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8:39 PM
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England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is to undergo surgery on his right knee, ruling him out of the upcoming two-Test series against the West Indies.
Flintoff has returned from South Africa, where he was playing in the Indian Premier League, to undergo the surgery but England cricket chiefs expressed confidence that their star player would recover in time for the World Twenty20 in June and the Ashes series starting in July.
That will be greeted with scepticism in some quarters however, given Flintoff's long history of injuries.
And the fact that Flintoff suffered the injury while playing in the IPL will inevitably spark debate about whether a player with his injury record should have been taking part in the competition rather than concentrating on preparing for England's summer Tests.
The Lancashire star, England's outstanding performer in their 2005 Ashes win over Australia, tore the meniscus in his right knee while playing for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.
Scans at a Durban hospital detected a slight medial meniscal tear and after they were viewed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)'s medical supremo Nick Peirce, it was decided that Flintoff should return to London.
He will undergo a keyhole operation early next week and Peirce put the recovery period at three to five weeks.
Peirce said: "Clearly this is a huge disappointment for both the player and the IPL team. This sort of degenerative injury though is one that could have happened at any time anywhere.
"The procedures we put in place meant that the ECB medical staff were alerted about the problem immediately and we thank Chennai for their cooperation."
Hugh Morris, England Cricket Managing Director, added: "Andrew has been extremely unlucky with injuries but if there is one saving grace it is that the injury has occured now rather than on the eve of either the World Twenty20 or the Ashes.
"Having the surgery now means that Flintoff should be available for both those events although he is certain to miss the series against the West Indies."
3:52 PM
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Sachin Tendulkar turns 36 today. The master batsman has scaled every summit in the game - except for one. He has not yet been part of a World Cup winning team. But come 2011, the master blaster is all set to change that, when the World Cup is held on the subcontinent.
When asked at a recent function what his dreams were, he laughed off the question saying, "You only dream when you are asleep." But then he added, "I want to win the World Cup for India."
The captain of the Mumbai Indians got a surprise from his team when he found that they had organized a surprise birthday party at the team hotel.
Speaking to reporters, the always humble Sachin said, "It is the good wishes and blessings that count a lot. My family is joining me tomorrow, so am really looking forward to it."
The little master also said that he was still enjoying every moment of playing the game. "I would like to achieve the enjoyment factor. It is important to enjoy the game and only then will you come out with your best and that's what I want to do," he added.
3:19 PM
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Rain again dominated the proceedings before the start of play leading to a delay. The Knight Riders captain Brendon McCullum won the toss and he elected to bowl first. The Newlands pitch had offered assistance to the seamers and spinners in an equal proportion during the earlier games. Kolkata made four changes in their line-up. Sanjay Bangar, Mendis, Agarkar and Anureet Singh were the ones included in the final eleven. Rajasthan also had three changes in their team. They brought in Rob Quiney in place of Tyron Henderson while Swapnil Asnodkar made way for Abhishek Raut. The 25 year old Paul Valthaty was also included in the team.
Jaipur were off to a sloppy start when Valthaty and Rob Quiney got out in quick succession. While Valthaty got out to the young Anureet Singh, Ishant Sharma brought about the dismissal of Quiney after being hit for a six off his previous delivery. Jaipur were struggling at 14/2.
Yusuf Pathan walked to the crease and looked all set to take the attack to the Knight Riders. He went about his batting in his regular fashion, blazing away his blade. Smith played the ideal side-kick to Pathan, rotating the strike.
A partnership of 56 runs was brought to an end when Graeme Smith was dismissed by the magical Ajantha Mendis after a referral to the third umpire. Mendis struck again in the same over to dismiss Pathan on 42. After 10 overs, Rajasthan Royals once again were in a precarious position at 78/4.
Ravindu Jadeja and Dimitri Mascarenhas started the rescue work. Together they started building on a partnership hoping to take Rajasthan to a defendable score. With four overs remaining, Ravindu Jadeja tried to step on the accelerator. However he skied an Ishant Sharma delivery and was caught by Yashpal Singh. Mascarenhas on the other hand, played some impressive strokes until he left for the dugout after being dismissed by Anureet Singh.
