Kochi ambush Tendulkar's night

Brendon McCullum (81) and Mahela Jayawardene (56) helped Kochi Tuskers stun Mumbai Indians by 8 wickets to register their maiden IPL victory at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Friday.
Late charge by Ravindra Jadeja (25 not out) and Brad Hodge (11 not out) powered Kochi Tuskers to victory with an over to spare.
Jadeja smacked two sixes and two fours in his 11-ball cameo.
Chasing 183-run target, skipper Jayawardene added 128 runs for the opening wicket with McCullum to lead the Kochi run-chase.
Skipper Jayawardene slammed nine boundaries in his 36-ball quick-fire innings whereas McCullum paced his innings perfectly as he hit two sixes and ten boundaries in his 60-ball innings.
Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar (100 not out) smashed maiden IPL ton to help Mumbai Indians set 183-run target for Kochi Tuskers.
Tendulkar and Rayudu toyed with Kochi bowlers as they scored boundaries at will and added 116 runs for the second wicket.
Tendulkar was on dangerous mood from start as he hit three sixes and a dozen boundaries in his unbeaten 66-ball blitzkrieg. He took just 23 balls to race from fifty to hundred.
Ambati Rayudu (53) continued his destructive form from last match as he hit four sixes and three fours and raced to fifty in just 29 balls whereas Tendulkar took 43 balls to reach the landmark.
Mumbai lost opener Davy Jacobs (12) after a good start against Kochi Tuskers.
Jacobs played second fiddle to his senior partner Sachin Tendulkar as they added 61 runs for the opening stand before Raiphi Gomez clean bowled the wicket-keeper batsman in the ninth over.
Earlier, Kochi Tuskers skipper Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and decided to field against Mumbai Indians on Friday.
Mumbai Indians have rested James Franklin and got in Andrew Symonds for the match whereas Kochi Tuskers made three changes.
Kochi have to unfortunately replaced injured VVS Laxman at the last minute. They have also left out Muralitharan and Sreesanth, and brought in Thisara Perera and Ramesh Powar. Kedar Jadhav is in for VVS Laxman.

source:TNN

Rajasthan Royals surge to second win

Rajasthan Royals 152 for 4 (Botha 39*, Dravid 38) beat Delhi Daredevils 151 for 6 (Rao 60, Warner 54, Warne 2-17) by six wickets

 

Rajasthan Royals executed a well-calibrated chase against an off-colour Delhi Daredevils attack to register their second win in two games and move atop the IPL leaderboard. The senior players soaked up the pressure - Rahul Dravid set up the chase and Johan Botha anchored it - while the youngsters, Ashok Menaria and Ajinkya Rahane, batted with freedom to keep the required-rate under control. Ross Taylor added the finishing touches with his trademark leg-side lashes.

While Rajasthan's batting flowed seamlessly, their bowling was a tale of two halves. Their fortunes were typified by Shaun Tait's four one-over spells. He got rid of Virender Sehwag and Aaron Finch - two parts of Delhi's powerful top-order trinity - in first two overs. David Warner, the third part, survived Tait and saw off a sublime spell from Shane Warne before counter-punching along with Venugopal Rao. Tait was either too short or too full in his final spell, and allowed Delhi to haul themselves from 43 for 4 after 10 overs, to 151. Their bowlers, however, let them down.

"I am used to facing all these fast bowlers." Sehwag's emphatic declaration before the game set up the confrontation with Tait. The encounter was, however, was short. Sehwag cracked his first ball through point but Tait hit back immediately with sheer pace. Taking guard after Sehwag's sizzle and fizzle, Finch barely saw the three thunderbolts - one of them touching 157 kph - that burst through his defences. One over of high impact - one spell out of the way.

Botha and Siddharth Trivedi were not so menacing with the ball, and Tait returned for the fifth over. Finch promptly succumbed to another pacy bouncer, and Tait was off the attack again. Warne struck twice in his first over, nailing Unmukt Chand with a quick dipping legbreak, and Naman Ojha with a slower, looping delivery. Thereafter, Rajasthan let the pressure ease, allowing Warner and Rao to find an escape route. Rao checked in with a couple of controlled boundaries against spin before Warner preyed upon Trivedi's poor lines.

Warner plundered Tait's indiscretions in length for three boundaries in his third over. He reached his 50 by cutting Warne in front of square before handing over the baton to his partner. Rao launched two successive slower balls from Trivedi for sixes over the off side, before Irfan Pathan slugged boundaries off Tait's closing over to hustle Delhi to challenging total.

Dravid ignited the chase with a series of boundaries off Ashok Dinda, but Amit Paunikar missed a wild slog to gift him a wicket. Pathan had shown signs of regaining his famous inswinger in Delhi's first game. Today, however, he resorted to listless offcutters that Dravid pounced upon. With his seamers disappointing, Sehwag resorted to Roelof van der Merwe's spin in the sixth over, and Dravid greeted him with two elegant boundaries. Fifty-seven had come off the Powerplay, and the game was heading Rajasthan's way.

van der Merwe gave Delhi an opening by getting Dravid to edge behind, but Botha and Menaria carried on without a fuss. With a stance and swagger reminiscent of Yuvraj Singh, Menaria camped on the back foot and looked to muscle anything too short or too full over midwicket. He thumped sixes off three consecutive overs before carving Pathan straight to cover. Botha was relentless though, in his new No. 3 avatar, executing paddle sweeps at will and keeping things under control. Rahane kept the flag flying, and though Morne Morkel uprooted his stumps in the 16th over it was too little too late.

