Results are Unpredictable: Sometimes bottoms up
I think 20-20 is such a game that we can't predict the result.It can be the team's day when that day is any player's day of the team.I do agree that sticking to the basics would do better and the reason why the Deccan chargers have made it is the same reason.RP and Rohit came in touch with bowl and bat respectively and later also made it with bowl at some instances and Symmo will always contribute in team's performance.But the jackpot for the DC is the Gilly's form.It has been a consistent performance from Adam, and has impressed a lot with gloves.In fact all of the team members has contributed a lot when required.

Muti dimensional players are a farce
One of the reasons why DC lost last years was that they selected too many multi dimensional players, Afridi, Symonds,Styris, Rao. These days there is hardly a true all rounder in the world who can take care of both batting and bowling consistently, Afridi everybody knows he can’t bat anymore, Symonds failed with the ball bigtime,Styris I don’t know why he was hired in the first place, Rao batted well but his bowling was not that good.Bits and pieces players failed to execute their roles and in the absence of quality bowlers they failed to defend even decent totals.Laxmans personal form also didn’t help much.But I have always maintained that the Chargers always had 4 foreigners,RP Singh, Rohit Sharma and Laxman as the players in the side. Rest were making up the numbers.

Wham Bham licence does not work always
I think DC management must have now realized the difference between a slogger and a quality batsman,the definition of a T20 specialist batsman has been changed.Anybody can bat like Afridi, give them a Wham Bham licence and a little net practice even your tail enders will loft the ball for a few boundaries. The risk associated with such batting is always high and only those players who have wide range of shots will be more successful as it has been proved by Gambhir, Marsh, Sehwag, and Sharma.I think DC will trade a few of their players this year.
This season of IPL 2 was very exciting. Deccan chargers, who was at the last place in the year 2008, has finally proved its vigor by clinching the title of this season. Certainly, the captaincy of Gilchrist proved to be a boon for DC. No doubt, the Banglore Royal Challengers have given a good fight to DC, but at the end of the day "jo jeeta wahi sikander."


Soccerisation of cricket in process
What I dd not like was the owners Rami Reddy , Dr Mallya, SRK and Preity Zinta sharing the dugout with players . It puts them in even more pressure than there actually is, it doesn't make one bit of a difference in the matter of inspiring them to even bigger heights.They are way better off minding their own business and sit tight and let the players do their job. This is in a way soccerization of cricket what Roman Abramovich trying to do to Chelsea's .

Captaincy matters
Talk about change of guard like DC and KKR and BRC , all have changed their captains in due course . One of the reasons why DC won was the fact that the change of captaincy was done with least fuss unlike the multi episode dramatic transition in Knightriders and the marginally less so change of guard in the Royal Challengers. Both Shahrukh Khan and Vijay Mallya should take lessons from DC . Shahrukh in particular should understand that showmanship may win superstar status but does not win cricket matches. Neither do abrasive blogs and potshots at living legends.

KISS (Keep It simple stupid )

RR were amongst the highest runs as well as lowest totals but what DC did was to stick to the winning formula was of sheer simplicity and back-to-basics attitude. The good old cricketing wisdom of runs, catches and wickets winning matches holds good for any form of cricket let alone bonsai cricket. Laptop analyses do not take you to beyond the KKR heights is now proved.

League maturing up
4 of the 8 captains in the league were foreigners and the conversion to win the cup for the foreign captains has been 100% . Also on the tactics front the DD captains faltered midway goes on to say that the players and captains alike are still learning their basics on the job . some imported talent has worked for some franchisees but wont continue for long . Eventually the next generation has to take on the rains and relieve the icons from the game . Bonsai will remain bonsai till the next line to guard does not mature up and demystify the fact that this form is for the retired players . The likes of Pathan , Jadeja , Rohit and also Kohli need to come forward and prove the fact that IPL is a league and not a retirees den to make gold in 30 days for 3 years .


