London, May 23 (IANS) After the success of Indian Premier League (IPL) on foreign soil, chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi is now planning to host two Twenty20 leagues in a year.

Modi said that he is exploring the possibility of a second and shorter IPL in untapped markets of US and Canada while the main tournament will be based in India.

He said that hosting the IPL in South Africa has shown that there is huge opportunity for the shortest version of the game and markets of US and Canada will be ideal to globalise cricket.

Modi’s similar plans were shot down last year by then Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sharad Pawar, who felt that another IPL in a year could cramp the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) calendar.

But after IPL’s success in South Africa, Modi’s grand plans can take shape.

“The IPL will be based in India, but the second season we are planning gives us the chance to see if a market exists and we are seriously looking at what we can do with it. America throws up challenges but the format we have developed works. It is an opportunity for families to spend a day out. Apart from watching great cricket they have an enjoyable evening out. That will work anywhere,” Modi was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

“Before this tournament we did not know if we could do it. But we do know now. We have to satisfy an appetite across the world and build a fan base across the world.

“We will talk to the England and Wales Cricket Board, and South Africa are natural allies who want us to come back every year. The public and the boards want us but it is not realistic to come back to the same place every year,” he said.

Modi’s comments come at a time when other countries are finding it tough to hold back players, who are preferring IPL riches to national duty.

Modi said that the IPL has turned the challenges and adversities in moving to South Africa into an opportunity.

“It is fans who determine if you are successful or not and they have come out in force here. It has shown that the tournament can be in any region, in any country. This opens up many different opportunities for us,” Modi said.

Bloemfontein, May 14 (IANS) Table toppers Delhi Daredevils will be looking to book their semi-final berth when they face Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Outsurance Oval here Friday.

Daredevils are sitting on top of the IPL with 16 points from 10 matches and a win against Kings XI will ensure them a spot in the final four. For Kings XI, they have to win this match by a big margin if they have to stay in contention for the semi-finals for the second year in running.

Daredevils are riding high on confidence with their four-match winning streak while Kings XI after their loss to Mumbai Indians in their last match have made their semi-final hopes difficult.

Kings XI have to win their remaining three matches by big margins and also have to depend on the outcome of other games.

Daredevils have looked as the most formidable team in the IPL and have made themselves as the top contender for the title. They have excelled in both batting and bowling and against Deccan Chargers Wednesday night showed that they can even snatch win even from the jaws of defeat.

The presence of skipper Virender Sehwag will boost Daredevils’ confidence though the Delhi batsman couldn’t do much with the bat against Deccan Chargers. But his captaincy skills were appreciated against Deccan Chargers.

“I would not say that it is a champion team but yes we are a good side. We have a balanced side. The rub of the green was on our side the way we won (against Deccan Chargers),” said Sehwag.

Sehwag said that Daredevils are the most balanced side in the IPL.

“I think we have the most balanced side in the tournament. If you have noticed, we have different match-winners every time we win. It has been Vettori, Dilshan, de Villiers, Nannes, Nehra and Rajat Bhatia. I have always believed that one player can win you a Twenty20 game. It all depends on whose day it is,” Sehwag said.

Kings XI skipper Yuvraj Singh said that his team is in a must win situation and asked his boys to pull up their socks and perform.

“We have six losses, five wins. We need to win all the three remaining games. And it is a do or die situation. This team is capable of winning these three games, we will have to take it game by game. And then let’s see,” said an optimistic Yuvraj.

