Sreesanth and spot-fixing

This post is not to support Sreesanth or look into the spot-fixing incident that has rocked IPL on the morning of 16th May. ESPNCricinfo was quick to put up the overs in question into a video (attached below).

What is interesting is the fact that there are hundreds of crores of money being used in this type of fixing. How sure is the bowler to give away more than 14 runs? Agreed that he will bowl badly in the over and offer bad balls. It is also upto the batsman to hit those runs, right? 

For example, let us look at the video closely.

1. In his over, Chandila bowls a wide ball down the leg side to Finch (over 2.1) but Finch is not able to put it away for a boundary. Result is only a single.
2. Similarly, Sreesanth in his over (3.3 of the innings) balls a delivery wide outside the off stump but Gilchrist is not able to time it and there is no run given.

So, all I am saying is that even if fixing is done, it seems to be very risky proposition to be able to pull this off successfully. Obviously, I am not supporting it (repeating it again) but it seems crazy to me.

IPL4 - Top 4 teams identified.

It was a long-drawn affair for this year's IPL - 70 matches were played before the top 4 teams were identified. Here below, I have tried to note the individual performances in the IPL4 - teams that had batsmen scoring fifties/hundreds & bowlers claiming 4/5 wickets in an innings. It is not so surprising to see who has the best of all:

• Batting performances has been led by CSK (Hussey, Badrinath, MS Dhoni being the stalwarts) - obviously hinting at their batting stronghold for success so far.  Chris Gayle ensured that RCB gave a good fight to CSK (in fact, he was instrumental in the win over Chennai in the last match). It is surprising to see Punjab do well, helped by the heroics of Paul Valthaty, Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh - they slipped in the middle bunch of games which cost them the final berth.
• The bowling department sees Punjab and Mumbai lead the way - Malinga for MI while Piyush Chawla and Bhargav Bhatt did the job for Punjab XI Kings. KKR and CSK have no such performance at all. 
• KKR is a surprise - they have neither the number of landmarks nor the bowling performances. They are definitely the team that relied more on team-work rather than individual brilliance. Will this help them win the final matches? Time will tell.

IPL4 Match 63 - Gilly floors RCB

It took a whirlwind knock by Adam Gilchrist, supported by Shaun Marsh, to stop RCB's winning streak in this IPL. Once the score was on the board, RCB had no answers to the bowling attack. It was a sorry finish to the game.

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 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.

The tale of 2 overs

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The match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers hinged upon 2 overs - one each in either innings. These 2 overs were the turning points in the match.

The 1st over was in the KKR innings - Sourav Ganguly and David Hussey were repairing the KKR innings and slowly but steadily accumulating the runs. The run-rate was still not something for DC to be alarmed about. Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, was brought on by Adam Gilchrist for his last over - very bad choice since Sourav was at the crease.

For your convenience, I have added the Cricinfo commentary below:

End of over 16 (9 runs) Kolkata Knight Riders 125/3 (RR: 7.81)
DJ Hussey            19* (19b 1x6)        SC Ganguly           70* (50b 9x4 2x6)

16.1 Ojha to Hussey, no run, another missed stumping, beaten by the turn there, landed outside leg stump, Hussey came down the track but couldn't get his bat to it as it turned away, he missed and so did Gilchrist

16.2 Ojha to Hussey, 1 leg bye, spun away after pitching on leg stump, goes for the slog-sweep, is struck on the pads as it turns away, steals a leg bye

16.3 Ojha to Ganguly, SIX, massive, turning into him and he bends low to sweep that powerfully over the deep backward square leg boundary for a big six

16.4 Ojha to Ganguly, 1 wide, full and wide, saw him coming down and fired it wide but Ganguly got back into his crease in time

16.4 Ojha to Ganguly, SIX, Ganguly has spoiled Ojha's figures here, flighted on middle and he swings it miles over deep square leg, took it from a length and punished it

16.5 Ojha to Ganguly, 1 wide, Ojha is struggling, tried to get him stumped again off a wide ball but Ganguly's not falling for it, it's called by the umpire

16.5 Ojha to Ganguly, SIX, Ganguly's on fire, full toss by Ojha and Ganguly shovels that gift ball over deep midwicket, the crowd is delirious, long time coming

16.6 Ojha to Ganguly, OUT, holes out in the deep, the shot was on, on middle and on a length, Ganguly was in position to send that into the stands but connect this as well as he had the earlier ones, found Rohit in the deep
   
SC Ganguly c Sharma b Ojha 88 (54b 9x4 5x6) SR: 162.96

That ends an excellent innings, giving Kolkata a great chance of posting a more than challenging score on this slow pitch

The run-rate of KKR jumped by almost 1 run per over after this blast by Ganguly. Even if KKR had a good over of about 10, the score would have been 10 runs less. Thanks to Dada's trio of sixes, the run-rate became a healthy 181. The missed stumping of David Hussey also added to DC's pain.