What say folks ??

Battle lines are drawn to take the star studded trophy and Lalit Modi si all set to preside over the second edition of IPL on Sunday . Lets take a peek at the four finalist . Go thru this and predit who will be the IPL2 winner . Remember the Poll here closes on Saturday 2400hrs Pacific Time .

Delhi Daredevils: This is Viru or Virender Sehwag’s team with some very good combination of experience and young talent. Although this time it missed the aggression of Pakistan players it there are seasoned campaigners in Daniel Vettori, Gautam Gambhir, and Ashish Nehra and lately Dinesh Karthik coming back to form is a big plus. They play with attitude and true cricketing spirit. Although there have been some losses, the team is a strong contender for winning IPL 2009 title. VIRU and GAUTI both looked dangerous in todays clash . Good for them and the game.

Chennai Super Kings: The team looks one of the very impressive ones with handful of talent as well as star power. It has experienced players like Hayden who is playing well in every match and with a captain like MS Dhoni any franchise can rest assured to have great show. His current form although is not amazing, he can still prove most valuable on his day. Muralitharan, Jacob ram, Michael Hussey and Makhaya Ntini (didn’t play yet) add strength and solidity to this team. It has all qualities to clinch the title

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Vijay Mallya surely tried to impress bringing in captaincy change. The team now doesn’t look like a test squad even though it has veterans like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis playing. In fact, Kevin Pieterson left IPL 2009 half way around and it is Anil Kumble who is reviving the team with superb bowling performance. Ross Taylor is playing very well and so Jesse Ryder. Praveen Kumar adds strength to bowling If you think that this is batsmen rich, you are wrong they won some on batting and some games by bowling. It will be interesting to watch how the team of experienced lot will invent ways to win the IPL 2009 title. Wasn’t suprising about the RCB to try Manish at the top and take a risk . Kumble is a hppy man after the first Indian to hit a ton in T20.

Deccan Chargers: One of the no-hopers of IPL 2008 surprised everyone this DLF IPL 2009 season. Change in captaincy changed the way it played and they are now a team with electrifying charge and spirit under Adam Gilchrist Symonds joining late still proved that he can add immense value to the team. There are again West Indies’ Dwayne Smith and Fidel Edwards. Pragyan Ojha is a new found and is performing very well.


Teams with nerves of steel will win from here on and I take a stand that it will be a close finish between the predicted finalists Delhi and Chennai. But I will put my money on Chennai guys. What say folks . If you consider yoruself a cric buff and that you have invested enough time from home and office over the last one month, put in a one liner comment to predict the winners.

The Fake IPL Player’s blog is great fun. Each post gets tonnes of (deserving) comments. Whoever is behind this blog has hit upon a brilliant idea
Take this .. About John Buchanan, he writes: "I think he wants to send his laptop in to bat the next time, given the amount of time he spends with it. Maybe if he spent half that time with us players, we may win a match or two"
He reserves the most acerbic comments for Appam Sreesanth: "Appam has this uncanny ability to piss off anyone who’s unfortunate enough to come within 2 kms of him."
How popular is the FIP ?
So far, 41,502 people have voted on the fake IPL player blog(Fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com), to determine whether the anonymous blogger, purportedly a member of Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team, should disclose his identity. Needless to say, 64% of the voters feel he should stand by his word and disclose his identity at the end of the popular Twenty20 cricket tournament.
The blog, which has been offering visitors dressing room gossip, occasionally peppered with interesting accounts of life in the KKR team, has taken the online world by storm since it was launched on 18 April. The blogger’s inclusiveness and pointed irreverence certainly are selling points among cricket buffs who rarely have the insider’s view on what is considered a gentleman’s game.Firms are now paying attention to blogs, using them as an informal network to get the opinion of customers

Why is he a runaway sellout ?
Let’s face it, we as a society love our reality shows and love gossip…we’ve never had access to gossip on cricket and the blog is catering to that need. While much of the content on the blog could be classified as fiction, it was something that readers could relate to, much like the book The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan, which tells the story of an advertising executive who is regarded as a good luck charm by the Indian cricket team. Even Times of India tried to encash teh popularity by runnng a column saying “Here you get to hear from the ‘Real IPL players’,” it read.

