Indian Premier League Cricket

Akhtar nothing but a problem: Ex-PCB chief

May 29, 2008 – 2:28 pm

Shoaib Akhtar may claim to be a perfect team-man but former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan says the maverick pacer has been nothing but a “problem” for captains and coaches who have worked with him in the past couple of years.

Khan feels the pacer, who is fighting a five-year ban imposed on him for disciplinary violations by the PCB, has only himself to blame for the problems that he is facing right now.

“In the last two years he was a problem for the coach, captain and the board and we could see he was more interested in playing for himself rather than the team and this attitude was having a bad effect on others,” Khan said.

Khan felt it was better not to have Akhtar in the team as it has always done well without him.

“When he didn’t play the team did well and won. I think the fame and pampering he got early on in his career got to his head and he couldn’t handle it maturely,” he stated.

The former PCB chief said the only way left to deal with Akhtar was involve his family in counseling him.

“The best way to handle him is to sit down and talk to him or ask his family members to talk sense into him and he would come around,” he told ‘Geo TV’.

Apart from the Akhtar, Khan said the PCB should also give some attention to the plight of cricketers banned by it for participating in the rebel Indian Cricket League.

Khan felt the PCB should lift the ban on these players and allow them to earn their living.

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Rajasthan and Delhi face knock-out

May 29, 2008 – 2:15 pm

The first semi-final of the Indian Premier League will see an interesting clash between table-toppers Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils, which qualified by default, at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.

Rajasthan Royals would be looking to continue their dream sequence of wins, while Delhi Daredevils, which managed to grab the last spot in the knock-out stage, will be hoping to finally live up to their potential on the big stage.

The competition has built up nicely to the last four stage and a capacity crowd is expected to witness this slam bang action between the two teams that possess enough firepower to outperform each other.

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Marsh century conquers Rajasthan

May 29, 2008 – 1:40 pm

Rajasthan Royals may have ended the league stage on top, but it will be the Kings XI Punjab who head into the semi-finals full of confidence after triumphing by 41 runs in a dead-rubber top-of-the-table clash in Mohali.

Full Scorecard

Shane Warne rested himself for the game, and there was not much the Rajasthan Royals’ captain-cum-coach could do watching from the dugout as Punjab’s top order knocked them out of the contest. Shaun Marsh led the way with a 69-ball 115 and James Hopes’ 51 provided him support in a century stand before Yuvraj Singh finally found his rhythm with a blistering 49. Without Warne, Rajasthan looked insipid in the field, and a weakened attack without him and Sohail Tanvir, the tournament’s best bowler, leaked away too many short and wide deliveries.

Rajasthan, despite a stumbling start, made a spirited effort at hunting down an imposing 222. There was a fluent fifty from Niraj Patel and two blistering hands from Yusuf Pathan and Kamran Akmal, but the match had pretty much been sealed after Punjab’s batsmen provided a royal feast for the fans in their last home match.

Marsh, who has been the in-form batsmen for Punjab, was quick off the blocks. Shane Watson had taken over the captaincy, but Marsh started by spanking two wide deliveries off him for boundaries through the off side. The cut, pull and the lofted straight drive were seen aplenty as Marsh began his assault to go past Gautam Gambhir as the tournament’s leading run-getter.

At the other end, Hopes got the occasional boundary while letting his partner take most of the strike, and he had to take some evasive action as Marsh blasted one off Watson that went right under his legs. The Powerplay overs fetched 51, but there was no respite for Rajasthan as Pankaj Singh was taken for 17 in the seventh: Marsh clobbering one over midwicket, before lacing the next through extra cover.

Marsh took a single off Dinesh Salunkhe’s first ball to become the tournament’s leading run-scorer, and a rank bad ball was blasted through midwicket to bring up his fifty. At 88 for 0 after ten overs, the Mohali crowd were set for a treat from their batsmen, and Hopes shifted gears as Punjab looked to build an imposing score. He got three boundaries off Siddharth Trivedi in the 11th over, and Yusuf’s offspin was slog-swept into the stands en route to his fifty, which came 30 deliveries.

Next it was Marsh’s turn; Yusuf was flat-batted over long-on for four before the Western Australian stepped down the track for to send one sailing over long-on. Yusuf got a breakthrough as Hopes holed on to deep midwicket and the two quiet overs that followed were the brief lull before Yuvraj came out storming and landed the knockout blow.

