Semifinals - King's X1 Punjab v Chennai Superkings - Review

We have done it guys ! We have inflicted a humiliating defeat upon our favorite opposition and romped through to the finals in style ! What a momentous and glorious win this is for everyone associated with the Chennai Superkings !

So unfairly written off and labeled as the weakest of the four semifinalists, and then, branded as underdogs we have shown the World that they can take us lightly only at their own peril.

Analysis
Punjab: Shaun Marsh, Sangakarra both failed, as they were due a failure anyway. No one else stood up, weak middle order, Yuvraj couldn't stand up, as expected. Bowling showed no teeth

Chennai: Ntini who was a bit of a worry, came to the party just at the right time. Gony, as predicted, was superb. Parthiv did a decent job. Raina of course was brilliant.

Was this the PERFECT performance ? Does this leave scope for another perfect performance tomorrow ?

The expressions on Yuvraj's face were precious.

We have shown that rather than putting up a false bravado just keeping calm and going about the job quietly works wonders. Just one more step away from justifying our name "Super" Kings !

First Semifinal - Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils - Review

Result:
A complete royal demolition job ! The devils could not dare !

Analysis:
Terrible as the Devils were, one has to compliment the Royals for a superb performance. Asnodkar was brilliant against McGrath, Smith showed great commitment in playing through the injury, and Watson and Pathan simply dictated the course of the game by their superb play.

With the ball again Watson was just magnificent.

Daredevils have been so reliant on luck and their top-order in this series that they were bound to come apart against a worthy opponent especially considering their main batsman Gambhir is a bit of a hoicker and a flasher.

What It Means For Us
a) This is a good wicket. Good bounce, good carry. So good batsmen as well as good bowlers should do well here. There is very little scope for ordinary players so might as well focus on the specialists

b) Opening partnership is critical. Even if the first 3 overs are quiet it is fine. It is overs 4-6 that need to be capitalized upon.

c) We need to be at our very best to challenge both teams.

Lasting Memories
Warnie exhorting a team having fun with McGrath when the latter was batting, McGrath telling Munaf how to bowl the bouncer even as he was batting.

Gambhir getting frustrated with his inability to strike the boundaries.

Royal Contest Results
Smith v McGrath - Smith has the last laugh
Yusuf v Mishra - Yusuf wins
Gambhir v Tanvir - Tanvir restrics Gambhir
Sehwag v Warne - no contest, but Watson destroys Sehwag

King's X1 Punjab v Rajasthan Royals - Review

A thumping performance by Punjab but clearly, Rajasthan were taking this game lightly, weren't they ?

Definitely a great show of strength for Yuvraj's side and it will be a mammoth challenge facing them in the semifinals.

Marsh was sublime. Hopefully he has exhausted his quota of runs for the tournament. Great to see the second string Rajasthan team take the fight to the opposition though - the innings of Neeraj, Akmal and Yusuf were very heartening.

Punjab beat Rajasthan but still finish at #2.

The league stage is over - Onward to the semifinal !

Revenge Battle Results
Watson v Yuvraj - Yuvraj wins again !
Salunkhe v Yuvraj - Minor win for Yuvi
Pankaj v Yuvraj - Thumping win for Yuvi again
Yusuf v Yuvraj - Draw
Kaif v Sreesanth - Thumping win for Sree again
Chawla v Watson - Close battle Chawla has last laugh, part revenge

And That’s How It’s Done!

For all those doubting Thomases (or Saurabhs or Narayans), hope the Chennai team has proved you guys wrong by marching into the semifinals with a convincing if not emphatic win. The semifinals are here now and from now on it’s down to which team plays better on the day.

This was a match in which, all said and done, we were always going to be favorites. We did everything right in the first ten overs of our bowling – but let it slip away slightly in the second half. This is a bit worrying. I would have liked to see us bowling the opposition out for 120-odd and the performance of Morkel and Balaji yesterday with the ball left a bit to be desired.

