IPL 5 STARTS WITH A COLOURFUL OPENING CEREMONY

CHENNAI: The fifth edition of  IPL started here at  YMCA College of Physical Education, with a grand gala opening ceremony with a galaxy of  stars led by Amithabh Bachan who recited  a poem  ‘If I were to be born again’, written by renowned lyricist Prasoon Joshi.

 In the background there was  a dance performance choreographed by Shiamak Davar.

This was followed by a percussion performance by First Project, a band  from South Africa.

Then there was Colonial Cousins.  

The other stars were:

  

US pop singer  Katy Perry 

Prabhu Deva, Our own Michael Jackson.

Priyanka Chopra

Salman Khan

Kareena Kapoor

IPL 2012 -auction -players list

SL No.	Name	Country	price	Sold to
1	Ravindra Jadeja	India	2,000,000	CSK
2	Mahela Jayawardene	Sri Lanka	1,400,000	DD
3	Brendon McCullum	NZ	900,000	KKR
4	Muttiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	220,000	RCB
5	Darren Bravo	West Indies	100,000	DC
6	Herschelle Gibbs	South Africa	50,000	MI
7	Bradley Hodge	Australia	475,000	RR
8	Dinesh Chandimal	Sri Lanka	50,000	RR
9	Parthiv Patel	India	650,000	DC
10	Doug Bracewell	NZ	50,000	DD
11	Mitchell Johnson	Australia	300,000	MI
12	Andre Russell	West Indies	450,000	DD
13	Rudra Pratap Singh	India	600,000	MI
14	S Sreesanth	India	400,000	RR
15	R Vinay Kumar	India	1,000,000	RCB
16	Brad Hogg	Australia	180,000	RR
17	Sunil Narine	West Indies	700,000	KKR
18	Robin John Peterson	South Africa	100,000	MI
19	Ramesh Powar	India	160,000	KXIP
20	Daniel Harris	Australia	70,000	DC
21	Kevon Cooper	West Indies	50,000	RR
22	James Faulkner	Australia	190,000	KXIP
23	Azhar Mahmood	England	200,000	KXIP
24	Thisara Perera	Sri Lanka	650,000	MI
25	Merchant de Lange	South Africa	50,000	KKR

T20 defeat: Dhoni blames lack of partnerships

   Indian captain MS Dhoni blamed  India's 6 wicket defeat against England  in the T2o match  on  the batsmen's failure to build partnerships.


"Partnership is key, doesn't matter what format it is. Once you lose quick wickets, like we did after 12 overs, it doesn't help. You want to have at least five or six wickets in the slog overs," remarked Dhoni after his side lost nine wickets.


India were 104 for one in the 13th over before being bowled out for 165, with three balls remaining.

How did England tame Sachin?

  Here is an interesting article about how England managed to silense the bat of  the maestro who was in search of his 100th century.

http://www.espnstar.com/cricket/international-cricket/news/detail/item659780/Mathematician-helps-Eng-tame-Sachin/

The Great Wall of Indian Cricket

RAHUL DRAVID stands tall among the ruins of Indian cricket in England.   He is now the second highest century maker in Tests for India after Sachin Tendulkar.  He has pushed legendary Sunil Gavaskar to the third position.  Before going into the England series, he had 32 centuries, out of which only one did not bear fruit. That was against Zimbabwe 13 years ago in Harare, where he made 128. Unfortunately, the three hundreds that came after it were all for a losing cause. It is now four defeats out of 35 hundreds. 


Kudos to his hard work, dedication and commitment to the game.

Sree says , " England have played well"

Interacting with media after the second day’s play here, Sreesanth said: “Honestly, they (England batsmen) played well. You can’t take anything out of them because they played really well. They attacked. They stayed there. They kept leaving the good balls and they didn’t go fetching outside the off-stump. (Except) a couple of good shouts (nothing happened) but honestly it was also a pure batting track as well.”

Gaylestorm hits Kings XI

Chris Gayle scored a blistering 107 off 49 balls which contained 10 fours and 9 sixes in the RCB vs King's XI Punjab match.