By then Marsh was marching towards his hundred, and he struck a six over Pankaj’s head to move to 97, and a single later in the over - that cost 25 - brought up the sixth century of the IPL. The pressure was getting to Rajasthan, and Yuvraj cashed in: he swivelled around to pull one for six, before dispatching one through square leg.

Yuvraj was in the sort of mood that caught him when he smashed six sixes off Stuart Broad in the World Twenty20. He did hit five sixes off six consecutive deliveries - though it was spread across three overs this time - before he was run-out off the last ball of the innings, one short of what would have been the tournament’s fastest fifty. Marsh had fallen earlier in the over, but Punjab were way past the par score of 180 initially suggested by Warne.

Rajasthan surprisingly opened with Mohammad Kaif and Niraj. Kaif fell early, as did Younis Khan, but Niraj, who held his calm during the gripping run-chase that knocked out the Mumbai Indians, scored a sparkling fifty.

He cracked four fours in a Sreesanth over: he worked the ball square on the off side as the bowler gave him width, and launched a slower ball down the ground. VRV Singh tried to test him with shorter deliveries, but Niraj managed to find the boundary. Punjab’s bowlers had frittered away a winning position in their shock loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders, but today they were largely disciplined and were backed up by sharp fielding.

Though Niraj kept the score ticking, Rajasthan were struggling at 67 at the halfway mark. Piyush Chawla removed Niraj and Watson, but Rajasthan were given a glimmer of hopes as Yusuf Pathan and Kamran Akmal nonchalantly blasted sixes and scored 54 in three overs to bring it down to 90 off the final six.

Punjab had conceded 71 in the final five overs against Kolkata, but Chawla picked up his third wicket, removing Akmal, and even the hard-hitting Yusuf, who’s been a revelation in the tournament, couldn’t save Rajasthan. Warne had experimented with his line-up and Delhi Daredevils will be wary of a backlash come the semi-final in on Friday. As for the Chennai Super Kings, they will know they’re up against a juggernaut.

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Chennai Super Kings seal semi-final spot

May 27, 2008 – 5:49 pm

Mahendra Singh Dhoni lost the toss but everything else went right for his team, beginning with some tight bowling, as the Chennai Super Kings won the match against the Deccan Chargers and a spot in the semi-finals at the expense of the Mumbai Indians. Chennai will face Kings XI Punjab, whom they have defeated twice, in one semi-final, while Rajasthan Royals take on Delhi Daredevils in the other.

Chennai had conceded 211 against Rajasthan in their previous game but the bowlers were up to the task this time as Deccan’s final attempt to win at home win went awry. Chennai’s opening bowlers were on the mark from the start: Makhaya Ntini bowled with pace and got good bounce and carry, while Manpreet Gony, the team’s leading wicket-taker, stuck to an impeccable length on off-stump and bowled through his four overs for 21. And they reaped the rewards soon, as both Herschelle Gibbs and Adam Gilchrist found the fielder at third man - Gibbs with a slash, Gilchrist with a thick outside-edge.

Deccan’s early runs came mainly in singles and Scott Styris, who’s had a terrible tournament, looked to be getting into rhythm with boundaries in the arc between midwicket and mid-on till he was bowled by Muttiah Muralitharan while trying to hit one across. At 57 for 3 after 10.1 overs, Deccan needed a partnership and Venugopal Rao and Ravi Teja came up with a 76-run stand that lent respectability to the eventual total. Muralitharan was hard to get away but the two went after Balaji in the 14th over, which cost 14.

They managed to up the run-rate with a boundary every over, and Rao, often at the centre of Deccan’s rearguard actions, hit one to bring up the 100 in the 16th over. There was a flurry of runs, Teja slashing one high into the stands off Ntini in an over where he was taken for 15 runs. That he ended with figures of 1 for 24 off his four told the full story.

That burst was followed by a flurry of wickets, including three - one of them a run-out - in three balls in the 19th over. The crowd had chanted Shahid Afridi’s name but he lasted two balls as Deccan limped to 147.

Deccan, and Mumbai, needed a wicket early and RP Singh nearly got the breakthrough as Stephen Fleming fended at one that swung away, but both Gilchrist and Styris were late to react. Fleming and his fellow left-hand opener Parthiv Patel cashed in when the bowlers erred: short and wide deliveries were dispatched for fours. P Vijaykumar then decided to go round the wicket, and it worked, as Fleming got a thick outside-edge while trying to force a drive through the covers.

