For some reason, I seem to have a strong dislike for talkers, especially in cricket, who inevitably end up underperforming. Apart from the Aussies at the peak of their form in Test cricket, I haven’t really seen anyone live upto their spoken word.

The latest to talk is Hershelle Gibbs, who came up with quite a bizzare statement :

South African cricket team coach Mickey Arthur has said that opener Herschelle Gibbs will unveil two new shots in the final stages of the World Twenty20.

His score in the semis reads :

HH Gibbs b Shahid Afridi  5 (R) 3(M) 4(B) 1(4’s) 0(6’s) 125.00

Okay, technically, it was Gibbs who said it, but you get the idea. Do you know of any counter examples, apart from the Aussies ?

_____

Pakistan literally stormed into the finals, thanks to a brilliant, all-round performance by 18-year old Shahid Afridi. Honestly, I have seen few players who can match his level of passion. When combined with talent and luck, this can be lethal.

That said, I am happy for Pakistan who have made it to the finals second time in a row. They are most likely to meet Sri Lanka in the finals, although it could just as easily be West Indies.

Quite a first this is, but I hope Pakistan wins the Twenty20 world cup. In the simplest words, they need and want it more than anyone else. I deliberately kept deserve away from the previous sentence, as Twenty20 is anything but fair.

It is really astonishing to see Deccan Chargers leading the point table after four matches- winning all, in the current IPL (Indian Premier League) in South Africa.

The Two openers are the key to Deccan Chargers Triumph in the last four matches

Chargers are the same team except Andrew Symonds and Shahid Afridi- the two are playing eachother in UAE for their national teams. The only edition in Deccan team is  Dwayne Smith- the West Indian, who joined from Mumbai Indians.

In the inagural season of IPL Chargers were tauted as the team to win the championship but they finished at the bottom of the table.

Before coming to South Africa they were never thought to come anywhere in the top four, forget about leading the pack this time.

The resurgence could be the lacklustre performance last year, but more to that, it was Hershelle Gibbs, who was a big flop last year on the top of the order. However, the South African has managed two half-centuries in four games as well as an inning of 34 so far.

Gibbs was put on sale in the second round of player auctions, but was not taken by any other team which is turning out to be a blessing in disguise for Chargers.

Adam Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma are in good form but VVS Laxman is a worry for Chargers, he hasn’t scored a double figures in four matches and sooner or later one can see him out fo the playing eleven.

But for the time being Chargers are all Charged Up.!!

Chennai Super Kings x Deccan Chargers

Fourth straight win for the Chargers really put them almost certain for the semifinal spot. With only one win from 5 matches, Chennai will have to pull their socks up fast if they want to register a place in the last 4.

Herschelle Gibbs He played really well. It was an examplar inning. A very few have carried their bat in this season, but I think this is what most players should try to do. People like Raina and Laxman should learn from this inning played by Gibbs. He was aggressive, but at the same time, ran hard and played his pushes and nudges to finesse. He really played the Man of the Match inning.

M Hayden Once again was the best bat of the Chennai inning. It was all a re-play of other matches with he going hell for leather for the first 6 overs, but Chennai losing the momentum after the strategic time out. He is still the owner of Orange Cap. I wonder what chennai would have done if Hayden was still playing for Australia. I am not sure why he is not playing for Australia though. 

SK Raina Again, Raina showed he is very much a confused individual when it comes to playing 20-20. He definitely struggled with short balls from Fidel Edwards. I guess he should play more nudges and hit big shots instead of other way around. He was a real surprise when he started to ball his off spinners. A real game changer. He was lucky in my book. Dhoni will use him more in IPL and international matches for India. His strength is the little stop that he has just before he deliver the ball.

MS Dhoni I dont think Luck is in his pocket captaining Chennai for this season. Unlike Team India, this Chennai team is seriously deficient with in-form players. This season also shows one thing – a good captain is only good as his team. Dhoni’s batting has also come down with the fortunes of his team. He has become more of a finisher who forgot how to hit big SIXs frequently. He now hits one or two… not more than that. I think he should try to emulate Gilchrist who is enjoying his captaincy and batting at the same time.

Jacob Oram He was the surprise in the Chennai inning for me. In the first match, he looked utterly out of touch. He connected some good hits in this match. He is the prime reason why chennai posted a reasonably good score of 165.

Albie Morkel His and Flintoff’s form was concerning Chennai. Now, Flintoff has gone home and pressure on him is more. I think Dhoni should start seriously thinking about axing Albie for Ntini in the next match. Albie is a good hitter, but he is nowhere near his top form in this season. He also got a golden oppurtunity to have an impact on the match when Dhoni gave him the 16th over with Deccan needing 35 Runs to win.  Even though that over saw a critical RUNOUT oppurtunity going against Chennai, he bowled poorly, giving away a NOBALL on height which ran into the boundary.

Fidel Edwards Undoubtedly, the best fast bowler in the match for me. He is amazingly quick and he brings that choice of small packet of unrelenting energy to Gilchrist. What Chennai is missing what Deccan has is a Fidel factor. Fidel has also given the stability on one side for RP Singh to take wicket on the other side. They are a good working pair for Deccan in this season.

Gilchrist Played the CAMEO-INNING of the match. It was relentless hitting. No one really escaped from his punishment. He turned the match from 50-50 balance to 80-20 in favor of Deccan with just 5 overs of power hitting.

RP Singh He was lucky today with none of is NO-BALLS hurting Deccan too much. It is really amazing how the leading wicket taker in the season can go horribly wrong on certain days.

VVS Laxman Once again disappointed to see a batsmen of his calibre going no where with his experience and talent in this format. I think his fault lies in thinking. He should put anchor instead of trying to take off whenever he is at the crease.

Rohit Sharma He played well for the time he was at the crease. He ran well with Gibbs. His dismissal was an untimely one for Deccan. It became the catalyst for Chennai resurgence at that point.

A Bilakhia Played well and gave Gibbs good support in a crucial 5th wicket partnership to take Deccan to their fourth consecutive victory.

Pragyan Ojha It is really amazing why he is not a regular member of Team India. He has outclassed all the world class spinners in this season with his lovely loop and line-&-length.

Kolkata Knight Riders x Mumbai Indians

The story of the match was the first-wicket partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasurya. Both batsmen were aggressive and targetting almost anyone who came on to ball with a gold-and-black jersey. Their 127-run parnership almost made one thing pretty clear – Kolkata will have to play out of their skin to chase down whatever Mumbai post in their 20 overs.

The other highlight of the day was the promotion of Harbhajan Singh in the batting order to one-down. It was the most successive creative move  in this season. In the end, Mumbai posted 187 – their highest total in the season. 

Kolkata inning started with a twin disaster. They lost the priceless wickets of Gayle and McCullum within the first 3 overs. That practically ended their hope of chasing down Mumbai’s mammoth total.

Sachin Tendulkar walked away with the  man of the match for his 68 runs off 45 balls with the help of 6 FOURs and 4 SIXs. 

Mumbai Indians x Deccan chargers

It was the clash of the front-runners. The toss was very important as chasing is a high-pressure job with these kinds of game. Pitch was batsmen friendly. Gilchrist won the toss and elects to bat first, earning an early advantage to his team.

I guess, the way to defeat this strong-looking Mumbai team is to get around 200 runs or more and remove Tendulkar and Jayasurya early enough so that opposition can insert enough pressure on the rest to choke them up.

The above-said theory is so hard to apply on a match day, but that really shows the strength of this Mumbai team.

Gilchrist and Gibbs gave Deccan a wonderful start. Gilchrist was particularly targeting the shorter boundary of the Durban ground. Gibbs was playing the supporting role. Gilchrist was getting ominous, but Bravo produced the succor delivery – wide enough so that Gilchrist had to reach out to make the shot – ending up… edging the ball to the hands of Wicket Keeper.

