Story The reporters view.First Project-IPL 2009. Competition inside! Round one posted

[age of the fall]

Thought I would take a stroy from a reporters view. What I'll be doing is writing reviews on all the series that go on during cricket coach. I'll be playing as Lancashire, so all the results will be computer vs computer. Also, all IPL franchises have been emptied.

McGrath goes to Kolkata for $11000 in biggest ISL deal ​

The first IPL auction is finished, with Glenn Mcgrath going to Kolkata in the biggest deal of the season. Other Major deals where Virender Sehwag to Deccan for $105000 and MS Dhoni going to Punjab for $105000. We will have to see if these big buys will pay off in the end.

Teams round up


Bangalore

Major Players

Dale Styen
Chris Gayle
AB de Villiars
Prasanna Jayawardene


Strength

Batting. Chris Gayle and AB form two word class batsmen and they have some good backup in Cheteshwar Pujara, Shiv Das and Jayawardene

Weakness

Bowling. Bar dale Steyn, there are no great bowlers in the Bangalore side, they will have trouble restricting teams to low scores.

Final placing.

Bottom four. Will not make the semis

Chennai

Major Players​

Anil Kumble
Shane Bond
James Anderson
Stuart Clark
danel Vettori
Mitchell Johnson
Wasim Jaffer
Misbah-Ul-Haq

Strength

Bowling and overseas players. With the bowling Attack Chennai has, they shouldn't have trouble restricting teams to low scores. Chennai should have trouble choosing which four overseas players they will use.

Weakness

Batting and Indian players. Although Cheenai has a great overseas players, they can only choose 4, the rest have to be Indian, this could prove to be a preoblem for Chennai, since the only great Indian players they have in Kumble and Jaffer, the rest leave a lot to be desired. Jaffer will need to lay a ig role in this years campaign


Final placing

Despite the weak batting, should make the top four.

Delhi

Chiminda Vaas
Kevin Pieterson

Strength/Weakness

A rather average side all around, no real strength or weakness

Final placing

Should be in the bottom four, but might sneak into the number four in players preform well.​

Deccan​

Major Players

Brett Lee
Virender Sehwag
Makaya Ntini
Tim Ambrose
Subramaniam Bandrinath


Strength

Batting, With Sehwag, Ambrose, and a good amount of Indian talent, this should be one of the top batting sides.

Weakness

No real weakness, bowling is a bit lacking although solid with Ntiti, Lee and a few good Indian bowlers in the mix.

Final placing
Should reach the top four

Punjab

Major Players

MS Dhoni
Graeme Smith
Mohammad Kaif
Rahul Dravid
Phillip Hughes
Yusaf Pathan
Phil Jacques

Strength

Indian Players, Batting. A great IPL side is one that has a good level of Indian Players and overseas players, and this side definitely has this.

Weakness

Don't see a major weakness in this side, despite not having any overseas bowlers, there are still some great Indian bowlers there.

Final placing

Should easily hit top four

Kolkata

Major Players

Glenn Mcgrath
James Franklin
Ryan Sidebottom
Danish Karthik
VVS Laxman
Gauram Gambier
Graeme Swann

Strength

Very strong bowling attack. Should be able to attack bowling while still being economical

Weakness

Battng, the Key players like VVS Laxman and Gambier are going to have to preform well if Kolkata expect to make it to the semis

Final placing

Should make it to the semis​

Mumbai​

Major players​

Muttiah Muralitharan
Adam Gilchrist
Zaheer Khan
Ian Bell
Kumar Sangakarra
Mahela Jayawardene
Saqlian Mushtaq

Strength

Batting. A lot of good overseas batsmen

Weakness

Indian players. 7 of the 11 players need to be Indian, and Mumbai will have trouble finding 7 strong Indian players to get into the XI

Final Placing

Not in the top four. The bowling and Indian players aren't strong enough in my view.​

Rajastan​

Major Players

Shaun Tait
Simon Jones
Munuf Patel
Soruv Ganguly
Herchelle Gibbs
Micheal Clarke
Marcus North
Jesse Ryder
Johan Botha
Nicky Bole

Strength

Overseas players. They will have trouble choosing witch four to play considering the wealth of overseas talent they have in their stocks

Weakness

Indian players. Getting so many overseas players may cost Rajastan in the long run but if their Indian player do well enough Rajanstan will be a very tough team to beat.

