Cricket Tournaments

On a low, slow pitch at the Ferozshah Kotla, Kings XI Punjab bowled with great heart and were ably supported by some insipid batting and poor running from Delhi Daredevils, who won the toss and elected to bat. The home team were bowled out for a paltry 111, Irfan Pathan and Piyush Chawla once again starring with the ball for Punjab. When it was their turn to bat, the visitors opened with Pathan partnering Mahela Jayawardene, a clear indication that they wanted to attack the Delhi bowlers upfront.

The ploy did not come off. But, Jayawardene kept the runs flowing from the other end. Then, despite some tight bowling from Delhi, the experience of Yuvraj Singh and Kumar Sangakkara saw Punjab causing another upset, after the defeat they handed out to Mumbai Indians.

Without a doubt, it was their batting effort which hurt Delhi big time. After Pathan got Virender Sehwag in the second over of the match, they recovered well via some aggressive batting by their skipper Gautam Gambhir.

With five fours, he raced to 26 in 11 balls before a moment of madness cost him his wicket. A confusion between him and David Warner saw him being stranded out of his crease and getting run out for the third time in this IPL, clearly something he needs to work on. For Punjab, this was just the breakthrough they needed.

Warner (7) joined Gambhir in the pavilion soon, being dismissed in a similar fashion to his skipper, Paul Collingwood was his partner on this occasion. On a pitch where, as it is, batting was extremely difficult, Delhi could not have afforded to give away wickets so cheaply; the fact that they did, compounded their woes manifold.

Piyush Chawla joined in the act for Punjab, producing another mesmerising spell. On a wicket that seemed tailor-made for his style of bowling, the leg spinner trapped Collingwood with a perfectly directed googly and did the same to Daniel Vettori a little later.

At 63 for 5, the innings was in tatters. But, if Delhi had a reason to be positive, it was that they too had two potent spinners in Vettori and Amit Mishra. Before that, however, they needed to put up a challenging total. In Mithun Manhas and Dinesh Karthik, they had two men who were capable of staging a fightback. But, Punjab were determined not to let that happen.

Pathan returned to end Karthik’s resistance for 17 while Manhas gave his hand away, falling to Juan Theron on 26. The mop-up job did not take long.

Delhi needed to strike early with the ball to have sniff. That was not to be. And, though the bowling was competitive, Jayawardene ensured that he picked up a few boundaries here and there, including a mighty six, thereby not allowing the pressure to build. When he was eventually dismissed for 38, Punjab had reached 65 in the 11th over. A couple of quick wickets would have still put the pressure back on batting side.

But Sangakkara and Yuvraj (21*) joined hands and featured in a sensible partnership. By the time, Sangakkara was dismissed for 33, Punjab were on the doorsteps of victory. They might not make it to the semis, but Punjab are clearly beginning to show their capabilities. Better late than never.

In the battle of the best versus the worst in the IPL so far, the latter surprisingly came on top, thanks to a disciplined bowling effort and a competent performance with bat.

Kings XI Punjab were playing their last match at their home ground in Mohali and were determined to give the crowd something to cheer about at last. Piyush Chawla and Irfan Pathan combined to pick three wickets each while the Sri Lankan duo of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara prospered with the willow to guide Punjab to only their third victory in the tournament.

On their part, Mumbai Indians put in a tough fight with the ball, but their batsmen had left them with a little too much to do.

While there were a number of significant contributions from Punjab’s side, none was more vital than the one by leggie Chawla. Mumbai had recovered from the early loss of Shikhar Dhawan, cleaned up by Pathan, and were beginning to from gain the ascendancy courtesy a flurry from boundaries from Ambati Rayudu. This is where Chawla stepped in and turned the game… literally.

He began by castling the ominous looking Rayudu for 33 (off only 18 balls) with a wrong that the batsman clearly failed to pick. But, what was to follow was even more impressive and shattering for the batting side. Saurabh Tiwary, one of the finds of the season for Mumbai, was forced to drag his feet out of the crease by Chawla, only to be cleverly stumped.

Chawla had picked up two big wickets in his three overs, and could have easily been taken off. However, here is where Sangakkara played his masterstroke. Noticing that Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t at his fluent best, he threw the ball to Chawla for his last over.

History too has proved that the leg-spinner has had some amount of success against the legend. The combined effect of both these factors was enough to see the back of him. Sachin went for a blind swish on the on-side and had his stumps shattered for an unimpressive 25. From 52 for 1, Mumbai had collapsed to 70 for 4 in a matter of minutes.

