next 24 hours or so. Speaking statistics, till date there have been just 6 games with two each played per day. Already there are two teams that have been ousted from the tournament when Ruhuna lost their first game to Trinidad & Tobago and fell short of a run rate in their next game against Leicestershire.

On the other hand, Auckland have lost both their games; the first one against Kolkata Knight Riders and the second one at the hands of Somerset in the second day after the tournament began. Kolkata Knight Riders should consider themselves lucky enough for getting past the initial stage with a narrow win against Auckland which they won by just 2 runs before losing to Somerset by 11 runs. Trinidad and Tobago along with Somerset have won both their encounters with Kolkata Knight Riders winning just one. Auckland are the only team to head back home without any wins in hand.

Last but not the least, we have Ruhuna who have one consolation win and a loss against their name but will still head back home with just that. However, being an Indian, it was a fortune that the Kolkata Knight Riders had when the ICC allowed four nations to take part in the champions league tournament. Adding to that fortune, they made it to the next round with just one win and that too by just two runs against Auckland. However, with so many teams yet to make their presence in the tournament and with so many matches to come, one has to just wait and watch.

With the Ruhana team calling it an end, so would be Sanath Jayasuriya who is still seen playing T20 cricket though international team selectors have retired him long ago some three years back. In this tournament, one can see Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Superkings who are outstanding contenders for the trophy. Likewise, there are teams from other nations as well like Warriors, Cape Cobras, South Australia and New South Wales standing for the trophy. One can sense any team from Pakistan missing from the action. And, having four teams from India alone makes it just sick. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka have one team with England two.

Jayasuriya fails but not Ruhuna

2011-09-22T06:11:00.000-07:00

Well this was the second match in the ongoing champions league T20 tournament for both Ruhuna and Sanath Jayasuriya. But, to one's amazement, Jayasuriya puts up a more dismal performance while Ruhuna ends its campaign a convincing note. In Ruhuna'a first game against Trinidad&Tobago, Jayasuriya scored 13 runs and scalped 2 wickets to emerge as Ruhuna's most successful bowler. This time all that Jayasuriya could manage was a mere 6 runs and went wicketless giving away 37 runs from 4 overs at a rate of 9.25 runs an over. However, the discussion is not regarding Sanath Jayasuriya or his performance here.

It would be worth to write something about Dinesh Chandimal who scored another half century after top scoring with 50 in his first game against Trinidad and Tobago. There, his efforts were useful only to see his team cross the 100 run mark. But this time, in the match against Leicestershire, not only did he top score with an unbeaten 62 but also scored the same at a decent pace compared to the pitch on which the game was taking place. By the way, the Leicestershire did not experiment with their like most of the teams do in T20 games.

Leicestershire used just 5 bowlers with four of them completing their quota of 4 overs. That according to me is one of the reasons why teams don't have a continuous winning streak in T20 games. Likewise, Harry Gurney's efforts with the ball should be applauded for his 3/33 from 4 overs which restricted Ruhuna from scoring any further which would otherwise been more than say 180. Another player who lonely played a decent innings for his team was Abdul Razzaq who had a better performance with the bat when he scored 68 but was not enough to achieve a victory with others not cooperating.

Though, like Leicestershire Ruhuna didn't experiment with their bowling the bowlers whom Udawatte chose to bowl had a decent run with two bowlers picking up 3 wickets. Looking at this, one can say that the ground was a tough one to bat on. Scoring runs was not easy and batsmen who have managed to do something have to get a pat on their back. Another player who deceived both his fans as well as his team was James Taylor who got out scoring just 11 runs. But, one result stands the same; both Ruhuna and Leicestershire get sacked from the rest of the series.

Leicestershire crash land

2011-09-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

It was amazing to see Trinidad & Tobago lose just two wickets with their opposition namely Leicestershire being able to keep just one wicket in their hand at the end of their innings after scoring 51 runs less than what Trinidad & Tobago could manage. I was just cursing Trinidad and Tobago for having so many batsmen unused when the likes of Daren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga and Jason Mohammed could have proved to be handy with the bat. According to me, the team batting need not and should not care about the number of wickets they have in hand.

The tail end batsmen n any team are meant to just go out and slog it out there and not bother about their wicket being thrown away. The tail end players are more of bowlers rather than batsmen. It should be the ball which should do the taking and not their bat. The first wicket from the Trinidad and Tobago team fell in the first ball of the 18^th over when the scoreboard read 139/0. Nevermind that there was some big hitting toward the fag end of their innings with the last 17 balls yielding 30 runs at the rate of 10.00 runs an over.

Until then, the scoring rate was just above 8.00 runs an over. Had the batsmen taken a few risks, the score might have gone well beyond 180 with 4 more wickets falling (may be). On the other hand, even the bowlers from Leicestershire team did not put in much effort to push the batsmen to take any aerial route in an attempt to clear the ropes which in turn would safely land in the hands of any fielder in the deep. One has to wonder as to why Mathew Hoggard bowled just three overs when he was the most economical bowler of the lot.

Coming to the batting of Leicestershire, there were two batsmen dismissed for duck and two other scoring single digit scores among the top four batsmen. I wish I was in place of James Taylor who was just enjoying his batting at the crease knowing well that no fingers would point towards him and neither could his team win the match after their top order deceiving them. Along with Taylor, even Abdul Razzaq joined the party to be the only two batsmen scoring over 10 runs and played more than 50% of the match. I wonder how come the Leicestershire could not be bowled out with such a dismal batting.

A series of ducks in Ruhuna

2011-09-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday the first match of the Nokia Champions League T20 tournament kick started with Ruhuna not only playing Trinidad&Tobago but also having a taste of their first defeat. Needless to be said, Trinidad&Tobago won the match by 5 wickets at Hyderabad. The match was one more instance where the team winning the toss ended up as the losing side and Ruhuna was that unlucky team to have done that yet again. If not for some Dinesh Chandimal, no other player from Ruhuna could really stand up to the occasion. Chandimal scored 50 runs to be the lone half century scorer of the game.

It is confusing to see Jayasuriya still opening the innings when there are so many young legs available who can do the job rather than relying up on a 43 year old guy. Of course, Sanath Jayasuriya has been known to strike the ball hard but those days were over some 4 years back which can be confirmed with Sachin Tendulkar keeping him warming the benches in the IPL 2010. Moreover, Jayasuriya was not picked up by any franchisee for this year's IPL. It is no doubt that Jayasuriya had his ball doing the talking though his bat had to just shut up after scoring 13 runs.

Jayasuriya scalped the wicket of Darren Ganga and returned with an economy of 5.00 runs an over after bowling his quota of 4 overs which made him the most economical bowler of the lot. Anyways, coming to the match, one can see three of the batsmen from Ruhuna scoring or rather getting out after scoring a duck and one player was unbeaten on zero. Another interesting fact of the match would be that the Ruhuna team played their 20 overs losing all ten wickets. That might not be of that importance but the way Ruhuna tackled the opposition was too poor.

Ruhuna had T&T reeling at 6/2 at the end of the 3^rd over but once again left Dwayne Bravo and Darren Ganga to rule them. There have been many matches where a team loses quick wickets initially and end up victorious towards the end and this time T&T need not be considered to be the underdogs. However, the scorecard suggests that until the entry of Sherwin Ganga who scored a quickfire 39* runs from 15 balls that eventually sealed the match for both the teams-with Ruhuna being the losers while T&T emerging the winners. Had Chintaka Perera been given the ball instead of Janoda, something might have worked out for Ruhuna.

Pakistan relax against Zimbabwe

2011-09-19T03:35:00.000-07:00

History in cricket has been evident as to what would happen in case a strong team underestimates or relaxes against a so called weak team. However, Pakistan yesterday got back into the game when they saw Tantenda Taibu and Chigumbura advancing towards the target of 142. In the beginning, Pakistan had a slow start which remained to be slow by scoring runs at just over 7.00 runs an over. After Mohammed Hafeez scored 51 runs at the top of the innings, the next score worth mentioning was that of Umar Akmal who scored 28 runs that too under 6.00 runs an over which might be justified only in ODIs.

Looking at the scorecard, it is evident that the Pakistan was also touring Zimbabwe with an inexperienced team with only Shoaib Malik, having played more than 100 one day internationals. But, that would be more than enough against team like Zimbabwe. Had the same score been put up against some other team like India or England, the result would have been otherwise. On the otherhand, Zimbabwe had 2 batsmen in Tatenda Taibu and Chigumbura who have played more than 100 one dayers. That was just for the sake of trivia which has hardly got anything to do with the match result.

The Zimbabwean captain - Brendan Taylor stuck to the famous five formula when he had just five of his bowlers bowling at the Pakistani batsmen. Though Taylor had experimented with his bowlers, that would have hardly changed the match result. Out of those five bowlers, there was a pick of the bowlers when Kyle Jarvis returned with figures of 4-0-15-3 which was a bowling performance one of its kind. Another feat to be relished was Mohammed Hafeez' efforts of 3-0-11-3 which made him both the top scorer of the match and the most economical bowler as well at the same time.

All that mattered for Zimbabwe which was responsible in them losing to Pakistan was because their top order didn't just cope up with their middle order losing wickets at regular intervals. It is just understandable that Charles Coventry got bowled by Junad Khan with his experience not justifying that. Looking at the scorecard, I wish Mohammed Hafeez should have been given another over when he was the most economical bowler in terms of runs given as well when he gave away runs at a rate of 3.66 an over. If Yasir was to be tried, Misbah-Ul-Haq could have done it replacing Sohail Tanvir.

An obvious result for Pakistan

2011-09-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

Well as all would have predicted, Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by a whopping 85 runs at Harare yesterday with contributions pouring in from all the batsmen who took it to the crease. There is little to be argued about keeping in mind the caliber of the Zimbabwe team who have made news only for the bad reasons when in 2005 they were stripped off their test status and had a series of losses to Bangladesh, by now who have become Bangladesh's best friend in cricket. Zimbabwe more often play Bangladesh and most of the time it is Bangladesh who walk away with all the honor.

Every year there would be a tour consisting of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh where either of them tour the other country for a full fledged series. This would be a delight for Bangladesh who can boast of a win. Had there been no Zimbabwe, Bangladesh would have lost all the test matches they would have played and may be their test status as well. One can see the scorecard to find the 15 wide deliveries bowled by the Zimbabwean bowlers out of the total of 198. If not for those wides also, Pakistan would have emerged victorious. It was a wrong idea to have Pakistan play Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe are best suited to play lesser known teams like Holland, Scotland, Ireland, Bermuda etc and not some Pakistan. Even against those teams, there are greater chances of Zimbabwe losing with Ireland and Kenya playing better cricket compared to what is expected out from them. There would be no point in looking for mistakes in the Pakistani batting which included contributions from Mohammed Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Rameez Raja and Umar Akmal. Had Pakistan used its brains, they would have rested their key players and tried in some lesser known names. But, who can convince the PCB to try that out?

The Zimbabwean batsmen failed to even play their full 20 overs when their innings ended in the 98^th ball of the innings after scoring 113 runs. Though that would be something harsh to expect from Zimbabwe, teams like Ireland are found to do wonders. The highest individual score from Zimbabwe happened to be from the blades of Charles Coventry who scored 30 from 13 balls that included four boundaries and one six. Coventry came in at number 7 and Zimbabwe had to wait until the sixth wicket fell. Though a victory over Pakistan is not expected from Zimbabwe, a decent performance is definitely looked forward from them.

India mistake England to be West Indies

2011-09-01T23:05:00.000-07:00

With a depleted team, India managed to whitewash the West Indies 2-0 on the previous tour to the Caribbean. But, if the same mentality is applied towards touring England as well, one needs to judge the stupidity of the Indian team who have lost yet another match against England yesterday at Manchester by 6 wickets. Needless to be said, India saw contributions only from Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Dravid and Suresh Raina who did the scoring while the rest of them that includes Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failed miserably. However, a target of 166 was still a tough one to reach.

I really give hats-off to Dravid for hitting three sixes and en route becoming one of the two batsmen who could manage to clear the ropes. Despite his style not suiting to T20 cricket, Dravid managed to keep up the momentum which speaks of his hard work in the nets. Dravid's style of play is more suited to test cricket and comes in handy regarding one day cricket. Not only did Dravid score 31 runs but was instrumental in putting up a partnership of 65 runs for the third wicket along with Rahane. Coming to the game, one need not cite the absence of Yuvraj and Sehwag.

With the likes of Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Kohli etc, much more could have been made possible which actually didn't happen. Giving undue credit to some Jade Dernbach would be a waste of time when Dhoni and co felt that everything was over once they lifted the world cup in April this year.England were comfortable with contributions coming in from every batsman who took it to the crease. If not for Hales who scored a naught, there were contributions from Kieswetter, Pietersen, Morgan, Bopara and Samit Patel who came in handy with the bat. More than big scores, there was continuous flow of runs for England.

With so much depth and form in the batting England, nothing much could have been done by the Indian bowlers who got belted one after the other starting from Praveen Kumar. All the option that Dhoni had in hand was to give the ball to Rohit Sharma thinking that a change in bowling might stop runs from being scored at ease. With Rohit Sharma going in for 16 runs off his over, Dhoni ~~didn't~~ couldn't take the risk of trying Raina and Kohli. Dhoni has to be satisfied for crossing 150 and then bringing it till the 20^th over and not finishing somewhere in between.

Australia whitewashed

2011-08-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Very rarely does a team like Australia get whitewashed despite Australia losing their days of glory. There have been several teams like India, South Africa and England who have inflicted a defeat on Australia in all three formats of the game. But, one has to bring it to his notice that all those nations have not been able to whitewash Australia. Last year and in 2008, India was successful in defeating Australia 2-0 in the Border-Gavaskar trophy where Australia lost both the games which they played. If not for these, there have been many situations where Australia have lost one off T20 or an ODI to India.

But, England had a 3-1 win over Australia in Ashes 2010 which was not a whitewash. However, coming to yesterday's game between Australia and Sri Lanka at Pallekele, Sri Lanka had a run for their money against Australia when they had a run for their money. If not for Jayawardane's 86 runs at the top of the Sri Lankan innings, no other batsman from Sri Lanka ever stood up to the challenge. Jayawardane was there in the crease until the 7^th wicket from Sri Lanka fell. In between, Sangakkara gave Jayawardane some support when there was a 46 run partnership between the two.

Looking at the Aussie bowling, it may well be said that the pitch was tough for the batsmen and Mahela Jayawardane's 86 should definitely take the focus more than anybody else. Of course, anybody looking at the scorecard would be convinced seeing Ajantha Mendis' haul of 6/16 from his four overs that included an over maiden. But, with that sort of a pitch staying at the crease when 7 wickets fell from the other end deserves more than what Mendis took home. In my view, it should have been Mahela Jayawardane who should have walked away with the honor and not Ajanta Mendis.

In most of the case regarding T20 games, the man of the match is given to the wrong person and to a wrong department. Batsmen are given the award for the stylish hitting when the pitch favors them and like it happened yesterday, bowlers are applauded with the award when there was enough turn and bounce in the pitch. There were two bowlers from Australia as well who returned with 3 wicket hauls when Brett Lee and Hastings were the lucky guys. Another player who lonely handed the Sri Lankan bowling was Shane Watson who scored a quickfire 57 runs from 24 balls.

Sri Lanka crush Australia

2011-08-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

Needless to be said, Australia have never taken the T20 format of cricket seriously whatsoever. This was evident first when they lost their super eights match to Pakistan in the inaugural edition of the world T20 followed by a loss to India in the semi finals. If that was not enough, Australia failed to make it to the super eights of the world T20 two years later in England when they lost their qualifier match to West Indies and Sri Lanka. However, in the third edition of the world T20, they reached the finals of the tournament without losing even a single game en route.

Still, their T20 record is not convincing when in most of the cases they are found putting a better performance in the other two formats of the game and failing miserably in T20 games. However, in yesterday's game against Sri Lanka they were once again never in the game when they allowed the hosts to put up 198 on the board which can hardly be chased down successfully. The Aussie bowlers could get only three batsmen out from Sri Lanka out of which Chandimal was out hit-wicket. One interesting aspect from Aussie bowling was that whoever bowled their quota of 4 overs returned with a wicket.

Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson bowled their quota of 4 overs and returned with wickets of Mahela Jayawardane, Dinesh Chandimal and Kumara Sangakkara respectively. Looking at the batting chart of Australia, they had absolutely no answers to the Sri Lankan bowlers when no one could support David Warner who had a great going. Watson was dismissed early and that was followed by Shaun Marsh, David Hussey and Cameron White who got out scoring single digit scores. Huge hits were seen towards the end of the Aussie innings when Mitchell Johnson and Steve D'Keefe went in for the kill.

But, that was because the Sri Lankan bowlers let them loose when their win was confirmed. Likewise, similar to the Aussie bowling, bowlers who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs were the highest wicket takers in the Australian batting innings. Kulashekara and Perera returned with figures of 4-0-39-2 and 4-0-26-3 respectively. However, Lakmal and Herath also returned with a wicket but didn't bowl their quota completely and were not among the top bowlers from Sri Lanka. Had the Sri Lankan bowlers not let the tail-end batsmen loose, the Aussie score would not have crossed 150. In the end, Aussies say that "T20 cricket is not for us".

Is England a match for Sri Lanka?

2011-06-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

One has to wonder who on earth crowned the English as the world T20 champions last year when Australians were the favorites to win the trophy. It is agreed that England were a tough opposition then. But, yesterday England never showed any signs that a world champion is expected to show. England were no match for Sri Lanka who beat them in every department eventually in the match by 9 wickets. There was no player from the English side whose contribution can be highlighted. Out of the eleven, only three players were able to cross the double digit score with Pietersen and Morgan scoring 47 and 41 respectively.

Adding to the misery, being the home team, England had absolutely no chances to lose the game with players like Morgan, Pietersen and Stuart Broad. As mentioned in my earlier posts, the match was of hardly any consequence with only one game to go. A winner or loser has nothing to take home. But, that should not be a reason for England to relax with 6 of their batsmen scoring single digit scores out of whom two of them got out scoring zero. This can just be considered as a continuation of the dominance of Sri Lanka over England since the quarter-finals of the world cup.

One can go through the scorecard of that quarter-finals match too see the way the Sri Lanka ~~batsmen~~ openers shattered the England bowling by winning the match by 10 wickets with an opening run partnership of 229 runs. Now, though the effect was not that devastating, a 9 wicket win for Sri Lanka over England should definitely make them think much hard about their future in the game. It is fascinating to see the age old Sanath Jayasuriya still wearing the Sri Lankan uniform and scoring in boundaries and scalping two wickets. I guess he is the oldest player to feature in T20 cricket.

Well rather than calling it a guess, it is a fact. Though Jayasuriya's batting had nothing in particular to say, his bowling fetched him 2 wickets from 3 overs giving away runs at a rate of 6.00 runs per over. However, there were the likes of Jayawardane and Sangakkara who could get the job done for Sri Lanka. One can sense the lack of responsibility from the bowlers of the England team who bowled 11 wide deliveries. The Sri Lankan batsmen finished the game in style by grabbing a victory with a boundary. But, England need to re-think about their fortunes i case they need to make their presence felt.

Depleted India show West Indies the gates

2011-06-05T02:51:00.000-07:00

Well, some two years down the lane, the West Indies had been whitewashed by the Bangladesh with most of the big names missing from the West Indies squad. Now, a team deceived from its key players is found to thrash the same country on its home ground. Recently, the case was the same when they had Pakistan in the delivering end in the only T20 game they played. India were without the services of Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh etc who have pulled out of the tournament citing one or the other reasons. The team was captained by Suresh Raina.

The necessary action that a T20 game is expected to give happened to come towards the fag end of the innings with Yousuf Pathan blasting two sixes and Harbhajan Singh hitting one. Of course, even Rohith Sharma had two hits out of the ground but that was preceded by a series of ducking the ball.Rohith Sharma took 23 balls to score his 26 at a rate of 113.04 runs for every 100 balls he faced. However, neither of the teams were found to show any sort of experimenting with their bowling with India sticking to 5 bowler theory and West indies using 4 bowlers to bowl their full quota.

Being the home team, the West Indies showed all sorts of confidence when they started their run chase with a 66 run third wicket partnership between Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo. This though couldn't fetch them a victory could however save some face for the hosts. The match was of little or of no consequence with hardly any takers irrespective of who wins or who loses. The target should have been chased down by the West Indies with players like Christopher Barnwell's late show with the bat that saw 3 sixes which was more than anybody else's in the game.

I was just wondering when Samuels was mentioned in the team. Samuels' last game for the West Indies was against Sri Lanka in 2008. After that, we hear Samuels was suspended by the ICC for having a suspect bowling action. If one can go through the scorecard, you can see Darren Sammy with four wickets at a rate of 4.00 runs an over. That was a match figure one of its kind with a bowler bowling 4 overs, taking 4 wickets and giving away runs at a rate of 4.00 runs an over. But, destiny was too harsh upon him when he missed the man of the match award for being in the side that lost the match.

A game just for the sake of it

2011-06-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

Well I just cannot understand the reason behind conducting one off games, be it the test match or the one dayer or a T20 international. This is referring to the one off T20 game played between India and West Indies at Port of Spain yesterday. There should have been a minimum of at least three games for a tournament to have a moment. Or else, who would be interested in watching the game no matter what it offers? This has happened many times with there being a similar one off game between Pakistan and West Indies last month which Pakistan won.

Moving ahead, there would be a one off T20 match between Sri Lanka and England to be played later in this month. With T20 cricket being the shortest version of the game, there can be a schedule of at least 3 such games where deciding a winner would be more appropriate. Moreover, a T20 game can be held back to back without any breaks in between. Fans today do not bother who wins or loses the match as long as it can provide the necessary entertainment that is promises. Every match is cheered in the same excitement irrespective of whether their favorite team wins or loses the same.

In their current tour to the Caribbean, India are scheduled to play 1 T20 game followed by 5 one day internationals and 3 test matches. With so many days reserved for the remaining versions of the game, one has to wonder why is there so little consideration given to the shortest format of the game. This is not anything new in cricket. This has been the case since its start somewhere in 2005. Recently, even Pakistan, like India played 1 T20 + 5 ODIs and 2 test matches. Instead of conducting one off games like this, it would be better not to include the T20 game at all.

The ICC has not left even that stone unturned. There have been tournaments that included only a test and an ODI with the T20 missing. Of course, there are few other tournaments as well having only T20 games with the remaining two formats missing. However, the idea behind conducting such games is still a mystery. There are few players who are found playing just the T20 game with their style or skills still not acceptable to the remaining two formats. This would ean that player touring just to play that one off game. In case that player is dropped, he loses a chance to show his skills at an international level.

The contest just seems to get dull

2011-05-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

Three years back in 2008 when the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League kick started, all eyes were glued to the television sets as though a major encounter would happen in the days to come. During that time, the sport was at its peak with the T20 version of the game having a high run with things like the ICL and the ICC world T20 having their say. Things remained the same until last year when there were takers for almost every game. But, the spirit happens to be no more or rather has got faded to a great extent.

There were players like Mathew Hayden, Sanath Jayasuriya, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne etc who had retired from international cricket but could be seen in tournaments like the IPL then. But slowly and steadily, all the aforementioned players started departing from the tournament one by one. And people like Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne have lost their glorious days. Someone like Mathew Hayden played his last game in IPL 2010 which was famous for his mongoose bat. Glenn Mcgrath has been shown the gates from Delhi Daredevils after the inaugural edition when his style of play suited only the longer formats of the game.

Sanath Jayasuriya, despite his fireworks was forced to warm the benches in last year's IPL and has never been chosen by any franchisee in this year. Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Brendon McCullum etc are not the big hitters of the ball once they were. There were hardly any century scorers in the tournament though there were three batsmen who had amassed more than 500 runs. Only players from India are showing the spirit and enthusiasm since 2008. The list includes Sachin Tendukar, Suresh Raina, Dhoni etc to name a few. Overseas players include Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh and Chris Gayle.

The first blow came when Anil Kumble pulled himself out of the tournament. Added to that would be the fact that players have changed sides after they were picked up by a different franchisee. Chris Gayle had earlier played for Kolkata while Dravid played for Bangalore. So would be the case with Gilchrist, Gambhir, Ganguly, Muralitharan. Top spinners like Shane Warne and Muralitharan have been just ordinary players. In the years to come, there will be players like Gilchrist, Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar etc who will be missing from action. Shane Warne has already called it a day. With all these, will the IPL still be accepted by all?

Chris Gayle unparalleled in IPL 2011

2011-05-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Anyone who can go through the batting charts of this year's IPL would be amazed to find Chris Gayle on the top of the list in most of the batting records starting from the highest run getter in the tournament to the maximum umber of ducks. Yes, Gayle has two ducks to his credit which is luckily equaled by so many like Gilchrist, Sangakkara, McCullum etc but not exceeded. In a way, Gayle happens to be the king of them to have scored two ducks playing in 12 games which is more than any other batsmen who has scored two ducks in the tournament.

Other than this bad record, Gayle is the only other batsman in the history of the IPL after Sachin Tendulkar to have aggregated more than 600 runs in a single edition. Sachin Tendulkar did it last year when he had amassed 618 runs from 15 matches. Both of them were awarded the man of the series with both of them ending up as runners-up. Added to that, the tally of 44 sixes is far ahead of any other batsmen in this year's IPL. The second highest six hitter in the tournament happens to be Mahendra Singh Dhoni with 23 hits out of the ground.

The next major contribution from Gayle happens to be the fact that Gayle had two hundreds which was more than anybody else. In fact, only Gayle has managed to score 2 hundreds. Then we have Gayle once again having a strike rate of 183.13 and an average of 67.55 which is more than anybody else in the series needless to be said. Chris Gayle's tally of 56 boundaries was the second best only to Sachin Tendulkar who has 67 hits to the fence. However, Sachin Tendulkar has attained that feat from 16 games compared to 12 played by Chris Gayle.

Had Gayle played equal number of games as Sachin Tendulkar did, there was every possibility that Gayle would have overtaken Sachin Tendulkar's tally with 11 more hits. However, Gayle falls to the third position (shared by many) with Badrinath top scoring with 5 half centuries followed by 4 half centuries by Virat Kohli. However, with both 50s and 100s put together, Chris Gayle's tally is equaled by Badrinath. Coming to the end, Gayle was is the fastest to reach 600 runs in an IPL when he did it in 11 games compared to Sachn Tendulkar who took 15 in 2010.

Is there anything still left to say?

2011-05-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well at last, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have to end their IPL journey only with a runners-up tag which would be the case for the second time. Previously, two years back in South Africa, they had the same fate with the Deccan Chargers grabbing the trophy from them. The game was one of its kind with the Chennai Superkings having their second title and the Royal Challengers Bangalore having their second runners-up tag as mentioned above. Whatsoever, one thing that the RCB needs to be satisfied with is that they will play the Champions League T20 for the third time.

No other team from the IPL has been able to make it though the Chennai Superkings were the contestants in the inaugural edition in 2008 along with Rajasthan Royals, the Champions League tournament was not carried on with Pakistan hosting the tournament and owing to security concerns there. Since 2009 the RCB have been making it there which stands apart from any other team in the IPL. Coming to the game, it was well understood that the Royal Challengers are without a right hand in case Gayle fails with the bat needless to be said. This was the fourth match between the two teams in this IPL.

Out of the four games, three have been won by Chennai Superkings and one by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Thanks to Chris Gayle's unbeaten 75 from 50 balls that ensured a 6 wicket win at Bangalore. In those four games, Chris Gayle has featured in three of them where his scores are 75* fro 50 balls at Bangalore, 8 from 9 balls at Mumbai and 0 from 3 balls yesterday at Chennai. The match turned all critics wrong with the home team winning the match which has been otherwise in games involving Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knightriders to a large extent.

A total of 205 on the board desperately needed a lot of fireworks from Chris Gayle which unfortunately didn't happen. I can just correlate this to Sachin Tendulkat getting out in the very first over in the finals of the 2003 world cup at South Africa against Australia when the target to be achieved was a whooping 360. Sachin Tendulkar scored just 4 off 4 balls giving a catch to Glenn McGrath. The CSKs required just Hussey and Murali Vijay to tame the RCB who scored 63 and 95 respectively. Or else, Raina, Dhoni and Morkel were failures. The man of the series has no disputes whatsoever.

Result comes as expected

2011-05-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Well as all of us (or at least most of us) expected, the result of yesterday's match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians ended as per plan which relied on Chris Gayle. We have repeatedly on our blog cited the chances of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in case Gayle is able to continue or not. If Gayle could keep up his momentum then the RCB win or else no. Exactly the same happened when Gayle scored 89 runs to demilitarize the Mumbai Indians whose lone satisfaction was Sachin Tendulkar's 40 runs which was the highest any Mumbai batsmen could score.

Added to Chris Gayle, there was Mayank Agarwal and AB deVilliars who supported Gayle in his big hitting. In fact, it was Chris Gayle who allowed Mayank Agarwal to relax by taking most of the responsibility on his shoulders. Of course, AB deVilliars came after Gayle was dismissed. By then, he had scored 89 runs at the rate of almost two runs for every ball he faced. There can be no words that can praise Chris Gayle at the moment. If Gayle's devastating batting was one way, there were confused bowlers from Mumbai side. Sachin Tendulkar didn't take the risk of trying another bowler.

As usual, Lasith Malinga was the strike bowler for the Mumbai Indians who though didn't take any wicket could contain runs when his stats suggest that Malinga was the least expensive bowlers who gave away runs at the rate of 6.00 runs an opver from his quota of 4 overs. Sachin Tendulkar made a mistake by handing the ball to Rohith Sharma who went for 14 runs his lone over. With someone like Gayle striking at his best, this was something uncalled for. Whatever, Mumbai Indians had nothing to fear about because a defeat was always on the cards for them.

It was just fascinating to see Sachin Tendulkar trying too many things to settle scores with Gayle's team, one of which was bringing in Harbhajan Singh at number 3 after Bizzard got out. Of course, Harbhajan Singh had a promising start when he hit one huge six outside the ground off the bowling of Mithun, three deliveries after striking a boundary of the same bowler. But, i the end all that he could manage was a mere 13 runs. That was the first six of the Mumbai Indians and the next one came off the bat of Lasith Malinga who was in at number 10.

IT all depends on Gayle

2011-05-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well when there is no one but Chris Gayle who can do the big hitting for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and making it still worse, Gayle has been known to take the full responsibility for the same, he can be considered the most important player for the RCB much more than the captain and the wicketkeeper. We have discussed the issue several times on this blog regarding what would happen to the Royal Challengers in case Chris Gayle fails to dominate with the bat. And, not making it too boring, the topic shifts to the forthcoming games in the IPL.

There are two more games to go in this edition of the IPL namely the final and before that the 2^nd qualifying final between the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers that is scheduled in the next 24 hours from now at Chennai. With Chennai being a neutral venue, there cannot be any home team advantage or any curse of being the home team like it has happened in this edition of the IPL. As we have already mentioned, the winner of the second qualifying final would completely depend on Gayle though there are the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Lasith Malinga etc in the Mumbai Indians' squad.

It is Chris Gayle who now holds the record for the most runs in this year's IPL which in turn makes him wear the orange cap. Limiting our discussion about Gayle for the moment, one can observe the bad timing of the break between the final and tomorrow's match between the Mumbai Indians and RCB. There should have been a break after the second qualifying final between the aforementioned teams before the final is played. But instead, a break can be found between the second qualifying final and the elimination finals (between KKR and MI). Is this also for the sake of change?

Another thing that one needs to notice is that the final of the tournament is held on a Saturday rather than on Sunday when there would be more viewers glued to their television sets on that holiday. As a matter of fact, the finals of the world cup 2011 was also held on a Saturday reserving Sunday for all fans to rejoice their favorite team's victory. Coming back to the tournament, the CSK have a chance of winning the trophy for the second time but, against who they'll be doing it is still awaited. If it is against RCB, that will be their 4^th meeting in this IPL alone.

Kolkata get what they deserved

2011-05-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Finally as all would have expected, the Kolkata Knight Riders ended their IPL stint yesterday by losing to the Mumbai Indians, which was their last chance to prove a point in the tournament. One has to anyway congratulate the Kolkata Knight Riders for coming this far when their performances in the past three editions of the tournament were haphazard. Despite the presence of big guns like Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullum and others, they ended at the bottom of the table in the past three editions of the tournament. This time there were more teams compared to the previous editions.

