Cricket: "IPL 2011 Match No 1: Chennai Super Kings v Kolkatta knight Riders"

Hi and welcome to IPL 2011. After the very popular and superb world cup here we are with the 4th edition of IPL in 2011. After the breath taking opening ceremony we are here with the inaugural match of IPL 2011 between Defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Kolkatta Knight Riders.

Chennai super kings won the toss and Chennai super kings captain dhoni elected to bat first. Chennai lost Murli vijay in the first over to Iqbal Abdullah. Raina and Anirudha played really well and took chennai to 80 after 10 overs. Dhoni came to the crease after Raina was out for 33. Dhoni too played a camero of 29 runs. Anirudha played anchors role and made a patient and superb 64. Chennai made a decent and competitive score of 153 in their allotted 20 overs. Kallis was the most successful bowler for Kolkatta Knight Riders with 2 wickets.

Kolkatta Knight Riders had a good start when bisla and Kallis added 64 for the first wicket. Once bisla was out to Jakati Kolkatta Knight Riders panicked and Chennai super kings applied more pressure. Tiwaris 2 sixes gave a hope for Kolkatta Knight Riders but Chennai super kings kept their cool at the end to seal a nail biting 2 run win. For Kolkatta Knight Riders Kallis top scored with 54 runs and for Chennai Super Kings Southee, Ashwin, Randiv, Jakati and Raina took a wicket a piece.

Chennai Super Kings S Anirudha was adjudged Man of the Match

Score: Chennai Super Kings 153 for 4 (S Anirudha 64, Raina 33, Kallis 2/34) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 151 for 7 (Kallis 54, Jakati 1/26, Ashwin 1/26) by 2 runs

India the World Champions 2011

The World Champions 2011 ***INDIA***

Before the start of the world cup india where the firm favourites and rightly so they have beaten all the earlier world champions to lift the most prestigious cup for the very second time.

Indians had to wait another 28 years to see this to happen. In 2003 they came very close but coudnt pass the final hurdle to lift the cup. It was a huge relief for a country which is frenetic about cricket. After the earlier hiccup they came back strongly to show the world what champions are all about.

Road to the final:

Initial group matches:

First they have beaten bangladesh quite convincgly and then tied their match against england in a thriller. Then won not so convincingly against ireland and lost their only match against south africa. won a crucial match against west indies (two time world champions). booked their date against three time defending champions Australia.

Quarter final against australia:

India did well enough to restrict australia for a 250 odd runs. They had initial hiccups before yuvraj got them home with his allround performance. Raina gave a good support, without which tail whould have been exposed and india were at the edge of loosing the match. In the end with all the smiles india with the win where all set to play pakistan in an important encounter in a worldcup semifinal.

Semi final against Pakistan:

The mother of all battles "India Vs Pakistan" match. India had 100% record against pakistan in world cup matches. India batted first, with tendulkar getting so many lives for his 83 india pilled up a good target. Pakistan consistantly lost wickets at regular intervals and never looked threatening in pursuit of the chase. In the end india won quite convincingly and defeated another world champions on their way to final.

Final Against Srilanka:

India came to finals of the world cup for the third time. India dominated the first half of srilankas innings with wickets at regular innings but Jayawardenes century took srilanka to a respectable score. India lost two early wickets of sehwag and tendulkar and where in deep trouble. Then gambhir and kohli tried to repair the damage and as they were set kohli was out. Kohli's wicket got Dhoni to the crease and he came with a determination to win. He dominated the parnership and scored fluently and never let required rate get out of reach, once felt it was safe launched huge hits and took india home with the prestigious world cup 2011 edition.

It was a great victory and a moment to cherish and celebrate in indian cricket for a very long time. To all fellow indians "Congratulations".......... :)

Cricket: World Cup 2011 Fever Part - 2 Main Teams

Lets now preview the main contenders for the 2011 ICC world cup. They are India, Srilanka, Pakistan, New Zealand, England, South Africa, West Indies, Australia. These teams will sweat out in the next one and half months for the most prestigious cup wrt cricket, the World cup.

This time around there are no clear favourites, but there are strong contenders. India, Srilanka strongly make it to favourites since the condition are local to them. Bangladesh is highly expected to surprise in this tournment as they are playing most of their matches at home. Pakistan and south africa are less favourites because of form and conditions. West indies, Australia, England and New zealand are highly unlikely to make it to the semis purely based on form. Lets preview each team by team.

