Kolkatta Knight Riders Vs Kings XI Punjab - Match 27 - St George's Park, Port Elizabeth

Bard Hodge's 70 could not help Kolkatta salvage a win, as they lost yet another match to Kings XI Punjab. Kings XI scrapped through with a last ball 6 wicket win, thanks mainly to a solid unbeaten 52 from jayawardane.

Toss
Kolkatta Knight Riders won the toss and Chose to bat first.

Brief Scores
Kolkatta Knight Riders - 153/3 in 20 overs(B Hodge - 70, S Ganguly - 22, P Chawla - 2/27, Y Abdulla - 1/33)
Kings XI Punjab - 154/4 in 20 overs(M Jayawardane - 52*, S Katich - 34, I Sharma - 2/27, B Hodge - 1/13)

Result
Kings XI Punjab won by 6 wickets

Chennai Super Kings Vs Delhi Daredevils - Match 26 - New Wanderes Stadium, Johannesburg - Bulletin

Little known Shadab Jakati spun Chennai Super Kings to a memorable victory on a batsman friendly Wanderers pitch. On a pitch which was predicted to produce the first 200+ innings score, Gauti won the toss and decided to field first,and Dhoni was banking on the Hayden - Raina factor to post a competitive score on board. Hayden did start off the Chennai innings with a zing scoring 30 of just 19 balls, but the wickets of Vijay and Hayden in quick succession bought together Badrinath and Raina. These two played brilliantly after the strategic time out and got the run rate near nine runs per over, before Raina was caught in the deep after making 32 of 21 balls. S Badrinath's blinder of an innings came to an end when he lost his sticks trying to improvise on Bhatia's bowling. Once the wicket of Badri was lost, Chennai kept loosing wickets regularly. Morkel and Dhoni, the most dreaded power hitters in the line up failed to live up to their reputation and Chennai lost all the wickets for 163 runs. On the bowling front, the left arm seamers Ashish Nehra and Dirk Nannes grabbed three wickets each giving away 27 runs.

With the likes of in-form deVillers and Dilshan, Delhi started off their chase on the batsmen friendly Wanders pitch as favourites. It needed some special effort and a few once in a life - time performance from Chennai to score some points in this game. Chennai got exactly what they prayed for, when Raina took a blinder of a catch to dismiss dangerous looking Gambhir and the next ball Sudeep Tyagi got one to nip back a bit and the in - form deVillers had his woodwork disturbed. Jakati was introduced into the attack and he bowled a brilliant delivery which got rid of Dilshan and reduced Delhi to 53/3. David Warner and Dinesh Karthik came to Delhi's rescue and with their brilliant counter - attack left Dhoni hoping for just another miracle. The miracle came when Warner tried to get down the track and score a maximum of Jakati, but the ball spun, beat him and Dhoni completed a neat stumping. David Warner was out for 51 and Chennai heaved a sigh of relief as the dreaded partnership was broken. Manhas tried to hoik Murali over the ropes only to find hear the sound of his sticks getting disturbed. Karthik fell after scoring a brilliant 42 of 31 balls and with this wicket Delhi had lost their chase. Delhi managed to score just 10 runs of the final over in which they required 28, thereby handing over a 18 run, much needed victory to Chennai. This win propels Chennai to the fourth place in the points table and throws the tournament wide open.

Toss:
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field

Teams:
Chennai Super Kings
M Vijay, M Hayden, S Raina, M S Dhoni, A Morkel, S Badrinath, S Jakati, J Oram, L Balaji, M Muralitharan, S Tyagi
Delhi Daredvils
G Gambhir, V Shewag, T Dilshan, AB de Villiers, M Manhas, D Karthik, D Nannes, D Vettori, A Nehra, A Mishra, P Sangwan

Brief Scores:
Chennai Super Kings - 163 all out in 20 overs(S Badrianth - 45, S Raina - 31, A Nehra - 3/27, D Nannes - 3/27)
Delhi Daredevils - 145/8 in 20 overs(D Karthik - 52, D Warner - 51, S Jakati - 4/24, S Tyagi - 2/18)

Result:
Chennai Super Kings won the match by 18 runs.

