Chennai Super Kings strolled to a 58-run win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final of the Indian Premier League

The Super Kings, in retaining the trophy, outclassed the Royal Challengers after making 205 for five and then checking the visitors to 147 for eight to cap an eight-match winning streak at home this season.

As well as Vijay and Hussey batted to provide a great launch pad for the Super Kings, it was Ashwin's dismissal of the two danger batsmen, Chris Gayle (0) and Mayank Agarwal (10), by the third over that turned the tide firmly in favour of the hosts.

Virat Kohli (35 off 32) offered some resistance, but his exit in the 10th over, virtually ended the Bangalore challenge that Saturday night was not good enough to trouble the Super Kings, who did just about everything right on the field.

Late in the innings, Saurabh Tiwary (42 not out) only delayed the inevitable as the Super Kings dropped a couple of catches.

Gayle, in his brief stay, never looked comfortable, unable to fathom the turn and bounce that Ashwin extracted, and the Jamaican powerhouse lasted a mere three balls before thin-edging to Dhoni.

In his next over, Ashwin struck again, rattling Mayank Agarwal's off-stump with a straight delivery and the Royal Challengers were reeling at 16 for two in the third over.

Kohli and A.B. de Villiers put together a 32-run stand for the third wicket, but the South African, not in best of form this season, departed, missing a pull off left-arm spinner Jakati and trapped plumb in front.

Jakati struck another blow in his next over, accepting a simple return catch from a clueless Luke Pomersbach who lead-edged, playing for the turn that wasn't quite there.

With four gone for just 62 in the ninth over, the Royal Challengers were staring at defeat and even more so when Kohli fell leg before to Suresh Raina, while skipper Daniel Vettori was dismissed in the next over, offering an easy catch to Ashwin.

The Royal Challengers never recovered from these body blows despite some late blitz by Tiwary as the Super Kings then cleaned up the tail to author a memorable victory that was founded on the Vijay-Hussey classic.

It was one of the finest batting exhibitions in the IPL this season as both Vijay and Hussey complemented each other, both in shot making and running hard between the wickets.

The run-making was a glorious mix of power hitting, elegant strokes and some deft placements, as the pair, with just two half-century partnerships this season, prospered, growing in confidence all the time.

It was not long before Hussey and Vijay opened up with a series of well-timed sixes and the Super Kings had the early momentum they had missed in the previous games.

The Royal Challengers bowling and fielding flagged as the runs flowed freely and at a good clip. Neither Hussey nor Vijay were unduly hassled on a pitch that afforded true bounce, but very little lateral movement.

For all their dominance, the Super Kings openers stuck to the basics, taking the singles and twos when presented even as they peppered the ropes to provide their team a solid platform.

The heat and humidity eventually got to the batsmen as first Hussey departed, holing out in the deep in the 15th over with the score reading 159. Skipper M.S. Dhoni then played a cameo while Vijay too left, out to a tired shot, just five short of a century.

Thereafter, left-arm seamer Sreenath Aravind picked up two wickets off consecutive balls before Gayle emulated that feat in the final over only to see his West Indian counterpart Dwayne Bravo slamming a six off the last ball to put 200 on the board and the Super Kings firmly in the saddle.

No IPL for Sourav Ganguly

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly will not be part of IPL 4 starting on April 8 and Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey cannot play the first four matches for his new franchise Sahara Pune Warriors for breaching player guidelines, the league's Governing Council said on Friday.

IPL's Governing Council stalled what could have been a back-door entry for Ganguly after he was left unsold at the players' auction in Bangalore at a base price of $400,000.

"Based on the views from Franchisees, IPL Governing Council decided not to make available the unsold Indian Players from the auction," said a release from Cricket Board's secretary N Srinivasan who is a member of the GC as an office bearer of the Board.

That effectively dashed the hopes of not only Ganguly, who went unsold at the two-day auction on January 8 and 9, but also those of two other capped players - Wasim Jaffer and V R V Singh - who will not feature in the April 8-May 28 tournament.

Speaking to reporters after a marathon meeting of the Governing Council, chairman Chirayu Amin said Ganguly would not be part of IPL 4 following the objection raised by a few franchises to a request from one franchise which was interested in buying the Bengal stalwart outside the auction.

"We had received a request from one franchise (Kochi) that Ganguly should be allowed to be purchased outside the auction and rejected it after objections were raised by some other franchises," Amin said.

