Saturday 1 October 2011

All down the drains

There is no guarantee that a team scoring 176 will definitely end up as winners because, regarding the very same Mumbai Indians, chasing down a mere total of 99 took their breath away in that game against Trinidad& Tobago and a couple of days back Kolkata Knight Riders with little effort chased down a target of 170 against Royal Challengers Bangalore by 9 wickets. But, in majority of the cases, a target of 177 has been tough to reach batting second. Also, setting up a target of 177 requires effort and pain and a lot of team work and planning at the same time.

In yesterday's match between Mumbai Indians and Cape Cobras, the Mumbai Indians did everything right to see a stiff target on the board which would make every team raise its eyebrows. But, eventually what happened was something which Mumbai Indians never expected. The result of the huge target was not a one man show but a series of performances from the blades of Sarul Kanwar, Andrew symonds, Kieron Pollard which was assisted by James Franklin along with 11 wides that were bowled by Cape Cobras. All these happened with just 5 batsmen stepping out of their dressing rooms to take to the crease.

May be to a greater extent the pitch assisted the batsmen which becomes evident with all batsmen showing confidence with the bat. But, at the same time it is to be accepted that players like Andrew Symonds, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu are exceptional hitters of the cricket ball. Of course, Ambati Rayudu didn't put up a promising knock but instead there was Sarul Kanwar who replaced him by scoring a 21 ball 45 at a strike rate of 214.28. Something that happens very rarely in a limited overs cricket match is that a fielder is responsible in majority of dismissals.

Yes, Owais Shah was instrumental in taking four catches out of the five dismissals which took place in yesterday's match against Mumbai Indians. Owais Shah should consider himself lucky enough to be that fielder when it was the bowler's effort and thinking which forced the batsmen to land the ball safely in the hands of Owais Shah. One can see Justin Kemp bowling just one over when he gave away runs at 2.00 an over and taking the wicket of Franklin. But, Langeveldt and Philander bowled their full quota despite giving away runs at 11.25 and 9.00 respectively. This questions Kemp's caliber as a captain.

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