Mediocrity met mediocrity on Sunday night, and somehow produced the first tie of the third edition of the IPL, leading to a Super Over, which gave Kings XI Punjab an unlikely victory. Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh managed 82 runs in the 10 overs they faced between them, but the others batted poorly to score just 54 in the other 10. In the chase, even after a 65-run opening stand, the Chennai Super Kings batsmen contrived to be needing 10 runs off the last over. Fittingly for a match of low quality, the last over of the regulation game – bowled by Irfan and faced by Albie Morkel and R Ashwin – read: edge for four, missed slog for two byes thanks to an overthrow, single, another edge for two, a missed waft, and a powerful, nervous hit straight to mid-off with one needed off the last ball.
 Juan Theron, playing his first IPL match and Punjab’s bowling hero in the regulation time, bowled Matthew Hayden off the second ball in the Super Over, and despite a slogged six from Suresh Raina, once again 10 were needed in the last over. Muttiah Muralitharan was hit for a six first ball by Mahela Jayawardene, but he came back with a wicket and a dot to set the match up again. Yuvraj chose that extremely nervous moment to execute a delicate reverse-sweep, a shot he hardly ever uses, to finish the game off with two balls to go.
By halftime, though, Murali, the second Sri Lankan spinner to bowl the losing Super Over in as many tied matches in IPL, wouldn’t have expected to play any further role in the game, let alone bowl the pressure over. In regulation time, he was the perfect spy, taking out two of the most prolific batsmen from his country, with 3 for 16 in his four overs. It wasn’t as if Chennai needed any extra-ordinary bowling effort: the Punjab batsmen were hapless again.
Match Meter
- CSK
 KXIP
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Parthiv and Gony lose their heads: With 16 require off 17, half-centurion Parthiv Patel got stumped, and Manpreet Gony slogged without watching the ball, getting bowled in the next over, leaving Chennai 10 to get in the last over.
- CSK KXIP
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An over that summed up the night: Irfan Pathan kept producing length deliveries, the batsmen kept edging, and the match went to a tie. Albie Morkel edged the first ball for four, managed two byes off the next, R Ashwin edged the fourth ball for two, missed the next, and hit the final delivery into Mohammad Kaif’s lap at mid-off.
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KXIP
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Super Over I: Theron came back to produce the goods again as Matthew Hayden missed the first ball he faced, a straight length delivery. Suresh Raina slogged one for six, but left Punjab only 10 to win, with the momentum clearly the other way.
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KXIP
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Super Over II: Jayawardene got a swift payback, hitting Murali for a six ball first ball, but holed out on the second delivery. Yuvraj Singh pulled a reverse-sweep out of the hat to finish the game off with two balls to go.
Advantage Honours even
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Irfan, promoted to open the innings, and Yuvraj would have felt the rest of the team had turned on them. They got zero support from the other end, and the two batted together for only nine deliveries. There was a time when Irfan had scored 29 off 17 balls with five crunchy boundaries, but thanks to the struggling Ravi Bopara and Kumar Sangakkara, Punjab were 30 for 1 after five overs. Yuvraj, too, scored 43 out of the 70 runs that came while he was at the crease. He got to face only 28 out of 64 deliveries bowled when in the middle.
Between those spells of ordinary cricket from Punjab came Murali’s genius. In his first over, inside the Powerplay, he beat Sangakarra twice in the flight, but the real beauty came in his second. This time he didn’t bowl it flat when he saw Sangakkara charging down, just got it to dip more and then the bounce left him high and dry.
Jayawardene was made to look poorer than that. Murali first beat a late-cut with a topspinner from round the stumps, and then got a flighted offbreak to turn enough to beat the bat and get an lbw decision. At 64 for 4 after 11 overs, Punjab were looking at a freak innings from Yuvraj to keep them alive.
Yuvraj hit four fours and two sixes, but Mohammad Kaif and Manvinder Bisla at the other end wasted too many deliveries. The trend for Punjab, until this game, had been for one aspect of their game to do well, and the other to let it down. Still, to defend 136 against an in-form Hayden was too much to ask for. What’s more, they had dropped their only bowler who could produce wickets, Sreesanth.
