Related Links : DLF Indian Premier League (3) 2009/10 | IPL Archives : Indian Premier League – 2 | Indian Premier League – 1 | Scorecard of Royal Challengers Bangalore Vs Kolkata Knight Riders

Chasing specialists Royal Challenge Bangalore cruised to yet another impressive victory, this one coming against Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Requiring just 161 to win, RCB left it too late in their chase but were rescued in the nick of time by a bulldozing knock of 52* from 22 balls (with 3 fours and 5 sixes) from Robin Uthappa. This was after Rahul Dravid’s foundation laying innings of 52 from 35 balls. RCB won the game with as many as 17 balls to spare.

KKR were restricted to 160 for 9 with R Vinay Kumar picking up three wickets. Vinay was also the Man of the Match. Brendon McCullum was the top scorer with 45 from 36 balls. KKR had got off to a good start with Chris Gayle threatening to explode with a 15-ball 34.

Read the original Post Here: RCB ease past KKR at Bangalore

Related Links : DLF Indian Premier League (3) 2009/10 | IPL Archives : Indian Premier League – 2 | Indian Premier League – 1 | Scorecard of Deccan Chargers Vs Chennai Super Kings

Deccan Chargers picked up another crucial win on their way for a possible berth in the Semi Finals. They defeated Chennai Super Kings at Nagpur by six wickets having restricted them to a below par total of 138 for 8. T Suman came good again for DC scoring his second consecutive half century. He made 55 from 44 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes. DC needed 19.1 overs to get to the target because of R Ashwin’s tight spell of 4-0-13-2.

The CSK innings early on didn’t get any momentum with none of the batsmen staying long enough at the crease with the exception of Suresh Raina (52 from 42 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes). Ryan Harris was the most successful bowler for DC with mean figures of 3 for 18 in 4 overs and he got the Man of the Match for those efforts. Medium pacer Harmeet Singh was restrictive in his 4-0-21-1 while taking the big wicket of Mathew Hayden.

Read the original Post Here: Chargers move up with another crucial win

Related Links : DLF Indian Premier League (3) 2009/10 | IPL Archives : Indian Premier League – 2 | Indian Premier League – 1 | Scorecard of Kings XI Punjab Vs Mumbai Indians

Kings XI Punjab who have no chance of making it to the Semi Finals have earned a consolation win over table toppers Mumbai Indians at Mohali. Having restricted Mumbai Indians to 154 for 9, Kings XI in determined fashion got the target losing only 4 wickets with four balls to spare. Skipper Kumar Sangakkara saw that the chase was successful with a 42-ball 56. Openers Adrian Barath and Mahela Jayawardene laid the foundation with their 30s.

Mumbai Indians batting first had a pale start to get reduced to 96 for 5. Yet again the top order failed with the exception of AT Rayudu who made 33 from 18 balls. JP Duminy who finally got a game under his belt dragged the innings together with a 28-ball 35 to take his side to respectability. Leg Spinner Piyush Chawla and swing bowler Irfan Pathan picked up three wickets each while medium pacer Love Ablash bowled a superb last over which was filled up with nagging slower ones.

Read the original Post Here: Kings XI Punjab earn consolation win over Mumbai Indians

Related Links : DLF Indian Premier League (3) 2009/10 | IPL Archives : Indian Premier League – 2 | Indian Premier League – 1 | Scorecard of Royal Challengers Bangalore Vs Deccan Chargers

Deccan Chargers posted an important win over hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore to remain in contention of a place in the Semi Finals. T Suman, promoted at no.3 remained unbeaten on a well paced 78 (from 57 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes) along with Andrew Symonds who scored 53* (from 24 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes) to see DC home in a target of 185. Skipper Gilchrist laid the foundation with his 19-ball 32 while adding up 77 for the second wicket with Suman.

The visitors had RCB in all sorts of trouble at 68 for 4 but the finishing job was messed up yet again to let the hosts run away with a total of 184 for 6. Virat Kohli played a sensational knock of 58 from 35 balls which included 4 sixes while Jacques Kallis kept his end steady with a 44-ball 68. Pragyan Ojha was the pick of the bowlers with his 2 for 24. The other highlight of the evening was the red hot bowling from Dale Steyn who even clocked 154 kmph. However, a few poor overs from the likes of Praveen Kumar and Vinay Kumar saw RCB lose the game.