An exciting last over saw Rajasthan reach a score 150 thanks to two sixers and a four by Abhishek Raut.
Gayle started Kolkata's chase with mammoth hits blazing off his bat much to the delight of the crowd and the team owner Shahrukh Khan. Rajasthan struck back by picking up the Knight Riders captain Brendon McCullum. The captain mis-hit a Mascarenhas delivery and was brilliantly caught by Kamran Khan.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla came in at number three and immediately got a lucky break when the Rajasthan keeper Rawat dropped a skier off Pathan's bowling. An interesting contest was in store when Shane Warne came in to bowl. Gayle and Shukla started off by approached his bowling in a cautious manner. However, the spin wizard Shane Warne tempted Gayle to go over the top, only to be caught by Jadeja.
Rajasthan's latest find, Kamran Khan picked up his first wicket when Shukla was out to a dazzling catch by Rawat, behind the stumps. Kolkata went into strategy break at 67/3 requiring 84 runs off 10 overs.
Munaf Patel struck immediately after the break, sending back Brad Hodge, after an attempted drive found the keeper's hands. Sanjay Bangar joined the former India captain Ganguly and together, they put on 23 runs. Just when things were looking good for Kolkata, Bangar gave Kamran Khan his second wicket when he drove uppishly to Smith at backward point.
The 'Prince of Kolkata' took the fight back to Rajasthan. He started off by hitting consecutive sixers off Munaf Patel; one of which came from a free hit. Yashpal Singh gave him good support from the other end as Kolkata inched closer to the target set by Rajasthan. Rajasthan got their next wicket when Yashpal Singh, much to the fury of Ganguly, got out to Shane Warne in the penultimate over. At this stage Kolkata required 7 runs of 6 balls with 4 wickets remaining.
Kamran Khan was asked to bowl the last over and he started off with a wide. Two singles, a dot ball and two leg-byes came of the first three balls. Ganguly was out for 46 off the fifth ball, caught behind by Rawat. Leading up to an nail-biting finish, two runs were required off the last ball. Ishant Sharma was on strike and could only manage a single after an attempted second run led to his run-out. The match ended in a tie resulting in the 'Super Over' being employed for the first time ever in the IPL.
Kolkata were the first to bat during the 'Super over'. The exciting left-armer Kamran Khan was given the ball by his captain while Gayle and McCullum wielded the bat. The first two balls resulted in two singles. Kamran bowled a wide off the third ball. The next three deliveries saw Gayle take toll of Kamran Khan by hitting him for three consecutive fours. However, he got out on the last ball after a great catch by Rob Quiney. Kolkata managed 15 runs.
It was Ajantha Mendis who came to bowl the 'Super Over' for Kolkata. Yusuf Pathan took strike accompanied by Ravindu Jadeja at the other end. Pathan started off by hitting Mendis for a six off his first ball. Yusuf skied the second delivery over the bowler's head but the ball fell just in between the converging fielders. The third ball saw Pathan blast Mendis for a six over mid-wicket. Rajasthan required just 2 runs off 3 balls. Yusuf finished it off with a boundary and Rajasthan clinched the cliff-hanger in grand style.
Post Match Quotes:
McCullum: Yeah it's pretty disappointing obviously. We thought we were going to get ourselves across the line and even in the Super over we thought we had a reasonable score but the way Yusuf came out and played... He just blew us away. Sourav did incredibly well to get us back into the game. It's incredibly disappointing but we've got a game in two days time so we've got to try and rebound. (For the super over) I think Ishant was an option but in the end Mendis, he's an incredible bowler. Things could have gone differently if we had that catch taken (on the second ball) who knows how it would have unfolded.
Warne: The crowd was fantastic. In those situations, both sides would have looked back and said we would've done that. For Yusuf Pathan to just walk out there and club a few sixes like that, well done to him, it was fantastic. (On choosing Kamran Khan for the last over): I thought about Yusuf. Kamran gave 6 runs off that last over, I thought he did it well. If you can bowl such a good last over, you can bowl the super over.
