Thursday, May 4, 2017

premier league years

premier league years

>> live in studio b, it is the second annual starters award show. it is the starties. [captioning made possible by nba digital] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> now, here is your host, kristen ledlow. kristen: good evening and welcome to the second annual awards show, the starties. i am kristen ledlow, and we will hand out some major nda

hardware. we will run through traditional words, like most valuable player and most improved, while deciding a few fun categories, like fan of the year and funniest moment. i little later, we say goodbye to the things we lost this nba season.

you don't want to miss the touching tribute. what would the starties the without the starters? here to rake down the winners, losers, and snubs -- j.e.: thank you so much. i can't tell you how close i was to wearing sequins.

i'm glad i didn't be want to claim the scoring system. we have a partial panel pick the nominees, than the four of us made our votes along with you, the starters fans, on facebook. we tallied up and we hand out the starties. tas: we have incredible top 10

plays of the season coming up. after blood, sweat, and tears, especially from leigh ellis, we managed to do it. j.e.: let's get to it. our first award kristen: like the people who use head and shoulders shampoo, nba rookies know you never get a

second chance to make the first impression. here are the four players who shined brightest in year one of their careers. your nominees for rookie of the year -- nikola mirotic of the bulls. nerlens noel of the 76ers.

elfrid payton of the orlando magic. and andrew wiggins of the minnesota timberwolves. and the winner is -- andrew wiggins. j.e.: there it is. the first startie going to r.o.y.

look at the voting breakdown. there you go. everyone backing andrew wiggins, including the fans. so, what became somewhat of a close race the last couple months, i think that is safe to say, wiggins ends up taking the startie.

tas: if this was called rookie of the last two months, we would have a debate. it is not. wiggins has been phenomenal, averaging 36 minutes per game. i think that is truly important. producing and all those minutes. he has played in every one of

his team's games. he has been phenomenal. i am extremely impressed by the man who is now carrying the torch as canada's best player since steve nash retired. j.e.: some of the guys, mirotic, noel, have played great over the last month or two.

andrew wiggins has gotten better as the season has gone on. that is not easy. leigh: did not hit the wall. he has picked it up the second half of the season, which solidifies his case. trey: the first half of the season, he was missing the main

guys on the timberwolves. to be able to have any efficient and both ends without the veterans around is pretty impressive. he might have been sort of a default winner with the injuries. he also earned it.

if guys like jabari parker were in the case -- in the race, we be looking at andrew wiggins and saying, this is the rookie j.e.: let's keep it moving. kristen: they say defense wins championships. they also seo watch pot will never boil, but it does.

these are the nominees for the defensive player of the year. marc gasol of the memphis grizzlies. rudy gobert of the utah jazz. draymond green of the golden state warriors. and deandre jordan of the los angeles clippers.

draymond green. j.e.: draymond green. defensive player of the year according to the starters. this one a little bit different than the rookie of the year race. it was unanimous for andrew wiggins.

leigh going with rudy gobert. everyone also picking draymond green. we will get to your reasoning in a second. tas: it is spectacular to watch this guy plays. of all the candidates, he truly plays like a big and perimeter

player. a lot of times, we separated between biggs and smalls, but he can literally intimidate a guy on the perimeter, guys dribbling in have to decide, what am i going to do with this guy? he goes down low and uses his lower body strength to deal with

guys inside. steve kerr called him a dennis rodman. he can guard guys one through five and it has been a long time since a perimeter player has won this award. i think draymond green truly feels like the best defensive

j.e.: this award usually going to the bigs. metta world peace, the last forward to win it. i think when you look at the sort of advanced numbers defensively in terms of win shares and defensive rating, it backs up the case for green.

all these guys in the running are high on the list. green, number two in defensive rating, number one in defensive when bankshares. i argue that they would not be the best defense in the league if it were not for him. they can use him to switch on

pick and rolls. trey: he is vital to the defense. i went into the voting thinking maybe andrew bogut was the best defensive player, but he has played almost as many minutes with andrew bogut as he has played without and there is no

defense drop off at all just because he can do everything. he makes it so they can switch, they can play tiny. he is everywhere. j.e.: why rudy gobert? leigh: i think golden state's defense has been better. rudy gobert has been so

impactful since his role change in january. he has made a significant improvement to the defense. in november, they were 25th in defensive ranking. for the month of march, they finished first. i am not saying it is all him.

his presence really helped in setting the tone for the look at what he does when other opponents drive into the lane. look at the field-goal percentage at the rim compared to the other guys known to be shot blockers. hugely significant.

that is based on an improvement throughout the season. maybe dream aunt over the course of this whole -- draymond over the course of the whole season has been better. j.e.: this was a crazy category. i think you could have had a whole other four or five guys in

the mix. kawhi leonard, tim duncan with the spurs, one of the best defenses in the league. tony allen will always be in the mix. you really could have 10 solid nominees here. leigh: kawhi leonard missed some

time at it probably counts against him a little bit. andrew bogut as well, another one that sometimes gets overlooked. his presence really helped golden state. with draymond green, as fantastic as he is, he can

afford to be more aggressive knowing you have such a big body. j.e.: bogut missed a big chunk of games. leigh: he did. that is when i make my decision. rudy has made such a huge impact on utah.

we have a fun award coming up next. kristen: ah, the nba fans to without them, every single player would be perfect from the free-throw line. tell us about the nominees for fan of the year. j.e.: first nominee, this kid

chugging popcorn. that is a brilliant technique. nom nom nom. not getting his hands covered and butter. perfect. he is going to town. how many bags of popcorn did he eat?

tas: the second nominee, clippers owner steve ballmer during the live fergie performance. call it dancing, call it whatever you want. j.e.: i can't believe that is not -- third nominee, gary harris' mom.

she missed her son throwing down a huge dunk early in the season and she can't believe it. she turned her head for a second. tas: first game, too. where did you go? this nominee got it right in the kisser.

why is she a nominee here? she stayed in the game. she had the bloody nose. she hung out there despite getting her glasses knocked off her face. kristen: and the winner is -- woman crushed by pass. j.e.: i am glad.

she deserved it. she stuck it out. trey: gets better every time. j.e.: the hair blowing back, the glasses. kristen: coming up, the award for best six man and the bestwedgies. catch youtomorrow. thank you.

kristen: welcome back to the starties. this may be the starter's award show, but it doesn't mean they will forget about contributions from the bench. sixth man of the year. jamal crawford of the l.a. clippers.

marreese speights of the golden isaiah thomas of the boston celtics. and lou williams of the toronto raptors. lou williams, guys. j.e.: lou! tas: this is a controversial one.

j.e.: lou williams taking home the sixth man of the year very close in terms of votes. leigh and i went with lou williams. the fans ultimately decided this lou outpaced crawford by about 40 votes. very close.

trey: was it the drake shout out? leigh: when the statistics are very close, you have to find some reason to separate them your it for me, it came down to games eight. lou williams played 76 games. jamal, only 60.

both had a similar impact on their team success. lou williams is deserving of the award, having played more games. j.e.: this one was a tough one to pick because no one stands apart from the other guys. it was difficult. i went with lou.

tas: i feel like you guys have voters fatigue. he's won it twice. this is jamal's award. he is the leader in points for guys coming off the bench. give it to him a third time. name the award after him. it has been a long time coming.

give it to him. trey: he has about the same impact as lou williams. the difference with jamal crawford is the clippers bench. there's not much else around there. when he comes on the court, you know jamal will get the shots

and he is still able to do it. this is a scores award. -- scorer's award. tas: lou took that three-point shot after draining the shot clock. one game. really close. jamal leads in points per game.

he embodies the sixth man award. i do want him to get it one more time. i feel like it could be his last leigh: it would be great to name it after him. i think he is deserving of the award this year. j.e.: the fans decided that one.

kristen: behind every great fastball team is a great coach and behind every great coach is a fan base questioning their every decision here and luckily, these guys made all the right moves. here are the nominees for coach of the year.

mike budenholzer, the atlanta hawks. steve kerr, the golden state warriors. jason kidd of the milwaukee bucks. and brad stevens of the boston and your winner is -- steve kerr.

j.e.: steve kerr, the second warrior to take home a starties. steve kerr with coach of the year. all four of us here at the table going with coach kerr. the fans went with budenholzer. neck and neck race. nearly 50-50 split.

in the end, the fans leaned toward budenholzer. you can't go wrong with a lot of these guys. tough to pick against steve kerr when he is having a historic tas: beating opponents by an average of 10 points. it is hard not to give it to

him. i gave him a little more credit because he is a rookie head coach. we separate rookies and m.v.p.'s. it is hard as a rookie. we talked about it before the steve kerr, can he make an

impact as a rookie head coach? to do what he is doing -- i know the hawks are more of a surprise than the warriors, but i give a little more credit because this is his first. j.e.: that is what some people say. he took over a team that was

already a 50-win team with mark jackson. trey: they have been top-two in offense and defense for basically the entire year. possible m.v.p., possible the one thing that changed from last year is the coach. it stands out as, here is the

change in look at all the great things that happened. j.e.: someone on twitter had a great week about what he has done the most successful lineup for the warriors, curry, klay, barnes, draymond green, bogut have played over 735 minutes this season.

last year under mark jackson, 0. kerr was helped out by the david lee injury a little bit. had to put draymond green in i still think you may have figured that out. that is a telling staff. leigh: you could argue steve kerr was under more pressure.

they want to be contending for a championship. they brought in a rookie coach. you have a team on the fringe of going for a championship, they want an experienced guy. he now has this title favorite with no tangible weakness. very good bench.

they share the ball, lead and assist. they do everything that says they will be one of the toughest teams to beat in the finals. j.e.: if we had done the starties at the all-star break, budenholzer runs away with this. are you impressed with how the

warriors continue to keep winning in the hawks, maybe they have not had much to play for in terms of the number one seed? trey: around the all-star break would've been the perfect time for budenholzer. he is also getting a little bit of help because the hawks were

so banged up last year. they did not have enough guys to finish with more than 34 wins. everyone has been healthy for the most part this year. easier to be better. he has them playing as best as they ever have in their history. j.e.: coach of the year, you

lean toward coaches on really good teams, 60-plus win teams. like the other nominees, jason kidd, coaches that took 18 you did not expect anything from and got them either into the playoffs or shocked a lot of people. both of guys -- both of those

guys are like that. tas: we did not expect much from the milwaukee bucks at all after being the worst team last year. their defense is just a telltale sign that the head coach has got them playing extremely hard. a second-your head coach doing it.

all these guys. it is difficult to parrot down here and we went with the number one seed. j.e.: i was inspired by jason kidd. kristen: wedgies are weird. it is just science. when it is a bully yanking a

piece of cotton, those are the worst. when it is a basketball accident we cradled between the net and backboard, they are glorious and triumphant. these are nominees for wedgie of the year. tas: anthony tolliver in his

first game with detroit. his first shot was a wedgie. he will always remember that moment. second nominee, nick collison, and i love the gooseneck. third nominee, just because marv albert gave the starters a shout out during at&t game.

marv: a timeout is taken. the officials made a quick call as the starters of nba tv fame like to call it, it appeared to be a wedgie, but it was not. the official said, jump ball. tas: thanks for that. demar derozan stuck a jumper. you might not think it is an

incredible wedgie, but it resulted in a date for a fan of the starters. this came in from morgan. i met up with friends when a shot by demar derozan went up resulting in a wedgie. i shouted, wedgie! a cute girl on the other side of

the room said the same thing at the same time. after a shocking glance at each other, we started talking. it turned out we were both marathon runners who listen to the podcast during our runs. i now have a date with this role.

thanks. morgan. bringing people together. that is what wedgies do. kristen: and the winner is nick collison's free-throw. tas: this is a rare wedgie. i love how he is hanging. [laughter]

that is great stuff. j.e.: not the wedgie that brought two lovers together? tas: we don't know how the date went. kristen: next, we hand out the hardware for what see -- whoopsi we have already handed out six big awards.

there is still plenty to come, including the winner of this season's most valuable player trophy. when you are right, no one remembers. when you are wrong, no one forgets. that is why we are doing our

part to remember those plays that went horribly, horribly wrong the season. here are the nominees for the whoopsie of the year. j.e.: first nominee, lakers huddling up, forgetting to play basketball. blake griffin getting the best

of them. trey: happen the first week of the season and this was kind of the entire lakers season. j.e.: sums it up perfectly. tas: alexey shved, wild shot or pass? no one knows to this day. he did not get a turnover on it.

j.e.: that almost sums up the knicks' season. third nominee, kirk hinrich in the super spin cycle. this makes me dizzy, watching do it again. tas: austin rivers catches the turnover. last one, steven adams falls on

the ground and takes it right to the hibberts. now, steven adams was fighting through the game, fighting through a hand injury, but that really injured him. trey: the delay of the ball comes through. tas: got to take a break.

j.e.: shake it off. the lakers getting scored on during a huddle. j.e.: it does sum up the lakers do you want to play defense -- oh. trey: i like they kobe was around for this one. -- that kobe was around for this

j.e.: it is not as the blunders we give praise to. sometimes it is even better when a perfectly executed play goes exactly according to plan. take us through the nominees for a very solid play of the year. leigh: the first one comes from the hawks.

how do you get a wide-open layup when there are defenders in the paint? this is how you do it. paul millsap finds al horford. jeff teague with a beautiful finish. manu ginobili with a beautiful pass.

tim duncan does not even know it is coming. golden state, globetrotters from earlier in the season. draymond green, do you think he will finish it? nope. shaun livingston. the portland trail blazers on

the broken player so determined to get a three-pointer out of this. watch this. chris kaman is so open. knocks it down. beautiful. it is because the play was broken.

kristen: here is your winner. golden state globetrotters. j.e.: i like this one. leigh: it sums up the golden state warriors season as well. everyone getting involved. not a thing a layup. that will do. that is what i call the very

solid play of the year. j.e.: why is there a sticker on your plaque? leigh: congratulations, golden this will be one of the most sought-after accolades of the j.e.: we blew the entire budget on the fog machine. all right.

sorry -- leigh: we have someone in india who has been keeping stats of the very solid play of the year. we have the boomerang, the bounce pass, all those great categories. it is important we keep track of those.

also by team as well. if someone things i am biased toward the spurs, that is them in the brown. yes. they deserve it. j.e.: what a great breakdown. it is time to unleash the fantasy unicorn for the --

this is difficult. three impressive lines. the second runner-up, klay thompson. he went off against the kings. 52 points, 9-10 at the line, 11 threes, two steals. anthony davis flirted with the quadruple-double, 14 boards,

seven assists, one steal, and nine blocks. a great game from a.d. but the fantasy line of the year goes to kyrie irving. 57 points, 20-32 shooting, perfect 10-10 on the line. perfect from three-point line. some defense with four steals.

congrats. apologies, i should say, to russell westbrook, james harden, and demarcus cousins, who had themselves some monster lines. tas: all season long, we have monitored the missteps of those in the nba family like j.r. smith, donald sterling, and

dwight howard in years past. there is always someone who rises above the rest and earns the right to receive the ultimate starters dishonor. the 2014-2015 worst of the year were goes to dion waiters. his season actually started in cleveland and things looked rosy

out of the gate, fresh off being mentioned in lebron's coming home b regime was named the starting two-guard. it only took three games for lebron and the coaching staff to change their minds about his role and sent him back to the bench.

what was dion doing that was so wrong? aside from missing, he was doing this, over and over and over and over again. the internet love tim, but his teammates, not so much. no thanks. they were smart not to pass to

when he did get it, you know he shot it, he attempted more shots per 36 minutes than kyrie irving and kevin love in his 33 games as a cavalier. in early january, cleveland decided it was time for dion to be gone, that sending them to the thunder.

this was waiters'explanation for the improvement. he said, "listen, they give me the ball. i touched the ball. i actually, like, you know, touch the ball." that is not true. he actually touched it more with

cleveland. what he continued to do in okc was keep calling for the ball. if you have seen one clip of waiters this season, it has to be him begging for it and being denied the pass. it is hilarious. he has been exceptional and that

is why he has earned the 2014-2015 worst of the year award. kristen, would you do the honors in raising the banner? j.e.: this is perfect. j.r. and dion waiters. he has a nice, roundhead. tas: shoot your way through

this, dion. kristen: overshot it. j.e.: that is perfect. that is perfect. trey: just a little off. tas: coming up, the most improved player of the year and the funniest moment of the 2014-2015 season.we will be right back.

[sfx: squeaking brakes] kristen: looking back to the before we find out this year's m.v.p., let's check in with the m.i.p. most improved player of the jimmy butler of the chicago bulls. and hassan whiteside of the

miami heat. and the winner is -- jimmy butler. j.e.: wow. jimmy butler of the bulls getting the starties most improved player. this was a split vote. trey actually went with rudy

gobert. myself and the fans back jimmy it came down to trey's second-place vote, jimmy butler just above draymond green. controversial, but in the end, the fans agree that he gets it. this is a weird award every i think it is easily the most

ridiculous award that we hand out. it is a piece of hardware that we are basing a little bit on underachievement the year prior. tas: it is also very subjective. i had trouble picking rudy he is a second-year player and also coming from france.

he just got a starter's job in the middle of the year. i like to go with a guy that has played some years in the league. it came down to jimmy butler and draymond green, for me. they came out of nowhere turn max contracts, more than likely, this off-season.

draymond green came out of a deeper sense of nowhere because we knew jimmy butler was a fantastic defensive layer. his offensive game came out of nowhere this season. draymond green, the defense and the offense. but i have no problem with jimmy

j.e.: that is why i lean more towards butler. green has been excellent. a lot of people picking him for that came into play, too. maybe i am picking import defensive layer of the year and do not need to pick him for for jimmy butler to become a

20-point scorer and find his shot, his usage rate went up, and they asked him to do a lot more. i do not love this award, but i think it is more impressive to go from a good player to an all-star, great player and that is what jimmy did this year.

leigh: the numbers were almost double what they were last year. his minutes went up to 38 minutes per game. he earned those minutes. he was really a glorified energy guy prior to this season. now he is an integral part of their rotation.

trey: with rudy gobert, you like to look for a player who has a little more experience, but he went from a guy who no one knew anything about to a legit franchise cornerstone. he made enes kanter expendable. he was so good that he forced out a top five pick because they

needed to see him more on the court. the jazz took off once he got a starting role. it has been impressive. j.e.: i agree. some people think maybe gobert and whiteside did it a little too late in the season.

can a guy win this award that was not even playing in the league the last two years? he has been all over the place -- china, lebanon, the d-league, and now here he is with the heat. leigh: this is exactly who they could have used last year.

he has bounced around not just the nba, but other leagues. he understands he has a role in this league and he could be here for a long time. tas: we watched him in summer league and we thought, this guy has sort of fallen off. we did not expect him to ever

have an nba job again. the degree of improvement, you could probably give it to hassan whiteside the j.e.: again, totally subjective and wide open. the fans agree with me, jimmy back to kristen for our next kristen: on any given night, the

nba has the capacity to throw us with thunderous dunks, awe-inspiring assists and game-winning buzzer beaters, but when that is not happen, we are more than happy to settle for hilarious sideshows like these. this year's funniest moment. j.e.: jason smith with the

knicks, the dance party he had in the bowels of msg. trey: he has a whole lot of leigh: the highlight of the knicks season, really. j.e.: the dance moves for a seven footer are impressive. tas: the modern-day mark madsen. this move, i love this.

chris paul pulling a kevin hart, yelling at deandre to just shoot just how angry he is -- why is deandre waiting? no one knows. j.e.: another nominees, jeff "skin" wade interviewing chandler parsons and dirk says, no.

i love the reactions from chandler, sort of knows it is coming. everything, it is perfect. tas: he said he should have been ready for the big german. erik spoelstra does not like mario chalmers' turnover here. where is lebron when you need

him? it makes me so mad, i am just blowing a gasket. dirk slapping skin wade's microphone to the floor. j.e.: does it go to jeff, chandler, dirk? we have the honor of having an acceptance speech from jeff

"skin" wade himself. >> thank you guys. this is a huge honor. to send me a dirk bobblehead, i do not know where i would get one of these. i want to thank my wife, my kids, world beefery, not necessarily in that order.

but i really want to thank dirk for teaching me the valuable lesson that once you have something in your hands, you hang onto it and do not let anyone take it you no matter what. >> thanks. >> he earned that.