A loss against one team could be made up in their next game. And, may be that was the reason why the Kolkata made it count unlike last three editions. On the other hand, there was a re-auction of the players which meant another chance for the franchisee to have their bid on a player whom they think is a promising one. This time Kolkata had promising players like Gambhir, Kallis, Yousuf Pathan and Brett Lee to name a few. However, all that could help them was to place them fourth in the points table which was a jump from position No.8 last time.

Scorecard suggests there were the top order of the KKR failed miserably with hardly any contributions from Gambhir, Kallis, Goswami and Tiwary. So was the case regarding Yousuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan. It was fascinating to see one player from Holland and the other from Bangladesh having a major share in the Kolkata's batting with Ryan ten Doeschate top scoring with 70 and Shakib Al Hasan scoring 26. The second highest run getter in last year's IPL should learn from the player where cricket has taken a backseat. The aforementioned players didn't disappoint their franchisee who bid a huge sum on them.

Coming to the Mumbai Indians' batting, it was as though Aiden Craig Blizzard was introducing himself when stats shows that he never played international cricket at all and more over neither he could be thought to represent the same in years to come. The opening batsmen top scored with 51 runs off 30 balls at a decent strike rate of 170. One can see the route taken by KKR who went in for 7 of their bowlers to try something to stop the Mumbai Indians from scoring. But, who on earth cares for those when James Franklin was trying to undo the damage which he did with the ball?

When Chris Gayle failed..

2011-05-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

Well in the last 24 hours or so, I had written about the fate of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in case Chris Gayle fails to dominate with the bat. And, to one's fortune the result has been evident right in front of our eyes within 24 hours when the Royal Challengers could not defend a mammoth total of 175 against the Chennai Superkings at Mumbai. A total of 175 should have seen the Royal Challengers Bangalore end up victorious but, scorecard suggests otherwise. The Chennai Superkings cruised to an easy win with 6 wickets still in hand but took till the last over.

Though Chris Gayle did not score much with the bat, the Royal Challengers felt the presence of Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli and Luke Pomersbach whose contribution promised something good on the cards for the Royal Challengers. Looking at the batting charts of both the teams, it can well be said that the pitch was a batsman friendly one. However, as a matter of fact the Chennai Superkings captain used only 6 bowlers, four of whom bowled their full quota of 4 overs and may be termed as successful looking at the nature of the pitch. Four out of the six returned with a wicket.

All that the match expected was some fireworks from Chris Gayle, failing which the Royal Challengers can hardly boast of anything. Though all gates are not completely closed for the Royal Challengers, fingers would definitely point towards them for relying on only one player. When someone like Mayank Agarwal and Pomersbach could contribute, there can be no reason for Chris Gayle not to do so. The match will no doubt go down as one of the biggest disappointment in the tournament with such a big total chased down effortlessly. For the Chennai Superkings, Suresh Raina was exceptional who was assisted by Dhoni and Morkel.

There were three Indian batsmen playing for one team giving it a deserved success. Of course, even Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli happen to be Indians whose contribution can never be thought less about. This confirms the name given to the tournament i.e the INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE.Initial breakthroughs for RCB could not be cashed in when CSK had the scoreboard reading 7/2. By the way, Chris Gayle did contribute to the RCB when he was the bowler with the best economy rate of 4.75 runs an over but when it came to batting, his score was 8 from 9 balls with one six.

Finally a break from action

2011-05-24T00:47:00.000-07:00

Well this was a well-deserved break for all players, fans and commentators who would have been in one way or the other associated with the IPL. Now with less than 24 hours left for the first play off between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, something special would be needed regarding the past performances of all the teams and its players. The reason for the same would be that a blogger can hardly take a break from writing some or the other stuff regarding the tournament which has given lots and lots which makes us run out of pages and time.

One team that would never compromise with its victory or at least the runners-up tag would be the Chennai Superkings who have such match winnings payers like Mike Hussey, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Murali Vijay, Subramanium Badrinath and Suresh Raina who have been match winners in one game or the other. All the aforementioned players have been top class batsmen though they have little bit of problems with their bowling completely dominated by Bollinger and Tim Southee. Otherwise players like Suresh Raina and Badrinath are found taking the ball in their hands.And then, by chance the Kolkata Knight Riders have made it here replacing Delhi Daredevils.

Likewise, the Mumbai Indians on the other hand have a lot of match winning players like Sachin Tendukar (more than anybody else), Kieron Pollard, Rohith Sharma and Symonds to name a few with the bowling department consisting of Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel and Lasith Malinga who have proved to be wonders. There are people like Harbhajan, Pollard and Malinga who can be hard hitting at the bottom of the table. They take the second place after the Chennai Superkings to make this tournament theirs. But, with both RCB and CSK having a better chance, MI stand in the third place.

Much can be thought of regarding the RCB until now which has been totally dominated by Chris Gayle alone. One can look at the matches played by the Royal Challengers prior to the entry of Gayle and matches after Gayle was introduced. Moving still further, one can see the results of the RCB matches when Gayle has failed to dominate. All these would conclude that in case Gayle fails to provide the RCB with any sort of support with the bat then the RCB are bound to pack up their bags and head back home. Top three of these qualify to the Champions League.

9 vacancies filled in CSK

2011-05-23T00:05:00.000-07:00

If the match between the Chennai Superkings and Royal Challengers Bangalore played yesterday at Bangalore is considered, then one has to first go through the batting display of the Chennai Superkings which was dominated completely by Dhoni and to some extent by Saha. If the scores of Dhoni and Saha are removed, then the Chennai Superkings would have scored just 36 runs 50 balls at a rate of 4.32 runs an over which would have fetched a mere 87 runs on the scoreboard with extras included. The way Dhoni played was just superb and a little bit of support from Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina and Badrinath would have helped a lot.

All the aforementioned names were big hitters of the ball and a lot were expected from them. All the above mentioned names have known to bail their teams out from trouble many times and it is just unfortunate to all these players not to contribute for the Chennai Superkings yesterday. Had the above mentioned batsmen made their contribution, then may be Chris Gayle would have had more responsibility on his shoulders. One can never take his eyes off Chris Gayle in this tournament whatsoever.His unbeaten knock of 75 runs off just 50 balls was just another instance of power and commitment.

I have all kudos to Dhoni for maintaining his patience and seeing to it that his team didn't lose all ten wickets which assured that his team played all the 20 overs. The entire Chennai Superkings' innings saw only two scores above 10 20 out of which only Dhoni's 70 was a highlight. Adding to the excitement, Dhoni did it in style with 6 sixes and 4 boundaries at a strike rate of 175 which was more than Gayle's 150. Dhoni scored five runs less than what Gayle could manage. It would not have been a bad choice had Dhoni been awarded the man of the match.

But, it was just the difference between a win and a loss that made Dhoni miss the award. I just run out of words when it comes to describing the batting of the RCB which was dominated by Gayle. Had Gayle failed, then there would have been a far closer competition between the two teams. There can never be anybody in the RCB who can hit the ball hard and in case Gayle fails, so would be the entire Bangalore team. Names that make up the RCB squad include Saurabh Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Kaif and Pomersbach who can score balls as much as Gayle.

Dare to chase 198!

2011-05-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well needless to be said, whenever a team scores 198 on the board, it is well understood that majority of the bets would fall in favor of that particular team. Any something more is that majority of the times that particular team wins the contest and yesterday was no different when the Deccan Chargers simply crushed the Kings XI Punjab by 82 runs at Dharamsala. Something more special would be that someone like Shikar Dhawan made his presence count in the playing XI. Until then, Shikar Dhawan was there in the team just because the rules of the tournament had forced his inclusion.

As all of us know, there is a restriction on the number of foreign players that a team can have in the playing eleven and Shikar Dhawan being an Indian makes his move faster into the playing in the XI member squad. Now, anybody who would have thought of dropping Shikar Dhawan upon the slightest of all opportunities will have to think many times I suppose. However, in addition to Dhawan, there was Ravi Teja who became another master piece in the IPL scoring 60 when until then all he was expected to was to strike the ball blindly to gain some extra runs.

The tough job of laying a foundation to their team is held by experienced people like Adam Gilchrist, Paul Valthaty, Chris Gayle etc and someone like Ravi Teja is expected to just continue the good work initiated by them. In case the top order fails, the middle order is bound to fail majority of the time. Coming to the match, two batsmen were more than enough to belt the bowling of the Kings XI Punjab. In the Kings XI side, if not for Adam Gilchrist, no other batsmen stood up to the occasion. The pitch was a batsman's paradise which is evident from the scorecard.

However, in addition to Shikar Dhawan and Ravi Teja, there was Amit Mishra who once again had a magical spell scalping 4 wickets giving away just 9 runs from his quota of 4 overs at 2.25 runs an over that included one over maiden as well. In my opinion, it should have been Amit Mishra who should have been awarded the man of the match and not Shikar Dhawan. But, it looks like the organisers of the tournament hardly cast their eyes on bowling department and are focused on the batting department alone. Restricting someone like Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh etc is tougher than belting some Bhargav Bhatt and Piyush Chawla.

Shane Watt-son Mega Watt performance

2011-05-21T06:14:00.000-07:00

Well one sight on yesterday's match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals suggests that the Rajasthan Royals would have an easy won the match. But, I wonder how many of them would have thought the Rajasthan Royals would have won the match without losing even a single wicket and Shane Watson belting a 47 ball 89 run. The moment the Mumbai Indians ended their innings for 133 on the board, it was more or less understood that they would end up losing. But, something which was not thought about was the even with Lasith Malinga they couldn't grab a single wicket.

There were two Mumbaikars in Rohith Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar who did something for the Mumbai Indians' side by emerging as the top batsmen of the game scoring 31 and 58 respectively. But, as it already evident by now, that was of no use to the team. All that those scores could do was to save the face for the Mumbai Indians without which the total would not have even crossed 100. One has to wonder why the Mumbai Indians preserved 5 wickets when no one had the guts to belt the bowling of the opposition. Why was Franklin sent ahead of Symonds?

Symonds was a bigger hitter than Franklin and Harbhajan. One has to applaud the Rajasthan Royals' captain for experimenting with his bowlers and at the same time criticize him for failing in his experiment. There were four bowlers from the Rajasthan Royals' side who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs and much to anyone's surprise, they all ended up successful. But, the ones who didn't get to complete their full quota of 4 overs, namely Siddhart Trivedi, Maneria and Amit Singh bowled the costliest of over giving away runs at the rate of 9.00, 10.00 and 12.00 runs respectively.

However, there is not much that can be written about the batting performance of the Rajasthan Royals which was finished by just two batsmen - Dravid and Watson. Watson's 47 ball 89 might not be of that great interest but, his combo of 3 wickets and 89 runs definitely falls into the best of all-round performances. There were 7 over to spare for the Rajasthan Royals which could have been compensated in case of a rain affected match. With this, Shane Warne could be last match in the IPL and he has outplayed his famous rival-Sachin Tendulkar. Just a gr8 way to finish a splendid career.

Defend 118!

2011-05-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Well the moment a team scores 118, anybody who would have had his bet on that particular team would have to leave the stadium or switch off his television sets. And may be that was what fans of Pune Warriors who would have bet their money on that team been doing yesterday after they crashed to a 7 wicket loss at the hands of the Kolkata Knight Riders. At such a run rate, the Pune Warriors couldn't even manage to win a 50 over match let alone a 20 over one. Very rarely does a team win matches defending 118.

The highest individual score happened to be from the blades of Yuvraj Singh who scored 24 which only he could boast of. One can just consider Yuvraj Singh as a topper among failures. I just cannot understand why Kolkata Knight Riders could not get the Pune Warriors all out. There were three more wickets left in the Pune Warriors' kitty. It is not always that the win or loss that matters but the way a match has been won or lost needless to be said. Pune Warriors were as though they just wanted to convince their fans saying that they were playing for the 1^st time.

Pune Warriors might have been playing for the first time in the IPL but certainly, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly, Jesse Ryder etc have featured in all three previous editions of the tournament. This is Sourav Ganguly's third match in the IPL and this has been his second under rated performance after scoring a naught in the game against Deccan Chargers. One has to definitely appreciate the efforts of the Kolkata captain who bought in 8 of his bowlers knowing that the Pune Warriors were at their knees. The entire Pune Warriors' innings consisted of just one six from the blades of Ganguly.

Whatever, Sourav Ganguly would have been a happy man despite the results of the game because, the team which eventually won was Ganguly's home team while had the Pune Warriors won, that would be the team which Ganguly is now representing. The total of 118 hardly requires any team work where finishing the job is more of a formality than any sort of achievement. Still, there was Gautam Gambhir who scored the lone half century of the match aided with an all round performance by Yousuf Pathan who grabbed 2 wickets and then went on to score the winning runs for his team.

Too much for Kochi

2011-05-19T05:33:00.000-07:00

Well despite coming so close to the target of 152, the Kochi Tuskers Kerala eventually lost their plot towards the end when they fell 11 runs short of a tie and 12 runs short of a victory. Whatever, victory and losses happen in the game of cricket. But, looking at the Kochi Tuskers Kerala, the way they batted was too pathetic. There have been many instances where a total of 151 has been defended and many instances where the same total of 151 has been chased with little effort. Yesterday, Kochi had enough wickets in hand to overcome the total.

But, all that they needed was some quick timing of the ball which never seemed to be the case whatsoever. They never got the scoreboard ticking, meaning neither did the Kochi Tuskers lose wickets at regular intervals nor did they put up a big partnership enough for them to taste a victory. Looking at these, one can confirm that the pitch was a tough one for batsmen of the mindset of a T20 game. Runs never came loosely and batsmen had to work hard to score even in singles and doubles. Only batsmen with enormous can be expected to do miracles.

But, this was no international match where the best players are picked from the lot to represent their nation. Notable scores from the Chennai Superkings include Mike Hussey who scored 32 runs no matter the number of balls he took in scoring those runs. And then there was Wriddhiman Saha who was instrumental in setting up a total for his team that eventually went on to become a winning total. It was strange to see that Muttiah Muralitharan went wicketless in this game and was the only bowler to do so from the Kochi team. Likewise, there was more juice from the batsmen of Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

There was a batsman in Brad Hodge who score the only half century of the match and that too he did it quickly by not consuming too many deliveries. However, if not for Brendon McCullum, no other batting performances in the Kochi team can be of a highlight. One has to applaud Brad Hodge for fighting for the Kochi Tuskers till the end when they ran out of overs. Hodge remained unbeaten till the end of the innings. One mistake that can be realized from the Kochi Tuskers was that Vinay Kumar should should have been sent in before Jadhav who was a better batsman.

Blame it all on Chris Gayle

2011-05-18T04:54:00.000-07:00

There was a time in Indian cricket when the absence of star batsman Sachin Tendulkar would mean a massive loss for the team. That was in the 90s where Sachin Tendulkar used to be the key man for his team's success in at least 75% of the games India played. Now, the same problem is found to haunt the Royal Challengers Bangalore who can hardly come close to winning in case Chris Gayle fails with the bat. Yesterday's game was the best example in the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab. Bangalore lost to Punjab by 111 runs.

Chris Gayle's score in that game was nothing but zero. This was the match that all RCB fans would have been looking forward to having very high expectations from Chris Gayle. And, one cannot just blame Gayle for disappointing his fans. Chris Gayle has been entertaining his fans ever since he entered the contest after his national duty involving the series against Pakistan. However, what if Chris Gayle didn't score a ton; There was Adam Gilchrist who did everything that was expected from Chris Gayle. Adam Gilchrist scored a hundred when he ended his innings at 106 from 55 balls.

This was more than enough to ascertain that the viewers were not deceived from any sort of cricketing action on the field no matter from which team it comes. Any Indian fan would have loved to see the entertainment on the field irrespective of which city or state is playing. One can take a look at the scorecard to see 9 sixes hit from the blades of Gilchrist which I'm afraid whether any batsmen has been able to overtake. I might just have to take time to see whether the total of 232 is the highest by any team in the IPL.

Of course, 232 is the highest team total in this year's IPL. Chasing this big total would have been possible only had Chris Gayle continued from where he had left it in his previous game. But, that very busy man had no time to help his team mates in this game. And, what better treatment can one get when he hands over the ball to Virat Kohli? Making it his day, it was Gilchrist who took the catch of Chris Gayle behind the stumps. Likewise, another major contribution that needs to be applauded is that of Piyush Chawla who ended his spell with 4 wickets.

