One of the worst day of my life :-(

Today was one the most disappointed day of my life. IGate Patni conducted cricket fest 2011 and i was playing for "Pirates" team and we had already won 2 matches. Today, it was our 3rd match and with this victory we were supposed to enter quarter finals. But things went in vain, Similar to Chennai 600028 movie, even our team played so badly. First wicket fell in the very first ball itself and i was also duck out in the very 3rd delivery of the innings. In 6 overs we could only manage to score a total of 31 which was the lowest total of the season. The opponents "On the Rocks" had to score only 32 runs to win the match and it was very easy. First over was bowled by our skipper and he went for 15 runs in which 9 runs was extras. Second over also went for 15 runs in which 5 runs was from extras. in just 2 overs they scored 30 runs and 2 runs needed to win the match with 10 wickets on hand and 4 overs to go. I got the 3rd over to bowl, there was nothing left to defend as they required only 2 runs to win, but i wanted to take 1 wicket at least so that we can restrict them from telling that they won with no loss. First ball was an slip catch for keeper, but he failed to take it. Getting disappointed i bowled a wide and finished the match for them. On the Rocks won the match by 10 wickets. It was the most frustrating loss for me. For this loss: i spoiled my weekend sleep, skipped my breakfast and was out in sun :-(

Apart from this, my home teams Royal Challengers Bangalore failed to lift the cup in IPL 2011 finals. Defending champions Chennai Super Kings batted first and belted every bowler and made a total of 205 runs. In reply to this, Royal Challengers Bangalore could not even reach at least 150 runs. They lost the match very badly. This was my another disappointment of the day.

RCB are back again.... now into IPL finals

It was an joyful day for me as RCB took their revenge on MI by winning the match. In the first playoff match, CSK and RCB faced each other. CSK won the match and marked their place in the IPL4 finals.

I was not disappointed at all, because i had confidence that RCB will definitely outplay MI and so i was cool. I considered it as an opportunity for the RCB to take their revenge on MI as they had been defeated by them in the league match. Things went well today for RCB as the big man Chris Gayle alone belted all the bowlers of MI. He just played magnificently and took the pressure off for the rest of the batsmen. He scored 89 runs in just 47 deliveries that included 9 fours and 5 sixes. RCB in their first innings scored a total of 185 and lost 4 wickets. I was not sure at that time the RCB will reach finals that easily.

But things went on Royal Challengers Bangalore way, All most all the bowlers bowled well. RCB skipper Daniel Vettori was very economical and took 3 major wickets. Mumbai Indians were struggling to score runs till the end of the innings. They could only manage to score a total of 142 runs with the loss of 8 wickets. Thereby Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match by 43 runs. Mumbai Indians dream of lifting up the IPL trophy again comes to an end.

Now RCB has better chance to lift the cup as they have one more revenge pending in their account. In this IPL, CSK won against RCB in the playoff. Thank god for the playoff system, due to this my team RCB is back on track again. The best part is that it is the time for RCB to have their revenge and lift the IPL trophy for the first time.

It's Dhoni's day again

Today, First IPL finals qualifier match was played between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings at Wankhade stadium, Mumbai. The toss was won by MS Dhoni and he chose to field first.

Royal Challengers Bangalore was looking more destructive when Chris Gayle was on the crease, but today was not the day for the big man. He departed after hitting a six leaving RCB in jeopardy. Later on Virat Kohli added some magnificent runs and made RCB to put up a total of 175 runs on board.


This total was not a great one as the pitch was well known for hitting biggies. CSK in 19.4 overs, chased their target successfully. The man behind the win was Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel. In the 19th over, 3 sixes was the sole reason for RCB's loss. CSK won the match by 6 wickets and 2 balls to spare.

Now CSK are into the IPL 2011 finals. This is their 3rd entry to the IPL finals. RCB have lost the qualifier match, so now they have to face the winners of MI vs KKR match. If RCB wins, then RCB will face CSK in finals else, the winners from MI vs. KKR match will be facing CSK in finals.

RCB are on top...... :-)

Yesterday's IPL match was very crucial for the top 4 four teams. The top four teams before the match were,
1. Chennai Super Kings
2. Royal Challengers Bangalore
3. Mumbai Indians
4. Kolkata Knight Riders

Before their 14th IPL match, it was already known that these 4 teams are into playoffs. Now the fight was to get into first 2 positions to gain advantage. If they could not, atleast they should get into first 3 positions to get an entry to Champions League. It was already known that RCB and CSK are into Champions League even if they loose the match. There were so many combinations possible like, if CSK wins, RCB will end up 3rd. if CSK looses, RCB comes first and CSK ends up 2nd only if their net run rate is better than MI. On the other hand, If KKR wins against MI, they have chances to get into 2nd or 3rd position depending upon how CSK looses against RCB. If MI wins, KKR ends up 4th position there by missing Champions League this time.

Yesterday first match was played between RCB and CSK. CSK put up a total of 128 runs only as they could not face RCB's bowling attack. It was skipper MS Dhoni who helped to put up this total. He quick fired to score 70 runs in just 40 deliveries that included 3 fours and 6 sixes. For RCB this total was not that challenging. Chris Gayle who is at top form scored a magnificent 75 runs in just 50 deliveries that included 4 fours and 6 sixes. He was unbeaten till the end of the innings. RCB scored 129 runs in 18 overs and won the match by 8 wickets. After this win there was a swap in the ranking RCB were back on top and CSK on 2nd.

In the second match, KKR played well a put up a total of 175 runs on board. All the batsmen contributed runs which helped in building in this total. In reply to this, MI also played equally good and chased the target successfully in the last delivery of the innings. There was one over from Lakshmipathy Balaji where he conceded 21 runs in just 6 deliveries which turned the match in favor of MI. MI won the match by 5 wickets. After the second match, the rankings table remained same with RCB topping the table.

ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 9 match 2

On the day 9, second match of the day was played between West Indies and Netherlands. Netherlands won the toss and chose to field first.

Devon Smith and Chris Gayle opened the batting innings for the WI team. Right from the start of the innings, the Caribbeans looked dominant. First wicket partnership was 100 runs for 16.3 overs. Devon Smith departed after scoring 53 runs and Chris Gayle departed after scoring 80 runs. Ramnaresh Sarwan was unlucky as he departed when he was at 49 and could not complete his half century. Kieron Pollard, the big man came in to bat and dominated all the bowlers. He just blasted out and scored a magnificent 60 runs in just 27 deliveries that included 5 fours and 4 sixes. His batting strike rate was 222.22. After 50 overs, West Indies landed up scoring a magnificent total of 330 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Pieter Seelaar took 3 wickets and looked impressive with the ball as his economy rate was just 4.5 runs per over under this kind of circumstances.

Netherlands needed 331 runs to win the match. The start was pretty slow for Netherlands and they lost their first wicket in the second over itself. After this break, Caribbeans started to take wickets in regular manner and dominated the opponents in bowling. NED kept on loosing wickets and finally ended up scoring only 115 runs in 31.3 overs. Tom Cooper was unbeaten scoring 55 runs. Kemar Roach took 6 wickets and was very impressive with the ball. His economy rate was just 3.17 runs per over.

West Indies won the match by 215 runs. Man of the match went to Kemar Roach.

ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 6

On the 6th day of the ICC World Cup 2011, A match was played between South Africa and West Indies at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, India. The toss went into the favor of SA and they decided to field first.

West Indies opened its batting innings with Chris Gayle and Devon Smith. Chris Gayle scored 2 runs in the first 2 balls and in the third delivery, he gave an easy catch to Jacques Kallis who makes no mistakes. Darren Bravo came in to bat and put up a partnership of 111 runs that gave hope to the other batsmen. After the fall of second wicket, they lost 2 more wickets in quick intervals. One good partnership came after this, which was between Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo. After this break, West Indies struggled a lot to move forward and finally ended up loosing remaining wickets in 47.3 overs. West Indies put up a total score of 222 runs. Imran Tahir took 4 wickets and Dale Steyn took 3 wickets that helped them to restrict WI to 222 runs in total.

