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Preview: Chennai Super Kings Vs Kolkata Knight Riders

April 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Chennai Vs Kolkata IPL T20 cricket match in Chennai

  Get ready for IPL 4. 2011 IPL T20 Cricket tournament. Opening ceremony will be held at 6 PM and match will start at 8 PM in Chennai. Best performer in IPL history will take on the worst performer in IPL history. Chennai always reached semi-finals in IPL while Kolkata never make it to semi-finals in the 3 editions of IPL. But, Kolkata made massive changes and bought wonderful players. These group B teams have the potential to reach knock-out round irrespecive of the result in this match.   Nostalgic moment: Who can forget the sensational performance of Kolkata in the first game of IPL 1 against Royal Challngers? Can Kolkata able to repeat hisotry?  Surprise: Chennai boy L. Balaji will play against Chennai. He played for Chennai in IPL 1, 2 & 3.     Match timing: 8 PM on April 8 (Don't miss opening ceremony before the match)  Stadium: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai   Analysis of Chennai & Kolkata squads:  Note: Doug Bollinger and Brett Lee are not available for Chennai and Kolkata respectively.  Chennai Super Kings:  Cool captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni may not give Kolkata a chance to create sensation in the opening game of IPL 4. Dhoni may use his best bowler R. Ashwin to control Kolkata (Gambhir) in the initial overs. Absence of Doug Bollinger is a problem. I am interested to see how Dhoni will control maverick hitters like Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan. Chennai will try to expose Kolkata's weakness in the bowling.  Crucial players: M.S. Dhoni, Suresh Raina and R. Ashwin.  Kolkata Knight Riders:  Owner Shahrukh Khan is expecting better performance from his team in IPL 4. It … [Read more...]

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Sahara Indian Premier League Awards 2010

April 24, 2010 by 1 Comment

 With the third edition of the Indian Premier League(IPL) entering the stage of grand finale amidst all the high-voltage controversies and allegations, the evening of April 23 witnessed the presentation of the first ever IPL Awards. The glittering ceremony which took place at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai was embarked by the presence of the best from the world of entertainment and sports. However, strengthening the reports of the BCCI-Modi spat, the bigwigs of the BCCI gave a skip to the event. The BCCI top brass including the BCCI President Shashank Manohar and the Secretary N Srinivasan along with the IPL Vice-chairman Niranjan Shah remained absent from the Sahara Indian Premier League Awards function. Those who marked their attendance at the event were the IPL Governing Council member Sunil Gavaskar and former BCCI President Inderjit Singh Bindra who is the Principal Advisor to the International Cricket Council (ICC). Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, who turns 37 this Saturday, grabbed the viewers’ choice award for the Best Captain for turning out to be a superb captain leading from the front and taking his team, the Mumbai Indians, through to the finals of the IPL tournament for the first time in the last three years. He also won the award for the Best Batsman, being the highest run scorer in this season of the League, though he gave a miss to the event along with the Chennai Super Kings skipper M.S.Dhoni. Pragyan Ojha received the award for the Best Bowler while Suresh Raina took away the award for the Best Fielder in the viewers’ choice category. Keiron Pollard of Mumbai Indians, who happens to be the costliest player of his team in this year's auction, was adjudged the Best Debutant performer for the season by the jury. … [Read more...]

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IPL 2010: Player’s Performance