Ganguly scores a Naught

2011-05-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

This would be the match for all Ganguly crazy fans who would have been delighted by the return of the King and secondly for getting out for a naught in his second match for the Pune Warriors. However, it is not all about Ganguly in the game between Pune Warriors and Deccan Chargers. There were ten other players leaving Ganguly who could have got the job done for the Pune Warriors. But, all they could manage was a mere 136 runs which had chances of being chased down with minimum effort. But, the Deccan Chargers needed more than minimum effort to reach that target.

One thing for which the Pune Warriors need a pat on their back would be because they didn't lose all their ten wickets by saving one wicket toward the end of their innings. Some reconsideration needs in the Decan Chargers' captain giving the ball to J P Duminy when Ishanth Sharma could have been given another over who was not only a major strike bowler but also one among the bowlers who maintained a decent economy of 6.33 though not enough. Very rarely does a bowler end up with an over maiden in a T20 game and Amit Mishra was the lucky one in this regard.

In the Pune Warriors' innings, the highest individual score came from the blades of Mitchell Marsh who batted at number 8. And, may be because of his strokeplay, the Pune Warriors crossed the hundred run mark. One can imagine the fate of a team which has to rely on a number 8 batsmen to complete the innings. If that was all about the Pune Warriors, the Deccan Chargers were no less when it came to showing a dismal performance when they had to wait until the last over to score than winning run. A band of Yuvraj Singh, Ganguly, Uttappa and Jesse Ryder could only fill in the vacancies.

With limited resources, the Deccan Chargers did more than what was expected from them. The big names from the Deccan Chargers include Sangakkara, Dhawan and Duminy. But, that much was more than enough to chase down 136 successfully. Whatsoever, this is not the end of the roads for both teams and according to me, both teams lost when it comes to performing up to a certain level. But, as far as the rules of the game go, there can be only one winner at the most and that happened to be the Deccan Chargers. There are much more games to come.

Sweet revenge for Kings XI Punjab

2011-05-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

Well the last the Kings XI Punjab team faced the Delhi Daredevils at Delhi, the home team made it count for them by registering a 29 run win over their neighbors. And, much to everyone's surprise this time, the Kings XI Punjab did exactly what the Delhi Daredevils did to them a month ago this time at Dharamsala by the same margin of 29 runs. Thanks to some power hitting by Paul Valthaty and Shaun Marsh at the top, whose contribution with the bat laid the foundation after their team put up a mammoth total of 170 on the board.

In addition, there was Dinesh Karthik who aided the duo with his handy 27. Like it has always been the case with most of the teams, their captain never seems to experiment with their bowling no matter what. This time as well, James Hopes never got into experiment by opting for just 6 bowlers, four of whom bowled their entire quota of 4 overs. One over that made the difference between a victory and a loss for the Delhi Daredevils was that of Sridharan Sriram whose lone over cost him and his team 25 runs. May be this is the reason why captains don't experiment with their bowling.

Looking at the debacle of the Delhi Daredevils, the reason for the same can be thought of due to the lack of any quality players for them. There was Gautam Gambhir, A B de Villiars and Dilshan who have been picked up by different franchisees this time. Added to that is the absence of Virender Sehwag which creates a deeper hole in the Delhi Daredevils' worries. This time, some big names that can be read in the Delhi Daredevils side would be David Warner and James Hopes. Or else, why would Hopes be captaining his side. Gambhir would have been an asset had it been last time.

There was no batsmen in the Delhi side who scored even a 30. The best score was 29 from the blades of David Warner. Likewise, five bowlers were enough for the Kings XI Punjab to restrict the Delhi batsmen to a score 29 runs less than what the Kings XI Punjab managed. Perhaps! There was no Sriram in the Punjab team to give away 25 runs. Piyush Chawla made his presence felt not only by claiming the man of the match award but also by grabbing 3 wickets at 4.00 runs an over which makes him deserve the honor more than even Valthaty.

Totally illogical

2011-05-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

This point has already been thought about by so many experts about the illogical nature of the D-L method for which there was yet another example yesterday in the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders. The match was reduced to 13 overs even before the Kolkata Knight Riders were put into bat by the Royal Challengers owing to bad weather. But, towards the end of the first innings, the Kolkata Knight Riders ended their innings at 89/4 but the target that the Royal Challengers Bangalore were supposed to chase down to record a victory happened to be 102 from 13 overs.

According to not only me but many of them, the target that the RCB were supposed to score should have been 90 and not 102. But it is the magic of the D-L method that makes the target exceed by 12 more runs than expected. Recently, there was a game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Superkings where despite batting second the Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by ten runs which is impossible in a regular LOI. Going by the rules of cricket, a team batting second can win a match by so many wickets and by so many runs.

If this happens to be the case after the introduction of the D-L method, what if a 20 over match happens and the team batting second requires more than one run compared to the score put up by the team batting first in order to attain victory? The debate has been going on for decades altogether but a ~~proper~~ permanent solution is awaited and that is in case someone is serious in solving the problem rather than terming the match as a bad luck for the losers. However, a total of 102 never seemed to bother Chris Gayle's team.

This time as well, there was no one stopping Chris Gayle who scored runs at a rate of 316.66 runs for every 100 balls he faced. Had there been no Chris Gayle, the Royal Challengers Bangalore would have been termed as an unlucky team for, despite the presence of Chris Gayle and his timely contribution with the willow, the RCB took 12.3 overs and losing 6 wickets en route to reach their target. So one can imagine RCB without Gayle. Likewise there was a noted bowler in Charles Langeveldt who shone with the ball scalping 2/10 from 3 overs at 3.33 runs an over.

Surrendering to Dinesh Karthik!

2011-05-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

Well the cricketing world has seen players like Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Sehwag and Dhoni to name a few who have won many games for their teams single handed. But, if someone like Dinesh Karthik does the same, either the cricketing world has seen a new talent or has the same been dreaming. Yesterday was one such day when Dinesh Karthik did exactly what was expected off him but not anticipated. Dinesh Karthik was individually instrumental in chasing down a huge target of 178 against the Kochi Tuskers. For a change, this was a neutral venue hosted by neither of the teams.

A total of 178 has rarely been found to be chased and that too if any team has been able to chase it down successfully with as many as 7 balls to spare, the efforts of that particular team should not go unrewarded. One thing that can be realized from looking at the scorecard is that the pitch definitely favored the batsmen which in turn favored the T20 game of cricket. This is the third time a team has successfully chased down a total in excess of 170 runs. Previously, the Delhi Daredevils chased down 187 against Pune Warriors, days after Punjab won against Chennai after successfully chasing down 188.

I beg your pardon; there was a match where Kochi Tuskers Kerala successfully chased down a total of 183 against Mumbai Indians which takes the tally to 4. Coming to the game between Kochi Tuskers and Kings XI Punjab, there were four major contributions to the Kochi Tuskers with Mahela Jayawardane being the daddy of them all scoring 76 runs. Lesser contributions include Owais Shah's 23 and McCullum's 32. Can anyone of you spare the Kings XI Punjab bowlers for bowling as many as 19 wise deliveries that equally contributed to the Kochi's score? Added to that was using only 5 bowlers.

The Kings XI Punjab captain used only five bowlers which happen to be the minimum number of bowlers any team can use. But, everything got washed away as the Kings XI Punjab team eventually won the game by 6 wickets. One more player who made it count for his team was R P Singh who grabbed 4 out of the 6 Punjabi wickets that fell. This feat should no doubt go down as one of the great bowling performances in IPL. Now, once again, the man of the match debate should inevitably pop up when RP Singh stood the chance better than anybody else.

Dhoni does a Sehwag

2011-05-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

Well we have seen in the past in this edition of the IPL that whenever the Delhi Daredevils perform, it is mainly because of their captain Virender Sehwag. However, yesterday in the match between the Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Superkings, it was the Chennai captain - Mahendra Singh Dhoni who stood for his team when he ended the innings at 176 with his personal contribution being an unbeaten 63 runs off just 31 deliveries. Had it not been for Dhoni's feat, may be the Chennai Superkings might have just ended on the losing side whatsoever. Dhoni has just done a Sehwag.

This time for a change, the home team returned victorious which most of the time doesn't happen to be the case. The scorecard suggests that Dhoni was previousy aided by Suresh Raina, Badrinath and Murali Vijay, both of them being Indians by laying a solid foundation to their mammoth total that was four runs behind the ideal total of 180. Unfortunately, Bravo and Morkel lost out entertaining the facs with their tail end hitting. Though the target of 176 was far more than enough to register a win, the game could have been a little more entertaining. Had there been Sehwag, things would have been different.

It was yet another example of team work by the Chennai Superkings where as mentioned Raina, Dhoni, Murali Vijay and Badrinath contributed for their team's batting success. Similarly, the bowling of the Delhi Daredevils also aided the Chennai batting who didn't experiment with their bowlers. One can sense the late run giving technique of Pathan who went at 10.0 runs an over. It is mysterious that Pathan and Agarkar were allowed to bowl their complete quota of 4 overs despite going in for so many runs while James Hopes was stopped after bowling just two overs. Coming to the Delhi's run chase, they left no stone unturned.

The Delhi Daredevils did everything right to chase down the total of 176 with Naman Ojha, Venugopal Rao, David Warner and Irfan Pathan showing good confidence with the bat but lacked the temperament that Virender Sehwag would have had. The Delhi Daredevils didn't have a Sehwag for a Dhoni. A score of 158 though was not enough to win the game, was more than enough to show that the Delhi Daredevils are still in the race at least for the play offs. At the end there could have been only one winner and that happened to be the Chennai Superkings.

Watson+Rahane+Dravid < Gayle

2011-05-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well whenever in this season of the IPL is heard about Royal Challengers Bangalore, one name that flashes everyone's mind would be that of Chris Gayle, the reasons which are not unknown or need to be told separately. Yesterday as well in the game against Rajasthan Royals, it was Chris Gayle who did most of the damage to the host team first by having a wicket under his name and secondly needless to be said by belting another splendid 70 runs off just 44 balls and remaining unbeaten in the second innings chasing a modest total of 147 on the board.

There were batsmen like Dravid, Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane and Ross Taylor who got into double figures but the noteworthy scores were just that of Dravid and Watson. Neither were there any major strike rates for the Rajasthan to boast about. Not to mention that a combination of all the aforementioned scores were out shadowed by Gayle from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. With someone like Gayle out there in the opposition, the teams facing should have been a little lot more careful at least when it came to saving their faces let alone winning or even coming close to winning one against the RCB.

On the other hand, other than Chris Gayle, there were the likes of Dilshan, Virat Kohli and A B deVilliars who could have done the job for the Royal Challengers Bangalore with a target of just 147 on the board set by Rajasthan. One can take a look at the scorecard to see the bowling chart of Rajasthan Royals who bought in 7 of their bowlers mainly to bowl Chris Gayle which happened to be a valiant effort. However, the Rajasthan Royals' efforts got paid for when they had one wicket towards the end of the RCB's successful run chase.

The Rajasthan Royals had Dilshan out with half the target already achieved. But, had they got Gayle out atleast late in the innings, that would have bought in much satisfaction for the Rajasthan Royals. Once again popping up the man of the match debate, I bet none can explain why Gayle was deceived of the award. Is it because that Gayle has received that award thrice earlier in the tournament or is it because the match officials wanted to give bowlers a chance to go up and collect something? To mention, Gayle had a wicket against his name which wasn't noticed by match officials I supppose.

Another debacle by another home team

2011-05-11T02:44:00.000-07:00

This was one of the rare matches in T20 cricket where bowlers have everything to say right from the target what they understood would be chasable on that ground and secondly aiding their batsmen to try everything new. One can go through the scorecard to see that neither did the Deccan Chargers lose wickets nor did they be instrumental in getting to a match winning score. There have been matches that follow suit. So would be the fact that it is the home team that faces the music like yesterday Deccan Chargers lost to Pune Warriors. Lucky are those teams that do not host IPL matches.

The Deccan Chargers got off to a decent start with their top six batsmen getting double figures with notable ones being Shikar Dhawan's 24 followed by Ravi Teja's and J P Duminy's 30 runs. But, in the end what mattered was the big hitting factor which all the batsmen of the Deccan Chargers lacked. The highest strike rate was that of Shikar Dhawan with 141.17 and a score of 24. Or else there was Dale Steyn who stroke 183.33 runs for every 100 balls faced but managed an unbeaten 11 which was to hardly any avail. It is indisputable that the pitch favored the bowlers to a greater extent.

This time as well the Pune Warriors didn't quite experiment with their bowling by bringing 4 of their bowlers to bowl their complete quota. Yes, it is understood that there was no need to experiment with the bowling when the going was so smooth for them. Can anyone of you explain why Bhuvneshwar Kumar was allowed to bowl 3 overs when Shrikant Wagh bowled just 1 over when both of them gave away runs at 8.0 an over? The only thing that the Pune bowlers didn't do was to bowl extra deliveries if not for one wide delivery. So was the bowling accuracy of the pitch.

Mitchell Marsh's 4/25 from should I guess go down as the best bowling performance of at least this year's IPL. Life was not easy even for the Pune Warriors who took 18.2 overs to chase down that total which should have been achieved in at the most 15 overs. Kudos to Jesse Ryder and Manish Pandey who laid a solid foundation despite the ball doing its own tricks and joining hands with the bowler. If not for Duminy, no other bowler got belted from the Pune Warriors'. One man's presence that everyone would have been waiting for was Sourav Ganguly who didn't disappoint his fans.

When the entire team stands up

2011-05-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well if anyone still needs a clear definition of a team work in cricket, I wish they have to go through the game between the Chennai Superkings and Rajasthan Royals played yesterday at Jaipur. As it has happened in most of the occasions, yesterday was no different when the home team got humiliated by the visiting team. Recently it happened to the Kings XI Punjab when they fell short by 85 runs against RCB led by Chris Gayle (in terms of batting). Yesterday was a similar fate for Rajasthan when they had the same fate as that of Punjab against the RCB.

Starting from the Chennai Superkings' innings, the scorecard suggests that four out of the five batsmen who took to the crease made their presence felt when Mike Hussey, Murlai Vijay, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina contributed towards their team by scoring in almost equal amounts. One can sense equal contribution from the blades of the aforementioned batsmen with Murali Vijay topping the chart with 53 to his credit. There should have been four men of the match whose contribution as a whole was instrumental in Chennai Superking's victory. But, as an injustice, only Murali Vijay was awarded the man of the match.

If Murali Vijay was the top scorer of the game, then in terms of strike rate he falls to the fourth position. Murali Vijay's strike rate of 132.5 is exceeded by Mike Hussey (strike rate of 153.33), Raina (SR of 159.25) and Dhoni (215.28). However, one thing that needs to be appreciated is the way the Chennai Superkings played as a team. One cannot understand the reason behind the Rajasthan captain Shane Warne opting for Shane Watson who gave away runs at 11.75 runs an over when Ashok Menaria got to bowl just 2 overs which was equal to the run rate conceded by Warne.

Coming back to the man of the match debate, Suresh Raina was instrumental first in playing a handy 43 runs from the bat and on the other hand got two wickets off the only two deliveries he bowled. Similarly, Doug Bollinger returned with figures of 3/22 from his allotted 4 overs who stood a chance better than Murali Vijay to receive the man of the match award. However, in the Rajasthan side the problem happened to be lack of even small partnerships with them losing wickets at regular intervals. If not for Ajinkya Rahane, no other batsmen stood to the Chennai's challenge whatsoever.

Kochi Tuskers double Gayled

2011-05-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well in a couple of matches prior to the one yesterday between Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Royal Challengers Bangalore, the man with a Midas touch - Chris Gayle was seen destroying the opposition bowlers only with the willow. But, yesterday was something different when Chris Gayle not only hammered the ball with his bat but was also found bowling his full quota of 4 overs being a part time bowler and what is more! Chris Gayle was successful in giving the RCB their initial breakthrough when he had Michael Klinger bowled. At the end, Gayle's efforts was equivalent to Zaheer Khan's.

Coming to the match, the game would be remembered for Chris Gayle's 37 run over that was aided with extra deliveries. However, the bowler who was bowling to Chris Gayle should also be given a consideration when only has to nothing but pity Prasanth Parameswaran who was unlucky to have hit Chris Gayle in his initial period of his cricketing career. However, that should not be mistaken with 6 ball over with an extra delivery being bowled in the second ball which unfortunately (as far as the bowler was considered) went for six runs. This makes it 37 runs off 7 balls.