The Fake IPL player blog had at its peak, on 26 April, 150,000 visitors, who each spent 15 minutes on the site—which adds up to about 37,000 hours spent on the blog in one day. Putting it up there with popular individual led blogs such as Aamir Khan’s blog at its peak with about 170,000 visitors. Much of the interest in the fake IPL blog has stemmed from cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, even though the blogger apparently belongs to the Kolkata team.

Why is he spitting venom ?
Well the whole idea of a negative blog is to say: you have a right to your own opinion. The last time it happened in India involved Barkha Dutt of NDTV . The media company took a blogger to court for criticizing Barkha Dutt on her coverage of the terror attacks in Mumbai, and won. Internationally, Domino’s Pizza Inc. faced a lot of flak after a video on YouTube showed an employee preparing a food order with cheese he had put up his nose. The company failed to act in time, losing a crucial opportunity to contain the crisis.

While both the management of IPL as well as KKR have tried to maintain a silence on the fake IPL player blog, its growing popularity is likely to a definite impact on the brand KKR and their sponsors. In this tough competetive times all publicity is good publicity; specially these economically challenging days, when notoriety is also aspired for however, at times, when negative publicity is relentlessly targeted at a certain individual or a brand; that too by a nameless, faceless Internet entity, then it can have very serious implications. In this case, it generates mistrust among teammates thereby causing a rift in the team and to continue to be happy with the association despite the fact that the team hasn’t fared too well would definitely be tough .

My two cents...
My bet is on this concept being the brain child of some media manager or PR expert from the team. Good to see non-traditional media being used to create excitement around the event. What say friends ?

Think about it .. there has been so much in so little a time that the mind at times takes a sigh . Multi captain theory ,Dada – no dada , Fake IPL player , security concerns moving making IPL Internatinal Premier League,Strategic breaks , Million dollar english sand babies flopping . first ball goldern ducks , beer sipping fielders and McGrath sitting out . Fixing scandals and Miandad’s “joke” All this and more makes me think if it is a “league”

The Indian Premier League 2009 was in troubled waters even before its start, when the Government of India had refused to provide security to the extravagant tournament due to its clash of dates with the General Elections.

There was anger all over with rumours about the second edition being scrapped due to security issues. But before something unfortunate happened, Cricket South Africa came to the rescue of the tournament and its fans. Political parties making hay terming it as a “national shame ”. However the first edition was a winner hands down! It had the perfect start with a mammoth 158 flowing out of Brendon McCullum’s bat in the very first match. And there was a dream ending too – a mighty close encounter between eventual champions Rajasthan Royals and MS Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings. No one, in their wildest dreams would have thought that the de-glam squad of Rajasthan would lay their hands on the gorgeous trophy.

Things haven’t changed much even now in the sense that there still prevails uncertainty in the extravagantly lucrative tournament. The 2009 edition has been full of surprises so far and there have been incidents that have left a bitter taste in the mouth of fans forcing them to draw comparisons with IPL 2008. Let us have a look at a few mis-hits of the second edition.

Kolkata Flight Riders


No one expected Kolkata Knight Riders to take the exit route even before half the number of games in the competition was played. No ‘build up’ to the series, no PR activities, no advertisements and no star power worked. No one Korbo-ed anything, so the lorbo and jeetbo part remained out of the question, completely. And yes, the over hyped ‘Multiple Captains Theory’ did not work, or better, was a blunder.

