This is what happens

It always happens that the team that gives more signals of thrashing its opposition in crucial stages of a tournament gets thrashed itself. For instance, one can go through the South African episode in world cups between 1992 and 1999. If anyone calls South Africa as chokers, then here it is; Australia did everything right in the world T20 tournament 2010 only to lose to England in the finals of the same. So was Sri Lanka in the 2009 edition of the World T20 tournament and Pakistan in 2007. This has been the case many times and not once or twice.

I was just thinking about My world this moment before the final match of the champions league T20 tournament between Mumbai Indians and RCB. Rather than going through some other games,why don't we recollect what happened to Mumbai Indians in IPL 2010 when Mumbai were favorites to win the title any finally lost to Chennai? This time, the Royal Challengers Bangalore happened to be the culprit with them having a three successive 200+ total, once batting first and twice batting second. Every time the RCB took the crease, a batting record was rewritten. I just cannot what are these matches made up of?

Coming to the match, needless to be said, the pitch was a bowler's paradise regarding which Harbhajan Singh would be the best person to tell who could bowl successive balls of the century millennium. Luckily or unluckily, nobody got bowled in that fashion. But, the blame should completely go to the RCB team who very well knew what the Chepauk pitch was like. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians were somewhat a lucky team to have played on that pitch a day before in the second semi-finals against Somerset. That match happened to be a practice match for Mumbai before heading to the finals.

Likewise, the Royal Challengers Bangalore played on a pitch which was dead opposite of the Chennai pitch which made them pay the price. Secondly, the toss was a trump card which happened to be on Mumbai's side when they elected to bat first on a track where any total is defendable. However,anybody who saw the match would have seen the RCB batsmen belting the Mumbai bowlers until the tenth over when suddenly things stared to change. In the end, Lasith Malinga got his due when he became the highest wicket taker in a T20 tournament for the 2^nd time after the IPL2011.

Malinga for Gayle

Since the beginning of the 4^th edition of the IPL, two names that have made rounds were Lasith Malinga for his devastating bowling and Chris Gayle for his mind blowing batting. Lasith Malinga was the highest wicket taker in the tournament and Chris Gayle the highest run-getter. And, much to anybody's surprise, those two players are responsible for their teams to qualifying in the finals of the champions league T20 tournament. In yesterday's second semi-finals between Mumbai Indians and Somerset, Lasith Malinga scalped four wickets to see his team make it to the finals of the tournament needless to be said.

In the game, if Bangalore was a batsman's paradise, then the pitch at Chennai was exactly opposite to that when batsmen found it hard to score despite there being several wickets in hand. Most of the time, both the teams had scored equal scores at the end of a particular over. Moreover, the losers of the game - Somerset had been ahead of the Mumbai Indians until the 17^th over if their over comparison is made. But, it was Malinga who completely devastated the Somerset batsmen. The batsmen from Somerset team could not get enough runs towards the end of the innings.

The Mumbai Indians read the pitch well and did most of their scoring towards the end of their innings and not going for the kill right from the beginning. However, looking at the batting of Mumbai Indians, they scored 51 runs in their powerplay compared to 35 from Somerset and were always lagging behind when it came to their scores tally. This clearly shows that the Somerset tried to relax a lot during their batting with wickets in hand during most of the time. In the end, they fell 10 runs short of the total what Mumbai Indians put up.

It was Rajagopal's quickfire 25 off 12 balls which proved costly for Somerset. That was the advantage that the team batting first always has in hand when the last few overs happen to be slog overs where the batsmen go in for the kill which the team batting does not have. However, in the batting of Somerset, if not for Kieswetter and Hildreth no other batsmen could do anything with the remaining batsmen getting little opportunity to show their skills. One thing for which Harbhajan Singh needs to be applauded is for having Malinga bowl the last two overs which were crucial which saw 5 wickets from Somerset falling.

Pitch report was leaked

It is absolutely needless to be said about players or coaches being find, banned and suspended for leaking the pitch report prior to the game. I remember Shane Warne having been a victim of this subject when he was accused of leaking the pitch report. But, the same thing has found to happen in the first semi-finals of the champions league T20 tournament 2011 when two days prior top the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and New South Wales the pitch was declared to be a run fest at chinnaswamy stadium. Despite that, New South Wales couldn't cash in on that.

It was not only a good toss to win by the Royal Challengers Bangalore but was also a good decision to field first when rumors were alive that a run fest would be evident there in Bangalore and any total could be chased down successfully. Despite losing the toss, the New South Wales batsmen did a fair job by posting a total in excess of 200 on the board. That happened to be a below par total which forms a different issue altogether. There were only four batsmen from New South Wales who made t to the crease and no doubt that they all did their job well.

