Words on Cricket: Is it going to be a Valthaty show once again? KXIP vs RR

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Is it going to be a Valthaty show once again? KXIP vs RR

Jubilant Priety Zinta owned and Gilchrist led KXIP will take on Warnie’s Royals at Mohali tonight. KXIP is full of confidence after two consecutive victories and Rajasthan is bit disappointed after 2 losses at the hands of KKR and washed out match against RCB where they shared the points with RCB.

If we look at KXIP it was not considered best team at the start of the tournament. They also started their IPL 4 campaign with a loss but after that 1st game, their turnaround is superb and credit largely goes to young rising star Paul Valthaty whose all-round performance helped KXIP to put up a brilliant show. Captain Gilchrist also got among the runs in the last match where he struck beautiful half-century and reminded spectators about his glorious past and proved that he is still great with the bat. KXIP now looks quite formidable and T20 is such a format where any team have the chance to win the game. KXIP also have reasonable bowling attack. Praveen Kumar has made a great comeback through IPL after missing the World Cup due to injuries. Ryan Harris and Piyush Chawla are also very good bowlers. So KXIP have the flavour to do well in today's game. However, form of Shaun Marsh is bit of concern who is their mainstay in batting after Gilchrist and Valthaty.

Talking about Rajasthan Royals, it is also owned by one of the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Rajasthan Royals started its IPL 4 campaign by winning first two matches but after that they lost their way somewhat. They lost 2 games consecutively against reformed KKR and their last match against RCB was washed out due to rain and they shared the points with RCB. RR is still in Top 4 and their situation is not that bad. If they win today they can get the momentum. They have better team on-paper compared to KXIP. The have likes of Watson, Dravid, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Shaun Tait, etc. in their ranks and with Warne performing, just add the little bit more spice to the Rajasthan Royals.I think they have to change their bowling and bring in Deepak Chahar in place of Amit Singh who looked out of sorts in last 2 matches. Chahar is young and waiting for his opportunity. Considering today’s game Rajasthan Royals have little bit edge over KXIP.

It going to be cracker of the contest and it will be interesting to see Valthaty continues his good show or not.

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

Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).

Pune lost 2nd consecutive game. Mumbai’s good run continues.

Indeed a very good match and lasted till last ball. Yuvraj won the toss and elected to bat first but Mumbai wicket offered little bit more assistance to the bowlers this time. Mumbai bowlers took full advantage of the wicket. Harbhajan was rested from the game because of little and his replacement Abu Nechim grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he got the dismissed the inform Pune opener Jesse Ryder in his first over. He went on to pick up 2nd wicket and this early loss never allowed Pune to recover as Munaf Patel and Malinga further jolted the Pune batting. Captain Yuvraj failed miserably today as he got out on the 2nd ball he faced. Utthappa played very good innings and given some hope to Pune Warriors but he too lost his wicket at crucial juncture and ultimately Pune Warriors bowled out cheaply. Looking at the condition of wicket, it looked like Pune Warriors will stop Mumbai Indians before the target.

Mumbai opened with Franklin who replaced Jacobs in this match but he did not lasted long and soon got out. Ambati Rayadu and Sachin Tendulkar kept doing their good work and stitched the partnership but Sachin lost his wicket by playing unnecessary shot on pitch which had something in it for the bowlers. Sachin first time got out in this edition of the IPL. Ambati Rayadu soon followed Sachin and got out but till that time Mumbai reached the doorstep of victory. Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds won the game for Mumbai.

Man of the Match

Munaf Patel

Kochi registered 3rd consecutive win in a near thriller

Orange colour is on high since last 3 matches. They humbled Mumbai and Chennai earlier and yesterday they stopped the winning streak of KKR at Edens. It was completely a team work which helped Kochi in registering their 3rd consecutive win and now they are in Top 4 on points table with 6 points.

Ravindra Jadeja came up with a brilliant all-round display to help the resurgent Kochi Tuskers Kerala halt Kolkata Knight Riders three-match winning run with a narrow six-run victory in a low-scoring Indian Premier League clash here on Wednesday.Jadeja was the star for the Kochi team as he scored 29 from 18 balls to help his team post 132 for seven and then scalped two wickets as the Tuskers restricted the Knight Riders to 126 for nine at the Eden gardens here. Gambhir won the toss and put Kochi into bat, Kochi had a flying start, thanks to the in-form pair of Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene but the Knight Riders restricted them to 132 for seven with a fine bowling effort by Yusuf Pathan and Shakib-Al-Hasan. Defending the total, the Tuskers bowlers Jadeja , Rudra Pratap Singh did a tidy job and was supported well by their bowling colleagues as Kochi halted Kolkata's three-match winning run at the Eden Gardens here.

Chasing a modest 133, Knight Riders needed to play sensible cricket but the hosts made a mess of the seemingly low score getting themselves out one by one.Three quick wickets from three overs Jacques Kallis , Gautam Gambhir and Manvinder Bisla put Knight Riders in a spot of bother.Knight Riders batting mainstay Kallis became victim of a Vinay Kumar short ball, while in a space of five balls Gambhir saw his middle stump shattered by his former India teammate RP Singh Brought in place of Thisara Perera, Muralitharan returned with one wicket but he held the Knight Riders batsmen together giving away 18 runs from his four overs quota. Just when the duo of Tiwary and Morgan were looking to set the platform, a fine fielding effort by skipper Mahela Jayawardene ran Morgan out to break their 36-run partnership from 38 balls.However, undeterred Tiwary hit two fluent boundaries off RP but only to see Shakib getting bowled at the other end in the same over.Pathan, who hurt his knee while taking the catch of Jadeja, came in with a runner and the big-hitter showed his intention with a big six of Powar before being dismissed in the next ball, in what seemed to be a decisive blow for the Knight Riders.Tiwary, who looked at ease all this while, was then outfoxed by a smart wide ball by Jadeja and was stumped.