Depriving Ganguly of captaincy, calling in Sanjay Bangar and keeping the expensive Mashrafe bin Mortaza to warm the benches in the cool Kingsmead were only a couple of the innumerable mistakes that the SRK owned team committed. Keeping one of the most successful captains of international cricket away from the helm of all action is something that no management in proper mental sanity would do. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan had once said on national television that Sourav Ganguly would remain the captain till the time he owns KKR. Talk about a change of heart…Bollywood style!!


Strategic Time-Out


This one is a complete torture, honestly. Seven and a half minutes of stoppage time after 10 overs in every innings takes away the seriousness and the set mood of the viewers. Such a long break in a micro format is absolutely not required. It is not good for the spectators and not even for the players. It has already received flak from all corners of the cricketing fraternity and the irritation is spreading big time amongst its audience.

The strategy break might work in favour of either team in the match. The break gives both the teams to analyze their progress in the match and change their approach if required. The gap breaks the concentration of the batsman and as we have seen, in almost every match, there has been a wicket or two falling in the 11th over of the game. The strategic time out might work for the team that has been on the backfoot as they get the time to resurrect their plans while it might put brakes on the team going all guns blazing.

The main objective, however, is to generate revenue. Seven and a half minutes of break gives the IPL generate ample revenue from its advertisers, twice in a match. Lalit Modi, the chairman and commissioner of the IPL, has said that it will definitely be a part of the ongoing season. As of next year, it will be decided after the tournament.

Competitive Pitches, Dropped Catches


First ball ducks and wickets in the 11th over (thanks to the strategic break) have become a common sight in the latest edition of the IPL. There are bets being laid on first ball ducks and inning scores of less than 150. Being a T20 game, the spectators expect a cracker of a match with runs flowing out of the blade like water from a broken dam. They do not want to see wickets at regular intervals and scores of 120-140 being chased for victory.

The 20 over format has, more often than not, been a high scoring format and that is what is expected out of it. We want to see the bowlers being thrashed and bashed out of the park. Ironically, this IPL has seen only one score of over 200 in all.

Catches are dropped more than they are taken. Run-out opportunities missed in a fashion that can be related to gully cricket, or even worse. Till the 33rd match of the IPL (Rajasthan v Bangalore), 55 catches had been dropped, with Kolkata (ahem, ahem) leading the table.

Flop Shows
Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff…whew…! Big names, small show. The above are only a few to name. The English duo of KP and Freddie were the most expensive catches at 7.5 crores each, but neither could do much for their respective teams, and now, have returned with their hefty pay packets to their homeland to play West Indies.

Delhi Daredevils captain Sehwag and his deputy, Gambhir, are known to be tailor-made for the 20 over format. Fearless hitting is their characteristic, bludgeoning the opposition, their charisma. But both have failed to give their team a rock solid quick start. Thanks to the middle order suspension, they have sustained the top order shocks and scares comfortably. Gambhir, however, looked like getting back to his best when he won the Man of the Match award for his 71 off 57 balls versus KKR (31st match).

Brendon McCullum’s stint in IPL can only be remembered by his 158 n.o in the very first match of the IPL in 2008 - a perfect start that a tournament like the Indian Premier League could get. Nothing could have been better. Chris Gayle set the stage ablaze with a scintillating century in the first match of the T20 World Cup in 2007, but it seems like someone has poured a bucket of water on his fiery blade in the IPL.

With the bigwigs (in context to both names and age) like Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Matt Hayden, Dravid, Adam Gilchrist and Gibbs performing well, it would be great if the rulers of the format come to the fore and take the series to a different altitude altogether.

DLF Maximum or CITI Moment of Success?

Is it all about money honey? Yes it is. IPL is all about money, money and more money. Millions of dollars to buy players, hefty advertising costs, security budget etc. It’s raining cash in IPL.

The latest addition is the renaming of a SIX. It is now known as the ‘DLF Maximum’. A crucial wicket is called a ‘Citi Moment of Success’. Gone are the days when commentators spoke just for the love of the game. Sadly, it is just about the commercial proliferation and we get capitalist fabricated emotions to hear when an exciting moment comes in a game. Needless to say, it takes away the beauty of the effort and leaves us with an incomplete feeling. But as they say, ‘In Rome, do as the Romans do’, we must also take a cue and leave the poor commentators do their ‘job’ of making their sponsors happy and keep the money flowing.

