Saturday, April 25, 2009

IPL-2:MUMBAI INDIANS VS DECCAN CHARGERS:OJHA’S SPIN MAGIC PROVIDES THE VICTORY FOR DECCAN CHARGERS

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The winner of this match would be the league toppers, and the teams involved looked likely semi-finalists. The stage was thus set for an explosive encounter.
On a hard, dry pitch, Adam Gilchrist won the toss and expectedly elected to bat. Both teams had one change each - Dwayne Smith came in for Scott Styrish for Hyderabad, while Rohan Raje made way for Dhwawal Kulkarni for Mumbai.
Gilchrist and Gibbs started in typical fashion, with boundaries and sixes coming thick and fast. Gilchrist got out after a quickfire 35, but the openers had done their job with a stand of 63 in 6.5 overs.
Dwayne Smith came out at number 3, playing in his first game of the tournament, and started his inning straight away with a four off  Dwayne Bravo and a  six off Jayasuriya. Smith too got out but  Hyderabad were sitting pretty at 124 for 2 in 12.5 overs. That's when things started to change for them though. Mumbai suddenly started bowling with accuracy, and Hyderabad started losing wickets . Gibbs was holding the innings at one end with a fluent half century.He was run-out,when he was called for a second run by Venugopal Rao, who then suddenly decided that a mid-pitch chat was a good idea and stopped halfway down to send Gibbs back.

Earlier, Dwayne Bravo bowled a crucial over when he got Rohit Sharma and VVS Laxman out off consecutive balls. Lasith Malinga then finished off the innings with a double wicket maiden to restrict Hyderabad to 168 for 9, while at one stage they had looked good for a total in excess of 185.
Mumbai's innings didn't get off to the best possible start when Jayasuriya skied a pull off purple cap holder RP Singh, but that brought Sachin Tendulkar together with JP Duminy, which was a treat for cricket fans, because it was the closest they would have got to seeing Tendulkar and Lara bat together - with some of Duminy's strokeplay bearing an uncanny resemblance to the West Indian master.
They didn't disappoint, adding 82 runs in 55 balls, before the dreaded strategy break once again broke the rhythm of a set batsman, with Tendulkar falling to the impressive Ojha.
When Ojha bowled Shikhar Dhawan in his next over, the game was wide open, and it came down to winning the next passage of play for either side to win the game. Deccan proved to have the better of Mumbai, with Mumbai's middle order not able to handle the guile of Ojha and the pace of Fidel Edwards. In the search for runs to keep up with the climbing required rate, wickets fell at regular intervals, and Mumbai could never get a grip on the game.
Eventually they fell short by 12 runs, ending on 156 for 7.
Deccan had well and truly completed the transformation from a bottom rung no-hoper to a top of the line, in form team.
Man of the Match: Pragyan Ojha for a finely controlled spell of spin bowling that saw him fetch returns of 4-0-21-3. He controlled the middle overs, got the vital breakthroughs and denied the opposition run scoring opportunities.
Turning Point of the Match: Pragyan Ojha's over after the strategy break, when Tendulkar and Duminy came out looking like they had lost all the rhythm and fluency they displayed before the break. Ojha conceded only 2 runs and got Tendulkar out. From then, Mumbai was always playing catch-up.

Friday, April 24, 2009

2ND ODI:AUS VS PAK:Symonds Help Australia to level The Series

 

 Andrew Symonds sets off for a single after playing it to fine leg, Pakistan v Australia, 2nd ODI, Dubai, April 24, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Brad Haddin went for just eight, Shane Watson's 30 and 48 from James Hopes had helped Australia build a solid platform, but Pakistan dismissed the pair within the space of three balls to leave the tourists in a more nervous position at 93 for three when Symonds strode to the crease.
He took a while to play himself in, but after the offer of a free hit against Shoaib Malik was smashed for his first four in the 29th over, Symonds began to express himself a little more and hit Saeed Ajmal for six in the next over.
By the time he was bowled by Shahid Afridi for 58 off 62 balls, the damage had been done with Australia well ahead of the run rate and only 25 runs from their target.
Michael Clarke's unbeaten 39 and 10 from Callum Ferguson saw them home.


Earlier, Pakistan had scratched their way to a competitive total mainly thanks to opener Salman Butt and his laborious 57.
Shahid Afridi slammed 41 off just 40 deliveries, but his dismissal while the batting powerplay was in progress left Pakistan's tail exposed in the final overs.
Shoaib Akhtar, however, threw his bat around and landed some lusty blows en route to 25 off just 14 deliveries as Pakistan breached the 200-run mark.
That target looked unlikely at the start when debutant opener Ahmed Shehzad was run out with just five runs on the board.
Shehzad turned a delivery from Nathan Bracken to square leg and set off for a single. Butt at first responded and was almost halfway down the pitch when he turned back even while Shehzad continued with the run.
Clarke swooped on the ball and fired in a return to wicketkeeper Haddin, who whipped off the bails at the striking end. Umpire Billy Bowden adjudged Shehzad as the batsman out.
Butt rebuilt the innings in the company of skipper Younus Khan (28), who looked in fine touch. The two added 53 for the second wicket.
Younus, who survived a run-out attempt on one, was out edging the first ball from Ben Laughlin to Haddin.
Nathan Hauritz then claimed three wickets in quick succession as Pakistan wobbled, ending with figures of three for 41, while debutant Doug Bollinger turned in an economical spell conceding just 26 in his 10 overs.