Final Placing

Should be in the top four.​

My top four

Chennai
Punjab
Deccan
Rajastan

Bottom four

Mumbai
Kolkata
Delhi
Bangalore

Competition details

There will be five prizes, numbers 1-5 each represent an amount of VCash.

Enter your top and bottom four, and a number between one and five. If you get it right, you will receive your numbers full prize, If you get half right, you will get half your numbers prize.

Any questions, ask!

 

[Ollie_H]

Interesting start here, the one major problem is that is it riddled with spelling mistakes, alot of the players names are spelt wrong.

 

[age of the fall]

Interesting start here, the one major problem is that is it riddled with spelling mistakes, alot of the players names are spelt wrong.

Heh. I expected a comment like this. Usually I would have a higher standard of post but I re wrote this about three times and just wanted to post it. I shouldn't have too many spelling mistakes from here on in.

Thanks for the comment!

 

[hedger_14]

i noticed about 10 mistakes in the names the latest Nicky Bole

 

[Biggy]

And McGrath only went for 11 Grand in the bold?

 

[hedger_14]

It should be 110K as the other higher ones are 105K

 

[age of the fall]

IPL round 1​

Mumbai collapse chasing 126​

Bangalore 126/5(Singh44, Billa 2/16) beat Mumbai 95/10(Powar 45*, Gandhe(3/6) by 31 runs.

The bowlers from Mumbai did a great job of restricting Bangalore to 126/5 from their full 20 overs. The spinners did their job with the ball with Sri Lankan spinners Senanayake and Muralitharan bowling their full 4 overs for 13 and 23 runs respectively. JT Billa was the strongest bowler wicket wise taking 2/16 off his two overs. Bangalore's batsmen mainly failed with only AB de Villiers(35* off 18) and Sunny Singh (44 off 43) being the only batsmen to pass 20 runs.

Mumbai's batsmen all got off to a poor start and never had a chance to get their eye in due to some accurate bowling from Bangalore. Despite Kiran Powar's 45* in his debut innings Mumbai still collapsed to 95 all out. MOTM Gandhe ran through Mumbai with 3 for 6 off his 3.2 overs and was backed up well by Dale Steyn(2/17 off 4 overs), Yadav(2/20 off four overs) and AB de Villiers( 2/15 off 2 overs).

Dravid and Yadav give Punjab easy win​

Punjab 190/2(Dravid 79*, Vaas 1/34) beat Delhi 134/6(Maher 39, Yadav 4/15) by 56 runs

Delhi were never really in this game after Phil Jacques(39 off 27) and Graeme Smith (17 off 11) got blasted there way to an opening partnership or 48 off 5 overs. After both Men had fell another two great batsmen Dravid (79 off 37) and Kaif(52 off 45) formed a dominating unbeaten stand of 126. Delhi?s bowling was nothing to write home about as only Vass and Malhotra managed to get one each, and the only bowler below an eco rate of 8 was Chris Rodgers, who got hit for 11 runs off his two overs.

In reply, Delhi got off to a good start but once the RRR started climbing, Delhi couldn't keep up and ended up falling short of their target by 56 runs. Yadav deserved MOTM for his 4/15, which took wickets and kept the run rate down. His four overs where Vital in killing Delhi's momentum and giving Punjab the win in their first match of the season.

Gavaskar hits a fine 71* as Deccan win​

Deccan(Gavaskar 71*, Bond 2/50) beat Chennai (Mongia 66*, Lee 1/25) by 6 wickets

Chennai didn't make the best of starts after Lee took out Wasim Jaffer first ball of the day, but Chennai recovered to post a modest total of 147/3. Kumar anchored the innings with 35 off 43, while Mongia blasted a quick 66 from 47 to bring Chennai up to a good total. Brett Lee and Makhaya Ntini were the two bowlers that did the best for Deccan getting 1/25 and 0/22 respectively to help restrict a Chennai team that was attacking the other bowlers.

Despite needing over 7 and over, the only hiccup in the Deccan innings was Sehwag and Parag falling in the early stages of the chase. After those early losses, Deccan never looked back, and Bandrinath(45) and Gavaskar(71) attacked the Chennai bowlers and gave Deccan a fairly easy win, with two overs to spare.

