CricDigs Blogs

Beach cricket is an amazing format of cricket; I saw it today in the morning and could not resist myself from writing about it. This new format of game follows the guidelines of traditional cricket, but has its own set of innovations into it which is quite refreshing. This form of cricket is played on the beach, with 7 players in each team, and with 8 overs for each team to bowl. The catchiest feature of this kind of the game is that if a catch is taken with one hand 7 runs are deducted from the total score; and if a batsman is out 5 runs are deducted from the score. And each team can challenge the umpire’s decision once during the match. Moreover each pair of batsman can play only 2 overs each, and the last 2 overs will be played by batsman decided by the captain.
It is something different and interesting and fun to watch with beach by the side and excellent atmosphere around with cool breeze. What’s your opinion friend?

The IPL has once again showed the value of team spirit and a good captain. Both Dhoni and Shane Warne are examples of what good man management can do. There are some differences between them though, with Shane Warne being more expressive. Dhoni rightly mentioned during the post match semi-final presentation ceremony that even though he may be tense inside, he does not show it outside, since it could affect his player’s morale. You can find the same trait in Shane Warne. Another thing that they share in common is that both of them seem to relish pressure cooker situations. Alas, this is not true with many of our ’superstars’ who always come a cropper when needed!!!! It does prove that if a captain does not pressure during crunch situations, the players would also not perform during such situations. IPL has also shown that it is a ‘team’ that wins you matches and not individuals.

It is all over for the Mumbai Indians. They started the IPL terribly and finished it even worse. It gave it’s fans a TON of hope by stringing together 6 fantastic wins only to follow it up with 3 heart-breaking losses. Now the Semi-Final stage is set with Chennai Super Kings playing against Kings XI Punjab and the Delhi Dare-Devils taking on Rajasthan Royals.

What does a Mumbai fan supposed to do? Who does he/she root for?

Should he/she root for Super Kings because it’s lead by Dhoni or the Royals because of Shane Warne, Delhi Dare-Devils for Viru or Punjab for Yuvraj?

Quite honestly as a Mumbai Indians fan, I am not sure what I will do. If I had to pick right now, I will lean towards rooting for Chennai. What about you?

The Rajasthan Royals chased it till the end and won the crucial match against the Mumbai Indians. The match was a delight to watch specially the last over wherein the hosts needed 15 runs to win. All the credit goes to the young lad Niraj Patel who scored 40 of just 29 balls and that made it possible for the Rajasthan team to win. The Man of the match was awarded to Tanvir, who bowled superbly and also has become the highest wicket taker in the IPL series.
The Rajasthan Royals put forth a commanding bowling display except for the last over of Watson which gave away 25 runs for the Mumbai Indians. The score to chase though seemed low at the beginning for the Royals looked like a daunting task when they lost early wickets. I lost hope that the Royals would win but a few miss fields by the Mumbai Indians allowed the hosts to conquer a last ball victory.

This is exactly what every Mumbai Indians fan (including yours truly) is hoping for. Mumbai could have clinched the Semi-Final spot by beating Delhi the other day or would have just needed one more win from now on if they had managed two more runs against Punjab.

They did neither, so the team finds itself on the brink of elimination. One good thing in this challenging situation is the fact that Mumbai’s destiny is in their own hands. If they win both their remaining matches they are through, regardless of what happens in the other matches.

Chennai needs to win their last encounter to guarantee their position. A loss their could create a very interesting situation.

Anyways, Mumbai Indians take on tomorrow Rajasthan Royals, the best team in IPL and if they win this match, it will setup a thrilling finale for the IPL round one.

Go Indians!!!

It was a gloomy day for the tourists. Their most dependable opener Matty Hayden was injured and missed the match. They asked the out-of-sorts Jacques and Katich to open the innings. They both fell cheaply, as expected. Then came the Captain. He was under immense pressure. A few months back, he had a horrible series against India and almost all the magazines had written him off. They said his ‘weakness’ against the incoming, bouncy ball had been cracked by the bowlers and it would be easier to dismiss him.

The man started playing his innings with such fluency that people were surprised. He played his shots to the T, shuffled his feet as always, took necessary risks, and made sure he kept scoring those important singles.