Australian Rajasthani for Beer

Hopefully, you readers know what is being talked about here. Yes, it is the ‘sip of beer’ on the boundary lines by none other than the very cool and mischievous, the Australian Rajasthani, Shane Warne in the match against the Royal challengers Bangalore.

The spin legend was captured on camera gulping a mouthful of beer from a mug that was supposedly offered to him by a spectator. Now if that is something to be angry over, be amused or just enjoy the video, is up to the viewers to decide.

Did the Kolkata Knight Riders deliberately lose their IPL match against the Bangalore Royal Challengers?

The Knight Riders scored 173. Till the 15th over of the Bangalore innings, Kolkata looked set to win. Then, it all fell apart.


Someone has brought to Modi's attention that the match might have been fixed, while the BCC! has brought to my attention that the match might have been fixed.

The amusing thing is that the reason explained in this article, for the match being potentially fixed, is that Brad Hodge was not playing and was sitting in one of the hospitality boxes.

What connection exactly does sitting in a hospitality box and match fixing have?

And while they're at it, i.e. investigating match fixing in the IPL, maybe they should pay some attention to last night's match as well - the one that Deccan Chargers lost to the Delhi Daredevils.



Well if scoring 52 runs of the final 4 overs to win a match cannot be achieved without some match fixing, then how can 7 wickets for 12 runs be?

And why stop there?

Investigate today's match as well.

Because it looked like some players of the Royal Challengers Bangalore had fixed the match and wanted to lose it.

While some of them pulled a Rashid Latif and snatched a victory from the Chennai Super Kings.

Go on, give the ACU, or whoever the anti-corruption lot are at the IPL, something to do.

As they say in cricket, or in any other game, you need more players with character than with just talent. Talent may ‘deceive’ you in tricky situations, but players with character will raise the bar in difficult times and win you more matches under pressure.

Before the inaugural edition of IPL, no one knew Yusuf Pathan or Ravindra Jadeja. They were, at that time, raw materials which needed complete support from seniors, so that they could believe in their abilities and play their natural game.

Here are some of the lesser known stars who have shone in the limelight making me believe that league churn out the best talent available in a vast country like India .
Left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati was the unlikely hero for Chennai Super Kings in their crucial Indian Premier League game against Delhi Daredevils at the Wanderers Stadium on Saturday. He claimed four wickets to help Super Kings register an 18-run win.


The 28-year-old Goa player struck two vital blows to tilt the match in his team's favour as Daredevils' David Warner and Dinesh Karthik threatened to take the game away from Super Kings. Jakati broke the rollicking 74-run partnership by having Warner stumped for 51 on the fifth ball of the 15th over. Thereafter, he removed the hard-hitting Karthik to reduce Daredevils to 132 for six.

Jakati took four wickets for 24 runs, which also included wickets of T Dilshan and Pradeep Sangwan to walk away with the Man of the Match award.

Abhishek Nayar is a Mumbai Indian player , a left-handed batsman known for his long-standing and hard-hitting capabilities, and he is also a medium-paced bowler. Abhishek Nayar has a unique batting style and his ability to bat at any position of the batting has helped his team enormously. The anonymous, inexpensive Abhishek Nayar can smite Andrew Flintoff, the most expensive IPL player, for three sixers in one over.