April 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment

 IPL-3 is in final stage with Mumbai, Bangalore, Deccan and Chennai qualified for the semi finals. Mumbai will take on Chennai in the final and rest two will fight for the 3rd spot. Teams like Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders have only themselves to blame, they had plenty of riches within their ranks for their vapid show, others like Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab neither had the firepower nor the form to help their cause. These four teams, which failed to make to semi final, paid the price for the lack of form of their key players, names which promised a lot, but delivered a little. Let’s have a look at performance of top players from these four teams. Yuvraj Singh (Kings XI Punjab)Matches: 14 Runs: 255 Highest: 43 Average: 21.25 S/R: 128.14He was in news for all other reasons except his batting!!Stripped from captaincy, Yuvraj didn't do his reputation any good by being one of the biggest flop stories of this campaign. Even Yuvraj did come out with his own statement saying there is no problem within the side. Kumar Sangakkara (Kings XI Punjab)  Matches: 13 Runs: 357 Highest: 56 Average: 29.75 S/R: 138.91 If the outgoing captain of Kings XI Punjab was struggling to find form, the incumbent fared only marginally better. Kumar Sangakkara's 42-ball 56 against Mumbai Indians was a match-winning effort, but most of his other contributions were forgettable may be because of captaincy pressure on him. S Sreesanth (Kings XI Punjab)Matches: 6 Wickets: 3 Best Bowling: 2-24 Average: 63.66 E/R: 10.05 The Kerala speedster is never in the news for his performances. In the inaugural edition, we remember him for crying in public after the 'Slapgate' incident. But … [Read more...]

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IPL T20: third place play off

April 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment

 Play offs for 3rd place for this year’s IPL offers the incentive of a place in the next T20 Champions League. The Royal Challengers take on the Deccan Chargers in Mumbai on Saturday and RCB are the favourites. Team News: Bangalore Royal Challengers: Who can pick themselves after semi final disappointment? The Royal Challengers were comfortably beaten (35 runs) by the Mumbai Indians in Wednesday’s semi final whilst The Chargers fell 38 runs short when chasing a modest Super Kings total on Thursday. Both the semi finals were played in Mumbai and both were won by the side batting first. Despite the comfortable winning / losing margins in the semi finals both RCB and Deccan had their chances. RCB got the prize wicket of Tendulkar early doors and looked to be on their way to restricting Mumbai to a manageable total until a combination of slack bowling and awesome hitting saw Mumbai cut loose and eventually post 184/5. RCB were never really in the chase. Meanwhile the Chargers restricted the Super Kings to 142 and were trading deep in the red at the interval before failing miserably in the chase. Royal Challengers would look forward to Jacques Kallis rediscovering his magic touch that gave them a superb run in the earlier part of the tournament. The Bangalore team has tried out Manish Pandey and Rahul Dravid in the opening slot to accompany Kallis with mixed results. In the lower order, Robin Uthappa has given them a flourishing finish on a few occasions with his clean hitting. The team would look forward to the youngster with powerful shoulders to do the bidding against the Chargers along with Kevin Pietersen at the top. RCB skipper Anil Kumble said his team had two days at its disposal after losing by … [Read more...]

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IPL : Cricket or Carnival ?

April 22, 2010 by Leave a Comment

 When the IPL started in 2008, its huge popularity made one feel that it would serve the cause of cricket. Now, one is doubtful. IPL venues look more like carnivals instead of grounds where cricket is played. Cricket shares the limelight with team owners who grace the VIP stands and dugouts with their family and friends. The owners are usually bigwigs in the movie and corporate world. Cheerleaders prancing and ear-blasting music are the hallmarks of an IPL match. Pictures of post-match parties which players are compulsorily supposed to attend are splashed on Page 3 of tabloids and newspapers every day. These activities have hardly anything to do with cricket. They are more like marketing gimmicks to attract people who have no actual interest in the game. A true blue cricketer will surely be interested only in cricket and would indulge in activities like parties only in his leisure time. The staunch cricket fan also comes to the stadium to just enjoy the game of cricket. He is not interested in watching Shahrukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty or even Vijay Mallya. Even a fan watching the game on TV would prefer to watch it on silent mode minus all the noise and would barely tolerate the innumerable advertisements which keep popping up. The recent scams reported in the media have not helped matters any. A cricket lover watching the match would keep wondering if the game being played is clean and if any murky deals are going on behind the scenes? The off-field googlies of IPL-3 are reminiscent of the time when the betting scam involving Hansie Cronje, Herschelle Gibbs and others, had surfaced. Names of some of our own cricketers had also cropped up. That was a very difficult time for cricket and the sport lost many of its fans. One hopes that IPL does not … [Read more...]