Sparing this over, if Gayle's innings is considered otherwise, scorecard suggests that his overall tally stood at 44 runs unbeaten which brings down the equation to 7 runs from 10 balls which suggests that Gayle was still in setting up his innings rather than going for the kill once for all. It was the Kochi batsmen ho made life tough for the viewers who would have watched an even better show from Chris Gayle had the total been some 150+. The highlight would be the 37 run over, the 4 overs which Gayle bowled and his 16 ball 44* which completely took the game away from Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

It is accepted that nothing much could have been done with Gayle out there in full bloom. But, with batsmen like McCullum, Klinger, Patel and Jayawardane there in the side, the Kochi Tuskers might have put up a better batting performance by getting to a total of at least 150-180. The entire Kochi innings didn't consist of any sixes. The match would have been won by the same margin even without Gayle. Dilshan, deVilliars etc would have got the job done for RCB. The RCB bowlers had read the mindset of Kochi batsmen it seemed when no experimentation happened with their bowlers.

A mis-match at Eden Gardens

2011-05-08T05:12:00.000-07:00

Well what can be said about the shortest version of the game being truncated to half of its size and that too when one innings happens to be over? One has to forget the saying that all is well that ends well when the Chennai Superkings who would have lost otherwise as well happened to gain sympathy for ending up on the losing side due to the D-L method. A score of 115 on the board can hardly be defended and has been proved to be chased down on majority of the occasions. And, Kolkata is an upcoming team in this year's IPL.

There was an approach as though it was a one day game if the scorecard of the Chennai Superkings is considered. Neither did they lose wickets at regular intervals nor did they put up a huge score on the board to compensate for their ducking. There was one player in the Chennai side who scored a half century when Subramanium Badrinath scored a 41 ball 54 aided with three hits to the fence and two outside the ground. Had there been losses of wickets, that would have seen Dhoni getting into the rescue act followed by Wriddhiman Saha and Morkel.

Very rarely does a match total happens to be reduced to exactly half both in terms of the runs needed to be chased as well as the number of balls needed to secure a win. Yesterday, at Kolkata, the revised target for the Knight Riders happened to be 52 runs from 10 overs which initially was 115 runs from 20 overs. A funny aspect of the D-L method is that the team batting second wins by so many runs which is not possible in regular games or uninterrupted ones. The result might have been Kolkata won the game by 10 wickets instead of 10 runs.

Iqbal Abdulla was awarded the man of the match for his outstanding efforts of 1/15 from 4 overs by blind people who could not see or realize Brett Lee's efforts of 0/8 off his four overs at just 2 runs an over. Even in that partly total of 114, there was a bowler in Jaidev Unadkat who gave away runs at the rate of 11 runs an over from the only over which he bowled. The Kolkata Knight Riders innings saw no sixes being scored unlike the Chennai innings which saw two of them. Had Badrinath been adjudged the man of the match, that would not have been a bad choice.

RCB - KXIP = 85 runs

2011-05-07T04:52:00.000-07:00

What better results can be expected from a team which is at one of the highest position in the points table plays a team at equal places counted from the bottom of the same? And that was what the spectators at the Chinnaswamy stadium witnessed yesterday with the Royal Challengers Bangalore piling up 205 runs on the board and the Kings XI Punjab losing the plot at 120 with 85 runs still being needed to at least snatch a tie. A fascinating aspect of the game was the the Kings XI Punjab didn't lose all ten wickets despite the pressure.

There was one man in Chris Gayle who scored 13 runs less than what the entire Kings XI Punjab team could manage in 20 legal overs excluding the extras in just 8.1 overs. There can be nothing said about this great man whose introduction into the IPL is as good as the entry of a hero in a James Bond movie. It was as though a shadow of Brian Lara and Vivian Richards was out there batting for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. This was an innings one of its kind needless to be said. The entire team can be dedicated to Gayle alone.

Having Chris Gayle in the team, the RCB captain can experiment with at least five of his batsmen provided Chris Gayle continues in this form. Looking at the scorecard it is unbelievable that he remaining scores put together comes up to 98 runs with not other batsman daring to cross more than 27 runs. I could just remember a match in which Sehwag scores 80 runs to see the Delhi team through earlier in the tournament. This was a similar match with Gayle replacing Sehwag. As usual, both captains didn't ever experiment with their bowlers with 8 bowlers in the game finishing their quota.

This should not be a cause of worry for the Royal Challengers but a point to think about for the Kings XI Punjab. If one side of the coin is considered, even Gilchrist has a point when nothing could be done as long as Chris Gayle was there batting and the remaining bowlers were enough to contain the rest of the batsmen from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Eventually, a bunch of players from the Kings XI Punjab that includes Paul Valthaty, Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, Abhishek Nayar and Dinesh Karthik could not score at over 6.0 runs an over which was aided by 5 extras.

Tuskers strong on their day

2011-05-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

Well one of the teams upon which all IPL fans can have their bet this time around would be the Kolkata Knight Riders who are found to have regrouped from their previous shattering which was evident in the last three editions especially the second one where Brendon McCullum was made to captain the side instead of Sourav Ganguly. However, yesterday the story was slightly different with the Kolkata Knight Riders having a tough time against Kochi Tuskers Kerala at Kochi (where else). Another delight of the day was that the home team won the match which has been otherwise in the other contests.

Home teams have been seen returning at the losing end with the teams like Delhi and Hyderabad topping the list followed by Mumbai. Coming to the game between Kochi and Kolkata, the match was a favorite one for 'K' fans with both teams having the letter 'K' in them. However, even if one goes by that theory, then the fans would have been delighted for the team with the maximum number of 'Ks' emerging victorious. The Kochi Tuskers kerala have three 'Ks' in them as against only two such 'Ks' by the Kolkata Knight Riders. And for peiople who don't go by that, here it is.

One has to just think why on earth does the batsman from whom a master innings is expected happens to disappoint? Brendon McCullum who has shown to entertain his fans happens to get out early scoring just one run no matter how many balls he has played. Is it because McCullum had last played for Kolkata in the past three editions of the tournament that he has a soft corner for them should be thought about not so seriously. No individual batsmen can be highlighted from the Kocjhi team with contributions pouring in from Parthiv Patel, Michael Klinger, Mahela Jayawardane and Brad Hodge.

The toughest decision to make was as to who should be adjudged the man of the match with Jayawardane being the top scorer of the innings and Morgan doing his stand alone innings of 66 that topped the match overall. However, with the preference going to the individual from the winning team, adjudging Jayawardane as the man of the match would not have been a bad choice. But, considering a quickfire innings, the award points to no one else but Brad Hodge for his 35 from 19 deliveries at a strike rate of 184. Main mistake lied in Kochi giving 4 overs to Lee who went in for 42 runs at 10 runs an over.

Chennai flawless..Rajasthan clueless

2011-05-05T03:06:00.000-07:00

10 boundaries from a batsmen who has long been terminated from playing the shortest version of the game happened to be a savor to his team when his knock saved a lot of face for his team which would otherwise been making rounds for all the bad reasons. Rahul Dravid scored an individual score of 67 runs at a strike rate of 129.41 from 51 balls which saw the total boost to 147 which would have otherwise been just 80. The Rajasthan innings saw just three batsmen scoring double figure scores. All these were scored by international batsmen with experience.

The names include Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid and Ross Taylor who are all big names in international cricket. Johan Botha could have just added a bit to the score which actually didn't happen. Only Shane Warne can answer why he himself didn't take on to the crease to blow some bowlers with his decade long experience in international cricket which has seen him play some handy innings for Australia when the situation demanded it from him. It is fascinating to see none of the batsmen from the Rajasthan Royals' side being able to clear the ropes even once. No sixes!

However, Rahul Dravid from Rajasthan Royals' side can walk with his head held high with him being the highest boundary hitter in the contest with him being able to cross the ropes on 10 occasions. Rahul Dravid also falls into the category with the highest number of boundaries and sixes put together with Mike Hussey's tally of 8 fours and one six falling short of it by 1 hit. One has to appreciate the accuracy with which the bowlers of both teams bowled with there being just 5 extra deliveries. Four of them were bowled by Rajasthan Royals and one from Chennai Superkings.

On the other hand, the Chennai innings had absolutely no trouble at all in chasing down the total of 148 with batsmen like Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Of course, Morkel, Murali Vijay and Badrinath also form a handy set. But, if at all anyone can comment about the Chenai Superkings' innings, they might have to just dispute with the scorecard which showed them lose just two wickets en route to their successful run chase. The run chase would have been successful even had the Rajasthan Royals scored a total of over 180. Eventually, a fourth straight win would have excited Dhoni needless to be said.

A soft target for the KKR

2011-05-04T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well with the Kolkata Knight Riders showing their comparatively best performance in this year's Indian Premier League, the opponent which they have been scheduled to play against happened to be another apple pie with the Deccan Chargers crashing once again after failing to get past 169 set by the Kolkata team. Though that was a decent total, that was definitely not a total that could not be chased. With batsmen like Sohal, Sangakkara and Christian in the side the total should have been chased down which as usual didn't happen. However, that is a different issue with ups and downs being prevalent.

It is still a mystery that the home team usually stays at the receiving end of the thrashing that the visiting team gives. This time as well, the situation was hardly different with the home team namely Hyderabad falling short of the target set forward by the visitors namely the Kolkata team. Starting with the Kolkata Knight Riders' innings, the visitors left hardly any stones unturned with all of the six batsmen contributing to the total of 169 which could promise a start or at least save some face for the team. Needless to be said, Yousuf Pathan's 47 was the highlight.

With the results apart, the Kolkata Knight Riders' captain - Gautam Gambhir should reconsider having Jacques Kallis in the playing eleven with his style of play suiting only the South African team and that too only in the longer forms of the game. One can go through the scorecard to see Kallis scoring 30 runs from 31 balls at just run a ball efficiency. This is one of the many times Kallis has been seen dong this. Had there been some blows from the batsmen, the team could have seen Mark Boucher and Yousuf Pathan play a little more than expected.

All fingers point towards Kallis for consuming too many balls en route to his double figure score. So should Eoin Morgon and Manoj Tiwary to a greater extent. Like it has always been happening, the Deccan Chargers' bowlers showed no signs of experimenting with their bowlers with four out of six bowling their full quota of 4 overs and one bowler bowling 3 overs. The bowler with the least economy bowled just one over with Shikar Dhawan being the lucky guy. This doesn'y mean he should have been given another over to spoil his team's chances. But, Amit Mishra could have been given another over.

How can 1 win over 11

2011-05-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

Well it is obvious that a team where 11 players contribute to their team would walk out with all the applause the match can bring in. And, yesterday as well things were hardly different in the game between the Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab at Mumbai. Well it should not be confused with the fact that Mumbai won because they were playing on their home soil. This could be the match for all people who would like to find flaw in Sachin Tendulkar who scored an individual 51 at the cost of his team's total. After Jacobs, Sachin Tendulkar had the least strike rate.

Sachin Tendulkar played 45 balls before getting out on 51 at a strike rate of 137.83 while Ambati Rayudu scored the same amount of runs playing 8 balls less than what Sachin Tendulkar took. Both have to come under the scanner for, the innings didn't include a quickfire that is quintessential in a T20 game especially the IPL for in addition to the team losing the match, the audience would be deceived of an action on the field. Though the batsmen who came in next didn't play a long innings like Sachin Tendulkar and Rayudu, they added to the entertainment.

Kieron Pollard and Rohith Sharma despite getting out on low scores of 20 and 18 respectively did the same at strike rates of 181 and 163 respectively. The next to have come in were Andrew Symonds and Suman. Well not having our discussion regarding Suman, Symonds would have well been an asset with him being the biggest of all the hitters out there in the Mumbai Indians side. Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga would also have added to the action. Had Sachin Tendukar and Ambati Rayudu thought otherwise, the score towards the end would have shot past 180 or may be even more.

Speaking team work, it was evident why the Kings XI Punjab despite the presence of Adam Gilchrist, David Warner, David Hussey etc ended up on the losing side for their lack of team work. All those aforementioned players were among the top big hitters in IPL but not yesterday at Mumbai. If not for Shaun Marsh who scored 61, no other batsmen showed any toughness on the crease. One can sense the selfishness of Paul Valthaty who scored 33 runs at a strike rate of 86.87 when the situation demanded 150+ runs for every 100 legal deliveries. Finally, lack of team work saw he team lose and viceversa.

Royals and not Warriors

2011-05-02T02:36:00.000-07:00

Well the place here is not to discuss about the credibility of the words warrior and royal which according to dictionary are unrelated. But, yesterday at Jaipur, both the words were against each other trying to prove their myth on the cricket field which eventually happened to be royal. Rajasthan Royals won the encounter against Pune Warriors by 6 wickets with 3 balls to spare but with little or no signs of fear or tension. This was one simple match where no big hitting happened to bore the audience. Even the batsmen were saved from slogging unnecessarily and blindly. Whom should we thank for this?

Coming to the scorecard, one can have a look to find that no batsmen scored a half century which happens very rarely in a T20 match especially the IPL whose sole intention is tjhe entertain the audience with the big hitting by batsmen irrespective of their talent. No spin and swing bowling is ever recognized in these games unfortunately. The highest individual score in the game came from the blades of Ross Taylor who ended his innings on an unbeaten knock of 47. May be had the match went on there could have been the lone half century scorer of the game.

There was a series of scores 18, 31, 30 and 24 towards the top of the Pune Warriors' innings but to little avail. That should not matter for, he was awarded the man of the match for his feat. A total of 143 was far less than the projected total of 180 which is ideal in a T20 game. The Pune Warriors' innings had just to hits out of the ground which came towards the fag end of the innings with Mithun Manhas and Nathan McCullum standing up to the occasion of saving the face for their team.Speaking teamwork, Pune have a point to prove.

However, speaking about the confidence that the batsmen of both teams out there showed, it would definitely be Rajasthan who would go with an upper hand when they had their scorecard ticking every now and then. Ashok Menaria laid a decent foundation towards their run chase. Though they came until he last over to record their win, their body language showed no signs of panic whatsoever. Still, neither teams out there had the guts to experiment with their bowling with all bowlers bowling a minimum of 3 overs. Well, Rajasthan did well to restrict Menaria to just 1 over when he went for 10 runs.

What if Sehwag doesn't score?

2011-05-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Well if the current edition of the Indian Premier League is considered, it is the Delhi Daredevils who are one of the teams that are at the receiving end of their opponent's ego. However, for a change yesterday it was the same Delhi Daredevils aided with the magnificent knock of Virender Sehwag who held the upper hand in their group match against Kochi Tuskers Kerala at Kochi. One thing that can be noted is that the Delhi Daredevils were not playing on their home soil and secondly, it was the same old Virender Sehwag who did the good work for Delhi.

Let us go through the scorecard of yesterday's game between the Delhi Daredevils and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala which suggests that out of the total score of 157 scored by Delhi, 80 was scored by Sehwag alone single handed. Sehwag scored 80 runs which constitutes more than 50% of the total of 157 that included 16 extras. If this year's edition of the Indian Premier League is given a closer look at with Delhi Daredevils taking the spotlight, the names which make it look big for the team include only Virender Sehwag and David Warner. Other smaller names include Irfan Pathan and Venugopal Rao.

However, keeping in mind yesterday's encounter the Delhi scorecard had no other individual score to boast about if not for Sehwag's 80 as mentioned. The next best score was 22 runs from the blades of Yogesh Nagar. The remaining scores would just be a waste of time and patience. Likewaise, the scorecard of the Kochi Tuskers' batting consisted of decent scores unlike the Delhi team's which was dominated by Sehwag alone. There was Brad Hodge, Ravindra Jadeja and Mahela Jayawardane who returned with double figure scores though not so attractive like Virender Sehwag's 80. But, something different was expected from Brendon McCullum.

Like always, both teams who have been the bottom takers of the points table are found to take less experiment with their bowling like it happened yesterday as well when all the both captains there didn't quite experiment with the ball. First, the Kochi Tuskers Kerala had four bowlers who bowled their complete quota and on the other hand, the Delhi Daredevils had four bowlers who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs each with the 5^th bowler bowling just one over short of his full quota. May be this is the secret of the teams to have reached the bottom of their points table.

Not a fair play from RR

2011-04-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well if it is only the result of the match that matters, then, there might have not been so many cricket crazy fans out there cheering for every shot that goes out of the ground and every ball that breaks the stumps no matter which player from which team is responsible in doing it so as long as there is entertainment on the field. But, that was no way the case in yesterday's game between the Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. A score of 94 from 20 overs should either deserve a better response from the opposition or else the track should be fit for a test match.

