Indian Premier League | IPL 5

Adam Gilchrist with his comeback has really helped Kings XI Punjab with a win against Chennai Super Kings and keeping its hope for playoffs.

Returning to the team after injury, Gilchrist (64) unbeaten displayed some better batting shots.  Chasing a small total of 120, Gilchrist ideally chased the run.

Players like David Hussey (9); Mandeep Singh (24) couldn’t contribute much to chase the score. Dwayne Bravo (2/18) took couple of important wickets of Hussey and Nitin Siani.

In bowling department, Kings XI did some discipline bowling with Praveen Kumar (2/18), Parvinder Awana (2/12) and Azhar Mahmood (2/28) pressurized Super Kings which lead to giving out wickets.

Chennai however, now have to wait for the result with remaining league games and have almost ended their innings in this season.

Gilchrist and Mandeep did a flying start with having a partnership of 51 off 41 bowls.

Chennai in the first inning had a very bad start with losing some quick wickets.  Dwayne Bravo (48) contributed to take the score beyond 100. Skipper MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Murli Vijay failed to display some good shots, eventually loosing the match.

Squad:

Chennai Super Kings: Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Albie Morkel, Srikkanth Anirudha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh

Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (c & wk), Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, David Hussey, Azhar Mahmood, Gurkeerat Singh, Siddharth Chitnis, Piyush Chawla, Ryan Harris, Praveen Kumar, Parvinder Awana

Dwayne Bravo hit a heroic six for a win at the last ball against Kolkata Knight Rider which was almost in hands of Riders.

Chasing 159 runs, Chennai Super Kings had a good start with openers Mike Hussey (56) and Murali Vijay (36) taking the score in a good shape. The win at Eden Garden, has also kept Chennai’s hope to be in playoff.

However, Kolkata’s main weapon Sunil Narine who was brought back to the team took wickets of both openers in his third over. Later Suresh Raina and Faf du Plessis also feel short with runs.

But skipper MS Dhoni played some good shots bringing the match into life. however, Rajat Bhatia took off his wicket as the match he was about the seal it. fortunately, Dwayne Bravo on the other was taking the score ahead and finally with a six he made a heroic win.

With this win, Chennai points have reached to same point of Kolkata Knight Riders of 17 in the IPL standing. However, Chennai still need to win last match in Mohali on Thursday, and Kolkata last two matches to stay in tournament.

Earlier, Kolkata’s innings to had a great start with skipper Gautam Gambhir (62) and Brendon McCullum (37) had a good partnership until McCullum was run-out.

Chennai were in strong position with sending Jacques Kallis and Manoj Tiwary back to pavilion. Yusuf Pathan, once again failed in the match, which limited the score under 160.

Squad:

Chennai Super Kings: Murali Vijay, Michael Hussey, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Faf du Plessis, Srikkanth Anirudha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shadab Jakati, Ben Hilfenhaus

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Brendon McCullum (wk), Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Debabrata Das, Laxmi Shukla, Rajat Bhatia, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Sunil Narine, Marchant de Lange

There seems to be going nothing right with Deccan Chargers and due to which they are not even getting a chance to win remaining matches.

Even though after displaying good batting and bowling innings, Deccan Chargers lost the match against Kings XI Punjab and the credit goes to David Hussey (65) unbeaten innings helped Punjab to have a stunning last bowl win.

In fact, it is the 5^th match in this season which has gone to last bowl win. Earlier in the first inning, Cameroon White (67) and Shikhar Dhawan (71) had a great innings with some powerful shots around that took the score to 190, which was enough to give a tough target.

Parvinder Awana (0/41) was the targeted bowler to whom White and Dhawan knocked some shots.  Even Daniel Christian gave a good finishing touch by adding runs on the score.

Kings XI Punjab on the other hand had a bad start with top order batsmen went to pavilion on the quick time. However, Azhar Mahmood (31) and David Hussey kept going to reach the target.  But Mahmood couldn’t go too long as he fall prey to Amit Mishra.

