Chris Gayle posts a strong message through IPL

The glitzy Indian Premier League got an extra injection of pizzazz over the Easter weekend with the arrival of West Indian star Chris Gayle, who carried out a timely crucifixion of the Kolkata Knight Riders, his team in previous seasons. Gayle smashed 102 not out from just 55 balls in what was a very Good Friday for the Bangalore Royal Challengers. The franchise, owned by tycoon Vijay Mallya, won by nine wickets and now looks to be a major contender for this year’s title after struggling in the opening matches.

Gayle’s performance helped lift his new team from ninth to fifth in the IPL table. By the end of the weekend, the Royal Challengers had slipped to sixth, but a side that boasts stars such as Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat Kohli, Daniel Vettori, A.B. de Villiers and Zaheer Khan should be confident of beating the Delhi Daredevils at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Tuesday, despite Delhi’s openers Virender Sehwag and David Warner hitting rich form in Saturday’s win over Kings XI Punjab.

“We needed someone to produce a champion-type performance, and who better than Chris Gayle to pull that off?” said Royal Challengers coach Ray Jennings.

“What he’s produced tonight scares the hell out of me and hopefully will scare others going forward,” he added.

With Gayle in this form, the Royal Challengers’ batting line-up looks irresistible. In one of the most majestic performances in IPL history, Gayle smashed 10 fours and seven sixes, effortlessly lofting the ball high into the Kolkata night sky and deep into the stands at Eden Gardens. After just one innings, his name was all over the list of biggest sixes in the IPL4.

Amazingly, the big left-hander almost didn’t feature in this year’s IPL. He was ignored at auction because franchises expected him to be unavailable for much of the tournament due to international commitments. But he wasn’t selected for the West Indies series against Pakistan in the end. Then came the injury to Royal Challengers’ Dirk Nannes, which opened up a place in the squad for Gayle.

Gayle’s batting performance dismissed any concerns he might be suffering from post World Cup blues.

“I’m still a bit jet-lagged,” he said in an interview after the match. “Back home I wasn’t really practicing too much. That was the first time I’d picked up my bat since the World Cup.”

“I needed an IPL century and I wanted to get one under my belt. Hopefully I can get better from here,” he added. Those words will surely have Sehwag’s Delhi Daredevils quaking.

On Friday, another Indian World Cup winner—Gautam Gambhir—was on the receiving end of Gayle’s assault. The Kolkata Knight Riders captain looked shell-shocked. There was nothing he could do to stop Gayle, and his awe-struck expression was reflected in the faces of his Kolkata teammates, as well as coach Dav Whatmore, owner Shah Rukh Khan, and almost everyone else in Eden Gardens.

As former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said, “When somebody like Chris Gayle bats like that, there’s very little the bowlers can do.”

Other teams won’t want to hear those words again, but the IPL and its fans should thank their lucky stars that Gayle has edged his way into the tournament this year, because he is a joy to watch. Gayle was made for this form of cricket.

“God is good, God is great,” he said after last Friday’s match. Gayle’s not too bad, either.

IPL 2011: The brand-new, strong KKR looks dangerous

The IPL has not been a happy hunting ground for Kolkata Knight Riders. Despite the glamour of Shah Rukh Khan and the leadership of Sourav Ganguly, the franchise struggled on the field and was dogged by a string of controversies off it (who can forget the Fake IPL Player?). It was clear something had to be done to inject optimism and excitement into an increasingly frustrated fan base.

In the offseason, the owners hired a new chief executive, who proceeded to use the January player auction to remake the team, essentially starting over. Ganguly, Kolkata's icon, is gone. So are the other international stars - Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond. Stepping into their shoes are Gautam Gambhir, the new captain, Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis and Brett Lee. Kolkata splashed out 62% of its $9 million budget on the first three of those players (50% on Yusuf and Gambhir alone), showing that they are serious about winning, at least in the auction room. It could well turn out to be money shrewdly spent though, as the foursome gives the franchise a nucleus of players who are unafraid of the big stage and have a habit of performing when it matters the most.

