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Deccan Chargers were put into bat, they continued with their experimentation with their line up, Afridi was dropped after a dismal performance and Gibbs came in to open in place of Afridi, the move paid off as Gilly and Gibbs gave the chargers their best start in the tournament, too bad it was too late, in 11 0vers they scored 79/0 and lost the first wickets Gibbs on the first ball of 12th over, he scored 44 off 34 balls, Gilly scored 50 off 42 balls a bit slower by his standards, but the highlight of their opening partnership was that they were not taking any un due risks they eliminated the high risk shots and just played the normal shots and eliminated the risk, in fact Gilly got out soon after completing his 50 trying to sweep against the spin the first poor shot he played and paid the price.

After his departure Rohit Sharma took Charge and scored a whirlwind 50 off just 27 balls, this guy has an ice cool temperament and should  get a permanent place in India’s national team, The chargers probably scored 10 or 15 scores less than their target as Sharma also got out after completing his 50 trying to pull a Misbah on RV Singh but the later bowled a faster yorker on the legs stump and send Sharma back. Again Sharma played a high risk shot and paid the price their was no need for it. The final Score was 175 in 20 overs.

The Kings XI got Sangakara back, he came to open with the inform SE Marsh and both made their intentions clear  from the beginning RP Singh’s first over costed 14 runs, both of them played some high class shots all around the wicket, and took their team to 50 in 3.5 overs the fastest in the tournament, again the highlight of the batting was no High risk shots were played, these two have a wide range of shots and they just kept on playing proper shots and only hit the balls which were in the slot, the bowling was also below par, all the bowlers were bowling either too up or too short, there was no consistent line and length.

Most of the Indian frontline bowlers are on top of the bowling charts with the highest # of wickets only because they have played more matches, their econ rate is above 8 and their average is in the range of 20-24. It was fuuny to hear that RP was the proud holder of the purple cap, he has recieved so much drubbing in this tournament that after every spell the color of his face becomes purple he doesn’t need a purple cap he has already turned purple.

The target of 176 was comfortablly achieved in the end, Kings XI made sure that they win this dead rubber it was absolutely essential to maintain the momentum losing creates doubts and exposes weaknesses. They have a very strong batting line up, but I am not impressed by their bowling and fielding they give away too many runs they dropped too many easy catches, any good team will not give them a second chance.

The final round of IPL league matches is almost over, the tournament was a major success, cricket fans all over the world had plenty to cheer about their respective heroes but not so much for Pakistani Cricket fans.

10 Pakistani players featured in the tournament, but with the exception of Sohail Tanvir no body was able to perform consistently, ironically he is the most inexperienced of all the Pakistani players but while his senior team mates including the captain were warming the bench of their respective teams, Sohail Tanvir gave match after match winning performances.

He has played 9 matches and has taken 21 wickets @ 5.95 with an ave of 10. He is topping the bowling charts in all categories he has  taken the highest # of wickets, he has the best bowling figures in a single match, his bowling  ave of 10 is also the best, his econ rate 5.95 is only second to thornely who has bowled only 7 overs in the tournament. Sohail Tanvir has been the X factor for the Rajasthan Royals, In this tournament he is bowling like his hero Wasim Akram and has overcome his erratic line and now can swing the ball both ways. His senior Pakistani team mates after failing consistently have been warming the bench, the only other Pakistan player who has played 9 matches is Afridi who is averaging 11 with the bat and has taken 9 wickets in the tournament @ 7.62 with an average of 22.88. His team benched him after his failure with both bat and ball, he had only two good games as a bowler, he probably  disapointment the Pakistani cricket fans the most.

Mohammed Hafeez played 8 matches for Kolkata Knight Riders after playing two good games in which Kolkata won he consistently failed with the bat and was not much used as a bowler  there after.In 8 matches he scored a mere 64 runs a pathetic performance by a technically incorrect player. He is still holding the record of bowling the most economical spell in IPL in which he gave away only 8 runs in 4 overs against the Deccan Chargers.In an effort to defend his poor performance he made a statement that the senior players in Pakistan team who are selected automatically selected didn’t performed any better than him.

