Performance in IPL 2008
Punjab started their campaign poorly, having lost to Chennai and Rajasthan but things in fell in place for them after that. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore were humbled as Punjab went from strength to strength, winning 5 games in a row.
Punjab lost only two more matches in the league stage - against Kolkata and Chennai. They entered the semi-finals as one of the favourites to lift the trophy after their consistent performance.
However, they were not able to beat their nemesis Chennai, to whom they had lost both their league games. Punjab were dismissed for 112 and Chennai chased down the total rather comfortably.
Who's in, who's out
Who's in? Punjab had a more or less settled team and their only big catch for this year was England all-rounder Ravi Bopara (USD 450,000). Punjab also signed New South Wales rookie Burt Cockley, a fast medium bowler.
Punjab had also bought Jerome Taylor (USD 150,000) at the auction but with the West-Indian quick not available after being injured in a car accident, the Mohali Team were quick to sign on Yusuf Abdulla, a left-arm fast bowler from Durban, who recently made his T20 debut for South Africa.
Who's out? As many as three Australians from Kings XI Punjab - Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh and James Hopes - have been named in Australia's squad for their series against Pakistan, meaning they will only be available for the second half of the tournament. Shaun Marsh was the leading run-scorer of the tournament last year and his presence will be sorely missed.
The bowling will be spearheaded by Irfan Pathan since S. Sreesanth has been ruled of the tournament with a stress fracture in his back.
Players to watch out for
Yuvraj Singh: Though Yuvraj Singh did not have a great series in New Zealand, his heroics in the T20 World Cup in South Africa should serve as a confidence-booster. It is only a matter of time before this stylish left-hander comes good.
Ravi Bopara: Ravi Bopara is one of the most exciting talents in England. He possesses all the strokes in the book and then more. A master of improvisation, he has scored heavily in T20 cricket. A useful medium-pacer, Bopara is also an agile fielder.
Irfan Pathan: Pathan has not enjoyed much success of late but helpful conditions in South Africa will aid his bowling. He will also be expected to play a major role with the bat.
Kumar Sangakkara: Sangakkara might not be the quintessential Tweny20 batsman but he scored his 320 runs at a healthy strike rate of 161 with his classical array of strokes. A master strategist, he is one of the most experienced players in the squad and is likely to feature in most games for his side.
Trivia
Irfan Pathan was one of only 3 bowlers who bowled two maiden overs in a match.
James Hopes became the 1st bowler to concede more than 50 runs in a 4-over spell.
Kings XI Punjab scored at an average run-rate of 9.05 in the tournament, the best among all teams.
Luke Pomersbach of Punjab ended up with the highest average in the IPL with an average of 152. He was helped by four not outs though.
Shaun Marsh of Punjab holds the record of scoring more 50 plus scores than any other player in the IPL with 1 hundred and 5 fifties.
Kumar Sangakkara was one of the three batsmen to have got out in the nineties in the IPL.
S Sreesanth is the bowler to have conceded the most extras in the IPL. He bowled 21 wides and 4 no balls.
Irfan Pathan is one of 2 players to have inflicted 2 run outs with direct hits in the IPL.
Kings XI Punjab batsmen hit a total of 95 sixes in the IPL, the most by any team.
Kings XI Punjab also conceded the most number of sixes with a total of 93.
Shaun Marsh happened to be the best buy in the IPL among the batsmen. At USD 30,000 he cost around $48 for every run.
Current Squad
Yuvraj Singh, Shaun Marsh (AUS), Mahela Jayawardene (SL), Simon Katich (AUS), Luke Pomersbach (AUS), Sunny Sohal, Karan Goel, Tanmay Srivastava, Sahil Kukreja, Yusuf Abdulla (SA), Ajitesh Argal, Ravi Bopara (ENG), Piyush Chawla, Burt Cockley (AUS), James Hopes (AUS), Uday Kaul, Brett Lee (AUS), Wilkin Mota, Ryan Ninan, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Kumar Sangakkara (SL), VRV Singh, Sreesanth, Jerome Taylor (WI)
Coaches
Head Coach: Tom Moody (AUS)
Assistant Head Coach: Trevor Penney (SA)
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Team Preview - Kings XI Punjab
Team Preview - Chennai Super Kings
After a good start, the team had a minor setback when players such as Hayden, Hussey and Oram had to leave to fulfill their international duties.
Eventually, the team adjusted by making up the batting gaps left by the Aussies with major contributions from Dhoni, Raina and Morkel. The bowling department was secured with the arrival of Ntini.
