Cricket Tournaments

Kings XI Punjab 232 for 2 beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 121 by 111 runs

Man of the match: Adam Gilchrist

In an ideally scripted world, the Royal Challengers would have outdone Kings XI Punjab with Chris Gayle going hammer and tongs at the picturesque Dharamsala. However, it was pretty much the other way round as Punjab skipper, Adam Gilchrist, who for a day returned to the Gilly of old and smashed Bangalore’s bowlers all over the park in a display of batting reminiscent of the equally big-hitting Gayle’s batting. Gilchrist found an exceptional partner in Shaun Marsh, who was equally aggressive, and the duo featured in a world record partnership of 206 runs as the Kings XI finally ended Bangalore’s winning streak. The mammoth 111-run win not only ensured that Gilchrist’s team was level on points with Kolkata, but also gave a massive boost to their net run rate as Bangalore folded up for a meagre 121.

Though there were other impressive performances in the game, the match was all about Gilchrist. Following his heroics with the bat, he made his impact on the game in the field too, taking an excellent catch diving to his left hand side. More that the wicket, it was the fact that Chris Gayle was dismissed that mattered the most. Bangalore are used to Gayle getting the team off to a great start. But, on this occasion, they were clearly in unknown territory and things only got worse. Ryan Harris sent back both Gayle as well as the other in form man, Virat Kohli. Then, Praveen Kumar continued his association with maidens, bowled his fifth of this IPL. With runs not coming, the Bangalore batsmen were forced to go after Piyush Chawla, who cleaned up the lower order, helping himself to four wickets.

Returning to the man of the moment Gilchrist, his knock would certainly give a run for its money to some of equally devastating innings by Gayle. Gilchrist took his time to flourish. In fact, most of the runs were scored by Paul Valthaty in the early part of the innings. It was only in the company of Marsh that Gilchrist really began to open up. He began by thumping a short ball from Abhimanyu Mithun and then sashayed down the wicket to loft S Aravind, who until then was proving rather economical, and then slammed him down the wicket again. At the other end, Marsh also got into the act and dispatched him for a six and a boundary. 21 runs came off the over, and Punjab were well and truly underway.

Kohli, taking over from the injured Daniel Vettori, brought in Gayle to try and slow down the scoring. But, on this day, everything was in vain. Gilchrist lofted for two mammoth sixes and Bangalore continued to bleed, left right and centre. Nothing changed even with the introduction of South African pace man Charl Langeveldt. Gilchrist pulled him for two massive sixes before completing a batting hat trick of sixes by depositing him over the midwicket boundary. The bowler and the captain could do nothing but watch in amazement.

Their expressions remained the same as Punjab weren’t done yet. Marsh also took the opportunity to prove some of his big hitting skills. He looted 30 runs off a Johan van der Wath, all on his own, which would have almost made Gilchrist jealous. The over was perfectly divided with three sixes and three fours. The boundaries came in the extra-cover region while the sixes ranged between midwicket, long-off and one straight down the ground. While for Punjab it rained fours and sixes, the same cannot be said of Bangalore, who clearly capitulated under pressure.

Chargers cruise to easy win over Warriors

Deccan Chargers 138 for 4 beat Pune Warriors 136 for 9 by six wickets
Man of the match: Amit Mishra

For once, the Deccan Chargers bowled to their potential and the result was that they were successful in keeping the Pune Warriors down to a chaseable total. Their batsmen too did not falter for a change as Kumar Sangakkara signed off with a consolation win for his team. All the Decaan bowlers, pacers Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma as well as spinners Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha were all over the Pune Warriors batsmen, as a result of which, the Yuvraj Singh-led side never found themselves in any position of strength. Daniel Christian too played his part in the bowling department as the Deccan Chargers cruised home to an easy six-wicket win.