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First IPL Semi-final preview: Mumbai Vs Bangalore

April 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment

 The first semi final in IPL 3 sees the Mumbai Indians take on Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday. The fact these two meet in the semis comes as a surprise to many, who thought they'd only lock horns in the final. Mumbai are favourites after topping the table but any side with Bangalore's batting line-up can't be written off. Venue and Conditions: After 56 games in IPL 3 the eight teams have finally been whittled down to four and now it's time to get serious. The first semi final will see the Royal Challengers Bangalore take on the Mumbai Indians and for the winners the spoils couldn't be higher: a place in the final and also a guaranteed spot in the lucrative Champions League this autumn. Originally this match was scheduled to be played in Bangalore, but given there were two explosions before the last Bangalore home game, it has now been switched. Fortunately for Mumbai the game is now to be played in Mumbai, at the huge Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, where 60,000 Sachin Tendulkar fans will be out in force to cheer on their hero. Only two IPL matches have been played there so far so there are no obvious trends but the wicket does appear to provide assistance to the spinners. Team News:  Mumbai Indians: Mumbai rested a number of players for their dead rubber match against Kolkata, so expect to see many changes from that game. Tendulkar, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Zaheer Khan will all come back in, while Dwayne Bravo will likely be the most high-profile overseas player to miss out. As recently as last weekend, the Mumbai Indians hammered the Royal Challengers by 57 runs in Bangalore. Mumbai were ruthless on the day as they were already assured of their semi final place. … [Read more...]

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IPL Teams and Bollywood ownership – Jinxed

April 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment

 Things just don’t seem to be working out for IPL teams owned by Bollywood actors, a fact very noticeable in the 3rd edition of the Indian Premier League. Is it just a coincidence that all the 3 teams languishing at the bottom of the points table have Bollywood stars as owners/stake holders or are such teams jinxed? Sure, the stars have added glitz and glamour to the tournament. But they have not succeeded in ensuring positive results. One cannot dismiss this as a one-off case which has occurred only in IPL-3. Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders has never been a contender for the top four slots in any IPL season. The deepening worry lines on his face when the team loses makes one feel sorry for him. In the case of team Kings XI Punjab, actor Preity Zinta may have become a co-owner by virtue of being the beau of industrialist, Ness Wadia. In the first season of IPL, they ranked 2nd in the points table. In IPL-2, when there were rumours of a split between Preity and Ness, they slipped to 5th position. And in the current season, the official split seems to have affected the team's morale and the results are there for all to see. The team is at the bottom of the score ladder notwithstanding Preity Zinta’s cheering and her dip in the holy Ganga at Hardwar. The Rajasthan Royals, remember, won the cup in the 1st edition ; and then Shilpa Shetty (who suddenly was in the limelight due to the 'Big Brother' show ) purchased a stake along with business partner, Raj Kundra. Things have been going steadily downhill for the team since then. Last year they were at number 6 and as of now they are but one step away from the bottom. Being brand ambassadors for teams is a better way of association with the IPL with no risk involved. This has … [Read more...]

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IPL Game: Delhi Vs Hyderabad