 

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IPL-2:KINGS XI PUNJAB VS BANGLORE ROYAL CHALLENGERS:A splendid 85 by Bopara helped Punjab to their first victory

Ravi Bopara smashed 84 off 59 balls to help Kings XI Punjab beat Bangalore Royal Challengers by seven wickets in Durban © AFP

The Bangalore captain Pietersen won the toss and elected to bat first. Bangalore made three changes in their team. Ross Taylor, Karan Sharma, Bishnoi came into the team while Dale Steyn was left out. Punjab included the Bengal seamer Ranadeb Bose in their playing eleven.
Ryder got his first runs in the IPL when he hit Ranadeb Bose for a four in his first over. However, Bangalore again lost an early wicket when an out-of-form Uthappa nicked Irfan Pathan to Yuvraj Singh in the second over of the match.

Kallis came in at number three to join Jesse Ryder. In what seemed to be a Ryder's day, the Kiwi sensation was smashing brilliant strokes to prove his critics wrong. Ryder took 18 runs in Bose’s over. Kallis too looked in good touch with runs flowing freely off his bat. However, Ryder, going for a big hit off Abdullah, missed the shot and the ball went on to hit the stumps. In the same over Abdullah took the wicket of Kevin Pietersen with a slower delivery getting the Bangalore captain out for his second duck in a row.

 
Bangalore were once again in a crisis at 48/3 when Dravid walked in. With Kallis attacking and Dravid rotating the strike, Bangalore went into the break at a score of 71/3.
The 'Strategy Break' favoured the Kings XI team when Chawla dismissed the consistent Dravid. 'The Wall' tried to go over the top but he held out to VRV Singh at long-on. Kallis, at the other end, was scoring steadily  for Bangalore. Quick running between the wickets was seen when Taylor joined Kallis. The introduction of VRV Singh into the bowling attack proved to be a costly bet when he was taken for 14 runs off his first over by Kallis and Taylor.

A determined Kallis reached his fifty in the 14th over, while Ross Taylor began to open up and play some attractive strokes. Abdullah got his 3rd wicket when Kallis got out in trying to accelerate the scoring. The experienced South African managed to score 62 runs off 46 balls. His innings included 5 fours and 2 sixers. The expensive VRV Singh finally got his break when he dismissed Kohli in the 18th over.
Three quick wickets went down for Bangalore towards the end. While Ross Taylor got out trying for a shot over midwicket giving Abdullah his fourth wicket, Pathan picked up a couple dismissing Praveen Kumar and Pankaj Singh. At the end of 20 overs, Bangalore managed to reach a respectable score of 168 thanks to the efforts of Kallis, Ryder and Taylor. Yusuf Abdullah was the star bowler for Punjab, picking up 4 wickets.

Chasing a score of 169 runs to win, Punjab began their innings with Bopara and Goel. The duo took the team to a good start scoring at a runrate of 8 per over. Praveen Kumar had to go off the field after he hurt his ankle. Bangalore got their first break-through in the form of a run-out by Vinay Kumar. A sharp piece of fielding by him found Karan Goel short of his crease. Sangakkara was the next man in and he got a lucky break when he was put down by Dravid off Pietersen's bowling. Going into break, Punjab were in a good position having scored 80 runs. Bopara, after taking time to settle in, looked set for a good score.


Post break, Kumble got the wicket of Sangakkara in the 13th over. The Sri Lankan got out to Pankaj Singh at long-off, giving Kumble his first wicket. Meanwhile, Bopara registered his fifty with a six off Praveen Kumar. He took 19 runs in Praveen Kumar’s over. At this stage, Punjab required 41 runs off 4 overs.
Yuvraj Singh got into the groove when Kallis came in to bowl the 17th over. He scored 13 runs of the over, which included 2 fours.

Jesse Ryder was given the ball for the next over. However, he again proved to be an expensive bet with Bopara . Ryder gave away 17 runs as Punjab inched closer to victory. 
After scoring a splendid 85, Bopara got out to Kallis by holding out to a good catch by Ryder at midwicket. Having hit 4 fours and 5 sixers Bopara departed, but the damage was already done.

The Punjab captain, Yuvraj Singh finished it off in style by scoring the 100th six of the IPL. A good batting performance by Punjab, helped by poor bowling  by Bangalore, led to the first victory for the Kings XI team.

 

Interesting facts:
Yusuf Abdullah's four wicket haul was the 14th instance of a player picking up 4 or more wickets in an innings in IPL.
Kevin Pietersen got his second consecutive duck in IPL. He now stands joint second in the list of most ducks in IPL.
Jacques Kallis registered the 2nd fifty of his IPL career and his first in IPL 2009.
This was the highest total to be chased down successfully in IPL 2009 beating Deccan Chargers' 104 against Kolkata earlier.

Man of the match:

Ravi Bopara for his excellent inning of 85 runs.

Match Summary (Kings XI Punjab won by 7 Wickets)

Royal Challenger Bangalore – 168/9 in 20 Overs

J.Kallis- 62 R.Taylor –35

Y.Abdulla – 4-0-31-4 I.Pathan– 4-0-35-3

Kings XI Punjab – 173/3 in 19 Overs

R.Bopara- 84 Y.Singh –30*

A.Kumble– 4-0-19-1 J.Kallis– 4-0-51-1

MASTER BLASTER SACHIN TURNS 36

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Sachin Tendulkar turns 36 today. The master batsman has scaled every summit in the game - except for one. He has not yet been part of a World Cup winning team. But come 2011, the master blaster is all set to change that, when the World Cup is held on the subcontinent.
When asked at a recent function what his dreams were, he laughed off the question saying, "You only dream when you are asleep." But then he added, "I want to win the World Cup for India."
The captain of the Mumbai Indians got a surprise from his team when he found that they had organized a surprise birthday party at the team hotel.