Durban, May 14 (IANS) The following is the scoreboard of the match between Chennai Super Kings and Royals Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Kingsmead here Thursday.
Chennai Super Kings:

Murali Vijay c Uthappa b Kallis 5 (9 balls)

Matthew Hayden c Vinay Kumar b Kumble 60 (38)

Suresh Raina c van der Merwe b Kallis 13 (10)

Mahendra Singh Dhoni c & b van der Merwe 18 (20)

Jacob Oram c Boucher b Vinay Kumar 7 (15)

Subramaniam Badrinath c Uthappa b Kumble 2 (9)

Albie Morkel c Kumble b Kumar 9 (7)

Shadab Jakati not out 7 (7)

Lakshmipathy Balaji c Kumble b Vinay Kumar 0 (1)

Muttiah Muralitharan run out (Kumar) 4 (2)

Sudip Tyagi run out (Akhil/Kumar) 0 (0)

Extras (lb 3, w 1) 4

Total (all out in 19.4 overs) 129

Fall of wickets: 1-32 (Vijay, 3.3 overs), 2-48 (Raina, 5.4), 3-93 (Dhoni, 12.1), 4-101 (Hayden, 13.2), 5-107 (Badrinath, 16.1), 6-118 (Morkel, 17.4), 7-118 (Oram, 18.2), 8-118 (Balaji, 18.3), 9-128 (Muralitharan, 19.3), 10-129 (Tyagi, 19.4)

Bowling:

Anil Kumble 4-0-12-2

R Vinay Kumar 3-0-30-2

Praveen Kumar 3.4-0-35-1

Jacques Kallis 4-1-18-2

Roelof van der Merwe 4-0-29-1

Balachandra Akhil 1-0-2-0

Royal Challengers Bangalore:

Robin Uthappa lbw b Morkel 6 (4)

Jacques Kallis lbw b Morkel 0 (1)

Rahul Dravid c Badrinath b Tyagi 8 (7)

Ross Taylor c Dhoni b Oram 46 (50)

Virat Kohli c Oram b Balaji 38 (35)

Mark Boucher c Hayden b Muralitharan 5 (5)

Roelof van der Merwe run out (Muralitharan/Dhoni) 3 (6)

Balachandra Akhil c Tyagi b Oram 0 (2)

Praveen Kumar not out 12 (6)

R Vinay Kumar not out 6 (2)

Extras (b 4, lb 1, w 3) 8

Total (for eight wickets in 19.4 overs) 132

Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Kallis, 0.2 overs), 2-12 (Dravid, 1.4), 3-30 (Uthappa, 4.4), 4-86 (Kohli, 14.2), 5-91 (Boucher, 15.1), 6-104 (van der Merwe, 16.5), 7-107 (Akhil, 17.3), 8-125 (Taylor, 19.1)

Bowling:

Albie Morkel 4-0-13-2

Sudip Tyagi 2-0-21-1

Lakshmipathy Balaji 4-0-32-1

Shadab Jakati 4-0-25-0

Muttiah Muralitharan 4-0-24-1

Jacob Oram 1.4-0-12-2

Toss: Chennai Super Kings, who chose to bat first

Points: Royal Challengers Bangalore 2, Chennai Super Kings 0

Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Daryl Harper (Australia)

TV umpire: Suresh Shastri (India)

Match referee: D. Govindjee (South Africa)

Port Elizabeth, April 28 (IANS) Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya produced a masterclass of Twenty20 batting in a century opening stand as Mumbai Indians recorded a whopping 92-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here late Monday.
Tendulkar (68 off 45 balls) and Jayasuriya (52 off 32 balls) decimated the Knight Riders bowling attack to take Mumbai Indians to 187 for six.

Knight Riders were never in the hunt and folded up for 92 with Lasith Malinga (3-11) and Abhishek Nayar (3-13) doing the damage.

Knight Riders’ hopes of an explosive start from big-hitters Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle went up in smoke yet again as both left with only 17 runs on the board.

Zaheer Khan and Malinga bowled tightly upfront, not allowing Knight Riders to utilise the powerplay. Malinga dismissed an off-colour McCullum while Gayle, after hitting one six off Dwayne Bravo, edged to lone-slip Tendulkar.

In-form Sourav Ganguly hit some telling blows and together with Brad Hodge tried to ressurect the innings. But pressure got the better of them after the strategic timeout and they fell in quick sucession. Knight Riders then lost wickets in heaps as the batsmen tried to force the pace, resulting in an early end.

But the highlight of the match was the Tendulkar-Jayasuriya show.