Hayden was not at his murderous best, but he was good enough he overtake Yusuf Pathan for maximum sixes in the IPL so far, and leave Chennai only 72 to get off the 68 deliveries. Punjab, the whipping boys of the tournament until then, used to letting matches slip after getting into winning positions, were about to turn one around from a losing position.
Their newest player, Theron, a medium-pacer, provided the turning point. Parthiv Patel dropped one at his feet and called Suresh Raina for a single, but Theron ran faster than Raina and kicked the ball into the stumps, from a good-length area on the pitch. Umpire Daryl Harper, who had earlier called a clear six a four, joined in the fun, sending M Vijay off when the ball was clearly sliding down leg.
About five overs later, the six call was corrected, and Parthiv was seeing Chennai through with what seemed a sensible fifty. Then came the rush of the blood. Just after having hit a boundary, he jumped out to Piyush Chawla and was stumped, leaving Chennai 16 to get off 16. Morkel and Manpreet Gony, who had earlier bowled poorly to give 20 runs in two overs, started slogging as if the requirement was sixty and not sixteen.
Theron, bowling the 19th over, only had to be straight when Gony produced the worst bit of cricket on a night that had had its fair share already. Throwing his front leg out of the way, and his head up, he slogged and lost his middle stump. An injury had confined Justin Kemp to the dressing room and Ashwin, like a hare in the headlights, couldn’t do much with the last two deliveries of that over, setting up an exciting finale.
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written by Swapnil
\\ tags: Chennai Super Kings, IPL, Kings XI Punjab
The match was hurtling towards a dull climax when Irfan Pathan tried to pull off the improbable with an audacious innings, but eventually Deccan Chargers prevailed and sealed their first win against Kings XI Punjab in IPL history. Set 171 to win, Punjab were dawdling along at 104 for 7 in the 17th over when Irfan exploded to create some excitement.
Irfan hit two sixes and two fours in that 17th over bowled by an errant RP Singh, and suddenly the equation read 46 from 18 balls. RP returned in the 19th over to give away 14 runs, which included a six over long-on and a cover-driven four from Irfan, and the equation came to 19 from the final over. Jaskaran Singh, who was unused until then, pleaded with Adam Gilchrist that he be given a bowl and he struck with his first ball, getting Irfan to hole out to deep midwicket. Game over.
Irfan might have succeeded in reducing the margin, but it couldn’t mask an otherwise lacklustre performance from Punjab. They are yet to click together as a unit in this IPL, and nothing changed tonight. Their bowling was good in the first game, their batting better in the second, and tonight it was only the bowlers who turned up. All Deccan had to do today to register their first home win was to ensure they reached a competitive total, and they managed it courtesy a fiery cameo from Gilchrist and a responsible hand from Andrew Symonds.
When Deccan batted, it was as if there were two games out there: Deccan against pace and Deccan against spin. They looted runs against the seamers and struggled against the spinners to reach a competitive score.
Match Meter
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DC
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Double strike by Vaas: Chaminda Vaas took the game away from Punjab, getting two big wickets early. He bowled Kumar Sangakkara with a slow off-cutter in the third over, and soon after lured Yuvraj to slice a catch to cover. The chase was going nowhere.
- DC KXIP
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Irfan explodes: At the start of the 17th over the equation read 67 from 24 balls. Irfan repeatedly swung RP Singh through the leg side in his last two overs, to reduce the margin to 19 from the final over. However he fell, swinging the first ball to deep midwicket and the chase ended.
Advantage Honours even
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Whenever Deccan required some quick runs to get some momentum going, Sreesanth seemed ready to gift them some easy runs. His first largesse came in the second over when he went for 24 runs with Adam Gilchrist plundering two fours and two sixes. A stunning six hit on the up to straight boundary was the highlight.
Gilchrist’s 17-minute manic knock charged Deccan to 43 in 3 overs. Although they lost VVS Laxman almost immediately – he was forced to retire hurt after being hit on his wrist by a wayward throw from Shalabh Srivastava – Gilchrist’s effort allowed them to reach 84 for 1 in nine overs. This is where Sreesanth entered the picture to give his second offering to Deccan. This time around he leaked 16 runs, with Symonds hitting a typically muscled six over long-on, and two fours.