IPL-2:DELHI DAREDEVILS VS CHENNAI SUPERKINGS:AB DE VILLIERS’S TON HELPED TO WIN THE MATCH FOR DELHI

 

 

 


AB De Villiers played the innings of the tournament

The match that was like a battle as the clash of titans, consisting the two tournament favourites against each other.
Virender Sehwag won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first.
Chennai had an unchanged side, while Delhi made one change. Ashish Nehra came in for Yo Mahesh, while there was still no sign of Glenn McGrath - who had the fourth best economy rate in last year's IPL.
Lakshmipathy Balaji gave Chennai a dream start by removing the dangerous Gautam Gambhir off the first ball of the match, when he  shouldered arms to a ball that caught a feather touch on the way to Dhoni. The next over, the second half of the dream opening pair also went, when Sehwag top edged a pull to Albie Morkel at mid-on, and suddenly Delhi's middle order was at the crease. 
Dilshan and AB De Villiers,  were there to face the challenge. Dilshan was dominant initially, free stroking his way to 50 off 24 balls, but he fell immediately after. De Villiers , picked up from where Dilshan left off. He got some support from Dinesh Karthik, and then in a stunning partnership with Manoj Tiwary, he made 65 off the 74 runs they scored. His masterclass ensured that Delhi ended up at an imposing 189 for 5 - the highest total of IPL 2009 so far.
However, when you have a batting lineup that has Hayden, Raina, Dhoni, Flintoff, Albie Morkel and Badrinath, no total can be considered safe, and Chennai came out intending to prove just that. Matthew Hayden - who the Australian selectors must seriously be thinking of calling out of retirement - blazed away to 50 off 22 balls - thereby equaling his own record set in his previous match for the fastest 50 of the tournament.

At the halfway stage or 'strategy break' -  Chennai were very well placed at a 106 for 2, with Raina and Dhoni at the crease. Even though Dhoni fell soon after, Chennai looked on course and when they needed 51 off 35 balls with Albie Morkel and Andrew Flintoff at the crease, they looked like favourites to win.
But some superb bowling at the death by Ashish Nehra, Avishkar Salvi and the ever reliable Daniel Vettori, ensured that Chennai's runs were stopped, which led to suicidal run-outs and manufactured shots that ended up in the hands of fielders.
Eventually Chennai fell 9 runs short, close enough to sound a warning to other teams that no total is beyond their reach.  Delhi the psychological edge and possibly assume the mantle of the front-runner for the tournament.
Man of the Match:
AB De Villiers for playing what has been the innings of the tournament so far. He started normally, picked up the pace towards the middle, and exploded at the end. A perfectly paced and constructed innings, scored under pressure with two of the main batsmen back in the pavilion inside the first 2 overs.
Turning Point of the Match:
Albie Morkel dropping AB De Villiers, when the latter was on 50 off 35 balls. AB went on to score a further 55 runs off just 19 balls.

IPL-2:RAJASTHAN ROYALS VS KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS:YUSUF PATHAN STEALS THE SUPER OVER SHOW TO REGISER THE FIRST WIN FOR RAJASTHAN

 

 

 

The first ever 'Super Over' in the IPL saw Pathan take Rajasthan to victory.

 

The Knight Riders captain Brendon McCullum won the toss and he elected to bowl first. The Newlands pitch had offered assistance to the seamers and spinners in an equal proportion during the earlier games. Kolkata made four changes in their line-up. Sanjay Bangar, Mendis, Agarkar and Anureet Singh were the ones included in the final eleven. Rajasthan also had three changes in their team. They brought in Rob Quiney in place of Tyron Henderson while Swapnil Asnodkar made way for Abhishek Raut. The 25 year old Paul Valthaty was also included in the team.

Jaipur were off to a sloppy start when Valthaty and Rob Quiney got out in quick succession. While Valthaty got out to the young Anureet Singh, Ishant Sharma brought about the dismissal of Quiney after being hit for a six off his previous delivery. Jaipur were struggling at 14/2.
Yusuf Pathan walked to the crease and looked all set to take the attack to the Knight Riders. He went about his batting in his regular swashbuckling fashion.

A partnership of 56 runs was brought to an end when Graeme Smith was dismissed by the magical Ajantha Mendis after a referral to the third umpire. Mendis struck again in the same over to dismiss Pathan on 42. After 10 overs, Rajasthan Royals once again were in a precarious position at 78/4.
Ravindu Jadeja and Dimitri Mascarenhas started the rescue work. Together they started building on a partnership hoping to take Rajasthan to a defendable score. With four overs remaining, Ravindu Jadeja tried to accelerate the scoring. However he skied an Ishant Sharma delivery and was caught by Yashpal Singh. Mascarenhas on the other hand, played some impressive strokes until he got out after being dismissed by Anureet Singh. An exciting last over saw Rajasthan reach a score 150 thanks to two sixers and a four by Abhishek Raut.