It was not all over for Mumbai though. They still had hope from the likes of Kieron Pollard and JP Duminy while the fact the Punjab hadn’t exactly been finishing off the job appropriately would have been at the back of their minds. This was a different outfit though, determined to deliver the killer blows.

And so, Pathan returned to claim R. Sathish and Pollard, the latter again disappointing, perishing after a couple of good hits. Duminy held fort for Mumbai with his 35, the flick six off Brett Lee being his best stroke. But, Love Abhilash’s wonderful last over in which he picked up two wickets saw Punjab go into the break carrying the momentum.

When they returned, Jayawardene caressed the ball to all parts of the boundary and, in no time, Punjab were off like the kings. With Adrian Barath and Sangakkara also contributing, the home side won by an easy 6-wicket margin despite some disciplined bowling from Mumbai, who lost their second consecutive game. It is too early for Sachin’s men to worry, but another hiccup and one would begin to wonder whether they peaked a little early.

On a slow, low pitch at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, Deccan Chargers batted sensibly to post a challenging total of 170 after being invited to bat. Veteran pacer Chaminda Vaas then bowled a probing first spell, during which he claimed the important scalps of Kumar Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh which all but put paid to Kings XI Punjab’s hopes of registering their first victory in the tournament. Vaas was well supported by the remaining bowlers as well.

Punjab, though, fought back as Irfan Pathan launched a marvellous late assault, slamming 60 from 29 balls. S. Sreesanth then hit three boundaries in the final over. But, it still wasn’t enough to see Punjab through as they fell short by a mere six runs in the end.

Coming back to Vaas, he brought all his experience into play to ensure that Punjab did not get off to a flyer in their chase. The slower delivery with which he cleaned up his Lankan team-mate and current skipper Kumar Sangakkara proved that there is still some fire left in him. As if he hadn’t made a strong enough point, he soon had Yuvraj Singh caught out.

Before the match, Punjab knew that for them to win Sangakkara and Yuvraj will have to play key roles. But, with Vaas consuming both of them, Punjab never recovered until the final flourish. The batting side did not help their cause as the in-form Manvinder Bisla was run-out early on following a mix-up with Ravi Bopara.

Punjab still had Mahela Jayawardene in their ranks, but the Deccan bowlers were on a roll and never allowed anyone to settle down. Andrew Symonds and Pragyan Ojha played their parts well Jayawardene and Adrian Barath respectively. All this while, Bopara was watching the carnage from the other end. He played some typical fluent strokes and reached 38.

But, with wickets tumbling, he had to go for the big shots and perished in the deep to Rohit Sharma. At 68 for 6, the match seemed out of grasp. However, credit to the ‘left-handed’ Pathan for almost pulling it off. The Baroda all-rounder played some breathtaking strokes, hitting five sixes in all to take his side to the brink.

Earlier in the day, Adam Gilchrist got his side off to a cracking start. He destroyed a wayward Sreesanth and dispatched him to all parts of the ground en route to his 12-ball stay of 33. Sreesanth’s performance was disappointing yet again for Punjab as he bowled length and gave ample room for Gilchrist to free his arms. As expected, the Deccan Chargers skipper did not miss out. It was eventually, the slow nature of the pitch that got the better of him, as he went for a half-hearted pull.

Gilchrist’s dismissal silenced the innings for a while. However, batting like a true pro, the bad boy of Australian cricket, Andrew Symonds notched up a half-century. Symonds got the measure of the slow pitch early in his innings and adjusted accordingly. It was his smart innings combined by useful contributions from Herschelle Gibbs and T Suman that helped Deccan post 170. And with Vaas in top form, they were able to successfully defend it.

India has had it all when it’s come to the number of pacers in their ranks but, none of them with the exception of Zaheer khan has been able to perform consistently and more importantly economically at the international level. In the last ten years we have seen these cricketers sweat it out without much success:

• Praveen Kumar
• Ishant Sharma
• Munaf Patel
• Ashish Nehra
• S Shreesanth
• Irfan pathan
• L balaji
• Sudeep Tyagi
• Ashoke Dinda
• RP Singh
• Ajit Agarkar
• VRV Singh

All these bowlers be it after injury or after a certain lay off seem to have either lost their pace or swing or their length. Something has definitely gone wrong. India has used all these bowlers in the last 5 years. None of them are a permanent fixture in the Indian team currently. To add to this Abhimanyu Mithun (taking nothing away from the youngster) has been added to the squad for the South African series. Starting right from the beginning

Praveen Kumar: This young man has a good set of skills in his kit bag. However, the only thing missing is the pace. He is still a handful and is perhaps the only bowler out of the above who can swing the new ball both ways. As far he is concerned more consistent performances in the domestic level along with pitching the ball up to the batsman could help him.

