Cricket Tournaments

Following Ireland’s shock upset of England, they would be high on confidence heading into the game against India at Bangalore – the venue that has produced the best matches in the tournament so far. And while now India cannot take the Irish lightly at all, they will still need to be on top of their game. The good news for Ireland is that apart from worrying about the opposition, India have some problems of their own, especially in the bowling and fielding department which they will need to try and sort out going into Sunday’s match.

Expect some changes in the bowling department. India have two options in the kitty, both come with an element of risk. Firstly, they could replace leg spinner Piyush Chawla with Ravichandran Ashwin. The problem here is that in Harbhajan Singh India already have an off-spinner, which means there will be a sameness to the attack. Having said that, Ashwin has done exceptionally well for India in the power play overs something which has been India’s bane, in fact most teams’, in recent times. But, how he performs under pressure in a World Cup scenario remains to be seen. Still, for now, he seems like a much safer option than Chawla.

The second alternative for India is to try out Ashish Nehra (if he is fit) ahead of Munaf Patel. The latter hasn’t done all that bad a job. In fact, he was India’s star performer with the ball in the opening game against Bangladesh. But, MS Dhoni seems to have a lot of faith in the left-arm seamer in spite of the fact that Nehra hasn’t been all that consistent. Also, even if fit, Nehra has always had a history of picking up injuries midway during a game. And that would be the last thing India would be need so early in the tournament. There is also a third, that of getting S.Sreesanth in, but after his wayward effort against Bangladesh that is as good as a non-existent possibility. Of the three choices, Ashwin’s seems the most sensible one and also the safest one. However, like we all know, Dhoni is prone to come up with surprises.

Whoever is selected, India will need Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, their chief bowling weapons, to be on top of their game, and they would also hope that their part-time bowlers can chip in well enough. This is because, as the Indian skipper admitted, nothing much can change about their fielding since they have too many slow movers in the field. If anything, they can better their catch and ground fielding to a certain extent. Certainly, the shoddy effort that they came up with against England last week won’t help.

The good news for India is that their batting unit is in great form. Everyone from Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir to Sachin Tendulkar is among the runs. Further, Virat Kohli and more importantly, Yuvraj Singh, have also got good scores to their credit. The Indian skipper Dhoni too has looked good. In short, the Indian batting unit will be expected to come out all guns blazing especially against a weak Ireland bowling attack. Whichever team bowls better might well end up having the upper hand.

Big test of England

Earlier in the day on Sunday, the Englishmen will take on the so far indomitable South Africans. Following the reverse against Ireland, England must beat the Proteas to keep their hopes of progressing in the World Cup alive. It will not be an easy task at all considering that South Africa at the top of their game and England have hit rock-bottom. But England will have to raise their game if they need to progress further in the tournament. A lot of things need to go right for England for them to upset South Africa.

Like India, even England have problems of plenty with their bowling and fielding. They really need James Anderson, or whoever replaces him, if that is the case, to fire if the Englishmen want to do well. Importantly, they need to hold their catches else the South Africans would really take the game away from them. Unlike England, the Proteas have everything going for them. And for England to get the better of them they would need to play out of the skins. If the Englishmen do, indeed, manage to put off a win, it would be nothing short of an upset.

Chennai Super Kings vs Royal challengers Bangalore

It will be great from India’s point of view that at least one of the IPL teams will make it to the summit clash of the Champions League T20. That might be either the Chennai Super Kings or the Bangalore Royal Challengers, depending on who gets the better of the other in the first semi-final at Durban. Both teams are equally matched and well-balanced, a fact their head-to-head record demonstrates – Bangalore have won four and Chennai three. And so, another tight contest can be expected on the big Friday.

Interestingly, both teams have charted a similar path enroute to get to the last four. It was only a victory in their final league game that got them through. However, the mistakes can’t be repeated now as the tournament heads into the knockout stage. It would be difficult to say who holds the advantage since both Bangalore and Chennai have varied strengths.

While Bangalore have a solid pace attack backed by the experienced hand of their leading spinner and skipper Anil Kumble, Chennai rely heaving on spin, with both R Ashwin and Muralitharan tasting a good amount of success. Even though the Durban pitch is expected to favour the faster men more than the slower bowlers, Ashwin and Murali are good enough to trouble the best, irrespective of the surface. And so, it might all boil down to the batting of the two sides, which boasts of rather impressive names.

There is the rock solid Rahul Dravid at the top of the order along with the rollicking Manish Pandey, who have been giving Bangalore worthy starts. And then, there is Virat Kohli, who has been scintillating down the order, notwithstanding the mixed results. The problem for Bangalore lies in between. Ross Taylor hasn’t lived up to the expectations yet. But, he is experienced enough to come good on the big day. Also, Robin Uthappa and Cameron White will get another chance to enhance their big-hitting reputation. On their day, they can be the most destructive.

If Bangalore’s batting line is imposing, Chennai need now worry. They have their own arms of giants. The experiment of Michael Hussey at the top of the order with Murali Vijay has worked nicely thus far and should continue. Another good opening stand would mean the big hitters like Raina, Dhoni and Anirudha can free their arms from the word go. And if any from the trio gets going, Bangalore’s bowlers, especially the ones short on pace like Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar, can be taken to the cleaners.

As if to set up everything evenly, both sides also have a South African injury problem and that too with their chief all-rounder. However, while Jacques Kallis has been ruled out of the tournament with a neck injury, Albie Morkel can still make it to Chennai’s XI provided he has recovered from his illness. In that case, it would be advantage Chennai, since Morkel will give his side better balance as compared to Bangalore.

Having weighed all permutations and combinations, a close contest seems imminent. Over to the teams to live up to the bidding.

On a pitch where there was plenty of assistance for the faster men, the Chennai Super Kings outsmarted the Deccan Chargers at the D Y Patil Stadium to book their place in the finals against the Mumbai Indians. Under normal circumstances, 142 would not be a match-winning score, but on this surface, it was worth a lot more.

That said, it would be unfair to take anything away from Chennai’s bowlers, especially R Ashwin and Doug Bollinger, who kept things ridiculously tight in the first six overs, not allowing the opposition to score even at the pace of a run-a-ball. The fact that they managed to pick up wickets at will made the task doubly difficult for Deccan, who never recovered from the clumsy start and succumbed to a 38-run loss.

Earlier, Deccan were also effective with ball and, at one stage, had managed to reduce Chennai to 96 for 5 in the 15th over. Death bowling, however, proved to be Deccan’s Achilles Heel yet again as they allowed Chennai to recover to 142 for 7.

Despite the late surge by Chennai, Deccan would still have fancied their chances to chase down the target. However, their batsmen couldn’t stand up against a charged up opposition, who were going for the kill right from ball one. Dhoni opened with the trustworthy duo of Ashwin and Bollinger and the spin-pace combo did wonders for Chennai.

While the leg spinner tied up both Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibss, Bollinger troubled the openers with his seaming deliveries. In between, he mixed things up with yorkers and well-directed slower balls, and was handsomely rewarded for it. After struggling for his 20-ball 15, the Deccan skipper fell to the left-arm quickie while trying to flick a good length delivery.

In the very same over, T Suman came in and blasted a four before being sent back, going for his second big hit. At 23 for 2 in the 6th over, Gilchrist’s men were off to an unimaginably poor start. Things were only to get worse though.

With the run-rate creeping up with each passing over, Rohit Sharma lofted Albie Morkel straight into the hands of Muralitharan at long-on for 4, while Gibbs (18 from 26 balls) was put out of his misery by Shabad Jakati, when his attempted cut missed the bat and crashed into the stumps.

At 48 for 4 in the 11th over, a miracle from Andrew Symonds was the only hope for Deccan, albeit a faint one. That too evaporated when he fell to Ashwin for 23. Bollinger returned to claim two more wickets and end with sensational figures of 4 for 13, which told quite a story.

It was a far from happy tale earlier in the day, however, after MS Dhoni won the toss and took first strike. Symonds, who opened the bowling along with Ryan Harris, made full use of the bowler-friendly conditions to have Chennai on the mat.

Harris, in particular, was lethal claiming both Matthew Hayden and Murali Vijay, the former after he was dropped twice. All the bowlers, except an erratic RP Singh, chipped in to keep Chennai under the pump.

S Badrinath and skipper Dhoni did feature in a steady half-century partnership. But, that did not hurt Deccan much though. What did hurt was the fact that S Anirudha smashed 24 from 15 balls to help his side cross 140.

The bowlers did the rest for Chennai. As far as Deccan were concerned, it wasn’t just destined to be their day. Two simplest of catches dropped at the start of the game was the earliest omen.