Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Cricket Analysts would say that the Indians were the more deserving of the two sides to win this Tri-nation series but the performance on the big day counts the most. The Pakistanis were the better side on the day and they edged out India in what was a fabulous game of cricket. First a brilliant opening with two centuries and then the bowlers stuck to the plan all the time and the fact that the Pakistanis picked up wickets at regular intervals, but most important - at crucial stages which always kept them ahead in the hunt. In the end, too much was asked from the Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and he faltered in the contest. Irfan Pathan’s patchy stay at the crease didn’t help the cause much and that pegged back the Indians. Earlier in the game, the Indians fielded and bowled poorly. However, this total was always chaseable but the Indians just couldn’t hold the game at times when it mattered the most. Hope you have enjoyed the game. Do join us again for the forthcoming games from the other parts of the globe.

At the end of the Match the winning captain Shoaib Malik rated this win as one of the biggest wins in his captaincy tenure. He said he is happy with the performance of his boys and was all praise for them. He had a lot of faith in Salman Butt and Younis and they pulled off special knocks to enable his side post a big total. He praises his bowlers who stayed disciplined all through. Finally, he says that a win against India is always special and when it comes in a Final, nothing gets better than this.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni congratulated Pakistan for having played brilliantly. He said that their side was sloppy on the field but he can’t take any credit away from Salman Butt and Younis Khan who werer too good today. He feels that the decision to send Raina ahead of him was very critical, he admits that he made a mistake there but he hopes to avoid such mistakes in the future. He thanks the crowd for being supportive right throughout the series.

Salman Butt is the Man of the Series. He thanks heavens and the crowd for all their support. He and Younis planned to stay out there in the middle for as long as possible, both of them are natural stroke makers so run scoring was never a problem. He feels proud to have performed in a big game.

Younis Khan is the Man of the Match. He says that it always feels nice to perform while under pressure. He says that he didn’t get enough opportunities previously in the series and today, he wanted to make it count. His plan was to stay out there in the middle for sometime before playing his natural game, it paid off today and he is delighted.

In the end we saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni walking off the field dejected and disappointed. There would be a few questions coming at him so as to why didn’t he bat up the order? The Pakistanis are a happy bunch at the moment and why shouldn’t they be? They were the better unit this evening, they bowled and fielded with a lot more discipline than their neighbours and as a result, they emerged champions in yet another final against India winning by 25 runs.

Pakistan Batted first winning the toos and scored 315/3. India managed a score of 290 falling 25 runs short from the total.

Ahead of the final of the Kitply Cup between Indian and Pakistan Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a problem of plenty. He brought in RP Singh in place of Ishant Sharma for the game against Bangladesh. RP took three wickets to land Dhoni in a fix. RP looked in great form and it would be hard for any captain to leave out a bowler like Ishant. Dhoni could look to make Irfan sit out but it would probably be like keeping a batsman out of the eleven.

Dhoni at the moment is not ready to take the risk of going in with six batsmen but the fact is that risk stands either way. Pakistan batters looked much more comfortable against Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan who were not required to complete the full quota of the fifth bowler as Pakistan were bowled out.

Irfan seems to be in good batting form and the capabilities of Praveen and Piyush with the bat must encourage captain Dhoni to go in with five bowlers. If Dhoni doesn’t take five bowlers into a match with this combination, there is rare chance that he will ever.

Pakistan could be lured into playing Fawad Alam, the spinner on the slow pitch. But it wouldn’t be such a good idea to play a new spinner against India. Afridi is a different case because of his accuracy. And also Iftikhar bowled reasonably well and even Wahab Riaz did well in the match against Bangladesh.

Team winning the toss would like to make first use by batting first as the track may slow down progressively. Fans will be looking forward to seeing a bit more intriguing battle this time.

Probable starters for India : Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh (VC), Yusuf Pathan/RP Singh, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C) (WK), Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma.

For Pakistan: Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal (WK), Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik (C), Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Wahab Ria.