In the batting department, the old habit of the openers of throwing away their wickets when there is absolutely no need continues to be a worry. Raina was really encouraging but what was most relieving was seeing MS Dhoni bat. This is perhaps the best and most free I have seen him bat since his fabulous innings against Bangalore 10 games ago. MS coming into his own can only mean great news for us and ominous signs for the rest of the teams. Also, I do think Morkel took a little long to settle down yesterday which made the finish just a little bit more tense than necessary.

So we take on Punjab a team over which we have major psychological advantage, aided by the fact that we have Dhoni who seems to have some psychological hold over Yuvraj. I fancy our chances to make it through to the finals!

Positives
1) Gony – Fantastic spell first up

2) Murali – Though not at his best bowled much better than earlier

3) Raina – Finally saw the team through

4) Dhoni – Just the way he was striking the ball today was ominous

Negatives

1) Morkel – Disappointing with the ball, adequate with the bat, but we can pass this off as just a bad day, he has been great otherwise

2) Fleming – Yet another waste of a start

3) Parthiv – Just when we thought he had turned a leaf in the last game he is back to his old ways.

Do we have a chance to go all the way now? I believe we do, I definitely believe we can beat Punjab, Rajasthan might be slightly tough provided we don’t get a couple of issues sorted out. One, as Dhoni said, we need the bowling to be potent throughout. In every game it is one of the bowlers who is shining while the others are only restricting. We need all our bowlers to fire away. Two, we need Fleming to fire and fire big time – like say score a hundred.

If this can be done, I think we will be able to finish off the tournament like we started it – as the best team! Good Luck Chennai !

Mumbai Mess It Up - YET AGAIN

For the third time in a row, Mumbai has managed to pull off defeat from the jaws of victory and in the process granting free passage to the semifinals for the Daredevils !

Just how the bowlers and fielders could mess up sufficiently for the two little lefties to take the game away is beyond imagination !

Full credit to the Royals though - esp the miniature Niraj Patel and Ravindra Jadeja !

Initially the much awaited Tendulkar v Warne contest didn't really materialize. While Tendulkar looked like he wanted to wait before launching himself on a difficult pitch he surrendered his wicket just at the wrong time. It was only the heroics of Takawale that took Mumbai to 145 in the first place.

So now Mumbai's destiny is out of their own hands. They will have to hope for a poor performance from Chennai tomorrow. Of course, we are not going to talk about that, are we ?

Revenge Battle Results
Watson v Jayasuriya - Draw
Kaif v Raje - Draw
Uthappa v Warne - REVENGE for Warne

Un-freakin-believable !

I left the Kolkata-Punjab match midway through as I believed it was a match of no-consequence and expected Punjab to romp home ! I hadn't reckoned on the old man turning the clock back again TWICE in the same tournament !

Wow ! What an innings that must have been ! So pissed to have missed it ! Will catch on the highlights soon, though any of you guys who have seen it are welcome to describe it too !

And sends out a strong message to one fat baby elephant who has been shooting off his mouth and making a mess in the field lately. First Dravid has come up with some consistent performances, now Ganguly with two smashing innings ! I think it is time failures like Utthappa and Yuvraj get worried about their limited over spots, let alone think of usurping the ones in test cricket.

Special mention for Man of the Match Gul and a fine effort by Sangakkara.

Revenge Battle Results
Marsh v Dinda - Draw
Marsh v Hussey - Marsh ! Revenge !
Sangakara v Gul - Gul has the last laugh - AGAIN
Jayawardene v Gul - Draw
Ganguly v Sreesanth - Draw
Das v Sreesanth - Sreesanth AGAIN
Shukla v VRV - VRV AGAIN
Saha v Chawla - Revenge for Chawla

Deccan Maintain Stronghold Over Basement

... with another stunning performance. From 101/0 they managed to first be bowled out for 165 and amass a massive 1 run of their last 11 balls. Then when it seemed that things were getting out of hand with the BRC needing over 11 per over, their part-timers like Bangar and Chamara Silva came to the party and sealed what was a well-deserved last spot in the table.

Wasim Jaffer needs to be commended for making full efforts to deny Deccan the coveted spot as he not only ran himself out but was involved in a spectacular effort to run out Jacques Kallis, but his efforts were to no avail. Also, Gilchrist needs to be rebuked for what was obviously a mistake in calling Jaffer out to run for Kallis after the former was dismissed, a mistake that nearly cost Deccan the wooden spoon.

