Valthaty knocked out CSK. Warriors too good for Tuskers.

Valthaty knocked out CSK as KXIP registered their first win.

It was Paul Valthaty show all the way in second innings. Chasing big total of CSK, KXIP got flying start from Paul Valthaty and captain Adam Gilchrist. However, Gilchrist got out cheaply but Paul Valthaty had other ideas and he executed his plans well and scored brilliant 120 from 63 balls and helped KXIP to register their first victory in IPL 4. Valthaty’s blitzkrieg innings stunned CSK. All the CSK bowlers tore apart by this youngster who was unknown quantity before this match. R.Ashwin, Tim Southee, Albie Morkel, Scott Styris went for plenty. It was the day when destiny didn’t supported Mahi and CSK ended on losing note.

Batting first CSK lost its two wicket on first balls when Praveen Kumar cleaned up Aniruddha Srikkanth and Suresh Raina on successive balls. However, CSK crisis man Badrinath and opener Murali Vijay took control of the  situation and started counter-attack on KXIP bowling. Both batted brilliantly and given the platform to MS Dhoni to come and play the blazing innings and Dhoni capitalise on the start and played superb knock which included his famous helicopter shot as well. CSK put of 180+ score for KXIP to chase.

It was Valthaty who stole the show from all the stars and helped KXIP to chase down stiff CSK total. It was indeed Paul Valthaty show.  This IPL 4 has taken new turn and suddenly KXIP looks like force to reckon.

Man of the Match

Paul Valthaty

---

Warriors just too good for Tuskers.

Sahara Pune Warriors started as favorites inn this match and lived upto their reputation by winning it. Warriors registered their second consecutive win in the tournament with 4 wickets against Kochi Tuskers.

Chasing 149 to win, the Warriors were 118 for six in the 16th over but Mohnish Mishra, who made an unbeaten 37 in 21 balls with two fours and as many sixes, and Rahul Sharma  build a  useful partnership in to help Pune achieve the target.Jesse Ryder , Graeme Smith  and Robin Uthappa also contributed in Warriors win.Kochi bowlers could not defend the target for the second time in tournament and suffered their second defeat after the loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore, while Pune got their second successive win in the tournament after having seen off the challenge from Kings XI Punjab last Sunday.

Earlier, Ravindra Jadeja counter-attacked his way to 47 in 33 balls as Kochi recovered from a poor start and posted a modest 148 for eight at the D Y Patil Stadium.Tottering at 24 for four in the fifth over, Kochi was bailed out by a fine fifth-wicket stand between Brad Hodge  and Jadeja, who struck three sixes and as many fours in his impressive innings that ended in the 17th over. Their twin dismissals within the space of six balls seemed to have put paid to the hopes of the Tuskers to post a more challenging score but Raiphi Gomez struck a quick-fire 26 not out in 18 balls to help Kochi finish on a brighter note.

Pune started the reply strongly when openers Jesse Ryder and Graeme Smith, batting with a runner following the knee injury he sustained after a collision with Rahul Sharma while fielding, put on 31 in quick time.But a brilliant return catch by Vinay Kumar separated the duo and sent back Ryder who smacked the ball back strongly only for the bowler to stick his hand out and latch on to the ball.Ryder struck R P Singh for a couple of fours in the opening over while Smith dealt severely with S Sreesanth at the other end to force skipper Mahela Jayawardene to remove both the opening bowlers after one over spells. In short Kochi bowlers once again failed to make an impression as legend Muralitharan was also tore apart by Mohnish Mishra and Utthappa.

It was fine team-work from Sahara Pune Warriors which helped them in managing this victory.

Man of the Match

Mohnish Mishra

---

Deccan look to win  today as they take on Royal Challengers

Sad story in IPL for Deccan Chargers so far as they lost 2 out of 2. 2009 edition champion team started IPL 4 campaign on losing note. Today they will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.Deccan’s record at home does not support their cause as well going into this match because they never won game in Hyderabad but they desperately need win under their belt to gain some momentum. They have good captain in Sangakkara at the helm of the affairs and if Deccan play as a unit then they definitely won this game. They have good bowlers in their ranks whether it is fast bowling or spin bowling.  They have likes of Steyn, Ishant, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha. batting is also not that bad as they have Shikhar Dhawan and Sangakkara in their line-up. They also have dynamite batsmen Daniel Christian lower down the order .

