"The IPL"...Edition_6

First topic message reminder :


Lo and behold the greatest cricketing spectacle known to mankind.....starting in a couple of days.....in it's 6th edition

And the mood of the nation is good.......on the back of a good test match series win.
test cricket is healthy and we can all enjoy IPL

Jalaj saxena, Rishi dhawan, baba aparajit, manan vohra, Ishwar Pandey, Parvez Rasool...the succeses of U-19 and FC have all been handed IPL contrcats.


Poor Kaif no takers for him....he has fallen a lot in the reckoning

Delhi will miss KP and Pune will miss Clarke.

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IPL 6: What the nine teams look like

Wisden India staff · Feb 3, 2013 ·
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Kolkata Knight Riders, the defending champions, only bought Sachithra Senanayake and Ryan McLaren. © AFP

Close to $US 11.89 million were spent on 37 players, and at the end of a process that lasted almost five hours, this is how the teams look ahead of the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League:

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS
MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, M Vijay, S Badrinath, S Anirudha, Wriddhiman Saha, Shadab Jakati, Michael Hussey, Ben Hilfenhaus, Faf du Plessis, Albie Morkel, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dwayne Bravo.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Baba Aparajith, Vijay Shankar.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Dirk Nannes (600,000), Chris Morris (625,000), Ben Laughlin (20,000), Akila Dananjaya (20,000), Jason Holder (20,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 1,285,000

DELHI DAREDEVILS
Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha, Ajit Agarkar, Unmukt Chand, Umesh Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Pawan Negi, Manpreet Juneja, Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor, David Warner, Kevin Pietersen, Morne Morkel, Andre Russell, Roelof van der Merwe.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Kedar Jadhav, Siddharth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Venugopala Rao, Gulam Bodi.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Johan Botha (450,000), Jesse Ryder (260,000), Jeevan Mendis (50,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 760,000

KINGS XI PUNJAB
Adam Gilchrist, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Mandeep Singh, Parvinder Awana, Siddharth Chitnis, Nitin Saini, Sunny Singh, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Paul Valthaty, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Harmeet Singh Bansal, R Sathish, Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, David Miller, Ryan Harris, Azhar Mehmood, Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Manan Vohra.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Luke Pomersbach (300,000), Manpreet Gony (500,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 800,000

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS
Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Debabrata Das, Manvinder Bisla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Rajat Bhatia, L Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla, Shami Ahmed, Pradeep Sangwan, Sarabjit Singh Ladda, Eoin Morgan, Brad Haddin, Brendon McCullum, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Sunil Narine, James Pattinson.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: None.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Sachithra Senanayake (625,000), Ryan McLaren (50,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 675,000

MUMBAI INDIANS
Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Pawan Suyal, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Aiden Blizzard, James Franklin, Mitchell Johnson, Dwayne Smith.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Jalaj Saxena, Rishi Dhawan.

Players bought in the 2013 auctions: Ricky Ponting (400,000), Glenn Maxwell (1,000,000), Phil Hughes (100,000), Nathan Coulter-Nile (450,000), Jacob Oram (50,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 2,000,000

PUNE WARRIORS INDIA
Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Ashoke Dinda, Rahul Sharma, Manish Pandey, Raiphi Gomez, Mithun Manhas, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ali Murtaza, Harpreet Singh, Anustup Majumdar, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Mahesh Rawat, Shrikant Wagh, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Angelo Mathews, Alfonso Thomas, Wayne Parnell, Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Mitchell Marsh.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Ishwar Pandy, T Suman, Udit Birla, Steve Smith, Tamim Iqbal.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Michael Clarke (400,000), Abhishek Nayar (675,000), Ajantha Mendis (725,000), Kane Richardson (700,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 2,500,000

RAJASTHAN ROYALS
Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane, S Sreesanth, Ashok Menaria, Stuart Binny, Siddharth Trivedi, Ankeet Chavan, Shreevats Goswami, Ajit Chandila, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Kevon Cooper.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Harmeet Singh, Dishant Yagnik, Owais Shah, Samuel Badree.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: James Faulkner (400,000), Fidel Edwards (210,000), Kushal Perera (20,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 630,000

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE
Virat Kohli, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Saurabh Tiwary, Abhimanyu Mithun, Arun Karthik, Karun Nair, S Aravind, Mayank Agarwal, Vijay Zol, KP Appanna, Harshal Patel, Syed Mohammad, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Muttiah Muralitharan, T Dilshan, Daniel Vettori, Andrew MacDonald.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Abhinav Mukund, Sandeep Warrier, Sunny Sohal, Prashanth Parameswaran.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: RP Singh (400,000), Moises Henriques (300,000), Jaidev Unadkat (525,000), Pankaj Singh (150,000), Ravi Rampaul (290,000), Christopher Barnwell (50,000), Daniel Christian (100,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 1,815,000

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD
Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Akshath Reddy, Akash Bhandari, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Bharath Chipli, Biplab Samantray, Dwarka Ravi Teja, Veer Pratap Singh, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, Rusty Theron, Kumar Sangakkara.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: None.