The duo, with close to 30,000 One-day runs between them, treated the crowd to a spectacle. The two great players turned the clock back with a vintage performance as they rained fours and sixes.

On Monday night, Tendulkar and Jayasuriya looked much younger than their combined age of nearly 76. Their class had no trace of rust even after close to two decades of international cricket.

It was something the cricketing world had anticipated since Mumbai Indians brought them together, but it never happened last year.

They struck four sixes apiece, competing with each other to hit the ball farther and higher

Tendulkar set the tempo, hitting Ashok Dinda for a six and a four in the second over. There was no looking back after that. A Sachin special was a pulled six off Ishant Sharma over mid-wicket.

Jayasuriya joined Tendulkar as he hit two clean sixes off Sourav Ganguly. They plundered 127 runs in 74 balls and it looked like a total of over 200 was within reach.

But Laxmi Shukla dismissed both to bring some hope for Knight Riders. Mumbai Indians, who had scored 111 in 10 overs, could add only 76 in the next 10.

Durban, April 25 (IANS) The following is the scoreboard of the match between Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here Saturday.

Deccan Chargers:

Adam Gilchrist c Shah b Bravo 35 (20 balls)

Herschelle Gibbs run out (Bravo/Khan) 58 (44)

Dwayne Smith b Jayasuriya 35 (22)

Rohit Sharma c Dhawan b Bravo 3 (5)

V.V.S. Laxman c Nayar b Bravo 0

Y. Venugopal Rao b Malinga 9 (10)

Ravi Teja lbw b Malinga 9 (9)

Rudra Pratap Singh c Jayasuriya b Harbhajan 4 (4)

Fidel Edwards b Malinga 1 (3)

Pragyan Ojha not out 0 (2)

Extras (b 2, lb 7, w 5) 14

Total (9 wickets in 20 overs): 168

Fall of wickets: 1-63 (Gilchrist, 6.5 overs), 2-124 (Smith, 12.5), 3-136 (Sharma, 14.4), 4-137 (Laxman, 14.6), 5-141 (Gibbs, 15.4), 6-156 (Venugopal Rao, 17.4), 7-161 (Singh, 18.4), 8-163 (Edwards, 19.2), 9-168 (Ravi Teja, 19.6)

Bowling:

Lasith Malinga 4-1-19-3

Zaheer Khan 4-0-32-0

Dwayne Bravo 4-0-34-3

Harbhajan Singh 4-0-27-1

Sanath Jayasuriya 3-0-29-1

Dhawal S Kulkarni 1-0-18-0

Mumbai Indians:

Sanath Jayasuriya c Gilchrist b Singh 1 (8)

Sachin Tendulkar c Gibbs b Ojha 36 (27)

Jean Paul Duminy c Smith b Ojha 47 (40)

Shikhar Dhawan b Ojha 3 (7)

Dwayne Bravo lbw b Edwards 21 (18)

Abhishek Nayar c Gilchrist b Edwards 10 (6)

Harbhajan Singh c Smith b Singh 20 (8)

Zaheer Khan not out 4 (6)

Pinal Shah not out 1 (1)

Extras (lb 6, w 6, nb 1) 13

Total (7 wickets in 20 overs) 156

Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Jayasuriya, 1.4 overs), 2-86 (Tendulkar, 10.5), 3-92 (Dhawan, 12.3), 4-105 (Duminy, 14.3), 5-120 (Nayar, 16.2), 6-144 (Bravo, 18.2), 7-154 (Harbhajan, 19.3)

Bowling:

Fidel Edwards 4-0-27-2

Rudra Pratap Singh 4-0-27-2

Harmeet Singh 1-0-19-0

Dwayne Smith 2-0-15-0

Pragyan Ojha 4-0-21-3

Rohit Sharma 1-0-8-0

Y Venugopal Rao 4-0-33-0

Toss: Deccan Chargers, who chose to bat first

Points: Deccan Chargers 2, Mumbai Indians 0

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Simon Taufel (Australia)

TV umpire: S.D. Ranade (India)

Match referee: D. Govindjee (South Africa)