Brendon McCullum and Kochi Tuskers captain Mahela Jayawardene upstaged Sachin Tendulkar's maiden Indian Premier League century as Mumbai Indians' bowlers failed to defend a score of 182 for 2.
McCullum and Jayawardene, who opened the innings instead of VVS Laxman as the elegant Indian batsman was ruled out of the match because of an injury shortly before the toss got the run chase of 183 to an outstanding start as the duo added 128 runs for the first wicket inside 14 overs. This opening stand gave Kochi the perfect launch pad to carve out one of the biggest upsets of the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League.
While McCullum was at his aggressive best and took the attack to the Mumbai Indians' bowling attack starting with their spearhead Lasith Malinga, while Jayawardene kept the scoreboard ticking over by playing some exquisite and copybook cricketing shots to prove that big shots aren't always needed in Twenty20 cricket. Malinga was surprisingly off- colour and his second over cost 17 runs with McCullum hitting three of the four boundaries in that over. McCullum and Jayawardene were also helped by some shoddy fielding by Rohit Sharma and Ali Murtaza respectively. While McCullum was dropped by Sharma at first slip off Malinga in the first ball of Kochi Tuskers' innings; Murtaza put down Jayawardene at backward point in the sixth over.
These two lives apart, McCullum and Jaywardene were on top of the Mumbai Indians' attack for the majority of their innings. McCullum was the first of the two to reach his half-century when he took two runs off R Sathish to reach the landmark in the 41st ball he faced before Jayawardene reached his half-century shortly afterwards. And, just when it looked as though McCullum and Jayawardene (56 in 36 balls) would take the Kochi Tuskers home, Malinga pulled out one of his dipping incoming yorkers to clean bowl his Sri Lankan teammate. Malinga then came back to clean bowl McCullum for a well-made 81 in 60 balls (10x4, 2x6) to give Mumbai Indians an outside chance of winning the match, but Ravindra Jadeja, who was promoted to No. 3, ensured Kochi Tuskers would win their first IPL match as he hit consecutive sixes off Murtaza to help KTK upset Mumbai Indians. Jadeja remained unbeaten on 25 (11 balls) as Kochi Tuskers chased down the target of 183 with eight wickets to spare in the penultimate over.
Munaf Patel (3-0-15-0) was the pick of Mumbai Indians' bowlers; but Malinga (2-42) and Pollard (3-0-43-0) had a nightmare outing with the ball. Harbhajan Singh too failed to take any wickets and this only exposed the over-reliace Mumbai Indians have on Malinga to dismiss the opposition batsmen.
Earlier, Tendulkar survived a couple of LBW shouts very early in his innings and was fortunate on both occasions that umpire Paul Reiffel turned down Vinay Kumar's vociferous appeals. Replays showed though the ball would have clipped the leg stump on the first appeal and taken out the off stump in the first ball of the fourth over when the second appeal was made. These scares apart, Tendulkar never looked in trouble and wasn't put under any pressure by Kochi Tuskers' bowlers, and he even pulled out a helicopter shot ala MS Dhoni towards the end of Mumbai Indians' innings.
Tendulkar was well supported by the impressive Ambati Rayudu as the pair added 116 runs for the second wicket in just over 11 overs. Rayudu, who joined Tendulkar in the middle after Davy Jacobs (12 in 21 balls) was clean bowled by Raiphi Gomez in the ninth over with Mumbai Indians' score on 61; looked in imperious touch and treated most of the KTK bowlers with disdain. He hit three boundaries and four sixes, including two consecutive massive hits off Gomez in the 11th over of the match which cost 18 runs. Rayudu made 53 runs in 33 balls before he was run out in the last over of Mumbai Indians' innings.
Meanwhile, Tendulkar was going strong at the other end as he hit boundaries at regular intervals and rotated the strike. He reached his half-century in the first ball of the 14th over; the 43rd of his innings and had seven hits to the fence. Tendulkar then moved gears with alarming ease as he took 20 runs of the 16th over bowled by Vinay Kumar as he hit two sixes and a four in that over. Tendulkar reached his century off the last ball of Mumbai Indians' innings to remain unbeaten on 100 (66 balls, 12x4, 3x6). Tendulkar, who has now scored 201 runs in IPL-4 without being dismissed once also wrested away the Orange Cap from Kolkata Knight Riders' Jacques Kallis (187 runs).