Rajasthan Royals Vs Deccan Chargers - Match 25 - St George's Park, Port Elizabeth - Bulletin

Rajasthan Royals have won their third game of this year’s IPL beating the Deccan Chargers by 3 wickets. The Royals have had many close finishes and this was no different. The tension lasted till the last over, with the Royals getting home with 2 balls to spare. Batting first Deccan chargers were off to a steady start but lost Gibbs and Balakhia in quick succession. But handy contributions by Gilchrist (39), Sharma (38) and Suman (41) ensured they reached a competitive total of 144/5.

In reply Rajasthan made a disastrous start losing both their openers for ducks in the first over. Thing got worse the following over when when Ojha was caught off RP Singh for a duck. Just as their hope seemed to fade away, Carseldine played an exciting counter attacking knock and at one stage looked like running away with the game. He and Jadeja (12) added 51 runs for the fourth wicket, before the pair was dismissed by Rao in the space of five balls. To every once surprise Warne promoted him to number 6 and started to weave some of this magic, this time with the bat. He hit two sixes in the 12th over but was caught soon after trying to increase the scoring rate.

Just when it seemed to be over in came Pathan. Four of the first ball he faced was followed by two consecutive sixes in the next over, then another pull for four brought the equation down to 17 runs from three overs. It was then down to singles and twos to get the job done, but Pathan as he usually does went for a big shot and was caught. The situation was tense in the last over after Harwood failed to score of the first two balls and then a missed run out opportunity while attempting to steal a single when the ball headed towards the keeper.

Among all this chaos, Raut composed 36 of 23 balls. An important innings played at the other end of all the drama .

Toss
Deccan Chargers won the toss and elected to Bat

Teams
Rajasthan Royals
G Smith, S Asnodkar, R Jadeja, Y Pathan, S Warne, N Ojha, M Patel, S Trivedi, S Hawood, A Raut, L Carseldine

Deccan Chargers
A Gilchrist, H Gibbs, R Sharma, D Smith, V Rao, A Bilakhia, P Ojha, RP Singh, SM Shoaib, F Edwards, T Suman

Brief Scores
Deccan Chargers - 141/5 in 20 overs (T Suman - 41, A Gilchrist - 39, S harwood - 2/25)
Rajasthan Royals - 142/7 in 19.4 overs(Carseldine - 38, Raut - 36*,Y Pathan - 24, RP Singh 2/18)

Result
Rajasthan Royals won by 3 wickets

THIS POST WAS POSTED BY RUDY

Banglore Royal Challengers Vs Kings XI Punjab - Match 24 - Kingsmead, Durban - Bulletin

A sesnsational hat - trick and a brilliant half century from Yuvaraj Singh didn't prove enough as Kings XI fell short by 8 runs against Banglore Royal Challengers. With Pieterson returning home for national duties, Kumble took over the mantle as Royal Challenger's captain and began on a good note winning the toss and electing to bat first. Jesse Ryder's terrible run in the IPL continued as he got out again with a single digit score. Yusuf Abdulla removed Bishnoi(18) and Goswami(10) and Banglore were reduced to 38/3. Kallis and Uthappa got a partnership going and when they looked dangerous, captain Yuvaraj Singh striked gold claiming a hat-trick. Uthappa and Kallis fell in the last two balls of the twelveth over and the dangerous Mark Boucher was dismissed the first ball of fourteenth over. With the scoreboard reading 84/6, Van der Merwe came to Banglore's rescue adding a valuble 35 runs of just 19 balls which powered Banglore to a moderate 145. Yusuf Abullah clinched the purple cap claiming 4 wickets and taking his wicket tally of this tournament to 13.

