Transcendence

Great pace bowling by Chennai reduced Punjab to 35/4, from which they never recovered and Chennai won by 9 wickets. Suresh Raina scored his second consecutive 50 in IPL and was involved in an unfinished 102 partnership with Parthiv Patel, the wicket-keeper, who scored 51 not out. Dhoni's game plan was superb. Murali bowled the first over and this sent a scare into the Punjab batting line, as they have a lot of left handers. They pushed Murali tentatively and then Ntini provided the breakthrough by removing Hopes with a superb outswinger. Gony, from the other end, removed Sangakara and Yuvraj and then Punjab was in dire straits, from which they never truly recovered. Now Chennai meet the formidable Rajastan Royals in Navi Mumbai today !

Mumbai scored 145/7, with Jayasuria 38 and Sachin,30. It was not a perfect batting track. Sohail Tanvir took 4/14 and became the hero of Royals. RR scored the required runs with five wickets to spare. Neeraj Patel ( 40 not out ) and Ravinder Jadeja 23 not out saw RR home.

19 runs were needed off the last over. The first ball was hit for six and the next ball for a four. The last ball came. Only one run was needed. It culminated in a run out and Punjab won by 1 run. The Little Master scored 65 and was run out. Mumbai was on top when Sachin was run out and then the collapse started. Five run outs and Mumbai had lost by one run ! Later, Yuvraj conceded that Sachin's wicket was the turning point !

Despite Misbah scoring 24 off the last over with 3 sixes, RC failed again. RC could only score 154 and DDD won by 5 wickets, with a six by Shikhar Dhawan Gambhir leads with 504 and R P Singh wears the Purple cap with 15 wickets. Gambhir & Sehwag were involved in a 90 run partnership and when the first wicket fell at 90, it was too late for Dravid's men.

Ntini's hatrick won the game for Chennai. He took 4 wickets. Ntini took 4/21 and wrecked the Kolkotta Knight Riders to 149. CSK were 55/0 in 8 overs when rain came. Chennai won by the D/ L method. In the other match, Deccan failed again. Considered the most powerful batting lineup in the world, Deccan crumbled ! RP Singh took 3/35 in restricting the Mumbai Indians to 178. But that was not enough as Bravo took 3/24 to restrict the Deccans to 153 !

Have you heard of a double hundred in T20? S Kulkarni scored a 200 in Singapore. RR triumphed again, despite Dravid's heroics of 75 not out with six sixes. In a powerful batting display, RR scored 194/1, with G Smith 75 n o, Asnodkar 50 and Shane Watson 46 no. RC was a devastated team and were soon 83/8 ! Dravid stood out, a cut above the rest and hammered six sixes and six fours ! Sehwag scored 51 no and Gambhir 40 in DDD's score of 118/4. Kings XI won the match 94/3, with Mahela scoring 36 off 17 balls, in a game limited by rain

Shaun Pollock took 3 early wickets and KKR were 21/3 ! Bravo, Raje & Thorney took 2 wickets each and KKR were all out for 67! Then Jayasuria excelled with 48 not out and Mumbai won with 8 wickets to spare ! Earlier the T20 was thought to be a batsman's game. "It is a batter's game" said Mark Boucher. McGrath contradicted him saying that it is a bowler's game. Who is right, nobody knows. Now the bowlers are coming to know how to bowl in T20s. Also to take early wickets. We find that the team who loses early wickets find it hard to build up a mammoth score. The early wickets lost puts pressure on the incoming batsmen. Two dot balls bring in pressure. So ideally a good start of 50 plus is needed for the opening wicket. 21/3 and the team seems to be finished ! And this is what happened yesterday. Pollock moved the ball in the air and off the wicket. So did Raje, Thornley and Bravo and what a good bowling performance it was. McGrath is proved by hatricks from Balaj