Ghost of IPL past ????

Indian Primer League, the brand in the making for the first 2 years, one which brought about the commercial side of cricket in India, now stands; once again I may add, amidst controversies and fall outs. This time around it is the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India who is at the epicentre of this fiasco, N.Sreenivasan. Interestingly, before I started writing this piece. I wanted to know more about this guy and so I searched and found that Wikipedia describes him as

"an Indian industrialist, chemical engineer, sports administrator and socialite who is the Managing-Director of the India Cements Limited and owner of the Chennai Super Kings Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team. He is also currently the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India."

Now, the first four cognomens does showcase the versatility of the person which has to be well respected but the last four keys does ring some bells. The wrong bells of course. IPL auctions being rigged is not a new thing, last year also these allegations were there about Lalit Modi favouring certain teams and this time around there is a certain team who might have benefited owing to N.Sreenivasan.

Now the hard news is that Mumbai Indians think that auctions were rigged and a special someone who knew about the auction inside out sat in the auction with a particular team, clearly helping them out. Well they are running around the bush for sure, but most of us know that the reference is for Chennai Super kings. And from his Wikipedia bio hardly any doubt.

Honestly, even I was perplexed on how well CSK were performing in the auctions, what ever they wanted, they got it, and their bidding was bang on. But these all probably my perception and N.Sreenivasan and CSK are just the cream of the issue.

Issue is most definitely an over used word and why not, IPL does tend to have a lot of issues. Capped players, uncapped players and what not .Again as I further read on about the issue, ....aah I should use some other word next time around, well anyway, A column by Sharda Urga fascinated me, in that column she stated how rules of uncapped players were bend at the last moment and it also clearly indicated the big honchos in the fray. Interestingly that big honcho was Mumbai Indians who had proposed that uncapped players be retained rather than going for the auction but it did not happen.

What happened was that the rules where mended in such a way that  uncapped players could be racked up just like that. A sort of internal matter, meaning that if an uncapped or capped players were of that high demand some extra "perks' might be added to lure them in to any particular franchise. Think of Manish Pandey, Amabati Rayadu andSourabh Tiwary  Not a fair play right??? And moreover who the hell decides these rules ?????

Well one of those rule makers might be the name mentioned earlier.

FIESTA de IPL: CHARISMATIC KALLIS ANCHORS BANGLORE

A batting paradise conquered by the throwback named Jacques Kallis, he is probably the most critiqued player, deemed not fit for T20, but what conspired on that 22 yard strip of Chinnaswamy Stadium is perhaps the best reply the ace all rounder could have given. Building an innings is considered a substratum for any batsmen, but it’s a rarity in the crash bang version and so is Kallis, a rare species of genius. He built an innings of substance and blossomed into variance.

THE MYRIAD

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Their first game at home was all the more important as they looked for their first win of IPL3.Boucher was in for Van De Merwe as Goswami was benched for Vinay Kumar.

KINGS XI PUNJAB: A comprehensive lose to Daredevils delineated the loopholes for the Punjab outfit, openers needed to give the firepower, though Bopara looked convincing, middle order needed to click and bowlers had to bowl with much  more conviction. Sangakarra dropped Romesh Pawar for offie Bipul Sharma.

Sangakarra won the toss elected to bat first

KINGS XI TO A ROYAL START

Bopara started of well and looked to play the sheet anchor role as both Styen and Kallis treated Manvinder Sultansingh Bisla with an array of short balls, Bisla though not at all convincing against the pacy short ones, was caught in awkward positions, edging and trying to duck, but he survived the adrenaline rush of the Bangalore bowlers. Bisla gradually made himself comfortable as he faced most of the strike in the powerplay. He edged his way to the boundaries and pulled twice of Kallis in majestic fashion, he has got his early nervousness out of the way. Bopara seemed to be content to play the second fiddle, as Bisla danced down the track hitting Kumble for an imperious long off six. He greeted Vinay kumar with another maximum. The duo amassed plenty of runs as Bangalore bowlers continually fed them length bowls.

By the end of 14^th over Punjab were 129/0 at a run rate of 9.21, 200 definitely on the cards. Bisla eventually got out and was soon followed by Yuvraj Singh. Jayawardene then stepped up his game with a wonderful cameo of 13 ball 26, innovation personified the Sri Lankan’s inning, as Bopara flourished in the final over. 204, was the target for the challengers.

