IPL :- Mumbai Indians thrashed Chennai Super Kings

The dream to see Jaysurya and Sachin open for the same team finally came true after a long wait and it didn't dissapoint the supporters. Mumbai Indians thrashed Chennai Super Kings by 9 wickets and with more than 6 overs to spare. Set to win 157, Mumbai Indians reached their target in 13.5 Overs and loosing only Sachin Tendulkar' s wicket.

Dhoni and Badrinath made sizeable contribution from Chennai's team. Badrinath made his second fifty(53) of the tournament and Dhoni made 43. Set to win 158, Mumbai Indians started in rockling fashion with Jaysurya in a punishing mood. He made 114 in 48 deliveries with 9 fours and 11 sixes. Tendulkar, playing his first match of the IPL, looked off color and made 12 in 16 deliveries with a six and a four. He was bowled by an in-cutter from Joginder Sharma, the way he has been bowled out the maximum times.

Jaysurya was declared the man of the match for his match wining performance. Mumbai Indians have started their second leg on a good note and with this win Mumbai Indians have got 8 points and are tied on points with Delhi Daredevils. For sure it is going to be a nice fight for top 4.

IPL - Chennai Super kings defeated Kings XI Punjab

In the 31st match of the IPL Chennai Super Kings showed that they are definitely super and defeated the kings from Punjab. In the first half of the tournament, Hussey single -handedly took the match away from Punjab Kings XI. After the 3 international stars, Hayden, Hussey and Oram, left the Chennai Super Kings they lost 3 straight matches and Dhoni had to do something different. Dhoni took few matches to try out different things especially at the top order. He has finally been successful in coming up with a winning combination. They have won now 6 matches in 9 matches and stand second the points table.He has also improved his batting average in the tournament and is placed 3rd in the list of top scorers in the tournament. He has also started to show glimpses of his cool and composed captaincy that he showed in the world cup.
The competition for the top 4 is really hot now with 6 teams in the fray: Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians.

Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers would have to win all the remaining matches to have a chance of qualifying and that is looking very difficult now.

First Hat-Trick of IPL

Ever smiling Laksmipathy Balaji took the first hat trick of IPL. His victims who helped him to get the feat are Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and VRV Singh. He had the final figures of 24-5 in 4 overs.
His other victims include Shaun Marsh and Ramnaresh Sarvan.

IPL - ICON players on sale but who wants them

Lalit Modi, the brain behind Indian Premier League, has made it very clear that ICON players can be dropped or can be bought by other franchises. I feel there are more chances of ICON players being dropped except Yuvraj and Sehwag. No franchise will be willing to pay close to 4 crore to get the likes of Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Lakshman in their team.

In fact Rahul and Lakshman are among the top scorers from their side but the problem is that these guys are not good leaders. After resigning as the captain of Indian team, Rahul should not have taken up the captaincy of Bangalore Royal Challengers. The team Royal Challengers is more of a challenge outside the field (to its owner and CEO )rather than to the opposition. The part of the blame should definitely go to the captain and to his team selection.

The case of Saurav Ganguly is entirely different. He was and is afraid of fast bowlers and keeps getting out to them quite regularly. He has not been able to score at all in this edition of IPL so far. His captaincy is lacking and he is no longer showing the confidence as he used to when he was at the helm of Indian team.


VVS Lakshman looks lost on the field. It is Gilly who looks to be making more decisions on the field. One could see the way Deccan Chargers performed under Gilly. They had the confidence and desire to win the match that was lacking in the team in the previous matches.

All these ICON players never appreciated the fact that Indians are the world champion in T20 format of cricket. No one including Sachin Tendulkar came out to appreciate the young Indian team that won the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa. Every now and then, these people keep trying to undermine the achievements of the youngsters in this format of cricket. This is what Saurav Ganguly said on the way youngsters have out performed seniors, includng himself. "Let's not jump up and down too much at their performance in Twenty20. As a player, I'd love to see them perform in five dayers and 50-over games. That's where the real test lies". Is this what is expected from a veteran like Saurav Ganguly. Who would want a guy like him to be the captain of their team? Youngsters would not be able to perform at all under this kind of leader. This is a 180 degree shift for a person who once used to support and encourage youngsters. The reason being that he has understood that his days in the world of cricket are numbered, he is trying to save his ass.

Players like Nayar from Mumbai Indians, Asnodkar from Rajasthan Royals have done really well in this edition of IPL. It would be in the interest of franchises owners to catch these kinds of talents as they have contributed same or more than ICON players for fees that is way less than what ICON players are getting. This will also help in improving the cricket in India as these so far unknown guys will get chance to rub their shoulders with the best of international and national cricketers like Gilly, Shane Waney, Pollock, Yuvraj and many more.

IPL - Chennai Super Kings missing Hayden and Hussey

Already lost last 2 matches, Chennai Super Kings could only manage paltry 144-7 in their innings. With Decaan chargers boasting of players like Gibbs, Gilchrist, Styris and Afridi this might not be enough total. Although Deccan Chargers have lost 5 out of 6 matches that they played one can't rule out a team boasting of these great super stars.

