The Champions of Champions and the Roar of the Yellow Brigade

27th September 2010 might just be another day, but for chenniates it's a day where their yellow brigade has bought home the world cup of club cricket- The Champions league title. It was fair that two best teams in tournament reached the finals and it was fitting that the men in yellow walked away with the crown.

There were other teams who threatened to storm away with the title like the pre tournament favourites- The Victoria Bushrangers who never really arrived to the party; The mid tournament favourites- The South Australian Redbacks and The Bangalore Royal Challengers who were a bit unlucky to lose the services of their pace spearhead and the best allrounder.

It was a colourful beginning in the Rainbow Nation to the big club tournament and the superkings overcame an initial hiccup to clinch their first game against the central stags of newzealand quite comfortably. This time the found their life jackets with two of the lesser celeberated members of the yellow brigade- Badrinath and Anirudh Srikanth. The superkings were down on their back after losing 3 quick wickets with less that 30 on board. Badri and Anirudh saw the team through the new ball without further damage before launching on to the big lusty ones. They have lifted the team from a pothole to a mountain from where it became easier for bollinger and co. to rattle the spine of the stags.

Then came the Wayamba Elevens from Srilanka. This was the occassion for two young talents from the yellow camp to come to the party. Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina tore the Wayamba attack to peices. The bowling was well handled by the likes of Ashwin, Bollinger and the Maestro Muralitharan. Then came the 'Match of the Tournament' against the Victoria Busrangers. Chennai went in with two changes Mathew Hayden was dropped and in came Mike Hussey. This might have well been the signal to end an era of the great aussie southpaw. Albie morkel was forced out due to injury and Justin Kemp replaced him. The Super Kings had just managed 150 odd in their 20 overs and Victoria began their chase in style. Finch launched on to Bollinger and Ashwin before the latter got the better of him. Then it was upto Dave Hussey to steady the Ship. The Ship was sailing smoothly until tornado 'Raina' threatened to blow them away. He took four wickets in two overs including two in the last over to end the scores on level at the end of fourty overs. Then came the super over and from the CSK it was neither Bollinger nor Murali who bowled it. It was the talent of Ashwin which Dhoni trusted but Dave Hussey had other plans which spoilt his elder brother debut game in the tournament. He hoicked Ashwin for three huge sixes which was enough to seal the fate of the match. The Men in Yellow had lost the match in the super over . Post that came the Eastern Warriors and the Superkings won it due to their splendid spin web, which meant they had qualified for the semis along with the warriors from the group.

The semis though was a different ball game on a seaming durban wicket with Dale Steyn in the opposition. However luck again went Dhoni's way. Dale Steyn had just completed a spledid catch to dismiss Mike Hussey and in the process hurt himself which ruled him out of the game. In came Raina and started his intimidating attack against a bowling attack which lacked the tooth without Dale Steyn. It was a daunting task for the Royal Challengers to score at more than 10 runs per over and they failed miserably. The Men in Yellow had stormed into the Finals of The Airtel Champions League.

For the first time in the tournament Dhoni failed with the toss and it looked like things would go terribly wrong for them in the game too. A Hurricane named 'Davey Jacobs' threatened to swirl them away in no time. Jacobs was treating Bollinger and Morkel with utmost disrespect. Warrors had reached 48 in 5 overs. In came Ravichandran Ashwin who removed Jacobs in his first over. An attempt at reverse sweep has miserably failed and Ashwin had his big scalp. There after the chennai spinners had spun their web over the warriors batting line up . The warriors finished at 138 in 20 overs. Mike Hussey and Murali Vijay approached the total with ease and the Chennai Super Kings had created history. They are the first Indian Team to win the CLT20. In the process they had also won themselves a huge jackpot of 2.5 million USD apart from the Golden stumps( Ashwin) Golden Bat (Murali Vijay) and the Man of The Series awards (Ashwin).

The win will be remembered for a long time ahead as this will be the last time that these bunch of dynamic cricketers will be together. With the fresh auctions coming up it will be a big challenge for the CSK management to retain most of the player who have been part of their success over the past three years

ICC Glory for the English Men and the Bouncing Indians

It has been a fairytale end to the ICC World T20 and cheers to Paul Collingwood and his men for having pulled off their first ever ICC Title. The win means more than just victory for them. The triumph came on back of some wonderful team effort. The confidence of the team was on all time high and it was evident from the fact that England feilded just 12 men all through the tournament. Even the twelveth man was required when Kevin Peitersen went on a one match off to meet the newly arrived baby Peitersen. He came back for the Semis and Finals and now will gift the Newly born with his Man of the Series Award. Congrats KP.. You are getting back to your real destructive self. The win also meant that Paul Collingwood becomes the first English skipper to hand them their first ICC title. The upbeat mood in the camp was evident even before the beginning of the Super 8s. Skipper Collingwood has suggested than Lumb and Keiswetter at the top of the order makes them the most balaced team in the competition and it was during the end of the super 8s that one got a feel that he has hit the nail on the head. BINGO Paul... Post super 8s successes England looked unbeatable and they humbled Srilanka and mighty Aussises in the Semis and Finals respectively. It was a victory earned through team work where evry player in the team fitted the bill to perfection. Keiswetter was awesome, Piertersen was at his next best if not at his best. Ryan Sidebottom, Tim Bresnan and Stuart broad were fast. Yardy and Swann were cunnning. Most importantly they had a cool head in the helm of affairs in Paul Collingwood.... Congrats Paul , Congrats England... Happy to see you win....



