My Sporting Weekend 28-30th May 2011:
Warm-Up's:
DLF Indian Premier League Final (Cricket):
Chennai Super Kings V Royal Challengers Bangalore, Now in its 4th season the IPL has become India's top domestic sporting competition, with the final probably the biggest annual sporting event in the country.
The Super Kings were playing in front of their home crowd at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium and were looking for the 2nd successive title after winning last years tournament. David Hussey and Murali Vijay made a fantastic start for the Super Kings taking just 63 balls to reach 100 with some good running and a few big 6's. The scoreboard then kept ticking over with more 6's and 4's, and they reached a partnership of 159 before the Royal Challengers eventually got their 1st wicket in the 15th over over, with Hussey being caught in the deep by Abhimanyu Mithun, as both batters looked extremely tired due to the humidity. The 2nd wicket fell with 11 balls to go when Vijay was out for 95 off 52 balls and then MS Dhoni was out, for 22, off the next ball for Sreenath Aravind's 2nd wicket. 2 more wickets fell in the last over to Chris Gayle but Dwayne Bravo hit a 6 off the last ball for the Super Kings to reach 205.
After looking like the Super Kings would put up a score of 220 plus the Royal Challengers late rally limited them to 205 but it would take a lot from the Royal Challengers to get the win, Zaheer Khan was the most economical bowler, going for 30 off his 4 overs, without taking any wickets. Their were a few mistakes in the field but it was the flat pitch and brilliant opening partnership that swung the game in the Super Kings favour and after flying in to from Monaco to see his team, owner, Vijay Mallya looked rather agitated with his teams performance as he sat in the stands, probably plotting some top signings for next season.
The Royal Challengers had a bad start to their innings with big hitter Chris Gayle out for a duck, off the 4th ball of the innings, and then Mayhank Agarwal going for 10 in the 3rd over, both taken by Ravi Ashwin. The Royal Challengers innings plodded along with AB de Villiers out for 18 in the 7th over and Luke Pomersbach fell in the 9th over for 2, both to Shadab Jakati. Two more wickets fell in quick succession, with Suresh Raina taking Virat Kholi for an LBW before Ashwin got his 3rd wicket when he bowled and caught captain Daniel Vettori. Abhimanyu Mithun went next, for 11, after being caught by Doug Bollinger and it took the Royal Challengers 15 overs to reach a 100, but being 7 wickets down and with only 5 overs to go it looked an impossible task to get any where near the Super Kings score. Zaheer Khan was the last wicket to fall as he went for 21 and the Royal Challengers only finished with to be emphatically beaten by the Super Kings for their 2nd IPL Title.
European Champions League Final (Football):
FC Barcelona V Manchester United, Man U made a good start putting pressure on Barcelona, closing them down fast to stop them playing their fast passing game, but after Barcelona found their rhythm they started to dominate the game, keeping possession and leaving Man U players chasing shadows.
Barcelona got the opening goal on 27 minutes when Xavi Hernandez flicked through to Rodriguez Pedro, who found himself in lots of space and slotted the ball past Edwin van de Sar. From the ariel shots it looked as if Patrice Evra had come too far inside to cover Lionel Messi's run, but failed to see Pedro's run from deep, who then pulled away from Nemanja Vidic leaving him unchallenged going towards goal.
Barcelona's domination continued, but Man U got themselves back in the game by pressing Barcelona higher up the pitch and, after winning the ball back from a throw-in Rooney made two good one-two's before firing past goalie Victor Valdes to draw the scores level on 34 minutes.
Man U played well for the rest of the half and probably thought that they had a chance to win the game if they kept up this level of play in the 2nd half.
Barcelona started the half on top and on 54 minutes they took the lead, again, with Messi curling the ball down van der Sar's left side, from outside the box, after Park Ji-Sung got sucked towards the ball leaving Messi a large space to run into behind him. Soon after a telling stat flashed up on screen revealing that Barcelona's Xavi had attempted around 75 passes whereas Man U's ball playing midfielder Michael Carrick had only 16 passes, with both players covering around the same distance.
