The Indian Premier League is finally over after the Chennai Super Kings beat the favourites Mumbai Indians in the final by 22 runs. It seems weird though that the Mumbai Indians were the better team over the course of 14 games for every club yet they still have to play against the other top 3 in a mini knockout competition at the end despite the fact they won the league by 4 points.
Suresh Raina was the hero with an unbeaten 57 which meant that the Chennai Super Kings were able to get up to 167 and despite Sachin Tendulkars 48 they were restricted to 146-9, although they did let Suresh Raina get away with a few chances early on, and if they had taken his wicket then it could have been a totally different game. All this came after a good opening stand between Murali Vijay and Matthew Hayden who were probably the best opening pair in the competition.
Fear not if you are a fan of Twenty20 cricket though as this Friday the world 20/20 tournament begins out in the Caribbean. Although if you are like me then you are probably bored with the crash, bang and wallop version of cricket and are eagerly looking forward to the start of the test matches next month.
With the top teams on the international stage all fighting it out for the world championships though it will be interesting to see how Afghanistan go in the competition as they are relatively new to the world stage and it will be good to see how well they cope with the pressure. It will also be interesting to see if someone other than India and Pakistan will be able to dominate the competition for a change.
Although as the Indian Premier League has a lot of the Indian youth players and a lot of the senior side as well playing it is easy to see just why the likes of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka do well at the world events. So with the competition kicking off this Friday at 5pm (England time) all attention will be on the teams battling it out for supremacy.
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Tuesday 20 April 2010
IPL Reaches the Semis
The Indian Premier League has finally reached the Semi Final stages and after a lot of games, ending with the most boring game (well it was a dead rubber) and we have the final four teams that are battling it out for the two places in the final. It has finally come down to Mumbai Indians, Chennai SuperKings, Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers.
It was quite a surprise that the Delhi Daredevils, who were in a fantastic position going into their last 3 games, didn't make it. Boasting a squad that included Warner, Sehwag, Gambhir, Collingwood and Karthik they lost a large portion of their later games which saw them fall out of the running of the semi finals on the net run rate.
So with Mumbai Indians Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers Vs Chennai SuperKings all happening within the next couple of days one would assume that the final would be won by the winners of the Mumbai Bangalore game but whoever gets through in the other semi final will have a chance to upset the odds and walk away with the trophy.
With the Mumbai Indians looking so good when they have their full squad out they are the overwhelming favourites with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo and Harbajhan Singh they have been the front runners all the way through and won 10 out of their 14 games to finish 4 points clear of anyone else at the end of the group stage.
However with the players having to fly almost straight out to the Caribbean to play in the world twenty20 which starts at the end of this month, there is a lot of panic as the flights are still not working 100% and people like Paul Collingwood are unable to fly back to England to meet up with the squad before we fly out to the West Indies.
It was quite a surprise that the Delhi Daredevils, who were in a fantastic position going into their last 3 games, didn't make it. Boasting a squad that included Warner, Sehwag, Gambhir, Collingwood and Karthik they lost a large portion of their later games which saw them fall out of the running of the semi finals on the net run rate.
So with Mumbai Indians Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers Vs Chennai SuperKings all happening within the next couple of days one would assume that the final would be won by the winners of the Mumbai Bangalore game but whoever gets through in the other semi final will have a chance to upset the odds and walk away with the trophy.
With the Mumbai Indians looking so good when they have their full squad out they are the overwhelming favourites with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo and Harbajhan Singh they have been the front runners all the way through and won 10 out of their 14 games to finish 4 points clear of anyone else at the end of the group stage.
However with the players having to fly almost straight out to the Caribbean to play in the world twenty20 which starts at the end of this month, there is a lot of panic as the flights are still not working 100% and people like Paul Collingwood are unable to fly back to England to meet up with the squad before we fly out to the West Indies.
Wednesday 14 April 2010
Indian Premier League
With the English county season just beginning and the fact that the England team are currently on an off period before the world Twenty20 starts I've been forced to get my cricket fix from the Indian Premier League and it's been a good watch lately especially as it seems as if any team no matter where they are positioned in the table can beat anyone else.
The Mumbai Indians seem to be the team to beat especially with the fact that there captain Sachin Tendulkar has been in such fantastic form and with him being backed up by quality bowlers such as Harbajhan Singh it's easy to see why they are at the top of the table and are probably going to be one half of the finalists.
My personal favourites and the ones that I am tipping to meet the Mumbai Indians in the final is the Delhi Daredevils who boast a fantastic team including David Warner, Paul Collingwood, Virinder Sehwag and their captain Gautam Gambhir. The only problem with these is it seems as if at times both Warner and Sehwag fail then they seem to be stuck for runs, however they are still in a good position coming into the final stages of the competition.
The Deccan Chargers are the defending champions and with a batting line up boasting captain Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Herschelle Gibbs they should be doing a lot better than they have been so far. It seems that their bowling just is not up to the same standards as some of the others and despite some good wins at times they've lost far too many games that they should have won and therefore are languishing in mid table.
One of my favourites before the tournament started were the Kings XI Punjab which includes the likes of Ravi Bopara, Kumar Sangakarra, Mahela Jayawardena and Yuvraj Singh but unfortunately despite probably one of the best batting line ups in the competition they are still near the bottom of the table as they just haven't fired at all.
So as we move into the final few games of the league competition before the top 4 play off for the semi-finals and final it's definitely all to play for and the winner of any Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils game will probably end up being the winners.
The Mumbai Indians seem to be the team to beat especially with the fact that there captain Sachin Tendulkar has been in such fantastic form and with him being backed up by quality bowlers such as Harbajhan Singh it's easy to see why they are at the top of the table and are probably going to be one half of the finalists.
My personal favourites and the ones that I am tipping to meet the Mumbai Indians in the final is the Delhi Daredevils who boast a fantastic team including David Warner, Paul Collingwood, Virinder Sehwag and their captain Gautam Gambhir. The only problem with these is it seems as if at times both Warner and Sehwag fail then they seem to be stuck for runs, however they are still in a good position coming into the final stages of the competition.
The Deccan Chargers are the defending champions and with a batting line up boasting captain Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Herschelle Gibbs they should be doing a lot better than they have been so far. It seems that their bowling just is not up to the same standards as some of the others and despite some good wins at times they've lost far too many games that they should have won and therefore are languishing in mid table.
One of my favourites before the tournament started were the Kings XI Punjab which includes the likes of Ravi Bopara, Kumar Sangakarra, Mahela Jayawardena and Yuvraj Singh but unfortunately despite probably one of the best batting line ups in the competition they are still near the bottom of the table as they just haven't fired at all.
So as we move into the final few games of the league competition before the top 4 play off for the semi-finals and final it's definitely all to play for and the winner of any Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils game will probably end up being the winners.
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