  

Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2011/content/current/story/510692.html

Mumbai Indiansbeat Royal Challengers Bangalore by Five wickets

Skipper Sachin Tendulkar and young Ambati Rayudu clobbered the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling as title contenders Mumbai Indians cruised to a nine wicket victory in an Indian Premier League match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, here today.
Chasing a target of 141, Mumbai Indians reached the target with nine balls to spare. Mumbai Indians now have two wins from as many matches.
Scorecard
On a strip where RCB batsmen struggled to get going, Tendulkar (55 not out, 46 balls, 7x4), Ambati Rayudu (63 not out, 50 balls, 9x4) sent the RCB bowlers on a leatherhunt with an undefeated 110-run second wicket partnership from 86 balls.
They were also helped by some lacklustre fielding by the home team.
It was Davy Jacobs (22, 16 balls, 2x4, 2x6) who started the charge by hitting Zaheer Khan for a couple of fours and two big sixes over long-on and deep mid-wicket.
Jacobs was cleaned up by Dirk Nannes when he backed too far down the leg-side trying to hit over extra cover. Tendulkar who was watching quietly from the other end then took it upon himself. A signature straight drive off Abhimanyu Mithun started it all. When the spinners came on, he was quick to rock on to the backfoot and hit them over deep mid-wicket.
Rayudu, who was watchful for the first few balls started with a flat-batted boundary over deep mid-wicket off Mithun and then followed it up by charging down the track and hitting the bowler through the covers. The youngster beat Tendulkar to his his half-century in style when he lofted Asad Pathan for a boundary over extra cover.
Considered as an India prospect till he joined the rebel Indian Cricket League, the Hyderabadi who now plays for Baroda a glimpse of his talent when he clipped Zaheer over mid-wicket for a boundary and followed it with a lofted bowlers' back drive. He matched the legendary Tendulkar stroke-for stroke as never did MI look in any sort of trouble.
Earlier, Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers added 91 runs runs for the second wicket as Royal Challengers Banaglore managed to set a modest target of 141 for the Mumbai Indians after being put into bat. Dilshan (59 not out, 52 balls, 4x4, 2x6) carried his bat through while De Villiers (38, 36 balls, 3x4, 1x6) scored some useful runs on a wicket where the ball wasn't coming onto the bat. Lasith Malinga and Kieron Pollard got a couple of wickets each.

IPL4: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Deccan Chargers

Kolkata :Jacques Kallis hit his second half-century in a row to set up a nine-run win for Kolkata Knight Riders against Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League on Monday.

Kallis, 35, hit seven fours and a six in his 45-ball 53 as Kolkata piled on 163-4 before restricting Deccan to 154-8 off 20 overs on a slow Eden Gardens track.

This was the first victory for Kolkata in the Twenty20 tournament after having lost to Chennai by two runs in their opening match last week.

Kallis also picked up four catches to cap a fine day in the middle.

Left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah gave Kolkata an early breakthrough, removing Ishank Jaggi in the third over before Rajat Bhatia grabbed the key wicket of skipper Kumar Sangakkara (16) to reduce Deccan to 53-3 in the ninth over.

Deccan could never really recover from the early setbacks, succumbing to their second defeat in as many matches despite a fighting 48 by Bharat Chipli.

Abdullah finished with 3-24 while Bhatia and Jaidev Unadkat took two wickets each.

Kallis, opening the innings, gave a flying start to Kolkata after captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to bat.

The all-rounder raced to the 50-run mark with a six off his South Africa teammate JP Duminy but was out the next ball as he attempted to clear midwicket again.

Gambhir, who batted at an unusual number six against Chennai, promoted himself up the order and shared 43 runs off just 26 balls with Manoj Tiwary (30 not out) for the third wicket.

Gambhir (29) was bowled by legspinner Amit Mishra, the most impressive among Deccan bowlers with two wickets for 19 runs off his fours overs.

Big-hitting Yusuf Pathan hit a typically aggressive 22 off 15 balls in a late assault to prop up Kolkata's total.

(AFP)

Rajasthan, Bangalore start IPL campaign with away wins

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore recorded comfortable away victories to open their respective campaigns in the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday.
South African AB de Villiers hit five sixes in a 40-ball unbeaten 54 towards the end to help the Bangalore side overcome a challenging target of 162 with six wickets and eight balls to spare against IPL debutants Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
The team from Kochi, led by Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene, got off to a blistering start with a 80-run opening stand between Brendon McCullum (45) and Vangipurappu Laxman (36) from just nine overs but the middle order lost their way after that.
Royal Challengers, led by Daniel Vettori, got off to a poor start, losing flamboyant opener Tillakaratne Dilshan for just one but they recovered through decent contributions from the other batsmen before de Villiers launched his onslaught.
Playing away from home in Saturday's first match, the Rajasthan Royals, led brilliantly by 41-year-old Australian Shane Warne, restricted their opponents Deccan Chargers to a paltry 137-8.
Pacemen Siddharth Trivedi (3-15) and Amit Singh (3-35) shared six wickets among themselves to vindicate their captain's decision to field first after winning the toss.
Warne, the second highest wicket-taker in tests, still managed to weave magic with his leg spin and picked up two wickets for 21 in his four overs.
South African spinner Johan Botha, promoted to number three, knocked off the required runs with a 47-ball 67 and brought his team an eight-wicket win with seven balls to spare.

IPL 4: Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 2 runs

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by two runs in the pulsating inaugural match of Indian Premier League’s fourth season here Friday.
Chasing 154 runs for victory, KKR finished at 151/7 in 20 overs.
KKR, who were crusing at 93/2 at one stage, needed nine runs from the final over, but fell short.

IANS