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Kolkata Knight Riders broke their losing streak in the last two matches as they defeated Delhi Daredevils by 17 runs. Delhi captain Sehwag won the toss and put KKR to bat. Kolkata reached a competitive total of 148/7 in their 20 overs mainly due to Manoj Tiwary’s knock of 61 runs off 47 balls. Umesh Yadav took 2 wickets for DD. In reply, DD never got any partnership along and ended up with only 131/9 in their 20 overs to post their fifth loss in IPL Season 4 2011. Iqbal Abdulla took three wickets for 25 runs while Balaji took 2 wickets. Manoj Tiwary was awarded the Man of the Match for his crucial knock.

Less than two weeks to go now for IPL to start which will be played in South Africa this year, maybe not as big as it was last year, but still it holds a lot of promise for Indian cricket, as we hope that new faces will get the nod and emerge as new stars like first edition where we saw number of youngsters performed really well, but those were mostly batsmen, but now this year we are looking forward to see some new young fast bowlers to show their talent and go ahead. Few young rookie fast bowlers who I am looking forward to see this time around are:

Rahil Sheikh: Rahil is a left arm fast bowler and will play for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He made his first class debut in this Ranji season for Mumbai, played three matches took 9 wickets, but the biggest thing which impressed everybody about him was his pace and bounce. He is tall around 6 foot 4 inches, still raw, and working on his bowling under the eyes of Shaun Pollock in Mumbai Indians. He impressed Sachin Tendulkar in IPL last year when he was bowling in the nets to him and then he was signed by Mumbai Indians. I hope he will get to play in the guidance of Zaheer Khan and learn some trick from him.

Umesh Yadav: This guy was the most impressive fast bowler in the just concluded first class season as he progressed very similar to his bowling which is very quick. He first started playing U-22 matches for Vidarbha and after only two matches he was drafted in the ranji side and played 4 matches took 20 wickets, and then Duleep trophy where he took 5 wickets in the first innings including the wickets of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. This year he will play for Delhi Daredevils under the eyes of TA Shekher and Glenn McGrath. His biggest asset is his pace and incoming deliveries by which he trapped Dravid into shortleg which is very unusual for Dravid to get out against a fast bowler. He bowled over 140 Ks in that Duleep Trophy match and he is now a big hope of Indian cricket.

Sudeep Tyagi: This will be a long awaited debut for Sudeep Tyagi if he makes it as he was signed last season but could not play because of a serious back injury in a Devdhar Trophy match and he had to sit on the sidelines for a long time. He will play for Chennai Superkings and I hope he will make full use of the opportunities given to him. He emerged on the scene in 2007 Ranji trophy when from no where Mohmmad Kaif picked him during the ranji trials as he was impressed of his pace and bounce being a tall man and he immediately played his first ranji match and created history after taking 10 wickets on debut and at the end of the season he emerged as the highest wicket taker, but an unfortunate injury haunted his progress and he had sit out for 6 months before he was picked for India A against Australia A where he again showed whey he was rated so high by his captain. In a four day game, he destroyed Australia A batting line up with his pace and reverse swing which had players like Simon Katich, Philip Hughes, Adam Voges, Marcus North, Luke Rhonchi and all these players have played for Australia. Even Australia A captain Katich and coach were impressed with his pace and reverse swing.

Anureet Singh: He plays for Railways in ranji and will play for Knight Riders in this IPL. He is a tall fast bowler who is talked about a lot in the domestic circuit and then went in KKR trials camp and selected to play fro KKR. Lets hope he delivers what he is selected for.