At this point things could have gone horribly wrong for Punjab, but Yuvraj Singh slipped in a tidy spell that read 4-0-21-2 to peg back Deccan. It was the typical bag of tricks from him – variation in pace and the alteration in trajectory – but it was enough to slow down proceedings on this slow track. In the 11th over, he removed Herschelle Gibbs with an arm-ball and saw a slow-off-the-blocks Rohit Sharma run himself out. Bipul Sharma and Piyush Chawla slipped in a couple of relatively quiet overs, and when Yuvraj induced Symonds to hole out to long-on, Deccan had reached 144 for 5 in 17 overs.
If Gilchrist’s was an adrenalin-charged innings, Symonds’, barring that explosion against Sreesanth, was more measured. He played the spinners with relative caution, often checking his drives, and making sure he didn’t throw his wicket away.
Punjab didn’t find either a Gilchrist or a Symonds when they chased. Only Ravi Bopara offered some fight with a 32-ball 38, but the rest succumbed meekly. The seniors were the main culprits – none of Kumar Sangakkara, Yuvraj and Mahela Jayawardene could get going. Chaminda Vaas took care of Sangakkara with a slower one and induced Yuvraj to slice an intended big drive to cover. When Symonds bowled Jayawardene, who went for a fatal paddle sweep, the game was all but over. Or so one thought. Irfan threatened to pull off an improbable heist but it proved too much for him in the end.
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written by Swapnil
\\ tags: Deccan Chargers, IPL, Kings XI Punjab
At the halfway mark it seemed as if Kings XI Punjab had scored enough to record their first victory of the tournament, but Royal Challengers Bangalore went after the target with such vengeance that Punjab were punished for trespassing on private property. At the forefront of the chase was the reborn Twenty20 basher Jacques Kallis, who smashed an unbeaten 89, and playing valuable and entertaining supporting roles were Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa.
One of Bangalore’s adopted sons, Ross Taylor, wasn’t around to send the ball soaring like he’s done many times, but the power hitting from Kallis, Uthappa and Pandey more than made up for his absence. The batsmen with strong forearms thumped the ball with amazing velocity to fetch massive sixes, particularly over the on side, to deflate the bowling side and cut the target down to size.
Although Punjab were overpowered by a better batting side on the day, they could have restricted Bangalore had they bowled better lengths. The spinners in particular were guilty for dropping the ball on a length which sat up nicely for the batsmen to rock back and swing their arms. The fuller lengths didn’t work and that was illustrated by one particular over from Sreesanth, which went for 25. The only way to restrict them was to either bowl yorkers or hurry them up with pace and bounce but Punjab didn’t possess the bowlers to do either.
Kallis’ biffing made the crowd delirious as Bangalore neared the target but the early entertainer was Pandey. The Ranji season’s highest run-scorer earned a promotion and made it count by the sheer power of his strokes and using the crease. The ball was coming on nicely on to the bat and they had the freedom to hit across the line at will. A lightning quick straight drive nearly cleaned up the umpire and the bowler, Irfan Pathan, was smoked for two huge sixes over his head in his next over. Pathan was smacked for bowling it too full and when Yuvraj Singh held the length back, Pandey shoveled him over midwicket for a six.
Piyush Chawla sent him back for 38, trapping him with a quicker delivery and inducing a top edge. There was no respite for Punjab as Uthappa walked in and recorded the second-fastest fifty of the IPL. He rocked back and smacked Chawla with a powerful forehand, following it up with a delicate late cut. Abdulla was spanked over the second tier at deep midwicket but the more experienced Sreesanth suffered the worst treatment of the night. Uthappa cleared the front leg to smash three sixes and a four in five balls. Sangakkara was running out of options and at that stage he must have wondered of his team should have scored 250 instead.
Uthappa cut Bipul Sharma to bring up his fifty off 19 balls and tried to clear long-off in the same over but was safely caught by Mohammad Kaif. Bangalore still needed 61 off 36 balls at that stage but they had the safety net of Kallis. He matched Pandey and Uthappa for style and power, particularly those shots over midwicket. The ball was dumped over that region with such regular frequency that the crowd ought to have worn helmets.
