It’s just an interesting observation. There is fair chance that four teams behind Rajasthan Royals might all be stuck on 16 points after the end of the league round of the Indian premier league.
There is a pretty decent possibility of this happening. Just have a look at how the things could roll and lead to such a situation.
Delhi Daredevils have 12 points with 2 matches remaining. One is against Mumbai and the other against Kolkata. They have a pretty good chance of winning against Kolkata and if one of Sehwag and Gambhir plays a big innings and the bowlers bowl according to reputation they can beat Mumbai too. This will get them on 16 points at the end of the league.
Chennai have 14 points with 3 of their matches remaining against Bangalore, Rajasthan and Deccan. Rajasthan are a strong side and Deccan beat Chennai pretty convincingly in the last match between these two. If Chennai wins 1 of their remaining matches they would be on 16 points as well.
Mumbai are on 12 points with 4 matches remaining against Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and Bangalore. As we said earlier, Delhi must defeat Mumbai and Rajasthan are well capable of doing that as well. Mumbai are too good a team to loose too many matches and thus they could win against Punjab and Bangalore, giving them 16 points too.
Now this is the toughest part. Punjab have 14 points with 4 games to play. They will play against Mumbai, Deccan, Kolkata and Rajasthan. As we said, Mumbai have to defeat them and Rajasthan can beat them too. Deccan is a very good team. Although too late, but they seem to be coming into rhythm and would definitely like to prove a point. So if Punjab manage to beat only one of the four teams they are to play they are to going to finish on 16 points.
Now it is very difficult to predict which teams will get through on the basis of net run rate. But taking into account the results of the matches that these teams played with those who they are to play, a prediction can be made.
Unless there is a huge victory for any of the teams Chennai are the most likely to go out because they have very poor net run rate and loosing 2 of their remaining 3 matches wouldn’t help either.
Still, the margins of victories will have a huge bearing on the outcome and Bangalore and Deccan could turn out King makers and dream breakers in the scenario.
After going through the report submitted yesterday by Nanavati, BCCI has given its verdict today for Harbhajan Singh by extending his 11 match ban to 16 matches - that is an additional 5 match. BCCi also warned him of a life ban if he fails to mend his ways in playing the game in its true spirit.
This effectively means that Harbhajan will be out of the Bangladesh Tour apart from the ongoing IPL tournament. He has also forfeited his entire match fees for IPL for the slapping incident involving Sreesanth.
Sreesanth however was spared of any reprimand from BBCI - which established that the incident was totally unprovoked.
BCCI-appointed Commissioner Sudhir Nanavati has not recommended any further punishment for Harbhajan Singh in his report. “I will not recommend any sort of punishment to the players as I have been appointed to inquire about the incident under rule 32 of the BCCI,” Nanavati said.
Harbhajan’s 11 match IPL ban was good enough punishment, the report said. Sreesanth has also been let off as his involvement in the controversial incident was found to be non-provocative.Nanavati also mentioned in his report has also said that the incident was not pre-meditated.
“This is a level four offence and if a player is found guilty the quantum of sentence is ban on playing large number of matches or even for life time. Mohammad Azharauddin and Ajay Jadeja are facing life time ban,” said Nanavati in a reply to a question on what punishment a player can get if he is found guilty.
BCCI investigator Sudhir Nanavati has met both Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth separately for about half an hour.He said that he is satisfied with his conversations with both the players and that there is no need to cross-examine them.
The BCCI appointed commissioner says he will not be meeting Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh and Mumbai Indians coach Lalchand Rajput who was seen laughing after Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth. Nanavati has already met the umpires of the match as also Farooq Engineer who held the enquiry on behalf of the DLF IPL and banned Harbhajan for 11 matches. The BCCI verdict is expected on Monday.
Earlier, both the cricketers arrived on time for the hearing at the Gujarat Law Society building in Ahmedabad.
Nanavati will now submit his report to the BCCI which will be referred to the BCCI’s disciplinary committee after Board president Sharad Pawar goes through it.
Harbhajan has already been banned for 11 matches of the DLF IPL, which rules him out of the tournament. The off-spinner has written to the Board pleading for another chance and a lenient punishment.
According to sources both the players expressed there desire to forget the incident and move on.
Karachi : Sohaib Akhtar has finally cleared all hurdles and now he can take part in IPL. Earlier the Pak board has enforced a ban of five years on him which prevented him from playing IPL as the rules et in by the IPL governing body states clearly that no player can take part unless he gets a NOC from his home country Cricket Board.
Earlier Shoaib lost his appeal against the ban after which he appealed to the Pak Cricket Board to allow him top play for IPL which was heard yesterday. The Pak board was lenient and has been kind enough to kept his suspension in abeyance for a period of one month - which perfectly allows him to play for the Kolkata Knight Riders the IPL team for which he has signed initially.
The news was cheered by the owner of the Kolkata Team - Shahrukh Khan as also the team mates who are currently in dire need of a miracle to push them up from the very end of the team position table in the tournament. With Ishant Sharma bowling at his peak with Knight Riders , Sohaib’s inclusion definitely adds a fire power to the team but with the top batting order failing on each of the last three instances one has a doubt if Sohaib’s inclusion will really make a major difference to the performance.
