Saturday, May 3, 2008

Yuvraj Enjoys his Captaincy:


NO BIRTHDAY GIFT FOR CAPTAIN SACHIN FROM THE TEAM - once again failing miserably .
The tenth Indian Premier League match between Mumbai Indians and Punjab XI was not really a twenty20 calibre match . Some good catches - Bravo taking Yuvraj and Yuvraj reciprocating by taking a brilliant Pollock catch . Despite this there were no real fireworks . Sangakkara of the Punjab Xi was the only one who played a decent innings in the whole match ( 94 off 56 with one six ) . This makes Sangakkara the top scorer in the Indian Premier League tournament so far .
Some one commented that if you push the Punjabi's into a corner ( they had lost both the matches they palyed ) they will fight back - To me this win by Punjab XI was more like Mumbai Indians playing way below par and letting Punjab XI win . Jayasurya ( is he getting tired ) played like he was playing a different format - 1 run off 7 balls ! Disgraceful - for a player of his standing. You then had the tail enders of Mumbai Indians playing as if they were there to play for a draw - Kulkarni getting 2 runs off 16 balls and Nehra getting 2 runs off 10 balls . Don't they know that they are playing IPL Twenty 20 ? It would have been better if they had got out blasting away ( or at least trying ) rather than the pathetic performance . Navjot Singh Siddhu commented that it was like the cat ( Punjab XI ) playing with the mouse ( Mumbai Indians ) after the mouse was already dead - it was more like the owner of the cat letting him play with the dead mouse rather than the cat's choice - otherwise Punjab Xi would have got the last two batsmen out by 18 overs showing their superiority - which they couldn't .
Has Mukesh Ambani made a wrong investment - Can Tendulkar pull the team out from the duldrum ?
King's Xi Punjab have to improve a lot before they can be considered a team in par with the likes of Kolkata Dare Devils . On the whole this match between King's XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians was probably the least entertaing ( despite the presence of Preity Zinta ) so for in the Indian Premier League tournament.
Incidentally the scores were : Kings XI Punjab - 182 for 9 and Mumbai Indians 116 for 9 . At least the tail enders got to bat - was that the plan ? Good job the cheer leaders were not banned !

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