CSK - Crumbling Super Kings??????????

Well  to start with, it’s becoming some sort of a routine for CSK to gift away matches after being in it and controlling it for most part. Well this trend had started from that super over loss to kings XI Punjab abd I think the guy’s have still not gotten over it. That has affected the team morale very badly. That’s why the four losses on the trot and as dhoni said the bowlers are lacking confidence. Well yesterdays performance was no different as we eventually lost to RR’s by 18 runs. I’m not gonna go into further details of yesterdays match coz it’s the same mistakes they’ve kept repeating again and I’m getting tired on writing the same thing over and over again. But there were some small positives in the match like the performance of left arm spinner Jakati and the impressive death bowling by morkel and thushara. It was the best for CSK in the ipl this year. They kept pressure on RR in the death overs which made them scramble for runs and eventually got either caught out or run out. Because of that we were able to restrict them to atleast 177 or else we would have been chasing more than 200. Considering yousuf’s early dismissal we should have kept them down to 160.

So the chase was on in pursuit of 178 and hayden fell early bur vijay’s classical shots in that over where he took apart narwal for 24 was a treat but that ended shortly by a foolish decision to run on a non-existent single. Raina ran out of patience and it was left to dhoni and albie to follow. But what happened in the 14^th over was one of the most absurd thing s in a cricket field and the casuality was Dhoni who rammed into badri and lost his bat and got run out and boy was he furious. This ain’t the first time they both ran into each other, during the 2^nd match against KKR Dhoni rammed into badri and that time nothing serious happened and we won the game. But here a game was at stake and such an incident turned the game on it’s head. From then on rajasthan believed that the had the match packed in their pockets. Badri really wasn’t doin anything to score and that put pressure on morkel to fire and did he with those 3 amazing 6’s from share warne itself which gave a glimpse of hope for us but shaun tait had other plans and that over he took out morkel and that signaled another defeat for us by a margin of 18 runs. Honestly to say if dhoni was there at the crease we would have won this game single handedly. But now we’ve lost 4 in a ro while rajasthan have the opposite and we’re languishing at the second last with kings XI for company.

So what went wrong in that game, infact all the 4 games we’ve lost so far. Let me summarize it game by game so that u can know the culprit who gifted the match to the opposition each of those times.

Game 4: CSK Vs KXI Punjab:

                         

 After Bowling  Well first and reducing KXI to 135, We should have had the game in the bag in no time but what turned out was a messy chase which went into the super over and then gifted it away to the opposition. The men who played the role in gifting it away to KXI were “Parthiv Patel” And “Gony”. Well Gony Did not know to Bowl, Field & Bat as well. He dropped a catch, Went for plenty in his 2 overs and wasted many deliveries by jus slogging and finally got out.  Parthiv patel was only keen on getting a half century for himself and then throw his wicket away at a crucial time to a simply horrible shot. If he had stayed there and played with responsibility we should have won the game. He was also eating up the strike and  was instrumental in getting hayden out, and the biggest blunder was getting raina out to a single which was’t there. If Dhoni Had played this game we would not had this situation and he would have won it by himself.

Game 5: CSK Vs RCB:

                     

Here the bowling started well but it was the death overs in which some clumsy bowling and some big hitting from Robin Uthappa Powered RCB to 170 which was looking very meek at the half way. Raina Made the biggest blunder of the night by giving a spinner like ashwin to bowl at the death. Balaji Was Another bowler who kept on feeding uthappa and he gulped 24 of that over and totally 41 runs were scored in those last 3 overs. Batting again crumbled with hayden and raina getting out early coz George Bailey was the star for this match like how parthiv was in for the Punjab match. He din score and made hayden run out andended up with 19 of 28. Nothing much could be said about the other batsmen as we ended up making only 135 for 8. Again Dhoni the Finisher was missed. Still in that Punjab Loss hangover I guess…..

