Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Editorial: Mohit Goyal

Indian Premier League Match Preview – Semi final 1

Rajasthan Royals Vs Delhi Daredevils

Semi final 1 is to be played between the teams which stood at the first and the fourth position in the league.

The Armies – Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils

Rajasthan Royals with 22 points stood at the top of the league winning 10 of their 14 matches and winning all 7 they played at their home ground, Jaipur.

Delhi Daredevils qualified by grabbing the fourth and the last spot. They were victorious in 7 matches while one was washed by rain. They ended on 15 points.

The Battleground – Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

The pitch here is the one that seems most likely to help the spin bowlers. The run scoring can be controlled in the middle overs if the spinners have a good day.

Knock out time

The stage is all set and the performers are raring to go. Its knock out time and the Daredevils have made the cut. This is a team, most would have liked to avoid in a knock out situation. But Shane Keith Warne would probably be the last man on earth to be thinking about it.

The spin wizard from Victoria leads his men, the pre-tournament underdogs as the favorites now to win the inaugural Indian Premier League.

Jab we met

When these teams first met in Delhi, it was the first match in the league for both. Delhi then, bowled out Rajasthan for a meager total of 109 and then got home pretty quickly.

In the next tie at Jaipur, Rajasthan managed to beat Delhi comfortably. The clash has adrenaline flowing high with Sehwag getting charged up in the field and Royals management lodging a complaint against him.

Leading from the front

Both Viru and Warny have led by example. Both have had a good tournament personally and that’s been a reason why things have sailed smoothly for them.

The clash between these two too promises to be a high voltage affair. Watch out for a run out that is not referred to the third umpire.

Left Right Right

Left-Right seems to be right for both the sides. With southpaws Smith and Gambhir opening the innings with Asnodkar and Sehwag respectively there is lot for bowlers to work out. Smith and Asnodkar have been rotating the strike with consistency and this has given many a bowlers some headache. Gambhir is very swift between the wickets and Sehwag more often than not has responded to his calls.

Sub continental Curry

Royal Tanveer and Daredevil Maharoof have been successfully tried as pinch hitters by their captains. It will be interesting to see if this has a bearing on the game.

There and there about

Glen Mc Grath seems to wake up from sleep and still be able to bowl that nagging line and length in and around the corridor of uncertainty.

Munaf Patel sees Mc Grath as his idol and has emulated him pretty well in this league. The change in his attitude and body language has been refreshing to watch.

Firing them or not firing them in

Sohail Tanveer has been an absolute revelation in the tournament. He has bowled with immense control. He’s bowled good bouncers, fired in yorkers and got the slower one going. He’s even managed to find yorker length with slower ball consistently.

Maharoof too has slipped in some useful bouncers and been in the channel outside the off stump. He too would be looking to use the slower one to good effect.

Spinning it square

Wankhede is one venue in the league where spinners would get the most purchase. If they can bowl well they will play a huge role. And if bowling well is required, one man who does it on any pitch is Shane Warne. This pitch will suit him and he could run away with the match if fast bowlers get a couple of early wickets.

Sehwag would look to use Amit Mishra to lure batsmen into big shots and then pulling the trap. He should be looking to use Dilshan and rolling his own arm over too.

Keeping it safe

Dinesh Karthik and Mahesh Rawat have done a good job behind the stumps. For Rajasthan, Akmal is unlikely to play because of restriction on the number of foreign players that can take the field. Dinesh Karthik would be looking to contribute with the bat too. He won Delhi their match against Mumbai.

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Tags: AMit mishra, cricket, Delhi Daredevils, gambhir, india, indian premier league, IPL, Maharoof, match preview, Rajasthan Royals, sehwag, Shane Warne, Sohail Tanvir, viru, Wankhade

Even with a berth reserved in the semi-finals Shane Warne and his boys continued with a display of professional cricket and continued their winning spree once again.

The match today can be described as one of the best matches in recent time. Exactly what you can expect when two cool and scheming captains meet. An excellent start by Rajasthan Royals with a brilliant knock of 91 by Grahme Smith with 9 boundaries and 4 sixes.Equally bright innings of 41 by Swapnil Asnodhkar and 53 not out by Kamran Akmal saw Rajasthan Royals sail smoothly to a comfortable score of 211 for five in 20 overs.

But yet if you need to see a Captain stressed out after such a good start you must see Shane Warne constantly scheming using his plan a, plan b and plan c just to put a stop to the Chennai Super Kings run machine.

