IPL 2012 Highlights

Indian Premier League is considered to be the greatest of all county crickets organized all over the world. With great players, umpires, referees, commentators and spectators from all over the world, IPL has achieved its maximum this year with full of greatest moments and also some flops and bad events. Let’s have a look at the statistics and some interesting facts of 5^th edition of IPL.

Under estimated KKR has bagged the IPL 2012 Trophy (Champions)

Defending champions CSK finds second spot in IPL 2012 (Runners)

DLF Golden Player of IPL 2012 - Sunil Narine (KKR) 

Citi Rising Star in IPL 2012 - Mandeep Singh (Kings XI Punjab)

IPL 2012 –Overview:

IPL 2012 has 76 matches with 22,453 runs with 732 super sixes and 12,036 boundaries in its account. This includes 96 fifties and the longest six is 112 meters by M.S.Dhoni.

From bowling perspective, 857 wickets have been taken with 6241 dot balls and 154 kmph by Dale Steyn being the fastest ball of the tournament. This tournament has seen 29 balls with 150+ kmph, most of which delivered by Shaun Tait.

Murali Vijay (CSK) has become the first Indian cricketer to score two IPL centuries.  

Orange Cap:

The highest run getter of this tournament is rewarded with Orange Cap. Chris Gayle (RCB) won this award with 733 runs off 15 matches at an average of 61. He is the highest individual scorer of IPL 2012 and also hits maximum number of sixes (59).

•  Chris Gayle (RCB) – 733 runs
• Gautam Gambhir (KKR) – 590 runs
• Shikhar Dhawan (DC) – 569 runs

Highest Strike-Rates:

• David Warner (DD) – 164.10  (256 runs)
• Virender Sehwag (DD) – 161.23 (495 runs)
• AB de Villiers (RCB) – 161.11 (319 runs)

Purple Cap: 

The highest wicket taker of this tournament is rewarded with Purple Cap. Morne Morkel (DD) bagged this cap with 25 wickets in 16 matches at an average of 18.12.

• Morne Morkel (DD) – 25 wickets
• Sunil Narine (KKR) - 24 wickets
• Lasith Malinga (MI) – 22 wickets

Best Bowling Figures:

• Ravindra Jadeja (CSK) – 5/16 (4 overs)
• Sunil Narine (KKR) - 5/19 (4 overs)
• Dimitri Mascarenhas (Kings XI) - 5/25 (4 overs)

Best Economy Rate:

• Sunil Narine (KKR) – 5.47
• Dale Steyn (DC) – 6.10
• Lasith Malinga (MI) – 6.30

Most number of maiden overs was bowled Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Praveen Kumar (3 overs each).

Fairplay Award:

• Rajasthan Royals (Rahul Dravid)

• Kings XI Punjab (Adam Gilchrist \ David Hussey)

• Deccan Chargers (Kumara Sanagakkara \ Cameron White)

CSK in IPL-2012 Play-offs

Once again Chennai Super Kings have made it to the playoffs, with a little help from Deccan Chargers. Since their 16th and final league game on Thursday, a defeat to Kings XI Punjab, Super Kings’ fate depended on three other results. Everything had gone in positive way to Chennai, but RCB remains rival till the end. It was a do or die match for RCB and it was expected to make it to playoff as the opposition team is considered to be underdog of IPL-2012. The beginning went in favour of RCB picking up all the crucial wickets of Deccan in quick session but Duminy single—handedly took the attack to the opposition and sent the bowlers for a leather hunt to rack up runs in quick time. With the strong batting line up, a target of 133 runs seemed to be so simple for RCB until Dale Steyn produced a fiery pace bowling spell of three for just eight runs which includes dangerous Chris Gayle and his opening partner Tillakaratne Dilshan. So finally in the 5^th edition of IPL, defending champions Chennai Super Kings go through the play—offs stage, along with table—toppers Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians. CSK is the only team who has made to the semi finals so far.

Australian Open 2012 - Historic Match

Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open with 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 against Rafael Nadal.in a match that lasted 5hr 53min. The breathless 32-stroke rally, at 5-4 in the final set drew a standing ovation from the crowd. Novak has spent 11 hours of past 54 hours in the court and everyone is amazed by his athletic performance and stamina.

The match didn’t have much heat in the opening set even though set it lasted long and the next two sets had been more or less one-way traffic. Then, in the fourth set, just when Nadal looked to be on his way home, the Spaniard pounced. From 3-4 and 0-40 down in that set, Nadal exploded into action. At one occasion, both looked very tired still played hard and neither of them were ready to give up the title. At two sets all and 4-4 and deuce, Djokovic won the last eight points of the set, the last four on Nadal's serve which helped him to seal the trophy.