In came Suresh Raina and he soon found his rhythm, slapping one riskily in the air through the covers, before punching one through the same region. Afridi was brought into the attack as early as the fifth over, and he put a brake on the scoring. At the other end, Raina got consecutive boundaries in Sarvesh Kumar’s first over, but the pressure applied from Afridi worked as Parthiv played straight to cover in Sarvesh’s next, Afridi taking the catch.

Raina was joined by Dhoni, and the 55-run stand between the two put Chennai on course for victory. Dhoni started with two streaky boundaries - he hit one straight to Sarvesh first-up, who fluffed a chance, and a thick outside-edge flew to the third-man boundary. With left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and Styris managing to curb the runs, Dhoni decided to take a few risks. He stepped out to deposit Ojha over long-on, and after a miscued pull nearly landed in Gibbs’ hands at midwicket, he cut Styris for four. Afridi came back with 52 needed off 42 balls, and Dhoni hit one dead-straight for four, before Raina powered a shorter delivery over midwicket for six.

Chennai were cruising towards the target, but had a brief wobble after Dhoni found Gibbs at long-on. That Ojha over, the 16th, went just for three, and when Styris conceded the same in the next, Chennai were left needing 28 off 18. Another tight over and Deccan could have still been in the hunt, but Raina found the gap at midwicket as Ojha bowled a full toss. He was dropped by RP in the 19th over, and hit the winning six - which brought up his fifty - as Chennai reached their target with four balls to spare.

While Dhoni and Co were relieved and celebrated the win, Gilchrist looked ahead after a disastrous first season, in which last-placed Deccan won just two of their 14 games. “I do not have any excuses. It depends which way you look it.,” he said. “It’s not end of the world. We should settle down, make a self-assessment and think over where we went wrong and plan for the future.”

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Rajasthan win a last ball thriller

May 26, 2008 – 3:24 pm

The semi-final hopes of the Mumbai Indians suffered a jolt with the table-toppers Rajasthan Royals scoring a spectacular last ball win in their Indian Premier League match in Jaipur on Monday.

Scorecard | Points table

The home team, needing 15 to win in the final over, got two off the final delivery to cruise home by five wickets and also preserved their unbeaten record at home.

The win was Rajasthan 11th in 13 matches and moved their points tally to 22 while it was Mumbai’s seventh defeat in 13 matches, their third straight.

Chasing 146 for a win, the Rajasthan Royals were in dire straits at 77 for five after the 12th over.

Kamran Akmal (18), Swapnil Asnodkar (17), Shane Watson (18) and Mohammad Kaif (12) all failed to convert their starts as Mumbai looked on course to score yet another win over the Rajasthan team (Mumbai had beaten Rajasthan earlier).

But Ravindra Jadeja (23 not out) and Niraj Patel (40 not out) not only put on 69 runs in an unbeaten sixth wicket partnership but ensured their perfect home record was intact in a tense finish. It was Mumbai’s third straight defeat in a close match.

Earlier, Sohail Tanvir (4 for 14) and Sidddharth Trivedi (2 for 31) led a disciplined Rajasthan Royals bowling attack and shared the spoils to restrict Mumbai Indians to a modest 145 for 7.

Trivedi accounted for Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya to put the brakes on Mumbai Indians while Tanvir rocked the visiting middle and lower orders to deny their opponents, who badly need a win to stay afloat, a big total.

Electing to field first, the Rajasthan bowlers tied down the Mumbai openers Tendulkar and Jayasuriya on a slow Sawai Mansingh stadium pitch which was not easy for batsmen to play shots and odd balls keeping low.

It was an unusual sight of two of the best contemporary cricketers having against their names more number of balls than runs and failing to impose themselves on the bowlers in the format considered to be batsman-friendly.

The duo scored just 28 from the first five overs bowled by Sohail Tanvir, Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan, and 60 at the end of 10th over.

However, thanks to wicketkeeper Yogesh Takawale, who came at number eight and scored an unbeaten eight-ball 24 runs, which included four 4s and a huge six, that the visitors added some more runs to the paltry total.