Barcelona carried on their domination and David Villa got their 3rd on 69 minutes with a high, looping shot from outside the area, which came from Nani mis-controlling in the area after he should have let the ball run past him to either Evra or Carrick, who should have had an easier chance to clear the ball. Paul Scholes made a bit of an impact on the game when he came on for Carrick on 77 minutes, as Man U held on to the ball more and passed it around, but they never looked like scoring and Barcelona cruised to the win, and their 2rd Champions League title in 3 years.
Man U were extremely disappointing, not being able to hold on to the ball, or make any really good chances, having only 1 shot on target, but it was Barcelona's passing game that left Man U chasing shadows and as they tired Barcelona took advantage, moving the ball fast and counter attacking well.
Grand Prix de Monaco (Formula 1):
The F1 crew and entourage descended on Monaco once again for the annual dash around the streets of Monte Carlo for one of motor-sport's most famous events. The tight and twisty nature of the track, and lack of straights, means that overtaking is normally at a minimal and pit strategy will be what decides the winner.
Sebastian Vettel made a good start off pole position and pulled away from the rest of the field over the next couple of laps, Fernando Alonso made another good start from 4th, getting around Mark Webber, but he wasn't able to get past Jenson Button before the 1st corner. Michael Schumacher got bogged down off the start and going in to the 1st corner he clipped the rear of Lewis Hamiton's car, before then overtaking him at the hairpin.
On the 10th lap, after being slowed down behind Schumacher, Hamilton got around him at the 1st corner, before Schumacher had to come in for new tyres and to replace his front wing. The 1st set of pit-stops came early with Button coming in 1st and finding a clean air behind Webber to get some fast laps in, both Red Bulls reacted straight away, but the pit crew had a slight issue with the tyres and Button was left leading the race.
On lap 34 Hamilton went up the inside of Felipe Massa at the hairpin, pushing him out wide, but he wasn’t able to get past him and later in the lap Hamilton passed Massa in the tunnel forcing him on to the marbles, before he hit the barrier bringing out the safety car, but these incidents earned Hamilton a drive through penalty later in the race. Also on the same lap Schumacher suddenly stopped before the pit-lane forcing Alonso to make a good move to miss him.
It looked as if McLaren had made a strategic mistake bringing Button in just before the safety car as they put him out on the same tyre option as what he had already being running on, meaning that he had to stop again, but he quickly caught Vettel up on the restart. On lap 48 Button came in for his set of 'Prime' tyres, leaving him in 3rd behind Vettel and Alonso, but Vettel's tyres started to go off and he was being quickly caught, and as he missed the gap to come in and out ahead of Button it looked as if the only way he could win the race would be to stay out and made his car as wide as possible.
The leading 3 cars were then line-a-stern and they caught up a group of back markers including Vitaly Petrov and Jaime Alguersuari, who both subsequently crashed bringing out the safety cars and soon after the red flags. This was seen to give an exciting finish to the end of the race with the 3 leaders being close together with an open track in front of them, especially as Vettel's tyres were virtually worn out, whereas Alonso and Button's were fine. But in a twist of fate teams were allowed to work on their cars on the starting line under the red flag conditions meaning that Vettel could change his tyres without losing track position, now this rule is a complete and utter joke as surely under red flag conditions nobody should be able to touch the car, or at least have to start at the back of the pack if work is carried out.
After the restart the 3 leading cars never looked like changing positions, but further down in the pack Hamilton had a another incident where he ran up the inside of Pastor Maldonaldo, with 5 laps to go, and pushed him wide into the wall, ending his day, and after the race Hamilton was given a 20 second penalty, but this didn't affect his position after he finished in 6th. But in a post-race interview Hamilton claimed to have being picked on by the race stewards, and even claimed racism may be a factor in this, but it was only one persons fault and that was Hamilton as he started to spit his dummy out and get upset as things didn't always go his way.
The 3rd Brit in the race, Paul Di Resta, damaged his front wing and received a drive through penalty for causing a avoidable incident after trying to go up the inside of someone at the hairpin early in the race, and while running at the back of the field he damaged his wing again and eventually finished in12th, 2 laps down.
