Mumbai Indians make it to CLT20 finals!

Well its official now, CL T20 finals will see two IPL teams fighting for champions glory at Chennai at 8PM on 9th Oct 2011.

Mumbai Indians (MI) beat Somerset by 10 runs in the 2nd semi-finals of ongoing Champions League T20 tournament. No prizes of guessing who was the man in action, it was slinger Malinga!

Lasith Malinga was awarded Man of the match

for his match winning bowling performance, 4/20 of 4 overs.

Mumbai Indians won the toss & elected to bat and scored 160/5 in 20 Overs. They batted well to ensure they set a fighting target. Key contributors were Aiden Blizzard 54 runs of 39 balls and R. Satish 25 runs of 12 balls. 

Somerset who have had a great series fell short by 10 runs chasing the target set by MI. At the end of 20 overs Somerset could only gather 150 runs having lost 7 wickets. Craig Kieswetter made an impressive 62 runs of 46 balls, which included 7 boundaries and 1 six. 

The turning point of the match was the 19th Over when Harbhajan reintroduced James Franklin to bowl. He got the key wickets of Craig Kieswetter and Jos Buttler in the 19th over. Somerset needed 15 runs of the last over and it looked tough challenge, considering the fact that it was Malinga who bowled the 20th Over. Malinga gave away just 4 runs of his last over and also picked 2 more wickets in addition to 2 wickets he had picked in his earlier spell.

Now on eyes set on the big finals, when Mumbai Indians take on Royal Challengers Bangalore. It would be an amazing contest between Bat and Bowl. More than being a RCB Vs MI match, it would be Gayle Vs Malinga.

Indian Premier League (IPL) - 4 - Chennai Super Kings the undisputed Champions

Finally it’s curtains down for IPL-4. Reigning champions Chennai Super Kings crushed Royal challengers Bangalore in what seemed like a one side match on Saturday. The 58 –run stupendous victory ensured CSK maintained the supremacy  in IPL by winning the Indian Premier League title second time in a row.

Opening pair of Murali Vijay and Michael Hussey stitched together one of the best partnership of 159-run for the 1st wicket. It’s now the highest partnership for any wicket for CSK.  Murali Vijay’s 95 runs off just 52 balls was a treat to watch for not just the CSK supporters in the stadium but also to the millions of eye balls glued to the television set across the globe.

Chasing the mammoth total 206 runs was quiet a task for RCB. Hopes if any were burned to ash when Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Chris Gayle for a duck in the very first over of RCB innings. Ashwin finished with an impressive 3-16 in his allotted quota of over’s. Gayle’s dismissal triggered what Dhoni would have expected before the match, the collapse of RCB. Within no time RCB was reduced to 70-6 and Saurabh Tiwary’s efforts to bring RCB back into the game found no support in his own team as there were no partnership worthy of any mention. Within no time Bangalore team succumbed to the pressure and the RCB could only manage 147 runs in all.

This edition of Indian Premier League did have some amazing moments. Chris Gayle finished as the highest run-getter with 608 runs from 12 innings. He picked the Golden Player of the tournament award for this edition of IPL. Lasith Malinga the slinger from Lanka ended up being the highest wicket taker with 28 wickets from 16 matches. The rising star award was given to Iqbal Abdulla of Kolkata Knight Riders. He has been a good find this season and I’m sure he will get his due sometime soon to play for the nation if he does well in the domestic season this year.

At a holistic level this season of IPL has been marred with several controversies. They include Shane Warne episode, Injured Gautam Ghambir’s incident and many more. Also there has been a dip in the TRP’s and cricket as a sport has suffered as per many critics. All said and done IPL is now over. All eyes now set on India’s tour of West Indies where many a greenhorns are set to get a chance to play for the nation in upcoming ODI and Test series.