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).