that is good. i am going to give that to him. thank you guys for giving me that to give to him. j.e.: thank you, skin wade, with the mavericks. tas: best acceptance speech of the show. j.e.: i am dreading this next

part of the show and i will let kristen explained. kristen: as with any nba season, it is not all smiles, dunks, and wedges. every year, things disappear from our nbi lives -- nba lives forever. join us as we say goodbye to

everything we lost this season. ♪ >> ♪ so goodbye and farewell, my old friend after all these years, we finally reached the end i have kept you close, but all good things must pass and it seems we must part that

last -- at last ♪ >> ♪ goodbye and farewell to you now i know that i must take my leave somehow and there really is not all that much to say but it seems that i must leave and go away ♪

>> ♪ meemories may fade throughout the years the best of them remain and the worst ones disappear good times can never be erased nor my feelings for you ever be replaced ♪ we have finally reached the rainbow's end

though i must depart and leave for somewhere new still i always will remember you ♪ [recorder solo] ♪ it is time for the granddaddy of them all. every time a player has locked up the most valuable players

award, someone comes along with a performance to knock us back to square one. it is time to put that second-guessing to rest. here are this year's and vp nominees. stephen curry of the golden lebron james of the cleveland

cavaliers. james harden of the houston rockets. and russell westbrook of the okc thunder. and the winner is -- stephen curry. j.e.: chef curry with the m.v.p. i almost feel dirty handing out

this award before the end of the regular season. but that is how "the starters" are scheduled. we had to get our votes in. 4 of us went with steph curry. trey the only one putting his vote behind james harden. we talked about this all season

long. it feels like every second day on the show, you can make a case for one of the other guys, be westbrook it, harden, anthony davis, lebron. tas: there are a lot of things. he does not have the individual points per game that james

harden has. are we going to punish steph for not playing for the quarters because his team is too good? i think you have to credit him for that. also, what we sort of lose is steph curry changes the way the other team plays defense.

james harden does that, to a degree, but people worry about steph as soon as he crosses the midcourt line. james harden is a one-on-one player and you get ready for him that way. extra points for a guy who changes the game.

so many factors. harden has been incredible. i do not care that he has not played fourth-quarter minutes. points per possession are really close. j.e.: it is clear that no one is really superior. that is why i tried to take it

to its core and went, he is the best player on the best team, on an historic team -- i think that needs to be said, too. that is why i went with curry. the numbers are so close or all of these guys. trey: james harden has hit big shot after big shot after big

shot this season. that means something to me. he is first in clutch points and seven in assist. in the final three minutes of the game, it is on james harden to get the rockets it win. he has come through more than he hasn't.

not to discredit curry, but the fact that james harden playing fourth quarters and dominating them, i think he is the m.v.p. leigh: to me, the m.v.p. is not just someone who is good, but he makes his teammates better. that is steph curry. all those factors lead from

steph curry showing the way. he scores well, gets assists, gets everyone touches. steve kerr, we talk about the coach wants the point guard to be an extension of the coach. steph curry shoots when he is in rhythm and in the flow of the offense.

he knows it is just as important to make sure everyone else gets a touch on the ball. james harden has been incredible this season -- j.e.: westbrook, what he has done with the okc thunder -- this is what is funny about the regular-season m.v.p. award.

what happens if lebron takes the cavs to the finals and they win a title? it changes, sort of, looking back at everything. trey: it is weird to think of lebron has not the m.v.p. we all know he is the best player in the league, but he

just took two weeks off to get himself right. second half of the season, he has clearly been the best player on the floor. tas: when the best player in the game sits down for two weeks, it is kind of unprecedented. the other guys have been doing

it all year. even though steph has not been playing fourth quarters, you have to give it to the other guys -- i could not give it to lebron because he has not been the best for two weeks of the j.e.: anthony davis, this guy is going to end with an historic

player efficiency rating. he has done it all. when we get to the actual votes and people place their votes, they will look at him and go, he is going to win probably three or four of these down the line. all of these other guys that we just named, maybe i will lean

towards them because i could see a.d. winning so many be leigh: he has just got to get full a -- through a full season. kristen: the awards have been handed out, but one on her remains. a place in "the starters" top 10 plays of the year.

see who makes the list when thestarties return. j.e.: welcome back to the it is time for "the starters" top 10 plays of the year. never an easy task, whittling it down to just 10, but i think we nailed it. at number 10, it is canada versus france.

andrew wiggins on rudy gobert. maple jordan on the stifle tower. they went at it a couple of times this season. trey: that was beautiful. two feet, one dribble am a no problem. tas: at number nine, russell

westbrook goes coast-to-coast after a mate basket. he goes by every player. leigh: very generous of the other team to open up and allow him to dunk like that. j.e.: at number eight, k.j. mcdaniels says no to the you played volleyball.

kristen: that is all american volleyball status. perfect form as well. my goodness. tas: in toronto, terrence ross provided us with some serious highlights this year. trey: even he said this was the best dunk of his career.

hard to argue. tas: just coming up with dunk after don't after don't -- after dunk after dunk. leigh: i would call that a solid play if i had not already handed out the trophy. tas: at number five, wilson chandler goes by chandler

parsons and throws it down. kristen: chandler on chandler violence. tas: look how high he gets up. j.e.: derrick williams, for about a week during the season, started to get in the poster-making business. this one was crazy.

leigh: bringing the biz. tas: james ennis on ritual butler -- rasual butler. we kind of pondered, is this going to be the best dunk of the year? it got close. j.e.: we will say it was the best dunk on someone.

a spoiler for you there. j.r. smith in the garden, puts it down between the legs. wow. leigh: that is unbelievable athleticism. to catch it and throw it down rivers in the air. amazing.

tas: this is even more amazing. number one, the no looker from trevor booker. leigh: is this really a play though? at once in a lifetime highlight. j.e.: you can go with dunks, but you are going to see dunks. we never see this play.

trevor booker with the top 10 play of the season. kristen: thank you guys for having me. if you need a fifth starter, i could add some height to the roster. tas, take us home. tas: thank you for joining us on

this monument is ok -- momentous occasion and remember, you cannot finish something unless you start it first. j.e.: embrace the day, people.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

premier league tonight

premier league tonight

>> on today's show. >> before the nba announces the all-star starters, we make our picks. >> and we debate whether or not one is headed to the hall of fame. >> and hold on to your mike, we count down this mean team.

>> it's thursday, january 22nd. "the starters" starts right now. >> good day sweet world! and welcome to the start your engines!. whether you're joining us live or listening to the podcast or watching us on nba tv i'm jay

skeets and alongside me as always, -- >> talking about shrinkage. >> leigh and tray kirby and yes, we have a fun show for you tonight. we'll get to the mean team. going to talk a little bit more about shawn marion and his hall

of fame credentials, something we have talked about in the past but first tonight is the big night ads we find out who will start in the upcoming all-star game in n. combrment c. in a special one of hour edition of "inside the nba." that fun gets under way at 7:00

p.m. on tnt. but before they announce the initial starters, #nba bell. >> you guys have been doing great. we thought it would be fun if we made our picks, our "the starters" picks. we'll get to the reserves

friday or early next week. starts starts, this is where we agreed or disagrees. curry and james harden as our backcourt. sorry kobe lovers. anthony davis and the crazy statistics he's put up there despite playing on a .500 squad

and then marc gasol and the interesting one is that sort of third big. third forward, whatever you want to call it. leigh has blake griffin and tray and i going with the maybe somewhat controversial kevin durant who hasn't even played

20 games but why lamarcus aldridge? >> it came down to lamarcus because he has been the steadier presence. not the flashier guy or guy who will provide splashy dunks but he has the second best record of western conference and

without his running mate and, well blake just hasn't felt very inspired. >> doesn't seem like it. his numbers are fantastic but his play and it feels like clippers play has been a little bit uninspiring and you kind of have to punish him for that.

his punishment is coming off the bench. >> i disagree because i think you are punishing him for having lower numbers than years before. he had a stretch where he was fantastic. i know the clippers aren't

where we might think they might be but blake has been great and his assists are up as well which is probably why his scoring is down for the season and measuring him on this season alone i think he has been fantastic but comparing him to season's past.

>> just comparing him to lamarcus. numbers are similar. >> you can make a strong case for either. i went with blake because i think he has been a little bit better. >> i don't think the coaches

are going to vote two blazers off the bench in lamarcus and damian lillard. i think there is a chance they might bring blake and chris paul. >> we throw durant up on this board along with lamarcus and blake.

the numbers are really similar, of course. >> this durant case, please. 19 games, less than half. >> less than half but tray, i got a couple reasons why it should absolutely be -- >> it was going to come down to lamarcus and blake but by the

time is all-star game will have come around he will have played 30 or 33 then you won't care that he missed 20 games at the beginning of the season. he is the reigning m.v.p. and no doubt been one of the best players in the league every season.

>> i'm with you. 30 out of 53 if he plays. but you'll talk about the stats. what do we do when we pick our all-star starter? you look at crazy stats, you want to see the numbers and team success how valuable that

guy is to his team and a final one which is why i picked k.d., if you took all these stars and threw them on the play ground and said let's do a pick 'em here. who is the number one pick? who is the number two pick? the other all-stars in the

leaping wouldn't pick k.d. and lebron one, two. i know it sounds simple but i think it's a part you have to consider. >> we need to go to the school yard and pick guys off the wall. that's what should happen in

the all-star game but they are picking them next thursday and he will not have played in half his team's games and i would hate too take him off because he is last year's m.v.p. but you shouldn't take him just because he is last year's m.v.p.

february he would be a majority. >> that's fine. >> let's hear what people think, jump on twitter, #starters. let's hear your picks. let's go to the east because we disagree on a couple there as

well. couple we agree on. pau gasol is our big, big center. lebron james, hey, he's missed games. >> not as many as durant. >> of course. and then we disagree on a whole

lot here. so we see there as the and i have kyle lowry. jay and leigh have jeff teague. i'll make a case for jimmy butler. trey and myself like millsap and you're going with vucevic. let's start with the guards.

tas, kyle lowry? >> he leads the best of the eastern conference. all this talk about the atlanta hawks and what they are doing, they are not as good as the toronto raptors, so jeff teague runs an inferior offense with a lot better parts.

but the raptors have inferior parts around kyle lowry. kyle carries this team on his back. kyle lowry, game in, game out has done it and brought his team to a level of yes, jeff teague has been great but kyle lowry has just done more.

>> shooting 35% from the field in january, 3 1/2 turnovers per game. jeff teeing has just been mr. steady the whole time. i think he is there just because he stirs that delinquent hiccup and that's a drink we're all drinking right

he has just been amazing. he is third in the east among guards and i like that he has stuck out for a team where guards have stuck out. >> i think their offense isn't as good as the raptors so you have to give lowry lots of points for that, right?

>> well, the result it's of the hawks is better than the raptors. >> well, the raptors defense is also very, very -- >> so what do you want? five atlanta hawks? >>i think jeff teague is a little bit like tony parker but

his role isn't to play like that. he often defers to other guys and it's number of doubt when you think of his coach in coach "budweiser hot seat." he zwsh in coach bud plays like that. >> you take wall or butler, any

of these guys are very deserving. again, i go with jimmy butler, but why john wall? you all seem to be onboard with is that an easy pick to you? >> yes. jimmy b. has dropped off a little bit and he has an

incredible supporting cast better than i think john wall's who hasn't had his guys for an incredible season i just feel like john wall has done more and -- >> he is talents one in the double figures and leading the league in everything.

>> he leads the league in minutes too. derrick rose in and out of the team, he -- in and out of the lineup. he's tcheard triple-team. >> but he is a shooting guard that can't shoot. 32% from three-point land is a

number but shooting guard by definition, you have to shoot the ball better. >> i think he has been so solid for them let's not forget that he is all-world defense as and i know in the all-star game no one really cares about that but i want to clearly get to

the vucevic. try and sell me on why you are going vucevic. >> two of them are definitely going to the all-star game. demarcus cousins is probably another who would be there but vucevic has been the one constant on an inconsistent

team. he has just been a solid rock for them. he may not be the best defender. >> no, he is not. >> but if you compare him to paul millsap, he is a better defender than paul millsap.

>> no. >> statistically he is. >> but millsap has defenders around him and vucevic doesn't. >> i don't know how you sold me on jeff teague but then vucevic? >> i think millsap has been better for the team than --

>> "the starters" more next. maybe we'll just talk more >> welcome back to "the starters." every thursday we scattered shower the internet to brisk you mean team. weird and whacky moments from the past few days.

it's a tough job but someone's got do it. >> at number five see how rajon rondo stays where he stays. ooh. right off marc gasol's. >> i thought you said there would be no deflated balls. at number four will ferrell

made an appearance to shoot a scene for a new movie. looks like a good scene because he just pegs a cheerleader while pretending to do a half court shot and it is -- she is ok! it's all acting. they are really good at this.

but he was for the movie escorted out. can't wait to see "daddy's out" with mark wahlberg and will ferrell. >> very painful. didn't clear the first guy. forget about guys three, four and five.

stephon marbury loved it! >> more deflated balls. >> at number two, dirk's never been known to be a shot blocker. but would defend the heck out of a postgame interview. knocking the mike out of a -- >> the underrated part is

definitely chandler looking legit angry at just deflated -- oh, my god! >> the word of the week is execute. >> did a good job execution. had eight assists in the first quarter. what did you see from them

defensively? >> we did a good job executing. >> are you upset with something? >> i just don't like you. >> you don't? >> you do not like nick either? >> i love nick. but i don't like you.

>> we executing. we executing. we, cuting. anymore questions? i don't like you. just two other really quick things here, russ, how was the execution tonight? [laughter]

>> you see who -- and the second thing is -- want to play with this guy? >> and the second thing is do you like us? >> you guys are good. you guys are good. >> two things. people don't like ernie

johnson. they love ernie johnson. >> greatest ever. >> and speaking of the greatest. you don't tell me that we don't have the best league in the sport to cover? >> that was good.

good meme team. we had a wedgey, another wedgey. this was crazy. >> and the big name players are getting into it. anthony davis the phenomenon has spread to the great wedging it in there like the hair is

wedged in between his eyebrows. kidding, anthony. i was one as well. that's another wedgey. anthony davis. got to update that board. >> got an all-star wedgey? >> i like tas' idea. we've got to stop doing the d's

without a weagey and just start tallying the wedgeys because we have to be around 30. >> good stuff. >> all-star wedgey. i love it. all right. let's unleash the unicorn. get on out here today's fantasy

minute presented by fan dual. and it's a low boy. we're talking low boy. fantasy lines of the night. poll apologies to anthony davis and nicolas batum who had low lines but a big win for the suns. 11-22 shooting.

15 at the line. 1-2 made. three steals. >> career high 33. kind of surprising. >> at number two, andre drummond. big man. killing vucevic unfortunately

there. 26 points, 10-14 shooting. 6-8 at the line. 17 rebounds. one assist. and the defense, four blocks, but the low boy goes to brandon jennings. 24 points, 10-21 shooting, 3-5

from the line and one three-pointer made and there's a reason why. 21 assists, only two turnovers. >> that's great. 24-21? he is joining only john stockton and magic johnson in that 20-20 club of 35 minutes

or less. >> so you're saying hall of fame? >> when you're joining a list with john stockton and magic johnson, you're getting a low boy. >> we've got to take a break. when we return, the matrix

plans to retire at the end of the season. so we're going to debate his hall of fame credentials. we're coming back. "the starters." shawn marion is making his 16th nba season his final one. and he says he will retire at

the end of this season. i wanted to go out on my terms he told the republic yesterday afternoon saying being away from his first child is sort of the driving decision. he spent the first 8 1/2 seasons in phoenix after being drafted by the suns and had

short snivents meme and toronto and now on to the cavs. it's something we debated and discussed back in the summer. is shawn marion a hall of famer? does he have the credentials? >> well, he was never leading scorer on a winning team but he

leads all other categories. need a guy to d-up one through five? no problem. don't see but four-time all nba all-star and two-time all nba player and champ with the mavs but different make the all defense teams because he didn't

get credit for making it with the suns but i think he was a great defender, could rebound a ton. he could be a third noppings terms of scoring as well. if you're a coach i think you consider this guy a hall of famer.

he could do everything and when your guys get denied, this guy could score for you. >> i think there's a lot of room in the hall of fame for quintessential guys, he is a top 75 guy all time in the nba. i don't know how you say no to >> you said it tas you put guys

in the hall of fame that were just scorers. and that's fine and but shawn marion is sort of this exact opposite. he just filled the box score in every other column. it's a weird one. i think young fans are sort of

like shawn marion? but if you saw him back with the suns and the way they played the suns seven seconds marion just as much as nash or amar'e was a huge reason they could play that way. >> absolutely. and for someone who never had a

play called for him, he scored t ball in so many ways just by getting out and running and understanding his role playing with steve nash but also if you look at the cleveland cavaliers, they are in championship mode but the guy they wanted on their defense

was shawn marion. still a guy that they wanted to get on to help them win the championship and maybe they will. who knows? >> they will argue because shawn marion playing in seven seconds or less, his numbers

were inflated. but still incredible scoring between 17 and 21 points four straight years with double digit box scores. >> and he put up numbers too when stephon marbury was with the team and just had continued success throughout his career

and that's why he is posting those numbers. >> and doesn't hurt that he pick up a ring and was a winner with the 2011 mavericks. that helps when you're weighing guys and whether or not they should get in. does he have a ring?

is he a winner? went through a couple conference finals then got a ring. >> played a lot of games and minutes and any team he went to he always tried hard. you never saw this guy tanking or moping on the bench.

when he was in toronto he still played as hard as he could and then went to dallas and wound up winning a ring. >> remember going to him in the post because he had a matchup that worked for them. >> which is strange. that's crazy.

>> that he had a matchup in the post? >> well, he could just put it in. it was ugly. he was 81% from the free-throw line. >> i won't be surprised though if people disagree with us.

on twitter do you think the matrix is a hall of famer? let us know, #starters. when we return, pick 'em results and tas is back in the race. last night a very solid player. >> back with the start your engines! and you're back with

the pick-up payoff race. cude's. last night huge. i went 2-3, tas is right back in it. i'm two games up for the month of january. tonight's picks we agree the spurs on the road in chicago

then the bucks, blazers and clippers at home. so good luck to you. a little reminder once again, tonight before we get under way with the double-header. tnt at 7:00 p.m. eastern time the nba all-star starters will be announced.

look foorpped finding out who is in there and then we will get to the games. late-breaking news, lakers tweeting and letting us know that kobe bryant last night against the pelicans preliminary results showing that he tore his rotator cuff,

and he did it there. because you will see him grab his right arm there on the dunk and went on to play and was shooting with his left hand. >> did make one. >> the lakers are saying kobe will be flown back to l.a. and re-examined on friday.

keep an eye on nba tv and nba.com. >> in the all-star game playing with one arm? >> tristan thompson switched? that would be ok? >> before we get to the solid play until we have a sign. >> it comes from penalty kill a

in manila who is the biggest suns fan outside so says think my son's -- my suns chance have a chance to win. at the bottom, p.s., i love you mr. skeets. >> aw, you're making me feel old. >> you're making feel old.

that's my father. leigh, solid play? >> going to the fort tres and it's not the traditional lay-up. don't rotate off anyone other than kyle korver because that's what he is going to do to you. always want to get to the guy

that's open but oh, my gosh, look at how much room he's got. >> he did rattle it home but still a very sol play. >> guys, tomorrow, friday, the drop podcast our hour-long podcast on itunes. we will be back tomorrow night with the talk about the

all-stars. >> and remember, you can find beauty in anything even blowing your nose can create a butterfly. >> embrace the day, people. [captioning made possible by nba digital]

premier league team

premier league team

you can keep your head when allabout you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself whenall men doubt you and make allowances for theirdoubting too; if you can dream and notmake dreams your master, if you can think and notmake thoughts your aim, if you can meet with triumphand disaster and treat those two imposters just the same; if you can walk with crowds andkeep your virtue, or walk with

kings nor lose yourcommon touch, if neither foes nor lovingfriends can hurt you, if all men count on you,but not too much; if you can fill the unforgivingminute with 60 seconds worth of distance run, then yours is theearth and everything in it, and-- which is more--you'll be a man, my son! hello, everybody, and welcometo mumbai where we have got a full house in a chucker blockhere at the dy patil stadium in navi mumbai, and we are setfor an absolute beauty.

have a look at that. they are crammed in. some 55,000, some are sayingeven 60,000 people are here tonight to witness this hugematch, and a huge match it is. it's 60 games. that's the 60th game we'replaying tonight, and it has been amazing, this ipl 2010. there's been some terrificmatches and outstanding performances, and that's whythey are here at the moment

to watch and witnesswhat's going to unfold. it is going to be dramatic,there's no doubt, as the game between the mumbai indians andalso the chennai super kings. it is the final, andwe all expect this. let's go and join ravishastri at the toss. we're coming up to tosstime for one final time in this year's ipl. as always, we'll have a chatwith the two captains. out in the center, sachintendulkar and m.s.