Game6 : CSK Vs MI:

                  

Well Dhoni was back after his elbow injury and again haydos flopped but raina played well for his 84 and was well supported by badri with a 55 of 45 balls. We managed 180 but that was overhauled by MI with an over to spare. Our bowlers had no such confidence in defending 180. But I think we were 20 runs short as I thought we should have got 200 which would have made Mi’s chase tougher. One player who I would like to single out here is badrinath. He came in with 2 wickets falling quickly inside the power play. Supported raina and got himself some runs but after a point he should have got a move on or either get himself out coz there were dhoni, morkel and co waiting in the wings. But what followed was he was taking risks and managed only singles out of those. That put pressure on raina to score more runs and he had to score a lot and MI used this to their advantage. No one would have blamed him if he had gotten out at that time and we would have got a respected score to defend. He did neither score or get out.

Game7: CSK Vs RR:

                  

As I said earlier our opening bowling should have been good, but some happy news for dhoni was our death bowling was decent in this match which did not let them get to 200. Here again Raina and Hayden Failed But the turning point of the match was the run out of Dhoni. He was furious with badrinath who rammed into him a second time in this tournament  which faulted in the skipper getting run out and the game changed on from then as RR won it.  This Guy Badri Is not fit fot T20’s. I’ll give u a stat of yesterday’s match alone. Badri scored 25 of 27 while Morkel Scored 28 of 12 and his tamil nadu team mate vijay 42 of 28. Look at the no of balls he wasted. I know he isn’t a big hitter but couldn’t he have rotated the strike around. He did either and made dhoni run out. Dhoni would have reached if badri had not collided with him.  If u watch the video closely dhoni was literally shouting at him to get out of his way. Badri was ball watching and rammed into him and kicked his bat away and dhoni had to run without it and that resulted the end of things for CSK. It wasn’t dhoni’s mistake at all as badri was ball watching and wanted to get himself safe first which is a bit selfish on his side.  I Agree he’s a good fielder but fielding isn’t gonna win u matches..

CHANGES NEEDED :

         

Our Losing Streak started from last Sunday with the Punjab Loss and continued to this Sunday with the 4^th loss to Rajasthan. It’sall happened in a week where we have slipped from 3^rd to 7^th now.Really Some Immediate and logical changes should be made to have a team which has the intensity to bounce back.  I’ve heard that Mike Hussey and Doug Bollinger are joining the squad in early april but I think it’ll be too late then to make a turn around in this competition since now we have to win 6 out of the remaining 7 games. As they say Cricket is a funny game &  anything may happen,  so u cant say who would make it the semi’s.  The tournament is still open and for Chennai to make amends, we have to get a win first which should set the tone for our comeback in the tournament. If rajasthan royals can do it with a bunch of kids, So can we man. We have A Good Team and we’re too good a team to lie at the bottom of the points table. Some changes have to be done and I’m perplexed on why Ntini isn’t playin in the team. Our local bowlers aren’t doin good and it’s worth a try to get him in till Bollinger comes. The difference from our team and the successful teams in the competition is the teams which are winning have the local talent performing which is some what missing in our team. We rely heavily on Hayden, Raina and Dhoni a lot. If u see , the 2 matches we’ve won so far are because hayden, raina and dhoni fired. If they fail there is no one to back us up. I would replace Badri with either badani or allrounder ganapathy. Coz We need a player to rotate strike and even slog a big ones which badani is good at. Next we play the return leg versus RCB at Chennai on Wednesday. So Will we see CSK Bouncing back from their losing streak??? Well everyone wants to see them win and make a comeback big time in the tournament. Till then it’s me Ben Signing off for the day………..

Oops!!!!! They Did It Again!!!!!!!!!

                                       Well there you go again, CSK let down themselves another opportunity for a victory. This has been the story for the CSK team so far in the tournament. Either the batting or bowling has clicked in all the games so far. And yesterday night it was no different where the bowling and fielding looked completely out of sorts. The fielding yesterday night was one of the worst I’ve seen from them since the start of the first season. The Mumbai Indian batsmen were literally taking 2’s at will even when it was hit straight to the fielder. Like they didn’t have an off day, it was they completely let the competitive level down thinking that the opposition would choke like them chasing 180 which proved to be otherwise. Well it’s only themselves to blame after losing yet again and with this kind of performances one hope’s how they would make it to the semi’s from here on.  Well I’m not goin into much detailed analysis, but I would like to touch upon some issues which I hope you people may agree with.

