Easy Victories For KKR and DC

Team which won the toss yesterday ended up winning the match convincingly. Ganguly won the toss for KKR and opted to field first because of the slowness of the pitch. Ganguly read the pitch well and who can read better than him as he played most of his cricket at great Eden. Decision justified soon after match started as KKR picked up quick wickets early on and picked up the wickets regularly and didn't allow RCB to score freely. Kallis played sensible innings for RCB from one end but he got little support from other side. Angelo Matthews and Charl Langeveldt were heroes for KKR in bowling as they bowled with a plan and variation. Once you get the opposition out for moderate total its easy to chase the score and that was done by KKR in style as their openers gave them fantastic start by hitting half-centuries. It was good to see Manoj Tiwary playing a good knock because he is a very talented player but didn't play to his potential in whatever opportunities he got for KKR and India. In the end Ganguly did the formality by putting KKR on the doorstep of the victory and got out. Its 2 in 2 for KKR. I think RCB has to pull up their socks immediately and need to focus on improvement and come to winning ways from next match

Coming to South V/s South match DC won the toss on turning track and elected to bat first and as expected Gilchrist gave them great start as he does consistently and also completed 1000 runs in DLF IPL He became the first player to score 1000 runs in DLF IPL. laxman gave him good support but both fell quickly once their team passed 50 run mark. From here on GIbbs and Symonds played responsibly and took them to the safety. Symonds struggled early on but once the ball hit on his sweet spot of the bat it continued till he got out. Rohit Sharma played good hand at the end to put DC in strong position. Chennai started poorly as the lost both their openers cheaply on the track which was turning. Chennai kept losing wickets at regular interval only Dhoni and Albie Morkel showed some resistance but that was not enough for CSK to win the match. Vaas bowled really well and and did not allow CSK to recover by picking up early wickets. I feel in this tournament so far Sri Lankan fast bowlers have bowled well whether it is Malinga, Mattews or Vaas, so good sign for Lankans as they wil go in with formidable attack in T20 World Cup.

Coming to today's encounter, it will be match between two sides which has done consistently well in all editions of IPL and the focus will be on winning the match. For RR this is very important match and they to win it for boosting their confidence but they will be facing formidable batting line-up DD and it will be not that easy for them to overcome such batting line-up. RR will miss Ravindra Jadeja in this tournament badly. Yusuf Pathan will be the key man for RR and Gautam Gambhir will be key for Delhi. So good contest in offering today evening.

Two Thrilling Crackers Entertained Cricket Lovers

Two games played in IPL on Saturday and both were scripted like Sherlock Holmes movie where mystery unfolded in last two balls of the match and the team which held the nerves won the contest.

At Brabourne Stadium Mumbai Indians opted to bat after winning toss and they amassed huge score and looked certain to win the contest after picking up 4 quick wickets of Rajasthan Royals but Yusuf Pathan spoiled their dream of easy victory by bringing Tsunami of sixes with his bat and hit as many as 8 sixes. He got run-out in unusual fashion at wrong time and that proved costly to Rajasthan Royals. I feel Rajasthan Royals missed the services of Ravindra Jadeja in this match badly as he is in great form with the ball and a very handy lower-order batsman. As far as MI are concerned Tendulkar showed the new strategy in field placing, normally captains put fielder at deep fine-leg initially but Tendulkar started with square-leg and that save as many as 4 boundaries in initial overs which created pressure on RR and they lost 4 quick wickets. But I must say although RR lost but Yusuf Pathan entertained crowd thoroughly. Now one more debate will start who is better hitter Kieron Polard or Yusuf Pathan. Well we will get the answer in this tournament itself.

At Mohali DD started favourites they won the toss and elected to field and restricted Kings XI Punjab to a moderate score of 142 which looked easy for batting line-up like DD but they lost 2 quick wickets of their 2 powerhouse and which put them on to the back-foot but Gambhir played captain's innings and helped Daredevils to register thrilling win in last over. Interesting thing in this match was only 3 sixes hit though there were 4 powerful batsman playing which was surprising.

This edition of IPL also shows how much commercialisation of cricket has happened. Funnily now all players looks like advertising medium as they have brand logo stickers all over on their T-Shirts and trousers be it both arms, stomach, chest, back, head, front part of both thigh, only thing that is vacant is bums and I think in next edition of IPL we will see logo stickers on the bums of the players as well ha ha ha........

Today we will see 2 encounters and that is KKR v/s RCB & CSK v/s DC. It is not easy to predict who will win but I must say KKR will start as favourites because they won their last match and again we will some more DADAGIRI. As far as RCB are concerned they rely heavily on their big guns like Kallis and Dravid with support from V.Kohli who is in great form this season. RCB bowling looks formidable as they have Dale Steyn in their ranks.

Coming to other match CSK v/s DC I feel CSK start as favourite here and all eyes will be on MSD how he captains the side. Player to watch out in this encounter will be Thissira Preira who is a great hitter and handy bowler as we all saw in Tri-Series in Bangladesh. As far as DC are concerned they rely on Gilchrist and Symonds, if these 2 click together than I think DC can hope hope to win.

IPL Circus Kicked-Off To Perfection

IPL circus kicked-off with great match between KKR & DC. it was the match in which, team dominated first 10 overs of each innings lost and team which dominated last 10 overs in each innings won. I must say good start is half job done which Chargers did and good finish means mission accomplished which was achieved by Knightriders and they won the match. Sourav Ganguly showed yesterday why he is the most successful captain, its his fighting skills that makes him great. He failed with the bat but his captaincy was spot-on, right from the bowling changes to field placings and didn't panic when Gilchrist and Laxman were blazing and even they dropped few catches as well. Something which was more interesting in Ganguly was, he captained in his typical fashion, showing lot of emotions on the field which he is known for. So great win for KKR and Shahrukh Khan. As far as Chargers are concerned they have to blame themselves as they got dream start in both innings but couldn't hold their nerves till the end.

Coming to today's encounter, I think first encounter will be between two great friends off the field and great rivals on the field. Indeed its been battle between two legends of the game Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne. Both are champions in their own craft and it will be the contest of the tournament and also revive the great rivalry which we saw in past. MI have two most successful bowlers of India in their ranks in Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan which gives them slight advantage over RR.

Another contest will be between Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils and here I can clearly say DD are favourites simply because of their batting line-up as they have Warner, Dilshan, Sehwag and Gambhir as their top 4 batsmen. As far as Punjab s concerned they will miss the services of Brett Lee and Shaun Marsh but good news for them is Sangakkara is in great form and Yuvraj Singh has been also recovered from his injury so I feel it will be good contest with DD starts as favourites with slight edge on their batting.

'Entertainment Kaa Baap' Is On Your TV

'Entertainment Kaa Baap' started on television with extra masti and later there will be mouth-watering contest in opening match between Kolkata Knightriders and Deccan Chargers. Intial stages of this edition of IPL will miss some big names like McCullum, Gayle, Pollard, Pieterson, Michael Hussey,etc. list continues.

Today's clash is between last year's champion and the team which finished last on Podium. I feel this year Knightriders will emerge as strong contender because they have sorted out all their problems related to captaincy and coaching except fake IPL player which remained in news last year more than the team itself. On the other side Deccan Chargers are defending champions and they play hard to retain their title, so all in all good contest will be on display.

For Knightriders, Sourav Ganguly I feel will be key as he is a captain and also off late he is in great form as we all saw in domestic cricket how well played and most important, he has not lost his timing at all and still a god on off-side. For Deccan Chargers player who will be important will be Andrew Symonds. I feel he is one player who can change the course of match with-in over or two.

This IPL edition will see some change in strategy break rule and it is like 2.5 minutes break between 6th to 8th over for batting side and for bowling side it will between 14th to 16th over unlike last year breaks of 5 minutes after 10 overs in each innings. Actually these break not needed but it has more commercial interest than team strategy interest.

So get entertained for next 46 days and forget daily soaps.