Tendulkar and Pollard helped Mumbai Indians reaching the finals of the last year which they lost out due to some batting line up errors by SRT. This year they would not be enjoying the exclusive serices of pollard like last year as he has some international commitments.And with this in mind they picked another player who is the only player who could justify the role Pollard plays in the team. They picked Rohit sharma for a whooping amount of $2 million. Rohit sharma has always been a very good ipl player.It is only in the international arena he has failed. So he is a really good addition in strengthening the middle order which was given a dent as they no more get the services of saurab tiwary who was bought by RCB. There is no jp duminy also and neither does shikar dawan fail in the line up. So it is in the hands of symonds and rohit to strengthen the batting line up.They also got flourishing austrlain batsman aiden blizzard.
Mumbai Indians Logo
It is the bowling that had made them the strong team in previous ipl.But this time they were not able to procure in Zaheer Khan as RCB got him also. So they had to strengthen the bowling line up very heavily. They still have the services of Bhajji and Malinga the slinger.They bought Munaf Patel in place of Zaheer Khan. I dunno how efficiently he would be able to perform Zaheer’s job. They also got australian fast man cint mzkkay but it is tough for him to find place in the team. They got davy jacobs , a highly rated south african who is yet to shine in the international arena.
They also got back Moises henriques who has never fogured in the previous playing X1 of MI, but still they got him. James Frankin, a New Zealand bowler who suddenly took up the role of All rounder for the kiwis in the recent past was also bought.
In addition they also have the services of local talents in Dhawal kulkarni , Rajagopal Satish, Ambati Rayudu. It would be interesting to see whether they will be able to retain them back.
Overall Mumbai has a very strong team but it is the middle order that needs a tightening up.Otherwise Tendulkar as usual would have to play a very powrful role in building up the team just like he has been doing it for the past 20 years for India.
Final X1
SRT, Sathish, Sharma, Symonds/Pollard, Davey Jacobs, Rayudu, Bhajji, Munaf, Malinga, Kulkarni, Local Allrounder/Batsman or Blizzard.
If both pollard and symonds is available the last slot would not be needed to be filled.
Will continue about the rest of the teams in my forthcoming posts.
The long awaited IPL auctions finally took place last week. The players were thrown up for sale and every team got what they want or is that what they thought. Let us have a look at what each team got and how they measure up while in comparison to other teams in winning the million dollar prize(which ofcourse goes to the players).
Let me start with the Current Champions Chennai Superkings and try to cover one team every article.
Chennai Superkings
Chennai superkings had only one thing in mind going into the auction.To retain the same team that they had already had.They never wanted to add new members into the team as they did not want to break the team rapport and they went for some players like balaji and gony really had only to loss it because of the lack of funds.
Now to the team: They maintained the same batting line up they had for the last 3 years and they had to pay around 850000 for getting Badrinath, which shows how darly they wanted the whole team. No hayden in the squad which is a relief as he was clearly struggling last year and the mongoose bat didn’t do any tricks.
- CSK
They get 2 more all-rounders in thefaces of dwayne bravo(his availability is an issue) and Scott Styris in addition to Albei Morkel.the selection of styris was a neat move as they had known bravo won’t be available for long and styris really adds to the team a lot with his slow off cutters which plays a pibotal role in indian surfaes and useful batting. The only thing they would be missing is the energy in fielding in which clearly has an upper hand.The bowling department was the sole concern of CSK till the middle of IPL3 which got really boosted up by the inclusion of doug bollinger.And this year they get another australian in ben hilfenhaus who is really a good swinger in the ball.Nuwan Kulasekara may remain as a substitute in case both bollinger and hilfenhaus fail to do their job.They also got ashwin(the best indian spinner presently). They also got srilankan spinner Randiv, who has always been handy in Indian conditions and also sudeep tyagi who has remained as one of the local bowlers so that they could replace him. Joginder sharma was bought in the agony as they could not get Manpreet Gony and Balaji.
Wridhiman saha was bought just as a substitute for dhoni .George bailey is also retained and they got some player by the name of faf du pliess who is a southafrican allrounder .I don’t see any reason how he would fit in the team unless something terribly goes wrong for csk in ipl.
On the whole CSK have once agai got a very powerful team with a perfect balance and rapport.It is still the bowling that needs to do the job.If tyagi and sharma can perform it,there is no doubt they would find a place easily in the semi-final.
The Final X1
Vijay, Hussey, Raina, Badrinath, Dhoni, Bravo/Styris, Morkel, Ashwin, Tyagi, Bollinger and Joginder Sharma.
Hey everybody out there and thank you for taking time to read my blog 
I was searching for a blogger who can contribute to cricketing stuff for Yusuf at his Blog, Kumar jumped in and here’s me introducing “Kumar R” – a self (and everyone) proclaimed cricket fanatic who cannot stop following news and talking about cricket.
Watch out for Cricket category under Sports up there on the menu of categories. IPL season is on and we sure expect some fiery blogging from Kumar. Cheers!
To start with the best 3, here are 3 words from me for all the readers of yusuf.in – “Happy New Year”. Cheers to +1 and wish we get more 1’s(positives) and less 0’s(negatives) this year. I was to publish this post on Jan 2nd but couldn’t due to a technical glitch which was a result of me trying to install an incompatible plugin on this blog’s WordPress.