                                           

Well I’m not gonna talk much into yesterday’s batting performance coz we did well on a track which was on the slow side and offered a lil bit of turn. The Biggest Plus was that raina was back into belligerent form with the bat considering that he had too much pressure on his mind when he went out to bat while he was captaining. Y’day the pressure of captaincy was off him and he was back to his best smashing the balls to the fence and cheeky in taking singles. His form is a good sign for India as well coz the world T20 in west indies is around the corner. Badri played a supposting role when 2 wickets were lost in succession and he did play a perfect foil to raina but after a certain time he should have accelerated his own innings to boost up the team score or rather get out coz, there was still Dhoni, Morkel to follow. But that din happen and a good last over from malinga  allowed CSK to reach 181 who were at one stage looking pretty good for 200. Hayden was looking in sublime touch with the normal willow and those 3 spanking boundaries of zaheer was a treat to watch. But soon when he got the mongoose bat out, Bhajji got him with a good ball which was pushed in by him and got him plumb LBW. Parthiv patel is a complete misfit in the opening position. I may be harsh on him but he isn’t getting runs from his end and that put’s extra pressure on hayden to score. I’m Wondering who named him “Chota Hayden”. Well that isn’t funny it’s bloody sarcasim at it’s best.

                                       After the batsmen gave them a good score to bowl at, you expect the bowlers to make some amends in but that was’nt the case here. It was the most shocking bowling in the opening overs and MI were easing at more than 10 runs per over. Albie morkel got some swing and bowled some good deliveries but he was also picked for runs and the most horrible of the lot was Balaji and Joginder in particular who went for 16 in an over and that set the tone for Mi’s chase. Jakati tried his best and got dhawan out but the initial damage was already done. CSK’s Only Bowler Murali was the one who looked like taking wickets, He got tiwary in his first over and then gradually reduced the run rate while the other bowlers around him were just bowling for namesake. The Biggest Mistake of the night was Dhoni Bringing on perrera for his first bowl of the match in the 16^th over. They needed 55 of the last 5 and the pressure got to the young man and he leaked 20 runs and then murali got pollard in his last over but the match was already in mumbai’s grasp. Tendulkar jus fell at the end but bravo and the others just saw that they reach the target in an over to spare. So if the bowling didn’t work out as planned the fielding was worst. As I said earlier 2’s were taken for granted and that just in all made the difference. Many of my friends and a Lot Of CSK supporters including me are very disappointed with this performance from our team. This game was also for us to win and we gave it away.

                                  After the Match got over yesterday night, many of my friends were frustrated, angered on the team selection and they were wondering why on earth do we have bowlers who don’t bowl more than 120kmph in our team except Ntini. I’m puzzled at why he isn’t playin, If it was an injury then he wouldn’t have been in the squad in the first place. He seems to be fit and raring to go but  I dono what’s stopping him from playin. We do need a bowler like him coz with his pace it’s difficult to score runs. Every team has one bowler who can hurl 140 to 150kmph constantly in their team. Since our local bowlers aren’t doin good it’s definitely worth tryin him out. Another change I would like to see is M.Vijay opening the batting and no more parthiv.  Poor Vijay was put in the middle order and every time he came in he had to slog from ball one.  Really he wasn’t comfortable batting in the middle order. And Moreover a Right-Left opening combo gives the bowler to change his line and length often which is not the case when parthiv opens. I would like to see Badani and  Chandrasekar ganapathy coz they are Tamil nadu’s best ranji players and they can play the waiting game and as well as slog in the end overs. Badani was a huge factor in Chennai superstar’s winning the ICL T20 in the inaugural season, While Ganapathy is a good allrounder much better than perrera. There is news that Doug Bollinger, the left arm aussie pacemen is being bought by CSK coz of their bowlin worries and he’ll be a good asset to our bowling line up. All said and done with the changes needed, We need to get a win under our belt to get our halted campaign back on track. We need to win 6 out of 8 to qualify for the semi’s now. It’s a tough ask but our boys are capable of doin that. It’s Jus that they need some confidence in them and some luck to go our way. So Will we bounce back against the Rajasthan Royal’s on Sunday?????  Let’s Hope we do so and that’s me signing off again for the day. Bye……

"A Half-Brick On a Stick"!!!!!!!!!

