Champions Chennai Super Kings Retain IPL Title

Chennai Super Kings played  as a champion to win their second consecutive IPL title. Chennai Super Kings who had remain unbeaten at home this season maintained their invincible record at home to defeat Royal Challengers Bangalore and emerge as IPL 2011 champions.

Chennai Super Kings captain M.S.Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat. The openers Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay, put on 159 runs (in just 89 balls) in an impressive display of power hitting to practically bat RCB out of the match. Chennai Super Kings went on to score 205 for five in their stipulated 20 overs.

Royal Challengers Bangalore had all hopes on Chris Gayle to make any impact but R Ashwin dismissed the in-form Chris Gayle for a duck. Royal Challengers Bangalore kept losing wickets at regular interval and could only score 147 for 8 off their stipulated 20 overs.

Chennai Super Kings Outclass Pune Warriors

Chennai Super Kings recorded their 3rd win of IPL 2011 thanks to some incisive bowling by Albie Morkel and R.Ashwin along with great display of ground fielding. Chennai successfully defended a score of 142 defeating Pune Warriors India by 25 runs played at the MA Chidambaram stadium.

Chennai Super Kings who are the defending champions have looked out of form this season and their bowling has been a real area of concern. But yesterday the Chennai bowlers assisted  by some remarkable fielding successfully defended a modest yet competitive score of 142 to take their team to the fourth spot on the points table.

Lethal Malinga Helps Mumbai Secure Comfortable Win

Lasith Malinga with his volley of yorkers, some low full tosses, the odd slower ball proved too hot to handle for the Delhi Daredevils batsman. Malinga's five-wicket haul came in a devastating spell of seam bowling which meant Delhi were all out for just 95.

Mumbai Indians had an easy tathet to chase although Davy Jacobs was dismissed by Morne Morkel and Roelof van der Merwe ran out Ambati Rayudu giving slim hopes for Delhi to make a comeback into the match. But sachin batted sensibly and  steered Mumbai to an eight-wThe Lincoln Lawyer: A Novelicket victory with 19 balls to spare.

AB de Villiers Stars as Royal Challengers Spoil Kochi Party

AB de Villiers hit five sixes and forged a 52-run partnership with Saurabh Tiwary to

ensure Royal Challengers Bangalore won their first match of IPL 2011.

Bangalore played a matured game as they played Muralitharan and  Jadeja with some caution as the seamers leaked runs at the other end. At the end they won the first match comfortably even though they were facing a challenging target of 162 to win.

Botha and Tivedi Star As Rajasthan Royals Win Against Deccan Chargers

Deccan Chargers were up against a jinx which has been with them from IPL 2008 when they faced Rajasthan Royals in their first match of IPL 2011. Deccan Chargers have never won an IPL match at Hyderabad in front of their home crowd. They had also lost each of their six previous games against Rajasthan Royals. They could not change this in their IPL 2011 opener against the IPL 2008 Champions. Shane Warne looking slimmer and fitter led his team from the front to ensure that the Royals have a great start to their IPL 2011 campaign.

Deccan Chargers had a sparkling start to their innings before Siddharth Trivedi choked Deccan's run flow with an inspired spell of seam bowling. Deccans were restricted to their modest yet competitive score of 137 of their allotted 20 overs. Later Johan Botha who was promoted to No. 3 played a sensible knock to help the Royals get past the target of 138 in the 19th over.

Champions Chennai Scrape Through To Last Ball Victory

IPL 2011 need a cracker to start off to grab the attention of cricket fans of India who are still not done with their World cup winning celebrations. The MA Chidambaram Stadium witnessed a nail biting match which Chennai ultimately won although Kolkata Knight Riders were walking to victory and it seemed the defending champions were in for a upset in IPL 2011 opener. A brilliant run-out from MS Dhoni helped Chennai revive their chances and ultimately go on to win the match. Kolkata Knight Riders just seemed to lose their way after  Jacques Kallis holed out attempting a a cute paddle-sweep. After this Eoin Morgan got dismissed by the part-time spin of Suresh Raina while skipper Gautam Gambhir was culprit of  crazy running to leave the Chennai sensing victory.