From the BRC side, players like Kallis, Misbah, Dravid threatened to spoil the party for the Chargers also, but just when they looked like sealing the deal, they had unfortunately done enough damage.

In the end a close game but well-deserved reward for the Chargers.

Revenge Battle Results
Dravid v RP Singh - Draw
Kumble v Rohit - Rohit wins AGAIN

Alive And Kicking !

Delhi have made sure they have kept both Mumbai and Chennai anxious and the innaugural IPL alive and kicking by winning their lost match, albeit things from here on, are out of their control. This was a match that Mumbai had their chances in several times over, yet blew them away. What a fine knock by young Karthik under pressure. He seems such a fine player, yet one wonders why he hasn't been able to cement his place in the Indian team yet.

Meanwhile Mumbai's fielding was so pathetic it would have been a travesty had they managed to win despite that. Uthappa in particular was utterly shocking, terrible and rubbish. He has grown fat and portly and slow and he is shooting off his mouth about fitness to senior players ! Bah !

Revenge Battle Results
Jayasuriya v Yomahesh - Jaysuriya gets REVENGE
Nehra v Gambhir - DRAW
Pollock v Sehwag - Sehwag WINS again !
Nehra v Dhawan - DRAW

A Spirited Fight - But Just Not Enough !

Hmm .. I suppose if you can contrive to throw away a match like this, then sometimes luck can hit you hard in all the wrong places despite coming up with a most spirited and laudable effort like today. The other night against Bangalore, the bowlers came up with a superlative performance that the batsmen wasted and today, when the batsmen finally stood up to the challenge, the bowlers had done just so badly that it proved a mile too far in the end.

So with the sixth loss, and with Mumbai refusing to do us a favor by eliminating Delhi we are locked in a tight battle with the other two for two semifinal slots - a battle that is likely to go down to the wire.

As a game of cricket, today was fantastic. Rajasthan Royals batsmen played really well - Smith, Asnodkar and Akmal in particular, although you have to admit that our bowling was lacklustre. With the reply we gave them it does seem like it was a very true batting wicket. In the end, that man Sohail Tanvir proved the difference yet again with two very miserly spells, most crucially the last one in which he got the wicket of Dhoni.


But before that Raina, Parthiv and Morkel really took the fight to the Royals. Raina's early assault on Mumaf was particularly breath-taking. Mind you, today was a full stadium and it reverberated with every stroke Raina lashed. In the end, one has to say, that yet again, he threw his wicket when there was no need to. Warnie's spell when he got Parthiv also proved to be critical.

Positives
1) Fight - I feared that the team might collapse under the sheer pressure of the volume of the runs. To their credit this didn't happen and the challenge brought out the best in the batsmen
2) Raina, Parthiv Morkel striking form - superb batting !

Negatives
1) Bowling - Though it was a batting track the bowling never looked to have any incision, or worse, even purpose. I would say the likes of Ntini should take major blame for this
2) Fleming - What a meaningless waste of a wicket !
3) Dhoni - I worry that increasingly bowlers are figuring out how to keep him quiet and he is also getting out in the process

Fortunately, we still have our destiny in our own hands, unlike Delhi. We have to beat bottom-placed Deccan Chargers in our last game and we are through. Maybe after we brought shame upon ourselves against Bangalore, and Lady Luck punished us against Rajasthan for that, hoepfully all things should fall into place for this crucial game. In the last two games we have shown that our bowlers and batsmen can do it - they just need to put it together.


Revenge Battle Results
Tanvir v Parthiv - Draw
Tanvir v Fleming - Draw
Munaf v Raina - REVENGE for Raina
Tanvir v Morkel - Tanvir wins !
Warne v Morkel - Morkel wins again !
Asnodkar v Gony - Asnodkar wins AGAIN
Yusuf v Murali - Draw

Further Demoralisation

Deccan Chargers finally managed to put up a decent total yet were surpassed with ease. Finally the top order managed to fire all at one go, but again the bowlers could not quite stand up to be counted. Let's not forget another splendid performance by Shaun Marsh and a stunning ominous return for Kumar Sangakarra.

