Words on Cricket: Deccan Chargers

Showing posts with label Deccan Chargers. Show all posts

Thursday, April 28, 2011

No scarcity of fast bowlers

Batting of Team India don’t have any worry as there is enough talented batsmen available in India anytime. It was shortage of quality fast bowlers which caused lot of worry and raised lot of questions whenever our experienced fast bowler decided to retire. India never had luxury of six seven quality fast bowlers playing in same era. India always had only one quality fast bowler who carried all the load of fast bowling and around him few mediocre bowlers played but never gave enough support. So question raised who is next? Right now Indian cricket is going through purple patch and everything falling in place. India is No.1 in test ranking, won the World Cup, No.2 ODIs, doing well in T20 but only question that haunts among all these success and that is do India have the quality fast bowlers or who is next Zaheer or next Kapil or next Srinath?

Right now India have good young quicks and waiting for their opportunity. First and foremost name is Deepak Chahar from Rajasthan. He is 19 years old and made his Ranji debut this season against Hyderabad and what a sensational debut that was. Rajasthan bowled out Hyderabad for just 21 runs in that match and Chahar was instrumental in that collapse as he picked up 8 wickets for just 10 runs. He is among Top 3 wicket-takers, this Ranji season. His bowling played crucial role in Rajasthan’s first Ranji triumph. He possess lethal out-swingers with good pace.

Another guy who stormed into the scene is Varun Aaron from Jharkhand. He is 21 years old. He is currently India’s fastest bowler. He came into lime-light when he bowled the fastest ball which clocked 153.7 km on speed gun in Vijay Hazare ODI tournament against Gujarat. He consistently bowls at 150+ speed. He struggled with few back injuries earlier in his career but he recovered well and now known as Jamshedpur express in domestic cricket. Currently he is playing in IPL for Delhi Daredevils. One more shining star from Jharkhand after Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Saurabh Tiwary.

Umesh Yadav play for Vidarbha in Ranji Trophy. He is 23 years old. Umesh is very sharp and quick. He consistently hits the 145 km mark. His bouncers are very lethal, ask Sachin Tendulkar, who was hit on the head while practicing against Yadav in nets. He is playing for Delhi Daredevils in IPL. He got into Indian team and toured South Africa last year but did not get the opportunity to play the game on that tour. He played couple of ODI games for India last year. Good prospect.

Ishant Sharma, everybody knows about him. Very talented young bowler, made sensational debut in Australia couple of seasons back. He is 22 years old. He came into lime-light when he troubled Ricky Ponting and picked his wicket. After that he lost his way somewhat and did not play consistently for the country. He missed the World Cup as well. But IPL 4 has given him new life as he is bowling fast and looks in great rhythm. He picked up his first fiver of IPL yesterday against Kochi where he bowled unplayable deliveries to Kochi batsmen. It looks like he worked hard on his fitness and on his bowling during lay off.

Jaydev Unadkat is more bowler who emerged from Saurashtra. He is 19 years old. He came into lime-light in last year’s IPL when Akram praised him and express high regards for this youngster. He is left-arm bowler. He had consistent Ranji season. He was selected for South Africa tour last year and made his debut in 3rd test match of the series. Although that outing was not impressive as he remained wicket-less in that game. But he is young and under Akram’s guidance, he will become real force in future.

Abu Nechim, playing for Assam in Ranji Trophy. He is 22 years old. Another very talented young quick bowler. Abu bowls at the speed of 140+ km consistently with very good line-length. He is playing for Mumbai Indians in IPL and done well at domestic level.

So India have serious bowling talent and this talent is waiting for their chance eagerly. They are raw and quick. Good thing is that they all are under 23 years of age and bowling at 140+ km speed consistently. BCCI have to give them chance in coming series against West indies and nurture them for future as India have to play lot of cricket this year. Currently India is blessed with good fast bowling talent and BCCI and selectors have to blood these youngsters in the team and give them enough opportunity and also support them even if they don’t do well in 2 or 3 games. In past, India never had so many options in fast bowling, but now India have the option and its time preserve these young fast bowlers and help them in becoming world class performers. The country which had scarcity of fast bowlers, now have plenty of them at their disposal but will BCCI give them enough opportunity is a big question because talent is nothing without opportunity.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Kochi making giant strides in IPL 4

Kochi beat last year’s runner-up Mumbai Indians to register their first win and registered their 2nd consecutive win by defeating defending champions Chennai Super Kings yesterday at Kochi. Kochi Tuskers started their IPL campaign on a sad note as they lost their first 2 matches and written-off completely by cricket pundits. But this team has made giant strides after first tow losses and now playing like a champions. Great turnaround indeed.

Kochi won the toss and elected to field first and soon this decision of Mahela Jayawardene proved right when Kochi got the wicket of most prolific CSK batsmen Mike Hussey. Raina and Vijay tried to build the partnership but Vijay carried away too much and caught plumb in front of the wicket while playing across the line. At this point rain interrupted and when game resume it was shortened by 3 overs each innings. Badrinath departed soon after the rain break and MS Dhoni joined Raina. The way both of them playing it looked like CSK will post huge total but at wrong juncture Raina got run-out after scoring brilliant 50. Morkel and Dhoni carried the innings but CSK was reduced to 131 in their allotted 17 overs and D/L method set the target of 135 for Kochi.