Read the original Post Here: Suman, Symonds guide DC to important win

Related Links : DLF Indian Premier League (3) 2009/10 | IPL Archives : Indian Premier League – 2 | Indian Premier League – 1 | Scorecard of Kolkata Knight Riders Vs Delhi Daredevils

An energetic fielding performance saw hosts Kolkata Knight Riders successfully defend a total of 181 against the Delhi Daredevils at the Eden Gardens. Skipper Sourav Ganguly led from the front scoring a responsible 56 (from 46 balls) and following it up with a run out and a sharp catch. The run out was that of Gautam Gambhir just when the Daredevils Captain was engaged in what was looking to be a match winning stand of 99 runs with Sehwag.

Also chipping in for the Knight Riders with the bat were Chris Gayle (40 from 21 balls) and Angelo Mathews (46* from 28 balls) to take the total to 181 for 3. Daredevils were on the track to win the match until Gambhir (47 from 29 balls) got run out by a direct throw from Ganguly in the 11th over. Another major turning point of the match was when Ajit Agarkar produced a reverse swinging yorker to clean up a well set Virender Sehwag (64 from 40 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes).

With Collingwood and Maharoof failing, the onus was on Dinesh Karthik to pull off the victory but when he fell scoring a 17-ball 20, it was all over for the visitors. The Kolkata Knight Riders were pretty good to defend the runs and win the contest by 14 runs. Ashok Dinda was special with the ball in his 2 for 21 and Ajantha Mendis bowled a couple of crucial overs under pressure.

Read the original Post Here: High Voltage Knight Riders upset Daredevils

It’s down to the Round of 16 in the IPL – of course, that’s not the number of teams but the number of games left before the semifinals. All but PZ’s Kings are in with a chance. Some about to lose the grip but still hanging in there and some waiting for that one elusive win to move from waitlist to confirmed status.

Beyond the mathematics of points and run-rates, there are some clear, yet subliminal, strengths and/or weaknesses of teams that may have the final say at the conclusion of league stage. I have analytically tried to eye that for the teams still in fray. Take a look!

Mumbai Indians (MI)

The away ghost: As I pointed out in my last post, MI’s real test starts after Game 8 when they play 5 of their remaining 6 matches away and it turned out as suspected. They lost to Chennai and now have to face Punjab in Mohali and Rajasthan in Jaipur before touching base for their last home game. If MI loses these two as well, then all their hopes will be pinned on the game against Delhi Daredevils at home because after that their last two league encounters are also away games. MI may prove me wrong today itself by beating Punjab but if they don’t, then it remains to be seen if they can bury the ‘away ghost’ or are only ‘Lions at Home’.

Delhi Daredevils (DD)

Bowling quandary: Delhi’s problem lies in stringing together a winning combination that is consistent, more so in bowling than batting. Yes, the injuries to Nannes and Nehra haven’t helped matters but the replacements don’t look promising, as was visible in the runs they bled in the death overs against Kolkata. This may prove fatal for DD who still need to win at least two of their remaining 4 matches.

Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Shane Warne: Wonder what that man does to lift the team’s spirit but whatever that is, it’s nothing less than magic and only within the realms of a mentor like Warnie. The possibility that this may be his last hurrah as a player makes him doubly dangerous.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

Who to play and who not: Their issue is team selection due to a large number of quality expats (10 in total). This has compounded Kumble and Jennnings’ problems. The ‘who to play and who not’ question needs to be answered quickly or else the team may miss the bus.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

Just-in-time arrivals: We have already seen what effect Bollinger has had on CSK’s bowling and with Michael Hussey too in ranks now, watch out for Chennai. The welcome surprise has been Murali Vijay turning into a ‘technically correct butcher’. Vijay and then Hussey, Raina and Dhoni lower down will allow Hayden to play his natural game, which makes it intimidating for bowlers.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Tough assignment: The concluding games for KKR are against RCB, CSK, RR and MI respectively. So it means Kolkata cannot blink with four taxing games in a row. The only solace is that their last two matches are at home where they play well with a huge fan base.

Deccan Chargers (DC)

Living on the edge: Of the seven teams in fray, they have the bleakest of chances to make it. With four games left for them, DC has to win each one of those because of the poorest run-rate. That is the only way they can harbor any hopes of finishing in top four. Looking at their mixed performance in the season, it looks highly unlikely.