Gayle started Kolkata's chase with superb hits blazing off his bat. Rajasthan struck back by picking up the Knight Riders captain Brendon McCullum. The captain mis-hit a Mascarenhas delivery and was brilliantly caught by Kamran Khan.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla came in at number three and immediately got a lucky break when the Rajasthan keeper Rawat dropped a skier off Pathan's bowling. An interesting contest was in store when Shane Warne came in to bowl. Gayle and Shukla started off by approached his bowling in a cautious manner. However, the spin wizard Shane Warne tempted Gayle to go over the top, only to be caught by Jadeja.
Rajasthan's latest find, Kamran Khan picked up his first wicket when Shukla was out to a superb catch by Rawat, behind the stumps. Kolkata went into strategy break at 67/3 requiring 84 runs off 10 overs.


Munaf Patel struck immediately after the break, sending back Brad Hodge, after an attempted drive found the keeper's hands. Sanjay Bangar joined the former India captain Ganguly and together, they put on 23 runs. Just when things were looking good for Kolkata, Bangar gave Kamran Khan his second wicket when he drove  to Smith at backward point.
The 'Prince of Kolkata' took the fight back to Rajasthan. He started off by hitting consecutive sixers off Munaf Patel; one of which came from a free hit. Yashpal Singh gave him good support from the other end as Kolkata inched closer to the target set by Rajasthan. Rajasthan got their next wicket when Yashpal Singh got out to Shane Warne in the penultimate over. At this stage Kolkata required 7 runs of 6 balls with 4 wickets remaining.


Kamran Khan was asked to bowl the last over and he started off with a wide. Two singles, a dot ball and two leg-byes came of the first three balls. Ganguly was out for 46 off the fifth ball, caught behind by Rawat. Leading up to an nail-biting finish, two runs were required off the last ball. Ishant Sharma was on strike and could only manage a single after an attempted second run led to his run-out. The match ended in a tie resulting in the 'Super Over' being employed for the first time ever in the IPL.


Kolkata were the first to bat during the 'Super over'. The exciting left-armer Kamran Khan was given the ball by his captain while Gayle and McCullum came for batting. The first two balls resulted in two singles. Kamran bowled a wide off the third ball. The next three deliveries saw Gayle take toll of Kamran Khan by hitting him for three consecutive fours. However, he got out on the last ball after a great catch by Rob Quiney. Kolkata managed 15 runs.

It was Ajantha Mendis who came to bowl the 'Super Over' for Kolkata. Yusuf Pathan took strike accompanied by Ravindu Jadeja at the other end. Pathan started off by hitting Mendis for a six off his first ball. Yusuf skied the second delivery over the bowler's head but the ball fell just in between the  fielders. The third ball saw Pathan blast Mendis for a six over mid-wicket. Rajasthan required just 2 runs off 3 balls. Yusuf finished it off with a boundary and Rajasthan clinched the nail-bitting game in grand style. 

Interesting facts:
Kamran Khan picket up his maiden IPL wicket when he dismissed Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
Ganguly hit the first six of a free hit in the IPL 2009 after Munaf Patel bowled a no-ball.
The Rajasthan-Kolkata match was the first ever tied match in the IPL.
'Super Over' was employed for the first time ever in the IPL after the Rajasthan-Kolkata match ended in a tie.

Man of the match:

Yusuf Pathan was declared Man of the Match for his super batting display during Rajasthan Royal innings and in Super Over bowled by A.Mendis.

Match Summary (Rajasthan Royals won via Super Over)

Rajasthan Royals – 150/6 in 20 Overs

Y.Pathan- 42 D.Mascarenhas –27

A.Mendis – 4-0-19-2 A.Singh– 4-0-35-2

Kolkata Knight Riders – 150/8 in 20 Overs

S.Ganguly- 46 C.Gayle –41

K.Khan– 4-0-18-3 S.Warne– 4-0-25-2

Afridi’s Six wickets provides victory For Rocks Aussies

 
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Shahid Afridi took a career-best 6-38 as Pakistan claimed a four-wicket win over Australia in the first day-night One-Day International in Dubai on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old exposed Australia's weakness against spin as the one-day world champions were all out for just 168 batting first.
He then hit a blistering 24 to help Pakistan chase down the target in 44.1 overs to record Pakistan's second win in their last 11 matches against Australia, and giving them a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Pakistan lost opener Salman Butt (five) and captain Younus Khan (11) before Kamran Akmal (48) and Misbah-ul-Haq, who hit an unbeaten 30, avoided any further hiccups.
Akmal hit nine boundaries during his 62-ball knock, while Afridi smashed five boundaries during his 16-ball stay but Australia made regular inroads, dismissing Shoaib Malik (24) and Nasir Jamshed (nine) to keep a check.
Afridi eventually holed out to mid-on off Ben Hilfenhaus, but Haq and Gul came together at 6-152 to guide the Pakistanis home.
Earlier, Australia had looked well placed to record a big total after opener Brad Haddin (40) and Shane Watson (40) took them to 95-1, before eight wickets fell for just 27 runs.
James Hopes top-scored with 48 not out and added 46 for the last wicket with Hilfenhaus (four) but the spinners had already done the damage.
Afridi ended the stand of 54 for the second wicket by getting Haddin caught off a miscued drive and Watson and Andrew Symonds soon went the same way.
Afridi also dismissed Callum Ferguson (two), Nathan Bracken (one) and Clarke (two) as Australia were on the verge of being shot out for their lowest total of 120 before Hopes hit flurry of strokes.
But Australia have some serious work to do if they are to improve for the second match will be played here on Friday.