Jayasuriya opened up in the seventh over off Pankaj Singh by taking 13 runs from it which prompted Shane Warne [Images] to introduce himself in the 10th over to the eager anticipation of the huge crowd of a spin champion taking on his old nemesis Tendulkar.

Warne did not have much impact in his first over but the run glut forced the Mumbai opening duo to look for big shots and from one such effort in the 11th over Jayasuriya could not time properly a Siddharth Trivedi delivery to hole out to Pankaj Singh for 38 which the Sri Lankan made off 37 balls with the help of four fours.

Trivedi struck two overs later with Tendulkar offering a return catch to the young bowler and with that Mumbai were dealt a body blow.

The Mumbai captain struck only two fours in his 34-ball 30 and when he departed in the 13th over his side was scoring at a rate of just over six an over.

Two down Robin Uthappa perished for three while trying to accelerate the innings and missed completely a Warne turning ball while charging down and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal did the rest to give his captain his only wicket of the match for 30 runs.

Miserly Sohail Tanvir then added salt to Mumbai injury by taking two wickets in consecutive balls when he trapped Abhishek Nayar LBW for 25 and dismissed Shaun Pollock for a duck in the 17th over.

Manish Pandey, however, denied Tanvir success from the Pakistani pacers hat-trick ball, his second in the tournament but the damage had already been done with Mumbai reduced to 107 for 5 at the end of 17th over.

A pumped up Tanvir, who has world best Twenty20 figures of 4-0-16-6 in his name in an IPL match at the same ground, had the satisfaction of cleaning up Pandey for 3 and then sending Dwayne Smith to the hut for eight in the penultimate over to restrict the vistors to less than 150.

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Punjab sneak a one-run thriller

May 21, 2008 – 1:28 pm

A see-saw last over - which included a six, a four, a dropped catch and three run-outs - allowed Kings XI Punjab to end Mumbai Indians’ six-match winning streak and boost their hopes for a place in the semi-finals.

Shaun Marsh and Luke Pomersbach’s 134-run stand laid the platform but it was Punjab’s accurate bowling at the death under pressure that brought the game to a head in the final over.

The over, from VRV Singh, began with Mumbai needing 19, three wickets in hand and Siddharth Chitnis and Dilhara Fernando out in the middle. The first ball was a waist-high no-ball, which Chitnis hit it for six over third man. Twelve to get off six balls. The next delivery was full and wide and Chitnis lifted it over extra cover, where Tanmay Srivastava dropped a difficult catch and the ball ran over the line. Eight needed off five, and the advantage squarely with Mumbai.

Then it all went pear-shaped for the home team. The next delivery saw the ball hit to Srivastava, who threw it back to the keeper and Chitnis was run out trying to take a second run.

Seven off four, with two wickets in hand. New batsman Ashish Nehra sneaked a bye to get Dilhara Fernando on strike. Six off three and Fernando drove a fuller delivery through cover and it was Srivastava again who fielded the ball and ran out Nehra as the batsmen tried for a risky third run. Four runs off two balls with one wicket remaining - Vikrant Yeligati dropped the ball on the pitch and the batsmen ran two as Punjab’s fielders muffed up what would have been the fifth run-out of the innings.

With two needed off the final ball visions arose of the tournament’s first bowl-out. Yeligati drove to mid-off and set off but he picked the wrong fielder - the ball raced to Yuvraj Singh, who picked it up and ran towards the stumps to knock them down full stretch, Jonty Rhodes style, and Punjab had won by a run.

It was an incredible turnaround in a match where Mumbai looked like reaching Punjab’s formidable target while Sachin Tendulkar was still at the crease. Punjab’s bowlers nearly undid the efforts of Marsh and Pomersbach, starting with the first two overs.

Sreesanth started the innings with three wides - the second racing past the keeper to the boundary - and Irfan Pathan followed with over-pitched deliveries that Sanath Jayasuriya sent for two sixes over long-on and two fours in front of and behind the wicket. However, Sreesanth recovered in his next over to trap Jayasuriya lbw with a sublime legcutter. But Tendulkar chose the moment to strike form in this tournament, taking hold of the reins and punishing VRV Singh’s poor length with fours to fine leg and third man. He reached his fifty by cheekily lobbing a Yuvraj Singh delivery to third-man boundary.

