Today in the 16th match of DLF-IPL, Mumbai Indians bowlers bowled superbly to restrict the Knight Riders to a low total of 137 and it was the responsibility of the batsmen to make sure that they win the first match and open the account in points table. Knight Riders started the bowling with a superb spell by Ishant Sharma and Ajit Agarkar. Agarkar got the first breakthrough and soon Ishant bowled the dangerous looking Jayasuriya. The wicket tumbled and rotated many time before falling on the ground – A perfect scene for a fast bowler. Then Dinda bowled Pandey for 0 and it looked that Knight Riders are back into the game and will not let the Mumbai Indians enjoy the first victory. But Uthappa and Bravo played some exquisite shots and had a terrific partnership of 113 runs. It was this partnership which assured the victory of Mumbai Indians.Bravo become the highest run getter in the tournament from Mumbai Indians side by scoring 64runs.Sachin Tendulkar was really very happy to see his team winning the first match.

So April 29 was the day Mumbai Indians won the match at last after loosing four matches in a row. This win will surely do a lot of good for the Mumbai Indians and will boost the morale of the entire team.

Scorecard – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians – 16th Match

In the 16th match of DLF – IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first but the charged Mumbai Indians were today in no mood to let Kolkata Knight Riders to a flyer. The very experienced Pollock striked twice in the very first over and gave a huge shock to Knight Riders as Ganguly and Mac Cullam were back in the pavilion the very first over and the score was 6/2. Then Ponting and Dass took the score to 40 and it looked like a decent partnership is building up but then Bravo got the wicket of Dass and again the Knight Riders were in serious troubles. Ponting and Hussey took the score to 74 and then Hussey was the one to return to pavilion. Soon Ponting was brilliantly run out by Rahane/Jayasuriya. The problems of Knight Riders were deepened by Jayasurya who took 3 crucial wickets and Knight Riders were struggling at 90/7 in 15.3 overs. Laxmi Ratan Shukla came in to bat and provided some relief to the Knight Riders by scoring 40 runs in 21 balls. Kathik was out in the last over after scoring 10 runs but it was L.R Shukla who played a short timely innings to help Knight Riders score 137 runs in 20 overs.

Scorecard – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians – 16th Match

Today is the Match 16 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians in the Baap Of Entertainment – DLF – IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders have lost the last match but have won the other two played. But the Mumbai Indians have yet to open the account in the points table. So today we hope both the teams to play for the prestige.

Kolkata Knight Riders: (probable) 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 5 David Hussey, 6 Mohammad Hafeez, 7 Laxmi Rattan Shukla, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda

Mumbai Indians : (probable) 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Luke Ronchi (wk), 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Shaun Pollock, 6 Abhishek Nayar, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Musavir Khote, 9 Ashish Nehra, 10 Dhaval Kulkarni, 11 Siddharth Chitnis

Date – 16th Match April 29, 2008
Venue – Eden Gardens, Kolkata
20:00 India time.

Keep checking iplcricketlive .com for more information about the match, match videos, match score cards and an analysis of each team performance.

There is no doubt that the Mumbai Indians were struggling to come to grips with all that hullabaloo that has surrounded the team after the happenings in Mohali, and unless the seniors like Pollock and Jayasuriya were going to come up with something special and show the way, the younger players in the team were not going to be able to pull it off on their own. Abhishek Nayar and West Indian Dwayne Bravo did give it a go but a team needs a tally closer to 200 to stay in the fight.

In the end, the way Gilchrist toyed with the bowling, maybe that too wouldn’t have been enough, for the Deccan Chargers won with overs to spare. Importantly, from the net run rate point of view they did it without losing a wicket too, and if they keep the same tempo up they could well surprise a few people in much the same manner as the Rajasthan Royals are doing.

It was no surprise that Adam Gilchrist came up with the fastest century so far in the DLF Indian Premier League, and the third fastest in the Twenty20 format. He had just seen teammate Andrew Symonds smash an incredibly quick one just a few days earlier, and he must have been itching to get his name on that exclusive list. That ton put paid to the Mumbai Indians’ hopes of reviving their fortunes in front of a capacity crowd.

Under the charismatic Shane Warne, the Royals have been the pick of the tournament so far with some great team efforts. Here is a team that has grown in confidence as the tournament has progressed and has looked extremely competitive all the time. They have a good mix of the experienced and young players and with Warne to guide them they are a joy to watch. Seeing spinners do well in this format may surprise some but with an all time great like Shane Warne showing the way, even someone with little experience like Salunke is holding his own. The same with Piyush Chawla, and how wonderful it would have been for Indian cricket if the big hearted youngster was in the same side as the great Australian. He would have picked up not just many a bowling trick but also the fantastic temperament that has made Warne the great he is.

Elsewhere, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings are demolishing all before them and even the Kolkata Knight Riders had to bow to them, but maybe the tables could be turned when it is their turn to play at the Eden Gardens.Most of the teams who have the Australian players will lose them as they leave for home for a short camp before going to the West Indies, and that might even out the contests a bit, for there is no doubt that the DLF Indian Premier League has been dominated by the Australians who have left a great footprint which will be hard for others to follow.

Source: sify.com

Chandigarh, April 28:: Players need not shun aggression and passion while playing but limits should not be crossed, Australian great Glenn MacGrath on Monday said while reacting to the slap-row involving Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth.“You still have to play with aggression, but there is a line and don’t cross that,” 38-year-old McGrath, who is currently playing in the IPL for Delhi Daredevils team, said.

“I have played cricket aggressively and with passion, but there is a line which should not be crossed,” he said on being asked about shocking incident which marred the tournament.The paceman also favoured a window for the IPL in FTP of the ICC, fearing with huge money on offer players can opt against wearing national colours to play in the Twenty20 extravaganza.“ICC should definitely create a window for the IPL otherwise it can lead to real danger of players pulling out of international commitments and coming here to play.“Such a situation, if it arises, can be detrimental to international cricket. I think ICC would not like to see that thing happen.“I think the players want to come over here and play. The money is very good…if they can make a window (for IPL) all the players will be happy and so will be the associations,” the paceman said insisting it was an issue which should be taken seriously.“The guys can play for their country and still come here and play,” he added.

McGrath praised the concept of involving foreign players in local teams in the ongoing IPL and said he relished playing with some of the young Indian players.“Young Indian talent is very good. I think the team which has the best Indian talent will stand very good chance to win the tournament.”He also felt that Delhi Daredevils, which is being led by dashing right-handed batsman Virender Sehwag, has a good chance of making it to the semi finals.“Our team is capable of doing well as we have got very good mixture of international and good Indian guys,” he said.Asked about domination by the Australian players in the T20 tournament, McGrath said “Over the years we have learnt how to play in India. We have played a lot of cricket in India in the last 10-12 years. We know the conditions here very well”.

Source: cricket.expressindia.com/