The Daredevils have dropped from #1 to # 4 out of seven games they have won 4 games, they have lost a few close games and despite posting decent scores on the board are struggling to close the matches, they are missing the fifth bowler, the duo of Shoaib Malik and Sehwag is too easy to score off, Asif is also struggling to stop the runs, in the next game we might see Mahroof coming in place of Malik. The Dare devils are one of the most balanced teams their batting is consistently scoring, they only need to strengthen their bowling. Sehwag also made a critical mistake of bowling out his strike bowlers first, he should have used Malik’s overs or his own in the middle of the innings.
The Rajasthan Royals have been a big surprise for everybody in this tournament, everybody completely wrote them off before the tournament and they have proved everybody wrong, from underdogs they have become the team to beat in the tournament, Shane warne’s leadership has been exceptional, his performance against Deccan chargers was exceptional and inspiring for his team mates and set the tone for the rest of the matches, this is the cheapest IPL team and the franchise mangement didn’t went after high price big name players, in fact they very intelligently selected a bunch of very talented cricketers the addition of Tanvir and Smith have made their combination lethal, their batting mainly depends on Smith and Watson these two players will have to score consistently if the Royals have to fancy their chances for the semis.
After a dismal start the Punjab Kings have moved to #1, probably the hugs by Preity Zinta have done the miracle, the slap by Harbhajan has completely transformed Sreeshanth as a bowler, he should be thankful to Bhaji and maybe he should set up an appointment for the next tune up.
Jokes apart this team is the strongest team in IPL, their batting was not clicking in the first few matches but the induction of SE Marsh have brought stability to their batting, Yuvraj has been uninspiring so far, he has not fired as a batsman, his handling of the bowlers is also not up to the mark, he will have to lift up his game and leadership if he wants to stay at top.
Abdul:
I never blocked your access so I don’t know what you are talking about as far as email is concerned I do not give away my email, you can communicate with me through the blog.
As I predicted the Deccan Chargers benched Afridi and Dehli benced Asif and Malik,but Rajasthan benched Tanvir which was a complete surprise for everbody, he will for sure be back in the next match as Dimitri played his last match and is leaving for England.
Afridi was dropped because of his boneheaded shot against the Rajasthan royals but the move to drop proved to be a costly mistake as his replacement Vaas gave away 36 runs in his 3 overs and only took 1 wicket Afridi had been quite economical in the 7 games he played,the chargers should play him just as a bowler they do not have his replacement.
Delhi paid the price of dumping Malik and Asif, Asif’s replacement Mahroof performed well but Delhi for sure would have been better off with Shoaib Malik instead of Dilshan, Malik never got any reasonable opportunity to showcase his batting and Sehwag never used him intelligently as far as his bowling is concerned.
In todays match Delhi lost because of their poor feilding and running between the wickets Dhivan their in form batsman got run out early and their batting never recovered, Watson was dropped twice and Smith was also dropped, after losing todays game delhi has dropped to #5 on the points table.
The kolkata Knight riders won their match against the chargers quite comfortably, they scored 204 batting first, Ganguly scored 91 and in the end this total proved too much for the Chargers who look miserable after Gilchrist gets out.
The tournament has become interesting as Kolkata and Delhi will now be fighting for the fourth Spot.
Hi Wasim it’s been a long time since I’ve visited the site and may I ask why I’ve been denied access to cricketfiles.
I can see that you’ve enjoyed watching the IPl but, unfortunately I haven’t been able to keep up to date with the action as it’s busy times for me now days and also on the weekend I play cricket.
Never the less I’ve from the little I’ve watched the cricket has been extremely entertaing and the competetion has been high in almost every encounter.There have been some great individual performances from Mcculum ,Symonds and Tanvir.
from the beggining it looked as if KOLKOTA will win with ease but now they have lost major players due to international cricket and form this moment in time I am backinh Jaipur or Delhi teams with plenty of stars.
Before this tournamnet I enjoyed watching the Icl and especially the Lahore Badhads.WOW what a dream team they were and how dissapointing they lost to Hyderbad Heroes in the grand final.
Anyway nice to be back on cricketfiles and please email me or give me your email adress.
Salaam – Abdul
BTW can any body tell me what the hell happened to Pakistani players why are they looking so pathetic, Afridi,Misbah,Malik
Hafeez,Gul, and Akmal all of them are looking ordinary and most of them have been sidelined by their espective coaches, is it a sign for PCB to make some changes.
Only Tanvir and Asif have performed well for their team in a few matches,Misbah and Malik never got any real chance to showcase their skills, Hafeez started off well but after that he struggled and lost his place, Kamran Akmal although performed well behind the stumps but failed with the bat,Umar gul still looks out of form, Afridi what the hell happened to his bowling? He has put on some weight, his shots are not their, he is a clean hitter of the ball and I have never seen him missing so many times.
I hope these guys perform well in the next matches to give something to cheer to their fans back home.
Zamir
I agree Chargers and Challengers are almost out of the race for semis,I am really disappointed with the Chargers they were a perfect team for T20, I think all the franchisees learned a very important lesson, you don’t need an all star team to win matches in this format even a B grade team can beat an all star team if one or two players play well,consistency and combination are the key factors.
Rohit Sharma failed to revive the Chargers innings this time after a collapse prompted by some irresponsible batting display by Afridi, I wonder does he ever plays for his team because he never plays according to the situation and attempts his suicidal shots from the second ball he faces, the guy has no sense of duty or job commitment, I think he has completely embarrassed himself after todays game.
The chargers bowling is toothless and their batting is spineless, with the exception of Gilly and Sharma no body has scored consistently. I think they are done.
The shameless brand of cricket from Shahid Afridi continues, the guy has no match awareness no remorse for the shots he plays and I suspect he just played the last match in this season of IPL.
His team was in Good position and he had a perfect launching pad, but he got out to a horrendous shot he was no where near the ball and it was just a tulla shot reminiscent of an amateur player playing on the streets.
The Deccan Chargers failed to recognize the risk associated with Afridi now they must be regreting,
but they are themselves to be blamed for picking a player who hasn’t learned even after playing 200+
odi games.
Out of the Pakistani batsmen playing Afridi got the most chances, Malik and Misbah also failed but both of them come to late down the order when only an over or two are left, and Misbah is consistently being ignored, it seems he has become a victim of Dravid’s ego who was quick to side line him again after two failures just too prove his point to the management.