IPL rules state that no capped player can be bought outside the players' auction after he has been part of the process.

About the reason for cracking the whip and imposing the ban on Pandey, Srinivasan stated that based on the complaints from franchisees and after meeting with the player, the GC had imposed a four-match ban on the player.

"He cannot play the first four matches of IPL Season 4. As desired by him, he is permitted to play for the Pune Franchise," Srinivasan said in his release.

Amin told reporters that Pandey, through his agent, had haggled with several franchises.

"Pandey's agent was negotiating with a number of franchises," was how Amin put it.

Pandey played for the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the first three seasons of IPL.

Corporates Putting lots of money on IPL 4

Looking to cash in on the cricket fever after India''s World Cup win, corporates are lapping up advertising spots in the forthcoming IPL, with the likes of Tata Motors earmarking a Rs 30 crore spend for the tournament.

Even the country''s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India which has traditionally stayed away from IPL is encouraged to spend money this time on the T20 tournament, after the success of the World Cup.

Not only big corporates with deep pockets are loosening their purse strings. Even companies like Paragon Footwear and water heaters and voltage stabilisers maker V-Guard are getting ready to splurge on advertisements to grab eyeballs during the IPL telecast.

According to industry sources, homegrown auto major Tata Motors is understood to have earmarked a budget of Rs 30 crore for advertising during the IPL matches on sub-continental broadcaster SetMax.

When contacted, a Tata Motors spokesperson declined to divulge the company''s advertising budget for the IPL, but said: "The company has booked spots to advertise as an entity for both passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles." Commenting on Maruti Suzuki''s plans for the IPL, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd Chief General Manager Marketing Shashank Srivastava said: "We have had a good experience in the World Cup, where we spent about Rs 30 crore. After India''s win there is a lot of interest in cricket. We could get good returns on it." He said the company will finalise its marketing plans for IPL in a couple of days.

"Our ad spend on cricket has been traditionally high and about 30 per cent of our budget goes into it. Our investment in the World Cup were fulfilled," he added.

The company had advertised mainly for its new sedans Kizashi and SX4 diesel.

Meanwhile, Tata Motors is going a step further in its association with the IPL by becoming an associate partner for passenger cars with the Delhi Daredevils.

"This is an extension to our association with the JiyoDilli Festival and to support the spirit of the city of Delhi," the spokesperson said. The company is also talking to other IPL teams to become associate partners for commercial vehicles too, he added.

Others are not far behind. Footwear-maker Paragon is increasing its marketing spends by 40 per cent this year compared to last year on account of plans to advertise during the IPL.

IPL 4 Hit or a Flop Show

While most of India is still soaking in Saturday's humungous ICC cricket world cup victory, there's another cricket tournament waiting to entertain viewers in less than a week. The Indian Premier League (IPL) kicks off on April 8 in Chennai. Broadcaster Set Max said that more than 90% of the ad inventory is sold out. CNBC-TV18’s Nikita Rana reports on whether the viewer and sponsor interest match the World Cup.

More than 68 million people in India watched the India-Sri Lanka final. If the World Cup fever rubs off on IPL, the result can only be positive. At least, broadcaster Set Max is hoping for that.

This year, Set Max will earn close to Rs 1000 crore from the tournament, which is a 43% increase from last year's Rs 650-700 crore. The channel said that they started the selling process about eight months back and closed most deals with advertisers before the World Cup began.

Rohit Gupta, President of Multi Screen Media said, Post the World Cup, as far as IPL is concerned, there haven’t been any direct impact on the spot rates. The last couple of deals have been at Rs 6.5 lakh per 10 seconds. We've sold out now. The rates will only go up in the last five-seven games. We will launch the packages in the middle of May. From now on, there is no major change as far as our selling pattern goes.

While team India's performance hasn't directly benefited IPL on Set Max in terms of ad rates, it did wonders for ESPN Star Sports.

As India progressed in the tournament, spot rates on ESPN Star Sports went from approximately Rs 3.5 lakh in the initial stages to close to Rs 15 lakh in the quarter final stage and then finally to about Rs 20 lakh for the finals.

Companies like Volkswagen India and Amity University paid that price to be present on air during the India-Sri Lanka match.

