Auction Springs Few Suprises

This years IPL auction threw up few suprises as only 11 players out of a possible 70 were sold.

West Indian Kieron Pollard and New Zealand star Shane Bond were the big buys as both were sold for a whopping $750,000. Pollard, who impressed in this years Champions League, went to Mumbai after the first ever IPL silent tie-breaker, whilst Bond, who has recently quit Test cricket, went to Kolkata.

Other signings included the likes of West Indian Kemar Roach ($720,000 to Deccan), Englishman Eoin Morgan who went to Royals for $220,000 and Indian Mohammad Kaif who was sold to Punjab for $250,000.

However, it was the amount of players who went unsold which hit the headlines. Not one of the ten Pakistan players were sold. A shock considering the national side won the recent T20 World Cup and included the likes of Shahid Afridi and Rana Naved.

DO YOU THINK THESE PLAYERS DESERVED A PLACE? Your comments are most welcome.

Here is the auction result:

Kieron Pollard [West Indies] – Mumbai Indians (£458,000 tie-break)
Shane Bond [New Zealand] – Kolkata Knight Riders (£458,000 tie-break)
Kemar Roach [West Indies] – Deccan Chargers (£439,000)
Wayne Parnell [South Africa] – Delhi Daredevils (£372,000)
Mohammad Kaif [India] – Kings XI Punjab (£153,000)
Eoin Morgan [England] – Royal Challengers Bangalore (£134,000)
Damien Martyn [Australia] – Rajasthan Royals (£61,000)
Justin Kemp [South Africa] – Chennai Super Kings (£61,000)
Adam Voges [Australia] – Rajasthan Royals (£30,000)
Thissara Perera [Sri Lanka] – Chennai Super Kings (£30,000)
Yusuf Abdulla [South Africa] – Kings XI Punjab (£30,000)

Challenger’s Crash To Opening CL Defeat

IPL side Bangalore Royal Challengers crashed to defeat in the opening match of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 against South African outfit Cape Cobras.

A swashbuckling innings of 99 from 52 balls by JP Duminy saw the Cape Cobras cruise to a five-wicket-win at a packed Chinnaswamy Stadium after Bangalore posted a testing target of 181.

Bangalores Ross Taylor smashed 53 not out as his side posted 180-4 and when Herschelle Gibbs fell first ball the home side looked on course to open the tournament with a victory but they didnt count on Duminy’s solid performance. The South African dragged the total down to 18 required from the last twelve balls before smashing two boundaries and a six off Roelof van der Merwe and Vinay Kumar. The 25-year-old only missed out on his century because teammate Rory Kleinveldt drove the winning runs with two balls remaining.

The victory comes as a huge blow to the Challengers who were tipped as one of the favourites to win before the $6,000,000 prize fund tournament began.

Considering this defeat who do you tip as the favourites to win the competition?

The IPL teams have both strong squads and home advantage but what they dont have a great deal of, which the other sides have in abundance, is team togetherness.

Bangalore beat Mumbai

 V    Full scorecard

 

Bangalore Royal Challengers put their opening IPL defeat behind them as they recorded a 5 wicket win against Mumbai at Wankede Stadium.

A late South African onslaught from Jacques Kallis (25) and Mark Boucher (39 n.o) saw Bangalore home after Mumbai batted first reaching 165-6 from their 20 overs.

Robin Uthappa was the star for Mumbai, as he hit 48 from 38 balls before being stumped by Boucher off Balachandra Akhil. Sachin Tendulkar could not feature due to injury but Shaun Pollock blazed a late 28 from just 12 balls to give Mumbai a competitive total.

Despite losing five wickets in the reply, all the Bangalore batsmen chipped in with some runs with captain Rahul Dravid scoring 32 before Kallis and Boucher blazed 55 from 31 balls to help get Bangalore home with two balls to spare. Harbhajan Singh’s 36-2 off his 4 overs not enough to prevent defeat for Mumbai.

Final result: Bangalore Royals won by 5 wickets.

Watch all the wickets below:

Kolkata Thrash Bangalore

 V                     Full Scorecard

 

Kolkata Knight Riders Thrashed the Bangalore Royal Challengers by 140 runs in the opening Indian Premier League match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

It was a thrilling opening game which saw Brendon McCullum become the hero for Kolkata as he broke the record for an individual score in Twenty20 cricket, smashing 158 from just 73 balls including 12 massive sixes, as Kolkata amased 222-3 after batting first.

It was then Bangalore’s turn to have a bat. However their batting was worse than their bowling as the whole team was skittled for just 82. Three wickets for AJit Agarkar and two apiece for Ganguly and debutant Ashok Dinda giving Kolkata a massive but much deserved win. Neither Dravid, Kallis, Boucher nor Jaffer could manage double figures, as the home side crumbled under pressure from such a large total.

It was a highly entertaining and action packed match, just what was needed to start the ball rolling.

Watch the highlights of the first IPL game below:

Bangalore V Kolkata

Ist match in the IPL from the Chinnaswamy stadium.

 Teams:

Rahul Dravid (c), Mark Boucher, Wasim Jaffer, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Ashley Noffke, Misbah-Ul-Haq, Cameron White, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Balachandra Akhil, Sunil Joshi, Ross Taylor

 

 

 

Sourav Ganguly (c), Ajit Agarker, Debabrata Das, David Hussey, Murali Kartik, Brendon McCullum, Mohammad Hafeez, Ricky Ponting, Wriddhimam Saha, Ishant Sharma, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Iqbal Abdulla

 

I fancy Kolkata Knight Riders for this one. with Ganguly, Hussey, McCullum and Ponting in their ranks they will bat well enough to beat a weakened Bangalore.

Watch the T.V trailer to this match: