Chennai Super Kings Archives

Upset No.2!

Can you believe it… two teams at the bottom of the point table in IPL1 are playing for the cup in IPL2!!! This is beauty of cricket. Nobody could have predicted this. (Not ever Imran Hashmi from Zameen… hahaha) But a real stunner. Super Kings are simply outplayed! Dhoni should be worried about his game plans and strategies. There are several questions that should be asked…Why Murali was introduced so late? Where is Dhoni’s powerful stroke play? He must be answerable (to himself at least) for the sake of upcoming T20 World cup.

Chennai started very well and they were playing almost 10 per over till 5-6th over and after that they started loosing wickets regularly. They were definitely 15-20 runs short.

With less than 150 runs to chase Royal’s start was solid with new rising star of Indian cricket…. Manish Pandey. He kept on going with confidence after 100 in the last game he played against Deccan Chargers; first scored by an Indian in both IPL sessions and only second in this session. He must be thinking of repeating same performance against them in the final. And Mr. Dependable played like Mr. Dependable with ease and elegance.

Stage is set now…. Royals Vs Chargers!

Unpredictable…!

All set for the Semifinals… So, which team are you backing?

Well the league round is over and its time to enter the final round. The line up for the semifinals is ready and two of the teams that made it to this stage are those who were at the bottom of the tally, last year.

The so called test team (from the last year’s IPL) rises up to the need of the day under the leadership of a veteran who does not shy away from displaying his age on his jersey. The young Manish Pandey from the under 19 team hits a ton – the first by an Indian, in either season. Sehwag gets back to his form and ends the silence of his bat through this season. Well, with all this happening around, the intensity of the tournament is reaching its peak and rightly so, when we are just 3 days away from finding the champions of this season.

After all the ‘ifs and buts’ on the CricTalks in last few days, we finally have the line-up for the Semifinals.

Fri: May 22 20:00 IST	1st Semi-Final Delhi Daredevils v Deccan Chargers	SuperSport Park
Sat: May 23 20:00 IST	2nd Semi-Final Chennai Super Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore	New Wanderers

For all the four teams, it has come down to winning just two more matches and claim the big money and pride. So close, yet so far… they will really have to battle it out in the field.

But who will get to lift the precious trophy this year?

Will it be Dhoni’s men or Kumble’s red brigade? Can Shewag’s men continue to be at the top till the end or will it be Gilly’s team that wins the contest?

So, which team are you backing?

Side Talks: Adding more to the excitement of the grand finale, lots of Bollywood celebrities are flying to South Africa. Mandira Bedi today caught hold of Katrina Kaif, who was cheering for Bangalore Royal Challengers, to know more about the closing ceremony. As per Katrina Kaif, she would be performing during the closing ceremony themed to showcase the Indian culture.

How Chennai Super Kings WILL reach the IPL-2 Semifinals?

The ‘Rajasthan Royals Vs Kolkata Knight Riders’ match would be over by the time Chennai Super Kings get to play against Kings XI Punjab.

If Rajasthan Royals win the match, they will end up with 15 points. Chennai Super Kings, in this situation will have to beat Kings XI Punjab to end the marathon with 17 points, sealing the 2nd place for themselves on the table.

The second situation would be… even if Chennai Super Kings lose the match to Kings XI Punjab, they will have to keep their net run rate better than Rajasthan Royals, as a result matching Rajasthan Royals at 15 points. Chennai Super Kings will have an advantage here as they would know in advance what they need to do to keep their net run rate better than Rajasthan Royals.

Now even in this situation, they will have to assume that the match between Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore is not canceled due to rain. In an unlikely event that “Deccan Chargers Vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore” match is declared as a “No result”, there will be a 4 way tie between DC, RCB, CSK and RR with each having 15 points.

Bottom-line: Beat Kings XI Punjab and celebrate!

Who gets to decide which teams will reach the IPL-2 Semifinals?

Only 2 days left in the league and 3 of the four Semifinal tickets are yet to be finalized.

With Delhi Daredevils through to the semifinal, the rest of the places in the semifinals are yet to be decided. Last week witnessed some very closely contested matches and it hasn’t been easy to guess who will be in the semifinals.

Fans are already going crazy and the cricket madness will be on its peak when the last 4 matches of the league will be played on May 20 and May 21.

While Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore will be fighting their skins out on the last 2 days to secure a place in the semifinals, Delhi Dare Devils, who are already on the top of the table, will continue to experiment. Kolkata Knight Riders who are already out of the contest will be only playing for some respect… perhaps even to ruin the sport-dreams of Rajasthan Royals for their ticket to the semifinals.

This is a really tricky situation… other than how these 5 teams play, there are 3 other factors that will decide the fate of the teams. First is the performance of the Kolkata Knight Riders team, the second being the Net Run Rate and third being the God of Rain.

A look at how the teams are currently placed:

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR
Delhi Daredevils	13	9	4	0	0	18	+0.251
Chennai	13	7	5	0	1	15	+0.932
Deccan Chargers	13	7	6	0	0	14	+0.265
Bangalore	13	7	6	0	0	14	-0.253
Kings XI Punjab	13	7	6	0	0	14	-0.423
Rajasthan Royals	13	6	6	0	1	13	-0.360
Mumbai Indians	13	5	7	0	1	11	+0.401
Kolkata	13	2	10	0	1	5	-0.891

A quick look at the remaining matches in the league:

Date and time	The Fixture
Wed 20 16:00 IST	Kolkata Knight Riders vs. Rajasthan Royals
Wed 20 20:00 IST	Chennai Super Kings vs. Kings XI Punjab
Thu 21 16:00 IST	Delhi Daredevils vs. Mumbai Indians
Thu 21 20:00 IST	Royal Challengers Bangalore vs. Deccan Chargers

Keep reading CricTalks to know the fate of each of these 5 teams and their chances of making it to the Semifinals.