Confident KXIP will take on depleted Delhi at Kotla

 

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.

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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CSK will not take Kochi Tuskers Lightly

After great victory over Mumbai Indians, Kochi will take on defending champions CSK at Kochi. Looking at last match performance of Kochi, CSK will not going to  take Kochi lightly that is sure. CSK is defending champion and most importantly it is the most consistent team of IPL, so it will definitely have upper-hand in the contest.

CSKs Bating is bolstered with the inclusion of Mike Hussey who played brilliant innings of 83 in the first match he played in IPL 4. CSK also have in-form batsmen in their ranks as all of them got the runs under their belt in the tournament. M.Vijay, Raina, Dhoni, Badrinath, S.Aniruddha are capable enough to score big runs at brisk pace. CSK also have advantage of having two all-rounders in Albie Morkel and Scott Styris. CSK bowling is their strong point  as they have Bollinger, R.Ashwin, Albie Morkel, Suraj Randiv and Shadab Jakati in their ranks. Icing on the cake is the brilliant captaincy of MS Dhoni which is huge plus for CSK.

As far as Kochi is concerned they lost their first two matches but stunned everybody by scoring the win over Mumbai Indians in Mumbai. They defeated Mumbai in a nail biting contest which has given them much needed momentum. They have very good players in their ranks but in the first two match they did not play as a unit, but they corrected their mistake in a match against Mumbai and played like a unit and won the game. Laxman, McCullum, Jayawardene, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel forms good batting line-up. Bowling also have the names like RP Singh highest wicket-taker in IPL, S.Sreesanth, Muttiah Muralitharan, etc. but somehow their bowling did not click in last 3 matches but with confidence of win under their belt, they will definitely come out with improved bowling performance. Also they played on true and flat surfaces which did not help their bowling.

If pitch will have some grass than it will certainly help Kochi because on dry wickets they will struggle against the spin trio of CSK. So it will interesting to see what kind of wicket Kochi curator offers for this match.

CSK take on RCB. DC Face KXIP

CSK will take on RCB at Chepauk

Both CSK and RCB coming in this match with the defeat under their belt. CSK lost to KXIP which was bit surprising and RCB lost 2 matches consecutively after winning first game. So, as far as momentum is concern it is more with CSK rather than RCB which is looking for desperate win. As far as resources are concerned both teams looks par.

CSK have M.Vijay, Badrinath, Raina, Dhoni, Albie Morkel and Michael Hussey in their ranks as a batsmen and as far bowling is concerned they have the best suited bowling line-up for Chennai wicket. They have 3 good spinners in R.Ashwin, Suraj Randiv and Jakati who can be very dangerous on turning Chepauk wicket.Chennai also have the advantage in captaincy as they have magical captain in MS Dhoni who has also got his batting form back. So this makes Chennai more dangerous.

As far as Royal Challengers are concerned they have illustrious batting line-up. They have likes of Dilshan, DeVilliers, Sourabh Tiwary, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara. In bowling they have Zaheer Khan, Daniel Vettori, Van Der Wath, Dirk Nannes. So RCB is equally good team. Only thing they lack is x-factor in captaincy. Vettori looked completely out of sorts in last two matches and Vettori have be more pro-active.

Nobody is favorite in this game and this will going to be cracker of the contest.

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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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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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Jubilant Deccan will face rejuvenate KXIP.

Both the teams coming in this match with win under their belt in their last match respectively. As far as resources are concerned Deccan is having slightly upper hand. But T20 is such contest where the team which play better cricket on a day wins. So resources don’t matter too much as far as this match is concerned. Both teams have seasoned wicket-keepers at the helm of the affairs. Deccan is captained by Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara while KXIP is lead by legendary Adam Gilchrist.

Both the teams have few good youngsters in their side and so far those youngsters have done well. Paul Valthaty played magnificent century innings against CSK and won the game single-handedly for KXIP while Bharat Chipli is playing consistently well for Deccan Chargers. Chipli played superb half-century innings against RCB which helped Deccan to register its first win IPL 4. So there will be lot of pressure now on Chipli and Valthaty to score runs consistently and prove that they are not one match wonder.  As far as bowling is concerned Deccan is far better with Steyn Ishant, Mishra, Gony and Ojha in their ranks while KXIP have only Chawla and Praveen Kumar.

Its going to be entertaining contest and Deccan will certainly have little edge over KXIP.

