Chennai Super Kings face royal challenge

CHENNAI: There's always an added flavour of southern rivalry to a Tamil Nadu-Karnataka contest. The Indian Premier League is more about franchises, but if you ask the owners of bothChennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, they will say that this is one contest they would hate to lose. 

The local crop of the CSK team, too, harbours similar sentiments. They play Karnataka in different competitions through the year and there's always the added zing to be the best side of the zone when they are up against the boys from Bangalore. The likes of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina have been in the mix for four years now and they understand what their franchisee expects out of them in this needle clash. 

RCB, though, has undergone quite a few changes this year. The likes of Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid,Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey and R Vinaykumar are gone and it is difficult for the new crop to understand the sentiments of a Karnataka-Tamil Nadu scuffle. However, Kumble is pretty much a part of the RCB think-tank and one can be rest assured that the hard taskmaster will tell the boys what is expected from them in this prestige fight. 

And the very fact that RCB have lost two games in a row should also make them all the more keen to turn the tables on CSK. Though the IPL is a long journey and there have been quite a few comebacks after initial jitters, Daniel Vettori's boys cannot risk another failure in this game. 

The fact that Tillakaratne Dilshan hasn't been at his menacing best at the top of the order has left the team management a little worried. The team banks heavily on the Sri Lankan and though he has got a half-century against Mumbai Indians, RCB hope for something more from the opener. CSK, on the other hand, have been boosted by the addition of Doug Bollinger to lead their pace attack, but it's to be seen whether they play him right away against RCB. 

"Bollinger is a welcome addition to our attack and he is almost back to his full fitness," CSK coachStephen Fleming didn't commit whether he will play Saturday's game. RCB, though, are struggling with the injury of Dirk Nannes. The left-arm paceman is a brilliant T20 bowler, but now that he is unavailable, the load is a little too much on Zaheer Khan. The Indian pacer has had a long season and hasn't looked at his lethal best in the IPL. 

However, RCB skipper Daniel Vettori isn't losing sleep over it. "CSK are a very good team, but Kings XI have showed that they are beatable. There's no reason why we can't repeat the same thing," Vettori said after their loss to Deccan Chargers on Thursday. 

The loss was surely a bit of a disappointment for CSK, but Dhoni's boys are looking to forget it as a one-off episode. The arrival of Mike Hussey has increased their options, but the team management didn't give clear indications whether he will play on Saturday. 

Key Clashes: CSK vs RCB 

Doug Bollinger vs Tillakaratne Dilshan: Bollinger is back from an injury lay-off and will be the spearhead of the Chennai Super Kings attack. He was pretty much the backbone of the CSK pace attack last season and it will be on Tillakaratne Dilshan to counter him. The duel between the two can well decide the fate of the match 

MS Dhoni vs Daniel Vettori: Both are canny skippers and know how to handle their resources. Both the skippers have suffered defeats in their last games and they will have to motivate their boys to come back hard. It will also be interesting to see how Dhoni handles Vettori in the middle. The left-arm spinner has been good in the IPL so far and it may come down to Dhoni to take a few liberties against him and negate his effect. 

Zaheer Khan vs Murali Vijay: Vijay looked good in the game against Kings XI and he can be a threat to any attack if he is able to negotiate the first couple of overs. Zaheer though, will bring all his experience into play and will look to strike early and put CSK on the backfoot so the famed middle-order comes under pressure. But if Vijay does play out Zaheer without much difficulty, things may go uphill for RCB.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/ipl-2011/news/Chennai-Super-Kings-face-royal-challenge/articleshow/7996827.cms

World Cup: India defeat Ireland by 5 wickets

BANGALORE: An Indian victory at theChinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday was never in doubt and so their five-wicket win did not come as a surprise to anyone. But the fact is that Irelandran India somewhat close, far closer than they should have been allowed to. Too many wickets were lost, too many overs were used up while chasing 208 for victory against an attack that was honest at best. 

Scorecard | Match in Pics 

Yes, the Indians did collect full points in the end but then these matches against the qualifiers should be more about making a point or two. And who knows, had the big Trent Johnston, who picked up two early wickets, not gone off injured after five overs, it could have been even closer. 

Yuvraj Singh, though, will take such a match everyday. The left-hander starred with the ball and his showing with the bat later justified his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's call to chase after he had won the toss. 

That Yuvraj was India's unlikely bowling hero goes without saying. It was his maiden five-wicket haul that pushed back the Irish cause a long way. The visitors were dismissed for a paltry 207, barely three days after they had chased down more than 300 against England. 

The Indians in turn stuttered a bit, losing Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir cheaply and thenSachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Dhoni all in their 30s but then were well served by Yuvraj the batsman as the target was reached with four overs to spare, setting off wild celebrations in the packed stadium. 

That little cushion in the end was chiefly because of Yusuf Pathan, the only Indian batsman, apart from the composed Yuvraj (50 not out, 75b, 3x4), to make a statement. Pathan (30 not out, 24b, 2x4, 3x6) walked in and straightaway got going with the big hits to ensure that Ireland didn't come too close to causing a second upset in this edition of the World Cup. 

