The English Cricket Board has announced that England’s tour to West Indies next spring will have an early finish, leaving sufficient space for centrally contracted players to compete in the second Indian Premier League - reported the Guardian UK.
The tour finishes on April 4, just six days before the 2008 IPL is due to start. It makes for a stark contrast with England’s last tour to the region in 2004, which ran on through to May 5.
It’s the last league game for both these teams. Hyderabad are languishing at the bottom of the table and this is their last chance to win a game at home. For Chennai, this is an extremely important game. A victory here and they will progress to the next round. Though Chennai start as favourites, they haven’t been in the best of form of late: A shock defeat at the hands of Bangalore, when they failed to chase a meagre 127 was followed by a 10-run defeat against Rajasthan.
What if Chennai lose today? If Chennai lose today and Mumbai win tomorrow, Mumbai will advance on account of better net run rate. (Chennai’s current NRR is -0.241 while Mumbai’s is +0.531). Should Mumbai lose tomorrow, Chennai will go through to the semis(Chennai are on 14 points, Mumbai are on 12)
Indians will have to win this match this match to keep their semi final chances under their own control. Else they will need Deccan who are not in that good a form to beat Chennai. Royals on the other hand would not want this dangerous Mumbai side to advance and would definitely like to make like difficult for them by beating them here.
Men at the Helm
Shane Warne has been simply superb throughout the league and everything he’s touched has turned gold. He would to be looking to try out a few combinations before the knock out stages start. Sachin on the other hand has been calm and cool but not been as sharp and quick as required for such a fast paced game. He mismanaged the distribution of overs in the match against Punjab and the team selection too has lacked thought. He has banked too much on the opponents’ weaknesses rather than his team’s strength.
Knight Riders made a mark before ending their DLF IPL stint for this year. Ganguly and Gul’s combined firepower managed to stop the winning streak of Kings XI Punjab at Eden Gardens , Kolkata.
An exceptional thrilling game with both sides playing for different objectives. Kings XI Punjab with already their berth secured for the semi-finals played the game with an aim to dislodge Rajasthan Royals from the top slot and also to reinforce the overwhelming confidence. While the Knight Riders played the game to make a statement and regain their professional pride much of which was lost during the tournament with losses and a dismal batting performance.
Ganguly scored a superb knock of 86 out of 53 balls with six boundaries and equal no of over boundaries.While Umar Gul scored 24 out of 11 balls with one four and three sixes to make a record total in this field. Umar Gul also bagged the Man of the Match award for taking 4 wickets for 23 runs.
Earlier Yuvraj won the toss and decided to bat and summed up a total of 174 for 9 - which was good enough given the slow pitch. However Gul restricted the last over with two wickets and kept a check on the total also.
Kolkata seemed to be out of the game with almost 15 runs per over required in the last 5 overs. That was before Ganguly and Gul got together, putting on 49 runs in 18 balls. With 15 required off the last over, Ganguly was equal to the task, wrapping up the match with 2 balls to spare, reminiscent of how Warne did it for his team against the Deccan Chargers. Overall a great match where the game turned with every over during the end.
Even with a berth reserved in the semi-finals Shane Warne and his boys continued with a display of professional cricket and continued their winning spree once again.
The match today can be described as one of the best matches in recent time. Exactly what you can expect when two cool and scheming captains meet. An excellent start by Rajasthan Royals with a brilliant knock of 91 by Grahme Smith with 9 boundaries and 4 sixes.Equally bright innings of 41 by Swapnil Asnodhkar and 53 not out by Kamran Akmal saw Rajasthan Royals sail smoothly to a comfortable score of 211 for five in 20 overs.
But yet if you need to see a Captain stressed out after such a good start you must see Shane Warne constantly scheming using his plan a, plan b and plan c just to put a stop to the Chennai Super Kings run machine.
Chennai got off a to great start thanks mainly to Raina and Parthiv. Morkel took control of the situation later and with 35 required last off the last three overs, the match was evenly poised. But Warne’s smart field placements meant that Chennai lost 4 wickets in the last 3 overs and fell 10 runs short.
An early wicket of Stephen Fleming for an irresponsible run-out and brilliant fielding by the Royals caused much damage though Parthiv Patel (54) and Suresh Raina (45) added decent runs at the start. Morkel scored a high powered 71 of just 40 balls which also earned him the man of the match, apart from booking two wickets earlier. For Rajasthan Royals Sohail Tanvir needs a mention for getting 3 wickets for 33 runs in 4 overs.
Chennai has one match left to play with Deccan Chargers and they need to win that match desperately for a chance to be in the semi-finals.
