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Johnson Disappoints Fans

The one Australian player who disappointed his fans with his performances in the Indian Premier League 2014, it was the left arm fast bowler Mitchell Johnson. He was considered as one of the most intimidating bowlers in the tournament as he had blown away England in the Ashes series just months ago. He was supposed to have a lot of success against the Indian batsmen who are not so good against the short, rising deliveries, but, it wasn’t to be.

Johnson looked off colour for a big part of the tournament and he was even left out of the playing XI of his team Kings XI Punjab for a few preliminary round matches. He was brought back for the play off matches and he looked a bit better, but, he was still not at his best.

Johnson bowled well in the final against the Kolkata Knight Riders though. He got the wicket of the highest run scorer of the tournament Robin Uthappa in his very first over and then, bowled a tight over in the middle phase of the KKR innings as well, but, in his last over, he did a mistake which perhaps cost his team the game and the title.

Johnson had bowled 5 fantastic deliveries in that over and had given away only 2 runs to bring the match slightly into the grasp of Punjab. He needed to bowl another full delivery in the block hole to end that over well, but, he went for his favourite short pitched delivery instead and the batsman Piyush Chawla hooked it way over the square leg boundary for a huge six to kill the game then and there.

Thereafter, just five runs were required in the last over which was hard to defend for somebody like Parvinder Awana. Chawla scored a boundary off him and finished off the game to give KKR the title.

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Sachin excited to play with Lara

Retired cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has said that he is very excited about the opportunity to pair up with West Indian legend Brian Lara for an exhibition match at the fabled Lord’s stadium in England to mark its bicentennial.

The news was confirmed by the Marylebone Cricket Club or MCC that owns the stadium when it said that Lara would join a star studded team skipper by the Indian legend which also features yesteryear stars like Rahul Dravid of India as well as present cricketing icons such as Aaron Finch of Australia and Saeed Ajmal of Pakistan.

According to a news agency in India, Tendulkar was quoted as saying that he and Lara have played together previously back in 1994 at the Sky Dome and had a solid partnership back then and he is looking for something similar when the two take the field at Lord’s in July.

The MCC XI is set to play against a Rest of the World team which will be captained by former Australian legend Shane Warne and also featuring the likes of Sri Lankan spin maestro Mutthiah Muralitharan and former England batsman Kevin Pietersen.

According to Tendulkar, it was an absolute joy to watch Lara bat and he always liked to see him scoring heavily, but not against India.

Lara and Tendulkar have always been considered as two of the greatest batsmen of their generation, with opinions divided among cricket lovers on who remains the best among the two.

And in that case, the odds are stacked against Lara where as Tendulkar has broken every record possible during his 24 long years as a part of the Indian national team, scoring over 20,000 runs and 100 centuries in both forms of the game.

The Indian retired from cricket after his 200th test last year.