Thursday | May 15, 2008

Mumbai thrash Chennai by 9 wickets

Even those driving along the Marine Drive with car stereos on full blast would have heard shouts of “Sachin, Sachin” emanating from the Wankhede Stadium nearby on Wednesday evening.

With Mumbai IPL team captain Sachin Tendulkar, having recovered from groin trouble, playing his first Indian Premier League match, anything else would have been an aberration.

The wait gets longer

And the capacity stands groaned in dismay when Tendulkar called right at the toss and put the Chennai team in. The crowd's wait to watch their favourite player and explosive Sanath Jayasuriya bat together had just got longer by 20 overs. All along the years when Tendulkar and Jayasuriya kept rewriting one ODI record after the other, many bowlers had feared what it would be like to have these two batting together. And the two batsmen did not disappoint giving Mumbai an opening partnership of 82 runs during their successful chase of a target of 157.

Earlier, thanks to a 95-run stand for fifth-wicket between S. Badrinath and captain MS Dhoni had taken Chennai to 156. And Mumbai overhauled the target in 13.5 overs.  With this win Mumbai have registered four wins in a row and now have eight points from seven ties. While Chennai have 12 from nine.

Jayasuriya blitzkrieg

But what began as a tale of Tendulkar's debut in the league, after recovering from groin trouble, had to be rewritten as Jayasuriya serenaded the crowd with his innings in which he married power hitting to subtle shots from his stocky wrists. Jayasuriya scored 114 from 48 balls, which included 11 sixes and nine fours. He reached his century in the 14th   over bowled by Chamara Kapugedera. He hit two sixes off the first two balls to reach his hundred in 45 balls and then hit another maximum and two fours to finish the match. In the lead up to the match, the focus had been on Tendulkar. The 35-year-old began cautiously. The first ball he faced, he dropped hands and let go a fast and a bouncy one from Manpreet Gony.

In the last ball of that over he pushed hard at a delivery outside off and a thick edge carried it to the third-man boundary. Tendulkar later slashed hard at a ball Albie Morkel bowled wide outside off and got a six over third man.

Spectator Sachin

And soon Jayasuriya stole the thunder from his superstar opening partner with a deluge of sixes only he can hit and Chennai could do nothing much but watch in awe.

Jayasuriya hit a couple of short-arm jabs, which flew over deep mid-wicket and long on. He then singled out Gony, taking him out for three sixes. Tendulkar by this point was reduced to a bystander. Jayasuriya, not yet finished with his stomping of the bowling attack, then lifted Morkel in his trademark style over square-leg. And then cut the ball to the boundary. And during the maddening display of power-hitting, the crowd fell silent when Tendulkar was bowled. But Jayasuriya was still at the crease and writing on the wall for Chennai had already become clear.

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Robin Uthappa, Dominic Thornley, Dwayne Bravo, Shaun Pollock, Abhishek Nayar, Yogesh Takawale, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rohan Raje, Ashish Nehra.

Chennai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Stephen Fleming, S Vidyut, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Chamara Kapugedera, Muttiah Muralitharan, Manpreet Gony, Joginder Sharma, Laxmipathy Balaji.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com

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Wednesday | May 14, 2008

Shoaib stars as Kolkata bring down Delhi

KOLKATA: An inspired bowling performance by Shoaib Akhtar helped Kolkata Knight Riders score a 23-run win over Delhi Daredevils in their Indian Premier League match here yesterday.

The win was the Kolkata side's fifth in nine matches while it also happened to be Delhi's fifth loss in nine games. The position of the teams in the table remains unchanged.

Shoaib, playing in his first IPL match follwoing the suspension of his five-year ban, took four for 11 to almost single-handedly ensure victory for the home side.

The Pakistani fast bowler picked up Delhi captain Virender Sehwag (0) off the second ball of the opening over, snapped Gautam Gambhir (10) in the fourth ball of his second over and grabbed AB de Villiers (7) and Manoj Tiwary (0) in succession in the the third and fourth balls of his third, to virtually derail the Delhi chase.

