Suresh Raina comes of age

ndian sympathisers are happy about the rise of Raina. After scoring a hundred against Hong Kong, he scored 84 with five sixes.

Sehwag powered India to victory with a brilliant hundred. Pakistan played well for 299 and India scored 301/4 !

Gambhir was out cheap and a massive 198 partnership between Sehwag and Raina saw India home. Yuvraj took this time to come into form and blasted 3 mighty sixes!

Earlier, Malik's brilliant 125 was in vain !

IPL changes the face of Indian Cricket !

Look at the way India is playing. Gambhir and Sehwag and all teams are now afraid of India !

One commentator said within 2 years, India will be one of the best teams in the world. He will be proved right.

Indian swing bowlers bowled well and India posted a seven wicket win. It was not surprising !

India win by 140 runs !

Indian players, fresh from IPL, showed their class. It is a mind game and the Pakis were definitely defeatist.

Sehwag and Gambhir put on 155 runs for the first wicket, continuing their incredible form with the bat, IPL style. IPL has done a lot of good to Indian Cricket ! Within one or 2 years, India will be one of the best teams in the world !

PIyush Chawla, another IPL find, took 4 wickets ! Even though Yousuf and R Sharma disappointed, it was a totally different Indian team. S Raina hit 2 sixes and Dhoni also played his part. Yuvraj scored another 50 !

Praveen Kumar took 4 wickets, including the first 3! He moved the ball both ways and was a threat to the Paki batsman. Except for Shoaib Malik, none of the Paki batsmen impressed.

IPL, a huge success !

BCCI makes 350 crores profit ! Sony TV makes 650 crores in the first season. If English Premier League had 150 million viewers, IPL had 200 million viewers ! The Kolkota IPL Team made profit in the first season itself. Delhi, Rajastan & Chennai are breaking even.

10 million foreigners watched IPL on satellite TV. 4 million Indians watched the match directly in the 8 cities.

In 2007, BCCI's net profit was only 235 crores. BCCI made 350 crores in just 44 days ! Yearly income will be 1200 crores per year for BCCI, as per estimates.

Sony TV made a profit of 650 crores, which is more than the yearly profit of India's major 9 channels. That too in just 44 days ! Ads were priced at 2 lakh per ten second spot. It went upto 5 lakhs during semi finals and 10 lakh on finals

Rajastan Royals win IPL Cup

Not big money, not so many stars, but it is team work that wins ! This is proved by Warne and Co. They definitely deserved the 1.2 m dollars !

Yusuf Pathan won Man of the Match Award for his 3/20 and 52 ( 4 sixes ). Shane Watson became the Man of the Tournament with his brilliant all round performance ( 472 runs & 17 wickts ).Goswami became the the U19 Find of the Tournament. Shaun Marsh, the highest scorer with the Orange Cap ( 616 runs )and Tanvir the wearer of the Purple Cap ( 22 wickets )

Ntini & Gony bowl Chennai to victory

Great pace bowling by Chennai reduced Punjab to 35/4, from which they never recovered and Chennai won by 9 wickets.

Suresh Raina scored his second consecutive 50 in IPL and was involved in an unfinished 102 partnership with Parthiv Patel, the wicket-keeper, who scored 51 not out.

Dhoni's game plan was superb. Murali bowled the first over and this sent a scare into the Punjab batting line, as they have a lot of left handers. They pushed Murali tentatively and then Ntini provided the breakthrough by removing Hopes with a superb outswinger. Gony, from the other end, removed Sangakara and Yuvraj and then Punjab was in dire straits, from which they never truly recovered.

Now Chennai meet the formidable Rajastan Royals in Navi Mumbai today !

Mumbai loses in the last ball !

Mumbai scored 145/7, with Jayasuria 38 and Sachin,30. It was not a perfect batting track.

Sohail Tanvir took 4/14 and became the hero of Royals.

RR scored the required runs with five wickets to spare. Neeraj Patel ( 40 not out ) and Ravinder Jadeja 23 not out saw RR home.