 

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

IPL-2:DECCAN CHARGERS VS BANGLORE ROYAL CHALLENGERS:Aggressive knocks by Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma won the second match for Hyderabad in IPL

Gilchrist goes aerial on his way to 71.
Blistering knocks by Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma won the second match for Hyderabad in IPL.

The Deccans captain Adam Gilchrist won the toss and he decided to bat first. Adam  Gilchrist gave the Deccans  a blistering start. While Praveen Kumar was taken for three consecutive boundaries off his first over, his bowling partner Dale Steyn was not spared either. Steyn was taken for two fours and a six off his over.
The first break-through for the Bangalore team came in the form of Herschelle Gibbs when he was trapped LBW by Praveen Kumar. The former Hyderabad captain VVS Laxman did not last long. He was dismissed by the Kiwi sensation Jesse Ryder when he was caught by Dale Steyn at long-off attempting a lofted drive.
Gilchrist, on the other end, kept the scorers busy with his swashbuckling strokes. Soon, Gilchrist reached his fifty by blasting Ryder for a six over square-leg. At the end of 10 overs, the Deccans scored 91 runs for the loss of 2 wickets.
Post 'Strategy break' Gilchrist was at his best. He thrashed the Bangalore bowlers all round the park. Rohit Sharma joined the party and some lusty blows were seen of his bat. Eventually,Gilchrist was caught by Virat Kohli , bowled by Pietersen.

However, Gilchrist had done enough damage, scoring 71 runs of just 45 balls. His knock included 6 fours and 5 sixers.
An over later, the new man at the crease Scott Styris survived a chance when a mistimed shot to deep mid-wicket off the bowling of Praveen Kumar was put down by Karan Sharma. However, he could not capitalize. Styris offered another chance to wide long-on only to find  Praveen Kumar. Pietersen claimed his second wicket.
Rohit Sharma kept himself busy at the other end taking Hyderabad to a commanding score. He went on to score his fifty utilizing just 28 balls. Pietersen held on to a skier hit by Rohit Sharma giving Steyn his first wicket. An attempted quick run of the very next ball resulted in the run-out of Venugapal Rao. Maintaining a consistent run-rate through out the innings, Deccans finished off their innings at 184/6. This also happened to be the highest IPL score of this season.
The Bangalore innings started off on a wrong note. Fidel Edwards knocked the stumps off, as Jesse Ryder yet again failed to make an impression in the IPL. Kallis, once again failed to impress. An attempted drive through covers found the safe hands of Rohit Sharma as RP Singh picked up his first wicket.
Uthappa used up 19 deliveries to score 12 runs before he got out to a brilliant catch by Ravi Teja off Scott Styris' bowling. Rahul 'The Wall' Dravid walked in and looked at his best form. Along with Pietersen, Dravid accelerated the scoring and took Bangalore to a score of 57 runs at the end of 10 overs.
The other side of the break saw one more wicket fall for Bangalore. The Bangalore captain could not resist a flighted delivery by Ohja. Coming down the track, he missed the ball and Gilchrist completed the stump work. Dravid as usual, was at his consistent best with boundaries flowing from him bat. Kohli provided him a helping hand and together they complied runs at a fast rate.
An attempt to go over the the long-off boundary brought about the dismissal of Dravid bringing the 53 run partnership with Kohli to an end. Dravid returned to the dugout 2 short of his fifty. His quickfire 48 off 27 balls included 5 fours and 2 sixers. The next man in, Rajesh Bishnoi was run-out after trying  to steal a single.
Requiring 53 runs of 18 balls,  Styris picked up his 3rd wicket by taking the wicket of Karan Sharma. Virat Kohli on the other hand, stood firm and tried hard to fight back. He brought up a  fifty in the final over of the match before giving RP Singh his 2nd wicket. The Bangalore team ended the innings 24 runs short of their target.
Aggressive batting by Gilshrist and Sharma  brought up the second victory for the Deccan Chargers in the IPL 2009.  The Royal Challengers lost their second match in a row.
Interesting facts:
RP Singh gets the Purple cap after picking up 2 wickets today. His tally now moves up to 6 wickets.
Rahul Dravid bagged the orange cap for overtaking Matthew Hayden.
Rohit Sharma and Gilchrist hold the record for hitting the most number of sixes in an innings in this edition of the IPL, both of them hit 5 sixes today.
Jesse Ryder got back to back ducks in the two games he has featured so far. He is joint second on the list of batsmen with most number of ducks in IPL.

Man of the match:

Gilchrist was awarded Man of the match for his blistering knock of  71 runs of just 45 balls,

Next game of IPL will be played on 23rd of April between Chennai Super Kings Vs Delhi Daredevils (Kingsmead, Durban) and Rajasthan Royals Vs Kolkata Knight Riders (Newland, Cape Town).

Match Summary (Deccan Chargers won by 24 Runs)

Deccan Chargers – 184/6 in 20 Overs

A.Gilchrist- 71 R.Sharma –52

K.Pietersen – 4-0-31-2 D.Styen– 3-0-21-1

Royal Challengers Bangalore – 160/8 in 20 Overs

V.Kohli- 50 R.Dravid –48

S.Styris– 4-0-32-3 R.P.Singh– 4-0-17-2

 

IPL-2:KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS VS KINGS XI PUNJAB:Chris Gayle helped the Knight Riders to register first win in IPL 2009

 Gayle - got Kolkata of to a flying start.