As Punjab were losing all the hopes with loss of wickets, Gurkreet Mann (29) went on to gain 16 runs in last four balls of last over, which was the magic for the team and ultimately the team won.

Sangakkara had no clue about the things that went on last few overs.  David Hussey was awarded by Man of the Match.  Deccan Chargers are in the bottom of the IPL 5 points standings and there is no way they will be raising from bottom.

Squad:

Kings XI Punjab: Shaun Marsh, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini (wk), David Hussey (c), Azhar Mahmood, Gurkeerat Singh, Siddharth Chitnis, Piyush Chawla, Ryan Harris, Praveen Kumar, Parvinder Awana

Deccan Chargers: Parthiv Patel (wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Kumar Sangakkara (c), Cameron White, Daniel Christian, Abhishek Jhunjunwala, Akshath Reddy, Dale Steyn, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, TP Sudhindra

With great display of batting from Shane Watson and bowling from Ajit Chandila helped Rajasthan Royals to win over Pune Warriors.

Shane Watson (58) and Ajinkya Rahane (61) had a great batting innings with giving a chase of 170 to Pune Warriors. Both batsmen displayed some good knocking shots taking Murli Karthik as a soft target.

Earlier skipper Rahul Dravid also had a good start by scoring 21. However, Ashish Nehra (3/23) took crucial wickets of Dravid, Watson and Brad Hodge.

Pune Warriors on the other had seems to have lost everything with bad bowling and batting innings. Sourav Ganguly (2) once again failed in the match even though he was being rested in the last match.

No top order batsmen from Warriors even crossed 10 runs which eventually put more pressure on low order batsmen.  Steven Smith (37) was the only leading scorer but was sent back to pavilion by Johan Botha.

Ajit Chandila (4/13) was excellent in bowling.  It was his first hat-trick in this IPL edition.  He took the wickets of Ganguly, Jesse Ryder and Robin Uthappa. He was actually the one who turned the game around leading to winning the match. He was being awarded as Man of the Match.

Squad:

Pune Warriors: Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa (wk), Sourav Ganguly (c), Callum Ferguson, Anustup Majumdar, Angelo Mathews, Steven Smith, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Murali Kartik, Rahul Sharma, Ashish Nehra

Rajasthan Royals: Rahul Dravid (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson, Brad Hodge, Ashok Menaria, Stuart Binny, Johan Botha, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Ajit Chandila, Siddharth Trivedi, Shaun Tait

Chennai Super Kings has once again showed why they are the tough contenders in this IPL season. By winning the Saturday night match against Delhi Daredevils by nine wickets, they can still give a tough competition in the coming matches.

Chasing a small total of just 114 by 114 by table toppers Delhi Daredevils, Chennai boys displayed a good batting innings. Murli Vijay (48) and Suresh Raina (28) both chased the score in quick time.

Delhi Daredevils were lacking in intensity in both batting and bowling which lead to the loss. Top batsmen like Virender Sehwag (4) David Warner (8) and Mahela Jayawardane (8) couldn’t stay on crease for long term.

Ben Hilfenhaus (3/27) displayed the bowling till now which helped Chennai to seal the Daredevils inning by 114. Yogesh Nagar (43) was the only batsmen in Delhi helping to take the score ahead.

Dhoni kept changing his bowlers which made difficult for low order batsmen to stay on crease.  In Chennai innings,  Murli Vijay and Mike Hussey put on 75 run stand.

Presently, Chennai Super Kings have earned 15 point  and in the fourth position, whereas Delhi Daredevils have earned 18 points.

Squad:

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (c), David Warner, Mahela Jayawardene, Naman Ojha (wk), Venugopal Rao, Yogesh Nagar, Irfan Pathan, Roelof van der Merwe, Morne Morkel, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav

Chennai Super Kings: Murali Vijay, Michael Hussey, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Srikkanth Anirudha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shadab Jakati, Ben Hilfenhaus