High PL : News

All along, while we were singing praises of the Haydens and Gilchrists, Warnes and de Villiers, our very own Anil Kumble was scripting a magical odyssey of his own — he was defying age, retirement and the long-held belief that captains and spinners past their use by date are a bizarre combination in Twenty20 cricket. Ravi Shastri comments.

So near and yet so far, that was the case with us in the IPL final on Sunday at the Bull Ring in Johannesburg. To say that I am disappointed would be an understatement. Even at the halfway mark of our chase, we were in control and cruising to victory.

Winning 10 games and finishing on top of the table is a huge achievement. But sport can be cruel at times. People remember the team that wins at the end of it all, writes Daniel Vettori.

Gilchrist’s blitzkrieg assured me that we were certainly more than a few runs short. What an innings he played. It was mesmerising and, if I were not part of the opposing team, I would have certainly paid to watch the innings, writes Gautam Gambhir.

Two prospective Ashes opponents — Australian fast bowler Brett Lee and English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff — might become the cause of English crowd’s dislike for the Indian T20 league, writes Ian Chappell.

Chennai would be worried by the winning streak that Bangalore have managed. Anil Kumble is a skipper who leads from the front. The legend pointedly bowled the first over against Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, the two most destructive openers in this IPL, writes Ravi Shastri.

The good thing is that we have done it before, in the semifinals last year. It is a do-or-die game but as the bowling coach, I will be telling our players to go out and play the game as they have so far, writes Venkatesh Prasad.

It is with a lot of disappointment that I narrate the big loss in my life. In fact, it was one of the biggest losses of my career and will take some time to get over. It was not just my loss but Andrew McDonald’s too, writes Daniel Vettori.

There were nerves going into the last round robin match against Punjab, but the win has taken some of the pressure off. We have been grooming ourselves for the semifinals for some time now, and have big-match players who are in form, writes Stephen Fleming.

Our bowling could do a touch better but that’s where I see the batsmen stepping in and taking up the challenge. Along with today’s result, Virender Sehwag’s form will be a good reason for us to celebrate, writes Gautam Gambhir.

It has been hard to be a part of the bench, and I was hoping for a game during the league stage. I have asked a couple of people about why I was not being played, and I get the sense that they were worried about my fitness, writes Glenn McGrath.

For sheer intensity and pressure of the final phase, the players feel each IPL game is a Cup final. In situations like these, maintaining momentum and fitness is of vital importance, writes Amrit Mathur.

It is indeed a good feeling to have beaten the team leading the points table. The Delhi Daredevils were bold in experimenting with their side but we still needed to do a lot of things well to come up trumps, writes Anil Kumble.

As the IPL draws to a close, it’s comforting to see the India players, pencilled in for the T20 World Cup, in rip-roaring form, writes Ravi Shastri.

Monday evening was a setback but we can take comfort in the fact that the Chennai Super Kings are more or less assured of a place in the semi-finals. Our batsmen did their job by putting up a formidable total but the bowlers disappointed, Venkatesh Prasad writes on the CSKs’ poor bowling.