Shaun Marsh continued his batting blitzkrieg with his forth Man of the Match - award in the Indian Premier League, hitting 60 in the Kings XI Punjab’s win over Deccan Chargers.
Marsh scored his fifth half-century in a totoal of eight games with three fours and three sixes before getting caught with a half-hearted hit off Herschelle Gibbs at long-on.
Kings XI Punjab made 4-178 with three balls to spare chasing Deccan’s impressive total of 4-175 at the Punjab’s Mohali ground.
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.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi unveiled the Indian Premier League winner’s trophy, at an event at the Cricket Centre in Mumbai on Monday. The Trophy is studded with diamonds and hand crafted with a player in gold leaf next to map of India with the names of the teams engraved and containing eight rubies representing the eight teams.The gold weight of the statue is 691.15 grammes.
The Trophy has been designed by the Antwerp-based RosyBlue Group, owners of the Orra diamond brand, by 14 artisans specially selected for the job - mentioned chief designer Mona Mehta who was present at the venue along with CEO Vijay Jain.
“It’s a handcrafted and very expensive rotating trophy, the value of which I will not reveal. It has been crafted by Orra’s design team,” said Modi.
“The winning team will get a replica of this trophy,” he clarified.
Its only a wait and watch now for the final winners of the DLF-IPL tournament which is turning into the most exciting event in the history of Indian Cricket.
IPL Commisioner Lalit Modi rushed in to bend rules and keep Franchisee Owner Shahrukh Khan happy. IPL is now issuing a Red Pass for Franchisee Owners or their represenatives with which they should have access to the players dressing room and dug-out area in the field. However, the duration of such visit should not exceed 15 minutes - Modi said in a press meet today.
Earlier to this Shahrukh was seen moving around in the field freely during the match and even shared a few moments in the Chennai Super Kings Dug-out while his team battled with them in the field. The ICC anti-corruption rightly took exception of this action and asked him to stay away from such mis-adventures as per the code-of-conduct.
Khan already upset with his teams dismal performance in the DLF-IPL league announced his decision to stay away from the field for the remaining matches.
The new IPL rule which came in today was not taken well by many including former cricketer Sandip Patil who was upfront in asking the IPL Governing body as to why this kind of a pass is introduced only now when the tournament is well past a month.
IPL recently announced that the salary cap for players will be axed and that the game’s biggest stars could then expect staggering $14-15 million IPL contracts.
It would definitely create a free market, much like the soccer’s English Premier League, where franchises with unlimited buying power can spend much more on a player than the $1.65 million paid to M. S. Dhoni this year.
However, Ricky Ponting who played in IPL recently before going back to Australia insisted that the scrapping of the salary cap could ruin the tournament by allowing the mega-rich franchises to grab all the big boys.
“I have heard there may be no salary cap, but I’m not sure if that will be good for the IPL,” Ponting said to Herald Sun, Australia.