 

Both teams-Kolkata knight riders & Kings XI punjab- would have been aware that this was a match to regain credibility with their supporters. 
For Kolkata, there was still no Mendis in the playing eleven, although they made one change - dropping Agarkar for  Yashpal Singh. Punjab retained the same eleven that played against Delhi.

 
Brendom McCullum won the toss, and opted to field.

Kolkatta started off well, with Ishant Sharma finding his rhythm and getting Karan Goel caught in the slips by Chris Gayle in his first over. That brought Irfan Pathan to the crease, who was promoted to No.3. Irfan swung his bat and was looking dangerous, when Sourav Ganguly turned things around for his team with a superb first over that saw him pick up two wickets and beat Yuvraj's bat a couple of times.
Punjab had their best batsmen - Yuvraj and Sangakkara - at the crease, and they tried to rebuild the innings. Their partnership of 56, scored in fairly quick time, was brought to an end by a needless run-out when Yuvraj correctly did not respond to Sangakkara's call for a rash single.  Yuvraj fell trying to hit one six , and a cameo inning by Mahela Jayawardene took Punjab to a respectable 158 for 6.

To successfully chase that, Kolkata needed one batsman to get stuck in and play a long innings, and it had to be one of the top four. The innings got off to a slow start, but then the King's Eleven were hit by a Gayle force.
Chris Gayle exploded in the fourth over, smashing sixes and fours. He was dropped twice - by Karan Goel at mid-wicket and by Sangakkara behind the stumps. McCullum's wicket pulled things back for the King's XI a touch, but Gayle still found the timing to smash yet another six, before rain came down & that turned out to be the end of the match.

The West Indies captain smashed four sixes in his 26-ball unbeaten 44 to fire Kolkata Knight Riders.  Kolkata were sitting pretty at 79 for 1 after 9.2 overs, and  Duckworth-Lewis confirmed that they were ahead of the required score by 11 runs.
Punjab lost their second successive match after a rain interruption, and although they were clearly not in the driving seat when the rains came down.

 

Turning Point of the Match:
Karan Goel dropping Gayle, when the latter was on 2 off 4 balls. Sangakkara dropped Gayle too but that was when he had already powered to 32 off 17 balls. Goel's drop was by far the costlier of the two - he scored 42 off 22 balls after that drop, which was a match-winning effort.

Man of the Match:
Chris Gayle for his hurricane innings that made the difference between victory and defeat.

Monday, April 20, 2009

IPL-2:MATCH 5:CHENNAI SUPERKINGS VS BANGLORE ROYAL CHALLENGERS:MURALI’S MAGIC OF SPIN AND HAYDEN’S HEAVY STROKEPLAY PROVIDES CHENNAI THEIR FIRST WIN IN IPL 2009

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Chennai Super Kings after loosing to Mumbai Indians in their first game finally showed good all round performance against Royal Challengers Bangalore to beat them by record 92 runs to register their first win in IPL 2009.

There was a slight drizzle at Port Elizabeth but it cleared on time for the play to commence. Before the toss took place, the entire Bangalore team, along with MS Dhoni was present to witness Lalit Modi present the 'Orange Cap' to Rahul Dravid and the 'Purple Cap' to Anil Kumble. The Chennai captain MS Dhoni won the toss and he decided to bat first on a pitch, which was reported to be a reasonable batting surface. The Chennai team chose to play Balaji, Muralitharan and Albie Morkel while the Bangalore team included Kallis in their playing eleven in place of Jesse Ryder.

 
The Chennai innings started off with a mixture of boundaries and mistimed shots by Hayden and Patel. Hayden got the first six of the match putting away a full toss off Praveen Kumar. It was the fifth over of the match when Kallis was introduced to the attack. Hayden thrashed the bowler, hitting three boundaries and a six of his over.
While Patel kept rotating the strike, Matthew Hayden was firing away in his swashbuckling style reaching his fifty in just 22 balls. Hayden got lucky when he survived a close LBW shout off Anil Kumble but the 'Bulky Australian' assisted by Parthiv Patel, carried on and took Chennai to a score of 106 at the end of the 10th over.


The 'Strategy Break' came to the aid of the Bangalore team when the time-out resulted in two consecutive wickets. Patel was first to go when he missed an attempted slog sweep off Pietersen and the ball clipped the stumps. The very next ball resulted in the run-out of Matthew Hayden after an incorrect piece of calling by Suresh Raina. It seemed like Raina's lucky day, when a skier was put down Steyn much to the displeasure of Anil Kumble.


The Chennai captain MS Dhoni did not stay long and was dismissed by Praveen Kumar on 16. Raina held out to Virat Kohli giving Praveen his second wicket.
While Flintoff managed a couple of lusty blows in the final over, Steyn managed to dismiss Morkel off his last ball. At the end of 20 overs, Chennai managed to score 179 for the loss of five wickets after being 106/0 in the first 10 overs.


During the interval, Hayden was presented the 'Orange cap' for being the highest scorer in the tournament.


Without Jesse Ryder to open, Bangalore sent in the pinch hitter Praveen Kumar to open the innings with Uthappa. However, Praveen did not stay long and was bowled by MS Gony for a duck. Kallis came in at number 3 and was looking in great touch, dealing in boundaries. Uthappa gave him good company, as the duo piled on runs at a steady rate. Just when things were shaping up well for Bangalore, Kallis departed after being LBW to Morkel.