April 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment

 Sunday's second IPL game is a straightforward affair in which the winners are guaranteed a place in the semi-finals. Pre tournament favourites Delhi will take on reigning champions Deccan. This is a fascinating contest between two teams who have got their acts together in time to be in with a chance of the semi-finals. Venue and Conditions: Pitches have deteriorated as the tournament has gone on and the Feroz Shah Kotla seems to have suffered the most. Delhi was skittled out for 111 here last time on a slow track that offered variable bounce and prodigious turn. Team News: Delhi Daredevils: Delhi's worry is indifferent form of their top order batsmen particularly explosive opener Virender Sehwag. He has not done much damage so far and the attacking batsman would love to break the shackles. If he gets going, nothing could be better than that for Delhi. Skipper Gautam Gambhir has played a vital role in keeping the team in contention and the youngster would surely be aiming to see his side through tomorrow. Going by present form, Delhi's chances rest on a good show by their bowlers, especially their opening fast bowlers Dirk Nannes and Ashish Nehra and spinner Amit Mishra. Delhi will surely recall Daniel Vettori on this pitch but they will have a tough call over which of their overseas players to drop and it could be that Tillakaratne Dilshan returns to the bench after the briefest of recalls. Deccan Chargers: Deccan have been a settled unit in recent games and their only real decision is whether to bring back Herschelle Gibbs in favour of Mitchell Marsh. Delhi have their task cut out as Deccan's young players like Rohit Sharma and T Suman, guarding the middle-order, have the … [Read more...]

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IPL: Tales of money, politics and family

April 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

 Time was when the grouses against IPL were that it resulted in players being overworked, that the cheerleaders’ costumes were against Indian culture and that the focus was on film stars instead of cricket. This was baby talk compared to the issues being raised now. Now we know that the IPL Commissioner's brother-in-law has a stake in an IPL franchise; his stepson-in-law holds the web rights for IPL. We already know that a member of the BCCI has a stake in another IPL franchise. Looks like the great men in the cricket board who rule the cricketers with an iron hand have not heard of something called 'clash of interest'. Also, a minister in the Central Government 'blesses' the formation of a new franchise and the lady who is rumoured to be his love interest gets a 'free' stake in the franchise. She of course claims that it is 'sweat equity' for advice rendered to the franchise. And as if all this was not enough, the IPL Commissioner, Mr. Lalit Modi, who seems to be greatly troubled over the allotment of the Kochi franchise, vents out his ire on Twitter. One would think that a person of his stature would use a proper forum to present this issue. It looks more like he is bent on disqualifying the Kochi franchise, Rendezvous Sports World as well as disturbing Mr. Shashi Tharoor's already fragile ministerial post. The match off the field , that is the Modi-Tharoor spat is now providing more entertainment than the actual matches. With skeletons tumbling out of various cupboards, one realises that IPL is not just about cricket and entertainment now. One can now hear about franchises routed through tax havens which obviously indicate money laundering activities and of pressures to allot franchises to particular business entities. It does look … [Read more...]

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Preview: Mumbai Indians Vs Royal Challengers

April 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

 "Two giants of the game - Tendulkar and Kallis - come together when Royal Challengers and the Mumbai Indians meet in Bangalore on Saturday. Venue and Conditions: The first game of the day takes place at the M Chinnaswamy stadium as the Bangalore Royal Chargers host the Mumbai Indians. The average first innings score at the stadium is 166, suggesting that it is not an easy track to score on. However, that average is dragged down by Rajasthan's abysmal tally of just 92 all out earlier in the tournament and Bangalore's reply of 93 without loss in 10.4 overs provided evidence that there are no gremlins in the pitch. Trivia: • Mumbai have suffered the least run-outs in the competition - only four to date in 12 matches. • Kallis has scored ten fifty-plus scores in the IPL (all seasons), Tendulkar is joint-second with eight. • Across all three IPLs, Harbhajan Singh has been the stingiest bowler, conceding an average of 6.41 an over. Anil Kumble is a close third, with 6.52. • Bangalore has been the most boundary-happy venue this year, with 57.66% of the runs scored there coming in boundaries. Only Cuttack has a higher ratio - 59.76%. • Mumbai have been the best batting side in the last six overs, scoring at 11.04 an over. Team News: Bangalore: This is Bangalore's final round robin match and victory will certainly guarantee them a place in the semi-finals. They have made hard work of it so far and they could still miss out though their net run rate makes that unlikely. Seven wins and six defeats puts them level on points with the Daredevils and the Chargers but they are well ahead on run rate and a win here would be a giant stride towards securing second place and a home semi final. They … [Read more...]

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