Players bought in the 2013 auctions: Thisara Perera (675,000), Darren Sammy (425,000), Sudeep Tyagi (100,000), Nathan McCullum (100,000), Clint McKay (100,000), Quinton de Kock (20,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 1,420,000

RCB crawling along at 5 an over...they need another Kohli masterclass...

Dhoni is so good standing up to spin isn't he? That type of leg-side stumping is so difficult, yet he makes it look as easy as anything...

Agarwal's gone

I noticed today IPL on ITV4 has a UK company as a local sponsor

Mike Selig wrote:Dhoni is so good standing up to spin isn't he? That type of leg-side stumping is so difficult, yet he makes it look as easy as anything...

Think MS is the best wicketkeeper standing up to the stumps, and his non-conventional technique makes him a handful with these stumpings.

The RCB batting has nothing much beyond the trio of Gayle, Kohli and AB. But What a formidable trio that is!. Gayle's had an off-day today, but Kohli and AB has stepped up well.

165 is the RCB total. AB with 64 of 32, and another captain's knock from Virat Kohli(58).
RCB's bowling isn't the strongest and CSK does bat long, but think RCB are the favorites going into the chase.

Well that was exciting. Don't care what you make of the IPL, if you don't appreciate the drama of that finish then you're not a cricket fan.

Kudos to Jadeja (again!) for keeping his cool.

I understand the reasoning that the spinner can go for 25 at the end, but when he's got 3-15? Might have been worth the risk at some point.

CSK it is!!. Ravindra Jadeja does it for them. They won by 4 wickets of the last ball that turned out to be a no-ball of which Jadeja was caught. But Jadeja had done the hardwork, and despite the loss of skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo, he has carried them through, and he and his side deserve that bit of luck going their way. Jadeja remained not out on 38 of 20 balls, and along with handy contributions from MS Dhoni, S Badrinath and Suresh Raina, they chased down 165. Chris Morris, who despite going for a few in his last over picked up 3 wickets, was along Jadeja at the end.

dhoni and his boys...jadeja, Raina took them throuhg...CSK is undoubtedly the most organized and professional IPL side.
Kohli's agression is good but inexperience showed.

I detest RP Singh for the smile and nonchalnace he shows when being ripped apart...time and again...
He is one of the laziest cricketers around along with Munaf and Nehra

not a IPL fan, but today was insane!

RP Singh, like Rohit Sharma, is an IPL specialist, and I absolutely loved that last over thrashing I must admit!.
Happy to see CSK win, and happy to see AB and Virat among the runs along with that superb finish from Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja continues to shut his rather mindless critiques up through consistent performances, and not through some all too rare esthetic brilliance that would appear ones in 2 years!.

RCB bringing Christian in for Henriques didn't make sense then, it doesn't make any sense at the end either. When Murali wasn't available, they should certainly have gone for Vettori who is one of the best T-20bowlers, and I am sure Vettori's batting is worth more than that of Christian.

AB D Villiers is a wizard in T20 in terms of the improvisations he can do.

his reflexes and hand eye coordination....enable hism to move, in the crease, get down on knees and sweep pace bowlers with an elbow pivot sweeps...sometimes reverse.......and last season he swept Steyn at 145kph for a six....

the TIE involving Hyderabad and then the chanse from CSK today...have been 2 astounding thrillers already..

Morgan was electrifying today......pushed them to about 12 to 15 runs extra.
Hyderabad trying hard...but their strength is not in scoring BIG but restricting their opponents

sunrisers lose

Yeah I feel the Sunrisers just lack a bit of batting power if I'm honest.

Perera can whack it, but he needs to improve other aspects of his game really...

Tell you what they're some pretty decent young keepers around if this IPL is anything to go by.

5 needed off the last over with 6 wickets in hand

good effort by kings to take this to the last over.

KKR registered an easy win over SH in the first game. As already mentioned here, the SH batting lacks any serious power other than the inconsistent and struggling White and Thisara Perera. Sangakkara had another failure today.
SH do have a very promising young wicketkeeper batsman who can open, and give it a pretty decent thwack. His game is flexible enough to bat in different positions. Yet they aren't playing young Quinton de Kock. Going by current form, either White or Sanga will have to give way for Quinton at the earliest. I feel with him and Shikhar Dhawan, SH will have some firepower up front, and that would let Perera play a freer game as well. But Shikhar might take a few more days to get fully match fit, but if they have any sense, they should play de Kock right from the next game onwards.

