Today was billed as a 'Super Saturday' of IPL cricket as 4 of the 5 big five battled it out for some important points, in that respect it can be seen as a bit of a disappointment as both were fairly one sided affairs. However, this did not make KKR vs Mumbai any less watchable, those who did see it were treated to one of the great 20/20 innings from Rohit Sharma who continues to astound his critics by mixing the stupid with the sublime. His knock today took the game well out of Kolkata's reach who were then able to defend their big total comfortably.
Herschelle Gibbs - 66* from 58 balls
The South African veteran has now recovered from an injury and is fit to open the innings alongside Sachin, something that'll delight MI fans as the combination of aggressor and anchor at the top is perfect in this format. He started well on debut too, using his feet to carve Lee through and over the offside to pick up 3 beautifully struck boundaries in the 2nd over. When Mumbai lost Tendulkar, to a beauty from Shakib, he showed all his experience as he was content to play the supporting role to Rohit who was in sublime touch. Gibbs managed to score consistently off all bowlers, even managing to hit Narine and Bhatia for runs where most before have struggled. A good start for Gibbs and Mumbai fans we will be hoping him and Sachin get off to some more starts in the final few games.
Rohit Sharma - 109* from 60 balls & MoM
Its vital that a number 3 in 20/20 is able to perform consistently and Mumbai's poor form with the bat has partly been down to Sharma's ups and downs, in that way his performance today was more of the same following a few low scores! He has the ability to make batting look ridiculously easy, most that have played against him will talk of his potential, Shane Warne went as far to say that he could become one of the Indian greats and this incredible knock showed just why. Eden Gardens is a tricky venue to bat with the ball not coming on to the bat and playing into the hands of the slower bowlers, other batsmen struggled to go at anything over the 130 S/R mark, but Sharma was unfazed as he attacked right from the outset. He played Shakib's 5th over with pure class, getting deep in his crease to cut a couple through backward point before heaving a length ball over deep mid-wicket to bring up his 2nd six of the innings, racing to 22 from just 12 balls. Bhatia was demolished later on, sweeping him before coming down the wicket to stroke one through cover with the keeper up at the stumps. Barely a single KKR bowler escaped him as he brought up his 100 (his first in IPL cricket) in another big over from Brett Lee, a truly incredible innings from a batsman that really is brilliant to watch. He was undoubtedly the match winner, batting sublimely on a surface where everyone else struggled to score at a good rate, the MoM award was never going anywhere else.
Jacques Kallis - 4-0-40-0 & 79 from 60 balls
Yet another good performance from Kallis, although less so with the ball against a rampant Sharma, doing his best to track down the 182/1 set by MI. Wickets were constantly falling around him, with their best player Gambhir falling in the first over it was always going to be a tough chase, but he continued to time the ball well with the typical textbook strokeplay we have to expect from Kallis as well as some beautifully struck sixes off the spinners. When he was batting with Pathan (40* from 31 balls) KKR had a glimmer of hope, but in truth 183 was far beyond KKR's reach with the average score at Eden Gardens being around the 150 mark. There's not a lot you can do when someone plays like Rohit did, KKR could only take it on the chin and walk away slightly happy with the form shown by Kallis and Yusuf.
Delhi vs Chennai
A totally one-sided game that Delhi never really got into, as Chennai used the swing on offer at the start of Delhi's innings to take the vital early wickets against DD who never recovered. A comfortable win for CSK who are getting on a bit of a role at a crucial point in the tournament, not that Delhi will be too fussed as everyone's allowed an off day and with KKR's defeat they still sit at the top of the league.
Ben Hilfenhaus - 4-0-27-3 & MoM
Yogesh Nagar - 43 from 47 balls
Being in a line-up like that of Delhi's calibre must be a strange experience for a relatively unknown domestic player, in an ideal world he won't actually get a bat as the big names before him will do the hard work. Here though Nagar came in to face the 6th over, far sooner than they'd have planned and his grafting innings was important to them putting up a slightly respectable total in triple digits. He struggled to find the boundaries, eventually reaching the ropes with a boundary and a six in the 19th over, but managed to keep the runs ticking over in a good partnership with Venugopal Rao and were it not for Nagar they'd have struggled to reach 100, having come in at 24/4 with a fairly long tail.
Murali Vijay - 48* from 40 balls
The resurgence in form of Vijay and Raina will surely be a massive boost to Dhoni and his CSK troops as they look to guarantee a place in the semi-finals. Vijay is a destructive player at the top of the order and Chennai had obviously discussed getting ahead of the required rate at the start and not making the same mistake when chasing a low one as they did recently against Rajasthan. He and Hussey (38 from 32) got them off to a quick start and an opening partnership of 75 ensured there would be no nervy finish as Raina's cameo (28* from 20) sealed the 2 points. Vijay looked pretty comfortable throughout, an early cover driven boundary to settle the nerves, and later on played a gem of a shot over cover off the bowling of Aaron for a maximum. It looked a totally different pitch to the one that saw Delhi capitulate to 114/5 and this was down to the assured nature in which Chennai batted, Vijay in particular.
No comments:
Post a Comment