Kings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings, 2nd semi-final

Kings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings, 2nd semi-final

Inspired Chennai keep Punjab to 112

May 31, 2008

20 overs Kings XI Punjab 112 for 8 (Powar 28*, Gony 2-14) v Chennai Super Kings
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

	The opening burst from Makhaya Ntini and Manpreet Gony left Kings XI Punjab in tatters (file photo) © Getty Images

Bowling and fielding with exceptional intensity and focus, Chennai Super Kings restricted Kings XI Punjab to just 112 in the second semi-final in Mumbai and gave themselves an excellent chance to fight for the title. Makhaya Ntini and Manpreet Gony were the stars, striking twice each in their first spells to reduce Punjab to a shambolic 40 for 5 from which they could only partially recover.

Punjab's two previous losses to Chennai had both come when they'd chased, and Yuvraj Singh did the team a huge favour by winning the toss and choosing to bat on a pitch which was expected to assist the spinners later in the evening. That, though, was the only thing that went right for Punjab, as Chennai struck in the second over, and never released the pressure thereafter.

On a pitch offering generous bounce to the fast bowlers, Chennai's pace attack of Ntini, Gony and Albie Morkel bowled in the perfect channel, denying the Punjab batsmen any room to execute strokes through the off side. Learning from Shane Watson's spell on Friday, Ntini pitched it slightly short of a length, hit the bat hard, and hurried the batsmen in their shots, while Gony bowled a fuller length, and with the sort of control which would have made Glenn McGrath proud. Chennai were also superb in the field - Muttiah Muralitharan pulled off a splendid catch over his head to intercept a Yuvraj pull, Suresh Raina was equally spectacular in pulling off a diving catch to dismiss Wilkin Mota late in the innings, while the ground fielding was without blemish.

There was little sign of such a dramatic collapse when Shaun Marsh stroked the first ball of the match - from Muralitharan, surprisingly - through the covers for four. Seven came off that over, but the wheels started coming off in the next over, when James Hopes slashed at a wide one from Ntini and edged to Parthiv Patel.

That dismissal sparked off a procession of wickets, as three more fell in the next four overs. Kumar Sangakkara's was the most bizarre, as he seemed to have missed a drive from a wide ball from Gony, but walked off even though Parthiv didn't appeal at all. Yuvraj was restless after playing out three successive dot balls and pulled to Murali at short midwicket, but the biggest blow was delivered in the next over, when Ntini removed the tournament's highest scorer and most consistent batsman.

Marsh wasn't at his fluent best, top-edging a pull for six off and inside-edging for four in Ntini's second over, but a straight-drive off the same bowler in his next over oozed class. Next ball, though, it was all over for him as another attempted pull misfired, the inside-edge crashed into his stumps.

Clearly rattled by the early wickets, Punjab lost the plot with some terrible running between the wickets, which cost Irfan Pathan his wicket. Mahela Jayawardene stroked the ball to third man, ran two, started for the third and then changed his mind, leaving Pathan with too little time to gain his ground. When Jayawardene himself fell next over, steering to the wicketkeeper, Punjab had slumped to 45 for 6.

From there, it was only an exercise in damage control: Mota and Piyush Chawla added 18 before Murali got into the act with a straighter delivery, while Mota and Ramesh Powar - the two local Mumbai players - put together 35, easily the most productive partnership of the innings. Mota managed a useful 26-ball 25, while Powar smeared Morkel for a huge six over midwicket and then creamed a listless L Balaji for three fours in the last over to bring a semblance of respectability to the total, but a target of 113 is hardly one which will worry Dhoni and his team.

Twenty20 match

Indian Premier League - 2nd Semi-Final Chennai Super Kings v Kings XI Punjab

2007/08 season

Played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on 31 May 2008 - day/night (20-over match) Result Chennai Super Kings won by 9 wickets (with 31 balls remaining)

	Kings XI Punjab innings (20 overs maximum)			R	B	4s	6s	SR
		SE Marsh	b Ntini	23	17	3	1	135.29
		JR Hopes	c Patel b Ntini	2	5	0	0	40.00
		KC Sangakkara	c Patel b Gony	3	4	0	0	75.00
		Yuvraj Singh	c Muralitharan b Gony	4	8	0	0	50.00
		DPMD Jayawardene	c Patel b Morkel	8	10	1	0	80.00
		IK Pathan	run out (Ntini/Gony)	3	12	0	0	25.00
		WA Mota	c Raina b Morkel	25	26	2	0	96.15
		PP Chawla	b Muralitharan	12	15	1	0	80.00
		RR Powar	not out	28	21	4	1	133.33
		S Sreesanth	not out	0	2	0	0	0.00
		Extras	(b 2, w 2)	4
		Total	(8 wickets; 20 overs)	112	(5.60 runs per over)