I thought VVS Laxman will follow the captain to the crease, but instead of VVS..Deccan opted for young Dwayne Smith. Smith had a big reputation for hitting hard, out of the ground. Smith played up to the expectation, playing a perfect foil for Gibbs. Gibbs played steady – taking singles that were available and hitting poor balls to and over the boundary.

Smith impressed me with his logical play and power hitting, but he over-played his aggression and got paid for it as Jayasurya, who was bowling over the wicket into the rough, bowled him.

What followed was a turning point in the match. Brainless cricket in my opinion. Rohit Sharma came in and instead of looking to settle in…tried to emulate Gibbs and gave a simple catch to fielder at the cover boundary. After Rohit, it was the time of VVS Laxman to show his brainlessness. He too was busy and played a silly aggressive shot, only to be caught in the midwicket boundary.

The biggest error of the Deccan inning was the RUNOUT of Gibbs. One can blame both Venugopal Rao and Gibbs for it. Venugopal was to blame for calling Gibbs into the run and Gibbs’ blame was not to cross over before Mumbai executed the RUNOUT.

From that point of RUNOUT, Mumbai came back strongly to limit Deccan to a score under 170. Malinga’s effort in the death overs was really tremendous. He was just unplayable. Deccan’s Indian domestic players even find it difficult to keep his balls out of their stumps…sometimes, getting trapped in front of the wickets. At the end of 20 overs, Deccan had to content with a score of 168, far shorter than their expectation of 200 at one point in the match.

Mumbai did not had a rocking start as expected. RP Singh striked early to remove Jayasurya. Duminy joined Tendulkar in the chase and both batted well to take Mumbai to a remarkable position at the Strategic Tim Out. Tendulkar was particularly looking good. Gilchrist’s main weapon – left arm spinner Ojha – was treated with a straight SIX in his first over by Tendulkar. Master was at play and it meant nothing but danger for the Deccans.

Once again, Strategic Time Out came to the help of the bowling team. Sachin Tendulkar, who was looking well settled before the STT, was suddently not getting his timing right. Ojha must have smelled the opportunity, and he laid the trap for the master and Tendulkar played right into that by giving a simple catch to Gibbs at the short midwicket position.

It was the REAL TURNING POINT of the match. With Tendulkar back in the pavilion, Deccan once again began to tight the screws on the rest of the Mumbai youngsters. Onus was on young Jean Paul Duminy to take Indians to the victory. The pressure was building. It was too much for the inexperienced batsmen at the crease, and they just fell apart.

Dawan, Duminy and Nayar played their shots as required rate shooted up and fell in the process.

In the end, it was up to Bravo and Harbhajan. Bravo had some caribbean-flavored shots but he was dispersed by his West Indian counterpart Fidel Edwards. In fact, the penultimate over by Fidel Edwards really turned the fate of a ‘close match’ to the Chargers side by just giving away 5 runs and taking the all important wicket of Bravo.

Indians were left with 6 balls and 22 runs from it (or 21 to push it towards a SUPER OVER)

RP Singh stepped up to bowl the final over. Zaheer took a single off the first ball. Harbhajan ’swirled’ a fine SIX over Gibbs at long-off to take Indians closer to their target of 22 for the over. Harbhajan repeated his swirl in the next ball, but towards leg side this time, only to be caught in the long-on boundary by Dwayne Smith. Zaheer, who crossed over before the catch was taken, charged RP in the next ball..but missed, resulting in no run. Match was over with Indians needing 13 from 2 balls….

The Man of the Match goes to Ojha, who churned the match on his head by removing Sachin Tendulkar.

Deccan Chargers are on a HIGH with winning their 3 games on a trot. I hope they keep their momentum and make big in this season. Really nice to see Adam Gilchrist working well with what he got to take his team from strength to strength.

He is a Lucky man from Kochi to get a signed ball from Adam Gilchrist.

Chennai Super Kings x Kolkata Knight Riders

Match got washed out. It is really unfortunate for both the teams.

It was a forgettable outing to Kolkata Knight Riders who opened last year IPL with Brendon McCullum’s blietzkreig but the captain departure on individual score of 1 saw Shahrukh Khan owned team bundled out on 101.

