Cricket Tournaments

Kochi Tuskers Kerala 98 for 2 beat Rajasthan Royals 97 by eight wickets
Man of the match: Brad Hodge

In what was one of the worst batting performances in this edition of the IPL, the Rajasthan Royals were shot out for 97 and Kochi then chased the target down with 8 wickets and 76 balls to spare to keep their hopes of progressing in the tournament alive. Batting first on a smallish ground, the Royals tried to bat Kochi out of the game, but only managed to embarrass themselves. Brad Hodge helped himself to four wickets and an unbeaten 32 as Kochi cruised home and, in the process, knocked the Royals out of the tournament.

While Hodge picked up four, S Sreesanth was equally impressive and it was his opening spell during which he picked up the wickets of Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane that set the tone of the game. The Royals had faint chances of progressing further in the tournament at the start of the game, but the chance evaporated rather quickly as the partnerships never built. Faiz Fazal fell lbw early on in the piece. However, the bigger wickets were those of Dravid and Rahane. With three wickets down for 26, Rajasthan were in the dock very on.

Unfortunately, Rajasthan decided not to try and rebuild. Instead the batsmen continued to go for their strokes and perished one after the other. There were some positive moments too. Ashok Menaria slammed a six off Sreesanth and Shane Watson, in fact, got three off little known left-arm spinner P Prashanth. However, it did not last long. Watson was clean bowled by a fuller length ball from Prasanth Parameswaran, the 37-run over bowler! And then, Hodge took over.

The Aussie discard got the easy scalps of Pinal Shah, Jacob Oram, Shane Warne and Menaria, all of whom perished in an effort to loft the ball out of the ground. At the loss of the four wickets, Rajasthan had slid to 89 for 9 and eventually folded up for a paltry 97.

Kochi then took the opportunity to improve their net run rate. Brendon McCullum started by going after the erratic Shaun Tait. After being clean bowled by Tait off a no ball, McCullum slashed Tait for a four and six. Next, he lifted Oram for three sixes straight down the ground, before falling for 29 off just 12 balls. Hodge and Parthiv Patel continued the good work as the game was brought to an end in 7.2 overs. Not surprisingly, it was among the biggest wins in IPL history.

Kings XI Punjab 170 for 6 beat Delhi Daredevils 141 for 8

Man of the Match: Piyush Chawla

Paul Valthaty returned to form slamming a stroke filled 62 as Punjab notched up an impressive 170 batting first, more than enough against the increasingly hapless Delhi Daredevils. The latter put up another pathetic effort in the field and followed it up with yet another below par batting effort as they clearly missed Virender Sehwag’s exploits at the top.

In contrast, Punjab found a new hero in Piyush Chawla, who has been under the hammer for a while. Chawla took the opportunity to get some easy wickets against the struggling Daredevils as the Kings notched up their third consecutive win to keep their campaign alive, just like Kochi did later in the day.

Punjab weren’t on top of their game per se, but what Punjab did badly, Delhi did worse. Irfan Pathan swung the ball and picked up three wickets, but found nothing in the form of support from the other end. Morne Morkel troubled Valthaty with his pace and bounce. As a result, he offered plenty of chances, but Delhi spilled everything. Yogesh Nagar and Irfan were equally responsible for allowing Valthaty to survive an easy run out  chance. Soon, Venugopal Rao also put down an easy chance.

Looking at Punjab’s flaws, Gilchrist threw his wicket away. Shaun Marsh tried to keep the game in the balance, but Valthaty continued his ugly ways and kept getting away. He tried to cut, pull and slash all balls at his disposal, but did not succeeded. Valthaty finally managed to slam two sixes off James Hopes to give himself some confidence. Hopes made another mistake bringing on S Sriram in the 13th over. Marsh slogged him for three big sixes on the on side as the over went for 25 runs. Punjab raced away. Marsh and Valthaty both fell to Irfan in the second spell. However, Naman Ojha dropped Dinesh Karthik and that ensured Punjab ended up with 170.

Delhi chase did not get underway in a great fashion. David Warner had another bad day. He and Naman Ojha could not press the accelerator and as a result the pressure built. Praveen Kumar bowled another maiden over. Ojha finally found the middle of the bat, slashing Shalabh Srivastava for two sixes and a four. However, Ojha soon fell for 28 and Warner too fell soon after.

Piyush Chawla, who had a bad World Cup, which has cost him a place in the national side, finally found some groove against the equally struggling Daredevils batsmen. He reined himself him, not showing over reliance on the googly. He was rewarded with the important wickets of Sriram, Rao and skipper Hopes, all in consecutive overs. As a result, Delhi went down without a fight and, deservedly, stayed at the bottom of the IPL table.

Delhi Daredevils 179 for 6 Deccan Chargers 175 for 5 by four wickets

Man of the match: Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag’s greatness was on the display against the Deccan Chargers as he single handedly took his team to victory in a game they clearly deserved to lose. Earlier, their fielding was atrocious with catches being dropped and bowlers bowling no balls made matters worse. As a result was should have been a target of around 150 ended up being 176. Then, even with the bat, all except Sehwag struggled. Wickets fell early and by the time they were four down, the required run rate was well above 11. This is when Sehwag decided to take charge of the Chargers. He went on an all out attack, blessed with two chances, but fell only when victory was well within sight. Cleary a one man show that defeated the combined effort of 11 others from the opposition.

