BedTea.in | Ravi Matah's Blog

India scored 166 runs for 3 wickets on the fifth and final day of the third test and saved the series. The three test series ended in a 1-1 draw. The Indian bowlers failed on the fourth day to capitalise on the advantage which India had and on the fifth day Indian batsmen ensured that they were able to draw the series for the first time in South Africa. Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir were the walls between South Africa and a series win at home.

India were playing for a draw all along and did not try to win this test Match because Dhoni and company knew that getting 340 runs on day five was a difficult ball game,   if not impossible. On the other hand South African bowlers particularly Steyn and Morkel could not dent the Indian batting much and SA managed to get only 3 wickets. (more…)

Royal Challangers Bangalore beat Deccan Chargers by nine wickets in a totaly one-sided match. Deccan Chargers won the toss and elected to bat against Royal Challangers Bangalore at the D Y Patil Stadium Mumbai on Saturday.  Deccan Chargers struggled and slipped to reach to a total of 82 runs in the third-place play-off. 

Not many people came to witness the game and it was a dull atmosphere which prevailed through Deccan’s innings. Adam Gilchrist and Monish Sharma opened the innings for Deccan Chargers and Gilchrist departed early caught at square leg boundary by Kallis while attempting to hit a six off a full toss from Kumble. 

Apart from Anirudh who scored 40 runs for his team, no other batsman could contribute much to the Deccan Chargers score. Kumble opened the bowling against Gilchrist and got him out caught by Kallis in the first over. Praveen Kumar bowled well and mixed his cutters with slower ones, in a tight spell.  (more…)

It was a game of fluctuating fortunes between runs and wickets as Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challangers fought it out at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, New Delhi on Sunday. Gautam Gambhir won the toss and chose to bat. Virendra Sehwag scored 35 runs off 22 balls and was bowled by Mithun.  Sehwag had hit two huge sixes and five fours in his 35 runs. He slammed one six off the first ball of Mithun’s over and was bowled in the very next ball. 

Kumble  bowled very well and he ensured that DD could not reach to a high total and contained them by superb bowling and fielding. Gautam Gambhir was run out and David Warner also did not last long. Warne hit three fours and two sixes but was later caught on the long-on boundry.  (more…)

Chennai Super Kings beat Royal Challangers Bangalore in a thrilling encounter. R. C. Bangalore won the toss and elected to bat at the M.A.Chidambaram Stadium at Chennai on Wednesday. Jacques Kallis and Pandey opened the innings for the RCB and Pandey could not last long and was caught by Dhoni b Thussara for 5. In came Robin Uthappa to occupy the crease and he was dropped by Goni when he was at naught.

Thereafter, Uthappa slammed two sixes and a boundary but was caught by Goni, b by Shadab Jakati for 21 runs. Virat Kohli also played well and contributed 34 runs for the RCB and was caught by Vijai b Jakati. Actually Virat Kohli and Jacques Kallis set the momentum for the RCB and were together in a half-century stand. (more…)

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets in a match played Saturday at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and elected to bat. Batting first, the Mumbai Indians scored 151 for 9 wickets. It was not one of the proper batting performances by the MI batsmen as MI lost wickets almost at regular intervals.

For the Mumbai Indians Sachin Tendulkar, their main run-machine was bowled by Vinay Kumar for 25 runs and Saurabh Tiwary 25, Rajagopal Satish 24 Kieron Pollard 21 were the other contributors to their score.  Steyn took 3 for 26 and Vinay Kumar took 3 for 25 runs for the Royal Challangers Bangalore. (more…)

Chennai Super Kings Bt Kolkatta Knight Riders Chennai Super Kings were very pleased to reach a fighting score of 164/3 in their 20 overs at the Eden Gardens Kolkatta. It was a pretty slow start as they lost some big wickets early on. Vijay and Raina got off to a start but departed soon. Both MS Dhoni and Badrinath then took over the task of rebuilding the innings and added an unbroken 109-run stand from 65 balls and they took their score to a fighting level at 164/3.

 Dhoni (66* off 33) and Badrinath (43* off 33) added 109 runs for the fourth wicket hitting some big shots towards the end. Kolkata started off well with their bowling attack but could not stop these batsman from scoring big in the final overs. (more…)

India got the scare of their life but they survived the onslaught of the South African tail and beat them by 1 run on the last ball of the nail-biting 50 over match.  South Africa won the toss and elected to field at the Savai Man Singh Stadium at Jaipur in the First ODI played between them on Sunday. India’s gave a pathetic display of their batting and their top order collapsed due to a bit of hard-luck and lapse of concentration and they lost wickets at regular intervals. 

Suresh Raina was the only batsman who could post a half century for India. Sachin (4) and Sehwag (46) were very unfortunate to be run out. No batsman was able to post a good score and there were hardly any partnerships worth mentioning. (more…)