The trend continues again as the bottom placed Punjab wins against the table toppers Mumbai Indians.It should be another anxious wait for the Mumbai who would have sealed one spot of the semifinals lineup.

Punjab might earn the tag of real party spoilers if they perform the same way in their remaining matches.Mumbai Indians batted first and made below par 154 on the board with contributions from Duminy(35),Rayudu(33) and Tendulkar(29).For Punjab Chawla took the bowling honours with a spell of3/24 in his 4 overs and Pathan supported him well with 3/29 in his 4 overs
KingsXI Punjab with 5 changes from the previous match made a solid start as Adrian Barath(31) of West Indies and Jayawardena(33) posted decent cameos.Then it was the turn of the captain to score half century(56) and guide Punjab home as they reached the target in 19.2 overs.

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Bangalore seems to have lost the momentum as they have lost against Delhi and Deccan in a row and it seems the problem is more with the bowling than the batting.
Their batting looks far enviable with White and Taylor sandwiched between the Indians Uthappa and Kohli who are also in fine form.Though they start sedately in all matches they end up with huge scores with this firing lineup.Kolkata are on a fine momentum with Dada fit to play.
Chennai plays Deccan at Nagpur in the 4 PM match and as Dhoni rightly put across.Though it is an away game,the 4 PM start and 40 degree climate is more of advantage to Chennai than to Deccan.Chennai can take Deccan out of the Semis equation if they can win over here but it looks like all the 4 teams who are taking the park,there seems to no real favourites or underdogs

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Mumbai takes on Kings XI punjab at Mohali today at 8 PM IST.Mumbai would look to book the first berth for the Semifinals spot as punjab would like to be the party spoilers.
It is highly unlikely as per the form books for punjab to win but seeing the pattern of the match results in the last 2 weeks of the IPL where the least favourite team ends at the right side of the result,anything is possible.

Punjab looked down and out against Rajasthan with their results showing in their faces and Sangakkara has a hard task at hand.Nobody would feel happy if they lose all the remaining 4 matches where huge pride is at stake.If punjab wins Mumbai,then there is nothing more remaining to juice up the competition since no body would be assured of semifinal spot and all 7 teams can make or break at the final hurdle of this IPL.
Hope Tendulkar remains in the sidelines to boost punjab’s chances and it does nothing but adding more attraction to the already tough competition

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Rajasthan Royals bashed the Kings XI punjab and crashed all the mathematical calculations of Tom Moody,the Punjab coach that they are still with a chance of making to the semifinals.
It was all one way traffic after the 12th over of the Punjab innings when they last Jayawardena(44) and Yuvraj(28) in the same over by Dole.They were moving briskly at 108 but lost wickets in heap to fold up for a meagre 153 runs with Dole and Trivedi picking up 2 wickets each.

Rajasthan started in a hurried fashion with Michael Lumb of England scoring 83 off mere 43 balls and blasted Sreesanth and Powar out of the attack.

The KingsXI fielding went from bad to worse to pathetic as the Royals reached the target in 15 overs with a huge boost to their net run rate and putting them in third place in the points table

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KingsXI would hope to carry the momemtum they had in kolkata when they chased down 200 easily against KKR.It is now the turn for them to meet the Rajasthan Royals at their homeground in Jaipur.

KingsXI could spoil the party of Rajasthan if they could get past the Royals and do a favour for Kolkata and Chennai.The other way if they lose, then KKR would be in a pretty bad position as they have the match against the formidable Delhi in the Second game today.

The double headers at Jaipur and Kolkata is significant as they could shuffle the points table with more permutations and combinations coming for the semifinal grouping.

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After snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against Kings XI punjab,Chennai would be a a more disappointed lot going into today’s match against RCB at Bangalore.
With Dhoni out of the reckoning,they are missing an astute captain and a reliable middle order batsman,who can stay put in difficult situations as well as go blazing when the situation demands.Justin Kemp the South african allrounder is out of reckoning in this match
with an Injury just making a tilt in the balance of the team.
Its quite an Irony that the Man with the Mongoose bat in hand who destroyed Delhi picked up the same bat again in the match against punjab and got clean bowled by Ramesh Powar.
Chennai is getting better in the bowling department with Murali and Balaji striking some sort of form and rhythm.But still the batting mainstay tag remains with Hayden and Raina though parthiv showed some sort of attacking instincts at the top.
 All is well with RCB with their bowling in the safe hands of steyn,praveen,kumble and Vinay.The batting has been head heavy with kallis,pandey and uthappa going well.The only area of concern would be their untested middle order.And the trump card for chennai would be to put the RCB to bat and bring the Middle order into play as soon as possible.
The trend of the tournament so far has been the underdogs getting the better of the opposition that started with Opening match of the tournament.Chennai would be hoping that the Jinx continues and gives them the much needed momentum.