Chasing a modest 134 to win, Delhi were reduced to 28 for four by the fifth over and Shikar Dhawan (7) was soon cleaned up by Ashok Dinda to make it 43 for five in the middle of the eighth. Tillekeratne Dilshan (25 off 19) and Amit Mishra (31) tried to do some repair work but the damage had early been done.

Earlier, a lackluster performance by their batsmen allowed Delhi Daredevils to restrict Kolkata to a modest total of 133 for six. Delhi were finally bundled out for a paltry 110, their lowest total in the IPL, and with 13 balls left.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla finishing off the Delhi tail with three wickets in five balls.

Earlier, electing to bat, the hosts set the Delhi side an asking rate of 6.7 before a crowd of 50,000 at the Eden Gardens. Salman Butt (48) was the main scorer for the home team with the in-form David Hussey (31 off 31) getting moderate success in the slog overs.

Source: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com

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Tuesday | May 13, 2008

Kings XI leaves Challengers in ruins

MOHALI: Rahul Dravid, under fire from all quarters, must have finally realised that it is impossible to win a war with bows and arrows against an enemy armed with rapid-fire guns.It was yesterday once more for Royal Challengers Bangalore as it came up with yet another uninspiring performance against Kings XI Punjab and found itself gunned down with nine wickets and 4.2 overs to spare.

The victory was the sixth for Kings XI in nine matches. With 12 points, the team shares the second spot with Chennai Super Kings. The result meant that Royal Challengers kept Deccan Chargers company with four points and seven losses from nine games, but trailed in the net run-rate to be last in the standings.

Yuvraj Singh may have lost the toss but got everything right mainly due to the bulk of the job done by home-grown bowlers and overseas batsmen. A target of 144 never looked challenging as Kings XI’s frontline batsmen dealt in sixes and stayed in cruise mode.Shaun Marsh continued his consistent run with an unbeaten 74 off 51 deliveries. He hit two sixes and nine boundaries. James Hopes smashed three sixes in his 19 before Luke Pomersbach made his presence with a 24-ball 34. The latter hoisted two sixes and three boundaries during the unbroken 102-run match-winning second-wicket stand that came in just 9.2 overs.
Familiar pattern

Earlier, electing to bat, Royal Challengers followed a now-familiar pattern. Wickets fell at the start, some frontline batsmen tossed it away after getting reasonable starts before Mark Boucher shouldered the responsibility of giving the total some respectability.Royal Challengers needed much more than Misbah-ul-Haq’s eight-ball 21 and Rahul Dravid’s 27-ball 29. Boucher once again came good and kept alive his team’s hopes of making a fight of it. He contributed a useful 39 off 31 deliveries.

S. Sreesanth took three wickets and Piyush Chawla struck twice. The early dismissal of J. Arunkumar brought in Misbah and he got down to business straightaway.Sreesanth tried to bowl short to Misbah and got the punishment. In the third over, Misbah picked up successive boundaries. He pulled Sreesanth to mid-wicket and then guided another rising delivery to the fine-leg fence.

In Sreesanth’s next over, Misbah began with a six over long-off, then executed a classic cover-drive off the fifth delivery before being hit-wicket off the next.

The scores: Bangalore Royal Challengers: J. Arunkumar c Jayawardene b Sreesanth 1, V. Kohli b Chawla 21, Misbah-ul-Haq hit wkt. b Sreesanth 21, C. White c & b Chawla 10, R. Dravid b I. Pathan 29, M. Boucher (run out) 39, Praveen b Sreesanth 5, Vinay Kumar b V. R. V. Singh 1, Zaheer (not out) 1, A. Kumble (not out) 0; Extras (b-5, lb-2, w-8): 15; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 143.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-36, 3-49, 4-74, 5-102, 6-123, 7-129, 8-139.

