IPL 2010 – Pre-Season News and Drama
Summary of Auction
Jan 20, 2010
Indian Premier League Season 3 held a 66 player auction. Shane Bond, Kieron Pollard, Kemar Roach had the highest bids against their names. Unfortunately, none of the Pakistan players had any bids. The reason behind that seems political more than anything. Several Pakistan players and seniors have come out in the media condoning the IPL for “making fun” of them.
Below is summary of how the 8 IPL teams spent their money. Each team had a limit of spending $750,000 and silent tie-breakers would be used in case of a tie.
Mumbai Indians:
Kieron Pollard (Maximum of $750,000 plus the undisclosed tiebreaker amount)
Harshal Patel (Draft Pick – U19 Player)
Chennai Supers Kings:
Thissara Perera ($50,000)
Justin Kemp ($100,000)
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Shane Bond (Maximum of $750,000 plus the undisclosed tiebreaker amount)
Deccan Chargers:
Kemar Roach ($720,000)
Harmeet Singh ($17,500/Rs. 800,000) (Draft Pick)
Delhi Daredevils:
Wayne Parnell ($610,000)
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Eoin Morgan ($220,000)
Ashok Menaria (Draft Pick – U19 Player)
Kings XI Punjab:
Adrian Barath ($75,000 – Outside the auction)
Yusuf Abdulla ($50,000 – Base Price)
Mohammad Kaif ($250,000)
Rajasthan Royals:
Damien Martyn ($100,000)
Adam Voges ($50,000)
Bond and Pollard get the highest bids (Source)
Jan 19, 2010
Indian Premier League 2010 featured a 66 player auction. Pollard has been acquired by Mumbai Indians for an unknown amount (anything higher the maximum bidding amount of $750,000). Kolkata Knight Riders acquired Shane Bond. Surprisingly none of the Pakistani players got any bids. Summary below:
Pollard - Maximum Amount (Mumbai Indians)
Bond - Maximum Amount (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Roach - $720,000 (Deccan Chargers)
Parnell - $610,000 (Delhi Daredevils)
Morgan - $220,000 (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Read more
Ashes 2009, England v Australia, 2nd Test, Day 1 Report
Day 1 pretty much belonged to England but Australia came back strongly in the third session. While we saw excellent batting from the openers, the middle order played irresponsibly yet again.
Australia started the day off with very poor bowling. Mitchell Johnson’s line was all over the place and he got hit in all directions of the ground. Ben Hilfenhaus bowled a decent spell but not good enough to pick a wicket. Alistair Cook and Andrew Strauss looked in great form and were playing their shots freely. Peter Siddle came on as the first change and he was the first bowler to looked to pick a wicket. Ricky Ponting insisted on continuing with Mitchell Johnson but Johnson was clearly struggling to bowl against the left-handers. I believe Johnson is a much better bowler against right-handed batsmen. England finished the first session at 126 runs for the loss of no wickets.
After a great batting display, Alistair Cook lost his wicket for 95 runs, unfortunately missing out on a hundred. Ravi Bopara walked in and he played aggressively before Hilfenhaus got him LBW off an in-swinging delivery. I felt Bopara batted in a very irresponsible way, given the best possible start by the openers. Rather than capitalizing on the great start, he gave his wicket cheaply. After this it was a middle order collapse – Pietersen, Collingwood, Prior and Flintoff all losing their wickets cheaply. All of them failed to build on the start and this could turn out as the turning point of the match. England could have posted a score of well over 550 runs but chances for that look very skim now.
End Of Day: England – 364/6 in 90.0 overs (Andrew Strauss 161, Stuart Broad 7)
Ashes 2009, England v Australia, 1st Test, Day 5 Report
WOW! What a day of Cricket. This is what Ashes is all about – tension, excitement, and suspense. The crowds were on their feet for the whole last hour of play. Will England suffer an innings-defeat or will they save the match? That was one question that thousands in the crowd and million of viewers had on their mind and they had to wait till the last minute for the answer.
The day started with some pre-play action. There were words exchanged between Kevin Pitersen and Mitchell Johnson during practice. England having lost 2 crucial wickets on Day 4, were left with only 8 wickets to play with. Surviving against a motivated Australian attack for the whole day would be quite a challenge.
Early in the day, Ben Hilfenhaus bowled the magical delivery to knock out the off-stump of Kevin Pietersen who didn’t offer a shot and looked absolutely clueless. It looked like what I call – a Brain fart. A few overs after Andrew Strauss gave his wicket to Nathan Haurtiz playing a rash shot. Hauritz next victim was Matt Prior, who was surprised by the spin and bounce. Nathan Hauritz who was able to extract a lot of spin from the foot holes was the most impressive and dangerous bowler of the session.
Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood were building a good partnership – defending the good balls but also scoring runs off the bad balls. But Mitchell Johnson bowled a good delivery, drew Flintoff into the shot and caught in the slips by Ponting. Stuart Broad was able to hold the crease for an hour but was deceived by a quick delivery by Nathan Haurtiz. Paul Collingwood continued to hold his end, while wickets were falling on the other end. After this it was Swann v Siddle. A furious and motivated Siddle hit Swann several times leaving Swann in great pain but Swann was able to hold on to his wicket.
After tea, Graeme Swann was scoring freely and at a faster pace. Australians took the new ball and were threatening with it. While Ben Hilfenhaus bowled well with the new ball, Mitchell Johnson was all over the place and wasn’t looking to take wickets at all. Just when we thought that this pair would take it home, Graeme Swann played a lose shot and lost his wicket. James Anderson came in but he didn’t let the pressure affect his batting and was looking to score runs. Then Peter Siddle took the big wicket of Paul Collingwood. Collingwood was devastated giving his wicket away at this crucial moment, when he had worked hard for this all day.
Monty Panesar, not known for his batting, came on. First two balls, he defended them in a stylish way looking in full confidence. Anderson and Panesar continued to hold on. I would like to quote Mark Nicholas’ remark about Ricky Ponting – “Does he have any nails left” [Ricky Ponting was biting his nails]. There were delay tactics being employed by England by sending the 12th man and Physio when Australia were trying to push for more time. Since England got a lead on Australia, there had to be a 10 minute break between innings which cut Australia short by 10 minutes of bowling time. At 6:40 local time, they shook hands and there was relief on the English balcony. It was extraordinary scenes at Cardiff with thousands of people cheering James Anderson and Monty Panesar, the saviors of English cricket.
Quotes:
I don’t think it was required, he changed [the gloves] the over before and I don’t think they’d be too sweaty in one over. I’m not sure what the physio was doing out there. I didn’t see anyone call for the physio to come out. As far as I’m concerned, it was pretty ordinary, really. But they can play whatever way they want to play. We came to play by the rules and the spirit of the game. It’s up to them to do what they want to do.” – Ricky Ponting
“But once I was out and there was nothing I could do any more the nerves really got to me. The last hour was the most painful hour I’ve ever been through. It was hard work and emotionally very tiring.” – Stuart Broad
“I wouldn’t be facing up as quickly every ball. It’s an extremely nervous situation and that one wicket determines the 1-0 or 0-0 scoreline. They did their job. If I’m in that situation and I call for gloves, they won’t care.” – Nathan Hauritz