The only thing that went right for Pune was when the aggressive Mitchell Marsh went after the bowlers. However, that only proved to be a flash in the pan for the Warriors. Kumar Sangakkara’s experiment of opening the innings with JP Duminy did not work. But, once the ball was in Steyn and Ishant’s hands, the Warriors’ collapse began. Jesse Ryder was sent back by an awesome catch taken by Ravi Teja in the cover region. Teja dived to his left and successfully plucked the ball. Sourav Ganguly could not repeat hits heroics of his comeback game. He offered a simple chance to Ojha at mid-off, off Christian’s bowling. Ojha, himself, got into the wicket-taking act when he fooled Pandey with an incoming delivery and disturbed his furniture.

Pune were in deep strife losing three wickets for 45, but things only got worse for them. Amit Mishra got back to back wickets to put paid to the Warriors hopes. He first forced Robin Uthappa to edge one which was held gleefully by the bowler himself. The very next ball, Mithun Manhas failed to read a googly and went for a cut, which proved fatal as his stumps were dislodged. From a disappointing 45 for 3, the Warriors slumped to a pathetic 45 for 5 and they were was no looking back from there.

Skipper Yuvraj Singh tried to steady the ship once again. Yuvraj slashed Ojha for two boundaries in a row, but could not last long enough as fell to Christian, top edging one. If at all the Warriors to gain some credibility to their scoreboard, it was due to a wonderful counter attack by the other Marsh – Mitchell. He slammed the spinners for some big hits as 34 runs came in the last three overs of the innings, Marsh finding some support from Wayne Parnell. It wasn’t enough though as Shikhar Dhawan and Sunny Sohal got their team off to a good start, before Sangakkara and Duminy shut them out of the game, and the tournament as well.

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.

In the battle of the two Ks, Kings XI Punjab got the better of Kochi Tuskers Kerala by an impressive six wicket margin in a high scoring game at Indore. The win means Kings XI’s chances of making it to the next round remain faint but alive at the same time. The win was set up an excellent effort by Dinesh Karthik and his smashing 111 run stand with Shaun Marsh, which ensured Punjab beat Kochi easily, on a typical batting surface at Indore.

Karthik and Marsh’s brutal partnership made sure that the equally impressive effort of Mahela Jayawardene earlier in the day went in vain. Kochi’s skipper made a stroke filled 76, combined with his usual well timed strokes. The innings was punctuated with graceful flicks, cursory lofted hits and also featured some crispy hits, which was primarily responsible for Kochi lifting themselves to 178.

In reply, Punjab were dealt with some early blows, but Karthik and Marsh counter attacked with great purpose and knocked Kochi out of the game. They took on the bowlers with ease and made sure that a minimum of one four came per over, during their stint at the crease together. A few overs, they scored at much better than a boundary per over. Marsh comfortably drove length deliveries all over; he got plenty while Karthik slammed the short balls to all parts of the ground.

Karthik hit the ball very hard of the two, and raced to a well deserved half century with a slashing stroke to midwicket. The two batted so fiercely that Punjab at one stage needed to score only at a run a ball to clinch victory. However, RP Singh who had claimed two wickets earlier, came back to send back both and rejuvenate Kochi’s hope. However, David Hussey and Mandeep Singh ensured there were no further hiccups as Punjab got home rather easily in the end.

Kochi themselves got off to a great start, as their openers put on 93 for the first wicket. Brendon McCullum, Ravindra Jadeja and Owais Shah all assisted Jayawardene as Kochi ran riot. Shah slammed 23 in only 11 balls. However, his run out resulted in Kochi ending well below 200, eventually it made big difference to the result of the match.