Sehwag’s effort outdid the one he had put up against the Kochi Tuskers Kerala a few days ago and was clearly a treat to watch. As boundaries came left right and centre, the Deccan Chargers had no answer and skipper Kumar Sangakkara looked clueless. The greatness of Sehwag’s knock can be gauged from the fact that the next best score in their innings was as low as 17, coming from James Hopes.

Even as the Daredevils’ bowlers, barring Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar, were massacred as Deccan lifted themselves to 175, Sehwag absorbed all the pressure even as the others around him failed. His partners Aaron Finch, Naman Ojha and even the in form Venugopal Rao were taken out by the pace of Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma as Sehwag could only watch as a spectator. At 25 for 3 after six overs, Sehwag knew only he could take his team home. He did and how, smashing 119 off 56 as Deccan bowlers were pummeled all over the park. Sehwag was severe on everyone. He began by slamming debutant Ishan Malhotra to deep square leg and deep midwicket as well. There were more fours to follow as Sehwag took 23 from the over and set Delhi underway. More attacking strokes followed as Sehwag slammed 13 from the next over bowled by Christian.

Even when Sangakkara introduced spin, nothing changed. He slammed Amit Mishra straight over his head, but was lucky to be dropped the next ball by Ankit Sharma. He made full use of it as Sehwag as the very next ball was guided to third man as well. Even after Sehwag lost another partner in Birt, he did not slow down, or rather he could not as the run rate was still on the higher side. And it worked perfectly for Sehwag as well as Delhi. Sehwag soon slammed Mishra for three consecutive fours. In between, another chance went down and with it Deccan’s hopes.

As a last throw of the dice, Sangakkara brought back Steyn. But, the move to bring on Bharat Chipli from the other end misfired big time. His medium pacers were easily dispatched to all parts of the ground as Sehwag brought up a magnificent hundred in the process. Steyn eventually got his man in the 17^th over, but then the game was well out of Deccan’s grasp.

Sehwags’ effort outdid J P Duminy stunning innings earlier in the day. After being reprieved, the left hander smashed 55 off 31 balls. Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan also got chances and made Delhi pay. On other days, it would have surely cost them the game, but they need to thank Sehwag for rescuing them.

Kolkata Knight Riders 148 for 7 beat Delhi Daredevils 131 for 9 by 17 runs

Man of the match: Manoj Tiwary

A poor batting effort saw Delhi Daredevils stay at the bottom of the table following yet another disappointing loss. The Delhi bowlers would be especially shattered as they did an excellent job to restrict the Kolkata Knight Riders to 148 for 7 despite a measured half century by Manoj Tiwary. However, the Kolkata Knight Riders outdid the Daredevils with the ball to coast to victory in the end at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. Left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla was the star for the Knight Riders with the ball, his three scalps derailing the chase on a pitch that offered ample turn.

In hindsight, Delhi clearly had gone the wrong way as they went out with an all-out pace attack. Even so, they did an excellent job. Irfan Pathan found his rhythm for a change and sent back Jacques Kallis early to get Delhi off to the perfect start. Umesh Yadav continued to impress with the pace which claimed the crucial scalps of the dangerous men Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan. Also, Ajit Agarkar, who was playing his second game of the tournament, kept things tight and even got a wicket with the first ball he bowled.

The only disappointment for the Daredevils with the ball was unusually off colour performance of Morne Morkel, who gave away the most runs. Still, Delhi did not allow Kolkata to get away and only a mature half century from Manoj Tiwary, who remained unbeaten, took KKR close to 150. However, Delhi weren’t at their best with the bat either. David Warner had a rare failure. The only phase when Delhi looked in control was when James Hopes and Virender Sehwag were at the crease together. They took the score to 43, but the partnership needed to last longer from Delhi’s point of view.

The came turned around completed once Jaidev Unadkat managed to get rid of Sehwag. The ball was moving around and Unadkat chipped in with a couple of short ones, and Sehwag not one to back down went for one, which led to his downfall. The introduction of Abdulla had already slowed down the scoring. As the pressure grew Irfan Pathan fell, attempting to slog the left arm spinner but only perishing into midwicket’s hands. The unknown Travis Birt fell soon after, which meant also hopes were placed on all-rounder Hopes. However, he too lost his patience and hit one straight to cover off Abdulla’s bowling. The Mumbai lad added another scalp to his kitty as Naman Ojha slogged one in the outfield. Six down for 86 and the game was all but over.

Delhi managed a brief flutter. However, Shah Rukh’s team had no reason to worry as Brett Lee conceded just two runs in the penultimate over, and also helped out in getting two run-outs. The best moments for Delhi in the game came when Jacques Kallis was consumed by an incoming delivery by Irfan and Gautam Gambhir lost his wicket to Hopes’ far from threatening bowling. Yadav got Yusuf and Morgan cheaply to enable Delhi stayed ahead of the race. The boundaries were kept to the minimum in the last five overs.

