IPL finals: Chennai Super Kings lift IPL 2010 cup

Today is the day where either Mumbai Indians & Chennai Super Kings dream of lifting the IPL cup comes true. They both faced each other in the finals of IPL edition 3 at DY Patil stadium, Navi Mumbai. Chennai Super Kings won the toss & bat first.

Chennai Super Kings started their innings very slowly, their run rate was below 6. Openers Murali Vijay & Mathew Hayden got out in 8th over & 9th over respectively. At this point of time, they had scored 47 runs from 8.4 overs. There was a good partnership between Suresh Raina & the skipper MS Dhoni which helped CSK to put up a highest first innings total in the history of IPL finals. Completing the 20 overs, Chennai Super Kings had put up total of 168 runs loosing 5 wickets. Suresh Raina was unbeaten scoring 57 runs from 35 deliveries which included 3 fours & 3 sixes.

Now the real pressure was on Mumbai Indians side, CSK looked little dominant after putting this good total.

Mumbai Indians started their chase with the openers Shikhar Dhawan & Sachin Tendulkar. Shikhar Dhawan did not stay long as he got out in the 2nd over, he did not score a single run. There was 66 runs partnership between Sachin & Abhishek Nayar. After this partnership, wickets kept on falling. But, Kieron Pollard played some big knocks which started to ease pressure. But he could not make it till the last over, as he got out in the last delivery of 19th over. This big blow gave the confirmation to the Chennai Super Kings that they will definitely win this IPL. After 20 overs, Mumbai Indians could make only 146 runs loosing 9 wickets. Thereby, Chennai Super Kings won the match by 22 runs & lifted the IPL 2010 cup. Again MS Dhoni has captained his team very well leading the team to victory.
Hope he again does the same in the upcoming World Twenty20 cup :-)

Royal Challengers Bangalore had to fight back to chase a total of 192 runs

Mumbai Indians played against Royals Challengers Bangalore today at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Mumbai Indians wanted to show their supremacy by winning this match as they had lost a match against RCB, previously played. Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss & elected to field first.
Sachin Tendulkar & Ryan McLaren opened the batting innings for the Mumbai Indians. Both were playing at an average of around 5 runs per over, which was supposed to be the worst start for the Mumbai Indians in this IPL edition. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar failed to make it big as he got out in the last delivery of 6th over. He scored just 19 runs from 18 balls. But, everything changed in the 9th over where Pankaj Singh gave 26 runs in his over. After this big over, Mumbai Indians started to blast the opponents, where they were scoring more than 10 runs per over easily. Ambati Rayudu,  Kieron Pollard & JP Duminy played very aggressively scoring 46 runs from 27 balls, 20 runs from 7 balls & 42 runs from 19 balls respectively. This helped Mumbai Indians to put up a huge total against the home team. Mumbai Indians scored 191 runs in 20 overs loosingonly 4 wickets. Only bowler who was very economical was Dale Steyn with an economy rate was 4.5 runs per over.
Chasing the target of 192 runs, Royal Challengers Bangalore started their innings with the openers Manish Pandey & Jacques Kallis. But both the players did not last long, as they got out in 5th over & 6th over respectively. There was even bigger blow for Royal Challengers Bangalore, they lost 3 most important & reliable wickets. They were Rahul Dravid, Kevin Pietersen & Robin Uthappa, They were in real trouble. By 11.1 overs, Royal Challengers Bangalore scored only 74 runs loosing 5 wickets. Virat Kohli was the only man to fight for Royal Challengers Bangalore who helped the team to cross more than 130 runs in total. This helped Royal Challengers Bangalore team's run rate to increase a bit, by this they have retained a chance to get into semi-finals. After 20 overs, they scored 134 runs loosing 9 wickets. Hence, Mumbai Indians won the match by 47 runs. Royal Challengers Bangalore's Net Run Rate (NRR) got dropped from +0.48 to +0.219. Now they have to completely rely on luck to make it into semi-finals.

Mumbai Indians lower the hopes of Delhi Daredevils getting into semi-finals

This was one of the important match for Delhi Daredevils as they have to win the upcoming matches in order to get into semi-finals safely. They visited Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai & played against Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians won the toss & elected to bat first. Chandan Madan & MI skipper Sachin Tendulkar opened the innings for the Mumbai Indians. Both started the innings very well as the run rate was around 10 runs per over. Chandan Madan got out in the sixth over, at that time MI had scored a total of 41 runs who were looking good. Skipper Sachin Tendulkar could not make it big as he got out scoring 30 runs from 26 balls, but retained his Orange cap. When Mumbai Indians lost their 4th wicket they had scored only 133 runs from 17 overs. Kieron Pollard & JP Duminy played very agressively to score 50 runs in just 18 balls. Pollard scored a unbeaten 45 runs in just 13 deliveries which included 2 fours & 5 sixes. Meanwhile JP Duminy scored 25 runs from 14 deliveries. At the end of 20 overs, Mumbai Indians made a total of 183 runs loosing 4 wickets.
Chasing the target of 184 runs set by the Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils gave a grand start with the openers David Warner & Virender Sehwag. Both very batting very aggressively, where the run rate more than the asking rate. Delhi Daredevils lost their first wicket in the 4th over, it was David Warner. Even with loss of David Warner, things did not change for Delhi Daredevils as the run rate was very good. But they started to loose their top order batsmen, things started to get worsen when Delhi Daredevils lost their 5th wicket by the end of 11th over. Run rate started to drop rapidly & they were loosing wickets as well. By the end of 20 overs, Delhi Daredevils could score only 144 runs loosing 7 wickets. Most economical bowler for Mumbai Indians was Kieron Pollard, his economy rate was just 3.75 runs per over. Best part was he did not take any wickets but he made 2 important run-outs which turned the match for Mumbai Indians. Those 2 were Virender Sehwag & Paul Collingwood. Mumbai Indians won the match by 39 runs. After this defeat, Delhi Daredevils are into tight situation & have to win all 2 upcoming games to get into Semi-finals safely. Man of the match was Kieron Pollard who played brilliantly in the field, with ball & with the bat.