KXIP dumped Royals to register 3rd straight win.

 

Unlucky day for Rajasthan Royals as nothing gone their way and lucky day for KXIP as everything fell in place. KXIP now registered 3rd straight win in the tournament and climbed to the 3rd spot and joined Kolkata, Kochi and Mumbai on points table. Rajasthan slipped one place and now on No.5 on points table.

Royals won the toss and elected to field first. Soon they got the breakthrough when Trivedi bowled Gilchrist but there was twist in tale as it was declared no-ball and Gilchrist was lucky enough to survive. Soon Shaun Tait got the wicket of Valthaty but Royals bad-luck continued as this ball was also declared no-ball. After getting reprieve Valthaty and Gilchrist  just   counter-attacked Royals bowling mercilessly as duo put on 67 runs in just 5 overs.Valthaty once again showed his class and his consistent run with the bat continued which also earned him orange cap as he got past Sachin Tendulkar and became highest run-getter in IPL 4. Finally partnership was broken as Watson picked up Gilchrist. But Royals woes continued as Shaun Marsh straight away attacked the Rajasthan bowlers and played shots all over the park.

In the meantime Valthaty continued his heroics and finally fell to Shane Warne who gave him few verbals as well. At 15th over KXIP reached the score of 169 and it looked ominous that KXIP,  easily get past the 200 mark but Royals came back strongly and reduced KXIP to 195. Siddharth Trivedi and Shane Warne were the costliest bowler for Rajasthan Royals as both of them given more than 50 runs of their bowling. Tait and Watson were the most economical bowlers. Shane Warne also picked up his 50th IPL wicket and became 2nd bowler to do so after R.P Singh.

Chasing score of 195 on a flat deck looked easy but Royals batsmen made the mess of the target as they kept losing wickets at regular interval. Once again  Shane Watson was barred from opening the innings as Swapnil Asnodkar who replaced Paunikar opened the batting with Rahul Dravid. But  Dravid, Asnodkar, Watson and Taylor fell in succession and put the Royals in losing situation but young Ashok Menaria and Stuart Binny did the 50 runs partnership which kept some hopes alive for Rajasthan but increasing run-rate pressure forced Menaria and Binny to play the false strokes and after the departure of Menaria and Binny writing was on wall for Rajasthan and finally Rajasthan faced their third loss in six matches and KXIP registered 3rd consecutive victory.

It was unlucky day for Rajasthan Royals where they got the wickets off no-balls, they fielded poorly, batting did not clicked and they dropped too many catches.

Man of the Match

Shaun Marsh

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Top of the table  KKR will take on bottom of the table RCB.

Another exciting battle on the cards at Edens today as depleted RCB will take on jubilant KKR. At the moment KKR is on top of the table with 6 points and RCB is lying on bottom of the table with 2 points. As far as RCB is concerned it is unfortunate that they are at bottom, looking at their team composition they are the most formidable team in this tournament, so it is surprising that RCB has registered just 1 win from their 4 matches.

After loss against Kochi Tuskers, KKR will go into this match with little caution as no one expected them to get the defeat at the hands of Kochi but that happened. It was poor batting which forced their downfall against Kochi. KKR is one team which looks quite formidable this year. They have great team composition which has mixed blend of youth and experienced players. KKR has won 3 matches out of 5 so far in this edition of IPL. KKRs main reason for loss in last match was the early wickets of Kallis and Gambhir who have given them great starts so far in the tournament. Form of Kallis is little concern now as he failed to score in last 2 matches and he is one player who is capable of holding the innings. But Kallis is class act and he will certainly get among the runs today against his ex-team. Manoj Tiwary’s form is excellent and he is improving with every game. KKR bowling is also quite formidable as they have Brett Lee and Balalji who are bowling well at the moment and backed up well by their spinners, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan and Iqbal Abdulla. KKR batting is strong and very deep and that is big advantage to them. Only thing they require is good start from their openers.They have to replace Bisla with young Shreevats Goswami as Bisla failed to improve his batting and Goswami is far better batsmen than Bisla. Also it will give advantage of left-right combination because Goswami is left-hander and he is very good wicket-keeper as well.