Even at this point though the target was not out of reach of Kolkata. Kolkata still needed 33 off the final three overs. It became 26 off 12 as Tim Southee showed off his death-over skills with a tight over. Suraj Randiv who was making his IPL debut conceded 17 runs off the first four deliveries and the match seemed to be slliping away for Chennai. Randhiv switched to round the wicket and fired it quicker and wider on the penultimate ball, and then got the breakthrough on the last delivery.

Kolkata Knight Riders needed 9 runs off the last over which was not tough but Laxmiratan Shukla was caught at short-third man off the third delivery which meant two new batsmen at the crease needed to score five runs off three deliveries. But Tim Southee's death over balling skills came handy as KKR could only manage to score two runs off the remaining three deliveries giving Chennai a two run victory.

Chennai Plays Host To IPL 2011 Opening Match And IPL 2011 Final

Chennai Super Kings who won both IPL 2010 and Champions League 2010 have got the privilege of hosting the 2011 season of the IPL between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.The MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai would also be the venue for IPL 2011 final. The schedule recently released by BCCI has the ten franchises playing at 13 venues over 51 days. This is just a preliminry schedule may change as per requirement keeping in view state assembly elections to be held in the month of April in a few states like West Bengal.

Players Unsold at IPL Auction Day 1

Some players were did not win any bid from IPL teams. They were: 
Tamim Iqbal, Chamara Kapugedera, Murali Kartik, Ajantha Mendis, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Dilhara Fernando, Luke Wright, Matt Prior, Mark Boucher, Graeme Manou, Brian Lara, Herschelle Gibbs, Jesse Ryder, Sourav Ganguly and Chris Gayle.

IPL Player List After Day 1 Of Auction

The IPL player auction happened today and will be continued tomorrow as well. Here is the list of players, the teams that they were bought by and the price that went for:
Player Name                        Country          IPL Team                             Cost (USD)

