Monday, May 19, 2008

IPL Cricket: Chennai Super Kings take home the victory, courtsey rain

Kolkata: Chennai Super Kings didn'''t have a very grand total to chase in the form of 150 runs, but they didn't even have to struggle to score that much, courtsey the rain showers. The match was declared through the Duckworth-Lewis method and Chennai was declared as the winner by 3 runs.


Not a big total to chase, the opening pair of Chennai Super Kings showed maturity and consistency in their inning. Of the two Fleming was more aggressive and Parthiv quiet subdued. They were scoring runs and hitting boundaries whenever they got the opportunity. They competed the partnership of 50 runs in the eighth over.Opening pair of Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming were on their hitting spree while getting on with thier run-chase of 150 runs against Kolkata till rain disrupted the match at the Eden Gardens. By this time Chennai were at a score of 55 runs at loss of none in eight overs.

Earlier, the Kolkata team till the 10th over failed to turn the advantage of winning the toss into their favor. They lost their opener Mohammad Hafeez (6) to Ntini in the third over, Gony took an easy catch on fine leg off.  The pacer came back in the fifth over to clean bowl skipper Sourav Ganguly (2).  After 10 overs the score was 61/2.

 

It was opener Salman Butt who stood firm on one end despite the regular fall of wickets. Posting his best score in T20 so far, he hit 10 fours and one six in his superb 73. He was dropped on 57 by Vidyut in the 15th over. Together with DB Das he added 86 runs to the third wicket.

 

The dangerous partnership between Das and Butt was broken by Ntini again as he double struck for Chennai. The first and second ball of Ntini’s fourth over, and innings 17th, took the leg and off stumps of DB Das (27) and David Hussey (0) respectively. It was the third hat-trick of the tournament. Ntini had scored it against Kolkata Knight Riders for his Chennai team.This was the turning point of the match as it stopped the momentum for Kolkata. Butt was next to go in the 18th over. Balaji caught him leg before. Three quick wickets were enough to put a full stop to the rising run rate. Shukla (13) and Saha (13) remained unbeaten. 

 

For Chennai Ntini and Gony made an impression taking 4 wickets for 21 runs and giving only 17 runs in 4 overs respectively. Muralitharan proved the costliest; in his 4 overs he gave away 41 runs without taking a wicket. Butt hit him for three consecutive fours in the 16th over. They gave away 13 in extras.

Source: http://www.mynews.in
Posted by Jimmy at 12:39:16 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, March 03, 2008

India win under-19 cricket World Cup

India defeated South Africa by 12 runs on Sunday to win the under-19 World Cup in a rain-hit final.

South Africa bowled out India for only 159 in 45.4 overs, but was set 116 to win in 25 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis system after heavy rain.South Africa finished at 103-8, after struggling at 11 for 3.

Ajitesh Argal, Ravindra Jadeja and Siddarth Kaul got two wickets each for India. Reeza Hendricks was the top scorer for South Africa with 35 in 43 balls, and captain Wayne Parnell got 29."Everyone complemented each other. When the batsmen failed, the bowlers came to the fore," said Indian captain Virat Kohli, adding that the rain was "unfortunate" for South Africa.

Even before the rain started, South Africa was in trouble. Argal dismissed Pieter Malan for two runs and Rilee Rossouw without scoring. Jon Smuts was run out for five in a mix-up with Hendricks.

Soon after the resumption of play, left-arm spinner Jadeja forced Jonathan Vandiar to edge a faster delivery to wicketkeeper Sreevats Goswami, leaving South Africa at 22-4.A 50-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Hendricks and Parnell raised the South Afrcians' hopes but India kept the run rate in check.

Tanmay Srivastava was the highest scorer for India with 46.Parnell took 2-21 from 7.4 overs, while Matthew Arnold and Roy Adams also took two wickets each.

Source:http://www.theage.com.au/
Posted by Jimmy at 16:30:42 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, February 29, 2008

Hussey says Australia will not be distracted

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian batsman Mike Hussey said his team would not be distracted by their war of words with India when the tri-series finals get underway here on Sunday.The simmering ill will between the sides boiled again this week, with the Indians complaining of provocative beheviour on the field by the home side and Australian Matthew Hayden calling Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh an "obnoxious weed".

Singh replied by saying that Hayden was one of the least liked players in world cricket, setting the scene for an explosive finals series.Speaking in Sydney as the teams prepared for the first final of the best-of-three series, Hussey said the Australians were completely focused on their own performance and had put the emotion of their often bitter rivalry with the Indians aside.

"I think it is important that we don't let all of the distractions play any part in our mind, if we play on emotion sometimes those distractions can have a detrimental effect on your performance," Hussey said."So it is important that we just concentrate on our plans, our goals and execute our skills as well as possible.

"If we do that, if we can take the emotion out of it, I think we can play our best cricket and it would be great to go 1-0 up in the series."Hussey said outspoken teammates Hayden and Andrew Symonds, who renewed his ongoing hostilities with the Indians when he was involved in a verbal exchange with teenage paceman Ishant Sharma last Sunday, would not be affected by the controversies.

"What I can say is that they are extremely professional cricketers," Hussey said of the Queensland duo."Extremely mentally tough cricketers, and I am sure they will be able to put any controversy out of their mind and concentrate solely on the cricket."

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his side were not interested in the verbal warfare, happy to let their actions do the talking."It is very important to talk about cricket right now," he said. "Cricket is about batting, bowling and fielding."The verbal part remains but we should concentrate on our cricket."

Source:http://afp.google.com/
Posted by Jimmy at 12:47:02 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |