Saturday, May 12, 2012

Bangalore outclass Pune, move to third spot

A breathtaking innings of 57 from 31 balls from Chris Gayle and a splendid bowling spell of 2/21 from Zaheer Khan powered Bangalore to a 35-run victory over Pune at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium.

Pune went into the match on the back of six back-to-back defeats and needing to win every match from now on. On the other hand, Bangalore went into the match on the back of two thumping victories over Hyderabad and Mumbai. Pune skipper Sourav Ganguly rested himself and Steve Smith was leading the side in his absence. They made wholesale changes to the  starting eleven as Mohnish Mishra, Rahul Sharma Krishnakant Upadhyay, Manish Pandey and Alfonso Thomas replaced Sourav Ganguly, Murali Kartik, Ashish Nehra, Mithun Manhas and Wayne Parnell.  Bangalore made just a single change as an unfit Syed Mohammad was replaced by KP Appanna.

Pune won the toss, elected to field but it was Bangalore that got off to a blistering start as openers Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan added 80 runs for the first wicket. The pair added 11 runs from the first two overs before Gayle went berserk in the third over hitting Upadhyay for a couple of sixes. He again went rampant in the sixth over hitting Bhuvneshwar Kumar for four sixes to take the score to 66/0 at the end of Quick Start Overs.

Two wickets in quick succession brough Pune back into the match as Mathews had Gayle caught at long on for 57 and Rahul Sharma had Kohli caught at covers for 9 to reduce Bangalore to 95/2. Dilshan, who was playing the second fiddle at the other end, then took over the reins hitting Upadhyay for three back-to-back boundaries as he added 43 runs for the 3rd wicket with Saurbah Tiwary. Dilshan brought up his half-century off 40 balls before being brilliantly run out by Thomas off his own bowling.

Saurabh Tiwary and AB de Villiers provided a late flurry adding 35 runs from 2.4 overs to power Bangalore to 173/3.  Bangalore managed 44/1 in the Extreme Performance Overs. Gayle attained the best Batting Momentum of 128 for his 31-ball 57, while Angelo Mathews achieved the best Bowling Efficiency of 99 for his disciplined spell of 1/14 from three overs.

Click here to view the scorecard

Chasing the target, Pune got off to a horrible start as they lost Mohnish Mishra and Manish Pandey in the first over. Monish was trapped in front and Pandey was cleaned up by Zaheer. It got worse for them when Michael Clarke departed in the fourth over as they were left reeling at 22/3.

Uthappa and Majumdar started the resurrection process as they took the score to 50/3 at the end of Quick Start Overs. Uthappa looked dangerous in the middle but as always, he couldn’t last long as he was stumped off Muralidaran for 38 in the 9th over. Pune lost the plot from then on as Mathews departed two overs later and Majumdar mistimed his slash to covers in the 15th over.

They needed 69 runs required from Extreme Performance Overs but none of the lower order batsmen got going as they ended on 138/9, beaten comprehensively by 35 runs. Bangalore moved to the third spot in the table with 15 points. Robin Uthappa attained the best Batting Momentum of 78 for his 23-ball 38, while Zaheer Khan attained the best Bowling Efficiency of 134 for his spectacular figures of 2/21.

Bangalore outclassed Pune by 34 points on Index. Chris Gayle topped the Index with 49 points and was named the Man of the Match for his 31-ball 57.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Morkel and Srikkanth save Chennai the blushes

Albie Morkel and Anirudha Srikkanth smashed an identical unbeaten 18 runs from 6 balls as Chennai narrowly avoided snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against Jaipur at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.

This was touted to be an important clash between two strong sides - one pretty much consistent (Jaipur) against a talented but a highly inconsistent one (Chennai). Mahendra Singh Dhoni called correctly at the toss and Chennai chose to field. The main reason for that was that it was raining heavily before the start of play and Dhoni felt that chasing would be a good option.

It did not take long for the rain to arrive. Just after the first ball was bowled, the drizzle took the players off the field. Play resumed without any over reduction, and Dravid departed in the second over. Rain returned again with Jaipur on 14/1.

Again, there was no reduction in overs in spite of play being stopped for over an hour. The Quick Start Overs went in Chennai’s favour with the hosts struggling a touch at 28/2. Yo Mahesh got the consistent Ajinkya Rahane and now Jaipur were in a real mess at 40/3.

The rain kept on coming and going and that did not allow the batsmen to settle down in the middle. Stuart Binny played a breezy cameo to resurrect the innings a bit before he too was dismissed in the 11th over. With the innings getting stalled, Brad Hodge consolidated a touch before the former accelerated towards the end.

Only 37/2 came in the Extreme Performance Overs as Jaipur limped to 126/6 at the end of 20 overs. Brad Hodge top scored with 33 and earned a Batting Momentum of 52. For Chennai, Ben Hilfenhaus made a stunning comeback from his forgetful over against Mumbai the other night with figures of 2/8 in 4 overs with a maiden, finishing with a Bowling Efficiency of 351.

Have a look at the scorecard.

At the halfway stage, it seemed as if Chennai would win this game easily. But the batsmen were in for a challenge. Shane Watson pegged back Murali Vijay’s off stump and the visitors were sent into caution mode. Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina then slowly started to attack and ended the Quick Start Overs on 36/2 as Raina fell on the last ball of the Powerplay.

Raina’s wicket slowed down the proceedings and Jaipur started to stifle the batsmen. Dwayne Bravo struggled his way along and was eventually dismissed while a miscommunication with his skipper cost Hussey his wicket in a run out. Dhoni followed soon and when Ravindra Jadeja fell in the 17th over, with 43 needed from 22 balls, it seemed as the home side were going to script a surprising win.

But along came Albie Morkel along with Anirudha Srikkanth. Morkel hammered Pankaj Singh for a six and a four and then carted Watson for a big hit to bring the equation down to 23 from 15 balls. Srikkanth then joined in the act and clubbed Watson for a six and a four off consecutive balls to earn 18 runs off the over, which eventually sealed the game.

With 12 runs needed from 12 balls, Shaun Tait was given the 19th over but he could not withstand the pressure. His first ball went for six from Srikkanth while the next was a yorker which cleaned up the batsman, only to be no-balled. The free hit delivery landed way outside leg stump and the game ended with five wides as Chennai raced to victory in the 19th over.

Suresh Raina top scored with 23 while Morkel and Srikkanth ended up with Batting Momentum of 61 each. For Jaipur, Siddharth Trivedi was the pick of the bowlers with 2/18 with a Bowling Efficiency of 156.

The Castrol Index saw the two sides very close, with Chennai on 57 and Jaipur on 52 points. Chennai won all the departments with ease.

Ben Hilfenhaus was named the Man Of The Match and ended up with the best Castrol Index of 76, while for Jaipur, Siddharth Trivedi ended up with a value of 39.

By virtue of this win, Chennai move to fourth spot with 13 points from 13 games while Jaipur drop down to 6th place with 12 points from 13 matches.

Chennai next meet Delhi at Chennai on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 1430 GMT while Jaipur takes on Pune at Jaipur on Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 1030 GMT.