IPL 2016: Rising Super Giants (RSG) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

What a victory for RSG and sir M. S. Dhoni importantly. Excellent bowling performance by RSG bowling unit especially Dinda who gave a flying start by picking up the key-man of SRH David Warner. In a pre-match session Murali Kartik said that R. Ashwin has not performed well because Dhoni as a captain failed to make him feel important. I want to ask Murali Kartik one question, if R. Ashwin is the wife of M. S. Dhoni? I mean why does Dhoni has to make him feel important? Isn’t it best enough that R. Ashwin is a member of best 11? Did Dhoni gave any partial treatment to him compared to others? R. Ashwin failed to bowl to the satisfaction of Dhoni as a captain and it is good enough reason for a captain not to give complete quota of overs to R. Ashwin. In the post match session Mr. Murali Kartik said RSG needed illusive victory. I think Murali Kartik meant to say convincing or snatching or decisive victory. I wonder why Harsha Bhogale is not part of the team making presentation.

Well it was certainly the best performance by M. S. Dhoni’s unit so far in this IPL.  And most important, their performance was good enough to satisfy Duckworth-Lewis equation!!! Of course RSG tried best from the beginning of the game to stay on the top of the run rate.

I think Dinda could have done little better in his last over had he tried to attack Bhuvaneshwar Kumar in his ribs as Bhuvaneshwar Kumar looked quite comfortable with the full pitched deliveries since the time he had walked in.

Steve Smith, such a pleasant sight to see Steve finally performing at his ease.

Faf du Plessis, what a reliable performance one more time from you for RSG.  Cheers!

I think may be RSG could do better by dropping R. Ashwin especially when opponents don’t have many left handed batsmen in the squad.

Sir Dhoni, you certainly made my evening pleasant and cheerful! All the best!

IPL 2016: Sir M. S. Dhoni (RSG)

I am kind of compelled to write today due to my faith in Sir M. S. Dhoni and the phase through which he has gone through in the ongoing IPL so far. It was not pleasant sight to see Dhoni during the presentation ceremony after that match with Gujarat Lions. One thing all Dhoni followers and India must understand that his team of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) which had consistently performed well in the prior IPL tournaments does not exist and has been split. Thus he has been left with new squad which would be expected to take its time to perform. Thus two teams are quite young in this IPL tournament viz. Gujarat Lions and Rising Super Giants. Looking at Gujarat Lions the side looks to be quite balanced especially due to McCullum, Finch, Bravo, Raina, Jadeja all are performing quite good and well supported by the rest of the squad. In the case of RSG I felt that they have got the right combination now that after KP got injured and got replaced by Albie Morkel. Despite this RSG failed to perform to bring victory home in its match against KKR. The reasons I felt was Ashwin looked helpless with his two overs. M. Ashwin and the other left arm spinner could have tried to bowl round the wicket, maintaining stump attack while ball was spinning well and the wicket was also quite dry. It is always difficult for the right handed batsman to hit the ball pitching on the left corner or sometimes outside the peripheral vision. ***Also Albie Morkel could have kept batsmen surprising by changing the length rather trying to bowl full pitch to get wicket, especially considering that conditions were not in favor of swing bowling***. RSG could have tried to build the pressure on the KKR with the increasing required run rate. Still I would like to give RSG a credit for the first match with the new UNIT/ TEAM. Only message I have for Sir M S Dhoni is that we would like to see his team making strong come back from this moment in this IPL. My best wishes to RSG.

IPL 2015: Mumbai Indians (MI) vs Delhi Daredevils (DD)

One of the best match witnessed this IPL season. Mumbai Indians looked more tough and a solid unit. I must appreciate MI bowling attack, especially 18th, 19th and 20th over by MI. If MI keep this fighting spirit ON, we would have a strong chance to see them in Playoffs.

Malinga is getting better and better!
Harbhajan 4 overs 11 runs 2 wkts 16 dot balls! exceptional figures in this format of the game.

Rohit should have played little more free at that crucial stage of the inning to show the nerve.