In the first innings which was played by the Mumbai Indians (as far as the batting team goes), they as mentioned neither lose all their ten wickets nor did they do a big hitting despite the likes of Sachin Tendulkar being there. Other names that promise good run include Andrew Symonds, Rohith Sharma and Kieron Pollard. Of course, other batsmen too have their names felt but, not yesterday. Even Harbhajan Singh might have added to the delight with the bat. But, there was no batsman in the Mumbai Indians' side who could get a score past 20 runs with the highest being Symonds' 17.

Should one come to the conclusion that the Rajasthan Royals were on the top of their bowling with the army consisting of Shane Warne including Ashok Menaria, Shane Watson and Johan Botha? If that was so, then one should think for a reason for the Rajasthan Royals not to have grabbed all ten wickets from the Mumbai side which saw them play until the 120^th legal delivery may be no avail which forms a different issue. Another point to ponder over is that the Rajasthan Royals' batsmen came until the last two overs to reach the target which was achieved in the 19^th over.

A tough opponent would have chased down the target in just 15 overs with just over run a ball which also happens to be much. An ideal approach would be 11 overs at 9.0 runs an over. One aspect that needs to be digested is that despite grabbing 3 wickets at a rate of 3.0 runs an over, Johan Botha was given only two overs to bowl when he could have been given two more overs. On the other hand, Shane Watson was allowed to complete his full quota of 4 overs despite being the 2^nd costliest bowler after Siddharth Trivedi who was restricted to juts 2 overs.

KKR and Delhi swap places

2011-04-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

This was yet another loss for Delhi Daredevils on home turf and one has to go through the entire results page to see where the number stands as far as the Delhi Daredevils' loss at home is considered. The present is that the Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by 17 runs against the Delhi Daredivels. Just few days before, the Chennai Super Kings took all applause for defending a mere total of 142 against the Pune Warriors when the latter were restricted to just 117 at less than run a ball. This time as well, the total of 148 was not a tough task for Delhi to chase.

Looking at the scorecard, despite being on the winning side, the Kolkta Knight Riders' innings was a one man show dominated by just Manoj Tiwary who scored an unbeaten 61 runs from 47 balls. That effort of his was more than enough for because the Kolkata Knight Riders eventually won the game as stated and Manoj Tiwary was awarded the man of the match. There was neither a supporting innings nor any quickfire from any of the batsmen from the Kolkata Knight Riders' side with the second best being 22 from the blades of Shreevats Goswamy in the beginning of the innings.

Looking at the scorecard once again suggests the lack of experimenting from the Delhi Daredevils side to be responsible for their debacle when they could not chase down 149 runs against the Kolkata Knight Riders. The Delhi Daredevils captain-Virender Sehwag bought in just 4 bowlers to bowl the Kolkata Knight Riders. Despite of this, the Delhi Daredevils should be glad that the total didn't shoot past 180. Sehwag could have bought in Yogesh Nagar, Naman Ojha and himself to bowl as a part of experimenting with his bowlers. Notable scores from Kolkata include only Goswami's 22 as mentioned. But, what if that is enough to win the game?

The Kolkata Knight Riders couldn't get the Delhi Batsmen all out with one wicket still left. The approach of the Delhi Daredevils was far from satisfactory with none of the batsmen making it count for the Delhi team. I doubt whether Virender Sehwag's score of 34 which topped the charts should be considered as a captain's innings which not only was the top score of that innings but was also the only score from the Delhi team that went above 30. The Kolkata Knight Riders unlike their opponents bought in 6 bowlers to bowl the Delhi batsmen which worked in restricting them below 148.

Just Yuvraj Singh for Pune

2011-04-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Well the rules of the game of cricket suggests that every team is supposed to have 11 players and may be that is the reason why ten out of the eleven players from the Pune Warriors side are seen making it to the squad with only Yuvraj Singh doing the talking with the bat. One can just have a look at the scorecard of yesterday's match between Pune Warriors and Chennai Superkings which obviously was won by the defending champions. There are the likes of Monish Mishra, Manish Pandey, Robin Uttappa etc who could have done a lot with the bat but didn't.

If not for Yuvraj Singh's 62, the next best performance was Robin Uttappa's 31 which was exactly half of what Yuvraj Singh could manage. Then comes Jesse Ryder's 19 and beyond that, the scores can only take the space on the page and nothing else. If the 62 runs scored by Yuvraj Singh is stripped from the scorecard of Pune Warriors, then the total of the same turn out to be 69 which is the total put up by the remaining 7 batsmen who made it to the crease and not to forget the 5 extra runs. That makes the total 69-5=64.

Had the remaining batsmen mentioned contributed up to their mark, then the scorecard would have read something different than what is the case. One can see Raina returning with one of the best bowling figures with the ball when he gave away runs at a rate of just 5 runs an over. Unfortunately, Raina was given one over short, when he deserved to bowl an extra over thus completing his quota of four overs. One can see three overs bowled maiden in the game with two of them being from the Pune Warriors and making it worse, the bowler who gave away the winning runs bowled one of them.

It would not be wrong to say that the overs bowled maiden by the Pune Warriors team was awarded by the Chennai Superkings for, the batsmen from the Chennai team showed no signs of feat which usually results in overs going without a run being scored. Needless to be said, the Chennai Superkings reached the target with 8 wickets to spare and just three balls remaining. Does this speak of the pressure the Chennai Superkings were facing during their run chase becomes a different question altogether. Eventually, 7 bowlers from the Pune Warriors side could not contain two batsmen from the Chenai superkings side.

Teach them how to defend

2011-04-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

Though the total of 160 put up by the Delhi Daredevils yesterday against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at once again Delhi is not a decent total, it should not even be considered a cake walk for any tough opponent whatsoever. Had the same total been piled up by the Delhi team in one of the previous three editions, then that total would have seen them emerge victorious towards the end of the game i most encounters. Once again, the home team is found to be at the receiving end of the opposition's egos. I wish the Delhi team should stop playing on home turf.

A couple of days back, the Chennai Superkings were found defending a mere total of 142 on the board against Pune Warriors which was a game one of its kind for all those who have been following the tournament at least in this edition. The presence of Sehwag, Warner, James Hopes etc should provide a strong platform for the batting line up of the Delhi Daredevils whatsoever. But, what is seen happening is exactly reverse of the same. It has been the batsmen who have been responsible for their debacle. The bowlers, who get little support from the batsmen can do only this much.

Starting with the scorecard of the Delhi daredevils, it was a decent job done in by the batsmen that included Virender Sehwag, James Hopes and Venugopal Rao who showed confidence with the bat. Some decent tags include a quickfire 13 and 16 from Irfan Pathan and Naman Ojha respectively. Had they been out giving thus a chance to the forthcoming batsmen, that would not have added to the score in any way with Morkel and Umesh Yadav knowing their limits themselves. This was a tough match for Delhi to lose when all odds were for them. They had no reasons to lose absolutely.

However, it was one man that took the game away from the Delhi Daredevils when Virat Kohli turned the heat back at Delhi when he scored 56 runs from 38 deliveries which proved to be the backbone of their successful run chase. If not for that score, no other individual score from the Royal Challengers Bangalore seems to hit the headlines. Of course, Chris Gayle blasted a quickfire a 26 run from 14 balls at a strike rate of 185.0 which provided the platform for the run chase which eventually happened to be a close encounter. I wish Sehwag should have given one more over to Pathan which could have stopped tongues from wagging.

A mixture of batting and bowling

2011-04-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

This match should go down as one of the best game this year's IPL has ever witnessed whatsoever. Just imagine a team piling up runs at a rate of just under 7.5 runs an over and is able to defend the same successfully and that too by a decent margin and doesn't bowl the opposition all out like it happens most of the time in limited overs game. This was what the Chennai Super Kings were found doing last night with the Pune Warriors being at the receiving end. Neither did the Pune Warriors lose all their ten wickets nor did they end on the winning side.

The only way thought of to be to defend a total of 142 in a T20 game is to bowl the opposition with restricting them to a lesser total would be out of question. And, as a rare chance that happens, the match would be a close encounter unlike what happened in yesterday's encounter between the Chennai Super Kings and the Pune Warriors. The entire match saw only one batsman scoring a half century with Australia's Mike Hussey being the hero of the match. Of course, a batsman from a team scoring 142 can hardly be expected to score a half century.

Making it still worse, a team with a total of 117 runs towards the end of the innings can have a batsman scoring a half century only in dreams and dreams rarely come true. One can take look at the bowling chart of both the teams playing with both the teams resorting to 6 bowlers, two of whom who bowl 2 overs and the remaining bowlers bowling their full quota of 4 overs each. One can forgive the Deccan Chargers in last night's game against Mumbai Indians but not the Pune Warriors in yesterday's game. A team with the likes of Yuvraj Singh and co should put up a decent performance.

The Pune Warriors were gifted with players like Jesse Ryder, Manish Pandey, Robin Uttappa, Yuvraj Singh etc who can do a lot with the at and on the other hand, they do not have the bowlers who can tackle the opposition batsmen. This is evident with the scorecard showing Rohith Sharma and Alfonso Thomas bowling four overs when Rohith Sharma can be expected to entertain the fans with the bat. Likewise, if not for Mike Hussey, no one really stood up to the occasion for the Chennai Superkings. One can imagine had there been no Mike Hussey what would or might have happened to the Chennai Super Kings.

Deccan Chargers slinged!

2011-04-25T03:24:00.000-07:00

Well, the two players who have been any franchise's bargain in this year's IPL is no doubt Chris Gayle who was bagged by the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the second one is Lasith Malinga whose devastating spells were evident for the second time yesterday in the match against the Deccan Chargers on their home ground. Not even Sachin Tendulkar has been the pick of the players in this year's IPL. With that apart, in the game between the Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers, Lasith Malinga was outstanding needless to be said. This was not because he scalped 3 wickets from the Deccan Chargers.

If one can take some pains and go through the scorecard, not only did Lasith malinga scalp three wickets from the Deccan Chargers' side but also had them single handed. Two of his three wickets had the batsmen bowled while the third batsmen was caught and bowled by Lasith Malinga seeing that Malinga gets no help from any of the fielders or the wicket keeper. Added to that, Malinga had the Deccan Chargers' batsman-Cameron White run out. This brings down four wickets from the Deccan Chargers side by Lasith Malinga alone meaning Lasith Malinga has 50% of the Hyderabad wickets.

Moving away temporarily from Lasith Malinga, one can see from the scorecard that the Deccan Chargers used just five bowlers to bowl their full quota of 4 overs without opting for any other option. This always becomes the stepping stone for a loss by a team which has no guts to experiment with their bowlers. I have cited teams bringing in 7 to 8 bowlers when the going gets tough but, that is not any sort of criticism whatsoever. Though the playing XI of the Deccan Chargers lacks any well known bowlers, Barath Chilipi and Ravi Teja might have been worth a trial.

Similar to bowling, more batsmen making it to the crease means more pressure on the batting team and that was evident when all batsmen from the Deccan Chargers were found making it to the crease. One has to wonder why the word "home team" keeps on making rounds with most of the time in this IPL, it has been the home team that succumbs to pressure no matter what. The list is dominated by Delhi and Hyderabad to a greater extent. If the bowling of the Deccan Chargers brings in worries, so does their batting. If not for Sangakkara, no other batsman is found to hit the headlines for the right reasons.

Not enough for Delhi

2011-04-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

Well the scorecard of yesterday's game between the Delhi Daredevils and the Kings XI Punjab would have made the fans of the Delhi Daredevils team jump in joy. But, before anyone does that, one has to think the way the Delhi team won the match despite scoring such a huge total. One has to I guess remind the Delhi captain-Virender Sehwag the way the Kings XI Punjab successfully chased down 166 against Deccan Chargers and 189 against the Chennai Super Kings. Of course, even the Delhi Daredevils had a run when they chased down 187 against Pune Warriors at Mumbai.

Compared to the score of 180 at 9.0 runs an over the score of 231 stands way apart. But, hen the other team namely the Kings XI Punjab also fell not too far behind with them ending their innings with 202 runs on the board. Had the Delhi team been that strong, then the opposition should have been all out or restricted for somewhere close to 180 giving the Delhi team a victory margin of 51 runs. There is no doubt in the way the Delhi batsmen put pressure on the Punjabi bowlers with them bringing in 7 bowlers to stop Sehwag and Warner from scoring.

The highlight of the game was that every bowler who took to the crease gave away runs at a minimum of 8.0 runs an over. Only two of those bowlers could control and keep the scoring rate to less than 9.0 runs an over which indicates the pitch's batsman friendliness needless to be said. However, the Delhi team saw only 6 bowlers taking it to the crease. But, that decision rewarded the Delhi team for, they eventually won the game needless to be said by a 29 run margin. If the extras on both sides are removed, then the margin of victory reduces to 18 runs.

The Punjab bowlers bowled 14 wides compared to the three by the Delhi Daredevils. However, the million dollar doubt would be that the man of the match was awarded to Warner when there was Virender Sehwag and Shaun Marsh, both of whom shone with the bat. If the winning team concept needs to be considered, then Sehwag scored an equal number of runs compared to Warner but took less number of deliveries, hit more number of boundaries and equal number of sixes with both of them opening the innings for Delhi. Added to that Sehwag captained the side and took three catches on the field.

Just for a change..

2011-04-23T04:36:00.000-07:00

Well with all tongues cursing the Kolkata Knight Riders for their 9 wicket loss to the Royal Challengers Bangalore, one has to go through their performance in the past with them coming too close to winning the opening game against the Chennai Super Kings when eventually they lost by 2 runs. Following that defeat, the Kolkata Knight Riders won games against Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers though they lost against Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Yesterday's loss places them behind with three losses and two victories. But, this was better than what they could do in the last three editions of the IPL.

All would have thought the score of 171 and a target of one run in excess of that would be sufficient to prove the absence of Ganguly as a forgettable one. But, let alone winning the game, even the loss can never be digested by the Kolkata fans whatsoever. I have mentioned many times on the blog that a total less than 180 in a T20 game is just ordinary. But, a little bit of concession can be given to the total of 171 not only for the reason that it is just 9 runs less than the projected total but since that total does not fall behind when it comes to winning matches.

There have been less instances when a team loses piling up a total of 171 and few cases falling otherwise. The batsmen of the Kolkata team never showed any signs of compromise when three out of the top four batsmen scored in excess of 40 runs. However, despite scoring 40 runs, Kallis needs some refinement and someone needs to tell him that he is playing a T20 game and not a one day international. A 40 runs from 42 balls is not acceptable in a T20 game. Pain was evident from the RCB bowlers when 7 of them came in to bowl or rather stop Yousuf Pathan.

But, nothing much could have been done with a batsman of the caliber of Chris Gayle when all the fielders were supposed to do was to collect the ball from the ball boys whenever Gayle hit a boundary and ask the spectators to throw the ball whenever he hit the ball for six. Perhaps! had the audience been payed for doing a ball boy job, they could have gone home with a few pennies in their pocket that could have covered their popcorn costs. As a revenge, even the Kolkata bowlers were made to change the bowler 7 times. Putting it simple, the KKR were Gayled!

A new captain makes a difference

2011-04-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well for the past three editions of the Indian Premier League, the Kings XI Punjab team was captained by Yuvraj Singh which was never re-considered for any reasons despite them failing miserably in the last two editions. The loss need not be attributed to the only fact that Yuvraj Singh was the captain but, if the fate of the Pune Warriors is considered, then too a similar sort of attitude becomes clear. In the game against the Mumbai Indians, we had written regarding lack of captaining skills of Yuvraj Singh when he handed the ball to Murali Karthik and Parnell when Rohith Sharma would have done a better job.

However, in this edition, the team is captained by a a player who himself has proved to be a successful captain in the recently concluded world cup when he took his team to the finals of the mega event. This time, in the IPL, the Kings XI Punjab have registered two comprehensive wins which at present stand apart from the rest. The Kings XI team have chased down successfully 188 against Chennai Super Kings and recorded a score of 195 yesterday against Rajasthan Royals at Mohali. The feats have come against teams which have a history of winning the IPL.