Jayawardene and McCullum once again gave superb start to Kochi innings and took the score to 40. Jayawardene tried to clear the infield but caught at covers in the bowling of Ashwin. Parthiv Patel got the promotion and he came to bat at No.3. McCullum and Patel did fantastic partnership and put the Kochi Tuskers at the doorstep of victory before getting out. After that it was easy for Jadeja and Hodge to finish the game quickly and they did that in style. It was fantastic display of team-work by Kochi as they registered their 2nd win of the tournament and it was unlucky on the part of CSK that rain interrupted at wrong time and robbed the CSK momentum.

It was great win for Kochi and now Kochi Tuskers have gained the great momentum and looks threatening for other teams. CSK have to work hard on their game and have to grab the opportunities which comes their way if they want to retain their champions title.

Man of the Match

Brendon McCUllum

Deccan and Delhi will fight to get up from the bottom.

Deccan and Delhi are the two teams which is languishing at the bottom of the table and these teams will fight to recover from bottom of the table. Both teams have on 1 victory under their belt though they have lot of talented players in their side.

It’s a home game for Delhi so wicket will going to be slow and low which means it will assist the spinners. Delhi Daredevil will rely heavily on their openers Sehwag and Warner to give them quick and solid start because their middle-order is bit weak. If captain Sehwag and Warner play out the first 10 overs then it will going to be easy for Delhi to post or chase any score. Form of Venugopal is also very good from the Delhi perspective. Venugopal is the unsung hero of Delhi team. Delhi also have likes of Naman Ojha, Aaron Fynch and Irfan Pathan who can score quick runs at the end. But all these batsmen have to apply themselves to get out of the messy situation. Delhi team is weak compared to last year but they are not that bad. If their top 2 batsmen fire then they will be able to beat any team in the tournament. Delhi team will go into this match with lot of confidence from their last win over Sahara Pune Warriors.

As far as Deccan is concern they are not clicking as a unit. They won only 1 game out of 4 they played so far and nothing is going their way. They won against RCB and broke the home jinx but lost the last match against Kings XI Punjab. They have very good players in their ranks and only thing needed from their perspective is to play sensibly and grab the opportunities they get in the field. They have very good captain in Sangakkara who is also one of the great batsmen. They have good bowling line-up which includes Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Daniel Christian. They have all the ingredients of champion team but only thing they lack is the focus. So they have to focus hard.

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)

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)

Royal battle on the cards.

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore started their campaign with win in this edition of IPL. Rajasthan even went on to win its second game as well but after that both the teams lost their way somewhat in the tournament and now playing catching game. RCB is far better side on paper compared to Rajasthan Royals but it is not firing at the moment. While Rajasthan is struggling with the injuries to its key players.

RCB have the best and strong batting line-up among all the teams playing in IPL. But their batting is not clicking according to their liking. Both Dilshan and DeVilliers are not firing simultaneously and last nail was put in the coffin by management as they are constantly changing the batting –order. I think if RCB have to win then they have stop experiments. Virat Kohli is in superb form and he is No.3 but why he is coming at No.4 is still a quiz. They have players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Saurabh Tiwary who can bat up the order but both are batting after No.5. AB DeVilliers is batting at No.5 is also sensless. RCB have to re-think their strategy and sent their best batsmen up the order rather than experimenting with pinch-hitters like Zaheer Khan and Asad Pathan. Bowling is also not clicking though they have quality bowlers in their ranks. Likes of Zaheer and Vettori can do wonders to any team but somehow bolwing is also under-fire. RCB have to lift their game today as they can’t afford to lose this game and they have little edge over Rajasthan Royals in terms of resources.

Rajasthan Royals lost twice to KKR after winning their first 2 games of the tournament. In the last match they were handicapped due to injuries. Rajasthan Royals are champions of first edition and they carry great reputation. They have to play right combination today and Shane Watson have to shoulder more responsibility with the bat. They have good hitters in their team. Ross Taylor and young Ashok Menaria can change the game in couple of overs if they get the great start. They also have to change their bowling combination little-bit by bringing in young Deepak Chahar who is in great form right now. Rajasthan Royals have magical captain in Warnie who is bowling at his best and this is a big advantage.

So it will going to be Royal battle today.

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:

Rajasthan Royals

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

Saturday, April 16, 2011

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 be

st 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.

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)

Team Info:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

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.

Team Info:

Deccan Chargers

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

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

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

Friday, April 15, 2011

Jubilant RR will face KKR. Kochi will take on Sachin’s team.

Jubilant RR will face KKR

Two matches and two that’s the tale of Rajasthan Royals. The team which did not had enough funds during auction to buy good players is giving good teams run for their money under the magical leadership of legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne who is their coach also. Today they will face new look Kolkata Knight Riders at Jaipur.