 
Disaster struck for the Bangalore team when the lost three quick wickets. Taylor was the first to go, caught and bowled to Flintoff. Then came the Sri Lankan maestro Muttiah Muralitharan, who picked up the Bangalore captain and Uthappa in his first over. At the end of ten overs, Bangalore could manage only 56 runs and had lost half their side.


Post break, Kohli and Bishnoi were out in quick succession. While Kohli got out to Joginder Sharma, Bishnoi also got out after giving Muralitharan his third wicket. Bangalore slipped further down when Vinay Kumar was run-out.


A helpless Dravid was the last man to go as he hit a Balaji delivery straight to the safe hands of Flintoff at square-leg. The Royal Challengers were all-out for a total of  87, losing the match to their South Indian rivals.


Interesting Facts:
Hayden's fifty was also the fastest fifty of IPL 2009.
Matthew Hayden scored 65 runs and took his tally to 109 runs to secure the orange cap.
Chennai posted 179/5, the highest total in IPL 2009 so far.

M.Muralitharan was declared Man of the Match for his superb bowling figure of 11/3 in his four overs.

Match Summary (Chennai Super Kings won by 92 Runs)

Chennai Super Kings – 179/5 in 20 Overs

M.Hayden- 65 P.Patel –30

P.Kumar– 4-0-37-2 K.Pietersen– 3-0-14-1

Royal Challengers Bangalore – 87/10 in 15.2 Overs

J.Kallis- 24 R.Uthappa –20

M.Muralitharan– 4-1-11-3 L.Balaji– 2.2-0-18-2

 

Next game of IPL will be played on 21st of April. There will be total two number of matches will be played. First between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders and then Mumbai Indians will take on Rajasthan Royals.

 

 

IPL 2009 –match 5:preview: Chennai Super Kings vs Bangalore Royal Challangers

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Bangalore Royal Challengers after superb performance in their first game will look to continue their winning momentum going as they take on Chennai Super Kings who showed little bit rustiness against Mumbai Indians in their first game. Apart from M.Hayden and M.S.Dhoni their batting looks bubble.

Royal Challengers Bangalore will also look forward to improve in the batting area, in first game they were reduced to 17/3 at one stage but hard fought fifty from Rahul Dravid game some respectability to their score and in the end that proves too tight for Rajasthan Royals. Anil Kumble also bowled one of the memorable spell of his life by taking 5 wickets for just 5 runs.

So far all four matches has been played at Newland, Cape Town and for the first time two teams clash in Port Elizabeth and it will be important for both the teams to assess the situation and condition well before eying a big total. Both teams made the mistake of eying big score or tried to score too quickly at the beginning of their innings, in that process they lost too many wickets at start.

Chennai Super Kings will eye a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore. A loss here will mean the early laggards of IPL season 2. M.S.Dhoni knows how to handle this type of situation and he must pick a best playing eleven to come out as winner against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Apart from Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble no one performed up to their reputation and Bangalore captain K.Pietersen would like his team to put 100% in this match to make two out of two.

So far both teams have one win against each other during IPL season one.

Watch out for

A.Flintoff vs K.Pietersen: The two English men will take on each other. Both have big names in England Cricket and it will be interesting to see how these two highest bid IPL 2009 players will perform against each other.

Anil Kumble Vs M.S.Dhoni: Both players are attacking players in their department of the game. M.S.Dhoni likes to hit the ball out of the park and Kumble like to get the batsman out in doing so. As we have seen how Anil Kumble could be a dangerous bowler when he is on song in the previous game.

Pitch and conditions

The pitch and condition at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth is dry and will support the batsman. We can witness high scoring game here. Team batting first will eye score in excess of 180 in the 20 overs quota to put pressure on opposition.

Team News

Royal Challengers Bangalore is likely to play with same XI, apart from top order batting failures their bowlers performed exceptionally well against Rajasthan Royals. So they would love to give their batters one more chance to show the fire power they have.

On the other hand Chennai Super King will most likely make few changes in their squad. A.Morkel and M.Muralitharan may replace J.Oram and T.Tushara to give variety in the bowling attack.

Likely Playing XI for both teams (Match is schedule to begin at 20:00 PM India Time on 20th Of April)

Royal Challenger Bangalore: Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa (WK), Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen (Captain), Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Balachandra Akhil, Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, Anil Kumble, Dale Steyn.

Chennai Super King: Parthiv Patel, Matthew Hayden, Suresh Raina, Andrew Flintoff, MS Dhoni (Captain & WK), S Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Joginder Sharma, Manpreet Gony, L Balaji, Muttiah Muralitharan

Sunday, April 19, 2009

IPL-2:MATCH 3:DELHI DAREDEVILS VS KINGS XI PUNJAB:DELHI THRASHED PUNJAB IN THE OPENING MATCH

Vettori - Man of the Match.
Persistent rain forced the match between Punjab and Delhi to be shortened to a 12 over affair.
Delhi left out the exciting Warner, and opted to include left-arm quick Dirk Nannes. They also opted to rest Glenn McGrath, preferring to preserve him for the business end of the tournament.
Virender Sehwag won the toss and invite Punjab in to bat as expected with the overcast conditions and the shortened match.
The decision was made to look extremely silly in the first half of the Punjab innings, with Karan Goel and Ravi Bopara smashing every ball. Goel got out off the last ball of the 6th over, with the score of 67 for 1.
From there things started to go downhill for Punjab as they managed only 37 more runs for the loss of 6 more wickets in the next six overs.
Spin king  Daniel Vettori bowled a spell of 3-0-15-3. His spell also saw two of Punjab's batsmen run themselves out needlessly - with Yuvraj Singh being the culprit on one occasion and Piyush Chawla suffering on account of Irfan Pathan's reckless call.
Punjab eventually ended up on a fairly decent 104 for 7, but it was at least 20 runs short of where they should have ended after the start they got. 

