14, 15 and 16 are the top scores

Well it was fascinating not only to see England win the first test at Nottingham yesterday but also the scorecard was one of its kind when the top three individual scores in the 2^nd innings of Pakistan's batting happened to be 14, 15 and 16. Of course, the score of 14 in the innings was scored by extras and that is no player. These three add up to 45 runs which is more than half of the total score of 80 put up by Pakistan. Recently, a couple of weeks back, Pakistan made news for the right reasons when they bowled Australia for 88 which was their first score below 100 to lose all ten wickets.

Now, they themselves make news this time for the wrong reasons when they lost all their ten wickets for a score 8 runs less than what the Aussies scored. Coincidentally, the aforementioned scorers were the only three which crossed the double digit mark. Extras apart, there were just two Pakistani batsmen who scored above ten and with one making up his mind in leaving out the tail end batsman Danish Kaneria who scored 16, the number reduces to just one batsman out of 11 scoring double digit. It is nothing but a tragedy that the top scorer in the innings happened to be a number 10 batsman in Kaneria.

One more thing that would fascinate all Pakistan cricket fans would be the fact that the top scorer for Pakistan, with both their innings combined would be another tail end batsman in Umer Gul when he top scored with an unbeaten 65 in the 1^st innings. That was the 3^rd highest individual score in the match after the English batsmen Eoin Morgan and Matt Prior notched up centuries for their team in the 1^st and the 2^nd innings respectively. It was a good toss to win by the England captain Andrew Struass who wisely chose to bat. The scorecard tells us the pitch which was found favoring the bowlers and batting 2^nd would have been inviting trouble.

Of course, hardly any captain wins the toss and elects to bowl first no matter n what pitch he is playing. The Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni can be excluded from the list who is often found making abnormal decisions with reasons which only he justifies after making a fool out of himself and his team. One can see 8 bowlers from the Pakistan side having the red cherry in their hands in the first innings when England scored 364 as against the only 4 bowlers from the English side. This showed the pressure that the Pakistan players were. This was unnecessary with three more sessions and four more days to go in the match. Pakistan needs to learn a lot. Better approach Bangladesh.

Sad that Kenya misses out from World T20

For the second time in a world T20 tournament, the stunners in world cricket- Kenya are found missing from the world T20. Kenya last made their appearance in the inaugural edition of the same in 2007 when they were grouped with New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Kenya as expected missed out by losing to both the teams it was grouped with. Much to anyone's amazement, Kenya didn't even make it to the ICC Champions trophy played in South Africa last year. Of course, there were just 8 teams which participated in that trophy with even Bangladesh and Zimbabwe missing out.

If the statistics of the Kenyan team is given a close look at, they should have by now been awarded the test status similar to Bangladesh. Even Bangladesh doesn't deserve to play test cricket which is a different issue here. And, coming back to Kenya, they were the first non test playing nations to make the cricketing world stunned when they not only beat the West Indies in their inaugural world cup in 1996 but also were successful in getting the West Indian team that in a couple of weeks from then onwards made it to the semi finals of the same for a score less than 100.

In that edition, Kenya defeated the West Indian team which defeated South Africa for the first time in the quarter finals after South Africa were fresh from 5 consecutive wins against Pakistan, New Zealand and England in the league stages. In the world cup 1999 which was played in England after 16 years, though Kenya failed to win even a single match, they were seen crossing the 200 runs mark in 5 out of the six games that they played, with the 198 which they scored against Sri Lanka being the only exception. Kenya is the only non test playing team to have defeated India on two occasions.

The best from the Kenyans came in the 2003 world cup when they beat Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe which saw them become the first non test playing nation to make it to the semi finals of a world cup. Perhaps! Kenya were also the first non test playing nation to make it to the super sixes of a world in 2003. In the same edition of the world cup Kenya defeated three test playing nations in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh which is a unique record shared by Ireland when they did it in 2007 and if the word defeated is replaced by unbeaten. And, with such a Kenyan team failing to make it to the world T20 on two successive occasions is ineed a bad fortune for cricket lovers.

IPL 2010 - Perfectly Indian

Though the name of the multi million dollar Indian Premier League suggests that it has more of an Indian flavor in it, this had not been the case so far in the earlier two editions that were played. Indians had to wait for three editions of the tournament to get some Indian flavor in the tournament. In both the earlier editions of the Indian Premier League, the winners happened to be the team which was captained by Australian legends namely Shane Warne who lifted the trophy in the inaugural edition in 2008 and Adam Gilchrist who held the title for Deccan Chargers in 2009.

