CRICSTARS THE STARS OF CRICKET

Looks like Home ground is very unlucky to Deccan Chargers, despite doing a pooja/yaga in stadium on wednesday, Deccan Chargers were once again trashed in front of home crowd.

Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to field against Deccan Chargers at Hyderabad. Rohit Sharma stood tall amid ruins and hammered an unbeaten 42-ball 76 as Deccan Chargers posted a modest 164 for eight against Kings XI . V.V.S. Laxman (48 off 34 balls) and Shahid Afridi (13 off seven balls) are the only other batsmen to cross double figures. Piyush Chawla once again impressed with a three-wicket haul, conceding 28 runs in his four overs

Kings XI’s new opening duo of Marsh  (who I predicted will be one of the biggest star after the tournament) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (15 off 15) gave a perfect start, putting up 41 runs.An unbeaten 81-run stand between debutant Shaun Marsh and Mahela Jayawardena powered Kings XI Punjab to a comprehensive seven-wicket victory against Deccan Chargers

IPL T20 Video Highlights of Deccan Chargers Innings

Will post Punjab Innigs, soon, Keep watching

IPL Score Card

Simon Katich steered Punjab Kings X1 against a formidable Delhi bowling line-up in Mohali. A brilliant effort by their paceman lead by VRV singh helped Kings XI Punjab restrict Delhi Daredevils to a modest 158 for eight.

Daredevils struggled at the start of their innings, losing captain Virender Sehwag and Shikhar Dhawan with only 12 runs on the board. Dare Devils lost wickets at regular interval and were at 88-5 the Daredevils looked to be in dire straits, but Manoj Tiwary rescued the situation with 39 from 34 balls.

Kings Punjab also started there innings nervously loosing  two wickets in first two overs. But they recovered from the early hiccups with the help of Simon Katich’s knock of 75 runs and Yuvraj Singh’s unbeaten 40.

Sri Lankan star Kumar Sangakkara scored a stylish 94 from 56 balls before some tight bowlingto help the Kings XI Punjab there first victory againgt Mumbai Indians. In a glitzy, throw-your-bat-at-everything Twenty20 game Kumar Sangakkara chose classic Test cricket shots.

watch out this awesome innings by sangakara

Shane Watson and Warne steered Rajasthan Royals to their maiden victory in the tournament

In a surprising result, Rajsthan Royals defeated Punjab Kings at Jaipur, thanks to a inspiring performace from Shane Watson and Shane Warne. Shane Warne’s 3 for 19 restricted Kings XI Punjab to 166. Yuvraj Singh rescued Punjab Team with his 34 ball 57 runs. Rajasthan Royals comfortable chased the target, thanks to a fiery 49-ball 76 by Watson, and a unbeaten 36 by Ravindra Jadeja. . At 99 for 4 in 12th over Rajasthan Royals were rescued by a a unbeaten 69-run partnership between Watson and Jadeja

IPL Video Highlights of 6th match betweeb Rajasthan Royals Kings XI Punjab

IPL Scorecard

A pretty settled Punjab Kings X! will take on a unsettled Rajsthan Royals in the 6^th match of IPL at the Sawai Man Singh stadium at 8 PM IST. Nothing is going right for Rajasthan Royals, they are still waiting for there foreign Recruits to join the squad. While both teams lost there opening encounters, punjab fought well and are favourates for this match

Graeme Smith and Morne Morkel are still playing in S.Africa Domestic Series and Mascarenhas is expected to join on May 12. Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, and Sohail Tanvir will join the team on Sunday. Punjab may replace Simon Katich for this match and dont have much worries in team composition. Rajsthan Royals desperatley need some fresh faces, but as of now they dont have much choice. Rajsthan Royals may go with the same squad that played against Delhi Daredevils. Can they put a decent show infront of there home fans, I dont think so

Probable Teams – Punjab Karan Goel, James Hopes, Kumar Sangakkara (wk),Yuvraj Singh, Mahela Jayawardene/Simon Katich, Irfan Pathan, Pankaj Dharmani, Brettt Lee Piyush Chawla, Wilkin Mota/Ramesh Powar, Sreesanth.

Rajasthan Niraj Patel, Yusuf Pathan,  Shane Watson,Mohammad Kaif, Darren Lehmann,  Ravindra Jadeja  Mahesh Rawat, Dinesh Salunkhe, Shane Warne, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.

Chennai super kings defeated Mohali Kings eleven in a superb match at PCA ground in Mohali.. Chasing a mammoth 240 runs Punjab Kings fought well and lost by 33 runs.

