Hemang Badani picked up the Man-of-the-Match award for his 45-ball 51 against Delhi Giants © ICL

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a very happy and safe Diwali, and I wish all of you a very happy and prosperous year ahead. I was fortunate enough to have some time off, as our next match is only on November 2, so I took the opportunity to return to Chennai and spend Diwali with my family. I�..m now back in Delhi and looking forward to the next game in Chandigarh.

The last match in Delhi, against the home team was a game where I was looking to make some improvements, as I wasn�..t very happy with the way I batted against the Hyderabad Heroes. You just can�..t get out after getting set with 20-odd and five overs remaining. So even though we had a sleepy and tired flight out of Ahmedabad immediately after our match, we made sure we got a lot of practice before this one. Delhi was also much cooler than Ahmedabad, and we got a good look at the wicket, which looked low and slow. There were tons of insects flying around as well, and I couldn�..t avoid swallowing a couple myself!

On match day, we got in early, keeping in mind that we had to drive from Delhi to Gurgaon. There was an excellent turnout at the ground, creating the sort of noise and buzz that�..s always encouraging. We won the toss and chose to bat, but suffered blows early, losing Ian Harvey and Russel Arnold quickly. Both these guys have been in terrific form and when we slipped to 24 for 3, it was far from the best start we�..ve had.

Continue reading "A satisfying return to form"

	Ian Harvey ensured Chennai Superstars were off to a flying start against Hyderabad Heroes © ICL

Once again, I start off a post with an apology to you, dear readers, but I hope I can make up for it as the season progresses. It�..s been a roller-coaster ride for me these past couple of weeks, and unfortunately luck didn�..t smile on me at the start of the tournament and I was out with a bad back just as things were kicking off. It continued, and during our first full practice session after all the international players arrived, Stuart Law was struck on the toe by a Rajamani Jesuraj yorker, giving him a hairline fracture that kept him out for a couple of weeks as well. But our squad has the depth to overcome these challenges, as the start of the tournament proved - we won our first couple of games convincingly, and it�..s always good to get some momentum going early.

Game 3 against the Chandigarh Lions was a bit disappointing though, as we came close to winning and I thought we had gotten a bit complacent and did not do the small things well - we didn�..t bowl the right lengths, dropped catches and didn�..t rotate the strike while batting either. From a personal point of view, it was frustrating - it�..s never a good feeling to be sitting on the sidelines.

Some of the disappointment of being injured was reduced by having my family with me at the beginning of the tournament. Having been away from them for over a month, it was great to have them here and be able to spend some quality time with them. They loved the awesome opening ceremony, which was a blast, with lots of performances from the Shiamak Davar Academy, a great fireworks show, and a spectacular acrobatics performance with an acrobat suspended from an air balloon! On the whole, it was a great show and lots of fun.

Continue reading "Back in business"

	Chennai Superstars managed a five-match winning streak on the back of some blistering innings from G Vignesh © ICL

It�..s good to be back at the Lahiri Resorts in Hyderabad, with its excellent facilities. Not just for cricket, mind you, though the ground, gym, pool and bowling machine facilities are all top notch. We also have access to the golf course, boating, water slides and even paintball. Given that we are about an hour and a half away from the city, it�..s great that there is so much to do.

I have also had time to look back on the rest of the domestic 20-20 tournament. We continued where I left of on my last post with wins in games 3, 4 and 5 �.. a five-match winning streak - on the back of some excellent bowling throughout by R Jesuraj and some smashing knocks by our allrounder �..Bunk�.� �.. better known as G Vignesh.

Game 3 was against the Delhi Giants, where Hemanth Kumar and Vignesh took us to a score of 167 for 7 and we restricted them to 143, with Jesuraj getting 3 for 10 off his four overs. In game 4 we put the Ahmedabad Rockets in and restricted them to a paltry 116. We did however try our best to make the game exciting by almost messing up the chase, and got there with just three balls to spare. We were back to our best in the next match, against the Royal Bengal Tigers, a tough game on a very up and down wicket. We got to 146 thanks to a blazing innings of 72 off 45 balls from Vignesh, which was an amazing effort on that wicket. Jesuraj again worked up real pace with great consistency, and supported by Satish, restricted them to 128.

Continue reading "Looking back, looking ahead "