dhoni. i have to ask you:how's that finger? good to see you out here. it's fair. i'm excited to play. i'm looking forwardto this game. fantastic! a large crowd. expect it at the toss.

yes, and are theboys up for it? big one, first timein the final. yes, we are excited to be here. this is where we wanted to be. now the moment has come. we look forward to it andhope we have a good game. good atmosphere, goodpitch, all the makings of a cracking contest. absolutely!

we could look fantastic. the stadium is superb, and theteam has played well so far so we look forward to producingsome good cricket. yes, we'll have a chat withsachin in a little while. sunil gavaskar is with m.s. thank you, ravi. i've got the oh so coolmahendra singh dhoni with me. mahe, tell me honestly, alittle bit of puck-duck here? a little bit butterflies there?

well, of course. it's a big occasion tonightto be in the finals. tradition back home in indiait's for the respect, but i think more than the game,there was more pressure from the friends. they needed more passes thananything else so i never felt so much pressure before, but ihope it will be an exciting game because it'sa very good sign. and you've come to the finalsthe hard way, the last league

game and then the semifinalsdefending a small total. that must make youfeel really good. that may help us because we aremore used to playing in a knockout situation because thelast game that we played against kings xi punjab. that was a game wherewe had to win. that was a close game, andfrom that point on, i think we are doing quite well. the bowlers have takenup the responsibility.

the backs are not doingdefensively well so we will be quite happy to win this, but itwill be a tough competition. let's go and see what yourluck with the toss is. thank you for listeningto our [? unix ?] [?___catch___of___the___day___?] over the course of the season. the dlf ipl is committed togoing greener with you. it's coming up to toss time. before that: namaskar mumbai!

are you ready to rockone final time? it's the toss. lalit modi, chiefcommissioner, ipl; m.s. dhoni, captain chennai superkings; sachin tendulkar, captain, mumbai indians,and the match referee, s. venkataraghavan. lalit modi will spin the coin. [coin toss] heads.

heads, and who called heads? [chennai wins the toss] well, m.s., you won the toss. what have you decided? we'll bat first. that has been our sense againto look to put a decent amount of runs on the board and thebowlers have done defensively well to defend it inthe last two games. you've been herebefore in a final.

finished on the losingside, but you can correct things tonight. well, of course, we can, but,you know, it's not only about winning or losing. i think after this gametonight, there will be just one winner. i don't think it will bethe mumbai indians or the chennai super kings. i think it will becricket because of

[? arthur mcmoskvia ?]. it can't really get better thanthis, but feel it raises the bar every year and comes upwith to something better. now, you're batting first. what do you makeof this pitcher? better than the onein the semi-final? do you think a little harder? well, of course it is,and they've taken a bit of grass off.

but still i think, you know,mumbai, we can assist the bowler a bit initially withthe new to cover a ball. so to respect the bowlersinitially, just look to cash in on the loose deliveries then ifyou have the catch, then you go after the bowlers and lookto get on a big score. 160? 170? good score in the final? i wouldn't be disappointed toget that, but as i said, you

know i see the start and thenwe'll look to set the target. and your team? we're playing the same squad. have a good one, m.s. this is the final. thank you. well, both teams that playedthe semi-finals, both that batted first won the game. are you a bit nervous now?

i think eventually we have togo out and play good cricket. that's what we're here for. it really doesn't matterwhether we bat first or bowl first. at the end of the day, we willhave to play good cricket and that will be satisfying. any changes in your teamfrom the semi-finals? no, we have stuckto the same form. and i won't shake hands withyou, but how's the hand?

hand is fine. i've still got somestitches on my hand. it's manageable, so i'm goingto go out and give my best. and the first finals? yes, it's most definitelyour first finals. this is what you've worked hardfor, and now that the moment has come, it's timeto give our best. all the very best to you. well, there you go.

the news from pitside here innavi mumbai is that the chennai super kings have won the tossin the final, and they have decided to first. there is no blood-- or nodoubt, i should say, it is first blood to thechennai super kings. it is a magnificent atmosphereat this ground as we look at the mumbai indians team. i've got sunil gavaskaralongside me. suni, take us throughthat lineup.

they're unchanged, but gee,there's some good players there, and an importantone at number 2. good evening, everybody. yes, i think this isa very good side. it's an unchanged sidefrom the semi-finals. they've got ambati rayudu,duminy, in very good form, as also saurabh tiwali, and kieronpollard coming towards the end and smashing it away. so if they get a start, thenthey could be in business.

well, it's the chennai superkings who are going to be batting first, and matthewhayden is in that lineup, and he's missed out in just aboutevery game except the first one so it's animportant one for him. suresh raina has been aterrific player for this team, and dhoni is, of course, theexplosive batsman in the middle, along with albiemorkel, who's had a bit of an indifferent trip. but what is great to see aboutboth of these teams is they're

both nice and settled, and theyare unchanged for the big final. what a game thisis going to be. match number 60 of the 2010ipl3, and it is in front of full house here in navi mumbai. it's going to be a clashbetween the blue team playing at home who have been supremeso far but relatively untested versus an explosive yellowoutfit who have rediscovered belief in the manner inwhich they have scrapped

to reach the final. what an occasion, suni. yes, and it's hard tounderstand at the moment the total silence, the silencein anticipation of the first ball being bowled. now, the cheers have started. batsmen, are you ready? batsman on stump. captains, are you ok?

simon, you are ready, mate? scorers. gentlemen, let's playthe finals of ipl3. [match play begins] thank you, rudi. here we go. the first order of the final. spin has been employedright at the start. harbhajan singh is going to bebowling the first delivery.

we have an insistent tacticfrom sachin tendulkar. here we go! on the button straight away ashe has been through most this tournament, harbhajan singh. experienced, ofcourse, is harbhajan. loves playing in pressuresituations as well, and i would suggest that the main reasonthat he is opening the bowling because hayden isabout to face. yes, i think most teams haveseen that hayden likes the

ball to come onto the backfrom the cricket bowlers. he's not been in the best oftouch, but if he comes good here today, then the chennaisuper kings should be guaranteed a pretty big total. last four scores: 0, 1 5, 8. murali vijay, look atthat strike rate. best of 127. that was remarkable knock. he's played superbly.

matthew hayden is a very,very proud cricketer. he's been spending a great dealof time at the net and will be extremely determined today. just a bit of pressure fromthe boys from mumbai. what harbhajan has been tryingto do is he fires on the quickability, the one thatchastens to the left hand of bowling around the wicket hasgot a fair chance of getting a leg leg to ball position. you can see that becausehayden plays with bat

and pad close together. he'll be stuck outside theline of the old stumps so no question of beinggiven out lbw. it's going to be veryinteresting to watch the track tonight. the track certainly wasn't82 and out last night. again, nice shot, but againthey're optimistic, but again, they're building pressure. yes, i think apart file fromthe lbw shouts, he got

called, so that's notgonna keep hayden happy. just a little bit of turn. well, this is the first appeala couple of deliveries ago. what hayden and a lot of theaustralians have done against indian spinners is they don'ttake guard on leg stump. they take guard on the offstump, which in a way neutralizes a lot ofthe indian spinners. slight flow change. a man at deepbackwards square leg.

that's why, because the linewas just a little bit straighter, anticipatinghayden's going to pull out that big sweep of his. chuck right off the mark now. there's sachin with the orangecap, but also with five stitches in the right hand. great to see him on board. yes, i think it's going to takesomething for him to bat. hopefully, at this stage duringthe 20 overs that they're

fielding, not too manyballs come his way. that's away. just in front of squareon the offside. the outfield is pretty quick. it's hot in mumbai. it's a [? freeze up ?] and they do well. a bit of tag team workand certainly save one if not two runs.

good stop. [unintelligible] for their loss. [commercial break] we see the umpires arejust having a bit of a quick look at this. what we need to do with the tvumpires these days i think is to make sure it'svery, very quick. we've had one replaythat showed clearly.

that was the first,and that's fine. no dramas. ravi is there as raviis the third umpire. so it's a good start forthe mumbai indians. just the four runsof the first over. the third umpire, s. ravi, wanted to have a lookat that last ball of that over, but that was fine. only credited two runs.

good fielding, too. and now they've got to face theman that i think is the best quick bowler in the ipl. i think his series hasbeen outstanding. he's very handy at the top,but he's deadly at the deck. operating with oneslip, malinga. what matthew hayden seems to bedoing at the moment is giving roll to the strike to muralivijay, who is the man in form. he's in good touch.

so no ego there formatthew hayden. quite happy to push theball and go to the sounds nonstriker then. he's on targetagain is malinga. the major stat we talked aboutthe other night that 17 of malinga's 33 wickets in iplhistory have been bowled. 8 out of 15 in this ipl. that's a great return. terrific return.

just goes to showhow accurate he is. he's used the yorker tovery, very good effect. he's been very deadlywith that accuracy. and then of course, he's gotthat flow of delivery as well. in the air for awhile. take the single. there's generally three legsthat the ball is bowled in twenty20 cricket these days. it's the bouncer length,the yorker and just

short of a length. however, in the first five orsix overs, the bowlers do want to take advantage of the newball and try and get a bit of swing. malinga is not a bigswinger of the ball. of course, he darts theball in, fades it in. towards the end of an inning,it really seems to get away from a right-hander, but thatlength will be a little bit fuller at the start to try andget a little bit of movement

somewhere off the deck,perhaps, or through the air if they can. and he generally is verygood as far as his line is concerned. he will bowl the opposite lineto the right-hander, and then when the left-hander comes in,he's pretty quick to adjust that line. a lot of bowlers take time toget used to the difference between a right-hander takingstrike and a left-hander taking

strike, but malinga seems tobe a little bit better than everybody else. a quick look at the mrf blimp,most evident at the forefront of technology and the firstto bring the blimp to india. malinga again charging in. again, bang on that target. hayden has been sent back. shy of the stumps. that's what the players dothese days in twenty20 cricket.

they tend to throw at thestumps when they feel they've got a chance and just trustthat someone else is backing up. or this time, it was thewicketkeeper ambati rayudu who did very well to makesure that he was there to cover the throw. you don't want to concedeextra runs at this stage. they do so many drills,the ipl teams. is generally very, very good.

the ground squad,in particular. we need to watch thecatchers today. there's no doubt in mymind super kings are a better fielding unit. a little bit moreflight that time. two good overs tostart with, suni. yes. seven [? finolas ?] at the end of two oversis a very good start

by the mumbai indians. and harbhajan singh continuesfor yet another look. it'll be interestingto see when tendulkar will bring him back. quite clearly he's keepinggoing until hayden's at the crease. sachin out of the slipcordon, of course, or first likely that-- oh! that sort of bat!

a little bit quicker that timefrom harbhajan, but on fire! rudi koertzen at thebusiness end is unmoved. a couple of the boys werequite excited about that one. well, he stands on the offstump, so when he plays forward, invariably the ball isstriking him outside the line of the off stump, but thiscould have been a lot closer because the front footdidn't move at all. oh, it would have beena leg and middle. mr. koertzen.

yeah, that's a luckybreak, that's for sure. lucky for hayden, that is. there's anotherbit shot as well. what does he do this time? he walks away. so again, not interested. well, this is very goodbowling by harbhajan. not getting much turn. this one's probablya little bit high.

don't forget, matthewhayden is a tall man. the ball would've gone over thetop of the stump, which is exactly what hawk-eyeis telling us. terrific bowlingfrom harbhajan. down the track. good connection from matthewhayden and that has gone for six runs. i'd say dlf maximum. well, it's just going tobe matter of time before

hayden came down to pitch. he was just waiting for theball to be angled at him on his pads because there is a longball, but the mid-on is in the 30 yard circle so he wasn'tgoing to go with the turn, but he was going to goagainst the turn. not that there'smuch turn so far. very good strike, that. yeah, that's going to dohim a world of good. he's had a bit of luck.

we've seen that earlymissed over and now he's capitalized with a six. so seven off this over. first two overs only wentfor six runs themselves. he's too far forward now forthere to be any concern. even the appeal was muted. he's using his feet very well. not the type to allow thebat bowler to dominate. he wants to dominatethe bowler.

he's moving outside the circle. a long off to hayden andalso a deep backward square on the leg side. slight fill changenow from sachin. he's marching the troopsfrom 45 on the leg side. we see that right handis heavily plastered. he made the comment to meetthat if he thought he had a control at bat, it madesense he must play. oh, he's kicked thataway, is hayden.

if he hadn't, it wouldhave been wide. 13 to none. zaheer khan. into the attack, justthe one from malinga. oh, a bit of hesitation. ok. he's a big man, ishayden, but he got back. an apology there. it's got to be very, verytough to hear the calls.

yes, i think he was just tryingto tap the ball and run, but he hit it a little too hard, sohis initial instinct was to go for the run and that's whathayden was responding to. he's had a slap at that, andthat's right out of the screws, and that's gone for six rounds. that is a remarkable shot. that's the shot ofa man in form. wasn't a bad delivery at all. it was a leg ball, and yes,that's when they're looking for

leg balls so that they can playthe cross batter chop, but this was excellently executed. just waited for it. he's been hitting thatshot really well. that's vijay's 25th sixin this tournament, and that was a beauty. so suddenly, they've just uppedthis run a little bit in the last couple of overs. they need to, of course, but inthis game, as a batsman, you do

have more time than you think. some batsmen make themistake of teeing off right from ball one. you can just absorb a couple ofovers because you're always going to catch up if you're agood striker, which these two guys are. just back of a leg nowfrom zaheer khan. suni, what about sachin's hand? it's been a huge talkingpoint, of course.

how tough's that gonnabe for him to bat? well, it's not going to be easyfor him, that's for sure. he'll have to do somethingabout the gloves as well, because the way it's beenstitched together, the second and the third finger, it won'tbe easy for him to even wear his glove so they'll have toslit open the glove as well and make a special pair of glovesfor him so that he's able to get the feeling, because ifthey use the regular glove and cut it open, the fingers willsort of swim inside it.

the gap will be a huge gap. he must've had a painkiller. it's his right hand. it's his bottom hand, whichis the key hand for sachin. halfway through,seven off so far. not quite halfway through. what about that, suni, thefact that it's his right hand and his batting technique? well, i think he'll beall right because he's

got very good hands. although the bottom hand is theone that he uses to punch the ball through the covers, it'sthe length that chennai super kings bowl that is goingto be interesting. i'm sure that would've talkedabout it, that in case he plays, what's thelength that you bowl. if they pitch it up to him, idon't think he's going to be having too many problems. it's when the ball is shot,where the bottom hand will come

into play, that is where it'sgoing to be crucial, whether those stitches are goingto hamper him or not. nicely bowled by zaheer. commercial break] murali vijay's got 12runs now, half of them courtesy of one shot. he knew it was gone. this has been a very goodcomeback by zaheer. two duck calls and asingle after that six.

over a record, by the way,these teams that played six, mumbai indians have wonthree, chennai super kings have also won three. 2008 chennai super kingswere in the final. mumbai indians haven'tbeen there before. there is no doubt, absolutelyno doubt that nerves will play a part. it's an unbelievable crowd. jam-packed here in mumbai.

somewhere around about 26degrees, i would suggest. humidity's quite high, butconditions are pretty pleasant for playing. there's a big shotfrom zaheer khan. is the finger going to go up? and it's a shake of the ofthe head from simon taufel. twenty for their loss. [foreign___language___commercial] four overs gone.

twenty from their loss. home crowd advantage, nodoubt, to the mumbai indians. sachin is switchingthe bowling around. harbhajan singh is out ofthe attack and lasith malinga is back in. lovely punch. the outfield will be quick. that's gonna go for four. it wasn't too far away fromthat finger at short extra

cover so [? denton's ?] got the right idea. he knows that murali vijaylikes to play the ball on the up, and he's hit it a littlebit up in the air there. it wasn't too far awayfrom that feeler at short extra cover. had a bit of [? ricky ?] pointing about it, tome, that one, suni. beautifully positioned.

i'm quite interested towatch the reactions of the players today. this is last bowl, theprevious over the other shot. zaheer khan is up in a big way. i thought it hit him about theknee roll, and looking at how tall matthew hayden is, itwasn't surprising that simon taufel ruled in favorof the batsman. i mentioned i'm interestedto watch some of the player's faces.

it's a big game, and justsee how tense they are. malinga, the bounder ofthe first bowl, had a bit of a smile on his face. super kings are very relaxed. they've got dhoni as captain. they've got stephenfleming as coach. very relaxed team and they cameout to the warmups quite late tonight, which is the waythey've been doing it throughout thewhole tournament.

mumbai indians were outvery early indeed. my sense is the mumbai indianswill be a little bit tenser. quick single. it'll have to be quick. sachin tries. would've been ok in the end. of course, we had the closingceremony before this final got underway earlier tonight. it was absolutely spectacular.

lasers all over the place,hovercrafts, bands, dancing girls, performers. it really was magnificent. some very well-knownindian artists on stage and entertaining. massive stars in thispart of the world. and that's a.r. rahman singing jai hoand mata jai salam, wonderful songs both.

malinga again. yeah, the crowd certainlycame alive when he sang jai ho, that's for sure. really livenedproceedings up here. just a little drive on the up. and that's a huge one. out of the stadium. it's still traveling. that is beautifully played.

now you can't feedmatthew hayden too many balls in the air. we know that's where he feeds. a smile again from malinga. if he gets too many ofthose, he could well be off and running. he's had some good luck so far. yes, i think he's smilingbecause he knows that he shouldn't havebowled that ball.

he shouldn't have givenmatthew hayden that wick. he shouldn't have givenhim that short length. the previous ball, he had hitit straight to that fielder that covered one this time. still would've asked for himto miss out on the second occasion, matthew hayden. so nine runs off this overand one more remaining now in the fifth. short bowl, allowedto go through.

that's where it stays. 29 for their loss. another bowler change asdilhara fernando has been brought into the attack. a change in voice as well. suni and myself willtake a breather. coming into the box now it'sgoing to be robin jackman and lexman sivaramakrishnan. thank you, mike.

let's call them wide. looking to give thecharge, murali vijay. with hara looking for theshort delivery, scored one for the over. just beyond height. way over his head. it's been a nervousstart, hasn't it? not so much from the bowlers,but certainly from the batsmen. they're feeling their way.

amazing how differenta final makes it all. let's go down to pomi mbangwa. thanks very much, siva. well, first of all, letme tell you about the atmosphere down here. in the final, you'd expect thata stadium would be packed, and i've been looking around,actually, and trying to find some empty seats. absolutely none whatsoever.

then there's what the guysare actually playing for, an array of trophies here. there's three of them, andi'll start at this end. this one here is called the dlfgolden player award, and that's for the player ofthe tournament. i'll skip over to the otherend, actually, before i get to the big one. that's the citi under-23success of the league. so a young indian playerwill win that one.

we'll get to see and hearwho it is after this game. then this one here. the chennai super kings havebeen in the final before. i think it was one runthey lost by, accident, in that final. the very first went tothe rajasthan royals. the mumbai indians have none. it's their chance after thedeccan chargers to try and get onto that littlespace right there.

who will it be? well, tensions are high, but itstarted quite nicely and i'll say it's in the balance. let's wait and see. back up to you guys in the box. thanks, pomi. he's got to lookfor the singles. better than gettingstuck at one end. murali vijay is in good formand likes playing big shots.

he'll be cautious, robin,against dilhara fernando, who has a good slow delivery. yeah, certainly, and dilharafernando is a bit of a success story in this year's ipl. we all know what agood bowler he is. we've seen around for years insri lanka, but he didn't get a game for a long, long time,until, in fact, i think it was his teammate malinga that wentback for the sri lankan new year.

oh, that's a big hit,that's a big hit. is it going to gothe whole way? it nearly hit the spidercamera and it has gone for a dlf maximum six. well, of course, it's a fewdollars, a few thousand dollars for the spider cam. got into a good position,bringing it from way outside of the line of off side, hittingthe true end of the bat. and the bats are so goodthese days, even that went

outside the boundary line. the ball does hitthe spider cam. it will be a dead ball. it has to be bowled again. was [? sensible. ?] the last ball, offthe [? partly. ?] this man is 39 so far,hasn't lost a wicket. malinga, 40 for their loss. well, the six over is bowled.