Though the required run-rate was more than nine an over, Punjab’s bowlers did not apply much pressure and conceded a boundary in virtually every over. Also, other than Marsh, no Punjab fielder saved enough runs to make Mumbai’s task tougher. Pomersbach dropped Abhishek Nayar in the deep on nine off VRV and Nayar made use of the life to belt two sixes and a four off the bowler’s next over. But once Tendulkar was run out, when Rohin Uthappa sent him back, the Punjab bowlers smelt an opening. Yuvraj Singh, who had gone for 10 runs in his first over, got Shaun Pollock to edge the first ball he faced to Piyush Chawla at short third man. Uthappa, the only proper batsman left, felt the pressure to go after the runs and was caught in the same over trying to clear long-on.

Then Sreesanth came back for his final over to remove Pinal Shah and conceded only eight runs in the process. That

But it was really Marsh and Pomersbach’s partnership that gave Punjab the fuel to fight with. Marsh was the more orthodox of the two, playing the spinners by getting inside the line while cutting and pulling the faster bowlers. While both used their feet against the spinners, Marsh cashed in by lofting Yeligati inside-out for a six over long-off and Chitnis for one over long-on. Pomersbach, meanwhile, was in a hurry to score and repeatedly stepped out of the crease, mistiming more often than not. He failed to connect when trying to sweep the spinners and also swung his bat wildly at Fernando’s slower deliveries. But two brutal shots came off his bat in the third over against Nehra - he lifted a good length delivery for six over long-off before swivelling round to pull a four to midwicket.

However it was Marsh who directed the partnership. He hooked Fernando for a six to fine leg and flicked Chitnis to four to take Punjab past 50 in the seventh over. He got to his fifty in 35 balls. The two ran hard between the wickets and apart from Shaun Pollock, early in the innings, no other bowler looked threatening enough to dislodge them.

Eventually it was Punjab who held their nerve in the final minutes and that decided the match in their favour.

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Delhi DareDevils win by 5 wickets

May 19, 2008 – 2:35 pm

Misbah Ul Haq bags the DLF Maximum Sixes award.

Delhi Daredevils beat Bangalore Royal Challengers by five wickets in their Indian Premier League match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday.

Scorecard

It was Delhi’s sixth win in 12 matches and kept alive their chances of reaching the last four. For Bangalore, who are already out of the race, it was their ninth defeat in 11 matches.

Chasing a target of 155, Delhi began aggressively with captain Virender Sehwag (47) and Gautam Gambhir (39) putting on 90 runs for the opening wicket in just seven overs.

Sehwag was in a belligerent mood as he smashed nine boundaries and a six in his 19-ball knock. He was particularly severe on Praveen Kumar.

The latter had the final word though, taking the prized scalp, thanks to a splendid catch by Bharat Chipli.

Two overs later and after the addition of 10 more runs, Gambhir, who had earlier become the first batsman in the tournament to surpass 500 runs, was run out by Cameron White.

And then there was a wobble.

Tillekeratne Dilshan (4), AB de Villiers (21) and Dinesh Karthik (6) were dismissed in a space of 11 runs (rather, 11 balls) as Anil Kumble (two for 18) and Dale Steyn (one for 26) did most of the damage.

However, the total was never going to be enough and Shikar Dhawan (unbeaten 16) and Ferveez Maharoof (13 not out) ensured Delhi reached their target without further damage and with 10 balls left.

Earlier, Shreevats Goswami’s debut half century (52) and Misbah-ul-Haq’s (47) late charge resurrected Bangalore Royal Challengers from a wobbly start to carry their team to a modest 154 for 7.

After Sehwag won the toss and asked the opposition to bat in their crucial match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Delhi Daredevils kept the home team under a tight lease.

Except for Goswami taking the visiting bowlers head on and Misbah scoring a 25-ball 47 (2X4; 4X6) towards the close to take the score past 150, Rahul Dravid-led side were never dominating with Glenn McGrath (2/25 from 4 overs) and Farveez Maharoof (2/13 from 4) bowling with immaculate line and length, and wickets falling at regular intervals.

Goswami, who was part of India’s recent U-19 World Cup triumph, top-scored with 52 from 42 balls which he made with the help of seven fours and a huge six.

He hit a six and three fours off Pradeep Sangwan in the eighth over to collect 18 runs from that over to stand tall among ruins. He was out in the 16th over off Maharoof while trying to accelerate the innings only to hole out at point to Tillekaratne Dilshan.