Kings XI Punjab bowling: Sreesanth 4-0-29-3, I. Pathan 4-1-23-1, Chawla 4-0-33-2, V. R. V. Singh 4-0-15-1, Yuvraj 2-0-14-0, Hopes 2-0-22-0.

Kings XI Punjab: S. Marsh (not out) 74, J. Hopes c Steyn b Vinay Kumar 27, L. Pomersbach (not out) 34; Extras (lb-5, w-4): 9; Total (for one wkt. in 15.4 overs): 144.

Fall of wicket: 1-42.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling: Steyn 2-0-33-0, Zaheer 4-0-35-0, Praveen 2.4-0-15-0, Vinay Kumar 2-0-11-1, Kumble 4-0-36-0, Kohli 1-0-9-0.

Source: http://www.hindu.com
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Monday | May 12, 2008

Deccan Chargers v Kolkata Knight Riders

Sourav Ganguly was at his aggressive best as he led the Kolkata Knight Riders to a 23-run victory over the Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

The former India captain fired 91 in 57 balls as the Knight Riders posted an imposing total of 204 for four.He then took two catches and two wickets as the Chargers managed 181 for seven in reply.Kolkata did not immediately get into their stride, losing Salman Butt early on for four.

Aakash Chopra (24 from 23) was joined by Ganguly in the middle and the pair added an unspectacular 69 for the second wicket.Ganguly reached his second IPL fifty off 40 balls and increased the rate from there, even after Chopra was run out in a mix-up over a quick single.

He struck five maximums in his innings, treating the slow left-arm spin of Pragyan Ojha with particular disdain.He was supported by David Hussey and the pair compiled 102-run stand.Ganguly eventually fell, caught at fine leg by RP Singh off the bowling of Paidikalva Vijaykumar, but Hussey continued where he left off, claiming his third half-century of the competition.

He was unbeaten on 57 off 29 balls when the Kolkata innings, boosted by four overthrows off the last ball, closed.In reply Herschelle Gibbs managed just four before departing and when Adam Gilchrist (24 from 17) joined him, caught by Ganguly to give Ashok Dinda the first of his three wickets, the Chargers were on the back foot.

Ganguly struck to remove Scott Styris and Sanjay Bangar, taking the catch off Dinda to remove dangerman Rohit Sharma (33 off 24) in between.The only bright spot for Deccan was an effervescent innings from Venugopal Rao.

He smashed an unbeaten 71 off 42 balls in reply, including 22 off one Murali Kartik over, but it was not enough.The Chargers' hopes of progression look virtually non-existent now - they have managed just two wins in nine outings.

Source: http://www.sportinglife.com

Posted by Jimmy at 12:38:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Rajasthan Royals leads IPL standing

Jaipur, May 12 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals continues to lead the Indian Premier League (IPL) standings with 14 points from nine matches after beating Delhi Daredevils by three wickets here Sunday.

The standings have been tabulated under matches played, won, loss, tied, points and net run rate:

Team P W L Pts NetRR

Rajasthan Royals 9 7 2 14 +.592

Chennai Super Kings 9 6 3 12 +0.104

Kings XI Punjab 8 5 3 10 +0.272

Delhi Daredevils 8 4 4 8 +0.545

Knight Riders 7 3 4 6 +0.461

Mumbai Indians 7 3 4 6 -0.455

Deccan Chargers 8 2 6 4 -0.240

Royal Challengers 8 2 6 4 -1.309.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com

Posted by Jimmy at 12:33:02 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday | May 10, 2008

Rajasthan Royals overpower Deccan Chargers

Jaipur, May 10 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals churned out a royal performance to outplay Deccan Chargers by eight wickets in the Indian Premier League at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here Friday night.

Electing to field, Rajasthan Royals restricted Deccan Chargers to 140/8 and then Yusuf Pathan raced to 68 off just 37 balls to take his team home in just 16 overs.The win not only brought Rajasthan Royals back to the top of IPL standings with 12 points from six wins in eight matches, but also a step closer to the semifinals.

