Hussey smashes quick-fire ton in IPL
Mohali, India - April 19, 2008
Mike Hussey blasted 116 not out from just 54 balls to guide his Indian Premier League side to a 33-run Twenty20 victory last night.

Batting at No3, Hussey clubbed nine sixes and eight fours to help the Chennai Super Kings to a commanding 5-240 from their 20 overs. Australian Test and one-day team-mate Matthew Hayden hit 25 from 17 balls. Queenslander James Hopes top scored with 71 for the Kings XI Punjab in their reply of 4-207. Opening the innings, Hopes smashed 10 fours in his 33-ball knock. Brett Lee took 1-35 from his four overs for the Punjab side. The second day of the newly incepted Indian Premier League produced another run feast as Chennai Super Kings defeated Kings X1 Punjab by 33 runs in Mohali. This was the game between the two most expensive franchises. Australian Michael Hussey stole the show when he scored an unbeaten 114 to power Chennai to 240 for five. Hussey who hit the Kings X1's bowlers to all parts of the field required only 50 balls to reach his century.

The Kings X1 struggled to match the required run rate of 12 per over and managed only 207 for four in their allotted 20 overs.




DAREDEVELS V RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Shane Warne-led Rajasthan crumble as Delhi Daredevils open campaign with nine-wicket win.

Rajasthan Royals were never going to have it easy in their opening Indian Premier League encounter on Saturday, but they wouldn’t have expected things to turn out as they did.

Delhi Daredevils started their campaign with a resounding nine-wicket win in front of a noisy Ferozeshah Kotla in a match that lost much of its charm for the neutral observer once the Royals were restricted to just 129. And while the partisan crowd didn’t seem to have any problem with the one-sidedness of this encounter, the tournament could do with a tight finish sooner rather than later. It’s hard to stay interested when totals get chased down with more than four overs to spare.

As for the Royals, it isn’t hard to see why they are considered the David in this tournament of Goliaths. Take opening partners over the last couple of days: Brendon McCullum and Sourav Ganguly for Kolkata; Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer for Bangalore; Parthiv Patel and Matthew Hayden for Chennai; Karan Goel and James Hopes for Mohali. All apart from Goel have played Test cricket.

In true little-guy tradition, the Rajasthan Royals started off with Taruwar Kohli and Yusuf Pathan. In true little-guy tradition, they threw caution to the wind — playing and missing and edging and slicing for a couple of overs before luck ran out. A Kohli mishit only went as far as Mithun Manhas at short-midwicket and Glenn McGrath had begun establishing some order in this bat-heavy format. His first 12 deliveries had gone for seven runs — one six and one wide.

Muralitharan, a Sri Lankan Tamil, will be at home when he plays for Chennai. Ironically, his cap In the next over, Pathan walked across to Shane Watson for a mid-pitch chat after almost getting run-out — what would that conversation have gone like? By all indications, not very well — he was run out two balls later. Watson looked capable of setting things right, but even he was run out after some more poor calling. For those few moments, the Royals seemed to be answering the big IPL question: How do locals communicate with foreign players? They don’t.

Darren Lehmann didn’t pull his weight in the middle-order, while Mohammad Kaif struggled to find the middle of his bat.

The only thing of note in the rest of the innings: Number eight Dinesh Salunkhe walked across his stumps to paddle McGrath over the wicketkeeper’s head for a boundary. Salunkhe is yet to play a first-class game and would’ve enjoyed that bit of disrespect he showed to one of the legends of the game.

Source - News Desk- Top ^

Place your adv here
Contact: Shawnpady
Mobile: 91 98866 77071