Following the victory, the Kolkata Knight Riders moved up the table to second spot, but with the teams so close one wonders for how long. For Delhi though, they remain at the bottom and need something inspirational to turn things around.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 161 for 7 beat Delhi Daredevils 160 for 6 by three wickets

Daniel Vettori and J Syed Mohammad hit crucial boundaries to ensure that Virat Kohli’s half century did not go in vain as Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to chase the target of 161 with three balls to spare. Challengers looked in a bit of trouble after Kohli was dismissed, but both Vettori and Mohammad held their nerves to ensure Bangalore got home in the end despite Delhi’s comeback with the ball.

Until Kohli was at the crease, the Bangalore chase looked in control as he was finding the ropes at will during his wonderful half-century. However, David Warner scored a direct hit to run out AB de Villiers and give Delhi some inspirational hope. Only a couple of balls later, Morne Morkel cleaned up Kohli and the match was very much back in the balance. The pendulum swung as Mohammad managed to pinch two boundaries off Umesh Yadav. Vettori also played a solid hand as Bangalore got home in the last over.

While credit must be given to the abovementioned duo, it was undoubtedly Kohli who set up the victory. He hit boundary after boundary as Delhi looked clueless. And this was after Tillakaratne Dilshan was gone second ball of the innings. Kohli managed as many as six boundaries in the first ten balls he faced as Ashok Dinda and Irfan Pathan were lacklustre. Pathan in particular was disappointing as Kohli took a liking to him, flicking and driving with a lot of ease.

At the other end, Chris Gayle was getting into his act too. He began by hammering Morne Morkel for a four and a six. 62 came in the first five overs as Bangalore looked at total ease. James Hopes gave some hope to Delhi by dismissing Gayle with a shorter one but not before they had added 82 in rapid quick time. Kohli brought up his fifty very soon. But, soon Delhi had their moment too as Villiers failed to beat a Warner throw and Morkel sent back Kohli.

Wickets continued to tumble as Cheteshwar Pujara perished going for a pull. Vettori and Tiwary scraped around for a while before the latter hammered Morkel for a crucial six. Morkel had his revenge soon enough and Abhimanyu Mithun too succumbed to the pressure, before the cool heads of Mohammad and Vettori saw them through to the end with some crucial boundaries.

Earlier in the day, James Hopes scored a half century to help  Delhi recover for a poor start. Zaheer Khan and S Aravind troubled the opening pair of Virender Sehwag and David Warner, with the new ball doing enough. They were never in with a chance of setting up a decent total until Hopes and Venugopal Rao combined in a fifth wicket alliance of 47. Warner was cleaned up by an incoming Zaheer snorter. Sehwag hit a few streaky boundaries before running himself out.

Thanks to the partnership between Rao and Hopes, Delhi had a decent platform with five overs to go, But, Rao lost his cool and cost Delhi some crucial runs. A few sixes from Irfan Pathan and Naman Ojha took Delhi to 160, but Bangalore had enough in their  arsenal to chase it down.

Chennai were brilliant in the field

Chennai Super Kings 142 for 6 beat Pune Warriors 117 for 9 by 25 runs

Chennai Super Kings got back to their winning ways as they successfully defended a mediocre score of 142 for 6 against Yuvraj Singh’s Pune Warriors, who struggled to 117 for 9 in their allotted 20 overs to lose the game by a pretty big margin of 25 runs. Chennai were very good with the ball as well as in the field, which enabled them to outdo Pune in spite of having put up a less than competitive score on the board.

Albie Morkel and Doug Bollinger, who opened the bowling, were excellent at the start of the innings for Chennai. They bowled a number of good short deliveries on the responsive pitch and the Pune openers clearly struggled. Mohnish Mishra fell to the slow nature of the surface. He tried to guide a ball down to the third man region, but only ended up edging it onto the stumps. Jesse Ryder managed to survive the faster men, but was done in by the smart R Ashwin. The off spinner bowled an arm ball disturbed, which the left hander couldn’t read and ended up exposing his stumps.

There was more trouble for Pune as Manish Pandey also fell while trying to steer a ball from Morkel down to the third man region and, like Mishra, also ended up disturbing his stumps. Soon, Pune plunged into further difficulty as Ashwin’s carom ball turned the other away and even fooled the in form Robin Uthappa, who was beaten all ends up and was bowled round his legs. Pune never recovered from that terrible start.

M S Dhoni introduced more spin as Suraj Randiv and Suresh Raina contributed with a few quiet overs. It was up to Yuvraj and Mithun Manhas to try and bring Pune back on track. Manhas did manage a mishit six off Randiv, but perished soon after ending Bollinger to Dhoni. With wickets falling, Chennai’s fielding also improved by leaps and bounds as the runs dried up. Yuvraj managed 34 but wasn’t in his elements and another brilliant fielding effort from Shadab Jakati enabled Chennai to see the back of him. The chase had already run out of steam by then.