40 for their loss. see, you can't spread out now. just the four meninside the ring. well, we have confirmation ofthe three teams making it to the champion's league. of course, the two teams here,the mumbai indians, chennai super kings, and also their oldchallengers bangla, and it will be in robin jackman'scountry, south africa. well, that's tremendousnews for south africa.

of course, the ipl wasplayed there at the last minute last year. it all went pretty well so nodoubt that's helped greatly. seeing bowlers today, remembersome are left-handed, some are right, so that's why you seesome balls pitching outside leg stump to right-handed batsmen,which would be angling across them. of course, you've got aright and left-handed batsman, too, so you wouldn't seeanother pitch match when you got, say a glen mcgrath or saunpollock or whatever bowling

to a right-hander. you would expect all the ballsto be just on an outside view off stump in a grouping,somewhere around about a good length for thatparticular player. partnership building up. the mrf blimp. you find these in motor sports. they also have a pacefoundation in chennai, dennis lillee being the director.

it's been a good overfrom zaheer khan. just the three runs off of it. look to finish it well. looking now to the thirdman, flirting with danger. still some good pace and bouncein this pitch and it's been played on a lot during the ipl. remember, both semi-finals werealso played here because of the problems in bangalore andall in the last week. so this is the fourth game andthere are two pitches that

they've used, i know, but endof an indian cricket season, you'd expect them to geta little bit tired, so congratulations to the curatorhere, he's still kept some pace and bounce in here. batters with 43 or 42deliveries, the highest opening partnership versus mumbai forthe chennai super kings. another single taken. rudi, it's robin jackman here. can you hear me?

yeah, jack, i can. tell me, just describethe atmosphere. it is any different toother games because of its effects as a final? no, it's a bit better tonightthan-- i'll tell you, it's very noisy and loud outhere, but it's the final. what do you expect from it? that's a high go. there's a man underneath it.

there's a man underneathit, and he's hung onto it. it's the end of vijay andthe first karbonn kamal catch of the night. it was a very good catch. it was in the air fora long, long time. murali vijay wanted to play thebig shots, made 26 of 98, got the elevation butnot the distance. mildly slow throughthe air at 121 k's. a change of pace doing thetrick, and a very good catch in

the end, and a single momentof success dilhara fernando. murali vijay, theman dismissed. new man in thatis in good form. was in the air fora long, long time. saurabh tiwali, a young man,kept his eyes on the ball, comfortable catch in the end. he could be one of thecontenders for citi under-23 same success for thetournament, saurabh tiwali. rudi, check us again.

yeah, man. just talking about the noise,does that make it difficult for you to hear edgesand things like that? mix? i tell you, we haven'tgot much of a chance. sometimes you just get that gutfeeling, you look at the body language of the batter, andmaybe trust the wicket keeper, if you can. i've got one more questionfor you after this ball's

bowled if nothing happens. nothing has happened except arare leave in t20 cricket. well, if that's the case,wouldn't it not be a good idea for you to be wired to thestump mike at the other end of the pitch? yeah, we did it in i think itwas 2003 during the champion's league, and simon and myselfwere doing the game against pakistan and india,and it similar. much more on the ground, butthe noise was [unintelligible]

and both of us admittedthat it did help. ok, well, maybe that'ssomething umpires enjoy, especially in thissort of atmosphere. it's difficult to describeit, isn't it, rudi, just how noisy it is? well, nobody will understandhow it is unless you come and umpire in the middle. then you can get the feelingwhat it's like, mate. well, enjoy it.

when are you off home? i'm not going home. i'm off to the west indiestomorrow and get to guyana on friday for my firstgame on saturday. no peace to theworker there, rudes. no, man, no. the grass must grow, man. thanks for the chat. it's a very good over.

44 for 1. this is suresh raina. that was the number threechange in bowling. kieron pollard. kind of looked quite nicethere and then forget to let go of it. i reckon what happened, he justsuddenly realized he had his runner just a little bitwrong and he was in danger of bowling a no ball.

he did well to bail out. it's off the mark. suresh raina has been in topform, eligible for a maximum time out after [? zuba ?]. matt hayden batting on 16, butit's taken him 29 deliveries. he's got to make up for that. the strike rate for haydenat the moment is 55. dilip doshi on the right,dilip vengsarkar on the left. good work by sachintendulkar, shot by leg.

also throwing withthe left hand. interesting. he's positioned himselfvery cleverly. he went halfway through theeighth over, and it's the first time he has fielded the ball. he's worked his way intoplaces where he's hoping the ball won't go that often. that's how he split the webin between his fingers. thought he caught it aswell, and it got overruled.

oh, this might be out. it's going straight up. wicket keeper's underneath it. second wicket falls. it's another karbonnkamal catch. and again, the slow deliveryworking for fernando. high and 7k is the lastdelivery and matthew hayden's stay comes to an end. it's been a bit of astruggle to say the least.

looking to break the shackles,was into the short a little too early, and he knew it was gone. it's another karbonn kamalcatch by ambati rayudu. matthew hayden isthe man dismissed. he's 47 for 2. [return to match play] well, they'll be very happy,mumbai indians owner, mr. mukesh ambani, there alongwith the supporters. badrinath has been in very goodform, made a contribution of 57

in the last game inthe semifinals. he'll know how thispitch behaves. hayden, after battling awayfor 31 balls, eventually comes across the line. i think it was a changein pace that's done him just a little bit. went straight up,went pretty high. two good catches here. you know they look verystraightforward, but when the

ball gets that high in the sky,personally, one, it tends to sort of come down a bit quickerthan you think it's going to, will roll around toboth the catchers. now, super kings, just in alittle bit of trouble here. they're not ahead in termsof the normal situation in this form of the game. in run rate, they're only goingalong at five and a half, under five and a half and over. they're 48 for 2 in maybesix overs or five overs,

so that will be different. hit off the mark straightaway, badrinath. niner was bowled. it's 49 for 2. it's time for themax mumbai timeout. i guess they possibly put ascore in the locker of around about 160, they'd becomfortable with from here. so we're coming out ofthe max mumbai timeout. and changing bowlingstraight away.

that's harbhajan singhinto the attack. was dealt two overs. number 11. one close call againstmatthew hayden. still a good movefrom tendulkar. two men new at the crease,kept his finger on. both batsmen are good enough toplay the fast bowlers when they come out with the ball comingoff of the bat a lot better. well, good throw.

could have been tight. is spidercam a goodaddition to the coverage? 85% say yes. i don't know who the 15% are. i think it's fantastic. who wouldn't think it'sabsolutely brilliant? here we are. that's rupert on the right,jason in the middle there. there's three people involvedin the operation at spidercam.

they're down by theboundary edge. and i'm told they're allknown as [unintelligible]. i'll leave that bit with you. i'm sure you'll work it out. and thomas on the left. turning out to beanother good over. there's harbhajan singh,just the forward end of it. it's the slowest team50 in an ipl final. very good hit.

the three fielders on thedeep, deep square leg, deep [unintelligible] and long on. but the placement was extremelygood from badrinath. very good cricket. normal cricket. no slogging there. down a wicket to the offspinner, and [? overwind ?] will give them four.

they won't get away for one. perfect. 59 now for 2. 58 for 2 after 10 overs. the bowling has been very good. vijay getting 26. hayden struggling with 17. thought it'd be a betterpartnership between these two, murali and badrinath.

we're changing voices. mike haysman and ravi shastri. thank you, shiva. and we've seen this rightthrough this tournament. a company from chennai, they'llbe looking at the chennai super kings closely. have been supporters of cricketfor a long, long time. we've got a matchon our hands here. just seeing the way this pitchis behaving, there's something

there for all the bowlers, andsuddenly you start thinking is 150 a good score. i'm sure they would've beenthinking about 140 to 150. i think probably 140 initiallyand see how things unfold in the first 10 overs or so. quite interesting thatafter six overs they were none for 40. so there's been a considerableturnaround here. now 59 for 2.

so not too many runs addedat two wickets going down since both overs. it's got atennis-ball-like bounce. you know, you see thatway even with pollard. when he's not prepared to pitchit up he just bowls back off of a leg most of the time. has to hurry! there's no doubt. one of the things i've beentalking about the chennai

super kings is rightbetween the wickets. they've been out of the blocksvery quickly and always getting to pick up one. now in essence, i guess, youwould think this shouldn't really be one run there, butthey're taking advantage of the ball going to dilharafernando and scrambled one. i think what they've realized,mike, is that boundaries won't be that easy to get. you've got to run hard betweenthe wickets and just wait

for the final few overs. if your wicket's in hand, thenlook for the fours and sixes. clever cricket. knew exactly wherethe field was. he's played a couple of smartshots, badrinath, already. he's got a bit of protectionactually, pollard. they bowled a short ball. he's got a man at fineleg and also one at deep backward square.

so two men back in that region. but yeah, i agree with you,ravi, that was clever. the upper-cut. he's already picked up onewicket, is pollard and, gee, you can't keep him out of thegame, that's for sure, whether he's got ball in hand, or bat,or if he's fielding as well. that was nicely played. three sticks in the last game. man of the match as well.

it was on side this time. only a single. three wickets for pollardin the last game. he sure is the citiunder-23 contender. he really is quite amazing. he has got these three wickets. i've seen a lot of kieronpollard over the last four or five years, and he's someonewho's been a big hitting batsman and not much of abowler, to be totally honest.

he hasn't done too muchbowling, but goodness, the way he set this ipl alive,that's for sure, with both disciplines. there's a good catch fromj.p., just before the advertising triangle. i would imagine that sachinwill be feeling reasonably pleased with proceedings here. there was no doubt that vijayand hayden threatened. hayden would havebeen a concern.

he was taking histime, but sniped. there's subroto roy, pickedup the team from pune recently in the auction. they had theirlaunch yesterday. and good to see himwatching the cricket. big supporter of cricketover the years. big supporter ofindian cricket. 67 for 2. there you see the teamsthat have qualified for

the champions league. deccan chargers are out. royal challengershave gone through. and, of course, these twoteams will both make it. i really have beenfascinated watching dilhara fernando in this ipl. i heard robin jackman say thathe got in the team by default, and he was quite correct. but the way he's performedhas been terrific.

and we know he's got thatmagnificent slower ball. the split-finger slowerball, which deceives many, many cricketers. that's up in the air. finally coming underneath it,malinga makes no mistake. so badrinath finds aman in the deep again. the third one goes down for thesuper kings, and fernando once again amongst the wickets. the sri lankan pair doingtheir business here.

and there's the short delivery,and hooking up is never the right way to go. malinga was camped underneaththat for some time. he doesn't drop those catches. and there's the celebrationsfrom dilhara fernando. another one gone. 67 for 3 now. he'll be delighted. in the break, he was clappingaway, the boss, mukesh ambani.

first time the mumbaiindians in a final. 67 for 3, as the skippercomes out to the middle. 67 for 3. good atmosphere here. pomi mbangwa is down somewhere. yeah, thanks very much, ravi. i've also got alongsideme gerald majalo, chief executive officer ofcricket south africa. gerald, hi, first of all.

what do you think ofthis atmosphere? pomi, hi. i've been here for-- this ismy second game i've watched. the atmosphere is electrifying. i imagine in september when wehost the champions league, i hope we'll have exactlythe same atmosphere. can't wait. all right. i was going to get to that.

oh, good delivery that,and really good work done by dilhara fernando. gerald, how happy are you thatyou're going to be hosting the champions league? well, i'm quite excited. we would've-- cricket southafrica will now have hosted all events that are therein cricket, top events. this was the only one wehaven't hosted, so we're now would have hostedall the events.

we are really ecstatic. we can't wait tohost this event. it really is a vote forconfidence to pick south africa for hosting thisexciting event as well. and the planning as far asgetting venues and so forth ready, confident thateverything will go smoothly? no, i'm sure it willall go smooth. we will be meeting again, thegoverning council of the champions league shortly, andwe will be deciding on the

venues in conjunction withpeter [unintelligible], of course. we can't wait. the dates have been setfor the 10th to the 26th for the tournament. and of course, the last threeteams would be the two playing here and the royal challengers,which [unintelligible], from india. thanks for chatting, gerald.

good luck with it. all the best. thanks pomi. they do a good job in southafrica in hosting events. and we're seeing a top overhere from dilhara fernando. totally off the mark, butthat was a top over. a wicket in that over. return to match play] so the mumbai indians reallytightening things up.

first six overs 40 runs,second six overs 28. now this was badrinath. looking to get under it andtry and clear the boundary. finding the man in the deep. what a shot that is! one-handed. six for mahendra singh dhoni. is that a statementof any sort? what a shot.

risk involved, andit's come off. he's been watching somebaseball, i'm sure. have a look at that hit. that is remarkable. a bit of a waltz down thetrack, and just one hand. the extension of the left handand just soars many a mile. that is just remarkable. unbelievable. that's how baseballerspractice.

that'll put a shot inthe thoughts of sachin. 98 meters. oh, again giving the charge. a little mind game is beingplayed here at the moment. well, have a look at this six. just gets into a position,one hand comes off the bat. don't worry wherethe ball has gone. it's landed in the crowd. is he trying to just guesswhere pollard is going

to pitch the ball? and see again, there aninitial movement, hoping for something short. yeah, this is quiteinteresting, because the first two balls he faced from dhoni. the second one, by theway, wasn't bowled. he was waltzing down the track,and this time, watch him skip on the back foot straight away. so he was anticipatingsomething short that he could

maybe just turn around onthe leg side, perhaps pull, perhaps hook. i guess he doesn'tthink too often about defensive strokes, m.s. team owner of the kolkataknight riders, jai mehta, and hoping one day histeam will be in a final. those are good seatsin the club lounge. kick back, relax,enjoy the cricket. two form players here.

raina and dhoni. this partnership isvery important. it's just started. 8 of 8, enough to getsome runs on the board. they obviously want to get thisrun rate up a little bit, which is just hovering undersix at this stage. it's been pegged back nicelywith a loss of three wickets. dhoni looks like he himself hasbeen in dynamic form, is going to try and reallystep on the gas.

he would have told raina,we got 140 the other night and won the game. let's try and get 140 here. i just feel this pitch alsohas enough in it to keep the bowlers interested. between 8 and 10 shouldget them there. batting first, rav, whatsort of advantage is that? big advantage, mike. i think you've got theruns on the board.

you can apply the pressure. two ways to look at it. you have to get that 135, 140. you get 120, and the mumbaiindians know how to pace their innings, when to take thecharge and when to go for it, take the risk. cuts, and finds the boundary. zaheer khan was the man whogot his hands to it, but that wasn't good enough.

80 for 3. 30 bowlers have been bowled. nicely set up, this match, infront of a jam-packed stadium, and it's packed to the rafters. all the tiers full. there's fernando. impact. malinga. here's a look at the last ball,the previous over, just

threading through theeye of the needle. zaheer missing it. tiwary just getting a bitof a grip on it and just trickling in towards theadvertising triangle. malinga's been broughtback into the attack. he's one more and moves thirdover now, which is perhaps a little bit earlier that whatsachin would normally plan, i guess. but he's been brought back inthe attack now quite simply

to break this partnership. and obviously sachin will behoping he gets dhoni out. he will be lookingfor a wicket. i think the correct tactic,you don't want to leave dhoni there too long. he's so good in asituation like this, m.s. he'll come and try anddo something different or unorthodox. and then after, say, 10, 15deliveries will settle down and

work the ball into the gaps andwait for the final three, four overs. of course, we have the flykingfisher fair play award. chennai super kings, top of thetree there with maximum points. these two batsmen, by the way,will be totally aware that that's the thinking of sachinto bring malinga in to get the wicket. it means he's only going tobowl one over the death, i guess, as well, which mightbe a bit interesting.

what i think here is thatboth the batsmen realize why he's been brought on, andthey're playing sensibly. super kings have done well. in the final, they are on topof the fair play award as well. struck off the back foot. it's a really crucial time now,the next couple of overs. super kings wouldbe very pleased. it's an ebb and flow. they would be very pleasedthe way they got off.

then they were snipedthree times quickly by the mumbai indians. now they're getting a bit of astand together, which gives them an area to kick from. they can catapult from, iguess, about 15 overs, which is only an over and a half time,if they've got wickets in hand. at the momentthey've got seven. raina takes the aerial. he doesn't quite time it,but still should get two.

and good running willgive them three. so you can see some momentumnow to these super king innings ever since dhonihas come to the crease. dangerous players outthere, raina and dhoni. i must admit, ravi, i'veliked their running between the wickets. there's been reallygood intent. they've realized that there'snot going to be boundaries coming their way throughout theinning so far, and now they've

got to scamper asmuch as they can. four singles inthis over alone. what they're doing, mike, issetting themselves up nicely. they said, let's try andget 200, another 15. and then we've seen whatsides have done in the last five overs. if you get a couple ofgood overs, there's still albie morkel to come. dhoni smacks it throughthe off side for four.

low full toss putaway in style. and another good over. 11 off it. 91 for 3. 14 overs. last two overs, good ones forthe chennai super kings. very good shot toend the last over. low full toss. not only did he hit it out,he found the gap as well.

such a strong man. strong wrists. that will be going for 11,which is not what you normally see from malinga whenhe's bowling his third. batting really good with theirextras actually, the mumbai indians, throughoutthis tournament. their average is somewherearound of about six extras per game, which is thebest of all the teams. good disciplines.

only four extras sofar in this inning. that's up in the air! two men coming underneathit and make a mess. my, my, the ball lands safely,and zaheer can't believe it. it should have been dilharafernando attacking the ball, because he wasgoing towards it. absolutely, no doubt. now the problem here is thatneither fielder wanted this. i'm sure that raina, if he seesthat stroke again, he'll be

a little bit dismayed by it. but look at that. neither fielder wanted it. both look at each other, andit just bounced in between. and here is going to be asense-of-humor failure. it certainly is. and here. a good shot. good placement.

now with a couple of runs,i think raina has decided to give the charge now. they're on track here to get tothat 100 by the 15th over, and then try and see if they canget 50 and maybe 60 in the final five. and that will be a good score. catchers are always crucial atthe sharp end of a tournament. i wonder how much thatis going to cost them. and swings on the on-side.

beats malinga. 100 comes up. and some good overs beingchurned out here for the super kings. still three balls to go. and 29 of this over. and it's already costthem eight runs. raina is chancing it. he's slack a little bit now.

i get the feelinghe's riding it. and why wouldn't you aftergetting a bit of lead-off early in this over. halfway through the 15th. a good platform now. seven wickets in hand atthis stage. they can play with the freedom. they can express themselves. goes again!

he's got a hold of that. up goes the hands of rudikoertzen that's a six. 15 of 4 balls. they could have beenout of the first ball. and it's cost them 14runs now after four. now that's a little bit lowon the bat, but the sweet spot for bats these days. it is so big that itcarried all the way. that was a dlf maximum.

he has been in terrific formthroughout this tournament. now he's looking to cash in. another man goes back onthe on-side boundary. what does he do? look to go off side. gets away with it. he can see the wall is deepwicket so he quietly moves away trying to piercethat off-side field. zaheer slipping ina good yorker.

you just need one over likethis to really get momentum. 40 runs of the last 3. 16 of 5 legitimatedeliveries now. one ball left in the 15th over. that's all you need, one toreally kick start a bit of an onslaught at the endwith wickets in hand. sensible from dhoni. takes the single,keeps the strike. 17 off the over.

it's 108 for 3. good momentum here forthe chennai super kings. five overs to go. in the company box, dannymorrison is with harsha bhogle. last three overshave produced 40. an excellent over that, forthe chennai super kings. it was an excellent over forthe chennai super kings, the one from zaheer khan, becausethe moment the catch was put down, they made it count.

just a fine effort becauseshoulders have dropped. now somebody's got toget under it now. fielder has got it,but he's struggling. zaheer khan himself. now, normally the keeper'scatch, keeper's running back, fielders running forward. so some merits in thefield are calling for it. slower ball from pollard, andit is all happening in this final because we've just acatch in the previous over go

down when dilhara fernandodidn't take it on. now, the bowler himself, zaheerkhan, has the opportunity to get rid of the dangeroussuresh raina. he can't complete the catch,and now the mi's have put down two very quickly thatthey should have taken. and guess what? this one's out of here as well! you've got to take your catchesright when they head up. otherwise, this guy's goingto damage you big time.

