Indian Cricket Team Updates

The 2015 season of the Pepsi IPL will commence on Wednesday, 8 April 2015, and conclude on Sunday, 24 May, 2015. The first Trading Window for the tournament opened on Monday, 6 October 2014. Two players have been traded so far. Mumbai Indians have acquired Unmukt Chand from Rajasthan Royals and R. Vinay Kumar from Kolkata Knight Riders, respectively.  Mumbai Indians have also released Michael Hussey and Praveen Kumar (Pepsi IPL 2014 Replacement Player), both of whom may enter the Pepsi IPL 2015 Player Auction. The first Trading Window will close on Friday, 12 December 2014. The IPL Governing Council has also decided the windows for the 2016 and 2017 seasons of the tournament. The Pepsi IPL 2016 will be played in the window between Friday, 8 April 2016 and Sunday, 29 May 2016. The Pepsi IPL 2017 will be played in the window between Wednesday, 5 April 2017 and Sunday, 21 May 2017.  source: iplt20.com

1 Chennai Super Kings became the first team to qualify for semi-finals of CLT20 2013. 2.50 R Ashwin’s economy-rate in the match. He equals the record of most economical figures by an Indian bowler in a CLT20 match. Anil Kumble had also conceded 10 runs in four overs against Guyana at Centurion in the 2010 edition. (Also Read:  Chennai Super Kings vs Brisbane Heat, M13 - Report: CLT20-2013 ) 11 Number of matches won by the Chennai Super Kings in CLT20 – most by any side. (Also Read:  Ravichandran Ashwin the bowler and the thinker ) 25 Number of balls remaining when Chennai Super Kings reached the target – biggest win in CLT20 2013. 53.75 Michael Hussey’s average for the Chennai Super Kings in all Twenty20 matches in 2013. 59 Number of dot balls in Brisbane Heat’s innings – equals the record of maximum dot balls in CLT20 2013. Mumbai Indians had also faced 59 dot balls against Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur on Sep 21. 71 Runs added by Chris Hartley ...

The Chennai Super Kings registered their third win in three matches in the Karbonn Smart CLT20 2013 when they defeated Brisbane Heat by eight wickets at the JSCA International Cricket Stadium in Ranchi. After restricting the Australian side to 137, CSK romped home in 16 overs to bag four points from the match and confirm their progression to the knockouts. (Also Read:  Chennai Super Kings vs Brisbane Heat, M13 - Stats Highlights: CLT20-2013 ) Needing to score at close to seven runs an over, CSK opener Michael Hussey got the run-chase off to a brisk start scoring a boundary off the second delivery. He picked up a second boundary in the second over when he dispatched Matthew Gale through square-leg. (Also Read:  Ravichandran Ashwin the bowler and the thinker ) The Australian dominated the strike early on, facing 11 deliveries in the first two overs. Murali Vijay, who had been dismissed for a duck in the previous two outings, began cautiously, but pounced on the opp...

The crowd that had thronged the JSCA stadium in Ranchi expecting a few fireworks from their local hero’s bat, had to be content with just one six over long-on when the game was well in control of the Men in Yellow. MS Dhoni was out two balls later and the deafening cheers were reduced to a dead silence. (Also Read:  Chennai Super Kings vs Titans, M3 - Report: CLT20-2013 ) Four balls later, CSK won the match beginning their CLT20 campaign on a positive note and the smiles and joys so familiar to the CSK dugout were back. Michael Hussey who scored a 26-ball 47, one of the architects of the big run-chase, was all smiles. “It is great to have a win in the first game. We are notoriously slow starters whether be it in the IPL or the Champions League T20 and to get a win in the first game is really pleasing,” Michael Hussey told clt20.com after the game. (Also Read:  Chennai Super Kings vs Titans, M3 - Stats Highlights: CLT20-2013 ) On display was a typical Hussey knock...

