Thursday 12 May 2011

Watson+Rahane+Dravid < Gayle

Well whenever in this season of the IPL is heard about Royal Challengers Bangalore, one name that flashes everyone's mind would be that of Chris Gayle, the reasons which are not unknown or need to be told separately. Yesterday as well in the game against Rajasthan Royals, it was Chris Gayle who did most of the damage to the host team first by having a wicket under his name and secondly needless to be said by belting another splendid 70 runs off just 44 balls and remaining unbeaten in the second innings chasing a modest total of 147 on the board.

There were batsmen like Dravid, Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane and Ross Taylor who got into double figures but the noteworthy scores were just that of Dravid and Watson. Neither were there any major strike rates for the Rajasthan to boast about. Not to mention that a combination of all the aforementioned scores were out shadowed by Gayle from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. With someone like Gayle out there in the opposition, the teams facing should have been a little lot more careful at least when it came to saving their faces let alone winning or even coming close to winning one against the RCB.

On the other hand, other than Chris Gayle, there were the likes of Dilshan, Virat Kohli and A B deVilliars who could have done the job for the Royal Challengers Bangalore with a target of just 147 on the board set by Rajasthan. One can take a look at the scorecard to see the bowling chart of Rajasthan Royals who bought in 7 of their bowlers mainly to bowl Chris Gayle which happened to be a valiant effort. However, the Rajasthan Royals' efforts got paid for when they had one wicket towards the end of the RCB's successful run chase.

The Rajasthan Royals had Dilshan out with half the target already achieved. But, had they got Gayle out atleast late in the innings, that would have bought in much satisfaction for the Rajasthan Royals. Once again popping up the man of the match debate, I bet none can explain why Gayle was deceived of the award. Is it because that Gayle has received that award thrice earlier in the tournament or is it because the match officials wanted to give bowlers a chance to go up and collect something? To mention, Gayle had a wicket against his name which wasn't noticed by match officials I supppose.

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