Talking about RCB, they are coming into this match with a defeat under their belt against Mumbai Indians. RCB played tow games so far and they achieved victory in 1 and lost the another. But RCB is better balanced team and have the ammunition to take on any team in the tournament. They have batsmen like Kohli, Dilshan and AB DeVIlliers to score runs for them and in bowling they have likes of Zaheer Khan, Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes.  RCB was not focused enough in last match and that resulted into their downfall. Although they have best line-up but they will definitely going to get tough fight from Deccan who are desperately looking for a win.

Tough contest ahead but RCB are favorites to win this encounter.

Team Info:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Daniel Vettori (Captain), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB De Villiers (wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam (Wicket-Keeper), S Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan, Bhareth Narayanan, Nuwan Pradeep.Ray Jennings(Coach)

---

Team Info:

Deccan Chargers

Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, Akash Bhandari, Anand Rajan, Ankit Nagendra, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, DB Ravi Teja, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Ishank Jaggi, Ishan Malhotra, Jaydev Shah, Kedar Devdhar, Sunny Sohal (Foreign) Kumar Sangakkara (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, Chris Lynn, Juan Theron, Michael Lumb.Darren Lehmann(Coach)

Preview:1st Semi-Final - Sri Lanka favourites against jubilant Kiwis

Beating lion in his own den is not a easy task. Sri Lanka is lion and very difficult team to beat at home. England lost convincingly other night. Will Kiwis beat the  the mighty Lankans in Colombo today? Majority of the people will find the answer simple and that is 'No'. Kiwis can't beat Lankans in Colombo because they never won in Sri Lanka since 2003. But Kiwis are the same team which knocked out tournament favourites from the tournament other night at Mirpur and based on that performance Kiwis cannot be written-off easily. Also cricket is great game of uncertainties and nobody can predict its outcome.

I believe this Kiwi team has found the much needed momentum in last match against South Africa and now this team has certainly become dangerous. They are playing as a unit and their bowling has been improved tremendously under the supervision of legendary  South African fast bowler Allan Donald. Taylor, Guptill, Ryder, Williamson, McCullum, all are among the runs and batting looks far more formidable, thanks to the efforts put in by ex-India coach John Wright who is their current coach. Wright has just put in oxygen in this down and out Kiwi team and awakened the hunger to excel. Southee is their most successful bowler in this tournament with 15 wickets from 7 games and lot of Kiwi hopes depends on his bowling.

I think Kiwis are putting emphasis on basics and keeping things simple. They have simple plan which was visible against Proteas and that was just to keep attacking and piling up the pressure and they going in with the same plan against Lankans as well. I think if Kiwis beat Lankans then that won't be a surprise, however, road to the finals for Kiwis is difficult but not impossible. Daniel Vettori and his men are upbeat and confident after their victory over Proteas. But they have to play Lankan spinners well and have to attack them from the very beginning. If Muraltharan don't play due to injury than that will make Kiwi job bit easy but yet they have to face Malinga, Mendis, Herath alongwith Angelo Mathews. I believe, Kiwis play to their potential and put in little more effort than they can easily beat Lanka and make it to the finals.

As far as Lankans are concerned, they are tournament favourites and have all the ingredients to go into the finals. Conditions. pitch and home crowd are all in their favour and Premdasa Stadium is their fort where Lankans can't be defeated easily. Lankans have the team which suits to the conditions and they are heavily loaded with the spin which is the weakness of their opposition. Lankan opening pair is leading the charts in terms of opening stand in the tournament. Both Tharanga and Dilshan are in superb from and batsmen following them in Sangakkara and Jayawardene are deadly customers. They have superb allrounder in Angelo Mathews who can turn the match with the bat as well. 

Lanka bowling is by far the best in the tournament. They possess lethal weapon in Lasith Malinga who is dangerous with new as well as old ball. His toe crushers are nightmare for the batsmen. He has the great variation in his bowling and his unique action itself pose lot of problems to the batsmen. Although Lankans will suffer little bit if their master spinner Muralitharan miss this game due to injury. Lankans although have the fire power to dismiss the opposition and if Lankans beat Kiwis, then they will reach the World Cup finals for the 3rd time.

