Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Matthew Hayden - Aussie Opener who is playing for Chennai Super Kings, described the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the beginning of an “incredible journey” and said initial matches of the Twenty20 championship had set a very high standard for the rest of the tournament - reports NDTV.

Hayden said the high-scoring matches in the tournament have raised the bar for every team. “In Mohali the other night, we saw over 400 runs scored in just 40 overs. We will see high scores regularly,” he said.

Hayden was referring to Chennai Super Kings’ 33-run win against Kings XI Punjab Saturday. The Super Kings scored 240 and Kings XI replied with 207.

On his IPL stint, Hayden reflected on his first visit to Chennai in 1997 with the Australian ‘A’ team and said that was the start of his “love affair” with India.

“I first visited Chennai in 1997 with the A team. Walking out to bat, I looked around at this stadium and dreamt of the day I will play for the Australian team. I have always had a soft corner for India and now, playing for Chennai Super Kings, my life has come a full circle as this city will be my base during the IPL.”

Hayden sought to play down the contentious issues that cropped up during India’s tour of Australia earlier this year.

When asked about his relationship with Harbhajan Singh who is playing for Mumbai Indian, Hayden said: “We have had a few fantastic battles in Australia, and now I am looking forward to renewing my rivalry with Harbhajan.”

Hayden said the non-availability of foreign recruits for the entire tournament would not affect the IPL.

“That’s the beauty of the IPL. You get to see almost all the top players in the world at some point in the tournament. I think, the IPL is the start of an incredible journey,” he said.

On playing under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy, Hayden said he had no issues and praised the Indian ODI captain as a “a fine thinker and a confident individual”.

“For me, it is a great experience sharing the dressing room with Indian players and learning how they go about their cricket,” he added.

Shane Warne and his boys turned the table today and managed to keep Kings XI away from their first ever win. A strategic approach coupled with fireworks from Shane Watson with an unbeaten 78 (5 sixes and 5 fours) saw the Rajasthan Royals taste their first win after a defeat in their first match with Delhi daredevils.

Earlier Kings XI closed their batting with 166 runs for eight wicktes. An early loss of key batsman like James Hopes and Kumar Sangarakka indicated that today was not their day. Yuvraj batted well but even the bowlers gave away runs and could not tame Shane Watson and his bat. Sreesanth proved costly with 38 runs out of 3.1 overs while Brett lee was a bit disappointed with a strong and close appeal turned down in the initial overs.

Rajasthan Royals won by six wickets with Shane Watson collecting the Man of the Match award.

© IPL Cricket Forum

Batting first, Chennai Super Kings built up a massive innings of 240 with Michael Hussy scoring an impressive 116 not out. But it never seemed mission impossible for Punjab Kings XI. Skipper Dhoni - the highest paid IPL star so far was out only for 3 - lbw to James Hopes.

Excellent innings from Hopes(71) and Sangakkara(54) but both fell at crucial
junctures which hampered the prospects of a record chase. 240 was
always going to be an uphill chase but one has to say it was a much
better chase than what was witnessed yesterday when Bangalore Royal Challengers crumbled to Knight Riders Chasing a similar score.

Man of the Match: Mike Hussey

Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is confident his Twenty20 experience with Lancashire will pay dividends in the Indian Premier League - reports Press Association.

The 35-year-old has joined the Chennai Super Kings for the inaugural IPL campaign, which gets under way on Friday, and is keen to perform well in the shortest form of the game.

“I have played only one T20 at international level but I have played a fair bit for Lancashire and that experience should hold me in good stead,” Muralitharan told the Asian Age.

“This is a format where the bowlers are not going to get exhausted. But spinners usually take time to settle down.

“Four overs is not the ideal span for a spinner. But that is a challenge one must look forward to.”

Muralitharan maintains the Twenty20 format will help to popularise the game as a whole.

He said: “Test cricket can get boring at times, but it will survive as performance in Test cricket is dear to all cricketers.

“T20 is a medium that is aimed at youngsters and built primarily for entertainment.

“It will actually help Test cricket grow in the longer run as more people will start following the game.”

Chennai Super Kings, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, will face Kings XI Punjab in their opening IPL encounter on Saturday.

Both Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram have overcome their respective injuries and been declared fit to contest this year’s inaugural Indian Premier League competition, which kicks off next week - New Zealand Sportal reports.

The pair suffered the injuries during the three-Test series against England recently and missed the third Test loss in Napier. Mills had a calf tear and Oram was down with hid hip injury that had been bothering him since the ODI matches.

But they have been passed fit after a vigorous session at New Zealand Cricket headquarters in Christchurch and will fly out this week to India, where Mills will link with his Mohali team-mates and Oram will again meet up with the retired Stephen Fleming at Chennai.

Four more players will fly from New Zealand to participate in the lucrative 59-match competition - Brendon McCullum (Kolkata), Daniel Vettori (Delhi), Scott Styris (Hyderabad) and Ross Taylor (Bangalore).

Speaking to reporters before the second Test against England, when he secured his $187,000 contract in the second round of auctioning, Mills said the biggest thrill was going to be coming up against a mixture of the world’s best players and improving his skills as a result.

“I think it’s going to be an awesome competition in terms of playing with a guy like Brett Lee, then when we come across a guy like Ricky Ponting I’ll be able to come up with a plan for him and when (Kumar) Sangakkara comes up against (Muttiah) Muralitharan I’ll see his game plans there,” Mills said.

“It’s going to be a fantastic competition and a massive learning curve in my cricketing career.”

Mills is an integral part of Mohali team while Oram plays for Chennai with Mahinder Singh Dhoni amd others.