Well for the past week, Many people in India had a common point of talk in their conversations with friends, relatives, collegues etc... It was about this "Mongoose Bat" which had garnered a lot of interest after Hayden, a player of the Chennai Superkings team in the IPL had decided to use it in one of the league games against delhi daredevils. Hayden had successfully used the mongoose bat by smashin almost a century in 40 odd balls. The devastation he did with it was something the people had never seen before. Initially he had used d normal bat and when he got used to the pitch conditions he decided to have a go with it. CSK had won that game hands down due to that one man effort from hayden with help from the Mongoose bat.  Since then players from the other teams are trying to practice with the bat and tryin to get a feel of it.

  So for many of you who don't have an idea on what a "Mongoose Bat" is, The Mongoose MMi3 Cricket Bat is a cricket bat specifically designed for Twenty 20 cricket. The design is unusual in that the blade is 33% shorter than a conventional bat and the handle is 43% longer. The manufacturer claims that this provides 20% more power and 15% more bat speed and gives the batsman an advantage for clearing the boundary. This kind of a bat is smaller and lighter than the traditional cricket bat. The decreased length of the blade helps to reduce the bat's weight while the long handle allows optimum reach to the batsman. The lightness of the bat helps in increasing the bat speed and allows the batsmen to hit the ball harder while batting. The manufacturers claim the change in the length of the blade does not affect the performance of the batsman in any way since it is the middle of the bat(the part which is located on the backside of the thick scoop of the bat)that is usually used for hitting the ball. So this is technical part of how the mongoose bat is made to suit big hitting which is necessary for T20.

 The First player who came out and used a mongoose bat was the Ex-Aussie player Stuart Law. It was used in a T20 county game between Derbyshire and Durham on May 27th 2009. Stuart Law who plays for derbyshire decided to unveil the mongoose bat for the first time in a match. He Initially played with the normal bat, but once he was settled at the crease he called for the mongoose bat and even cracked a huge towering six over the mid-wicket area but perished shortly by getting run out. He calls it "a half-brick on a stick". But Law admits that he would think twice before using his sawn-off Mongoose against Fast Bowlers. When the ball is flying around your nostrils, the shoulders of the old-fashioned bat have an important role to play. But he believes that on slow, low pitches like the ones you encounter on the sub-continent, or in English club cricket the Mongoose can double your power.

The Marylebone Cricket Club declared the bat legal and permitted its use in India and worldwide. These Bats are priced between Rs. 17,000 to Rs. 23,000. For the moment, 100 bats in two categories will be launched in India and all of them would be signed by Mathew Hayden who has been signed as the Brand Ambassador of the mongoose cricket bat. And as far as i know West Indian All-rounder Dwayne Smith who plays for the Deccan chargers in the IPL has signed a contract with the makers of the Mongoose bat. So Now the big question everyone is pondering at the moment is will this new invention for the batsmen be a setback to bowlers or will the bowlers come up with some strategy against this mongoose bat, We have to wait and see in the matches to follow. So till then this is me signing off for today.......

CSK - Clumsy Super Kings???

Well What to say people, Another Chase all gone awry for CSK. The Runners-up of 2008 and the semi-finalists of 2009 weren’t at their perennial best, but they did show glimpses of their best in patches. CSK Controlled 80 percent of the RCB Innings when they were put in to bat by stand-in skipper raina. Things started really well for the CSK Bowlers On a Deck which had a tinge of green and some pace which offered a good carry to the wicketkeepers. So Solidly did they start that balaji dismissed the man in form for RCB Kallis with an inswinger which rattled his stups whe he shuffled too much across to flick it to square leg boundary. First blod was drawn and then entered jammy with all his flair to regroup the innings and then it was the wily old fox murali who then smashed for a boundary the previous ball just pushed it a little more and jammy fell for it and the result was d offstump uprooted.  Murali continued the good work by stifling the runs and eventually getting pandey out to a rashswipe across the line and getting kohli stumped by slowing the pace wid a doosra. At the other end tyagi had finished his spell with some good figures due to the help from the pitch. Hence the RCB Batsmen were finding it difficult to up the run rate and they were losing wickets regularly as well. So Then there was uthappa and morgan left at the crease given the task of getting RCB to a par score. Uthappa had jus nudged along then at a fairly steady pace and was lucky that night as the CSK Fielders dropped him twice when he was on 5 & 25. Both Chances were so easy that it had tyagi running into ashwin when he to take the catch and that would have given murali a go at the tailenders. The Second One was a Powerful Flat Hit To Long on where CSK’s best fielders didn’t judge the pace of that ball and tried to grab at it eventually putting it down. Little did they know that these two moments would be the decisive factor of the match result. Till the 17^th over RCB trailed to 119/5. Ashwin came in for his 3^rd over and gave a dozen runs and the 19th over uthappa cut loose to balaji and smased 24 runs of it including 3 back to back 6’s and aswin came on to bowl the last over which yielded another dozen runs and finally RCB who were initially struggling to reach 150 jus got to 171/5 at the end of the innings. Those last 2 overs had yielded 41 and that shifted the momentum to rcb. Till the end of the 15^th over none of the RCB batsmen had hit a 6, But “Robbie” (Robbin Uthappa) Smacked eight 6’s in those last 5 overs. So Clumsy were CSK that they had kept RCB in Check for most pasrt of the batting and when it mattered the most they jus gave it away. One couldn’t understand the tactic of bowling a spinner in the death overs. Apart from balaji & Ashwin the other bowlers jus gave around 6 runs per over.

So it was all set For CSK to Bat now and the batters had to rethink their strategy of approachin this big score as they were unable to chase down even 136 in their previous encounter to KXI. Herethe target was 172 and they had to go bang bang from the start and sadly that too didn’t happen as Praveen got parthiv out early which many would not react very heavily since his performance in the last game. Bailey who replaced kemp walked to the middle to join hayden and little did everyone know that it was George Bailey who had taken over from parthiv patel from the last match. He was uncomfortable against spin and that was evident from the way he had played and missed kumble’s googlies. Steyn was clockin 150 and it was more difficult to score of him with the extra bounce and carry of the pitch. Hayden tried his best with the mongoose but again bailey who was putting pressure on hayden to score finally did the inevitable of making hayden run out. It was a good piece of fielding from dravid who had a direct hit at the non-strikers end who found hayden jus short of his cease wid the mongoose. The Run rate was climbing up and up and raina ran out of patience and sliced a ball to third man of vinay kumar who had by then jus gotten rid of a struggling bailey who made 18 of 27 balls. Now I think parthiv was much better in dat last game.  Hence the match had already slipped out of CSK’s control and poor M.Vijay jus had to slog from ball one and eventually heaved across the line of kumble and gave his wicket away, really he’s not a pick in the middle order. He should remain at the top where he belongs. Badri and morkel tried out of desperation but all ended in vain as once again CSK Ended up on 135 /7. So now it’s been twice folks that CSK have not managed to go Past 136. It’s a Shocking stat but u have to digest the fact that without “Captain Cool” MS Dhoni, CSK really look out of sorts. They need to get their batting order right and the bowling except murali are a feeble attack on flat decks.

So What Now for CSK then u might ask. It’s not the end of the road for them. They Still have 9 matches left and since they have 2 already in the bag, a minimum of 5 wins is enough to propel them into the semi-finals. The news is that dhoni will be joining the CSK Camp for the match on Thursday against MI and hopefully if he’s fit then CSK Have a Chance of beating MI. It’ll be a tough game because MI Are a Tough unit with the international players and the local Indian players contributing to the wins. So To win Against MI I would personally take in Ntini Or Thissera perrera, the srilankan allrounder to sharpen up the bowling. Going by dhoni’s Instinct of preferring allrounders he might take in perrera who f u remember was the man who performed brilliantly with the bat and ball in the Dhaka tri-series and played a crucial knock in the final to get sri lanka the cup. I don’t foresee any other changes taking place further. So Can CSK Bounce back??? For that we have to wait till Thursday evening when they take on MI in their backyard. So till then Bye……

KKR's Woes.....

