Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

This match was a tale of two teams who are as evenly matched as a snake and mongoose. Both of them have had similar starts to the league with Kolkata Knight Riders making a mockery of Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings blasting their way to the highest total in the league so far against Kings XI Punjab in their opening matches. As if to reconfirm their status as the twin brothers, Knight Riders scraped through in a dramatic match against Deccan Chargers on a dicey Kolkata pitch while Super Kings survived a late onslaught by an inspired Harbhajan and his comrades. This match has everything that a hindi film would promise and don’t be very surprised if the ticket sales for the recently released blockbuster “Tashan” don’t take off during the weekend. You would very well know the reason.

Everyone expected to see the titanic battle of the two captains. Saurav Ganguly, regarded as one of the finest captains of India and Dhoni, the heartbeat of the young brigade will start their game of chess the moment they step onto the field, trying to outwit each other at every stage of the game. Will they do something as tactical and shrewd as Warne did the other night by introducing spin in the third over, only remains to be seen.

But from the beginning it was a complete one sided affair. The contest which was indicted as the clash of the titans has fallen flat on its face. Kolkata won the toss for the first time and elected to bat. The Chennai seamers did a great job initially and kept picking up wickets at regular intervals to disallow Kolkata from getting to a big score. However a score close to 150 was always tricky but Hayden and Parthiv ensured that there are no hiccups at all and with Dhoni promoting himself, the match got over in a hurry. Chennai super Kings won the match by 9 Wkts with a smooth game and no major hiccups, One can only expect the return match at Kolkata to be much more exciting.Jacob Oram was the man of the match with 3 Wkts in 4 overs for 32 runs.

Score;

Kolktata Knight Riders: 147 for 9 in 20 overs
Chennai Super Kings: 152 for 1 in 17 overs.

Man of the Match - Jacob Oram.

Chris Gayle - West Indies captain, is set to miss the entire first edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) because of his groin injury he suffered in the third One-Day International (ODI) against Sri Lanka in St Lucia and it is reported that he will miss the inaugural matches of the IPL tournament.

After the big Jamaican all-rounder hurt his groin while fielding at Beausejour Stadium and missed the Kolkata Knight Riders’ first two games, newspapers reported that he had been declared “unavailable for the rest of the tournament”.

And while the reports said he would be in Kolkata in the first week of May to spend some time with the team, but a final decision on Gayle’s appearance is yet to be made.

Gayle is one of four West Indies players signed up for the IPL, the others being Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo, bit they are also scheduled to return to the Caribbean on May 18, in time for their series against Australia.

A truly exciting nerve wrenching game and a brilliant finish by the Knight Riders to clinch the game away with win by five Wickets.

Chasing a moderate score seemed easy initially for the knight riders but with Brandon McCullum and Ricky Ponting getting out early it became a tough call for Ganguly and david Hussey. Top it up with brilliant bowling by Chamunda Vyaas, Scott Styris and Pryagan Ojha the Knight Riders were literally tied up to the stumps with occassional singles just to keep their head out of water.

Even when the lights failed halting the game briefly with only three overs to go the situation was tense with the possibility of win swinging both ways. In the end it was a sixer by Hussey which closed the fate of Deccan Chargers. Md. Hafiz came with a lot of promise and even alighted the stands with a brilliant six but could not survive Ojha’s spin. Both he and Chamunda claimed two wickets but maybe selecting Chamunda for the last over could have had some different effect on the batting side. Andrew Symonds over saw three wides and two byes costing the Chargers heavily of 15 runs in one over.

This was one game which never lacked excitement and kept the crowd of 90000 at Eden gardens on their nerves for the full session.

David Hussey had been given necessary clearance by Nottinghamshire to play in the Indian Premier League after they agreed a compensation payment with the Australian - reports Press Association.

The 30-year-old batsman signed a new two-year contract at Trent Bridge at the end of 2007 but was then reported to have signed to play in the Indian Premier League, which runs over the start of the domestic county season.

“There’s no doubt that I love playing for Notts and I am again really looking forward to joining up with everyone in July,” said Hussey, who will play for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. “The past few months have been amazing with so much going on, and I’m really grateful to all at Notts for letting me play in the IPL.”

Notts director of cricket Mick Newell confirmed that Adam Voges will cover for Hussey whenever the Victorian is unavailable, including the IPL campaign and Australia’s tour of the West Indies.

“As soon as we learned of his link with the IPL we moved to find another overseas player, and Adam Voges is an excellent replacement,” said Newell.

“We are looking forward to David returning to Nottingham in early July after Australia complete their tour of the Caribbean, but I’m sure Voges will fill his shoes very capably in the meantime.”

Good news for SRK and his Kolkata IPL team - Knight Riders, lets hope the competition hots up sufficiently by tomorrow evening when the first match kicks off.

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting on Saturday said though the ‘Knight Riders’ would badly miss Pakistan speedstar Shoaib Akhtar, they were however, looking forward to playing great cricket under Sourav Ganguly in the IPL Premier League beginning on April 18 at the Eden Gardens.

Addressing newspersons along with ‘Knight Riders’ coach John Buchanon after a day’s workout in sweltering heat as mercury almost touched 40 degree Celsius, Ponting said the IPL would provide good brand of cricket and at the end young players would learn a lot from their seniors.
“I am feeling excited and the tourney will provide me a great opportunity to acquaint myself with other players of the IPL,” Ponting opined. Talking about Team India’s recent Australia tour, Ponting said initially they had some problem with the Indian side but as play went on things became better and now that chapter was over.

“Now we have forgotten that chapter, and are looking forward to play together,”Ponting said.
On the absence of Shoaib Akhtar after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) slammed a five-year ban on the Rawalpindi Express, the Australian cricket captain said, ”We will definitely miss him badly but we have to go on with our present side. ”Arriving midnight last night and had
good workout this noon, Ponting said he was bit relaxed as Sourav would lead their ‘Knight Riders’ in the first T-twenty IPL premier league against ‘Deccan Charger’ at the Eden Gardens on April 18.

Ponting said since he was not the skipper, he would try to give the best in the IPL. On all black costume for ‘Knight Riders’, Ponting said they were good and looking smart with black caps, black T-Shirt and black trousers.

To another question, Ponting said he was keen to meet Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan owning the ‘Knight Riders’. On Ishant Sharma, Ponting said he has good future and he would bowl for many years for India.

Coach Buchanan said, ” My players have good experience in T-twenty cricket and we are expecting to perform well in the days. ” Ponting, David Hussey, Tateya Taibu, Yaspal Singh, Iqbal Abdullah, Murli Kartick, Akash Chopra, Sourashish Lahiri, Ranadeb Bose, Brand Macculum had physical training under the watchful eyes of John Buchanan. His son Michael also arrived here as strength trainer.