CRICKET

IPL Season 2

2009-04-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

IPL-2 is back and is back with a bang. After all the controversies and confusion it at last chose its venue as South Africa. This news has come as a disappointment for all the circket fans in India but it is better than no show at all. After all the security of the players and the public is the main concern. And then there are elections going on which are also higher in priority than the IPL.

But crossing all barriers, the IPL Commissioner Mr.Lalit Modi made sure that the IPL-2 took place and runs smoothly. It was a great relief for all the cricket fans.

There have been a lot of changes in the team chemistry's of almost all the teams. Some main changes are-

i)Kevin Pietersen bought for 1.55m$, the most expensive player, replaces Dravid as the captain of the Royal Challengers team.

ii) John Buchanan, the coach of Kolkata Knight Riders, has come out with a new theory....the will now be having more than 1 captain playing together, thats interesting.

iii)A Gilchrist is the new captain of the Deccan Chargers team.

Let the game BEGIN!!!

the first match was between the MUMBAI INDIANS and the CHENNAI SUPERKINGS.

Everyone was expecting CSK to win the match seeing the teams' previous season's performance.

The start for MI was a bit shaky but Tendulkar and Abhishek Nair's knocks helped the team get 166 on the board. It wasnt a very big total and CSk was expected to achieve it easily.But due to some brilliant bowling and some help from the pitch CSK were able to score only 147 for 7.

This was the the first shock of the....the second, which was between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers ended in an exciting finish. RC, batting first lost 2 wickets in first 3 balls of the game. Then the new captain Kevin Pietersen with the former captain Rahu Dravid steadied the ship and scored a decent 133 runs in 20 overs. Chances of winning were quite less, that too against RR who won the inaugural IPL T20. RR also lost quick wickets.Their scoring rate was less than 3 rpo till the 7th over. Under pressure batsmen couldn't perform started getting out .the side was all out for 58 runs. It was humiliation for Shane Warne's team and time to rejoice for the Challengers.

It was an exciteful and unexpected first day of the IPL-2. Hope better action in the coming days.

IPL :week 2

2008-05-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

The IPL has already seen a lot of action. The Bhajji-Sree slapping controversy, some brilliant batting performances and now the latest controversy between Warne and Ganguly.
During the match between Jaipur and Kolkata, G.Smith took a brilliant catch to dismiss Ganguly. There was too much element of doubt so Ganguly asked the umpire to review the catch.This made Warne very angry. He thought that this was against the spirit of the game.
In the Bhajji-Sree slap controversy, Harbhajan has faced a ban of 11 IPL matches as a result he will not play again in this season of the IPL. But I think Sreesanth should have also got some penalty because this is not the first time he has been caught in such an act.
Most of the states,including Delhi, have also banned the cheerleaders. There has been a lot of controversies regarding this issue and people at very levels, like the ministers, have also been involved.
At last now we come to Cricket.
There have been some mind blowing performances by the youngsters.
There have been some funny incidences on the field as well. Like when J. Kallis bowled D.Karthik of a terrific yorker and broke stumps. During a match in Kolkata , the floodlights went off for a good half an hour.
Bowlers have really got a beating in this tournament so far. The batsmen have enjoyed themselves. There have been some disappointments as well. The 2 most expensive teams in this tournament have failed to perform. A lot was expected of them. But this is cricket, you never know what coming next. So be prepared and expect the unexpected.!!!!

The IPL buzz!! has begun

2008-04-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

SORRY GUYS!! I was away from the net for a week and couldn't post on the latest.
Although the talk of the season-Indian Premier League, has begun I will get you all the latest buzz from it, every week.
Now we have already seen some breath-taking performances from McCullum, M Hussey and V Sehwag(my fav player).
McCullum's knock of 158*(73 balls) was a blistering knock. It gave the IPL the perfect start. It is the highest individual score by any batsman in T20 cricket. His strike-rate was also superb.People thought it was 1 in a million but in the next game itself, Mike Hussey smashed another century of just 50 balls. During the the auctions, Mike was quite neglected and got a very raw deal. With his cracking knock, he has proved a point to all the franchisees, that he is worth of much more. Even his brother David H got a better deal.
And then came Sehwag, my favourite player. He cracked 94* runs of just 41 balls against the Deccan Chargers. The target fell short otherwise Sehwag could have made the fastest century in this tournament. He was looking in great mood. He smashed Symonds for 30 runs( 4,6,4,6,4,6) in his 2nd over.

Series drawn

2008-04-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

At last India was successful in defeating S.Africa. The test match, like the previous one, also ended within 3days. But this time the Proteas were the sufferers. It was a very low scoring match. I think that the Indian bowlers did very well to bowl out S. Africa so cheaply in both the innings. Harbhajan Singh was the pick of the bowlers. He took 7 wickets in the match and was awarded the "Man Of The Series" award for his brilliant bowling throughout the series.He won a "Sumo Grande" as the prize. As expected Sourav Ganguly got the "Man Of The Match"award for his matchsaving knock of 87 in the first innings. The pitch at Greenpark, Kanpur was a very spin-friendly pitch and it didnt help the Africans much. The series was levelled. In the end, I would like to say "Alls Well That Ends Well".

