Dhoni says “…. we witnessed some of the worst bowling in the IPL..”as the Super Kings lost to the Knight Riders. Infact Kolkata actually won! McCullum fired 12 games too late, he certainly salvaged some pride for his team. Dhoni’s outburst was probably targeted at Balaji and to some extent at Morkel. They actually did bowl leaving their brains in warmer conditions, bowled and fielded with cold hearts and hands, no desire to win. I still wouldn’t panic though, CSK is more than likely through to the semi-finals. This game, however, showed the sharp contrasts in talent and intelligence that captures this side. Dhoni’s presence of mind in standing ground to ensure he retained strike after Raina was caught, his moving to the outfield to lend some speed to the fielding unit, Murali’s brilliant spell and Raina amazing batting were examples of sheer brilliance. Badrinath’s poor fielding, Balaji’s stroll in the park (Morrison’s calls this village cricket), Jacob Oram’s clueless presence on the field were the contrasts.
Dhoni calls his a safe side without any exceptional talent. He is probably true. They are batting heavy and miss a strike bowler to support Murali. They should seriously consider looking out for some pacemen for IPL 3 and onward. I also feel that they still do not have the right team on the field. They should consider playing Ntini instead of Oram in the next game, bring in Gony for Balaji and bring Vijay back for Parthiv Patel. It will take a herculean effort for Chennai to outplay the Daredevils to contemplate winning IPL 2.
Lost favorites , Mumbai Indians, were quite disappointing towards then end. They blew several opportunities to move to the next stage of the tournament, thanks to inexperience, some strange captaincy, and constant changes to the team. They did miss Zaheer Khan sorely in the final games and Jayasurya hasn’t fired at all in the tournament. They should consider trying to acquire Rohit Sharma, somehow, and strengthen their middle order. This would allow Tendulkar to go back to the top of the order, reduce the dependence on Duminy and Nayar, and bring an added spinning option.
At the end of it all, three of 4 teams from IPL-1 should make it through to this year’s semi-finals also. Deccan Chargers seem most likely to replace the Royals as the 4th team. It should be an interesting finale to the IPL-2.

"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!

South Africa is full of wild animals. I saw this particular creature while I was on a South African safari. For some strange reason it was holding a mic and saying ‘extraaaaaaaa innings’. It looked like it was in heat.




Wives of Delhi Daredevils players Sehwag, Mendes and Nehra cheer up during the IPL T20 match in Durban.



Sachin Tendulkar lifts candles off a cake at a surprise birthday party in Durban. Tendulkar celebrated his 36th birthday with friends and teammates in South Africa during the Indian Premier League. (AFP Photo)






When Harry met Sally ?