IPL4 Match 36 - Sehwag's blitz blanks Kochi

Sehwag proved to be the difference between the two teams - his blitzkrieg was what Kochi missed on a track that was helpful to the bowlers. The result was never in doubt from the first over - the frequent wickets making it easier for Delhi to notch up a rare win.

IPL4 Match 35 - Virat helps RCB beat Pune

Virat Kohli's knock earned him not only the Orange Cap but also his team a winning target. Pune tried their best through Ryder and Yuvraj Singh but it was too little to make any impact. The end result meant that RCB notched up their first home win in the tournament.

IPL4 Match 34 - Rajasthan crush Mumbai

In what was an anti-climactic match, Rajasthan Royals crushed Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets. The Mumbai team was strangled in the mid-overs by the bowling of Shane Warne and Johan Botha. Botha once again shone with the bat, taking his team past the easy target.

IPL4 Match 33 - Tiwary and Abdulla take KKR through

Manoj Tiwary played probably his best innings in IPL so far to take KKR to a total that was going to be challenging for Delhi. Despite the efforts of Virender Sehwag and James Hopes, Delhi failed to get past the bowling of Iqbal Abdulla.

IPL4 Match 32 - Ishant flattens Kochi

What looked like a decent target to chase was made to look like a mountain for Kochi Tuskers by the incisive bowling by Ishant Sharma. Ishant, after a long time, delivered a spell that highlighted his potential - he is really enjoying the opportunity to bowl alongside Dale Steyn. Sangakkara had in the first innings, held the innings together and pieced a score that looked par for the course. In the final count, it was 55 more.

IPL4 Match 31 - CSK win again

CSK coasted to an easy win against Yuvi's Pune Warriors by eight wickets, completing a second win against the same time in 3 days. Badrinath and Suresh Raina completed the act, after the good start given by Murali Vijay. Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa had contributed useful scores to help Pune post a score that eventually was not enough.

IPL4 Match 30 - RCB squeeze past Delhi

Virat Kohli kick-started a potentially tough chase for RCB against Delhi Daredevils but he did not finish the match for his team. That task was left to Daniel Vettori and Syed Mohammed. After the fall of wickets, the run-chase became difficult as the worm shows below but RCB held its nerve to reach the target.

IPL4 Match 29 - Dhoni puts it past Yuvi

Good friends, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, were on opposite sides captaining their franchises. Michael Hussey once again provided the platform for a score that was above-par for the match. Supported brilliantly by Albie Morkel with the ball, CSK romped home in a convincing win over Pune Warriors. This win was probably the spark Chennai was waiting for - will they turnaround their campaign now?

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• Pandey back after ban as Pune field (espncricinfo.com)

IPL4 Week 2 - Malinga reigns supreme

Lasith Malinga was in the news the last week for having retired from test cricket. His reasoning was that his knee injury could not withstand the rigors of cricket where he had to bowl 15 overs or more in a day. In this context, the T20 format of four overs per bowler fits in ideally in his case. The fact that his ex-captains, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, supported his decision lends creditability to his decision. No one has been criticizing the decision like they do of others.

Not just off the field, Malinga continues to don the headlines on the ground as well. Look at his exploits for Mumbai Indians in 6 matches so far. 16 wickets at an average of 9 runs per wicket, economy rate hovering around 6 runs per over and more importantly a strike rate of a wicket every 9 balls approximately. This literally means that his average bowling figures this season have been 4 overs for 24 runs while taking at least 2 wickets. What a performer!

Similarly, on the batting front, Sachin Tendulkar has led the way (again, another Mumbaikar) with a strike-rate that is decent in T20 and a staggering average for this format. His performance dipped a bit, more due to the demise of his spiritual guru rather than any cricketing reason. Ably supported by Ambati Rayudu, SRT has dominated the batting most of the times. When he does not, the rival teams have to put up with Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds - imagine the plight of the bowling attacks! And we are not even talking about Pollard. This shows why Mumbai are the favorites to make it a successful season for Sachin - an IPL tournament win will be the icing on the cake for this season.

Shaun Marsh and David Warner are two Oz who must be wondering why they are not part of their national team more often. They are making statements regularly and this must be a good platform to showcase their form to the national selectors. Shane Warne, though, must be showing the same set of people what the current team is missing by his exploits. What a legend he has been!

