KXIP a team who won the heart

Kings XI Punjab lost the Final game but certainly won many hearts from their performance throughout this tournament. If one compares their previous six sessions with this one then certainly one must realize and recognize their hard work to come to his far.

KXIP TEAM
© BCCI

They had literally been trashed in all six session in which they finished among bottom three almost all the time. But session, IPL7 had promised much more than just an improved performance than previous sessions for them.

They had taken all the right decision from the auction to finals. Weather it was inclusion of Virender shewag or appointment of George Bailey as Skipper or retaining an inexperience Manan Vohra to team, all these seemed to be going in their ways.

Glenn Maxwell had been proved to be a crucial buy for them. He was fantastic and one of those guys along with Miller who provide them the initial impetus in tournament. He was the leading runs scorer for them with 552 runs in 16 matches.

KXIP wasn’t just all about big foreign or Indian players. They had some great young Indian talent as well. Manan Vohra, Akshar Patel, Wriddhiman Saha, Sandeep Sharma and many others who performed whenever they got a chance to showcase their abilities.
Wriddhiman Saha was proved to be an exceptional player for them. The wicketkeeper batsman scored a century when its matter, Yes in Finale!! But his effort of bring KXIP from nowhere to 199 runs gone in vain.

Akshar Patel was another special talent came to the fore in this IPL. Left-arm spinner had impressed everyone with his consistency and also the ability to bat and field as well. He was awarded with “Emerging Player award”.

Sanjay Banger, the man who working with these boys from behind, surely deserve a lot accolades for his fantastic job. He was the brain (Of course along with many) behind their success.

Although, they lost the finale but undoubted they were the best team of this IPL. They had chased down many 200+ scores with so easy. It would be wrong if one says that they were the one who raised the standard of this year’s IPL so high.



classvsCricket (CvC) © 2014

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Bailey's Habit of ajusting the helmet

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Preity Zinta in IPL 7

It isn't only teams or players who want to win the tournament but also their owners, who, except lot of money, has lot of pride and respect on stack every time Indian Premier League started.

King XI Punjab was one that team whose co-owner Preity Zinta a well is known face ( a Bollywood actress) had lots of expectations from his team. Preity was always on ground to support her team in all sessions and one can understand what she must be felt in all those years of failure.

But this season was special for her. Her team did really well in all department and proved to be the best team of IPL7. They were finished at the top in league stage and reached the final, though, in finals they just couldn't cross the line and defeated by Knight Rider by 3 wickets.

Nevertheless, That was KXIP's best session in IPL and they reached the finals.

Here are some Pictures of Preity Zinta in this years IPL:

Preity Zinta with Virender Shewag

Preity Zinta with Maxwell

Preity Zinta cheering her team

Preity Zinta with skipper Bailey

Preity Zinta with KKR Co-owner SRK

Preity Zinta with drummer

Disappointed Preity Zinta

Preity Zinta with KKR Co-owner SRK after her team defeat

Image Courtesy : BCCI

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Kings are in Finals!

Virender Shewag century ensured Kings XI Punjab place in Finals on Sunday at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Kings, who were never been in final before this, must be excited or may be bit nervous about the Grand finale. 

Virender Shewag
© BCCI

Kings had disastrous previous six sessions of IPL. They were finished on bottom two or three in almost every session. They were tried many combinations of players, many captains and coaches but nothing gone to their favor till this session. 

A complete overhaul except their star player David Miller, works for them in this session. Inclusion of Virender Shewag, whom Delhi Daredevil’s refused to retain in auction (for which may be they regretting now!), Glenn Maxwell and Skipper George Bailey are proved to be an excellent decision. 

Sanjay Banger as a mentor for the team also seems like working for them. He is one of the low profile names in the team who seemed like doing his job pretty well. The team looks like a single unit in which if one player failed another stand and takes the Onus. 

Now, they are in finals after beating Chennai Super Kings in Qualifiers 2 on Friday. Virender Shewag was the Hero for them in that game. He had scored 122 runs off 75 balls. It’s not that he is out of touch or in poor form; He was scoring runs before this but all those scores was not justifying the Virender Shewag’s abilities. 