Match Meter
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Bisla breaks free: After a shaky start, Bisla opened up against Kallis in the sixth over, carving a six over third man and then swinging two short balls to the leg side for fours. Fifteen came off the over and Punjab had raced to 50 in six
Advantage Honours even
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Bangalore still needed 34 off the last three overs but didn’t look like messing it up. Punjab were dazed and had virtually thrown in the towel. Sharma’s first IPL experience was a nightmare as Kallis ripped him apart for 23 in the 18th over. It included three sixes and a feisty cut for four. Bangalore finished it with an over to spare and the Punjab dugout had nothing else to do but look on helplessly.
Such was the impact from Bangalore’s batsmen that the seventies by Manvinder Bisla and Ravi Bopara were lost in memory. The fact that Bisla was an unknown quantity worked in his favour because the Bangalore bowlers didn’t know what to expect. After an edgy start, Bisla quickly proved his doubters wrong. He looked far more comfortable against the slower pace of Kallis and R Vinay Kumar, regularly making room to slap the ball over backward point and third man. Following a sequence of off-side thumping, he showed his prowess on the on side, playing short-arm pulls off Kallis and a cheeky scoop over the wicketkeeper’s head off Virat Kohli’s gentle leg cutter.
When the pair brought up the fifty stand, Bopara’s contribution was only 8. Even the experienced Kumble couldn’t halt the momentum and the captain took a couple of blows to the body when he intercepted two full-blooded straight drives off Bopara. Bisla moved to 75 and looked to dump Kallis over deep midwicket but couldn’t get the distance.
Bisla’s innings was the best thing Bopara could have hoped for because it released the pressure off him. He survived a run-out early on 7 when Steyn’s underarm flick missed the stumps while attempting a quick single. Bopara really opened up after the halfway mark of the innings, flat-batting Steyn to wide long-off and paddling Praveen to fine leg to bring up his fifty off 42 balls. The bowler went on to claim his wicket with a slower ball but by then, the total was headed towards 200. Audacious shots from Mahela Jayawardene ensured the flow wasn’t disturbed. What Punjab didn’t know at that stage was that it was only the curtain raiser for what was to come.
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written by Swapnil
\\ tags: IPL, Kings XI Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore
In his first match as IPL captain, Gautam Gambhir followed up inspired moves in the field with an old-fashioned innings full of sensible strokeplay and saved a glittering batting line-up the blushes in a straightforward chase of 143 on a flat pitch. It was thanks to disconcerting bowling from Dirk Nannes and timely big wickets for Farveez Maharoof that Delhi were chasing a paltry total, but Gambhir had to counter the regularly falling wickets and rising required rate to take his team home.
 Sreesanth, who somehow nudged and edged nine runs in the final over to give himself something to bowl at, made the most of the extra few runs at Kings XI Punjab’s disposal. He swung the ball beautifully, taking out Virender Sehwag and Tillakaratne Dilshan in his first over, and gave away just 15 in his first spell of three overs.
While sizeable contributions from the other end didn’t arrive, Gambhir was not going to contribute to Punjab’s cause. He ran hard, hit only one shot in the air before the six in the 19th over, never let the required rate reach unmanageable proportions, and got out with only three runs required. The main feature of the innings was the cut shot: the bat face opened at just the right time, at just the right angle, playing around with the point and third-man fieldsmen.
From 10 for 2 he took Delhi to 45 for 3 with AB de Villiers for company, and to 79 for 4 with Dinesh Karthik. By the time Karthik fell, Gambhir had paced himself to 37 off 34, but 64 required off 46 was just about entering the tricky territory. In the next over, though, Gambhir took 15 runs off five Ramesh Powar deliveries to turn the game Delhi’s way. Nine of those came off shots either side of deep point.
Match Meter
- DD
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Seamers rock Punjab top order: Dirk Nannes was fast, Farveez Maharoof was there to capitalise on the pressure exerted, and between them they consigned Kings XI Punjab to a poor start in the first six overs. Maharoof took out Kumar Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh in the same over.