Majority of the scoring was done by David Warner and Daniel Smith who scored 180 runs between them. There would be no point cursing the New South Wales batsmen for putting up as total that the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen could defend effortlessly. But still, a total of 250 should have made it to the scoreboard when the nature of the track was well in front of them. Scorecard suggests that there were four bowlers from RCB who bowled their full quota of 4 overs and Gayle's on over went for 14 runs. This has been the case whenever Gayle is found bowling.

One thing that once again falls into dispute is the man of the match award given to Virat Kohli. Our man of the match should have been either Chris Gayle who did most of the scoring or else David Warner who posted his second hundred in this tournament. Anyone who turns down that citing the batsmen friendly pitch on which they were batting, one has to acknowledge the fact that Virat Kohli was awarded the man of the match for his batting. If those performances are not convincing, Pat Cummins could have been given the award for his bowling figures of 4-0-45-4.

The excitement is intolerable

The moment I witnessed the last ball six that was hit by the tail-end batsman of Royal Challengers Bangalore - Arun Karthik the excitement has reached a new level. Added to that would be the fact that rumors say that a batting fest is to be expected in the semi-finals which is due in hours to come. That makes the excitement more intolerable for all those crazy fans who just want to see the ball cross the ropes and more so without pitching in between. Without any doubt I can say that champions league T20 rules over women penny loafer, web hosting, flowers and gardening, online money making opportunities.

However, along with the excitement, as a compliment there would be more trouble for cricket fans who expect a lot from their players and team. In case their favorite team fails in the league stages itself, the enthusiasm dies down there itself and fans would concentrate on their work after a few actions and reactions of disappointment. But, in case the team qualifies to the next round, once again the fans have to keep their fingers crossed regarding what would happen to their favorite team in the crucial matches. However, needless to be said, that would also die down after some disappointment.

Anyways, back to the tournament, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will have to win the semi-finals (of course) failing which their effort of winning two games after posting totals in excess would go unrewarded. Needless to be said, Royal Challengers Bangalore won their match against Somerset and South Australia after posting totals in excess of 200. The Royal Challengers Bangalore have made news for the good reasons in both their earlier games. In the game against Somerset, the RCB became the team to have scored the highest total in a champions league match. And then against South Australia their story is well in front.

Still, the remaining three teams have also come to play good cricket. Looking at the other teams, the Mumbai Indians are one of the teams who have beaten CSKs after a successful run chase of 154 in the last over of the innings similar to RCB's win over South Australia. Or else, Mumbai have reached the semi-finals by fluke after gasping for breath against Trinidad&Tobago where they had to wait for the 120^th legal delivery to be bowled chasing 99 and were bowled out for 100 against New South Wales. Can you answer the Q: Should the ruler thirst around the humane refund?

Injustice to the Warriors

It is absolutely unfair for a team that has had challenging wins in the first two games it played to be knocked out of the tournament with two losses by small margin. Yes, Warriors won their first two games against Royal Challengers Bangalore and South Australia respectively. The Warriors had beaten the RCB after a successful run chase of 173 on their home turf and South Australians at the same venue by 51 runs which should have boosted their run-rate. But, unfortunately two wins got overshadowed by two tiny losses to Kolkata Knight Riders and Somerset yesterday.I just cannot read the calculations.

Looking at the game, it is evident that the pitch had hardly anything to offer for the bats,men when chasing 147 happened to be tough. If not for Peter Trego, all other batsmen from Somerset had their bat do the talking when four of their batsmen scored decent runs. Neither could the Somerset batsmen score runs at else nor could the Warriors' bowlers bowl them out at regular intervals. One has to appreciate the batsmen from Somerset for standing at the crease and waiting for an opportunity to strike. Had the Somerset batsmen gone reckless, they would have been bowled out for less than 100.

As usual, it has become the way captains go about their bowling when they have four bowlers bowling their complete quota of 4 overs with one other bowler bowling three and one bowler bowling the remaining over and Warriors were not anything different. Finally, looking at the bowling chart of Warriors, it was a mistake that Parnell was given the ball when he gave away 13 runs from the one over he bowled. But, who on earth knows what would happen with any bowler on that day. Looking at the batting of Warriors, it can well be understood that they never read the pitch thoroughly.

