Preview CL: Mumbai Indians

Probably, the favorites for the Champions League T20, Mumbai Indians are a serious contender and sure semi-finalists. The presence of Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo strengthens the team. The team is placed along with Royal Challengers, Guyana, South Australia and Highveld Lions. They were the finalists of the Indian Premier League 2010 and just missed the cup. They were the most consistent team in the whole IPL.

CL T20 squads come in for all teams

One of the costliest players bought in the IPL, missed season 3 of IPL due to a knee injury. Yes, it is Andrew Flintoff, he will miss the Champions League 2nd Edition this Sepetember too. Chennai Super Kings will miss the English all rounder Flintoff. But, the Giant who recently retired from the Test form- Muttiah Muralitharan is in the action for the Champions League.

West Indies T20 Squad

The West Indies Cricket Board has made hell of surprises in  the T20 World Cup squad. The yougies, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo and Lendl Simmons who played a major role in domestic T20 tournaments for WI have not been chosen.

But, Veterans Shiv Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Jerome Taylor made a comeback to the West Indies team.

Andre Fletcher who with his poor run has not been dropped from the squad. He will open along with the long stand Opener Chris Gayle. He will also be a reserve keeper for Dinesh Ramdin.

The Chief of the selectors said:-

Wavell Hinds has been recalled and he brings a wealth of experience. He is a knowledgeable cricketer and we believe can make a good contribution in the middle-order as well.

The strength is in the all-round ability of the team. Overall, we have a balanced side with good all-round strength. We want to prepare well, because good preparation leads to good results

We have Chris Gayle at the top of the order and he can be a match-winner. It is also good to have our experienced players in the middle-order – Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan – and this gives us strength in the batting.

We are confident our players will deliver on the home stage. If we play as a unit we have a very good chance of winning the ICC T20 World Tournament

SQUAD:-

Chris Gayle (Captain), Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shiv Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Andre Fletcher, Wavell Hinds, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor

Pollard and Bravo arrive in for IPL

The Delhi Daredevils take on the Mumbai Indians at the Feroz Shah Kotla. DD are in great form with two wins in their bag.

Mumbai on the other hand needs to concentrate and win in the second game today. They have already won the first game with just an edge.

The Mumbai team has been boasted with the arrival with Kieron Pollard- this year’s biggest buy and all rounder Dwayne Bravo.

So, both the big bucks are to play today. Lasith Malinga will try to make it to the final eleven. But, with both foreigners and Lasith Malinga, the team has to select between Veteran Jayasuriya and all rounder Ryan McLaren.

Tendulkar has said-

Momentum is a key factor here. To start on a good note is so important. There is no time to think and 20 overs just fly by in this format. So in every match momentum will count and we will look to get as many victories as possible

Finishing the innings- A responsibility: Maxertainment 3

FINISHING WELL

In the T20 format, it is always very important to finish well. May it be during batting or bowling. Here, we discuss about some of the finishers of the different IPL teams. These key players are pretty much the deciding factors whether their teams cross the finish line or not.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Undoubtedly, the incredible Yusuf Pathan is their finisher. Yusuf Pathan who evolved as an exceptional T20 player in the first season has grown from strength to strength. His power hitting and his positive attitude have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat for the Royals. The recently 100(37 balls) against Mumbai Indians is a burning example of the effect Yusuf has on the opposition. Looking at the current form, he could be again prove to be the biggest game changer for Rajasthan Royals.

CHENNAI SUPERKINGS

Captain cool Dhoni and Albie Morkel are the finishers for this batting heavy team. The fact that helps Superkings is that they are packed with allrounders so they are not heavily dependant on both of them. Though Raina and Haydos are the mainstays at the top, the finishing act is shared between Dhoni, Morkel, Badrinath and the all rounders.

DELHI DAREDEVILS

AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik are the main people responsible for finishing off games. Delhi has some good local talent like Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia who are capable of giving both the main finishers a good support and saving the tail from being exposed.  Mainly if one of the top four Sehawag, Gambhir, De Villiers or Dilshan clicks, they make sure that they finish the game.