That character was shown by another young man from lowly Madhya Pradesh, Naman Ojha. Though he has scored aplenty in the domestic circuit, IPL has proved to be a completely new arena for him.
He failed in his debut match against Delhi Daredevils, scoring a golden duck. Any other captain might have dropped the rookie after that match. But Warne saw in him a champion match-winner, and the seeds of his wisdom germinated in the very next match, when coming as an opener Ojha surprised one and all by smashing 68 against Kings XI Punjab and forging a 135-run opening stand with Graeme Smith. He provided an encore with another fifty in the next match to steer his team to victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The name list could be endless . some are taking their chances while some are not that lucky this time but all I can say that they are all headed in the right direction . However strong might be the halo of the foreign players but their representation cannot be effective without the support of local talent . had it not been for Raina , CSK would not be topping the charts just due to Hayden . AB De Villiers continues to impress .. some day it is the local SA knowledge of conditions but that wouldn't have been possible without the bowlers Mishra and some local talent support . Hail IPL .. churn out hard and good .

"I think he is an overrated bowler and so I think he was a great target for us to go at. He always loses his cool under pressure and I think tonight was a good example of that,"


In yet another cricket controversy for the DLF IPL 2009, we now have Australian Matthew Hayden calling Sreesanth an overrated bowler. Sreesanth went for a lot of runs when he was bowling to Hayden. When he finally got the big Aussie out by getting him caught at the personal score of 89, Hayden did not take kindly to the words that Sreesanth addressed to him as he walked back to the pavilion.


Matthew Hayden specializes in using choice epithets for some of the hapless bowlers that have the misfortune of bowling and he reserves the choicest ones for Indian bowlers: about a year ago Hayden’s comments about Harbhajan Singh were much in the cricket news, when India was touring Australia. Readers will recall it was a particularly acrimonious tour with allegations of racial slurs and counter allegations of name calling.

At that time, Hayden had very famously called Harbhajan an obnoxious little weed. “It’s been a bit of a long battle with Harbhajan, the first time I ever met him he was the same little obnoxious weed that he is now”, Hayden had said on Brisbane radio. Then there was also the allegation that he called Bhajji a ‘mad boy’ which he countered by saying that he said ‘bad’ not ‘mad’ which Bhajji should be “flattered” by since it was a clothing range.

Hayden had also famously referred to Ishant Sharma as a “stringbean paceman” and had expressed the desire to meet him in the boxing ring. “At the end of the day you are 19, why don’t you just worry about your bowling for a while,” Hayden was reported in the cricket news as having told Sharma

This latest cricket controversy also is caused by the wonderful compliments that Hayden seems to reserve for Indian bowlers who seem to get under his hide with shocking regularity. So when Hayden was in full flow and was stopped in his tracks at 89 by Sreesanth, the bowler seemed rather overwhelmed and as he often does, he overreacted. He hurled some abuse or harsh words at Hayden, and Hayden then responded with his withering scorn, the contempt that he keeps especially for Indian bowlers.

As for Sreesanth, this is far from his first run in with cricket controversy. Readers will remember last year’s IPL which saw Sree in floods of tears because Harbhajan Singh allegedly slapped him. This is just the sort of thing that Indian players need to avoid, such a display of childish immaturity. When our chaps behave like this, can you really blame Hayden for taking pot shots at them!

Shahrukh Khan has found an alternative way to earn money. After his team’s dismal performance at the IPL, SRK is back home not only for voting but another reason which brings him back to India is the wedding of builder Kanti Govani’s nephew. Shahrukh Khan has been paid a whopping amount of 3 crores to perform at the wedding.


As Shahrukh failed to earn profit through IPL, to compensate the loss he went to shake his legs. SRK never denied that he loves his fame, popularity and of course money and if not though acting, he went ahead to earn some big bucks through his dancing skill.

Along with him, Rani Mukherjee, Emraan Hashmi, and Bipasha Basu will also be performing at the wedding ceremony. Neil Nitin Mukesh, Celina Jaitley and Neha Dhupia will all be part of the Sangeet ceremony. The wedding cards have been printed and names of the performers are mentioned. The actors will dance and also perform some stunts to entertain the guests.