When Delhi came out to bat, what Punjab needed was quick wickets. What they got was 11 balls of a Gauti-Viru special, before the heavier rain. The hottest opening pair in the business blasted four 4s and a six in those eleven balls to take Delhi to 24 without loss.
When play started again, the target had been revised to 54 from 6 overs - which meant Delhi had just 30 more to get from 25 balls, with a swashbuckling  Sehwag and an equally dangerous Gambhir at the crease.
The break did nothing to stop the flow of runs, and Delhi needed only 18 more balls (3 overs) to knock off the runs. At the end Sehwag was unbeaten on a furious 38 off 16 balls, while Gambhir looked positively on 16 off 13 balls.Delhi won by 10 wickets.

Man of the Match:
Daniel Vettori, whose crucial spell put the brakes on Punjab's free scoring and made the job much easier for his strong batting lineup.


Turning Point of the Match:
11th over of the match, bowled by Vettori. Before the over Punjab were at 91 for 3. At the end of the over, they had slid to 98 for 6. Vettori's tight bowling contributed to two suicidal runs resulting in two run-outs and he picked up the wicket of Jayawardene too.

Match Summary (Delhi Daredevils won by 10 Wickets)

Kings XI Punjab – 104/7 in 12 Overs

K.Goel- 38 R.Bopara –22

D.Vettori– 3-0-15-3 A.Salvi– 2-0-17-1

Delhi Daredevils – 58/0 in 4.5 Overs

V.Sehwag- 38* G.Gambhir –15

I.Pathan– 1-0-9-0 V.R.V.Singh– 1-0-5-0

IPL-2:MATCH 4:KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS VS DECCAN CHARGERS:DECCAN CHARGERS REGISTER AN EASY WIN AGAINST KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

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Rainy conditions prevailed through out the day at Newlands. After a rain curtailed first match which saw an emphatic victory for Delhi against Punjab, the Hyderabad vs. Kolkata match had a delayed start after the floodlights at the stadium went faulty.
The Buchanan appointed Kolkata captain Brendon McCullum won the toss and on a pitch, which assisted the bowlers, he surprisingly opted to bat first.
The first ball of RP Singh's over resulted in the dismissal of the Kolkata captain. McCullum tried a glance down to fine leg only to glove the ball to Adam Gilchrist. Chris Gayle, after scoring a four and six consecutively off RP Singh, went for one big shot, holding out to Harmeet Singh at long off.
A struggling Ganguly was soon to follow. He was out in his usual fashion, attempting a flashing drive and edging a Harmeet Singh delivery to Laxman in the slips. Kolkata were struggling at 16/3.
A mini partnership was taking place between Chopra and Hodge before Chopra was out, stumped to a well-crafted ball by Ojha. The wise left arm spinner struck again by making Shukla out of the crease only to find the bails removed by Gilchrist.
Running out of partners, Hodge carried on with his innings scoring 31 runs until he became the next man to go. After scoring two boundaries off Scott Styris, he was out to a sharp reflex catch by Gibbs. In the same over, Scott Styris sent Henriques back to the pavilion thanks to an impressive catch by Rohit Sharma at short-covers.
The dismissal brought Agarkar to the crease. However, he did not stay long. After hitting a massive six, Agarkar was run-out to a brilliant fielding effort by Rohit Sharma again. RP Singh finished off the Kolkata tail by picking up Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda. Kolkata could only manage 101 runs.
The Hyderabad openers went about the chase in the manner as expected from them. Boundaries flowed freely from both the openers' bats. but soon Gilchrist skied a mistimed pull and was brilliantly held by Henriques.
Laxman started off well scoring at a quick rate. However, confusion with Gibbs resulted in his run-out.
Rohit Sharma joined Gibbs and together the put on a prosperous partnership. Agarkar was introduced prior to the strategy break and was taken for 17 runs in his over.
The pair of Gibbs and Sharma carried on after the break scoring at a quick run rate. Together they took the Deccans to victory after scoring the required runs in just 13.1 overs. Gibbs remained unbeaten on 43 while Rohit Sharma was not out on 36. 

Man of the match:RP SINGH
RP Singh's bowling figures of 4/22 happens to be his best bowling figures in IPL. 
RP Singh's four-wicket haul happens to be the first ever in the Deccans' team.

Match Summary (Deccan Chargers won by 8 Wickets)

Kolkata Knight Riders– 101/10 in 19.4 Overs

B.Hodge- 31 A.Chopra –11

R.P.Singh– 3.4-0-22-4 P.Ojha– 4-0-14-2

Deccan Chargers – 104/2 in 13.1 Overs

H.Gibbs- 43* R.Sharma –36*

A.Dinda– 3-0-24-1 I.Sharma– 3-0-13-0