Chennai: He might have lost Saturday night’s match against Chennai Super Kings but Yuvraj Singh is happy with the way comeback paceman Laxmipati Balaji performed against Kings XI Punjab.

Balaji came up with a five-for performance and that included IPL’s first hat-trick.

“I am happy about Balaji’s come back. He bowled superbly. It is good for Indian cricket. He had never been the fastest but he is always deceptive particularly with old ball.”

“I am extremely happy for him and a hat trick is a rarity in this format of the game,” he told reporters after the match, which his team lost by 18 runs.

The Punjab skipper blamed inconsistency for the defeat.

“We bowled pretty well in the early overs but lost the momentum in between. The same thing happened with our batting too. Though it was not a great start, Marsh and Sarwan steadied our innings.”

“We lost too many wickets quickly. That of Sarwan, Marsh and myself and there we lost our match,” he opined.

On sending Sarwan up the order, he said,”It was one of the things that you need to do in such format of the game. He was off to a good start and batted well with Marsh.”

Coach Tom Moody believes in moving ahead and that was his message to his team. “We can come back despite Saturday’s loss. It was one of those days that you lose a game. We have a big match coming up against Bangalore. We will try to move on and win the remaining matches.”

S Badrinath, who played a vital knock of 64 runs for the winners, was happy that he could contribute in his team’s win.

“I do not get chances like this since our batting line up is strong. I had a chance today (Saturday) and used it well. I always wanted to play the first six balls straight to get my eye in.”

“I was middling the ball well to launch myself and gained confidence,” he said.

He also praised Balaji for his brilliant bowling show.

“It is a sweet come back for him. You do not get to see a bowler claiming hat trick in this format. He has been working hard after injury and it paid off,” he said.
Source: sports.in.msn.com

Jaipur: Nicknames help breed familiarity and the adage has worked perfectly for the Rajasthan Royals, which has managed to get players of different nationalities to gel together by simply giving them funky names in the dressing room.

Shane Warne’s men, whom he also coaches, were dismissed as mere underdogs at the start of the Indian Premier League but as the tournament enters its second phase, the Royals have emerged serious contenders for at least reaching the semifinals.

And their success mantra has been sticking together as a team by overcoming the differences in their nationalities and cultures, a task made easier by having friendly nicknames, which specify every player’s role in the side.

So Yusuf Pathan becomes the ‘Blaster’, a tag he has lived upto so far with some smashing knocks and Swapnil Asnodkar is ‘Goa Dynamo’ for his teammates.

Asnodkar too has made sure that he is true to his nickname by giving fine starts to the team at the top of the order.

“I am proud of my team,” said Warne as he let out the dressing room secret.
Source: sports.in.msn.com

Melbourne: Not known as a big hitter in the league of his IPL teammates Matthew Hayden and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Michael Hussey said he was surprised by his hundred for Chennai Super Kings in an IPL match which, he claimed, earned him more adulation than the Australian opener or the India ODI captain.

“I was a little surprised to hit a hundred. I didn’t think I could ever score a hundred in Twenty20 cricket. I thought that was out of my capabilities, so it was really enjoyable to do that. It was quite a good bowling attack, too,” Hussey was quoted as saying by ‘The Sun-Herald’.

“After that I became a lot more of a focus. We had Hayden and MS Dhoni, who were attracting a lot of attention. After that innings, though, there were hundreds of people in the hotel lobby, journalists ringing my room every 10 minutes, things like that. It was certainly a different experience to what I was used to,” added Hussey who made 116 not out off just 54 balls against Kings XI Punjab.
Source : sports.in.msn.com

Karachi: Shane Warne’s inspiring leadership in the Indian Premier League continues to impress all and his Jaipur teammate Younis Khan believes the side owes its rich success to the Australian spin great.

Younis who leaves for India on Thursday to join the Jaipur team told PTI that he was impressed by Warne’s captaincy while watching the matches on television.

“I think it shows that when you play under good captains you tend to pick up a lot of good leadership qualities and instincts,” he said.

“Warne has I think benefited from playing under good captains and he is very much in control of things in the IPL. He is such an experienced player that this is showing through in the competition,” he said.

Younis said he had been training hard despite his domestic commitments and would be prepared for the last two weeks of the IPL in which the Rajasthan team appear to be close to qualifying for the semifinals.

Younis, who has missed the first half of the IPL due to family commitments, said it would be interesting to see how well Warne had prepared his team for every opposing team and batsman.

“Warne has been a great bowler and a opponent to respect and admire. His success I think has a lot to do with the way he picks up weaknesses in a batsman so quickly and the good thing he is not afraid to back his players. He is in good control of the situation and always thinking ahead which are signs of a good captain,” Younis said.
Source: sports.in.msn.com

Today was the 35th match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils in the DLF – IPL. Chasing the target of 134 Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag opened the batting for Delhi Daredevils. Making the IPL debut, Shoaib Akhtar got the price scalp of Virender Sehwag for a duck.The had the worst start and bowlers of Kolkata Knight Riders were doing excellent bowling and were not letting the Daredevils to score with ease. The score to only 2 when Virender Sehwag was out for zero score. He was followed by Gautam Gambhir (10 score), AB de Villiers (7 score), Manoj Tiwary (9 score) and Shikhar Dhawan (7 score).Akhtar just missed the hattrick but got 4 priced wickets. The score of the team was 73 for the loss of 6 wickets in 12 overs. Apart from excellent bowling by almost all the bowlers of Knight Riders, it was the brilliant fielding which assured the win despite the fact that they had such a low score. The wickets were coming for them either via direct hits for run out or by the excellent bowling. L.N. Shukla came for bowling and got 3 wickets in the 18th over and Delhi Daredevils were all out for 110 and thus Knight Riders won the match by 23 runs.

Today – Scorecard – Match 35 – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Daredevils