My eyes were glued to the Live scorecard of Cricinfo, hand busy trying to refresh the page every single second- Just to see who would be the greatest among the greats! Pakistan had everything going in favor of them until tat last deadly over or taking it further more- the impeccable performance by Mike Hussey. They had put up challenging 191 on the board- Thanks to the Akmal bros notching up a 50 piece with Butt chipping in an useful 32. Then they got Aussies on the backfoot- picking up early wickets, all of their bowlers having a really good economy. Until the Whites and the Husseys cut loose sending the ball all over the park. Started with White- who I have never seen play for RCB- True Desh bhakth- but got out when they had 50+ runs to chase. It was never easy for the tail enders to whack around. But Hussey was the man- he had in him the sleeping devil who unleashed his wrath- sending the ball over the boundary. Still 18 required- I thought Pak had still chances of winning- but Jhonny was intelligent enough to get him a single and the devil smashed- 6-6-4-6 Can u imagine that? I was just speechless, shocked- omg Aussies have made it to the finals 🙁
Twenty20
IPL 2009 Inaugural Day Updates (April 18)
IPL is back after a year! One year has passed so quickly, the Rajasthan Royals final match is still fresh in my mind 🙂 This time IPL is being held out of India- Indian Premium League in South Africa 😛 Its was a day of upsets everywhere, a day of upset for me either- tough SE Exam paper 🙁 The Inaugural match between Mumbai Indians(MI) and Chennai Super Kings(CSK) was at some point interesting but then MI comfortably won the match (looks comfortable for ppl watchin on TV, may not be for the players 😀 ) The main take aways from that match was- Tendulkar continuing his New Zealand form started off IPL in stlye with a 50 :), Nayar smashed 3 sixes in Flintoff’s over (hope he sleeps peacefully tonight and those sixes don’t haunt him 😛 ). Malinga fierce with the ball- he is fiercefull without the ball either. And and any other key MI performances- I cant recall. Coming to CSK they had very little to cheer about- Gony took few wickets, Dhoni hit few runs ( Gony and Dhoni are so rhyming), so did Hayden. In the end wat matters is the winner and its MI (not Mission Impossible 😛 )
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.
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.