Sri Lanka crush Australia

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".

Not enough for Delhi

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.

C once again comes before D

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.

So, Delhi are there in the race!

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.

India breakdown into peices against Australia

Anyone who would have watched yesterday's match between India and Australia would have just declared Australia as the winners of the world T20 even before the semi-finals of the tournament is decided. India was the only opposition that had a chance to beat Australia with the West Indies and Sri Lanka being underdogs in the tournament. The moment Australia secured a win against India, all would have just crossed their fingers. India was one of the teams to have won both their league stage games. of course, even Australia have won both their league stage games against Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The only difference between the Indian fielders and the ball boys was that the fielders were inside the boundary while the ball boys were outside it. There were more instances where the ball boys collected the ball and handed it over to the fielders than the fielders themselves stopping. The ball full-tossed itself 13 times in the duration when Shane Watson and David Warner were at the crease. The Aussies had more number of sixes than the number of fours which happens rarely and the case stands even more rare with India being the opposition. Putting it simple, Indian bowlers were tired of trying too many things.

Despite the score being too high, Harbhajan Singh could manage one over maiden which is definitely a feather in his cap. Though Harbhajan Singh went wicketless, he was the pick of the bowlers when he gave away runs at a rate of 3.75 runs an over. It was evident that Australia are poor players of spin bowling when a part time spinner like Yuvraj Singh scalped two wickets though he gave away runs at a rate of 10.00 runs an over. But, the frontline bowlers like Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan were completely failures with the ball who were among the major run donors.

If that was what happened when the Aussies were batting, here comes Indian batting which saw only one face that was Rohith Sharma. One can go through the scorecard to see only Rohith Sharma scoring 79 runs which was the only score more than 20. There were the likes of Murali Vijay, Gambhir, Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh but could only walk back disappointed. Harbhajan Singh was found to score 13 runs which was more than any other batsman barring Rohith Sharma. One has to thank God for the Aussie bowlers finishing the match in 17.4 overs which saved the viewers 10 minutes.

Delhi yet to find a platform

Delhi daredevils are the team who have the hardest hitting batsmen in Virender Sehwag, the batsman who scored the maiden century of the tournament in 2008 in David Warner and the first century scorer in the second edition of the same last year in South Africa. Sad that they are found gasping for a win even against an average team in Deccan Chargers who have to depend upon just one or a couple of their batsmen in case they have to see their team victorious. But, if yesterday's game is considered, the stats look to be reversed for both the Deccan Chargers and the Delhi Daredevils as well.

Out of the 8 batsmen who took to the crease from the Deccan Chargers side, as many as five of them were worth the money what they were paid and also worth the hope their captain showed in them when they were selected in the playing eleven. All the five batsmen who came out scoring double figure scores had their strike rates above hundred. This was one of the rare occasions of the Deccan Chargers' innings not being dominated by Adam Gilchrist alone or by Andrew Symonds alone. Instead, in addition there were players like Herschelle Gibbs and Rohith Sharma as well who contributed.

Much to the surprise of everyone, all these five batsmen under discussion had a six to their credit and moreover, all the sixes hit in the Deccan Chargers' innings came from the bats of these five batsmen only with the share of the remaining batsmen being negligible zero. So has been the story regarding the number of boundaries hit in the Deccan Chargers' innings. And, this has to be obvious when no other batsman from the Deccan Chargers' side had their individual score go past 3 runs. And if the bowling of the same is considered, 4 out of 5 bowlers who could have bowled their full quota of 4 overs were found doing the same.

Only the remaining four overs were divided between R P Singh and Rohith Sharma. On the Delhi Daredevils side, there were just three of them who could do the job as batsmen with Sehwag surprisingly not being listed. Whenever the Delhi Daredevils' batsmen take to the crease, all eyes would be on Virender Sehwag who in the current edition is found to disappoint either as captain or as batsman. 7 of the 11 batsmen from the Delhi Daredevils side returned back to the pavilion scoring single digit scores and one batsman in Moises Henriques was quite intelligent when he didn't fall into that category of batsmen who scored less than 10 runs when he got out scoring 11 runs so that no fingers point towards him.

Yuvraj Singh Does Combo of Sachin & Sehwag!!!

Well last night the way someone like Yuvraj Singh batted was just another instance of a matured cricketer who not only was able to post yet another fastest half century but also claim three important wickets that even the frontline bowlers like Aashish Nehra was not found to do. But, at the end of the day one question that remains unanswered is "Why didn't Dhoni give Yuvraj Singh another over to see him complete his quota of 4 overs?" This once again reminded his fans the way he blasted 6 sixes off one over off Stuart Broad in the inaugural edition of T20 world cup.

However, all these things are not something unknown to even lesser known cricket fans. But, something that can raise the eyebrows of atleast a few cricket fans who want something unique and different, here it is. This was Yuvraj Singh's fifth half century and stands in the third place when it comes to the fastest fifties behind none other than Yuvraj himself. This was Yuvraj Singh's third fastest fifty behind his 12-ball half century against England and a 20-ball fifty against Australia in the next match in the same tournament. Inbetween these two comes the 19-ball half centuries by another Indian Gautam Gambhir and jointly with Australia's David Warner.

Moreover, yesterday was Yuvraj Singh's birthday which he made it even more special with his dual knocks of a 25-ball unbeaten 60 and bowling figures of 3/23 from 3 overs at just above 7 runs an over. This has to remind anyone of Sachin Tendulkar when he blasted his second consecutive hundred when he scored 134 at Sharjah to give Australia their first defeat in that tournament after they had earlier won all matches against India and New Zealand. That was Sachin Tendulkar's 25th birthday which is remembered even today and will be remembered for as long as earth exists.

This was what Yuvraj Singh did on his 28th birthday though he doesn't enjoy the fan following that Sachin enjoys, a note on this is worth mentioning. One thing that Yuvraj Singh would feel glad about is that he could do it in front of his own people at Mohali. And the fastest fifties of Yuvraj Singh mentioned above, reminds us of Virender Sehwag in tests who has had two of the three fastest triple hundreds and recently became the batsman to score the fastest 250 in tests. Virender Sehwag had five of the top ten fastest double hundreds at positions 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9 which Yuvraj partially enjoys when it comes to scoring the fastest fifties in T20 internationals.