McGrath began with his miserly self giving away just one run in the opening over and claiming the wicket of Bharat Chipli for two, caught by Rajat Bhatia in the fifth over.

The retired Australian gave away just three and five overs in his next two overs to tie down Bangalore Royal Challengers to 35 for one in the first five overs.

Sehwag, who got the flak for some of his questionable decisions in earlier matches, made some intelligent shuffling of his bowlers who got immediate success each time.

For the home team, it was the familiar top order wobble with struggling Jacques Kallis (25) edging a consistent Sri Lankan Maharoof delivery for wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik to make a brilliant catch diving to his right in the seventh over.

Kallis, promoted to open the innings, made his 25 from 21 balls with the help of three fours and a huge six off Sangwan in the second over.

Dravid himself could not carry forward his fine form of the last match and lost his timbers to Dilshan in the 11th over for nine while trying to accelerate the dipping run rate after his side could just gather 70 runs from 10 overs and 102 for after the end of 15th.

It was left to debutant Goswami who came one down to make a match out of it and the young wicketkeeper did a brilliant job before Misbah complemented him with a cameo which included two fours and four sixes.

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Shah Rukh will be allowed to cheer from dug-out

May 19, 2008 – 2:32 pm

A day after Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was denied entry to his team’s dressing room, Indian Premier League authorities issued fresh guidelines, which cleared the deck for the presence of a franchise owner in the team dug-out during the Twenty20 tournament.

IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi announced that the organisers will issue an all-area accreditation badge to one member of each of the eight team franchisees, following the ejection of Shah Rukh from the dug-out by the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit officials of the International Cricket Council.
IPL: How the teams stand

While defending the ACSU officials’ decision to ask the film star to vacate the dug-out during the IPL match against Chennai Super Kings at the Eden Gardens on Sunday, Modi said suitable measures would be taken to avoid a repeat of the incident.

“There have been reports in the media about denial of a team owner access to the dug out and dressing room. The IPL is conducted as per the rules and regulations of the ICC, whose ACSU officials were just doing the job entrusted,” Modi said.

“They go strictly by the colour code. A red badge issued by the ACSU, on approval of the team manager, will help the person holding it access to all areas,” he said.

“This is what we intend to do by giving each of the team owners one such badge each. They do have the right to sit with the players in the dug outs and dressing rooms,” Modi told a media conference in Mumbai on Monday evening.
IPL salary cap should stay, says Ponting

Modi said since this is the first year of the IPL, they are still learning the ropes.

“If we make mistakes, we are willing to set them right. This is the first year of IPL.

“We had already provided such badges to Preity Zinta (owner of Punjab King’s XI) and Vijay Mallya (owner of Bangalore’s Royal Challengers) as we had received such a request from them in advance,” Modi explained.

“The team owners have the right to be with the team at all times. They are very much part of the team’s strategies,” he added.

Modi also said that each team, in addition, would get four visitor’s passes with the condition that the holder of that badge, one at a time, can sit with the team members during the match for a maximum of 15 minutes.

“After the usage (of the temporary badge) it must be returned to the manager who has issued it,” he said.

The IPL chairman also said that in future children of team members, including support staff, would not be allowed to enter the teams’ dug-outs or dressing rooms during a match.

Earlier, the ICC expressed surprise at Shah Rukh’s statement that he had been ejected by ACSU personnel.

The ICC said the IPL is a domestic tournament and the game’s governing body did not have any role in formulating the rules.

“The reported incident has nothing to do with the ICC as the IPL is a domestic tournament which is being held under the Rules and Regulations of the BCCI,” an ICC spokesman said from Dubai.

“Furthermore, the ICC Board in its meeting held in Dubai on 17-18 March had decided that IPL will introduce a code of conduct, an anti-corruption code and an anti-doping code that complies with ICC regulations,” he said.

Shah Rukh was visibly dejected after being denied an entry in the dressing room and the actor said, “I like to hang around with the boys. I am very energetic. I am very disappointed that the ICC has stopped me,” he said.

“I don’t know the ICC rules. I’ll tell only one thing. Nobody dare stop me from coming to Kolkata. I’ll be here whenever my team plays a match at the Eden,” Khan said.

Knight Riders CEO Joy Bhattacharya said ICC rules are meant to stop bookies entering the dressing room but they do not apply in a domestic tournament like IPL.