Let me give you a clue . This Superstar was carted by Abhishek Nayar for three sixes in an over before AB de Villiers tore him apart in their Daredevils match .You guessed it right
Will Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, IPL’s two most expensive players, ever think of paying back 2 cents from their fat paychecks by performing for their teams ? Is it the weight of expectations or the mountain of money they will make from the league that has grounded them? Or has the can’t-be-away-from-my-wife-for-long bug struck Pietersen again like it did in the West Indies earlier this year?


Well, whatever might be the reason, the high-flying South African – err Englishman – needs to deliver fast, for we all know Vijay Mallya’s penchant for chopping and changing at the drop of a hat. The boss, as coach Ray Jennings calls him, was simply over the moon after the team won their first game. “Can the critics who ran down my team as the ‘Test’ squad now explain the success of Dravid and Kumble,” he asked? Never mind the fact that he himself wasn’t happy with the ‘Test’ squad.

Anyway, Mallya was terribly sure that the team is surely on it glorious path of the IPL DOOSRA unlike the test team last year . Alas, that wasn’t to be.

Pietersen’s compatriot and friend Flintoff (I assume they are still friends) is in no better situation, though he has fewer excuses than KP for his below-par performance. He is neither captaining the side, nor the pangs of homesickness get to him as quickly. Yet, he’s being taken to the cleaners by just about by anyone.

The management was even thinking of benching Flintoff (before he he helped himself with an injury ) for it would surely hurt to pay the kind of money Flintoff is getting for just warming the bench. They would rather make him sweat a little, if nothing else, to earn the fat purse.

Time is running out for the English stalwarts. They have just a few more matches before they head for national duties to actually earn the money they would be taking home.

To broaden the excitement in t20 cricket, the Super overs rule has been introduced. Though test and ODI match can end up in draw, super over prevents twenty20 matches from ending in draw. It has replaced the bowl out rule in which only the bowler had a part to play.

Rules of super over in 20-20 cricket:

1. Each team decides a bowler to bowl and three batsmen to bad during one over named as the super over. The same ball used in the match will be used in super over.
2. The team batting second in the match will bat first in the super over.
3. Team A will score some runs in the first over and team B needs to chase it successfully to win the match. In case, it is unable to chase, team A wins.
3. In case scores are level, the team hitting maximum sixes in the match will win. If its also same, the teams with maximum fours win the match.

It has been brought to twenty20 cricket from Standford twenty20. The first international twenty20 in which tie was ended with a super over was New Zealand vs West Indies. In IPL match between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight riders, this rule as implemented after with Rajasthan won Kolkata.

1. Seen on a banner ..
For fishing tips contact Andrew Symonds..
For slapping tips contact Harbhajan Singh..

2. "Commit your sins when Sachin is batting. You won't be punished because even God will be watching him bat."

3. This strategy break in IPL 2 reminds me of 'taste maker' in Maggi... both don't serve their intended purpose.

Meet Kamran Khan, the tennis-ball cricketer with no first-class experience, but who may soon shine for Rajasthan Royals


Mohammad Kamran Khan's mother's only wish was to see her son on television, playing cricket.


Mohammad Kamran Khan, who signed a Rajasthan Royals contract on Sunday, bowls in the nets. PIC/Narendra Dangiya

But when he could be all set to grace the big stage in the Indian Premier League (IPL), his mother is not alive to see it. The 18-year-old rookie left-arm speedster from Azamgarh signed a Rs 12 lakh contract with IPL champions Rajasthan Royals, late on Sunday evening.

"I can't express how happy I am. I knew I would play for a big team one day, but I never thought it would come so early," a delighted Kamran told MiD DAY yesterday.




Kamran came to Mumbai with his coach Naushad Khan five years ago but left a couple of years later when his father expired. "It was tough to leave my mother alone. More than my father, it was my mother who wanted me to play top-level cricket. She always wished to see me on TV. Now that I am so close to fulfilling her wish, she isn't there to watch me," added Kamran, whose mother passed away a year after his father's demise