Kings XI started off their run chase brilliantly with Yuvaraj going great guns scoring 50 of 34 balls. He added 70 runs for the first wicket along with K Goel and got out just before commencement of strategic time out. The post strategic time out period proved to be disastrous for Kings XI as they kept loosing wickets regularly and looked lost in their run chase. The strong middle order containing the likes ot Katich, Sangakara and Jayawardane didn't click and eventually Punjab managed only 137 runs on the board. The Challengers bowling effort was lead by their captain Anil Kumble who returned with the figures of 2/25. He was ably supported by Kumar and Van der Merwe who also grabbed two wickets each.

Toss:
Banglore Royal Challenger won the toss and elected to bat

Teams:
Banglore Royal Challengers
J Kallis, S Goswami, J Ryder, M Boucher, Van der Merwe, V Kohli, R Uthappa, P Kumar, R Bishnoi, KP Appanna, A Kumble
Kings XI Punjab
Yuvaraj Singh, K Goel, M Jayawardane, K Sangakara, S Katich, I Pathan, P Chawla, R Powar, TM Srivatsava, VS Malik, Yusuf Abdulla

Brief Scores:
Banglore Royal Challengers - 145/9 in 19.5 overs(Van der Merwe - 35, J Kallis - 27, Y Abdulla - 4/36, Yuvaraj Singh - 3/22)
Kings XI Punjab - 137/7 in 20 overs(Yuvaraj Singh - 50, K Goel - 20, Van der Merwe - 2/22, A Kumble - 2/25)

Result:
Banglore Royal Challengers won the match by 8 runs

Mumbai Indians Vs Kolkatta Knight Riders - Match 23 - Buffalo Park, East London - Bulletin


JP Duminy's power hitting and Zaheer Khan's accurate bowling helped Mumbai clinch a 9run victory over the Kolkatta Knight Riders. Kolkatta have lost five games out of their seven and are in bad shape at the bottom of the points table. Mumbai Indians, after winning the toss, did not get the start they would have expected losing the dangerous Jayasuriya early Sachin Tendulkar showed some solidity at the top of the innings scoring 34 of 30 balls. With Sachin and Nayar getting out in a span of twenty runs and wickets tumbling at other end, it was upto South African star JP Duminy whose 52 of 37 balls, helped Mumbai reach a defendable target. Some inaccurate bowling from the Kolkatta bowlers conceding six wides and no ball helped Mumbai reach the final score of 148.

Chasing 149 for victory, Kolkatta yet again started off losing both their openers with just 9 runs on board. Both Ganguly(0) and Gayle(7) had their stumps rattled by Zaheer. A partnership of 91 runs between B Hodge(73) and Van Wyk(32). Apart from Hodge and Van Wyk no other batsman showed the intent of staying at the crease and were out with single digit scores. The run out of Hodge at the end of 19th over sealed all hopes of a Kolkatta win and they fell short by 9 runs. With this defeat, Kolkatta must win all their matches or hope for a miracle in order to reach the semis.

Toss:
Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bat first

Teams:
Kolkatta Knight Riders
C Gayle, B McCullum, S Ganguly, B Hodge, W Saha, LR Shukla, M Van Wyk, A Agarkar, M Karthik, I Sharma, A Dinda
Mumbai Indians
S Jayasuriya, S Tendulkar, A Rahane, JP Duminy, GR Napier, A Nayar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, P Shah, L Malinga, SS Tiwary

Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indians - 148/6 in 20 overs(JP Duminy - 52*, S Tendulkar - 34, A Agarkar - 1/12, B Hodge - 1/13)
Kolkatta Knight Riders - 139/6 in 20 overs(B Hodge - 73, Van Wyk - 32, Z Khan - 3/31, A Nayar - 1/20)

Result:
Mumbai Indians won the match by 9 runs.

Chennai Super Kings Vs Rajasthan Royals - Match 22 - SuperSport Park,
Centurion - Bulletin

Suresh Raina played one of the best innings of this years IPL to give Chennai their second win of the season. His 98 of just 55 balls propelled Chennai to a a formidable 164-5. In reply Rajasthan never looked in the hunt loosing opener their Graham Smith for just 2.

