What a fitting finish to the first edition of IPL Tournament. Had never imagined that the final would turn out 
to be such a close finish. Both the teams performed well. Great match for the cricket followers and that too after two totally one sided semi finals. There were many close finishes in the tournament but this one’s got to be biggest of them all- Its the Final match man. Its always different playing in the finals. One cannot rule out any side or declare any side as clear favorites considering their previous performances. And both Rajasthan and Chennai coming in to the finals by clean sweeping their opponents in the Semi Finals suggested that it could turn out to be a thriller and it did.
IPL
Rajasthan Royals crush Delhi Daredevils by 105 runs, march into Finals
That was an humiliating performance by Delhi Daredevils in the first Semi Final of the inaugural IPL 
Tournament. Playing at a neutral venue Rajasthan Royals annihilated Delhi Daredevils in an one sided encounter. Delhi was never looking in a position to steal the victory from the in-form Rajasthan Royals. Rajasthan have had a great run through the tournament and with them being the first team for the finals, the other will be decided from the next semi final encounter. I think a sheer mistake can only defy them from being crowned as the champions of the inaugural IPL Twenty20 Championship.
Kumble’s heroics guide Bangalore RC to stunning victory
With a modest target of 127 to chase and with likes of Fleming , Parthiv, Dhoni, Raina, Badrinath in the
batting line up Chennai Super Kings(CSKs) looked firm favorites to win the match when they began their chase. And to add to that the openers Parthiv and Fleming gave a flying start. The duo put on 60 for the first wicket in just 9 overs, with Kumble taking the wicket of Parthiv for 24. Half way thru the target CSKs seemed to be preparing to the celebrations. But tragedy stuck- They lost 5 quick wickets for just 30 runs on the board. With their top order batsmen back in the dressing room- there was panic all around. Imagine the side off to a flying start with 60-1 and then 93-6 in 16 overs. The tail enders did not last long and they could not do much. CSKs chasing 127 ended up scoring 112 in their quota of overs with the loss of 8 wickets giving B’lore RCs much needed victory :).
Bangalore Royal Challengers Out of Semifinal spot
The defeat against Delhi Daredevils in todays match has put Bangalore Royal Challengers out of the contention for a Semi Final spot. But the Royal Challengers(RC) had some positives to take back home. The excellent debut innings by young Shreevats Goswami was chiefly responsible for the RC’s score which was boosted by Misbah’s late onslaught. … Read more
Pietersen fever Set to hit Indian Shores- In Line for a record IPL deal
England Cricket Board(ECB) has till now has not allowed its centrally contracted players to play in the BCCI- backed Twenty20 venture, but in Pietersen’s case they were already ready to making an exception. Kevin has been offered a record $4 million deal for three years, much more than what Dhoni gets, to play in the … Read more
What ails Bangalore Royal Challengers?
Bangalore Royal Challengers are sitting pretty at the bottom of the table. They have not stood up to T20 requirements. When their bowlers do well, batsmen fail miserably and when their bowlers don’t do well even then their batsmen fail miserably. So its like batsmen not doing their homework properly.
Look at the Rajasthan Royals, they were the underdogs when they entered the championship with $67 million franchise but now its the first team to go into the semifinals of the IPL Championship. Did they have any great players? They do have players who are suited for the type of game. Analyzing the Rajasthan Royals one can find hard hitting batsmen Graeme Smith, Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan to name a few and their bowling department has the likes of Shane Warne, Sohail Tanvir, Munaf Patel. They have been working as a team. With each payer consistently making up for the poor performance put up by the others. They keep blaming individuals for not doing well. When a team performs badly, the team as a whole has to take the blame. It can’t be said that we lost because of so and so player or if so and so player would have fielded well we would have won. All these statements are just to bail oneself out of the criticism. The recent match between Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal Challengers shows how well the former team is playing as an unit and how poorly the latter is performing as a team. The recent deadly blasts at Jaipur did not dampen the spirits of the team instead they gave the people of Jaipur a reason to rejoice, a reason for the people to smile about. Hats off to the team Rajasthan Royals. They have been an inspiring team. Shane Watson has been the man to watch out for. His heroics with bat and ball has made him the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. Its Shane Warne who has been a clever captain and an able coach. He is the only Non Indian captain and has been leading his side from the front, and has been a role model for the youngsters in his team. So there are loads of things one has to learn from Rajasthan Royals.
Tanvir’s Heroics puts Rajasthan Royals ahead
Match Review:
Oh!!!! Never thought that CSK would get out to such a low score. With a depleted batting attack in the absence of likes of Hayden, Hussey and Oram it was on to the experienced and highly respected Fleming and Dhoni to deliver the goods. Raina who’s in a good form did show some resistance with some sensible batting but he could manage only 27 but it was Morkel whose lusty hitting saw CSK to a respectable total. He scored 42 off 33 deliveries with 4 hits to the fence and 1 above it. Only 4 CSK batsmen managed a score in double figures and rest getting out for “binary” scores.
IPL Team- Kings XI Punjab
Team: Kings XI Punjab
Captain: Yuvraj Singh
Coach: Tom Moody
Franchisee: Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and Karan Paul
Franchise Cost: $76 Million
Most expensive player: Yuvraj Singh – $1,063,750
IPL Team- Rajasthan Royals
Team: Rajasthan Royals
Captain: Shane Warne
Coach: Shane Warne
Franchisee: Emerging Media
Franchise Cost: $67 Million
Most expensive player: Mohammad Kaif – $675,000
Kolkata Knight Riders
Team: Kolkata Knight Riders
Captain: Sourav Ganguly
Coach: John Buchanan
Franchisee: Red Chillies Entertainment
Franchise Cost: $79.09 Millions
Most expensive player: Sourav Ganguly – $1,092,500