Kolkata Knight Riders won this year’s Indian Premier League that too in style by chasing a total of 200 within 20 overs.
This is the highest ever total chased in any of the IPL finals from 2008 to present.
Here are some prized moments from yesterday’s historic match.
1) The 2 awesome captains pre match pose with the trophy:
2) The 2 awesome co-owners of both the teams:
3) The hero for Punjab; Wriddhiman Saha who scored 115 i.e. a highest score by anyone in a IPL final :
4) Sunil narine, KKR’s most lethal weapon throughout the tournament had let go of international duty (West Indies) to stay with team for the final. Proved worthwhile didn’t it?
5) Manish Pandey, the star for KKR nearly missed out for a century, but won many hearts, and the cup for his team.
6) This man Piyush Chawla got the winning runs.
7) Celebrations Celebrations:
8) KKR Crowned as IPL Champions 2014:
9) Arguably the best opponent in this year’s IPL for any team was Punjab. A good mix of local and international talent gave them the much needed boost to make it to the final.
10) Last but not the least, a smile on the captain’s face, Gautam Gambhir who has led from the front.
I enjoyed the final, and arguably, the better team won.
Do watch this video.. This indirectly sums up everything what i cannot express in my post.!!
Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8yxfsTzDg
India has their national pride in the form of Cricket This has been going on since decades
But also, football has seen a rise like never before. With its viewership increasing, the opportunities provided, football schools, etc etc the trend seems to be shifting a bit towards football.
There is another fact that India hasn’t had much of success in Football, which thus gives us a lot of opportunities to give players our backing,
This team, Dooars XI is a classic example. They like football, live for it..!! Being women, they have instilled love for this game. I’m not acting sexist but the fact remains, that we hardly hear a thing or two about women players playing different tournaments!!
Now why does that happen? If any of you have watched the movie “Chak de India” , You’ll know that there is a scene when Shah Rukh Khan wants the job to coach the Indian Hockey Women’s team!! He approaches the board, and they tell him,”You are fighting a lost cause!!” These people will just waste our time and money.
That’s what is happening here. The fact that there is no belief leads to them not getting any support..!!! Thus until our own country doesn’t know about them, there is no going ahead with this issue.
These people want to play, they do have the courage and dedication, maybe who knows they might prosper a lot, make India proud..!! But these are just assumptions which can be fulfilled only with them getting facilities enough to enjoy the sport.
Its funny, i recollect another team with such a scenario. This video moved me, and really, these two teams had the same issues with the below video showing, how the team managed to play, even without a jersey shoes & more importantly, the ground..!!
Do have a watch.. You can connect these two videos!! Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU
Finally all i can say is that where there is a will, there is a way!! The love of the game is all that matters!! With a little support from the country, these women will surely work wonders!!!
India 0-1 down in the series were looking set to worsen their record away from home. Haven’t won a match since 930+ days. So, the pressure to win is very very high.
The Kiwis on the other hand, were on cruise mode with due performances from their seam team. So, in a nutshell, I’ll describe each day, and then we read, what we learnt from this match.