His 35th test century came in just 137 balls. This, from a man who had a nightmarish series against India and was struggling to find his form. And batting on that pitch was no cake walk either. The pitch had inconsistent bounce and the ball kept low at times and it was certainly not easy to bat on. But he didn’t complain. He didn’t make any fuss. He came, he batted brilliantly for the entire day, made a terrific 158, and fell for an extraordinary piece of athleticism from a West Indian fielder.

And oh; his strike rate was over 70. Not bad for someone who’s been out of form, right?

Ponting has proven once again that he is no ordinary player. He is made of solid stuff and he belongs to an elite league of batsmen who are destined to be an important part of history.

Punter, thanks mate. You are what you are and you deserve to belong where you belong.

Before today’s match between Kolkata & Delhi, there were all different possibilities about which teams would make the semi-finals (other than the Rajasthan Royals. Once that match was washed out, Kolkata is out of it. Now Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai are fighting it out for the 4th position.

The next match between Delhi and Mumbai is a virtual quarter-final for Mumbai Indians. If they win that match then they are through. If Delhi wins then the fight continues.

Chennai has 2 more matches to go. One against the best team, the Royals and the other against the worst team, the Chargers. Winning one of them would see them through to Semis.

So in a nutshell the encounter between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Dare Devils is the most important remaining in the IPL first round.

Agree?

It was truly an evening to remember - for a long time. There was so much of controversy surrounding this man that people doubted if he ever could make it to the IPL. And people doubted that even if he did make it to the IPL, would he be the same fearsome bowler that he used to be in the longer version of the games? And so many other questions.

The evening came. The man came. He charged in. He delivered.

For long people have been saying that T20 is a batsman’s game and bowlers just don’t stand a chance and all that. Right now, four bowlers have just disproved that theory. And that too, three of them are old war horses. Shaun Pollock, Glenn McGrath, and Shane Warne. One look at their figures and you can understand what I’m saying.

And yesterday, Shoaib proved why he is what he is. It’s not just about bowling. It’s about raw pace. It’s about attitude. It’s about making the batsmen doubt their shot selection. It’s about that ‘oh; even if you hit me for four boundaries in a row, I can get a wicket the next ball’ kind of confidence.

He had it all. Thanks Shoaib. It’s been a while.

A power packed performance by the Chennai Super Kings helped them to post a victory against the KINGS XI Punjab. The hatrick taken by L.Balaji was a feast to watch since it was the first one in the IPL. Truly speaking at a point of time when Marsh was smashing sixes I thought that he will make it difficult for the Super kings; but the break through was provided at crucial moments of the game which helped the Chennai team to gather momentum. The Super kings showed a team effort on the field today, with an outstanding batting by the skipper and Badrinath, followed by good fielding and a superb spell by Balaji really liked the way in which Pathan and Chawla hit hard during the last few overs they really fought till the end, but the target was far away from their reach.

Among all the big hitting witnessed in the on-going IPL, one thing that has stood out is the spectacular catching by most of the teams. Fielding has been brilliant, as it usually is these days but the catches taken have been out of this world.

I was just watching the first match today (Saturday, May 3rd) played between Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers and saw at least 4 brilliant catches, the best being taken by Steyn to dismiss Afridi… which was probably the biggest turning point of the match. Steyn dove full length in front of himself and pulled it off while in the air and made sure he had both his hands between the ball and the ground when he landed. Such a catch taken by a fast bowler surely wins hearts!

Also, the one handed blinder that Yuvraj took at extra cover to dismiss a Mumbai batsman immediately comes to mind. Even though Punjab were on top at that time, such an effort always makes the game exciting to watch. And even though I was personally disappointed at the fall of a Mumbai wicket, the greatness of the catch did not leave any sour taste!

Of course where we have spectacular catches, we can sometimes also have controversies. Anyone watching TV would have bet his/her entire fortune on the fact that Smith’s catch to dismiss Ganguly was clean. Too bad that the third umpire did not think so! A couple of overs later, Ganguly was finally dismissed to another brilliant catch, taken by Kaif just inches inside the boundary by making sure that he doesn’t tip over the rope with the momentum. It almost seemed as if Ganguly was destined to fall that way!