50 of the partnershipcomes up in 25 balls. this match is turningaround in favor of the chennai super kings. and you can plan all you want. you can come through to thefinal after playing 15 games, but you've gotto hold your catches. and zaheer khan is goingto look very frustrated. one off his bowling,one through his hands. [interposing voices]

i think the striker's is in. i think he's in. well, the thing about this forme is that it's uncharted waters, first and foremost,for the mumbai indians. they haven't been to afinal before, and all the tension is around. comfortable, in the end,to the very speedy young men in yellow. but passion, haven't been herebefore, mumbai indians, a

lot of stuff aroundfor the captain. was he going to play because ofhis webbing, stitches in his hand, previous broken fingers? and this one, guess what?! is it going to go the distance? yeah, it is! another one for suresh raina! he's getting closer to 50. he's the only benchman to havean aggregate of 400 runs plus

in all three editions of ipl. he's gone to 44 from 22. i'll tell you what, if this wasa yard shorter and he was out. unless, of course, thecatch is dropped. and i don't think shikhardhawan is looking in very good position. he's about a yard or so inside. they wanted him tobang on the ropes. 17 of the over.

another mega over, this. and more runs. 19 of the over. 127 for 3 after 16. and this will be a veryimportant timeout. maxx mobile timeout. spidercam doing it's stuff. in the final, dilhara fernandofinds himself straight after the maxx mobile timeout.

he's bowled three and got 2 for12, dilhara fernando, he's got back into the side right whenit matters, finals time, and done the job. worm has suddenly just screamedout of the earth and is heading for the sun. let's say he's had asudden dose of vitamins. now, what's interestingis two chances put down. in one case the fielder said"mine," and in the other case the fielder said "yours." ifound it very interesting that

you should say "yours" for acatch rather than "mine." he's been the standout bowlerfor the mumbai indians. now let's take a look at thetwo catches that went down. i'm particularly interested inthe abhishek nayar and dilhara fernando one, because i thoughtfor a long time that abhishek nayar was going for it, andthen looked like he pulled out. normally, it's the man runningin who should take it, but nayar looked like hewas going for it. this one, zaheer calls forit straight away, which is

actually, even though he putit down, that's the way it should be. he said "mine." but i justwonder with all the noise, danny, can you say "yours"? i think all calls infielding should be "mine." and raina wouldn't haveheard him anyway. it was so noisy, andis, for this final. but both men running inwith their catchers. no doubt about it.

can be a very dangerous playerwhen he gets going, raina. it's almost as if he's gota photographic memory. well played on a big day. a 50 from 24 balls isan awesome innings. the fastest 50 tonight. he will finalize first 30runs, danny, for his 13. his next 11 ballshave produced 37. and the dugout are allsmiles at the moment. it's incredible how quicklythis game turns around.

three sixes and two foursin striking paired 208. all of a sudden the balance hasshifted towards the csk's. and he goes again. he finds the little masterwho is too good this time. what's interesting, as soonas he stops the ball, he pulls the right hand away. i wonder. i wonder, danny, how wouldyou bowl to sachin, if you were a bowler?

give him short, and have himhopping on the back foot? oh, absolutely. you just have togive him a couple. this is that 50 brought up,was one of his favorite areas for suresh raina. salutes the crowd and thedugout very quickly. and such good mix. real wide. tried that differentsplit finger.

and zipping it though, and thenhe uses the changes of pace so well, dilhara fernando, onthis occasion, just missing the spot. yeah, on that question, i'ddefinitely have to give tendulkar a couple early, opensthe batting with a shiny new ball in your hand, and you'regoing to have dr. doug bollinger steaming in andwhacking a few in just to test out that bottom hand. 21 balls left.

can they make it a 170 here? good change of pace again. now they're 11 kilometersslower without any discernible change in the action. i don't know, but normallydhoni comes in and he likes to play himself in a littlebit here, realized there was no time for that. and he did say to me after thefirst semifinal when they got 143, he said he'd seta target of 144.

he said, four morethan i needed. so he's happy with 140 onthat track on a big day. he's going to get many,many more than that today. and remember, the mumbaiindians like batting first. it's 3-1, so it's not that bad. for some reason i had thisfeeling that the better side is batting first, probably becausethey batted first 11 times. i wonder what the viewfrom there would be? but i'll tell you one thing,it's a chennai company and

will be very happy with whatthe scoreboard is showing. mrf blimp. you're going to have to get acamera on there and a nice little balcony area, and youand i can pop up there for ipl4. do i have the option ofturning you down, danny? no you don't, buddy. a great little viewfrom up there. oh, his finger'sgot beautifully!

what a shot! another huge over! 12 from it. it's 139 for 3. what a sensational turnaroundwith 70-- 71, in fact-- in the last five overs. but the better of the two teamssitting over with 7 to 14, but they're a very good side. anyone's a very good side whendhoni and raina are batting.

now suddenly pressureon tendulkar. he's even saying, how cani keep them down to 150? is my hand good enoughto take that challenge? raina dropped 13,raina dropped 28. you look up, he's 54 suddenly. well, he just has to keepbringing the changes. i do like that in this form ofthe game where the batters have to get after it. dhoni, he's gone!

crucial bowling change. he swaps zaheer khan around,and he's just done it with a citi moment of success headszaheer khan to the mi's. and he's batted well,dhoni, though. 22 from 15, partnership of 72. the mightiest have done it. so 139 for 4 in the 18th over,and dhoni is on his way. the new man in is a man youwouldn't mind walking into a situation like this.

strike rate 145. alongside him, suresh raina,a strike rate of 200. dazzling left-handers. we saw it in dharmashalawith morkel and m.s dhoni. morkel now joins the man inform, suresh raina, 54 from 27 with three sixesand three fours. he's happy to turn the strikeout of here so morkel will get an early go in the 18th over. that's 72 of 35 ballsbetween dhoni and raina.

it has just turnedthis game nicely. and he won the toss andwanted to bat first. it was a no-brainer for m.s. he's just gone over from 22from 15, and suresh raina holds the key here to see if it's ok,if they're going to go out and post something reallythreatening by batting first. yes, you can play 15 gamesoutstandingly, but in the big final if you don't catch,that can turn things around. it's all about catching so far.

how good is a shot, eventually? i think it was apretty good bouncer. it sure was, becauseit slanted back in. left-handed zaheer toa left-handed morkel. but my word, he playedthis beautifully. just rode with itand watched it. all the way onto the play. wonderful execution, and putit right where he wanted to. over the circle to the four.

it's probably-- it's strangeto say that about a shot that goes to third man,but a shot of the innings. now he's going torun out there. now he just beat zaheer. and they eventuallytake the single. it's all happening. it's not all about smashingand bashing, is it? now the full toss of dhoniis trying to whistle the sound of a wicket.

and he's hit so early thathe's got the leading edge. and absolute dolly to fernando,and isn't he over the moon. because he shelled one,zaheer khan, that he should have taken. so he makes amends andpicks up his first wicket. 11 balls to go after this. ideally, they want 28to 30 runs in it. i think in a big final on atrack like this, 175, the chennai super kings will bevery disappointed to

lose from there. well, if you asked them andsaid look, you're going to bat first and you're going to post175, you would take that 10 times out of 10 in a finalon the surface here. they'd chase you to grab itfrom your pocket, the offer. well, with these nicepockets and suits, you have to, harsha b.! so daniel, we're goingto see the gap to 170. oh, directly it was needed.

he decided not to. 18 overs gone, 146 for 4. two overs to go. can they get the 24 that willmake it a very good target? 3 overs, 19 so farfor harbhajan. 2 have been over170, turnover 166. they won't mind more actually. raina, where is he going togo first ball of an over? counts.

he sucked him inbeautifully, did harbhajan. wanted to give himself a lotof room, clear the front hip of the batsman, and he justpushed a fast flat one wide. that's legal. 1 of 5 k's, and just pusheda nice little quick slider. tell you, how good is thatfor someone who's hardly ever kept in his life? and ambati rayudu isstanding up there. he knows that if anything goesthrough that's five, or maybe

four if it's not a wide. brilliantly doneby the young man. he could take wide, butnow here raina just needs to stay still. good platform. and this time he doesand he'll only get an inch, so great start. half an over gone, andonly a single conceded in the 19th over.

he did say in one of theinterviews, harbhajan, that he said when you come on to gotowards the end of a 20 over game, you really only ever lookat the batsman's feet, he says. look at the batsman's feet,see where he's going, and try to outwit him there. a big final. 57 from 32. got to believe you've done areally good job for your side. right.

nine balls to go now. bang! there's a fielder there. and he concedes the second. he did well to get there, andthen conceded the second. well, he was lookingfor the yorker. and this over here, he'sjust bowled beautifully. three sliders on the wide, andthe red one that you see, just got an edge on it.

mrf blimp., will beflashing away there. this one's clean! now guess what? it is out of here as well. clean airs from albie morkel. 150 up now for the csk's. and needed, i think, that shot. needed after the first fourballs, it produced only three. now it really has reachedthe stage where the

wickets don't matter. so they can really go for it. just seven balls to go. tell you one thing, if themumbai indians get anywhere near close, it's going to be afantastic finale to this ipl. but the chennai super kingshave shown just why they have the pedigree tobe in this big final. the got a lot of playerswho've been in these situations before.

i know hayden didn't have agreat, great game, but hayden, murali, dhoni, morkel, theseare all players with a lot of experience. now the call is for two. the throw is to the striker,and then it's four. he threw it as he was sleeping. 157 for 4 after the 19th. wonderful resurgence fromthe chennai super kings. look where they wereafter 9 overs?

10, even 12 overs. it really looked at thatpoint they've never going to get enough. and now, 157 for 4. what a partnership:raina and dhoni. and raina's still in there. morkel has shown thathe can bat 15 from 6. the best end-overs bowler inthe ipl is bowling to one of its finest finishes.

can you ask for abetter contest here? lasith malinga, suresh raina. this crowd predominantlymumbai supporters. well, he's marching thetroops, sachin tendulkar. lots of changes, lotsof field changes. spidercam. wonderful, justhovering around. this innovation of spidercamshowing the field. now, the death bowler ofthe tournament, malinga,

gets another one slidingpast the outside edge. hits the stumps. it was gone probably. two dropped balls. i wonder if you'reright, harsha. i was just thinking about this. runs on the board and they'vegone for quicker men, they've gone for more of thepace attack and changes of pace, whereas the chennai superkings, they've gone for spin.

they gone for spin bowlingattack predominantly: murali, jakati. they've got most of theguys in their armory. beautifully bowled. surely, that's theend of albie morkel. another run at the over. raina likes to heave,but malinga wouldn't give him the space. perhaps the worst possiblescenario, because it

gets raina off strike. lovely in reversing awayfrom the outside edge. it's the yorker link that isjust so classy, and he's not even in the fray, morkel. hit a six and thenhad to disappear. he's gone for 15. it's 156-- does he take a singlegood run at bat? does he go for the slog?

only three balls left. a little french cutwould be fine. now another run out! oh, he misses! doesn't matter atthis stage, really. what a last over thisis turning out to be! well, it is truly agreat little radar that malinga gets going. a little bit ofglove love there.

you've got to be carefulwith the captain, with that split webbing. here's when he missed. ran through, morkel not yet inthe frame with the run outs, and you've got to say toyourself, well, do you go for it? do you want to smash this ballor do you simply want to get the strike back to raina? you can't when you'veonly great yorkers

and facing this man. only two left. [laughter] he's got everybody there. he's smiling a little bit, butthat's also called a wide, and that is phenomenal forthe chennai super kings. he looked for the scoop shot. then malinga's gone off side. he's gone desperately off side.

and look where thewicket keeper's gone. he's gone to theother side, too. well it's a lovely littleresult for the men in yellow. frustration there. let's see when he's gone full,when he's got the yorker link throw, he's sodifficult to get away. the green one's the one wherethe radar went haywire, went very wide. i think the ideawas good, though.

i think the idea behindbowling it was good. he just went a little too far. and he's got all of it! oh young srikanth! it's now the highest teamtotal in an ipl final. well, i like this, i reallylike this, from young anirudh. he's giving himself roombecause he thinks if it's going to tail in towards my middleleg stump, i'm going to just open up the off side.

he does, and he justsmokes it over cover. wide. here, look at this. opens himself right up, clearsin fact almost both hips, and just smokes it overthe top for four. last ball coming up. 166 for 5. and well bowled now. are they going tolook for a second?

there's no one togather the throw. they have to go for the second. and eventually,malinga will miss! so they get the second. will these last three ballsturn out to be crucial, though? 11 of the last over. they finish with 8.4 runs anover, and they will be overjoyed, the chennai superkings, as they run off the field.

first 5 over 60,last 8 over 100. very little in between. 168 for five, danny morrison,you've got to believe, it's a good score batting first. sure is. you take it. as i said before, probably 10times out of 10 there on the surface in a finals situation,and a lot to do for the men in blue.

169 is pretty much 8and a half and over. and just those, well, i say,lots of fireworks from suresh raina and m.s. the partnership is 72 from just35 deliveries, has allowed the chennai super kings toget up to 168 for 5. it's raina: 57, dhoni: 22. that's where it'sturned around. morkel 15 from six, andanirudh srikanth 6 from 3. just wonder if that could makea difference in a close final.

now harbhajan singh: 30,malinga: 33, zaheer: 34. fernando was thebest: 2 for 23. and kieron pollard, thosefigures didn't look too bad at the end of two overs, but itwas in his rolling that the onslaught started. also, it was in that overthat raina was put down. i think that cost the mumbaiindians about 30 runs. catches are matches. that's the old cricket cliche.

and they reallyhave to take them. every little opportunityin a final situation has to be taken. situation: 8 and a half, prettymuch, and a tall order for, really, the home side. some of you watching thismust be wondering, hang on, what's the big deal? what are danny and this guytalking about because those runs have been chased before.

but this is a track thatis tending to get slower. matches here, except for thethird- and fourth-place playoff, which is a veryordinary performance of the deccan chargers, have been wonby the side batting first. this kind of total haswon matches in the past. so 169. suresh raina turning out to bethe big match player, also the top scorer when the chennaisuper kings lost to the rajasthan royals inthe first year.

but don't forget tendulkar, thekey player, out with an injury. no, i mean almostout with an injury. we'll wait and seehow good he can be. 20 overs gone then. 168 for 5. so, 169 to get. it will be a compelling secondhalf in this ipl final. oh, welcome back to thedy patel sports stadium here in navi mumbai.

168 for 5, the chennai superkings have posted, and they didn't look like theyhad a hope of getting anywhere near there. 140, maybe. but, some wonderful battingfrom suresh raina and his captain, m.s. dhoni, and a little gem at thelast minute from albie morkel has made it pretty difficultfor the mumbai indians. i'll discuss that in a momentwith my colleague, sunil

gavaskar, who is sitting nextto me and will help me through this highlights package. this is how it all began. hayden got bogged down, andthat was the one really strong stroke that he played. and vijay also helpedhimself to six. but, generally speaking,they were battling. there was some good bowling,some sweeping time stroke through extra cover, and youcan't give matthew hayden room.

no, you can't, but then muralivijay got a bit carried away and tried to playanother big chop. hauled out to deep mid wicket. and he prepared by now to puta fielder in that position. and then, kieron pollarddeceived mathew hayden. ambati rayudu taking a toppitch, but did not use his feet well to beatthose two fielders. once again, he verycleverly gets a boundary. this time, however, it's highin the air and he finally

makes no mistake. this was when dhoni and rainagot together, and they put on what might well prove to be amatch-winning partnership. with cricket shots mostof the time, it wasn't a question of slogging. but here was the opportunitythat just might have changed this game. two fieldsmen, and theball falls between them. well, well, well.

then look out! this all happened very quickly. scored a two after that drop. then that four, then that six. it was all in the same over. and they are pretty muchthe same kind of shot that matthew hayden got off, too. this time it was the fielder,not the wicket keeper who went for it.

this was an incredibleshot over extra cover. this is pretty much morein the swing of the bat, which is over long gone. and then getting a full toss. hitting a boundary toget to a half-century. dhoni misqueueing and beingcaught at extra cover. albie morkel's first ball. very nicely done,very smartly done. and then he hits this bigsix off of harbhajan singh.

that last over was terrific. three dot balls to start with. they have to try to getthe run, take the bye. and then young anirudh smashingthat away, getting a bit of an inside edge, taking a couple. valuable runs are those. 168 for 5 at the at theend of the 20 overs. eight sixes and 11boundaries in that. chennai super kingsin their huddle.

they won the toss earlieron and didn't hesitate in batting first. and i don't think sachintendulkar would have done either, had he hadthe opportunity. and 168, 169 to win. more than justcompetitive, sunil. yes, more than 8 runs and overthe asking rate is always a very demanding rate,particularly when it's a knock-out game like this.

but mumbai indians have thebatting lineup, and they have handled situations like this. not too sure how manytimes they won chasing in this tournament. it'll be 9 for the 1 thing themumbai indians in the first meeting between thesetwo sides in this ipl. mumbai successfully chasedthe victory target of 181. tendulkar scored 72, andadded 92 for the first wicket with that one.

however, mumbai failed to chase165 in the second meeting. so it's sort of one-all betweenthese two teams in ipl 2010, and there is a jobto be done here. it won't be easy. there's been a lot of talk offitness, as to whether he would be able to play. he had a goodworkout yesterday. he's decided to play. it'll be interesting to seejust what sort of length the

seamers bowl, whether they tryto keep him on the back foot, which will make thathand more painful. here we are ready to gowith the second innings. 169 is the target. 168 for 5, thechennai super kings. and they are going tostart with a spinner, which they've done. lots of teams have done,actually, but the super kings have done this ona fairly regular basis.

it's going to be ashwin. this is tendulkar's ipl career:over 1,000 runs, and wouldn't he like to contribute well heretonight at home in front of an adoring crowd. shikhar dhawan. i don't think you could squeezeanother body into this stadium. they are sitting inthe gangways as well as in the seats. it's quite phenomenal.

the noise is intense. the cricket's intense. ravichandran ashwin willstart the proceedings. this is the fifth time ashwinhas brought in the first hurdle of the opposition innings. his deck off'sbeen pretty good. he's bowled fourovers, 12 runs. he's got an economy rate ofthree and he's got one wicket. so if he keeps the sameeconomy rate even if he

doesn't take wickets. mahendra singh dhoni will bepretty pleased with that. waiting for the clock to tickover to the exact time. check the scorers. let's play. perfect delivery first up. sliding in. that one's looking, for theturn, that one's looking for some room to playthe square cut.

bollinger, the fielder. he's played a big part. he's played a huge part so farsince he got in from australia, a little bit late arriving. three dot balls to begin with. well, if you see ashwin'sdelivery's tired, he seems to pause and see if the batsman'sgoing to go down the pitch and then make the adjustment. not every ball, mindyou, not every ball.

it's interesting. it mustbe quite difficult to do. tendulkar i think just sortof saying don't worry. don't get too anxious becauseyou've played out four deliveries without a run,or five, for that matter. yes, i think they're gettingoff to a good start, solid start, without losing too manywickets in the first half a dozen overs is the key. maiden! [unintelligible].

so, it's going to be bollingerfrom the pavilion end, and we've been discussing it. we will anticipate sort of backof a leg, not necessarily bounces, but balls thathit the bat hard. it will be interestingto watch. there's bollinger at 4for 13 in the semifinal. that's where hisvariations were. interesting to watch assessingtendulkar's body language here after he makes contactwith the ball each time.

yorker. well, the yorker first up,that's also not an easy ball to play because the jarring thatcomes with the ball hitting the bottom of the bat, that can goall the way up to the elbows, not just the fingers,not just the grip. he would have taken apain-killing injection, i'm pretty certain of that,before he came to bat. so that area willbe pretty numb. you can just imagine the doctorsort of saying to him, so how

many are you going toget today, sachin? well, i fancy about 70-odd. well, how many overswill that be? oh, i guess about 11 or so. no discomfort there bythe looks of things. and that would decide on howmuch moochie he's going to put in the injection, i guess. you don't want it wearing offafter three overs, do you? well, also there's the maxmobile strategic timeout, and

the doctor can come and givehim another painkilling injection if he's startingto feel a bit of pain. play and a miss. it's gone! an early breakthroughfor bollinger! and it's hardly a surprise. i don't know why, but he's hadsuch an amazing tournament! well, he's banged it in alittle bit short, and it might not have gone up as much as hewanted, but it certainly

cramped [? chikartavan feru ?] when he was trying to playthe forcing shock on the off side, gets a nick. he missed the earlier one. not by much. this time he gets the nick. it's one for one. so a new man then. yeah?

he's off the mark. oh, tendulkar was stretched. he was very stretched then. i think he might have beenout if he'd hit that. boy, that was excellent workby the fielder at mid-wicket. it's time to play on the offside at thick inside edge. oh, yes! very lucky for mumbai indians. and anirudh, if he had hit,he would have struck a

big blow for his team. s. anirudh. the leg placed that squarecover in a crouched position. the leg slip coming in now. only forever innovative. driven down the ground,no, stopped at mid-off. well, two excellent oversto start with, 3 for 1. it's going to beashwin to continue.