KINGS XI PUNJAB

The finishers are Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan. The addition of an allrounder like James Hopes will help their cause. Irfan and Yuvraj have been very successful in previous 2 editions but this time both come back from injuries so there is a big question mark on their form.

MUMBAI INDIANS

For the first season it was Abhishek Nayar and for the second season it was JP Duminy. Mumbai Indians have been the team which has underperformed purely because of they haven’t been able to win the close games. This season, they have started out well pulling off a dramatic victory over the Royals. But Mumbai Indians have identified the local talents like Sathish and Saurabh Tiwary and the return of players like Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, it will add a huge boast to the ending.

KOLKATA KNIGHTRIDERS

David Hussey is one of the strongest finishers for KKR. During his unavailability, Angelo Mathews has fitted into the role of a finisher perfectly. Domestic Players like Wriddhiman Saha and Laxmi Ratan Shukla  have also shown that in tense situations they are quite capable of handling the finishing job.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Ross Taylor, Mark Boucher and the young Virat Kohli are the batsmen RCB will depend upon to take their team home. Ross Taylor has been their biggest finisher, especially in the 2nd season he had invaluable contributons to RCB’s turnaround of fortunes. During his absence, Kohli and Boucher are quite ready to handle the finishing job.

DECCAN CHARGERS

Heavily dependant on one person to do the finishing job, the very talented Rohit Sharma. Rohit Sharma was exceptional in finishing the games for Deccan Chargers in season 2 which was one of the main reasons for their success. Though they have a great start they always put themselves in such a situation where Rohit has to bail them out.

THANKS TO THE GUEST EDITOR: PRACHURYA KIRTI NAYAK

Preview:Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians is probably the most high profile in the IPL. Thanks mainly to its icon player Sachin Tendulkar and being owned by the most reputed firm in the country-Reliance Industries Limited also helps. RIL had purchased the team for a whoping $111.9 million but the team has largely underperformed. But still MI was the most viewed team on TV.

The team started its 2008 campaign much to the disappointment to the fans with the absence of their icon Sachin Tendulkar.They lost the first 4 matches but then won 6 in a row under the captaincy of Shaun Pollock to bring themselves to the Semi Final contention. But they again lost 3 out of the last 4 matches and lost their way.All the matches they lost were on the last ball of the innings.

2009 season was no good. They bought in Zaheer Khan, Shikhar Dhawan and JP Duminy for $ 950000. The result was only that they lost 8,won 5 and drew 1.

This season looks somewhat better. With Jhonty Rhodes as their coach, it was  expected to be a much better fielding side. Sachin Tendulkar is looking in quite ominous form this time. And besides this they’ve roped in the explosive big-hitting Kieron Pollard for a massive $ 750000. Dwayne Bravo and Abhishek Nayar are expected to play bigger roles with both by swing their bats and rolling their arms.

JP Duminy can also roll his arm over whenever required along with Sanath Jayasuriya and Tendulkar himself. Like last season Tendulkar and Jayasuriya need to take their team to a flyer each time as expected with the most explosive opening batting pair.

The domestic players like Shikhar Dhawan and Saurabh Tiwary  also will have to play a lot better. Bowling seems to be an are of concern but is most likely to be spear headed by Bhajji, Zak and Malinga and Fernando.

KEY PLAYERS

Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo, JP Duminy, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard.

SQUAD:

Sachin Tendulkar, Saurabh Tiwary, Jean-Paul Duminy, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Jayadev Shah, Sanath Jayasuriya, Ryan Mclaren, Graham Napier, Rajagopal Sathish, Abhishek Nayar, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Ali Murtaza, Stuart Madan, Chandan Madan, Aditya Tare, Luke Ronchi, Harbhajan Singh, Syed Sahabbudin, Dilhara Fernando,Dhawal Kulkarni, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Ishan Malhotra and Rahul Shukla.