IPL 5

April 3, 2012 is the inaugural day of the 5th edition of the Indian Premier League which has given a new definition to domestic cricket tournaments in India. IPL 2012 is back once again with its glam and exciting sports spirit to entertain viewers from all across the world. According to the present Chairman of IPL, Shri Rajiv Shukla, the inaugural ceremony will be held on April 3 2012 at Chepauk Stadium in Chennai. The 1st match of this tournament will be on the following day between the Mumbai Indians and the champions of IPL 4, Chennai Super Kings. There will be 74 matches in this 54 day long tournament. In comparison to the last four IPL seasons, this will be the longest season of IPL. The same Chepauk Stadium will also host the final match which will be held on May 27 2012.

After the active participation of Bollywood celebrities and top Indian industrialists investing mammoth amounts for each of the teams and its players, the owners are positively content with the Indian and international cricketers who are participating in this breathtaking Twenty20 tournament. The IPL board has declared the names of all participating teams and its players. Owing to some serious issues, the governing body of IPL, BCCI, has terminated the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise so there will be only 9 teams in this edition of the tournament. These teams, representing different regions of India, have been divided into 2 groups; Group A and Group B. Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors are included in Group A whereas Group B includes Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

However, there is some striking news for IPL 5. Some of the international tournaments are coinciding with this tournament, and as a result many international cricketers are not participating in IPL 5. On the other side, there are two changes in the captaincy of two teams. Yuvraj Singh’s serious illness has compelled him to stay away from IPL 5 and in place of this former captain of the Pune Warriors, former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly will lead Pune Warriors. He has also been selected as the coach of the team. In place of the former captain of Rajasthan Royals Shane Warne, this year, the dependable wall of the Indian Cricket Team, Rahul Dravid, will take the responsibility of this team.

Taken from: http://bhaveshbhatia.hubpages.com/hub/Indian-Premier-League-2012-Preview

Will you be watching?
Which matches are you looking forward to seeing?

Will be watching most of the games during the week and more than likely not remembering the next day who'd played let alone who won. Does make for some decent early-evening light entertainment. I generally making a point of adopting a team to support then forgetting who it was amidst the hatred for the commentators & their "**** moment of success" & "*** maximum".

To add some interest we have a 606v2 tipping pool on Sportsguru for the IPL https://www.606v2.com/t26819-sportguru-ipl-tipping-competition#1094231

I opted to support the (defunct) Kochi Tuskers as I managed them in Gregers' fantasy comp last year, as a result SG automatically put me in the Pune supporters' pool

GO CHARGERS GO!!!!!!!!!!

C'mon Chennai!

I'll be watching: in amongst all the razmatazz of the IPL there is no doubt there is often some excellent cricket played (the fielding not quite so much, with the notable exceptions of Warner and AB), although this year's will surely be poorer for the absence of Warne.

Not sure we need 74 games though? People said the WC was long?

Not really a fan of the IPL so glad to see there is 74 games which is over kill and as a result the IPL will be dead inside 10 years. If the organisers were sensible they'd keep the IPL to every 2 years but no, there's too much money involved.

Classic line by Dhoni just then:

"Looks like the wicket will get better to bat on, but we are not worried because we think it will remain the same."

MI did a good job yesterday, fixed there problem last year in having a good batsman to open with the great man

74 games Love the IPL personally.

And Mumbai stormed the first game

74 games is a ridiclous amount...

16 group games is too much

however come on deccan

The tournament is definitely too long, though there are half the total matches we had in the FLt20 last year.

The cricket can be good, and I'll certainly be watching, but is often ruined by awful commentators like Danny Morrison.

Agreed about Danny Morrison et al, he's long past being accidentally funny & is now insanely annoying. Maybe they're there to chase away some of the new fans T20 is supposed to be bringing to cricket so appreciators of test cricket don't get too badly outnumbered.

200 posts up so well done to me. Wish it could've been a bit more memorable, perhaps containing a fascinating fact. Ah well.

OMG James Franklind is realy bad bowled 1 over and went for 12 and only scored 31 of 42 what cost MI any chance on winning

I actually really enjoy some of the over the top commentary from Morrison et al. One of my favourites from last year:

"He's hit that into next week!"
"If he's hit that into next week, how are we going to finish this game?!"

deccan start their campagin tomorrow against chennai.

GO CHARGERS GO!

Chennai destroyed Chargers by near 40 runs.

Pune did well in their first game with the ball, what was missing was an explosive batsmen in top of the order, They have Ryder and Tamim Iqbal available - Iqbal in better form

WTF is a yellow card????

Just saw Dale steyn bowl a few balls at 152.5 and 154.2 km/h. Impressive bowling 3/12 off 4 overs.

What a bowling attack the MI will have when mitchell Johnson gets there

4 overs each from Mailga, Harbajan, M Patle, Oja and Johnson good luck trying to score from that lot

Two cracking knocks today. One from Pollard for Mumbai and another for Owais Shah for Rajhastan! Such a shame he never made it for England, always had talent.

JDizzle wrote:Two cracking knocks today. One from Pollard for Mumbai and another for Owais Shah for Rajhastan! Such a shame he never made it for England, always had talent.

