Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians, after winning back-to-back matches against Kolkata Knight Riders, are on a high and the Sachin Tendulkar-led side will look to carry the momentum into Friday's game. Mumbai Indians, too, have plenty of big-hitters in the squad. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Aiden Blizzard and James Franklin are in good nick and will definitely be a challenge for Daniel Vettori's boys. Tendulkar has been the lighthouse for his side, guiding youngsters like Sharma and Rayudu in the tournament.
Key Players: Rohit Sharma, Aiden Blizzard, James Franklin, Harbhajan Singh
Captain: Sachin Tendulkar
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Royal Challengers owe their turnaround in IPL 4 to Chris Gayle. The Jamaican has almost alone put the side into the play-offs. Royal Challengers lost a close game against the Chennai Super Kings in the first playoff in Mumbai. Despite posting a formidable 175 on the board, they failed to stop the marauding defending champions. The likes of Zaheer Khan and Daniel Vettori looked patchy and the two have to pull up their socks if they wish to beat Mumbai Indians at Chepauk.
Key Players: Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB Devilliers, Zaheer Khan
Captain: Daniel Vettori
Mumbai Indians
There could be a few changes or rearrange in the batting order. There is a possibility that the brilliant Rohit Sharma could open with Tendulkar. Sharma is not new to this role as in the past he had opened for the Indian team. The little master continues to be the main run-getter for MI with 477 runs from 14 matches. Sharma (359 runs) and Rayudu (383 runs) have been the other main batsmen.
If the three get going at the top, then players like Kieron Pollard, Franklin could be upsetting in the ‘death’ overs. Lasith Malinga is the top wicket-taker in IPL-4 with 27 wickets from 14 matches.
Key Players: Rayudu, Lasith Malinga, Rohit Sharma
Kolkata Knight Riders
For Gautam Gambhir, it was a nightmare of the last over against MI other day as it was a disappointing end to the league campaign. He was confident that both KKR and Balaji will come back hard at Mumbai. Gambhir has followed in the way of MS Dhoni. He has been cool and calculative.
In other seasoned players like Jacques Kallis and Brett Lee, KKR have got the extra cushion. But it is the performances of batsman Manoj Tiwary and left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla that have caught the eye.
Key Players: Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Yusuf Pathan
Royal Challengers Bangalore has provided some stability. With eight wins in their previous nine games, they are certainly favourites, a concept so vital to most sporting contests, but careful taboo in the IPL.
They have earned the tag, and not just through the hostility of Chris Gayle. S Aravind and Virat Kohli have been consistent, Daniel Vettori has been effective in his unassuming manner, Zaheer Khan has shown glimpses of his abilities and, perhaps, most importantly they've been relatively safe with their catching in a tournament overwhelmed by poor fielding.
Key Players: Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Saurabh Tiwary
Chennai Super Kings
Chennai could take a couple of positives from Sunday - the bowling of off-spinner R Ashwin and skipper MS Dhoni's 40-ball 70. The game changer, however, could be Ashwin. The Wankhede pitch has kept low and slow over the past few matches. So perfect was Ashwin's line and length that even Gayle treaded cautiously when he was operating.
On a spinning track he could be unplayable, much as he has been when CSK have played at the turner in Chepauk - where they hold a perfect 7/7 record. It's worth noting that when Ashwin is unplayable, CSK are unbeatable.
Key Players: R. Ashwin, S. Raina, S. Badrinath
Even a blazing 40-ball 70 by CSK skipper MS Dhoni couldn't stop RCB. RCB skipper Daniel Vettori and pace ace Zaheer Khan returned to the eleven and more importantly made their presence felt to restrict the defending champions to 128/8 on a good batting track. Three of the four CSK batsmen at the top of the tree gifted their wickets with loose strokes even as the discipline and attitude shown by Zaheer (2-19), Vettori (2-14) and S Arvind (2-20) ensured persistent pressure on the opponents.
The task to resurrect the CSK innings was thrust on skipper Dhoni, not for the first time in the season. After splicing up a 42-run stand in company of Wriddhiman Saha for the fifth wicket, Dhoni reserved his best for last with yet another display of impeccable power-hitting. The right-hander bludgeoned six of the seven sixes that covered the CSK total, all big hits coming in the concluding half of the innings.
