OPPO CHAMPIONS LEAGUE T20

                                     

 

                                For the past two weeks many cricket fans would have said they are watching the Champions League where a team scored a 150+ and the other team chased it down with 15 balls to spare or was bundled out for 90/100 odd runs and the normal people would have been scratching their heads after hearing this. Because all they know is that Champions League refers to the UEFA Champions League (football). Well the Champions League T20 in cricket is very similar to the football version where the domestic champions participate in a tournament over a fortnight to be crowned “CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS”.

                   The Sixth edition of the tournament was sponsored by OPPO and the matches were scheduled to be played in India itself instead of South Africa. As usual the co-owners of the league BCCI, CA and CSA had their teams directly in the round-robin (MI being the exception) and the other domestic champions had to fight out through the qualifiers to take part in the round-robin. The teams that took part in the Qualifiers are the Northern District Knights from New Zealand, Lahore Lions from Pakistan, Southern Express from Sri Lanka and Mumbai Indians from India. The other domestic champions that took part are the Hobart Hurricanes and the Perth Scorchers from Australia, Cape Cobras and Sunfoil Dolphins from the Rainbow nation and the Barbados Tridents from the Caribbean islands.

                    After the qualifier round the two teams that progressed on to the next round was the Knights and the Lions. The Knights entered unbeaten whereas the Lions had a sole defeat to the Knights. And then the action shifted to the main draw. In the main draw there were the Indian teams which used the best of the home advantage and remained unbeaten by the overseas sides. The only Indian franchise to taste defeat was the Chennai Super Kings and they lost to the domestic champions Kolkata. The Kolkata and the Punjab franchises maintained a 100% win record in the group stages. The Chennai franchise apart from their loss against the Kolkata side bounced back with victories over Dolphins and the Scorchers and to share the points along with the Lions after it was washed out. The Australian teams fared better than the South African sides and the Tridents were hit with a triple blow in their campaign as their most valuable 3 players chose to play for the other teams. The Perth Scorchers showed some character when they pulled off the matches from defeat where against the Dolphins by hitting the required 12 runs off 2 balls with success and chased 125 against the Lions after a situation where they were 62/7. Aiden Blizzard provided some fire power at the top order for the Hobart side which was dominant in the group stages having bowlers with international experience. The Sunfoil Dolphins apart from the match against the CSK were never at their best and the Cape Cobras had to win the match only in the super over. The Tridents after losing the trio of Pollard, Smith and Malik were feeling their absence in their batting order as it was revolving around Jonathan Carter to score the runs. The teams that came through the qualifiers had some consolation wins.

                   Overall, as history repeats the tournament proved as the base for some players to be bought for Jackpot money in the upcoming IPL auctions and leading that list would be Cameron Delport after his quick-fire innings against the Super Kings. With the finals held today (CSK vs. KKR), the tournament comes to an end where the Indian franchises have dominated and have made a second all Indian CLT20 final for a consecutive second time (The last time it was MI vs. RR where MI won the title).

STAY TUNED FOR MORE.....

Guha Karthikeyan

TEAM INDIA'S AWAY WORRIES

 