India
Srilanka
Bangladesh
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand
England
West Indies

Cricket: World Cup 2011 Fever Part - 1 Minnows

Just couple of days left for the World Cup to start. Here is an exclusive preview of what will be the 10th World cup in limited overs cricket.

World cup is returning to the subcontinet after 1996 world cup which was won by Srilanka. I will give a detailed review on each world cup in separate posts. Here i will take you to the teams competing and their strengths and weaknesses.

First lets look at the minnows in other words the underdogs. In this section i will review Netherlands (also called Holland), Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. It would be foolish to call Bangladesh a minnow as they have almost defeated all the test playing nations quite convincingly recently. But to be precise lets add them here.

Bangladesh
As said in all the minnows Bangladesh leads them in all respect. Infact Bangladesh is a serious threat to all the main teams in this world cup in various respects. Local conditions, spin friendly pitches, local support are few to name. Apart from these one of the biggest asset is their attitude thru which they have clean sweeped New Zealand in one dayers. This is a perfect platform for them to showcase their talent and show the world that it is not far behind.

Ireland
Next comes Ireland. They were the surprise package in 2007 world cup. They play serious cricket and few of their team memebers have eventually made it to the England main squad. They have their strengths and can surprise the main teams and one of the team to watch out for. Their only draw back will be not enough experience in world tournments and playing with big teams.

Zimbabwe
Next comes Zimbabwe. They were once transforming to a good cricketing side but fate had differnt version to their story as their test status was revoked and their main players withdrew from squad and they had to start all over again. Now they are in a stage of transforming again, but in their early stages. They can win with minnows but it will hard to say that they can spring any surprises against main squads. But there is a strong chance of they making quarters, which in itself is a big victory and morale boosting one.
Kenya
Next comes Kenya. They were the promising side when they debuted in 1996 world cup and surprised everyone when they defeated westindies. In 2003 too they came till semifinals, though thru some forfeited matches in their favour. They are a side who lack the big match experience but can be devastating on their day. But in current circumstances their biggest hurdle will be the minnows itself. Its highly unlikely that they will make it to the quarters, but if they do it will be good for kenyan cricket.

Netherlands
Next comes Netherlands. Netherlands is also one of the promising sides in world cricket. They are in and out in world cups. They have match winning players but they havent performed as a team in recent times. This will be a perfect platform to show the world that they belong here. Its highly unlikely that they will make it to the quarters but will give good fights for the minnows.

Canada
Last but not the least canada. Canada is the weekest team in this world cup. They will try not to be last in this world cup. This world cup will give them good platform, international exposure and experience. They will give a close fight to minnows in their group and try to prove things wrong.

All the best to the minnows in their respective matches and look farward to some surprises and upsets in this tournment. Minnows and underdogs are the primary teams who create and define the terms surprises and upsets, so look farward to it.

Cricket: Wounded Laxman steers india to one wicket win

India Vs Australia First Test

I am writing this at 01:41 PM CST, watching the final day session two after lunch. Where india need 54 runs and Johnson is bowling to ishant.

After a long time india is looking beyound Srilanka. Yeah there is a surprise for you, India is going to play Australia their favourite opponents. Lately India Vs Australia series has been one of the toughest and closest.

First test started with the same promise. As usual Dhoni lost the toss and Ponting choose to bat first. India's bowling was spearheaded by Zaheer, others to assist him where Ishant, Harbhajan and Ojha. Zaheer got rid of Katich early, but ponting and watson got the things going. Raina brilliantly ran out ponting and gave india the much needed momentum to make inroads at regular intervals. Watson stood firm and completed his century at other end. India kept on the pressure but paine and johnson took them past the 400 run score. Zaheer took a five for and paine missed what could have been his maiden test century. He made a patient 92. Australia scored 428 in their first innings.

India started their first inning with their most successful opening partners sehwag and gambhir. India started well and where going run a ball until gambhir was out. Sehwag soon followed him after a brisk half century. After night watchmen ishants departure tendulkar and dravid held the innings together and scored half centuries respectively. After dravid's departure raina came and gave support to sachin who was eventullay out 2 short of his century. Once sachin was out Australia crawled back into the game and polished off the tail and india were allout for 405 runs. Australia got the upperhand by taking a 23 run lead. Johnson took a five for australia and for india sehwag,dravid, tendulkar and raina scored half centuries.

Australia after their 23 run lead started their second innings to build the lead. Watson started positively and scored at a brisk rate. In no time he reached his half century and with katich was looking good to extend the lead futher more. Ishant who was wayward in the first innings got his rhythm back and took three quick wickets to peg australia back. Indian spinners took the charge next and had four wickets between them as Zaheer returned to complete the tail with his ferocious reverse swing. Australia where all out for 192 and setting india a target of 216 runs. For australia watson made half century and for india zaheer and ishant took 3 wickets a piece.