he's only the third bowler tobowl a maiden in an ipl final, the other two being makhayantini and ryan harris. they may be full of confidenceafter that maiden over. let's have a look atthe maiden over. pretty much on the length, butwhat he was getting to do was getting the ball to driftinto the left-hander. the left hand, there was eitherinside edging into fine leg short finally or to mid-wicket. very well played!

there is no fielder there. he walks to the off sideand helps the ball along for a boundary. that's very clever backingby sachin tendulkar. it certainly was. there's usually a man atdeep-back for square leg, but they were bothup in the circle. he's gone back there now. tendulkar saw it, improvised,and helped himself.

that's brought the longon into the circle. there's a man back nowwhere the ball went. he just stopped, and isdealing with that ball. here's the dismissalof [? chikartavan ?]. m.s. dhoni doesn't miss them. still a pretty good over, this. [? atenika ?] will be eyeing theposition over mid-on.

mid-on's in the 30-yard circle. there's a deep mid-wicketand a deep square-leg. ah, wide. i think he was trying to readwhat tendulkar was going to do so bowled it widedown the leg side. pushed that downthere, didn't he? whether he had a premonitionthat tendulkar was going to run at him or something like that,or it was just a poor bowl. yes, i think that's whatthey're looking to

do: go over mid on. field restrictions for thefirst six overs, only two outside the 30-yard circle. those fielders are deepmid-wicket and deep square leg. and he will have to hurry. it's hit-- it's a hard one, appeal,and over's been called. it's 9 for 1. bollinger.

beautiful stroke for nothing. nice pull. did he get one for it? tendulkar having to get thoselittle legs of his going. he's been involved insome pretty tight stuff here, already. the mrf blimp, responsible formaking more tires in india than any other company. and tendulkar,where's the ball?

where's the bat? in. and he is aware that histeam cannot really afford too many duck calls. the [unintelligible] gone to over 9. now this man, abisheknayar, he can hammer the long ball as well. in the interval, we hadthe karbonn kamal catch.

it's a very good initiative. oops, missed. so dhoni, and [? aba aswani ?] they get a signed the ball,they get a mobile phone, and more importantly, 25,000 apiece go to the breast cancer charities throughout india,and this has been happening every day of the ipl. that's fantastic. justin kemp, the man conductingthat karbonn kamal catch

interlude, does give it hisall, bloody bollinger. absolutely exhaustedat end of every bowl. he looks naked. he's just bowled fourballs of the second over. and don't give me thatstuff about this being hot here, because australiacan be hot as well. adelaide, brisbane canbe very, very hot. fine leg up into the circle. and back at deepbackward square.

still a slip in place. oh, another very good over. five balls have been bowled,two runs have been scored. they're asking right nowfor the mumbai indians to overhaul the score. it's now 9.77. ball bounce! but no edge. 11 for 1.

actually, now that the ball isthird successive over, why not? it's gone very well. now is tendulkar going tosearch that spot over mid on, which suni's hasbeen talking about. it's very inviting. or straight, or over mid off. i mean, if he can getit high enough, far enough, he'll be fine. keeping towards 10, so somebodywill have to try and take a

chance, a calculated risk. there we wait again,before delivery. hayden, very quickly, oppositethe-- you see the blue line, the blue one there, has got anawful lot of-- about 3 and a half foot of soil to getthrough to see daylight. beautifully done. orthodox stroke, saw thegap, and hit it there. no problems at all,no trouble at all. a full toss, there's abig gap between extra

cover and mid off. and that's what he tried to do. didn't try to hit it too hard. made sure he hit it betweenthose two fielders. he looked for a second as if hewas trying to go off side until he saw the full toss, then hejust adjusted his balance, opened the face,thank you very much. 3-1. yes, i think what he's tryingto do is just take a step

away from the stumps. he's looking to open upthe area over long on and over extra cover. that's more runs! to quick outfield. the fielder chases in vain! much better over this forthe mumbai indians, for the home team, you can tell. so many blue flaghere it's scary.

yeah, suni, the crowd has hadsomething to cheer for, because it's been pretty quiet so far. once again, a punchrather than a big hit. so two boundariesand this over. 10 so far, one more ball left. 21 for 1 after 5. five overs gone. 21 for 1, change inthe commentary box. pomi mbangwa iswith ravi shastri.

thank you, jacob. 148 to win from 90. you can almost sense thetension around the ground. see the tension building, here. tendulkar's still there, themumbai indians won't move. they know this isa tight match. it's a big total to get. and as long as he's thereout in the center, there'll be a calming influence.

first five overs have beenabsolutely fantastic. so the chennai superkings, just a couple of bowlers operating. now, as a change bowler, youturn up, it is so, so imperative that you follow upthe work that has been done before. can't afford torelease the pressure. this is where the chennaisuper kings will be tested. stats were weighed.

almost get the feeling thattendulkar is just sizing up this contest at the moment. and what i mean by that is,he'll be having a chat with abishek nayar and saying,we will have to target somebody at some stage. he'll look at thatchennai bowling card. so let's be patient for a bit. it's all about momentum. you know, you get one or twogood overs, and you can

get the momentum going. we saw that withthe super kings. at one stage, it looked 140. they will do well to reach140, certainly to reach 168. 34 matches, 21, 14 lost. and 90 minutes in their side. no surprises there. great that raina walked outto the toss this evening. and for the big shot,doesn't make any contact.

abishek nayar, he can hit it,and he hits it a very long way. very good player. unfortunately, he's beeninjured, and been out. so, you know, that matchpractice that he needs, not quite there. still a player witha good temperament. got a wide range of shots,like you mentioned, can play the big ones. and tonight's the night.

they need some youngstersto step up to the plate. chance of a run out! he misses. hasn't miss many, murali,and it's hurt abishek nayar again on the hand. i wonder if it hurtsthe same hand. brilliant work,mutthiah muralitharan. quick release all that'smissing is the hit at the stumps.

doesn't make any contactwith the stumps. nayar survives,oh, look at that. agonizingly close. i make that number three, asfar as opportunities for run outs are concerned. two of them attachingtendulkar, now one at abishek nayar. how crucial will the misses be? you think back to the mumbaiindians fielding, and the two

catches of raina were veryimportant, because he went on to play in outstanding innings,one that changed the face of chennai super kings scorehis first innings. it's going to happen here. lovely shot! gets into great position. it almost went for six! using the pace, goingexactly where the field is. almost at dlf maximum.

suddenly, some smileson the faces blues. he leaves it so late. that's what makes it sodifficult for the bowler. some batsmen will move quiteearly, and you can react. but he stays so very still. sachin tendulkar gives nothingaway, and can quickly get into good position. glorious! as for the shot we've seentoday, injured hand or

not, that is magnificent. yes, have a look at it. just a shimmy down the pitch. copybook. the elbow is up. that's right out themiddle of the blade. also, he's just opened theface of the blade to make sure it goes in the gap. now, suddenly, buzzer onthe ground, six overs

gone, 33 for 1. mutthiah muralitharanintroduced into the attack. and always a contest, muraliversus sachin tendulkar. setback! and that was a good move. it was raina closingin on the ball. one of the better fielderson the super kings side. released it quickly. that one won't go downas an opportunity.

a bit of a slit as well, midpitch for sachin, who has has been living on the edgeas far as run ups go. raina is a very goodfielder, very quick. you mentioned aboutthe opportunities. one thing you've got to givethe chennai super kings, is they attack the ball. they create opportunities. they might have not got it, butthere will be chance of them getting a couple of run offs.

and the mrf blimp willbe happy if it gets to see that chennai boy. this is a big final. gony has kept his faith inmuralitharan, the three spinners playing. he could have a choice betweenkemp and muralitharan, but he's opted for murali, ashis family watches. very interesting, the contrastin tactics actually, between the two sides.

oh, it's on the circle,matthew hayden. with the ball not going quicklyoff the spinner, so taking a while to get to him. yeah, the mumbai indians havegone today with seamers, and i suppose more seamersthan spinners. harbhajan singh, justabout the only spinner. but chennai have threein their attack. that's gone away. we'll find the boundary.

we'll have to wait for theumpire signal, leg by signal. just missing his line. mutthiah muralitharan,too leg side. not happy with himself. it's fantastic out there,ravi, the atmosphere. brilliant! he's put it down, just fora minute, you thought he had taken it. just superbly bowled bymutthiah murali there.

and a catch goes down, 38 to 1. matthew hayden attacking thatlow catch, and unfortunately, not sticking. we'll come back to that. that's beautifullybowled by muralitharan. there's morkel. here's another look. let's see, they've lots ofturn, lots of turn, caught the edge, a healthy edge, andmatthew hayden, for a big man,

gets down pretty quickly. moves to his left. oh, he'll expect to have caughtthat, hit high on the hand. hit very high on the hand, andcouldn't keep a hold of it. he'll be disappointed. two hands to it. ravi, you just get the sensethere are too many chances, even though they're some thatare half chances, that are going and begging for thechennai super kings, and it's

just letting mumbai back. in these early exchanges,you'd say that it's chennai who are up. but they're not quite makingtheir advantage pay at this moment in time. little bit of luck, if it hadgone their way, should have been put up it three down. but i agree with you. with this crowd behind themumbai indians, suddenly, you

know, if they get a partnershipgoing, with the likes of pollard still to come, there'ssaurabh tiwary, rayudu. they would believe, if they geta good platform here, they could chase a score that hasnever been chased in a final. 129, that from 75. three quality batsmen stillto come, plus pollard. so this has all the makingsof a good contest, if these two can stay for a bit. this is ten runs and overis chaseable in the last

seven with wickets in hand you're right. it hit him hard,high on the hands. it's got nice height, actually. and he's got hands likebuckets, and you can see how high it's hit him there onthe hard part almost near the wrist. he'll be reallydisappointed, hayden. yeah.

something else is thathe had been unsighted. when you see the originalreplay, you see the ball pitches a long way outside leg,and when nayar plays it, he's playing it from outside leg,gets the edge there, so they're seeing it late. the reaction from haydenwould've been really good, but it would havebeen a late reaction. despite all that, though, he'dhave expected to catch it. have a look.

you see how faroutside leg it is. somewhere, there, he can'tsee where the ball is. and then it comes out athim, and he's got to react. he does so, but hard partof the hand, high on the hand, it spills up. great replay, there. because you could see,actually, that he had a chance, even on the second attempt,juggled, and then put it down. doesn't find the gap.

just two off the over. 40 for 1. magnificent site. part of the stadium packed. there's muralitharan,taking on the fielders, living dangerously. the pressure has been created. oh, is that another ofthose little opportunities i've been on about?

it's a dot. again sent back this time! again, he gets away. they're missing the stumps! the chennai super kings, dhonimissing on that occasion, living dangerously,like i said. i almost believe something'sgoing to happen in this over. justin kemp held him off, so hescrambles at it to try and get the throw away quickly, becausehe knows the chance is on.

in the end, the throw isnot accurate enough, and dhoni's pulled the seam,doesn't quite hold it. his throw is not accurate. dhoni's pulled awayfrom the stumps. still had an opportunity there,has a goal, and misses. another one, ravi! something's going to happen. four balls left in this over. with tendulkar, i just get thefeeling that muralitharan will

focus on off breaks, because heknows tendulkar picks up [unintelligible] well. there is this tension, orthe pressure, i should say, of the scoreboard. if you're trying to set a totaland a few overs go by that are quiet, you can recover. they'll be told don't panic,and the mumbai indians will not want to panic at this stage.

but that's the play. there's a man down there,so it's just one. despite not wanting to panicevery time they look up at that scoreboard, it'sin double figures. it's now gone to 11.2. it means they cannotleave it too late. you can see the worm justdipping at the moment. some good bowling bymurali and morkel. all turn there.

now it's turned there. it's punting up fromoutside the next stump. you can see the cut out there. one is kieron pollard, who hasbeen asked to put his pads on. don't want to leaveit too late. swept. not a good over. run's coming in justsingle, just three off it. five of the last two.

43 for 1, and it's a maxmobile strategic time out. --until the end. he might go along those lines. in the chennai superkings camp, it will be more of the same. perhaps with an improved touchon the composure will ball in hand throwing at the stumps,hit once or twice, but other than that, everythingelse, very good. so we're out of the max mobilestrategic time out, and mumbai

indians need to move on. jakati has been introducedinto the attack, and i think this is the over. nayar will have to target. i know it's the first overafter the strategic time out, but he's a left hander. the required runrate over 11 now. to get the momentum straightaway, that will help the mumbai indians, and it means thatyou've got to take that

calculated risk now. it's nicely into theyard for abishek nayar. he's the third of the spinners,and they can't afford to just let him bowl. however, he's pretty good, too. the three spinners that thechennai super kings have are good, as far as control isconcerned, and varying of pace. that's a good start. again, varying his pace.

they've got three goodspinners, cricket specialists. i see some tensefaces in the crowd. come out in numbers here tosupport the mumbai indians in their first everfinal of an ipl. and they'll have to batout of their skins here to win this contest. the right tacticsfrom tendulkar. his presence is important. it's important at the otherend you take those risks.

there it is, the mrf blimp. some fast bowlers helpedalong in chennai. there's the big shot. abhishek nayar goes bangand it goes out the park. that's what they needed. brings up the 15 style. has to take those chances. couple of good overs from herewill set them up nicely again. remember, chennai super kingswere 49 for 2 after 9.

that's one struck. again. consecutive sixes. and suddenly the noisearound the ground is deafening to the ear. we've got a contest on here, asthe momentum about to shift. good shot, the firstone over mid-wicket. this one straight backover the bowler's head. goes for the single.

and tendulkar'smade his ground. needed a direct hit there. but a good over forthe mumbai indians. 15 off it. 58 for 1. the same stage, neck and neck. it's up in the air. doesn't carry to theman on the pitch. mutthiah muralitharancontinuing with his work.

time for a changein commentary. so we'll have alittle look at this. gave himself a last delivery. needed a direct hit. it was a good pieceof fielding. but, see, if it hits direct,sachin tendulkar is out. a lot of time taken andthe ball going into the keeper's gloves. close again.

here come laxmanshivaramakrishnan and, with him, michael haysman. thank you, pomi. i am all over this now. this is going to be anexciting game, i think. nine wickets in hand. the equation sounds tough. 109 runs to win for 58 balls. tendulkar 20 at nought out.

nayar has just brought thisgame alive with those sixes at the last over. i think we're upfor a beauty here. don't go too far awayfrom your tv screens. let's go downstairsto danny morrison. thanks, guys. i did try to get hold of t.a. sekhar. i wanted to chat to himabout this white ball.

and look how dirty it got whenlasith malinga, fernando, and zaheer khan usedthis at the dip. so you could see it tail a lot. and what i was particularlyinterested in, how did this ball look only after what? 16 to 20 overs? morkel there is tidying up. but the interesting thing isthis ball, it just got so rough so quickly, and what interestsme was the mumbai indians went

in with a pace bowling attackversus the chennai super kings' spin bowling attack. so when you look at theway malinga bowled, he bowled beautifully. another quick single. and he really putthe brakes on it. could have been massivedamage from raina and khan. but just look at thestate of this ball here. nice and close on there.

look at how dirtyand rough it is. no surprises thatit reversed a lot. murali has just beensmoked, has he? oh, he couldn't stop it. and it is now end of theover and it's 67 for 1. the chennai super kings at thesame stage with 67 for 2. nothing in thisgame whatsoever. they lost another wicket soonafter this as well, so the mumbai indians are going tohave the benefit of two wickets

if they continue like this. and there's so muchbatting to come. let's have a look. we saw harbhajan singhthere with the pads on. kieron pollard, of course. he likes to come in. there's about six orseven overs to go. j.p. dhuminy, rayaduas well, tiwary.

this is going to be a beauty. i'm all over this. i think this is going tobe very, very exciting. sachin is the key. he will bat themajority of 20 overs. nayar has been entrusted with alittle bit of-- i was going to say extra aggression,but no longer. finally, a directhit was required. changing bowler, sureshraina to the attack.

mahendra singh dhonitaking his time. that's good thinking. direct hit, and he's gone. broken this boundary worth 66. a citi moment of success forthe chennai super kings. abhishek nayar isthe man dismissed. and it's 67 for 2. i think he played pretty well. i don't think it's such a badthing to the mumbai indians

that he's actually out nowbecause it was a little bit unfortunate, that run out. very good stuff from dhoni. as shiva said, they had tohit the first and they did. look at sachin inthe foreground. but i don't think it's sucha bad thing, actually. they had a few misseswhere they called in and they've got serious,aggressive batsmen to come. you getting nervous, shiv?

yes, i am, to be honest. super shot from the littlemaster who wants to pick a delivery from suresh raina. but what a player he is. delayed the shot to getthe placement right. so again, it's the same plan. sachin keep battingnormally, pick up the out boundary, no risks. make sure you're on the dip.

harbhajan, you have a dip,you're the aggressor. when pollard comesin, the same. when j.p. comes in, it's goingto be the same. it's a pretty simple planhere for the mumbai indians at this stage. particularly with someone thecaliber of sachin who can get those boundaries. you're talking about sachin.

he got the boundary, andthe next intention was to look for the single. yeah, it's clever, isn't it? he's done that for years. he'll be communicating ingetting with harbhajan as well. 96 to win for 49 balls. 11 point at runs per over. but the mumbai indians will bethinking about how many runs they need each bowl from here.

have a look at the worms. they've gone ahead now. at the same time, they were67 for 3, the super kings. stand around a littlebit and has it. yeah, there goesthe slow death. turned him around, turned back,trapped him in front, and raina has struck again. and it's all gone a littlebit quiet here in mumbai. the second wicket in theover, first one was raina.

and harbhajan singh forsome reason isn't happy. there is a bit of turn. it comes a long way across. the attack was aroundthe off side. may be the height factor,we'll have to look at that. hawk-eye says goingover the top. rudi had no hesitation. slowly but steadily,up goes the finger. disappointment forharbhajan singh.

