Match 1 – New Zealand 72 for 0 (Guptill 39*, McCullum 26*) beat Kenya 69 (Bennett 4-16, Oram 3-2, Southee 3-13) by 10 wickets
Match 2 – Sri Lanka 332 for 7 (Jayawardene 100, Sangakkara 92) beat Canada 122 (Cheema 37, Kulasekara 3-16) by 210 runs
Day 2 brought some respite for my Fantasy Team, though I am still rooted at 17th position in The Big League. It was again a case of not trusting my own analysis. More importantly, it was a case of not waking up on time, which meant my captain for the Kenya-NZ game was Gautam Gambhir. As much as Gauti would have loved to have a hit against Kenya, I am not sure the Indian management would have allowed him to don the Kiwi colors for a day just to justify my fantasy pick. That would be like a fantasy for my fantasy.
Let us end the bad jokes there, and have a look at the real action.
Star of the Day
Mahela Jayawardene was the expected star performer. He suddenly has become a run machine for Sri Lanka over the past 1.5 years, and amassed 251 points in this match. As Harsha Bhogle put it ‘ you look at the way Jayawardene plays and it seems like he doesn’t want to hurt the ball‘. In the era of out and out sloggers, Jaya really is a pleasure to watch.
His partner in crime, and classy player in his own right, Sangakarra also had a good outing. Sanga complimented his 118 points while batting with 50 points for his keeping, justifying the faith of all the managers.
Unexpected Star of the Day
So how many of you would have thought Hamish Bennett would have made such impact? You thought it was fluke, right?
Well we have a surprise in store for you – take a look at this sheet, which has a list of value for money players for the entire season. See who is at No. 4?
280 points, and I was left cursing my own analysis.
Flop of the Day
It is tough to pick this one, but a lot of managers had chosen Upul Tharanga. He has been in good form, and was expected to do well against the minnows at the top of the order. Instead, he could manage just 19 points, with a dismal Value for Money Index (VMI) of 0.2.
Par Performer of the Day
T Dilshan was my pick for the star of the day. He plays attacking cricket, and I expected him to tear apart the Canadian bowling. He started off well, but got out after his 50. He compensated for that by taking a catch and a wicket, bringing his points tally to 115. Still with a VMI of 1.2, you would have to say it was just about par.
Special Mentions
Two Canadians Baidwan and Cheema performed well for their teams, and were the only saving graces in the encounter against Lanka.
Rizwan Cheema (84 points, VMI 1.2) , dubbed the Canadian Afridi, did show some streaks of aggression when he came down the wicket to hit Murali for 2 sixes.
Baidwan (101 points, VMI 1.6) bowled well for his 2 wickets, and also scored a few runs.
The Big League – Top 5 (PIN: 7034)
| Pos. | Manager | Team Name | Points | Transfers Available |
| 1 | devasheesh mathur | the diplomats | 1577 | 38 |
| 2 | Sumit Ahlawat | diljaley | 1512 | 38 |
| 3 | Vinay Sharma | SLIndBang ! | 1435 | 39 |
| 4 | Gaurav Vijh | ballal11 | 1355 | 38 |
| 5 | Jyotishman Nag | Jyo’s XI | 1334 | 35 |
Value for Money Players – Top 5
| Name | Country | Price | Total | Index |
| HK Bennett | NZ | 75000 | 280 | 3.7 |
| DPMD Jayawardene | SL | 95000 | 251 | 2.6 |
| KMDN Kulasekara | SL | 90000 | 159 | 1.8 |
| NLTC Perera | SL | 80000 | 136 | 1.7 |
| KC Sangakkara | SL | 100000 | 168 | 1.7 |
Additional Tips
1. Know you schedule, wake up on time to change your captain!
2. Try looking at recent form, and some statistics before selecting the not so established players. It helps.
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