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The long winding IPL 2009 finally comes to a close this weekend.  The semi final line up is ready.  Deccan Chargers take on the Delhi Daredevils in the first semi final today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday), the Chennai Super Kings take on Bangalore Royal Challengers in the second semi finals.

Go Deccan Chargers Go 

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In the IPL and cricket mania, its very difficult to find more information about such a sport.  A stupendous effort by the players inspite of the fact that their effort gets no recognition in the Indian press.

Jayanta Talukdar clinched the men’s individual recurve gold and helped India win the team event in the Archery World Cup Stage 2 at Porec, Croatia, on Saturday.

Talukdar upset Athens Olympicgold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy 110-108 in the final to clinch his second gold. Earlier, the trio of Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia won India the men’s recurve team gold.

Jayanta Talukdar

This was the trio’s second consecutive team gold after bagging the first at Santo Domingo World Cup Stage 1 on April 5. India had beaten Great Britain in Stage 1 final.The trio had bagged India the first team gold in World Cup series winning at Antalya (Turkey) in 2008. This was followed by two more already this year.

Talukdar also won his third head-to-head contest against the Italian Galiazzo, all played at Porec. He first tamed Galiazzo in 2006 on way to the gold medal, and again beat him in 2008 and now in the final today. Talukdar held the lead in the first two ends of three arrows each at 55-52. He surprisingly conceded two points in the third end to allow the Italian to narrow the gap to 81-82.

Mangal Singh Champia

When Galiazzo hit an eight with his second arrow of the final end of the three arrows, the Indian needed a nine to win. Talukdar hit a 10 to take the second crown in Porec. The women’s recurve team, however, failed to clinch the bronze medal losing the play-off to Ukraine 197-212.

In the men’s team summit clash, Russia trailed by one point (54-55) in the first end, recovered in the second end to tie the match at 108 points at halfway mark. However, India took the lead in the third end at 164-162. Russia showed their best in the last end, but it was not enough to beat the Indians.

Rahul Banerjee

In the women’s third place play-off, it was pretty good performance in dusty conditions as Indian eves took 53-49 lead in the first end. They, however, could not overcome the windy conditions as they did in the first end and went on a wayward shooting, 7-9-8-8-9-6, all on the right side of the target.

The Ukrainians tied the match at 100 points and took the lead in the third end at 154-150. The last end for India was stressful as the last arrow slipped from the arrow rest as Ukraine eves settled the issue. Archery Association of India president VK Malhotra and secretary general Paresh Nath Mukherjee congratulated the winners.

Article courtesy: Rediff and pictures source: Hindu, Tata Steel & NDTV

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On one hand it was a great feeling seeing Deccan Chargers back to their winning ways by trouncing Mumbai Indians by 19  runs. A stupendous bowling effort by Rohit Sharma who took 4 wickets for 6 runs which included a hat trick was the main reason for the DC win.

And on the other hand, heartbreak to see Chelsea miss yet another seat to the Champions league finals.  Andreas Iniesta’s injury time goal meant that Barcelona drew 1-1 with Chelsea and thus moved into the finals with a better away goal record.

Earlier, Michael Essien scored for Chelsea in the 9th minute to go 1-0 for the English team.

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Its 2 defeats in a row for Deccan Chargers now. The match agains the Rajasthan Royals went to the wire as they beat DC by 3 wickets with just 2 balls to spare.  Set to bat first, the DC batting floundered on a nice batting track to end up at 141.   Suman and Rohit Sharma top scored with 41 and 38 respectively.  They were ably supported by Gilchrist who scored 39.

Rajasthan were in dire straits at 3/3.  But recovered nicely to win the thriller in the last over.  A few dropped catches and missed run outs proved costly for DC.

With Delhi also losing to Chennai, the position at the top stays unchanged with both Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils being joint leaders.

Above pictures courtesy: Cricinfo

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After reading the latest post by the Fakeipl player, Iam  having a suspiction that the blogger could be none other than Saurav Ganguly himself.  A few reasons why i feel the same.

1. He says at the end that he is retiring from all forms of cricket after IPL. He is retired from one dayers and tests and after this year’s humiliation, it seems Saurav has had enough of cricket.

2. At one point of time in the blog he said that he will blog thru his brother as laptops are being banned in hotels and other places. Saurav has a brother Snehashish, a former cricketer i believe. Saurav could have been referring to him.

3. The blog only referred to Saurav as Lordie. Other than sulking, it never had any bad remarks against him. The only two things written consistently about  Saurav was that he was aloof or sulking. This could have been to ensure that  no one could suspect him. He gave himself a reasonably good nickname. Everyone knows Saurav is known as Maharajah. Almighty Lord suits fine.

4. Also the blogger has declared that he will disclose his identity after the last match. No cricketer worth his salt will take this risk. Only Ganguly has nothing to lose. He has enough anger against Shah Rukh Khan for all the humiliation meted to him, and its pretty evident in all his posts. Even in the most current post.

5. There are rumors that Kolkata Knight Riders have dropped Kolkata from their name.  Their spat with the administrators of the Eden Gardens cricket stadium in Kolkata is also well known. At one point, there were rumors that KKR would shift to Cuttak in Orissa and base there.  If that happens, Ganguly will not be a part of their plans anymore.  Not that he is, now.

I could be wrong. The last day of the IPL could really throw up a surprise. It could be SRK himself looking for his 2 cents of publicity.  Meanwhile, we have another reason to see the end of IPL this year

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