73 for 3. 12 overs have been completed. 73 for 3, by the way. chennai super kings losttheir third wicket in the 12th over as well. changing bowling, jakati to theattack with two right-handers out in the center. [unintelligible], then abhisheknayar headed for two sixes. rayadu at thenon-striker's end.

now gets on the strike. into turn there for sureshraina, who is not a big turner of the ball. and look at that for an appeal. then the celebration. they know harbhajan singhcan be dangerous at times. he did stunning things againstthe deccan chargers, didn't he? that's right, he did. quick fly 40.

sachin wants just the one. rayadu at one stage. thought about thesecond, not to be. it's locked awaynow at this stage. two bowls into the 13th. both teams with 75 for 3. the chennai super kings in thelast eight overs got 100 runs. mumbai indians can match that. it's on the bounce.

huge sigh of relief, i think,from about 50,000 out of about 55,000 here. i said they canmatch that, shiva. we've seen it happen so far inthis tournament, haven't we? we certainly have. can't take it for grantedone side is running away with the game. what chennai will be looking atthis stage is to cut out the boundaries, minimizethe boundaries.

one of the important thingswhen you're chasing, you can't let the run rateget out of control. they're going to have tokeep it around about 11 and 12 at this stage. pace foundation in chennai. you're batting first,you can dip at the end. beautiful. has he got four? oh, that's greatfielding as well.

what an effort. looked like a certain boundary. badrinath, thefielder in the deep. a safe two runs for their side. a superb shot. tendulkar using the depth ofthe crease, and look at this. brilliant. great commitment. now there's a man atshort mid-wicket.

nice and fine from sachin. he's going to retain strike. and this was a rundirectly from dhoni. sent 9 on his way. 67 for 2 when he departed. clever start from sachin. and harbhajan singh. unlucky, action with thebounce, but rudi koertzen had no problems with that.

there is quite a bit ofnoise now at this ground. counting down the maxxmobile timeouts. maxx mobile timeout is finished. raina is about to starthis second over, was successful his first. they need to go at12.7 from here. that will be bowled again. you can see the boundaryin the last over. tendulkar creating a little bitof width, late to cut short.

so he's looking to bowlmid-leg, string and line. i just wonder if kieronpollard has got the pads on. that's leg side again. big shout there, goingup in a big way. the ball in the[unintelligible] but the man that countssays not out, and he's called it wide as well. i thought therewas a deviation. it certainly hit something.

outfield was spontaneous,and he was disappointed. let's have a listen. looks like there wassomething there. that's why there was the odd,wry smile from raina and dhoni. so sachin given not outwhen he was on 42 here. let's have another listen. and a bit of adeflection as well. yeah, rolling off the glove. sachin wasn't lookingat the umpire.

he's clubbed that. he's clubbed that andit's gone some distance. has it gone all the way? stretch the arms there, rudi. ambati rayudu now. i think the plan is fortendulkar to bat right through. the likes of rayadu and tiwarywill go out after the bowling. the dlf maximum comingat the right time. oops.

almost took out one of thecheerleaders as well. away again. every batsman has gotto have go-to shots in this format these days. clearly, rayudu knows he can gothrough extra cover and get a boundary and it can go throughcorner and get a boundary. that's not uncommon forbatsmen at this level. 10 of 2 balls now. the crowd is getting into it.

inside out. it's not a big turn of the balllike i mentioned, so it was a very good hit fromambati rayadu. turning out to be a good over. again, he goes in that region,but it is going to be tagged. just the one. you had a quick shot there ofthe tornado from trinidad and tobago with the pads on. there's sachin's son.

he's enjoying is as well. why wouldn't he? oh, he's hurt his hand as well. oh, no! it's in the family. still playing from sachinjust to pick up that one. a huge over. 15 runs from it. 95 for 3.

i would just suggestkieron come in next. he's got his watch on as well,which is no doubt going to help his timing. it is short that time,and he is such a good cricketer, this man. there's three men on thefence on the leg side. he knew exactly where theyweren't, and he smashed it for 4 and he's broughtthe crowd alive. good idea from the bowlerspoint of view to start the

over with a boundary. again, looking at the ballflying through the air. it was too shorton a slow pitch. tendulkar, not the kind ofplayer who will miss out. he's been a terrific bowler. he's on 48 now. has he bunted it straightto the fielder? i think he has. he pulled out of the shot.

he'll be kickinghimself there, sachin. but what a knock for the blokewho's got one and a half pause. he really has playedterrifically. and he's got them in a very,very good position here. he'll be very disappointedabout that dismissal. certainly will be afterhaving got a boundary at the first ball. he didn't bowl throughwith the shot. murali vijay is verygood in the deep.

kept his eyes on the ball. he was very close tothe boundary line. and look at the delight on m.s. dhoni's face. tendulkar has gone for 48. 99 for 4. tendulkar, 619 runs, themaximum by a batsman in one edition of the ipl, just goingpast shaun marsh's 616 in 2008. so his departure, wonderhow that's going to affect

the mumbai indians? tawari is the man that hasjust arrived at the creases. another look at thedismissal of sachin. vijay the man taking the catch. look at the super kingsboys in the background. mike hussey it was. saurabh tiwary againstthe left arm spinner. likes to go mid-wicket. three figures up now.

hundred on the board. some would have thoughtthat pollard should have come in now. i'm one of them. 69 from 32. they'll thinking abouttwo runs a ball. they won't be thinkingabout overs. two runs a ballwill be the chat. in the air.

fielder's getting underneathit and takes a blinder. takes an absolute blinder. that is sensational. suresh raina has taken anabsolute screamer at a crucial time of this final. great captaincy andfantastic fielding. it's a karbonn kamal catch. dhoni, great captaincy, becausehe had his best fielder at deep wicket, and that's the areasaurabh tiwary targets.

and look at this for a catch. sensational! outstanding work! so the left arm spinner gettingtwo wickets in this over. it's 100 for 5. i'm not sure i understand this. five overs and one ballremaining, and still no kieron pollard. duminy, he's the manthat's come in.

i would have thought that alittle cameo from kieron pollard would getthings back on track. a bit more than a cameo mightsteer them home, anyway. on the leg side. couple of bounces. just the single toround off the over. two wickets. six runs from it. 101 for 5.

15 overs gone. time for changing voice. it's going to be sunilgavaskar and harsha bhogle. cannot agree more withmichael haysman. where is the big finisher? 30 balls to go. 68 to get it. it's been donebefore, but chasing? never easy.

ashwin comes back. wide first ball. just seen a sensationalcatch from suresh raina. was in the air for a long time. that was the onlything in favor. brilliantly done. harsha, your take onthis batting order? well, look at that catch. he has taken it brilliantly.

and more importantly, i thinkhe's made sure that his hands are brushing the groundand not the ball. never easy to do. never easy to dive forward. this man, suresh raina, issuch a big plus in the field. so even if he gets out fornot too many runs, he's always going to make acontribution in the field. and now, of course, he'sbowling and picking up the odd wicket or two.

very, very handy. what a game he's had today. the way the indians have turnedthe game around in a big final, picked up a wicket. now he's taken atremendous catch. four of the overs withthe asking rate 14. if there's a reason forduminy coming above pollard, i'd love to know. put it on the scoreboard.

unless they're expectingpollard to score 30 in 13 bowls. at the moment after this,it'll be 24 deliveries left. one over the 20 percenter. has he hit the gap here? no, he hasn't. so they'll pick up a couple. 9 of the over. it's 109 for 5 from 16.

60 and over. the chennai super kingsbatting produced 19 runs. they were almost level tothe 50 and over mark. then the big difference. now it's 60 from 4. one man getting readyfor the mumbai indians. maybe not even him now. but he hasn't come out to bat. don't score runs in the dugout.

well, i think ambati rayuduhas the opportunity here. oh, that is close. that is close. that was a very good throw. i don't think rudi koertzen'sinterested in going up to the third umpire. he's a brave young player,this ambati rayudu. in by not too much. all right, this will tell you.

in now, by about fourinches, i take it. that's a brave call. that's a very,very, brave call. rudi koertzen obviouslygot a flight at 2:30 or something in the morning. view from the top there. mrf. 57 from 22 bowls is theview from there and the view from here.

duminy has got to show hiscaptain that he should have been sent out at this number. meanwhile, the chennaisuper kings are tightening the noose here. once again, rudi koertzentrusts his eyes. he's trying to hitagainst a turn. trying to hit against a turn. bit of turn spin therefor murali there, and i think he might have justdragged his foot back in.

if you have to choose a sideat the moment, you've got to be wearing yellow. wherever you're watching inchennai, the ipl didn't come home to you in 2008. it didn't in 2009. this might well be your year. i think what duminy is doing isensuring that rayudu has to go for just about every ball. duminy, 6 from 6.

rayudu, 20 from 12. the mumbai indians, the bestside in the ipl until today. today it's looking moreand more like the now how far has that gone? far enough. oh, oh, oh, oh-- well done. now then i'm sure the umpirewould want to take a look, but duminy is going. i think he's done extremelywell on the boundary.

the catching might well be thedifference between the two sides in this tournament. you're absolutely right,because they've taken some amazing catches. we just saw suresh rainatake a catch, and this is a very well-placed catch. the fielder came running infirst, and then he took it and there he is, yes, well insidethat advertising triangle. and murali there, he'sdelighted because

he struck a blow. it's 114 for 6 after 17 overs. kieron pollard comes in tobat with three overs left. a typical west indianstyle of taking guard. he will not only have to playout of his skin, i suspect he will have to play the finestt20 innings played to allow the mumbai indians to get back in. and he's up against oneof the bowlers of the ipl, doug bollinger.

two overs 1 for 5, so far. it's almost like saying,kieron pollard, you're an electrical appliance. we're switching you on. get moving. well, the big man started. not quite where he intended togo, but he is up and running. yeah, there's a slipin a position. i'm not too sure that'srequired at the moment because

what kieron pollard is going todo is not going to try and open the pace of the bat. he's going to try and do this. he's going to try and playfour hand shots, and if he connects it's goingto go out of the ground. if he gets a ticket, it'sgoing to be for a boundary. and that's why now, mahendrasingh dhoni has moved that slip fielder to mid-wicket,and that makes sense. well, this is theduminy dismissal.

watch for jakati hereon the boundary. now the momentum istaking him back. hop, hop, hop. well done. round the wicket. a good line. if i find a word to describethat i will come up with one. that is massive. i think it's got to be thebiggest sixer that we've seen

in this year's dlf ipl. look at that. it's short. he was waiting for it. he's hit it like a tennisshot, and this guy is not a slow bowler. he is slippery. and look where the ball's gone. almost on the third floor.

magnificent! begs the question again, whywas he sitting in the dugout? i guess just to makethe match interesting. i'm not sure a lot of peoplein the ground are too interested in that. 107 meters, we think it is. 107 meters to that point. it will take [unintelligible] about 10 seconds to get there.

he wants to come back. the throw is on its way. it's not good. 12 from 3. 43 from 15. the dy patil stadium is packed. i'm sure all of you arewatching, wherever you are. bollinger, around the wicket. in the gap.

the boundary deploying. i did say, he's anelectrical appliance. you turn him on. well, they turned him on. 16 from 4. well, the maximum runs scoredin the last field was by changing side. in all ipl games it's 46 by. the chennai super kings versusthe kings xi punjab at

dharamshala not too long ago. now, can the mumbaiindians do it? and win it? from an asking rate of 18,plus it's come down to 16.71. the problem, though, is forthe mumbai indians to win it, they need a magic wand. you don't want to getinto that situation. back to over the wicket. good save by dhoni.

rayudu wants a single. bollard says, i'm the guy whohits it out of the ground. now ambatu rayudu canalso hit the ball. maybe not with the sameferocious power that kieron pollard can, but obviously,kieron pollard just set upon himself to take as manydeliveries as he can. 13 deliveries left. well, suni, just to put itin perspective, pollard has made 16 from 5below the asking rate.

they need 18 and over so heneeds another big one still, just to make it a plus over. chennai super kings, what'scoming up for you here? that's another one. that has gone deep. so 22 runs. 136 for 6. the dy patil stadiumhas come alive. this game is alive, but onlyjust for the mumbai indians.

33 from 12. you still want to bein the yellow camp. but 22 have comein the last over. now the mumbai indians needanother similar over. all the chennai super kingsneed is for albie morkel to bowl the over of his life. pollard. that is the last ballof the bollinger over. bollinger has given 22 runs.

jakati has got one over left. will they take a chance withhim or will they stick to bollinger, who has bowledso well for them? 61 boundaries and 58sixes in 51 t20 games. pollard at the non-striker,then stays there. what a big ball this is. it's really now ballby ball by ball. 33 from 11. stephen fleming in thedugout trying to calm.

dwayne bravo between overs hasrun all the way out, had a word with pollard, and runall the way back. he's not playing. that's smashed away. he'll get a couple, no? pollard says no. you stay there, young man. i will take the strike. why not?

he's full of confidence. ambati rayudu is saying i'vegot that in my hand as well. pollard is probablysaying, i'm the beast. 32 in 10. irrespective of what happens,this ipl final has delivered storms raging around the ipl. cricket is stillpulling it back. well, the important thingis that the finals needed a match like this.

you did not want a match whichwas going to be one-sided, so this is great stuff. for all those over here, thosewatching in the living rooms, those watching in thetheaters, this is the kind of match that they want. and yet the mumbai indians'supporters will say, 17 overs in the one chase. pollard was warming the dugout. don't put your hands to it.

don't put your handsto it because this is a family channel. the ball would have takethe hands of the boundary. did he get thechance to see it? i don't know. it was hit so hard he was,in fact, trying to duck. he wasn't eventrying to catch it. he's trying to duck. 28 from 9.

you don't want more than 15. 14, 15 in the last over. still daunting. now, what is he goingto do with the field. remember, four inside thecircle mandates [? trick. ?] point, cover, mid-off andmid-wicket is now going the head of the circle. well, the mid-off has got to beone of the straightest mid-offs that you've ever seen.

he's virtually behind thebowler as he starts his run-up. that's because pollard hitsthe bowl so straight. there is nobody on the leg sidebehind the square leg umpire. top ball. every ball gold. even, suni, long-off andlong-on very, very straight because they know thatpollard doesn't go across or mid-wicket. he hits straight.

28 from 8. the chennai super kingsare fighting back. two excellent deliveriesfrom albie morkel. they've been in a final before. they've been in asemi-final before. three ipl's together. the chennai super kings haveto be the team of the ipl. but at the moment they want tosee the back of kieron pollard. rayudu is going to run that.

pollard the same ball. rayudu, cross overrayudu, and he does. and rayudu sacrifices. pollard wanted to be in strike. and rayudu has done brilliant. if there's one man who's goingto win it for the mumbai indians at all, it's pollard. but rayudu was actually runningback to save his skin. pollard said, get out.

rayudu did. good man. yes, that's teamspirit for you. that's a very good deliveryagain from albie morkel. a yorker, didn'tquite get all of it. rayudu says no, but pollardwants to get to the side again. it's important that somebodyhas to sacrifice, and rayudu does that. that is good team spirit.

it might still win mumbaiindians the game. it's 142 for 7. alright, tendulkar is thinking,are we going to get there? are we not? 27 from 7. now here's the dilemma. pollard is in strike. rayudu, they want a six off it. that'll put zaheer in strike.

they want to leave aslittle as possible. this has been an excellentover from albie morkel. whatever happens from now, thismight well be the over that changes it, because he'sgot under the asking rate. what he doesn't want is awide that beats dhoni. just think, those last threedeliveries, last three deliveries might haveswung it chennai's way. has he caught it? yes, he has.

matthew hayden has done very,very little of note in the last few games in the ipl. now he blocks one, and surelythis is the game now. and don't forgetmahendra singh dhoni. he kept that fielder there. very straight. have a look at wherethe fielder is. almost behind the bowler. there is a long-off as well.

that is brilliant. brilliant captaincy. that's a brilliant,brilliant catch. but give credit to that man. mahendra singh dhoni. the danger man is out. 142 for 8. the dlf ipl is cominghome to [unintelligible] and there will be celebrationson [unintelligible]

soon. it's going to end in awhimper, i'm afraid. 27 from 5. bollinger to zaheer. and the captain of the chennaisuper kings will get stopped at a traffic light again and theywill speak to him in tamil as the person who brings home thedlf ipl after being so near and yet so far twice. what do you mean he'll bestopped at a traffic light?

there will be notraffic light for him. he can go through anywhere. just taking it from somethinghe told me about the presentation, suni. a little inside edge. now dhoni says 27 from 4. tendulkar'smagnificent campaign. spare a thought for him. tendulkar's magnificentcampaign in the ipl is coming

to an end for the mumbaiindians, the best team going into the semi-finals, the bestteam entering the final, but that's what a big day does. the chennai super kings won thetoss, and i think suresh raina was their man of the day. they can run all they want. zaheer and malinga. there will be a run out, asinevitably happens when two fast bowlers are runningthe sharp single.

and another wicket goes down. there really wasn't asecond man over there. the ball had gone straightto that fielder. it was a question of justgetting thrown easily. and that's what he's done. look where the batsman is. run out by a fair distance. mahendra singh dhoni doesn'teven really bother to appeal. he knows that topples.

and a finger will be up. 143 for 9. they're starting thecelebrations in the dugout. the chennai super kings onlyjust slipped into the semi-finals, but they'rethe team for the day. yes, neat. it's a single. that's not good enough. just a formality of acouple of deliveries left.

their campaign was almost gone. they needed to win six of theirlast seven matches to make it, and they have done it. complete contrast to themood in the other dugout. for 15 games, there wasjoy in that dugout. not anymore in themumbai indians camp. duminy still with his pads on. mclaren, bravo, they'veall had their moments. he might have got himout twice, actually.

was it a chance? i think it was. in and out. just goes to show thisis a great level. they took a superb catchat deep mid-wicket to get rid of saurabh tiwary. and now this one, asimple one, in and out. ok, all you chennai super kingsfans, wherever you are in the world, get set toraise the flag.

cheer along. raise your banners. enjoy the moment. you've been the best team inthe ipl over three years and the best team this year. dougie bollinger. it doesn't matter whathappens on this ball. it doesn't matter ifthere's going to be a run out challenge.

no one cares anymore becausethe chennai super kings are champions of the dlf ipl 2010. and who's to say? absolutely deserving champions. they've been the betterside on the big day, suni, they have been, indeed. in fact, their last two matchesthey have been outstanding. dharamshala, they were lookingdown the barrel and then their skipper, mahendra singhdhoni, played a blinder.

not to badrinath's contributionin that game as well. and then badrinath againgave them 30 extra runs in the semi-finals. they won that easily,defended a small total. and here now, 168 their score,which is not a big total. their last scoring,something similar. first year, 163 for 5. they lost that. so they would have been just alittle bit apprehensive when

they took the field becausethey knew that mumbai indians had a good, strongbatting lineup. they've had many heroes,the chennai super kings. murali vijay, a hero. suresh raina has been a hero. ravichandran ashwinhas been magnificent. the turn around came with thearrival of dougie bollinger, who was excellentwith the new ball. but the captain has stoodby their side, and he

was magnificent today. mahendra singh dhoni has got22 for 15 and then rotated his bowlers beautifully. got the left hand spinnerinto the right-handers. got the two offspinners in early. and if ever a side deservedto win the ipl, here it is. the men in yellow have done it. subramaniam badrinathhas had his moments. shadab jakati has had acouple of good games.

murali has risen to theoccasion, rediscovering his form just when needed. the chennai super kings,champions of the dlf ipl 2010, and the celebrations willcontinue for a long time. they've come to mumbai, to navimumbai, to dy patil, and what is virtually a home ground forthe mumbai indians, they have conquered the ipl. yes, it has been a superb winfor the chennai super kings. but spare a thought forthat man sachin tendulkar.

what a tournament he has had. he almost pulled it off forthe mumbai indians this time around as well. but he fell just a little bitshort, just a little bit short. still shaking handsleft handed. remember, fivestitches in his hand. now to savor the moment, let'sgo down to danny morrison. hi guys, you're in thethick of it down here. so, murali, doesn'tget any better.

guys got to the final. came second to therajasthan royals. how you feeling rightnow winning it? yeah, last year, one ball lostto the rajasthan royals, but this is an amazing win. and the team,everyone collective. suresh raina was special, so ithink it's a special occasion for chennai, and we're goingto party a lot today. fabulous that the techniqueand the strategy was

to play more spinners. happy with that, obviously. yeah, because we had a lot ofspinners in the camp, so dhoni thought that it was going tohelp the spinners and always starts with the spinners, so ithink this strategy worked for us. what about your coaching staff? you've got a kiwi, gotan aussie, you've got a local indian.

how has the felt? how has that worked for you? well, yeah, we'vegot all flavors-- because not only this, itcarries every sri lankans, indians, everything. so i think, they areexperienced players. some are young players. i think everyone get togetherand i think did this tournament because, one chance.

i think all said, beyond it allthen, we know, we don't have a chance to come inthe final event. so we played really wellthe last three matches and won the tournament. hey, you've got to goout and celebrate. have a big one. we're thinking of you. thank you, man. yes, murali said they willparty all night, and i

promise you they will. not just here, but back inchennai as well, where i'm sure a magnificent celebrationawaits the super kings. 146. they've won by 22 runs. and danny morrisonis busy down there. vijay, very, very happy withthe whole tournament for you. can't forget aboutthat massive innings. and, of course, what doesthis mean to you winning?

it's really special, actually. no words, actually. we worked really hard forthe past two months, and it just paid off today. what about that inningsconfidence, 127? now you're taking-- you'reinto sehwag's position. how does that feel? no, actually. actually, i really feel bad.

because virender sehwag is myidol, so obviously, i want him to get well soon. but it's my dream actually,to play in the world cup, so obviously i've gotan opportunity now. just to prove my thing. what about someone like asteven fleming helping out as coach of thissuper kings outfit? absolutely. he's a great humanbeing, actually.

and he worked reallyhard with us. it's a good thing for him. good thing happened for him. and you, personally,take on us your win. you're off to the caribbean. you're going to change anythingby going to play there? just get the confidencegoing and just go there and see the ball hitted. have a good one.

celebrate hard! thanks a lot. cheers! yes, and he will now. lots of questions in this card. abhishek nayar at three, afterrayudu had been batting three for a long time. he struggled a bit. 27 from 26, might havebeen run out a few times.

too much pressure ontendulkar early on. he made 48, held theinnings together. then tiwary, duminy. bollard only camein at the end. he had 22 from his first fiveballs, finished 27 from 10. duminy 6 from 7 and really,146 for 9 from 20 overs. two 16 overs. they were neck and neck. i think the 100 from thelast eight overs turned the

tide in chennai's favor. i think the catching madethe big difference. raina put down twice andlook how close it was. that's over number 15, which iswhere the take-off point was for the chennai super kings. and just a little close, theblue one around over number 18, when kieron pollard took22 of dougie bollinger. but the chennai super kingseventually held their nerve. it was just one littlemoment that was going

to turn it their way. ashwin, four overs with 24. morkel, threeovers, one for 20. how good was that 19thover from albie morkel. murali on the bigday, one for 17. let's go down once againto danny morrison. thanks, harshi. it's hard to gethold of these guys. they want to charge aroundand get back to the dressing

room and celebrate. albie morkel, thingshave been a bit up and down for ipl for you. but the batting's been quitegood, the bowling's been ok. but you saved yourbest for last. how are you feeling? obviously, an awesomefeeling, you know. been here before. ipl1, we lost the final.