Scott Styris should go back to New Zealand.

Revenge Battle Results
Gibbs v Chawla - Partial revenge for Gibbs
Rohit v VRV - Revenge for VRV
Rohit v Gagandeep - Comprehensive win for Rohit again !
RP Singh v Marsh - Comprehensive win for Marsh again !

A Damp Squib

Match abandoned without a ball being bowled. Kolkata out. Delhi stay in the hunt. The equation for them still remains the same. Beat Mumbai to stay in with a chance. In fact, it got slightly tougher. Now, even if they beat Mumbai they will reach only 15 points. This means that one more win will see Chennai cruise ahead of them. If Delhi had been able to get to 16, they could have put the extra pressure on Chennai on account of superior run-rate. Another interesting issue is that if the Delhi-Mumbai game also gets washed out, they will be level with Chennai on 14, which means Chennai will still have to play around with their run-rates to be safe.

An Embarassment

Cross-posted on Chennai Super Kings Fans

There is no other way I can think of to describe today's defeat. It was shocking, stunning, horrible, pathetic, abysmal and inexcusable. Full credit to Bangalore for the way they fought. But that should not take away from the sheer imbecility in our performance. Any team that contrives to lose after restricting the opposition to 127 and then being 85 for 2 in 14 overs surely deserves all the brickbats that it gets.

No batsman can be spared. So here's a lowdown on each.
1) What the hell is Parthiv doing up the order ? Yet again he has thrown away his wicket. Yet again he has proved that even when he comes up with a decent partnership he does not quite look a batsman that any opposition will be afraid of.

2) What the hell was Fleming trying to do ? Complacency oozed out from every shot of his in the later stages of his innings. WHY ?

3) What the hell was Dhoni doing ? All it needed at that stage was for Dhoni to stay till the end and victory would have been assured.

4) What was that shot from Badrinath ? Why would a batsman with his arsenal attempt a ridiculous shot like that on the last ball of Kumble's spell ? Did he get pressurised by the close-in field ? Does he have a mental weakness in that case ? Is that the reason why he has not yet broken into Team India ?

5) Where is Morkel when we need him ? The hook shot is the one shot that is not quite in his toolkit. Why did he have to go for it that too off a quality bowler like Dale Steyn ?

6) At the expense of sounding harsh, why does Vidyut frequently bat like an idiot ?

7) What about Goni ? Forget the way he got out, weren't the hoicks that he played and missed before that ridiculous enough ? And why did he have to get out when 10 runs were scored off that over already ?

8) And finally what about Raina ? He played a couple of glorious cricketing shots and otherwise came up with ugly heaves which he predictably failed to connect. Just earlier in the day Sachin Tendulkar had given a master-class in elegant 2020 striking. Pity this youngster touted as the future of Indian batting didn't quite pick it up.

It was indeed pathetic and pitiable to see him at the end trying to hold on to strike by all means and being unable to connect even a single ball. Praveen Kumar bowled the last over for 1 run !!!

Meanwhile credit to Bangalore. Really heartening to see Dravid smile and get pumped up again. And what a spell by the old warrior Kumble ! The only tragedy is that it came at our expense. Why couldn't they do this to Delhi or Punjab or any other team instead ?

Revenge Battle Results
Patel v Praveen - Draw
Raina v Praveen - Clearly Praveen gets the revenge !
Raina v Akhil - Draw
Dravid v Gony - Draw

The Greatest Game ?

Could this arguably be the greatest game of the IPL so far ? When Yelgati played out VRV Singh's last ball he started out on the single knowing fully well that this run would take the game to a bowl-out. What he didn't factor in was a Jonty Rhodesque-flight from Yuvraj Singh with ball in hand to dislodge all three stumps fraction of milliseconds before he made it to safety. This was only the thrilling climax in what had been a dramatic match full of tense and exhilarating moments.

