IPL week 5 – Some brilliant fielding, miserly bowling and big hitting!

We are now well and truly into the later part of the tournament and the race to grab those 4 play-off seats heats up. We have witnessed some swashbuckling batting, inspired bowling performances, breath taking fielding and moments of pure brilliance in the tournament thus far. This tournament has definitely showcased great quality cricket with 18 instances of the match being decided on the very last ball of the match, and we still have some way to go before the end! This week of the tournament had its fair share of interesting moments and here few of them are mentioned.

Aussie Jonty

Steve Smith is a brilliant fielder but his particular effort against KKR has got the world comparing him to the legendary Jonty Rhodes. What did he do? I’ll let the picture do the talking, after all a picture speaks a thousand words.

Mumbai defend 120

When you score 120 in a T20 match, you generally end up losing. However, Mumbai defied that against all odds and managed to defend just 120 runs against Pune as they won by the smallest margin possible by a single run. Mithun Manhas tried his best to get his team across but it just wasn’t enough. Mumbai were jubilant after the win, and why wouldn’t they be? It’s not often that one defends a target so low!

Prince of Calcutta returns home

Sourav Ganguly, the captain of the Pune team finally met his old team Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens in what was the most anticipated encounter of this season’s IPL. The Prince was returning to his kingdom, taking on his old team and the media was having a frenzy dubbing it ‘Dada’s Revenge’. The match ended with the home team winning, but not before Ganguly got a standing ovation from the Eden Gardens crowd. Ganguly and Shahrukh Khan were all smiles at the presentation ceremony and it begs the question if there ever was a rift there. Was it a media fantasy?

Dwayne Smith ruins Chennai’s party

When the batting team requires 14 runs of the last 3 balls, the fielding team is definitely favorites to win. The celebrations start in the stands and high fives are exchanged as the game is almost certainly won. However that wasn’t the case in the Mumbai Indians versus Chennai Super Kings match at the famous Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai chasing 174 started well but eventually lost their way, eventually requiring 14 off the last 3 deliveries. The game was well and truly done. But Dwayne Smith had different ideas as he slammed a six off Hilfenhaus and followed it up with two consecutive boundaries sealing the deal for Mumbai and ruining Chennai’s party.

So those are just some memorable moments from the past week and as we near the business end of the tournament, things can only get better from here.