The last time the Indian team won a test match outside the country was against the WINDIES in July 2011. After the massive whitewash against England in the next tour where they lost 4-0 and lost their No.1 ranking to the hosts, it has been a downfall when it came to the following tours after. If in the summer they lost to England by 4-0, in the winter it was Australia's turn to humiliate the Indians as they lost to them 4-0 again. This raised some questions about sacking Dhoni as the Indian Captain. He was backed by the selectors and was made to extend his stint as Indian Captain. The next assignment that was awaiting him was the 2 test series against a low ranked New Zealand.Following the retirement of Rahul Dravid in March that year, prior to that series VVS Laxman also announced his retirement from International Cricket. Thus the Indian middle order was relatively new with Sachin Tendulkar alone being the exception. But the replacements Pujara and Kohli showed some talent and India defeated New Zealand 2-0 and following that it was against England where they won the first test at Ahmedabhad, but the England led by Monty Panesar's quick spin bounced back to win the series 2-1, for the first time in 24 years. Then Australia toured India and it was the Dhoni's turn to avenge for the losses down under. And he did start off in style with smashing 226 runs in  the first test and India won the series 4-0. Adding to these big victories came the 2 innings wins against the WINDIES in  Sachin's Farewell series. After the retirement of Sachin, the next tour was against South Africa where the first test ended in a thrilling draw and they lost the second match. In the next tour to New Zealand, they lost the first match of the series before settling for a draw the next match after they were in a winning position. Now the same saga continued in England as they took the top 9 wickets for 298 before the last wicket added 198 runs and England took the lead. By this test Indias's horrible streak extends to 15 tests without a win outside India. With the second test beginning today at the Lord's its up to MS to see whether to extend the unsuccessful run or put an end to it. 

S.T. Guha Karthikeyan

MCC vs ROW 05/07/2014 3:15 PM IST

                    The whole world is now busy with the FIFA World Cup. But there are other sports in the world, and particularly if your nationality is ‘India’, you wouldn’t forget the BIG TEST that starts on July 9, India vs. England. But some Crazy Cricket Fans like me turn on TV for cricket before that itself. If the BIG TEST starts on July 9, then there is a BIG MATCH on July 5 at the Lord’s celebrating the venue’s 200^th year. And the match witnesses the legends of the game returning to the field, donning a jersey, playing the game that they ruled once, again for a duration of 7 hours. And the teams would have not been much better than the Captains itself. The 3 letter legend ‘GOD’ alias Sachin Tendulkar leading the MCC side vs. the 6 letter legend ‘WIZARD’ alias Shane Warne leading the Rest of the World. More than the captains the squads also consist of retired players such as Gilchrist, Lara, Muralitharan, Dravid, Collingwood, Lee, and Tait and so on

Let us now see these squads line up for the BIG MATCH:-

MARYLEBONE CRICKET CLUB:

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (Captain):

The legend of the 7 letter game CRICKET would have got no better honors than to lead the famous side. To describe about him, words will not be enough, he has almost all the records that a batsman can hold in the game of cricket. And as usual he’ll be occupying the NON-STRIKER end with Aaron Finch.

                                                       Aaron Finch:

The dashing Aussie opener has been picked more probably to provide fire power at the start of the innings with all the legends who play are more comfortable with scoring off singles, twos and later going for an onslaught.

Brian Lara:

The Dashing left hander was probably the player who came to the rescue the Caribbean side when it suffered a major slide following the retirements of the legends Richards, Lloyd, Ambrose e.tc., He personally requested his skipper Tendulkar that he would like to play with him and Tendulkar accepted happily.

                                                      Rahul Dravid:

The success story of CSK in seasons 3&4 and KKR in 5&7 were more to solidity that was provided when wickets fell around. And likewise to provide that solidity in the middle comes the right-handed Rahul Dravid and the whole world knows how well he can build the innings around him and go for the big shots if the need arises.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul:

The batsman with the unorthodox stance when batting, also has the talent like Rahul Dravid and both of them would be more useful when a collapse occurs if at all in the big star studded batting line up.

                                                                        Chris Read (Wicket Keeper):

If all the players are from overseas who is going to give them inputs about the home conditions??? Here comes the England gloves man Chris Read behind the stumps to provide the inputs. Though his records does not speak for him, he is certainly the local boy in the team.

Daniel Vettori:

The spectacled bowler is one of the two spinners in the playing XI and he will be useful to control the run flow during the middle overs particularly after seeing that dashing line up the opposition.

                                                                        Brett Lee:

The Sydney Express comes back to cricket and many would love to see him bowl out an over with speeds over 150kmph. Such is the amount of pace he generates that rattles the opposition batsmen’s stumps and also his celebrations after he takes the wicket. 

