Indian Premier League (IPL) - 4 - Qualifier 2 RCB Vs MI 27 May at Chennai

Tonight is a big fight, The Qualifier 2 of IPL 4. RCB who lost to CSK now face MI who defeated shahrukh's KKR. RCB gets a 2nd chance to make it to the IPL 4 finals, it’s an unusual opportunity call it IPL-4 flavor.  Being a die heart RCB fan it’s a big match for me. My only wish was there were more local heroes in the team. In this season of IPL Kumble has now retired, Dravid played for Rajasthan, the local smasher Robin Uttappa and Mahesh Pandey last IPL’s discovery played for Pune warriors. I miss our boys, but guess IPL-4 is more of a business than just a cricket extravaganza.

The last match i.e. Qualifier 1 RCB lost to CSK. It was disheartening to see Virat Kohli’s knock of valuable 70 runs of 44 balls going in vain. RCB had made a challenging 175 in allotted 20 over’s for a loss of 4 wickets. After the initial jitters and Gayle failing to make an impact it was Kohli who made the match worth a stiff contest. CSK innings of first 10 over’s gave an impression that RCB would easily make it to the final. But then Raina got going and smashed RCB bowlers all around the park.  The left-hander smacked 73 off 50 balls. Dhoni too played a crucial knock of 29 off 19 balls and it came just at the right pace. It was a nerve-cracking encounter indeed. The end results, well the defending champions made it to the finals.

Now all eyes on today’s encounter. RCB gets to have another shot to make it to the finals as they face MI today at Chennai. MI had a good game against KKR as they left no stone unturned to crush any hope of KKR might have had at the beginning of the season. MI chased down a modest target of 148 set by KKR, winning the match with four wickets in hand and four balls to spare. Who can forget Bhajji’s Six which was the winning shot for MI. In the end it was brilliant team work which did the trick for MI. Blizzard made 51 runs and was well supported by Sachin Tendulkar who scored an important 36 runs in MI campaign.

KKR is also now in trouble after the loss, with the controversy surrounding them about playing injured Gautam Ghambir which has now literally casted doubts he being fit to lead India in upcoming West Indies tour. Well that’s another interesting topic to blog about later.

Indian Premier League (IPL) - 4 - T20 Tournament a Kill Joy!

Well when I began this blog I had plenty of stuff about cricket in mind to keep this blog going and then somewhere the line things didn't seem to be falling in place. Tonight as I sit in tranquility and reflect on the days gone by, it all seems to make sense. IPL turned out be a kill joy to my enthusiasm I guess! 

2nd Of April India won the cricket world cup only for the second time since the tornaments inception. A drought ended after 28 years my Dhoni and his men. And then 6 days later IPL 4 began on April 08, Friday 2011, 8 PM IST. Defending champions CSK played KKR in the opening match.

Something wasn't right about IPL this time around. Probably the Indian victory at the world cup had not yet been fully relished by the nation and the tournament with a total of 74 matches in all had begun! Thats the reason I call it Kill joy! However having said that, IPL has been a great opportunity on its own, for a lot of talented lads to showcase their skills. The only thing I wish is IPL could have been more enjoyable had there been a sufficient time gap between the two big events.

Now with 41 days of this tournament having been completed we seem to be approaching the business end of the tournament. The point table as on date as below reflects the top 4 teams likely the make it to the play off ;

Team  (Match Played-Won-Lost-No Result-Points-Net Run Rate)

CSK  (13-9-4-0-18- +0.544)

RCB  (13-8-4-1-17- +0.283) 

MI     (12-8-4-0-16- +0.245) 

KKR (12-7-5-0-14- +0.403)

Priti Zinta's Kings IX Punjab seems to be pushing their luck with a beautiful comeback game against RCB on 17th May with Gilly hitting the purple patch with his superb knock of 106 off just 55 balls. Punjab now has 14 points of 13 matches with a NRR of + 0.271. Cricket is a funny game, one more win for Punjab and a defeat for KKR in their last game against Pune, and Zinta's Kings IX might make it to the playoff. Oh what a disappointment would that be for SRK's team. "Death at the hands of Dada!" That’s what the newspapers will scream! IPL T20 is a funny game, you never know.

As far as my personal favourites for this edition of IPL, well no guesses Royal Challengers Bangalore. No points for guessing why, U can take me out of Bangalore but you can't take Bangalore out of me.... ha ha ha... I owe a lot to that city... fond memories of my growing up years.