GUTSY ONSET

Sangakarra hoped that his bowlers would exploit bowling under lights to make some early inroads. Sreesanth and Pathan though got the ball to swing, but they were not penetrative enough as Kallis and Manish Pandey played out the first few overs cautiously, more importantly without losing a wicket. It was infact in 5^th over Kallis walloped a half tracked from Yusuf Abdulla towards the midwicket boundary for the first six. Pandey then showed some aggression favouring the on side and taking  18 of Pathan’s over. Chawala was introduced into the attack, who bowled in a perfect rhythm reading the batsmen cleverly, resulting a Manish Pandey wicket, Pandey had  played his part with a quick fire 38 of 25.Kallis on the other hand also played some handsome strokes but rotated the strike regularly.

ROBIN’S FUROR

Robin Uthappa came to the crease, as commentator Russel Arnold described him as one of India’s underachiever, truly so, a class act seldom seen to play an innings of substance, and now here was his chance at atonement and he it grabbed with both hands, brutality prevailed as he hit Chawla for consecutive boundaries, then Abdulla for a long on six and a four, before unleashing a torrent of sixes of sreesanth, 25 from that over, tide had shifted to the Royal Challengers ancillary. Robin raced to a 19 ball 50, second fastest in IPL. He is one of the exotic breed whose brute force is as elegant as it can get.

KALLIS SEALS IT

Bipul Sharma had a good start to his IPL career picking up Uthappa in his very first over, as Kohli walked to the middle, I thought Morgan would have been a better choice, but when Virat hit a six courtesy a dropped catch by M.Kaif, the Chinnaswamy crowd roared like anything chanting RCB. Kallis impelled after a valiant knock of 62 of 48 as he hammered Bipul Sharma for 3 humungous hits towards the deep midwicket region. The game was set and duly so Kallis hit the winning runs with an over to spare, he ended up at 89 not out in 53 balls becoming the highest run getter of IPL 3 and a proud holder of orange cap.

RCB 1 _ KXIP 0

FIESTA de IPL: ANNIHILATATION BY PRINCE OF NAJAFGARH

DEVILS AND ROYALS

DELHI DAREDEVILS: On paper this is the best team of IPL, most well balanced side, everyone expects them to reach no less than the semifinals stages. With enough ammunition to destroy any bowling attack, batting is definitely their strong point, but one aspect that makes Delhi Daredevils more lethal is the performance of their non international players like Pradeep Sangwan, Mithun Manhas, Yo Mahesh and Sarbjeet Ladda.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS: A close finish in their opener, the royals were not at all disheartened, as big things were expected from Yusuf Pathan once again. Warne fielded an unchanged squad for their home match in Motera.

Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field first

DIRK NANNES AS USUAL, DELHI ON TOP

Dirk Nannes has been a revelation for the devils since his inclusion in the Delhi team. After a wayward first over by Mahroof which yielded 14 runs, Nannes produced a stellar of an over beating the batsmen on many occasion and also got rid of Asnodkar.  Mahroof was not at his bowling best as Naman Ojha displayed his might with the bat. He launched one over long off, after hitting two majestic boundaries of 1 Amit Mishra over, but his inexperienced undid him as in a greed to get more runs he could not pick up the googly and Mishra got his revenge. But the decisive blow was given by Mahroof as he cameback strongly after being drubbed in his first two overs, to dismiss Yusuf Pathan, Pathan tried to heave a slower one over long on to be caught in the deep by AB De villiers. It was good thinking on the part of Mahroof to pitch it a touch short without any pace as Pathan had to reach out and generate more power, which he was not able to do.

JHUNJHUNWALA SCRATCHES ROYALS OUT

Debutant Sarbjeet Ladda started of brilliantly, and didn’t hesitate in giving ample air to the ball. Pradeep Sangwan’s persistent resulted in Graeme Smith’s wicket, the Royals losing the plot. Abhishek Jhunjunwala and Paras Dogra were denied any kind of room by both the spinners as the run rate came down drastically to below 6.A partnership was the need of the hour, Jhunjhunwala and Dogra provided one; after being bogged down, they went for the kill, putting Sarbjeet Ladda to the sword in his final over hammering 17 runs. Rajasthan crossed the hundred run mark as in an attempt to accelerate; Dogra fell for 29.The dangerous Dimitri Mascarenhas proved to a flop as he was run out brilliantly without causing any stir. Jhunjhunwala held on reaching his maiden IPL 50 putting up a decent score of 141.

