MI reach semis first for the first time in IPL history by defeating RR and person who is responsible for this achievement is the captain Sachin Tendulkar. Yesterday again he showed why he is God as he batted with complete authority and tore apart the bowling of RR. His batting against Shane Warne reminded of his old encounter in Sharjah. RR won the toss and elected to field first. MI made a change in their line-up as Sanath Jayasuriya came into opening with maestro. MI faced setback very early as they lost Sanath, Rayudu and Saurabh Tiwary in quick succession and it looked like MI will not get any momentum and bowled out cheaply but when ‘Sachin is near then there is no fear’. Sachin took responsibility on him and held one end and did crucial partnership with JP Duminy who scored almost run a ball 32. Duminy got out at crucial stage for MI and in came Sathish but he also didn’t last long and MI were looking in difficult situation but late onslaught from Sachin in last 3 overs took MI score to 175. Tendulkar remained not-out on 89. I must say in those last 4 overs Sachin Tendulkar snatched the match from RR. RR came into bat and they also had identical start to MI as they lost 3 important wickets very early in the innings which put huge pressure on them. Zaheer Khan expecially bowled superb spell and picked up two crucial wicket at the top which put RR on the back-foot and rest of the damage done by RR themselves because as many as 3 batters got run-out. By the time Yusuf Pathan came to the wicket equation was 15 runs per over for RR and that pressure took the wicket of Yusuf Pathan as well and he got out for 10 run and with this wicket RRs hopes of keeping their winning record intact at Jaipur also diminished. Now MI are in semis and RR have to win remaining two matches to get into the semis.
At Kotla Gambhir won the toss against KXIP and elected to bat on abrasive and turning pitch but this decision proved costly for DD as they lost wicket at regular intervals and none of their batsman batted patiently on turning track and eventually got out for paltry total of 111. DD have to blame themselves as they couldn’t understand the pitch and played far too many strokes. Moreover their poor running between the wicket also proved dangerous for them as two of their top batter got run-out. Gautam Gambhir got run-out 3rd consecutive time in this tournament which cost dearly to DD as he was batting beautifully till that time. On this pitch DD required somebody to anchor the innings and take them to the score of 140 or 150 but that didn’t happen. KXIP bowlers took full advantage of DDs mistakes as they bowled superbly and rewarded handsomely. Piyush Chawla was the star for KXIP and silenced his critics over his selection in WCT20 squad.. Any captain can take score of 111 in T20 game for chasing.Mahela Jayawardene along with Irfan Pathan came into bat and their started slowly but effectively. Very soon Irfan Pathan perished and in came captain Sangakkara who supported Mahela Jayawardene nicely and both took KXIP to the door step of victory. Jayawardene showed how to bat on abrasive and turning wicket and made the chase easy for KXIP.
I must say yesterday both RR and DD lost because of poor running between the wicket.
Today resurgent and defending champion DC will take on RCB at Nagpur
No comments:
Post a Comment