Rajsastan triumph over Kolkata.​

Rajsastan 177/5 beat Kolkata 130/1 by 47 runs

No mach report is available for this match due to a glitch in the engine.

 

[Jaztheman]

A very unique attempt at a story which is refreshing to read as a reader.

Punjab absolutely destroyed Delhi thanks to some quite wonderful batting there followed up by Yadhav. Could they have the best allround team and win the IPL? We'll soon see, but with their batting attack I reckon they'll be there or there about. Badrinath smashing Chennai.

A very clean style of presentation and the paragraphs on each game are enough for the reader yet not too much for you to lose your interest. I can see this story going far. Good start, Visa.

 

[age of the fall]

IPL Round 2


Kolkata fall agonizingly close in tight match​

Mumbai 178/4(Gilchrist 75*, Singh 1/24) beat Kolkata 172/2(Singh 56*, Mushtaq 1/15)

With Mumbai struggling to get off to a good start, Gilchrist (75 off 41) and Powar (46 off 41) made sure they posted a good score. Gilchrist?s innings proved Vital to the team as he formed a partnership with Mushtaq of 60 off 6 overs, although Mushy only scored 10 of the runs! Kolkata's bowling was rather off the radar today, considering the lowest economy rate was 6.3, although when Golly is at his best, It?s always going to be hard to keep the run rate down.

Kolkata did nearly everything right, and would have probably won the game, had it not been for two world-class spinners bowling from each end. Pakistan?s Saqlain Mushtaq and Sri Lankan's Muttiah Muralitharan combining to bowl their 8 overs for a combined 1/38. This ended up being the difference between the sides in the end.

Another tight finish gives Rajsastan the win​

Rajastan 125/5 beat Pnjab 115/9 by 8 runs

Sadly, all matches for Rajsastan will be unavailable for a report, as a glitch has happened due to not having enough Indian players; so all 11 players are displayed as Simon Katich.

Gayle, Das dominate Chennai​

Bangalore 183/1 (Das 79*) beat Chennai 158/2(Mongia (74*, Kalyankrishna 2/17) by 25 runs

The Chennai bowlers couldn?t even manage a wicket between them in the twenty overs as Gayle (76 off 36) and Das (79 of 62) smashed the bowlers all over the park in this high scoring innings. Das played more of an anchor role while Gayle fired up at the other end; being tragically ran out just 24 off his century. The world-class attack of Bond, Anderson, Clark and Kumble wasn?t even enough to stop this onslaught from Das and Gayle. With Bangalore holding two strong victories now, the better question is, who will stop them?

Kalyankrishna took out the top order wickets of Chennai to kill momentum early in the chase and despite two solid innings from Indulker (63 off 45) and current lead run scorer Mongia (74 off 58) Chennai never recovered enough to take the match.

Delhi beat Deccan with four Balls to spare.​

Delhi 147/2(Maher 75, Yadav 1/28) beat Deccan 144/3 (Gavaskar 49*, Vaas 1/25) by 7 wickets

49?s for both Gavaskar and Parab lead to a pretty solid total made by Deccan. Parab played a great innings with Sehwag failing once again for 8 and Badrinath looking in all sorts of trouble, scoring his 34 off 50 balls, to slow for a 20/20, and his slow innings cost Deccan a lot in the long run. The pitch, like most others this round was a bowlers graveyard, and this was shown by only two wickets falling in this innings, One wicket each to Vaas and Malhotra

Maher (75 off 62) and Pieterson (57 off 32) led to Delhi chasing down the total with relative ease, although Deccan?s bowlers nearly won them the match, with restricting spells by spinners Mishra and Sehwag. But the total was just not enough in the end, and Pieterson hit the winning runs at 19.2 overs.

 

[Jaztheman]

Badrinath has scored well in this IPL so far, even if a little slow. He's my player for the competition already. Gavaskar, however, is roaming free for Deccan and was unlucky for his team to lose after his decent knock. Also nice to see Simon Katch's XI won a match.

Gilchrist and Powar easily won the game for Mumbai, in quite decent fashion. Anyway, very good presentation so far, an easy to read match report of every game. I would ask for a little more of a writeup of each match but I do understand that IPL is not a short competition to write about. Loving the story already.

 

[age of the fall]

IPL round Three

Fifties from Dravid and Smith set up highest IPL total.​

Punjab 210/3(Dravid 67*, Swann 1/28) beat Kolkata 140/4(Singh 56*, Kartik 1/25) by 70 runs

22 fours and 10 sixes were hit in a demolition job as Dravid (67* off 41), Smith (55 off 23) and Dhoni (47 off 31) led Punjab to a score of 210/3 off 20 overs, the highest score in this IPL so far. The bowling of Punjab once again failed, with McGrath getting hit for 39 runs, Franklin getting hit for 39 runs, and Sidebottom getting hit for 52 runs. Kolkata will need to improve their bowling if they want any chance of making the semis as they are currently without a win after 3 matches.

210 was too much for Kolkata batting to handle, and although they didn?t look like they where going to be rolled over they also ever looked like getting close to the total. Yashpal Singh?s 56* was the only score past 30 in the innings. The bowlers from Kolkata was never overly threatening with the lowest run rate being 6.3 and nobody getting real decent returns in this so far batting dominated tournament.

Chennai come out on top in bowler-dominated match.​

Chennai 112/4(Indulker 40,Sreesanth 1/3) beat Mumbai 110/5(Gilchrist 55*, Kumble 2/10) by 6 wickets

Chennai?s class bowling attack showed it?s potential to bring Chennai it?s first win of the season. No bowler went for more then 30 as Kumble(2/10) Anderson(2/23), Bond(0/27) and Clark(1/23) Restricted the batsmen from scoring runs and took wickets at a fairly regular rate never allowing anybody other then Gilchrist(55* off 43) to get going and score well enough to get Mumbai to a good total.

Despite some solid bowling from Mumbai, and the Chennai batsmen struggling to score runs quickly, the total was just too small to defend and Chennai sealed the win at 18 overs. Indulker and Kumar set up the win with 40 and 32 respectively, and despite both scoring at below 50% strike rate, Mongia and Skukla sealed the win.

Chris Gayle bashes first century of the IPL​

Bangalore 177/1 (Gayle 100*, Malhotra 1/44) beat Delhi 173/5 (Chipli 58*, Gandhe 2/18)

An attacking anchor role from Chipli (58 from 52) and a late order bash from Kevin Pieterson (52 from 23) raised Delhi to a strong total of 173/5. Delhi?s top order batting was dodgy, with Rodgers being ran out second ball, and Jimmy Maher hitting a fluky 43, after surviving a run out and being dropped twice. Bowling wise there wasn?t a top effort from any of the Bangalore bowlers, the only standouts being Steyn (0/27) and Gandhe (2/18). Other then that, the other Bangalore bowlers were expensive and ineffective.

Bangalore and West Indies captain Chris Gayle showed what an incredible 20/20 player he is, and how much he offers to any side, with a blast of 100* off only 56 balls. Gayle?s chanceless innings included 14 fours and 3 sixes. He and Das added 122 runs in 10 overs and made the good start was vital to chasing down a reasonably tough total, although Gayle, Das(32) and Sunny Singh(39) made the total look easy as they chased t down in only 17.1 overs. Nobody was spared from the Gayle onslaught as Vass went for 55 off his 4 overs, Malhotra going for 44, And Pathan going for 35. Another great win for Bangalore leaves them Unbeaten.

Sehwag hits 98* as Deccan beats Rajasthan​

Deccan 172/1(Sehwag 98*) beat Rajasthan 159/7(Yadav 3/19)

Sadly, again since it?s a Rajsasthan match I can?t provide a match report due o the Simon Katich error.

 

[Jaztheman]

Gayle won the match for Bangalore easily and single handedly took them to victory. Quite a shock victory over Delhi. Deccan comfortably beat Rajasthan with Sehwag falling just short of his century which would of been special. Chennai v Mumbai was terribly close in terms of bowling and I thought Gilchrist's knock would of just given it to Mumbai but unfairly not. Chennai's bowling attack looks awesome.

And Punjab were never going to lose with that mammoth total. Loving the presentation and such mate, good so far.