This was an unexpectedly action packed race from the normally boring Monte Carlo street circuit, but the end, where teams were allowed to work on cars under red flag conditions, robbed the viewers and spectators of a potential fiery finish between Vettel, Alonso and Button.
nPower Championship Play-Off Final (Football):
Reading V Swansea, the richest club game of football, with the winning team being guaranteed a reported £90 million over the next 5 years (even if they are relegated in their 1st season in the Premier League), was contested at Wembley Stadium just 2 days after the Champions League Final, and it looked like the venue staff had been hard at work to change all the signage, banners other décor for this game.
The game was pretty even until Zurab Khizanishvili brought down Nathan Dyer in the box and Scott Sinclair converted the penalty to take the lead on 21 minutes. Then within a minute Sinclair got his 2nd, after Dobbie found lots of room behind Reading left-back Ian Harte he crossed and all keeper Adam Federici could do was parry into Sinclair's path, who easily slotted in. Swansea carried on their domination as Reading dropped back and allowed them to play and they got their 3rd when Dobbie slotted in after Khizanishvili shinned a cross in his direction.
Khizanishvili was pretty poor in the 1st half, being involved in all the Swansea goals, but shouldn't have been on the pitch as he should have got his 2nd yellow for taking Dyer down for the penalty, and then during half-time Reading had substitute Jay Tabb and assistant manager Nigel Gibbs both sent off for abusing referee Phil Dowd.
After their 1st half woes Reading started the 2nd half well and got their 1st goal on 49 minutes when Swansea's Joe Allen deflected the ball into his own net from a Noel Hunt flick on off a corner. Swansea then started to panic giving the ball away easy and dropping back, but they still looked dangerous on the break, with Dobbie missing a good chance, after beating 2 players in the box. Captain Matt Mills got Readings 2nd on 57 minutes, after scoring with a header off a Jobi McAnuff corner, and Reading kept up the pressure, creating a couple more chances, but they couldn't get the equaliser. Swansea then sealed the game on 80 minutes when Sinclair completed his hat-trick with his 2nd penalty, after Fabio Borini was stupidly fouled by Andy Griffin as he was going away from goal.
It was good to see a fight back from Reading in the 2nd half, but they just weren't good enough to catch Swansea's lead, who played some good football, and even though they did look a bit shaky in defence at times deserved the win and will hopefully play just as good football next season.
Main Event:
Indy 500 (IndyCar):
The centennial year and 95th running of the Indy 500 included 6 Brits in the 33 car field with regular series drivers Dario Franchitti, Justin Wilson, and Alex Lloyd being joined by Pippa Mann, Jay Howard and Dan Wheldon. But series regulars Mike Conway and James Jakes failed to qualify after not being able to set a fast enough times on Bump Day, the final day of qualifying. In a rather odd situation Bruno Junqueira qualified in, but his seat was bought out by Ryan Hunter-Reay team and he got to start at the back of the grid, now surely this is completely wrong and a driver should only qualify on merit and not on how rich your team may be, but money talks and the big teams need to do all they can to please their sponsors.
Canadian Alex Tagliani qualified on pole position, but it was Scott Dixon who got the jump on the start, leading into the 1st corner and they then battled between themselves with the lead changing several times.
The 1st yellow flag came out on lap 21 when Takuma Sato went to high into the 2nd corner and ended up in the fence, ending his day and during the pit-stops Will Power didn't have his left rear wheel fitted properly, but he didn't sustain any damage and on the next lap round he got his full set of tyres on the car, but was at the back of the grid. On the restart EJ Viso got 3 wide leaving him no room and he came back down across the track in front of James Hinchcliffe before spinning into the wall.
As the 1st round of green flag pit-stops came Jay Howard spun coming off pit road, on lap 61, due to a loose rear wheel, leaving a few cars a lap down, but they got that back straight away with the wave around, and Franchitti was left to lead the race as they restarted.
The leaders started to come in for their 2nd green flag pit-stops on lap 98 and 2 laps later James Hinchcliffe put his car in the wall on turn 3 re-jigging the field again as not everybody had pitted, putting Franchitti back in the lead again.