James Hopes’ 32-ball 71 couldn’t help Kings X1

MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Batting first Chennai Super Kings scored a huge total of 240/5 thanks to Hussey’s unbeaten 116,Hussey scored the fastest century in 20-20 in just 50 balls. Husset did not loose his cool even wickets are falling in other end. Suresh Raina(32 in 13 balls) and badrinath(31 in 14 balls) came in handy to Super Kings. Dhoni disappointed fans by scoring just 1 run in 3 balls. Bret Lee had a excellent spell, while sreeshanth was smashed for 35 runs in his 3 overs

240 is always near impossible target to chase, but Kings X1 Punjab fought well, Kings X1 punjab got a flying start with there opener James Hopes scoreing 71 runs in 33 balls with 10 fours and 3 sixers, Yuvraj Singh scored quick fire 23 runs in 13 balls while Sangakkara scored half century in 29 balls. Hopes and Sangakkara but both fell at crucial junctures which hampered Punjab chances.

Chennai got a perfect start and with Ntini and Morkel joining the squad the bowling department may became storonger

Chennai Super Kings 240 for 5 (Hussey 116*, Raina 32, Badrinath 31*) beat Kings XI Punjab 207 for 4 (Hopes 71, Sangakkara 54) by 33 runs

Socre Card -

The live scorecard and commentary for the Indian Premier League Match – Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings

Live Scores and Live Commentary

The second match of IPL features the Chennai Super Kings taking on Kings XI Punjab in Mohali at 5 P.M (IST). The hype surrounding the match is a battle between yuvi and MSD. Chennai strength liews in there batting line up while Punjab looks forward for a brilliant knock from yuvi

Ramnaresh Sarwan will miss the match for Punjab. Punjab also lack a opening combination. Sangakara may open the batting with Irfran pathan. On paper they look very balanced side, need to see how they do on grouund

Chennai have very good experience batting line up. Hayden and Fleming may start the innings and Hussey-oram- Dhoni will come handy middle of the innings. The bowling dept look bit shacky. Apart from Muaralitharan and Joginder Sharma no one have any good experience. Ntini will miss the match because of his SA domestic cricket commitments. Morkell one of the biggest star in ICC T20 world cup will also miss the match. Jacob Oram has a key role to play with bat and ball

Chennai Hayden, 2 Stephen Fleming, Suresh Raina,Jacob Oram, Mahendra Singh Dhoni , Parthiv Patel (wk), S Vidyut, Joginder Sharma, Manpreet Gony, Muttiah Muralitharan

Punjab Kumar Sangakkara, James Hopes, Sahil Kukreja, Sarwan, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Tanmay Srivastava, Karan Goel, Brett Lee, Piyush Chawla or Romesh Pawar, Sreesanth.

Prediction: I will go for Chennai Super Kings, if punjab batted first and blasted inexperienced bowling attack and set a high target, both teams will have equal chances

Indian Premier League 20:20 Cricket – Kings XI Punjab Promotional Video.

Kings XI Punjab

Owner: Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia etc
Official Website: http://www.kings11punjab.com

Captain: Yuvraj Singh
Coach: Tom Moody

Batsmen:
Yuvraj Singh
Mahela Jayawardena
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Simon Katich
Luke Pomersbach
Karan Goel
Uday Kaul
Tanmay Shrivastava
Sahil Kukreja
Sunny Sohal

Wicket Keepers / All Rounders:
Kumar Sangakarra
Irfan Pathan
Ramesh Powar
James Hopes
Pankaj Dharmani
Nitin Saini
Wilkin Mota

Bowlers:
Brett Lee
S Sreesanth
Piyush Chawla
VRV Singh
Kyle Mills
Ajitesh Argal
Rishi Dhawan

The Mohali team,Kings XI Punjab is owned by Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan and Mohit Burman for $76 million investment this is the second cheapest franchise. Led by there icon player Yuvraj Singh and coached by former Aussie all rounder Tom Moody

The team is very young overall, with only 3 players being above 30 years of age and I guess they got some very good underdogs

They recently signed Shaun Marsh, the Western Australia top-order batsman and new entrant in Australian team. Marsh is son of ex aussie opener Geoff Marsh and the leading run scorer in Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition in 2007-08. He made 290 runs at 58 with a strike-rate of 142.15 and was awarded Western Australia’s Player of the Year. I guess Shaun Marsh will emerge as star after IPL, what a pick by Mohali Team

Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills will play four Twenty20 games for Mohali Team before joining the New Zealand squad on their tour of England on May 1. The batting lineup looks solid with srilankan duo Mahela Jaywardhane and Kumar Sangakarra, Yuvraj Singh, Shaun Marsh and Under 19 wordcup highest scorer Tanmay Srivastava.

Bret lee will lead the bowling atackt and with sreeshanth in the team you can always except some pun, would be interesting to see if he will show off his monkeys acts against Indian players in other teams. Piyush Chawla will come handy in Indian pitches

Strengths – balanced side with lot of underdogs, picked right players at right players instead of going after big names

Weakness – Bowling line up will be tested, yuvraj singh is not looking great these days, lack of wicket takers except Bret lee

Star Players – Yuvraj Singh, Bret lee and Sangakara. Betting on Shaun Marsh

Prediction – 4-6 , may end up if key players clicked in right time