and to be on the winning sidetonight is an absolutely amazing feeling. you know, the team reallyworked hard throughout the whole tournament. like you said, i mean, wewere a bit inconsistent but we won when it mattered. what about, you know,that last over u-ball? the nerves, how werethey jangling? luckily, they neededquite a lot.

i think they needed like50 for the last three. and when dougie went,obviously, my heart also skipped a few beats. but i had my plan, what iwanted to do, you know. i was always going to bowlwide to him, and lucky it worked for me. that guy pollard hitsit a long way, eh? like from a one, eh. that's a serious talent.

and well done, team. i think he's played someamazing cricket in this tournament. congratulations! thanks, man. just to emphasize themultinational age of the chennai super kings, dannymorrison's been talking to a sri lankan, an indian,and a south african. this is what all chennaifans are going to look at

for a long, long time. 168 for five. remember 100 came inthe last eight overs. raina, 57. vijay, 26. dhoni, 22 from 15. and the mumbai indians in therace for a while until kieron pollard went 27 from 10, butwho came in dreadfully late. murali, on the big day, justshowing the importance

of experience. one for 17 from four overs,when the asking rate was eight and a half. raina, one for 21. we'll have to look very, very--someone would have to be out of their minds to look at a man ofthe match award away from him. change the match with thebatting, took a wicket, and took a sensational catch. right, danny morrison's neverworked harder in his life.

danny? i tell you what, it'sbusy, isn't it? loving it though. spoken to the players. had a catchup with them. venkatesh prasad, bowlingcoach, the coaching staff. what was said before the startof this final from your point of view as a bowling coach? obviously, we were allupbeat the whole game

and the atmosphere. we just wanted toenjoy the atmosphere. we knew that the crowd wasgoing to support mumbai indians, and there's not goingto be much support for us. but in other ways, you know,it's just planning and executing whateverwe had planned. i think that that's whatthe whole thing was. just going anddoing the process. and not worry about the result.

surface here prettymuch suited you. because the mumbai indianswent in with a bit more of a pace attack. you guys went in with spin. that was always goingto be the case? yeah, absolutely. i mean, see, we won the gameagainst deccan chargers in the semifinals with the threespinners and obviously on a slightly seaming track.

so we knew that there might be,you know, that the grass would have come off and probably thepitch would suit more for the spinners and so on. i mean, which was in thiscase, so it was good to have three spinners playing. and murali, obviously, we knowthat he's a top-class bowler, world-class bowler, so havinghim and a couple of other guys like ashwin and jakati i thinkdid the trick, i suppose. well done again.

celebrate hard, venki. [return___to___match___play___highlights] an lbw to suresh raina. now replay has suggested thatthat went straight on the face of the bat, wasn't given. meanwhile ambati rayuduhas come into join the group, and i thought heplayed magnificently. just suggesting that maybethe mumbai indians got the batting order wrong.

then tendulkar's effort ended. murali vijay takinga fine catch. did this change the game? suresh raina could do no wrong. then inexplicably, j.p. duminy came out aheadof kieron pollard. shadab jakati hoppingto enjoy with him. now, pollard came in. 22 of dougie bollinger's over.

little hope at this point,for the mumbai indians. and then, of course, sivawas celebrating with everybody else. he played some brilliant shots. good partnership with rayudu. but rayudu is unfortunateto be dismissed for now. but the fielding towards theend, i thought, did the trick and this might have beenthe turning point, a game setting match play.

never did you see a mid-offas straight as that. and then really, the bowler isrunning, the game is over, and just a formality isneeded to be completed. what'll it be likein chennai today? i think they'll be celebrating.it's a great moment. not only for the bunch of boysout here, but the franchisees will be extremely happy. they've been sponsoring cricketfor close to 50 years now. the chennai super king'sfranchisees are going to

be very, very happywith the result. so it turned out, chennai superkings winning the toss and deciding to bat first. at one stage,looked in trouble. but then suresh rainawas outstanding. good partnership with m.s. got 100 runs in thelast eight overs. there's always goingto be a good score on this pitch to defend.

mumbai indians, well, they got146 for nine, mainly because of tendulkar, and thenkieron pollard. in the end, the chennai superkings winning by 22 runs. we'll take a break then, and beback with the big presentation at the end of dlf ipl 2010. the winner's trophyis going to chennai. [announcer's break] [post-match___presentation___begins] well, ladies andgentlemen, welcome to the

post-match presentation. we've had a terrificmatch here today. a match that was worthy of afinal, and hence, players from both sides have to becongratulated for stepping up to the plate and doinga magnificent job. at the end of it all, it wasthe chennai super kings who came to the party today, put upa good score on the board, and towards the end of the gamewithstood an onslaught from kieron pollard.

and in spite of that onslaught,they went on to win their first ipl trophy. well, in the presentation partytoday, we've got mr. rajeev talwar, managing director, dlfbeverages, ltd.; mr. t.c. goyal, managing director, dlf,limited; mr. rajiv agarwal, cmd, maxx mobile; mr.sudhir hasija, chairman, karbonn mobiles; mrs.[? jotes nagovan ?] from the indian cancer society;mr. pradeep jain, managing director, karbonnmobiles; mr. n.

rajasekaran, country businessmanager, global consumer bank citi india; mrs. nita ambani,owner of the mumbai indians; mr. lalit modi, the chairmanand commissioner, ipl; mr. g.s. walia, the joint secretary ofthe punjab cricket association; mr. dayanand narvekar,president of the goa cricket association. plenty of awards tobe given tonight. but before all that, it's onlyfair that the chairman and chief commissioner of the ipl,lalit modi, says a few words.

people of india and fans ofthis glorious game, for many years i lived a dream thatindia could have a sports league that could be enviedby the whole world. i dreamt that a nationalpassion, cricket-- what captivates fansall over the world? as we conclude the thirdedition of the ipl journey, i stand here tonight filled withjoy and happiness of a dream realized. though the events on the groundhave been an outstanding

success, we have had someoff-field unpleasant dramas, only based on innuendos,half-truths, and motivated leaks from alltypes of sources. i assure you, all decisionshave been jointly taken by the governing council and approvedby the general body in both year one and two of the ipl. still, as leader of the team, ireassure you that if there is any flouting of the rules andregulations or any other irregularities, i shalltake full responsibility.

on this occasion, i reassuremillions of passionate fans of the league and the gameacross the globe that ipl is clean and transparent. with your support andblessings, we have attained worldwide recognition as one ofthe best sporting leagues ever. we should not allowthis [unintelligible] but must emerge much strongerthrough the process of sublimation. and we will, with the supportof millions and millions of

viewers and the greatest iconsof the game, along with some of the most promising, upcomingtalent, we shall carry it forward, and not allow itsvalue and image to be diminished. as the zen proverb said,the obstacle is our path. the ipl has faced manychallenges this season. it has not beenany easy journey. however, we have met thesechallenges face on, and not once has the team buckledunder the pressure.

i would like to thankmy incredible team and all [unintelligible] partners for the many thousandsof work hours and unwavering support and professionalismthat they have shown. thank you also to all theteams, players, media partners, sponsors, bcci members, iplgoverning council members, the government of all statesin executing this. all have played a hugepart in making the ipl what it is today.

many a things have beensaid in the last few weeks about the ipl. but i'm here as a humbleservant of the game and to administer to thebest of my abilities. as bhagavad gita says, "fearnot what is not real, never was and never will be. what is real always was andcannot be destroyed." all i wanted is to leave a smallfootprint in the glorious history of this game.

i thank my family, my children,who have stood by me through the trying times all theseyears and continuously to stay with me. i take strength from them. my final thank you is to you,the fans, all over the world. we missed you last year inindia, and it's wonderful to be back home. it is your passion, and this isthe reason we built the ipl. your passion that sustainus and your passion

that enriches us. this is not just theindian premier league. it is the indian people league. i humbly dedicate my dreamsto all the fans of this wonderful country. lalit modi, the chairman andchief commissioner of the ipl. now it's time for the awards. and the first award as always,the dlf maximum sixes award, and it'll be given bymr. rajeev talwar,

managing director dlfdevelopers limited. and the man todayis suresh raina. [applause] the award has changed alittle over the years in terms of how it works. this year it was the man in thematch that hit the most sixes. and in this case itwas suresh raina. sometimes if there are equalnumbers then they're judged by the distance of the six hit.

well i'll now request thewinning captain to sign the match ball and hand it to thevodafone star of the match, mr. [unintelligible] well we will havea chat with m.s. dhoni later on. the next award it is the maxxmobile man of the match award, and it's given by mr. aijayagarwal, the cmd of maxx mobile. and once again it's sureshraina will go up and

pick up the award. now the match trophyand a check as well. an amazing all aroundperformance from suresh this evening. runs, wickets, catches. just about everything you canthink of in a game of cricket. if you can manage allthat suresh, would you come and have a chat. you want to put them down or--yeah, pick it up in a minute.

well, what a night. we won it finally. i think [unintelligible] goes to our staff. they have done somuch hard work. all the staff i mean. [unintelligible phrase] i think it's a team game,i think i'm really happy for the team right now.

i don't know whether you'reperspiring or whether you've got a tear in your eye. not really i think it'sbeen a great year for us. i think we performedreally well. all the players they areputting all 100% effort. i think by the grace of god ithink it's been really nice. if you had to sum up thisevening in one word-- the whole evening-- whatwould that word be? fantastic.

thank you very muchand congratulation. well suresh raina, theman of the match. well during the season you'vewatched fans catching pink balls between theinnings of every match. karbonn have donated $25,000 apiece at every match during the ipl for the fantasticcatch the pink initiative. i would now like to invite mr.sudhir hasija, chairman of karbonn mobiles, to presentmrs. [unintelligible] from the indian cancer societywith a check which will go

towards breast cancercare and research. well i'd now like to invite mr.pradeep jain, managing director of karbonn mobile, topresent the king karbonn kamal catches award. the winner is andrew symondsfrom the deccan chargers. unfortunately, he'snot here tonight. 12 catches for him. to receive the award on hisbehalf, it'll be pragyan ojha. andrew symonds had a fantastictournament in the field and not

a bad one with the bat either. 12 catches as you heard, and hecaught them in the deep, in the circle, and a couple ofreally good [unintelligible] balls. well i'd now liketo invite mr. n. rajasekaran, country businessmanager of global consumer banks in india to present theciti under-23 success of the tournament award. and that goes to saurabhtiwary of the mumbai indians.

he's had a wonderfultournament, missed out today, but a player forthe future for india. this winner is chosen by mansurali khan pataudi, sunil gavaskar, and ravi shastri. and he has had afantastic tournament. four maximum sixes awards, 419runs, three 50s, hit a strike, and overall a strikerate of 135.6. many congratulations. well i'd now like to invite mr.lalit modi, chairman and

commissioner of ipl, to presentthe fly kingfisher fair play award and it goes to thecaptain of the chennai super kings, m.s. 140 points from 14 matches. and i'd now like to ask mrs.neeta ambani, owner of the mumbai indians, to present theorange cap, and it goes to the captain, sachin tendulkar. well now it's the time for thepurple cap for the highest wicket taker in thistournament, and i'd like to

invite mr. vijay reddy, ownerof the deccan chargers to give that purple capto pragyan ojha. pragyan ojha, 20wickets in the series. 51 overs he bowled for 380runs and averaging 19, and a run rate per overof his bowling 7.45. he also took his 150thwicket in all ipls during this tournament. pragyan, well done. thank you so much.

it's just a pitty your teamdidn't do just a little bit better, but it's verynice that you've been recognized in this way? yeah it's good that i got theaward, but it would have been better if we qualifiedfor the finals. did you know that that's thethird time a left-arm orthodox spinner has won this award? no i didn't. well it is and manycongratulations.

well now i'd liketo invite mr. t.c. goyal, the managing directorof dlf limited to present the dlf golden player award. and that golden player awardfor having an outstanding tournament is sachin tendulkar. well i'd now like to invite thematch officials with their watches, on-field umpires,simon taufel and rudi koertzen, third umpire, s. ravi, fourth umpire[unintelligible]

[? vandekar ?] and match referee,srinivas venkataraghavan. on to the stage please. well i'd now like to askmr. [unintelligible] president of the[unintelligible] association, to present therunners-up check to the captain of the losingteam, sachin tendulkar. yes he should be proud of histeam tonight, that won the league, played outstandingcricket, but on the given day

it was the chennai super kings. sachin, tough luck. a hard one to swallow, butat least you competed. yes, i mean i thought to startwe probably-- a couple of important catches cost us. as they say, catches winmatches, so that's when we sort of faltered a bit and then thestarters [unintelligible] we could have accelerated alittle bit [unintelligible] but not always you know itcomes through and it's just

one of those tough daysthat we had today. but i want to take thisopportunity to thank all the mumbai indians supporters. they've been fabulous. i really appreciate yoursupport, and i want to thank on behalf of our team. now you had your chances todayeven in the chase because 168 was a very good score. but you had your moments thereas well when you were chasing.

yes, as i said, at the start wecould have accelerated a little bit more, but we were not ableto execute our plans to what we had discussed. but towards the endpollard came in. it was a bit too late i felt. and then in between if wehadn't lost, we could have accelerated a little bit. it would have made thedifference, but something where i felt that we faultedwas a [? feeling. ?]

now overall you had avery good tournament. personally as well. how has been the last sevenweeks, traveling with the mumbai indians, you won theleague stage and reached the final for the first time? the journey was fantastic. to travel aroundwith youngsters. some of the youngsters areextremely talented and they've really done well.

then there's some experiencedplayers who've chipped in every now and then. and towards the end ofthe tournament a special effort by pollard. so it's been a terrificjourney, and i've thoroughly enjoyed being part of this teamand it's a true honor to be part of mumbai indians[unintelligible] i'd like to thank the supportstaff, the owners for backing us, and their effortwas tremendous.

right from the end of thesecond night here we started our work and broughtthe team together. so there was a lot of hardwork behind putting a combination together. and i want to thank everyonebecause it's been especially for us, barring today. at 37 you still have theenthusiasm of a youngster. do we look forward to seeingyou again next year? looking forward to it?

it's been a terrific tournamentthis year, and yes, most likely i will be playing thenext year as well. it's been fun. i've enjoyed and cricket hasalways been a lot of fun. sachin tendulkar, manycongratulations for winning that league. unfortunate to missout on the final. congratulations for thatorange cap as well and thanks for the entertainment.

thank you very much, and i'dlike to congratulate the chennai super kings forhaving won the tournament. you deserve it. you played better than ustoday and congratulations. sachin tendulkar, the captainof the mumbai indians. now i'd like to invite themembers of the mumbai indians side to come up and collecttheir medals, please. the entire squad can go up. sachin, if you couldlead your squad up the

collect the medals. so off they go,sachin tendulkar. presenting that medal. young saurabh tiwary who'shad such a good tournament. duminy, ambati rayadu, zaheerkhan, abhishek nayar, lasith malinga, dilhara fernando,harbhajan singh, kieron pollard who has caught the imaginationof everyone, dwayne bravo, ryan mclaren, and shikhar dhawan. well it's the time forthe winning captain to

have a chat with us. m.s., all three years in thesemi finals, second time in the final, you've done it today. of coure, i think thecredit goes to the team. we have played reallywell throughout. we were [unintelligible] in the middle of thetournament, but i think the way we bounced back is remarkable. the support staff theygave us what was needed.

we practiced really welland hard in chennai. i think the credit goesto the franchise, the owners [unintelligible] we're having a tough time. he said, no we all know youwill go to the semi-finals. i said i'm not so sure aboutit, but how come you are? so he said, no no, the team isdoing well and we'll do well, so the credit goes to him togive us that kind of confidence.

and overall [? can say ?] excited to liftthe trophy today. today, what was goingthrough your mind? once you won the toss,you said you'd take 160. you got 168. you'd be happy with that? of course we were because atthe end of the day the mumbai so we were expecting himto start [unintelligible] along with ashwin has donea real good job for us

so once that happens and[unintelligible phrase] keep on building up thepressure and there are not many of them that can reallydeal with pressure, apart from sachin tendulkar. and they have quite bighitters down the order. if they get going you'll losethe game [unintelligible] [? overs, ?] but at the end of the day it'sall about handling pressure. and i think we were able tocreate the kind of pressure

in which we got wickets. talking of handling pressure,what made you make that feeling change? you got matthew haydenat [unintelligible] right on the edgeof the circle. you had a long goal. you don't see that too often. not really, but if you see thebig hitters of the world who are powerful hitters, theydon't really sweep or reverse

sweep, so i said ok what'sthe point having a short down the ground and[unintelligible phrase] if he doesn't get the elevationright, he can always go to the [unintelligible] i've tried it beforewith matthew hayden. it was in the practice gamethat we had right at the start of the tournament. so it was just the thinking andit was one day it really worked for us, you can say so.

no rocket science. i just thought maybe[unintelligible] help us and it didin this game. it's just another game. you're being very modest. you know you've clinched it. now tell me the lastsix weeks, enjoyable traveling with this team? well of course i think thiswas the season that really

brought us together. the first season of course wegelled up very well as a team, but still we were not spendingenough time together. but it's really good[unintelligible] and george bailey and dougbollinger coming in and knowing each other really well, and wespent quite a time together. doing stuff in the room andcelebrating in the bar down in the itc hotel. so i think it was a great 45days for us, but quite sad

because we'll be losingplayers the next year. it's a fresh option. i don't know how many playerswe're going to retain and all. but guys it was really goodmeeting you all, and hopefully if we can get the same team, itwould very good for us, but i think definitely we'llmiss some of the players. you played in allthe three ipls. where does this ipl stand? well it gets better and better.

every time you play ipl youthink, oh that's big, but at the end up the day, the nextseason, you come and you say ok i could've done better so ithink the benchmark keeps on raising so so i don't know whatit will be like next year with two more teams in. definitely there'll be a bitmore pressure on the players and they'll expect abit more with two more franchises coming in. a lot more number of games,which means we'll be playing

more [unintelligible] games quite often. so it is a demanding[unintelligible]. at the end of the day,you have pressure from the franchises also. so i think it will be exciting. i think the pressure will be onthe [unintelligible phrase] because i think you just haveto raise the bar every time. well m.s.

dhoni, many congratulations. you are the champions of ipl 3. i'd like you to go upand collect the medals with your team. well the team will go firstand m.s. will follow last. request the team to go up. the captain will go last. suresh raina can lead the way. come on suresh.

oh it's matthew hayden. and there they go, thechennai super kings. they played as a unit and somevery, very good performances. hayden, murali vijay. badrinath who's had anoutstanding tournament as well. young anirudha srikanth playedin the semi-finals and finals and did his reputationno harm whatsoever. they're all getting a bat. and doug bollingerthere as well.

he's had a good tournament. they're getting the batsfrom mr. lalit modi. so the chennai super kingscollecting their medallions and now is the time for the captainto go up and collect his medal, plus the check, and the trophyfrom mr. lalit modi, the chairman and commissionerof the ipl. and i'd like the teammates togo up on stage as well and enjoy the moment, with thetrophy, which will now be presented to m.s.

dhoni by mr. lalit modi. so the team can go up now andjoin in the celebrations. three times in the semi-finals. twice in the finals. and it's second time luckyfor the men in yellow and a great scene here, chenniasuper kings winning the ipl trophy for the first time. well it's been a great sixweeks of cricket here and this year's ipl.

we finally come to an end. and it's the chennaisuper kings who won ipl 3 on this day. and that's all from thepresentation area. we hope you've enjoyedevery moment of it. so 45 days, 60 games,12 [? grounds, ?] a television crew of more than200 people from almost every cricketing nation in theworld and some beyond. we have had an absolutelyfantastic time

bringing you the ipl. it's been a tournament that'sheld everyone's attention from the day it started on the 12thof march, but it's produced some very, very highquality cricket. and after all that, thereis one champion team that fought the odds. they went through a stage wherenobody gave them a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. they had to win six out oftheir last seven games, and

now don't they make avery happy picture. the chennai super kings arethe dlf indian premier league champions for 2010. and they did more things right. it is a position that everyother team will envy, not the least the mumbai indians whoput out a magnificent campaign only to finish second. in the years to come, hopefullythe dlf ipl has become a bigger tournament.

enjoyed bringing it to you. but for the moment, it'stime to say goodbye from the dy patil stadium. up and away until next year. [music]