Chennai Becomes The Super King Of IPL

Chennai Super Kings have become the king of IPL-3, they did an upset to win over favorites Mumbai Indians in the final. Starting from the toss, everything was favoring CSK. The date of final was 25th (Numerological number 7), 7 is the lucky number for CSK's captain MS Dhoni... whatever Dhoni did that day was clicked. Dhoni won the toss, elected to bat first. After 12 overs struggling at 68/3, then Dhoni came and with Suresh Raina put up a very good partnership of 72 runs from just 35 balls. Finally they finished the innings at 168/5, the highest score ever in an IPL final. Despite Mumbai Indians' captain Sachin Tendulkar's responsible 48 off 45 balls with an injured finger and Kieron Pollard's late storm (27 off 10 balls), MI finished their innings 22 runs behind CSK. When everything was working perfect for CSK, on the other hand nothing was going MI's way. They dropped Suresh Raina twice, finally he finished with an unbeaten 57 off 35 and took the match away from MI. Opener Shikhar Dhawan played eight balls before falling for a duck. Abhishek Nayar, promoted to No.3, slammed 27, but took up too much time. Harbhajan Singh at No.4 lasted for two balls only. In form batsman Saurabh Tiwary out for a two ball duck. Kieron Pollard, in the most bizarre decision of all, finally came out to bat at No.8 when MI needed 55 off 18 balls. He tried his level best and smashed a whirlwind 27 in just 10 balls before falling to a trap planned by Dhoni and bowler Morkel. What was Pollard doing in the dugout for 17 overs???    
Chennai Super Kings, the most consistent team of IPL, finally lifted the trophy in the third attempt.
Final Positions of the teams as follows:
Winner : CSK
Runner Up : MI
No.3 : RCB
No.4 : DC
No.5 : DD
No.6 : KKR
No.7 : RR
No.8 : KXP
IPL3 is over, we will have to wait for almost a year for IPL4... it will be bigger than this, 10 teams, 94 matches.

        

Who Will Be The King Of IPL 2010

Finally, after six weeks of exciting cricket, we've come to the final day of IPL-3. Countdown has begun for the grand finale between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings on Super Sunday. It's a battle between two champions, two gladiators, Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Billions of people across India and other cricket loving countries of the world are getting themselves free for three hours and fifteen minutes to watch the final encounter of this extremely popular tournament. 

Chance of Sachin Tendulkar to play the final is the million dollar question now. The legend, who turned 37 on Saturday, had split the webbing of his right hand during the semi final clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar's unavailability could put Mumbai Indians one step behind in the race of number one. MI have been the most consistent team of the tournament, losing only 4 matches out of 15, they will be playing their first IPL final. 

On the other hand, MSD's Chennai Super Kings will be playing their second IPL final after 2008. They barely limped into the semi final courtesy a late blitz from their captain MSD against Kings XI Punjab. But after that they just thrashed last year's champion Deccan Chargers in the semi final. Dhoni is a master at playing smart cricket and don't hesitate to take bold & unexpected decisions, and somehow has the knack of making every decision work.

I am also waiting for the big final to watch, it’s almost seven hours to go.

IPL Season 2010 - All Set For Semi Finals At DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

Finally we have got the four semi finalist for this year's IPL. 56 league matches are over. Mumbai Indians comprehensively tops the table with 20 points. Then Deccan Chargers at the 2nd position with 16 points, they played some fantastic cricket for the last couple of weeks and won 5 matches in a row to ensure a place for semi final... really hats off to them. For the last two semi final berth, there was a fight between four teams; all the four teams (RCB, CSK, DD & KKR) ended with 14 points. But CSK & RCB made it to the last four with better net run rate.

This is the final point table after the last match of the league.

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	14	10	4	+1.084	20
DC	14	8	6	-0.297	16
CSK	14	7	7	+0.274	14
RCB	14	7	7	+0.219	14
DD	14	7	7	+0.021	14
KKR	14	7	7	-0.341	14
RR	14	6	8	-0.514	12
KXP	14	4	10	-0.478	8

KKR played their best cricket for the last couple of games and defeated two strong teams Rajasthan Royals and table topper Mumbai Indians; still they couldn't find any place in the final four courtesy crucial lose against Kings XI Punjab after scoring 200 runs in 20 overs. Delhi Daredevils again disappointed, in the final match yesterday against Deccan Chargers, they couldn't chase down even 145 runs at their home ground. On the other hand, if you see the performance of CSK, they chased down a difficult total of 192 against Kings XI Punjab and qualified for the semi final courtesy superb finish by their captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
So, two big semi finals are coming up; first on 21st, between Mumbai Indians & Royal Challengers Bangalore and the second on 22nd, between Deccan Chargers & Chennai Super Kings.

KKR In Semis??? Hope For The Miracle

It's really disappointing once again for KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders). After the failure in first two seasons, KKR was expected to perform a lot better in this season, but somehow it didn't happen. It looks like the same story repeats once again for KKR, they didn't click as a unit.
KKR started off the season in a perfect style, beating the defending champion DC (Deccan Chargers) and the last years runner-up RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore). Everything was looking like perfect for them, the team combination, the captaincy, the coaching... everything. But after the returning of some key foreign players, the team had to reshuffled and team lost the momentum thereafter. Till date when they are ready to play their crucial encounter against double R (Rajasthan Royals), they haven't found the right combination.
Their tour to South India was really heart breaking, they not only lost both the matches against RCB and CSK, but they had worsen their net run rate also.
It looks like we'll have to wait for another year to see KKR in the final four.
But...
Is there any chance for KKR to reach the semis this season???
The answer is YES.
As one of the big fans of KKR, I still find a very dim light in the darkness. But for that, the team has to do everything right, the players need to keep all the basics right and give their more than 100% on the field. KKR has to take one match at a time, they have nothing to lose at that moment. Whatever the worst thing could possible, already had happened. They are almost, you can say 99% out of the race now. But that remaining 1% can change many things.
KKR should learn from DC, how they have been playing and winning matches from a situation where they had to win all five remaining matches. DC has won their last four matches after losing five in a row and kept their semi final hope alive.
Cricket is a game of uncertainty, specially the T20... anything can happen. We had witnessed many miracles in the past... may be one more is waiting, nobody knows. So, don't lose hope... cheer for KKR.
KKR need a 'Chak De' speech from SRK

Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo 

How the Team stand after 51 matches

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	12	9	3	+1.116	18
RCB	13	7	6	+0.467	14
DD	13	7	6	+0.066	14
DC	13	7	6	-0.363	14
CSK	13	6	7	+0.270	12
RR	13	6	7	-0.421	12
KKR	12	5	7	-0.632	10
KXP	13	4	9	-0.490	8