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Chennai Super Kings defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 21 runs at Chepauk today. Chennai captain Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat. Michael Hussey (83 runs off 56 balls) who joined the CSK squad today played a gem of an innings and he was supported by Murali Vijay (31 off 21), Suresh Raina (29 off 16) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (22 off 16) as they reached 183/5 in 20 overs. Bangalore lost early wickets in reply and a valiant effort by AB De Villiers (65 runs off 44 balls) could not secure them a win as they finished 21 runs short at 164/7 in their 20 overs. Michael Hussey was awarded the Man of the Match for his excellent knock.

If anyone watched the third match of IPL T20 Season 4 between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kochi Tuskers Kerala then you might have noticed that a player unheard of even in Indian domestic cricket made it to the star studded Royal Challengers Bangalore lineup. I am not saying about U-19 sensation Mayank Agarwal as he is already quite famous as a junior player but I am referring to Asad Pathan who hardly played four domestic matches and made it directly to the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad. He was noticed a bit in the first innings for his short spell of 2 overs for 19 runs where he got some good turn but that was hardly impressive. But then he got the first chance with the bat in the penultimate over of the second innings. AB De Villiers had already shifted the match in favor of Royal Challengers Bangalore but then Asad Pathan fearlessly hit 3 fours in the 4 balls he faced as the got all the winning runs with a few strikes. He was also hit on the helmet once but that did not deter him and he continued with his consecutive fours. His short innings reminded the brute hitting of the Pathan brothers who have made their reputation through the last three IPL seasons as well as their international appearances for the Indian team. On a quick background search it seems that he is also from Gujarat like the Pathan brothers. According to a TOI article, People watching him play, says that he is the new ‘Yusuf Pathan’ on the horizon. As per reports, RCB people saw Asad in the Aurangabad Premier League at DY Patil Stadium last year where in four 15-over matches he scored two hundreds. They followed Asad to the Anand Premier League where he won the man of the series award in a field where many top cricketers from the three cricket associations of Gujarat-Saurashtra Cricket Association, Gujarat Cricket Association and Baroda Cricket Association-took part. Asad Pathan started playing cricket in the dusty alleys of Ankleshwar then went to South Africa to play in the Limpopo province for one and half years. Asad had a highest score of 157 in the 50 over matches and scored two hundreds (146 and 120) in the T20s. Asad was even offered a contract by the Nashua Titans franchise, one of five South African associate teams of which the Limpopo cricket team is a part of, but he decided to come back to India to pursue his dream playing big time cricket.

It is too early to comment if he can emulate the Pathan brothers in their hitting abilities but he is surely a lot more skinny and can handle the short ball a lot better than the Pathan brothers. Le us wait and see if he can become the next IPL sensations like the Pathan brothers. Maybe his one and half year stint in South Africa has enabled him to handle the short ball better but it remain to be seen if he can hit sixes as effortlessly as Yusuf and in some cases even Irfan does. He seems to have a lot of centuries in the shortest formats of the game but it would be need to be seen if he can repeat that in a lot bigger stage like the IPL.

Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated debutant IPL team Kochi Tuskers Kerala on their home ground by 6 wickets with 8 balls to spare in a high scoring game. Kochi Tuskers Kerala skipper Mahela Jayawardena won the toss and decided to bat. Royal Challengers Bangalore were headed by their new captain Daniel Vettori at the toss. Brendon McCullum (45 runs off 32 balls) and VVS Laxman (36 runs off 29 balls) provided a blazing start as they scored 80 runs in merely 9 overs for the opening stand before VVS departed. They then lost the momentum and Jayawardena (18 runs off 18 balls), Brad Hodge (27 runs off 21 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (23 not out off 16 balls) contributed as they scored 161/5 in 20 overs. In reply, Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to keep the required run rate under control though they lost wickets at regular intervals. India’s recent U-19 sensation Mayank Agarwal scored a brisk 33 runs off 24 balls including a first ball 6 off Muralitharan while Virat Kohli and Saurabh Tiwary scored 23 runs off 18 balls and 26 runs off 24 balls respectively. But it was AB de Villiers who steadied the innings and scored a match winning 54 runs off 40 balls though debutant Asad Pathan also came to the party too as he scored 3 fours in his short innings of 4 balls as he hit the winning runs. AB De Villiers was adjudged the Man of the Match for his brilliant.