“When these rules were framed, the concept of franchisee owners’ domestic tournament didn’t even come, the law was not framed to stop people like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Mukesh Ambani or Vijay Mallya from walking into the dressing room,” he said.

“According to even ICC regulations, there is a system of visitor’s pass, the manager and team management sign it. The person can be allowed in the dressing room as long as it is signed by. So there is no way to stop Shah Rukh from entering the dressing room,” Bhattacharya added.

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, meanwhile, asserted that Shah Rukh has to go by ICC rules, even though he felt nothing could really stop the actor from entering the dressing room.

“He should take permission from IPL’s anti-corruption officer before entering into the dressing room,” Shah said.

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Magical Mishra bowls Delhi to victory

May 15, 2008 – 3:09 pm

A dramatic final-over hat-trick by Amit Mishra, when Deccan Chargers needed a gettable 15, helped Delhi Daredevils over the finish line and halt a four-match losing streak with a tense 12-run win against Deccan Chargers. Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan set it up with attacking half-centuries to post 194 before Mishra came up with timely wicket bursts in two phases of the chase to halt Deccan’s charge first and then seal the win.

Delhi’s early victories were fashioned by the combined efforts of their miserly new-ball pair and an in-form top order. Today, it didn’t matter that the bowlers didn’t have the best day at the office. Gambhir and Dhawan hunted as a pair, made the best out of what the benign pitch had to offer, and the score of 194 was just sufficient to guarantee a victory, despite a spirited effort by Venugopal Rao at the end.

Desperate for a win to keep their chance of staying alive in the tournament, Deccan changed their strategy to counter the threat of Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Asif by promoting Shahid Afridi. Suddenly, both bowlers, used to bowling miserly spells, were suddenly in unfamiliar territory as Deccan rocketed to 44 in the first four overs. In the midst of the blaze, Delhi pulled back with the wicket of Gilchrist, caught brilliantly by Dilshan at mid-off, but it didn’t stop Afridi from going over the top.

With Gibbs for company, the pair wrecked Asif and McGrath for 34 off two successive overs, which included scoops over extra cover and pulls over deep backward square leg. Both generated tremendous bat speed and a result, shots cleared the boundary ropes by huge margins, some landing several rows back.

At the end of the Powerplay, Deccan progressed at nearly 12 an over but from then on, fortunes turned. Sehwag tossed the ball to the legspinner Mishra he struck first ball, as Afridi mis-hit one that really stopped on him. He cleaned up Gibbs’ middle stump in his next over to temporarily halt Deccan’s assault.

Rohit Sharma then redressed the balance for Deccan, dominating a stand of 39 for the fourth wicket with Styris. Rajat Bhatia, the medium pacer, came in for some harsh treatment as Rohit bludgeoned him for 19 off a single over, sending a low full toss over long-on before pulling a short ball over deep square leg.

However, a timely bowling change swung the tide in Delhi’s favour. Maharoof returned in the 13th over and cleaned up Rohit’s offstump as he attempted a paddle sweep and as a result of that, the momentum slipped and the asking rate started to climb. Scott Styris couldn’t quite push on, managing only two boundaries in his 29. That increased the pressure on Rao, and for the second time in as many matches, fought a lone battle. The home side felt the pinch when Rao carted Maharoof for two sixes in an over, backing away and picking up the slower deliveries.

He perished in the penultimate over, when Deccan needed 25 at the start of it, skying one to AB de Villiers at long-on. A sliced six over backward point by Ravi Teja suddenly turned the script and Deccan needed 15 off the last over. Sehwag turned to his best bowler of the evening, Mishra, for the final over. Teja, Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh all failed in their attempt to clear the ropes and Mishra picked up the second hat-trick of the tournament.

The high-scoring contest contradicted early predictions about the grassy pitch assisting the seamers. After losing Sehwag to a wild slash, the Delhi innings gained momentum in the fourth over when Gambhir took on RP. He adjusted brilliantly to a short delivery aimed at his face and slapped him over backward square leg, then stepped down and pulled the next over deep midwicket and followed it up with a slice past backward point to take 20 off the over.

Dhawan came into his own once the support seamers - Sarvesh Kumar and Styris - operated, punishing anything full on the pads and finding the gaps. The spinners were not spared either. After reverse-sweeping Rao for four, he smashed Afridi out of the attack with successive fours, smashing the first over his head and the next over extra cover to bring up his fifty.