So far Rajasthan Royals beat Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils which did not look like formidable side so far. Game against KKR will give clear idea about Rajasthan Royals because KKR is far more formidable team compared to Deccan and Daredevils. So big test ahead for Warnie and his team. If Shane Watson will be included in Rajasthan Royals then it will become far more formidable. So far Rahul Dravid, Johan Botha has done good job with the bat and Shane Warne is leading from the front, so things looks bright for RR but KKR is too good team.

KKR is the team which lost its first match against defending champions CSK but came back well to win its next match against Deccan Chargers. This year KKR got the face-lift as owner of KKR bought new players in auction. Gambhir, captain of KKR is the costliest player in IPL 4 as he fetched $2.4 million in auction. He is in good form right now and will look to win this game for KKR. Yusuf Pathan is the another key player in this line-up. He was with Rajasthan Royals for last 3 seasons so his inputs will definitely help KKR. Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan has joined this team and this makes KKR more formidable. So far their bowling lacked some teeth but with inclusion of Lee, bowling becomes far more potent. Manoj Tiwary is in good touch in middle-order. Jacques Kallis is providing them best of the starts, so KKR is favorites to win this contest.

Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

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)

Kochi will take on Sachin’s team.

Losing 2 out of 2 is the story of Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Big test ahead for them as they take on Sachin led Mumbai Indians today at Mumbai. Kochi batting looked good in both the matches but their bowling has been very poor. Both RP Singh and Sreesanth are going over 10 runs an over in opening spell and also failed to pick up early wickets. Kochi is one of the tow new teams included in this edition of IPL and so far their performance is disastrous. They have very good captain in Mahela Jayawardene but he failure with the bat causing lot more trouble to Kochi team. They have good all-rounder in Ravindra Jadeja but his batting abilities have been not utilised properly so far. Kochi have to find ways to win the game against Mumbai and winning against Mumbai Indians will going to be uphill task because Mumbai Indian is far more superior than Kochi. But Kochi have to win this game at any cost just to gain momentum.

On the other hand Sachin led Mumbai is doing very well. They won both their matches so far. They defeated formidable team like RCB and their confidence is sky high at the moment. Malinga is providing them early wickets and Sachin is leading from the front in batting. Youngsters like Ambati Rayadu and R.Satish are doing well in the company of Sachin. Mumbai Indians has continued their good run and gaining great momentum with every match. They have likes of Kieron Pollard, Jacobs and Harbhajan Singh in their ranks who can turn the match anytime. So Mumbai starts as favorite in this game.

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

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)

Deccan broke the home jinx as they beat RCB

RCB started as favorites in this match. They won the toss and elected to field first which tilted the match slightly more in their favour as pitch was having greenish look. But hats-off to Deccan batsmen who batted brilliantly on pitch which had something in it for the bowlers and put up more than competitive score on the board. It was one of the day when Deccan never put the foot wrong in entire match. Batting came good, bowling and fielding complimented the batting well and finally Deccan managed the win at home after all the previous losses.

Deccan replaced Ishank Jaggi with Sunny Sohal, the ex-Kings XI player. Dhawan and Sohal opened the innings for Deccan in this match but Dhawan fell cheaply in trying to up the scoring. It looked like, once again Deccan will falter but Sangakkara and Sohal knitted good partnership between them which provided the platform to their middle-order to put up huge score. After dong brilliant partnership Sanga fell but in came ex-RCB boy Bharat Chipli who played brilliant knock and scored brilliant half-century against its ex-team and took the score past 170. RCB bowling failed to make an impression in this match though pitch was favouring the bowlers. Their was clear lateral movement available off the pitch yet Deccan bowlers failed to use it.

Chasing marginal big total RCB lost its momentum very early as they lost Mayank Agarwal, Dilshan, Ab DeVilliers and Sourabh Tiwary in quick succession. Vettori sent Zaheer Khan as a pinch hitter but that move also back-fired as Zaheer faced 3 balls and scored none and Steyn bowled him. RCB was in all sorts of trouble but Virat Kohli and Pujara did wonderful partnership and kept the RCB hopes alive. Especially Kohli played brilliant innings but when run-rate goes past 15 then it becomes difficult for any batsmen to keep up with the run-rate and if he tries to do so then often he lose his wicket and that’s what happened with Pujara and Kohli. Both tried to up the scoring but lost their wickets in the process. It was heartening to see that Ishant Sharma was consistently hit the high 140 km speed mark in this match and he looked in good rhythm while he was bowling. Few of his deliveries clocked over 150 km speed as well. This spell of his certainly give him lot of confidence as he bowled with speed and maintained good line and length throughout the spell.

Before this match Deccan lost all its home matches but they managed first win on home soil and hopefully this will give some momentum to Deccan campaign. Bharat Chipli batted brilliantly for Deccan. RCB has lost some momentum after win in first match as they lost two consecutive matches and need to re-think over their strategy. RCB have the best batting line-up among all the teams in IPL.

Man of the Match

Dale Steyn

Thursday, April 14, 2011

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.