Shoaib Malik played 7 matches and batted in 5 innings only, he failed to hold his place in the Dehli team as he failed as a bowler and Dehli don’t need another batsman he was selected as an all rounder but wants to play as a batsman only, Dehli benched him when they realized he is not going to bowl, something to learn for the Pak selectors. In all fairness in his five outings he probably got only two chances where there were some overs left when he came on to the crease, his highest score was only 24 and is averaging a mere 13 in the tournament. He bowled only8.3 overs in 7 matches and took 2 wickets @10.

Asif also played 7 matches and has taken 7 wickets @ 9.42, he started the tournament nicely but then faded away he has been too expensive, now he is injured and is warming the bench.

Salman Butt has also played 7 matches, he scored 193 runs @ 27.57 with the highest score of 73, he warmed the Kolkata bench during the first round and was given a chance only when McCullum and Gayle left, several technical faults in his batting were highlighted in his batting, he is weak on the onside, and has no foot movement, he scores most of his runs on boundaries and fails to work the ball for singles, his SR was a problem, he gave a few good starts to his team but their was not much to cheer about his batting, he was another disappointment.

Misbah ul Haq also played 7 matches, he was benched initially for Kallis and Chanderpaul, but later on because of public hue & cry was given a chance to play, he was the biggest disappointment for Pak fans as he failed to capitalize on the chances he scored only 117 runs @19.5 with a highest score of 47. Its true that Rahul Dravid failed to use him properly and was treated unfairly for which the Royal Banglore team paid heavily. He is in the wrong team and should demand a trade.

Umar Gul played six matches, and took 12 wickets @ 8.17 with an ave of 15.33, he was benched when Shoaib Akhter arrived because after playing one good game he failed to take wickets and was too expensive,but after Shoaib got injured he played superbly and took wickets in all the matches he played and improved his average.

Kamran Akmal has played 4 matches and has scored 98 runs with an ave of 32.66 the highest by any Pakistani batsman, he has been warming the bench since the arrival of Smith, he had only one good outing with the bat scoring 53 runs, his performance has been average neither bad nor good.

Shoaib Akhtar played only three matches, the Rawalpindi Express started the tournament with a big noise but got derailed in the next match, in 3 matches he only bowled 7 overs took 5 wickets @ 7.71 and an average of 10.80. After playing three matches he quietly saw his team being knocked out of the race for semis while warming the bench.

Although Pakistani bowlers stood out, but batting remains a problem, the senior players have been exposed, Afridi and Malik they are selected in the team as all rounders one can’t bowl and the other can’t bat, Younis Khan has not been considered worthy to play even a single match, Misbah failed, Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal had average success but their performance was such that you would not like to count on, the problem is further compounded since Pakistan has already lost their bench strength to ICL , the selectors do not have any option but to again give automatic selection to these so called seniors for the upcoming Asia cup and Champions trophy.

A hint for the selectors,the youngest guy was the star amongst the bench warmers, so get rid of some of these so called seniors and inject some young players in the team.

Versus 

A super charged Chennai super kings team is almost on the verge of knocking out the tournament favorites Kings X1, its 44-5 in 8.5 overs all the top 5 batsmen are back into the pavillion, Chennai bowlers made full use of the bounce in the pitch, Dhoni surprised everybody when he handed the ball to Murali to open the bowling, Murali bowled only 1 over and gave 7 runs, the second over was bowled by Ntini who was bowling at his top speed and with a very high energy made full use of the bounce in the pitch, Ntini is always dangerous against left handers his speed and angle un nerved Marsh, he removed Hopes in his first over and Marsh in his third over, he was fully supported by Goni who removed the dangerous Sangakara in his first over and then removed Yuvraj Singh in his next over, the highly energetic Chennai team never let any Punjab batsman to settle down, the feilders were supporting their bowlers, the batsmen found it really hard to find the gaps and boundaries were only coming of edges, the wicket is not conducive for stroke play because of the bounce and movement the Punjab batsmen after sufferring early loses could never adjust their game, even the running between the wickets reflected the nervousness of the Punjab batsmen, the early loss of wickets and the pressure of the big match got to them. Its 63/7 in 13.4 overs, the match is all over for the Kings X1.