It was as though the Warriors only saw the score of 146 which has been chased down in many occasions. The top three batsmen had success initially not because they read the pitch or were suited for the challenge but more so because of the powerplay. After the top three batsmen vacated the crease, the rest of the batsmen could only get confused and nothing else. Eventually, the Warriors fell short by 12 runs which make the difference between qualifying and non-qualifying. However,even Somerset stuck to the same formula but Peter Trego didn't get the treatment that Parnell received.

West Indies knock off South Africa

That was the match which kept on swinging both ways with at one stage being as though the Trinidad&Tobago would just thrash the Cape Cobras and at another stage, it was as though Cape Cobras might pull off a thriller. In the end, as only one team can emerge victorious, it happened to be Trinidad & Tobago who beat the South African team by 2 wickets. One has to once again see a South African team choking in the crucial stage of a tournament. They have no one else to blame but themselves for their debacle who ended their innings with 137.

It is just confusing to see Cape Cobras neither losing wickets nor being able to cash up on the wickets in hand by going in for a kill towards the end of their innings. The main idea behind having wickets in hand is to go for it when the innings approach an end when there would be no idea in having wickets in hand. Looking at the way the Cape Cobras played, it was as though they had come in for a one day match rather than a T20 one. With this being a decisive match Cape Cobras' effort was simply not enough.

The Cape Cobras maintained a run-rate of 6.85 runs per over at the end of their innings which would have fetched a score of 343 had it been a 50 over match. But, that run-rate could get in just 137 on board in a T20 game chasing which is not at all an issue. However, chasing the same total demanded a lot from T&T who took it to the last over with just two balls left for the game to conclude. Trinidad & Tobago lost 8 wickets en route to their successful run chase of 138. One can imagine the fate had the score been slightly more.

One can hardly understand why Sherwin Ganga was made to bowl 3 overs when he gave away runs at a rate of 12.66 runs an over with his third over fetching 16 runs. The pitch was a tough one to bat on and Sherwin Ganga giving away so much runs cannot be let away. The Cape Cobras have themselves to blame when only two of the four batsmen stood to the occasion and neither did they play up to expectations nor did they allow other batsmen to do the scoring. Concluding the post, hats-off to T&T for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Somer-Set Gayled by RCB

It is not something new to the viewers of either the IPL or the ongoing champions league T20 tournament regarding the fate of Royal Challengers Bangalore who have smiles on their faces whenever they win (obviously) and more so when Chris Gayle blasts the bowlers from the opposition the way he wants all over the field and at time outside it as well. Yesterday, in the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Somerset, needless to be said, Chris Gayle blasted 86 runs off just 46 deliveries to see the Royal Challengers Bangalore record the highest total in Champions League 2011.

Looking at the scorecard, taking confidence and support from Gayle at the other end, there were batsmen like Dilshan, Kohli, Mayank Agarwal and Saurabh Tiwary who did their part of batting which was not the case in the previous matches that the Royal Challengers played. There was a six from every batsman who had aggregated more than 6 ruins which happens very rarely in any form of cricket. Wickets were registered against those names in the Somerset side who had bowled their complete quota of four overs. This is another point to be noticed from the match not knowing whom to thank.

With Gayle in full bloom, there was nothing much the Somerset bowlers could do when Alfonso Thomas could not take risks with the bowlers. Whatever, the pitch never looked to compromise with the bowlers by any chance when even the Somerset batsmen had an easy going until the 13^th over when the run-rate was maintained close to 10.00 runs an over with 7 more batsmen to go. It was after the fall of Buttler that all things started deviating away from Somerset. In the end, it was fascinating to see all batsmen from Somerset getting bowled out with them falling 51 runs short of what the RCB managed achieved.

Another fascinating aspect of the match was that the batsmen who made the game watchable were equally disastrous with the ball in their hand. As all of you know, Chris Gayle had an awesome time with the bat but was equally generous with the ball with his only over gong for 24 runs. That was a "TIT FOR TAT" message that was being delivered to Gayle by the Somerset batsmen. On the other hand, the least successful bowler from Somerset namely Peter Trego who gave away 50 runs from three overs happened to be the most successful batsman in the Somerset side.

Mumbai finally show their true colors

I was just thinking about Mumbai Indians who with great difficulty chased down a total or 99 runs against Trinidad&Tobago last week at Bangalore. That was the lucky game for Mumbai who should have lost that had T&T played their full quota of 20 overs. And, that game happened to be completed yesterday at Chennai when all that Mumbai Indians could manage was a mere 100 runs on the board with no strike rates worth mentioning and no good scores as well. The highest individual score from Mumbai happened to be from James Franklin who scored 42 at number 4.

