IPL 5 Qualifier 1: Daredevils v KKR

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Kevin O'Brien, the Ireland allrounder who struck a record-breaking century to set up a historic win over England at the World Cup, has scored two domestic contracts that will keep him busy this summer.

O'Brien, 27, has been signed by Gloucestershire for the remainder of the English domestic season, barring approximately 18 days he will spend playing in the inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League Tournament between late July and early August.

''I am very excited to have the opportunity to play for Gloucestershire, and work under one of the most successful coaches in domestic one day history," said O'Brien. "I am looking forward to getting over there and hopefully helping the team to achieve its goals in all forms of the game, but especially Twenty20 and one-day cricket.

"Hopefully I can have a great season, help Gloucestershire win trophies and improve my game even further. It is going to be an honour to play with Murali, and hopefully I can learn from guys who have performed so consistently in domestic cricket for many years.''

"We are delighted to have signed Kevin O'Brien to our squad with particular reference to his one day skills," added John Bracewell, Gloucestershire's Director of Cricket. "Given his heroics in the World Cup the Gladiators have a genuine lion slayer in their midst."

O'Brien will join Gloucestershire's squad the squad later this week and should be available for the match against Glamorgan on Sunday May 15. There remains some uncertainty over who he will be playing for in Sri Lanka, where the seven teams taking part will be drawn from Basnahira, Kandurata, Nagenahira, Ruhuna, Uthura, Uva and Wayamba, but O'Brien has some clues as to who his team-mates will be.

"I'm still not 100% who I'll be playing for in Sri Lanka, although I have been told that Sanath Jayasuria will be the team's captain, and that Darren Bravo and lonwabo Tsotosbe will also be on the team," he said.

"The opportunity actually came through Phil Simmons, who forwarded me an e-mail a while back, and subsequently Somerset Entertainment Ventures approached me. It's going to be a magnificent experience, and hopefully I'll acquit myself well in what's sure to be a terrific tournament."

All the games in that competition will be played the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and the winner of the tournament will qualify for the Champions League Twenty20. The league will be run by the Singapore-based Somerset Entertainment, which has bought the rights for five years.

O'Brien, who normally spends his summers playing for Railway Union Cricket Club in Ireland, made his one-day international debut in 2006 in Ireland's inaugural ODI, and his international Twenty20 debut followed in 2008. He played for Nottinghamshire in 2009, and in 2010 was awarded a contract with Cricket Ireland, making him one of six players with a full-time contract with the board.

He has scored 1534 runs in 58 ODIs to date at an average of 34.86 and has also taken 47 wickets, putting him near the top of Ireland's record lists for both batting and bowling in ODIs.

Kevin's brother Niall is a regular for Northamptonshire, and although the two won't have a chance to compete during Northamptonshire's trip to Bristol from May 11 to 14, they could well meet as opponents in Northants' final four-day game of the season in mid-September, or in the latter stages of one of the limited-overs

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have finally managed to retain the explosive Chris Gayle in their squad for the upcoming fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Having had the West Indian as a replacement in IPL 4, RCB had the first right of refusal for him but the Jamaican, the most destructive batsman in the league last year, has had franchises line up for him.


Gayle was on a one-year contract with the Vijay Mallya-owned RCB. He had not been picked at the last auction because of a lack of clarity on his availability. However, RCB mentor Anil Kumble pulled off a coup of sorts by signing him on mid-season and Gayle promptly turned the club's fortunes around.

According to the reports, Gayle's signing was the talking point with a number of franchisees like Mumbai Indians interested in him. If he had come to the auction, his price perhaps would have touched $2 million.

Commenting on Gayle's retention, Sidhartha Mallya, director of Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd, said the franchise was delighted to have his services as a permanent member. "He is one of the best batsmen in the world. His form helped us qualify for the final of the 2011 edition of the tournament. We are confident that with players like him in our side, we will take the extra step this season, and win our maiden IPL title," he said.
Last season Gayle had been signed on for $560,000 and that is the price he will officially continue to get. This, of course, means RCB will go into the auction with that amount deducted from the total purse of $2 million.

Gayle, in a statement released by RCB, said: "I had a great time representing RCB last year. It is a terrific outfit. The players are brilliant. They are complemented by the support staff and administrators, all of whom have gone out of their way to make the players comfortable, and give them the freedom to express themselves on the field. To me, Bangalore has been a home away from home. I wanted to continue playing for them, and it turned out that they were keen to retain my services. I look forward to returning to namma Bangalore soon."

Abe sai has already posted this in morning :O

Thread wz olready made by SJ

Vineet Saxena remained unconquered for the second successive day as he notched his career-best score and became the 21st batsman to score a double-century in a Ranji Trophy final, breaking the drought after fourteen years. The last man to accomplish such a feat was Rahul Dravid, playing for Karnataka in 1997-98 season against Uttar Pradesh. Saxena's marathon 12-hour effort helped Rajasthan to take a commanding position from where they can now dictate the outcome in the remaining three days.




Considering that the run rate hovered around the two-per-over mark, critics are likely to question Rajasthan's conservative approach on what has been an unthreatening pitch, which has remained a flat baking bed in the Chennai heat.

Saxena silenced the opposition with his patience. His presence became more significant as the day progressed after Rajasthan had endured a tough morning session, when only 51 runs came in 36 overs for the loss of one wicket. Saxena lost his overnight partner Aakash Chopra, who paid the price for his defensiveness in the morning. Chopra began the day 14 short of his century, but struggled to catch a rhythm, managing only eight runs from 34 deliveries before losing his wicket.

