CSK postpone DD’s winning plans

Chennai Super Kings(CSK) handed over a massive defeat to Delhi Daredevils(DD) in Pepsi Indian Premier League match number twenty four on Thursday, 18th April,2013 at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. DD after being down 0-5 this season were looking to register their first win against CSK but faced a comprehensive defeat of 86 runs. Chennai has now won three out of the five matches it has played and currently holds the fourth position in the points table while Delhi, the only team with zero points stands last.

            Winning the toss, Chennai elected to bat first and managed to put up a decent total of 169-4 with Michael Hussey as the top scorer(65 off 50 balls). Hussey hit six fours and two sixes during his innings and remained unbeaten. Morne Morkel provided DD the first breakthrough as he trapped Murali Vijay leg before wicket on the third ball of the fifth over. Vijay scored 18 runs off 13 balls with three boundaries.  Then came in Suresh Raina who scored 30 runs from 32 balls and had a 60-run partnership with Hussey before Irfan Pathan got him caught behind in the 13^th over.


The Super Kings celebrate Virender Sehwag's wicket

            CSK were in a comfortable position with the score of 90-2 in 12.5 overs when the skipper of the men in yellow walked out to the middle. Mahendra Singh Dhoni played a brilliant cameo as he hammered 44 runs off 23 balls to ensure that CSK post a strong total. He smashed five fours and a six during his knock and added 74 runs off 40 balls with Hussey for the third wicket. Dhoni, looking to send the ball in the crowd in nineteenth over being bowled by Umesh Yadav, could not connect well and was caught by Jeevan Mendis at deep square-leg. Dwayne Bravo came in at number five, scored 3 runs and ran himself out on the last ball of the innings.

            DD required 170 runs from 20 overs and out came the openers, David Warner and Virender Sehwag. Sehwag showed a spark in the first over as he smashed one out of the park for six runs. Playing his second match, medium pacer Mohit Sharma struck on the third delivery of second over as he got the ball to take the inside edge of Warner’s bat and shatter the stumps. Warner faced four balls to score one run. Second breakthrough came in the same over as Manpreet Juneja(2 runs from 3 balls) was out lbw to Sharma. Mahela Jayawardene, the DD skipper was next to come in and also the next to return to the dugout as his struggle to get runs continued. He could add only 6 runs to the total from 11 balls. Sehwag could not convert a good start into a big innings. He put a full stop to all the hopes as he mistimed a ball delivery from Sharma and became his third victim. With one six and a four to his name, he managed only 17 runs from 13 balls. A few spectators decided to leave after this wicket.

            Jeevan Mendis and Kedar Jadhav were trying to put up a fight but the target was looking more and more out of reach. In the eleventh over, Mendis found himself run out due to poor communication between the two batsmen. Irfan Pathan was the new man in and the last hope for DD too but in an attempt to clear long-on, he ended up giving an easy catch to Bravo in the deep. Pathan disappointed the Delhi crowd with only 2 runs to his name. Right after this dismissal, the stands which were over crowded at the start of the play, suddenly seemed to be half empty. The Daredevils registered their lowest ever score after being all out for 83 runs in 17.3 overs.

            Michael Hussey was adjudged the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 65. With this victory, Chennai became the first team to win fifty IPL matches. Delhi became the second team after Deccan Chargers to have lost forty games or more in IPL.

India prevail over Pakistan in a nail biter

            The 3^rd and the last one-day international between India and Pakistan played on 6^th January, 2013 in New Delhi finally gave the Indian supporters a reason to celebrate. In a low scoring game, India(167 all out) beat Pakistan(157 all out) by 10 runs to prevent a white wash in the 3 match series. 

            Pakistan defeated India in the previous two ODIs and were all set to clean sweep the series. India won the toss and decided to bat first but the poor batting form continued as they managed a total of only 167 runs from 43.4 overs. Due to lack of form, Virender Sehwag had been dropped from the playing eleven and Ajinkya Rahane was selected as Gautam Gambhir’s new opening partner. But he could not prove his worth as he added only 4 runs while Gambhir made 15. The out of form Virat Kohli also struggled and returned to the pavilion with 7 runs to his name. The man who scored the highest for India was yet again the skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He scored 36 runs from 55 balls and also hit 3 huge sixes. Apart from him, Yuvraj Singh(23), Suresh Raina(31) and Ravindra Jadeja(27) tried to show some fight. All the Pakistan bowlers had a good outing but Saeed Ajmal had a great one with a 5-wicket haul to his name conceding only 24 runs from 9.4 overs that he bowled.



Bhuvaneshwar Kumar took 2 early wickets

            Pakistan needed 168 runs from 300 balls. Indian fans had no hope of a win but they still decided to stay back in the stadium, maybe just wishing for some magic to happen. Mohammad Hafeez suffered a hand injury while fielding in the first innings and thus Kamran Akmal came out to open along with Nasir Jamshed. The new star of India Bhuvaneshwar Kumar struck in the third over of the innings when he dismissed Kamran Akmal for a golden duck. A few overs later, he also sent Younis Khan back just for 6 runs. Before this match Nasir Jamshed had played 3 ODIs against India and scored a century in each. But this time, R Ashwin did not allow him to go beyond 34. Captain Misbah-ul-Haq held onto his nerve and stood firmly at one end but wickets kept falling from the other. The debutant medium pacer Shami Ahmed proved to be extremely effective as he sent down 4 maidens out of the 9 overs that he bowled and got a wicket as well. Jadeja kept it tight as he gave just 19 runs from his 10 overs for one wicket. Ishant Sharma took 3 crucial wickets and bowled India to a hard fought contest. Pakistan were all out for 157 runs in 48.5 overs and India won by 10 runs.  MS Dhoni was adjudged the Man of the Match, Nasir Jamshed was declared the Man of the Series and Pakistan won the series 2-1.