Thursday, May 10, 2012

Warner Blitz powers Delhi to pole position

A swashbuckling innings of 109 off 54 balls from David Warner helped Delhi chase down 188, powering the visitors to a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Delhi went into the match looking to reclaim the pole position after being displaced by Kolkata (Losing out by 15 points on Index)  in their previous match. Whereas, Hyderabad went into the match with 9 defeats from 12 matches and nothing but to play for pride. Hyderabad made wholesale changes to the starting line-up as  Ankit Sharma, Taduri Sudhindra, Manpreet Gony and JP Duminy replaced Akshath Reddy, Veer Pratap Singh, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Juan Theron. Delhi went in with two changes as Venugopal Rao and Andre Russell replaced unfit Umesh Yadav and Ross Taylor.

Hyderabad won the toss, elected to bat and got off to a good  start as openers Daniel Harris and Shikhar Dhawan added 24 runs from the first four overs. Harris was the aggressive of the two but he was living dangerously, scoring edgy boundaries. He finally departed in the fifth over when he mistimed his slap straight to cover off Morne Morkel.

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara showed some glimpses of class with an exquisite cover drive but couldn’t last long as he pulled one straight to mid-wicket. Hyderabad could manage just 33/2 from the Quick Start Overs. In-form Cameron White got off to a positive start with two boundaries off Irfan Pathan as he started the resurrection process with Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan went berserk in the 12th and the 13th over as he plundered Shahbaz Nadeem for two sixes and then clobbered Pathan for two fours and a six as he brought up his half-century off just 37 balls. The pair went on to add 126 runs for the third wicket as White too brought up his fifty off 33 balls.

Dhawan was finally run out on 84 in the 18th over. But White continued his juggernaut as he powered Hyderabad to a mammoth 187. Hyderabad scored a staggering 60/2 from the Extreme Performance Overs. White  scored 65 from 40 balls and attained a Batting Momentum of 132. It was Dhawan who achieved the best Batting Momentum of 178 for his 49-ball 84. Varun Aaron picked up two wickets and attained the best Bowling Efficiency of 94.

Click here to view the scorecard

Chasing the target, Delhi got off to a bad start as skipper Virender Sehwag departed in just the first over of the innings as he top edged his heave to covers where Cameron White took an exceptional catch running backwards. David Warner and Naman Ojha started the resurrection process as they took the score to 64/1 at the end of Quick Start Overs. David Warner was particularly aggressive during that period as he took his personal score to 49.

He took Ashish Reddy to cleaners in the sixth over hitting him for a couple of sixes and fours, smacking 20 runs in the over. He brought up his half-century off just 26 balls and brought up the 100-run stand with Ojha off just 55 balls. Ojha then went on the attack as he brought up his fifty in style with a lovely maximum. With 21 runs required off 30 balls, Warner went on a rampage as he brought up his century off just 52 balls with a humongous six. The pair looked flawless went on to put an exceptional 189 unbeaten runs for the second wicket as they powered Delhi to a thumping 9 wicket victory with 20 balls to spare.

Warner remained unbeaten on 109 from 46 balls and attained the best Batting Momentum of 264. Ojha remained not out on 64 off 46 balls and achieved a batting Momentum of 115. Manpreet Gony bowled a disciplined spell of 0/22 and he received the best Bowling Efficiency of 41.  

Delhi outclassed Hyderabad by a staggering 18 points on Index. David Warner was named the Man of the Match and he achieved an Index of 56 but it was Shikhar Dhawan who topped the the Index with 72 points for his all-round performance of 84 and 1/27.         

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Bangalore run over Mumbai

In what was touted to be the clash between top heavyweights, Bangalore made a meal out of the match by winning it with nine wickets to spare against Mumbai.

Mumbai went into the match on the back of three hard fought victories. Bangalore, on the other hand, finally got back some form with a scintillating victory over Hyderabad at M Chinnaswamy Stadium following two back-to-back defeats against Kolkata and Mohali. They made three changes as Saurabh Tiwary, Harshal Patel and Vinay Kumar replaced Asad Pathan, Prasanth Parameswaran and Abhimanyu Mithun. Mumbai made two changes as Kieron Pollard returned to the side in place of Robin Peterson and Pragyan Ojha replaced Munaf Patel.

Bangalore won the toss, elected to field and got off to a good start as Vinay Kumar wrecked havoc with two wickets in the second over. He had James Franklin caught at third man and then three balls later trapped Rohit Sharma in front. Mumbai were struggling during the Quick Start Overs. After three quiet overs, Tendulkar opened up as he clobbered Vinay Kumar for three boundaries in the sixth over to take the score to 25/2 at the end of Quick Start Overs.

But two overs later, Harshal Patel struck a huge blow when he caught Tendulkar off his own bowling to reduce Mumbai to 41/3. Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik then started the resurrection process as they added 44 runs for the fourth wicket taking the score to 85. Harshal Patel finally broke the partnership when he had Rayudu caught at long on. It got even worse for Mumbai when an over later, Muralidaran scalped two wickets in two balls in the 16th over as he had Karthik, who was looking good, caught at long on and then foxed last match hero, Dwayne Smith with a doosra to reduce Mumbai to 100/6. Kieron Pollard and Harbhajan Singh then went berserk as they plundered 40 runs off the next four overs to power Mumbai to a respectable 141/6 at the end of 20 overs. Mumbai scored 46/2 in the Extreme Performance Overs and Pollard remained unbeaten on 21 off 13 balls, while Harbhajan Singh remained not out on 20 off 12 balls. For his knock of 44, Dinesh Karthik earned the Batting Momentum with 67.

Have a look at the scorecard

The target of 141 was just less as compared to the batting power that Bangalore possesses. Chris Gayle and Dilshan got off to a good start. They allowed Malinga at one end to settle down but kept knocking off the runs from the other end. They managed to go wicketless with 39 runs on the board after the Quick Start Overs.

Mumbai had two run-out chances, one came against Dilshan and Gayle, but in both the instances, the fielders missed the direct throw. Then came probably what could have been a match-turning moment. RP Singh had Chris Gayle fall to a skier, but unfortunately, Dwayne Smith put down the chance.

And then once Malinga was off the attack, Chris Gayle started playing his usual games, put the bad balls out, but even put the good balls out of the ground. He was supported well by the captain, Virat Kohli who also struck some handsome strikes. In no time, Bangalore were just cruising away to victory. Virat Kohli wrapped up things with a thumping six off Rohit Sharma’s bowling to seal the victory at the end of the 18th over.

On the Castrol Index, Bangalore ran over Mumbai with a 60-35 points ratio in their favour. For his superb knock, Chris Gayle was the obvious choice for the Man of the Match award. He was also the top performer on the Extreme Performance points with 56.