Pune Warriors 120 for 5 beat Kings XI Punjab 119 for 8 by five wickets

Man of the match: Rahul Sharma

After a massive struggle, the Pune Warriors on Sunday ended their seven match losing streak by defeating Kings XI Punjab, who was themselves struggling to win too much. The five wicket loss meant that Punjab are slowly but surely catching up with Pune’s unenviable record. While Pune had lost seven, Punjab have so far extended their losing streak to five. Yet again, it was Pune’s lanky legspinner Rahul Sharma, who was the standout performer, and he eventually stood out as the difference between the two sides. For a change, he found some good support too in the form of Proteas fast bowler Wayne Parnell and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, which helped Pune restrict the Kings XI to a below par 119.

Things did not look as bad for Punjab at the start of the innings as Paul Valthaty managed to pierce the off side boundary on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, their skipper Adam Gilchrist had another bad day in the office. While he hadn’t got off the mark in the last two innings, he managed just three in eight balls before failing to Rahul, trying to hit him out. Valthaty also failed to convert his starting, also succumbing to Rahul. Trying to cut a slightly shorter one, he failed to ride the bounce top edged one, handing a simple catch to the backward point fielder.

Shaun Marsh came in and once again batted with a sense of purpose, proving why he has been Punjab most efficient batsman in the IPL 2011. He played some wonderful strokes against the spinners in action. He lofted Yuvraj Singh over long-on, drove Rahul through the covers and even pulled Mitchell Marsh for a four. At the other end, he had Dinesh Karthik for company. The former India keeper wasn’t timing the ball as well as Marsh. Still, he hung around with the Australian and saw it to that by the end of 10 overs Punjab had laid a decent platform.

All the good work was wasted though as neither of them could capitalise on their starts. Marsh fell trying to slam a slower delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but only managed to drag it back onto the stumps. Another Aussie was the next wicket to fall for Punjab. David Hussey tickled one to the keeper without having scored much as Punjab collapsed to 94 for 4. Karthik was still around, but he couldn’t go much. Wickets kept falling and Punjab were eventually strangled to 119.

To make a comeback, Punjab bowlers had to put up an exceptional effort. Things began well, with Praveen Kumar starting of with a maiden over. However, the floodgates soon opened as Punjab messed it up in the field. Jesse Ryder was dropped by Valthaty in the fourth over while Manish Pandey escaped a plumb lbw decision. When a couple of wickets fell, Robin Uthappa came in and threw his bat around like a millionaire. He slammed 22 and Pandey contributed 28 before falling. And if Punjab had any faint hopes post their dismissal, skipper Yuvraj Singh put paid to them with some monstrous hits as Pune ended their losing streak.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 128 for 1 beat Kochi Tuskers Kerala 125 for 9 by nine wickets

Man of the match: Chris Gayle

One over was all that was needed to decide the fate of the match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala. And that decisive over was bowled by Prasanth Parameswaran to guess who but Chris Gayle. 37 runs came of the over as the Kochi Tuskers were not expectedly stunned.

The over began by Parameswaran landing one on a length, which Gayle easily lifted over cover for a six. Trying to improvise, Parameswaran bowled the next ball a slower one. Unfortunately, it was a no ball and Gayle slammed it for six more, making it seven runs off the over. Worse was only to follow. The free hit delivery was slammed through midwicket for a boundary, while the next delivery was slashed through the cover region. Parameswaran’s face had a deplorable look like Stuart Broad had when Yuvraj hit him for six sixes.

The poor treatment to Parameswaran continued as the next ball was dispatched for six over cover and then another maximum, this time over long-off. Battling a lost cause, the bowler sent down a full toss the last delivery and the ball did not meet the blade of Gayle’s bat. Yet, he under edged it for four to give Parameswaran the pasting of a lifetime. Gayle fell for 44, but Tillakaratne Dilshan helped himself to a half century and Bangalore got home by nine wickets and an amazing 6.5 overs to spare. Dilshan hammered 20 in an over from Ramesh Powar to get the chase underway before Gayle took over the show.

