the last hurdle... Hussey Orange - CSK loses to MI...

Before you read anything on IPL, here is something on ‘buffalo hunt’ ---- purely a story on animal behaviour and do not ever try to read more than anything, trying to connect to anything else… read  that article here : buffalo hunt

So after immersing themselves before the TV sets for such a long times, watching everything including the ungainly dances and sordid episodes of match-fixing, what will the Indian fan do from today ?

For CSK, Michael Hussey has the most prolific scorer [in fact the highest aggregator in the tournament – 733 – getting the Orange cap] ; yesterday he scored more than 5 of his teammates aggregated……….. he scored 1 ~ while Raina, Badri, Jadeja, Morris, Mohit… made ducks …..  In between, do you remember the 62^nd match of the tournament between MI and Sunrisers played at Wankhede on 13^th May 2013 and in particular the 12^th over bowled by Karen Sharma and to be more specific the 4^th ball !!!

It was a win for Mumbai Indians as CSK faltered….. when Pollard pulled Morris away for four, after fielding the next ball in his follow-through Morris blew a kiss at Pollard. The batsman blew a kiss back to Morris ~ after the match MI were too jubilant that there were not even the formal handshakes ~ sometimes winners do behave pretty badly.  The margin was 23 runs but the match was won long before. Chasing MI’s 148 for nine in 20 overs, CSK managed only 125 for nine in 20 overs. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni — 63 not out off 45 balls with three fours and five sixes — waged a lone battle as the Chennai team.

Earlier, restricting MI to 148, CSK fans were hoping for an easy win which was not to be. Infact, MI were 16/3 losing Dwayne Smith, Tare and Rohit Sharma early.  Pollard played sensibly. Chennai had worser start – Hussey went making a solitary run, Raina failed to disturb the scores, the umbrella man Badrinath, who did not get many opportunities to exhibit his wares also followed similarly and at 7.3, defeat was starring at the barrel – it was 39 for 6. For the Mumbai outfit, which lost to CSK in the first qualifier on May 21, it was sweet revenge.

Tendulkar, who has won important tournaments in his fantastic career spanning nearly 24 years, now has the IPL title too in his collection. Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday announced his retirement from the cash-rich Indian Premier League soon after Mumbai Indians won their maiden title. “For World Cup, I had to wait for 21 years but for this I had to wait for only six years. Also this is special for me as I won’t be playing in IPL next season,” he said at the end of Mumbai Indians’ triumph. “I think this is the right time to stop playing IPL. Just got to accept the reality that this would be my last season,” he told the presenter.

The last ball Tendulkar played in the IPL didn't come in the victory in the final, but it was that ball referred to in the 2^nd para of this post. That ball was sent over long-on for a six, but in the process Tendulkar also injured himself. He retired-hurt after that, and didn't recover in time to play another Mumbai game. Ironically, this time the followers of Sachin are heaving a sigh of relief with the announcement of his retirement from IPL.

BCCI president N Srinivasan has promised a fair investigation by a three-member commission, which will include a person independent of the board, into the charges against Gurunath Meiyappan, the CSK official and Srinivasan's son-in-law who has been arrested, and the three Rajasthan Royals players allegedly involved in spot-fixing. Srinivasan said he would not be part of the commission and would not be part of its appointment or work. Srinivasan said the commission would comprise an independent member and two of the following people: IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, BCCI vice-president Arun Jaitley, BCCI treasurer Ajay Shirke, board secretary Sanjay Jagdale, and former India captain and commentator Ravi Shastri.  Srinivasan is however firm that he need not resign for this scandal……….

with regards – S. Sampathkumar.