Sunday, April 20, 2008

Hey Day for T20 Lovers

Three T20 matches will be played out today and the cricket fan will be spoilt for choice.

Here's a brief preview of the 3 matches.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers
Indian Premier League Match 4, 10:30 GMT, Eden Gardens, Kolkata

The Knight Riders will be playing their first match at home. I would like to see if their performance in the 1st game can bring a 100,000 people to the Eden Gardens. Can you imagine the atmosphere if they do? After demolishing a weak Bangalore side, they go up against the mighty Deccan Chargers led by VVS Laxman who will be making his IPL debut on his favorite ground.

The Knight Riders will probably go in with the same line up as Gayle and Umar Gul still haven't arrived.

The Chargers are one of the strongest IPL line ups I reckon. Gilchrist, Symonds, Styris, Rohit Sharma, Laxman - thats some batting power there. Even without Afridi and Gibbs, their batting looks very strong. Their attack lacks variety though with 3 left arm seamers in RP, Vaas, and Zoysa and McCullum may be licking his lips after what he did to Zaheer Khan.

This has the potential to be a cracker of a match. For the bloggers, this match pits my favorite team, the Knight Riders, against Uncle J Rod's. That surely is an intriguing battle.

Other battles to watch out for:
  1. Ponting batting while Gichrist keeps wicket.
  2. Symonds bowling to Ponting.
  3. Ishant Sharma bowling to Laxman.
  4. Prince of Kolkata (Ganguly's home) taking on King of Kolkata (Laxman's 287).

Pakistan vs Bangladesh
Only T20 International, 1:00PM GMT, National Stadium, Karachi

After being whitewashed 5-0 in the ODIs the Bengalis would be looking to save some face and go back home with something positive. They are an exciting T20 team and should be able to give Pakistan a tougher fight than they did in the ODIs.

Who am I kidding? This will be another one sided match I think with little interest from the viewers. I believe everyone will watch this he way I will - flipping to the channel during an IPL commercial break.

The only interesting thing here is that the PCB have yet again dropped Mohammad Yousuf from the line up. And Younis Khan continues to be there.


Mumbi Indians vs Bangalore Royal Challengers
Indian Premier League Match 5, 2:30PM GMT, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

After a mauling in their first match, Rahul Dravid's men will be looking to put up a better performance against Sachin Tendulkar's Indians. I wonder how Jayasuriya, Pollock, Luke Ronchi, Dwayne Bravo, Loots Bosman, Dilhara Fernando, Ashwell Prince, Dominic Thornely, and Malinga feel playing for a team called the Indians. Hmmm.

The opening combination of Sachin and Jayasuriya is an explosive one and I can't wait for the 2 to take the field together. Sachin is still doubtful but I hope he plays. With Steyn and Bracken still missing the Royal Challengers will have a tough time containing these 2. With Uthappa and Bravo in the line up as well, the Indians could post a huge total.

Bangalore's batting would be stronger today with the in form Chanderpaul joining them but I think they have another tough day ahead.

Battles to watch out for:
  1. Pollock bowling to Kallis and Boucher.
  2. Praveen and Zaheer bowling to Sachin.
  3. Harbhajan bowling to Dravid.
  4. Pollock batting and Boucher keeping wicket.
  5. Bravo bowling to Chanderpaul.
Have a good day T20 lovers. Keep coming back for more on the IPL.

Make your pitch on this post...



Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,


2 Pitched:

  1. Jrod said...
     

    Some one extremely intelligent wrote in your comments that Dominic Thornley is afraid of fast bowling. See todays results.

  2. Q said...
     

    This is exactly what u said Uncle J:

    "Dominic Thronley, red hair, hits the ball a long way, is afraid of short fast bowling, bowls medium pace averagely."

    Right here: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3713921718473352259&postID=7906086261080548338&pli=1

    Poor boy is down and out after a Zaheer Khan bouncer.

Post a Comment