Mumbai Indians has entered the champions league tournament being placed third in the domestic T20 competition ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders. But, fascinating thing is that Kolkata are found putting up a better performance compared to the other three teams from the country. Yesterday, the Mumbai Indians had a total of just 58 on the board deducting James Franklin's 42 and removing the extras, the score drops to 51 runs from 69 balls at a run rate of 4.43 runs an over. Even with Franklin's 42, the run rate was just 5.00 runs an over which is not the latest run-rate in test cricket.

Looking at the way the Mumbai batsmen played, the New South Wales' captain - Simon Katich did't opt for more than 5 bowlers by having all five bowlers bowl their full quota of 4 overs. One has to wonder as to how come the Mumbai Indians didn't get bowled out when they had 3 wickets still left in hand? Moreover, there was only one over maiden which meant that 19 overs had atleast one run in it. This is a special case of batting where neither overs go maiden nor does the team gets bowled out nor is there any high scoring involved whatsoever.

If that was Mumbai Indians, the New South Wales also never had a ball with their batting. They too had initial blows when the top four batsmen namely David Warner, Shane Watson, Daniel Smith and Simon Katich had to depart scoring single digit scores. The New South Wales had to wail for Steven Smith to cut loose along with Ben Rohrer. After that, there was only one wicket that fell. The entire match consisted of just one six from the blades of Steven Smith. However, the most economical bowler happened to be from Mumbai Indians when Abu Nechim had figures of 4-0-23-3.

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.

Shame for the RCB

Well one would have not even in their dreams would have thought that the Royal Challengers Bangalore would lose to the Kolkata Knight Riders and that too mu such a huge margin making it a one sided contest. All these happened despite the presence of Chris Gayle though the entire Royal Challengers Bangalore's innings didn't consist of Gayle's contribution to much extent. The RCB struggled to cross past 150 when they ended at 169 with a last moment effort from Daniel Vettori. But, the Kolkata Knight Riders chased down the target losing just 1 wicket of Brad Haddin not before scoring 42.

In most of the cases, a total of 169 is thought to be a match winning score but not yesterday when that was not even considered to be a score. When a team like Kolkata Knight Riders can chase down the target comfortably, one can just think about the caliber of the score. For the 1^st time may be that some captain has used his brains in choosing the bowlers who would be bowling their spells out. All the bowlers had decent run ups with Shami Ahmed going in for 10 runs. And Gambhir showed his captaincy skills by removing him after that over.

Though Unadkat went for 11.66 runs an over from his three overs, he was able to capture two wickets. That made sense in using his bowlers which much captains doesn't seem to do quite often. There were 7 bowlers who took the ball in their hands. It was nice to see Kallis, who is more of a one day batsman taking the charge of Kolkata's run chase and emerging successful at the same time. Kallis' efforts deserve praise when he assisted Brad Haddin in his big hitting and then did the same when Gambhir entered the crease after Haddin's dismissal.

This would be a tough job to stand and support the other batsman and for this, it was right in judging Kallis as the man of the match. On the other hand, Vettori's efforts as a captain needs some applause when he stepped in and scored a handy 44 when big guns like Gayle failed at the top. But, later on, Vettori tried everything to contain the Kolkata batsmen by bringing in players like Bhatkal and Kohli to bowl when top bowlers like Nannes and Aravind got belted for 13.00 runs an over. Vettori was the most successful bowler as well returning with figures of 4-0-27-1.

One bowler who was the difference

Well yesterday, the match between Trinidad & Tobago and New South Wales ended in a tie which was finally decided by a super over where an extra over is bowled and the team which scores most number of runs in that over is declared as the winner. Not many people would accept that theory with one over being unable to predict or decide who the winner of the match would be. That super-over theory is nothing but a sort of lucky dip. Whatever, a score of 139 should have been chased down by New South Wales. Thank God! The match ended in a tie.

One can go through the scorecard to see that none of the batsmen from both the teams managed to score a half century with the highest individual score of the match being scored by Lendi Simmons from Trinidad & Tobago. A fascinating aspect would be that the very first batsman to take to the batting crease happened to be the top scorer of the game. With both teams being unable to strike the ball at will, it can be concluded that batting was not an easy job on that track and bowlers could have done anything to the batsmen there.

