The Pune Warriors won the battle of the 2011 IPL debutants by beating the Kochi Tuskers Kerala by four wickets at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai yesterday.

Pune and Kochi are the two new franchises in this year’s IPL and Pune, chasing 149 for victory, eventually cruised to 151 for six with seven balls of their innings remaining.

The home side made life a touch difficult for themselves as they slipped to 118 for six in the 16th over.

But Mohnish Mishra ended the match in a hurry as he slammed a four and two sixes during the 19th over, bowled by off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, to end not out on 37 off 21 balls.

Pune’s top three batsmen all reached double figures but Jesse Ryder (17), Graeme Smith (24) and Mithun Manhas (12) failed to capitalise on their starts.

(more…)

The Rajasthan Royals moved to the top of the IPL Leaderboard after they cruised to their second successive win by beating the Delhi Daredevils by six wickets.

The senior batsmen took on the responsibility – Rahul Dravid set up the platform and Johan Botha anchored things in the middle – while the youngsters, Ashok Menaria and Ajinkya Rahane, batted with freedom to keep the required rate under control. Ross Taylor finished things off in the 19th over with his trademark leg-side lashes.

If Rajasthan’s batting flowed along seamlessly, their bowling was a tale of two halves. Their fortunes were typified by the four one-over spells delivered by their fastest bowler. Shaun Tait’s first two overs got rid of Virender Sehwag and Aaron Finch – two parts of Delhi’s powerful top-order trinity. David Warner, the third part, survived Tait and saw off a sublime spell from Shane Warne before turning things around with Venugopal Rao.

(more…)

English cricketers that are aiming to play in the Indian Premier League next year may be forced to give up their central contracts by an adamant ECB, which has made it clear that international engagements are top priority.

England team Managing Director Hugh Morris has categorically stated that the England Cricket Board (ECB) can release the interested cricketers for only two weeks as scheduled Tests and ODI programmes cannot be altered. And those wanting to go for the full event may be asked to forego central contracts.

“We will be playing Test matches in the early part of May and clearly that will have an impact on the amount of time that players may or may not go to IPL.

(more…)