Marsh?alled to victory

Just when the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) looked to be falling short of a centurion, Shaun Marsh came to the party scoring a flamboyant 115 off just 69 deliveries in the last league match played at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium at Mohali. Hosts Kings XI Punjab beat the Rajasthan Royals by 41 runs in a match that was inconsequential to the final standings of the Twenty20 tournament.

The Jaipur and Mohali franchises have both qualified for the semi-final stage of the IPL, so the outcome of this match did not matter to either team. However, as the Rajasthan Royals and the Kings XI Punjab lead the points table, this match was termed as a ‘mock final’.

Shane Watson took over the captaincy for the Rajasthan Royals in place of Shane Warne who preferred to give himself a rest after winning 11 matches out of 13 for his side. Opener Graeme Smith, who was ruled out due to injury and who also missed the game against Mumbai Indians, chose to sit in the dugout rather than be in the thick of the action.

Chasing a mammoth 222/3 for victory, Rajasthan got off to a bad start when Mohammad Kaif, who was promoted to open the batting in what was a shuffled Jaipur batting line-up, lost his wicket early. Niraj Patel, who showed grit and character under pressure against Mumbai Indians the other night to win the last-ball thriller, partnered Kaif as the non-striker and went on to score a valuable 57 off 39 balls.

Pakistan stalwart Younus Khan, playing in his first IPL match, made only 3 runs before he was castled by Irfan Pathan. At 77/3 in the eleventh over, Jaipur was still a long way off from the target. Good contributions from the middle order came in the form of stand-in skipper Watson (22), Kamran Akmal (39), Yusuf Pathan (24) and Mahesh Rawat (23*). But the Mohali total was still a daunting task.

In the end, needing 123 from 46 balls proved too much of an ask for the Royals. Piyush Chawla picked up 3 wickets for 35 runs to contribute to the Royals’ downfall. Rajasthan only managed to get to 180/7 in their 20 overs.

Earlier in the day, the visitors had won the toss and elected to field. The move proved detrimental as Shaun Marsh, the young sensation from Down Under who has been a revelation at the IPL ever since he played his first game for the Mohali franchise, got off to a sublime start with James Hopes.

Marsh struck 11 boundaries and 7 sixes in his superb knock of 115 which came off a mere 69 balls. He put on a 133-run opening stand with Hopes (51) who played second fiddle to his Aussie teammate but nevertheless got his team to a good start. Yuvraj Singh, who has been denied the opportunity to play a match-winning knock for his side, then came in at the fall of Hopes’ wicket and scored a blitzkrieg 49 from just 16 balls with half a dozen sixes and 2 boundaries to propel Mohali to 221/3 in their 20 overs.

Marsh was rightfully named the Player of the Match yet again and he also claimed stake to the Orange Cap as he was the highest run-scorer of the IPL so far overtaking Delhi Daredevils’ Gautam Gambhir by 70 runs.

The first semi-final of the IPL will be played between Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils on May 30 while the second semi-final will feature Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings on May 31. Both matches will be held at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.