It was Ravi Rampaul towards the end of the innings who started to strike the ball not because the pitch had deteriorated but because it was the fag end of the innings and going for big shots was the need of that time. Or else, none of the batsmen until then had a strike rate of even 150 with the highest one being Kevon Cooper's 133.33 who came in just behind Ravi Rampaul. The second highest individual score was the top score in New South Wales team which was scored by the New South Wales' opener - David Warner who scored 38.

One reason why the match ended in a tie is because the T&T captain didn't go in for a sixth bowler by sticking to a five bowler theory. All was well until Ravi Rampaul's 4^th over went for 16 runs which made him the most expensive bowler. And, much to anybody's amazement, that was the final over of the game when New South Wales needed 17 runs off the last over. Until then Ravi's bowling analysis showed 3-0-26-1 still under just 9.00 an over. Having such a bowler bowl the last over was a mistake. Added to that, Rampaul was the one who bowled the super over.

South Australia just unpredictable

Last time when South Australia played their match against Warriors, on one hand South Australians were first punched everywhere when by the Warriors' batsmen for 171 and then their batsmen were restricted to just 121. Now, the same South Australian team happened to score a mammoth total of 188 against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Hyderabad yesterday. There can hardly be any question of a team chasing the total and needless to be said, Kolkata lost the match by 19 runs. Well, that was too low a margin to achieve victory. The margin of victory should have been atleast 51 runs like it was the case for Warriors.

Whatever, I am not the person to predict or rather dictate that by how much margin should a team win a match. Coming to the match, it was not a one man show like it was in the match between Warriors and South Australia where all most of the scoring was done by JJ Smuts who scored 88. This time there was contribution from Michael Klinger, Daniel Harris, Callum Ferguson and Daniel Christian with Ferguson's 70 being the highlight to bring the team total to 188. The only batsman who disappointed was Tom Cooper who got out scoring just a single.

As usual, the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders namely Gautam Gambhir stuck to the age old theory having four of his bowlers bowl their full quota of 4 overs with Laxmipathy Balaji falling one over short. Trying to shift from Balaji who gave away runs at 9.00 runs an over, Gambhir turned to Rajat Bhatia who was even more intelligent and gave away 10.00 runs from his only over. Still, that was better than 10.75 runs an over given by Yousuf Pathan. Adding to the excitement, there was equal contribution from most of the batsmen of Kolkata but none of them were highlights.

The top scorer from Kolkata happened to be Manoj Tiwary who had 40 runs to his credit. In a game of cricket, in addition to team work, there should be regular partnerships and one man should take complete responsibility of his team in order to be victorious. Whatever, Kolkata Knight Riders came close to the target which will stop critics from pointing their fingers towards them. There were back to back wickets for Kolkata which halted their advance in the game when Ryan ten Doeschate and Lee got out in 18.2 and 18.4 over respectively. Or else, Bhatia had a great going with 21 runs at number 10.

Alas! Mumbai couldn't lose

One has to wonder is it because of the absence of the star batsman Sachin Tendulkar which is responsible for the Mumbai Indians to perform so badly despite winning the match. There is absolutely no doubt that towards the end of the match all the fans and supporters of Mumbai Indians would go home with a smile on their face but that would not be the case with their heart beats. They heart beats might have simply doubled looking at the way the batsmen of their favorite team played. Mumbai Indians did Warriors (who got their winning runs in the last ball of the game against RCB) yesterday.

One can go through the batting chart of Trinidad & Tobago to see that they couldn't play their complete 20 overs. This is one mistake that teams seldom do. Yesterday, it looked as though Trinidad & Tobago had accepted defeat even before half of the match was still awaiting. They played just 16.2 overs with 3.8 overs still left in the play. Anytime, in cricket, more scores on the board makes the opposition to concentrate more and work more in an attempt to achieve victory. At the end of the game, no doubt T&T would be cursing themselves for their debacle.

With a total of 98 giving the Mumbai Indians a run for their money, one can imagine what would have happened in case the T&T had played their full quota of 20 overs. The T&T team kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and even the batsmen who came in later didn't ever think of undoing the damage that their seniors did. They could have just played their natural game when at that point of time, winning was totally out of question for T&T. There have been many matches where mere totals have been defended and huge ones chased down successfully.

It would be worth mentioning Yuzvendra Chahal's 13 run over in that 98 ball innings of T&T that managed only 98 runs. However, coming to the Mumbai's innings, criticisms would have poured in from all over for such an approach. A win at the end might not be able to stop all tongues from wagging against Mumbai. Two sixes from Mumbai came in from number 8 and 9 batsmen when Harbhajan Singh and Malinga were the ones who were responsible.Another major mistake that T&T made was opting for only 5 bowlers like a programmed device. In the end T&T got everything wrong which doesn't mean Mumbai had everything right.