Apart from their batting effort, their fielding was equally magnificent. Kochi had got off to a reasonable start, but once Bangalore got the breakthrough wickets kept tumbling as Kochi stumbled from 64 for 1 to 89 for 5 and never recovered from there. Skipper Daniel Vettori got the breakthrough for his team, luring Brendon McCullum into a slash, but fooling him in the length. Parthiv Patel looked in good touching, caressing a few boundaries, but once Gayle yorked Michael Klinger, the game changed. Vettori soon sent back Mahela Jayawardene, forcing him to edge one.

Then the great Bangalore fielding show began. Brad Hodge placed one behind point and charged down the track. Patel responded initially before realising there was never a run there. It was all too late by them though. AB de Villiers pounced onto a fierce throw, took him left handed and aimed it at the stumps, while still in an acrobatic stage. Zaheer Khan bettered his effort, pulling off a one handed stunner at short fine leg. Hodge had struck S Aravind off the hips and the ball was heading towards the fence when Zaheer lunged full length and took possession of it with minimal fuss.

Kochi eventually crumbed to 125, far from enough with the kind of form Chris Gayle and Dilshan were in on Sunday.

Kings XI Punjab (166 for 2) beat Deccan Chargers (165 for 8) by 8 wickets

Man of the Match: Paul Valthaty

Paul Valthaty put up yet another sterling performance, this time with both bat and ball to steer Kings XI Punjab to an easy eight wicket win over Deccan Chargers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad. Valthaty first ensured that he restricted Deccan to a challenging total with some cunning slow cutters, following a threatening partnership between Kumar Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan, that was on course to take the game away from then. Next, he opened the innings with the bat and continued from where he left off against Chennai Super Kings to seal the game for Punjab in no time, with some great support from his skipper Adam Gilchrist.

Following the early loss of Sunny Sohal, the Chargers fought back well courtesy a counter-attacking partnership between Sangakkara and Dhawan. The duo was severe on Praveen Kumar, Ryan Harris as well as Ryan MClaren and looked in charge as they added 75 in quick time. However, one brilliant piece of fielding by Shaun Marsh was enough to turn around the fortunes of the sides. Marsh dived full length and stopped a fierce stroke from Sangakkara at extra cover. The loss of a run made the former Lankan skipper uncharacteristically slog sweep the next ball off Piyush Chawla, only to find the safe hands of McLaren in the deep. That was the beginning of the end for Deccan.

Three runs later, Dhawan perished to what was to be a leg side wide from Valthaty, but his effort to get too smart got the better of him as he was gobbled up at short fine leg. From there onwards, Deccan’s innings hit a roadblock and Valthaty was in charge. Bharat Chipli, who was Deccan’s hero in the last game, found Valthaty’s slower ones extremely tough to handle. He was lucky to survive on one occasion, but perished soon after going for a big shot. At 112 for four, in the 15^th over, Kings XI were clearly in the commanding position. However, the big hitting Daniel Christian raised Deccan’s hopes by slamming 30 off 14 balls.

Once again, it was Valthaty who turned the game in Punjab’s favour with two strikes in two consecutive balls. He first cleaned up Christian and very next ball trapped Amit Mishra plumb in front as the latter tried to go for a scoop shot he is clearly not adept at. Valthaty found good support in McLaren at the other end, who got the bog scalps of J P Duminy and the big hitting Manpreet Gony. Thanks to their efforts, Deccan were restricted to 165 for 8.

The home side still had a chance, considering they had Dale Steyn in their ranks. But, Valthaty and Gilchrist sealed the game inside the first five overs itself. Runs flowed at an easy pace off Steyn and his opening partner Ishant Sharma. However, it was Gony who had to bear the brunt of Valthaty’s attack 23 runs came in his one over, in which Valthaty charged him, drove him and lofted him with utter ease. Valthaty had an answer to every delivery Gony bowled. With no pressure on him, Gilchrist also found the going easy and soon eased into his game. In fact, he went on to beat Valthaty in the race for 50 in typical Gilchrist style. In all, he slammed five fours and three sixes before perishing to Mishra. Valthaty’s numbers were even more astounding, but not surprising considering his previous knock. He faced a mere 47 balls for his 75, clearing the boundary on as many as five occasions before he too fell to Mishra, the only wicket-taking bowler for Deccan.