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• Malinga retires from test cricket (cbc.ca)

IPL4 Match 28 - Warne's magic shines again

The Best captain Australia never had.
The Best spinner from Australia at age of 42, more than four years after his retirement.
Shane Warne, take a bow!
His spell to restrict and then dismiss Kochi Tuskers was a repeat of his legendary ones. The match was reduced to a formality of a win for Rajasthan Royals.

IPL4 Match 27 - Mumbai eases past Deccan

First it was the Rohit (Sharma) and Roy (Andrew Symonds) show. Then, Malinga took over with the ball and reduced Deccan Chargers to a chase that never was.

IPL4 Match 26 - Sehwag and Warner show

Sehwag and David Warner combined very well to post a large score for Delhi. The target was always going to be a difficult one to chase but Shaun Marsh tried his best with a whirlwind innings in vain.

IPL4 Match 25 - Harbhajan sinks CSK

Badrinath's valiant effort came to naught, thanks to Harbhajan's heroics - a long time since the Sardar took five wickets in any format. Rohit Sharma had given a good platform for the Mumbai bowlers which proved to be beyond CSK's reach. The last 'up' in the graph showing the effect Harbhajan's last over had on the match.

IPL4 Match 24 - Gayle force hits KKR

An ex-KKR player and now an import for RCB, Chris Gayle smashed a century to help his team defeat KKR at Kolkata. The target was a stiff one but Gayle and Dilshan (and later Virat Kohli) reached the required score in a canter.

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IPL4 Match 23 - Kings XI crush Rajasthan

An overwhelming victory for Kings XI Punjab, thanks to the large score put up by Shaun Marsh, Paul Valthaty and Adam Gilchrist. Shaun Tait and Shane Watson bowled well but were not supported well enough by other bowlers.

IPL4 Match 22 - Kochi keep winning

Kochi Tuskers, thanks to their bowling, managed to keep their winning streak going. Against a spirited Kochi bowling, KKR could not reach the modest target put up by the batsmen. Good last over by Vinay Kumar restricted the scoring and won the match for his franchise. The worm below shows the way the match tilted in each team's favor until the last two overs.

World Cup 2011 - What this victory will bring?

The 1983 win by Kapil's Devils heralded a new chapter in India's cricketing history. ODI cricket picked up in a big way and India followed it up with a convincing victory in 1985 Down Under. Though the squad did not pick up any great monetary benefits, they are still in demand for their epic win. BCCI realized that there was a good potential in pushing ODI cricket in the country.

2007 - T20 World Cup win by Dhoni's dashers. A new-look team under the first-time captaincy of MS Dhoni. What a change this brought about in Corporate India. IPL was born and there was no looking back for Indian cricketers. The players were assured adequate security on the monetary front by creating wonders on the IPL arena. It was a challenge for players to keep their head above the shoulders with the amount of money flowing in the system. Club vs Country was the question that started making rounds.

2011 World Cup. What this will bring about is anyone's guess but my hope and wish is to see Indian Sports as a whole going to the next level. Team India has progressed in various fields to a greater extent than 1983 or 2007. Chess (V Anand), Tennis (Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi), Billiards (Geet Sethi) were the sports that was in vogue till a couple of years back. Now, other than the spurt seen in chess (one has lost count of the number of Grandmasters in India), one can see India progressing in different sports - Tennis (Sania Mirza, Somdev Devvarman, Rohan Bopanna), Badminton (Saina Nehwal, Jwala Gutta), Shooting (Rajvardhan Singh Rathore, Abhinav Bindra, Mansher Singh and host of others), Boxing (Vijender & Co.), Wrestling (Sushil Kumar), Archery teams and many more. There will be a bunch of future Tendulkars, Dhonis, Sehwags who will adopt the game of cricket but one wishes that similar movements happen in these sports also.

Will there be a Sporting Revolution triggered by the cricket-crazy nation? One only hopes so.      

IPL4 Match 17 - KKR crush Rajasthan

Rajasthan rested Rahul Dravid and Johan Botha (due to an toe injury), resulting in a weakened batting line-up. The Rajasthan bowlers, led by L Balaji and Iqbal Abdulla, ran through the batting to restrict them to a paltry 81. Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary led KKR to a comfortable victory despite the attempts of the three Aussies - Watson, Warne and Tait. Balaji's delivery to dismiss Watson was a treat to watch - dont miss it in the highlights section.

IPL4 Match 16 - Delhi post maiden win

Delhi, thanks to the heroics of their lower-order batsmen (James Hopes, Venugopala Rao), defeated the Pune Warriors today. Warner and Sehwag had given a good start in the beginning but going into the last 5 overs, it looked like Pune would win once again. Yuvraj Singh had done all the things right with the bat and ball, but it was not good enough.