India's chase was hit right in the first over when Gambhir was adjudged LBW when the ball was clearly going leg side. Inspite of the early first wicket india tried to score runs at faster rate, generally thats the case though when sehwag is around in the middle. End of the fourth day with late burst form the australia bowlers india were reduced to 55 for 4 and still needing 161 on the lastday and only 6 wickets in hand which includes laxman who had injured his back and will bat only if required.

Fifth day started with all the possible results possible. Tendulkar and zaheer started well and were steady until zaheer was out to hauritz. Laxman came to bat with raina as runner as he had a bad back. Laxman and Tendulkar started the counter attack and started scoring at a faster pace and didnt allowed any bowler to settle. Tendulkar was out for 38, dhoni and harbhajan followed him soon and india required another 92 runs and just two wickets in hand. Then came Ishant to support laxman in the middle. Ishant blocked the australia bowlers with determination and on the other hand helped laxman score runs at will. They added 81 runs and where almost at touching distance that another bad umpiring saw Ishant walking back to pavilion. Wicket of Ishant raise lot of hopes for australians as they were just a wicket away from victory. Ojha looked very tensed but he managed to hold on. Ojha was lucky to miss a close LBW call and a run out for which he got four overthrows. He flicked the ball towards leg and completed 2 runs and gave india victory by one run.

Laxman was unbeaten on 73 from 79 balls as india registered their first one wicket win in tests. Laxman was the man of the moment, no one knows why he plays so well against a team which is hightly rated for their skills in cricket. He was given a special prize for this efforts during the presentation ceremony.

Zaheer was adjudged man of the match for his crucial 8 wickets.

Score: India 405 (Tendulkar 98, Raina 86, Johnson 5/64) and 216 for 9 (Laxman 73*, Hilfenhaus 4/57, Bollinger 3/32) beat Australia 428 (Watson 126, Paine 92, Zaheer 5/94) and 192 (Watson 56, Ishant 3/34, Zaheer 3/43) by 1 wicket

Cricket: "Chennai Super Kings are the Kings of IPL 2010"

It all came to the Finale when Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians reached the Finals. Mumbai Indians were the favourites who topped the table in league stage and convinsingly outplayed Bangalore in the first Semifinal.

On the other hand Chennai barely made it to the Semifinal. Dhoni who took them to the Semifinal made sure they won the semifinal. They won semifinal but not as convinsingly as Mumbai Indians. But they were hungry for the title as they are the first team to reach Finals on two occasions.

Chennai super kings won the toss and chose to bat first. It was a decent start for them where Murli Vijay was at his best and Hayden at his worst. Once Murli and Hayden departed wickets kept falling. Raina who was dropped earlier played anchor role for while. While the wickets were falling at other end he made sure he stayed till the end. With Dhoni he scroed 72 runs in less than 6 overs which proved very crucial for chennai. Raina remained unbeaten on 57 and helped chennai scored 160 for 5 in their allotted 20 overs. For mumbai Fernando took 2 wickets and was very economical.

Mumbai had a disastorous start in this tournment. They lost shikhar dhawan in the second over to Bollinger. Tendulkar again played a key role and played elegant shots which were pleasing to eyes. Pressure on runrate and rotation of strike marred the chase for mumbai. All of a sudden increase in required rate made mumbai to loose wickets. Tendulkar too perished after making a polished 48. It was all left to Pollard who actually was send very late in the innings. Though he was send very late and he tried to hopes for Mumbai by stiking Bollinger the bowler in form for 22 runs. But once rayudu was run out, Pollard too couldnt stick around longer and eventually Dhoni applied completed pleasure on Mumbai and they fell short by 22 runs. For chennai Jakati took two crucial wickets.

So after the first edition denied Chennai their IPL cup, they made sure they win IPL 2010. Tendulkar was man of the series for his consistancy and Raina was man of the final for his crucial innings.

So Chennai are the IPL 2010 Champions.

Cricket: "IPL Comes back home"

Indian Premier League is back to where it started. Yeah IPL is back to india gain. This 45 days IPL tournment will kick start on March 12th 2010. First match is between Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders. The defending champions from first will play against the defending chapions from last.

Expectations are sky rocketing and all the team are gearing up for a scintallating summer in india. It will be excellent cricket with competing players to display their talent on a stage set for world audience.