Suresh Raina of Chennai had tried to do some repair work for his team but after his unfortunate runout it was all over for Chennai. 

In final, they will be facing a strong challenge of Kolkata Knight Riders. Knights had already beaten them twice in this tournament. Knights would be tenacious force for them to beat.


classvsCricket (CvC) © 2014

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Game for Final!!

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), are the top two teams of this years IPL who will be playing against each other on Friday at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

© BCCI

KXIP had lost their last game, QUALIFIER 1, against Kolkata Knight Rider's on Wednesday (Noon). While CSK had won their game, ELIMINATOR, against Mumbai Indian's on Wednesday (Evening). Punjab had finished the league stage at top spot with 22 points and CSK had finished third with 18 points.

Both teams had faced each other twice in league stage and on both occasions KXIP had been came out as winner. But one can't take this as a criterion to choose his favorite because when it comes to nerve racking encounter MS Dhoni is simply the best man to go with.

ABOUT KXIP:

KXIP have a mighty batting line up which on their day can rip any bowling apart and who know this better than Chennai. (Ask Ashwin!!). Opener Virender Shewag and Manan Vohra are providing them the much needed starts and Maxwell and Miller in middle order makes that their line up a horror story for bowlers.

In Bowling, Sandeep Sharma's ability to swing with new ball had gave them early wickets. Young spinners like Akshar Patel and Karanveer Singh have been bowling really well in mid-overs.

But the problem with KXIP is that they are not played as good cricket as they had played in earlier stage of the tournament. And consecutive failure of their star batsman, Glenn Maxwell would be a reason of worry to them

ABOUT CSK:

Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina are the most deadly top three batsmen of this season.
All of them have more than 350 runs individually in this season. Players like Faf du Plessi, David Hussey, MS Dhoni and R Jadeja have makes their lineup deadly.

With fielders like Raina, Jadeja, Faf, McCullum and Smith, you often see them fly over ground. They have certainly save 10-15 runs from their fielding which is asset for the team.

In bowling, though, they do not have big names except Ashwin as they have in batting. But Ishwar Pandey and Ashish Nehra are doing quiet pretty job for them. Ashwin and Jadeja are Dhoni's go for bowlers and if they bowl in right areas it will be a huge boost for their bowling.

Even if you put all theses thing aside it will be cracker of crowd.


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Stars in KKR and King XI games

When you have two teams which have Bollywood stars as their Owner's one will find lots of star during games. And when it's come KKR and KXIP you will get to see many of them in one place. Here are some of them in a game between KKR and KXIP on Wednesday at Eden's Garden:

Shahrukh Khan (co-owner KKR) and Preety Zinta ( co-owner KXIP)

Preety Zinta ( co-owner KXIP)

Preety Zinta ( co-owner KXIP)

Shahrukh Khan and Jay Mehta (Owners of KKR)

Preety Zinta ( co-owner KXIP) applauding her team

Juhi Chawla (Jay's wife)

Shahrukh Khan (co-owner KKR) after game interacting with the crowd

Raima Sen ( Friend of Owners)

Images courtesy: BCCI

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PICS: IPL AUCTION 2014

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IPL 7 Auction, Day 1

Here's a team-wise list of the players sold on the opening day of the 2014 IPL Auction:

Chennai Super Kings

Faf Du Plessis - Rs.4.75 Cr
Dwayne Smith - Rs.4.50 Cr
Brendon McCullum - Rs.3.25 Cr
Ashish Nehra - Rs 2.00 Cr
Mohit Sharma - Rs. 2.00 Cr
Ben Hilfenhaus - Rs. 1.00 Cr
Samuel Badree - Rs. 30 Lakhs
Matt Henry - Rs. 30 Lakhs

Mumbai Indians

Michael Hussey - Rs.5.00 Cr
Corey Anderson - 4.50 Cr
Pragyan Ojha - Rs.3.25 Cr
Zaheer Khan - Rs.2.60 Cr
Josh Hazlewood - Rs. 50 Lakhs