Now then, if you have smiles written all over the face reading about the English glory, it's time for some grin. Yes we are talking about one of the minnows( atleast by the way they played) of the World T20. Yes It's India. For a batting line up that boasts of larger than life batsmen ,who can all, on their day, single handedly tear apart the bowling attack of any team in the world, the result was truly disappointing. Leave apart the game and their techniques against the short balls, Indians were there in the caribbean just for a formality. They never looked comfortable in any of the games apart from the one against South Africa where Suresh Raina's masterly ton took control of the game.
There were few players who never wanted to come to the party. The likes of Yuvraj, Gambhir, Jadeja and Zaheer Khan were a total let down and it was evident in their body language. Selection errors by the captain cost them dearly. Their batsmen were found wanting whenever the ball shot above their shoulders. Their bowlers were happy to concede runs in gallons. Their feilding was miserable. All in all, The Indians never arrived . What arrived in the carribean was a shadow of a team who had beaten the Australians in bouncing tracks two years ago with almost the same team.

Truly disappointing to see India lose the way they did. Hope the selectors have learnt their lesson of selecting an unfit squad. Hope that in the future players will be picked based on form and not on past records. Lets hope for the glory days of Indian cricket to return at the earliest

The IPL 3 and the Lion's Roar

One week into the ICC world T20, one cannot be gunned down for showing less interest and involvement in following the matches. The first week of the world T20 has been a sober,sad gloom affair. Dead pitches, small crowds, low scoring matches, rain interruptions, Mr. Duckworth & Lewis and huge grounds have made it even worse. The World T20 in the carribean could have been a good prelude to the IPL but not a good successor (atleast the first week).


The IPL 3 was the better than previous two editions. Th reasons being, one , It was back in India with packed stadiums and two for the entertainment factor, both on field and off field. Throughout the 45 days and there was enough news and buzz which could have kept a cricket fanatic awake 1 hour more than a hot cup of tea.


On Field, IPL 3 was fun, entertaining and cricketing success. It began with a bang and like the previous two editions the underdogs won the tournament.


The success of the Chennai Super Kings was a team effort. what made the success even admirable was the way in which it was achieved. It was not the Matt ' mongoose' Hayden, niether was it Muttiah ' willy' Muralitharan. It was about the lesser know Murali Vijay, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shadab Jakati and some better know player like Suresh Raina and Doug Bollinger.


7 matches down the tournament at the end of first round the Chennai Super Kings were staring down the barrel. They needed to win 6 out of their remain 7 matches to make it to the semis. The first round was a disaster for them. Their bowling line up was looking so bad that even a batsman who plays gully cricket in the streets of andheri could have strolled into the cricket field and wacked a six of any of the CSK bowlers. Injury to Dhoni let them further down , Mathew Hayden was a complete flop except a dynamite innings against the Delhi daredevils.


The eighth match was probably the turnaround factor for the Men in Yellow. It was an invention of a player called Murali Vijay, who helped them chase a formidable total. Then came the biggest twist. A huge fast bowler called Doug Bollinger who has just finshed his national duty in New Zealand was drafted in by the CSK bosses. He landed in Chennai, overcame jet lag, bowled the best spell in IPL, took 3 wickets for a miserly conceded 15 runs and completed a masterly flop flip catch in the boundary line to take CSK to Victiory. 99 out of 100 times such an effort would have earned him the Man of the Match in a high scoring match. Bollinger was on the other one percent that day. The reason being, Chennai's Boy Murali Vijay had come to the party yet again and this time more severely. He had scored 127 runs of just 65 balls with proper cricketing shots and because this innings laid a platform for a late Albie Morkel assault, Vijay was awarded the Man of the Match. Most importantly, CSK has found a solution to their bowling woes in Dougie Bollinger.
There after CSK overcame Sachin's Mumbai, Dada's Kolkota before losing to Deccan Chergers and Delhi daredevils. Amidst all the heroics there was Suresh Raina who was consistant and there was a 20 year old kid who was drafted in to maintain balance of the team, who never looked back after that. He was Ravichandran Ashwin. Not even the likes of Chris Gayle, Brandon Mccullum, Adam Gilchrist were able to read him. To add to his credits he was donning the mantle of a new ball bowler.. The cunning tall offie from chennai was mixing it nicely. He was deceptive with his pace line & length. He had it all, The arm Ball, The carrom Ball, The genuine one, The quicker one and the looped one.

By the time all this fell in place CSK was becoming a formidabble outfit. They needed to cross Kings Eleven to reach the semis. A huge target to chase and loss of openers didnt make their chase a smooth one. Raina and Badri gave them the foundation through some lusty hits . Some rolled to the fence others landed on the roof. By the time both departed the job was just half done and they had only their out of form captain and Albie Morkel left. With 45 required out of last 3 overs CSK lads were ready to pack their bags to catch a flight to their hometowns, but their captain had other ideas. The brutual power of Dhoni was unleashed and the captain wrapped it up for his team. His emotional outburst after the winning six showed how much he wanted the win.
Then came the Deccan Chargers in the Semis in a low scoring match. CSK seemed to have lost it after their batting effort. The twist was that they had 3 tweakers in their bowling line up. The bowling and fielding lifted CSK to a final berth.
The Final was CSK all the way. It could have been so different had Mumbai Indians held on to the 2 chances offered by Raina. Raina tore them apart and the others in the team decided to play around him. The chase from Mumbai Indians was ordinary, barring Sachin and a very late attempt from the Carrieban 'Monster' Pollard . The very first over was a Maiden from Ashwin, who by this time was a very confident bowler. Dhoni's innovation has accounted for Pollard and CSK boys had done it.
The IPL3 was probably the worst prelude to the ICC world T20 because of it's fatigue factor. Lets hope that Dhoni and his men will bring back the glory of the 2007 .... Would love to see MSD and his men doing it again..... INDIA ROCKS.... MSD ROCKS..... Cheers guys...