In Match 50 of IPL T20 season 2, Virender Sehwag won the toss and decided to bat. With the help of a brilliant 79 off 55 balls by AB de Villiers, Delhi Daredevils scored 150/3 in 20 overs. All the Rajasthan Royals batsmen struggled and they lost regular intervals and could only score 136/9 in 20 overs. AB de Villiers was awarded the Man of the Match of his brilliant innings.

Full Scorecard

Delhi Daredevils

Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Gautam Gambhir c & b Munaf Patel 8 8 1 0 100
Virender Sehwag (C) lbw b Munaf Patel 2 8 0 0 25
AB de Villiers not out 79 55 8 1 143.64
Tillakaratne Dilshan b Johan Botha 33 41 1 0 80.49
Dinesh Karthik (W) not out 23 11 1 1 209.09
Mithun Manhas
Farveez Maharoof
Amit Mishra
Avishkar Salvi
Dirk Nannes
Ashish Nehra
Extras: b – 0, w – 1, nb – 3, lb – 1 5
Total: (150 for 3 wickets in 20.0 overs) 150 Run Rate: 7.5

Fall of Wickets1-12 (Gautam Gambhir, 2.1), 2-15 (Virender Sehwag, 2.5), 3-102 (Tillakaratne Dilshan, 16.4)

Bowling (Jaipur)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Munaf Patel 4 0 39 2 3 0 9.75
Amit Singh 3 0 23 0 0 0 7.67
Siddharth Trivedi 1 0 9 0 0 0 9
Johan Botha 4 0 23 1 0 1 5.75
Shane Warne 4 0 28 0 0 0 7
Ravindra Jadeja 2 0 13 0 0 0 6.5
Abhishek Raut 1 0 10 0 0 0 10
Yusuf Pathan 1 0 4 0 0 0 4

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Rajasthan Royals

Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Rob Quiney c Dirk Nannes b Ashish Nehra 6 10 1 0 60
Graeme Smith c Avishkar Salvi b Dirk Nannes 0 4 0 0 0
Naman Ojha (W) c Virender Sehwag b Avishkar Salvi 9 17 1 0 52.94
Johan Botha c Virender Sehwag b Farveez Maharoof 37 31 3 0 119.35
Ravindra Jadeja c Dinesh Karthik b Avishkar Salvi 24 18 3 0 133.33
Yusuf Pathan c Dinesh Karthik b Farveez Maharoof 1 5 0 0 20
Abhishek Raut b Amit Mishra 11 13 0 0 84.62
Shane Warne (C) st Dinesh Karthik b Amit Mishra 6 3 0 1 200
Amit Singh st Dinesh Karthik b Amit Mishra 0 1 0 0 0
Siddharth Trivedi not out 6 10 0 0 60
Munaf Patel not out 23 10 5 0 230
Extras: b – 0, w – 5, nb – 2, lb – 6 13
Total: (136 for 9 wickets in 20.0 overs) 136 Run Rate: 6.8

Fall of Wickets1-7 (Graeme Smith, 1.5), 2-8 (Rob Quiney, 2.2), 3-24 (Naman Ojha, 6.2), 4-79 (Ravindra Jadeja, 12.1), 5-82 (Yusuf Pathan, 13.2), 6-98 (Johan Botha, 15.5), 7-99 (Abhishek Raut, 16.1), 8-99 (Amit Singh, 16.2), 9-107 (Shane Warne, 17)

Bowling (Delhi)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Ashish Nehra 3 0 8 1 0 1 2.67
Dirk Nannes 4 0 33 1 0 3 8.25
Avishkar Salvi 4 0 19 2 0 1 4.75
Farveez Maharoof 4 0 27 2 0 0 6.75
Amit Mishra 4 0 33 3 2 0 8.25
Tillakaratne Dilshan 1 0 10 0 0 0 10

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