Valthaty, the new Rising Star of IPL 2011

Paul Chandrasekhar Valthaty was in the U 19 Indian team, along with Stuart
Binny and Irfan Pathan. Then he had an eye injury and fought back
magnificently for form. Now he is at par with Sachin as the highest scorer
in IPL 2011, 201 runs ! It seems he is a good find for India. Bats well, his
shots are fearless and bowls useful medium pace.

With his two balls, Praveen Kumar took 2 wickets, trapping Aniruddha
Srikanth for a duck and then forcing Raina to lobby it to a fielder. A two
wicket maiden !

Then Murali Vijay and Badrinath took the Chennai to score 124, a century
partnership of 124, when Vijay was out for 74, with six fours and four
sixes. Then Dhoni hit two sixes in a blistering 43. Badrinath remained not
out with 66.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man and the man of the hour was Paul Valthaty.
In a swashbuckling innings of 120 not out off just 63, Valthaty lofted
Punjab to victory. With Gilchrist, he put on 61. Stuart Marsh was out when
the score was 100. Then Sunny Singh, after some lusty blows got out for 20,
when the score was 136/3. Valthaty dominated the hapless Chennai bowlers
and pulled, hooked and cut them with ease. As long as he was there, it was
Punjab, Punjab all the way. Dhoni could not do anything but watch
helplessly. A catch was let go by Dhoni !

Tim Southee then trapped Abhishek Nayar lbw for a duck and Punjab were
136/4 ! Then Dinesh Karthik joined Valthaty. Valthaty continued to impress
and became the fourth player in the IPL to score a hundred, after M Pandey,
M Vijay and Y Pathan !Then D Karthik played a cameo and when 2 were needed
to win, he lofted one into the stands for six and the match was over !

Punjab won by six wickets.

Gilchrist won the toss and took fielding and restricted DC to 165. We have
seen chase of 183 yesterday, a successful chase, by Kochi. So 166 is not a
great score by any means.

Now Punjab are 96/0, with Valthaty going strong and Gilchrist giving him
admirable support. Vlathaty is 45 not out and Gilchrist is 44 not out.

Earlier Paul Valthaty took 4/29, bowling military medium stuff. So he may
get Man of the Match Award.

Gilchrist smashes a six to bring up his fifty and Punjab's score crosses
100. They are now 103/0.

The Punjab coach,Michael Bevan said that there is tremendous talent in
India. He was commenting on Paul Valthaty's performance.
This is the second time he had done it ! Paul Valthaty, powered Punjab to
yet another win with a superb all round performance. He took 4/29 and then
scored 75 blistering runs and powered Punjab to victory.

The Deccans, with the best bowling combination in the tournament - Steyn,
Sharma, Gony & Mishra, if not Ojha - could do nothing against the onslaught
of Valthaty and Gilchrist, who put on 136 runs for the first wicket, when
Gilchrist got out for 61. When Valthaty was out, it was 151/2 and the match
was more or less over.

For the Deccans, Dhawan scored 45 and Sanga 35. Christian scored 30 off 14
balls, but then 165 proved to be not a defendable score. Not against the in
form Valthaty.

The formidable bowling of the Deccans was blunted by the Gilchrist Valthaty
duo, whose century partnership, the highest in IPL 2011, brought joy to
pretty, pretty Preity !

Punjab has reasons to be proud. Valthaty is a great find and let him prove
himself in the matches to come. We hope he plays for India !

Earlier, Christian threatened to take the game away from Punjab, when he
clubbed Valthaty for a mighty six, but then Valthaty had his revenge when he
clean bowled Christian.

Valthaty, in the same over, sent back Mishra, the leg spinner and took the
dream figures of 4/29. He was adjudged the Man of the Match !


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