Dr. Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

Team India, the fancied one to lift the tri nation’s cup in Bangladesh meet the hosts in the last league match at Sher e Bangla Stadium on Thursday. This is the time where the Indians need to avoid complacency and register an emphatic win to keep the momentum going. Bangladesh although weakest of the test playing nations, has caught oppositions complacent and off the boil. In the last World Cup in Windies, Indians were already thinking about taking on Australia in the finals and were knocked out in the first round itself, courtesy a defeat to the hands of Bangladesh.

Indian performance was pretty good in their last win over Pakistan. Batsmen looked in good touch, bowlers bowled good line and length and fielders demonstrated great commitment.

It would be a good idea to bring in a couple of players like Uthappa and RP Singh into the eleven to keep the hunger alive. They would look to impress and get a chance in the final. There is immense pressure on the likes of Rohit, Uthappa, Raina and Pathan, one of whom will make way for Sachin when he returns. Bowlers need to perform as well because Zaheer and Sreesanth will get in the team eventually and two of these will need to make way. It would even be a good idea to go into this game with five bowlers adding another spinner Ojha.

Bangladesh on the other hand would like a show a bit more commitment to give their fans something to look forward for the future. The way Ashraful went about in his innings was simply very sorry to watch and hope he shows a bit more intent this time round.

Dr. Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

In sports like soccer and basketball club format has been in for a long time. Team mates in the English Premier League sides or NBA squads are pitted against each other when playing for their countries but it’s a first timer for cricket.

Some players playing on opposite sides will know each others’ weaknesses and strengths. Whether this will have as huge an impact as has been speculated remains to be seen. These are all world class performers and such things can only raise the level of the game.

Let’s look at some of such interesting combinations in the second one day international of the tri nation’s series in Bangladesh between India and Pakistan.

Virender Sehwag v Shoaib Malik

Interestingly both of them are right handed batters and right arm off break bowlers. While Sehwag is a more attacking batsman, Shoaib is a more secure and compact type of batsman and a more regular bowler. He started his career as more of a bowling all rounder but has developed into a batting all rounder. Even after knowing everything about Sehwag there is not much that oppositions can plan because on his day he would thrash the best of bowlers and go down to some sheepishly tame dismissals on others.

Sehwag is likely to open the batting and having seen him all this while he has only a chance of one in ten of being still on crease when Malik comes to roll his arm over. We may still get to see some action between the two if Sehwag bowls to Malik or if this that one of the ten days for Sehwag.

Yusuf Pathan v Sohail Tanvir

This would be an interesting battle. Yusuf Pathan is an attacking batsman with not the best techniques on show. Tanvir could apply himself or share with his mates some strategy to knock or contain Pathan.

On the other hand Tanvir has an unconventional bowling action and Yusuf could share a trick or two with his mates on how to pick his bowling, specially the well disguised slow yorkers.

Rohit Sharma v Shahid Afridi

Shahid is in excellent bowling form and Rohit is an excellent player of spin. He would have faced Afridi many a times in the nets during their stint at Hyderabad for Deccan Chargers. Shahid would definitely know a ball or two that Rohit doesn’t like as much as others. Afridi has shown that he gets out within ten balls if bowlers bowl on a good line and length but Rohit must have noticed couple of very weak points in his game.

Praveen Kumar v Misbah-ul-Haq
Praveen Kumar has bowled very intelligently in the last six months. He bowled an excellent last over in an IPL match for Bangalore against Chennai where he gave just one run with Suresh Raina on strike leading his side to a 13 run win. Misbah didn’t have the best of time at IPL failing to contribute substantially. Praveen must surely have grabbed a thing or two about his batting and batting technique.

© IPL Cricket forum

The tri nation’s tournament opener opened the chapters of the same old sorry story for Bangladesh. How many times has it happened that Bangladesh captains have been lured in to bowling first on a seemingly fresh and lively pitch and have ended up being batted out of the game by the half time. Bangladesh need to realize that whatever the conditions may be the only chance they have of winning against top teams is batting first posting a decent score and hope that their spinners come good. Even on a lively pitch, Bangladesh pacers don’t have the potency to bowl out good oppositions for totals that they could chase.

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