Good contest in prospect as Kiwis found some momentum and looking keen to reach finals this time after missing it for 5 times and Lankans will be determine to reach finals for the 3rd time.

Team India dethroned Aussies from the World Cup, Kiwis face Proteas challenge

Its been one evening which every Indian cricket lover waiting desperately and finally it arrived, when Team India dethroned Aussies  from the Cricket World Cup and ended their 12 years regime. Team India also broke Aussie arrogance. It was India who started process of diminishing Aussie regime from 2001 with turnaround in that Eden Garden test match and from that series onwards Australian cricket  started declining and yesterday India put final nail in the coffin. India moved to semi-finals where they will play Pakistan, indeed a mouth-watering contest in prospect and Australia already left for the home where Ponting & Co. have to face lot criticism. Its end of an era in Australian Cricket.

Dhoni once again remained unlucky with the toss yesterday and Australia decided to bat first after winning the toss on a wicket which had something in it for the spinners. I think India did everything right except winning the toss. They fielded like leopards and I have not seen such a brilliant fielding in long time from Indian side. It was really heartening to see. It was good to see Dhoni attacked the batsmen and he reaped the fruits of attacking, by picking up wickets at regular interval which jolted Australian batting. Yuvraj Singh has found sublime form in this World Cup with the bat and ball. Indian bowling was also terrific but it became more terrific because fielders supported the bowlers however Munaf Patel was disappointing. Ashwin is the unsung hero of this team so far, he bowled brilliantly in whatever opportunities he got. 

Indian batting also delivered as Tendulkar, Gambhir and Yuvraj got half-centuries under their belt. Raina also re-discovered himself in this match by playing a small cameo. It was big call from Dhoni to drop Yusuf and replace him with Raina. It could have backfired but to Dhoni's credit it worked and its good for Team India that they found their proper playing eleven before semi-final.However there are areas of concern as well for India. Running between the wickets looked ordinary. Bowling of Munaf Patel was not upto the mark. Throwing of wickets by batsmen after settling in, Dhoni's poor form with the bat.etc. and Indian team have to sort out these problems before semis. Overall good performance by Team India and they will go to Mohali with lot of confidence, where they will take on arch-rivals Pakistan on next Wednedsay.

For Australia, everything went wrong in this match except Ponting's century. This Australian side was not the same which we watched over the years. It had the same old aggressive attitude but quality was completely missing. If we talk about averages of the batsmen, then most of the batsmen averages in mid-thirties which clearly indicates the quality. They were dependent heavily on rejuvenated Brett Lee in this tournament but one bowler can't win you matches and that bowler can also have off-day, so needed 3 to4 quality bowlers to win the game. They did alright by reaching the score of 260 which was par score under the conditions prevailed but they did not had the bowlers who take advantage of the conditions. They clearly missed two quality spinners on a wicket which had something in it especially for the spinners. Krezja was the only spinner in that side but he also bowled wrong line and length. So he struggled badly. David Hussey picked up wicket but not because he bowled good balls, he got the wicket because of the mistake from the batsmen. I think with this game Australian dominance in the World cricket is over and after 12 long years we will see new champion emerging. Its good for cricket. For Aussies and Ponting, it is a time of soul searching. Ponting era is also ended with this game and we will see change in Australian leadership in coming days. Sad end for the great captain and great batsmen who dominated the World Cricket for more than a decade.

Kiwis face Proteas challenge at Mirpur.

Kiwis will take on Proteas today at Mirpur in Dhaka. Its the fight for third semi-finalist spot. Kiwis have shown in the tournament that, if they play to their potential they can beat any team. I think Kiwis need little bit of luck also to go with their performance. They have class and talent in their batting but that batting has to click together if Kiwis wants to advance into the semis. Brendon McCullum, Guptill, Taylor are capable enough player to win the games on their own. Who can forget that league match against Pakistan in this World Cup where Ross Taylor alone ruined the Pakistani bowling and won the match for the New Zealand. Although they were lucky also in that match and that much luck is always on your side when you perform well. Kiwis beat Pakistan, Kenya, Canada and Zimbabwe during their journey towards quarter-finals. Kiwis won all these matches convincingly and none of the matches went to the wire. They lost to Australia and Sri Lanka but they beat the best team of their Group. So you cannot count Kiwis out of the contest today. They are bit handicapped because of captain Vettori's knee injury but they still have good bowling line-up and Tim Southee is their stand out bowler so far in the tournament. I think if Vettori play today and entire Kiwi team put collective effort then it will not be difficult for the Kiwis to beat Proteas.and seal the berth of semis.

Talking about Proteas they are best side in the tournament alongwith Pakistan. They have quality 4 pacers and 3 quality spinners to choose from and they are the most balanced side among all the teams. Their batting line-up is excellent which consists players like Amla, Kallis, DeVilliers, Smith. Remember they are the best fielding side of the World Cup. Dale Steyn is No.1 bowler in ICC ranking and Hashim Amla is No.1 batsmen in the ICC ranking. They possess lethal spin bowling combination which will come good against the side like New Zealand which is not used to playing spin. Imran Tahir will be the key for South Africa. South Africa don't have many weakness except their mentality of choking under pressure which often hampered their progress in the big tournament. Amla, Kallis and DeVilliers are in good form and capable of taking on any bowling line-up in the World. They are also lucky in a sense that Australia is out of the tournament and they stands with very good chance of winning this World Cup, all they required is mental toughness under-pressure. If they will be able to do so then they will definitely emerge as winners.

Team New Zealand: Analysis and Odds for ICC World Cup’11

 New Zealand (Group A)       

Group Rivals :-	Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan,  Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya
Coach :-	John Wright
Captain :-	Daniel Vettori
Best Performance in WC :-	Semi-Finalist in 1975, 1979, 1992, 1999, 2007
Highest Score in WC :-	363-5 (50 Overs) v/s Canada in WC’07
Lowest Score in WC :-	112 All Out (30.1 Overs) v/s Australia in WC’03
Best Individual Score :-	171*, Glenn Turner v/s East Africa in WC’75
Best Bowling :-	6-23 Shane Bond v/s Australia in WC’03
Matches Won/Lost/Tied/NR	35-26-0-1
The Odds :-	14-1
ICC ODI Ranking :-	No.7

MAN TO WATCH Daniel VETTORI Daniel Vettori is captain of the New Zealand Team In-fact he is face of the KIWIS. Started his career as a slow left-arm bowler but as the career progressed he transformed himself into an all-rounder. He is one of the best slow left-arm bowler in the World Cricket. Much of the KIWI success in ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 will depend on his performances. Sub-continent conditions and pitches will definitely suit to his style of bowling. He will also play crucial role with the bat in this edition of World Cup because he is very effective batsmen in lower-order for New Zealand. His team’s recent performances does not justify his credentials as a captain but he is fighter and will lead his team effectively in the World Cup. He has the ability to lead from the front and capable of lifting the morale of his team with his individual performance. Career-best performance: Batting: 83  v/s Australia at Christchurch in 2005 Bowling: 7-5 v/s Bangladesh at Queenstown in 2007

New Zealand Team reached the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup 5 times but never became lucky enough to reach the finals and lift the trophy. Their best possible  chance of winning the elite trophy was in 1992 under the captaincy of Martin Crowe but again their progress halted in semi-finals. Currently New Zealand Cricket is in big crisis as they lost 3 ODI series in a row and one of them is against minnows Bangladesh. Bangladesh white-washed Kiwis last year and series result was 0-4 as Kiwis failed to win single ODI in that series in Bangladesh and this series loss just put Kiwis on back-foot psychologically. Followed that series Kiwis lost to India 5-0.One more white-wash series loss. Now Pakistan have also defeated them in ongoing ODI series as Pakistan is leading 6 match series 3-1. So New Zealand is completely on back-foot as far as recent performances are concerned but I believe they will leave all these bad memories in New Zealand itself and approach the World Cup in sub-continent with fresh and positive thoughts.

They have good players in their ranks and if this team click as unit then they can beat any team in the world. They don’t have many superstars in their side but they have talented player in Brendon MCCullum, Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill, Tim Southee and captain himself. Believe me if these players will click in the World Cup then I feel New Zealand can win this World Cup as they are not at all short in talent and have good match-winners. They also have charismatic coach in John Wright and everybody knows what John Wright is capable of doing to any team.  Watch out  KIWIS in ICC Cricket World Cup2011.

Key Players for New Zealand: Daniel Vettori, Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill, Brendon McCUllum and Tim Southee