What is an IPL without any controversy? The tournament had not even set foot when it was surrounded on all sides by controversies galore, with Lalit Modi being at the centre of most of them. Security concerns, issues with English board, boring strategic time-outs, cheer-leaders, alcohol, ousted Pakistani players and so on; everything seemed to have had things going against them.
Thankfully, after the start of the tournament, the off-the-field issues have stopped, but on the field, the players have continued to make news for all the wrong reasons. Here is a lowdown of all the things that have gone wrong in the tournament so far:
Yuvraj proposes, Ness disposes:
After been disposed off as the captain of the Kings XI Punjab side, Yuvraj Singh wanted to shift to the Mumbai Indians side according to a report in a newspaper. The owner of the side, Ness Wadia refused, but then was worried that the combination of the loss of captaincy and the lack of desire to play for Punjab would mean that he could underperform. Wadia is then said to have supposedly spoken to the BCCI about his fears, who had had a talk with the player.
The result? Yuvraj Singh struggles through most part of the first half of the tournament, whereas the Punjab side capitulate to one loss after another and after having played ten games, they are already out of the tournament.
Ordinary or extra-ordinary?
Gautam Gambhir is a rather angry man on most occasions, but this time around he seemed to have stirred the hornet’s nest by calling the Rajasthan side ordinary. He was been asked whether he thought he was worried about the Royals chasing down the target that was set by the Daredevils, and he replied that apart from Yusuf Pathan, he was barely worried about the ordinary side.
Modi reprimanded Gambhir, but that did not mean that the dashing southpaw stopped making statements. He said that he stood by what he said and did not care much for people who had not held a bat in their hands – alluding to Shilpa Shetty in this case. Rajasthan went on to beat Deccan and Punjab in two successive games and look to be heading their way into the semi-finals.
While diplomacy was never Gambhir’s middle name, surprising to hear Gambhir call the Royals ordinary anyway, given that they have won the first edition of the IPL and look good to enter the semi-finals in the second!
Over-rate issues:
While it was good to observe that the IPL had taken upon itself to sweep the slow over-rate offenders with fines that were anything but tiny, the surprising bit was that not only the captain but all the rest of the players were fined a bomb as well.
So picture this. Kumar Sangakkara gets fined $20k for his first offence, $40k for his second and gets banned for his third one. He has already lost more than $100k in fines. But more importantly, each of his player has also lost around $50k, which is probably more than what some of the players even earn in the entire duration of the tournament! This means that by playing in the IPL, these players, with contracts worth $30,000 or $50,000 stand to gain nothing, all thanks to some slow thinking captains! Quite a joke I tell you!
Deccan Chargers:
Strengths:
The defending champions, Deccan Chargers are being led by Adam Gilchrist, one of the coolest men around in the game. He leads from the front, bats in a manner that can take games away from their opposition like it happened in the semi-final of the previous IPL against Delhi and also keeps wickets. As also, they possess a coterie of really hard-hitting batsmen who can turn games on their heads, and their experience in turning around a virtually hopeless first IPL into a tournament-winning second one will work as their biggest strength in the tournament. Thirdly, the Chargers also have, amidst them, some of the better current fast bowlers around the world in Ryan Harris, Kemar Roach and RP Singh, with Dwayne Smith always there to bowl his dibbly-dobblies in the middle of the innings
Weaknesses:
The Indian bench strength could be one of the issues that the Chargers may face. VVS Laxman is the biggest Indian name around, and he is a doubtful starter in this format, as the best batsman apart from him is Rohit Sharma. None of the other Indians inspire too much confidence and in a format which requires a minimum of seven Indian players in the playing eleven, this could be bit of an issue.
Players to watch out for:
Harris has had an excellent set of ODIs, with five wicket hauls in successive games, while Dwayne Smith’s shenanigans in Australia during the KFC Big Bash T20 will make the pair very dangerous.
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Strengths:
In Sourav Ganguly, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge and Brendon McCullum, the Knight Riders possesses a power-packed top-order. Of course, not all may play, but then, they do not need to. Also, the presence of an all-rounder in Angelo Mathews will be a big plus, as is the quick bowling of Charl Langeveldt, who is a great bowler at the death. Playing against the Knight Riders in a full-seeming Eden gardens will never be an easy task for the opposition.
Weaknesses:
Time and again, Sourav Ganguly has proved that he is a man to reckon with even at a reasonably older age. However, to be able to lead a side consisting of so many foreign players, apart from well-established Indian ones will be an issue that Ganguly will need to overcome. It will be a challenge for Ganguly, who has usually excelled as a captain when he has actually gone on to hand-pick the players. The lack of a genuine all-rounder Shah rukh Khan’s overbearing presence around the team could be an issue as well.
Players to watch out for:
One would be most interested in following Ganguly’s captaincy. He would know well that another abysmal tournament would end his reign at the top. Ajantha Mendis was one of the most difficult bowlers to face when he had started out but he has already lost his place in the side. He will be the one man to watch out for.
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08 OCT
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RP Singh celebrates in the victory in Johannesburg! Well done Deccan Chargers. 24-May-2009.
3rd Match: Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab
When: IPL 2009 19th April 2009
Toss: Delhi Daredevils - elected to field
Winner: Delhi Daredevils by 10 wickets
Man of the Match: DL Vettori (Delhi Daredevils)
Well done Daredevils!
4th Match: Deccan Chargers v Kolkata Knight Riders
When: IPL 2009 19th April 2009
Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders - elected to bat
Winner: Deccan Chargers by 8 wickets
Man of the Match: RP Singh (Deccan Chargers)
Well done Chargers!
Games Left to be Played in 2008:
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May, Tue 27
20:00 local, 14:30 GMT
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54th match - Deccan Chargers v Chennai Super Kings
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May, Wed 28
16:00 local, 10:30 GMT
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55th match - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Mumbai Indians
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May, Wed 28
20:00 local, 14:30 GMT
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56th match - Kings XI Punjab v Rajasthan Royals
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May, Fri 30
20:00 local, 14:30 GMT
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1st Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
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May, Sat 31
20:00 local, 14:30 GMT
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2nd Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
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June, Sun 1
20:00 local, 14:30 GMT
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Final - TBC v TBC
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Game results IPL 2008:
Read the rest of this entry...
What happened?
Adam Gilchrist hit 109 runs from 48 deliveries (42 balls) bringing Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers to 10-wicket victory over the Mumbai Indians.
He managed to beat Andrew Symonds record from the previous game of 100 runs from 47 balls.
To amount this tally he slogged nine 4's, ten 6's and maintained a freakish strike rate of 227.08!
This brought Deccan their first win beating the Mumbai target of 154 with 44 balls and 10 wickets to spare.
The highlight for Gilchrist was found when facing Pollock. He hit him over deep backward square-leg boundary for consecutive sixes bringing his first T20 fifty. The next hit a four into the offside boundary and followed launching a 6 over long-leg making 23 for the over.
Pure Efficiency
Gilly scored 96 of his 109 bucket load from boundaries. Check cricinfo for more match stats.
That's Gold!
JM
