World T20 Favourite

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The world cup T20 will start in less then 24 hrs and the discussion is hot now who will won the cup. This format is so unpredictable that its very difficult to predict or come out with calculation which will say, X team is more likely to win the cuppa. But since we are human we used to predict who will win. I am going to do the same. As a Indian i always want India not only win the Cup but win convincingly.

But facts says in a different way. I feel New Zealand is the team who has the upper hand comparing the other teams. The biggest thing supporting them is they always do well in big tournaments. They have the best all rounder team. They have the freshest of the players in the team since they are not playing competitive cricket for sometime. But since their domestic season is almost over they have the match practice. Some of them have played in the IPL and they have done decently.

Batting is really strong with Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder and the explosive Branden McCullum. They have experience in batting with Styris and Vettori. Taylor, Ryder and McCullum can make any bowling ordinary and are match winners on their day. Most important thing is all of them are very much consistent as well. The biggest plus is they bat till no-9 which means they can win match from no where. 

Bowling has variety with Bond providing the fire power and vettory the best left arm spinner in world. They have pretty useful bowlers in the name of Miles, Butler and Nathan McCullum. Since the team is full of useful all rounders the captain has lots of option for bowling. 

Fielding is the best asset they have. Probably the most athletic fielding unit in the world cup. They always save more then 20 runs by good fielding. The discussion is incomplete without mentioning about Jacob Oram and Jasse Ryder. Both are very useful all rounders can hit long distances at will and their slow medium pace will be very handy in the slow pitches of Windies.

Normally they pickup slowly in the tournaments and in this tournament they have 2 such matches to get the momentum going. Everything is favouring the NZ side to win this cup. lets see.

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IPL-3 Dream-XI and other stats

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Some of the names pick themselves into the dream eleven of IPL-3. So the list is not going to throw any surprise. I think BCCI should think of arranging a match between IPL dream XI and T20 World cup winner. Here is the eleven. Sachin Tendulkar, Kallis, Raina, Dhoni (C/ WK), Kieron Pollard, Andrew Symonds ,Ambati Rayudu, Kumble, Dougy Bollinger, Pragyan Ojha, Lasith Mallinga,

I am little biasd by not taking Uthappa since i like more Rayudu just because of his consistency and hard hitting capability though Uthappa is more famous in this IPL-3 then Rayudu.

Best Young Batsman - Rayudu, Saurav Tiwari, Suman, Murali Vijay, Manish Singh, Kedar Jadhav
Best Young Bowler- Ashwin, Dinda, Harmeet Singh, Umesh Yadav
Unexpected hero -Umesh Yadav, Murali vijay, R Ashwin(As opening bowler)
Big Flop- Dilshan, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, Kemar Roach,
The Big 5 keeps of IPL-3 - Sachins consistency and heroics, Praveen Kumars hatrick, David Hussy's catch, Heydos mongoose, change of Fortune of CSK.

One thing will remain in mind for long time is the Pollard factor. he can change any game from any position. he is a complete package of  stunning fielding, more then useful bowling and the hradest hitter of the ball cricket has even seen.
Though i want to see MI winning the cup but happy that Dhoni back to his usual self as a calm captain under pressure which was missing in the initial stage. Better luck next time Sachin.

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IPL- 3 Final, Clash of Titans

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MI Vs CSK. On paper equally matched team but if you see the momentum then MI is way ahead. But with the Captain might not be there for the final the team might loose the steam and inspiration. Cracker of a match is underway. Both the teams are mentally strong and have nerves of steel. Both have the capacity to pull off a victory from nowhere.
Both are having the openers problem. Having one of the openers are in best of the form. No-3 for both the teams playing well. No4 is a little inconsistent for CSK then MI. But last 2 matches CSK has won bcoz of NO-4. No5 both the teams are having the biggest of hitters in the name of Pollard and Morkel. NO-6 is little concern for both the teams. CSK's indian talents are not doing well apart from Raina and Vijay. Where as MI is shining bcoz of indian talents. Bowling CSK is haing a upper hand bcoz of Bollingers wicket taking capabilities. But then no other fast bowlers are doing well. Whereas for MI both Zaheer and Mallinga are doing well but its the bowling of Pollardin middle overs which is sealling the match for MI with good support from Harbhajan and the 6th bowler. Bowling of CSK is there strong point. Specially the change of role of Ashwin as a opening bowler has change the complexion site. He is hugely successful as a opening bowler and later on Jakarti and Murali. especially Jakarti is more then a support bowler. Murali doesnt need any intro.
This discussion will be incomplete without mentioning heroics of Rayudu and Tiwary if they play the way they have been till now then MI will not miss Tendulkar.

CSK will be hoping Tendulkar miss the match. Even if MI miss Sachin they have enough fire power to beat CSK. Specially because of Tiwari,Rayudu and Pollard. CSK must look at contain these 3. MI must be trying to contain Vijay,Raina and Dhoni. Mi has to be very carefull against Bollinger who has a nack of making the initial inroads into the opposition side. If the MI able see through the initial over then they can do really well even if Sachin is not there. So a cracker of a match is underway.. Hope the IPL row doesnt affect the biggest of the finals.