RP Singh was by far the best of the KTK bowlers and conceded only 15 runs in his four overs. Vinay Kumar (0-48), Thisara Perera (0-38) and Gomez (1-29) all had a day to forget; and Ramesh Powar, who replaced Muttiah Muralitharan, bowled a solitary over for 12 runs.
SOURCE-yahoo cricket
Friday, April 15, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Delhi Daredevil's (DD) vs Mumbai Indians
DD vs MI: Malinga's 'fiver' helps Mumbai rout Delhi by eight wicketsNEW DELHI: Lasith Malinga bowled yorkers at will as his deadly five-wicket burst helped Mumbai Indians crush Delhi Daredevils by eight wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Sunday.
The match was supposed to be a fight between Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag but it was the Sri Lankan slinger who emerged as the hero in the end. Malinga's figures read a stunning 3.4-1-13-5 with four of them being cleaned up unplayable yorkers. It is the third best figure in the IPL after Sohail Tanveer (6/14 for Rajasthan Royals) and Anil Kumble's (5/5) efforts. Malinga's effort was all the more laudable as Kotla track is considered to be not so conducive for pacers. After Kemar Roach's hostile spell against the Netherlands in the World Cup, Malinga again showed that raw pace can be intimidating for the lesser known players.
Barring Sehwag, this Delhi Daredevils team doesn't have good enough players to survive the rigours of top flight Twenty20 and it was proved in the manner they faced the Mumbai Indians bowling.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
kochi lost against banglore
Kochi Tuskers Kerala were given a tough initiation to the IPL, as Royal Challengers Bangalore chased down 161 without a lot of trouble at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi. AB de Villiers smashed five sixes in a 40-ball 54, steering the chase home with a comfortable eight balls remaining.
Kochi have had multiple management problems coming into this tournament. A happy debut seemed on cards with Brendon McCullum and VVS Laxman putting on 80 in nine overs after they elected to bat. Mahela Jayawardene called 160 as the score he wanted and they finished at 161. Local hero S Sreesanth then dismissed Bangalore opener Tillakaratne Dilshan in his first over.
Jayawardene controlled Bangalore's chase till the 18th over. But the game fell in Bangalore's lap with the introduction of the little-known Kerala all-rounder Raiphi Gomez. Bangalore still needed 33 when de Villiers scored three sixes off the seamer's over that went for 20. Asad Pathan then smashed three fours of the penultimate over from Vinay Kumar to settle matters.
Ravindra Jadeja has been riled by cricket followers in India for his all-round ineffectiveness while playing for the national team. Last year, he got into trouble with the IPL authorities for trying to negotiate his own price with Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. He was banned for a year, but Kochi bought him for an eye-popping $950,000 at the player auctions in January.
His first game back to the IPL, Jadeja scored a quick 23 off 16 including a straight six off Zaheer Khan. He then bowled four relatively tight overs, taking the wicket of Mayank Agarwal who had batted confidently for 33, and had greeted Muttiah Muralitharan to the crease with a slog-sweep for six.
Earlier, Laxman matched McCullum stroke for stroke in scoring a delectable 36. He slogged Tillakaratne Dilshan for six over midwicket, then forehanded Abhimanyu Mithun down the ground for another six.
McCullum seemed like he was in the same mental space as he was during his record-breaking 158 that kicked off the inaugural IPL against the same team. The New Zealander charged Zaheer Khan in the first over, forcing him through cover for four to get the innings going.
Dirk Nannes' first three balls were greeted with similar hostility. The first, a full delivery on the stumps was smashed clean through extra cover. The second was under-cut to third-man for four. The third, a retaliatory short ball, was spotted early and clubbed to midwicket for six.
Having raced to 61 in the first six overs, 180 could have achieved. But both openers were dismissed in quick succession. Laxman slogged Dilshan to deep midwicket's hands while McCullum was caught at short third-man trying to scoop Nannes over the wicketkeeper. One reason why Kochi couldn't get 180 was Bangalore skipper Daniel Vettori.
The Kiwi spinner bowled four overs for 17, dismissing Mahela Jayawardene. Since the introduction of T20 cricket, Vettori has consistently been among the most economical bowlers of the format.
With Vettori controlling the middle overs the way he does, tough challenges await Bangalore's opponents this year.
