Chennai Super Kings tastes blood in inaugural match against KKR

IT COULD not have been a better start for the Indian Premier League with the world cup winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni scaling new heights for his team Chennai Super Kings. The last ball delivery by Tim Southee enabled the IPL season 3 winner's Chennai Super Kings to taste blood.

In the inaugural match between defending champion Chennai Super Kings and the newly formed Kolkata Knight Rider led by Gautam Gambhir, all the cricketing drama was witnessed. From one point where it was considered that Chennai Super Kings are going to face a definite loss from the hands of KKR, MS Dhoni kept the ray of hope alive with a brilliant run out of Yusuf Pathan followed by Jacques Kallis.

KKR who once looked on top till first three quarters of second inning ended up on the losing side after the last 5 overs. 154 runs in 20 overs was not that a tough call for KKR, as players like Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis and their very own captain, Gautam Gambhir who is known for some big hitting and making target set for them a small one.

Match lived up to the hype created by media and fans on social networking website as it ended on the nail biting last bowl of the match, a perfect way to inaugurate the tournament. The action has just begun and we hope to see harder hitting and nail biting matches in the fourth edition of IPL.

IPL 4 to kickstart today, hopes high on new entrants

AFTER WINNING the world cup and making the country go crazy its time for IPL to send the excitement in air and we are just few hours away to see the epic encounters of the league. It will be a tough call for the fans to cheer for the players who once played for the country but are now disseminated across participating teams.

Such questions were also asked before the commencement of the IPL in 2008, but we all got our answers as we saw that regionalism was very much on the fans sides than any particular player, it was obvious that they will cheering for their team than any particular player. But throughout the last three seasons of IPL; fans have their own favorite players list in their favorite franchise teams; like Muttiah Muralitharan, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin from CSK or Gautam Gambhir, V Sehwag from Delhi Daredevils.

Now as we know that players have been shuffled between the various teams like Gautam Gambhir who was born in Delhi and was former team member of Delhi Daredevils is no longer the part the team this season, this time he is the Captain of Kolkata Knight Riders. Now the question is will the fans that was cheering for him last three seasons of IPL as he was a part of Delhi Daredevils; be cheering for him knowing that he is no longer a part of their favourite teams.

Same with Mutthiah Muralitharan, as he was playing for Chennai Super Kings for last three seasons and said to be very integral part of CSK team planning. He will be playing for Kochi Tuskers this season. How the fans of CSK, who once loved him are going to react when he will be playing against their very own team remains to be seen.

Lots of answers will come and lot of drama are just few hours away as we are going to witness another epic cricket tournament in India after World cup 2011.

Kamran Akmal dropped from upcoming West Indies tour

AFTER DROPPING some crucial catches in the world Cup 2011 and letting Pakistan face one of its worst defeats, Pakistani wicket keeper Kamran Akmal was dropped from the upcoming Pakistan's tour of West Indies in the T20 and ODI format.

Ross Taylor whose catch was dropped by Akmal in the league match of World Cup 2011 twice had given Shoiab Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq thrashing of life time, where they were hit 30 plus runs in an over at the end of the inning. From that moment the match from Pakistan’s side flew to New Zealand's corner, resulting in one of the worst losses for Pakistan.

Kamran Akmal was under the scrutiny by the selectors throughout the entire world cup matches, where he was in news for some sloppy catches dropped by him and irresponsible wicket keeping.

Sloppy work with gloves has given his critics license to kill and they didn’t miss any opportunity as they took the privilege to axe him from the upcoming series against West Indies.

Akmal is not the only person who was shown the door from the squad. Fellow mate Abdul Razzaq was also dropped from the squad where as senior players like Umar Gul and Younis Khan have been rested. Shahid Afridi will continue as the captain and team will feature new wicketkeeper, Mohammad Salman.

Squad for the test team is yet to be announced and it is expected that Umar Gul and Younis Khan will make their come back in the squad for test team.

The tour will start off with a warm-up game from April 18, while the only Twenty20 will be played on April 21 in St Lucia. The five-match ODI series will begin on April 23, and the Test series is scheduled to commence from May 12.

Squad: Shahid Afridi (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Taufeeq Umar, Usman Salahuddin, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Tanvir Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Hammad Azam, Aizaz Cheema and Mohammad Salman (wk).