Only 15 runs were scored after the first hour, with the first boundary arriving after 63 deliveries. Probably that fact was weighing on Chopra's mind when he reacted, a bit slowly, to a straighter delivery from the left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas. The ball pitched on off and middle stump and rushed to catch Chopra plumb in front of the wicket. Finally after 105 overs, Tamil Nadu had their first wicket.

The stagnating run rate, along with the suffocating fields, only increased the pressure on the batsmen. Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the new man, was beaten off successive deliveries by Srinivas half an hour before lunch: the first ball turned into his pads and hit him in line with the stump but the big stride forward saved the Rajasthan captain. Srinivas turned the next ball away with his arm and missed the outside edge marginally.

Both Saxena and Kanitkar returned more positive post lunch. Kanitkar cut Yo Mahesh in front of square and then swept Srinivas when he persisted by attacking his leg stump. Saxena, who had been completely subdued for the entire morning session, pushed a firm drive, against the offspinner Sunny Gupta, through the thick off-side field to get to 150 and pass his previous first-class best of 143.

Saxena brought up the first six of the match, over long-on, by giving Gupta the charge. Understandably anxious, Saxena spent a little while before getting to his double-century: trying to push a fuller delivery from Yo Mahesh to third man, the bottom edge travelled past the gully for a four. It was an incredible achievement in the art of grafting.

Saxena could only thank the opposition bowlers for making life easy for him. The pitch, no doubt, was of little assistance but L Balaji had encountered many such surfaces in the past. Balaji, the Tamil Nadu captain and the bowling leader, had to use his cutters to make an impact. Sadly for the hosts, Balaji was wayward, as was the pair of Yo Mahesh and Kaushik, who offered more width when the need was to be accurate.

Not that the slow bowlers did any better. In fact, it was a true test of patience for the 18-year-old Srinivas, who bowled the most number of overs in an innings in his three-year career. Unlike on Thursday, when he was darting the ball, today Srinivas offered more flight and also got the ball to jump from the widening cracks and the rough.

But the absence of a plan, as well as an attacking field hurt the spinners. A good example was when Srinivas changed ends to make use of the rough outside Saxena's leg stump at the Pavilion end. However, his first mistake was to pitch marginally outside the leg stump when a better line would have been to stick to middle and leg. Balaji then failed to crowd the batsman with a short leg and a leg slip to support his bowler's lines. It only allowed Saxena to breathe easy.

Earlier, Gupta, who had failed to get any sort of grip on the batsmen, had moved the slip to leg slip against Saxena. But instead of bowling on the middle stump, he pitched on the rough outside the leg stump, making it easier for the batsmen to play the sweep. The Tamil Nadu bowlers were clearly lost between trying to attack and squeezing the run rate.

There was a cry of relief from Gupta when, immediately after the tea break, he floated a loopy off break to Kanitkar, who lazily tried to play it away from the body. The edge was picked nicely by Dinesh Karthik, to log his 250th victim in first-class cricket. There was not much joy for the hosts for the second day running.

Rajasthan Vs Tamil Nadu,Ranji Trophy Final,2012

Third Day
End of over 200 (10 runs) Rajasthan 467/2
VA Saxena 240* (606b 26x4 2x6) R Aushik Srinivas 66-24-124-1
R Bist 45* (143b 7x4) J Kaushik 40-13-63-0

Robin Bist and Saxena Shift Gears

Two Fours and Six in 1.3 overs

Robin Bist gets to his 50
55(148)*

Saxena Falls after well compiled 257


Ranji Trophy Elite,Fina:Tamil Nadu Vs Rajasthan at Chennai,Jan 19-23,2012

Rajasthan 509/4(219.2 Ov)
VA Saxena b Aushik Srinivas 257 (665b 26x4 2x6) SR: 38.64

Quick Wickets Follow after Saxena's Exit

Puneet Yadav b Aushik Srinivas 7
DH Yagnik† c Mahesh b Gupta 0
Pankaj Singh c Prasanna b Aushik Srinivas 22


End of over 231 (5 runs) Rajasthan 547/7
RR Parida 20* (71b 2x4) R Aushik Srinivas 80-27-167-4
RR Singh 0* (7b) J Kaushik 42-14-64-0

rajastan to win

David Miller, the South Africa middle-order batsman, has been retained by Kings XI Punjab ahead of the fifth season of the IPL, and given a two-year contract. Miller had joined Kings XI as a replacement for Dimitri Mascarenhas last season but did not play a game. He has been on the fringes of the South Africa ODI and Twenty20 side, and scored a half-century against Australia in the October 2011 series.

Teams who signed replacement players last season have first rights to their services this season, provided they can come to an agreement with the player on the price. Had Miller not been retained by Kings XI he would have gone into the mix for the February 4 auction. Kings XI sold Dinesh Karthik to the Mumbai Indians earlier in the transfer window, which closed on January 20, and have brought in R Sathish and Miller to bolster the batting


Miller has never played an IPL match, but averages 31.30 in Twenty20s for his South African franchise the Dolphins with a strike-rate of 127.75. English county Durham signed him to play in the 2011 Friends Life t20, and he scored 212 runs at an average of 26.50.


After being drafted into the South Africa team as a 20 year old in 2010, Miller was left out of the squad for the 2011 World Cup. He received a recall for the home ODIs and Twenty20 internationals against Australia, but despite his half-century did not even figure in the squad for the series against Sri Lanka.

Good Deal

hmm can't say

atleast better than dimitri :O

Not A Big Deal

Strengthened RCB Batting

More over mcdonald also added super boost to rcb

yeah, surely

RCB all the way

Captain - VK or Vettori?

Vettori i guezz

Gud Work Shakes

By the Way did u join any Team