Everyone could find extreme tiredness in his body and his eyes staring glassily into the distance. It was the face of a man who had exhausted all his inner reserves. But he should have been extremely satisfied as he had just delivered one of the greatest sporting performances of the age. Nadaal should be the most frustrated man at this point as his hard work went in vain. Still he should be proud of giving a strong opposition and for making this game as one of the immemorable for everyone.

Post match in the presentation ceremony, Novak expressed that he is playing against one of the greatest players ever. And also admitted that Nadal is mentally strong, and he always comes up with his best game and best shots at the right moments. But still when he was 4‑2 down, he pushed himself up to the limit. Hope everyone might have watched this match and for those who missed it, below is the match summary in detail.

Rahul Dravid leads Rajastan Royals

Rahul dravid “The Wall” named captain of Rajastan Royals team in IPL after Australian legend spinner Shane Warne announced his retirement. This year has been amazing for Dravid who scored 1,258 runs in 15tests with the help of 6 centuries and also received ‘Poly Umrigar Award for India’s best cricketer of 2010-2011’ by BCCI. Dravid was congratulated by ex-captain Shane Warne on his appointment. Dravid feels Rajastan Royals squad is full of energetic and talented players who know their roles. Let us congratulate Dravid who proves himself in all formats of game and started hitting sixes often in test cricket too. He is the only cricketer in the world who faced more than 5000 overs in test cricket.

Bushcraft Courses

From ancient days to till date i.e., modern days the physical structure of man does not possess much change but his mind structure and the ways he thinks which ultimately changes the whole setup of the world has found a tremendous change. Even after getting everything to lead sophisticated life, we are still not able to lead a tension-free life style and hence people are so excited to experience our ancestor lifestyle. But straight away we cannot not adapt ourselves to the wildlife moreover as we are not fully aware of the same. But it is not a big issue anymore as we can get the whole details about it from bushcraft courses. First let me brief you what does Bushcraft mean. It can be stated as a range of skills, practices, ethics and even a way of thinking to survive and flourish in the natural environment. It includes Wood craft, Making Bow, Fire craft, Shelter Building, Tracking, Hunting, Woodland Management, Friction Fire Lighting, Wood craft, Knife Making, Bow Making and the list goes on. People feel that that learning traditional techniques and skills like this to live within the natural-world gives them a sense of self-achievement and self-reliance. 

The bushcraft courses starts with introduction to rough-country travel and wilderness survival and then covers the entire skills from camp crafts, knife-handling to star-craft navigation and water harvesting. They also provide bush craft equipments for learning and practice. The equipments are manufactured in a perfect way with which we can easily get our needs for our wild life experience. In ancient days, axe has its unique hypnotic feature and respect which attracts everyone. But now no one knows how to handle it. That is why Ray Mears have manufactured gransfors axe which has the magic quality of weight and length that can be felt only while using. It has the right weight balanced with the right length of handle made up of high standard steel. One good thing about it is there’s no need to sharpen them frequently and also fit the head very well to the helve.

The activities coming under bushcraft courses are not so safe. People are exposed to lot of vulnerabilities during the course and hence first aid courses are mandatory. In the midway if someone met with an accident we can’t wait for someone to help. The courses focus on teaching how to deal with the variety of risks that the natural environment brings with it.

ICC Rankings & Awards – 2011

Alastair Cook is Test Cricketer of the Year 

Jonathan Trott has been named ICC Cricketer of the Year 2011

Bishoo named Emerging Player of the Year

Aleem Dar named best umpire for the third consecutive year

Dhoni leads ODI team of the year

Dhoni wins Spirit of Cricket award

Sangakkara named ODI Cricketer of the Year

Southee wins award for best Twenty20 performance

Stafanie Taylor wins Women's Cricketer award

ten Doeschate wins Associate award again

England dominate ICC Test team of the year

  

ICC TEST Championship:

 

Team	Matches	Points	Rating
England	37	4634	125
South Africa	21	2469	118
India	37	4336	117
Sri Lanka	23	2486	108
Australia	27	2692	100
Pakistan	24	2245	94
West Indies	23	2039	89
New Zealand	19	1485	78
Bangladesh	12	94	8

  

ICC ODI Championship:

Team	Matches	Points	Rating
Australia	30	3894	130
Sri Lanka	28	3327	119
South Africa	19	2197	116
India	33	3743	113
England	29	3220	111
Pakistan	28	2820	101
New Zealand	22	1973	90
West Indies	19	1475	78
Bangladesh	26	1648	63
Zimbabwe	26	1165	45
Ireland	12	492	41
Netherlands	8	87	11
Kenya	6	0	0