Raina was also a star in the field getting the wicket of Quiney(28) and taking two catches. Rajasthan only managed 126-9 in their 20 overs with Balaji picking up 4 wickets. Yusuf Pathan was once again the bright light for scoring 20 and taking 2 wickets in Rajasthan's 38 run loss.

This win has brought Chennai's campaign back on track, having lost three matches and one washed out. Rajasthan on the other hand have a lot to ponder about. Their batting has not been like we know from last year, their bowling, far from impressive.

Earlier in the day Chennai made a disastrous start with Pathan accounting for Hayden and Patel for 1 and 3 respectively. But this did not deter Raina who reached his half century of just 27 balls. He found valuable support from Badrinath (29) and Dhoni (22) along the way. Raina's innings included 5 sixes and 10 fours and ended when he was caught of the bowling of Munaf Patel.

If this was not enough drama, Raina had just celebrated his first IPL hundred and also became the first Indian to do so. But those celebrations were short lived as it was later found out that he had actually scored only 98. This was a disastrous mistake by the scorers who gave Raina two extra runs. Had Raina know this would he have played a different shot to the one he got out? Maybe, but as they say cricket is a team game and personal feats come second to the teams cause.

Toss
Rajasthan Royals and elected to field first

Teams
Rajasthan Royals
R Quiney,G Smith, S Asnodkar, R Jadeja, Y Pathan, D Mascarenhas, S Warne, M Rawat,
M Patel, S Trivedi, K Khan.

Chennai Superkings
M Hayden, P Patel, S Raina, S Badrinath, MS Dhoni, M Morkel, J Oram, L Balaji,
M Muralitharan, S Tyagi, S Jakati.

Brief Scores
Chennai Super Kings 164-5 in 20 overs (S Raina - 98, S Badrinath - 29, Y Pathan - 2/17)
Rajasthan Royals 126-9 in 20 overs (R Jadeja 37, R Quiney 28, L Balaji - 4/21, A Morkel - 2/21)

Result
Chennai Superkings won by 38 runs

THIS POST WAS POSTED BY RUDY

Deccan Chargers Vs Delhi Daredevils - Match 21 - SuperSport Park,Centurion - Bulletin

A brilliant partnership between Tilkaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Karthik helped Delhi win against the so far undefeated Deccan Chargers. Chasing a moderate total of 149 for victory Delhi had a moderate start with openers adding 30 runs for the first wicket, before RP Singh and SM Shoaib took three quick wickets which reduced Delhi to 49/3. But for the first time in this season Delhi WicketKeeper Dinesh Karthik showed some solidity and along with consistent Dilshan, took Delhi close to victory. Dilshan scored 52 off 46 balls and Karthik contributed 41 making use of just 30 deliveries.

Earlier in the match, Deccan started off poorly after being put in by the Delhi Skipper. Deccan first lost the dangerous Gilchrist for 8 followed by the in - form Gibbs who was out without troubling the scorers. The middle order chipped in with useful contributions, but most of the middle order got out after settling in. A blazing 48 from 28 balls from Dwayne Smith helped Deccan reach a reasonable score of 148. Dirk Nannes took two wickets, that of openers, and finsihed a brilliant spell with the figures of 2/16.

Toss:
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field

Teams:
Deccan Chargers
A Gilchrist, H Gibbs, A Bilakhia, R Sharma, D Smith, YV Rao, T Suman, P Ojha, RP SIngh, SM Shoaib, F Edwards
Delhi Daredvils
G Gambhir, V Shewag, T Dilshan, AB de Villiers, M Manhas, D Karthik, D Nannes, D Vettori, A Nehra, A Mishra, P Sangwan

Brief Scores:
Deccan Chargers - 149/9 in 20 overs(D Smith - 48, T Suman - 23, D Nannes - 2/16, A Nehra - 2/30)
Delhi Daredevils - 150/4 in 18.4 overs(T Dilshan - 52*, D Karthik - 41, SM Shoain - 2/20, RP Singh - 1/20)

Result:
Delhi Daredevils won by 6 wickets