Trivia:
Kamran Khan picket up his maiden IPL wicket when he dismissed Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
Ganguly hit the first six of a free hit in the IPL 2009 after Munaf Patel bowled a no-ball.
The Rajasthan-Kolkata match was the first ever tied match in the IPL.
'Super Over' was employed for the first time ever in the IPL after the Rajasthan-Kolkata match ended in a tie.
3:18 PM
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Question: you are an immensely talented batsman. You've just had a fabulous 2009, average 61.57 at a strike rate of over 91 in ODIs, and 70.66 in test matches. You are playing for one of the title favourites in the IPL, and yet, despite your considerable talent, you find that the opening batsmen of your team are the only ones being talked about - by the opposition, by the fans, by the commentators, by the experts. And then, in a crunch match against the other title favourites, they both fall in the first two overs. What do you do?
Answer:Well if you're AB De Villiers, you play a masterly innings, played at a strike rate of nearly 200 but with every shot a pleasure for the aesthetic eye, and you provide a rare instance when individual brilliance trumps over the collective efforts of a well oiled unit. A moment of victory for Man against Machine, if you will.
The match that was billed as the clash of titans, pitting the two tournament favourites against each other, lived up to all the pre-match hype.
On a pitch that looked like a belter, Virender Sehwag won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first.
Chennai had an unchanged side, while Delhi made one change, but not the expected one. Ashish Nehra came in for Yo Mahesh, while there was still no sign of Glenn McGrath - who had the fourth best economy rate in last year's IPL (among bowlers who had bowled at least 40 overs).
Lakshmipathy Balaji gave Chennai a dream start by removing the dangerous Gautam Gambhir off the first ball of the match, when he lazily shouldered arms to a ball that caught a feather touch on the way to Dhoni. The next over, the second half of the dream opening pair also went, when Sehwag top edged a pull to Albie Morkel at mid-on, and suddenly Delhi's middle order was exposed.
However, Delhi fans needn't have feared. In Dilshan and AB De Villiers, the Daredevils found men who were upto the challenge. Dilshan was dominant initially, free stroking his way to 50 off 24 balls, but he fell immediately after. De Villiers however, picked up from where Dilshan left off, and then moved into a zone of his own. He got some support from Dinesh Karthik, and then in a stunning partnership with Manoj Tiwary, he made 65 off the 74 runs they scored. His masterclass ensured that Delhi ended up at an imposing 189 for 5 - the highest total of IPL 2009 so far.
However, when you have a batting lineup that has Hayden, Raina, Dhoni, Flintoff, Albie Morkel and Badrinath, no total can be considered safe, and Chennai came out intending to prove just that. Matthew Hayden - who the Australian selectors must seriously be thinking of calling out of retirement - blazed away to 50 off 22 balls - thereby equaling his own record set in his previous match for the fastest 50 of the tournament. At the halfway stage or 'strategy break' - also called the 'grab-all-the-money-you-can' break - Chennai were very well placed at a 106 for 2, with Raina and Dhoni at the crease. Even though Dhoni fell soon after, Chennai looked on course and when they needed 51 off 35 balls with Albie Morkel and Andrew Flintoff at the crease, they looked like favourites to win.
But some superb bowling at the death by Ashish Nehra, Avishkar Salvi and the ever reliable Daniel Vettori, ensured that Chennai's runs were choked, which led to suicidal run-outs and manufactured shots that ended up in the hands of fielders.
Eventually Chennai fell 9 runs short, close enough to sound a warning to other teams that no total is beyond their reach, but far enough to give Delhi the psychological edge and possibly assume the mantle of the front-runner for the tournament.
Man of the Match:
AB De Villiers for playing what has been the innings of the tournament so far. He started normally, picked up the pace towards the middle, and exploded at the end. A perfectly paced and constructed innings, scored under pressure with two of the main batsmen back in the pavilion inside the first 2 overs.
Turning Point of the Match:
Albie Morkel dropping AB De Villiers, when the latter was on 50 off 35 balls. AB went on to score a further 55 runs off just 19 balls.