In the first innings, if not for the top four, the rest came just to walk out minutes later. The scoreboard at one stage read 175/3 by the end of 16 overs which eventually went on to become 195/7 with the last four overs yielding just 20 runs at the rate of just 5.0 an over. One can sense the lack of scoring by the middle order batsmen which can prove crucial in matches yet to come when the top order fails unlike what happened yesterday. Needless to be said, both team lost 7 wickets and the Rajasthan Royals stood frozen at 147.

As it has always been the case in the IPL this year, the losing team brings in 7 bowlers to bowl and the Rajasthan Royals' captain-Shane Warne was no different yesterday. But, if at all his experimenting is to be considered, then one has to look at the scorecard to fins Shane Warne allowing four bowlers to complete their quota and the remaining four overs were divided between 3 bowlers. Was Shane Warne making full use of his bowlers or was he forced to give at least one over to those bowlers? It was nice see Warne getting belted for a 50.

Shivering Mumbai

2011-04-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well, if anybody thinks twice on having their bet on new teams, one has to think no further because this is IPL and not some international cricket tournament. We understand that in international games but for a few, it is always the test laying nations that have an upper hand while the non-test playing nation has to compromise with just the participation. But, this is not the case regarding tournaments like the IPL where the new team if not for making their first appearance is not short of any talent with big names like Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth still making rounds.

Recently, the Delhi Daredevils had a run for their money against the Kochi Tuskers Kerala and yesterday, Mumbai Indians had to wait until the last delivery to be bowled to achieve the so-called granted victory. If the batting of the Pune Warriors was thought to be below par, then either the Mumbai Indians' batting should also come under scrutiny for taking it to the ultimate delivery or else, the bowlers of the Pune Warriors should walk out with all the applause for making the batsmen under Sachin Tendulkar struggle under pressure. Both batting and bowling are vital parts of the game.

One has to think about the way the batsmen from the Pune Warriors went out with them losing their wickets with 5 of their batmen failing to get past the ten run mark and with 4 others making it just above 10 to see to that they don't get into the single digit club whatsoever. Putting it simple, only Robin Uttappa had a game when he scored 45 runs to see the total go past above 100 but still ended with a run rate below 6.0 runs an over. As though that was not enough, the Mumbai Indians also played the same way.

The efforts of the Pune needs applause with their captain Yuvraj bringing in 7 of his bowlers to bowl with three of them finishing their full quota of 4 overs. This worked to a greater extent when though the Mumbai team never lost wickets, they took it to the ultimate delivery of the match to score that winning run needless to be said. Point to be noted was that Murali Karthik and Parnell who gave away runs at the rate of over 7.0 runs an over were given four overs while Shrikant Wagh and Rohith Sharma who were among the wicket-takers were given 3 and 2 overs respectively.

C once again comes before D

2011-04-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

Well if the title of this post seems to confuse you, then I wish you go through the English alphabetical order where the letter 'C' happens to come just before the alphabet 'D'. Well if once again you are confused as to in what way this has got to with the ongoing Indian Premier League,then I take the responsibility by citing yesterday's loss of the Delhi Daredevils (DD) at the hands of the Deccan Chargers (DC) where the Hyderabad team scripted a 16 run win over the Delhi team which can be claimed as Deccan 'C'hargers' victory over Delhi 'D'aredevils.

Whatever, coming to the match, it was not a right call from Sangakkara to win the toss and elect to bat first. THe pitch was a perfect batsman's paradise where even a total in excess of 200 might have been chased with no or little effort. Of course, towards the end of the game, the team batting first ended up victorious but, had the game been between a tougher and a better opposition like the Royal Challengers or the Rajasthan Royals, the result might have been exactly opposite. In this year's IPL, the Delhi team are found lacking in confidence and approach as well.

Despite their lacklusture performance this time, the Delhi team came close to reaching the target when they fell short by just 16 runs. Had 168 been chased in a tougher pitch, then coming close and that too crossing the 150 run mark by a team like the Delhi Daredevils would have just been an illusion. On the whole, the entire match was a crap with the Deccan Chargers piling up just 168 runs on the board with the pitch aiding a 200+ total and then with the second team falling short to chase the small total and losing the plot yet again.

Deccan Chargers couldn't get all the ten batsmen out from the Delhi side which speaks of their inefficiency. Likewise, neither did the Delhi bowlers get all ten wickets of Hyderabad team. But, this should not matter with the Delhi team losing the entire match let alone getting their opposition all out. If not for David Warner, no other batsman showed any sort of resistance to the Hyderabad bowling. At last, the man of the match being awarded to Sohal should come under scrutiny with Harmeet Singh playing a pivotal role with the ball scalping 2/27 on a batting pitch when Sohal's innings was not a highlight.

Has Chennai taken over Kolkata

2011-04-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

Well in this edition of the tournament, the Chennai Super Kings are showing a down to earth performance with them losing the plot in the matches they played. They had a lucky run against the Kolkata Knight Riders where they secured a 2 run victory over the trouble torn team lacking in confidence but are seem to be coming up in this edition. That was followed by a win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and a loss to Kings XI Punjab. The Chennai Super Kings could not defend a total of 188 against the Punjab team. This time it was Kochi who tamed Chennai.

Though the match was trimmed to just 17 overs, a total of 131 by the Chennai Super Kings was below par compared to what was expected off them. The run-rate of the Chennai Super Kings happened to be just over 7.0 runs an over when something less than 9 runs an over is just unacceptable. But, this should have been a winning total keeping in mind the winning record of the Chennai Super Kings in the three editions they have played so far. At the end of the day, the Chennai Super Kings had another loss to their kitty which was a mess.

On the other hand, the Kochi Tuskers Kerala maintained a run-rate of exactly 9.0 runs an over aided by a series of double figure scores starting from 47 by Brendon McCullum and ending with Ravindra Jadeja remaining unbeaten on 16 from six balls with two sixes. As a rarity, the team work of both Chennai and Kochi stands undisputed for, regarding both the teams out there, it was not a one man show like it happens in most games. There was only one lucky player in Suresh Raina who scored a half century. But, as a suggestion, it would have been wise for Chennai to go for big ones.

As it goes in a T20 game, if the match is viewed from the number of sixes scored perspective, then still the Chennai Super Kings lose it all with their batsmen being able to make it only on three occasions. Instead, the Kochi Tuskers had more than twice of what the Chennai team could manage when they had 7 hits out of the ground. But, needless to be said, it is the target which needs to be defended or chased that would a decide who the winner of the match is. Towards the end of the post, one thing that needs to be asked after Chennai's 2^nd loss is whether Chennai have taken over from Kolkata?

So, Delhi are there in the race!

2011-04-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well it would have been a mismatch had the Delhi team lost out this time with them being the highlights of the tournament in the past three editions of the Indian Premier League. The Delhi Daredevils made it to the semi-finals of the tournament in the first two editions of the tournament and unluckily lost the plot in the semi-finals to Hyderabad in 2009. This time, the Delhi team was as though they would be the first to finish off the tournament and head back home with Virender Sehwag cursing over his misfortune. But, it looks like they are back in the game after yesterday's win over Pune.

The Delhi Daredevils scripted a miraculous turnaround with them chasing down the highest total of the tournament so far surpassing the Kings XI Punjab's victory over Chennai Super Kings where they successfully chased down 188 runs on the board at Mohali. That was the first wonder of the tournament which was done by a team which has always been in the news for all the wrong reasons. And, after that feat, the Delhi Daredevils have done this yesterday at Mumbai. It was not a one man show from the Delhi Daredevils team with all the 9 batsmen contributing to the success of the team.

Of course, keeping in mind the total of the Pune Warriors, a score of 187 was a tough one to chase and the reason for that was the charging done by Yuvraj Singh and Jesse Ryder and Yuvraj Singh who played a captain's knock. Though this was not sufficient to achieve a victory, that was more than sufficient to give the Pune Warriors' captain- Yuvraj Singh the man of the match award. There was also Jesse Ryder who scored 60 runs at the rate of 222.0 for every hundred balls he faced off just 27 balls with 5 sixes and an equal number of boundaries.

But, the Pune Warriors lacked the team work that was present in the Delhi Daredevils team with at least 7 out of the nine batsmen making it count for their team. The highest individual score for the Delhi Daredevils was 46 scored by David Warner followed by Virender Sehwag's 37. But, neither David Warner nor Shahbaz Nadeem (for his bowling) was awarded the man of the match. If number of sixes scored should be considered, then the Pune Warriors win with them having 11 hits out of the ground compared to the 9 hit by the Pune Warriors. In the end, the Delhi team can be bet upon.

Royal Challengers still need to learn

2011-04-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

Well one need not curse the Royal Challengers' loss to the Chennai Super Kings with the result already being well known by all followers of the tournament. This should not mean that the Royal Challengers are short of talent when it comes to facing strong teams but, the problem lies in the team that they have chosen with Chris Gayle missing out on the occasion. Looking at the scorecard, it is quite evident that as a team, the Royal Challengers lack a lot in them. They had no good partnerships with the big one being 42 run partnership between Mayank and Kohli.

God known why someone like Mayank Agarwal is still there at the top opening the innings for the Royal Challengers with his score yesterday reading 7 runs from 13 balls with a lucky hit to the fence. One has to wonder what was the lad doing with already two batsmen departing from the crease? This time as well, like last time, the top scores and notable ones include 65 runs from A B deVilliars and 35 from Virat Kohli. This contributed for 100 runs out of 62 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Similarly, for the CSKs, Mike Hussey scored 83 runs out of 183.

A total of 183 can hardly be chased down by any team let alone the Royal Challengers Bangalore. One can look out for the fondness of the number 7 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore with three of their batsmen scoring 14 and one getting out on 7. Luckily, the Royal Challengers Bangalore didn't lose all their ten wickets and cross the 150 run mark despite such a lack of team work from their batsmen. The bowlers too reflected the batsmen with the ball being handed over to Virat Kohli who can get hit for a six the way he can hit one.

The highlight of the game was the 83 runs scored by Mike Hussey without which, the Chennai Super Kings could not even think of a respectable total let alone winning the game. One might not consider this as a remarkable innings with a century already being scored in this tournament by Paul Valthaty. As a supporting role, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina and Dhoin played a significant innings with all of them scoring in heir twenties. The highlight of the Chennai Super Kings was that Anirudh was put down the order after a series of mishaps. But, the Bangalore team needs a lot to work out.

Kolkata on the top

2011-04-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

Well, for all those people who would have had a lot of hesitation in having their bet on Kolkata Knight Riders, this is the answer for their lack of risk taking abilities. Of course, hardly anyone can risk on a team which has been at the bottom of the points table of the last three editions of the Indian Premier League. If not for their loss to the defending champions in the first game, there has been no stopping for the Kolkata Knight Riders whatsoever. There too the Kolkata Knight Riders lost the plot by just 2 runs which can be forgiven.

This time, rather than a victory for the Kolkata Knight Riders, one thing that definitely needs a pat on the back is that they showed no signs of panic neither this was a close encounter which could have gone anybody's way. The entire team work of the Rajasthan Royals was shattered by Kallis and Gambhir duo. One has to take into account the team work of the Rajasthan Royals with Rahul Dravid and co put together a decent score of 159 on he board which was eventually not enough. If not for their wicket keeper, the rest did well for the Rajasthan Royals.

The Rajasthan innings was not dominated by a single batsman unlike the Royal Challengers' innings the day before with onlt Virat Kohli scoring for the RCBs. I wonder whether anybody will ever forget and forgive the Kolkata Knight Riders' bowlers for bowling 19 extras that included 12 wide deliveries which took the score of the Rajasthan Royals to 159. On the other hand, the Rajasthan Royals bowled just 3 wides but could not avoid defeat. Had the result been known earlier, may be then Gambhir might not have bought in 7 of his team mates to bowl at Jaipur stadium.

Highlight being that Yousuf pathan bowled just 1 over despite grabbing 2 wicket at 4.0 runs an over. His was the most economical over not only in the Kolkata Knight Riders' bowling innings but also in the entire match. But, with Gambhir no giving him another over speaks of his inefficiency.However, had he given few more overs to Yousuf Pathan, may be the man of the match might have been awarded to Yousuf Pathan rather than Gambhir which shows his intelligence as captain. But, with Kolkata Knight Riders cruising to a win without or with little effort, the fans can look out for some juice from the cane.

175 is too big a target

2011-04-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well he moment a score of 175 is put up on the board, 99% of the time, it should be understood that the team wins and the case was no different yesterday in the match between the Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Very rarely do we come across games where 175 gets chased down like it happened the other day between Chennai and Punjab, with the Kings XI Punjab team grabbing it all in style. However, unlike Delhi, Deccan Chargers should be appreciated for not making a blunder at home soil losing both games in the very first week of their play.

Starting with the Deccan Chargers' innings where the players who took to the crease made double digit figures and with some Barat Chipili scoring the only half century of the Deccan Chargers' innings when he scored an unbeaten 61 off ~~just~~ 35 balls, a respectable target for the Royal Challengers Bangalore was always on the cards. This is how a team has to go on with all or at least most of their batsmen making it big or at least not small. This can happen very rarely with the very next innings of the Royal Challengers Bangalore being a best example for a lack of the same.

The only notable scores regarding the Royal Challengers Bangalore was an ~~unbeaten~~ 71 runs from the blades of Virat Kohli followed by a quarter century (in case that can be called so) Cheteshwar Poojara and last but not the least we have the opener Mayank Agarwal who scored 16 runs no matter how much balls he took to do the same. However, Royal Challengers Bangalore supporters have a reason to smile as the highest individual scorer of the match happened to be Virat Kohli with his 71 being 10 runs greater than what Chilipi could manage. Had there been an award for the highest run scorer in a match then Kohli would have had a run.

The scorecard suggests a perfect 5 from the Deccan Chargers with all five bowlers from the side bowling their full quota of 4 overs each. One need not confuse this to be because of the huge total that they put up. Instead, the Deccan Chargers never had depth of any sort in their bowling department which forced them to go in for just 5 bowlers as mentioned. Howevrer, a bowlerless Deccan Chargers' team had a rare gem in their crown with Dale Steyn being the pick of the bowlers with both teams put together. But, the tenth wicket of the Bangalore team never fell highlighting that the Hyderabad team has to keep an eye on their bowling.

A perfect T20 game

2011-04-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

Well, when all of us were cursing regarding the tournament being as dull as it can get with the very first encounter being a close encounter with Chennai Super Kings drawing it towards them by just two runs, here was a treat for all those action crazy fans who could see a score of 188 being chased. The run rate was well above the landmark of 9.0 an over. I just can't remember when last was a mammoth score chased down in a T20 game-be it in the IPL or international cricket. But, speaking latest, the Kings XI Punjab have done it.

And, with a team like the Kings XI Punjab doing it against a defending champions-Chennai Super Kings should add another boost to the Kings XI cap who are now without their flop captain-Yuvraj Singh. The team is now headed by the player who took his team to victory in the 2009 edition at South Africa. The player is none other than Adam Gilchrist who was also awarded the man of the match and was instrumental in bringing his team from number 7 position to position 1 in that year's IPL. Yesterday, it was no Gilchrist who did the show with his bat.

Instead, the batsman could manage only 19 runs which should not matter when there was some Paul Valthaty who scored the tournament's maiden century when he ended his individual score at 120 off 63 balls. If I have to use the word "fastest" of a "quickfire" innings, that would suit only for the one day format and not regarding the T20 format. There have been repeated scores of 100 runs off 40 and 50 balls in one edition itself. If at all some bad performances are to be spoken about, then we have Anirudh from the Chennai Super Kings and Abhishek Nayar from Punjab both who got out without scoring.

Both teams lost just four wickets and, if team work needs to be spoken about, then one has to give full marks to the Chennai Super Kings with three of the four batsmen scoring decent scores compared to only one from the Kings XI Punjab. If not for Paul Valthaty, no other batsman really stood upto the challenge.The remaining scores read 20, 21, 12 and 19 from Sunny Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh respectively. Vaklthaty's score accounted upto 60% of the total of Punjab's score of 193. The highlight of the match was that a six was scored off the winning ball from Dinesh Karthik.

Way to go Delhi

2011-04-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

This time despite only with two games up for the Delhi Daredevils, they are now seem to be lacking luster with two defeats from the two games they have played so far. In their very first encounter with the Mumbai Indians, despite being the home team, the Delhi Daredevils lost all their wickets for just 95 runs on the board which was not something expected from a team that has made it to the semi-finals of the tournament on the previous two occasions. Agreed that the then Delhi team with Sehwag, Gambhir, Jayawardane and AB deVilliars was a totally different team.

