Kallis breaks Ganguly's record!

Well records mean records and they don't make a difference whether they are for the good reasons or for the bad. And, the case is exactly the same when it comes to the South Africa's most experienced batsman bowler all - rounder when he scored his first double hundred in tests (obviously). Prior to this feat of Kallis, his highest score in test match cricket was 189 which he scored against West Indies way back in the late 2003. With four players in history to have crossed the 300 run mark twice, Kallis feat is well short of reasons to celebrate. But, lots to be satisfied with.

Atleast now, Kallis need not retire with a bad mark that none of his 38 hundreds in test match cricket had a double hundred. One double hundred is better than none of them to his credit whatsoever. Kallis is way ahead compared to the Waugh brothers - viz Mark and Steve with stats suggesting that Steve Waugh had just one double hundred while Mark Waugh had just one score above 150 in tests, let alone double hundreds. So has been the case with the former India captain Sourav Ganguly who scored his first double hundred in his last test match against Pakistan in 2008.

Likewise, the England all - rounder Andrew Flintoff retired from test cricket last year after winning the Ashes without a single double hundred against his name. This was the last thing that was expected from one of the world's most promising all - rounder. Flintoff has been responsible for England's Ashes victory on two occasions. With that apart, few other examples include Sri Lanka's world cup winnings captain Arjuna Ranatunga whose highest individual test score is an unbeaten 135 against Pakistan in his 4^th year of serving his country in international cricket. That score stood as his highest individual score for 13 more years until he called it a day.

If those were regarding batsmen who had limited success with double hundreds, it is strange to know that some lesser known cricketer like Marvan Atapattu had six double hundreds to his credit, with three of them coming against Zimbabwe and one against Bangladesh. Even Sachin Tendulkar has just 5 double hundreds to his name which is one less than what Atapattu could manage. Bowlers like Wasim Akram and Jason Gillespie have one hundreds against their name which puts them on par with Ganguly and Kallis off late when their double hundreds are compared. Finally, I'd like to put an end to this topic by dedicating it to my friend with whom I had all these stats which I've put up and with this I say Happy Birthday Buddha!.

KUDOS to the Chennai SuperKings

Well one has to really appreciate the efforts of the Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings after they won their last game against table toppers Kings XI Punjab by 6 wickets. One can relax the matter by saying that the Chennai Superkings did it against a team that finished in the 8^th position of the points table which could be the worst possible position in this year's edition of the Indian Premier League. However, one should not forget that, though the Kings XI Punjab team were placed in the last position, they put up a mammoth total of 192 on the board, thus leaving the Chennai team with a tough task to face.

Nevermind that the Punjab team had lost all opportunities to make it to the last four of the tournament, but a win in the inconsequential games towards the fag end of the league stage of the tournament would give them some relief not only to the players but also to their franchisees and their fans. On the other hand, this was a do or die match for the Chennai Superkings, failing which they would have seen themselves catching up with their opposition namely their Kings XI Punjab by not making it to the semis. Moreover, it was a captain's knock which led to the Chennai team's success.

Hardly anyone would have thought that the Chennai Superkings would make it to the semis after most of the important players from the team had to return back home or warm the benches after injuries got better of them earlier in the tournament. The list includes players like Andrew Flintoff who was the highest bid considering all foreign players and Jacob Oram who is another all rounder along with the likes of Mike Hussey to name a few. Likewise, even the captain - Mahendra Singh Dhoni had to sit out from a few matches owing to injury, having Raina as their captain.

Despite the pressure for Dhoni's team to perform, they showed no signs of fear chasing a mammoth total of 193 runs imposed by the Kings XI Punjab. The Chennai team lost just 4 wickets enroute to their successful run chase which speaks for their confidence in their team and their captain as well. Just a night before the Chennai made the mammoth total of 193 look easy and gettable, the Royal Challengers Bangalore failed to go past 140 runs chasing the very same total of 192 against the Mumbai Indians despite getting Sachin Tendulkar early in the innings. As a matter of statistics, the Chennai will be making to the semis of an IPL for the 3^rd consecutive time.

Big guns yet to fire in this IPL

It doesn't matter for the audience if Shane Warne doesn't get the ball to turn like it used to happen in the Ashes. There is no one complaining if Sachin Tendulkar doesn't get a hundred in the IPL or becomes the highest run getter like he has done in the 2003 world cup in South Africa. But, if someone like Virender Sehwag fails to hit a six in almost every match, the fans are disappointed outside Delhi as well. And much to anybody's surprise, this has been going on for the past three weeks in the current edition of the IPL.

The big guns from whom fire crackers are expected happen to be Virender Sehwag, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Sanath Jayasuriya, Yuvraj Singh etc to name a few. However, none of them have kept up their word which they meant when they were paid huge sums. Sanath Jayasuriya can be given an excuse with Sachin Tendulkar not making up his mind to include him in the playing XI. And, there have been quite a few players like Andrew Flintoff and Jacob Oram who can be as punishing with the bat as they can get. But, injuries have overpowered them once again unfortunately.

And then, there is McCullum and Ross Taylor who have made their entry into the IPL just a day back after finishing their full fledged series against Australia. Though Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar are found doing justice to the money paid to them and the expectations the fans have had in them, their nature of play can hardly be paralleled with someone like Gilchrist or Symonds. So far Gilchrist has had just one score above 50 and an aggregate of 118 runs from 8 games played so far. And, when it comes to Symonds, his record is just above Gilchrist's with the batsman scoring 2 half centuries and aggregating 232 runs but at a strike rate of 122 compared to 174 by Gilchrist.

Then we have Sehwag whose fastest fifty against Chennai Super Kings was overshadowed by 6 innings with scores less than 20. And, when it comes to Mathew Hayden who held the orange cap in the last season of the IPL, the only highlight this time would be the score of 93 he scored against Delhi Daredevils. And, nothing needs to be specially said about Yuvraj Singh who has had series of scores as follows: 4, 9, 4, 43, 15, 24, 2 and 36 which total upto 137 from the 8 games he has played so far. There have been situations in the past as well when a few or may be most of the expected batsmen disappoint. But, this time it is all the expected batsmen who have disappointed without any exceptions.