Deccan Chargers who eneded up being the worst IPL team previous year rode to victory on Hershelle Gibbs fine innings of 43*  which was equally supported by Rohit Sharma’s gritty 36*.

In an another rain affected match of IPL2 Punjab Kings xi lost to Delhi Dare Devil by 10 wickets.

Day 2 was very similar like day 1 with lots of rain and swinging and seaming conditions which pretty much doused the spirit of six hitting.

Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab
I have never seen such a short completed cricket match. The match hardly lasted 18 overs. Delhi captain Virender Sehwag should thank his luck as he won the toss and practically the match at the same moment. Sehwag also made some bold decisions in team selection by leaving behind experienced Glenn Mcgrath for DP Nannes.

Real surprise of the match came from virtually known player – Karan Goel.

His Six hitting ability and cool nature won many hearts today. Goel and Bopara gave Punjab a nice start but they could not continue with that momentum as Daniel Vettori puts the much needed breaks.

Vettori ended with the man-of-the-match award for his match figures of 3/15 in 3 overs. I always thought Vettori is the product of “survival of the fittest” theory in small grounds and batsmen-loving Pitches in New Zealand.

Punjab’s 104 was never going to be a threat for Delhi as Sehwag later revealed he expected Punjab to score more than 130 in their 12 overs.

Indian opening duo of Sehwag and Gambhir provided a stunning start to Delhi. They were helped by the rain which invited D/L method which when play resumed gave Delhi a target of 30 runs from 25 balls – a child’s game for Sehwag and Gambhir.

Deccan Chargers v Kolkata Knight Riders

Match started late, thanks to dimmed flood lights. Gilly, the new captain of Deccan, won the toss and elected to field first. Deccan pace bowlers backed their captain’s decision by getting the prized wickets of 3 of the most dangerous batsmen in the opposition early, pushing Kolkata into a chasm of 16/3.

Out came Aakash Chopra..who really did nothing good by keeping in-form Hodge away from strike.

Chopra’s misery was over when he was fooled by Pragyan Ojha’s flighted delivery, Gilly completing a cool stumping. Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s fate was also similar to that of Chopra, giving Gilly his second stumping of the day.

Only Hodge played to the potential for Kolkata, but his fine inning was cut short by a good catch by Gibbs off the bowling of Styris. A dual fielding acts by Rohit Sharma sent back Henriques and Agarkar. In the end, all Kolkata managed was a meagre total of 101.

The chase by Deccan was stimulating as Gilly and Gibbs entertained the crowd with some brisk shot making. Kolkata tried to come back into the game by taking back-to-back wickets of Gilly and Laxman. Kolkata’s phoenix act not going to see success as Gibbs and classy Rohit Sharma played sensibly to take Deccan to their first victory in the second season.

RP Singh walked away with the M-O-M award for his bowling effort of 4/24.

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West Indian Batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul bagged the ICC Player Of The Year. With this award, he is the fifth player to receive this prestigious award. He out did the other contenders in Greame Smith, Dale Steyn and Mahela Jayawardene.

South African Dale Steyn was awarded with the Test Player Of The Year. He was in a phenomenal form last year where he became the fastest to 50 test wickets. India’s ODI skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, was awarded the ICC ODI Player Of The Year. Even he has been in good touch steering his team home on many occations.

His deputy, Yuvraj Singh bagged the inaugral ICC T20 Player Of The Year for the six sixes that he hit in the T20 World Cup. The newest Spin Sensation, Ajantha Mendis ran away with the Emerging Player Of The Year Award for his splendid performance against the Indians. The Australian Umpire, Simon Taufel, got his fifth award as the Umpire Of The Year after being voted by all the Captains of the 10 member nations and the 8 match referees.

Sri Lanka received the award for Spirit Of Cricket for the second consecutive time for they have managed to behave very well on the field. English Skipper, Charlotte Edwards won the Women’s Player Of The Year after steering her team to a 4-0 win over the Indians. The ICC Test and ODI twelve have been announced and here is the list.