However, as a consolation the runners up happened to be those teams which were captained by Indian players namely Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2008 and Anil Kumble in 2009 when the Chennai Superkings and the Royal Challengers Bangalore made it there in 2008 and 2009 respectively. And this time in 2010, both the winners as well as the Runners up happened to be teams which were captained by Indian players with Sachin Tendulkar captaining the Mumbai Indians side whi finished as runners up and Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Chennai Superkings finishing as winners of the trophy. Likewise, it was an Indian led Chennai Superkings who reached the finals of an IPL twice.

In the earlier editions of the IPL the man with the highest aggregate of runs happened not only to be a non Indian but also was an Australia in Shaun Marsh in 2008 who amassed 616 runs and Mathew Hayden in 2009 who surpassed 500 runs. But, this time it was an Indian in Sachin Tendulkar who returned as the highest run getter in the tournament after he amassed 618 runs to become the highest run getter in the tournament. And, when it comes to the player with maximum number of wickets, India has been lucky enough when this has been owned by an Indian on two occasions.

If not for Sohail Tanvir in 2008, the remaining two editions of the Indian Premier League has seen an Indian in R P Singh and Pragyan Ojha returning as the leading wicket takers in the 2009 and 2010 edition of the IPL respectively. And, when it comes to the players who have scored maximum number of sixes in the tournament, the number stands at a mind blowing 5 among the top ten leading six hitters in the tournament with Robin Uttappa topping the charts with 27 such hits. Others who have made it there are Vinay Kumar, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay and YOusuf Pathan. The batsman who has scored the fastest hundred in an IPL is yet another Indian in Yousuf Pathan who did it against Mumbai Indians when he scored the same in 37 deliveries.

Back to the pavilion

Well this happens every year after the Indian Premier League gets over. The duration of close to two months which hosted the Indian Premier League not only was successful in showing a spectacular cricketing action on the field but was also responsible in showing the Indian sub continent as a world rather than as a country like it is after the IPL got over. In these two months of cricket's calender, most of the international players played just for one country nevermind that they played for different Indian cities but as a country it was India for which everyone was found playing.

Now, three days after the finals of the tournament which happened to be between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Superkings the players will have to go back to their respective teams to serve their international duties. Players like Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist who were seen picking up the willow even after their retirement from international cricket a couple of years back will now have to either play for their domestic team or else get back to some stuff like commentating or coaching young legs but would rarely be seen playing for any team or coming in front of the world for what they are known and have been known in their playing days.

The Mumbai crowd who would have cheered Sachin Tendulkar for his mind blowing batting will now have to dream "had Sachin Tendulkar been around in the upcoming T20 world cup" and worse come be contented with that. So would be the fans of Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble. And, players like Robin Uttappa, Virender Sehwag and Ambati Rayudu will have to be seen next year only with the selection committee picking Piyush Chawla for reason not evident to common man and is restricted only to the BCCI. In a way, players will also be losing a lot as said above.

And, finally the Chennai crowd who would have in the two months cheered the Sri Lankan off spinner - Muttiah Muralitharan will now have to make up their mind that he gets belted by some Youvraj Singh or Rohit Sharma when India play Sri Lanka. So would be the case regarding Australia's Shane Watson, whom the Rajasthan Royals would now want to go back without scoring when he picks up his bat against India. Other such players who'd be rejoiced after being done so for their good performance until now will be New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond to name a few.

Shades of match fixing in IPL

Well this has been the news that has been making rounds since the latter part of the third edition of the Indian Premier League wherein the match fixing issue has taken precedence. This is after a decade that someone is charged with a match fixing offense or more than less atleast hinted to be one such thing. And, if this edition of the IPL is considered, as a cricket blogger, I can sense some hints which suggests that match fixing has indeed taken place especially after I suggested some major turnarounds in few of my earlier posts wherein most of the teams have lost after betters had their say on the losing team.

To start with, the major shocking news in this edition of the IPL was the defeat of the Mumbai Indians in the finals of the tournament to the Chennai Superkings by a margin which is needless at the moment. When most of the betters having their money invested in favor of the Mumbai Indians to win the trophy, a major blow would have been received after the same team crashed out in the finals much to anybody's surprise. One side of the coin comes in for all praise towards the Chennai Superkings for winning the trophy when all odds had termed them off after most of their key international players like Flintoff, Oram and Mike Hussey bowed down to injuries.

The other side of the coin suggests that may be the Mumbai Indians intentionally lost the game in the finals and also the Deccan Chargers might have intentionally lost to the Chennai Superkings in the semi finals. Semi finals was the third encounter between the Chennai and Hyderabad team which Chennai was playing after losing to them earlier twice. Of course, Chennai had beaten Mumbai earlier in the league stages but, odds always supported Mumbai which no one can deny. Anyone there to say that they expected the Chennai Superkings to return victorious? May be if your heart goes towards Chennai.