I feel Deccan Chargers are going to win easily unless Murali can do some magic.

Once again the costliest player of the tournament failed with the bat. Dhoni struggled against the spin of Ojha and could only make scratchy 23 in 31 balls. This score is extremely poor for this type of tournament. Even veterans such as Rahul Dravid and VVS Lakshman scored at the strike rate of over 100 and showed that this game not only for youngsters as described by many pundits.

Chennai Super Kings are definately missing the Austrlian duo of Mathew Hayden and Mike Hussey

IPL- Is Saurav Ganguly still afraid of fast bowlers ??

Even after playing cricket at the highest level for over a decade, the captain of IPL Kolkota Knight Riders is afraid of fast bowlers. He made sure that he has almost all the bowlers currently in the game who can bowl over 150KmpH in his team - Shoaib Akhtar, Ishant Sharma and to some extent Umar Gul.

He also very well knew that players from Australian team will be leaving early to prepare for the tour of West Indies so he will not have to face Bret Lee in any of the match and players from South Africa will be joining in late so he will miss Dale Steyn. Quite smart I should say :)

How many of us remember the way Saurav Ganguly danced to the music of Shoaib Akhtar when India played against Pakistan at Mohali in 1999?

Saurav Ganguly made scratchy 57 in more than 90 balls and was hit on his helmet and chest more than once by balls hurled by Shoaib Akhtar.

Shoaib Akhtar spell in that match read

Shoaib Akhtar 10 1 18 2

Dhoni sports a moustache!!!

Dhoni, captain of The Chennai Super Stars, has decided to keep a moustache. Tamilians generally keep a moustache as part of their tradition. Looks like this has inspired Dhoni to sport a one giving him a completely new and different look. I believe this is his way of either showing respect towards the place that houses the headquarters of his team - Chennai or trying to alleviate the worries of the people of Tamil Nadu, who have paid 6 crore rupees to "buy" him as the captain of their team.

Dhoni has not been a success in this tournament so far. Shane Warne who got 6 times less money than MS Dhoni has excelled with the bat, the ball and has been far better than MS Dhoni in captaincy.

But all kudos to MS Dhoni for trying to take the easy route into the heart of Tamilians. However Mr. Dhoni you need to do something better than this and this time on the field!!!

Shoaib Akhtar to join the Kolkata Knight Riders

The hearing of Rawalpindi Express has been postponed by a month and he is available for IPL now. This news will give a ray of hope to supporters of Kolkata Knight Riders lead by Saurav Ganguly.
Shahrukh Khan, who owns Knight Rider, has surely played a big role in getting this decision. He is badly missing extra fire power but does the inclusion of a maverick who has not played a single match for last few months boost the prospects of Knight Riders in the IPL. Will he really make an impact?

IPL Rajasthan Royals v/s Chennai Super Kings result and scorecard

Venue : Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Date : 4 May 2008 - day/night


Result Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets with 34 balls remaining

Chennai Super Kings

made 109 all out in 19 overs.

Rajasthan Royals

110/2 in 14.2 overs.



Man of the match :- Sohail Tanvir (Rajasthan Royals)

IPL Rajasthan Royals v/s Chennai Super Kings - Joginder Sharma drops a dolly

IPL match - Rajasthan Royals v/s Chennai Super Kings

2.5 Ntini to Smith.

Ntini bowls a short of length ball but not short enough to pull. Smith goes for a pull but ball came to him too fast. The ball takes the edge lobs up in the air to mid-on where Joginder Sharma gets under the ball to catch it. In the words of great Navjot Singh Sidhu the ball went so high that it could have kissed the air hostess.

The catch was so easy and Smith believed in the catching abilities of the T20 last over expert, Joginder Sharma that he starts the "long way back towards pavilion" but to the shock of Chennai fans, Joginder Sharma "didn't watch the ball into his hand" and drops the dolly and the match.

This reminds me of the famous line said by the great Steven Waugh to Gibbs in the world cup match where Gibbs drops the ball before controlling it and starts celebrating the wicket of Steve Waugh and Steve Waugh was rightly declared Not Out - " Mate you dropped the world cup ". Steve Waugh won the match for Australia and that win latter on decided the outcome of the famous tied semi-final match between South Africa and Australia.

Catches do win matches, But in the IPL match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super King do you think this catch would have made a difference. I doubt !! What about you

IPL Rajasthan Royals v/s Chennai Super Kings - Best bowling performance in T20

Sohail Tanvir 4-0-14-6


Sohail Tanvir started the first over with 2 LBWs victims in the form of Stephen Flemming and Partiv Patel. Then he ended his spell with 2 more wickets. I feel nobody will be able to achieve a better figure in T20 cricket except if we get another wicket as difficult as was in Kolkota. It is ging to be very very difficult for bowler to get 6 or more wickets in T20, which is evident from the fact that nobody has taken 5 wickets in T20 before Tanvir's figure of 6 for 14.

Best figure before this performance was that of another player from Pakistan - Shahid Afridi - 4/19

Definately the Man-of-the-match performance