In contrast, the chances of Deccan Chargers reaching the semifinals is getting bleak with every loss. They slumped to their sixth defeat Fridaynight in eight matches and continue to languish at the bottom of the IPL table.Nothing seemed to have worked for Deccan Chargers Fridaynight after a poor battting performance saw them squander the good work of stand-in skipper Adam Gilchrist (61).

The big hitters of Deccan Chargers - Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris and Shahid Afridi - disappointed once again.Deccan Chargers started on a blistering note with Gilchrist leading the way. But the familiar collapse which has haunted them throughout the match once again crushed their hopes of putting up a formidable total on the board.

Gilchrist showed the way leading from the front but his effort failed to inspire the team. Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir were taken for 20 and 16 respectively in their first two overs by Gilchrist. Watson and Tanvir came back strongly in their second spells.Rajasthan Royals skipper Warne (2-20) led the bowling charge squeezing every bit of his experience to bring his team back into the game after Gilchrist's blitzkrieg. Warne, who extracted considerable turn and bounce from the wicket, gave nothing to the batsmen and even Gilchrist found the going tough against him.

Gibbs (19) looked totally out of place and scored in pushes and nudges. His agonising stay in the middle, in which he survived a dropped chance, ended when he edged Munaf Patel behind the stumps. The South African was involved in a 61-run opening stand that came in 8 overs - thanks to Gilchrist who did the bulk of the scoring.

Yusuf Pathan then removed Styris and once Siddharth Trivedi got rid of Gilchrist, Royals batsmen fell like a pack of cards. They were tottering at 105 for six. It was because of Venugopal Rao's (23 not out) charge towards the end that they could give something for their bowlers to defend.

Rajasthan Royals disciplined bowling, on a pitch that offered movement to the bowlers, and sharp fielding helped them fight back after the aggressive start of Chargers.Royals run-chase was well-calculated with Graeme Smith (40) playing the experienced campaigner and allowing Pathan to play his shots.Pathan has been in good touch in the tournament and once again showed his array of strokes. He hit nine fours and two sixes and all were clean strikes.

Smith on the other hand was happy to rotate the strike and watch Yusuf belt the bowlers from the other end.After the 109 first wicket opening stand, Chargers had no chance to come back into the game.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com
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Friday | May 09, 2008

IPL Cricket 29th match: Kolkata Knight Riders win by 5 runs over Bangalore Royal Challengers

Royal Challengers: 124/4 (16.0 Ovs): Mark Boucher--50(40), Praveen Kumar--4(2)

Knight Riders: 129/7 (16.0 Ovs): Murali Kartik--2-0-24-0, Ishant Sharma--4-0-25-1


Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders win by 6 runs in a rain-curtailed (16 overs) game against Bangalore Royal Challengers. Bangalore''s skipper could not do much to save his team and succumbed to Kolkata’s captain Ganguly’s superb delivery when the latter bowled Dravid’s leg stumps.

 

Chasing a total of 130 is not that a cumbersome target to be attained, but Kolkata knight riders made sure that it does get tough for the Bangalore Royal Challengers to chase even that.  The account of taking wickets started right with the opening pair. First it was Shivnaraine Chanderpaul who was caught by Murali Kartik on Ishant Sharma’s delivery in the fourth over. The next over saw the exit of Arunkumar on Umar Gul’s ball. Hodge compensated for his non-performance with the bat by running out Arunkumar off an excellent throw from deep-point.

Mark Boucher and captain Dravid was next to handle the crease. However, the skipper could not do much to save his team and succumbed to Kolkata’s captain Ganguly’s superb delivery when the latter bowled Dravid’s leg stumps.

It was not an auspicious start for the Riders when very early in the game they lost their opening pair Hodge and Akash Chopra in quick succession. Chopra who debuted today for Knight Riders wasn’t successful in giving them a solid start and was first to go on a superb delivery of Steyn. He was out lbw. Next in line, Brad Hodge who still has to show some artistry with his bat failed again when he was caught by Praveen kumar off Zaheer’s delivery scoring just a meager 10 runs.