So was the case in the match which was played as a third off stand which would decide as to which team would make it to the Champions Trophy this year due in South Africa. Once again, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were facing a Deccan Chargers team which had beaten them convincingly in the earlier two encounters played in this edition. And, if one looks at the way the Deccan Chargers lost that important match when they failed to cross the 100 run mark, shades of match fixing has to be there. One has to decide as to how can a team play for 18+ overs and still score less than 100.

These are just a few points which suggest that matches might have been fixed in this year's IPL. Similar such cases exist in the earlier two editions as well.

Partly deserving and partly not

Well no one would have thought the Mumbai Indians to lose the plot on yesterday's finals of the Indian Premier League after they had a successful run in the league stages of the same when it won 10 out of the 14 games played. It was really sad that Sachin Tendulkar had to face the same team against which he had lost earlier in the league stage. However, Sachin has to consider himself lucky for atleast coming till the finals and not losing the plot in the semis itself like it happened to the Delhi Daredevils in the earlier edition in South Africa.

The Delhi Daredevils were the top rated team last year and were likely to win the tournament which was more so when they had their finals scheduled against Deccan Chargers against whom the Delhi team had won on their previous two occasions. But, semis was a totally different game for them. However, if one side on the Mumbai Indians is considered, they were no extraordinary team to win the trophy though all odds were favoring them in this edition. For the first time in three years, the trophy is not won by a team wearing blue. On its two earlier occasion, it was the Rajasthan and Hyderabad team, both of whom had chosen blue as their color.

With all odds pointing towards Mumbai Indians this time, there was a third blue team set to win the trophy unfortunately which didn't happen. Hard work is evident from the Chennai Superkings who eventually won the trophy despite at one stage set to be the first team to get knocked out of the tournament after most of its key players were forced to surrender to injuries. The list included the famous all rounder Andrew Flintoff, hard hitting Jacob Oram and Mike Hussey. On the other hand there was Mathew Hayden who was out of form with his mongoose bat proving unlucky for him.

The case was no different with the Mumbai Indians with Sachin Tendulkar being the one international batsman in the side after sacking Sanath Jayasuriya from the playing eleven. The batting had be shared by someone like Harbhajan Singh and Duminy who are more accurate with the ball than with the bat. Sacking Jayasuriya proved costly exactly at a time when it mattered the most for Mumbai Indians. However, Sachin Tendulkar had individual reasons to smile when he was the highest run getter in the tournament and also the man of the series. If Sachin Tendulkar makes up his mind to play in the next edition (with every chance of franchises picking him next time), may be the dues can be settled.

RCB striking at the right time

This was the third time the Deccan Chargers encountered the Royal Challengers Bangalore when both of them needless to be said lost in the semi finals. Both had to ensure that they didn't fall behind in atleast making it to the Champions League T20 tournament to be held later this year. For the second time in succession, the Deccan Chargers were found to choke, first when they lost Friday's second semi finals against the Chennai Superkings when all odds had termed the Adam Gilchrist led Deccan Chargers to move to the finals. And now, they lost to a team against which they had won on previous two occasions.

In the earlier two occasions, the Deccan Chargers came from nowhere to win the match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. First, the Deccan Chargers successfully chased down a huge total in excess of 180 by losing just 3 wickets enroute to the same. A total of 184 put up by the Royal Challengers posed absolutely no problems to the Deccan Chargers. And then, in the second time when the teams faced each other at Nagpur 4 days later, once again a total of 151 was more than enough for the Deccan Chargers to defend and more than enough for the RCB to fall short of.

Coincidentally, the Deccan Chargers had won their previous two encounters against the finalists - Chennai Superkings first when they beat them at their home ground Chennai by 31 runs after piling up 190 runs on the board. And secondly, at Nagpur the Deccan Chargers well in anticipation went past the total of 138 imposed by the Chennai Superkings. So, the Deccan Chargers have beaten both Bangalore and Chennai, first on their home ground and then in Nagpur before losing to the same in the knock out matches namely the semi finals against the Chennai Superkings and in the third play off against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

This is one such feat which I think is worth noting down. One of the highlight of the match was the after a long time, Jacques Kallis went past Sachin Tendulkar considering the number of runs scored by both batsmen in this year's IPL. However, there is every possibility of that being broken when Sachin Tendulkar would take on the Chennai Superkings in the finals which should happen in just a few hours from now. As it has been the case earlier as well, the fortune is found to favor the Royal Challengers Bangalore when unexpectedly they won their last chance to make it to the Champions League.