The IPL Of Delhi Vs Chennai Final Match 2012

At the beginning of the IPL season, every Delhi Daredevils press conference seemed to have two major themes  the strength of their newly acquired batting line-up and the seeming weakness of their nice spin bowlers.

The batsmen and the pacers acquitted themselves more often than not through the league phase, taking them to the top of the table, but the spin question returned to haunt them against team Kolkata Knight Riders in the first Qualifier match on a slow pitch in Pune.

Kolkata team packed their XI with three spinners plus the slow-medium pace of player Rajat Bhatia, and the extra pace of Delhi's fast bowlers work out to the advantage of player Gautam Gambhir's side.

Now, in the knockout match against two-time defending champions Chennai Super Kings 2012 looming on Friday, skipper player Virender Sehwag and the Daredevils think tank must be in a quandary whether to stick to their strength or bring a second specialist spinner into the line-up.

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Jayawardene Shines As Delhi Of IPL 2012

Mahela Jayawardene struck an unbeaten half-century in IPL 2012 as the Delhi Daredevils beat Kings XI Punjab by 5 wickets to become the first team to reach the Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs.

The Sri Lankan batsman hit 84 to score 56 in 49 balls as Delhi to talled 140-5 in 19 overs after pace players bowlers Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron combined to take 5 wickets to help restrict Punjab to 136-8 at Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium.

The player Jayawardene added 48 with Naman Ojha (34), helping Delhi recover from 37-4 in the sixth over. The player Ojha struck three fours and two sixes in a 29-ball knock, both his sixes coming off successive deliveries from legspinner Piyush Chawla. He was dropped on 22 by Chawla at long-on off Azhar Mahmood when Punjab was fighting to get back in the game.

Jayawardene player guided the team to victory along with player Irfan Pathan, who chipped in with 19 not out.“There was some spirits movement for players fast bowlers and Varun and Umesh bowled beautifully,” Sehwag said. “We were expecting that Mahela would play till the end and finish the game. It is difficult to go in and play your shots, but he took his time and ensured the win.”



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India Hockey Team Coach Top- At Olympics

The great Indian Hockey Team having "fed the 5,000" and fulfilled his duty of leading the India hockey team to Olympic qualification, Australian coach Michael Nobbs has set the target of a top-six finish in London.

The former Indian hockey powerhouse won the last of their eight gold medals in 1980 but their gradual decline reached its lowest ebb in 2008 when the team failed to qualify for the Beijing, the first time India missed a Games in 80 years. So it was a huge relief for the nation when the team won a qualifying tournament in Delhi in February to seal a London berth.

"I was very relieved. I was quite apprehensive. I knew how Indian hockey had probably declined in the last number of years," Nobbs, who took on the job in July 2011, told Reuters in an interview.

A rumbling administrative row and cricket`s emergence as the most dominant sport in the country have not helped Indian hockey.