IPL fever...!! - Page 5

The Royal Challengers and the Super Kings have made it to the play offs and the fight is between Mumbai Indians, Knight Riders and Kings XI to grab the remaining two spots. More reasons for the Kolkata Knight Riders to upstage the Pune Warriors at the DY Patil Stadium today, and they will be up against one Sourav Ganguly who is adored and idolized in Kolkata.

Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and elected to field..

Kolkata Knight Riders thrash Pune Warriors India by 7 wickets

Yusuf Pathan is the Man of the Match..

Gambhir hit 7 fours in his unbeaten knock as Kolkata chased down the 119-run victory target in 16.4 overs to move to the third spot in the points table.

Yusuf Pathan hit a six and three fours in his 25-ball 29 before Sourav Ganguly took a good catch running backwards to dismiss him off Wayne Parnell.

Manoj Tiwary added 46 runs for the second wicket with Gautam Gambhir before edging a Bhuvaneshwar Kumar delivery onto his stumps.

Tiwary hit a six and a four in his run-a-ball 24 before his dismissal.

Gambhir and Tiwary brought up Kolkata's 50 in the seventh over after the early dismissal of Shreevats Goswami.

Alfonso Thomas struck early for Pune when he had Goswami caught behind by Robin Uthappa on the fourth ball of the Kolkata run chase.

Earlier, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji took two wickets each as Kolkata restricted Pune to 118/7.

Balaji, who bowled only the last over of the Pune innings, clean bowled Sachin Rana by a yorker on the last ball of the hosts' innings.

Pune lost their sixth wicket when their captain Yuvraj Singh mistimed a slower ball from Balaji high up in the air for keeper Shreevats Goswami to take the catch.

Yuvraj hit 2 fours in his 26-ball 24 before falling to Balaji.

Pathan took his second wicket when he had Robin Uthappa caught by Brett Lee at deep mid-wicket.

Uthappa hit a four in his 19-ball 12 before falling to Pathan.

Shakib had Sourav Ganguly caught by Pathan at short fine-leg to reduce Pune to 71/4.

Ganguly hit a six in his 22-ball 18 before falling to Shakib.

Shakib had Callum Ferguson stumped by Shreevats Goswami to reduce Pune to 44/3.

Ferguson hit 2 fours in his 19-ball 16 before charging down the pitch to go for a big hit but missed the ball that turned away from him and Goswami uprooted the stumps in a flash.

Yusuf Pathan gave Kolkata an early breakthrough when he had Jesse Ryder caught by Manoj Tiwary at long-off in the second over of their match.

Pune lost their second wicket when Iqbal Abdulla trapped Manish Pandey plumb in front of the wicket.

The breakthroughs came after Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and chose to bowl.

Kolkata dropped Mark Boucher, Eoin Morgan and Jaidev Unadkat and brought in Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan and Shreevats Goswami.

Pune brought in Sachin Rana and Alfonso Thomas.

Yusuf Pathan is the MoM for his all round performance of 29 runs and 2 wickets.

Sachin Tendulkar toured Australia as an 18-year old in 1991-92 and first faced Shane Warne there. It took a while, however, for both prodigies to establish themselves as legends and the transformation was complete a few years later. One classic duel followed another starting from the India-Australia league match in the 1996 World Cup, right up to the IPL. After a decade and a half of cricket's most captivating one-on-one rivalry, the final chapter will be written today. It is impossible not to feel a sense of deep sadness that we will never see Warne face-off against Tendulkar again. What both legends will not do though, is dwell too much on individual battles - not when their teams are fighting bigger ones.

Rajasthan Royals:

The Rajasthan Royals have had too many off-field distractions in the form of Sanjay Dixit and co, and the results showed in their thrashing at the hands of Kochi. However, the matter is fortunately resolved now and the team will be all geared up to give a fitting farewell to the man they owe the most to.

After a promising start, Rajasthan's campaign fizzled out and one doesn't need to look too far to find the reason. Shane Watson and Ross Taylor were expected to set the stands on fire, hit the ball long, and win at least a couple of matches each for Rajasthan. Taylor has played 11 innings, while Watson has played 10 - and in those combined 21 innings there hasn't been a single fifty scored. Forget the lack of runs, both these men have scored at a rate of just about 7 runs an over. When your two principal match-winners have an extended non-scoring streak like that, even a magician like Warne will not be able to pull off consistent wins - the rabbits will empty from the hat at one point. It will only be fair and just if the Watson-Taylor duo finally do justice to their billing in Warne's final match.

Mumbai Indians:

When Mumbai waltzed to 8 wins from 10 matches to sit comfortably on top of the points table, it seemed unthinkable that they would not finish in the top two in the league tables. Two straight defeats later, there is not only the possibility of Mumbai not making the top 2, but Mumbai could miss out on qualification altogether if they don't win at least one of their remaining two matches.

Similar to Rajasthan, Mumbai's recent woes have all been top-order related. Sachin Tendulkar has scored a lot of runs, but he has done so at a very poor run rate of 6.5. Even if he anchors the innings that rate is not going to help the team. Ambati Rayudu, Mumbai's second highest run-getter, too has faded slightly after a bright start and is scoring his runs at 6.85 now. Mumbai's bowling remains amongst the most potent with Lasith Malinga outstanding and Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh and Kieron Pollard providing good support, or occasionally front-line strike-bowler roles too. However, their overseas player combination is something Mumbai might have a re-look at. Neither of Davy Jacobs or Aiden Blizzard has succeeded consistently while opening the innings with Tendulkar and one unexplored but viable option could be to push the talented T Suman up the order with the license to go hell for leather. That would allow Tendulkar and Rayudu to rotate the strike and Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds and Kieron Pollard to give the finishing kick. It will also free up one more slot which can go to any number of players from Clint McKay, James Franklin, Ali Murtaza (if Mumbai want an additional spin option) or even Dilhara Fernando.

In a match in which one team has a play-off spot to secure while the other is playing for pride, there isn't usually too much at stake for the second team. This time though, the Rajasthan Royals have a strong motivation in the form of a fitting farewell to Warne. What remains to be seen is whether a farewell to a leader provides greater inspiration than the chance to seal a play-off spot.