As it has always been the trademark of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, a loss of their first wicket without opening their account still continues to haunt the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the match was no different in the encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders either. But, for this time, it was not the Royal Challengers Bangalore who were at the receiving end when it came to a 0 run wicket. On the other hand, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were at the delivering end. Meaning this time, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders who were found losing their first wicket when the scoreboard never found ticking even for the first time.
It was unsual gesture in any format of the game for a spinner and that who does it part time to have the ball and bowl the first over. But, this was the approach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain-Kevin Pietersen who was not only found bowling the very first over but also found taking the wicket of the Kolkata Knight Riders' skipper Brendon McCullum and that too in his first ball. Anyway, no cheers for Kevin Pietersen for this, because it was good fortune that made Kevin Pietersen have his man and was neither his intelligence nor his timely anticipation.
Even Pietersen wouldn't have thought to have got his man prior to the match. And a new ball that can hardly offer any grip to a spinner is never a spinners' cup of tea whatsoever. And no mateured captain would ever hand the new ball to a spinner whatever the need of the hour may be. I still remember the then Indian captain Rahul Dravid handing the ball to Virender Sehwag in the second over in a particular match against Australia owing to the reason that Australian batsmen are poor players of spin bowling and as a result, Virender Sehwag was belted for 14 runs off that over. And if Pietersen has found some success doing that, it can be corelated to his fortune and nothing else.
Kevin Pietersen can never be an inspiration for any captain to hand over the new ball to a spinner. But, one positive move from Pietersen was that he dropped Robin Uttappa who had a series of unsuccessful knocks both behind the stumps and in front of it as well. The introduction of Goswami should have been done much before. If the thinking that Pietersen had prior to the one against the KKR, they would have beaten teams like Kings XI Punjab, where Robin Uttappa gave away 5 runs as byes and the Kings XI Punjab sneaked for victory despite needing 60 runs off the last five overs.
A total of 139 was not that challenging defending the total was truely challenging and KUDOS to Pietersen for that. And not to mention the timely contribution from Anil Kumble, Mark Boucher and Shreevats Goswami. All these aforementioned players gave Kevin Pietersen (who would be playing the last match of this IPL before leaving to play against the West Indies) his last laugh. This victory for the Royal Challengers Bangalore ensured that they would not make it to ht elast position in the IPL points table for the time being. The spot is now being owned by the Kolkata Knight Riders. Now, with Pietersen to go back for his national duty and Rahul Dravid to be back in Bangalore, it would be a watchout for Anil Kumble who would be captaining his side for the remainder of the series.
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