- DD KP
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Experienced stars lead recovery: Ravi Bopara and Irfan Pathan batted with responsibility, adding 60 runs for the fifth wicket between the seventh and 14th overs, setting Punjab up for a possible late assault that would give them a defendable total.
- DD
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A major setback: With Irfan’s wicket in the 14th over, and regular wickets thereafter, Punjab’s hopes for a late charge went down the drain, and only 38 more runs were added.
Advantage Honours even
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A two-run 17th over by Yuvraj Singh gave Punjab an outside chance, with 26 required off the last three, but when Irfan Pathan dropped Mithun Manhas in the 19th over, it was all over for Punjab. That Gambhir batted through the innings meant he ran up and down the pitch 71 times. A cramping Gambhir towards the end wasn’t what Delhi would have envisaged after a commendable fielding effort.
Nannes was too quick, Maharoof too opportunistic, and Delhi’s fielders too alert for Ravi Bopara’s 48-ball 56. Regular wickets punctuated Punjab’s innings. Nannes went for just 12 runs in his four overs, and Maharoof claimed the big scalps of Kumar Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh.
Bopara got support from Irfan – out of India’s preliminary squad for World Twenty20 but fit enough to start for Punjab – during a 60-run fifth-wicket partnership, but they would have always felt it not enough.
Sharp fielding, Nannes’ awkward bounce, and Maharoof’s capitalising on the pressure left the lower middle order with too much to do. Manhas started Punjab’s slide with a direct hit to remove Manvinder Bisla. Sangakkara, Punjab’s new captain, came out counterattacking, but Gambhir persisted with Maharoof despite his 18-run fourth over.
Maharoof repaid the faith by removing Sangakkara and Yuvraj in his next over, both to softish dismissals. Sangakkara flicked him straight to short fine leg, and Gambhir himself took a back-pedalling catch at mid-off to get rid of Yuvraj.
That it was the last delivery of the Powerplay could have had something to do with Yuvraj’s shot selection. Mahela Jayawardene, though, edged the first delivery after the Powerplay, a straight angling delivery from Pradeep Sangwan.
Bopara and Irfan applied themselves, also enjoyed some good fortune through edged boundaries to the third-man area, but another inspired move from Gambhir started the second collapse for Punjab. Tillakaratne Dilshan was given the ball in the 14th over, and Irfan – responsible until then – jumped out of the crease and missed a straight delivery.
Mohammad Kaif was stumped to a wide flighted delivery from Amit Mishra, and Bopara hit a low full toss straight to deep square leg. At 113 for 7 in the 16th over, Nannes and Maharoof against the tail was always going to be an unfair contest.
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written by Swapnil
\\ tags: Delhi Daredevils, IPL, Kings XI Punjab
One of the major concerns for Kings XI Punjab ahead of the third season of the IPL is a long injury list. The IPL begins on March 12 and Punjab play their first two games on March 13 and 16, but they are likely to field XIs that may not include a few first-choice players. Sample the injury concerns: Shaun Marsh, Punjab’s success story of 2008, looks unlikely to be fit for the start. Their most expensive overseas player, fast bowler Brett Lee, is also beset with fitness problems. Irfan Pathan seems likely to miss the first few matches and Yuvraj Singh, Punjab’s highest run scorer in 2009, has only recently begun batting after his latest injury. It is hardly an enviable position for their new captain Kumar Sangakkara, and key to Punjab even nearing the semi-finals this year will be having the entire squad fit and available for the tournament.
 Punjab were one of the best teams in the inaugural IPL, cruising into the semi-finals, but had a tough time in the second season, affected by the injuries to fast bowlers Sreesanth and Jerome Taylor, and the unavailability of Australian players for much of the competition. Punjab’s Indian bowlers had done the trick in 2008 but found it tough in South Africa the following season, and their team could suffer if that is the case as the bandwagon moves back to India.
The buzz
Lalit Modi, the league’s commissioner, and Yuvraj have been busy providing updates on Twitter. Modi had assured that Ravi Bopara and Lee would tour, despite the security concerns, while Yuvraj kept his followers informed about his fitness.
