PTI: New Delhi - Purists may dismiss the Indian Premier League (IPL) as dumbing down of cricket but Sachin Tendulkar feels instead of being criticised, the glamorous twenty20 series should be lauded for globalising the game.
“I don’t personally feel that, you know, (IPL is) dumbing down the game. It’s just another version of cricket,” Tendulkar said.
Indian Premier League has taken everybody by storm. The amount of fresh talent that’s been exposed would lead people to believe that there may be many new faces in team India. But the fact of the matter is that, only 15 or 16 players can be selected in the team and the players who were already there and there about have performed really well. There might be just a few inclusions in the batting and in the spin bowling departments.
Looking at the eight teams and the Indian players who have been the best in each its interesting to find that they are already in the national team.
Indians will have to win this match this match to keep their semi final chances under their own control. Else they will need Deccan who are not in that good a form to beat Chennai. Royals on the other hand would not want this dangerous Mumbai side to advance and would definitely like to make like difficult for them by beating them here.
Men at the Helm
Shane Warne has been simply superb throughout the league and everything he’s touched has turned gold. He would to be looking to try out a few combinations before the knock out stages start. Sachin on the other hand has been calm and cool but not been as sharp and quick as required for such a fast paced game. He mismanaged the distribution of overs in the match against Punjab and the team selection too has lacked thought. He has banked too much on the opponents’ weaknesses rather than his team’s strength.
This is do or die match for Delhi. A win doesn’t gaurantee them a place in the semis but a defeat definitely puts them out of contention. Mubai will like to win this one otherwise they will need to win both of their last two matches, one of them being against Rajasthan Royals.
Men at the Helm
Sehwag has been operating smoothly throughout the competition while Sachin looked out of sorts in the last match against Mohali where he probably mismanaged the distribution of overs amongst the bowlers. Well, thats just one issue but Sachin has done pretty well otherwise and seems to be learning the nuances of this game quickly.
We have the bat
Both are very good batting line ups but Mumbai have a slight advantage over Delhi. Delhi rely heavily on Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhawan and need at least two of them to play well. Mumbai on the other hand have had contributions from Sachin, Sanath, Uthappa, Nayar and Pollock. They will definitely miss Dwayne Bravo as they did in the last match against Punjab.
We have the ball
Again Dwayne Bravo will be sorely missed by this department as well. Daredevils Mc Grath and Maharoof and Pollock and Nehra for Indians have been bowling well. Both the teams are likely to have problems with overs of the fourth and fifth bowlers and batsmen must wait to pounce on these.
Patrolling Party
Delhi are an excellent fielding unit and Mumbai’s fielding although good but will have to go few notches still higher to compete with Delhi.
High on betting meter
Mumbai are slightly higher on most betting meters while both are on level on others.
Who gets the tick?
Mumbai will look to win this one but will a blazing inning fron Sehwag or Gambhir pull this Delhi’s way?
Seasonal Nor-wester Storms disrupted DLF IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings and once again Duckworth Lewis method was used which awarded the win to Chennai on the basis of run rate.
Knight Riders started off badly with the loss of Salmun Butt, Hafeez, Ganguly and Hussey - the major bats but managed a moderate score of 145 for the loss of 5 wickets.
Chennai opened with a firm stand between Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming who played steadily given the low target.
Chennai managed to maintain there league position while Knight Riders slipped into further uncertainty. Ntini bagged the MOM award for his superb spell of 4 for 21 with a hat-trick in which he bagged Hafeez, Ganguly, Das and David Hussey - all important wickets.
In the other match Mumbai Indians continued their dream run with a straight win against Deccan Chargers who once gain failed to make it in their home ground. However, R P Singh got the purple cap while Dwayne Bravo who leaves shortly bagged the man of the match award with 3/24.
Sahid Afridi once again failed to make any mark with his bat while it was not a lucky day for Gilchrist and Sachin and the crowd missed fireworks badly except for a momentary blasting by Sanath Jayasuriya.