One scores and the rest support

Well in the beginning of the second stage of the champions league T20 tournament, there was a game where the Royal Challengers Bangalore put up a score of 173 on the board only to see the Warriors snatching the game away from them in the last ball of the innings. Yesterday, at Hyderabad, the same Warriors put up a score of 171 which was two runs less than what RCB had piled up a couple of days ago. But, that score was not only enough to confirm a victory for the Warriors but that happened rather convincingly with the margin being 51 runs.

This is one of the biggest margins of victory as far as a T20 game is considered. And this is the highest margin of victory in terms of runs in this competition. I am not questioning the credentials of entire Royal Challengers Bangalore or the Warriors. I just mentioned how two similar scores can make a huge difference in two different games for the same team. In the first innings where Warriors batted, there was a solid stand for them given by JJ Smuts who scored 88 runs at a rate of 135 runs for every 100 deliveries he faced.

Smuts was supported well by Colin Ingram and Mark Boucher both of whom scored in 30s. Neither of them got into any sort of big hitting and at the same time were not even ducking the ball unnecessarily. Two Daniels - Daniel Christian and Daniel Harris bowled superbly by not giving runs at will which was spoiled by their partners with Shaun Tait playing a major role in them. Shaun Tait was given to bowl 4 overs despite going in for over 13.00 runs an over. May be it was his international appearance that made the captain to go i for him to bowl 4 overs.

Looking at the score of 121 at which South Australia ended their innings, nothing needs to be said regarding them in particular. Rather than giving due credit to the Warriors' bowlers, one can blame the South Australian batsmen for not standing up to the mark and losing wickets at regular intervals. Michael Klinger had a good going but lacked support from Daniel Harris and Tom Cooper. Borgas, Christian and Ludeman tried to do something but failed after they started feeling the pressure with the required run rate mounting and with it the pressure as said. There was nothing tough for Warriors' bowlers to do with Smuts doing the job.

NSW together not enough

Well if one can take pains to go through the scorecard of the New South Wales batting, you can see similar scores from the 5 batsmen with a little variation. One would no doubt call that as a team effort. But, one has to satisfy himself only with that. A team work can be considered to be effective only when the effort imposes a challenge on its opposition and not otherwise. There were contributions from the blades of David Warner, Shane Watson, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith and Moises Henriques out of which Shane Watson top scored with 34 for NSW.

One does not require the services of five batsmen to put up a score of 135 on the board in 20 overs. The run rate at which the New South Wales team scored was just above run a ball that included six wide deliveries. As usual, the Cape Cobras stuck with the four bowler formula with four of them bowling their complete quota and Justin Kemp bowling three to fall one over short. Likewise, it would have been wise for Justin Kemp to have gone ahead with 5 bowlers instead of trying Justin Ontong who went for 12 runs from his lone over.

Scoring or rather chasing 136 for victory should not be tough for any team in T20 cricket. Though there have been many instances where such small totals are defended, in majority of the cases, that total happens to be chased down. The openers - Richard Levi and Herschelle Gibbs laid a strong foundation for the Cape Cobras' win at Chennai scoring 43 and 55 respectively. The latter part of the innings was not a tough task for Ontong and Duminy to give it finishing touches. One can see from the scorecard that the Cape Cobras reached the target effortlessly with 16 balls to spare which is quite obvious.

One has to wonder what can a captain of a team do with the scoreboard not having enough runs for the bowlers to take some support from and try doing new things to surprise the batsman. Top bowlers like Nathan Hauritz and Keefe get belted which makes the captain to opt for other bowlers. The only bowlers from New South Wales who could have something to say was Henriques who had the wicket of Levi and was the most economical bowler of the lot giving away runs at just 6.00 runs an over. But, unfortunately, he was the bowler who conceded the winning runs for the Cape Cobras.

Curse the Challengers

As their name gores, the Royal Challengers Bangalore royally challenged their opposition-Warriors by setting a target of 174 on the board and taking them till the last over ball of the match to secure a win. Speaking with the spirit of the game, a win is a win, no matter which team it is and at which stage it has been achieved. One need not come to the conclusion that the Warriors had their luck on their way which the Royal Challengers Bangalore were missing. The game consists of 20 overs and if at all a team can win, it can do it even in the 120^th legal delivery.

