IPL Buzz !!!

After 4 weeks the league table has become pretty close, one team with 14 points, two with 12 points and four with 10 points. Anyone of these teams can make it for four slots of semi-final.

• Kings XI two wins against Mumbai and KKR made has made the tournament interesting.
• Deccan chargers revived themselves by winning handsomely against RCB.
• The major upset match was KKR beating Delhi on account of superlative performance by Ganguly.
• Shane Warne was back in inspiring form when he executed the turnaround against DC when the latter was in comfortable winning position.
• It was week to forget for RCB, looks like they peaked early in the tournament. Mumbai Indians are also tending to similar situation.
• Off the field, Preity Zinta had a holy bath in Ganga to wash off sins. Is it too late for IPL 3.0 or too early for IPL 4.0
• Kochi franchise is in sort of trouble as BCCI objected for not declaring details about ownership.

In week-three of the league there were a few upsets and turnarounds but Mumbai remained at top and Punjab at bottom with their only super-over win in week-2.

• Chennai Superking made a remarkable comeback after beating RCB and RR in their home turf. Murali Vijay came to the party at right time.
• All izz bad for Kings XI, even Jayawardane’s temporary captaincy could not change their fortune. Their strike bowler of previous season Brett Lee is out of shape from every angle.
• Mumbai continued their juggernaut and still remained the only team to be bowled out in the competition.
• Prince of Kolkata came back to his form of yesteryears as see at his best against Deccan’s “left arm spinner” Pragyan Ojha.
• Match of week was the close match between Kings XI and Mumbai. In which Punjab gave too many runs in the penultimate over.
• One of the expensive players Kevin Pietersen of RCB is back and proved his price by match winning knock against Kings XI.
• Knock of the week was by Murali Vijay and the other best knock was century by David Warner. Who in the subsequent match made sure to contribute in the field also by being responsible for five dismissals ( 4 catches and 1 direct-hit runout).
• All the teams are now in full strength with the conclusion of Aus-NZ series. And needless to stay every team is in spot of bother that whom to select for the slots of four international players.

• The match of the week, and so far of the tournament was the tied match between Kings XI and Chennai Super Kings. The latter choked horribly and screwed up the proceedings in the super over.
• The battle of toppers Mumbai v/s Bangalore the latter emerged as winners steered by good performances of Kallis and Vinay Kumar.
• Rajasthan Royals were back in limelight with hat-trick wins. They are still in the contest. With yesterday’s victory over Deccan Chargers they have definitely made a statement to their critics.
• Preity Zinta turns philosophical and says “It’s the journey that matters not the destination”. Looks like she’s already given up hopes of her struggling team making into semi-finals.
• The team to beat Bangalore Royal Challengers were beaten convincingly by rejuvenated Delhi Dare Devils.
• Jacques Kallis finally got his average as he was dismissed for the first time CSK’s bowler Laxmipati Balaji.
• It was a hopeless week for KKR and CSK as they failed to win even a single match.
• The Karbon kamal catch of the week was by DDR’s AB de Villiers. It was absolute stunner when caught Praveen Kumar attempted ‘DLF maximum’ just feets away from long-on boundary.
• The daemon of ‘team-selection” for T-20 was running over everyone’s head. Robin Utthappa was unfortunate to miss the bus but the biggest gainer was Vinay Kumar after his back to back good performances against Mumbai and Chennai. The 3-wicket over against MI, which in fact turned the match would have brought him under selectors microscope.
• The other talking point of week was auction two new teams for season-4. Pune(Sahara group) and Kochi(Rendezvous Group) emerged as winners

• Defending champions lost the inaugural match .. following the usual trend in major sporting events.
• Mumbai Indians is the only unbeaten team so far. They have kept their feet on the ground so far along with their captain who has done the same throughout the career. Many people say this IPL belongs to Mumbai as Tendulkar is not only top of his batting form but also cricketing form,
• The team which finished on top of the league table RR and Kings XI are on bottom of the table by losing their all their matches. Preity Zinta’s change-the-fortune salwar-kameez act could not any impact.
• Warne’s intuition has gone horribly wrong. One can easily justify it after seeing RR 10 wickets loss to Bangalore.
• In the first edition of IPL people used to say – “Yusuf brother of Irfan”. Now people saw “Irfan brother of Yusuf”.
• Delhi Daredevils look to be in good form but they lost their last two matches. 2 loss and 2 wins. But lot of matches remaining.
• KKR look to be a better team with their new Coach – Dave Whatmore, new bowling coach – Wasim Akram and of course with their new purple color jersey.
• Old timers are have been best performers. Chamind Vaas with bowl and purple cap, Jacques Kallis with bat and orange cap. The latter is not yet dismissed in the tournament and hence to get an average next to his stats.
• The major setback has been series of injuries, Dhoni and Ghambir being on top of the list being captains of their respective sides.
• The major player missing in 3.0 is FakeIPLPlayer. Not sure what is he doing all this day.
• After all speculations the revolutionary mongoose bat was put into act by Mathew Hayden and utilizing it effectively to win match for his team.