It all started really when Mumbai began their batting. Up until then it had been a fairly normal T20 game with another good innings by Marsh and some lusty if unattractive hitting by Pomersbach. When Jayasuriya gave Mumbai another flier, that was the first indication that we would have an exciting game on our hands. And when Sreesanth got him completely outfoxed by a slower one, the excitement really began. For a while there was good strokeplay by Smith and some superb batting by SRT. And when SRT and Nair were going well together, in particular Nair hitting those towering sixes it looked like Mumbai would ramp home.

Enter Piyush Chawla - who got rid off the dangerous Nair with a perfect googly. And then, more importantly Utthappa. It is hard to describe exactly what Utthappa was trying to do on the wicket today. It wouldn't be too harsh to say he fairly sucked miserably at whatever he did. Uthappa in the past few months has become fat, developed a most hideous hairstyle, reduced himself to a two-shot wonder and if reports are to be believed is enjoying life and taking his cricket too lightly. Not only did he royally mess up, he showed an astonishing incompetence in handling pressure and in doing so commited the cardinal sin of running out a well-set Sachin Tendulkar !

When Pollock got out one thought that it was over at that stage but then VRV Singh nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It required some comedy from Nehra and a brilliant combination fielding effort from Srivastava-Jayawardene-Uday Kaul to get the match to a situation where 2 runs were needed from one ball. And then, as mentioned before, Yuvraj took off in flight and finished it.

With this win, Punjab more or less guarantee themselves a semifinal slot. Mumbai will have to slog it out but with 3 more games to go they still have a very even chance. Of course considering what happened later in the day, this tournament may have just blown wide open at the very moment we thought it to be closing in.

Revenge Battle Results
Pathan v Nehra - Draw
Sangakara v Pollock, Kulkarni - No show
Yuvraj v Pollock - No show
Sreesanth v Kulkarni - No show
Sreesanth,VRV v Uthappa,Pollock - No show
Pathan v Nayyar - Draw

To The Script

The demise of the Knight Riders has turned out exactly as I had foreseen. Do not play Taibu, open with a pathetic batsman like Hafeez, fill your top order with average to past-their-best players, deprive your talented youngsters of time in the middle by pushing them low down and you will get exactly what the Knight Riders did - a far less than adequate total.

Well one might reasonably argue that they still had a fair chance when they got the Royals down to 70/4 but that was when Pathan took the game away and it is precisely the player of the category of Pathan that Ganguly's team missed - or rather their lopsided batting didn't allow the likes of Shukla, Saha and Das to blossom.

The most interesting moment of the day, for me, came when a piece of paper fell out of Ganguly's pocket while running and Warne picked it up and had a good look at it before returning it to Dada ! Ganguly, was, to put it precisely, not amused. At the end of another long night, he looked jaded, tired and in need of some support.

Kolkata's campaign is all but over - another one bites the dust. The Royals bandwagon meanwhile continues to roll on - who can stop them ? Well they do have arguably their toughest games coming up - against Mumbai, Chennai and Punjab. Should be exciting viewing.

Revenge Battle Results
Ganguly v Warne - Ganguly might have struck Warne for a six, but ended up the losing captain, so Warne wins it again
Smith v Sharma - Smith got Sharma away for a couple of boundaries, so got a bit back there
Asnodkar v Sharma - REVENGE for Sharma !
Asnodkar v Gul - No show
Kaif v Agarkar - Draw
Pathan v Agarkar, Hussey, Shukla - No show !
Watson v Gul - Draw
Jadeja v Gul, Hussey - no show
Jadeja v Shukla - No show
Tanvir v Butt - Draw
Ganguly v Trivedi - Trivedi WINS AGAIN !
Agarkar v Watson - Draw
Agarkar v Tanvir - No show
Hussey v Trivedi - Hussey gets partial revenge
Hussey v Warne - Warne completely tied Hussey down - partial revenge !
Das v Tanvir - Tanvir WINS

So What's New ?

Another royal challenge ending up in another royal defeat. So what's new ? Well, there is something new ! And there is something old - old like gold. The new is the arrival of Shreevats Goswami ! Kudos to this bloke ! He looks a fine talent - with the bat, but more impressively, with the gloves. His keeping today was outstanding and was definitely one of the high points of today's game. The old of course is the glorious Anil Kumble ! What a fighting spell of superb leg-spin bowling that was ! If only he could have gotten Shikhar Dhawan - who I maintain was out - he could have conceivably helped Bangalore turn the game around even at that late stage !

