Alex's . . .

The battle lines are drawn and the stage is set for the final of this season of IPL as DC takes on BRC!You cant say that they were the 2 best teams of the tournament but these 2 teams have certainly performed when it mattered and they deserve to be here. Being a sports fan I had a disappointing last week seeing both Liverpool and Punjab being knocked out of contention.In Liverpool's case it was a mere disappointment after having had a consistent run in the league after abt....i dnt remember....8-9 years?But Punjab came so close needing just 117 runs to win against Chennai but their batting let them down yet again on a challenging 2 paced pitch.Personally IPL is not the same without Punjab :-( .And RR,who also had the same concern with bat gave KKR their second consecutive (consolation) win after a shabby performance with the bat but were fighting till the end and it required a spirited display by Agarkar to see them through. Anyway the 4 better teams(DC,DD,BRC,CSK) qualifie

Half way in to the crucial week which decides the 4 semifinalist,tables have turned yet again and the very interesting thing abt this tournament is that every team looks beatable and given the un predictable nature of the T20 it just adds more sheen to it..Sadly some of it was darkened last weekend by even more un predictable power cut :).But it strikes during Punjab's match with remarkable accuracy :(.I had to follow almost entire King's XI chase in my cell(on friday) and also a few overs in the middle during Deccan's innings on sunday.That last over by I.Pathan to R.Sharma in full flow(and had done it the day before) was awesome and to win it by one run was wonderful.It reminded me of T20 WC final! I can only feel for KKR team/staff and srk.Especially for a succesful celebrity like srk,it shd have been really difficult to see his team fail badly after all those profesional set up from CEO to coach.For players,it should be very difficult to motivate themselves for the

It is getting very exciting as we head in to the last week of the IPL and still any of the 6 teams(except Delhi&KKR) are in the running for the remaning 3 semi final spots after Delhi has already qualified.The last 2 days saw 3 very closely fought matches which could have gone either way and still the table is finely balanced!With the gap closing and teams swaping positions with every match I guess some *heart breaks* are in store for some teams this week! On Wed(13/5/09) DC looked well set to win the match till Symonds and Gilli where going in full flow but lost track in the end to loose by 12 runs against Delhi.Yesterday Hayden was in his elements as usual(he has amassed 486 @ an amazing avg of 48.6 so far..) as Chennai got off to a flier yet again but when he left the crease with Chennai at 101/4 off 13 Overs they collapsed to 129 which was chased down by BRC(thanks mainly to Taylor and V.Kohli) with 2 balls to spare but certainly it was not as easy as it looked on the score

After reading a bit too much stuff about some of the craziest languages in software over the past 2 days,well definitely not as crazy as English where your noses(should this be singular? help me...*english freaks*) run and feet smell,pronunciations based on their origin,the way u read the same word determines tense....sigh..I am not good at hitting the bulls eye,am I? I dont know if you want me to, but somehow am getting carried away..but that is not your concern,is it?Atleast I guess I should not be corncerned abt it..actually I am not!But what should be the point of concern is that you have not yet got the point(if u r concerned abt the point/message)!Dont think you have missed it because you have not!I just let myself got carried away,deep.(*spur of the moment* thing)!Let this be a vague start!we will discuss the match in the next para! After being little bit stressed over the past couple of days(which I guess is already evident :) ) I was hoping for a good win for Punjab which wo

Like they say in million songs "Love will find a way" ,KKR involuntarily seems to be finding new ways to loose the match :( !Today they messed up in batting and would have lost badly if it was not for Agarkar(39 off 29 balls) whose late heroics gave themselves something to defend(123 runs).The only (other) batsman to contribute in the top order was Ganguly who made 44 off 45 balls! DD (in good form) started well (50 in 6.2 overs) and was cruising from there...For a brief moment in the 9 th over when I.Sharma got 2 wickets KKR seemed like making a match out of it but DD were too good.AB Devillers was unbeaten on 40 and karthick was on 17 as they won by 7 wickets with 3 overs to spare. Earlier in the day BRC met MI in an important match.Though Sachin fell without scoring and Jayasuriya after making 29, Rahane and Duminy played well making a 100 plus unbeaten partnership as they set a target of 158.In reply for BRC no one went on to make a big contribution except Boucher who m