Now, it looks like the change in the team has bought a total change in their body language itself with only one or two players having their presence felt. Last time against the Mumbai Indians, the top scorers were Sehwag and some Naman Ojha for scoring a score in excess of 20. If that was a starting trouble that can be thought of, this time the Delhi Daredevils couldn't defend a total in excess of 150. A total of 150, though not sufficient, wasn't not even that bad that it should be chased down so easily. But, the scorecard speaks otherwise.

One can see the lack of pressure on the bowlers of the Rajasthan Royal's side with only five bowlers taking the red cherry in their hands, and not opting for a fifth bowler. There wass also an over maiden by a Rajasthan bowler when Amit Singh was the lucky guy who did the wonder in a T20 game. It was a paradox to see the most experienced bowler (after Shane Warne) get belted for 40 runs at a rate of 10.0 runs an over. Coming to the Daredevils' innings, only two batsmen got to decent scores with Warner and Venugopal Rao doing the scoring.

The case was exactly opposite regarding the Rajasthan Royals with all batsmen doing the job except their opener Amit Paunikar who got out scoring 1 run. Else, a series of double digit scores eventually leading to the target of 152 with 6 wickets in hand. Despite being the underdogs in the match, the Delhi Daredvils team stuck to the stupid strategy of four bowlers, by not trying out anything new. Of course, what better can Sehwag do with their strike bowler-Irfan Pathan getting belted like never before? whatever be the case, Shane Warne's commitment even in his early 40s needs a pat on the back.

Kolkata have their day

2011-04-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well I just cannot recall whether the Kolkata Knight Riders team had a win in their second encounter no matter against which team they played. Oh! Yes, I just recall the way Brendon McCullum thrashed the Royal Challengers Bangalore by scoring an unbeaten 158 in the very first encounter of the maiden venture exactly four years back. But, the end result of the tournament was that the Kolkata Knight Riders didn't even make it to the semi-finals of the tournament. Of course, neither did the Royal Challengers Bangalore. With that being past, yesterday, for a change Kolkata won the match.

The scorecard reveals a complete team work by the Kolkata Knight Riders' batsmen namely Jacques Kallis, Manvinder Bisla, Manoj Tiway and Gautam Gambhir all of whom scored double digit scores. However, the total of 163 was a little bit below the mark when as I have quoted in my earlier posts that a run ate of anything less than 9.0 runs an over is just below average. But, all that mattered was the fact that towards the end of the game, the Kolkata Knight Riders team were victorious by 9 runs which should be a good sign, given their records in the previous three editions.

The players from Kolkata Knight Riders could have played much better cricket with still to come batsmen like Ryan ten Doeschate, Eoin Morgan and Iqbal Abdulla who could have well seen the score past that ideal figure. Instead, the Kolkata Knight Riders stayed with four batsmen which just gave them a whisker and nothing else. One has to highlight the presence of a player from a lesser known cricketing nation with Ryan ten Doeschate hailing from Holland and still attracting a franchisee. There are so many players from decent countries like Australia who have failed to get their names bid.

And, if a player from Holland has been able to do so, that should be rejoiced for a team is coming up in its own terms. Glenn McGrath was forced to opt out from last year's IPL when the player lost hopes in the Delhi team management too see him bowl yorkers and line & length deliveries which forms a different story. In yesterday's match, however it was boring to read a few names which were never heard before like Ishank Jaggi, Barat Chipli, Dwaraka Ravi Teja etc to name a few. Howevrer, Steyn Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma have been decent bowlers if not a team with decent batsmen.

This is just the beginning

2011-04-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

As the rules of the game of cricket go, there has to be one winner and the other team has to end up on the losing side no matter what. This saying is not for matches that result in a tie or those games which get abandoned by no matter what once again. Most of you might not even accept the encounter between the Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils yesterday at Delhi when the Delhi team got out for just 95 runs. Should one forgive Virender Sehwag for starting the inning so brightly that even the best batsman on earth would have got scared.

One would have thought Sehwag to hit a double century rather than the entire team not even getting to the one hundred mark. A score of 95 by a team captained by a dashing opener like Sehwag and with members like David Warner and Irfan Pathan should have atleast scored runs at a rate f 6.0 runs an over. One has to wonder about the team which speaks of no other hard hitting batsman if not for their captain. There was some Venugopal Rao who makes his appearance flt only once in a year and that would be the IPL in case that happens.

Despite the fact that the entire Delhi team got bundled out for a mere total of just 95 on board, one has to no doubt appreciate the fact that the Delhi Daredevils had hit more sixes compared to the Mumbai Indians. The Delhi Daredevils' innings saw two hits out of the ground, with one of them being from the bat of Virender Sehwag and the other one being from some Naman Ojha, the profile of whom can be viewed on cricinfo if interested. On the other hand, the Mumbai Indins had just one six from Sachin Tendulkar who fell short of a half century by 4 runs.

Though not necessary, all the batsmen from the Mumbai Indians had their strike rates below hundred which can be taken the way you wish. Would it be right to suggest that the pitch was tough for batsmen? I don't think so, keeping in mind the was the Mumbai Indians played without losing their cool. Of course, who doesn't keep his cool chasing down just 96 on board? One has to appreciate the series of 0s and 8s in the Delhi Daredevils' innings with five batsmen getting out for naught and two of them scoring 8 runs. But, there is a long way to for both teams.

Absence of Gilchrist felt greatly

2011-04-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

Well this year's IPL has seen a lot of changes with the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya missing out from the tournament and lots of players like Adam Gilchrist, Gautam Gambhir shifting from their original teams. The list also includes Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. However, in the second game of the tournament itself, the Deccan Changers have lost to the Rajasthan Royals with the Deccan Chargers team now being captained by Kumara Sangakkara. However, Kumara Sangakkara is also a decent captain but not a better batsman compared to Adam Gilchrist. The hard hitting Australian wicket keeper is second to none.

One has to decide the fortune of the team which has its captain out for a duck. Despite eight batsmen making it to the crease, the team total towards the end of the first innings of the Deccan Changers read 137 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. In my last post I had cited that a run rate below 9 an over is as good as a below par total equivalent to a total of just over 200 in a one day match. A minimum run rate in a T20 game needs to be 180 at 9 runs an over.

Had Adam Gilchrist been there, then may be the total would have touched that figure. I used the word "may be" because, Adam Gilchrist has last played cricket somewhere one year down the lane in last year's IPL where his performance was also below par. In the edition before that, at South Africa, Adam Gilchrist was awarded the man of the series award for his splendid performance both the the bat and behind the stumps. Added to that was the fact that he guided his team to victory beating Anil Kumble led Royal Challengers Bangalore. But, as time goes by, body fades.

Someone like Mathew Hayden, Glenn McGrath and others have been opted out for the same reasons we guess. Despite being the highest run-getter in the 2009 edition, Hayden was hardly preferred in the playing XI a year later. But, that was not the case with the Rajasthan Royals with someone like Ross Taylor and Johan Botha around. They did most of the scoring for the Jaipur team with Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Warne and Amit Singh doing the damage with the ball. One has to see the way Shane Warne has made his presence felt despite his age deafening.So, lets look at other games as well.

Kolkata too fast to prove

2011-04-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

Well just some 24 hours back I had written about Kolkata Knight Riders' chance in this year's Indian Premier League as they along with the Kings XI Punjab are the only team to make their presence felt in the tournament. But, in the very first encounter with the Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders lost to the defending champions by 2 runs. Well, the match need not be pardoned saying the small margin of victory for the CSKs will not last for long in people's minds. This is neither test nor one day cricket for the margin to be considered to be that small.

The scorecard reveals the team work by the Chennai Super Kings where all batsmen who took to the crease did his little bit to the score eventually ending at 153. This was too less compared to the standards of a T20 game. A total below 180 in a T20 game is as good as some 250 total in a one day game which in today's cricket stands nowhere. A run rate of 9.0 an over seems to be ideal in a T20 game no matter what. The total set up by the Chennai Super Kings against Kolkata Knight Riders stood nowhere for a team with Gambhir to chase.

One has to reason out for Gambhir coming in at number 6 when his usual position being number 1 or 2 in the batting line up. I just went sick seeing Jacques Kallis batting the same way as he plays in test cricket or a one day international. A slow and steady innings in a T20 game is the last thing that would be preferred. No matter that he got to the second half century of the match after some Anirudh scored a match winning 64. Of course, the blame is not completely on Kallis alone but on the entire Kolkata team.

Only 4 batsmen took to the crease from the Chennai Super Kings side with batsmen like Badrinath and Ashwin not making to make it to the crease. And, Morne Morkel and Scott Styris couldn't stay there for long playing just 11 balls in between them. This has been the pity of a T20 game with most of the time taken to concentrate and settle down. This time also, most of the time and overs were taken by Anirudh, Raina and Dhoni making it a perfectly Indian combo. But, Kolkata Knight Riders' efforts needs to be praised for coming so close to the game when otherwise they were way behind.

If Kolkata can do it this time..

2011-04-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

One has to just decide whether the all-time underdogs namely the Kolkata Knight Riders can do wonders with the game in this year's Indian Premier League. One thing that is tough for most of you guys to digest would be the fact that Sourav Ganguly will be out of the Kolkata team which he has captained till date. Let alone captaining the Kolkata side, Sourav Ganguly is doubtful to even make it to the side for, rumors have it that Ganguly will be playing for the newly added team-the Pune Warriors in case everything goes as per plan. Or else no.

However, despite his presence in the Kolkata team, his contribution to the side has been much below mark both with the bat as well as with the ball. Of course, Ganguly is not known to do much with the ball but, he has absolutely no ecuses when it comes to the willow in his left hand. But, someone like Rahul Dravid has shown to be a bigger hitter of the ball compared to Ganguly despite the T20 format of the game not belonging to Dravid. This clearly shows that Ganguly will hardly be missed by the players in the Kolkata team.

But, the other side of the coin suggests that the fans of West Bengal and especially Kolkata can never imagine their favorite team without the presence of Ganguly. It wouldn't matter if KKR loses the game or even ends up at the bottom of the points table. But, a win without the presence of Sovrav Ganguly is worse than a crushing defeat for the fans. Though not tough enough with the bat or the ball, as a captain, Sourav Ganguly definitely has his presence felt no matter what. I can recall the 2009 edition when Brendon McCullum was made the captain of the Kolkata side.

Kolkata could not even reach the semi-finals of that tournament. Despite the presence of Ganguly, Kolkata couldn't reach the semis till now, but as a captain, full votes to Sourav Ganguly and absolute zero to Brendon McCullum. However, if there is no Ganguly, there is Gautam Gambhir who was taken for a record price of $9 crore. Now, the contenders who would like to complete the set include Kolkata Knight Riders on the top of the list followed by Kings XI Punjab. The remaining teams viz Bangalore,Hyderabad,Rajasthan,Chennai and Delhi have shown decent performance of not extraordinary ones. Only Chennai and Bangalore have been extraordinary.

Why should Oram be a replacement?

2011-04-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Well recent news has its say that the England all-rounder Paul Collingwood has been replaced by the New Zealand hard hitting batsman cum bowler Jacob Oram. One has to decide as to what on earth makes anybody go in for a replacement for Paul Collingwood who is not that gifted with hard hitting abilities. No matter that Paul Collingwood has had a lot of contribution to English side especially in the Ashes. Jacob Oram himself is a star player and having him replace someone else should not go down as a decent move whatsoever. In my sence, Oram is better than Collingwood.

I can remember Jacob Oram belting the Aussie bowlers in the Commonwealth Bank series 2006/07 when he scored an unbeaten 101 off just 71 balls chasing a mammoth total of 344 and falling short of the total by 8 runs when they finished at 335 on board. If the teams they played for are given a closer look at, then Jacob Oram comes from New Zealand which is a better outfit compared to England. Jacob Oram was instrumental in the victory over the Proteas in the quarter-finals of the 2011 world cup concluded last week. Justifying Oram makes no sense when things are so evident.

If at all Paul Collingwood is to be given a preference, then it would be in his fielding when videos suggest the spectacular catches he has taken. I can recall the catch of Mathew Hayden taken by Paul Collingwood in the Natwest trophy 2006 which was similar to the one taken against West Indies in the 2007 world cup in the super eights. That catch was one among the five best dismissals of that year collected by ESPN. In the year next to that as well, Collingwood's spectacular catch in the slips against Pakistan was recorded as the fourth best dismissal of that year.

With players recently auctioned, one has to nothing but wait to see who would be taking sides in the Rajasthan Royals' side. Of course, the team will be captained by Shane Warne. If the squad is considered, the big hitters include Ross Taylor, Shaun Tait, Rahul Dravid, Johan Botha and Swapnil Asnbodkar. Having someone like Jacob Oram is a must with Rahul Dravid, and Asnodkar not being upto the mark in a T20 tournament. Of course, Shane Watson can fill in the blocks in case he is available after the series against Bangladesh gets over. That would be a day after the 1^st IPL match would have got over.

Vettori has a point to prove

2011-04-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Well though Daniel Vettori couldn't take his team farther than what his predecessors could do, may be he can think of something as a captain of the Royal Challengers team in the forth coming Indian Premier League. Daniel Vettori has been named as the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Last time, it was Anil Kumble who not only took his team to the finals of the tournament in 2009 but also did it in style when initially under the captaincy of Kevin Pietersen emerged as the second team from the bottom of the table. From there onwards, RCB emerged as runners-up losing to Deccan Chargers.

En-route to that, the Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Chennai Super Kings equipped with the highest run-getter of the tournament-Mathew Hayden in the semi-finals of the same. In 2010, though the Royal Challengers team failed to reach the finals losing to the same old rivals-the Chennai Super Kings, they beat the Deccan Chargers in the one off game to make way into the Champions League T20 tournament. There too, Anil Kumble held the crown for taking his team to the finals. This time, there is no Anil Kumble and someone no doubt has to take his place and there can be no other player but Vettori who can do it.

If other players in the team are given a close look at, there is Chris Gayle, who can only be considered to captain the West Indies which is filled with individual talents and not as a team. Then we have the Sri Lankan hard hitting batsman Tilekaratne Dilshan who can be given a consideration considering his batting capabilities and with the fact that he has captained the Kings XI Punjab team earlier. But, Vettori scores over the Sri Lankan in my point of view. Then we have Mohammed Kaif who is seen playing cricket once in a year in the IPL alone.

Making him a captain could be dangerous. If A B deVilliars is made the captain, another Greame Smith can be expected and a disastrous Royal Challengers team could be anticipated like what happened to South Africa in the recently concluded world cup in the sub-continent where South Africa failed to chase down 172 against England. There is not other player about whom anything regarding his captaincy can be mentioned here in this post. The list includes Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthik, Sreenath Arvind etc. If any of these players be made the captain, it would be better top drop the RCBs from contesting in the tournament.

IPL 2011 saved!

2011-04-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

Well just imagine what would have happened in case there was an IPL in 2007 just after the world cup where India along with arch-rivals Pakistan gave a grand exit in the first round of the tournament itself after losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka? The franchisees would have been cursing themselves for bidding their hard earned and well thought money on such useless claims. Millions of dollars would have gone down the rains with not even a single paisa being able to recovered. With team India being favorites only on ad shows, viewers' ire would have reached its peak.

This time as well, had there been a super six stage, then India were supposed to win all three games against Pakistan, Australia and Sri Lanka in order to reach the semi-finals of the world cup. Coincidentally, India did win against all the three teams mentioned above in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the finals. Luckily, India were the only team from group B to have crossed the quarter-finals stage beating Australia. This time, had India been exit from the world cup, then one need not cite specially what would have happened. May be the entire idea to have an IPL would have been dropped.

Of course, India did win the 2007 T20 world cup at South Africa. But, that was followed by a series of crashes after India failed twice in 2009 and 2010 to win even a single game in the super eights of the world cups. But, by then, the IPL had already been over. Added to that, the Indian team mates were also found partying late night that time after losing their last and final match against Sri Lanka. This would have added fuel to the fire no doubt. Now that India have won the world cup, things will go on as smooth as ever.

The IPL this time will be another big hit not only for players who would be seen making another debut but also for the fact that the world cup matches will be repeatedly replayed by the Indian cricket fans with an eye on the IPL. This time, there have been two more teams added with Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala making their debut. But, I wish the franchises have taken a risk with the world cup memories still afresh in people's minds. If everything is good then fine. But, things need to be viewed in other angles as well.