 PRINCE OF NAJAFGARH PREVAILS

As if he is playing for fun, Sehwag puts bat to bowl, and it flies all over the place. 2 boundaries of the first over, another couple of 4s of Tait’s second, a Six and a four of Munaf patel, the scorecard reads 40/0 of 3 overs of which 30 is scored by Sehwag. Mascarenhas came back and got Gambhir and Dilshan of consecutive balls, Royals might have seen a glimmer of hope, but Viru curtailed any kind of hope. His magnificent 34 ball 75 consisted of not a single miss hit, all pure cricketing shots, yet it can not be termed as brutal or barbarous, it was clinical at best. At the other end De villiers struggled to get going, but well no one bothered to care, Amit Uniyal was torn apart with precision ,Mascarenhas massacared skillfully, the only respect he gave was to Shane Warne ,may be considered his old age and nagging wrist. The game was all set before Sehwag miscued a slower one by Munaf and skied it, Graeme Smith took a Karbonn Kamal catch. Mithun Manhas was joined by Karthik and they ensured that Delhi gets 2 wins of 2 matches. Rajasthan Royals were yet to open their account.

FIESTA de IPL: DECCAN PLAY LIKE CHAMPS

SETUP

CHENNAI SUPERKINGS: Over the two IPL seasons, Chennai have been the most fearsome outfits, the most persistent team, Dhoni packed in power hitters for the opening match in the form Hayden, Kemp and Morkel. Ravichandran Ashwin got a place alongside Murlidharan.

DECCAN CHARGERS: It had been an ominous start for the defending champs, a win here for Gilchrist was a necessity. He named an unchanged team from the last match. Jaskaran Singh would have felt lucky to retain his position in the team.

Deccan Chargers won the toss and elected to bat

TORRID START

Adam Gilchrist had one plan, to lift his team to grand total, and he targeted the UP lad, Sudeep Tyagi for this, He hammered a full length ball outside off stump to produce the first six of the match, the second one followed a ball later in the same region, Gilly milked 19 of the over. Morkel’s third over yield 14 runs courtesy 2 fours and a 6 by Adam Gilchrist making him the first player to break the 1000 runs barrier in IPL. .Dhoni was forced to use his spinners in the power play and they duly obliged.

SPINNERS REBOUND

Murali conceded only 6 of his first over. Ravichandran Ashwin was geared to bowl the 4^th over and he fired in the first four balls giving away 2 wides and a boundary, Ashwin bowled the 5^th ball slower through the air enticing Gilchrist to come down the track and walaah, ball evaded the blade of the bat crashing into the off stump, a spinners delight, Dhoni’s ploy had worked, The captain of the Chargers back in the hood. The very next ball saw the demise of VVS Laxman courtesy sharp fielding by Suresh Raina. Superkings had recovered the early onset. Balaji and Kemp maintained the pressure created by the spinners, Ashwin in particular stood out through his variable length and diverse balls.

EXPERIENCE COMES IN HANDY

Gibbs and Symonds were bogged down for the majority of the innings but they ensured that their wickets were intact till the time came to accelerate; the early run rate set by Gilchrist gave both the experienced campaigners’ time to negotiate the spinners. but once they got their eye in the shots began to arrive, Symonds blasted Balaji for a six over long off and again his brute force prevailed. Both batsmen were eventually run out playing handy knock of 45 and 50.at the end of the 19th over the scorecard read 168/4.Dhoni took chance and gave the ball to tyagi, and was it, Suman and Rohit generated 22 of the final over to take the total to a hefty 190.

EARLY SETBACK

There was a lot of talk that Hayden will bring out his mongoose bat, but that was not to be as Chminda Vaas once again opened the bowling with conviction. Adam Gilchrist surprised many by giving the bowl to part timer Rohit Sharma as Hadyen hit him for a mammoth six. Vaas’s second over produced the wicket of Murali Vijay. Raina came in and without taking any time heaved a short pitch delivery toward the mid wicket boundary for a maximum, but Vaas came back strongly as Raina tried to hit the ball hard rather than timing it resulting in a simple catch for Adam Gilchrist, Vaas had got his second. But Still Superkings batting depth meant that the game was not over yet. Hayden hit his second six of the innings of the bowling of R.P. Singh and he was looking dangerous. But it was Chaminda Vaas again coming to the resue, Hayden tried to scoop the ball over short fine leg, but with Vaas’s pace it was a disastrous shot selection, Hayden gone, Chennai were in a spot of bother.