Day 1:
Brendon Mccullum kept his losing record intact in terms of losing tosses, and India chose to bowl. A surprising decision, but paid well in the end. Ishant Sharma repeated his 2nd innings antics in the previous test with a 6 wicket haul again with Shami taking the rest. For the first time Indian seam line up took all 10 wickets in many years. India batted for the post tea session making a 100/2 with Dhawan cruising for another century. Advantage – INDIA
Day 2:
India, batted well almost for the entire day, with Dhawan missing out on a century. The night watchman Ishant made a gutsy 26. The tailenders contributed well for the team.(Zaheer – 22, Jadeja – 26) Star of the day is Ajinkya Rahane who scored 118. New Zealand seam line up got 9 on 10 wickets. not bad eh? India got a lead of 235, Great..!! New Zealand end the day on 24/1 trailing by 222 runs. Advantage – INDIA
Day 3: Mccullum and Watling rescued the Black caps after they were trailing 94/5 A partnership was forming, which was slowly rescuing them from an innings defeat, to avoiding a follow on, and then giving a decent target. No good performances from the indians. The bowlers were worn out. For a while, Zaheer bowled a spell which was on the stump. Pure class!! Advantage – 50-50
Day 4: Mccullum and Watling made a partnership record and batted the entire day. Phew!! What a record. 350+runs is not what you hear for the 6th wicket. Then, James Neesham , the debutant scored a century. It’s like, whoever was batting from the home team played India like their toy. The Bowlers like usual were a failure. it seemed they weren’t into the match and hoped it would all end like a bad dream. Advantage – New Zealand Day 5: Mcculum completes his triple hundred with style thus joining the league of Sir Donald Bradman and Wally Hammond as the only players to have scored a double century and a triple century in consecutive Tests. Stupendous achievement! In that course, he broke Martin Crowe’s long time record since 1991 of scoring the highest runs on this ground (Previous was 299 in the year 1991-92) The match was declared, and thus India was given a daunting target of 430+ It was obvious nothing could be done! But, we batted decently with our future star, Virat kohli scoring a consolatory hundred for the visitors.
Result: MATCH DRAWN
8 Things we learnt from this match:
1) Brendon Mcculum is the man everyone must thank. he truly played a captain’s knock, didn’t he? He showed everyone how a aggressive batsman can slow down his game to great lengths just for his country.
2) Ishant Sharma is the most unpredictable Indian player ever.
3) Our batting seems to have finally found the swing, not only the top order, but also the tail enders contributing.
4) The Kiwis need more variety in the spin department. Expecting everything from their seamers can backfire anytime.
5) Rohit Sharma needs to find his zing back again, if he wants to cement his place in the team.
6) Our bowling looked like it was getting back to track, but the key to success always remains Consistency. We need more of it.
7) Watling and Mcculum need to be given a special praise for their performance. To rescue your team from the losing stage to get them to a decent position is commendable.
8)The men in blue’s next task is England which is 5 months from now which means after 2 months, India will have a record for not winning an away test for more than 1000 days!!
Name – Mitchell Johnson Age – 32 Role – Fast Bowler, Sometimes an All rounder. Nicknames – Notch, Midge, Chomps
Johnson has been a regular starter with the Aussies, spear heading their attack, acheiving success almost everytime. The year 2013 was clearly the year of Midge. He has been phenomenal with the ball, and contributing a little with the bat too. Wickets have been a regular thing for him as he got his team victories too easily. The guy with the mustache has given batsmen of many nations, sleepless nights.
Now, a little bit of history: When we think of fast bowlers who are legends, some names we would get would be, Glen McGrath Courtney Walsh Courtly Ambrose Waqar Younis etc
These cricketers at their time, were legends on field. Their performance was mesmerizing to anyone and everyone who watched them play. There was one thing the above bowlers had in common, i.e Consistency!
Midge has been consistent all year in 2013, and he doesn’t seem to slow down soon. In 2014 he is continuing to destroy every team that comes in his way.
Here is a list of a few of his last test outings right from The Ashes and the ongoing series with South Africa. Bowling figures: (Ashes)Bowling figures: (South Africa) 1st test – 9 / 103 1st test – 12/127 2nd test – 8 / 113 3rd test – 6 / 140 4th test – 8 / 88 5th test – 6 / 73
Now, tell me, how do you rate this guy? Too good ain’t he? Yes he is..!! 49 wickets in his last 6 tests mean he at least picks up an average of 8 wickets a test. That is an incredible feat.
Also he does have a fifty in one innings. That’s decent for a full time bowler. These stats are just a piece of recent information. He has been a legend in the making from many years with decent performances. But this Ashes, he stole the limelight completely. Everyone started noticing him more and more with every match. And i think after a while, his fan base will increase to a new height.
We all know he has been bought by Kings XI Punjab for $1.15 million. That’s a huge price but i think he fits the bill, Mumbai Indians will surely miss his presence and yes, Batsmen will have to beware of this guy, as he has a fetish of watching castled wickets and sad faces of batsmen. Hoping to see him get better and better!
All statistics from ESPN Cric info: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/6033.html