Well there you go again, SRK's KKR(Kolkata Knightriders) Losing one more match. It's become some sort of a routine for KKR to lose matches which they should have won right from the Inception of the Tournament in 2008. Yesterday night in mumbai at the Bradbourne stadium was no different. Saurav had jus called right after two wrong calls previously and decided to bat since he had gayle around. After flirting in the middle order Dada was at the top where he belonged the most. Dada had set his sights on 180 since it was a flat deck and was hopin gayle would start firing from the inset.

But the MI(Mumbai Indians) Had different plans for KKR. Their complete bowling of the innings was like applyin all plans into effect. First they stifled gayle with fast off cutters from "Slinga" Malinga and did not allow him to cut loose. While At the other end Dada knew he had to take things to control and smashed some good cuts to the fence through backward point and cover but the MI Bowlers stuck to their second plan of the night by bowling toe-crushers alias "Yorkers" and did not allow the run rate to climb to more than 8. By the time Dada Went, 70 runs were scored at a pace of a run-a-ball which wasn't ideal in a T20. Shah Arrived and desperately tried to release the tempo but those yorkers from zaheer, bravo and Mclaren were unable to score off. Not to forget malinga's & Bhajji's Change of pace which allowed the batsmen to take only a single. Nevertheless Something had to give in to score atleast some quick runs to get a total of respectability and shah did manage to crack some Boundaries which were too late and ended up with a modest total of 155. Not a Poor Total but One should have done better wid only 3 wickets falling for them.

KKR Slightly disheartened With Their batting effort took the field to defend their mediocre score they put up. One expected Bond & Ishant To Rattle MI's top order since Jayasuria was rested this game, But One Man Named "Sachin" Had another plans for tonight. KKR should have learnt a thing or two from MI's Bowlers but what followed was a riot of fours from the master blaster himself Sachin to set the chase on fire. He was very severe on Ishant and took him for a flurry of fours in his second over. poor ishant must have been thinkin what did he do to him to make him play so aggressively in his over. By the time the first powerplay was over, Mi had amassed nearly 60 without losin a wicket. Murali Karthik was introdced and got shikar dhawan to chip it straight to Dada at short mid-wicket. Dhoni's Left hand Clone "Saurabh Tiwary" walked out to the centre to join sachin and initally watchful tiwary started to play his shots and got the run rate further up.

Karthik came on for his second over of the night which he would have imagined at that time would turn out to be the most costliest miss of the match. He was Bowling to sachin and one of the balls gripped the surface, turned & Bounced took the leaning edge of sachin's bat who was trying to play it to square leg and flew to karthik who would make a mess of what would have been a "Dolly" of a return catch and blamed the sight screen light behind the keeper sayin it blinded hm and could not see the ball. You should have seen the disappointment on Dada's Face. He wasn't buying karthik's excuse to that drop catch. So these kind of setbacks were pushing KKR into more misery. Then KKR's Lone bright moment arrived in the form of Dada Himself takin one of the catches of the tournament which I really tell you would have not done that in his playing days for India.

After that Pollard had come and gone and Rajagopal Satish had entered to bat with the maestro who was still there and both of them jus finished the game with an over to spare. Sachin had stayed till the end and saw through that they won comfortably in the end. KKR inspite of havin a taste of how the MI bowlers bowled really did not even try to emulate the same or atleast try somethin diferent. It baffeled me that with a world class bowler Wasim Akram as a bowling coach they didn't even try to bowl a yorker. So KKR really have some soul searching to do now as their losing Streak of the past comes to haunt them again. On the other hand Mumbai Indians showed that with their local player talent pool they are a Force to reckon with in the games to come. So Congrats to MI And Better Luck next time for KKR.

Well That's it for KKR's Woes, and I hope the Chennai Superkings who gifted away a game at home on sunday night learn from how the Mumbai Indians Chased down a target. Well I'm signing out for today and lookin forward towards the CSK Vs RCB Clash Tonite at Chinnaswamy. Good Bye Then.......

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