IPL 5 - Review

                    Finally after 72 group matches and 4 Play off matches we have a clear, deserving winner- Kolkata Knight Riders. Its been a fantastic season of entertainment as we had more than 20 matches as last over finishes. We saw some amazing centuries and some 4-5 wicket taking spells. There were game changing knocks and game changing spells. This IPL had it all!!

                   








                                 
                              Every year we get one player who plays exceptionally well and makes a strong impact on that year's IPL. Like we saw Shane Watson dominating the first ever IPL or Gayle dominating the last year's IPL. This year it was Sunil Narine who we can say that was the find of the IPL. His consistent wicket taking ability and his 'mystery' spin was such a important factor in KKR's victory. If you look for Indian player then Ajinkya Rahane completely outclassed every other batsman except Gayle. Rahane failed in last 3-4 matches and that's why he ended up at 4th position in highest rungetters list for this year. Mandeep Singh was another guy who impressed many. Shikhar Dhawan, Gambhir, Sehwag, Rohit Sharma and even Rahul Dravid were in brilliant form and scored many runs for their team. And for foreign players Devilliars and Gayle were far better than the others. White found his lost touch. Pieterson was brilliant to watch till he was there.Du Plesis, Warner, Dilshan, Mahela, Hussey brothers, Steve Smith, Owais Shah, Dumini Played some nice match winning knocks but there were in parts.
                   








                                      From Bowlers Narine, Morne Morkel and Malinga were highest wicket takers. But Malinga took only 2 wickets in his last 5 matches which was not so Malinga quality. Morne was outstanding with both short balls and yorkers. Dale Steyn was at his best and was the only good thing about Charger's bowling unit.Umesh yadav led the Indian bowling attack with Parwinder Awana being find of the year. But he has to be more consistent if he wants to make it to the national team. Otherwise he will become next Manpreet Gony. Yadav was consistent with his pace and got wickets. Vinay Kumar got wickets but was too much expensive other than that Praveen, Zaheer, Dinda, Munaf, RP, Balaji were good but not consistent. Dhaval Kulkarni bowled well in 2 matches he played and is someone we can look forward to as a future bowler. Spinners were not as much dominant as pacers but still Ashwin, Nadeem got wickets. Murali was by far the best spinner of the whole IPL5. Hilfenhaus was good when he came into CSK squad late in the group stage.

                         There was stiff competition between Bravo and Kallis for the best all rounder and I think Bravo just beats Kallis for his match winning batting knocks. Shakib, Mahmood were really good for their team. Albie, Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Pathan brothers, Russel failed to make impact.
                      As a captain Gambhir was above all. Dhoni almost came close specially in play offs but Gambhir's passion beat Dhoni's Calmness. Sangha, Bhajji, Nehra, Ross Taylor, Yusuf (except second last match), Vettori, Marsh, Gilchrist (except one innings), Ryder, Ganguly had a forgettable IPL.

                          As always this year's IPL was also surrounded by lots of controversies. King Khan was leading news maker. But all in all this year's IPL was a success. Crowd turnout was huge, we got new champions. At the end of the day it was all about entertainment and we got tons of it.

The wall has left the building..!

                                     
                                16 years ago India toured to England to play test series. After losing the first test match India made a couple of changes due to injuries to senior players. Both of these debutant came, One opened the innings and scored a superb 100 other came down at no.6, India in trouble not many remaining after him and scored 95 runs. as everyone know the first was Saurav Ganguly and the next one was Rahul Dravid.

                                  This has been a story of Dravid till now. Many times he has been overshadowed by some other person. A talented player like him should have been the no.1 batsman of his country but because of sheer badluck of Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar was playing Cricket in same generation of Dravid so that's why Dravid became India's 2nd best batsman. But if you go by a technical skills, mental calmness no one can match Dravid, he is simply the Best!

                           
                                  There are loads of loads of great innings he has played. He has won the matches for India or many times has become savior of Team India. No one can forget his amazing partnership with Laxman in kolkata against Australia in 2001. His many great knocks include 233 Against Australia in Australia, 270 in Pakistan against Pakistan, whole series against England in 2011. Players are called great when they perform well in away matches, Dravid has been the master of this thing. He is the first ever batsman to score test Century against each test playing nation on their home soil. The other great thing about Dravid is that he loves to make partnerships. He is the only man who has been involved in 2 over 300 partnership in ODI's. Though not the Sehwag like ODI batsman, Dravid gave a perfect stability to the Indian ODI team. Many criticized him for his slow batting but he proved them wrong with becoming Highest run getter in 1999 world cup. He even did wicket keeping in 70 Odi's as team was needed that badly. He is the perfect example of team man and a gentleman.

                                   Even when he decided to retire he didn't do much fuss about it. He waited for Team India's Australia tour to end and then simply declared his retirement. If a man has played more than 150 tests and 300 Odi's for his country and has scored over 13000 runs in test and 10000 in Odi then you simply call that man with a one word and that is - LEGEND!

                                   For last 12 years India's no.3 position was in safe hands, Team India was protected by The wall. Now I can see a huge empty place on Team India's building as THE WALL HAS LEFT THE TEAM INDIA'S BUILDING..!                            

Road to WrestleMania!

     I got a good response for my first ever post. Thanks to all of them who viewed my blog. As I said in my last post that this time I will talk mainly on upcoming, WWE's biggest night of the year, Grandest stage of them all, Yes you are right Its WrestleMania!!

     WrestleMania 28 is going to happen on 1st April in Miami, Florida which is Rock's hometown. As the world knows that we are going to see an epic clash between The Rock and John Cena. This is going to be the main event but there are many other great matches which we can look forward to.

      The Best in the world CM Punk is going to defend his WWE championship against The best in the world at what he does Chris Jericho. This is going to be a wrestling classic as both men are pure classic wrestlers. The 2012 Royal Rumble winner Sheamus will face World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan. I am a huge fan of Sheamus and think that he has a great future in WWE. On the other hand I love this new Daniel Bryan. He is doing a great job in his new heel role. Triple H will face The Undertaker in Hell In a Cell match. Was there any single person who didn't like there match at last WrestleMania? and this time they are going into a HIAC means its going to be more awesome! I want HBK to somehow get involved into this feud. He can be a special guest referee for this match as he has history with both of these superstars. There are some other matches which are also shaping up. Cody Rhodes might face Big show and we can have a tag team match for Raw Gm vs SmackDown Gm feud. All in all this WrestleMania is shaping into one of the most Electrifying, exciting, biggest and Epic WrestleMania ever! I am looking forward to it. Are you?

Finally..For the first time!

As The Rock finally returns to Raw, MaidenLegend Finally starts his own blog. There are so many things i can write here, but mainly my posts will be related to Cricket and WWE as i am a huge fan of both of them. I am totally excited to start my own blog which i hope i can keep updated daily or at least weekly as i am quite free right now. So yeah Here we go..!..
                     Indian selection panel just announced the team for Asia cup starting from 12th March. Sehwag has been 'Rested' which is quite a misleading term in Indian cricket. They actually fear to use the word 'dropped'. Nevertheless they have taken the right decision as he was a complete failure in Australia tour.

             
Virat Kohli has been appointed as the new vice-captain of the team for his consistent performance. A great decision here. He is a really talented player and has the experience of captaining under 19 cricket team. I like his aggressive nature and i don't mind him being aggressive as long as he can back it up by his performance.
                  WrestleMania is coming very close so WWE is pulling their all sources to put on a great show. I will discuss that in my next blog. for now on I will not make this blog a longer one. So will end it here only. Until the next time stay safe and feel the greatness!!