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.

Royal Challengers Bangalore outdo New South Wales

What a victory! What a match! Red devils of T20 cricket (read Royal Challengers Bangalore) have made it to the CLT20 finals (champion’s league T20). Not once but twice, RCB successfully chased a score above 200 in consecutive games.

David Warner played an amazing knock of 123 runs (68 balls) for New South Wales Blues (NSW).

 

But alas it all went in vain as NSW lost the match to RCB. Superb partnership between Chris Gayle 92 runs (41 balls) and Virat Kohli 84 runs (49 balls) took the game away from NSW. Virat was awarded the man of the match, rightly so as he played sensibly and stood not out till the end of game.

 

The match result RCB 204/4 (18.3) beat NSW 203/2 (20). Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 6 wickets

Chris Gayle again weaved his magic yet again. In the last game against Red backs he was superb as usual. That game will particularly be remembered for the 6 of the last ball by A Karthik. It was simply splendid. And the game will always stay memorable for RCB. To bounce back from bottom of the table to being a semi-finalist needs some real talent. 

RCB will now play the winner of Mumbai Indians – Somerset game to be played in Chennai on 8^th Oct 2011. The finals of T20 champion’s league will be played on 9^th Oct 2011 at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

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.

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.