Abhishek Nayar and Dinesh Karthik completed the formalities and the match was over with more than two overs to spare. A comprehensive win indeed.

Hussey set up Chennai’s win

Chennai Super Kings 183 for 5 beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (162 for 7) by 21 runs

Man of the Match: Michael Hussey

Michael Hussey batted through the entire Chennai Super Kings innings and scored a brisk, unbeaten 83 from 56 balls to set up an easy 21 run win for the Super Kings along with some good support from his team mates as well as the opposition, Royal Challengers Bangalore, who suffered their third defeat in the tournament. Hussey’s brilliance was well supported by quick cameos by Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina and M S Dhoni as, batting first, Chennai put up an impressive score of 183 for 5. Bangalore were miserable in the field, with misfields, overthrows and dropped catch from even their better fielders. While a couple of experienced bowlers did well to keep down the runs, the rest like Johan van der Wath, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Ryan Ninan were taken for plenty as Chennai set up a match-winning total. Then, when their turn with the bat came, Bangalore were equally miserable. They lost too many early wickets. And even though A B de Villiers and Virat Kohli got among the runs, the intent was clearly missing.

The match, thus, was essentially about Hussey and Chennai’s batting effort. Hussey hit eleven boundaries in all, eight of them coming on the on side, signifying that Bangalore’s bowlers had not got their act right. But, Hussey went along on his merry ways and found the fence on the other side too when the opportunity presented. In between, his running between the wickets was amazing, typifying the Aussie in him.

Hussey got good support from his mates as well. His opening partner Vijay raced to 31 from 21 balls. He slammed van der Wath for three big hits, which included one six, as Chennai shifted gears. At the other end, Hussey had it easy against Dilshan finding the fence on a couple of occasions. Even as Ninan sent back Vijay, Raina came in and kept Chennai ahead of the game. He got the better of both Ninan and van der Wath, racing to 29 in 16 balls, before handing over the baton his skipper Dhoni, who himself blasted 22 in 16 balls.

184 was a chaseable target provided Bangalore got off to a Valthaty-style start. On the contrary, the first three wickets, including the big one of Dilshan, fell with a mere 31 on board. And with de Villiers and Kohli also struggling to up the ante during their alliance, Bangalore were always playing catch up. No surprising, they came second by some distance.

It was a high scoring game, worthy of a final. Batting first, the Chennai Super Kings plundered 188 for 4 despite losing Srikkant Anirudha and Suresh Raina off the first two balls of the innings. They recovery was thanks to a superb counter attacking partnership between Subramaniam Badrinath and Murali Vijay and the expected late onslaught from skipper M S Dhoni. At the halfway stage, the Super Kings would have been extremely confident of victory. However, the Kings XI Punjab found their own king in Paul Valthaty, who singled handedly changed the fortunes of the game, playing one of the best T20 knocks ever. His numbers said it. He slammed an unbeaten 120 in 63 balls, which comprised of 19 fours and 2 sixes and undid all the good work of Chennai’s batsmen.

It was a surprise to see Valthaty open the innings with skipper Adam Gilchrist. However, by the end of the game, everyone knew why. Such was the ferocity of his attack that even Gilchrist reduced to a mere spectator in the wake of the Valthaty onslaught. The Mumbai lad was severe on each and every bowler. Ravichandran Ashwin, who is normally economical, was swept with ease and slammed on the on side as Punjab began in a rollicking fashion. Last match hero, Tim Southee was also taken for plenty was Valthaty, while Albie Morkel’s innocuous medium pacers were pulled and lofted with disdain. 61 were added for the opening wicket inside the first six overs, with Gilchrist’s contribution being a mere 19 before he perished to Morkel.