Excellent performance by Yuvaraj with the Bat.

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just a flick and that too against a spinner, Pollard what a six shot it was :)
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a leg spinner with 8 to defend. Looks tough. one good hit and everything gets collapsed for DD.
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Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeh 8 off 6 balls. What a battle!
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a delicate warrior, a silent warrior, a victorious warrior! the Rayudu!!!
a delicate swing of a bat for 4
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AND THE GIANT THUNDERS!!! what a six!
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luck favors the brave! :) 22 off 12 balls

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excellent lofted drive fir 4 by Rayudu!

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way to go MI! 32 of 18 balls!

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sensibly played by Kiron Pollard for one run

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An over from Amit Mishra with 5 googly deliveries. What a terrific hit by Pollar in the middle of
an attack of wrong-ones. Disheartening to see Rohit depart.
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Good going. Focus on one big over out of next two.

 62 required from 36 balls
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Awesome 2.
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fantastic MI. Keep up the momentum!!!

68 required from 42 balls with wickets intact. Keep it up!!

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that's it that's the way to get it. 1s, 2s, then a boundary or six to push the run rate.... excellent job MI!

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We don't need silly run outs Rohit. be watchful!!! Run out is the worst way to get out in any form of cricket.

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@ 2332 hrs: 60 balls 92 runs to win. quite an achievable equation!!! hold the nerves MI!!! put up a great fight and show....

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@ 2318 hrs: Ohh! Good to see that Rohit Sharma has been carrying tables as per D/L chart.

Only way I see MI to win this game, while they have lost 4 wickets at the end of 6th over is by hoping that match gets played for remaining 14 overs without any further delay or disturbance due to the rain AND play with cool and calm composure by building solid partnership from here to ensure that ultimate target of 153 gets chased successfully.

That means, Rohit Sharma and Rayudu should not worry much about D/L because a loss of another wicket here could cause a significant damage to MI's plans for the victory.


All the best MI.

IPL 2015: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

Excellent game. It was more of a mind game. Dhoni was on top of it right from the beginning
whereas somehow Virat Kohli always felt under pressure. That 17 yr old kid Sarfaraz fumbled a little
once which gave away one run, Virat Kohli was quite expressive. This is certainly not the way to make any youngster comfortable within a team. Plus what could be said about the way Virat Kohli gave away his own wicket. He played the ball, from the stump vision it could be seen that ball is flying up and for which Bravo is stretching his hand for it and still Mr. Captain trying to march ahead instead returning to the base. Fantastic throw by Bravo to get Virat out. Once again Virat Kohli disappointed the team, when he was looking very strong and much capable to take RCB to the victory. It was a good knock by Virat Kohli today, but all these small mistakes under pressure counts a lot to cause a break.

Although CSK lost 9 wickets today, I enjoyed watching CSK batting, because despite of losing wickets at frequent intervals CSK did not stop trying to push itself up for the higher and higher target.
Actually speaking 148 was certainly not a big chase for RCB had they showed composed and calm performance.

I must admit Patel was the victim of Dhoni's appeal, while he was called OUT quite unfairly.

On three occasions the match went out of RCB's hands to CSK's. First when AB got out. Second when Virat Kohli got out. Third when H Patel was given out.

For me the most memorable moment was when AB Devilliers got out. One should have noticed the field placement by Dhoni to catch AB. M S Dhoni had set 6 players to the off-side inside the circle.
This was more like Hunting, and coincidentally the logo of CSK is also that of a Lion. But AB also a genius of his own class, he tried to find a gap on the offside only. Probably it was tempting for him to place the ball above fielders' head and outside the circle otherwise he could have
also played the same shot safe by grounding the ball after coming off from the bat, rather than shooting straight in the air. Well! AB is always precious!!! :))

Excellent captaincy by M S Dhoni once again. Leadership makes a huge huge difference and like to witness it especially when it does...
    

