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M.S.Dhoni won the toss for Chennai Super Kings and opted to bat against Royal Challangers Bangalore at the jam-packed M.A.Chidambaram Stadium in the final of the IPL 4 match played here on Saturday. Murli Vijay and Mike Hussey opened the innings for CSK and had saved their best Cricket for the last game. They posted the finest opening partnership of 159 runs for the IPL, which enabled CSK to post a huge total of 205 runs. 

Murli Vijai

Vijay and Hussey hit sparkling half centuries en-route to the 159-run opening stand and gave Chennai a quick start which laid the foundation of the mammoth score of 205. 

CSK had reached their 50 in 5.1 overs with a six from Murli and the score-board later went on to read hundred in just 10.3 overs. The 159-run opening partnership was broken when Hussey played a lofted shot off Syed Mohammad over long-on and was caught by Mithun. 

Dhoni scored 22 runs and then lit up Chepauk with his two sixes but he and Vijay fell to S Aravind in consecutive deliveries. Vijay 95, fell just five runs short of his century while Dhoni departed in quest of quick runs. Vijay stroked four boundaries and six towering sixes in his 52-ball knock.

For RCB, Aravind and Gayle picked two wickets apiece while Syed picked one. Bravo then hit a six off the last ball to take the total to 205 runs. (more…)

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kolkatta Knight Riders by seven wickets in a thrillling encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium Bangalore on Saturday. Rahul Dravid and Uthappa slammed half centuries to ensure a victory over Kolkatta by seven wickets. Anil Kumble won the toss and elected to field. The Kolkatta Knight Riders reached to 61 runs in the six overs. 

Ganguly and Chris Gayle hammered Praveen Kumar to 21 runs in the fifth over itself. Dale Steyn, despite the speed which he is able to generate, he was also not accurate in his bowling and both openers gave a good start to Kolkatta. 

Robin Uthappa

Brendon McCullum (45), Chris Gayle (34) and Sourav Ganguly (33) batted very well for Kolkata but the rest of the batsmen failed to produce any partnerships. 

At one stage Kolkatta were appearing to cross 180 plus in this innings but accurate bowling by Bangalore bowlers in the middle overs got three quick wickets to halt their flow of runs. Ganguly failed to read a slow ball from Vinay and was caught at square leg for 33. Manoj Tewary slashed one to point and was caught White off Kallis for 0.  (more…)

Kolkatta Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat at the Eden Gardens, Kolkatta on Wednesday. Saurav Ganguly and Chris Gayle opened the innings and laid a decent foundation for the Kolkatta  score to read 181 for the loss of three wickets.

Ganguly’s half century was punctuated with 8 fours and a six and chris Gayle slammed 40 runs with 5 fours and a six. Ganguly was bowled by  Vittori and Gayle was bowled by Bhatia. Tewary was not out on 26 and Mathews contributed 46 not out. 

After 10 overs Kolkatta Knight Riders  were 88 for no loss and they  scored the 100 runs in 10.5 overs. Gayle hit most of his runs to the fine leg boundry and hit Collingwood for a towering six.  (more…)

A superb knock of 110 not out by Mahila Jayawardane saw Kings XI Punjab beat Kolkatta Knight Riders on Sunday. Jayawardane’s knock over-shadowed the knock of 88 runs scored by Chris Gayle earlier and beat the Kolkatta Knight Riders by 8 wickets.  Kolkatta Knight Riders, won the toss and chose to bat first against Kings XI Punjab at the Eden Gardens Kolkatta on Sunday. They opened the innings with Saurav Ganguly and Chris Gayle who made mince-meat of the Kings XI Punjab bowling.

Kolkatta Knight Riders were 100 in nine overs and Gayle started hitting more fluently thereafter. Gayle was initially batting slowly but played wonderfully well after the ten over mark. Gayle had milked Bopara for 33 runs in an over which is by far the most runs scored  in an over in the IPL. The opening partnership yielded 56 runs and it was then Ganguly got out  c & b Bopara for 36.  (more…)

 Saurav Ganguly won the toss and elected to bat Monday at the Brabourne Stadium. Ganguly opened the innings with Chris Gayle who put on 70 runs for the opening partnership.  The arrival of Chris Gayle didn’t quite set the Brabourne Stadium on fire, but scored a steady half-century, to take Kolkata Knight Riders to 155. Though Kolkata lost just three wickets, they were restricted to a small total due to the accurate bowling by the Mumbai bowlers who managed to curb the scoring.

Mumbai bowlers  sent down  yorkers and good length deliveries on the leg stump and close to the pads to restrict Kolkata’s scoring. That tactic worked well enough to keep Gayle checked and could not play freely as he is known to be a hard hitter. He reached his fifty, in the 16th over then he began to unleash himself. (more…)