The big four of Gambhir, Yusuf, Kallis and Lee. Gambhir could bring a more laidback approach to captaincy than the passionate and often confrontational Ganguly, while Kallis provides reliability with both bat and ball. Yusuf and Lee supply the firepower, with bat and ball respectively.

Gambhir may be the team's most expensive player and Kallis is an all-time great, but Yusuf Pathan is the game changing addition to the squad. His ability to hijack a match from the opposition, no matter what the situation, is priceless in this format. And if he can add a touch of consistency to his breathtaking hitting, Kolkata could well be challenging for the title come the end of May.

Sourav Ganguly. The Prince of Kolkata found himself an unwanted orphan after the January player auction, ignored not just by his home team, but every other franchise as well.

The IPL could be the perfect stage for allrounder Iqbal Abdulla to display his many talents. Though only 21, Abdulla is no stranger to the pressure of expectations, having learnt his trade playing for Mumbai, the most demanding of India's domestic teams. Being around the likes of Gambhir and Kallis day in and day out for six weeks can only be good for his development.

Abdulla comes into the IPL on the back of a stellar Ranji Trophy season. He made 382 runs at an average of 47.75, notching up his maiden first-class hundred in the process. He was also his team's leading wicket-taker, picking up 27 wickets at an average of 22.11 with his left-arm spin. He was somewhat less successful in the Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy, India's domestic T20 tournament, averaging just 11 with the bat, but did take seven wickets at a strike rate of 16.20 and an economy rate of 4.84.

Last three seasons

Kolkata fans might want to look away as their team's results make for ugly reading. They have finished sixth, last and sixth in their three seasons, winning no more than seven games in a single season. The nadir came in 2009, when they won just three of their 14 games. That performance, coupled with the controversy surrounding the captaincy, led to the sacking of coach John Buchanan. The team was better in 2010 than the sixth-place finish suggests, and will look to move to the head of the class this time.

Ross Taylor fires to comfortable t20 win over Leicestershire

Paul Collingwood, England's victorious captain in the World Twenty20, took four wickets as he made a brief return to Durham's ranks tonight and the trophy was also on display in a nearby marquee, but it was a destructive display of power hitting by the New Zealander Ross Taylor that warmed up a chill north-eastern night.

Taylor hit a stand-and-deliver 80 not out, nine of his 33 balls clearing the rope, as Durham piled up 225 for two, the highest score of the season in Friends Provident t20, and the sixth-highest total in domestic Twenty20. He was dropped once, in the last over at deep square-leg off Nadeem Malik, and finished it all off with a swivel six over long-on.

The artificially short boundaries at what is now cumbersomely known as the Emirates Durham International Cricket Ground (as the games get shorter the ground names get longer) were appealing, but not remotely appealing enough for Leicestershire, who fell 71 runs short. Nobody has ever scored more than 210 to win a match batting second.

Paul Nixon's slog-and-miss, as he became the fifth Leicestershire batsman out with the asking rate climbing above 14 an over, admitted the impossibility of the task. Only then did Collingwood get the chance to enjoy himself. Bowling his medium-paced cutters with a nous that had been beyond Leicestershire's support pace bowlers, he dismissed Wayne White second ball and made short work of the tail to take four for 13.

As Taylor admitted, had he connected with a few play-and-misses, a sensational innings could have been even better. "I missed a few," he said. "The short boundaries exaggerated it a bit."

White, in his first t20 bowl of the season, received endless advice from his captain, Matthew Hoggard, in his first over, but there was little more to be said by the time Durham scored 81 from the last four overs. White, bowling the 17th, conceded 25 including three sixes; Harry Gurney leaked 24, all sixes, in the next over. Taylor and Dale Benkenstein followed up a century opening stand by Ian Blackwell and Phil Mustard by adding 117 in 7.1 overs.

Durham's start in the North Group had brought one win and two rain-offs from five matches. But they made a county‑record 215 at Edgbaston three days ago, with Taylor again prominent, surpassed that last night and their batting is strong enough to move through the table.

Collingwood, who has had two injections in his troublesome shoulder, now returns to England after two Durham matches in which he has bowled a bit but not faced a ball. "There is a lot of talent coming through," he said. Taylor's talent, sadly, is committed elsewhere.