It absolutely makes no sense in bringing in some invisible luck factor into the game where both teams are equipped with 11 best players who are thought to be fit. However, it is such games that keep the minds of a fan swinging like a pendulum. At one moment, the situation would be as though RCB would win and in another moment, Warriors would have made the equation theirs. Whatever may be the case, one thing that was seen in the game was the true spirit which usually lacks in a T20 game. There was a series of 20s and 30s from RCB with some hiccups.

A total of 172 is indeed a decent one. And, the reason for that were the five batsmen as mentioned who scored in 20s and 30s. Asking something more from RCB batsmen would not be fair. If not for Mayank Agarwal, the rest of them never deceived. But, if the scorecard of the Warriors is considered, there were only two batsmen in Ashwell Prince and Johan Botha who scored 74 and 42 respectively. If these two scores are removed from the Warriors' squad, the total reduces to 57 runs from 41 balls that included 5 wides as well. The Warriors no doubt lacked team work to a great extent.

By now, readers would have gone sick with me always highlighting about the lack of experimenting with the bowling. But still it is worth mentioning that Smuts was underrated when Tsotsobe was allowed to bowl 10 overs despite going in for 31 runs from 3 overs at over 10.00 runs an over. There was a splendid performance in the bowling department with Rusty Theron bowled a magnificent spell of 3-0-29-4 which stood apart from all major performances with the bat. In my opinion, Theron should have been given the man of the match and not Ashwell Prince when batting was not at all tough.

As fast as a T20 game

Well it has been just three days since the third edition of the Champions league T20 tournament has begun and one has to wonder how fast days have gone that the second round of the tournament has already begun or will be happening in the next 24 hours or so. Speaking statistics, till date there have been just 6 games with two each played per day. Already there are two teams that have been ousted from the tournament when Ruhuna lost their first game to Trinidad & Tobago and fell short of a run rate in their next game against Leicestershire.

On the other hand, Auckland have lost both their games; the first one against Kolkata Knight Riders and the second one at the hands of Somerset in the second day after the tournament began. Kolkata Knight Riders should consider themselves lucky enough for getting past the initial stage with a narrow win against Auckland which they won by just 2 runs before losing to Somerset by 11 runs. Trinidad and Tobago along with Somerset have won both their encounters with Kolkata Knight Riders winning just one. Auckland are the only team to head back home without any wins in hand.

Last but not the least, we have Ruhuna who have one consolation win and a loss against their name but will still head back home with just that. However, being an Indian, it was a fortune that the Kolkata Knight Riders had when the ICC allowed four nations to take part in the champions league tournament. Adding to that fortune, they made it to the next round with just one win and that too by just two runs against Auckland. However, with so many teams yet to make their presence in the tournament and with so many matches to come, one has to just wait and watch.

With the Ruhana team calling it an end, so would be Sanath Jayasuriya who is still seen playing T20 cricket though international team selectors have retired him long ago some three years back. In this tournament, one can see Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Superkings who are outstanding contenders for the trophy. Likewise, there are teams from other nations as well like Warriors, Cape Cobras, South Australia and New South Wales standing for the trophy. One can sense any team from Pakistan missing from the action. And, having four teams from India alone makes it just sick. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka have one team with England two.

Jayasuriya fails but not Ruhuna

Well this was the second match in the ongoing champions league T20 tournament for both Ruhuna and Sanath Jayasuriya. But, to one's amazement, Jayasuriya puts up a more dismal performance while Ruhuna ends its campaign a convincing note. In Ruhuna'a first game against Trinidad&Tobago, Jayasuriya scored 13 runs and scalped 2 wickets to emerge as Ruhuna's most successful bowler. This time all that Jayasuriya could manage was a mere 6 runs and went wicketless giving away 37 runs from 4 overs at a rate of 9.25 runs an over. However, the discussion is not regarding Sanath Jayasuriya or his performance here.

It would be worth to write something about Dinesh Chandimal who scored another half century after top scoring with 50 in his first game against Trinidad and Tobago. There, his efforts were useful only to see his team cross the 100 run mark. But this time, in the match against Leicestershire, not only did he top score with an unbeaten 62 but also scored the same at a decent pace compared to the pitch on which the game was taking place. By the way, the Leicestershire did not experiment with their like most of the teams do in T20 games.

Leicestershire used just 5 bowlers with four of them completing their quota of 4 overs. That according to me is one of the reasons why teams don't have a continuous winning streak in T20 games. Likewise, Harry Gurney's efforts with the ball should be applauded for his 3/33 from 4 overs which restricted Ruhuna from scoring any further which would otherwise been more than say 180. Another player who lonely played a decent innings for his team was Abdul Razzaq who had a better performance with the bat when he scored 68 but was not enough to achieve a victory with others not cooperating.