If, on the other hand, Punjab wins by a small margin, they will remain behind Kolkata on NRR, and will want Mumbai to either lose, or win by a margin huge enough to pull Kolkata to fifth on the table. All these permutations, however, will count up for nought if Punjab loses against Deccan.
The possibilities are endless, and the situation calls for cool heads that can ignore the distractions and approach the game with neat minds. In Captain Adam Gilchrist and Coach Michael Bevan, Punjab has just the men for the job.
Kolkata Knight Riders hammered them by seven wickets with more than three overs to spare. Yusuf Pathan made use receiving promotion despite being clueless on many occasions. Batting at No. 4, he made 29 off 25. Surprisingly, the fours came behind point before a trademark six off Bhuvnesh Kumar over long-on.
Captain Gambhir (54, 46b, 7x4s) was his usual self: crafty yet quiet; effective but not belligerent. The target of 119 was a child's play for his team. Pune's sloppy fielding came as unwanted bonus and without enough runs on the board, leggie Rahul Sharma wasn't a big weapon. Ganguly took 19 balls before hitting his first boundary. He ran 12 singles of his own and ran his partners' 12 runs too.
Preview - Match 65 : Pune Warriors vs Kolkata Knight Riders
Dada vs KKRKolkata Knight Riders need to win one of their two remaining games to be definite a place in the play-offs, mathematical miracles despite. Sourav Ganguly - the biggest player to emerge from their city and a name that was identical with their franchise until the most recent player auction - has a chance to stop them. It happens only in the IPL.
Yet, both Ganguly and his team-mates at Pune Warriors will know that they go in as rank outsiders. Kolkata have been consistent through the season, with their big-ticket players pulling their weight at different stages. The domestic Indian players have played their part too, especially Iqbal Abdulla and Manoj Tiwary. Pune, on the other hand, are out of disputation after suffering an early-season slump that spanned seven successive losses.
"I think I will able to play the series in England," the prolific batsman was quoted as saying."That's the reason why I stopped playing the Indian Premier League for Delhi Daredevils and rushed to London to get my shoulder operated."India are set to play four Tests and five one-day internationals in England, with the first Test beginning at Lord's on July 21.
The flamboyant batsman, who has scored 7,694 Test runs and another 7,760 in one-dayers, said he was looking to regain full fitness inside eight weeks."I will return to London after six weeks for a check-up," Sehwag said. "I should be fit in six to eight weeks."Going by the rehabilitation programme designed for me I should be okay. I am already feeling the difference each day."
| | Matches | Inns | Runs | Average | 50 | 100 | SR |
| In IPL 2011 | 11 | 11 | 424 | 38.54 | 2 | 1 | 176.66 |
| TEST | 87 | 150 | 7694 | 53.43 | 27 | 22 | 81.91 |
| ODI | 236 | 230 | 7760 | 35.11 | 37 | 14 | 104.07 |
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly will be making his IPL-IV debut, in the Pune Warriors India colours, in Hyderabad on Tuesday.“Yes, Sourav is going to play... It’s a happy development,” a well-placed source told late on Monday. The team management, one learns, had left it to Sourav to take a call. Appreciating, of course, that he’d been off regular cricket for around five months.
While Pune are eighth in the table, thanks to the win in Mohali on Sunday, the Deccan Chargers are at No.9. Clearly, all the concentration will be on Sourav, not the teams. Sourav, who went unsold at the IPL auction in January, has been taken on board as a replacement for Ashish Nehra.
Delhi skipper Virender Sehwag who took the bull by its horns and in smashing a aggressive 119 not just added to the hosts' misery at the venue but also sounded the death knell for Chargers in this edition. Sehwag, though, must thank Chargers for dropping him twice, both times off Amit Mishra, which permitted him to win it for Delhi.
The teams started on an equal footing going into this game with six points apiece. The Chargers had only themselves to blame for thinking they had the match in the bag after praising out three Delhi wickets for a mere 25 runs. The rash of wickets only seemed to inspire Sehwag. He raced to his 50 in just 27 deliveries, Ishan Malhotra bearing the brunt, conceding 23 in his first over. Mishra went for 17 in his first apart from seeing substitute Ankit Sharma dropping a sitter that entirely changed the game.
Then on it was a Sehwag sizzler. The century came off a mere 48 deliveries but more importantly for Delhi he made the target seem so ridiculously easy. He had done enough -- contributed 56 -- in the fourth-wicket partnership of 61 runs with Travis Birt as Delhi needed 90 from the last 10.