Gambhir too carted Afridi for a huge six over deep midwicket shortly after reaching his half-century and in the process went past the 400-run mark in the tournament. Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner who was kept out till the 15th over, struck with his second ball, firing one down the legside after seeing Gambhir give him the charge.

Lusty blows by the two Sri Lankans - Farveez Maharoof and Dilshan - took Delhi close to the 200-mark though Deccan played into their own hands with some ordinary displays in the field. That proved crucial in the end and Delhi can take heart from the fact that the architects of the victory were largely the local players and not the overseas recruits.

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Sizzling Jayasuriya pounds Chennai

May 14, 2008 – 2:40 pm

Sachin Tendulkar’s return dominated most of the pre-match buzz but it was the eruption from Sanath Jayasuriya that Mumbai toasted at the end of a comfortable nine-wicket win, their fourth in a row, at the Wankhede Stadium. Chennai appeared to have cobbled together a fighting total, in conditions that assisted swing bowling, but Jayasuriya’s sizzler, the second-fastest IPL hundred that was punctuated with 11 sixes, put an emphatic end to the contest.

Mumbai’s bowlers set-up this win with a fine new-ball exhibition that knocked off the top order. Shaun Pollock wasn’t leading Mumbai today but his immaculate early spell (4-1-9-1) led an impressive effort that justified their decision to field first. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and S Badrinath stitched together a 95-run stand but 156 was never going to be challenging if even once batsman got going.

It was inevitable. Jayasuriya, who had made a short trip home during Mumbai’s extended break, was yet to explode in the IPL and there was nothing Chennai could do once sixes began to drip off his bat. Nonchalant short-arm jabs sailed over the midwicket fence and a few powerful slashes soared over third man. The bowlers were rattled - they leaked wides and drifted on the pads too often - and fed Jayasuriya in his favourite areas. The fact that 102 off his 114 runs came in fours, told a story.

It was an innings reminiscent of the mid-90s, a time when Jayasuriya filled bowlers with a sense of fear. In fact it was at the same ground when he hammered an unforgettable 151 not out in the Independence Cup in 1997, an innings that was appreciated in hushed silence. This, though, was a celebration in power-hitting, with the crowd getting fully behind Jayasuriya in his fiery mission. One can only imagine the possibilities if Tendulkar had decided to bat first, allowing Jayasuriya a full 20 overs.

The manner in which he treated his fellow Sri Lankan bowlers was interesting - he attempted a couple of audacious reverse-paddles against Muttiah Muralitharan before blistering Chamara Kapudegera for 26 runs in five balls. He rushed to his hundred with two pulled sixes off Kapugedera - celebrating like a schoolboy who reached his maiden ton - and capped it off with one more that landed on the roof of the Wankhede. It was an unforgettable innings and Mumbai’s response to what Adam Gilchrist did to them a few weeks back.

The bowlers deserve an honourable mention. It was a slew of medium-pacers who propelled Mumbai to an upset win over the Rajasthan Royals in the previous game and they utilised bowler-friendly conditions here too. The ball swung around through the innings and six medium-pacers shaped the ball either way to make life difficult for the batsmen.

Pollock turned in a typically miserly spell, including a maiden to finish off against a relatively new Dhoni. Dhoni, who said he would have fielded first had he won the toss, watched his side slump to 46 for 4 with the top order struggling against the accurate medium-pacers.

Pollock should have had Stephen Fleming in the first ball of the second over - when an edge fell just short of first slip - or even in the third - when Jayasuriya muffed a skier at point - but he had to settle for S Vidyut’s wicket two balls later when Rohan Raje clung on to another skier at mid-off. Suresh Raina fell poking to an away-swinger from Dwayne Bravo before Chamara Kapugedera, the right-hander, did exactly the same to Dhawal Kulkarni’s nippy away-cutter.

Dhoni and Badrinath redressed the balance somewhat. The pair improvised when the opportunity presented but it was Dhoni’s fierce hitting that gave the bowlers no chance - even if he wasn’t in position the power behind the shots was always going to take it to the boundary ropes. Badrinath, who repertoire ranges from the square drive on the back foot to the paddle over short fine leg, brought up his second successive fifty. It appeared as if it could be a defendable total but Jayasuriya’s blitz sunk them in a trice.

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