A brief look at the nine defining moments of IPL-2 that will go into the League's golden book of history.
The conclusion of IPL’s second season is just a match away and that too the final battle between the two best teams that sweated out their way to reach the finals leaving behind the remaining six teams. Just like the inaugural season, this time too IPL stayed in the news for good and bad reasons. Last season it was the cheerleaders, this time it was security, fake IPL player and then the strategic timeout. These were all off-field activities, but here we’ll look back at those top-9 on-field moments that will go into the IPL’s golden book of history.
1. AB deVilliers Superbly-Paced Century: With an unbeaten knock of 105 off 54 balls, AB deVilliers led Delhi Daredevils to victory over Chennai Super Kings in the tournament’s first close game. His century came at a time when Delhi’s innings started disastrously and ended with high score of 189. The century of deVilliers included six 6s and five 4s.It was a power-packed innings, highlighted by de Villiers' stunning assault in the last four overs. Nothing matched the 20 he smashed in four successive balls off Andrew Flintoff.
2. Yusuf-Kamran's Super Over Performance: Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders entered into IPL’s first tie which was broken by Yusuf Pathan and Kamran Khan with their clean hitting and sensible bowling. Yusuf plundered 18 runs from the first four balls of the Super Over to give the defending champions their first win of the season.
On the other hand it was the 18-year-old rookie fast bowler Kamran Khan who with a tight final over forced a tie before being entrusted by skipper Shane Warne to bowl the Super Over. Kamran gave six runs off the last over (of the scheduled 20) and did well to hold his nerves in the Super Over too and gave away 15 runs.
3. Tendulkar-Jayasuriya Overwhelm Kolkata: It was a treat for the fans of this great game when they witnessed the two masters of the limited-overs game raise a century stand in 52 balls. Sachin scored 68 and Sanath followed suit with an explosive 52 to form the crux of Mumbai Indians’ 187 score against Kolkata Knight Riders. The veteran pair, with a combined age of nearly 76, treated Port Elizabeth to the cleanest, purest exhibition of batting that this season of IPL had seen.
Sachin batted with amazing fluency. He got the wrists into play superbly, pulling and cutting hard, and used his crease to negotiate the pacers. There were no crude shots, no cross-batted slogs from the duo. This was clinical hitting - each veteran knew the field and backed himself to pick the gaps. It was the experience of 1138 combined international games coming together in a mesmerizing mosaic of boundaries.
4. Raina Misses Century: In the 22nd match of this season between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, Suresh Raina hammered a low full-toss from Munaf Patel through extra cover and punched the air in delight. He looked thrilled thinking that he had just become the first Indian to score a hundred in the IPL (the previous seven had been made by four Australians, a New Zealander, a Sri Lankan and, a week before in Durban, a South African). But, it went horribly wrong when Raina skied the next ball to deep backward point, where Graeme Smith judged the catch nicely.
Raina’s smiling face turned gloomy when he came to know that a mistake by the scorers had gifted him two extra runs somewhere along the line. Suspicion centred on the 19th over, which, according to the scoreboard, Raina finished on 95 rather than 93. Somehow, he had pinched two of his partner MS Dhoni's runs. The conclusion was grim: Raina had made 98 and the happy-go-lucky swipe that cost him his wicket had also, it now transpired, cost him a hundred.
5. Yuvraj’s Double Hat-Trick: Though Yuvraj Singh failed to take his team Kings XI Punjab to the semis, but the world's best pie-chucker picked up two hat-tricks this season. He bowled better than he batted in the tournament. He has proved that he can be one of the most irritating bowlers to face. He can turn the ball slightly but what he does do cleverly is vary his pace by using a scrambled seam. He is usually slow, slower and not so slow but can surprise the batsmen with his quick ones.
His first hat-trick (3 for 22) came in the 24th match of this season against Bangalore Royal Challengers and the second one (4 for 13) came in the 49th match against Deccan Chargers in the form of Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao’s wickets. It was the Punjab skipper’s tremendous bowling effort that made them emerge victorious in both the matches. Read More...
1. AB deVilliers Superbly-Paced Century: With an unbeaten knock of 105 off 54 balls, AB deVilliers led Delhi Daredevils to victory over Chennai Super Kings in the tournament’s first close game. His century came at a time when Delhi’s innings started disastrously and ended with high score of 189. The century of deVilliers included six 6s and five 4s.It was a power-packed innings, highlighted by de Villiers' stunning assault in the last four overs. Nothing matched the 20 he smashed in four successive balls off Andrew Flintoff.
2. Yusuf-Kamran's Super Over Performance: Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders entered into IPL’s first tie which was broken by Yusuf Pathan and Kamran Khan with their clean hitting and sensible bowling. Yusuf plundered 18 runs from the first four balls of the Super Over to give the defending champions their first win of the season.
On the other hand it was the 18-year-old rookie fast bowler Kamran Khan who with a tight final over forced a tie before being entrusted by skipper Shane Warne to bowl the Super Over. Kamran gave six runs off the last over (of the scheduled 20) and did well to hold his nerves in the Super Over too and gave away 15 runs.
3. Tendulkar-Jayasuriya Overwhelm Kolkata: It was a treat for the fans of this great game when they witnessed the two masters of the limited-overs game raise a century stand in 52 balls. Sachin scored 68 and Sanath followed suit with an explosive 52 to form the crux of Mumbai Indians’ 187 score against Kolkata Knight Riders. The veteran pair, with a combined age of nearly 76, treated Port Elizabeth to the cleanest, purest exhibition of batting that this season of IPL had seen.
Sachin batted with amazing fluency. He got the wrists into play superbly, pulling and cutting hard, and used his crease to negotiate the pacers. There were no crude shots, no cross-batted slogs from the duo. This was clinical hitting - each veteran knew the field and backed himself to pick the gaps. It was the experience of 1138 combined international games coming together in a mesmerizing mosaic of boundaries.
4. Raina Misses Century: In the 22nd match of this season between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, Suresh Raina hammered a low full-toss from Munaf Patel through extra cover and punched the air in delight. He looked thrilled thinking that he had just become the first Indian to score a hundred in the IPL (the previous seven had been made by four Australians, a New Zealander, a Sri Lankan and, a week before in Durban, a South African). But, it went horribly wrong when Raina skied the next ball to deep backward point, where Graeme Smith judged the catch nicely.
Raina’s smiling face turned gloomy when he came to know that a mistake by the scorers had gifted him two extra runs somewhere along the line. Suspicion centred on the 19th over, which, according to the scoreboard, Raina finished on 95 rather than 93. Somehow, he had pinched two of his partner MS Dhoni's runs. The conclusion was grim: Raina had made 98 and the happy-go-lucky swipe that cost him his wicket had also, it now transpired, cost him a hundred.
5. Yuvraj’s Double Hat-Trick: Though Yuvraj Singh failed to take his team Kings XI Punjab to the semis, but the world's best pie-chucker picked up two hat-tricks this season. He bowled better than he batted in the tournament. He has proved that he can be one of the most irritating bowlers to face. He can turn the ball slightly but what he does do cleverly is vary his pace by using a scrambled seam. He is usually slow, slower and not so slow but can surprise the batsmen with his quick ones.
His first hat-trick (3 for 22) came in the 24th match of this season against Bangalore Royal Challengers and the second one (4 for 13) came in the 49th match against Deccan Chargers in the form of Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao’s wickets. It was the Punjab skipper’s tremendous bowling effort that made them emerge victorious in both the matches. Read More...
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