IPL4 Match 15 - Kings XI thrash Deccan Chargers

Whatever Paul Valthaty touches, seems to be turning to gold. Today, he turned his arm over and took 4 wickets before putting on a large partnership with his captain for the first wicket. Though, on paper, the target looked challenging, reality was much different. The ease with which Paul and Adam Gilchrist chased down the score is clearly evident from the worm below.

IPL4 Match 14 - CSK beat RCB

Thanks to their latest reinforcement, Michael Hussey, CSK put up a big score on the board, which was always going to be difficult for RCB to chase down. Quick wickets did not help RCB's chase and they were always behind.

IPL4 Week 1 Round-up

After a week of play, the IPL4 has shown that no team can be considered as favorites. Teams that were considered to be easy qualifiers (CSK and Mumbai Indians) have lost matches while entrants like Pune Warriors have notched up couple of wins already. But what is interesting to see is the march of young Indians who were not in the limelight so far. Two new teams meant that fourteen Indian players will get a chance to play against the best from around the world - this alone must be the single silver lining of adding more teams to the already crowded IPL.

The first match saw the rise of Anirudha Srikkanth - a player who has been under the influence of his father throughout his career. His innings saw CSK scrape through their first match at home but even he will admit that he has been overshadowed by an opponent he faced in CSK's second match - Paul Valthaty. Valthaty is now all over the papers as well as the television for his blistering knock to take his team past CSK. His tale has been an interesting one - playing the junior World Cup for India only to be sidelined by an eye injury and then make a comeback like this is nothing short of a fairy tale.

Bharat Chipli and Ambati Rayudu have been performing for their team in the opportunities received so far. Rayudu's innings against RCB got the praise of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who pulled him along to take the MoM award. Another junior World Cup player, Rayudu was lost to the world because of his ICL exploits but has been making a comeback of sorts through the IPL. Bharat, however, has not done much of note for his state team in the domestic tournament but has been regarded for quite a while as the one to watch out for. Manish Pandey might have overtook him in the popularity stakes but Bharat seems to have caught up with him.

On the bowling front, Iqbal Abdulla has been a revelation - consistently doing well for Mumbai state meant that he has been knocking on the selection doors. This performance will augur well for him in future assignments. Siddharth Trivedi has been steady for Rajasthan Royals - a role he has been doing consistently in the previous three editions also. Why he cannot make use of this and goto the next level is a surprise.    

Overall, it is heartening to see Indian talent shining through a number of international players - something to cheer about in this cricketainment show of BCCI.

Related articles

• IPL4 Match 8 - Mumbai thrash Bangalore (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)
• IPL4 Match 1 - CSK defeat KKR (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)

IPL4 Match 13 - Mumbai upset by Kochi

Kochi Tuskers registered their first win in IPL in a convincing manner, chasing down a huge score put up by Mumbai Indians. Sachin Tendulkar's century was not enough for Mumbai as Mahela Jayawardene and Brendon McCullum orchestrated the chase superbly.

IPL4 Match 12 - Kallis and Gambhir take KKR home

Thanks to exploits of Kallis and Gambhir, KKR reached a stiff target of 160 in a canter. Trivedi and Warne tried to pull back in the middle overs but could not restrict the two stalwarts. It was surprising why Shane Warne did not make Shane Watson the opener during Rajasthan Royals innings.

IPL4 Match 11 - Deccan have a home win at last

Deccan Chargers, thanks to Bharat Chipli and Sunny Sohal, put up a large score on the board against RCB. Facing Dale Steyn and co, RCB were always behind the asking rate - the worm below will show that. An easy win for DC - first win at Hyderabad ever.

IPL4 Match 10 - Pune keep winning

Mohnish Mishra is the next Indian batsman who has come out of nowhere to be the star. He helped Pune chase the tough target with an over to spare. Where batsmen like Yuvraj and Robin Uthappa failed, Mishra took his team through.

IPL4 Match 9 - CSK upset by Punjab

Thanks to Paul Valthaty's heroics, Punjab put it across CSK in a convincing manner. The Mumbai batsman has sprung into everyone's limelight by his century today, against a team that was clearly one of the favorites to win the tournament. Knocks by Vijay, Badrinath and Dhoni went in vain in the final analysis. Looking at the worm, it looks like a perfect chase by the Punjab team.