IPL (Indian Premier League) has everything premium about it. Team owners who are whose who from world of bollywood and business.. Mukhesh ambani , Vijay Malaya the two big tickets of business along with non other than shahrukh khan as KKR owner while preity zinta , shilpa shetty adding omph to the tournament.

Along with rich and famous owners , the kind of money involved in IPL is something which was unheard of in the world of cricket. People who had play hardly few matches getting crores as their fees. Team franchise being bought in range of 400 crores to 1700 crores!!!!!!!!!!!…Wow BCCI hit jackpot with the introduction of the league.

But when one has big money , big media coverage , Bollywood involved , scandals where bound to happen. Scandals , controversies soon became part of game called IPL.

In first season it was hidden ipl player story , the hidden player who alleged many things and projected himself as insider.

Then we had south african model/cheer girl who wrote on blog some real experience of how players behave and in Land of mahatama gandhi , she was shown door from ipl…

Lalit modi made famous tweet which led to his down fall. Tweet on sunanda pushkar and her stake in kochi franchise. Tweet created waves and resulted in shashi tharoor resign from minister of state , external affair and made lalit modi exit IPL. ED started making visits to IPL Offices.

IPL Season 5 have been biggest so far as far as scandal and controversies goes. First India tv came up with its sting operation on lesser known players who on camera boasted of getting cash more than their 30 lakh limit , of spot fixing and so on. BCCI banned five players

Next came king khan entering scuffle with security personnel of wankhede stadium . Shahrukh Khan was banned for five years by MCA (mumbai cricket association).

Today world woke up to another news from IPL. LUKE POMERSBACH , the australian player who is in Royal Challengers Banglore was arrested by police after a usa citizen (originally from India) accused him of molesting her and beating her fiance.LUKE POMERSBACH was produced before the court today and is out on interim bail.

Interestingly IPL has tag line called ‘yeh ipl hai boss’ , i suggest they should change it to yeh scandalous hai boss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Sourav Ganguly IPL Season 5

Sourav Ganguly , the man who is arguably the most successful captain of India. Sourav Ganguly whose name is synonyms of fighting spirit and self belief. The man who in IPL Season 5 is captaining Pune Warriors in absence of yuvraj singh.

It was heartening to see him fare well against match with delhi daredevils. The delhi team is topping charts currently with four wins from 6 games which they have played.

Delhi was pitched against pune warriors last friday. Pune warriors scored a huge score of 193 runs out of their 20 overs. With ryder firing full throttle pune managed to post such a high total. Ryder scored 86 of just 58 balls but star of the match was sourav ganguly.

He scored 41 runs of 35 balls, caught catch of yogesh and more importantly dismissed dangerous petterson. The trump card of sourav ganguly was his own bowling. Captain took risk of bringing himself on with kevin batting and sourav ganguly’s decision proved right .

Sourav Ganguly’s age has taken toll on his reflexes but spirit is intact. His never say die attitude , his desire to take on oppostion, his hunger for victory is still there.

On friday I was attending a seminar and could not view the entire match. While i went to restaurant to have dinner , there television was on and IPL Match between pune and delhi was going on.

Soon I saw sourav ganguly with ball. He bowled kevin petterson and I found myself jumping on my seat. Wow , it was pleasing sight. Seeing sourav ganguly running in excitement , memories from past started flowing. Movement was also revelation for me because I realized how much i love sourav ganguly and want him to succeed. I am big fan of dhoni but in chennai v/s pune match , I wanted sourav ganguly’s team to win.

Sourav ganguly is the man who transformed Indian Cricket. The self belief , the courage , the never say die attitude , the desire to perform , the strength. He was and still is true captain. it is heartening to watch ganguly performing even today.

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Albie Morkel- Chennai Super Kings

What a match….what a display of batting…amazing high scoring and typical t-20 match. It was pleasure to see banglore bat. Gayle , Kohli and agrawal all coming to party with brisk scoring ripping bowling of chennai super kings apart.

The way Mayank Agarwal began , it looked like it is going to be banglore day. Mayank infact overshadowed big hitting gayle . Mayank scored 45 runs on mere 26 balls. Infact when mayank departed score was 53 , out of which 45 where scored by mayank. We dont see this quite often when gayle is on other end.

Gayle soon opened up and along with virat pushed scoring. gayle made 68 of mere 35 balls which included 6 sixes!!!!!. Virat showed his class once again with 57 runs out of 46 balls. Banglore scored whopping 205 runs from 20 overs.

As innings break happened dominating thought which I had was that it would require dhoni special if chennai has to win. But it was Faf du Plessis who provided chennai with batting power that it needed. Faf du Plessis scored 71 runs of just 46 balls while m s dhoni scored 40 out of 24 balls which included 2 sixes. Once dhoni departed it looked like its over for chennai but game was still on.

Weird decision of daniel vettori to make virat bowl in 49 over changed the game. Morkel with his amazing hitting power proved too hot for virat’s bowling. Morket hit 28 runs from 49th over. He hit 4,6,4,6,2,6 and his power hitting saw chennai needing 15 runs from final over.

Like a bollywood flick this match had its twist. Morkel got out in second ball of 50th over leaving chennai to score 14 out of last 4 balls. Bravo came handy here scoring 4 of no ball and six in next ball. Now chennai needed 3 runs of 3 balls. vinay bowled dot ball , making it 3 out of 2 balls. Next bravo took single which made jadeja face last delivery in which chennai needed 2 to win. Jadeja did manage to hit a boundary and chennai score showed 208 runs in 20 overs!!!!!!!!!!…

Morkel proved what he is capable of and what single over can do in t-20 match. Chennai needed one win to bring momentum back . Banglore must introspect as to what they can bring worth in next match.

For today it was day for batsman..413 runs scored in 240 balls…22 sixes …Wow…amazing..

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Dale Steyn

Wow what a balling performance. Fast , real fast , great length , dale steyn proved yesterday that bowling still is lethal skill. In era where rules are so biased towards batsman , where t-20 means score of 160 plus , where bowlers are required to bowl because batsman needs some one to throw them ball to , Bowling efforts like that of yesterday makes cricket match really exciting.

Yesterday what I witnessed was amazing stuff. In summers of India , bowling on flat pitches with speed of 140 plus consistently , it takes something from the bowler and dale came charging in beating/subduing batsman. His bowling measures shows how well did he bowl. In four overs that he bowled , he gave only 12 runs , took three wickets with one maiden over. WOW simply incredible.

I would have loved to see deccan win after awesome performance of dale , but Rohit too showed how capable and destructive he can be . Overall a great match and match where bowlers can take lot of pride of and lot to learn from. Whether it is test match or onedays or t-20 great bowling would always be in business no matter how much rules are changed to favor batsman and no matter how many power plays are added in future.

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Indian Premier League is back. This season began on bigger note with none other than biggest star of bollywood ever participating in the opening ceremony. Big B ,amitabh bachchan recited poem written by prasoon joshi.

Priyanka chopra, kareena kapoor , salman khan and none other than prabhu deva performed in the opening ceremony. Kate perry performed for first time live in India. Overall it was dazzling event .

From tomorrow it would be real business with two powered packed teams clashing in the first match. It is mumbai Indians v/s chennai super kings.

So who would win IPL 5?. There are nine teams currently competing for the titles.

Would it be third title for chennai or would it be mumbai Indians in 2012 or would it be virat victory for royal challengers?…or would dadagiri work for pune?

Lets look at nine teams

1) Chennai Super Kings :

Mahendra singh dhoni is one of biggest finishers in the game in recent times. His super cool brain , his awesome power backed by raina, vijay , badrinath in the ranks and hussey joining in by month end , this team is most successful team in IPL.