RR winning the other game of the day, against KXIP. KXIP again has a weaker batting lineup, and RR has a pretty decent pace bowling unit.
Good to see young Kerala wicketkeeper Sanju Samson doing well for RR. Nice to see these players from division 3 domestic sides utilizing the IPL stage to get noticed.

msp83 wrote: .
Good to see young Kerala wicketkeeper Sanju Samson doing well for RR. Nice to see these players from division 3 domestic sides utilizing the IPL stage to get noticed.

wicket keeping is a heart breaking profession....given that however good you are you know the international slot is just one and blocked for good in the foreseeable future by Dhoni....in all formats
Karthik's batting has been electric and he would have done well to make himself availbale as a pure batsmen a few seasons back.

Rayadu is the best bet in my view to be in the squad of 15........as a back up batsmna cum spare/ emergency WK for ODIs as well as tests

Karthik had his chances as a batsman only, but despite a few good performances, he was by and large rather too inconsistent for a top order batsman. Even his domestic form in the first class matches has been rather patchy, a few good performances, and then a great deal of inconsistency.
The one good thing with Sanju Samson is that he's only 20, and if he keeps the level of performance up, he should get his chances may be 5 years down the line. In my view, Samson, and the U-19 wicketkeeper Smit Patel are in with a good chance to be India's Gen Next wicketkeeper. But the disadvantage for Patel is that he plays for Gujarat, where Parthiv Patel is established as the wicketkeeper. Smit Patel played the entire Ranji season as batsman only, with Parthiv taking the gloves.
By the way, has Smit bagged an IPL contract?

msp83 wrote:Karthik had his chances as a batsman only, but despite a few good performances, he was by and large rather too inconsistent for a top order batsman.

if Karthik and Badrinath gotzs anywhere close to the chnaces that Rohit, Rain and Ishant got...they would be all established stars by now

Gautam Gambhir may have been declared Man of the Match, but the Kolkata Knight Riders captain believed it was Eoin Morgan's busy innings that set up the team's 48-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens.

"We always believed he [Morgan] is a class act," Gambhir said. "We thought of giving him some more time in the middle and thus pushed him up the order. He responded magnificently."



Morgan is getting a lot of credits and praises by experts and media.
People still also remember how he pulled victroy from jaws of defeat in the last T20 series against India.

His market value is rising and if he continues to fire in anotehr half a dozen matches......he will be a Million Dollar star in IPL v. 2014

With Badree, I certainly agree that he hasn't had a fair chance given to him. Don't think that could hold true for Karthik though. He has played 23 test matches, 52 ODIs and 9 T-20Is. Averages of 27 in tests and ODIs, and 16 in T-20Is clearly suggest that he didn't quite take his chances. It has to be noted that his first class batting average is only 40.

CSK vs PW today. PW won the toss and are batting. The forced absence of regular skipper Angelo Mathews means Ross Taylor is leading the side, and that also gives Steve Smith an opportunity in the playing side. They are still going in with Mitchell marsh for some reason, and there is no Luke Wright.
CSK is resting Mike hussy. S Anirudha comes in to open along with Murali Vijay. Albie Morkel is playing his first game of the season, in place of Mohit Sharma.

Steve Smith finished with a blinder...like he did a number of times in the last IPL making him thr favorite and one of the most awaited players...

I was surprised they didn't have in their starting 11 from game-1.

and today he showed along with ABD Villiers and Eoin Morgan...he is one of the most electrric and mercurial players in the T20 version...esepcially if they last in the finishing overs.

The reverse swept / slogged SIX off Bravo was as ingenius as ABDV's swept fours and sixes of Steyn last year.


160 is what Chennai need...but I would back Pune today...they just have enough.....Chennai are a bit complacent....and momentum is with Pune

PW reaches 159-5 at the end. The openers had put together a fine partnership up front, with Finch being the aggressor. He scored 67 of 45. But then they had a bit of a collapse, but Steve Smith, playing his first game of the season, managed some lusty blows to score 39 not out of just 16 balls to help his side put together a pretty decent total.
CSK bats all the way down to 10, so PW would need Bhuvneshwar Kumar and co to be on target from ball one, and they would need some early wickets to stop CSK here.

That was quite some cameo from Smith. I suspect though it won't be enough as the others around him capitulated. Taylor again failing, and using up precious time. Finch played another good knock.