Other than that, Misbah (Mr. T20, as I like to call him) finally lived up to his reputation. Well he kind of dawdled in the middle of the innings but what a finish he provided. Unfortunately the likes of White didn't quite support him and BRC ended up with a disappointing total yet again.

Well, a bit perversely, the Royal Challengers vs Deccan Chargers is going to be the big game to watch out for now - between two sides who just can't get anything right.

Revenge Battle Results
Gambhir v Steyn, Zaheer, Kallis - partial victory to Gambhir again, handled them pretty comfortably though did not quite humiliate them like last time
Sehwag v Zaheer - Comprehensive win for Sehwag AGAIN
McGrath v Praveen - McGrath OWNS Praveen ! AGAIN

Rest of the battles were no-shows.

Another Well-Constructed Hash

The Deccan Chargers completed another well constructed mess to record their impressive ninth defeat in eleven games in the competition. Such performances have become the norm by now for this team and really we should come to expect them every time they play. Mumbai was on a massive winning-streak coming into this game and the Chargers have just given them another shot in the arm by extending that run to 6, the longest by any team in the IPL so far. After having Mumbai in serious trouble at 100/4 in 14 odd overs Deccan Chargers showed off their generous side yet again by allowing the visitors to post an impressive 179. I was lucky I did not invest too much time in this very average game, preferring instead to watch the wonderful final between Nadal and Federer.

I was actually amazed to see Bravo play - I thought he was supposed to leave for the West Indies, but did he come to the party and how ? First, a crucial 30 and then that destructive spell earned him the Man of The Match, although to be fair it was Fernando's early wickets that really set up the collapse.

The Chargers have shown that they are not even capable of playing the role of King-maker or spoilsport and their only chance of notching up another win might come when the equally pathetic Bangalore Royal Challengers visit them later in the tournament.

Revenge Battle Results
Bravo v RP Singh - Looked like Bravo would get his revenge when he hit a 6, but RP bowled him next ball
Jayasuriya v Afridi - No show
Bravo v Gilchrist - Draw
Uthappa v Afridi - Afridi kept Uthappa quite again
Pollock v Bangar - No show
Nayyar v Afridi - Once again Nayyar took to Afridi !
Nayyar v Zoysa - Nayyar gets his revenge, 2 boundaries
Gilchrist v Nehra, Pollock, Jayasuria and Nayyar - Draw/No-show but it was the new man Dilhara who got Gilly !

A Crucial Win

Cross-posted on Chennai Super Kings Fans

Rain and Duckworth and Lewis combined together to make our task much easier today, but it would be fair to say we fully deserved this win the way we played. We must note that we have never lost a game bowling first and that should say something. Of course Kolkata was a weak batting team as I mentioned in my preview but we had to bowl well nevetherless. What was even more impressive was the way our openers batted before the rain. It is conceivable that they knew about the impending weather - and played the perfect game i.e. to keep wickets in hand and not go for too much, because the Duckworth Lewis system can create havoc with the target with every wicket you lose. In the end the 3 run defeat margin did not really reflect the true nature of the contest.

It was an inspired choice to play Ntini - one which I myself wasn't convinced about, but a lot of our readers were and well done to them ! It was even more astonishing to see that no one noticed his hat-trick including himself for a long time ! And this hat-trick constituted three top order players, each breakthrough turning out to be crucial in the context of the game. Well as Ntini bowled, I do think there is more improvement that can be shown on the bowling front by other bowlers - I thought we should have restricted Kolkata to abut 130 today.

With this win, we shall be breathing much easier and would be "quite safe" with regards to making it to the semifinals.

Problem Areas

1) Bowling - With the exception of Ntini, the rest of the bowling still looked toothless, even surprisingly, Gony. Murali is a major worry now, earlier though he was not picking wickets he was economical. Today he was really taken to task.

2) Fielding - The fielding was less than impressive with Vidyut in particular not looking too flash.