Did not bat VRV Singh

Fall of wickets1-8 (Hopes, 1.3 ov), 2-11 (Sangakkara, 2.2 ov), 3-28 (Yuvraj Singh, 4.4 ov), 4-34 (Marsh, 5.5 ov), 5-40 (Pathan, 8.2 ov), 6-45 (Jayawardene, 9.5 ov), 7-63 (Chawla, 13.4 ov), 8-98 (Mota, 18.6 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	M Muralitharan	4	0	19	1	4.75	(1w)
	M Ntini	4	0	23	2	5.75
	M Gony	4	1	14	2	3.50	(1w)
	JA Morkel	4	0	27	2	6.75
	L Balaji	4	0	27	0	6.75

	Chennai Super Kings innings (target: 113 runs from 20 overs)			R	B	4s	6s	SR
		PA Patel	not out	51	48	8	0	106.25
		S Vidyut	c Mota b Pathan	6	7	1	0	85.71
		SK Raina	not out	55	34	4	4	161.76
		Extras	(w 4)	4
		Total	(1 wicket; 14.5 overs)	116	(7.82 runs per over)

Did not bat MS Dhoni, CK Kapugedera, S Badrinath, JA Morkel, M Gony, L Balaji, M Muralitharan, M Ntini

Fall of wickets1-14 (Vidyut, 2.2 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	IK Pathan	4	0	24	1	6.00	(2w)
	S Sreesanth	1	0	7	0	7.00	(1w)
	RR Powar	3	0	28	0	9.33	(1w)
	VRV Singh	2	0	14	0	7.00
	JR Hopes	2	0	20	0	10.00
	PP Chawla	2.5	0	23	0	8.11

Toss Kings XI Punjab, who chose to bat first

Afghanistan and Jersey continue on road to ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

Afghanistan and Jersey continue on road to ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

Fine all-round performance by Nabi Eisakhil; Peter Gough and Steve Carlyon feature in century opening stand; Mathew Hague takes 5-38

Afghanistan and Jersey qualified for the ICC World Cricket League Division 4, the next stage of qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, when they convincingly won their ICC World Cricket League Division 5 semi-finals in Jersey on Friday.

Afghanistan successfully defended a small total of 142 runs to defeat Nepal by 37 runs at the Grainville while Jersey outsmarted the USA by 84 runs at the FB Fields.

Afghanistan and Jersey not only progressed through to Saturday’s final but will also join Hong Kong, Fiji, Tanzania and Italy in the six-team ICC WCL Div. 4 set for the Tanzanian capital of Dar Es Salaam from 4 to 11 October.

In turn, the top two teams from that tournament will progress to WCL Div. 3 in Argentina next January and hope to finish in the top two to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2009 in the UAE, which incorporates Divisions 1 and 2.

The top four Associate or Affiliate teams from the ICC World Cup Qualifier will book their places at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 to be staged in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

A feature on the USA cricket team will be available to all SNTV subscribers via SNTV’s 1900 or 2100 GMT feed. ICC will provide further video news releases during the tournament via SNTV, the content, date and timing of which will be provided in due course.

The star of Afghanistan’s victory was Mohammad Nabi Eisakhil who scored a priceless 48 from 64 balls with three fours in his team’s 142 all out in 49.3 overs and then returned figures of 6-0-15-2 as Nepal was bowled out for 105.

Electing to bat first in overcast conditions, Afghanistan made a confident start but collapsed from 26-0 to 40-4 in a space of 10.4 overs before Mohammad Stanikzai (18) and Nabi held the innings together with a 43-run fifth-wicket partnership off 72 balls.

After the departure of Stanikzai with the score at 83, Nabi added another 26 runs for the sixth wicket with Rais Ahmadzai (22). But when Nabi became the sixth batsman out at the score of 119, the last four Afghanistan wickets could add only 23 runs in 37 balls to be dismissed for 142.

For Nepal, Shakti Prasad Gauchan and Besant Regmi bowled well and shared six wickets between them while captain Binod Kumar Das took 2-20.

