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The Indian Premium League auction has shown that the franchises have opted for youth over experience while buying players for their respective teams.  Yes, the big guns of yester-years had no takers and the lesser known players have been bought for huge sums.

Gautam Gambhir is the highest paid at $2.4 million. Yusaf Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma,  Saurabh Tewary and Yuvraj Singh have also seen an upward revision of their purse at the IPL door. As per IPL laws, only four foreign players are allowed in the playing eleven and the rest have to be Indians, as such the franchises need at least 70 Indian players who have an impact on Cricket. The franchises are, therefore, willing to shell out large sums of money to get the best out of the lot available.

Irfan Pathan, though side-lined earlier from India Test and ODI XI because of his inability to bowl consistently, has been bought for an exorbitant price of $1.9 million. (more…)

Dwayne Bravo led the Mumbai Indians in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and after winning the toss at the Eden Gardens Kolkatta chose to bat on Monday. Mumbai batting first meant that Kolkatta cannot defeat Mumbai by a huge margin today as they will only have to chase the assigned target. 

As Mumbai made a mess of their batting in Sachin’s absence, they gave a target of only 134 to Kolkatta to win. It was a slow pitch in the Eden Gardens and Mumbai could only muster 133 runs for the loss of eight wickets. It was the grit and determination of Saurabh Tewary and Ambati Rayudu who brought Mumbai’s total to some element of respectability, if it can be called so. 

Saurabh Tewary made 46 runs off 37 balls and puctuated them with 4 fours and one six. Ambavati Rayudu made 27 runs of 15 balls and hit 3 fours and a a six. It appeared that Mumbai had fielded a ‘B’ grade team in this inconsequential match today.  (more…)

Kolkatta Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals in an almost one-sided match.Rajasthan Royals won the toss and chose to bat against Kolkatta  at the Eden Gardens Stadium, Kolkatta on Saturday.

Rajasthan opened their innings with S.Watson and Naman Ojha and they put on 59 runs for the first wicket when Watson was bowled by Shukla for 44 runs. Watson scored seven boundaries and a six in his well compiled 44.

The Kolkatta bowler Unadakt spell doom for Rajasthan as he bowled exceptionally well and packed Ojha, Y.Pathan and Raut back to the pavillion in quick succession. (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…)

Kolkatta Knight Riders beat Deccan Chargers by 24 runs in an exciting encounter which went on to a clinical finish till the last over.

Saurav Ganguly

The Kolkatta Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first at the Eden Gardens Kolkatta on Thursday against the Deccan Chargers. The capacity crowd at the venue had something to cheer about today as their heart throb Saurav Ganguly got back to form and slammed a half-century in their presence.

Ganguly,who is affectionately called the Prince of Kolkata, slammed 88 runs and led his team to a comfortable score of 181 for the loss of six wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Ganguly hit 9 boundaries and 5 sixes in his illustrious innings of 88 and was out caught Rohit Sharma b Pragyan Ojha. (more…)

Kolkatta Knight Riders won the toss and chose to bat against Kings XI Punjab at the PCA Stadium Mohali on Saturday. Saurav Ganguly and Manoj Tewari hit half centuries for Kolkatta Knight Riders and scored 183 for 5 wickets; a score which the KingsXI Punjab could not reach and lost the match by 39 runs.  David Hussey returned to the squad for the KKR and Bret Lee made his first appearance for Kings XI Punjab and opened the bowling attack.

Chris Gayle opened the  innings with Saurav Ganguly for the Kolkatta Knight Riders. Gayle was out caught by Bisla, bowled Salabh Srivastava for 14 runs.  Saurav Ganguly and Manoj Tewary took over the reigns of the KKR and consolidated the innings. Ganguly struck his maiden 50 of IPL-3. Ganguly hit this  half century  after 16 innings and the last one was hit in 2008. (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…)

In the inaugural match of the IPL-3, Kolkatta Knight Riders beat Deccan Chargers by 11 runs at the Dr. D.Y.Patil Stadium at Mumbai. Adam Gilchrist won the toss and elected to field first and this decision was initially thought to be courageous as he had a good batting line-up and could have batted first but perhaps fielded first keeping the dew-factor in mind.

Chaminda Vaas bowled exceptionally well and took 2 KKR wickets in just 4 balls of his first over and the score card for KKR batting looked pathetic at 0-2. They had lost their first 4 wickets in quick succcesion and at that time it appeared that they would not reach even 100 runs.  (more…)