Read the original Post Here: Beyond math

I hope there’s not more to it than meets the eye but it’s hard to fathom how can the experienced honchos involved in organizing the IPL can be so flawed to hand over one team an advantage that no other team has the luxury of.

What I’m talking about here is the itinerary of the IPL; not the timing of staging it, but the eye-raising allotment of venues that has rolled the dice unreasonably in favor of Mumbai Indians (MI).

No team other than MI enjoys the advantage of playing seven of their first eight games at home. Why? With due respect to MI’s team composition and world-class players, it’s not surprising a wee bit that the team is reaping rich benefits of playing in front of a home crowd in familiar conditions. They are almost through to the semis and this unfair advantage has a role in that besides the quality cricket MI is playing.

And if you think it evens out with MI playing their last six games away, then you are wrong. They return to Mumbai after three games before moving out again to finish the last two. That’s pretty shady stuff!

Even more surprising is that I hardly see anybody bringing this up despite being a logical point. It’s okay to wriggle the tongue and go gaga over a team’s performance, but the biased nature of the schedule giving MI an unreasonable edge over others should be accentuated.

On the contrary, the resurgent Rajasthan Royals (RR) play their first 10 games away and only three at home in Jaipur. Where on earth is this called justice? All of us are aware of the antipathy between the IPL Chairman and the Rajasthan Cricket Association, which makes the allotment of just three matches to Jaipur more suspicious than justified. Introducing Ahmedabad (4 matches), Dharmsala (2 matches) and Nagpur (3 matches) was a reasonable futuristic approach to spread the tournament to more locales but that doesn’t mean you slice away four home matches of a particular team.

The Telangana issue erased Hyderabad’s name from the list of venues and we were told that Cuttack is the surrogate home of Deccan Chargers (DC) this year. But that’s not true! Cuttack gets only two games, which makes DC play 12 away fixtures. What home are we talking about here?

If matches at neutral venues are away games for both the teams involved, then the organizers once again finds themselves on a sticky wicket by not scheduling MI to play even a single match at either Ahmedabad, Dharmsala or Nagpur. Another undue advantage!

But…all is well with Mr. Modi!

Read the original Post Here: It’s an unfair IPL

Indian selectors may soon discover in hindsight that they have missed out on an opportunity to put at least one more youngster to test by shockingly including Piyush Chawla in the Indian T20 World Cup squad.

If we leave out the disappointment of not seeing Ishant Sharma on the team sheet, there are at least three others who have received surprise garlands: Piyush Chawla, Rohit Sharma and Ashish Nehra.

The mistake was made in the first place itself while announcing the list of 30 probables for the T20 World Cup. Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa and Saurabh Tiwary were all missing and Uthappa and Tiwary’s performance is now hitting hard on the knuckles of Srikkanth & Co.

With Ashish Nehra in the party, the team carries with it the risk of welcoming onboard an injured member who, even when fit, is miles away from the international fitness standards. A back-in-form Ishant Sharma, who has more pace and aggression than Nehra, would have been a better choice. Although I still feel the fourth seamer’s booking should have been made in Irfan Pathan’s name who lends more balance to the team with his all-round skills. No fingers, however, can be raised on Vinay Kumar’s name whose current antics got him his maiden national call.

Rohit Sharma is again an eyebrow-raising inclusion with an indifferent form in the IPL. The first choice should be Manish Pandey. If not him, then Virat Kohli, Robin Uthappa and Saurabh Tiwary come to mind. Good luck to Rohit now who needs a whole lot of that, or else he is well on his way to become another Vinod Kambli.

I can hardly see Harbhajan, Jadeja and Piyush Chawla playing together. So where does the point of including another spinner come in? This is the most baffling selection and nothing short of a blunder. If Chawla is back-up, then it’s a very poor one and if he has got a leggie’s place, then it wasn’t required. As I said before, this is like squandering a sitter. This was a window of an opportunity to draft in another youngster and that could have been Manish Pandey who is looting bowlers with loads of runs.

But this is now what we have and it’s time to put a period to our discussions and back Dhoni and his men to erase the nightmarish experience in England last year by bringing the cup back home.

TEAM: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma.

Read the original Post Here: Surprise Surprise!