In turn, Nepal’s innings never got going after it lost opener Paresh Lohani on the second ball before it slumped to 72-7 in 33 overs. The last three wickets offered some resistance but it was not enough to guide Nepal home and it was bowled out for 105 with 25 balls remaining.

Afghanistan’s fast bowler Dawlat Ahmadzai was the destroyer of Nepal’s top order and finished with figures of 10-3-18-3 while Hamid Hassan (2-12), Abed Gul (2-13) and Nabi Eisakhil (2-15) also bowled well in favourable conditions.
Hassan was overjoyed with his side’s win. “It is a huge win for Afghanistan. For four months we have been thinking about ICC WCL Div. 4, so it is like a dream come true.

“The (World Cup) dream is alive and we’ll try our best to get to 2011.”

“The people in Afghanistan will be very happy and there will be huge celebrations. They will all be in the roads dancing and everything,” said Hassan.

At the FB Fields, a brilliant century opening stand between Peter Gough and Steve Carlyon and a five-wicket haul by captain Mathew Hague was the cornerstone of Jersey’s 84-run victory over pre-tournament favourite the USA.

The two openers featured in a 122-run partnership in 31.3 overs, the cornerstone of the home side’s 220-5 after being put into bat. Gough scored 65 from 110 balls with four fours and Carlyon’s 88-ball 45 included three fours.

In the middle-order, Ryan Driver (28 not out) and Hague (25) also batted well and added 37 runs for the third wicket. Driver and Jon Gough (15 not out) put on 33 runs from the last 22 deliveries.

The USA slumped from 25-0 to 32-3 in reply before it recovered to 99-4. But that was its high-water mark as it lost its last six wickets for 37 runs in almost 12 overs to be bowled out for 136 with 11.4 overs to spare.

Fast bowler Hague, later adjudged man of the match, was the wrecker-in-chief of the USA’s innings and finished with figures of 9.2-1-38-5. Driver also bowled to a teasing line and length to record figures of 10-2-32-3.

Hague hailed his team’s achievement, saying: “It feels absolutely fantastic. I am so proud of everybody today. Posting 220 on the board while batting first when there was a fair bit in the wicket, was a fantastic effort.

“Peter Gough and Steve Carlyon got us off to a great start and the bowling performance was excellent.”

A disappointed USA captain Steve Massiah said: “Obviously I am disappointed because I had believed we would finish in the top one or two and move forward.”

In classification matches, Botswana beat Germany by 10 runs while Singapore defeated Mozambique by 54 runs, Japan outplayed Vanuatu by 99 runs and Norway beat Vanuatu by 52 runs.

Scores in brief:

Semi-finals

At Grainville, Afghanistan beat Nepal by 37 runs
Afghanistan 142 all out, 49.3 overs (Mohammad Nabi Eisakhil 48, Rais Ahmadzai 22; Shakti Prasad Gauchan 3-12, Basant Regmi 3-30, Binod Kumar Das 2-20)
Nepal 105, 45.5 overs (Dawlat Ahmadzai 3-18, Hamid Hassan 2-12, Gul Abed 2-13, Nabi Eisakhil 2-15)

At FB Fields, Jersey beat USA by 84 runs
Jersey 220-5, 50 overs (Peter Gough 65, Steve Carlyon 45, Ryan Driver 28 not out, Mathew Hague 25; Imran Awan 2-37)
USA 136 all out, 38.2 overs (Rashard Marshall 39, Aditya Thyagarajan 25; Hague 5-38, Driver 3-32)

5th-8th place, semi-finals

At Les Quennevais 1, Botswana beat Germany by 10 runs
Botswana 127 all out, 45.4 overs (Abdul Patel 46; Farooq Ahmed 4-15)
Germany 117 all out, 38.5 overs (Karan Kapoor 4-37)

At Les Quennevais 2, Singapore beat Mozambique by 54 runs
Singapore 203-8, 50 overs (Chris Janik 41, Narender Reddy Bonguram 44; Mohmed Aasif Aiyub Koliya 3-26)
Mozambique 149 all out, 46.4 overs (Abdul Razak 3-16

9th-12th place, semi-finals

At Victoria College, Japan beat Vanuatu by 99 runs
Japan 238-6, 50 overs (Gavin Beath 68, Ahmed Munir 66, Patrick Giles-Jones 38; Pierre Chilia 3-34)
Vanuatu 139 all out, 39.3 overs