Sehwag whittled it down to 27 from the last five -- 64 came in overs 10 to 15, illustrating well in the process what happens when he stays at the wicket for a mere 89 minutes. The sixth-wicket partnership of 67 runs (36b) between Sehwag and Irfan Pathan was terminated by Dale Steyn but Delhi completed the formalities of a four-wicket win an over to spare.
Match 46 Preview: Deccan Chargers vs Delhi Daredevils
Deccan Chargers
The Chargers is missing a big-hitter in the lower-order. Figures reveal that the men on whom it was pinning its hopes to come up with huge scores have come a cropper so far. Cameron White has 89 runs from five games at an average of 22.25, J-P Duminy 77 from five games at 15.40, the highly-rated Daniel Christian 121 from nine games at 13.44 and local star Ravi Teja 91 from eight games at 22.75.
So is the case with the bowling. Speedster Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra with 10 wickets are the leading wicket-takers. Unfortunately, though Ishant Sharma has been bowling well in patches he is not getting wickets. If one takes out of the five-wicket haul against Kochi Tuskers Kerala, he has two wickets from seven games.
Key Players: Kumar Sangakkara, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian
Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevil's story is no different. This despite its three main batsmen Sehwag (303 runs), Y. Venugopal Rao (250) and David Warner (254) scoring well in the nine games Delhi has played so far. Unfortunately not many of them were match-winning knocks. The big problem for Delhi has been the dismal run of all-rounder Irfan Pathan, whose confidence seems to be dented badly.
In bowling, the exception has been South African speedster Morne Morkel. It is obvious that he badly needs support from the other end. It will be exciting to see whether Varun Aaron, said to be the fastest in domestic circuit, will get a chance to play on this wicket which has bounce and carry.
Key Players: Virender Sehwag, Morne Morkel, David Warner
In reply, the Chargers could only score 149 for 6 as Knight Riders moved to the top of the table with 12 points from nine matches while the Hyderabad-based franchise is languishing at the seventh position with only six points from nine matches. Pathan was dropped when he was on 3, 12 and 34 by Amit Mishra, Dan Christian and Shikhar Dhawan respectively and these blips in the field cost the Chargers dear as the hard- hitting batsman hit a six almost immediately after the first two chances went pleading and thereafter took the attack to the home team's bowlers with Tiwary giving him good support.
Tiwary (33 in 28 balls), who has been in good form in IPL-4, took his time to play himself in but broke the shackles when he hit successive boundaries off Dale Steyn in the 16th over of the innings and then hit a massive six behind midwicket off a Christian delivery. Pathan and Tiwary's calculated assault saw Knight Riders score 59 runs for the loss of one wicket in the last five overs of their innings after they were 84 for 3 in the 12th over at one stage
Former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, who found no takers at this year's Indian Premier League player auction, has been signed up by under pressure franchise Pune Warriors. Ganguly, who played for his home team Kolkata in the first three editions of the competition, replaces the injured Ashish Nehra ahead of Pune's game against table-toppers Mumbai Indians on Wednesday. The Yuvraj Singh-led Pune Warriors are languishing at the bottom of the IPL table after six consecutive losses in the money-spinning Twenty20 competition.
"We were in talks with Ganguly and we decided that the amount of experience that he has will no doubt help the team," Pune Warriors director Abhijit Sarkar said Tuesday."We signed him up on Monday night. He will join us as soon as possible and start practicing with the team."Ganguly, 38, was listed with a base price of $400,000 in the player auction in January but went unsold despite his good record as a batsman and captain. The left-hander however has an average IPL record, having scored 1,031 runs at an average of 28.
Match 41:Delhi Daredevils vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala
Delhi Daredevils:
Morne Morkel, the most consistent Daredevils bowler on view, shook off the poor day at work against KKR to deliver three serious blows to Kochi. Irfan Pathan seems to be getting back his rhythm. Though much cannot be expected from medium pacers such as Ajit Agarkar, Umesh Yadav and Ashok Dinda, the return of left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe – in place of an injured all rounder James Hopes – has provided some teeth to the bowling.