Manu Sawhney, MD of ESPN Star Sports said, This was a national reach. Without including India-Pakistan match, even till the 46th match, we have hit 173 million viewers. To give a perspective in 2007 in West Indies, it was 113 million viewers. It has gone up by 50%. If we look at IPL 3 last year, it across 60 matches delivered an overall reach of 143 million.

According to media buyers, the average overall rating of the IPL might be higher than the 3-5 average rating that the World Cup will clock. While the ratings of the finals are not in yet, the India- Pakistan semifinal averaged at a 22 rating across six metros according to TAM Sports. This is 10 points higher than the 12.33 rating in India' s quarter final clash against Australia.

In terms of revenues, Set Max is likely to reach ESPN Star Sports' earnings, but media buyers don't expect viewership to be anywhere close to what the India matches got.

IPL Teams List

IPL 4 Teams, Squad - All 10 Teams Players List for 2011 IPL, IPL4 Squads

2011 Indian Premier League - IPL4, is going to start after 6 days of 2011 Cricket World Cup, and almost all the teams completed their players and declared the captains. All the teams have selected new players and made new captains after two new franchises, Pune Sahara Warriors and Indi Commandos Kerala added in the 4th edition of IPL and auction was held on 8th-9th January 2011.

Find the list of players for all the 10 teams participating in 2011 Indian Premier League.

Chennai Super Kings Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

MS Dhoni (Cap), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Michael Hussey, Scott Styris, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Albie Morkel, Tim Southee, Subramaniam Badrinath, George Bailey, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Ben Hilfenhaus, Shadab Jakati, Joginder Sharma, Suraj Randiv, Nuwan Kulasekara, Srikkanth Anirudha, Yo Mahesh, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Kuthethurshri Vasudevadas, Ganapathi Vignesh


Mumbai Indians Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Sachin Tendulkar (Cap), Kieron Pollard, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, James Franklin, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Munaf Patel, Davy Jacobs, Clint McKay, ADilhara Fernando, mbati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ali Murtaza, Abu Nechim, Aiden Blizzard, Yuzvendra Chahal, Moises Henriques, Sarul Kanwar, Rajagopal Sathish, Tirumalasetti Suman, Pawan Suyal, Aditya Tare (wk), Santosh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav


Royal Challengers Bangalore Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:


Daniel Vettori (Cap), Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Saurabh Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Zaheer Khan, Charl Langeveldt, Dirk Nannes, Ryan Ninan, Asad Pathan, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, Mayank Agarwal, Sreenath Aravind, Arun Karthik, BN Bharath, Raju Bhatkal, Abrar Kazi, Nuwan Pradeep, Muralidharen Gautam



Delhi Daredevils Bangalore Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Virender Sehwag (Cap), David Warner, Naman Ojha (wk), Irfan Pathan, James Hopes, Colin Ingram, Andrew McDonald, Morne Morkel, Roelof van der Merwe, Venugopal Rao, Umesh Yadav, Ajit Agarkar, Varun Aaron, Travis Birt, Robin Bist, Unmukt Chand, Ajit Chandila, Ashok Dinda , Aaron Finch, Robert Frylinckl, Yogesh Nagar, Rajesh Pawar, Aavishkar Salvi, Sridharan Sriram, Vikas Mishra, Matthew Wade, Tejashwi Yadav, Vivek Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Prashant Naik


Kolkata Knight Riders Bangalore Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Gautam Gambhir (Cap), Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan, Jaidev Unadkat, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla, Sarabjit Ladda, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla, Shreevats Goswami, James Pattinson, Pradeep Sangwan, Shami Ahmed, Laxmi Shukla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary



Deccan Chargers Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Kumar Sangakkara (Cap/wk), Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, Jean-Paul Duminy, Shikhar Dhawan, Michael Lumb, Ishant Sharma, Dale Steyn, Rusty Theron, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Ashish Reddy, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Akash Bhandari, Bharat Chipli, Daniel Christian, Kedar Devdhar, Manpreet Gony, Harmeet Singh, Ishank Jaggi, Chris Lynn, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Jaydev Shah, Sunny Sohal, Arjun Yadav, Ishan Malhotra

Kings XI Punjab Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Adam Gilchrist (Cap/wk), Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Piyush Chawla, Ryan Harris, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Praveen Kumar, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Abhishek Nayar, Ryan McLaren, Love Ablish, Siddharth Chitnis, Vikramjeet Malik, Nathan Rimmington, Nitin Saini, Shalabh Srivastava, Sunny Singh, Amit Yadav, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Mandeep Singh, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty




Rajasthan Royals Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Shane Warne (Cap), Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Shaun Tait, Rahul Dravid, Paul Collingwood, Johan Botha, Swapnil Asnodkar, Deepak Chahar, Aakash Chopra, Aditya Dole, Ashok Menaria, Pankaj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Abhishek Raut, Siddharth Trivedi, Dishant Harendra Yagnik, Ankeet Chavan, Nayan Doshi, Samad Fallah, Dinesh Salunkhe, Amit Singh, Stuart Binny, Deepak Chahar, Faiz Fazal, Sumit Narwal, Amit Paunikar, Pinal Shah



Pune Warriors Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Yuvraj Singh (Cap), Robin Uthappa, Graeme Smith, Jesse Ryder, Callum Ferguson, Murali Kartik, Ashish Nehra, Nathan McCullum, Angelo Mathews, Wayne Parnell, Jerome Taylor, Tim Paine (wk), Dheeraj Jadhav, Ganesh Gaikwad, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Kamran Khan, Harshad Khadiwale, Mitchell Marsh, Shrikant Mundhe, Alfonso Thomas, Eklavya Dwivedi, Mohnish Mishra, Manish Pandey, Sachin Rana, Rahul Sharma, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Harpreet Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mithun Manhas, Shrikant Wagh


Kochi Tuskers Kerala (IPL Kochi) Team/Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Mahela Jayawardene (Cap), Brendon McCullum, Michael Klinger, Owais Shah, VVS Laxman, Brad Hodge, Steve O'Keefe, Ravindra Jadeja, Balachandra Akhil, Deepak Chougule, Gnaneswara Rao, Raiphi Gomez, Parthiv Patel (wk), Muttiah Muralitharan, John Hastings, Sreesanth, Thisara Perera, Ramesh Powar, RP Singh, Steven Smith, Kedar Jadhav, Chandan Madan, Sushant Marathe, Prasanth Padmanabhan

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Chennai Super Kings Squad, Team for 2011 IPL - CSK IPL 4 Players List

Chennai Super Kings Squad, Team for 2011 IPL - CSK IPL 4 Players List

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings also retained all 4 possible player for the IPL 4 with Captain MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, M Vijay and Albie Morkel. They also bought back spinner R Ashwin, Michael Hussey and injured Doug Bollinger, who will miss initial few matches and they also signs New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee, who was the 3rd highest wicket taker in the just ended 2011 World Cup with 18 wickets.

South African all rounder Faf du Plessis also included and the team is looking very strong with the players like Dwayne Bravo, S Badrinath, Ben Hilfenhaus, Shadab Jakati, Suraj Randiv, Nuwan Kulasekara and Scott Styris.

Find the complete list of players of the Chennai Super Kings for the 2011 IPL4 edition.

Chennai Super Kings Team, Squad for 2011 IPL4:

MS Dhoni (Captain)
Suresh Raina
Murali Vijay
Michael Hussey
Dwayne Bravo
Faf du Plessis
Scott Styris
Srikkanth Anirudha
Subramaniam Badrinath
Wriddhiman Saha (wk)
George Bailey
Tim Southee
Doug Bollinger
Albie Morkel
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ben Hilfenhaus
Shadab Jakati
Joginder Sharma
Suraj Randiv
Nuwan Kulasekara
Yo Mahesh
Sudeep Tyagi
Abhinav Mukund
Kuthethurshri Vasudevadas
Ganapathi Vignesh

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Mumbai Indians Squad, Team for 2011 IPL - MI IPL 4 Players List

Mumbai Indians Squad, Team for 2011 IPL - MI IPL 4 Players List

2010 finalist Mumbai Indians are the one of the 2 teams who retained all possible 4 players for IPL 4. Sachin Tendulkar, Kevin Pollard, Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan Singh has been retained. They bought Australian all rounder Andrew Symmonds and Rohit Sharma for the 4th season.

They also got Indian fast bowler Munaf Patel and few other interesting players like Clint McKay, James Franklin and Davy Jacobs.

Find the complete list of players of the Mumbai Indians for the 2011 IPL4 edition.