Dhoni and Kemp tried to consolidate the innings as Jaskaran Singh was put to the sword in his very first over, he gave away 3 boundaries and a wide. But Pragyan Ojha and Rohit Sharma exploited the slowness of the Chennai pitch and continuously applied pressure on both Dhoni and Kemp. Kemp got a move on as he danced down the track to hit Ohja for a six, but when Ojha flighted the ball, Kemp was foxed to come out of the crease and a straight forward stumping by Gilchrist.

The superkings never recovered from that blow and when Dhoni was bowled by  Symonds, the last nailed in the superkings coffin was in its place, Albie morkel hit a few lusty blows little late in the innings. Superkings finished 31 runs short, a big blow to their IPL campaign.

FIESTA de IPL: DAREDEVILS TAME LIONS OF PUNJAB

KINGS AND DEVILS

KINGS XI PUNJAB: Lead by Kumara Sangakkara the Mohali outfit opted for two genuine spinners for a lively pitch and included Manvinder Bisla of Haryana ahead of his more flamboyant counterpart, Karan Goel. Kings have lead the Daredevils 3 – 1 in head to head encounters in IPL.

DELHI DAREDEVILS: They could be termed as the proverbial chockers of IPL, two semifinals finishes in last two editions, Daredevils lead by new captain Gautam Gambhir would be eyeing to do one step better this season . They opted to bench explosive David Warner for an extra bowler in Farveez Mahroof, alongside speedster Dirk Nannes and young sensation Pradeep Sangwan and YO Mahesh with Amit Mishra being the only spinner.

Delhi won the toss and elected to field first.

KINGS SUCCUMB TO DEVILS PLAY

Ravi Bopara and Manvinder Bisla walked out to the middle in a hope to give their team a flying start but Dirk Nannes started of as usual with speed, swing and conviction. The first over yielded only a single and a direct hit from Mithun Manhas put Manvinder Bisla back to the hood. The opening bowlers Dirk Nannes and Mahroof extract maximum bounce and swing making batsmen’s life a misery. After a lusty blow straight over the top of bowler Mahroof, Sangakarra departed soon followed by Yuvraj and immediately superseded by Jayawerdene for a golden duck. After 7 overs scorecard reads 49/4 in favour of the Devils. Bopara on the other end played himself in negotiating the good deliveries and pouncing on the loose one with good effect. Irfan Pathan joined Bopara and scored a handy 21 of 15 before being foxed by Dilsan. Good captaincy shown by Gauti to give the ball to Dilsan who has the knack of taking wickets at crucial juncture. When Bopara was holed out in deep square leg of the bowling of Yo Mahesh, all hopes of a late flourish smoked out and in the end Kings managed to put up a decent but below par 142.

KINGS RESURGENCE, GAUTIS PURSUANCE

When Virender Sehwag is on the crease, Devils look formidable and others mere minions, but when Sehwag departs the roles are reversed and that’s what exactly Southern Sizzler Sreesanth did for Kings XI Punjab. After many months Sree looked sharp for the first time and bowled full to produce sterling out swingers. Sehwag and Dilsan out in the second over itself and Devils where in a spot of bother. Pathan and Sree exploited the new ball, and bowled superbly to put Delhi in the same position as they were while batting. The good work by the opening bowlers was carried on by Yusuf Abdulla and Piyush Chawla as they stuck to the basics giving away nothing building pressure on Gambhir and AB De Villers. The stress showed as AB went for a non existent single eventually getting run out. Dinesh Karthik came in and scratched his way to 18 balls 20 before getting caught at long off. Amidst all this ataxia, Gambhir was determined nudging the ball here and there and producing some exquisite cuts and paddle sweep to keep his team in the hunt. The veteran Mithun Manhas joined Gauti and he played excellently without any urgency rotating the strike and running hard between the wickets. The match looked like to be hanging in a balance, until Sangakarra introduced off spinner Romesh Pawar into the attack in the 14^th over as Gambhir launched his assault over the spinner, milking 16 of the over. Mithun and Gauti continued to inch closer to victory without any further fuss. The 19 over saw Pathan drop a sitter of Manhas, and when Manhas crashed one into the fence, Pathan would have thought that he had dropped the match. Gambhir assured a victory hitting the 5^th ball of the penultimate over high superbly over long off for a 6.The equation read 4 from 6, though Gauti got out for a valiant 72 of 53 Mithun Manhas and Mahroof ensured a clinical victory for the Devils.

