Punjabi Spirit A mixture of different world cultures, Kings XI Punjab is the youngest team in the IPL season 2009. Captained by Yuvraj Singh the franchisee of the team is owned by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, her beau Ness Wadia, Karan Paul’s APeeJay group and Mohit Burman’s Dabur. Punjabis are called ‘lion hearted’ people in
India. They are famous for their bravado, fighting spirit and ‘never to give-up’ character. And most of the players of the team are Punjabi as for as their character in the cricket world is concerned. Whether it is the Indian players or the foreigner players in the team they are true to the Punjabi spirit. Yuvraj Singh, Simon Katich , VRV Singh, Brett lee, Kumar Sangakara, Sreesnath, Irfan Pathan, Mahela Jayawardhene and Ramnaresh Sarwan, all are famous for their attacking game in their respective fields. It will be a big mischief if we ignore Ravinder Bopara, in the presence of other international cricket players in the Kings XI Punjab squad.
Figures Till May, 9
Punjab team had played 10 matches and had won 5 out of them. With five wins they were placed at the fourth position along with Rajasthan Royals.
Punjab team is in a ‘must win’ situation to keep its semifinal hopes alive. It is yet to play four league matches and needs four consecutive wins to reach the semifinal round. It is in this situation because of the failure of the middle order. It had lost its three league matches with a very narrow margin. This has happened because of the failure of the middle order batsmen. Lack of experience is also affecting the team. In these three matches
Punjab team was in a winning position but its batsmen could not convert the victory possibilities into a sure win.
Punjab team has more fast bowlers as compared to the other IPL teams. But they have failed to contain their opponent batmen and had been ‘humiliated’ badly. Absence of Brett Lee was also affecting the team. His return to the team has started to produce positive results. It was because of him that Kings XI Punjab won its May, 9 match against the Deccan Chargers. He performed well both with bowl and bat. In the last overs of the match, with 7 wickets down,
Punjab was in a ‘run-a-ball’ situation. In this tight situation some of its star batsmen had failed under pressure. Brett Lee played some good shots and hit some massive hits and turned the results into
Punjab’s favor.
Yuvraj Hero of the NatWest Series final 2002, Yuvrav Singh is the star attraction in the Kings XI Punjab team. An inseparable part of the Indian Cricket team, Yavraj is famous for hitting sixes. In the first T20 World Cup tournament he had grabbed headlines by hitting six sixes in an over. It was
England fast bowler Stuart Broad who had suffered the humiliation. With this performance Yuvraj had become the fourth batman who had hit six sixes in an over and the first batsman to hit six sixes in the T20 format. Except batting, Yuvraj is also known for his fielding. He is used also as a part-time bowler and has proved out to be effective in many matches. He was declared ‘Man of the Match’ on May, 1 in the match played between
Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab.
Punjab had lost this match but Yuvraj was declared man of the match for his all-round performance. He has made 50 runs and has taken three wickets (hat-trick). This is the one example that shows that he is the ‘one man army’ in the shortest form of cricket. But critics say that Kings XI Punjab’s captaincy has severely affected his performance and is the reason behind his batting failures in the ongoing T20 tournament. But these arguments can be ruled out on the basis of his previous year’s performance in the IPL tournament.
Stuffed with stars, Kings XI Punjab team can turn the tables. They are no less than other IPL teams as for as the cricketing ability is concerned. It is only the confidence they lack. It has one of the fastest bowling attacks as compared to the other IPL teams. Nobody can rule out as IPL favorites.
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May 14th, 2009 
Aman 
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