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The Second Edition of the Indian Premier League ended with a perfect fitting finale between the Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Awards and honours for the concluded DLF IPL II are as follows:

The Winners: Deccan Chargers (Rs 4.8 crore)

Runners-up: Royal Challengers Bangalore (Rs 2.4 crore)

Fair Play Award: Kings XI Punjab

Man of the Match (final): Anil Kumble (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

DLF Golden Player of the League (Player of the Tournament): Adam Gilchirst (Deccan Chargers)

Orange Cap winner (highest scorer): Matthew Hayden (Chennai Super Kings)

Purple Cap winner (highest wicket-taker): Rudra Pratap Singh (Deccan Chargers)

Under-23 Player of the league: Rohit Sharma (Deccan Chargers)

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Yuvraj Singh had almost single-handedly won the match and if he would have stayed there five overs more, the game would have been all over, feels Royal Challengers skipper Anil Kumble.

“The ball was stopping and coming and Yuvraj of course likes pace on the ball and I wanted to take the pace off and that worked. Yuvi was going great guns and if he had been five overs more, probably the game was over and there on we really tightened screw,” Kumble said after the match.

Yuvraj Singh notched up the first hat-trict of second Premier League and also scored a blistering 33-ball 50 but still could not avoid Kings XI Punjab’s narrow 9-run defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore here today.

Kumble gave credit to Roelof van der Merwe for posting such a competitive target even after losing three wickets in three balls.

“It was a great game. After losing three wickets in three balls, I thought Re (van der Merwe) batted fantastically to get us to 145 and everybody rallied around him and when we got to the score we really backed ourself. It is a great show by the bowlers,” he said.

Merwe score a quickfire 35 off 19 balls studded with three fours and three sixes to post a target of 146 to win against the Kings XI Punjab.

Kumble also lavished praise on Praveen Kumar for his crucial over in the end. “It was tough to grip the ball because of the dew. We didn’t expect dews and Praveen is a quicker baller and has experience and he bowled brilliantly,” he said.

Kumble, who succeeded Kevin Pietersen as skipper, said they are improving with each game and hoped the winning streak will continue.

Disappointed at the loss, Yuvraj Singh said the opponent were a better side on the given day.

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After ending their losing streak, Bangalore Royal Challengers will be looking to maintain their new-found form when they clash with an upbeat Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Friday.

Both Royal Challengers and Kings XI Punjab clinched thrilling victories in their last matches. Royal Challengers beat Knight Riders to end their four-match losing streak while Kings XI Punjab beat Mumbai Indians in a low-scoring match.

The Bangalore team captain Kevin Pietersen left for England for the series against the West Indies. Earlier Jacques Kallis was supposed to take over from Pietersen, but now it looks like Anil Kumble or Rahul Dravid might take up the job, as indicated by coach Ray Jennings.

Under Pietersen, Royal Challengers made a brilliant start with an upset win over defending champions Rajasthan Royals. But then lost way only to get back with a thrilling win over Knight Riders.

But what might have worked for Royal Challengers was the changes to their side. They replaced Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor with youngster Shreevats Goswami and Mark Boucher. It worked for Royal Challengers as Goswami made a flamboyant 43 as an opener while the experienced Boucher saw the team through in the final stages.

In the bowling department, barring Kumble and Praveen Kumar none of the bowlers have looked impressive.

Kings XI, on the other hand, are riding high after beating Mumbai Indians for their third straight win.

Kumar Sangakkara and Ravi Bopara have played crucial knocks with good all-round performances from Irfan Pathan. Pacer Yusuf Abdulla has been impressive in the tournament and gave a match-winning performance against Mumbai Indians. Skipper Yuvraj Singh is still to come good.

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