The Chennai Super Kings announced themselves in the Karbonn Smart CLT20 2013 with a four-wicket victory over the Titans. Set to chase 186 on a track that had good pace and bounce, CSK were powered by cameos from Suresh Raina and Michael Hussey and romped past the finish line in the 19th over. (Also Read:  Chennai Super Kings vs Titans, M3 - Stats Highlights: CLT20-2013 ) The CSK run-chase was rocked in the first over when Roelof van der Merwe breached past the defence of Murali Vijay. After a couple of quiet overs, during which Suresh Raina picked up three boundaries, the southpaw turned on the heat when he pulled a Morne Morkel bouncer into the stands at midwicket. In that very over – the fourth of the innings – Morkel lost his radar, offered lots of width, sprayed it down the leg side and banged it short too. One particular delivery landed so far down the leg-side that the ‘keeper couldn’t get his hands to it and the ball raced away to the fence. (Also Read:  Micha...

With each of his 733 runs in IPL 2013, Michael Hussey evoked a question in the minds of many. ‘Why on earth did he retire from international cricket so early’? So prolific and fluent has he been in the young man’s game that leaving the overwhelming and buzzing fresh batting talents behind, he walked away with the Orange Cap – presented to the highest run-getter in the tournament.    (Also Read:  CSK vs MI - Final Report & Stats: IPL 2013 ) Team man that he is, Hussey found little consolation in the individual reward as his team, Chennai Super Kings, fell short by 23 runs of their third IPL title.  (Also See:  IPL 2013 Winner Mumbai Indians Celebrations - Pics ) Gracious in defeat, the former Australian batsman spoke to IPLT20.com after the final. He talked about his team’s shortcomings in the big game, lauded Mumbai Indians’ performance and re-lived his favourite 2013 IPL moments. Is the Orange Cap a consolation? Not really. I’d give ...

This team is about consistency. Consistent in performances and consistent the way they write their scripts game after game, year after year. With a history of being slow starters in the IPL and then ‘peaking at the right time’ Chennai Super Kings always seem to have a knack of getting those big performances when required the most.  (Also Read:  CSK vs MI - Qualifier 1 Report & Stats: IPL 2013 ) This year too, they began with a few slow starts, only to go on to make it to the business end and stamp their authority in a tournament that they have almost made their own. With a comprehensive 48-run victory against the Mumbai Indians in Delhi, Chennai Super Kings now hold the record of five appearances in the final of the IPL. This year, much of the credit has to be given to their most consistent batsman Michael Hussey who has been the nucleus for the side. Time and again he has raised his hand up and given the much needed impetus at the top to take CSK to huge totals ...

An embarrassed smile adorns his face when you tell him that he’s ‘the rock of Chennai Super Kings batting’ and that he is ‘one of the most dangerous batsmen in the IPL’. He refutes any claim to making batting look beautiful and “what the team needs” is his common refrain. (Also Read:  CSK vs DD - M64 Report & Stats: IPL 2013 ) That’s Michael Hussey, the second most prolific run-getter of Pepsi IPL 2013 and the foremost contender of the Orange Cap, currently held by Chris Gayle. After CSK won their last home game of the season, against Delhi Daredevils, Hussey, as graciously as ever spoke to IPLT20.com about the approach that has made him a leading T20 batsman from a once Test specialist. While the modest Mr. Cricket downplayed his own brilliance, he was magnanimous in his praise of ‘a freak of a batsman’, AB de Villiers and his CSK team-mate, Suresh Raina for whom ‘sky is the limit’. Excerpts: From being tagged as a Test specialist to now emerging as o...

Legendary American author, Mark Twain once said, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.”  That phrase fits aptly for an Australian who refuses to age and has a heart that still yearns for the game of cricket. Michael Hussey might have called it quits to international cricket, but if you see him bat or field in the IPL with that yellow jersey on, you will never get an impression that he is a cricketer, three years short of 40.  Always cheering up his team mates, fielding with a lot of agility and sprinting away between the wickets like a twenty year-old are quite some of the characteristics that are very synonymous with Mike Hussey. On Saturday night amidst a sea of purple at the Eden Gardens, Hussey laid a perfect platform for his side, scoring a patient 51 ball 40 in CSK’s run chase of 120 .  The conditions were tough, scoring was difficult and it required someone with Hussey’s temperament to guide the chase successfu...