The team won 8 of their 14 league matches to set up a semi-final affair against the Kings XI Punjab.
Consistent bowling and steady partnerships at the top saw the Chennai team beat the Punjab side. Given a target of 119 to score, the Super Kings cruised to victory in less than 15 overs earning a ticket to the final game against the Rajasthan Royals.
In what turned out to be an exciting final, Chennai batted first and posted a competitive total of 163 on board. However, the Rajasthan team were upto the task and a last ball finish saw them pinch the trophy from Chennai.
Whos in, whos out
As a team without any iconic players, the Chennai team is full of promising youngsters rubbing shoulders with experienced war horses.
The Tamil Nadu batsman Murali Vijay has been included into the team, following his Test debut last year. Sudeep Tyagi joins him after missing out on the 2008 season because of an injury
Chennai only bought three players at this year's auction. Apart from Thilan Thushara (USD 120,000) from Sri Lanka and George Bailey from Australia (USD 50,000) the Super Kings ensured that the Andrew Flintoff entered the Dhoni-led team as they spent a staggering $ 1.55 million to acquire the English all-rounder. This price puts Flintoff along with Pietersen as the highest paid IPL cricketers.
Who's out
Chennai Super Kings will be without Michael Hussey this time around after the Australian pulled out of the IPL due to exhaustion. Hussey, however, will be available for the knock-out stage should Chennai qualify.
Kiwi all-rounder Jacob Oram who was a doubtful starter has deemed himself fit and is currently with the team in South Africa.
Players to watch out for
MS Dhoni: He had a magical beginning as a captain with the Indian cricket team. Knowing the methods to get the best from his players, Dhoni would look at securing the IPL title which slipped from his fingers during the first season.
Albie Morkel: Albie Morkel has become an integral part of South Africa's team and for good reason. Morkel is a brilliant all-rounder who is capable of hitting big sixes and a wily customer with the ball. Batting in the lower middle order, Morkel is more than capable of turning the game around and would be difficult to control in conditions he is so familiar with.
Mathew Hayden: The Australian opener might have retired from international cricket after an incredible career but his stats in the first edition of the IPL are as intimidating as his bulky frame. Capable of unleashing some brutal strokes, Hayden got Chennai off to great starts last season and he is sure to be a big part of Chennai's plans with him being available for the entire duration of the tournament.
Manpreet Gony: Gony had a successful outing during the 2008 season, impressing the selectors with his tight line and sharp bounce. However, his performances at the international level were not quite up to the mark. He would be eager to put up a good show in South Africa to ensure that he is given another go at the highest level.
Trivia
L Balaji was the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the IPL.
Suresh Raina holds the record for the most catches in IPL 2008 with 10 catches. A total of 410 catches were taken in the tournament.
Chennai Superkings holds the record for posting the highest total. They scored 240/5 against Punjab in their opening game.
Albie Morkel holds the record for hitting the biggest six in the DLF Indian Premier League - 128 metres
Parthiv Patel was the only batsmen to have been dismissed on the first ball of the innings in the match between Chennai and Rajasthan.
Chennai Super Kings hit the most number of sixes in an innings in the IPL. They did this in the match against Punjab by hitting 16 sixes.
Manpreet Gony of the Chennai Super Kings bowled 3 maiden overs in the IPL. No one managed to bowl more maiden overs than him.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the unluckiest captain, winning just 5 tosses in 16 matches that he played in the IPL.
Current Squad
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Matthew Hayden (AUS), Suresh Raina, Michael Hussey (AUS), Anirudha Srikkanth, Subramaniam Badrinath, George Bailey (AUS), Arun Karthik, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, Andrew Flintoff (ENG), Jacob Oram (NZ), Albie Morkel (RSA), Parthiv Patel, Shadab Jakati, Viraj Kadbe, Suresh Kumar, Napolean Einstein, Muralitharan (SRI), Joginder Sharma, Makhaya Ntini (RSA), Thilan Thushara (SRI), Ravichandran Aswhin, Manpreet Gony, Laxmipathy Balaji, Palani Amarnath, Sudeep Tyagi
Stephen Fleming - Coach
Venkatesh Prasad - Bowling Coach
Kings XI leaves behind Rand 4,50,000
A South African businessman returned Rand 450,000 to Kings XI Punjab on recovering it in one of the hotel rooms.
In a good samaritan act, He returned the amount he recovered in one of the hotel rooms the IPL team occupied.
According to a report in 'The Times', Stephen Blewett, the chief of Altech Autopage Cellular, found a bundle of Rand 4,50,000 (nearly Rs 2.5 million) cash in his hotel room which later turned out to be Kings XI Punjab's.
