Ntini's hatrick wins the game for Chennai !

Ntini's hatrick won the game for Chennai. He took 4 wickets. Ntini took 4/21 and wrecked the Kolkotta Knight Riders to 149. CSK were 55/0 in 8 overs when rain came. Chennai won by the D/ L method.

In the other match, Deccan failed again. Considered the most powerful batting lineup in the world, Deccan crumbled !

RP Singh took 3/35 in restricting the Mumbai Indians to 178. But that was not enough as Bravo took 3/24 to restrict the Deccans to 153 !

Warne does it again ; Sagar Kulkarni scores double century in T20 !

Have you heard of a double hundred in T20? S Kulkarni scored a 200 in Singapore.

RR triumphed again, despite Dravid's heroics of 75 not out with six sixes. In a powerful batting display, RR scored 194/1, with G Smith 75 n o, Asnodkar 50 and Shane Watson 46 no. RC was a devastated team and were soon 83/8 ! Dravid stood out, a cut above the rest and hammered six sixes and six fours !

Sehwag scored 51 no and Gambhir 40 in DDD's score of 118/4. Kings XI won the match 94/3, with Mahela scoring 36 off 17 balls, in a game limited by rain

Shaun Pollock proves the principle " Bowlers Win Matches"

Shaun Pollock took 3 early wickets and KKR were 21/3 ! Bravo, Raje & Thorney took 2 wickets each and KKR were all out for 67!

Then Jayasuria excelled with 48 not out and Mumbai won with 8 wickets to spare !

Earlier the T20 was thought to be a batsman's game. "It is a batter's game" said Mark Boucher. McGrath contradicted him saying that it is a bowler's game.

Who is right, nobody knows. Now the bowlers are coming to know how to bowl in T20s. Also to take early wickets. We find that the team who loses early wickets find it hard to build up a mammoth score. The early wickets lost puts pressure on the incoming batsmen. Two dot balls bring in pressure. So ideally a good start of 50 plus is needed for the opening wicket. 21/3 and the team seems to be finished ! And this is what happened yesterday. Pollock moved the ball in the air and off the wicket. So did Raje, Thornley and Bravo and what a good bowling performance it was.

McGrath is proved by hatricks from Balaji and Mishra, both spells destroying the opposition. Now the bowlers know where to bowl and how to contain the batsmen. As T20 evolves new and new methods will be found out. Even tailenders are becoming experts in hitting sixes.

Gambhir and Dhawan excel

Dhawan scored 68 nout and Gambhir 79 in a glorious century partnership. And Deccans could not score tha 195 needed.

Earlier Sehwag was taken; his favourite shot to third man and he was caught ! A trap well arranged by Gilchrist.

Mishra took a hatrick and took 5/16.

Well, IPL is a great opportunity for youngsters and Dhawan and Mishra are the new heroes. The world knows about the Gambhirs and the Sehwags. About the Mishras, the Dhawans, the Kulkarnis, the Gonys, the world knows not.

IPL and ICL are great opportunities for Indians and other upcoming youngsters from other countries -Shaun Marsch, Cameroon White - to showcase their skills. The organisers are also improving their skills and within 3 years, we will have state of the art international stadiums as well. All will upgrade their skills - players, commentators, the bosses of teams, broadcasters - and India will become a world power in the globalising scenario !

Gambhir leads with 427 runs, followed by Dhoni 332 and R Sharma 331. Sreesant, Irfan and Zaheer lead with 13 wickets. The orange cap is worn by Gambhir and the purple cap by the three seamers !

Say Tony Cozier, commentator, IPL

Within 3 years, India will be the best team in the world.

Asked if T20 is a different format than Tests, he says no, both are complementaries and the immense learning and experience gained in the IPL matches by the Indian players will be carried forward making them the best outfit in the years to come

The Jayasuria Whirlwind !

If Jaysuria clicks, what can happen to the opposition ?

Dhoni's men were vanquished in the Jayasuria whirlwind knock of 114 not out. 156 were needed to win and Mumbai won by 9 wickets.

Earlier Shaun Pollock had reduced Chennai to 156. With Hussey and Hayden gone, Chennai's batting looks fragile, their bowling susceptible !

Shaun Pollock's figures were 4-1-9-1

Bowlers win matches and Shoib delivers !

The adage "Bowlers win matches" is right again. The Rawalpindi Express bowled KKR to victory. Sehwag was caught in the slips in his first over ( ball 149 kph). Gambhir hit a powerful shot into the hands of David Hussy. Shoaib took 4/11 and DDD were 28/4. Laxmi R Shukla took 3 wickets in the last over and DDD were shot out for 110.

Earlier KKR could only manage 133,due to some accurate bowling by McGrath & Co. McGrath seems to be right in his analysis that it is bowlers who win matches !

Punjab bowlers contain RC

The adage "Bowlers win matches" still holds good in T20.

It was Sreesanth who removed Arun Kumar with a super swing delivery. Then Misbah threatned to take the game away from Punjab and he was then hit wicket Sreesanth. Misbah scored 21 off 7 balls. He stepped onto his wicket and was declared hit wicket Sreesanth. Then it was the turn of Peeyush Chawla to contain the hapless RCs. Virat Kohli who began well was clean bowled by Chawla. Cameroon White was caught and bowled Chawla for 10. The score then was 74/4 ! Then VRV bowled a superb spell, just giving away 15 runs off 4 overs, with a wicket. The Punjabis had contained Royal Challengers - there is criticism that RC is a good Test team - to 143!

Then the Australian trio swung into action. Hopes, Marsh and Pommerbasch took Punjab to victory, with 9 wickets in hands. Shaun Marsh was a revealation and now has scored 295 runs so far !

Sreesanth now leads with 13 wickets, along with Irfan and Zaheer ! Gambhir leads with 336 runs in batting !