David Warner gives the appearance of how Popeye would look if he ever came alive to play cricket. Those bulging arms seem to pack a punch, spinach or no, and they were used to good effect on the day as he rode his way to a century (107 off 69 balls). It is always ridiculous when a batsman scores a ton in a game where there are only 120 balls stipulated for the whole side to play, but this innings was incredible at the same time. In the sense that Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir had shaken off his hamstring injury and Warner would have been looking at a drop if he didn’t fire in this game. Atleast that isn’t going to happen anytime soon!

It rounds off a good week or so for the Daredevils. Ashish Nehra is almost back from injury and Paul Collingwood has joined them as well, lending much needed steel to the side. Daniel Vettori will be on his way soon and this will be a solid base to build on from, having beaten Bangalore Royal Challengers away and now Kolkata. Probably it might be the start of coming afore of the real Delhi team, the one we have known for the past two seasons. For it is a crucial stage of the tournament where all the middle rung teams will look to gain some semblance of momentum and to have a problem of plenty at this stage will be the dream of every captain.

It is happening for Kolkata as well. Chris Gayle, Shane Bond and David Hussey have already come in and Brendon McCullum will be on his flight shortly. However the bigger problem facing them is the patchy form they have displaying, hinged more on a lack of killer intent. Playing safe isn’t a term you would want to associated with a team led by Souarv Ganguly but seeing that the purple-attired team isn’t hitting a patch of the same hue, it makes you wonder if age has finally caught up. From 38 for 3, Delhi were able to set up 177 and win the match means the last ten days have yielded only one win in four games. Shah Rukh Khan wants more than excuses from his players and he rightly says so on Twitter!

Besides the IPL, the Indian team for the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean was announced. The good part is that the selectors have decided to go for experience rather than raw talent. Thus picking players who have all represented India – be it some two years ago, like Piyush Chawla or like revolving doors ala Rohit Sharma. They have even gone for Ravindra Jadeja who is not playing the IPL and is cracking knuckles at home, thanks for want of more money. Poor form, return from injuries, inconsistency and lack of match fitness are columns that can be ticked against the names of all the fifteen selected, and that is the bad news for Indian fans.

This article was first published at www.cricketworld.com.

Karthik though has led his state side Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy for quite some time but it is altogether a different ball game leading in the IPL. For Raina, one can only recall the Challenger Trophy – a pitiful domestic ODI tournament – where he might have led somewhat accidentally. Make no mistake none expected the duo to shine with their man management skills on the day and they didn’t disappoint.

Setting lax fields was a common point with both. Raina kept both point and backward point in position for the Delhi openers with the third man also up and placing an odd sweeper on the off as cover. All the batsmen needed to do was clear the infield and the way Virender Sehwag blasted his way to 74 off just 38 balls showed how spectacularly these field placements failed. Karthik for his part made sure that the two fielders he could place outside the circle in the first six overs were at deep point and deep backward point, making sure that for Mathew Hayden, things were as easy as they were for Sehwag. For most of the forty overs, fine leg and third man were also up in the circle making one wonder since when was T20 about taking wickets? That saving runs is a priority clearly didn’t dawn on the two stand-ins.

There were a couple of other odd decisions as well. At one point, Raina forgot that he could only place two fielders outside the circle in the first six overs and Sehwag cleverly bludgeoned the ball for four before pointing out to the umpire. Karthik meanwhile kept Amit Mishra out of the attack but brought on Tilakratne Dilshan, a decision that baffled everybody and anybody present.

Amidst this tomfoolery, the onus was on the batsmen aforementioned, Sehwag and Hayden, as to who would seize the initiative given to them and take their side to victory. The former Australian opener replied to Sehwag’s fifty in his own trademark style. His 93 runs off 43 balls were – putting it mildly – a lesson in hitting hard and timing the shots, for a majority of those runs came with his hallowed Mongoose Bat. The pint-sized willow made its long awaited debut on an evening to remember. One of the three sixes off Dilshan almost ended outside the stadium, the last row being the spot where the ball landed.

Not everyone was sure previously that the smaller bat wouldn’t cause a hindrance to batting. But when Hayden finally left the field with Chennai on the doorstep of victory, all were convinced that this latest innovation to hit cricket packs quite a punch.

This article was first published at www.cricketworld.com.

Virender Sehwag (74 off 38 balls) gave a sparkling start to Delhi even as he lost Australian explosive opener David Warner who came in place of the injured Gambhir. He brought up his 50 in 22 deliveries while Delhi’s 50 came in the fifth over. Delhi were cruising along but at 102 when Muralitharan provided twin breakthroughs at a crucial juncture of the game.  He got Tilakratne Dilshan to play a false shot and one run later Sehwag was caught by Justin Kemp. R Ashwin then sent back AB de Villiers for 2 as the Daredevils lost three wickets in space of five runs.  Mithun Manhas (32 off 22 balls) and all-rounder Rajat Bhatia (21 off nine balls) provided a late flourish as Delhi somehow managed to post a challenging total of 185/6.

But the evening belonged to the burly Hayden and his Mongoose bat. After two failures, the former Aussie opener toyed with the hapless Delhi Daredevils bowlers. He launched into the attack in the fifth over hitting his first six off Rajat Bhatia and then in the eighth over, Dilshan faced the wrath of Hayden’s bat as he was clubbed for three sixes as the 50 for the Chennai Super King’s was raised in 5 overs and then the 100 came in 10 overs. With Suresh Raina, Hayden added 50 runs in 23 deliveries. Delhi Daredevils finally dismissed Hayden with Dilshan bringing off a superlative catch at long on and then Chennai Super Kings lost two more wickets of Justin Kemp (bowled) and Albie Morkel (caught at mid-wicket) but Raina with a 34-ball 49 not out saw the team through with five balls to spare.

This was the second successive win for Chennai Super Kings, sans their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, while Delhi Daredevils tasted their second defeat in a row.

Match report courtesy Adfactors PR.

Yes, Delhi’s hallowed cricket ground and its pitch is on the mend. This IPL league match is the first of any serious repute at this ground ever since that last ODI between India and Sri Lanka was abandoned, and the ensuing ban was enforced by the ICC. Needless to say, it was a big occasion – a sort of a litmus test that Kolta had to pass to prove to its detractors that the World Cup matches will not be taken away from the city’s cricket lovers.

Ample bounce for both the batsmen and the bowlers, elegant and some not so elegant stroke making enthralled the crowd packed into the stands – most of them feeling like sardines one is sure. But the runs and the music flowed freely in the absence of free drinking water (there was beer in the VIP lounge though) and all that had happened some ten weeks back at the same ground had been forgiven. It would have made for a serene view had there not been a T20 match happening at the ground but nevertheless was way better than the ugly near-riot like scenes of last year. All that needs to be done now is maintain the standard of the pitches here throughout the tournament and then care some more to enable an encore for the ODI World Cup next year.

This excerpt is from an article first published at www.cricketworld.com. Read the full article here.

Tendulkar cracked 11 dazzling fours to give the Mumbai Indians just the sort of start they needed. His 50 came off only 23 deliveries, which saw the Mumbai Indians gallop to 50 in just 4.3 overs.  Tendulkar’s innings came to an end when substitute  fielder Yogesh Nagar, who came in place of the injured Gamhir, held a low catch off leg spinner Amit Mishra. Nagar had earlier pulled off a spectacular catch to dismiss opener Sanath Jayasuriya, leaping high in the air to take a spectacular one-handed catch.  After Tendulkar’s departure, the tall Saurabh Tiwary and the impressive Ambati Rayudu were involved in some lusty hitting. The fourth wicket pair stitched 71 runs in 34 deliveries before Rayudu was superbly snapped at long-on by Dilshan. However, the left-handed Tiwary completed his second successive 50, which came off only 31 deliveries. Mumbai Indians hence posted a massive 218/7 in 20 overs, which incidentally is their highest score in the IPL thus far. It was also the Mumbai Indians second successive 200 plus score in IPL 2010.

Delhi Daredevils, in reply, were never in the hunt as they were dismissed for 120 in 16.3 overs. Delhi Daredevils batting fell apart once T Dilshan and Virender Sehwag were back in the pavilion in the seventh over. Dilshan was done in by a slower one by Lasith Malinga to be bowled. Then the dangerous Sehwag, after hitting a typical 16-ball 26, was caught in the deep off medium pacer Dwayne Bravo. The tricky Bravo scalped his second wicket in the same over by bowling AB de Villiers, which pretty much took the wind out of Delhi’s sails. Bravo and Kieron Pollard, who did not get enough opportunity with the bat, made their presence felt with the ball.

This incidentally was the first first defeat for the Delhi Daredevils in three outings in IPL 2010, while Mumbai Indians recorded their second consecutive win to be placed at the top of the leader board.

Match report courtesy Adfactors PR.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Rajat Bhatia, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Moises Henriques, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Sarabjeet Ladda, Farveez Maharoof, Mithun Manhas, Amit Mishra, Andrew McDonald, Dirk Nannes, Ashish Nehra, Wayne Parnell, Shashi Ranjan, Aavishkar Salvi, Virender Sehwag, Pradeep Sangwan, Sarandeep Singh, Joginder Singh, David Warner, Umesh Yadav.

Strengths & Weaknesses:

Over the last couple of years, just one look at their squad was sufficient to know that they didn’t really have a well balanced side. In the first year they had some really good players who are well known exponents in their respective arts. It was forgivable for the competition was only in the first year and several lessons would be learnt. But Delhi did not learn theirs. In 2009, they again went out to play with a side that was top heavy and very weak in the middle order. That proved to be their undoing last year just as it was in 2008.

In Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, they boast of two very fine batsmen at the top of the order and some equally gifted ones in Tilakratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers. While these four will fire on most occasions and sometimes Dinesh Karthik will chip in as well, on the rare occasion they do fail, Delhi collapse. And in the last two seasons that has happened in the semi-finals without fail, otherwise they would have been champions. This is their weakness and one which was thought to have been addressed when they bought both Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah. But the two didn’t get to play much and we know what happened.

They have offloaded Shah and brought in Moises Henriques into the side but along with David Warner and Dirk Nannes, there will be plenty of foreign names to choose from and it will be a selection headache for new captain Gambhir. One solution could be to allow Warner and Sehwag to open and the skipper himself coming in at number three, allowing the batting to run deep. But that will again be dependent on which four foreign players they choose to play in their eleven.

This is a puzzle for they have two bowlers Dirk Nannes and Wayne Parnell who would be contesting for a spot alongwith Ashish Nehra. Henriques and Ferveez Maharoof are also in the fray and it is good to have so many options with the ball in what will be a keen challenge for the bowlers given that the Indian pitches won’t really support them. One advantage though could be playing at home, in Delhi, where the pitch will be under scrutiny once again and lack of bounce is to be expected since it is under continuous work.

Note: This is an extract from the Delhi Daredevils preview first published at www.cricketworld.com. To read the full article, click here.