Chris Gayle unparalleled in IPL 2011

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?

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.

IT all depends on Gayle

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.

When Chris Gayle failed..

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

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

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.

Too much for Kochi

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.

Dhoni does a Sehwag

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.

When the entire team stands up

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.

A mis-match at Eden Gardens

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.

Chennai flawless..Rajasthan clueless

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.

Just Yuvraj Singh for Pune

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.

A mixture of batting and bowling

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.

Has Chennai taken over Kolkata

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?

Royal Challengers still need to learn

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.

A perfect T20 game

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.

Kolkata too fast to prove

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.

No total is big for Hayden

It was just a matter of time before the orange cap holder in the previous edition of the IPL - Mathew Hayden returned back to his old ways of devastating the bowlers from the opposition especially with his newly acquired mongoose bat. One has to really feel sad for Mathew Hayden for not being able to get a hundred despite having gone until the 90s. At the same time, Hayden also deserves a lot of appreciation for not wasting deliveries in a selfish attempt to get into his hundred by forgetting the remaining ten who'd be at the receiving end of the opposition.

The return of Hayden would be an added advantage to not only the Chennai Superkings but also to the entire IPL that includes millions of spectators - some watching it live on television, some watching the highlights and the remaining coming to the stadium and making their day there. Moreover, it was not against some weak opposition that Hayden kick started his IPL campaign of this year's edition. It was against the Delhi Daredevils who were unlucky to miss the plot in the previous edition at South Africa. It was against a team that had posted a mammoth total of 185 runs on the board.

Had it not been for Hayden, may be the Chennai Superkings would have had yet another loss in this tournament. If one can take trouble to go through the scorecard of the match, if not for Hayden and Raina, no other batsmen really stood upto the Delhi Daredevils' challenge. Not much could be expected from the opener Parthiv Patel who had to return after scoring 6 runs. This was in a way an improved performance form Parthiv Patel considering his scores less than 6 in earlier games he played. Though Vijay's innings suggests that he would have done a fab job after scoring a 6 ball 14, nothing can be guaranteed in the long run.

If the bowling of the CSKs are considered, Suresh Raina's inexperience as a captain could well be felt with the fact that someone like Joginder Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin were given the ball to bowl their entire quota of 4 overs despite going in for over 10 runs an over. On the other hand, experienced bowlers like Laxmipathy Balaji and Albie Morkel were made to bowl just 3 overs which saw them giving runs at the rate of 7 an over and 8 an over respectively. The Delhi Daredevils did a fab job with the entire team contributing to their total of 185. But, had it not been for Hayden, the CSK's fate would have been different.

A World T20 Final Like Situation

Well one can imagine the teams that made it to the finals of the inaugural T20 world cup that was held in South Africa a couple of years back. The teams who made it there were India and Pakistan, the same two teams who were eliminated from the earlier world cup the same year in the Caribbean earlier that year after their losses at the hands of minnows. Pakistan lost the match to Ireland and India on the other hand lost their match to Bangladesh, thus disappointing the fans and the tournament on the whole who were deprived of a major challenge.

However, it was the same two teams out there who made it to the finals of the inaugural T20 world cup. And this time too, in the second edition of the Indian Premier League, the venue is once again South Africa and, the teams who have entered the finals of the IPL 1 namely, the Deccan Chargers and the Royal Challengers Bangalore had finished at the bottom of the points table in the last and the first edition of the Indian Premier League in 2008. Deccan Chargers ended up at the bottom most and they were followed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Anyway, coming to the semi final match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Chennai Super Kings it was a terrible bowling effort from the bowlers of the RCB, for, it was the bowlers who laid the foundation for the victory by restricting the CSKs for a comparitively low total of 146. The CSK at one stage were at 102/2 at the end of the 13th over. Meaning only 44 runs were scored from the remaining 7 overs at a run rate of just above 6 an over. Anil Kumble won the toss and put the CSKs to bat, with the fact weel in his mind that the pitch would suit the batsmen and chasing a decent total on this track would not a challenging.

Unfortunately, the man of the match was handed over to Manish Pandey who just exctracted something out of the pitch. My man of the match would be Vander Merwe or Vinay Kumar, because they did something for which the pitch never gave them any sort of assistance. The CSKs lost just 5 wickets, once again doing the mistake what the KKR did throughout the series. There was Gony, Muralitharan (if his experience is to be taken) and Balaji who could have added 20 more runs to the CSK total had the earlier batsmen gone in for some risks. Had this been done, the run rate required would have been around 8 an over. And the match was all over after the CSK innings. The only question left unanswered was by how many wickets would the RCB emerge victorious?

The RCB indeed need a pat on their back for making it not only to the semis but also to the finals when they were on the cards to be the first team to be out of the tournament until the captaincy was taken care of Kumble. Congrats Anil!!!

Captain's Knock For Losing Cause

It was the captain of the Rajasthan Royals-Shane Warne with a last moment aggression when he scored 21 runs off just 11 deliveries equipped with 1 six and two hits to the fence. But, this was only to cross the 140 run mark and in the process maintain s run rate of just over 7.0 an over. And what more can Shane Warne do when the rest of the team deceive him so badly? The top scorer for the Rajasthan Royals-Greame Smith scored 30 runs but with a strike rate of just 90. And then there were Asnodkar and Ravindra Jadeja who saw to it that their team didn't lose out on their face.

The target never looked to trouble the Chennai Super Kings and neither did the opponents-Rajasthan Royals seem to be a cause of concern for the Chennai team despite losing to them in the finals of the first edition of the Indian Premier League. For the second time in this tournament, the Chennai Super Kings defeated the Rajasthan Royals and this time victory was even more convincing one. I just could not stop watching the orange cap holder- Mathew Hayden swing his bat to loft the ball all over the ground. This was the continuation of the punishing mood where he had left in the last match against Kings XI Punjab.

The spinners from the Rajasthan Royals viz Shane Warne and Yousuf Pathan were found getting some turn. There was a ball from Shane Warne that spun so much that the umpire had no other choice but to term it as a wide ball. This showed that there was much scope for the spinners in the game. But, none of the spinners could make use of the advantage. The Rajasthan Royals' bowlers made no impact on the Chennai batsmen. Mathew Hayden was found repeatedly stepping out of his crease in an attempt to loft the ball. May be that he was not able to connect it everytime. But, what difference does it make when they show no signs of pressure on their faces?

This time there are five contenders for the semis berth viz Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab. Out of these five, the Rajasthan & the Chennai team are found playing good cricket. Despite a respctful class, the Kings XI Punjab jave lost 3 of their last 4 games. And the Deccan Chargers & the Daredevils are found winning only when the day favors them. Or else no.