Today Punjab and DC played their important match in the tournament in terms of league table...(pts),well perhaps not as important as the white pebbles which the place is very famous for (or is it?) but predicting a winner (till the last few balls) was as difficult as locating one(in a mine field here) as the IPL caravan rolls on to Kimberly(place known for diamond rush in the 18th century)! It was more like a neck-and-neck sprint race with either team (seemed like) leading for a brief moment before it became even again and in the end it was an exhausted Punjab which crossed the line first!After putting them in to bat,Punjab never let them(DC) get away by picking up regular wickets.They(DC) had slipped to 73/4 when Symonds came in with a new look[new(no) hair do] but was at his old typical best bludgeoning 60 off 36 balls to help them post 168 and it looked like DC was in charge after the initial hiccup! Sohal gave a blistering(but brief) start for Punjab to even things out yet again bu

How many times have you seen a wicket falling in the first ball/over?Just add one more to it because that exactly what happened today as MI had a shaky start yet again loosing both their openers Ronchi and Duminy(new opening pair) in the first over.Bravo is the only one to get past 20 as he made 35 and with wickets falling at regular intervals they could manage only 116! Delhi (chasing a small total) started cautiously but both Warner and Gambhir got out before the stratergic break but Devillers and Dilshan carried the innings even as the required runrate climbed and with 5 overs remaining and 43 runs required Sachin decided to spin a few(taking a cue from Dhoni's book?may be).But he never hit the right length!It was either too full or too short as Devillers took 19 off that over and with that(24 req off 24 balls) Delhi cruised to win with 7 balls to spare!De villers made 50 off 38 balls. It was an uneventful day in general!Now with almost 55-60 % of the race being over/completedD

I did not have plesant memories of CSK Vs PKXI encounters [personally,its more like a local derby for me :) ]as I still remember being the lone disappointed man to see Punjab knocked out by CSK(in semis last year ) even as my friends celebrate!This game though was really a good match still did not erase those memories(Urgh)!!In fact it was when Chennai took on Punjab for the first time(last year) that I discovered(felt) that I am more a Punjab fan than a Chennai fan(Dont ask me why...Honestly, I dnt knw :( ,may be because Punjab has more of my fav players than Chennai... ] Set a target of 186 in 18 overs(by CSK) who would have fancied them(Punjab) chasing it down...Honestly,not me!I thought that they(Punjab) let Dhoni n Hayden get away in the last few overs as they got abt 10/20 runs extra.But what a chase by Punjab!The total which (always) looked huge gradually became manageable(via some poor fielding by CSK) and with 43 required off 24 balls,(and 2 set batsman in the crease)for

DC and MI played their 8th match today as they continue their ( very tight) race for the top 4 spots in the semifinal!Gilli calling the correct side of the coin at the toss chose to bat and watched from other end as Gibbs returned back to pavilion (in the 2nd over) yet again without making any runs!DC innings was kind of a collective effort by their batsman with no real big innings,the highest was R.Sharma's 38 as they posted 145! Defending 146 DC's best chances were when they get MI's explosive openers early and that was exactly what they got(thanks to R.P Singh) with both of them back in the hut as early as the 2nd over!Just when Game seems slipping away from Deccan as Duminy and Shah got going they(Deccan) came back by picking up P.Shah just before the strategic break and the game was evenly poised at the break with MI at 71/3.After the break it seems like Mumbai had the game in the bag @ 97/3 in the 14th over but when Bravo fell to a needless shot it got interesting aga

I guess this is probably the most disappointing day(personally) in this season of IPL!I was lucky enough to miss the RR's pounding of King's XI bowlers and (more) unfortunate to see them(Punjab) go down without a fight in reply and (even more) bored right now which is the main reason I have started writing[typing :) ] already even as Gambhir brings up his fifty(DD Vs KKR) with a smack over long off!It seems like DD(121/1) is well in controll as they still need 35 off 26 balls![I guess I have to wait for the match to finish to finish off this post :)] RR Vs Punjab RR's top order finally got off to a good start(in their 8th match) and Smith and N.Ojha ensured that they make it up for all the poor starts earlier as the good (start) got better and better to even better(great?) as they put on 135 in 14.5 Overs and hit Punjab so badly before they could realise!Jadeja,Y.Pathan,Carsdeline who followed just carried on the good work with cameos as they went past 200(a 200 plus targ