Now, the hope of Riders rested on the shoulders of experienced captain Saurav Ganguly and able performer David Hussey. They laid a fair foundation for Riders and were looking that they would carry the day for the team. But, both of them got themselves run-out after scoring fairly good runs and almost leaving the inning in a limbo.

Another debutant Tatenda Taibu was showing some promise and did hit couple of interesting boundaries before he was out for 15 runs. For the Challengers it was Dale Steyn who gave the momentum to their pace attack and troubled the Riders frequently. He was the man who took three wickets and stopped Riders from achieving a big total.

Towards the end, Saha and Kartik played some good cameos and took the Riders score to a somewhat decent total of 129 runs for 7 wickets leaving Challengers to score 130 in designated 16 overs.

Source: http://www.mynews.in
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Scoreboard of Delhi Daredevils-Chennai Super Kings IPL match

New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) The following is the scoreboard of the Indian Premier League (IPL) match in which Chennai Super Kings beat Delhi Daredevils by four wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium here Thursday:

SCOREBOARD:

Match No.28, Indian Premier League, Twenty20, Delhi Daredevils vs. Chennai Super Kings, Feros Shah Kotla Stadium, New Delhi, May 8

Delhi Daredevils:

Gautam Gambhir c Kapugedera b Balaji 80

Virender Sehwag b Gony 23
A.B. de Villiers b Morkel 0
Shikhar Dhawan c Kapugedera b Morkel 59
Shoaib Malik c Raina b Balaji 2
Dinesh Karthik not out 6
Manoj Tiwary not out 5

Extras: (lb 6, w 4, nb 2) 12

Total: (for five wickets in 20 overs) 187

Fall of wickets: 1-45 (Sehwag, 4.6 overs), 2-46 (de Villiers, 5.2), 3-167 (Gambhir, 17.6), 4-175 (Dhawan, 18.5), 5-176 (Shoaib Malik, 19.1)

Bowling:

Manpreet Singh Gony 4-0-36-1 (1w)
Albie Morkel 4-0-35-2 (2nb)
Muttiah Muralitharan 4-0-25-0 (3w)
Palani Amarnath 3-0-35-0
Laxmipathy Balaji 4-0-35-2
Chamara Kapugedera 1-0-15-0

Chennai Super Kings:

Sivaramakrishnan Vidyut c Dhawan b Sangwan 40
Stephen Fleming c de Villiers b Mohammad Asif 44
Mahendra Singh Dhoni c de Villiers b Mahesh 33
Suresh Raina c Tiwary b Sangwan 1
Albie Morkel run out (Sehwag) 30
Chamara Kapugedera c Dhawan b Mahesh 8
S Badrinath not out 8
Manpreet Gony not out 13

Extras: (b 1, lb 4, w 6) 11

Total: (for six wickets in 20 overs) 188

Fall of wickets1-62 (Vidyut, 6.1 overs), 2-97 (Fleming, 9.3), 3-98 (Raina, 10.1), 4-138 (Morkel, 14.1), 5-166 (Dhoni, 18.1), 6-166 (Kapugedera, 18.2)

Bowling:

Glenn McGrath 4-0-23-0

Mohammad Asif 4-0-33-1

Yo Mahesh 4-0-40-2 (1w)

Pradeep Sangwan 4-0-29-2 (1w)

Shoaib Malik 2-0-28-0 (3w)

Virender Sehwag 2-0-30-0

Toss: Chennai Super Kings, who chose to field first
Points: Chennai Super Kings 2, Delhi Daredevils 0
Man of the match: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings)
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Russel Tiffin (Zimbabwe)
TV umpire: K. Hariharan
Match referee: Clive Lloyd (West Indies)

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com
Posted by Jimmy at 11:09:18 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Thursday | May 08, 2008

Mumbai cruise to seven-wicket win

The Mumbai Indians knocked off a target of 104 without much hoo-hah to win their Indian Premier League match against the Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai on Wednesday.