Kochi have had multiple management problems coming into this tournament. A happy debut seemed on cards with Brendon McCullum and VVS Laxman putting on 80 in nine overs after they elected to bat. Mahela Jayawardene called 160 as the score he wanted and they finished at 161. Local hero S Sreesanth then dismissed Bangalore opener Tillakaratne Dilshan in his first over.
Jayawardene controlled Bangalore's chase till the 18th over. But the game fell in Bangalore's lap with the introduction of the little-known Kerala all-rounder Raiphi Gomez. Bangalore still needed 33 when de Villiers scored three sixes off the seamer's over that went for 20. Asad Pathan then smashed three fours of the penultimate over from Vinay Kumar to settle matters.
Ravindra Jadeja has been riled by cricket followers in India for his all-round ineffectiveness while playing for the national team. Last year, he got into trouble with the IPL authorities for trying to negotiate his own price with Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. He was banned for a year, but Kochi bought him for an eye-popping $950,000 at the player auctions in January.
His first game back to the IPL, Jadeja scored a quick 23 off 16 including a straight six off Zaheer Khan. He then bowled four relatively tight overs, taking the wicket of Mayank Agarwal who had batted confidently for 33, and had greeted Muttiah Muralitharan to the crease with a slog-sweep for six.
Earlier, Laxman matched McCullum stroke for stroke in scoring a delectable 36. He slogged Tillakaratne Dilshan for six over midwicket, then forehanded Abhimanyu Mithun down the ground for another six.
McCullum seemed like he was in the same mental space as he was during his record-breaking 158 that kicked off the inaugural IPL against the same team. The New Zealander charged Zaheer Khan in the first over, forcing him through cover for four to get the innings going.
Dirk Nannes' first three balls were greeted with similar hostility. The first, a full delivery on the stumps was smashed clean through extra cover. The second was under-cut to third-man for four. The third, a retaliatory short ball, was spotted early and clubbed to midwicket for six.
Having raced to 61 in the first six overs, 180 could have achieved. But both openers were dismissed in quick succession. Laxman slogged Dilshan to deep midwicket's hands while McCullum was caught at short third-man trying to scoop Nannes over the wicketkeeper. One reason why Kochi couldn't get 180 was Bangalore skipper Daniel Vettori.
The Kiwi spinner bowled four overs for 17, dismissing Mahela Jayawardene. Since the introduction of T20 cricket, Vettori has consistently been among the most economical bowlers of the format.
With Vettori controlling the middle overs the way he does, tough challenges await Bangalore's opponents this year.
2nd IPL T20
Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals, 2nd IPL T20
April9,2011
IPL Statistical Highlights:
§
Hyderabad
# Deccan Chargers (137/8) have registered their lowest total against Rajasthan Royals, surpassing the 140 for eight at Jaipur in 2008. # Siddharth Trivedi (3/15) has recorded his best bowling performance for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.
# Trivedi has got his first MOM award in the IPL.
# Botha (67 not out) has recorded his first fifty at the IPL.
# Amit Singh has bagged three wickets for 35 runs, taking his wickets' tally to 15 at an average of 12.73 in nine matches.
# Shane Warne has taken his wickets' tally to 48 at an average of 25.95 in 46 games. He now needs two wickets to complete 50 wickets in Twenty20.
# Kumar Sangakkara has posted his third duck in the IPL - his sixth in Twenty20.
# Deccan Chargers have lost by eight wickets - their third defeat by such a margin to Rajasthan Royals.
# Rajasthan's aforesaid triumph is their sixth in seven games against Deccan Chargers in the IPL.
# Deccan Chargers have maintained thier record, losing all ten games at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad.
Friday, April 8, 2011
END OF THE DISCUSSION
REASON WHY GANGULY IS OUT OF THE
LEAGUE
The IPL has decided that Sourav Ganguly will not be allowed to play in the IPL after there were rumours that one of the teams wanted to purchase him from outside of the auctions. However the governing council has said that the IPL dream for Ganguly was over given that there were three teams who had opposed the move and hence there was no way that Ganguly could be brought in.
This makes sense. The rules clearly specify that no player can be bought from outside the auction if his name has already made the auctions. Why would the rules be bent for a particular player, whether he is a Ganguly or a Tendulkar is beyond me.
There is a growing debate on whether or not we are insulting a legend like Ganguly by keeping him out. Time to do a reality check – this is the 21st century and what matters is results and what the corporate feels. If there is a sense that a particular employee is not good enough to be a team-man, he is given the pink slip even in the biggest of organisation.
End of matter.
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