Royal Challengers aim to maintain momentum

6:28 AM // by Karthik // // 0 comments
Port Elizabath: Maintaining the momentum would be Bangalore Royal Challengers' aim while Chennai Super Kings would seek to shrug off the hangover of their first match defeat when the teams cross sword in the second Indian Premier League cricket tournament here on Monday.
Under their new captain Kevin Pietersen, the Bangalore outfit made a statement of sort on Saturday when they humbled defending champions Rajasthan Royals by a whopping 75 runs, announcing they are ready to shed the laggard's tag they earned last year.
Interestingly, Pietersen owes the morale-boosting win largely to the person he replaced at the top and Rahul Dravid stood testimony to the fact that a player need not be ugly and go bang-bang all along to succeed in the Twenty20 format.
Dravid's cultured 66 was the cornerstone of the Bangalore innings against Rajasthan Royals while Pietersen contributed his mite as well.
But from the team point of view, Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa and Ross Taylor failed to make early impressions and Pietersen would hope that the trio would come all guns blazing on Monday.
Fortunately, there seems no such worry in the bowling department where Anil Kumble, like Dravid, proved that Twenty20 is not necessarily a youngster's game and experience has no alternative.
Kumble's five-for against the Rajasthan Royals proved that the seasoned leggie may have retired from international cricket but he is still good enough to make life difficult for any batsman.
Praveen Kumar and Dale Steyn did an excellent job in the pace department while Jesse Ryder's military medium pace also proved effective.
In contrast, the mood is somewhat sombre in the Chennai Super Kings camp after Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men went down to Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener.
Apart from Matthew Hayden and Dhoni, none of the batsmen could really do any justice to their reputation and Andrew Flintoff was largely ineffective either with the ball or with the bat.
Flintoff did get the start but could not convert it, while Jacob Oram let the side down.
Even the Indian youngsters -- Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina and S Badrinath -- came a cropper and Dhoni can only hope that they would not repeat their mistake again.
Not that Chennai bowlers did any better. Apart from Joginder Sharma, even the containing job proved beyond Dhoni's bowlers.
Manpreet Gony and Thilana Thushara did an average job opening the attack while Flintoff had a rather unflattering bowling figure.

Dhoni insured for $10.5 mn, pips Tendulkar

6:21 AM // by Karthik // // 0 comments
Cape Town: The second edition of Indian Premier League, beginning here Saturday, has been insured for USD 286 million, more than double the amount -- USD 125 million -- spent last season, owing to terror threats.
Besides, the whopping sum for overall insurance for the tournament, India and Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has attracted the highest individual insurance cover of USD 10.5 million.
Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh follow behind with Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya of the Mumbai Indians commanding the highest price among overseas players.
"The sum assured has been higher this time around with the tournament moving overseas," Reena Bhatnagar, deputy general manager of Oriental Insurance Corporation (OIC), the IPL's insurers, was quoted as saying by a cricket website.
"The details of the package are similar to those signed last year, and will provide covers not just due to terrorism, but take into account other factors like accidents during travel, flights etc as well," she said.
Bhatnagar said the insurance cover for individual players were decided by the franchises and ranged from USD 2.5 million to USD 10.5 million.
"That Dhoni has been placed above Tendulkar or Ganguly, is entirely their (franchises') perception. It is the IPL organisers who then decide and provide us the values," she said. The package takes into account all 120 auctioned players as well as a few non-auctioned players. The cost in premiums to the franchises is around USD 430,000 each, the report said.
The OIC deputy director said the entire package was reinsurance-driven, meaning that OIC would seek to protect itself with other insurance companies against the risk of losses during the mega event "With such a large package signed up, it was beyond the capacity of the Indian insurers. We had to travel the reinsurance route and tap the London market," she said.
The loss of baggage cover means that players will be paid the cost of their belongings, in case they lose them during the course of the tournament.
The policies will be effective from the time the players leave for the 47-day tournament, to be staged from April 18-May 24, till they return home.

Knight Riders-have no Riders!!

6:20 AM // by Karthik // // 0 comments
Bangalore Terming John Buchanan's theories on Twenty20 cricket as 'stupid and unimaginative', former Indian captain and coach Ajit Wadekar blamed Kolkata Knight Riders' humiliating eight-wicket defeat to Deccan Chargers squarely on the former Aussie coach.
"Buchanan has taken the Knight Riders' to the dept of the ocean with his 'stupid and unimaginative' theories. I find it shocking that he has been given so much of importance by the team management despite dividing the team. The body language of the players clearly indicated that everything was not fine with the team," Wadekar told Cricketnext.com on Monday.
"Changing the captain just a day before a big tournament is unheard of in cricket and by replacing Sourav Ganguly with Brendon McCullum, Buchanan has created a record of sort," a fuming Wadekar added.
Wadekar along with two former Indian skippers -- Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar -- had criticised Buchanan's multiple captains theory after a press conference in Kolkata.
"Buchanan's observations that the seniors like Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Anil Kumble should stop playing in the Twenty20 version has been answered in a proper manner by Dravid's and Sachin Tendulkar's technically sound batting and Anil Kumble's lion hearted bowling. Also such comments only proves the man's lack of cricketing knowledge as South African wickets will never help slam-bang type of batters," the southpaw said.
"Even an attacking batsman like Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa batted cautiously yesterday proving my point once and for all," Wadekar added.
"To me Buchanan is no cricket coach he is just a good man-management guy, who can be a decent manager. And if people want to give him credit for Australian team's success under Steve Waugh and later under Ricky Ponting it is their problem.
But to me only technically sound batsmen will have a big role to play in this IPL, irrespective of their age and unlike the traditional belief, spinners will be in the forefront of actions and might snatch the limelight from the fast bowlers," Wadekar sounded the warning.
Sympathising with defending champions Rajasthan Royals' early set back to the Bangalore outfit on the first day, Wadekar said, the loss of Shane Watson and Shoail Tanvir, had crippled the team somewhat.
"Watson and Tanvir played a major role in their team's success last time around and their absence has left a big dent as the team is yet to find suitable replacements," Wadekar said.
"Though the team consists of many talented youngster, they lack experience and technique to adapt to the conditions over there. Players like Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja should try and be more consistent and not resort to big hitting all the time because they will never succeed as you just cannot hit across the line on these wickets," he added.

Chargers Charged up!!

6:18 AM // by Karthik // // 0 comments
Could the script have been any different from last year's start for the Kolkata Knight Riders? Brendon McCullum's intoxicating 158 had taken them to an enormous victory a year ago, but they were outplayed by an efficient Deccan Chargers outfit on a juicy pitch in Cape Town. It has been a weekend to savour for bowlers, and each member of Deccan's attack did their bit to leave Kolkata scrambling to reach triple-digits. Herschelle Gibbs, coming off a triumphant series against Australia, and Rohit Sharma, back in the country where he made his name in 2007, then made sure Deccan's campaign didn't begin in the dismal way last season's had.
Kolkata had packed their batting with foreign players, but it wasn't enough to prevent a hapless batting performance. Their formidable top order was handcuffed by Deccan's new-ball bowlers. Fidel Edwards was fast and frugal - consistently around the 140kph mark, he gave away only six runs, the lowest conceded in a completed IPL spell - and RP Singh evicted the Kolkata openers early.
Everything went right for Deccan. With Kolkata on 2 for 1 after three overs, Gayle broke free with a crash past point for four and a mow over midwicket for six. Then Adam Gilchrist pushed a fielder back to long-on, where Gayle promptly holed out next ball.
Sourav Ganguly had a short-lived and uncomfortable stay, beaten several times, and was unable to find the gap through the off side when he connected. Even fans protesting his removal from the captaincy can't defend the shot that brought about his dismissal - backing away and then stabbing at a wide, full delivery, only to nick it to slip.
Despite rain and a floodlight failure causing the game to be delayed by nearly an hour-and-a-half, the organisers decided to have the seven-and-a-half-minute interval after the tenth over. Aakash Chopra and Brad Hodge had dragged Kolkata to 31 for 3 by then, but also found Pragyan Ojha's left-arm spin a handful. Both Chopra and Laxmi Shukla perished giving Ojha the charge, only to be undone by the turn.
Hodge, the leading run-getter in Twenty20s, played a sensible hand. He entered in the fifth over and knocked around the singles before opening out in the 16th. Hodge slammed a couple of boundaries before slapping Scott Styris straight to Herschelle Gibbs at point. The tailenders threw their bat around but RP took two in three balls to deny Kolkata even the modest satisfaction of playing out their 20 overs.
A target of 102 was never going to be too big a challenge, especially as Kolkata had left out Ajantha Mendis on a pitch spinners have thrived on all weekend. Adam Gilchrist hit a couple of trademark boundaries before top-edging to square leg and VVS Laxman, after bludgeoning an out-of-character pull for six, was dismissed due to an old failing - poor running between the wickets.
That brought together Rohit and Gibbs, who knuckled down to work a few singles and steady the innings. Gibbs then started playing some inventive shots, a bent-knee sweep off Ganguly for four followed by a deft dab towards third man. Any pressure that Kolkata had built up vanished, and neither batsmen was afraid of lofting the ball after that.
Rohit joined in the fun once Ajit Agarkar was introduced, a huge six over long-off and a couple of boundaries helping take 17 runs off his first over. Some more merry hitting from the pair finished off the game with nearly seven overs to spare.
Kolkata had talked of a radical multiple-captain theory before the tournament, but they need to come up with some fresh ideas if they are improve on today's dreadful show.