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England miss out on Champions League places

This years Friends Provident t20 champions will miss out on the chance to take part in the Twenty20 Champions League in September after it was revealed no English county will take part in the tournament.

With the dates of the Champions League clashing with the end of the County season the ECB has told the 18 Counties they will not be allowed to miss the climax of the County Champions to fly off to South Africa.

The news is a massive blow for the cash strapped County teams. Qualification for the Champions League would have allowed the two finalists in the Friends Provident t20 final to make between £120,000 and 1.5 million pounds.

Teams from India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies will compete for domestic Twenty20 cricket’s ultimate prize from September 10th in South Africa.

More than 75 percent of the participating players are expected to be the international stars of the game, making the tournament a true contest between the best of the best.

Of the nine teams already qualified, just three will be returning from the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2009 - Royal Challengers Bangalore (India), Victorian Bushrangers (Australia) and Wayamba Elevens (Sri Lanka).

Only one place remains to be filled, with the West Indies’ representative to be confirmed in late July. Trinidad & Tobago represented the Caribbean in 2009 and set the tournament alight with its brilliant run through to the final.

Proteas claim series victory over West Indies

South Africa held on to record a 1 run victory against the West Indies to seal a 2-0 series win despite Darren Sammy’s best effect to sneak a victory for the home side..

On a wicket totally unacceptable for international cricket the West Indies struggle with the unpredictable bounce which left the game void of any excitement in the second of a two game series which at best could be called atrocious.

Chasing a total of only 121 the West Indies run chase got off to the worst possible start after skipper Chris Gayle (0) was trapped LBW by Dale Steyn from the final ball of the first over. Andre Fletcher (4) soon followed after he was caught by AB de Villiers to leave the West Indies 9-2.

With the openers gone; Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo built a vital partnership of 68 but having taken 11.5 overs to do so the game seemed destined to peter out in front of another poor crowd at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

Despite the slow progress the West Indies remained in the hunt and by the time Chanderpaul’s (29) innings was brought to an end by de Villiers the victory target for the home side was only 44 runs from 32 balls.

Despite the loss of Chanderpaul an outside chance of victory was still possible for the home side but Johan Botha struck back for South Africa taking three quick wickets to remove Bravo (40), Ramnaresh Sarwan (6) and Kieron Pollard (12) to leave the Proteas in complete control.

Amazingly the West Indies refused to expect defeat and with 15 runs still needed off the final over Darren Sammy (12) and Narsingh Deonarine (3) almost sealed an unbelievable victory as the South African’s held on.

Having been put into bat by Chris Gayle; the South African’s found batting on the same wicket as last nights Twenty20 international hard going.

Only David Miller offered any sort of resistant’s top scoring with 33, Miller’s innings came from 26 balls and included 2 sixes.

Using the uneven bounce to their advantage the West Indies controlled the game with Jerome Taylor the pick of the bowlers taking 3 wickets.

With last nights top scorer, Jacques Kallis rested the South African batting line up looked very week and it proved to be the case with the top order only contributed 59 runs on a slow wicket.

Openers Loots Bosman (0) and Graeme Smith (15) failed to get going as the Proteas innings never got out of first gear in another excitement free game in Antigua.

With wickets falling at regular intervals each new batsman could barley score at a run a ball as they each tried to get into rhythm on an unpredictable wicket.

AB deVilliers (19), JP Duminy (13) and Alviro Petersen (8) all departed cheaply with deVilliers the only batsman with a strike rate over 100 before the arrival of Miller.

The only highlight of the Proteas innings was the debut of 20 year old Miller who looked like the only batsman capable of attacking the West Indies bowlers as he shared a vital partnership of 57 with spinner Johan Botha (23).

England cruise to Twenty20 World Cup title

Craig Kieswetter scored a wonderful half century to steer England to a comprehensive 7 wicket victory over Australia to secure the Twenty20 World Cup title thanks to a wonderful innings from Kieswetter.

Having built up some momentum at the end of their innings; Australia started off brighter with the ball and their aggressive start produced an early break through with Shaun Tait picking up the wicket of Michael Lumb (2) at the end of the second over.