I like Mitch Marsh, but he's struggled so far. Wright has to be worth a shout.

KPF, Bhuvi is the key for PW in my view. If he gets the ball to move around in the early overs, PW could apply some pressure on CSK, remember they are without Mr Cricket today.

Marsh has to do something special with the ball today. Otherwise, its high time Luke Wright is given a go. Taylor has had another failure, when Angelo returns, Taylor's spot should be very vulnerable, not that Mathews has done anything to deserve automatic selection, either as player, or as skipper.

Well, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has absolutely no intention whatsoever of making life easy for CSK, gets Anirudha 2nd ball, LBW without scoring.

Taylor continuing with Bhuvneshwar, Bhuvi into his third over. PW will have to find at least 8 overs from Marsh, Nayar, Finch and Smith.

And Bhuvneshwar strikes, the big wicket of Suresh Raina. This match is shaping up well.

Badri and Jadeja had put together a decent partnership, but the set Badrinath is now gone, Marsh with the wicket. CSK under a bit of pressure. They do have some power in reserve, Dhoni, Albie, Bravo and Morris, but it won't be easy. .

Now Jadeja goes, Marsh with another wicket.

46 of the last 3, and the first couple of balls from Dinda producing only singles. And another glorious catch from Smith, MSD gone, and tI think that's the game for the day.

The catching has been outstanding from PW today. Smith has been taking some absolute blinders, and now Finch joins in the party.

runs on th board is half the battle won and 160 is the type of score when if you are not off the block quick....very quickly RRR climbs to 10 RPO
CSK were also done in by a bit of call it complacency or call it over confidence in their striking power.

Smith was a live wire in the field......electrifying catches and so much of positive energy around him....how could anyone leave him out of their side...EVER

Dinda redeemed himsefl with his yorkers at the end......B. Kumar and Rahul sharma were steady.

Finch is shining at the top.....but Uthappa is past his prime and "eating" too many deliveries at the top.....Nayar should be opening their batting.

either of Taylor or Marsh will be replaced by Matthews next game.

This has been a very good defence from Pune; Kumar excellent up front, been impressed every time I've seen him; Marsh chipped in with 3 very good overs at the end (a bit unlucky with Morkel's 6 off him); Sharma was his usual excellent self in the IPL.

Taylor marshaled his troupes very well, and got his key fielders in the key places. Smith was as per usual simply outstanding. Finch grabbed a beauty as well (although by that stage it was almost accademic).

Overall a much deserved win for Pune who comfortably outplayed CSK, despite some strangely poor play by some of their middle-order.

CSK will possibly regret resting Hussey - they could have done with some nous up front. Certainly I'm not sure Morkel's batting is enough on its own to get him a place in this line-up; Morris has really taken his chance well.

That catch from Smith off MSD was simply brilliant. Can't stress how hard it is to come running in when it's hit hard and flat.

Overall I have to say the standard of fielding in this IPL has been much higher than previous editions.

Mike Selig wrote:This has been a very good defence from Pune; Kumar excellent up front, been impressed every time I've seen him;.

That's very true.......B.Kumar is a prodigious swing bowler.....swings it big both ways handy lower order bat...India's answer to Philander

PW upsets CSK. Comfortable win in the end, won by 24.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar the man of the match for me. His spell set it up nicely for them, and then he came back and bowled a splendid 19th over, not considered among his specialities, death bowling.

i would be surprissed if the MoM is anyone but Smith

it's amazing how the "aged" Hussey, Dravid and Ponting have plucked out the most spectatcular catches in the tournament so far

Bhuvi isn't quite in the Philander league as yet, Philander keeps the runs down even when not taking wickets but Bhuvi hasn't achieved that kind of consistency as yet.
But he has certainly has provided to the Indian cricket supporter who was worrying about 'What after Zaheer' question. And he has had pretty decent success in all the 3 formats at the start of his international career.

Smith was certainly brilliant today, but for me it was Bhuvi who set the match up for PW with that terrific opening spell that put CSK too much on the backfoot.
No complaints though with the eventual choice of Smith, as he not only rescued an innings that was losing way after a fine start, but also was well and truly outstanding in the field.

KKR v KXIP, and RCB v DD are the matches for today.

KKR won the toss and are bowling. They continue to play both Narine and Senanayake, meaing no place for Brett Lee, even on a relatively seam friendly track at Mohali. Debabrata Das comes in for Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
For KXIP, David Miller comes in, replacing Ryan Harris, and Manpreet Goni gets a game, in place of R Satish.

after what looked like an average / decent first 10 overs........Narine comes in and take a hat-trick...to knock all the wind out og Punjab's sails.

Sunil Narine is brilliant