Key Players: Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Irfan Pathan, Morne Morkel
Kochi Tuskers:
Facing this attack will be a line-up that is hungry to snap its losing streak. McCullum, Michael Klinger, Jayawardene, Parthiv Patel, Brad Hodge, Jadeja will all be eager to turn the tide. Should the pitch play true, a high-scoring match cannot be ruled out. If David Warner, Venugopal Rao, Naman Ojha and Irfan are all due match-winning knocks for Daredevils, Tuskers' McCullum, Jayawardene and Patel have the ability to come hard at the host.
Key Players: Mahela Jayawardene, Brendon McCullum, Ravindra Jadeja, RP Singh
If the Royals batsmen started off the reply as if they were playing Test cricket, they can be pardoned. The wicket called for caution and they had a less than five-an-over chase. A few good blows were enough to make up for the dot balls. Those blows duly happened, with Johan Botha throwing in a few in his 39-ball 45. With his dazzling three-for-six earlier, the South African was clearly the most important player on the field on Friday.
The Royals achieved the target with seven wickets left over and regained the second spot on the points table. Mumbai remain on top. The talking point was of course Menaria's left-arm orthodox spin, which tempted Tendulkar to charge down the wicket. The ball fell just short and moved away enough to elude the batsman's slashing bat. Yagnik was swift enough to leave the 'God of cricket' stranded in no-man's land. It is not often that Tendulkar is foxed in such a manner.
He was gone for seven and Mumbai Indians were struggling at 28 for two in the fifth over. The best part for the home team was that their main bowlers Warne, Botha, Shane Watson and Siddharth Trivedi -- hadn't even bowled by then. After Menaria, Warne played a extremely economical hand before Botha came in to smash whatever fight Mumbai Indians had left in them. Menaria had more to say before completing his quota. He dismissed dangerman Ambati Rayudu, caught and bowled for 11. The Udaipur lad finished with figures of two for 20, not bad for a batsman who bowls only if required.
Virender Sehwag vs Gautam Gambhir
It's almost weird, this deluge of praise pouring in for a green side strip at a venue notorious for producing low, slow pitches that don't make easy stroke play. That said, three matches within a span of six days might be too much of a burden for even the side strip to bear.
That sets the stage up nicely for a match-up between teams led by India's Test openers, another clash between Delhi boys who finds themselves on the opposite side of the IPL fence. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are extremely familiar with each others' thought processes, and KKR coach Dav Whatmore implied that could only lead to "some good cricket on a good pitch".
Funnily enough, the Daredevils appear to be running into one disgruntled Delhi cricketer after another. If it was Kohli on Tuesday, it might well be Gambhir - who is still smarting after being ignored by the owners at the auctions - on Thursday night. "Sehwag and Gambhir know each others' game very well; they will share the secrets with their respective teams. There is a good contest on the cards."
Key Players:
Delhi Daredevils:
Virender Sehwag, David Warner, James Hopes
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Gautam Gambhir, Brett Lee, Jacques Kallis
Match 30: Delhi Daredevils vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
With the likes of Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Saurabh Tiwary in its rank, the RCB has got a power packed batting line up, which can raise alarm bells in any opposition camp. Gayle’s century aside, Dilshan (38 off 31) played a useful knock against Knight Riders but what he needs is consistency.
De Villiers and Kohli are also in good form and if Tiwary can rediscover his touch, RCB would undoubtedly become the most frightening batting unit in this tournament. Captain Daniel Vettori has been RCB’s standout bowler and though domestic recruits Syed Mohammad and Sreenath Arvind performed reasonably well against KKR, the Bangalore team lacks a genuine wicket taking bowler.
Key Players: De Villiers, Kohli, Gayle, Saurabh Tiwary
Delhi Daredevils:
Unlike RCB, Delhi are considerably weak on paper and it’s high time, their players struck form for any chance of moving ahead into the next stage of the event. Virender Sehwag and David Warner’s breezy start up the order against Kings XI is a welcome sign for Delhi, who are searching for inspiration in the absence of too many big names in the batting order.
Both Sehwag (77 off 35) and Warner (77 off 48) made identical 77 to raise a 141 run opening stand against Kings XI to push Delhi to a massive 231 against Kings XI .Apart from Sehwag and Warner, there aren’t too many big names in Delhi’s batting line up. Y Venugopal Rao has been reliable run getter in the middle order for the team in this tournament but the likes of Aaron Finch, Yogesh Nagar, Naman Ojha, Irfan Pathan need to rise to the occasion soon.
Key Players: Sehwag, Warner, Irfan Pathan, Aaron Finch
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