The scorers should have been less busy for the first time in the day (after Chennai posted a big total of 178 on board) when the top 3 DC batsman left without troubling them much(out for zero) as Chennai got an ideal start restricting the explosive DC top order to 1/3 in the 3rd over!DC were in the game for a brief moment till Smith(49 off 23 balls) n R.Sharma were in the crease but once they were dismissed (by Jakati) it was game over! Earlier Chennai opting to bat got off to a flier with Hayden and Vijay and never looked back from there as Dhoni(58) and Raina(32) carried on from where Hayden left.To summarise,it was an entertaining,hard (n big)hitting innings from Chennai as they ended at 178!Chennai didnt make life easier for themselves while defending by some poor(n funny @ times) catch misses and a school cricket kind of run out miss[trust me it was really funny] but it looked trivial in the end(in hindsight)! Thats it!a 3rd straight win in a row puts them on top spot for the f

uff!!Probably the second closest game in this edition of IPL!The gap was about a few centimeters (btw bat n ball) as M.Jayawardene played well under an Agarkar's snorter(a climbing short delivery) and the equation became 6 needed off 4 balls.He was able to get bat on ball on the next delivery though not where he would have liked but still (much to the dismay of KKR) ball took the outside edge and reached the fence on 3rd man!Mahela could not put the next delivery,a low full toss away(a dot ball) and now 2 needed off 2!Singles off the next 2 balls help them(Punjab) post their 4th victory! Earlier Hodge yet again played a major role (70 off 43) in ensuring KKR reach 153 as they were going along in just about 6 RPO till abt the 15th over before Hodge accelarated!In reply Sanagakara (who Opened with Sohal) went without scoring but a few lusty blows by Sohal and Katich's 34 help them reach 81/3.After the break they went along at about run a ball speed and when Yuvi fell for (almost

A barbie doll in a saree(too childish/girlish eh?)oK Ok!say Arnold in a soft (intense) romantic role?(or Arnold without his gun??)My point is that, thats how (out of place) I felt when I first heard of M.Vijay in the (Chennai)T20 team as I thought him as a solid opening batsman (with tight defense sort of batsman) but he never looked at sea in the brief stay he had in the crease and was timing fluently!With a few Intl' players unavailable and few others coming back (and with injuries) it will be interesting to see how the balance of the teams gets affected! Back to the match,Chennai put in to bat by Gambhir posted 163 with good(but short) innings from Hayden n Raina and a fluent innings from badrinath.They once threaten to score big but once Badri. departed no one was there to anchor the innings and lost their way!In reply DD Opening with Gambhir n Warner (Sehwag injured) did not had the best of start loosing Gambhir,Devillers and Dishan and were struggling at 52/3 in 7 overs wh

With 9(runs) needed off 3 balls,I.Pathan(having hit a boundary earlier in the over) tried to win it for Punjab with a huge hit, but he could hit the full toss from P.Kumar only as far as Kohli(standing) at long on and abt a minute later it was the terrible sound which do not please any batsman,the sound of timbre as the stumps were disturbed and this time it was Chawla walking back and what a tragedy [for Punjab fans]...anti climax! Punjab was well in control from the start on (yet another) a slow pitch with BRC at 84/6 in the 13th over with almost the entire top order back in the hut as Yuvi completed a hatrick but a cameo from Van Der Merve helped them post 145! With Bopara returning to England for International duty,Katich got his chance today but Yuvi decided to open nd Katich moved to middle order!Punjab got off to a good start (given the target @7.25RPO) but Yuvi who was set,(disappointingly)top edged a sweep off Kumble to mid wicket,and departed after making 50 in the 10 ov

DC Vs DD Gilli n Gibbs both fell early as Deccan failed to get a good start for once and no one played a big innings except for a hard hitting D.Smith which helped them reach 148 which never looked enough but once Sehwag n Gambhir fell(after getting start) followed by De villers game was evenly balanced till abt the time out but good innings by Dilshan and Karthick ensured that they win easily in the end with 8 balls to spare! CSK vs RR: Chennai were struggling at 17/2 (in the 4 over) when this promising 22 yr old (from U.P) came in and was timing the ball well straight away on a pitch where the highest(in the whole match) any one could manage(other than Raina) was R.Jadeja(37 off 33 balls).Raina fell short of (a well deserved) century by just 2 runs as Chennai posted a challenging 164!Raina made 98 off 55 balls. Chasing 165 Smith departed early and when Asnodkar re arranged the stumps with his bat (to be out,hit wicket) RR had yet again failed to make a good start scoring less than