Blewett discovered the money in Rand 100 notes in his hotel room's safe on Tuesday night after which he reported the matter to the hotel authorities.
It later emerged that Kings XI had left the money, which was their allowances for food, drinks and other expenses, in that room as they had been using it for team meetings ahead of their IPL campaign.
"It is not common for us to carry that amount of money but we have a lot of costs and the money was not yet distributed to the players," the team's liaison officer Arvinder Singh.
Foreign players will boost KKR
With more foreign players available in second season, KKR owner Shah Rukh Khan feels his team will be more competitive this time.
The Kolkata franchisee made a blistering start last year but could not continue the momentum after some foreign players left for their national duty, which eventually led to their sixth place finish in the inaugural IPL.
This year also Australia skipper Ricky Ponting decided to skip the Twenty20 event and preferred to take rest in the wake of the forthcoming Ashes series but Shah Rukh feels the availability of other international players will boost Knight Riders' chances of a better finish.
"We have the whole team"
"Internationally, I think the players will be more available, so we have the whole team to begin with," Shah Rukh told a press conference after arriving here.
"We'll have Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum, and then David Hussey will join us when Gayle has to leave. Brad Hodge is here, and so is Sourav Ganguly. Everyone has been practising over the past 10 days.
"We are working on amazing plans, including the captaincy issue, which has been a controversy over the past month. I think overall we are very well prepared.
"Unfortunately, we do have injuries but we'll be there, one hundred per cent trying to do much better than last year," he said.
With many English players debuting in the Twenty20 extravaganza this time, one would expect the Kolkata franchisee to have some of them but Shah Rukh said they are too expensive and beyond KKR's reach.
"We have gold and black as a uniform, but the gold is not real," Shah Rukh quipped.
"We are a poor team and English players are very, very expensive. We would really like to have had them, but the auction rules and it's down to how much money you have."
The Bollywood superstar said they are planning to woo the youngsters as public image is very important for the team.
"I don't know about cricket but we are coolest-looking team," he said.
IPL gets underway with grand parade
IPL got off to a rousing start on Thursday with some of the best cricketers and Bollywood actors lending sheen to the gala event.
Two days before the actual action gets underway, IPL got off to a start.
Colourful tableaux of eight IPL franchisees passed the city centre with fans lining up either side of the roads to get a glimpse of the cricket and entertainment glitterati who converged here for the 59-match carnival starting on Saturday.
"It was a huge challenge"
Having arranged the logistics in just three weeks' time after the event was shifted out of India, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said he was happy to have overcome the challenge.
"It was a huge challenge but we turned it into an opportunity. The South African government and the cricket board went out of their way to help us and made it a national event," a beaming Modi said.
"We got approvals in minutes, not even in hours. Everything went extremely smooth and it's amazing to put everything in place in such a short time," he said.
Celebrity team owners Shah Rukh Khan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Preity Zinta (King's XI Punjab) and Shilpa Shetty (Rajasthan Royals) raised the glamour quotient of the carnival while the players seemed thoroughly impressed.
Delhi Daredevils' new recruit David Warner was amazed by the reception and the explosive Australian said he could not wait to get going.
"It's an amazing city with amazing people. This is completely unbelievable.
"For me, this is a golden opportunity to play with people I looked up to and I can't wait for it to start," he said.
Rhodes excited about IPL
Former South African Test player Jonty Rhodes, now a fielding coach with Mumbai Indians, said the entire country was looking forward to the event.
"As a South African, I'm really excited that IPL is taking place here. A great deal has been happening in the country and we all are looking forward to it," he said.
Mumbai Indian pacer Zaheer Khan too shared his enthusiasm and said, "I can sense there is a lot of excitement here and it's always great to play in a different country."
Sourav Ganguly, who led Kolkata Knight Riders last year, said it would be difficult to match last year's frenzy but felt people would come in large numbers to watch the matches.
"It would have been altogether different had it been in India but I think people will come in good numbers for one month of entertaining cricket," said the former India captain.
We'll play well, says Ganguly
Asked what fans can expect from the Knight Riders, Ganguly said, "We'll play well and try our best to entertain the Indian and South African fans."
Retired Australian Adam Gilchrist, who led Deccan Chargers for major part of last year's event, was also impressed by the huge response and promised a better display this time.
"We were clearly not at our best last year but we learnt from it. This year, we have brought some enthusiastic youngsters and all are eager to do well here," he said.
"South Africa has always been the perfect host and this is yet another opportunity for them to host a world class event," Gilchrist observed.