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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)

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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

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Gambhir and Kallis tame Rajasthan Royals

It was thoroughly clinical performance by KKR which saw them home quite easily against Rajasthan Royals. Gambhir and Kallis stuck to the task and helped KKR to win the game quite comprehensively. Rajasthan looked off-colour in bowling today and fielding standards also dropped a bit as they dropped 3 catches.

KKR won the toss and elected to field first on pitch which initially had something in it for the bowlers but Rahul Dravid and Paunikar started cautiously but in 5th over Rajasthan lost its first wicket in Paunikar. Watson was expected but Warnie sent young Menaria at No.3 who stitched good partnership with Rahul Dravid for the 3rd wicket, just when partnership was looking dangerous, Gambhir introduced Yusuf Pathan in the bowling who picked up both Dravid and Menaria in his first over and put Rajasthan on back-foot. But Watson and Taylor knitted little partnership which helped Rajasthan in reaching good score on wicket which was bit stopping. Pathan and Shakib  bowled well but other KKR bowlers including Brett Lee  looked ordinary. Both Shakib and Lee were played in this match and now KKR is at its full strength.

Chasing 159 of RR score, KKR lost Bisla quite early but captain Gambhir and Jacques Kallis build superb century partnership and helped KKR win the game. Both score half century and remained not-out. Gambhir looked in very good touch today right from the word go and probably given full return to KKR owners against his price at which he was bought in auction. Kallis is in superb form and KKR now looks formidable force in year’s IPL. This time KKR will definitely make it to the Top 4. KKR is sure shot contender for semi-final berth.

It was fantastic batting by Kallis and Gambhir which entertained the crowd and not to forget Rahul Dravid once again played superb knock before getting out. Return of Shane Watson didn’t help the cause of RR.

Man of the Match

Gautam Gambhir

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Sachin scored century but Mumbai lost to Kochi

It was beautiful evening at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with Queens Necklace in backdrop. Thousands of fans rushed to Wankhede Stadium to watch the match between Mumbai Indians vs Kochi Tuskers and fans did not disappointed either as the match proved out and out entertainment. Sachin scored his maiden IPL century, Ambati Rayudu scored yet another swashbuckling half-century, Brendon McCullum hitting Malinga with ease and Jayawardene played artistic innings.

Kochi won the toss and elected to field first on a pitch which had little bounce and swing. Tendulkar was lucky enough to survive 2 close LBW shouts but he took full advantage of those chances and played brilliant shots all over the park.  He scored magnificent century and dominated the bowlers completely. Sachin’s brilliant innings also included MS Dhoni’s signature ‘Helicopter Shot’.  Sachin executed Helicopter shot to the perfection and proved that their is no better improviser than him in the game of cricket right now and everyday he adds something new to his batting. Ambati Rayudu played brilliant knock and scored his 2nd consecutive half-century. Rayudu matched Tendulkar stroke by stroke and later on sacrificed his wicket for the Master in last over. It was brilliant display of batting at Wankhede Stadium. It was maiden IPL century for Sachin Tendulkar. He is also highest runs scorer in IPL 4 so far and he is yet to be dismissed in this edition of IPL.

After reaching the score of 182, everybody including Mumbai Indian team though they won the game but Kochi Tuskers had other ideas. Coming into this match with two losses under their belt, it was really uphill task for Kochi to win this match but at the the same time it was important to win this match at any cost. Jayawardene this time came to open the innings with McCullum. Lasith Malinga bowled brilliant delivery upfront which almost cleaned up McCullum but Rohit Sharma made a mistake and dropped the easy catch of McCullum. Here on Kochi started hammering Mumbai bowlers severely.

McCullum was severe on Malinga and did not allow him to settle down at all. First time Malinga came under pressure in IPL. Sachin introduced Pollard but he proved more costlier than Malinga as McCullum and Jayawardene tore him apart. Both knitted century partnership between them. Harbhajan also failed to make an impact with wet ball as dew also played its part in Mumbai’s loss.  McCullum was hitting the ball hard while Jaywardene looked like an artist who sketched his innings brilliantly. Finally at the score of 128 Mumbai Indians succeeded in getting the breakthrough as Malinga bowled his Sri Lankan team-mate Jaywardene. Ravindra Jadeja was promoted up the order and he also didn’t disappointed either. He scored brilliant 25 and remain not-out till the end and helped Kochi Tuskers in registering their first win IPL 4. McCullum played brilliant innings of 81 and he was key architect of Kochi win.

Man of the Match

Brendon McCullum

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)