Well what to say about RCB. It’s a dream team for any owner certainly. It has likes of Virat Kohli, AB DeVilliers, Tillkaratane Dilshan, Saurabh Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara in their ranks. While bowling consists of Zaheer Khan, Daniel Vettori, Charl Langeveldt. Its great team but not clicking as a unit. Inclusion of Gayle will further bolster their batting line-up; It is one team  which was expected to win consistently but to everybody’s surprise they failed to make any kind of impact in the tournament. Vijay Mallaya reformed this team completely but yet failed to get the desired results, now whom he will sack. RCB is in pathetic situation and they have to start winning games. One more loss and path towards semis  will become more difficult. They have to win against KKR today at any cost as they can’t afford to lose any more matches. They have to gain the momentum and that will happen only by winning the games. So far they relying on two bowlers heavily and only 2 bowlers can’t win match for any team. Team needs efforts from all the members in order to win, so their other bowlers have to perform and  provide support to Zaheer Khan and Daniel Vettori.

KKR will certainly have little advantage today and they will be keen to rub the memories of last game while RCB will try to win at any cost today.

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Team Info:

Kolkata Knightriders

Gautam Gambhir(Captain), Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Jaidev Unadkat, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manvinder Singh Bisla(Wicket-Keeper), Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Shreevats Goswami (Foreign) Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin(Wicket-Keeper), Shakib Al Hassan, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Pattinson.Dave Whatmore(Coach)

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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)

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Chennai Super Kings to play buoyant Mumbai Indians

It is going to be a sequel of last year’s IPL final. Dhoni’s Kings will take on Sachin’s Indians today at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Right now Mumbai Indians are on No.2 on the points table with 3 wins under belt from four matches. While CSK is on No.8 after 2 wins and 2 losses from 4 matches they played so far. Its also revenge time as Mumbai Indians will certainly look to take revenge of last year’s final.

Looking at Mumbai Indians, it is fantastic team and doing very well in the tournament so far. Mumbai Indians are coming into this match with win under their belt over Pune Warriors India. Captain Sachin Tendulkar is in sub-lime form and  Ambati Rayadu is also playing well. Mumbai Indians have class players in their ranks and their batting is far better than some of the other teams in the tournament with Sachin firing from the top. They have hitters like James Franklin, Pollard and Symonds. Youngsters like Jacobs, Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayadu. They have fantastic bowling line-up which boasts of slinga Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim and Ali Murtaza. Mumbai Indians is the most balanced side in the tournament and their performance in the tournament is evidence of that. Icing on the cake is batting of Sachin Tendulkar whose sheer presence on the crease certainly demoralise the opposition team.

Defending champions CSK did not live upto their reputation of Champions so far as they lost 2 matches out of 4. After making great start in the tournament they lost their way somewhat. This match is very crucial for them to regain that lost momentum. They have great batting line-up and also have very good bowling attack. They have magical captain in Dhoni who lead them to the title win  in last edition. Today they will be playing against the team whom they beat in last edition’s final. CSK possess the likes of Mike Hussey, Raina and Dhoni who are great batsmen in shorter version of the game and they have crisis manager in Badrinath who often bail them out of the trouble. They have good bowlers in their ranks as well. Morkel, Bollinger, Jakati, Suraj Randiv, R.Ashwin are capable enough to get wickets anywhere. Fielding is one of the strong aspect of CSK compared to o0ther teams. Today’s game against Mumbai is very crucial for CSK and they have to win to regain that lost momentum.

Mumbai Indians will certainly have little edge in this game and CSK have to play hard to win this game.

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Team Info:

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar (c), Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Ali Murtuza, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Surul Kanwar, Surya Kumar Yadav, T Suman, Yazvendra Singh Chahal, (Foreign) Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, James Franklin, Moises Henriques, Alden Blizzard, Dilhara Fernando

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Team Info:

Chennai Super Kings

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha(Wicket-Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Aniruddha Shrikant, Ganapathi Vignesh, K Vasudevdas, Shadb Jakati, Vijaykumar Yomahesh, (Foreign) Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis. Stephen Fleming(Coach)

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Waste of talent in Indian Cricket. Truth or Myth?