The Rajasthan batsmen never got into gear as they crashed to 103 all out, which pretty much wrecked their chances on a good pitch.And although Rajasthan seamers Shane Watson, Sohail Tanveer and Siddharth Trivedi would all put ticks next to their performances, Mumbai had little trouble keeping up with the required run-rate.

Watson picked up two wickets, having opener Sanath Jayasuriya (18) caught at deep square-leg and Dwayne Bravo (one) well-held at short midwicket by Swapnil Asnodkar, and Shane Warne bowled Yogesh Takawale (27) in his first over to cause some indecision at 73 for three after 12 overs.But Robin Uthappa scored 34 not out, hitting four fours and a six in 21 balls, to see Mumbai home in the 16th over.

Earlier, the Rajasthan Royals found there was no escaping from a tight all-round bowling performance from the Mumbai Indians.Mumbai own a disciplined, accurate seam attack and Rajasthan, collapsing under the pressure, were all gone in just 16.2 overs.Shaun Pollock got the ball rolling - he finished with typically solid figures of one for 19 in three overs - by getting the better of national captain Graeme Smith.

Pollock cramped Smith, who shuffled forward and outside leg-stump to try and create space, the ball coming off the pad as the left-hander missed a drive. Wicketkeeper Takawale failed to gather the ball but Smith, who didn't bother to look back, presumably because he thought he had been bowled, just kept walking and was eventually stumped for five.

Yusuf Pathan (one) was beaten lock, stock and barrel by Ashish Nehra five balls later and, although Watson (32) and Asnodkar (39) took a heavy toll on the bowlers in the next few overs, more trouble lay ahead for the Royals.A wild slog across the line against Bravo ended Watson's 20-ball innings and medium-pacers Rohan Raje and Dhawal Kulkarni then produced a top-class burst of four for 23 in the next five overs.

Kulkarni had conceded 17 runs in his first over earlier in the innings, but he claimed a wicket with his first ball back when a good straight bouncer had a flapping Ravindra Jadeja caught behind for a duck.He removed Shane Warne (seven) in his next over with a copybook dismissal as he took two for four in his next two overs.

Asnodkar, who hit three fours and a six off 36 balls, was eventually caught off a Raje delivery that was a yard slower and Rajasthan were then bowled out for the first time in the tournament as their tail was exposed.Nehra (three for 13) claimed two more wickets and Bravo (two for 12) one as Rajasthan posted the second-lowest total of the IPL so far.Raje was the other bowler who enjoyed success with two for 19.

Teams

Mumbai Indians - Yogesh Takawale, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dominic Thornely, Robin Uthappa, Dwayne Bravo, Abhishek Nayar, Shaun Pollock, Saurabh Tiwary, Rohan Raje, Ashish Nehra, Dhawal Kulkarni.

Rajasthan Royals - Graeme Smith, Swapnil Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, Shane Watson, Mohammad Kaif, Ravindra Jadeja, Shane Warne, Mahesh Rawat, Sohail Tanveer, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.

Source: http://www.supersport.co.za
Posted by Jimmy at 13:09:08 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday | May 07, 2008

Chargers 2nd IPL win

Former Aussie keeper Adam Gilchrist has steered the Deccan Chargers to their second victory of the Indian Premier League.

The recently retired Australian Test star took over the reigns in place of injured VVS Laxman and blasted 54 from 38 balls as the Chargers comfortably chased down the Super Kings' disappointing 7-144 with two over's to spare in Chennai.

Gilchrist received his second man of the match award and moved to fourth on the IPL run list as the Chargers kept alive their hopes of an IPL finals victory.'It was getting a bit do or die for us, so that kept us alive,' said Gilchrist.

It was the first win for the Chargers since Andrew Symonds returned to the Australian team in Brisbane.Chennai have now lost three straight matches without Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey after winning their first four games.

Source: http://www.skynews.com.au
Posted by Jimmy at 11:41:22 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |