Thursday, May 21, 2009

RR Thrown Out of IPL


As I said in one of my earlier blog, that teams like KKR & MI, who have already been eliminated from the IPL may spoil the party of any of the team which is struggling to be in the final four. That exactly happened today when KKR defeated RR to finish all their chances of making to the semis. KKR bowled superbly, with Charles Langeveldt making his dream IPL debut bowling a superb spell. Agarkar, Dinda & Shukla supported Langeveldt equally well & restricting RR to a modest total of 101. Though, this total seemed to be enough when KKR lost their six wickets to a paltry 45. Then Laxmi Ratan Shukla, along with Agarkar played a responsible knock & ensured that KKR see through their run chase.

It was a dream run for RR last year when after losing the first game against DD, they came back strongly to win the cup with 15 straight victories!!! But this year they had a rough patch as some of their players like last year’s ‘Purple Cap’ winner Pakistani Sohail Tanvir, ‘Man of the series’ Shane Watson, Pakistani batsman Younus Khan & wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal were not playing this year. Still their ‘Marshal’ Shane Keith Warne led his ‘Band of Mavericks’ superbly. His immense faith in some of the youngsters like Kamran Khan, Yousuf Pathan, Ravinder Jadeja, Naman Ojha, Munaf Patel & Amit Singh has proved good for the Indian cricket – as a whole. We’ll see Ravinder Jadeja & Yousuf Pathan in the upcoming ICC World T20 in England. No one can forget their game against MI when Warne bowled an absolute beauty to get rid of long term rival Sachin Tendulkar. With this wicket, his nightmare (of Sachin stepping outside the crease & hitting him over boundary for six) finally ended. In the same match, Munaf Patel bowled a superb last over to defend just four runs. Also their match against KKR cannot be forget when Yousuf Pathan hit Ajantha Mendis for 18 runs in the first four balls of the ‘Super Over’ chasing 15 hit by Chris Gayle.

Adios Warne, you will be remembered as the most inspiring captain of this tournament...!

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