New faces
Punjab have signed up four domestic players – the medium-pacers Love Ablish and Shalabh Srivastava, batsman Manvinder Bisla and allrounder Reetinder Sodhi. Sodhi, who played 18 ODIs for India, and Srivastava, a left-arm pacer, were recently admitted back into the domestic fold after they severed ties with the unofficial ICL. Ablish, who plays for Punjab on the domestic circuit, was the third highest wicket-taker in this season’s Ranji Trophy Super League. Bisla, the Haryana-born wicketkeeper who plays for Jammu & Kashmir, was part of IPL champions Deccan Chargers’ squad in 2009. Mohammad Kaif, the only Indian up for auction this year, went unsold in the first round of bidding but was later signed up by Punjab for $250,000.
Watch out for
With so many key players not certain to play, No’s 3 and 4, the Sri Lankan pair of Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, will assume plenty of significance. Sangakkara was the team’s second highest run-scorer in South Africa with 332 runs at 30.18, with two half-centuries, while Jayawardene proved of immense value in a couple of extremely tight chases. Jayawardene doesn’t seem a Twenty20 prototype but can clear the boundary with wristy elegance. In the domestic Twenty20 tournament at home, he opened the batting for Wayamba and even scored 91 off 49 balls in the final. Sangakkara has of late evolved into a fabulous Twenty20 player. This pair will be expected to shoulder much of the batting in 2010.
Missing in action
Marsh, Punjab’s standout performer in the first IPL season, became the latest worry after he was ruled out of Australia’s ODIs against New Zealand due to a back problem. Lee has arrived in India and has been bowling brief spells in the nets and a final call will be taken on March 11. Pathan, who missed the one-day Vijay Hazare Trophy due to a back strain, expects to recover in time to play but he may miss a few of Punjab’s initial matches. Yuvraj is confident of being fit by the second match at the latest.
X factor
Punjab, especially given Pathan’s fitness concern, desperately need an allrounder to be counted and primed for that scenario is Sodhi. Once tipped – like many other ill-fated domestic players who could bat and bowl a bit – as India’s answer to the massive void left by Kapil Dev’s retirement, Sodhi never made the grade and until last year was plying his trade in the unofficial ICL. But now that he’s back in the fold after severing ties with the IPL, Sodhi has a contract with Punjab and should get an opportunity to show what he’s got left in the tank. He’s only 29 and a handy Twenty20 player, so this could yet be a defining chapter in the story of another talent gone astray.
Strength
Spin. Piyush Chawla did very well in the first IPL, prompting Sangakkara to hail him as one to watch out for, and Ramesh Powar is also a handy bowler to have in the squad. Chawla was less successful in South Africa, taking just 12 wickets, but wasn’t a bowler that opposing teams could take for easy runs. Back in familiar conditions, he will be a real focal point for Punjab. Powar has moved far behind Chawla in the list of India hopefuls, but should be confident of decent playing opportunities. One of the few offspinners who still rely on a lack of pace to fox batsmen in today’s game, Powar can be a treat to watch in limited-overs cricket when on top of his game. Both spinners are useful lower-order batsmen.
Weakness
Besides fitness issues, the lack of quality in the Indian batting back-up for Yuvraj is another of Punjab’s drawbacks, which makes it vital that Pathan recovers from the back injury that has kept him out of the preliminary squad of the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean. Top-order domestic players like Karan Goel and Tanmay Srivastava need to make an impact if Punjab are to become a genuine title contender.
IPL 2009 – the key figures:
Final position: Fifth place
Top scorer: Yuvraj Singh with 340 runs at 36.50
Top wicket-taker: Irfan Pathan with 17 wickets at 22.94 and economy rate of 7.74
Best result: Seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore
Worst result: Ten-wicket loss to Delhi
Highest team score: 158 v Kolkata Knight Riders
Lowest team score: 104 for 7 v Delhi
Prediction for 2010
It depends on which Punjab turns up. Playing at home will help but they need their bowlers firing to trouble the big teams. In 2009 they fought bravely in close encounters but there’s a feeling that Punjab lack the killer punch needed to floor the heavyweights. The odds are stacked against Punjab reaching the semi-finals.
written by Swapnil
\\ tags: IPL, Kings XI Punjab
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