The rest of the batsmen came in and played decent cameos to assist Valthaty, not that he need much support from the other. He continued on his merry ways as the slow bowling of Shadab Jakati and Surav Randiv were introduced. Both were given severe treatments, slammed through the off side field. Dhoni tried everything, but for a change, nothing worked in his favour. Even the experienced Scott Styris was hit for the maximum. Even as Sunny Singh and Abhishek Nayar fell in quick succession, Valthaty was not deterred. He continued hitting out against Morkel in his second spell and took 17 from an over that literally sealed the game.

Valthaty completed his century off a mere 52 deliveries and, in the company of Dinesh Karthik, who also slammed a couple of crucial big hits to take Punjab home. The victory ensured that Praveen Kumar’s effort of two wickets in two balls did not go in vain. At one stage it did seem that it would be the case as Vijay and Badrinath laid a solid foundation. The former using power play and the latter his magical timing. They added well over a hundred in no time and gave the perfect opportunity to Dhoni to blast away, who did exactly that. However, it was Valthaty who made sure that Punjab eventually had the last laugh.

Pune Warriors 113 for 3 beat Kings XI Punjab 112 for 8 by 7 wickets.

Man of the match: Shrikant Wagh

Two unknown quantities came to the fore for Pune Warriors in their debut game at the Indian Premier League as they crushed Kings XI Punjab by 7 wickets and 41 balls to spare at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Mumbai. The two gentlemen we are talking about are the Warriors’ opening bowlers – Alfonso Thomas and Shrikant Wagh. They struck four deadly blows in as many overs as Punjab were left reeling at a pathetic 9/4. It all began with the dismissal of Punjab skipper Adam Gilchrist, who walked after nicking Thomas behind the wickets. This was in the first over of the game. In the very next over, Wagh had Shaun Marsh caught at short fine leg as Punjab got off to a disastrous start. But things were only to get worse. Paul Valthaty fell to Thomas in the third over and, in the next, the experienced Dinesh Karthik also perished, holing out to third man.

Following the disastrous start, Punjab needed a miracle to recover. But, it wasn’t to be as Sunny Singh and Abhishek Nayar, after hitting a few impressive strokes, also threw their wickets away. Singh’s dismissal was embarrassing with a confusing leading to both players heading to the same end and trying to make their ground safely. And when Nayar fell soon after, presenting a catch to opposition skipper Yuvraj Singh off Jesse Ryder’s bowling, the scorecard read an equally miserable 45 for 6 in the ninth over.

At that stage, it seemed almost certain that Punjab wouldn’t even touch the 100 mark. But, thanks to a fighting effort by Ryan McLaren and some support from Piyush Chawla, they did get there. McLaren judged the situation well and rotated the strike in the company of Chawla, hitting the odd ball to the fence, whenever the rare opportunity came by. But, he did explode towards the end and finished with six fours and a six in his 43-ball 51. Had Chawla stayed with him for longer, they could have got a few more runs. However, when on 15, Wagh came back to break the resistance and have the leggie caught behind. To his credit, Chawla assisted McLaren in pushing the score from 45 to 80. Thanks to the latter, Punjab went into the halfway mark with a brief sense of confidence of at least crossing the three figure mark.

As if to prove that the momentum had indeed shifted, Praveen Kumar sent back Graeme Smith first ball, caught by their star batting performer McLaren. But, the joy was short-lived. Jesse Ryder and Mithun Manhas combined forces to take the attack into the Punjab camp. They were boundary balls on offer almost every over as the pressure eased on the batting side in no time. Both Ryder and Manhas raced into their 30s, but the excitement of finishing the game early led to their downfall. At 68 for 3, Gilchrist’s men still had the faintest of hopes. But Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh combined to hit three big sixes and seal the game in a flash. The early loss of too many wickets had clearly come back to haunt the Kings.

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.