At Farmers CC, Norway beat Bahamas by 52 runs
Norway 202-5, 50 overs (Shahid Ahmed 77 not out, Ehtsham Ul Haq 56 not out)
Bahamas 150 all out, 39.5 overs (Ryan Tappin 51, Mario Ford 32 not out; Mubasshar Bhatti 3-20, Zaheer Ashiq 3-33)

Saturday’s fixtures:
Afghanistan v Jersey, final, Grainville; Nepal v USA, 3rd/4th position, Farmers CC; Botswana v Singapore, 5th/6th position, FB Fields; Germany v Mozambqiue, 7th/8th position, Victoria College; Japan v Norway, 9th/10th position, Les Quennevais 1; Vanuatu v Bahamas, 11th/12th position; Les Quennevais 2.

No reward for coming first

Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Daredevils, 1st semi-final

No reward for coming first

May 29, 2008

	Shane Warne: "I can't see any advantage for finishing on top. The top two sides should have home-ground advantage." © Getty Images

In just over 48 hours, a team that lost nearly 50% of its league matches could be crowned champions of the inaugural Indian Premier League. A competition spanning six weeks, nearly as long as the much-criticised World Cup in the Caribbean, will finally reach its climax at two venues that none of the four semi-finalists call home. The Rajasthan Royals, perfect over seven games in Jaipur, go into their semi-final against the Delhi Daredevils with no reward whatsoever for that pristine home record. The fact that they won four more games over the regular season also counts for nothing. So, what sort of league are we talking about here?

Traditionally, there are two kinds. The classic variety, still found in European football, has the teams playing a fixed number of matches, home and away. The team that accumulates the most points is crowned champions. If there's a tie, goal difference settles it [England] or it goes down to your head-to-head record [Spain]. Either way, the best team invariably wins.

The second kind is the American league, and the dedication to Mammon dictates a convoluted finale that involves wild-cards and play-offs. Even there though, there's a sense of fairness, and reward for excellence during the course of the regular season. The teams with the best records get home-field advantage throughout the play-offs, and only in the case of American Football's Superbowl is the final game played at a neutral venue. The chances of a mediocre team coming through to upset a champion side are slim to non-existent, though once in a generation you'll get a Joe Namath or an Eli Manning inspiring a David outfit against the heavily favoured Goliath.

Unfortunately, the IPL offers no sort of protection to the best teams in the competition. Rajasthan and Punjab have clearly been the pick of the eight teams, and there would be no complaints at all if they were to contest the final. Instead, two teams, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi, who lost six of their 14 games could slip in through the back door thanks to the semi-finals being one-off games played at a neutral venue.

It doesn't help that the event was hopelessly compromised by the initial bidding process for the franchises. Whoever bid most [it happened to be Reliance shelling out $111.9 million for Mumbai] also won the right to stage the semi-finals and the final, while the second-highest bid won Vijay Mallya and the Bangalore Royal Challengers the opening game.

In the larger scheme of things, the opening ceremony, however many lasers, dancers or cheerleaders you muster up, is an irrelevance. That certainly isn't true for the semi-finals and the final. After beating Mumbai in Jaipur last Monday, Shane Warne was understandably worked up about the possibility of Mumbai sneaking into the last four. "If Mumbai sneak in, they get a home semi-final, despite having scraped through," he said. "I can't see any advantage for finishing on top.

"The top two sides should have home-ground advantage." No one, certainly no one that matters in the IPL, was listening though, and so it is that Rajasthan will play out their last-four clash 1000km removed from the passionate support that was such a factor in that perfect home run.

Warne's views were echoed by another antipodean legend, Martin Crowe, chief cricket officer of the Royal Challengers. If anything, his suggestion was even more radical. "With an eight-team format, I would look at the top team going into final and second and third-placed teams playing off on the home ground of the second-placed side," he said. "The Rajasthan Royals have won the league, they might get smashed in the semi and I think they deserve to be in the final. And with television, it's been condensed to have the semis and the final at one venue, back to back. That doesn't make sense to anyone except the television people."

Few events are perfect at the first time of asking, and we can only hope that this eyesore is fixed in time for next year. If not, you might just get the very ugly sight of a team that lost six or seven regular-season games walking away with the big trophy. Under the watchful gaze of the floodlight towers, that really would be daylight robbery.