Earlier, Pune had done much better during their turn with the ball to restrict Chennai to 142. Chennai themselves struggled, with M Vijay failing to time the ball. Both He and Michael Hussey were lucky as a number of edges made it to the boundary, with Hussey even being dropped once. But, it wasn’t going to be long before Pune got their deserved breakthrough. Vijay fell to a bouncer from Alfonso Thomas as Nathan McCullum took the simplest of catches. Thomas soon knocked over Raina as well as Chennai struggled their way to the halfway stage of the innings.

The spin of Yuvraj and Murali Kartik kept the runs down further with only Hussey holding fort for Chennai. Dhoni helped Hussey by slamming a couple of boundaries before he was stumped going for another big one. There was more bad news for Chennai as Hussey too fell a few balls later to Jerome Taylor, while trying to add more runs in Chennai’s account. Morkel had another failure with the bat and even a six from S Badrinath only enabled to lift them to 142. In the end, thanks to Chennai’s bowling and fielding effort it was enough.

Following their magnificent chase against the Pune Warriors, the Delhi Daredevils would have been in a confident frame of mind going into the match against the Deccan Chargers. However, everything came to naught as their batsmen struggled chasing a challenging, but hardly overwhelming, target of 169. Only David Warner, who has been the Daredevils’ best batsman, stuck it out for yet another half century, but the rest struggled and even a late assault by the relatively unknown Yogesh Nagar could not reduce the margin of deficit. This was after Sunny Sohal and Kumar Sangakkara combined to put Deccan in charge with a precision-like 92 run stand. The Daredevils did fight back well with the ball, following the dismissal of the two. But, with their weak batting faltering once again, it just was not enough.

At the end of the day, the partnership between Sohal and Sangakkara proved to be the decisive one. Things began well for the Chargers with Sohal driving the first ball of the day to the boundary. Shikhar Dhawan also got into the act, slamming a couple of fours. But, Irfan Pathan got the breakthrough for Delhi, pegging back Dhawan’s furniture. However, Delhi had little reason to smile after that as Sohal and Sangakkara went about their task in a refined manner. Neither player resorted to slog cricket. While Sohal used deft touches and drove with gentle ease, Sangakkara dominated the spinners, driving and lofting them with great success.

The important factor of their partnership was that both kept finding the boundaries at will, without taking too many risks. Sangakkara took left arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem to the cleaners, depositing him into the stands and also claiming a couple of boundaries. When the youngster Nagar was introduced, he too was treated with equal disdain, the former Lankan captain driving him for a couple of boundaries. All this while, Sohal was content with his deft play, before he too opened up after reaching his half century. Sohal took on Morne Morkel successfully, blasting him for a six and a four.

At 106 for 1 in the 12^th over, things did not look bright for the Daredevils, but they fought back thanks to some good bowling in the second half of the innings. Ashok Dinda made the breakthrough, getting Sangakkara caught in the covers, one short of a well deserved half century. A little later, Sohal also fell to Nadeem trying to move on with things. Cameron White did contribute an unbeaten 31, but it wasn’t his fluent or quickfire knock that could have taken the game away from the Daredevils.

Having chased down 180 the other day, the Daredevils would have been confident of surpassing this total as well. For that though they needed both Sehwag and Warner to fire. The initial signs were highly promising with Sehwag racing off the blocks with three successive fours. However, Harmeet Singh, playing in his first game, undid Sehwag and the wheels just fell off the innings from that point. Aaron Finch departed first ball while Naman Ojha was claimed by Daniel Christian before he had scored too many.

Once again, it was left to Warner and Venugopal Rao to do the rescue act. They did put their best foot forward, but with the pitch offering spin neither could repeat their heroics of the last game. Eventually, Rao fell for 21, which came at less than a run a ball, while Warner could manage on 51 despite being at the crease for 15 overs. When he fell, Delhi were still one short of 100. All the bowlers combined well to restrict the Daredevils, and Nagar’s final act was a mere consolation joy of some big hits.

(Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rajasthan Royals match abandoned at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore without a ball being bowled due to persistent rain.)

Kolkata Knight Riders 85 for 2 beat Rajasthan Royals 81 (Balaji 3-15) by eight wickets

Man of the Match: Laxmipathy Balaji

The Kolkata Knight Riders certainly look a different and more confident outfit under Gautam Gambhir as opposed to the previous three seasons. And this difference was clearly evident on Sunday, when the thrashed the Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets in a thoroughly comprehensive manner, in this case the margin of defeat said it all. Batting first, Rajasthan Royals crumbed under the pressure of some good bowling, especially by Laxmipathy Balaji and some incredible fielding, which culminated in run outs, to knock down the Rajasthan Royals to a miserable 81 all out. In reply, Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary then combined forces to kill any hopes of a Royal fightback courtesy two quick wickets by featuring in a sedate partnership that eventually blossomed into a match winning one.