Even though Mumbai Indians lost the match by 3 runs & RCB won it with a ball to spare it wouldn’t be wrong to say that cricket was a winner today, one tasted a unique flavor of T20; low scoring thrillers. The beauty of T20 is its ability produce nail bitters, IPL 2.0 is no different, and a nail bitter is more intense if it’s a low scoring one. In the end some tidy bowling and some shoddy batting saw Kings XI win by 3 runs. Lack of good bowlers and some shoddy performance by KKR saw RCB snatch victory from the hands of defeat.

119 was what Kings XI managed on a tired surface of Kingsmead which had already produced a low scoring chase in the afternoon. Mumbai Indians have the strongest bowling attack in this IPL 4 ODI specialist or rather T20 specialist. Malinga is a revelation this season, all he does is fires in toe crushing Yorker; batsman try to survive rather than score. At any instant it’s either ball or the bat of Yuvraj bat that moves; this time ball moved. Sangakkara anchored the innings to a respectable 119 even after some good death bowling from Malinga; the Yorker to Chawla was a treat to watch, right on the money. He now heads the purple cap for the most wickets in the series with an avg of 5 and econ of 4; that’s some numbers.

Chasing 120 on a slow pitch is quite tricky, and gets tougher when you lose Sanath of the first ball; he really is having a torrid time this IPL. Sachin followed him the next over to yet another Debutant; one needs a count on number of times Sachin has fallen to a Debutant. Abdulla’s toe crushing Yorker to Dhawan reduced MI to 12 for 3. Bravo got sucked into Powar’s flight and scooped into the deep. Duminy n Nayar did try to steady the sinking ship before Pathan punctured by rattling Nayar’s leg stump. Chawla’s penultimate was the key, the ploy of leg spinner against legside favored Bhajji worked out quite well in the end. And one can never take away the accurate and canning last over by Abdulla. Duminy finally fell to Abdulla’s variations slow bouncer caught at deep midwicket. Finally MI fell short by 3 runs after some good out fielding by Powar.

Earlier in the day KP’s RCB stole a nail bitter with a ball to spare. It was a historical day in T20 as 15 of 20 overs were bowled by 4 spinners and staring with spin at both the ends, reminding us the spin quartet of the 70s’. IPL 2.0 so far ironically has belonged to the spinners; Royals, Kings XI & now Challengers have started off with spinners. McCullum’s unforgettable nightmare continues as he fell for a golden duck to KP. Kumble is getting better with each game, KKR’s reached a defendable 139.

For the first time in IPL RCB have an opening stand of 69, Goswami’s run a ball 43 was vital, KP’s and Kohli’s wicket made sure that we have a nail bitter. Some hammering from Boucher made sure that SRK wouldn’t book his return ticket; and has wowed not to return until KKR starts winning, which means he won’t return. Ishant’s spell of 2 for 15 was the only silver lining. Late bashing from Boucher saw RCB win with a ball to spare.

Both the teams Snatched Victory From The Jaws Of Defeat.

Ravi Singh Bopara showed that even in this age of T20 - fatafat cricket; slow and steady could still win the race. He showed that it’s not just veterans who can play the old fashioned innings in chasing big targets in T20. Nudging around, playing at run a ball and accelerated towards end, it was a good combination attack with defense. The credit of chasing 170 with 3 down in with an over to spare should go to Bopara.

There is some connection with RCB and good starts rather lack of it; they don’t seem to go hand in hand. Kallis and Ryder were off to a decent start even after the early loss of Uthappa for a golden duck. Both played some high quality risk less fabulous cricketing shots. Some classic cover drives and some powerful pulls. When things looked pretty good RCB were pegged back by Abdulla’s double strike. KP is going to give Mallya uncle a heart attack if continues this way; every flop of his is going to hurt Mallya by 100k USD.

Yet again Dravid had to come to save the wrecked ship at 48/3. Just because they call him the wall, it doesn’t mean that Dravid has to rebuild the innings every time. Taylor along with Kallis did stitch the innings together towards the end. 4 wickets from Abdulla and 3 for Pathan curtailed the innings to respectable 168. Efforts of Puyush gets unnoticed in these kinds of games, he is the bowler to be watched out.

168 is a decent target to chase especially with a short boundary on one side, plus one can’t forget Yuvraj and Durban connection, Yup the full Monte 6 6s of Broad. Kings were off to a good start 50/0 of 6 overs. A brilliant runout brought Sangakara in. Runs kept flowing from Bopara’s bat regularly slowly and steadily, he wasn’t unfazed by asking run rate which always kept creeping. Dravid didn’t help the RCBs by dropping a sitter, which was crucial at that stage, finally Sangakara yielded to Kumble who was by far most the best bowler. 5 overs to go 60 to get with 8 wickets in hand match evenly balanced. When Yuvraj starts playing his shots bowling or pitch doesn’t matter. With Styen not playing RCB didn’t any a good bowler, forget about death bowling.

I guess it wouldn’t have matted the way Bopara n UV smacked around. After reaching his 50 Bopara revealed the wild side of calm face, it began to rain sixes in Durban. KP could nothing but watch the Kings XI sail over with an over to spare. Win meant that the SINGHs were off the mark.

Bopara showed that SINGH is still the KING