The 2nd over that sealed it for KKR was the penultimate over - of course, the target was huge - 40 runs from 2 overs but Andrew Symonds was at the crease and he was looking in good form. Shane Bond was brought into the attack by Sourav Ganguly.


Commentary from Cricinfo added below:

End of over 18 (8 runs) Deccan Chargers 142/4 (40 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 7.88, RRR: 20.00)
A Symonds            38* (29b 4x4)     TL Suman            7* (7b)             
18.1 Bond to Symonds, FOUR, low full toss and he connects well, strikes it cleanly over the bowler's head wide of long-off for a one bounce four, first four since the 14th over says the TV commentator, took a while to come

18.2 Bond to Symonds, no run, trying an inswinging yorker there, moves away to steer it past point but it's fuller than he would have liked, misses

18.3 Bond to Symonds, no run, mixing it up very well, it takes some wily bowling to keep Symonds in check, the slow legcutter there, he didn't pick it and missed, another dot ball

Symonds says he can't quite see the ball, but the umpires have refused him a newer one

18.4 Bond to Symonds, no run, failing to get them away, short on middle, tries to swat that past the bowler, ends up playing it straight back to him, dot balls galore

18.5 Bond to Symonds, no run, another one, tight line, bowled on a good length on the off, strikes it back to Bond, big cheers from the crowd

18.6 Bond to Symonds, 2 runs, another superb over, finishes off with just a couple, driven wide of long-off

Shane Bond bowled exceptionally with a combination of slow balls, length balls that did not allow Symonds to attack at all. Other than the first and last balls, Symonds could keep tapping every ball. Amazing. Again, if not for Bond's control, DC could have easily scored at least 10 runs more in this over. Of course, KKR played really well in the last 5 overs of DC's innings - the runs were hard to come by and Sourav shuffled his bowlers around to keep DC guessing.

At the end of the day, KKR came out victors in the match by 24 runs. These 2 overs did make their mark in the match and ensured that KKR notched up another win over Deccan Chargers.

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IPL3 - First 5 matches

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After the first 5 days of the IPL, the excitement has (re)started!!! Last over finishes in the first 3 matches meant that the games were truly on.

What one noticed that, as usual, T20 and that too IPL is very hard to predict. Front-runners for this version have lost (Chennai SuperKings, Deccan Chargers in their first match) whereas last year's "wooden-spoonists" have come back to win the first 2 matches (I can say with modesty that I was not surprised).

The T20 specialists have made their mark already - check Angelo Matthews in the first 2 matches, Yusuf Pathan's century (another of my prediction came true), Gautam Gambhir's knock (though he no longer is just a T20 specialist) - in the first few matches.

KKR seem to have got their strategy right even though it is early days to form any opinons - Ganguly and Akram together seem to have brought about a change with the attack that promises (and delivers) more.

Deccan Chargers have their stars at the top of the order but they seem to depend a lot on Adam Gilchrist (who seems to start well but his body seems to pull him back). Gibbs and Symonds seemed to struggle but stayed at the crease to score runs quickly. Chaminda Vaas is another veteran who has impressed this year with his incisive bowling.

Delhi Daredevils are looking formidable thanks to the top-order (filled with stroke-players like Viru, Gauti, Dilshan, AB de Viliers).

RCB has the domestic stars in their team but still have to get their composition right - give them 1-2 games and they will show their mettle.


CSK will be looking forward to the forthcoming matches to get their act straight. MS Dhoni has the domestic stalwarts as well but they seemed to be overawed by the occasion.

Rajasthan Royals - Yusuf Pathan won the match for him (almost) but the others should also carry their weight and come to the game.

Kings XI Punjab - one feels for the effervescent Preity since she has a weak team and does not know how she will win. Lack of bowling firepower is clearly evident.

Mumbai Indians - Good knocks by the youngsters (Tiwari, Rayudu) was just enough to stall the heroics of Yusuf - their bowling looks good but needs tightening still.

PS - Check the venues and the home-towns of the MOM recipients here.

IPL3 starts in less than 24 hours

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The IPL is scheduled to start in less than 24 hours now and there is excitement in the Twitterverse - everyone is looking forward to the next 45 days. One's evenings are going to be busy and housewives will have problems getting the attention of their husbands to do anything!!!

Matthew Hayden is planning to use the Mongoose bat in the IPL - would be interesting to see the bat and how runs will flow from the already broad blade of Haydos.

 Darren Lehmann must be hoping to do it third time - he has been part of the winning teams in the first 2 editions.

Adam Gilchrist feels that his team does not have the pressure on them - maybe because they are not playing in their home-town. The DC skipper has advocated for a IPL window to be scheduled by ICC.

Hope the tournament does not see any problems with security, which was a big worry for many international stars.The opening ceremony will definitely be a huge spectacle, considering the nature of Lalit Modi. Let the games begin!!!

This edition will be one where many players will try to prove their point - there will be a re-auction next year and hence, the players will be eager. The favorites for this IPL - Kolkata Knight Raiders

PS - Grounds of IPL3 can be found here.

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