After enjoying successful opening partnerships throughout the tournament with Lumb, Craig Kieswetter looked on edge but a 10 minute daily in proceedings because of a broken sight screen seemed to steady his nerves.

Kieswetter smashed the first ball he faced from Dirk Nannes after the delay through the covers for a well placed boundary.

With Australia’s main target; Kevin Pietersen at the crease early in the innings the Aussies knew another wicket would swing the balance of the game in their favor after England’s shaky start.

To their credit through; Kieswetter and Pietersen didn’t panic, when ever the pressure was increasing they found the boundary as they laid the foundations of a partnership that reached 50 in the 8th over.

With the runs starting to flow England targeted the bowling of Shane Watson who conceded 28 runs from just 2 overs as Australia were put onto the back foot thanks to some aggressive batting from England.

After failing to capitalise on a number of good starts throughout the tournament Kieswetter brought up his half century to leave England needing just 46 runs from 50 balls.

With the pressure growing Nannes conceded 10 runs from the first two balls of the 12th over to put England in the box seat with the Aussies enable to stem the flow of runs.

With England on the verge of victory Australia brought Steve Smith back into the attack and he struck with his first ball to remove Pietersen (47) who attempted to smash the leg spinner out of the ground.

Kieswetter (63) quickly followed after he left a straight delivery from Mitchell Johnson which clattered into the middle stump to leave England needing 27 runs from 35 balls.

With Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan at the crease the tables were turned with Australia increasing the pressure with the runs drying up after the partnership of Kieswetter and Pietersen.

The tension was mounting with light rain falling in the distance but Morgan relived England’s worries with a six off the bowling of Smith to leave them needing just 15 runs.

Collingwood smashed Watson for a six in the next over as England completed their run chase to claim their first ever ICC title.

Having won the toss Collingwood decided to bat first and England who got off to a fantastic start picking up 3 early wickets to leave the Aussies on the back foot.

David Hussey (59) and Cameron White (30) played a vital role in allowing the Aussies to defend such a high total after a vital partnership of 50 runs in just 6.2 overs.

Having won the toss England got off to a dream start by picking up the wicket of Shane Watson (2) in the first over after the opening flashed at a wide delivery from Ryan Sidebottom and although Craig Kieswetter couldn’t hold onto the catch Graeme Swann was on hand to take a fine reaction catch at 1st slip.

Having suffered a disappointing tournament so far with the bat Aussie skipper Michael Clarke moved himself up the order and came in at number 3 but his first involvement in the game was the running out of big hitting David Warner.

Clarke pushed away a good-length ball from Tim Bresnan into the covers and after hesitating he set off for a single which left Warner running at the strikers end. Michael Lumb picked the ball up and fired in a throw which hit the stumps to leave the Aussies in trouble.

Brad Haddin (1) came in at number 4 but the wicket keeper barely had time to play himself in before he was walking back to the dugout after he was brilliantly caught by Kieswetter to give Sidebottom his second wicket of the game.

Although TV replies showed Haddin didn’t make any contact with the ball; umpire Billy Doctrove didn’t hesitate in giving the wicket keeper out to leave the Aussies 8-3 after just 2.1 overs.

Clarke and David Hussey steadied the ship but England kept the pressure on the batsman restricting them to a score of just 24-3 during the power play overs.

Although the pair built a vital partnership of 37; Clarke sill struggled, with his batting letting him down once against as he scored a scratchy 27 from 27 balls before he was caught by Collingwood to leave the Aussies 45-4 thanks to another brilliant spell of bowling from Swann.

Together with Michael Yardy the pair bowled 7 overs of spin as England increased the pressure on the Aussies despite Yardy conceding 21 runs in the 12th over.

With Clarke gone Hussey was joined at the crease by Cameron White and the pair put on a vital partnership of 50 runs before Luke Wright struck in the 15th over to end White’s (30) innings.

With the batsman starting to get the better of the bowlers the Hussey brothers performed a re-guard action building a vital partnership of 47 as the Aussies brought themselves back into the game.