OK, lets get the topic started and going. Here is my listing of three best things in Technology from the year 2010. Well, don’t ask me why only 3 things, I just wanted to share three best things of the category which i love to follow over the Internet. BeckRam already made his contribution of the facts in sports of 2010 in his post of Looking back at 2010 in Sports. Now, here’s me with MY favourite and best things in technology from 2010. Note that I am not making a 3,2 and 1 over here, I am only listing the best three which means that all are equal to each other, IMHO.
iPad: Nothing could beat this one out of the my best 3 in technology.
Apple ipad
Call it sheer innovation or sheer branding from Apple Inc. ”Tablets” is one word that none apart from geeked out techies would have known, until Apple’s iPad was launched. Apparently, Steve Jobs said “iPad is a device that sits between a phone and a computer” and thereafter it knocked out the netbook market and netbooks are nowhere to be seen from 2011 I guess. Any guesses how many were sold so far ? I can guess some 10 or 20 millions. And the latest buzz is that we should probably wait for ipad 2 from Apple, if rumours are to be believed, this one has new and enhanced features starting from iOS4.0. I should mention about stiff and huge competition from Android. There were other devices which were touted to be ipad killers but only got to make a pretty small dent on the ipad which was, eh, brushed away.
Cloud Computing: 2010 saw small and also large business embrace cloud computing to a good extent.
Cloud Computing
Amazon’s cloud computing stood as the front runner and I can proudly say that my blog is also hosted on cloud servers. Office applications are being hosted on cloud’s so that people who are hooked onto the Internet 24*7 can use these applications to manipulate on their office files on the move. There are many cloud computing companies and here are Top 10 from them.
Say about Cloud Computing to your boss
One problem about cloud computing is that the IT guys really need to explain patiently about cloud computing and its benefits to small businesses as these business persons are the ones who need to understand where their data will be stored, computed on and what kind of service they can expect from a cloud computing company.
Social Media: Many would rather prefer to call this Facebook and not Social Media. But no, that might be wrong. Social Media is that which encompasses all of the entities on the Internet using which you can be Social.
Join the Social Media Bandwagon
Now I am not going to mention all those which are encompassed; this list will take a full page. Social Media Marketing was at its peak this year. 2010 saw Social Media being embraced to an excellent extent by businesses and they are using it the best way to promote, sell, help service, keep customers posted through tweets and announcements and also to patiently answer angry customers, in a social way, as well. We saw Ford Motor Company launching their SUV the “Ford Explorer” on Facebook!
Social Media Marketing
Clearly, Facebook was the leader of the Social Media pack by claiming $2 Billion in 2010 Sales and this is just a claim, we do not know the exact numbers(It should be more and more). Mark Zuckerberg got his extra share of fame from the title of the ‘Time person of the year’ and also from ‘The Social Network’ – a movie being made on him, his friends and Facebook.
Here goes my first post after the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the last one for this year!! Things went so fast that everything seems like yesterday. 2010 was a bad year for me as a sports enthusiast with some of my favorite teams/athletes under-performing.
2010 in Sports
Beginning with Football and my favorite team Liverpool, there were few high moments but the lows were much more and that sums up everything. The ownership saga ended in October but the misery didn’t end there. There will be good time only if Roy Hodgson’s brain starts working or when he is sacked. My first Liverpool match in Chennai since the end of 2008-09 season, watching them lose to a 20th placed team in points table was something I couldn’t digest. Being a Real Madrid fan wasn’t helpful either. They had to settle as the second best team behind Barca, suffering humiliating defeats against the Catalans. And the one thing that will come to everyone’s mind when someone talks about football is of course the World Cup. It was a great spectacle and as I had predicted, it was Netherlands vs Spain in the final. I hoped for and predicted a win for the Oranje, but Spain were the better team and became the champions.
It wasn’t a good year for the greatest Tennis player of the modern times Roger Federer. The year started brightly winning the Australian Open, but then his form seemed to have dipped and the age factor probably ruined his chances in the other 3 grand slams. Former F1 world champions Lewis Hamilton was in the contention for this year’s championship until the last race, but he failed to recapture the title as the Red Bulls simply outclassed everyone else.
And coming to Cricket, this was truly a fantastic year for the God, Sachin Tendulkar, who became the first cricketer to score a 200 in ODIs and hitting his 50th test ton. Being Chennai Super Kings fan was the best with CSK winning IPL 2010. But on a broader perspective, this year belongs to those Indian athletes who won so many medals at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. Despite all the off-field dramas, the athletes made the country feel proud.
Looks like the future is bright for India in sports and people will start seeing things beyond cricket.
Let’s all hope that 2011 will be another great year for India (and for myself 
, I had really had a bad 2010!!). Happy new year to all. Enjoy a successful 2011, CHEERS!!!!!!! .
PS: Chennai Open starts on Jan 3. Lets cheer for Somdev Devvaraman.
This is for those who have worked hard throughout the year and are looking forward to 2011 with high hopes in both personal lives and in their career. Well, if you have not done your vacation trip for the year, please vacate your home and go on a short tour at the earliest. December is called as the vacation month and we sure know people sit back at homes and relax or go on a tours with their family, enjoy life to the fullest and have many crazy memories stored on their minds from the vacation for the rest of their lives.
A vacation is the best thing you can do after working hard, producing astounding and all positive results all throughout the year and in the process, getting stress built up all over your mind. A tour with your family/friends will make your mind free from stress, bring in more positive energy and will give a nice headstart for the next year to come.
So, for all those who are already done with their vacation, “Cheers!” and for those who haven’t yet, its vacation time folks!
Advance New year wishes to all. There should be a separate post from me for the New Year
