A Win, A Loss and A Win !

The Latest on Indian Tour of Australia

That’s what Indian Cricket team’s scorecard reads after the last 3 matches played in Australia. Consistency is what seems to be missing not just with the team performance but also with the team selection. The latest thing to make news is Indian team’s rotation policy. Resting key players when they are most demanded! Now that sure is a great way to gain solid and good consistent performance.

Format Changes But Not The Result

India Vs Australia 1^st T20

It was a different venue, different version of the game, a much younger and fresh Indian team. Dhoni a day prior to this game told the media persons “From Kishore Kumar we have gone to Sean Paul.” He was emphasising on the team composition which he believed was a lot younger and better than the test team he captained. The result at the end of days play – India lost its 1^st T20 game by 31 runs against Australia.

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.

India Wins T20 Match Against West Indies

India Beats West Indies

Victory kisses Indian cricket team’s feet in their very first match of their tour to West Indies. What began as a fairly disappointing Innings for a nation that hosts the most talked T20 tournament (Read as IPL) was thankfully not disappointing in the end.  India won the T20 game by 16 runs.

The first half of the Indian Innings was quiet unsatisfactory, Indians were struggling and where 56/4 in the 9th over when they lost skipper Suresh Raina. The in-form skipper could manage only 2 runs in 6 balls; he was caught by Barnwell when he tried to play a ambitious shot of West Indies skipper D Sammy’s ball.

Thanks to Subramaniam Badrinath’s 43 of 37 balls which included 5 boundaries and some good cricket by Mumbai lad Rohit Sharma (26 of 23, 2 sixes) and Harbhajan Singh (15 of 7, 1 Six) India managed to post a decent score of 159 runs in allotted 20 over’s at a loss of 6 wickets. Darren Sammy was the pick of West Indies bowlers with an impressive figure of 4/16.

West Indies Unimpressive With Their Chasing Ability

West Indies failed to chase down the target set by Indian team and could manage only 143 runs loosing 5 wickets in their quota of 20 over’s. Darren Bravo was the highest scorer for West Indies (41 of 41). Christopher Barnwell brilliant knock of 34 runs of just 16 balls which included 1 four and 1 six was bit too late to save the West Indies from losing the game.

Indian bowling attack was a great treat to watch with almost all the bowlers being rewarded with wickets. Harbhajan Singh took two wickets while Praveen Kumar, R Ashwin and Munaf Patel contributed in the win with one wicket each. 

Indian batsmen Badrinath got Man of the Match for his match winning 43 runs. Now all eyes are set on India’s 1st ODI of the tour on Monday, 6th June, 2011 which will be played at the same venue, Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Champions India vs Young West Indies - T20 Game

India Vs West Indies T20

World Cup winners 2011 India will be playing their 1st overseas tour match post being crowned the champions today against West Indies. It’s a one-off T20 match which will be tour starter for the visitors.

The touring Indian side has been branded as a depleted side with most of the senior players opting out of the team. In the absence of the legends viz Tendulkar, Dhoni, Zaheer, Shewag and many more Suresh Raina will be the skipper for the T20 and ODI’s and will be ably assisted by Harbhajan Singh, the Vice-Captain.

Queen's Park Oval First Game Of Indian tour of West Indies

The touring Indian side is all set to take on the hosts at the Queen's Park Oval today 4th June 2011 at 10:00 (local time), 19:30 (Indian time). Queen's Park surface has been termed as bland and is said to favour the Indian team. Harbhajan Singh who played for Mumbai Indians and R Ashwin who played for Chennai Super Kings in this year’s IPL, are two very dangerous off-spinners. They may have a great day if they are both included in the team for today’s match.

On the other hand West Indies team is not in great shape. The team currently being coached by Ottis Gibson and captained by Darren Sammy is fairly young and inexperienced too. They have not had great games in recent past and the team has been struggling to give consistent performance. Ravi Rampaul and spinner Devendra Bishoo will be the players to watch out for as they have been in good form of recent. It still doesn’t make sense to not select Gayle who had an excellent stint at IPL this season. Sooner the board and Gayle iron out the difference better it would be for their national team and cricket as a sport. Who doesn’t wish to see a talent like him smashing the ball all over the park?

As for the Indian team skipper Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin are my top pick. This tour is sure a great platform for the young players of Indian team.

Indian Cricket team’s tour of West Indies – Fletcher in pursuit of salvation!

The Indian cricket team

selected for the one off T-20 and 5 ODI’s tour starting from June 4 is a depleted side without many senior players. Some are not playing as they are rested and many others due to injuries. Senior players such as world cup winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and ace seamer Zaheer Khan have been rested for the upcoming series. Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh are not a part of the touring team due to injuries. 

A three-match -rubber is scheduled post the ODI’s and senior players including Dhoni and Tendulkar are expected to join the team then. The Test Series begins on June 20 and will be played in Jamaica.

In absence of star players the Indian team is being led by young gun Suresh Raina. It’s definitely going to be challenging tour for both Raina and Fletcher. Indian team have a lot at stake, they have to avenge the whipping they received from West Indies in ODI’s during their last tour in 2006. For the record India lost the ODI’s series 1-4 during their last tour to West Indies. Only saving grace was the 1-0 victory in the four match test series under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. 

Duncan Fletcher the new coach of Indian Cricket Team

Duncan Fletcher has a huge challenge on his shoulders. This tour will be his first assignment after being appointed the coach of India’s cricket team.  He may not have fond memories of having toured West Indies as head coach of England team four years back. England had then failed to progress beyond Super 8 level and this led to unceremonious exit of Fletcher from the top job.

Duncan Fletcher’s report card as Coach of England cricket team;

England played 175 ODIs and won 75 with a winning percentage of 47.47

England played 96 Tests and won 42 with a winning percentage of 43.75

Biggest achievement: England won Ashes in 2005. England won the 5-Test series 2–1 against Australia on home turf. England succeeded in their attempt to win the urn for the first time since 1987.

After 4 years Fletcher again has a chance to change fortunes and avenge the disappointment which he had faced in West Indies. This time around he will be travelling with a young Indian team which lacks the experience. The much criticized Indian Premier League seems to have taken toll on the Indian cricket team. 

All said and done this tour holds lot of importance to Indian team. Considering it’s their maiden tour after being crowned the champions, having won the cricket world cup 2011. 

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.