High PL : News

While we name and rejoice at the proud owners of orange and purple caps for batting and bowling, the efforts in the field will deserve similar recognition. It has made a telling difference to the fates of the IPL teams. Ravi Shastri comments.

It may not have been a comprehensive victory, but our dramatic last-over win against the Deccan Chargers was no less sweet. We made plenty of mistakes, especially with the bat, but we can be proud of the fighting spirit we displayed. Kumar Sangakkara on the win over Chargers...

Kolkata Knight Riders have now been joined amongst the also-rans by the Mumbai Indians in the 2009 IPL season, which is a bit like hosting a party for English football celebrities and not inviting David Beckham and Posh Spice, writes Mickey Arthur.

The loss to Kings XI Punjab was disappointing, but we are just looking at it as a blip on the radar. It is better to have an off day before the semifinal, than have it on the day of the knockout. Daniel Vettori on the loss to Kings XI...

Looking across the field, the Deccan Chargers seem well placed to join Delhi and Chennai in the semifinals. Adam Gilchrist has been giving the team devastating starts, and RP Singh has rediscovered his form. Glenn McGrath on the possible semifinalists...

It was reported on Tuesday that Warne had pulled a hamstring and that he could miss the rest of the IPL, but the Aussie was back for the next match, reports G Krishnan.

In team meetings, everyone has been talking about the points table. I have told everyone to forget worrying about it. We can’t control other teams and their results and so there’s no point in wasting time on it, Anil Kumble talks on the team’s performance.

We were naturally relieved to register our sixth win on Friday and credit for that victory against the Daredevils should go to Brett Lee, the Man of the Match, and Irfan Pathan, for his allround display, Kumar Sangakkara writes.

Do left-handers have an edge in this format? The statistics would make us believe so. Five of the top seven batsmen, including the top three, are left-handers. In the bowling department, three of the top four turn their left arm over, while among the next two, there is another left-armer, Ravi Shastri writes on impact of left-handers/left-armers in IPL.

McGrath and I played for 10 years. I have been trying to tell all the New Zealand batsmen that Glenn is actually a nice guy, but they are not really believing it! Daniel Vettori on team atmosphere...

Kessie ‘Super’ Naidu — 57 — is of average height and stout built. Football was his vocation and it took him to the top flight of the game in SA. He hopes the proposed tournament in Durban featuring Mohun Bagan and East Bengal in July “will work” from an Indian perspective in the sense that more South Africans of Indian origin “will start taking interest” in football. “Maybe some day this tournament will become something like the IPL”, writes Atreyo Mukhopadhyay.

The Mumbai Indians will do themselves a big favour by taking a leaf out of JP Duminy’s book, for the South African comes across as a great believer in sticking to a game-plan that has worked for him over the years, writes Subhash Rajta.

Skill or gambling may still be the question but there is no doubt that if the Indian Board goes ahead with the game, we might one day have a whole generation, a whole country and one billion people watching a cricket match with a mobile in their hands, texting after each over a prediction which might fetch them monetary rewards, writes Pradeep Magazine.

We will be playing against teams who desperately need to win to keep their semifinal hopes alive. Since we are already there, we must not let complacency — or the need to experiment — come in the way of our winning streak, writes Glenn McGrath.

Time to make predictions for the semifinals of this IPL? The exercise is worth the effort if for nothing else than just to indulge in some brain game, writes Ravi Shastri.