Delhi Daredevils

Dinesh Karthik - Rs.12.50 Cr
Kevin Pietersen - Rs.9,00 Cr
Murali Vijay - Rs.5.00 Cr
Mohammad Shami - Rs.4.25 Cr
Nathan Coulter-Nile - 4.25 Cr
Quinton De Kock - Rs.3.50 Cr
Manoj Tiwary - Rs.2.80 Cr
Jaydev Unadkat - Rs. 2.80 Cr
Jean-Paul Duminy - Rs.2.20 Cr
Rahul Sharma - Rs.1.90 Cr
Laxmi Ratan Shukla - Rs.1.50 Cr
James Neesham - Rs. 1.00 Cr
Saurabh Tiwary - Rs. 70 Lakhs

Kings XI Punjab

Mitchell Johnson - Rs.6.50 Cr
Glenn Maxwell - Rs. 6.00 Cr
George Bailey - Rs.3.25 Cr
Virender Sehwag - Rs.3.20 Cr
Wriddhiman Saha - Rs.2.20 Cr
Shaun Marsh - Rs.2.20 Cr
Cheteshwar Pujara - Rs.1.90 Cr
Lakshmipathy Balaji - Rs. 1.80 Cr
Thisara Perera - Rs.1.60 Cr
Parvinder Awana - Rs. 65 Lakhs

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Yuvraj Singh - Rs.14.00 Cr
Mitchell Starc - Rs.5.00 Cr
Albie Morkel - Rs.2.40 Cr
Varun Aaron - Rs. 2.00 Cr
Ashok Dinda - Rs.1.50 Cr
Parthiv Patel - Rs.1.40 Cr
Muttiah Muralitharan - Rs.1.00 Cr
Ravi Rampaul - Rs.90 Lakhs
Nic Maddinson - Rs. 50 Lakhs

Sunrisers Hyderabad

David Warner - Rs.5.50 Cr
Amit Mishra - Rs.4.75 Cr
Bhuvneshwar Kumar - Rs.4.25 Cr
Aaron Finch - Rs.4.00 Cr
Darren Sammy - Rs.3.50 Cr
Ishant Sharma - Rs.2.60 Cr
Irfan Pathan - Rs.2.40 Cr
Moises Henriques - Rs.1.00 Cr
Jason Holder - Rs. 75 Lakhs
Venugopal Rao - Rs. 55 Lakhs
Brendan Taylor - Rs. 30 Lakhs

Kolkata Knight Riders

Jacques Kallis - Rs.5.50 Cr
Robin Uthappa - Rs.5.00 Cr
Piyush Chawla - Rs.4.25 Cr
Yusuf Pathan - Rs.3.25 Cr
Shakib Al Hasan - Rs.2.80 Cr
Morne Morkel - Rs.2.80 Cr
Ranganath Vinay Kumar - Rs.2.80 Cr
Umesh Yadav - Rs.2.60 Cr

Rajasthan Royals

Steven Smith - Rs.4.00 Cr
Brad Hodge - Rs.2.40 Cr
Tim Southee - Rs. 1.20 Cr
Abhishek Nayar - Rs. 1.00 Cr
Kane Richardson - Rs. 1.00 Cr
Ben Cutting - Rs. 80 Lakhs



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Adam Gilchrist called form a "rubbish word"

Adam Gilchrist ©BCCI

Adam Gilchrist called form a "rubbish word" and said his decision to sit out of the IPL match against Mumbai Indians was taken keeping in mind the team balance. "Since the last few games we've had to think about it as a selection group," Gilchrist said.

"We had to look at the right balance and find the right players who were playing well and could contribute most to the team," he quoted as saying by the league's website 'IPLT20.com'.

"Form is a rubbish word. I have hit a lot of balls in the nets and have felt very comfortable. But that hasn't translated to results in (the) games," said Gilchrist.

"At the end of the day I haven't contributed, and that's no problem when you've got batting talents like Shaun Marsh, (Luke) Pomersbach, David Hussey and David Miller. It's not a tough decision," he added.

When asked about playing as batsman only he said "No, never, I've played years and years of cricket now. So for me it's not a case of having to focus on batting because keeping is taking up time and energy. It's part of my nature and part of who I am.

"It's like riding a bike, once you know it, you don't need to focus on the skills required and think of the work load impeding on the batting. If anything, I have contributed more with the gloves than with the bat this year and so I am lucky to have my keeping gloves on," he said.

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