South Africa needed only 223 runs in 50 overs. Being one of the strongest team in the world at moment, this was not an difficult job for them. Hashim Amla could not make it big today and was Jacques Kallis. After the fall of 2 wickets, Graeme Smith hanged out at the crease for a while and departed after scoring 45 runs. JP Duminy came in to bat and partnered with AB de Villiers and put up a unbeaten 84 runs partnership. AB de Villiers scored his century and remained unbeaten at 107 runs. By 42.5 overs, South Africa scored 223 runs for the loss of just 3 wickets.

South Africa won the match by 7 wickets. Man of the match went to AB de Villiers for his century.

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Kings XI Punjab chased the target of 200 successfully

Today, Kings XI Punjab won the match chasing 200 runs successfully. This was the 3rd successful chase of more than 200 runs in the IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders played their home match against visitors Kings XI Punjab at Eden garden. Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss & elected to bat first.

Opening the innings, Kolkata Knight Riders gave a brilliant start where openers Sourav Ganguly & Chris Gayle played nicely. First wicket fell in the 8th over, it was KKR's skipper Sourav Ganguly who got out after scoring 63 runs. Chris Gayle made a partnership with Manoj Tiwary scoring 101 runs which was contributed by both. This helped the Kolkata Knight Riders to reach 200 runs in total after completing 20 overs. Chris Gayle was the top scorer for KKR scoring 88 runs in 42 balls which included 6 fours & 8 sixes. Kings XI Punjab's economical bowler was Ramesh Powar whose economy rate was 5.75 runs per over.

Chasing the score of target 201 runs, Kings XI Punjab started their innings with Manvinder Bisla & Mahela Jayawardena. Bisla was out 5th over when KXIP was at 51 runs, but this did not drop the run rate of KXIP which was 10 runs per over. Kumar Sangakkara & Yuvaraj Singh gave their support to the team as well as to his partner Mahela Jayawardena to put his maiden IPL century. This helped Kings XI Punjab to chase the target of 201 runs in 18.2 overs. Teams top scorer was Mahela Jayawardena who scored 110 runs in just 59 deliveries. Kings XI Punjab won the match by 8 wickets, this was their 2nd victory playing 10 matches in IPL season 3.

Delhi Daredevils won the match against KKR

Today, Delhi Daredevils played their home match against Kolkata Knight Riders at Feroz Shah Kotla. Delhi Daredevils won the toss & elected to bat first.

Delhi started to bat aggressively right from the beginning, they lost 3 quick wickets in first 3 overs. But later on David Warner & Paul Collingwood both put up a partnership of 128 runs. Paul Collingwood got out in 19.2 over scoring 53 runs from 45 balls. David Warner was unbeaten & played throughout the innings & scored his first century in the IPL cricket. He scored 107 runs from 69 deliveries which included 9 fours & 5 sixes. After 20 overs, Delhi Daredevils lost only 4 wickets scoring a total of 177 runs.

Kolkata Knight Riders started their chase of 178, They did not give their start as aggressive as Delhi Daredevils did. They lost 3 wickets in first 5 overs, their run rate started to drop & required rate started to increase. They started to loose wickets on regular basis. By the end of 20 overs Kolkata Knight Riders could score only 137 runs loosing 9 wickets.

Delhi Daredevils won the match by 40 runs. Man of Match was David Warner for his unbeaten Century.

KKR's opener Chris Gayle will be joining his team on Thursday

Kolkata Knight Rider's opener Chris Gayle will joining his side on Thursday in Ahmedabad. KKR will be playing against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday. Still Brendon McCullum who is another opener for their team is also in expectation to join once the New Zealand & Australia matches are over.

Gayle has already reached Mumbai yesterday, today he will be coming to Ahmedabad & join his team. KKR will be playing their 4th match against the Royals this Saturday.

Now, even gayle will be joining his team, KKR's team performance will be even higher than the present one according to me :-).