THE SHOW GOES ON

Heavy showers last night in Centurion were not enough to dampen the fireworks dished out by Chennai to start and then a resilient Punjab team keen to go down fighting, or to fight hard and not go down at all. Hayden and Dhoni were in sublime form against some mediocre bowling, but 187 off 18 overs seemed well out of reach of a Punjab batting line up with few members in form. Katich, Yuvraj and Jayawardene had other ideas and great knocks from all three proved not enough in the end as an inspired choice by Dhoni to bring Raina on to bowl 2 of the last 4 overs nipped the run chase in the bud. Full marks must go to both sides for the spectacle provided.

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The second half of IPL 2009 has taken a knock with the news that Bracken, Watson and Hopes have been withdrawn by CA on the grounds that they are all 3 nursing niggles and need to be ready for T20 WC, Their respective franchises will not be overjoyed by the news but such is life. As a result only 3 Aussies will return to play in the latter stages - Symonds, Lee and David Hussey. 

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This weekend's fixtures will be crucial to sorting the sheep from the goats in the IPL Points table. Mumbai will want to win tonight to stay in realistic contention, and build momentum for the 4 wins they will require in the next 6 games to make semi's.  Another loss and will basically leave them with no more margin for error in the rest of the tournament.

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Delhi could qualify for semi's by the time the weekend finishes, while Chennai, Deccan and Rajasthan will all be hoping to consolidate good log positions. Lets just hope the weather holds out as forecasts almost across the country are calling for intermittent showers throughout the course of the weekend, especially late afternoons. 

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Looking back on it, this is actually a really crap posting. My apologies for the poor quality. I will wait til I have something valid to add before I post again. Sorry.