Ravindra jadeja is priced buy this year for chennai . Ashwin ,bollinger, hilfenhaus make their bowling handy. Over all good combination and always in hunt for the title.

2) Mumbai Indians :

Sachin wont be leading the side in 2012. But harbhajan did really great job during last season as captain in absence of sachin. Mumbai Indians is dangerous side with likes of sachin , pollard, rohit sharma ,raydu in the side. Moreover they have malinga and mitchell johnson in bowling ranks along with r p singh and munaf patel. This side has all the needed power to win IPL 5.

3) Royal Challengers :

They have chris gayles. PERIOD…Yes Rajnikant of cricket plays for royal and guess what they have in form , virat kohli along with de villers and tilakrathne dilshan…Awesome super hit batting power.

In bowling ZAHEER KHAN , the ever dependable would be leading the bowling attack , supported by vinay kumar . Daniel vettori ,captain would be leading spin department.

Formidable side and if gayle gets going , god save opposition…

4) Delhi Daredevils :

Viru is not in form but he would be playing on flat Indian pitches and batsman like him are capable to hit form anytime.. Backed by inform jayawardne , kevin pieterson , ross taylor and david warner ,the team has great batting power. Their bowling would include umesh yadav , varun aron and Irfan pathan

5) Pune Warriors :

No yuvi in it but with ryder, manish pandey, tamim iqbal , robin uthappa, mathew in it and dada leading the team , batting looks good..Yuvi is being replaced by michael clarke who would join during later part of tournament.

6) Kolkatta Knight Riders :

hmmm…Gambhir, kallis, yusuf pathan, mccullum , shakib….Batting looks good…what say?…Need kallis , gambhir to play big innings with yusuf,mccullum,shakib chipping in with their face paced batting…but winning title would need them to play out of their skins consistently….Yusuf , mccullum can single handily win matches but they need more heroics than RA ONE…

7) Kings XI :

Gilly is there but expecting them to win title would be huge thing .

Deccan Chargers:

Sangakara would need some really charing to be done to elevate his teams performance to pose serious challenge in the tournament.

9) Rajasthan Royals:

Need more than halla bols to make impact…

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Virat Kohli

What a game…wow…what a chase..Slammed from all quarters Indian batting line up finally played to its true potential and won the last league match by seven wickets. More importantly India chased down the target of whopping 321 in mere 36.4 overs.

As match started Ravi Shashtri commented that India needed to restrict srilankans to 240-250 and chase the target down in 40 overs and then pray that aussies beat srilanka , so that India might get into final.

But as I saw score of 75/1 , I wondered how are we going to restrict them in 240 ..For me at that point of time it looked like sri lankans are going to put score of 280-290. I was wrong . Dilshan found this match to be the match where he would get into big score. He scored big hundred and remained not out at 160. Sangakara too made a century and srilanka went on to make 320…

Now chasing 320 down with kind of form which Indian batsman have shown in australia , it looked like impossible task and that too doing it under 40 overs. Sehwag , tendulkar began well and later on gautam gambhir continued the momentum. But day belonged to virat kohli who scored at brisk pace , making sure that we achieve target under 40 overs.

Batting at no 4 , virat hit two sixes and 16 fours and stayed not out at 133. Suresh raina too contributed with 40 not out in 24 balls. Virat made merry of dangerous malinga and hit 4 fours , 1 six and 1 two runs in single over!!!!!!!!!!!!!…Virat made winning runs against malinga showing his dominance today.

so what does point table say? :

Team	P	W	Pts	NRR
Australia	7	4	19	0.553
Sri Lanka	7	3	15	0.162
India	8	3	15	-0.593

So India are last in the list and would need australia to defeat srilankan handsomely to make it to best of three finals. Now even if India fails to make it to the final , they would end the disastrous tour of australia.

As for virat he has showed the he is man of future.  With 9 oneday centuries and 20 half centuries in 82 matches he had played , virat also became fastest player to get 3000 runs for India in current tour of australia…

As for Indians , one day match between australia and srilanka would be one of most viewed match in recent months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Andrew Symonds

I had to write this and most cricket followers saw it coming. ANDREW SYMONDS has retired from all formats of game with immediate implementation.  He wont be playing IPL Season 5 for mumbai Indian.

Andrew Symonds was one of best utility player specially in shorter format of the game . He could ball spin , he was awesome fielder and most importantly he was brutal with the bat. Single handily he could turn the tide of the game and demolish any balling attack.

Andrew symonds was known for his batting on field and attitude issues off the field. His most most or infamous incident occured with Harbhajan singh. Called as monkey gate controversy , the after effects of the controversy made symonds career short. It was after this incident that symonds showed attitude issues more frequently.

He felt australian board didnt support him to level he expected and bowed down to financial power of BCCI. When clarke led in series , in absence of  Ricky Pointing , symonds stayed aloof. So much so that he went fishing instead of team meeting. His ‘gone fishing’ episode was much published and talked about.

Life threw surprise to symonds when he was hired by mumbai Indians for IPL and he played along with Harbhajan singh . The aggressive duo managed to clear grudges and work together as team. Ironically  symonds said “It is with regret that I will not be able to fulfil my final year of the IPL with the Mumbai Indians,”

“Mumbai Indians and the IPL have both been very supportive of me, but the impending arrival of my first child is a priority.”

As symonds retire , I wonder whether his talent like sohaib akhtar didn’t get utilized fully?.  Symonds could have achieved far more that what his present stats says. He can easily be listed as one of most dangerous player in onedays and twenty twenty. He would have reached height unprecedented in his career.

Now since he retires , I wish him well for his second innings in life…

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Hai Muscular , Hai Popular , Spectacular, He is saleable

Pappu ki gaadi tej hai (ferari), Pappu kudiyon mein craze hai

Tata ki ghadi hato mein , Perfume paris wala, but pappu cant bat saala….

IPL aaya to kismaate chamki , aur pappu ke muh mein thi chandi ki chamchi,

hey hey he , pappu ke paas hai paisa, hey hey he haatho ke mel ke jaisa,

pappu staro ka star hai, but pappu cant bat saala…

shrikant kaaheta tha bada naam karega , mera pappu to aisa kaam karega,

hey hey hey pappu ke paas hai ad any day,

hey hey hey karta hai australia mein holiday,

pappu race bike chalata hai ,jahan jaata hai cha jata hai..

but pappu cant bat saala…

Imagine you earning 10 crore per annum , have no accountability of outcome of your efforts and targets and in spite of that being continued to be paid in crores!!!!!!!

There are only two careers where this can happen , one is politics in which in spite of corruption same old faces keep coming back and another is cricket in which in spite of loosing 7 straight overseas matches , hype of cricketers continues.

Disaster is perhaps lesser word to describe India’s performance in england tour and current Australian tour. Aussies which had tough time against new zealand found Indian team too easy to beat. When team has likes of shewag , gambhir , laxman, dravid , dhoni and sachin tendulkar in its line up , that team seems too powerful to beat atleast on papers. But reputation counted little when India went to tour aussies. Instead of aussies fighting hard , it seems like cake walk for them.

Indian team played like college team not even club team . Getting fold in 2 days , 1 and quarter session in test match is something which even bangladesh wont be expected to do.

Spineless batting by batting greats that too for 7 straight matches is something which cannot be excused off. As India plays last test in australia , I as cricket fan hope , India survives five days . Shameful might be right word to be used for current level of performance of Indian cricket team…

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Virender Sehwag Sirf Naam Hi Kaafi Hai

Viru , Nawab , Multan Ka Sultan….Virender Sehwag is known by many names but for most bowlers world wide , the name symbolizes only one thing and that is DEMOLISHER…

Virender Sehwag has some unique record to his name. Two triple hundred in test matches puts him on same stage as that of Sir Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Chris Gayles.

Virender Sehwag also has record of fastest three hundred in test matches. Three hundred in 278 odd balls…With five more years approximately to go , sehwag can become only batsman to have score three triple hundreds too…

Coming to one days the demolisher sehwag made it into another unique league and that is of becoming only second player to have hit 200 in the onedays…

With advent of T-20 it was expected that some one , some day would reach to 200 in onedays and who could have been better than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar to do so and it is fitting that sachin’s record was broken by none other than Virender Sehwag who in his own words idolizes sachin…

Ironically when shewag had entered test arena , he was not considered to be good enough for test. Critics said he lacks foot work and does little movement of feet. He was also considered to lack temperament needed for test.

Sourav Ganguly , then Indian captain spotted the talent and offered him to open in test matches instead of sitting out because of over crowded middle order of India. As said rest is history. While most play by rule book , shewag wrote the book…. His brutal assault on bowlers made 100 in one session of test gettable. If shewag stayed for entire day 400 score in a day looked possible. Proving all critics wrong , shewag not just survived test but even changed the way test matches where played…

Virender Shewag’s cricket is simple. Hit the ball when you think you can hit. Bowler doesnot matter, ball doesnot matter, match situation doesnot matter, field placing doesnot matter. What matters is belief that the ball is there to be hit. Simple but brutal …

Yesterday what all cricket fans saw/heard/listened doesnot happen every other day. Yesterday was special for cricket. Can any one break shewag’s 219 record. Well yes and that person might well be shewag himself!!!!!!!!!!

What makes shewag equally exciting is his fearlessness. The man seems to know no fear. Whether he is on 96 or 196 or 296 , shewag would go for six without fearing of loosing weak. If FULL BLOWN SELF EXPRESSION is something which we carve for , shewag is manifestation of the same on cricket ground.

Sehwag is not perfect like rahul dravid as far as technique goes , neither he is elegant as v v s , nor he is sachin tendulkar . But this man doesnot need to be like any one else because there is only one virender sehwag in the world…

I along with team of indiansawaal congratulate him on achieving this record…

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South Africa -Australia

Cricket is funny game goes the saying . Cricket which is national obsession in India and religion for many , showed its exciting possibility once again in southafrica v/s Australia test match.

Evey cricketer wants to play test cricket. Even though lately twenty-twenty has turned out of be money churner for cricket and one days too being one of most viewed format , test cricket is considered to be pinnacle of cricket.

Personally when ever i get time , i too love to watch test cricket. Test cricket is not just game of bat and ball , it is game of planning , game of mental application , game of toughness . Also in test cricket bowlers can show their bowling skills , since they are not as restricted as they are in 20-20 or onedays…

Yesterday was amazing for cricket. Southafrica v/s australia match was amazing. Australia Struggled in first innings but their captain clark showed resolve to post below par total of 280 in its first innings which got rapped up yesterday . Soon south african came to bat and australians pulled out awesome bowling performance , bowling out south africa for mere 96 runs…

While it looked like australia would easily build on the lead and in process put pressure on south africa and win the match , south africa came in with amazing bowling performances . What they produce was stunner and australia were 21/9 at one stage before the last wicker pair made 26 in their partnership and aussies finished at 47 all out!!!!!!!!

The match had two very different records in its kind

a) In single day we say four innings parts. Australian first inning which continued from previous day, south african first Innings , australian second innings and south african second innings part.

b) Another unique thing which we saw was the last batsman playing at 11th number being the highest scorer in the innings and how much did he score?…Well 14 runs….

Now would australia be able to do what south african did with them in second innings?…As this post is being written south africans are at 134/1 needing only 102 runs but as this match has shown anything is possible in cricket and who knows whats in store next.

The matches like this are needed to keep people getting into test mode once again. Be it be epic innings of v v s laxman of 281 or deadly spell like yesterday , these makes test really exciting and keep strength of cricket and that is unpredictability alive….Isn’t it?

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