Ishant Sharma: This young lanky pacer burst on to the scenes in Australia troubling the likes of Ricky ponting and Matthew Hayden. However, after that golden year of his he seems to have lost out on all the pace he had. The nip back in to the batsman seems to be missing and the rhythm is just gone so much so that he was dropped for most part of the 2009 season in the Indian sub-continent. He needs to get his focus right and that will only happen if the training gets more intense.

Munaf Patel: Perhaps India’s most steady bowler. But, the thing that’s hitting him the most amongst competition is his inability with the willow in hand along with his miserable fielding performances. I still believe that Munaf would have been a regular in the Indian XI had his fielding been of decent standards. Munaf needs to come up with a couple of striking performances so that he is back in the reckoning.

Ashish Nehra: He played his last ODI in about 4 years in September 2005 against arch rivals Pakistan. After that he has suffered several ankle injuries hits and misses. He finally with his good performance with the Delhi daredevils in the IPL West Indies in the absence of Zaheer khan and assumed the role of the strike bowler pretty well. He provided good performances until the back end of the year where his form started to drop and he started to leak runs

S Shreesanth: India’s antic boy—S shreesanth has shown a lot of promise but delivered very little. Barring his performance in South Africa in 2006 shreesanth hasn’t made one series his own. The pacer needs to calm his antics down a little and pay more attention on getting his out swingers going at decent pace.

Irfan Pathan: India’s lost wonder boy. No one knows where he is—after one of the best debuts he could ask for irfan pathan has found himself wanting and is clueless what to do next. After showing himself as India’s next big thing Irfan pathan’s actual performance on the field has left a lot to be desired. The sad thing for irfan is that the selectors have lost hope in him and was seen missing from India’s top 30 squad for the champions trophy. Pathan seriously needs to get his act together and come up with a strong performance in this year’s IPL and show not just the selectors but the entire nation that he is still world class.

L Balaji: Balaji has seen misfortune like no other. After a wonderful start to his career down under that took shape in Pakistan in 2004-2005 balaji looked one for the future. However, after his wonderful tour of Pakistan he was hit by an injury spade which has haunted him ever since then. He did manage to make a comeback which perhaps was his last go and that failure certainly does not hold good for him. His future unfortunately looks a grim one.

RP Singh: RP Singh very similar to Irfan Pathan lost his swing and pace after a decent start to his career. However, the good thing for RP has been his performances in the IPL which has helped him gain a spot not once but twice although he seems to throw it away after that. Another good IPL performance should hold him in good stead and RP must make sure he grabs the next Indian chance he gets which might not be too far considering his colleagues bowling form.

Ajit Agarkar: Once, India’s young and only bowling prospect. Agarkar delivered for a lot of years. He has always been a wicket taker but his backdrop has been his leakage of runs which in this era will not do. Agarkar was a pretty handy bat down the order too with a top score of 95. The selectors seem to have look past Agarkar and its up to Agarkar who has to come up with some strong performances in order to be back in the reckoning.

Sudeep Tyagi, Ashoke Dinda and VRV Singh: the three of them put together have only played a handful of matches. Out of the three Sudeep Tyagi looks the most likely for an Indian future and rightly so. The young pacer very similar to Ishant Sharma has to make sure that the pressure and success of international cricket doesn’t get to him. As far as the other two are concerned they need to continue the good work and give good performances in both the IPL and the ranji trophy.

India have their batting sorted; but the bowling continues to be a big worry. Zaheer khan seems to be the only one to be missing in the list due to his continual strong performances in spite of all his injuries. The long and short of it is that: You need 20 wickets to win test matches on a continuous basis. In comparison to top ranked teams Australia seem to have a super pace battery with Johnson , Lee, Clark, Bracken, Siddle, Hilfenhaus, Bollinger, McKay, Tait and now Harris all rearing to go and firing on all cylinders when fit.

As experts say gyms and training is all worthwhile but the only thing that helps bowlers is spending hours and hours at the nets doing nothing but BOWLING!!!