IPL Daily Dose - 23/05/2008 - Why do the Marshs love India and a new leaf in Punjab

Shaun Marsh passed a very important personal or rather family landmark during his innings of 60 against the Deccan Chargers. It’s a little lateral but lateral is what you look for when Mohali plays Deccan – this was as inconsequential as it can get at this stage of the tournament.

Shaun’s dad Geoff Marsh scored 428 runs in the 1987 Cricket World Cup held in India and the son’s IPL haul crossed that number during last night’s game. Here’s how father and son stand as of today.

There are striking similarities in the efforts of the father-son duo. Like Shaun in the IPL, the senior Marsh also had a break-out effort in the Reliance World Cup, which like the IPL was held in India. An opener just like Shaun, Geoff Marsh was outstanding in the World Cup ending up as the third –highest scorer behind David Boon and Graham Gooch with 2 centuries and a number of match-winning efforts. Shaun is second right now and should definitely end up in the top 3.

And how did the tournament end for Geoff Marsh and his team? Underdogs to start and deserving champions at the end. Now that is a storyline Shaun and his team would love to match. Going by the team’s current form, an encore looks quite likely.

The Deccan Chargers have been batting quite well off late. They have scored 181/7, 182/9, 153/7 and 175/4 in their last 4 games. This game was inconsequential but they could really benefit from their good batting form in the coming games. The clash against RCB will decide the wooden-spooners of the IPL and DC have the chance to play party poopers against CSK on 27th May.

Why do Mohali play Tanmay Srivastava when they don’t have any confidence in the youngster’s ability? What is the message being sent out to this specialist batsman when bowling all-rounders like Chawla bat ahead of him? This guy is a big game performer – having scored a century in the Ranji Finals and top scored in the U-19 World Cup final; apart from being the top scorer in the tournament. Other U-19 internationals have performed decently in the IPL. Guys like him should be given a chance in the league stage (especially now that KXP is already in the semis) so that they are ready if called upon in the crucial knock-out games.

Evidence that Sreesanth is turning over a new leaf

His cool and calm reaction to Romesh Power’s almost comical attempt to mis-field, which resulted in a four. New age saying – Spare the Slap and spoil the cricketer

Dude of the Day – Kumara Sangakkara. Once the proud owner of the orange cap, his injury had pushed him far back in the run scorers list. But he showed great hunger and put the issue beyond doubt in the early overs.

Scary thought – Mohali had been winning all their games without this guy

Dud of the Day - RP Singh. He owns 4 of the top 40 worst bowling performances in the IPL (in terms of runs conceded) and nearly added a fifth. RP Singh has been a shadow of the bowler he was in the Twenty-20 World Cup.

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