Lights,Camera,IPL!

   Deccan Chargers are DLF IPL2009 Champions! A team that finished at the bottom of the table last year is the Champion side this time. But spare a thought for Royal Challengers Bangalore. They did pretty well to get back in the tournament from where they were. My heart goes out to Kumble and his men, not because I’m from Bengaluru but because they were just one shot away from that title. Chargers won the key moments in the match and eventually the Championship. Both teams had the confidence, hunger and more importantly the focus. There had to be a winner and it was DC in a crunch pressure match.

  It all started well for the Challengers when Jumbo Anil backed himself to open the bowling and got the man in form – Adam Gilchrist. It was Vinay’s turn to have a bowl and he got rid of Suman on 10. Symmo would have gone scoring  just 5 runs but Rahul Dravid who has the most number of catches in tests, dropped an absolute sitter. Symmo went after the bowlers and things were slipping out of RCB’s hands but Anil Kumble came to the rescue. He sent dangerous Symmo back to the pavilion. Gibbs was the only batsman to have played a good knock on the grand finale. DC put 143 on board for RCB to chase.

  Manish Pandey, a house-hold name now, had to face not yorkers but an advice or two from Symmo. That’s no surprise when Andrew Symmonds is on the field. But he probably didn’t know it was a 19 year old kid who was at the receiving end. He has to grow up this Symmo. The contest on the field is always purely between the bat and the ball. Pandey though didn’t get to face many balls as he was back in the hut after facing just 8 deliveries. Earlier, Kallis was removed by RP Singh. Vd Merwe had a brief stay at the crease and got 32 against his name. The middle-order collapsed. The job was left to Robin Uthappa who had to score 22 off the last over but finished falling 6 short of the target. It was celebration time in Hyderabad when Gilly and his team lifted the trophy but disappointed Bangaloreans were all praises for Kumble’s team to have put up a good show. It was so near yet so far for the Challengers. Both the teams have loads of positive things to look back at and be proud of.  Cricket was the true winner at the end of the day! Hope you liked our coverage. We’ll be back next year. Until then enjoy all the cricketing action. Cheers!

  RCB through to the FINALS! They beat CSK by 6 wickets on Saturday and the Chargers are waiting to face them in the finals. Critics had written them off in the early stages itself but Captain Kumble had a determined bunch of boys who put their hands up when it counted the most. Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli, Ross Taylor and the list goes on.

  Chasing a decent 147 RCB looked focussed. Wonder boy Manish Pandey opened the innings with Kallis. The South African got out to a good delivery from Gony but Pandey was going great guns at the other end. If you thought his last century was a good knock then think again because this 35 ball 48 was even better. Amazing stroke-play by the young man. He had a perfect man batting along with him – Rahul Dravid, calm and composed as ever. 19-year old Pandey had to face a legend in the name of Murali and he made sure he gave most of the strike to Dravid. Both Pandey and Rahul went back to the pavilion and the match could go either way. At the end, Virat and Ross took their side to a 6 wicket victory with 7 balls to spare.

 Earlier, CSK were off to a SUPER START. Little Parthiv got things going straight away. CSK were 61 in 7 overs. The middle order did nothing to capitalize on that splendid opening partnership. Dhoni who has a tag of being innovative and successful, failed against Kumble’s formidable side. Nothing was going CSK’s way and were outplayed by RCB.

  It’s RCB Vs DC in the clash for the prestigious title. Forget everything that’s making news off the field, be it the Fake IPL Player who has taken away fan following from our blog or the controversies surrounding Cheer leaders or even the strategic time out for that matter. Let’s hope for a close contest between the bat and the ball and put all other talks to rest. Two teams who finished at the bottom of the table last year are this year’s finalists. The so-called under dogs of the tournament have done wonders. It surely can’t get better than this. All that I can say is – May the better side win! Is it going to be Chargers victory or the Challengers victory? Wait and watch.

  The top-four is confirmed – DD, CSK, RCB and DC. A ROYAL Victory for RCB means that they will take on CSK on Saturday in the all important semis but before that it will be DD Vs DC on Friday.

  IPL is known to be a stage for the younger lot to showcase their talent and young, dynamic Manish Pandey did just that. He was backed by his team to open the innings and we got to witness some amazing stroke play by him, thanks to RP Singh who dropped him on 2. Pandey didn’t look too convincing in the first 10 overs but played a fascinating innings after the strategic time out. He in fact scored a century, the first ever by an Indian in the history of DLF IPL. How about that for a record! A little guy who wanted to join army if he couldn’t be a professional cricketer is all of a sudden a HERO. This sport is Amazing, isn’t it? His U-19 skipper joined him late in the innings and hit few out of the park. RCB set a challenging total of 171.

  DC got the best of starts. Gibbs was on song. Kumble found it a little difficult to stop him. Gilly didn’t look comfortable at all and went back to the hut without causing much damage. Once Symmo and Gibbs went in quick succession the burden was on Venu Gopal Rao and Rohit Sharma. Both of them failed. It was a convincing victory for the Royals. They call themselves under dogs in their next face-off against CSK and they are trying to put all pressure on the last time finalists – CSK.

  Let’s hope we get to see such superb knocks from the youngsters. We’ll keep updating you with all the latest.