Aaron Finch	Australia	Delhi Daredevils	300000
AB de Villiers	South Africa	Royal Challengers Bangalore	1100000
Abhishek Nayar	India	Kings XI Punjab	800000
Adam Gilchrist	Australia	Kings XI Punjab	900000
Albie Morkel (retained)	South Africa	Chennai Super Kings	500000
Amit Mishra	India	Deccan Chargers	300000
Andrew Symonds	Australia	Mumbai Indians	850000
Angelo Mathews	Sri Lanka	Pune Warriors	950000
Ashish Nehra	India	Pune Warriors	850000
Brad Haddin	Australia	Kolkata Knight Riders	325000
Brad Hodge	Australia	Kochi	425000
Brendon McCullum	New Zealand	Kochi	475000
Brett Lee	Australia	Kolkata Knight Riders	400000
Callum Ferguson	Australia	Pune Warriors	300000
Cameron White	Australia	Deccan Chargers	1100000
Cheteshwar Pujara	India	Royal Challengers Bangalore	700000
Dale Steyn	South Africa	Deccan Chargers	1200000
Daniel Vettori	New Zealand	Royal Challengers Bangalore	550000
David Hussey	Australia	Kings XI Punjab	1400000
David Warner	Australia	Delhi Daredevils	750000
Davy Jacobs	South Africa	Mumbai Indians	190000
Dinesh Karthik	India	Kings XI Punjab	900000
Dirk Nannes	Australia	Royal Challengers Bangalore	650000
Doug Bollinger	Australia	Chennai Super Kings	700000
Dwayne Bravo	West Indies	Chennai Super Kings	200000
Eoin Morgan	England	Kolkata Knight Riders	350000
Gautam Gambhir	India	Kolkata Knight Riders	2400000
Graeme Smith	South Africa	Pune Warriors	500000
Harbhajan Singh (retained)	India	Mumbai Indians	1300000
Irfan Pathan	India	Delhi Daredevils	1900000
Ishant Sharma	India	Deccan Chargers	450000
Jacques Kallis	South Africa	Kolkata Knight Riders	1100000
James Franklin	New Zealand	Mumbai Indians	100000
James Hopes	Australia	Delhi Daredevils	350000
Johan Botha	South Africa	Rajasthan Royals	950000
JP Duminy	South Africa	Deccan Chargers	300000
Kevin Pietersen	England	Deccan Chargers	650000
Kieron Pollard (retained)	West Indies	Mumbai Indians	900000
Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	Deccan Chargers	700000
Lasith Malinga (retained)	Sri Lanka	Mumbai Indians	500000
M Vijay (retained)	India	Chennai Super Kings	900000
Mahela Jayawardene	Sri Lanka	Kochi	1500000
Manoj Tiwary	India	Kolkata Knight Riders	475000
Michael Hussey	Australia	Chennai Super Kings	425000
Morne Morkel	South Africa	Delhi Daredevils	475000
MS Dhoni (retained)	India	Chennai Super Kings	1800000
Muttiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	Kochi	1100000
Naman Ojha	India	Delhi Daredevils	270000
Nathan McCullum	New Zealand	Pune Warriors	100000
Parthiv Patel	India	Kochi	290000
Paul Collingwood	England	Rajasthan Royals	250000
Piyush Chawla	India	Kings XI Punjab	900000
Pragyan Ojha	India	Deccan Chargers	500000
Praveen Kumar	India	Kings XI Punjab	800000
R Ashwin	India	Chennai Super Kings	850000
Rahul Dravid	India	Rajasthan Royals	500000
Ramesh Powar	India	Kochi	180000
Ravindra Jadeja	India	Kochi	950000
Robin Uthappa	India	Pune Warriors	2100000
Rohit Sharma	India	Mumbai Indians	2000000
Ross Taylor	New Zealand	Rajasthan Royals	1000000
RP Singh	India	Kochi	500000
Ryan Harris	Australia	Kings XI Punjab	325000
S Badrinath	India	Chennai Super Kings	850000
Sachin Tendulkar (retained)	India	Mumbai Indians	1800000
Shakib Al Hasan	Bangladesh	Kolkata Knight Riders	425000
Shane Warne (retained)	Australia	Rajasthan Royals	1800000
Shane Watson (retained)	Australia	Rajasthan Royals	1300000
Shaun Marsh	Australia	Kings XI Punjab	400000
Shikhar Dhawan	India	Deccan Chargers	300000
Sourabh Tiwary	India	Royal Challengers Bangalore	1600000
Sreesanth	India	Kochi	900000
Steven Smith	Australia	Kochi	200000
Stuart Broad	England	Kings XI Punjab	400000
Suresh Raina (retained)	India	Chennai Super Kings	1300000
Tillakaratne Dilshan	Sri Lanka	Royal Challengers Bangalore	650000
Tim Paine	Australia	Pune Warriors	270000
Virat Kohli (retained)	India	Royal Challengers Bangalore	1800000
Virender Sehwag (retained)	India	Delhi Daredevils	1800000
VVS Laxman	India	Kochi	400000
Wriddhiman Saha	India	Chennai Super Kings	100000
Yusuf Pathan	India	Kolkata Knight Riders	2100000
Yuvraj Singh	India	Pune Warriors	18000
Zaheer Khan	India	Royal Challengers Bangalore	90000

Geoff Lawson to coach IPL Kochi Team

The Kochi IPL team has appointed, the former Australian fast bowler, Geoff Lawson as their Head Coach. Lawson who is believed to have got an initial contract for two years will come to India soon to sign his contract.

Lawson said he was excited about getting an opportunity of working with the Kochi team. Geoff Lawson who was coach of the Pakistan national team for over a year from July 2007 has some impressive coaching credentials under his belt and the Kochi owners are excited to get him as coach for their IPL team.

Michael Clarke Interested for an IPL Stint

Michael Clarke, the Australian T20 Captain is desperate to improve his Twenty20 skills and is seriously considering taking part in the IPL for the first time next season. Clarke who has never taken part in IPL is now interested in the Indian T20 Carnival to boost his skills in the shortest format of the game.

Clarke each year weighs up a decision between making more money or having a holiday and felt that spending extra time at home in Sydney a more viable option. He has never enjoyed  a smooth relationship with Lalit Modi, the former IPL commissioner, but with Modi now gone Clarke is more open to be a part of the T20 tournament then ever before.

Michael Clarke said in the Sunday Telegraph,"If my body feels great and I'm confident I can go out and play those six weeks of the IPL, I'll put myself in the auction."

Clarke feels that IPL has helped develop players not only for the T20 format but for the overall game.