Magical story of KXIP continues as they are now in top 4 on points table and what a performance against all expectations. 3 wins out of 4 is commendable achievement for the team which don’t have many stars. On the contrary Delhi Daredevils performance has been under scanner as they lost too many matches. 1 win from 4 matches is not good for the team which has players like Sehwag, Warner, Finch, Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan.
Today Delhi will take on KXIP at Feroze Shah Kotla in Delhi. Daredevils in all sorts of trouble and their problems have been futher compounded because their captain and dashing opener Virender Sehwag failed to fire with the bat. Delhi team is much better if compared to Kochi, Rajasthan or Punjab atleast on paper but their performance is not upto the mark. One of the main reason why Sehwag is not scoring, is the shoulder injury which he is carrying for a long time and this injury stops him from playing free flowing shots which he likes to play. So shoulder injury is hampering Viru’s performance but franchisee pressure and big money forcing him to play in IPL. Delhi’s top-order is very inconsistent and it is Venugopal Rao who comes in at No.5 is scoring most of the runs for them. Naman Ojha, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan failed to make any impression with the bat so far. Delhi have to win today’s game at any cost, it will be going to be an uphill task because KXIP is in winning rhythm. They have to think of promoting in-form Venugopal Rao.
Looking at KXIP, its dream run for them. After loss in their 1st game of IPL everybody written-off KXIP, but what a surprise turnaround by them. After first loss they just kept on winning match after match and recorded hat-trick of victory. Names which were unknown before this IPL are suddenly in lime-light. Adam Gilchrist has done great job as a captain because it is very difficult to win the games with inexperienced and new players. Confidence of KXIP is sky high after 3 consecutive win. Valthaty is the one man who deserves big credit after Gilchrist, because his century against CSK given hopes to KXIP. Valthaty is orange cap holder and it is commendable achievement for any young cricketer. One more ‘Valthaty Special’ is expected today. KXIP now looks like a settled side and they are playing like a unit but on paper Delhi looks far more strong.
Great contest in offering as Delhi will be keen to break the shackles in this match and KXIP will try to continue their winning momentum.
Team Info:
Delhi Daredevils
Virender Sehwag (Captain), Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha(Wicket-Keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopal Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bist, S Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikash Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem (Foreign) David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Mathew Wade, Roloef van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Collin Ingram, Robert Frylinck. Greg Shipperd(Coach)
Team Info:
Kings XI Punjab
Dinesh Karthik(Wicket-Keeper), Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Shalabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Yadav, (Foreign) Adam Gilchrist (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Ryan Harris, Dimitri Masceranhas, Nathan Remington.Michael Bevan(Coach
Gayle Hurricane blew away Knights.
Finally RCB broke the shackles and registered their 2nd win in the tournament. Their gamble of playing Gayle also paid off as Gayle blew away his ex-team by hitting big booming sixes. He also gave befitting reply to Kolkata Knight Riders and West Indian Cricket Board.
Chasing 171 of Kolkata score, RCB started their innings cautiously. First Dilshan opened his hands and hit few boundaries but once Gayle started hitting the ball, Kolkata bowling looked mediocre as none of the bowlers spared. It was Gayle show all the way as he scored brilliant century which included 7 towering sixes. He hit two of the longest sixes of the tournament as one of them gone 104 mt. far and another gone for 101 mt far. Virat Kohli and Dilshan also played good innings but both innings over-shadowed by Gayle’s clean hitting. He literally massacred the Kolkata bowling and won the game single-handedly for RCB which was struggling to win the games before this match.
Earlier Kolkata fielded Brad Haddin in place Brett Lee. Haddin and Kallis opened the batting for Kolkata and both provided quick and solid start to the Knight Riders but just when they looked settled Haddin got out out to Aravind. Kallis and Gambhir continued their innings but soon Kallis became victim of Daniel Vettori. Gayle took absolute blinder in covers to sent Kallis back. Pathan Joined Gambhir and both build fantastic partnership. Kolkata reached the score of 170 plus which looked like winning score on the pitch which turned square in previous matches and forced Gambhir to drop pacer like Brett Lee. Pathan once again played superb innings and scored brilliant half-century.Not playing Brett Lee in this match certainly back-fired.
But 170+ score couldn’t help Kolkata to win the game as the man called Gayle was in no mood to do anything silly and he left Shahrukh Khan with a question, why didn’t you pick me in the auction? RCB won the match with 9 wickets.
Man of the Match
Chris Gayle
Mumbai Indians were too good for Super Kings
It was the match where bowling and batting of the both the teams were quite par but it was fielding which decided the fate of this match. Mumbai Indians fielded brilliantly and created the opportunities for themselves while Super Kings failed to grab the opportunities which came their way.
Dhoni won the toss for CSK and put Mumbai Indians into bat. Soon his decision gave him result as both Sachin and Sathish got out within six overs. Morkel and Bollinger bowled one of the best opening spell of the tournament. Mumbai again tried new opening partner with Sachin but experiment failed once again. Mumbai Indians are winning matches but they failed to find out perfect opening partner for Sachin so far. They tried David Jacobs, James Franklin, Ambati Rayadu and R.Sathish without any success. Rohit Sharma came in after Sachin’s departure and he had other ideas. He came in and took charge of the situation immediatley and played some gorgeous shot on a pitch which had some help for the seamers. It was Rohit’s brilliant innings which bailed Mumbai Indians from the shock of 2 early wickets. Ambati Rayadu also didn’t last long. But Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds stitched superb partnership and achieved the par score of 164. Bollinger was pick of the bowler for CSK as he kept the pressure on. Albie Morkel bowled well in his first spell of 3 overs. It was good bowling performance from CSK.
Chasing 165, Murali Vijay once again failed to impress. Raina came and gone without troubling the scorers much as Harbhajan caught him off his own bowling and CSK lost their 2 wickets for 36 runs in 5 overs. Badirnath and Hussey kept CSK in hunt as both scored freely after early loss of Raina and Vijay. But Pollard who failed with the ball took brilliant catch of Hussey at short mid-wicket and opened the gate for Mumbai. Confidence of that catch also looked in Pollad’s next over as he sent back captain Dhoni cheaply who got out unluckily. Rohit Sharma took blinder at third-man to dismiss Dhoni. After that it was all Harbhajan show as he tormented CSK middle and lower order and ended up with IPL career best figures of 5-18. 3 wickets in space of 5 balls decided the fate of CSK. Badrinath played superb innings but did not get enough support from other end.
Finally CSK lost their 3rd match on a trot and Mumbai Indians are sitting on top with 8 points While CSK is 2nd from the bottom. Mumbai Indians also took perfect revenge of their last year’s IPL final loss.
Man of the Match
Rohit Sharma
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