Bottom To Top & From Top To Bottom

Well when the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League started,the Kolkata Knight Riders started it all with a bang by beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by a whooping 140 runs-which is till the highest margin of victory for any team against any opposition.But,the victory streak was limited it looks.Because,after winning the forst two matches,the Kolkata Knight Riders had nothing at their end but defeat.Likewise on the other hand,the Kings XI Punjab has had a steady progress as they were found to win the rest of the games with much ease compared to the way they lost their opening encounter against Rajasthan Royals-which is famous for the Sreesanth-Harbhajan incident.

And if there was Yousuf Pathan for the Royal Challengers making news for all the good reasons,his younger brother Irfan is not too far behind as even this man was found to put up an all round performance by capturing two crucial wickets and scoring 24 runs (lets not take into account the strike rate).And much to my surprise,it was unimaginable to see Piyush Chawla belt the ball like an Indian Shahid Afridi.The tail end batsman scored a 7 ball 21 at a strike rate of 300 which included 3 hits to the fence and one huge six.

And the match was such a close encounter that it kept the audience always guessing out there for every ball that was bowled.The Kolkata Kinght Riders captain was once again a great flop as he could only manage to come out of a duck and get struck at 5.Atleast some blistering knock of 71 saw some face saving work for the Kolkata Knight Riders.And after a series of losses,it looks like the Kolkata knight riders are going the Royal Challengers and the Deccan Chargers way.

Which Format of Cricket Were the Mumbai Indians Playing?

More Money,more disappointment?

Hmm..with Mumbai being one of the four metropolitan cities in India,one difference if someone asks me is this..With the rest of the metropolitan cities namely Delhi Daredevils,Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Superkings being in a dominant position from the beginning of this tournament,the Mumbai Indians (sad to say) have so far just made a mess of their game.

Boasting of having an icon player in Sachin Tendulkar-who is still yet to turn up for his team and even if he does,god knows what would he be upto..And then the great Sanath Jayasuriya who has a record in ducks when it comes to the ODIs,also a responsible batsman for Sri Lanka.Some hopes of the Mumbai Indians that one can see is that of Harbhajan Singh and Shaun Pollock.It would be nice if these two are made to handle the entire 20 overs slot.

At the end of the Mumbai Indians' innings,the run rate read 5.8.Something rare in the present one day internationals also.And a common gesture in tests involving Australia against Bangladesh & West Indies.And Sanath Jayasuriya's score reading "1 run from 7 balls at a strike rate of 14.28".Then we have Robin Uttappa who has so far recorded two scores above 40.But,at a strike rate of just above hundred,when the series has witnessed strike average rates of 150+,and some of them crossing even the 200 mark.

A less experienced like Piyush Chawla picking up 2/16 from 4 overs.Khote's hit wicket-which is a rare manner of getting out.With teams like Mumbai Indians getting filtered so easily,it looks the multi million dollar Indian Premier League is becoming more and more predictable.