Even as contributions came from all around, it was Balaji’s man of the match winning effort that was most crucial. After all, he took out the dangerous Shane Watson, who had come at the back of his record breaking 185 not out in Bangladesh. It needed something special to see the back of Watson, and Balaji produced one such delivery on Sunday, which pitched on the middle stump and left Watson enough to beat his wide bat and click the off stump. Not surprisingly, wild celebrations followed. Balaji returned in his second spell to claim two more victims. The dismissals weren’t as dramatic but crucial nonetheless and were taken with two wicket taking deliveries indeed. He first cleaned up with an off cutter which kept low and two which the batsman from Mumbai had little idea how to deal with. Next, he got Ashok Maneria, who perished trying to break the shackles but only ended up skying a catch.

Balaji finished with figures of 3 for 15 and inspired the others too. The fielding was, in particular, exceptional. Faiz Fazal fell following a misunderstanding as Iqbal Abdulla produced a diving stop off his own bowling and threw down the stumps at the non striker’s end. To make matters worse, another confusion between Abhishek Raut and Maneria resulted in the dismissal of the former. Shakib Al Hasan did not make any mistake in the field and wicket keeper Manvinder Bisla easily did the rest. A key moment in the game came when Ross Taylor was at the crease. The one man who could turn any game on its head overbalanced going for a flick of a delivery down the leg side. Wicket keeper Bisla was alert enough to take off the bails in a flash and Taylor was found short of his crease.

At 67 for 5, it was good as a hopeless case for the Royals and, along with Balaji, Shakib too took the occasion to get among the wickets. He cleaned up both Amit Singh and Shaun Tait with arm balls of varying length, but neither had a clue. The hat trick was averted, but Brett Lee returned to dismantle Siddharth Trivedi’s furniture and the Royal mess was complete. Tait gave some faint hopes to the Royals as Kallis failed to read a bouncer from the speedster and fell hanging his bat embarrassingly. A little later, Bisla was overpowered by the genius of Shane Warne after the former had an almighty struggle in the middle. However, Gambhir and Tiwary bided their time by and once they got their easy in it was an ‘as easy as it gets’ victory.

Delhi Daredevils 190 for 7 beat Pune Warriors 187 for 5 by three wickets

Man of the match: Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh was the man of the match in the game between the Pune Warriors and Delhi Daredevils, but it was one of those rare occasions when a person from the losing side gets the player of the game award. It was one of those days on Sunday at the D. Y Patil stadium as Yuvraj bludgeoned 66 from 32 balls and later picked up four wickets for 29 runs. Yet, the Daredevils had enough firepower left to sneak in a victory. It was a tough chase made tougher thanks to Yuvraj’s all round effort. First, he and Jesse Ryder put up a magnificent effort with the bat to take the Warriors to a highly challenging 187 for 5. Later, Yuvraj got breakthroughs at crucial intervals to keep the Daredevils innings in check after some explosive early batting. However, there was precious little from others in the form of support, which allowed Delhi to escape and snatch their first win of the tournament.

The foundation for the Daredevils’ win was laid by a superb opening stand between David Warner and Virender Sehwag. The two swashbucklers were in their elements as they added 75 in seven overs before Warner fell in the only was he seemed likely to get out – run out. But, before his departure, he ensured Delhi had the upper hand in the game. He took a special liking to Wayne Parnell as well as Alfonso Thomas, and most of his boundaries and sixes came of the duo’s bowling. The South African pair had no answer to the Aussie’s assault as Delhi made the most of the power play overs.

Skipper Sehwag too played his part in the opening act, slamming six fours in a 23 ball knock of 37 before his stumps were knocked back by an innocuous Ryder delivery. At 97 for 2, Delhi were still on top, but this where Yuvraj took over. He sent back Irfan Pathan and Naman Ojha off consecutive deliveries to bring the game back on an even keel. Rahul Sharma assisted him at the other end dismissing Matthew Wade as 97 for 2 quickly became 120 for 5. However, Delhi had an ace up their sleeve which turned the game right back in their favour.

Venugopal Rao and Aaron Finch were both held back, a move which could have easily backfired but didn’t. On the contrary, they combined to score 56 runs between themselves in 32 deliveries, one over from Shrikant Wagh going for 20 runs and changing the equally. And in spite of the fact that Yuvraj dismissed both Rao and Finch in the penultimate over, James Hopes saw them through with a couple of crushing hits.

Yuvraj would have believed he had done enough, but the combined forces of Delhi outpowered his solo act.

Mumbai Indians (99/2) beat Delhi Darevils (95) by 8 wickets

Man of the match: Lasith Malinga

When Lasith Malinga is no fire, even the best struggle. And so, it wasn’t that tough an ask for the Sri Lankan slinger against an inexperienced Delhi Daredevils side. He yorked four with toe-crushing deliveries and fooled the fifth with a slower one to end with unbelievable figures of 5/13 and shoot Virender Sehwag’s team out for a miserable 95. In response, the Sachin Tendulkar led-Mumbai Indians lost a couple of wickets to some good bowling and an exceptional piece of fielding. But that was about it as, devoid of any kind of pressure, Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma saw the team home in an unhurried fashion.