IPL 2015: Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Delhi Daredevils (DD)

Ajinkya Rahane aap Ajinkya raho!!! what an inning. Half the runs of RR were scored by this guy alone. He scored fantastic 91 out of 189, played entire 20 overs inning and remained not out. Mr. Dependable!!! He is under right kind of leadership and coaching i.e. of Sir Rahul Dravid. What a terrific batsman Ajinkya has been evolved not only for T20 format but any format. Adjusting his skills to any format of the game and still to remain Mr. Dependable, who knows better than the WALL (Rahul Dravid) himself.

One more thing I could observe on the TV that when RR were batting and it was 1 wkt down, happened to see that three players were padded up to get in viz. Faulkner, Sanju Samson (terrfic inning in RR's last game) and Binny. Still the one who arrived on the fall of a second wicket was Karun Nair. The point to be noted here is the option Rahul Dravid and RR team keeps ready for the way game takes it's turn. The attitude to win was being displayed right from the camp, today by RR.

I had felt that RR has almost won this game the way DD took off, yet it was quite a fight they put up till the end to lose the game by only 14 runs. The opening duo of DD who have been quite a hit and been into limelight this season lost wickets pretty early today without any significant contribution. J P Duminy tried best to defend the fort however did not get very good support from the other side except that of Yuvaraj while Yuvaraj did not seem quite comfortable today and had to leave the field when he was on 22 out of 18 balls.

Another good game of IPL 2015, on pretty decent wicket which did not change much throughout the game, with quite a grass on it, favoring pace attack.

Good night!    

IPL 2015: Mumbai Indians (MI) vs Kings XI Punjab (KXIP)

This is 4th victory for MI in last 5 games. Although MI won this match quite comfortably, I feel Mumbai could have done little more good in it's batting performance. Parthiv Patel and Simmons gave excellent start to MI and the score after first 10 overs was more than 100 without a loss of single wicket. Rohit Sharma who had come two down in the previous match, pushed himself up to one down position. While Mumbai Indian's main strength is Batting, ideally Rohit Sharma should have focused to take the score to more than 200 in the second half of the innings with 10 wickets intact and good depth in the batting line-up. But no! Rohit seemed to have played a comfortable inning. If Rohit was conscious about losing his wicket, he could have sent someone else to accelerate the score, to ensure that team push for 200+ target. If that wicket falls quickly may be he could have called for another attack on KXIP, by sending someone else to hit the good shots and push up the score on the board at high run rate. This is where captaincy makes the difference.

Thanks to Virendar Sehwag's continued form of getting out quickly, and KXIP being the weakest side in the IPL 2015, MI actually never felt a pressure of losing this match. David Miller was proving to be good but could not keep it up for long. Lasith Malinga was up one notch to his form, although could not get to see much of those reverse swinging yorkers, he was quite lethal and tough in his attack.

Kieron Pollard bowled good one over. Especially when the require run rate for KXIP was about 10 per over, batsman could not hit bowl for the boundary rope and had to settled down 1s or 2s.  It's tough to keep this 1.96m giant beast out of action for long!!! He wants to deliver and he is willing to do his best every time he is in-charge.

I don't understand Vinay Kumar always bowling 20th over???? It's good that he had much cushion and margin for his errors. I think MI has a good bowling mix as well, just that they should no how to use it most effectively. And certainly they should not falter and aim to perform better and better in its batting department. Such a strong batting line up they have.

Bhajji sir! aapkaa kyaa kahena. You are doing best as a senior member in the camp.

Anyways I'm MI fan, and good to see them winning. 

IPL 2015: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

Sunrisers scored massive 192/7 in 20 overs CSK did never look comfortable taking off. CSK kept losing it's wickets frequently. At one point it looked like Sir M S Dhoni and Faf Du Plessis were getting set to build good partnership at the same time stepping on the Run Rate accelerator, Faf Du Plessis got run out in a cofusion, and then Sir M S Dhoni also got out quickly.

At the end Sunrisers won. It was not only due to the match winning knock by it's captain David Warner 28 balls 61 runs, but also due to the excellent support from the bowlers keeping CSK contained for the short total. Overall SRH team performed as a unit. and SRH won by 22 runs!!!