Mumbai Indians Team, Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Sachin Tendulkar (Captain)
Rohit Sharma
Andrew Symonds
Kieron Pollard
James Franklin
Ambati Rayudu
Davy Jacobs
Abu Nechim
Aditya Tare (wk)
Harbhajan Singh
Lasith Malinga
Munaf Patel
Ali Murtaza
Clint McKay
Dilhara Fernando
Moises Henriques
Aiden Blizzard
Yuzvendra Chahal
Sarul Kanwar
Dhawal Kulkarni
Rajagopal Sathish
Tirumalasetti Suman
Pawan Suyal
Santosh Yadav
Suryakumar Yadav

Monday, March 7, 2011

Delhi Daredevils Squad, Team for 2011 IPL - DD IPL 4 Players List

Delhi Daredevils Squad, Team for 2011 IPL - DD IPL 4 Players List

Delhi Daredevils retained only one player Virender Sehwag and also named him captain but released his partner Gautam Gambhir, who got the highest bid in 2011 auction by SRK's KKR.

Delhi Daredevils is looking weaker than earlier as they lost some key players like Dilshan, de Villiers, Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes but got all rounder Irfan Pathan in the team.

Find the complete list of players of the Delhi Daredevils for the 2011 IPL4 edition.

Delhi Daredevils Team, Squad for 2011 IPL4:

Virender Sehwag (Captain)
James Hopes
Colin Ingram
David Warner
Roelof van der Merwe
Venugopal Rao
Travis Birt
Robin Bist
Unmukt Chand
Ajit Chandila
Ashok Dinda
Aaron Finch
Robert Frylinck
Andrew McDonald
Morne Morkel
Yogesh Nagar
Naman Ojha (wk)
Irfan Pathan
Rajesh Pawar
Aavishkar Salvi
Sridharan Sriram
Vikas Mishra
Matthew Wade
Tejashwi Yadav
Umesh Yadav
Vivek Yadav
Varun Aaron
Ajit Agarkar
Shahbaz Nadeem
Prashant Naik

IPL 4 Starts on 8thApril 2011 on Setmax

SET Max, the official channel for the Indian Premiere League (IPL), is demanding Rs ten crore for a high-definition feed for the tournament's fourth season, two direct to home television service providers said.

Senior officials from the two companies, who did not wish to be named, said the broadcaster's demand was too high and it would have to slash its rate.

Sun Direct is the only DTH operator that has a deal with SET Max for HD feed as it signed a deal last year.

Till Monday evening, none of the other providers of direct to home (DTH) service, an alternative to cable TV, had signed a deal with SET Max for the high-definition feed. High-definition (HD) feeds offer better sound and picture quality when compared to normal feeds. Broadcast in HD is also free of advertisements. As per industry estimates, there are 2-2.5 lakh subscribers of HD feed in the country, of which one lakh were added during the just ended World Cup.

IPL's fourth season, which starts on April 8, will have 74 matches played among 10 teams. The Information & Broadcasting ministry has given approval to sports channels to show certain sporting events in HD on the condition that they are free of advertisements.

"We are in talks with the broadcaster. But we will sign up for HD feed only if the cost is reasonable. It is not economically viable for the industry to absorb such a huge cost for every sporting event," said Salil Kapoor, COO of India's largest DTH company, Dish TV.

He however refused to give details of the negotiations.

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is said to have demanded Rs 10,000 per subscriber from DTH service providers for the HD feed, but had to scale it down to Rs 100-150. DTH players ended up paying 3-5 crore for the World Cup feed.

Reliance digital TV is in talks with the broadcaster, its CEO Sanjay Behl said.

MSM India, which owns SET MAX, has the official broadcast rights for IPL.

Rohit Gupta, president network sales at MSM India said, "We will offer HD feed for IPL. Our distribution team is in talks with DTH companies. The numbers are small but growing."

Unlike the World Cup, the IPL matches will not be screened atmultiplexes. IPL's chief executive Sundar Raman said the governing council of IPL has decided not to give the rights to any company to screen IPL4 matches in multiplexes.

In 2009, Dar Capital-owned Entertainment and Sports Direct had won the rights to show IPL matches in theatres through digital distribution company UFO Moviez. But after Lalit Modi was removed from the position of IPL commissioner, all deals signed during his tenure came under the scanner. Restaurants, however, have the permission to show the matches, for which they are in talks with SET Max.