Tuskers trample Knight Riders

   The Kochi Tuskers Kerala scored a second win of the season over the Kolkata Knight Riders to further their hopes of reaching the Indian Premier League 2011 play-offs. Former Knight Brad Hodge's brutal last-over assault on Brett Lee was just the tonic Tuskers needed to breathe fresh life into their stuttering IPL 4 campaign.

  Batting first, Kochi made 156 for five wickets, with skipper Mahela Jayawardene topscoring with 55, made off 41 balls with two fours and two sixes. Brad Hodge contributed 35, made off 19 balls with three fours and two sixes, Michael Klinger 29 and Parthiv Patel 21. Chasing a competitive 157 for victory, KKR could manage only 139 for seven wickets from their 20 overs, thanks to some fine bowling by Kerala lad Raiphi Gomez (2 for 14) and R Vinay Kumar (2 for 28).

 Final Score
Kochi Tuskers Kerala 156/5 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 139/7 (20.0/20 ov)

Kochi make easy work of Delhi's target

Kochi Tuskers Kerala took sweet revenge on Delhi Devils by defeating Delhi quiet comfortably on Monday. A brilliant show by pacers restricted Delhi to a score of only 140 runs in 20 overs, thanks to brilliant bowling by all seamers ,RP Singh, Sreesanth, new man Prashant Parameswaran ( this tall man impressed every one by dismissing Sehwag cheaply in his first over and it was a turning point of the game ) and Vinay Kumar.  Chasing 141, Brendon McCullum went berserk and and played all shots he likes, good support by Micheal Klinger and generous extras given by Delhi bowlers added fuel to the skyrocketing run rate which maintained at 10 per over. Later on, Brad Hodge’s classic shots along with wicket keeper Parthiv Patel’s convincing smashes made Tusker’s win much earlier than expected. Kochi finished the game in style by scoring 141 in just 15 overs!

Scores
Delhi : 140/6 ( 20 Overs )
Kochi: 141/3 (15 overs )
Man of the Match: Prashant Parameshwaran

Chennai Super Kings beat Deccan Chargers by 19 runs

The Chennai Super Kings continued their winning run at home defeating the Deccan Charges by 19 runs and climb to 4th in the Indian Premier League table. A brilliant fifty of Suresh Raina & Mike Hussey's 44 runs gave them a fantastic start and fireworks of  Abbie Morkal at the end leads Chennai to set a target of 165.
In reply, the Deccan Chargers knocked off 64 runs in 6 overs thanks to Sunny Sohal’s 30 ball 56, but fell short by 19 runs as the other batsmen didn’t make use of the good start.

Dhoni made some smart bowling changes and his bowlers led by Albie Morkel (3/38 and 19 off 6 balls), Doug Bollinger (2/26) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0/23 off 4 overs) bowled well in the final overs as CSK notched up their fifth win eight matches and are now fourth in the points table.
But mainly, fielding made the difference between Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings on Sunday. While the Chargers had to pay for dropping a few genuine chances from the bats of Mike Hussey and Suresh Raina, CSK were brilliant in the field, refused to give up and made it difficult for the Hyderabad players to chase down a formidable target of 166.

RoYaLs tAMe TuSkErS

Kochi's lost batting rhythm without McCullum and all round performance by Royals put an end to Tuskers winning race. Loosing the toss, Kochi batted first and couldn’t build any consistent partnership in a tough wicket. Shane Warne’s thinking cap wise fully utilized different bowlers and then himself to crumble Kochi for a mere total of 109 runs in 20 over. Rajasthan Royal’s good opening partnership, between Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson did worked and pave the way for an easy win over Kochi in 14 odd overs.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala: M. Jayawardene b Botha 13 (13b, 2x4), V.V.S. Laxman (run out) 8 (10b, 1x4), P. Patel st Yagnik b Warne 32 (34b, 2x4), B. Hodge b Warne 8 (14b), R. Jadeja c and b Warne 22 (23b, 2x4), R. Gomez c Watson b Trivedi 0 (1b), T. Perera c Binny b Trivedi 1 (4b), K. Jadhav c Yagnik b Trivedi 5 (9b), R. Vinay Kumar c Watson b Amit 5 (4b, 1x4), M. Muralitharan (not out) 5 (8b), R. P. Singh (run out) 1 (1b), Extras (b-2, lb-4, nb-1, w-2) 9, Total (all out in 20 overs) 109.

Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-28, 3-42, 4-90, 5-90, 6-90, 7-92, 8-98.

Rajasthan Royals bowling: Amit Singh 4-0-26-1, Watson 4-0-23-0, Botha 4-0-19-1, Warne 4-0-16-3, Trivedi 4-0-19-3.

Rajasthan Royals: S. Watson b Jadeja 49 (40b, 4x4, 2x6), R. Dravid (run out) 44 (37b, 4x4, 1x6), J. Botha (not out) 14 (7b, 3x4), R. Taylor (not out) 2 (1b), Extras (lb-1, w-1) 2, Total (for two wickets in 14.1 overs) 111.

Fall of wickets: 1-71, 2-105.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala bowling: R.P. Singh 2-0-11-0, Vinay Kumar 3-0-27-0, Muralitharan 3.1-0-28-0, Perara 2-0-11-0, Jadeja 3-0-24-1, Gomez 1-0-9-0.

Man-of-the-match: Shane Warne.

Bangladesh eyeing for Dada along with Tuskers

 India's most successful captain Sourav Ganguly’s return is almost certain. Kochi tuskers management is keen to sign to the former Indian captain as a replacement for Mahela Jayawardene. However IPL team managements has not get confirmation from BCCI to go ahead with replacement for Sri Lankan players. The Tuskers management is waiting to get the green signal from BCCI to approach Dada. Anyway Bangladesh cricket board has approached to sign Dada for the role of batting coach for national team. Now, in the current scenario, if Mahela Jayewardene leaves the team early, Kochi team is eager to bring-in Dada, But need to wait for BCCI’s nod and Dada’s decision.

Tuskers lost against Banglore Royal Challengers......

Kochi Tuskers Kerala lost to Royal Challenger Bangalore by 6 wickets. After posting a brilliant total, Kochi couldn’t control the blistering strokes by AB de Villier towards the end and few expensive overs changed the game.

Score -  KTK 161/6 (20 Overs)

             BRC 162 (18.4 Overs)

Brilliant start for KTK......

Decent score for Kochi Tuskers against the Banglore Royal Challengers..... Kochi Tuskers - 161/5 (20 Overs)