2nd Test :A Nightmare for India

2008-04-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

The second test match between South Africa and India ended in just three days. India was expected to perform very well here and to make the series 1-0. Kumble,the Indian team captain, did say that he was a bit unhappy with the pitch, but that was no excuse!!! After the test match ended, India did manage to break some records, but.....all were in favour of the opponent side.
India, which is said to have the most strongest and the most experienced batting line-up in the world cricket just crumbled on their home soil for 76!!!! It was a disaster. Everybody failed. S.African bowlers ripped across the Indian batting. The highest scorer for India was Irfan Pathan at 21*.Dale Steyn took a 5-wicket haul. It was expected. He had to deliver sooner or later.
S. Africa then put up a massive total on the board in their 1st innings of 494. The hero of the innings was AB De Villiers. He scored his maiden double-ton in test innings and finished at 217*.
India was able to score just 328 runs in their 2nd innings and lost the match by a huge margin-
"an innings and 90runs."
Let's hope and keep our fingers crossed that India win the next match a Kanpur, which starts on 11th April, and atleast level the series.

SEHWAG:319

2008-03-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

Sehwag has done it again!!! He has again shown everybody what he is capable of. On 29 March 2004 he literally thrashed the Pakistani bowlers in Multan to enter the elite group and became the 1st Indian ever to post a triple century in a test match innings. After exactly 4 years, on March 29 2008 he has again achieved the feat but this time it's against the Proteas.
This time he has broken many records with his superb knock of 319.He has become the 1st player to post a triple century on any Indian soil. He scored his triple century in just 278balls surpassing Matthew Hayden's record, who achieved this feat in 375 balls. The previous 10 occasions when he scored a century, he has been able to cross the 150-run mark. This shows how talented and consistent his batting performance is. But the question now arises is that why can't he perform so consistently in ODI's also. He was also left out of the team for about 5-7 months due to his poor form in ODI's as well as test matches.His average in Tests is so high but if you compare it with ODI's , its not up to the mark. Hope he regains his ODI form as well. I wish him all the very best for his future and i hope he keeps performing like this in the future also and make us proud.

New ICC chief - Imtiaz Patel

2008-03-18T01:04:00.000-07:00

ICC(International Cricket Council) has a new Chief Executive, Imtiaz Patel who will succeed Malcolm Speed-the current CEO of ICC. Malcolm Speed has been in the post for about 7 years.
David Morgan, ICC president elect, said "There was an absolute consensus on his choice. He was among the six candidates shortlisted for the job by the ICC executive board from a list of 15 chosen by our consultants."
Patel, a former soweto teacher, worked for the United Cricket Board, the former cricket board of South Africa.The head of the board at the time Patel joined the body, praised him on his success.
I.S.Bindra,the former head of BCCI, who was the other frontrunner in the race to become the CEO has got the job of a Principal Advisor, which is also a very high position.
Source:Yahoo!India

ICL

2008-03-14T08:30:00.001-07:00

The second season of the ICL T20s has begun.It is expexted to be a very exciting contest, though it's first season was not a very great hit but it still managed to attract atleast some attention.This year, as the IPL is also starting their season,ICL will have to work even harder to compete. Many new players have joined the ICL this year.Shane Bond and Damien Martyn have been the most controversial ones. Shane Bond's contract with the New Zealand Cricket has been cancelled and he will be no longer seen playing for the New Zealand team. The teams playing in ICL this season are Delhi Giants,Mumbai Champs,Chennai Superstars, Kolkata Tigers, Chandigarh Lions and Hyderabad Heroes. This time it also has two new teams featuring in it,The Lahore Badshahs and The Ahmedabad Rockets. The Lahore Badshahs team is full of players from Pakistan whereas The Ahmedabad Rockets team has players from all around the world, such as J.Gillespie and D.Martyn from Australia, W.Hinds from West Indies and many other Indian players.
I personally think that ICL has done a very good job, though it is not as popular as the yet to start IPL but still it has managed to break the monopoly of BCCI in India.

CB series WIN

2008-03-04T03:10:00.000-08:00

At last India has done it!!! They have defeated the world champions on their home soil. The young Indian team has shown that Australia is no longer the ODI champs.They can be beaten. A defeat was necessary for the Australians as they had started growing too over confident. The young Indian team has shown that they can cope up with the pressure. They remained focus when it mattered and delivered. The results can now be seen. There were also a bit too many controversies surrounding the series and it wasn't good for the game of cricket. India have won a triangular ODI series in Australia after a very very long time and have broken the shackles.The Indian team deserved this victory as they outplayed Australia in every aspect of the game. Australia also played good cricket, but in the end the better team won.There were a few ups and downs and a one point of time it looked as if Australia will win the series easily but India came back strongly and played up to their expectations. In the end I would like say that the Indian team showed great all-round skills and got the right results. The Sri Lankan team also put up a good show but unfortunately they couldn't get a berth in the finals and were knocked out.