THE REAL DEVIL

Captain Gautam Gambhir proved to the deciding factor in the match as he guided his beasts from hell to victory, a real captain’s knock this will definitely boost his morale in the coming matches both as captain and a batsmen.

FIESTA de IPL: MI SURVIVE A PATHAN BLITZKRIEG

A Butcher with a knife would have looked more civilized than Yusuf Pathan with a piece of wood. It was onslaught at its best as powerhouse Pathan brought up the first ton of IPL-3 in ridiculously 37 deliveries, second fastest in the history of T20 format, yet his team was not able to pull of the victory against Mumbai Indians.

SQUAD

Mumbai Indians: After finishing in the bottom 4 on previous editions of IPL, MI were keen to start of with a winning note. The Master blaster alongside Jayasurya ,Zaheer and Lastish Malinga had the ICL recruits Ali Murtaza, Ambati Rayadu, and Rajgopal Satish for this opening encounter.

Rajasthan Royals: Warne opted for Speedster Shaun Tait, Mascarenhas and Graeme Smith, as he rested Munaf and Siddharth Trivedi for debutant Amit Uniyal and Imran Khan.

Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat first

DETONATIVE START

Jayasurya started the proceedings with an array of boundaries with the very first over milking Mascarenhas for 13 runs. Tait bowled the second over with conviction Sachin greeted him with disdain. Amit Uniyal’s very first IPL over yielded him with the wicket of Jayasurya, a clever slower one, jayasurya out LBW. Tait bowled off radar conceding 5 wides in a single over, not an ominous start for the Royals as Sachin leg glanced and cover drived Uniyal for two exquisite boundaries before Aditya Tare launched one over the boundary line, Mumbai Indians to a stellar of a start.

YOUNG BRIGADE TAKE CHARGE

Mascarenhas returned strongly to pick up Sachin and Tare in the same over, bringing Amabati Rayadu and young Saurabh Tiwary to the crease. Rayadu started of well flicking Mascarenhas for 4 before dancing down the track flicking Warne to mid wicket, class written all over it. Tiwary joins the party with powerful drives and back foot jabs as both the lads accumulate runs maintaining the 10 runs per over rate, for most part of the innings scoring their maiden half centuries in the process. A 19 runs 14^th over bowled by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala assures Indians a score par 200. Mumbai Indians end up with their highest total of 212/6, but a Shuan Tait full toss hits Harbhajan on the knee roll, the turbanator has to retire hurt.

ROYALS DISINTEGRATE

Fantasitc opening spell by Zaheer Khan and Ryan McLaren backed up by superb fielding puts royals to the wall; by the end of 7^th over royals were 43/3 with asking rate over 15.MI were definitely on top as Malinga castled one more in the 10^th over. The first half surely belonged to the Indians.

PATHAN PANDEMONIUM

The firework instigates; Yusuf Pathan blasts three consecutive sixes, one over long on, another over mid wicket and third past long off. The 11^th over reads 1, 6, 4, 4, 6, 1wd, 4

Sachin gives the bowl to Ryan Mclaren, and after a lengthy deliberation the long on is brought inside the ring, clearly hinting full length deliveries. But there is nothing to stop this powerhouse; he digs out Yorker length deliveries to 4.Indians looked perplexed.  In a matter of 2 overs, the current run rate and required rate becomes equal, and Rajasthan royals sense something marvelous. A tight Malinga and Zaheer over puts the pressure back on the batsmen, but Pathan continues his rampage with 2 sixes and a 4 of one Jayasurya over. Pathan gets his hundred of just 37 deliveries which includes 9 boundaries and 8 maximums. Satish is back into the attack after a total drubbing by Yusuf, first ball to Pathan’s silent partner Dogra, he hits the ball straight back to the bowler, and Satish whips of the bail, third umpire rules the decision in favor of the bowler , and Mumbai Indians suddenly look a happy bunch, Pathan departs after a whirlwind innings. Yet the drama continues as Dogra launches a late attack with two sixes and couple of boundaries.

The equations reads 19 from 12.With Zaheer and Malinga to bowl, the Indians look like to be the favorites. Finally, the seasoned campaigners hold on to their nerves and produce 2 near perfect overs, the Mumbai Indians wrap up the match, maybe in hope of not experiencing the blitzkrieg like this for the entire tournament.

MI 1 _ RR 0