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Saturday, May 10, 2014

empty stands of Chepauk ........ no IPL this year at Chennai !!!

Life has changed ~ from the long format of Tests – earlier unlimited days – then 5 days with a rest day in between, it is T20- 3 hours of results ... game T20 and brand IPL have been a hit in India ever since Dhoni toured and conquered with a raw bunch way back in 2007. 

Today, CSK play MI ~ both are at different ends of Points of table ...but MI have tasted success recently, while CSK got mauled by KXIP.  Ravichandran Ashwin unusually had figures of 2-0-38 after the mauling by Glenn Maxwell which for sure would have dented his ego and confidence. Ashwin hower would appear self-confident all the time and has been bowing with great conviction especially in the powerplay.  Now can  Kieron Pollard, the big hitter clobber Ashwin could be the Q for the day.  Supporters of CSK would love to believe that meltdown was a mere aberration for the bowler who has been most economical in the powerplay better  than both Lasith Malinga and Dale Steyn
At this stage the orange cap is with Glenn Maxwell who has scored 460 runs in 8 innings with a strike rate of 204; followed by Dwayne Smith 339; Brendon McCullum 314; David Miller 284 and Duminy 280 ~ no Indian in top 5 and the first Indian at no. 6 is Robin Uthappa with 256.  For the purple cap – things are however different ... Bhuvaneshwar Kumar leads with 14 wickets in 7 innings; Mohit Sharma 14 (in 8); Pravin Tambe 13 (8); Sandeep Sharma 13 (6); Suni Narine 13 (8) and Varun Aaron 12 (7)
Not many would have heard of Sandeep Sharma who last night had Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli in consecutive balls and added Parthiv Patel to end up 4-0-25-3 becoming the player of the match.  This right-arm medium pacer from Punjab rose to prominence during the 2012 Under-19 World Cup. His four wickets in the final propelled India to the title and made him India’s joint highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 12 scalps.
IPL has thrown up opportunities to many youngsters ... there are some oldies like Pravin Tambe too... yesterday there was another – Shivam Sharma who made his debut...... who reportedly was advised ‘Bas enjoy kar. Zyada pressure mat le’ (Just enjoy. Don’t take too much pressure) by Virender Sehwag.  Off his ninth delivery, he got the ball to turn away from Yuvraj Singh and got an outside edge off his bat that was sharply and aptly caught by Sehwag at first slip. That wicket was special for the 20-year-old off-spinner from Delhi being his maiden IPL scalp having earned it. Eventually, he finished with 4-0-26-2 (also dismissing Albie Morkel) as Kings XI Punjab continued on their merry way to victory, beating RCB by 32 runs.
Something not so good for Cricket fans of Chennai.  With the Chennai Corporation and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association failing to arrive at a consensus in the Supreme Court over the use of the I, J and K stands in the M.A. Chidambaram stadium on Friday, the stalemate continues.  It is clear that the matter would now go to July beyond summer vacation.
On May 7 a joint memo was filed by the TNCA and the Chennai Corporation incorporating certain conditions to be met by the TNCA to enable the lock and seal to be removed and to allow the three stands to be put to use for IPL matches. However, even as the order was being dictated, certain differences could not be settled and the Bench without passing the order adjourned the matter.  Reports state that  Justice Ranjana Desai told the TNCA counsel “there are serious violations. They say if the stand collapses then there are safety considerations. This court should not be seen as endorsing the violations.  When TNCA counsel said the first IPL match of this season was to be held on May 18, Justice Desai is quoted as saying  “we are also sport lovers, but we can’t be seen as approving violations as it will be seen as a precedent.”
A top source in the TNCA is quoted as saying  “there will be no IPL matches in Chennai this time.” ~ not the 2 group matches but also the other two games  Qualifier-1 and the Eliminator, on May 27 and 28.  So Chennai will not host any of the matches in IPL 7 .. it is a gain for the Jharkhand State Cricket Asociation – but the matches scheduled for Chennai would perhaps move to Bangalore or Mumbai. 
~ so not only those 3 .... but entire Chepauk would remain empty !!!
With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

10th May 2o14.

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