The Indian squad for the third ICC World T20 Cup is to be named in less than 48 hours from now and some new kids on the block are playing exciting cricket in the IPL corridors. This is the most opportune moment for them to perform with selectors keeping a close eye on top performers.

While the ongoing IPL provides the most relevant cues to the selectors to pick a T20 squad, its proximity to the T20 World Cup is worrying, injury-wise. Having said that, there are no serious injuries to the likes of MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir who are currently recuperating from their respective niggles.

Among the new players, Saurabh Tiwary, Manish Pandey, R. Ashwin, Ambati Rayudu, and R. Sathish are sure to summon discussion among the selection panel but I can’t see more than a couple of them getting the nod. Among those who are knocking for a second chance, Robin Uthappa and Irfan Pathan are in the front row, with some glimmer of hope for Rohit Sharma.

Based on what’s on show in the IPL and the demands of the cricket’s newest avatar, I have zeroed in on the following squad:

BATSMEN/WK: MS Dhoni (c/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Robin Uthappa, Saurabh Tiwary

SEAMERS: Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan

SPINNERS: Harbhajan Singh, Ravinder Jadeja

Reasoning:

Robin Uthappa’s inclusion is purely on grounds of his blitzkrieg in the IPL and that he brings with him the option of another opener in case of an injury to either Sehwag or Gambhir.

Saurabh Tiwary’s consistency and promise, more than his brute force, is sure to catch selectors’ eyes, who may test him in the shortest version before inducting into the ODI squad.

Ravinder Jadeja is the best choice, after Harbhajan Singh, among the present lot of tweakers, other than being  more than a handy batsman.

Ishant Sharma has struck some form for KKR and with Dhoni having loads of faith in the lanky pacer, his selection is very much on the cards.

Irfan Pathan’s inclusion may face many a opposition but his all-round abilities make him best suited for T20 cricket, albeit his performance has been below par, especially bowling.

Read the original Post Here: Indian team for the T20 World Cup

Hou la! c’est délicieux.

There does seem to be some French connection with me because after dabbling a bit with the French language, today I made The madeleine or petite madeleine, which is a traditional small cake from northeastern France.

Now Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions, but since I didn’t have that here in India, I just made it like a cake. Of course when I am saying ‘I’, it also means that all the time, my mother was present there too, doing things herself and telling me too. So it was a combined effort, with a bit of improvisations and the end result was superb!

Here it is-

Madeleines are plump, little sponge cakes traditionally flavored with just vanilla. These have a small bit of orange zest in them for added warmth and aroma.

Cook’s note: The trick to getting notoriously stubborn madeleines out of the pan without cracking them is to very generously grease the pan. Butter works best for this recipe, and it gives the added benefit of helping the madeleines achieve their trademark golden color.

Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 13 minutes

Ingredients:

•1/2 cup butter, melted

•2/3 cup granulated sugar

•1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•1/2 teaspoon orange zest (optional)

•3 large eggs

•1 cup all-purpose flour

•1/2 teaspoon baking powder

•2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Preparation:

Cream the butter and granulated sugar on high until it is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and orange zest to the butter. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.

Beat the mixture on medium-high for about 3 to 4 minutes, until the mixture has lightened in color and is very fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder. Very gently fold the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture. Once the batter is smooth, cover it and transfer it to the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Generously grease 2 standard madeleine pans and spoon the cold batter into the molds. Bake them for 10 to 13 minutes, until they are puffed and turn golden brown. Invert the pans onto wire racks and give them a hard tap to remove the cookies from the molds. Serve them warm dusted with a bit of confectioners’ sugar for the best flavor.
This madeleines recipe makes 12 servings.

Reference- http://frenchfood.about.com/od/cookies/r/madeleines.htm

Now this is the actual recipe but what we did was instead of butter, we used ghee, did not add the orange zest, instead of eggs, added milkmaid & a bit of soda, added chocolate and cocoa powder on the top and spread it (which is why the top looks the way it looks!) and since we did not have the moulds, we did not do that and neither did we put the confectioners’ sugar or anything else on top though adding dry fruits can be a good idea.

Do try it out to have Madeleines as if ordered straight from France.

Oh, and yes in case you are wondering where I got the idea for this, it’s from Transporter-2 movie!

Bon Appétit!

Madeleines

Read the original Post Here: My cooking experiment- Madeleines