Kudos

1) Ntini - For his splendid performance, but even more so, for the decision to play him
2) Fleming - Finally he is looking like the Fleming we know, the one who can strike the ball crisply and score big at a brisk rate.

Now hopefully an easy win at home against minnows Bangalore, shoud virtually seal the deal for us.

What The Hell Was Viru Thinking ?

Virender Sehwag commited yet another momentous gaffe when he brought on himself to bowl the fifth over of the innings in the rain-hit game and conceded 23 - at a time when Punjab were still behind and would have in all probability remained so if not for that over.

As if that was not enough he did not utilize McGrath's full quota of 3 - which meant Punjab went on to win by 6 runs.

These kind of games are always a bit of a lottery but Sehwag should have known that he is used to giving away 20+ runs an over in this competition. As it turns out, it was a last ball 6 that sealed the deal for the King's X1.

Daredevils can justifiably feel hard done by in this game, but truth is that overall, they have failed to lift their game to the next level. Punjab now look poised to qualify for the semis.

Revenge Battle Results
Gambhir v VRV Singh - Draw/No-show
Sehwag v Pathan - No-show
Tiwary v VRV Singh - No-show
Asif v Sangakkara - No-show

Nipped In The Bud !

The way Sehwag was going today, a first double hundred seemed very much on the cards ! (OK, I like to go over the top, much like Viru himself) but rain has mercilessly cut the innings short. Even if it lets up, I don't think there will be much chance for Viru to go on much longer. What an assault that was though ! He struggled against Sreesanth and then launched into VRV, Chawla and Powar, while the unattractive Gambhir put up another substantial score.

Looks like we might get a game yet ! Complete review, or non, depending on the outcome later.

By the way, it could be a really mad, manic chase ! Of the order of five overs or so ! So get excited about it !

Pathetic, Pitiable, Sad

If you thought Bangalore Royal Challengers had been poor so far in this tournament, today's performance can only be classified thus. What was Praveen Kumar up to ? First he does this, then he follows it up by standing as stationary as the pole star on the field, when an effort at a catch was the minimum that was expected, and then he tries to smash the greatest leg-spinner of all time out of the park the first ball he faces, to be promptly caught on the boundary like.

Despite all this, his bowling remained decent. I sympathize with Praveen Kumar. It must be difficult to play in a team that is losing consistently and miserably especially for a young talented lad full of attitude and a taste for success, as he has clearly had in Australia. Still, this is no way to behave on and off the field.

Dravid's frustration was evident. Clearly he would have felt like pulling his hair off and giving Praveen Kumar a sound telling off but being the gentleman he is and a losing general at that, all he could do was make a mild protest. The whole team today played as if it completely lacked interest, again with the notable exceptions of Dravid, Kumble and Zaheer Khan.

It was soothing to see Dravid's innings though - especially the fight he showed. Not just hitting those sixes, which we know he is well capable of, but first, refusing to take the fielder's word for the catch, and then holding on to the strike in the last over to score as many runs as possible. There was a message there, to the cricket world, but much more so, to his own teammates that said - "You bunch of no-hopers may be going through the motions, but I shall fight out till the end and never give up".

Other than this saving grace, the Bangalore performance was such that they deserve every bit of thrashing that critics, or Mallya might heap upon them.

Rajasthan put in another superb performance. After the heroics of Pollock and Jayasuriya last week, for the Mumbai Indians, another 38-year old, perhaps the greatest of them all produced a truly grand (citi ?) moment of success with a mind-boggling return catch of Zaheer Khan, to become the highest wicket-taker. This after Sohail Tanvir and the other seamers had done a wonderful in job in shattering the top order yet again.

It was indeed a bit of a surprise that despite losing only one wicket, the Royals managed to put up only 197 on the board. In the end, a 65 run defeat was a flattering margin for the royally challenged.

By the way, Asnodkar in the limited overs team for India any one ?

Revenge Battles Results
Dravid v Watson - Draw
Kallis v Watson - Draw
Kohli v Patel - Draw
Boucher v Warne - No show
Praveen v Warne - Warne wins ! REVENGE !
Praveen v Rawat - No show
Zaheer v Pathan - No show
Praveen v Watson - Draw