Undoubtedly, it was Malinga’s two spells which made all the difference and the result a foregone conclusion. Among a bunch of relatively unknown players, openers David Warner and Sehwag were Delhi major hope, as the home team batted first. However, Malinga had his own plans. He cleaned up Warner and Unmukt Chand with his trademark deliveries in his first over and the second over of the innings. Later, when a partnership was developing for the Daredevils, he returned to derail them again. Malinga began his destruction act part two by bowling Venugopal Rao (26) with yet another and followed it by breaking Morne Morkel’s bat, a precursor to yet another ‘bowled Malinga’ dismissal. As if for variation sake, he foxed Ashok Dinda with a slower one to claim his five for.

Thanks to Malinga’s sensational spell, the other bowlers too faced no pressure at all. Harbhajan Singh, who opened the innings, bowled a tight spell of 2/14 and was rewarded as batsmen were forced to go after him, with no runs coming from Malinga’s bowling. Ali Murtaza chipped in with the crucial wicket of Delhi top scorer Naman Ojha, while the rest of the bowlers had precious little to do.

The only hope Delhi had of a recovery from a disastrous start came to the fore during the partnership between Ojha and Rao. The duo was forced to rebuild the innings in 50-over style, with singles and twos interspersed with the odd boundary. With them at the crease, Delhi had a semblance of hope, but the alliance did not last long enough. Ojha perished trying to go for the requisite big hit, while Rao became another victim of Malinga’s yorking beauties. Earlier, skipper Sehwag tried to stem the rot, making an uncharacteristic 19, which included playing out a maiden off Malinga. But, a misunderstanding with Aaron Finch led to his downfall, as Tendulkar hit down the stumps to catch his opposite number short of the crease. An equally bigger blow was in store for Delhi as their priciest buy, Irfan Pathan, lasted a solitary ball, falling prey to a run out after another misunderstanding.

For Delhi to make a match out of it, they needed something Malingaesque with the ball. Morkel began well claiming Davy Jacobs very early in the piece and then a Jonty Rhodes-type fielding effort by Roelof van der Merwe saw the back on Ambati Rayadu. But, Tendulkar and Sharma knocked down the target with rather ease thereafter. There was no way back for Delhi following the Malinga show.

IPL 4

The fourth season of the Indian Premier League or IPL 4 or IPL 2011 is being held from April 8 to May 28. IPL 4 begins less than a week after the cricket World Cup final at Wankhede Stadium on April 2. The opening ceremony will be held in Chennai, with Chennai Super Kings also being the defending champions. Unlike the previous years, which featured eight teams, this edition will see 10 teams taking part. Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala are the two new teams to have joined the league.

New format

With the introduction of two new teams, the format has also been tweaked. This new arrangement will feature 74 matches. This was worked out since staying with the older format would have meant playing a whopping 94 matches compared to the 60 in the earlier seasons, where teams played each other twice in the league stage.

As per the new format, the ten teams have been split into two groups of five each, but the IPL standings table will not be separate. In the group stage, each team plays 14 games. First, they face the other four teams in their group two times each (one home and one away game). Further, the four teams in the group will play once match against the four teams placed in the other group. Finally, each team will play two league matches home or away against a fifth team that is selected randomly.

A four-game playoff stage will then be held after the group stage. The top 2 teams in the points table will play each other in first playoff. The winner of this match will straightaway make it to the final. The second playoff will be between the third and fourth ranked team. The loser of this game will be knocked out of the tournament, but the winner will face the loser of the first playoff in the third playoff. Whoever wins this match will become the second finalist.

The top three teams will also qualify for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20. As per the revised format, the qualifying teams will be the top two teams of the group stage and the winner of the second playoff.

The auctions

Fresh auctions for players for this season were held on January 8 and 9. The auction put up a total of 350 players for bidding. Each player in the auction pool had a bidding base price under which franchise owners could not bid. Players were allowed to set their base price between $200,000 to $400,000. After the bidding the top 15 priced players sold stood as follows:

Gautam Gambhir – 2.4 Million US$ (Kolkata)

Yusuf Pathan – 2.1 Million US$ (Kolkata)

Robin Uthappa – 2.1 Million US$ (Pune)

Rohit Sharma – 2 Million US$ (Mumbai)

Irfan Pathan – 1.9 Million US$ (Delhi)

Yuvraj Singh – 1.8 Million US$ (Pune)

Saurabh Tiwary – 1.6 Million US$ (Bangalore)

Mahela Jayawardene -1.5 Million US$ (Kochi)

David Hussey -1.4 Million US$ (Punjab)

Dale Steyn – 1.2 Million US$ (Deccan)

Muttiah Muralitharan – 1.1 Million US$ (Kochi)

AB de Villiers – 1.1 Million US$ (Bangalore)

Cameron White – 1.1 Million US$ (Deccan)

Jacques Kallis – 1.1 Million US$ (Kolkata)

Ross Taylor – 1 Million US$ (Rajasthan)

Some big names in international cricket remained unsold after the auctions. They included Sourav Ganguly, Brian Lara, Mark Boucher and Herschelle Gibbs.