In the afternoon, the pitch afforded some turn early on but it was a factor neither Piyush Chawlanor Harbhajan Singh, India's frontline spinners, could exploit. Yuvraj, with his part-time left-arm spin was easily the best on view, as his figures (0-0-31-5) reflect. He bowled all ten in one go. 

The early damage was done by Zaheer Khan, who should have had Ireland skipper William Porterfield before he had got off the mark had Pathan held on to the edge at second slip of just the third ball of the innings. Porterfield (75, 104b, 6x4, 1x6) went on to anchor the innings and give it some respectability before that man Yuvraj struck. 

Following the twin strikes by Zaheer, it was a sensible, 148-ball 113-run third wicket stand between the left-handed pair of Porterfield and Niall O-Brien that shored up the Ireland innings. The duo was also helped by some terrible bowling by leg-spinner Chawla, who even sent down two no-balls, the resultant free hit off the first handing the momentum to the Irish innings.

Source:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/cricket-world-cup-2011/news/World-Cup-India-defeat-Ireland-by-5-wickets/articleshow/7639191.cms

World Cup: India-England thriller ends in a tie

BANGALORE: This was a game both India and England deserved to lose but in the end it was a tie. If the Indians seemed listless while defending a more than healthy 338, the English after being in a position to spoil the Indian party on a pitch on which the expected demons did not surface, suddenly seemed to have invoked the devil himself. In the end what transpired was the fourth ever tie in the history of the World Cup. 

The match swayed like a pendulum. The Indian total of 338, set up by a record fifth World Cup ton from Sachin Tendulkar, looked good enough at the break, more so as the hosts had gone in with two spinners. England captain Andrew Strauss had different ideas as he set about all but obfuscating Tendulkar's knock with his maiden World Cup ton. 

Then came the batting Powerplay. Suddenly from an impregnable 280/2 from 43 overs, when Strauss (158, 145b, 18x4, 1x6) and Bell (69, 71b, 4x4, 1x6) were going strong with a 170-run stand off 156 balls, things turned upside down. Zaheer Khan, hit around in his first two spells and held back by Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the Powerplay, got two in two, sending back Bell and Strauss to open up the game again. 

Suddenly the Indians were pumped up, as the English middle and late order collapsed. But then two sixes, one each by Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan, both off Piyush Chawla's final over, the penultimate one of the innings, again changed the game. Fifteen had come from that over leaving 14 required from the last to be bowled by Munaf Patel. With number 10 Ajmal Shazad on strike, the match looked to be in India's grasp, but the drama wasn't over by any means. A solid six and some hurriedly run singles brought the equation to two runs off the ball. They got one and the Bangalore crowd, some of whom had left early seeing India's chances all but gone, got what they expected least. A tie! 

Before that, the Indians had got most things right. Having decided to play with two spinners in Harbhajan Singh and Chawla, it was important that Dhoni won the toss and allowed his spinners the second use of the pitch. That part went along the script as did the batting, with the top-order firing for the second match in succession. It was even better that the middle-order too got a chance to show their wares and they didn't do too badly either. 

Only Tim Bresnan stood up and got noticed among English bowlers. Having dismissed the fortuitous as well as dangerous-looking Sehwag off his fifth ball, Bresnan came back at the death, to keep the Indians from running away to a total in excess of 350. His final analysis of 10-1-48-5 was true reflection of his showing on the afternoon. 

No other English bowler went under five an over, with James Anderson in real danger of going for twice that. Every Indian batsman got stuck into him. Tendulkar and Gambhir used his wayward line and length to full effect. That Tendulkar (120, 115b, 10x4, 5x6) picked boundaries even off his better deliveries, ensured that it was not to be Anderson's day. 

Once Sehwag (35, 26b, 6x4) had gone, poking at Bresnan for wicketkeeper Matt Prior to bring off a fine one-handed catch diving to his right, the right-left pair of Tendulkar and Gambhir (51, 61b, 5x4) took charge. Without looking in any sort of hurry, the master-blaster milked the bowlers before assaulting them. 

The innings wasn't just about Tendulkar and Gambhir though, even if their 134-run second wicket stand set it up. There was also Yuvraj Singh, rightly promoted ahead of Kohli seeing that it was the 30th over, and Dhoni, whose 25-ball 31 went almost unnoticed. Yuvraj (58, 50b, 9x4) wasn't at his fluent best but who knows this knock could well be the launching pad for more to come. 

Warne predicted it 8 hours ago 

Shane Warne was bang on target when before the start of the match he Tweeted saying "Looking forward to the game between India and England today. My prediction... a tie." And the cracker of a contest which saw 676 runs being scored did actually end up in a tie, making Warne's prediction come true.

Source:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/cricket-world-cup-2011/news/World-Cup-India-England-thriller-ends-in-a-tie/articleshow/7585674.cms