Umar Gul:

The Art is bowling. Missing someone?? Yeah the Pakistanis... And here comes Umar Gul with his deadly pace and swing. The leading T20 wicket taker has something up his sleeve to bring the game under control

                                                      Saeed Ajmal:

The magician is back. This time he is along with Sachin... Saeed Ajmal has the Knack to turn games with his turn and bounce but with the pitches in England supporting pace, he would be really tested by the opposition bowlers.

Shaun Tait:

Tired watching balls zip through at one end at over 150kmph?? If you want them at both ends, here is Shaun Tait to provide you that. Along with Brett Lee they form a deadly combo of bowlers who touch speeds of 155kmph often.

Now we have seen the HOME team.

Next we have the AWAY team

REST OF THE WORLD:

Virender Sehwag:

Who else would you want to open the innings other than the Nawab of Najafgarh?? The dashing Indian opener is always a nightmare for the opposition and when he is on song, they are doomed. And this match could also provide him the platform for the return to India colours after a long gap.

                                                      Adam Gilchrist (Wicket Keeper):

The Wicket keeper who changed the role of the keepers in the game by playing the role of an attacking batsman in addition to his smart glove work. Adam Gilchrist was an automatic choice for the pick, and he is picked as an opener to partner Virender Sehwag.

Tamim Iqbal:

The choice of Tamim Iqbal as the third choice opener has some questions as either  Ponting or Kallis could have been picked for a no.3 spot rather than a third opener, but the selection committee believed in him and picked him for his exploits at the early stages of the innings. Whether it works out or not, we will see.

                                                      Kevin Pietersen:

KP shortly called, Kevin Pietersen is a dashing middle order batsman who can make merry on his day. Out of the national side with controversies, the match is like a stage for him to prove his talent after a poor IPL season with the DDs. 

Yuvraj Singh:

This line up surely consists of many hard hitters and this seems to continue with another batsmen in the list being Yuvraj Singh. Mostly remembered for his 6 sixes of an over off Stuart Broad, he can also be used as a left arm spinner and just like Sehwag, he can initiate a comeback through these performances.

                                                      Shahid Afridi:

Next to the line-up of the big hitters list is BOOM Afridi. He comes down the order and just changes the course of the match with his maverick performances and he is also a wily spinner with the ball.

Paul Collingwood:

We all saw in the RCB vs. RR match how the deadly RCB line up shattered into pieces where they had 5 big hitters and lacked solidity (a player who has the capability to build the innings around him when wickets tumble at the other end). To provide Solidity and Inputs about the local conditions is Paul Collingwood, the 2010 T20 World Cup winning captain. He can also roll up his sleeves to send some medium paced deliveries.

                                                      Peter Siddle:

This team is likely to have the Indian victory formula of 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers and Siddle would be the pace leader. Capable of swinging the ball in aiding conditions, he would be useful and also he make some contributions with the bat.

Tino Best:

Tino Best was the West Indian answer when they needed the quality of attack which Walsh, Ambrose and Holding produced. He will be partnering Siddle with the new ball to rattle the opposition.

                                                      Shane Warne (Captain):

The opponent captain is Sachin Tendulkar. Now who will find a way out to stop him and it is Shane Warne, Sachin’s biggest rival on-field to lead the Rest of the World. All of us know what wonders Shane Warne could do and it will be the epic Warne vs. Tendulkar to relish again.

Muttiah Muralitharan:

Now the game has seen return of many legends. If Sachin Tendulkar has almost all records in batting, this guy here has almost all records in bowling and together with Warne, they are sure to spin a web where the opposition will find it hard to bounce back.

NOTABLE MISSES:

Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Mathew Hayden, Glenn McGrath, Shoaib Akthar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Shane Bond, Chaminda Vaas, Shaun Pollock.

-S.T. Guha Karthikeyan