Though, like Leicestershire Ruhuna didn't experiment with their bowling the bowlers whom Udawatte chose to bowl had a decent run with two bowlers picking up 3 wickets. Looking at this, one can say that the ground was a tough one to bat on. Scoring runs was not easy and batsmen who have managed to do something have to get a pat on their back. Another player who deceived both his fans as well as his team was James Taylor who got out scoring just 11 runs. But, one result stands the same; both Ruhuna and Leicestershire get sacked from the rest of the series.

Leicestershire crash land

It was amazing to see Trinidad & Tobago lose just two wickets with their opposition namely Leicestershire being able to keep just one wicket in their hand at the end of their innings after scoring 51 runs less than what Trinidad & Tobago could manage. I was just cursing Trinidad and Tobago for having so many batsmen unused when the likes of Daren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga and Jason Mohammed could have proved to be handy with the bat. According to me, the team batting need not and should not care about the number of wickets they have in hand.

The tail end batsmen n any team are meant to just go out and slog it out there and not bother about their wicket being thrown away. The tail end players are more of bowlers rather than batsmen. It should be the ball which should do the taking and not their bat. The first wicket from the Trinidad and Tobago team fell in the first ball of the 18^th over when the scoreboard read 139/0. Nevermind that there was some big hitting toward the fag end of their innings with the last 17 balls yielding 30 runs at the rate of 10.00 runs an over.

Until then, the scoring rate was just above 8.00 runs an over. Had the batsmen taken a few risks, the score might have gone well beyond 180 with 4 more wickets falling (may be). On the other hand, even the bowlers from Leicestershire team did not put in much effort to push the batsmen to take any aerial route in an attempt to clear the ropes which in turn would safely land in the hands of any fielder in the deep. One has to wonder as to why Mathew Hoggard bowled just three overs when he was the most economical bowler of the lot.

Coming to the batting of Leicestershire, there were two batsmen dismissed for duck and two other scoring single digit scores among the top four batsmen. I wish I was in place of James Taylor who was just enjoying his batting at the crease knowing well that no fingers would point towards him and neither could his team win the match after their top order deceiving them. Along with Taylor, even Abdul Razzaq joined the party to be the only two batsmen scoring over 10 runs and played more than 50% of the match. I wonder how come the Leicestershire could not be bowled out with such a dismal batting.

A series of ducks in Ruhuna

Well yesterday the first match of the Nokia Champions League T20 tournament kick started with Ruhuna not only playing Trinidad&Tobago but also having a taste of their first defeat. Needless to be said, Trinidad&Tobago won the match by 5 wickets at Hyderabad. The match was one more instance where the team winning the toss ended up as the losing side and Ruhuna was that unlucky team to have done that yet again. If not for some Dinesh Chandimal, no other player from Ruhuna could really stand up to the occasion. Chandimal scored 50 runs to be the lone half century scorer of the game.

It is confusing to see Jayasuriya still opening the innings when there are so many young legs available who can do the job rather than relying up on a 43 year old guy. Of course, Sanath Jayasuriya has been known to strike the ball hard but those days were over some 4 years back which can be confirmed with Sachin Tendulkar keeping him warming the benches in the IPL 2010. Moreover, Jayasuriya was not picked up by any franchisee for this year's IPL. It is no doubt that Jayasuriya had his ball doing the talking though his bat had to just shut up after scoring 13 runs.

Jayasuriya scalped the wicket of Darren Ganga and returned with an economy of 5.00 runs an over after bowling his quota of 4 overs which made him the most economical bowler of the lot. Anyways, coming to the match, one can see three of the batsmen from Ruhuna scoring or rather getting out after scoring a duck and one player was unbeaten on zero. Another interesting fact of the match would be that the Ruhuna team played their 20 overs losing all ten wickets. That might not be of that importance but the way Ruhuna tackled the opposition was too poor.

Ruhuna had T&T reeling at 6/2 at the end of the 3^rd over but once again left Dwayne Bravo and Darren Ganga to rule them. There have been many matches where a team loses quick wickets initially and end up victorious towards the end and this time T&T need not be considered to be the underdogs. However, the scorecard suggests that until the entry of Sherwin Ganga who scored a quickfire 39* runs from 15 balls that eventually sealed the match for both the teams-with Ruhuna being the losers while T&T emerging the winners. Had Chintaka Perera been given the ball instead of Janoda, something might have worked out for Ruhuna.