1st Semi Final @ IPL-3

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MI Vs RCB, two of the best teams of IPL-3. Where RCB will be depending on their star studded batting line up with a strong opening bowler in Steyn and the most economical bowler of the tournament Kumble, MI is mostly a one man show till now.
MI's success this year is mainly because of their captain Tendulkar. All his moves on the fields are seems to be right and all the team changes gave him positive result. I dont think he has used his plan-B till now in any of the matches. And he is in form of his life. What a consistency with bat, i never seen a indian batting with this consistency. he is averaging more then 50 in 20 over game with a strike rate more then 133. Pollard is getting into groove and scoring the fast 20's in almost all the matches with his slow medium pace is pretty economical as well. Rayudu and Tiwari are doing good in the middle overs. The lower middle order is a bit of concern for MI. If RCB able to take Sachin's wicket early then 50% of the match they won. Since the last 3-4 matches MI played with different team combination, the winning combo is broke and the last match they lost so their mental might be little down.
As i always mention RCB is the most dangerous team in IPL-3 just because of their batting depth and strength. Kallis is giving close contest to Sachin for the orange cap with an average of 50+ with strike rate of 135+. Uthappa looking the cricket ball as a football and even the most successful bowlers are looking ordinary in front of him. Ross Taylor is the most destructive T20 batsman i have seen. Any moment he can switch gear and started hitting sixes. Pitersen doesn't need any introduction. Dravid can handle one end with brisk run rate. Bowling looks very good with Kumble and Steyn. Though the other 12 overs looks little weak link in RCB side which MI likes to cash in. The inconsistency is another major factor for RCB but the biggest concern i think will be their average performance under pressure. Team is more depending on Uthappa to score big and Kumble to stop the opposition.
A kin contenst is in store. Hope both the teams have nerves of steel to take the match till the last ball.

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An Evening Without IPL

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As usual once I reach home from office at 8pm I switched on the TV for a IPL match and surprise to see some other program running. And then i realized that the league matches are over and today is a gap before the big matches coming up. Suddenly i thought what shall i see now. I mean there is nothing to see. I browse through all the sports channel didn't find anything interesting.
Since i am basically a sports loving person, hardly see any thing in TV apart from news. Searched for all the news channels for any news on IPL. but those are max 30 min program. IPL is such a exciting, fun filled and entertaining program that hardly anything on the TV matches with that. It was so boring after surfing all the channels for 30 min that i switched off the tv.
I am just thinking how will be the life after Final on Saturday without the 8PM block busters. But there is something to cheer about since the World T20 is coming up just after 4 days of IPL completed. Since its in WestIndies and there is a time lag of around 7.5 hrs. So mostly matches will start at very late night and it will be a challenge to see those matches. Waiting for the big party in Windies..

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Semi Final Match-up @ IPL-3

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Over the weekend we got the other 3 semi finalist for IPL-3. 3 matches and 3 semi finalists identified. what a keen contest it was through out the competition. it took the entire league matches  to be completed to identify all the semi finalists unlike other version of IPL where the semi finalist were identified by the 3/4th of the league stage and it was easily guessable who will be the semi finalists by half of the league stage.
MI will face RCB ,the most dangerous team of this IPL because of the very strong star studded batting line-up. RCB used to play with 7 batesman and all of them are capable of changing match in their own on their day. Bowling headed by Kumble and Steyn is not a concern at all. Vinay kumar got the T20 India nod mostly based on this years IPL performance. So lots of +ve for the RCB before the semi finals. Whereas MI which is mostly a one man army till last week, showed some good performance as a team in last 2 matches. Still batting revolves around Sachin Tendulkar who is a big match player, so can expect the piercing cover and straight drives in the semi final with Pollard who is coming to his own self blasting anything and everything out of ropes. Needs a special mention about Ambati Rayudu once considered as Jr Sachin in Andhra cricket is going through a purple patch. Look at his shots all are good cricketing shots. Sachin will not mind if Rayudu is being campared with him. Bowling is not a concern for MI since they are very good as a unit.MI also have the benefit of playing infront of home crowd. So can expect a cracker of the match provided both the teams have strong mental and nerves of steel.

DC with CSK ideal match since each player of one side has a corresponding player matching in the other side. Both the teams are patchy in the league stage. Both the teams have huge hitters in the line-up but successful in patches only. Rohit Sharma and Raina are the only 2 players have shown some consistency otherwise who will play well on a given day God only knows. Both the team has good captains but has done average this year. As far as bowling is concern nobody had bowl consistently for any of the team. Though DC have upper hand with Pragyan Ojha in their rank. Both the team are god fieling units. Lets see whether it will be Murali Vijay or Adam Gilchrist who will rock the first 6 overs.
So good semi finals are waiting. it will be like 4 hrs of Mega block busters telecast live with light and without action and cut.

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Indian Chances in WorldT20 2010

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Look at the Indian players in this year IPL and you can guess what to expect from them in WorldT20 coming late April. Lets start from opening pair for batting. Sehwag is going through no form basically, Gambhir is scoring pea nuts. Yuvraj Singh when last he scored 20+ probably he didn't remember. Dhoni is a big failure in this edition of IPL both as a player and a captain. Yusuf Pathan is basically a gamble, no doubt he is a match winner in T20 format but cant expect consistency from him. Ravinder Jadeja hasnt played cricket off late so cant say much about him. Dinesh Karthik another failure in this year IPL. Rohit Sharma has done reasonably well for DC but not expecting him to be a part of playing 11straight way since bigger names are present in the team. Raina is the only hope for Indians as far as batting is concern.
Bowling is looking good with Zaheer is in good form bowling almost 10 dot balls per match which is good i believe in this format. Nehra though started late in this years IPL but doing well. Bhajji is fine in patches. Praveen kumar not getting opportunity in RCB itself i don't know how he will claim his berth in playing 11. Vinay kumar one of the highest wicket takers in IPL3 is having a excellent slow ball. Chawala dont know on what basis has been selected but has done well in patches. India is missing a All rounder who can bowl medium pace.
Since its a batsman's game and all the big hitters are in no form, expecting them to win rather reaching semi final of T20 world cup will be like hurting yourself. Lets see.. only time will tell..

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