Previous winners

Rajasthan Royals won by inaugural edition in 2008 by defeating Chennai Super Kings in a last ball thriller. In 2009, the venue was shifted to South Africa owing to general elections in the country. Deccan Chargers, who had finished last in the first edition, trumped Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final, to be crowned champions. And, in last year’s final M S Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings defeated Mumbai’s Indians by 22 runs to become the third team to win the crown.

IPL 4 teams

Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings

Owner: India Cements

MS Dhoni (Cap), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Michael Hussey, Scott Styris, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Albie Morkel, Tim Southee, Subramaniam Badrinath, George Bailey, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Ben Hilfenhaus, Shadab Jakati, Joginder Sharma, Suraj Randiv, Nuwan Kulasekara, Srikkanth Anirudha, Yo Mahesh, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Kuthethurshri Vasudevadas, Ganapathi Vignesh

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians

Owner: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries

Sachin Tendulkar (Cap), Kieron Pollard, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, James Franklin, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Munaf Patel, Davy Jacobs, Clint McKay, ADilhara Fernando, mbati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ali Murtaza, Abu Nechim, Aiden Blizzard, Yuzvendra Chahal, Moises Henriques, Sarul Kanwar, Rajagopal Sathish, Tirumalasetti Suman, Pawan Suyal, Aditya Tare (wk), Santosh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Owner: Vijay Mallaya

Daniel Vettori (Cap), Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Saurabh Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Zaheer Khan, Charl Langeveldt, Dirk Nannes, Ryan Ninan, Asad Pathan, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, Mayank Agarwal, Sreenath Aravind, Arun Karthik, BN Bharath, Raju Bhatkal, Abrar Kazi, Nuwan Pradeep, Muralidharen Gautam

Delhi Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils

Owner: GMR Group

Virender Sehwag (Cap), David Warner, Naman Ojha (wk), Irfan Pathan, James Hopes, Colin Ingram, Andrew McDonald, Morne Morkel, Roelof van der Merwe, Venugopal Rao, Umesh Yadav, Ajit Agarkar, Varun Aaron, Travis Birt, Robin Bist, Unmukt Chand, Ajit Chandila, Ashok Dinda , Aaron Finch, Robert Frylinckl, Yogesh Nagar, Rajesh Pawar, Aavishkar Salvi, Sridharan Sriram, Vikas Mishra, Matthew Wade, Tejashwi Yadav, Vivek Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Prashant Naik

Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders

Owners: Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla & Jai Mehta (Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.)

Gautam Gambhir (Cap), Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan, Jaidev Unadkat, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla, Sarabjit Ladda, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla, Shreevats Goswami, James Pattinson, Pradeep Sangwan, Shami Ahmed, Laxmi Shukla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary

Deccan Chargers

Deccan Chargers

Owners: Deccan Chronicle, Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures

Kumar Sangakkara (Cap/wk), Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, Jean-Paul Duminy, Shikhar Dhawan, Michael Lumb, Ishant Sharma, Dale Steyn, Rusty Theron, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Ashish Reddy, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Akash Bhandari, Bharat Chipli, Daniel Christian, Kedar Devdhar, Manpreet Gony, Harmeet Singh, Ishank Jaggi, Chris Lynn, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Jaydev Shah, Sunny Sohal, Arjun Yadav, Ishan Malhotra

Kings XI Punjab

Kings XI Punjab

Owners: Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul & Mohit Burman

Adam Gilchrist (Cap/wk), Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Piyush Chawla, Ryan Harris, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Praveen Kumar, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Abhishek Nayar, Ryan McLaren, Love Ablish, Siddharth Chitnis, Vikramjeet Malik, Nathan Rimmington, Nitin Saini, Shalabh Srivastava, Sunny Singh, Amit Yadav, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Mandeep Singh, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty

Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals

Owners: Emerging Media, Shilpa Shetty & Raj Kundra

Shane Warne (Cap), Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Shaun Tait, Rahul Dravid, Paul Collingwood, Johan Botha, Swapnil Asnodkar, Deepak Chahar, Aakash Chopra, Aditya Dole, Ashok Menaria, Pankaj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Abhishek Raut, Siddharth Trivedi, Dishant Harendra Yagnik, Ankeet Chavan, Nayan Doshi, Samad Fallah, Dinesh Salunkhe, Amit Singh, Stuart Binny, Deepak Chahar, Faiz Fazal, Sumit Narwal, Amit Paunikar, Pinal Shah

Pune Warriors

Pune Warriors

Owner: Sahara Group

Yuvraj Singh (Cap), Robin Uthappa, Graeme Smith, Jesse Ryder, Callum Ferguson, Murali Kartik, Ashish Nehra, Nathan McCullum, Angelo Mathews, Wayne Parnell, Jerome Taylor, Tim Paine (wk), Dheeraj Jadhav, Ganesh Gaikwad, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Kamran Khan, Harshad Khadiwale, Mitchell Marsh, Shrikant Mundhe, Alfonso Thomas, Eklavya Dwivedi, Mohnish Mishra, Manish Pandey, Sachin Rana, Rahul Sharma, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Harpreet Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mithun Manhas, Shrikant Wagh

