Chennai Super Kings Dethroned

Last night, for the first time, I was able to relate to the heightened emotions experienced by football fanatics.There were times when I wanted to shovel Sehwag down a manhole and whack Mc Grath on his head for playing so well. I cried, I sulked and I abused.The Delhi Daredevils, well they came, they played and they conquered. My sunshine squad was left dumbfounded.

Dhoni’s side lost Hayden, Oram and Hussey to country duty and this seems to have taken its toll. Oram’s bowling was well missed but having said that they did played good cricket. It was just not enough to beat the Daredevils.

The homeside (Chennai) won the toss and elected to bat. The opening pair of Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming seemed a solid one to crack until Yomahesh walked in. His first over was an exciting one to watch. He duped Fleming into a catch with some brilliant pace attack only to discover it was a no-ball.To add insult to injury Fleming knocked a boundary off the free hit. One more free hit and a boundary later Yomahesh was thrilled to watch the stumps fly off into the air for a change and Fleming returned to the pavillion. Then came in a warrior in the disguise of S.Vidyut and he carried the match on his shoulders. However, wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Even Mc Grath returning hurt to the pavillion didnot benefit the Super Kings much. His niggardly bowling had done enough damage. Morkel added a few mighty boundaries at the very end of the innings and the Super Kings finished at 169 at the end of 20 overs.

Chennai                                                                                        R B 4’s 6’s SR

Parthiv Patel	c Y Mahesh b V Sehwag	21	20	3	0	105.00
Stephen Fleming	b Y Mahesh	13	13	2	0	100.00
Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan	c Y Mahesh b G McGrath	54	37	7	1	145.95
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c) (wk)	c S Malik b M Asif	32	27	2	1	118.52
Albie Morkel	c V Sehwag b R Bhatia	28	16	3	2	175.00
Suresh Raina	run out (P Sangwan)	3	4	0	0	75.00
Subramaniam Badrinath	not out	11	5	0	1	220.00
Joginder Sharma	not out	0	0	0	0	0.00

Out came the Delhiities. 6 overs later with all wickets intact and a calm and composed innings from Sehwag I was sure this match would be won by the visitors. My TV was in great danger of being hit by one of my mom’s prized sculptures from Kochin, so I switched over to Star Plus instead. As predicted, Sehwag’s team did go on to win with 8 wickets intact. None of the Chennai bowlers could weave much magic save for Gony and Murli, but that too was not enough.

This is the story of how the reigning kings were toppled . They will strike back,oh yes, they will.

Delhi                                                                  R B 4’s 6’s SR

Gautam Gambhir	b M Gony	50	37	5	1	135.14
Virender Sehwag (c)	c M Muralitharan b J Sharma	71	41	7	4	173.17
AB de Villiers	not out	26	21	2	0	123.81
Shikhar Dhawan	not out	19	17	2	0	111.76

 

Deccan’s Charge falls short of Delhi’s Daredevillry

Yesterday’s IPL match should have been an interesting display of talent instead it proved to be a wash out with the Delhi Daredevils dominating throughout.I was backing the Deccan Chargers for two reasons,firstly,they belong to South India and secondly,they have some of my favorite players-Vaas,Gibbs and Gillchrist.But yet again,as if out to mock me,the team I supported lost.

Out to bat first was the beningn Laxman’s side.The top 4 batsmen failed to shine and it was upto Rohit sharma to take on the baton and show some strength.He propelled the Hyderabad team to a meagre 142 for the loss of 8 wickets.None of the other Chargers made an impact.

Batsmen		Runs	SR
Adam Gilchrist	b M Asif	8	88.89
Venugopal Rao	c S Dhawan b F Mahroof	14	63.64
VVS Laxman	(c) b M Asif	2	33.33
Andrew Symonds	c D Karthik b F Maharoof	12	92.31
Rohit Sharma	c G McGrath b R Bhatia	66	183.33
Shahid Afridi	lbw b R bhatia	2	28.57
Sanjay Bangar	Run out (Tiwari)	8	57.14
Arjun Yadav	c G Gambhir b Y Mahesh	12	171.43
Chaminda Vaas	Not Out	12	200
RP Singh	Not out	1	100
Pragyan Ojha	-	-	-

A brilliant unbeaten 94 by the skipper Sehwag helped the daredevils reach the required target with ease and with 9 wickets intact.A particularly entertaining and embarrassing over for the Chargers was Symond’s when every alternate ball is smashed for a 6 and 4 by Sehwag.The match was over by the 13th over and left ample time for the Deccan Chargers to ponder over their dismal show.

Batsmen		Runs	SR
Gautam Gambhir	c A Gilchrist b RP Singh	12	133.33
Virender Sehwag (c)	Not Out	94	229.27
Shikhar Dhawan	Not Out	25	89.2

The recent matches have proven that 20/20 is a completely different ball game.Veteran sportsmen have been failing and the “black horses” have taken over the arena.How this will affect the talent pool of cricket,only time will tell.

 

Dhoni humbles the “Young Prince”

Popcorn in hand, I was all set for what I personally considered the two best IPL teams on paper.And what a match! It was worth every minute of my usual telly that I had to miss. A far cry from the one-sided opening match,this one kept hearts pounding till the penultimate over.

Dhoni’s sunshine squad came out to bat having won the toss.After losing a few early wickets to the pace attack of Lee the SuperKings lived up to their name with the arrival of Michael Hussey.He faced 54 balls and hit a mammoth 114( 7 boundaries and 10 sixes).He was ably supported by Raina(31;13 balls,2×4s,3xs) and Badrinath(31 not out;14 balls 3×4s and 2×6s) who thus guided their team to a massive 240 for 5 at the end of 20 overs.Yuvraj’s bowlers did well except for S.Sreesanth who proved extremely costly.

It was now the host’s turn to take up the bat.James Hopes payed a quick innings of 71(33 balls,10×4s;3×6s) and SL wicketkeeper-batsman sangakarra made a brisk 54(33 balls,5×4s,2×6s) but with Hopes dismissal,Kings Xi lost all hope.HE was involved in two successive 50-plus partnerships but it wasnot enough.Murli,Ghoni,amarnath and Joginder were too good,all taking a wicket each.The Punjab side failed to dominate Chennai’s bowling attack and Chennai Super kings won by 33 runs!

As I was writing this Kolkata Knight Riders won a nail-biting match against Deccan Chargers much to my dismay and the fireworks have gone off in Mumbai marking the beginning of an exciting new match.Wohooo

 

ILU,IPL,ILU

I Love U ,IPL, I Love U.

I dont care what the purists say.For me sports is synonymous with excitement and joy and last night was just that-plain unadulterated entertainment. IPL is the new breed of cricket. An amalgamation of not so strange bedfellows-cricket and glamour.The past few months have been nothing short of a whirlwind romance for the two.Money was being thrown around like it was nobody’s business and much hype was created.Ads promoting team loyalities left the Indian public torn ,confused but still very much excited and curious.

Last night’s opening ceremony was surely the icing on the cake.Spectacular,magical and larger-than -life are just a few words to describe the atmosphere at the Chinnaswamy stadiumin Bangalore.A packed stadium waited with baited breath for the start of the ceremony.Suddenly,out of the pitch black, spring night,sprung trapeze artists,acrobats,stilted beauties,fairies in bubbles and the crowd erupted. Dazzling fireworks followed and the stands filled with Shankar-ehsan-loy’s melodious music.This was Cricket Rock!As the team captains were introduced the crowd grew wild with excitement and one man they called “the boss” tendulkar,prompted a deafening cheer that probably could be heard all the way in Chennai.I enjoyed it just as much watching it from home.Although the dancing girls didnt get my approval and made the event border on sleazy,IPL still gets my vote.

The cricket was unpredictable.The wall crumbled and so did his team much to my dismay and it was really a pathetic performance.However,not having developed much of a loyalty yet towards any team the crowd loved McCullum’s innings!McCullum crossed 50 in 32 balls, 100 in 53 and 150 in 70 balls.McCullum’s score is the highest in T20 cricket, beating the previous mark by 17 runs. The short-statured but strong-armed wicketkeeper from New Zealand hit 14 sixes and 10 fours.Each 6 took the crowd to a new high.Shahrukh’s songs belted out each time his team hit a 4 or a 6.It was pure fun.Not since an India-Pakistan match had the Indian public witnessed such levels of passion and frenzy.The brief score of yesterdays’ match is as follows:

Kolkata Knight Riders:222/3 in 20 overs

B.McCullum 158 n.o.;Ponting 20

Bangalore Royal Challengers :82 all out in 15.1 overs

P.Kumar 18 n.o.;A.Dinda 2 for 9;A.Agarkar 3 for 25

Kolkata Knight Riders won by 140 runs.

This game is ruthless.It can bring down the mighty and create stars out of unknowns;and this is its major selling point!Oh well,Im off. Yuvraj’s Kings XI Punjab will face Dhoni’s Chennai SuperKings in a few and I need to get my popcorn ready.The update of that match will be up here pretty soon.

 

Oh!lympics

The controversy surrounding the Olympics has left me sighing everytime its brought up.Thankfully,the Indian leg of the Olympic torch- run went peacefully.The 2.3km route was completed in 35 minutes while almost whole of Delhi came to a standstill.A record number of security officials,twice the number of those found on Republic Day,guarded the area .This preparation seems to have irked a few sportsmen who decided to opt out, citing stifling conditions.

So was it wrong to have such a high degree of protection? In my opinion, Id rather compromise on a bit of freedom than have a Paris or a London.Even those fortunate enough to carry the flame proclaimed that the moment the torch found its way into their hands the security in place just faded into insignificance-keeping the flame alive was all they could think of.

The Indian Government needs to be applauded for carrying out a smooth affair.It was an ideal balance-while protection was in place to let the flame pass on in true spirit without the interference of unwanted elements,those who felt strongly about the china invasion were allowed to carry out their own alternative procession to voice there opinion. Sportsmanship spirit was upheld.The highlight of the day would have to be Peas and Bhupathi lighting the cauldron together leaving aside their personal differences and placing sports above all.

But has the Olympic spirit been scarred?Does it deserve to be boycotted?I am keen to know how you feel.Please use the link below to my poll and let your opinion be known(Its anonymous)

Should Olympics be boycotted?
( surveys)