 

Recently Greg Chappell quoted as saying Australia can’t afford to waste talent like India does because India is having talent in abundance. I completely agree to the Greg Chappell atleast on this point that Indian Cricket have talent in abundance and our cricket board is certainly wasting the talent. Although we won the World Cup and we are No.1 in test cricket. Indian team have to keep performing to maintain the glory of these achievements and for that we require big pool of players.

Lets look at history of Indian cricket.  Starting from 1983, Sunil Walson was in Word Cup squad of 1983. He did not play single match before the World Cup for India, during the World Cup and never played cricket for India after World Cup. Very talented player but failed to play single game for India even though becoming part of World Cup winning squad. Waste of talent.

Laxman Shivramakrishnan, very talented leggie hailed from Tamil Nadu but played for 2-3 years only and his career never flourished. He is now renowned commentator. Waste of Talent. Leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani made a dream debut against West Indies in Chennai and picked up 16 wickets in his debut game but failed to prolong his career much. Played few games after that match and then lost somewhere. He is now member of selection committee.Waste of Talent.  Sadanand Vishwanath and Nayan Mongia, both very talented wicket-keeper who played for India only for very short period and then faded away. Waste of Talent.

Off-Spinner Rajesh Chauhan played important role in India’s success during 90s, later on labeled as throw bowler. He undergone the test also to prove that his action was correct but cricket administrators in India did not supported him and he also lost somewhere. Remember he was part of the team which white-washed English team in 1993.Waste of Talent. Rajesh Chauhan, Anil Kumble and Venkatpathy Raju formed best spin bowling attack for India in 90s and trio won lot of matches for India at home.

Atul Wassan, Vivek Razdan, Subroto Bannerjee, Salil Ankola, Abey Kuruvilla, Tinu Yohannan, T.Kumaran, Debashish Mohanty, these are the names of fast bowlers who played for india for very brief period and then lost their way. Who says India don’t have potential to produce fast bowlers. India produced the fast bowlers but failed to preserve them from injuries and cricket board didn’t gave them enough opportunities as well and dropped them after one or two failure.  Waste of Talent. David Johnson, very few cricket lovers know about him. He was India’s fastest bowler once and he bowled with round arm slinga action much like Lasith Malinga. He played for India in few games in 90s but later on labeled as throw bowler and thrown out of the cricket. Cricket administrators didn’t even fought for him. Serious Waste of Talent. Now Malinga  bowling with same action and his action is legal.

Praveen Amre, middle-order batsmen form Mumbai. He was also disciple of Ramakant Achrekar and Sachin’s mate. Very talented batsmen and made dream debut in South Africa in 1992-93 series as he hit century on debut in South Africa against the likes of Allan Donald, Fanie DeVilliers, Brian McMillan and Craig Mathews. Played very few test matches after that series and faded away as he was dropped after one failure and never made it to the Indian team.Waste of Talent.

Mukund Parmar, captain of Gujarat Ranji Team during 80s and 90s known as run-machine in domestic circuit and he scored tons of runs in domestic season and hit centuries and double-centuries consistently but never made it to the Indian team even though scoring bulk of runs in domestic cricket.  Yere Gaud, very talented batsmen, playing for  Railways in Ranji Trophy and recognised as special talent and scored plenty of runs but never got the chance to play for the Indian team. Waste of Talent.

Jacob Martin, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Atul Bedade hard-hitting batsmen, Shiv Sunder Das opened for India in few test matches successfully, Akash Chopra, now playing for Rajasthan, played for India during 2002-2003 season. These are the names who emerged on the scene with a storm but lost their way and never made a comeback. Irfan Pathan, potential all-rounder, Robin Utthappa, very talented opening batsmen, list continues

There are many more players and if I mention all of them then I think I need atleast 3 to four blogs posts to accommodate them. Indian cricket was never short of talent and will not going to have any shortage in future as well but we don’t have the system in place to preserve these diamonds. Our administrators are more inclined towards money and selectors are biased towards the players of their respective zones which does not help in spotting and preserving the genuine  talent. Take an example of Murali Vijay he failed miserably in ODIs yet he was getting chances because he hails from Tamil Nadu from where chairman of selection committee belongs. So he is getting special favor in selection.

We have more talented players than Murali Vijay but they are not getting enough opportunity because they don’t have any god-father. We have likes of Robin Utthappa, Sourabh Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Abhishek Nayar, Umesh Yadav, Bhubneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron, Deepak Chahar, Pankaj Singh, Joginder Sharma, Faiz Fazal, Chetehswar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Menaria  and list continues but these players are not getting chance to play for India because they don’t have special reference. So it is true that  India have a talent in abundance but our administrators are ignoring these serious talents and hence these talents are wasted.

its time to preserve this abundance of talent, so that we can consistently get the players like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS laxman, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan,etc.

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

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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

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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)

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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)

Warnie magic worked again. Tendulkar and Rayadu shines in Mumbai win.

Warnie magic worked again.

Winning 2 out of 2 is the story of Rajasthan Royals and Losing 2 out of 2 is the story of Delhi Daredevils. So far Delhi Daredevils looked completely out of sorts in IPL 4 and Sehwag not firing from the top is hurting them even more. Delhi Daredevils are paying  price of the mistakes done by their owners who didn’t retain their star players except Sehwag and bought the players who don’t have much ability. One or two brilliant performances here and there will not going to help much. So Daredevils and Sehwag have to come good in coming matches. Venugopal Rao and David Warner saved Delhi yesterday from embarrassment as both help Delhi to reach respectable total.  Rao played the innings of IPL 4 yesterday and Warner also shined but those efforts gone in vain as Rajasthan Royals win the match convincingly as Delhi bowling was completely out of sorts just like their top-order batting.

Warnie’s magic worked again and under his captaincy Rajasthan Royals is doing quite well. Whatever Warne is doing as captain is giving him optimum results. If we talk about personal performance of Warne, He is spot on every time he comes to bowl. Yesterday Warnie picked up 2 wickets in one over and put the Delhi on  back-foot. So Warnie is leading from the front and that is creating magic in this team as every player is determined to do well. Apart from Warnie’s captaincy, Shaun Tait bowled the fastest delivery in India which clocked around 157.7 Kms, quite thrilling that delivery was. At this moment Rajasthan Royals looks formidable side. Rahul Dravid played brilliant knock of 38 yesterday. He was positive in his approach and played the shots all over the park. His classy batting showed that T20 is not only about bang-bang. Its more than that and if you play good cricketing shots then also you can succeed in T20.

Delhi left with lot of soul searching and Rajasthan is full of confidence and slowly becoming the force in IPL 4.

Man of the Match

Shane Warne

Tendulkar and Rayadu shines in Mumbai win.

Genius of  Tendulkar did it again for Mumbai. Mumbai registered comprehensive win over formidable Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai is repeating its IPL 3 performance in IPL-4. They have won 2 out of 2 and now topping the points table.Tendulkar is in sublime form and that doing wonders for Mumbai. If we look at Top 2 teams in IPL 4 there is great similarity in their success.  Rajasthan Royals won 2 out of 2 and Warne is leading from the front and same is the case with Mumbai Indians as well. Sachin is performing and Mumbai is winning. Tendulkar ended up with brilliant half-century and he also helped young Rayadu to play the dream innings. Rayadu played fantastic innings and never looked in any kind of trouble. It was clearly Tendulkar effect. Tendulkar shared his Man of the Match award with Rayadu which was again great gesture from great cricketer.

Malinga once again provided early breakthrough to Mumbai Indians with his lethal toe crushing yorker. RCB was completely looked out of sorts against superb Mumbai bowling as free-flowing players like Dilshan and DeVilliers looked like tied down as they failed to score freely against Mumbai bowling. RCB posted small total for Mumbai to chase and Mumbai chased it down quite comfortably. So now RCB have 1 win and 1 loss under their belt. Mumbai also executed their plans well against Zaheer Khan as their opener Jacobs went after Zaheer Khan initially and negated his effect completely. That was really master tactic from Mumbai Indians which helped them in winning this match quite easily.

Man of the Match

Sachin Tendulkar

Kings XI will face Super Kings.

After disappointing start to their IPL 4 campaign Kings XI Punjab will face defending champions Chennai Super Kings in Mohali. Chennai is a very formidable team to beat, so it will going to be a tough task for Gilly and his boys to beat Super Kings. Under Dhoni’s magical captaincy Chennai has started it IPL 4 campaign on successful note as they beat formidable KKR in opening game. On paper CSK looks far better and settled team compared to Kings XI Punjab which has under gone complete make over. Kings XI looks very weak in IPL 4 if compared to last 3 seasons. Gilly’s captaincy is the only hope for them but Gilly as a batsmen is still a big doubt. In his prime Gilly was force to reckon but after retirement he looks ordinary with the bat.

Kings XI also don’t have big names in its line-up. Like Delhi Daredevils they also made the mistake and failed to buy right players for their cause. On the other hand Chennai retained their key players and bought the same players in the auction who played for them in last 3 seasons. Chennai is a far better and settled team and they are favourites in this contest.

Team Info:

Chennai Super Kings

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha(Wicket-Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Aniruddha Shrikant, Ganapathi Vignesh, K Vasudevdas, Shadb Jakati, Vijaykumar Yomahesh, (Foreign) Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis. Stephen Fleming(Coach)

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)

Kochi will face Warriors challenge.

Kochi bowling have to show their mettle when they face formidable Sahara Pune Warriors in Navi Mumbai tonight. Batting came good for Kochi in the first match but it was their bowling which failed to defend 161 on pitch which had little assistance for the seamers. Sahara Pune is full of confidence after their win against Kings XI Punjab.

Kochi bowlers including Sreesanth have to fire because Kochi batting is quite good.  On the other hand Sahara Pune is having fantastic team and doing well under the leadership of Yuvraj Singh who is in tremendous form this season with both bat and ball. Sahara have very good batsmen in their ranks and that is helping them in excelling in this tournament. They already won their opening match while Kochi yet to open their account of victory in the tournament. Both teams have made their debut in IPL this year and it will be interesting to see who wins the battle today. Sahara Pune are favourites.

Team Info:

Kochi Tuskers

VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth, RP Singh, Parthiv Patel(Wicket-Keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Ramesh Powar, R Vinay Kumar, B Akhil, Chandan Madan, Deepak Chowghule, Kedar Jadhav, Raiphi Gomez, Sushant Marathe, Tanmay Srivastava, Y Gnanswara Rao, Yashpal Singh, Prashant Padmanabahan, (Foreign) Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Brendon McCullum(Wicket-Keeper), Steven Smith, Muttiah Muralitharan, Brad Hodge, Thisara Perera, Steve O'Keefe, Owais Shah, Michael Klinger, John Hastings. Jeff Lawson(Coach)

Sahara Pune Warriors

Yuvraj Singh(Captain), Robin Uthappa(Wicket-Keeper), Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Bhuvenshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Ekalavya Dwivedi, Ganesh Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Harshad Khadiwale, Kamran Khan, Manish Pandey, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish MIshra, Rahul Sharma, Sachin Rana, Shrikant Wagh, Shrikant Mundhe, Imtiyaz Ahmed (Foreign) Graeme Smith, Tim Paine, Angelo Mathews, Nathan McCullum, Callum Ferguson, Wayne Parnell, Mitchell Marsh, Jerome Taylor, Alfonso Thomas, Jesse Ryder.Geoff Marsh(Coach)

History in the making! Preview: Bangladesh V/s South Africa

Its a game which matter the most in the tournament. Result of the game between Bangladesh and South Africa will play crucial role in deciding the fate of four teams from Group B which is known as 'Group of Death' as well.  Victory of Bangladesh over England changed all the permutations of Group B and I think England will be cursing themselves over the defeat against Bangladesh. So what this game holds? 

This is the most crucial match for Bangladesh in the history of their cricket and it will give them chance to create an history. If Bangladesh win this game they will qualify for the quarter-finals of the Cricket World Cup for the first time and this day will register as golden day in the history of Bangladesh cricket. I believe key to Bangladesh's success depends on the pitch and the spinners and I think Bangladesh cricket administrators will certainly provide the rank-turner to the Proteas. We all know teams from outside sub-continent struggles against quality spin especially when they are playing in sub-continent and Bangladesh have lot of spinners in their ranks which is not very good sign for the South African batsmen. Batsmen like Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal and Captain Shakib Al Hasan have to score big runs in order to put pressure on South Africa and if this trio fires then anything can happen but Bangladeshi batsmen have to face the raw pace of Morkel and Steyn upfront and if these two bowlers will be confronted well then Bangladesh can think of winning the game. 

If we talk about South Africa, they played like champions in this World Cup so far. Although they lost to England but that was near contest. I think match against India made them very strong and given them great momentum. If they lost that match against India then situation would have become more difficult for them but they hold their nerves in that game and inspite of getting lot of hit in first 15 overs from India they came back strongly and snatched the victory from the jaws of defeat. No doubt they are the most balanced side in this World Cup but they often crumble under-pressure but they got rid of that weakness in the match against India. They already made into quarter-finals but they will be going into this match with the intention of winning it and try to sustain the momentum ahead of knock-out stages. Injuries to their key players like AB DeVilliers and Imran Tahir must be a little worry but I think both Tahir and DeVilliers will get fit ahead of the match against Bangladesh. I think this match will going to be very important match for Greame Smith as well as he has not fired with the bat so far in the tournament and he has the chance tomorrow to hit some batting form ahead of the crucial knock-out stage. If Smith hits the form then I believe Proteas will become more strong and even invincibles.

So great game ahead of knock-out stage, probably the most important and crucial match of the ICC Cricket World 2011. Teams like India, West Indies and England will keep close eye on this game because this is the game which will more or less decide, who will qualify for the quarter-finals from Group B. This match also have the capability of creating history in World Cricket and most important game for all the Bangladeshi fans.

Team India will go through acid test against Proteas ahead of QF

Team India's serious World Cup campaign starts from tomorrow with the match against Proteas. So far India were playing weaker teams in the tournament and yet they struggled. So Indians will be under tremendous pressure going into this match. India have lot of worries in  bowling, fielding, running between the wickets and top-order batting but remember India have little edge over Proteas according to the statistics of recent times and that suggests out of last 10 ODIs against Proteas, India won 6 of them. Something which can give boost to the Indian team but over all record of India against Proteas is poor which suggests out of 65 ODIs Proteas won 39. But when we talk about recent performance Indian team have little edge. 

 India's main worry in this World Cup is its bowling. So far bowling failed to pick up early wickets except for one match against Ireland. Indian bowlers are certainly struggling on the flat pitches of sub-continent. India's main worry are its regular spinner in Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, both failed to impress so far in the tournament. Harbhajan Singh have picked up only 2 wickets in 4 games although his economy is quite good but remember he is attacking bowler and expected to pick wickets rather than containing the batsmen. What to talk about leggie Piyush Chawla, 2 top wicket-takers in the tournament are leg-spinners and this guy Chawla struggled to pick the wickets in the conditions which favours the spinners and his economy is also poor. India is clearly struggling with 3rd seamer as well and captain Dhoni is completely confused in picking up right combination and that confusion reflects in his statements. I believe they have to continue with 2 pace -2 spin combination and they must replace Chawla with Ashwin in the game against South Africa just to check whether Ashwin fits the bill or not ahead of the knockout stage. I think  not playing Ashwin so far, Dhoni did it deliberately. I think he wanted to introduce him in a big match like this as a surprise package and I believe this can prove master-stroke as well.

Fielding and running between the wickets is also very big area of concern. India struggled badly in the outfield. India fielders allowed opposition batsmen to pick singles easily and also allow them to convert singles into 2s and 2s into 3s and thats not going to help because the opposition team supposed to get 270 in normal circumstances is ending up with 300 or more means 30-40 runs extra just because of poor fielding and extra pressure on Indian batting as well. India has dropped quite a few catches as well. If we look at the match against England Strauss was dropped by Harbhajan when he was new to the crease later in the same match Virat Kohli dropped Ian Bell and both these batsmen took the match away from India. Had those 2 catches taken then I believe result of that match would have been different. So lot to improve in the fielding and I think India have to employ faster fielders on the boundaries and slow fielders in the close-in because singles are anyways available even though field is up but it is important to stop extra runs which are taken when ball goes near the boundary and slow fielders don't able to throw the ball back quickly enough. India have to improve running between the wickets as well. So far we have seen India clearly struggled in this area as well in the tournament. In the first match Tendulkar got out because of poor calling. I think calling have to be precise and batsmen have to work hard in nets to set the good rhythm with their partners while running between the wickets, so that they can be in a sync with their partners in match while running.

Indian top-order batsmen are also struggling and they have to come good now, because one failure can cost dearly. Sachin, Shewag, Gambhir and Kohli have to bat well and out of these four, tow players have to take the anchor role. I think Sachin and Kohli have to play the role of anchor and Gambhir and Sehwag have to go after the bowling and that will be ideal situation for the middle-order batsmen where you have hitters like Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan who can easily capitalise on the good start given by the top-order batsmen. So Indian top-order have to take some responsibility and one or two of them have to carry their bat through the innings. We have seen how Indian team struggled to chase scores in last two matches where top-order failed. However, Yuvraj's form with both bat and ball is a big plus for India.


Squad:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni(Captain/WK), Virender Sehwag(Vice-Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel. Gary Kirsten(Coach)

Talking about Proteas, I think they are the most balanced side in the World Cup.   Amla and DeVilliers are in great nick and batting looks very good as they possess one of the best batting line-up in the world which includes star batsmen like Jacques Kallis. However Kallis is not among the runs so far in the tournament but he is big match player and against India he is terriffic and in the match against India he will definitely going to make a big score because he loves Indian bowling very much..Proteas won  their first two matches  convincingly but lost to England in a cliffhanger and that will be playing on their mind in this match and they will certainly play better cricket compare to the match against England and will not going to repeat those mistakes which they did against England. Proteas lower-order batting is a bit of concern which often cracks under-pressure and they have to work on this weakness. I think they must promote Morne Wan Vyk up the  order and send Kallis or DeVilliers down the order just to consolidate the lower middle-order.  

Proteas are the best bowling side in the tournament in terms of pace and accuracy. They have great variation in their bowling department. They have two terrific opening fast bowlers in Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and Indian batting is quite vulnerable against genuine pace and bounce. They possess great spin weapons in leg-spinner Imran Tahir, left-arm spinner Robin Peterson and off-spinner Johan Botha but since Tahir is injured I think they will go in with Johan Botha. They can also think of playing Lonwabo Tsotsobe who had great success against India in the last series and pace is also the Indian weakness so there is no harm in going with pace attack. Felding is the Proteas biggest asset and I must say Proteas starts as favourites to win this game. Imran Tahir is the joint second leading wicket-taker in the tournament and he was trump card for Proteas in previous matches but I think he play or don't play doesn't matter in the match against India because Indians play spin well.


Squad:

Greame Smith(Captain), Hashim Amla, Jacque Kallis, AB DeVilliers(WK), Morne Van Wyk(WK), Jean-Paul Duminy, Collin Ingram, Faf DuPlessis, Johan Botha, Robin Peterson, Imran Tahir, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell. Corrie Van Zyl(Coach)

Wicket at VCA Stadium in Nagpur will going to be a belter and will allow score in excess of 300 if teams bat well. I think toss will not going to be a factor in this match because wicket will going to be the same for entire 100 overs and there is no problem of dew as well because we are in mid-March. VCA stadium have the history of big scores. So it will going to be run-feast for the batsmen and nightmare for the bowlers especially Indian bowlers who need some assistance from the wicket.