Kochi Tuskers Kerala

Kochi Tuskers Kerala

Owner: Kochi Cricket Pvt Ltd

Mahela Jayawardene (Cap), Brendon McCullum, Michael Klinger, Owais Shah, VVS Laxman, Brad Hodge, Steve O’Keefe, Ravindra Jadeja, Balachandra Akhil, Deepak Chougule, Gnaneswara Rao, Raiphi Gomez, Parthiv Patel (wk), Muttiah Muralitharan, John Hastings, Sreesanth, Thisara Perera, Ramesh Powar, RP Singh, Steven Smith, Kedar Jadhav, Chandan Madan, Sushant Marathe, Prasanth Padmanabhan

Schedule

Apr 8

Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai.

Apr 9

Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals in Hyderabad.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in Kochi.

Apr 10

Delhi Daredevils vs Mumbai Indians in Delhi.

Pune Warriors vs Kings XI Punjab in Navi Mumbai.

Apr 11

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers in Kolkata.

Apr 12

Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils in Jaipur

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians in Bangalore.

Apr 13

Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings in Mohali.

Pune Warriors vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Navi Mumbai.

Apr 14

Deccan Chargers vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in Hyderabad.

Apr 15

Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Jaipur.

Mumbai Indians vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Mumbai.

Apr 16

Chennai Super Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai.

Deccan Chargers vs Kings XI Punjab in Hyderabad.

Apr 17

Pune Warriors vs Delhi Daredevils in Navi Mumbai.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals in Kolkata.

Apr 18

Kochi Tuskers Kerala vs Chennai Super Kings in Kochi.

Apr 19

Delhi Daredevils vs Deccan Chargers in Delhi.

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rajasthan Royals in Bangalore.

Apr 20

Mumbai Indians vs Pune Warriors in Mumbai.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Kolkata.

Apr 21

Kings XI Punjab vs Rajasthan Royals in Mohali.

Apr 22

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in Kolkata.

Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai.

Apr 23

Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab in Delhi.

Apr 24

Deccan Chargers vs Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad.

Rajasthan Royals vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Jaipur.

Apr 25

Chennai Super Kings vs Pune Warriors in Chennai.

Apr 26

Delhi Daredevils vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in Delhi.

Apr 27

Pune Warriors vs Chennai Super Kings in Navi Mumbai.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala vs Deccan Chargers in Kochi.

Apr 28

Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Delhi.

Apr 29

Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians in Jaipur.

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Pune Warriors in Bangalore.

Apr 30

Kochi Tuskers Kerala vs Delhi Daredevils in Kochi.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab in Kolkata.

May 1

Rajasthan Royals vs Pune Warriors in Jaipur.

Chennai Super Kings vs Deccan Chargers in Chennai.

May 2

Mumbai Indians vs Kings XI Punjab in Mumbai.

Delhi Daredevils vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Delhi.

May 3

Deccan Chargers vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Hyderabad.

May 4

Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals in Chennai.

Pune Warriors vs Mumbai Indians in Navi Mumbai.

May 5

Kochi Tuskers Kerala vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Kochi.

Deccan Chargers vs Delhi Daredevils in Hyderabad.

May 6

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kings XI Punjab in Bangalore.

May 7

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings in Kolkata.

Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils in Mumbai.

May 8

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Bangalore.

Kings XI Punjab vs Pune Warriors in Mohali.

May 9

Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings in Jaipur.

May 10

Deccan Chargers vs Pune Warriors in Hyderabad.

Kings XI Punjab vs Mumbai Indians in Mohali.

May 11

Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in Jaipur.

May 12

Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Daredevils in Chennai.

May 13

Kochi Tuskers Kerala vs Kings XI Punjab in Indore.

May 14

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Bangalore.

Mumbai Indians vs Deccan Chargers in Mumbai.

May 15

Kings XI Punjab vs Delhi Daredevils in Dharamsala.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala vs Rajasthan Royals in Indore.

May 16

Pune Warriors vs Deccan Chargers in Navi Mumbai.

May 17

Kings XI Punjab vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dharamsala.

May 18

Chennai Super Kings vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Chennai.

May 19

Pune Warriors vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Navi Mumbai.

May 20

Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai.

May 21

Kings XI Punjab vs Deccan Chargers in Dharamsala.

Delhi Daredevils vs Pune Warriors in Delhi.

May 22

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings in Bangalore.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians in Kolkata.

May 24

Qualifier 1: First Placed Team vs Second Placed Team in Mumbai.

May 25

Eliminator: Third Placed Team vs Fourth Placed Team in Mumbai.

May 27

Qualifier 2: Winner of Eliminator vs Loser of Qualifier 1 in Chennai.

May 28

Final: Winner of Qualifier 1 vs Winner of Qualifier 2 in Chennai.