ICC Test Team of the Year : Greame Smith (SA, capt), Virender Sehwag (Ind), Mahela Jayawardene (SL), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Jacques Kallis (SA), Kumar Sangakkara (SL, wk), Brett Lee (Aus), Ryan Sidebottom (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL). 12th man: Stuart Clark (Aus).

ICC ODI Team of the Year : Hershelle Gibbs (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Ricky Ponting (Aus, capt), Younis Khan (Pak), Andrew Symonds (Aus), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind, wk), Farveez Maharoof (SL), Daniel Vettori (NZ), Brett Lee (Aus), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Nathan Bracken (Aus). 12th man: Salman Butt (Pak)

Yayyyy!!!!!!!!! Finally, WE WON!!! Many more to go guys…we can do it…The Unstoppa’bulls’!

My favorite team for IPL is Deccan Chargers. But in their last and previous match, they were unable to charge up the game.

I hope it all about the bad pitch out there.

I have so much of faith on players like Andrew Symonds,  Adam Gilchrist ,Hershelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Scott Styris, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Chaminda Vaas.

They can really charge up the game.

Ofcourse, we missed Hershelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi in the last game.

CHENNAI
Mathew Hayden                   1.5 c
Stephen Fleming                  1.4 c
Mahendra Singh Dhoni         6.0 c
Muttiah Muralidharan         2.4 c
Jacob Oram                        2.7 c
Parthiv Patel                      1.3 c
Albie Morkel                      2.7 c
Yoginger Sharma              0.9 c
Albie Morkel                     2.7 c
Chamara Silva                 0.4 c
Suresh Raina                   3.2 c
Mkaya Ntini                    0.8 c
M Hussey                        1.0 c

HYDRABAD
Adam Gilchrist         2.8 c
Andrew Symonds   5.3 c
Hershelle Gibbs       2.3 c
S Afridi                     2.7 c
VVS Laxman           1.5 c
Rohit Sharma         3.0 c
R. Zoysa                 0.44 c
C Vass                    0.8 c
RP Singh               3.5 c

DELHI
V Sehwag                  ICON PLAYER
D Vettori                   2.5 c
S Malik                      2.0 c
Mohammad Asif      2.6 c
A B Devilliers           1.2 c
D Karthik                  2.1 c
P Maharoof              0.9 c
T Dilshan                 1.0 c
G Gambhir              3.0 c
M Tiwari                 2.7 c
G Mcgrath              1.4 c

MUMBAI
S. Tendulkar            ICON PLAYER
Harbhajan Singh      3.5 c
S. Jayasurya            3.9 c
S Pollock                  2.2 c
R Uttappa               3.2 c
D Fernando            0.6 c
L. Malinga              1.4 c
S Chanderpaul
L Bosman              0.7 c

JAIPUR
Shane Warne            1.8 c
Greame Smith          1.9 c
Younis Khan             0.9 c
K Akmal                   0.6 c
Yousuf Pathan        1.9 c
M. Kaif                     2.7 c
M. Patel                   1.1 c

MOHALI
Yuvraj Singh                 ICON PLAYER
K Sangakkara               2.8 c
Mahela Jayawardena   1.9 c
Brett Lee                    3.6 c
S Sreesanth                2.5 c
Irfan Pathan              3.7 c
P Chawla                    1.6 c
R Powar                     0.68 c
R Sarwan                   0.9 c

BANGALORE 
Anil Kumble                 2.0 c
Rahul Dravid               ICON PLAYER
Jacques Kallis              3.6 c
Zaheer Khan               1.8 c
M Boucher                  1.8 c
C White                       2.0 c
W Jaffer                      0.6 c
Daryl Steyn                1.3 c
N Bracken                   1.3 c

KOLKATTA
S Ganguli                    ICON PLAYER
S Akhtar                    1.7 c
R Ponting                   1.6 c
B Mccullum                2.8 c
C Gayle                     3.2 c
A Agarkar                1.3 c
D Hussey                 2.5 c
U Gul                       0.6 c
M Karthik               1.8 c
Ishant Sharma       3.8 c
T Taibu                   0.5 c