The 3rd set of green flag pit-stops came and went without any major incidents with Franchitti cycling through and leading the race, but after his good start to the race Tagliani had some issues with the engine air ducts and on lap 148 he went wide on the 4th turn, tagging the wall, ending his race and bringing out the 5th yellow flag of the day.
The 1st multiple car crash of the day happened on lap 158 when Townsend Bell and Ryan Briscoe got locked together going in to the 1st corner before hitting the wall, and bringing out the 6th caution, and during this caution a couple of drivers, including Franchitti and Marco Andretti, took the chance of pitting as late a possible as they looked to get to the end of the race on 1 tank of fuel.
Towards the end of the race, as cars pulled in for their final stops, both Danica Patrick and Bertrand Baguette led for a few laps each but had to pull in for fuel, and as Franchitti looked to save fuel JR Hildebrand got past him and took the lead off Baguette with 3 laps to go. But as Hildebrand was going past a back marker he got on the marbles and hit the wall on the last corner of the race, with Wheldon inheriting the lead and taking the victory, while Hildebrand's stricken car slid over the line in 2nd place.
Tony Kannan had a good race, after qualifying in 22nd, and although he lost a lot of time in the pits after missing his box due to Mann pulling out in front of him, he worked his way through the field getting up to 2nd and eventually finishing in 4th.
This was great race with a lot of action, with not much time wasted waiting for restarts, although the double-file restarts were exciting with cars going up to 4 wide as they bunched up in the middle of the field. JR Hildebrand was extremely lucky not win, but Dan Wheldon truly deserved his win, especially after finishing in 2nd in both the the last 2 500's and unfortunately losing a full time ride for this season.
Cool-Down's:
After watching the play-offs unfold in the Football League over the last couple of weeks I have come to the conclusion that their needs to be a format change to favour the higher finishing teams, as realistically finishing in 4th gives you just the same chance of winning the final as finishing 1st does. I have thought of 3 different formats that could be used:
Option 1, 4 Teams, Play the games 1 legged at the home of the higher ranked team, so 1st V 4th and 2nd V 3rd at the home of the 1st and 2nd ranked teams, followed by the final at the home ground of the highest ranked team left. This is a format used at lower levels of the football pyramid and would need 2 match days.
Option 2, 4 Teams, 1st V 2nd with the winner going straight into the final, 3rd V 4th with the winner playing at the home ground of the loser of the 1st V 2nd Game, with the winner going into the final. The 1st 3 games would be played at the home ground of the higher ranked team, with the final being played at a neutral venue. Sometimes called the Page playoff system, and was used in the IPL this season and would need 3 match days.
Option 3, 6 Teams, 1st V 2nd with the winner going straight into the final, 3rd V 6th and 4th V 5th with the winners meeting at the higher ranked teams home ground, with the winner of that game playing at the home ground of the loser of the 1st V 2nd Game, with the winner going into the final. All the games, apart from the final, would be played at the home ground of the higher ranked team. This is a expanded version of the Page playoff system and is used in 2nd and 3rd tier rugby league in the UK and would need 4 match days.
Now I don’t think that Option 1 would take off because the final would not be played at Wembley, robbing the Football League of their cash cow matches. Option 2 could work within the context of the current season as it uses 3 match days, just like the current system, but it gives the 2 higher ranked teams a 2nd chance, and is my favourite system. Option 3 is just an expanded version of Option 2, and would extend the season by an extra match day, previously Football League clubs have voted against expanding to 6 play-off teams so this may be an non started, also this system could be a bit drawn out and confusion, especially when there is 3 separate divisions playing at the same time. So overall I think that Option 2 could work and gives the right reward for finishing higher in the division.
Sheffield Eagles had a big, 70-12, win over the Hunslet Hawks, but Hunslet were extremely disappointing and after an early score they were steamrollered by Sheffield and just didn't look interested. Sheffield did play well, creating good try scoring opportunities with some skillfull play, but, disappointingly, but a lapse in concentration let the Hawks in during the 2nd half when they should have kept a clean sheet.
Recent Results:
England V Sri Lanka, 1st Test, Cardiff:
England 496-5 dec beat Sri Lanka 400 & 82 by an innings and 14 runs
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