He was quite unlucky in that he made a promising start but didn't get a good opportunity immediately, and when it did come he looked panicky, slow in the field and a poor runner between wickets. In a sense his face didn't fit in the Strauss/Flower regime.

doug bollinger is having a bit of a nightmare against bangalore at moment

Y O Y bowl koli 2nd to last over

what a game!!got to feel for rcb,but why oh why would vettori get kohli to bowl the 2nd to last over and why not bowl fuller.but then albi was lucky with the 1st 4 and then well all hell broke loose.well played csk.

Stormers, did you see Albie with his 28 runs of 7 balls by any chance? Oh, sorry, maybe I should read more attentively, eh?

Enormous hitting from Albie Morkel. Terrible decision to bowl Kohli with 2 overs and a mountain of runs left to get.

To be fair it's easy to criticise in hindsight. On another day that inside edge canons into the stumps and Vettori's a hero.

What were the other options? Gayle I guess maybe?

i agree mike,it worked for him today but i wouldn't have said that vettori would have been a hero because of bravo still being there and jadeja,who can hit a ball.

yes biltong i did,funnily enough it's the first match i've watched from start to finish and what a match( reminds me of the 438 run match against the aussies).don't like it though,too much of a sideshow.i can understand why it works but it's not really cricket for me.

Stormers, I agree with your sentiment, I watch the odd game when I don't have anything more pressing or interesting to do, it is just too much for me.

Not sure who is watching Rajastan Royals batting, but this is how it has gone the last number of overs.

End of over 13, RR are 82/1

Then:

Over 14: 4,4,4,4,4,4 (24 runs)
Over 15: 4,0,1,0,1,0 (6 runs)
Over 16: 6,1,1,6,2,wide,4 (21 runs)
Over 17: 6,1,6,6,4,1 (24 runs)
Over 18: 4,1,6,4,4,1,1 (21 runs)
Over 19: 0,4,4 byes, (Shah wicket 60 of 26 balls), 1,0 (9 runs)
Over 20: 4,0,4,1,1,1 (11 runs)

RR end on 195/2

Rahane not out on 103 runs of 60 balls

I was watching, it was some impressive hitting from Shah and Rahanne and some pretty indifferent bowling on a good pitch.

It's quite amusing that Brad Hogg at about 60 years of age is one of the more athletic fielders out there

No wonder y DC are last only kumar sangakkara got out to a half decent delivery

Pietersen has just finished playing one of his specials... 103 off 63 balls, almost all the runs smashed down the ground. Next best score from a team-mate was 20ish.

I missed it

did you see it Mike? was it as good as it appears to be?

Kept tabs on it on cricinfo, Mike. Seems like it was an awesome innings, 9 sixes!

DC dropped him when he was under 20... Can't afford to do that Deccan!

Well done super Kev!

yeah it was pretty much as good as it sounds. Dropped early on (a fair sitter really) but then took Chawla apart. Two amazing 6s off the back-foot over extra-cover/long-off, and finished it with a 6 down the ground off the back-foot also. Awesome clean hitting, proper cricket shots this time.

A nice moment with Steyn when he walked down the pitch and tapped it back, Steyn threw at the stumps (obviously) and they exchanged some friendly words and a smile afterwards.

Deccan's fielding is astonishingly poor.

Not Chawla but it was Mishra. Awesome knock by England's best batsman though Deccan's fielding was very bad.

Mike Selig wrote:
Deccan's fielding is astonishingly poor.

Most of the fielding in the IPL is astonishingly poor. The commentators don't seem to realise that though, anything that isn't dropped is described as an "unbelievable catch".

cricketfan12 wrote:Not Chawla but it was Mishra.

Correct. Apologies. Neither seems to want to bowl any leg-breaks...

Brutal hitting.

More brutal hitting! Delhi are chasing 193 and KP has just smashed 3 sixes in the sixth over!

5.3
Mathews to Pietersen, SIX, how do you play that shot? That was a shorter ball, it was slower and Pietersen could have played it anywhere on the field, he chose to play it over the bowler's head for a six!

5.5
Mathews to Pietersen, SIX, pitched slightly up to the bat and this time Pietersen drives him over the in-field and it carries!

5.6
Mathews to Pietersen, SIX, three in the over, second match in a row that he has smacked three sixes in an over, this time it was spanked over the long-on region for a six! Delhi are away!

Not enough this time though.

Steve Smith is playing really well in this IPL. I'm pleased, I thought he received far too much grief after the ashes, and have always thought he's an interesting cricketer to watch and a good guy to have in your side. Excellent fielder as well. If he can recapture his leg-spin from the T20 WC he could easily get back into the Australian side.

Mike Selig wrote:

Steve Smith is playing really well in this IPL. I'm pleased, I thought he received far too much grief after the ashes, and have always thought he's an interesting cricketer to watch and a good guy to have in your side. Excellent fielder as well. If he can recapture his leg-spin from the T20 WC he could easily get back into the Australian side.

Mike - generally go along with your comments about Smith. However, the 'if' in your last sentence is a big one. Leg spin is a fickle friend and once it leaves you is often reluctant to return.

cameron white IPL stats are strange 5 30+ but only a best of 31

sadly deccan are bottom