Chennai got off a to great start thanks mainly to Raina and Parthiv. Morkel took control of the situation later and with 35 required last off the last three overs, the match was evenly poised. But Warne’s smart field placements meant that Chennai lost 4 wickets in the last 3 overs and fell 10 runs short.

An early wicket of Stephen Fleming for an irresponsible run-out and brilliant fielding by the Royals caused much damage though Parthiv Patel (54) and Suresh Raina (45) added decent runs at the start. Morkel scored a high powered 71 of just 40 balls which also earned him the man of the match, apart from booking two wickets earlier. For Rajasthan Royals Sohail Tanvir needs a mention for getting 3 wickets for 33 runs in 4 overs.

Chennai has one match left to play with Deccan Chargers and they need to win that match desperately for a chance to be in the semi-finals.

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Tags: Chennai, Chennai super kings, IPL, MS Dhoni, parthiv patel, rajasthan, Rajasthan Royals, royals, Shane Warne, Sohail Tanvir

Mohit Goyal - Udaipur

We all have been waiting for such a thing to happen and at last somebody has given a heed to the hard work the poor bowlers put in. It will be the first time we will see a player wearing a purple coloured IPL cap on the field. Yes, the IPL has announced a running purple cap for the highest wicket taker at any particular time in the league. Irfan Pathan is going to be the first proud holder of this cap. Although Irfan, Sreesanth and Zaheer all have an equal 13 wickets in their kitties but Irfan owing to the best average will get the cap.

Besides these three, the other bowlers nearing contention are Watson and RP Singh with 12 wickets a piece and leggies Warne and Chawla and rookie pacers Dhawal Kulkarni and Manpreet Gony having 11 each. Its very heartening to see 8 Indians in the 10 top wicket takers in the league thus far. Their are more foreign batmen than bowlers in the league but there are many prominent international names like Mc Grath, Asif, Vaas, Tanvir, Pollock, Steyn and Muralidharan but only Warne and Watson are in the top 10 as of now.

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Tags: balaji, bowlers, chawla, IPL Purple cap, irfan, Mcgrath, orange cap, purple, purple cap, RP Singh, Shane Warne, Shaun Pollock, Shoaib Akhtar, Shukla, Sohail Tanvir, Sreesanth, Zaheer

Delhi : Lokesh Aggarwal

After losing four successive games, Delhi Daredevils fianally defeated Deccan Chargers by 12 runs yesterday - their fifth victory out of 10 games played. Amit Mishra claimed the second hat-trick of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Thursday night to guide Delhi Daredevils to a thrilling 12-run win over Deccan Chargers.Earlier Laxmipati Balaji of Channei Super Kings claimed the first hatrick in IPL.

Mishra picked up five for 17 and became the third bowler after Sohail Tanvir (6/14) and Lakshmipathy Balaji (5/24) to claim five wickets or more in an IPL innings.

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Tags: AMit mishra, balaji, Deccan chargers, Delhi Daredevils, gilchrist, hatrick, laxmipati, Sohail Tanvir, win

Chennai Super Kings (109/10 in 19 ovs)
Rajasthan Royals (110/2 in 14.2 ovs)

Rajasthan Royals won by 8 wkts

Just like winning was a routine call for Chennai Super Kings suddenly they now they have a losing streak. Two consequetive loses, absence of Matthew Hayden puts in lot of question about the batting performance of this team. Rajasthan Royals ad a comfortable win today easing their way to the target of 110 with eight wickets and to spare.

Inspite of the fact that the first few overs are very important and decisive there was no preparation to protect the wicket and play a responsible game. Imagine the loss of two opening batsman for duck and a successive fall of all wickets for a meager score of 109.

Not only Rajasthan Royals are a force in IPL to reckon with but also their performance is consistent. But one should not forget the record breaking performance of bowler Sohail tanvir who apart from the two openers bagged a total of six wickets for just 14 runs. He also bagged the man of the match today.

The one question which will always haunt the fans of the Chennai Super Kings is what would have happened if Dhoni’s trusted soldier Yoginder Sharma did not dropped the early catch of Smith in the third over.

Shane Warne - his strategic approach and also his boys should be watched carefully as they have the full potential to be a strong contender for the finals.

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Tags: Chennai super kings, Dhoni, indian premier league, Rajasthan Royals, Shane Warne, Sohail Tanvir, Yoginder Sharma