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 2nd time after the IPL2011.
Since the beginning of the 4th 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 17th 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.
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 120th 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?
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.
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.
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.
Anyone who can go through the batting charts of this year's IPL would be amazed to find Chris Gayle on the top of the list in most of the batting records starting from the highest run getter in the tournament to the maximum umber of ducks. Yes, Gayle has two ducks to his credit which is luckily equaled by so many like Gilchrist, Sangakkara, McCullum etc but not exceeded. In a way, Gayle happens to be the king of them to have scored two ducks playing in 12 games which is more than any other batsmen who has scored two ducks in the tournament.Other than this bad record, Gayle is the only other batsman in the history of the IPL after Sachin Tendulkar to have aggregated more than 600 runs in a single edition. Sachin Tendulkar did it last year when he had amassed 618 runs from 15 matches. Both of them were awarded the man of the series with both of them ending up as runners-up. Added to that, the tally of 44 sixes is far ahead of any other batsmen in this year's IPL. The second highest six hitter in the tournament happens to be Mahendra Singh Dhoni with 23 hits out of the ground.The next major contribution from Gayle happens to be the fact that Gayle had two hundreds which was more than anybody else. In fact, only Gayle has managed to score 2 hundreds. Then we have Gayle once again having a strike rate of 183.13 and an average of 67.55 which is more than anybody else in the series needless to be said. Chris Gayle's tally of 56 boundaries was the second best only to Sachin Tendulkar who has 67 hits to the fence. However, Sachin Tendulkar has attained that feat from 16 games compared to 12 played by Chris Gayle.Had Gayle played equal number of games as Sachin Tendulkar did, there was every possibility that Gayle would have overtaken Sachin Tendulkar's tally with 11 more hits. However, Gayle falls to the third position (shared by many) with Badrinath top scoring with 5 half centuries followed by 4 half centuries by Virat Kohli. However, with both 50s and 100s put together, Chris Gayle's tally is equaled by Badrinath. Coming to the end, Gayle was is the fastest to reach 600 runs in an IPL when he did it in 11 games compared to Sachn Tendulkar who took 15 in 2010.
Well as all of us (or at least most of us) expected, the result of yesterday's match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians ended as per plan which relied on Chris Gayle. We have repeatedly on our blog cited the chances of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in case Gayle is able to continue or not. If Gayle could keep up his momentum then the RCB win or else no. Exactly the same happened when Gayle scored 89 runs to demilitarize the Mumbai Indians whose lone satisfaction was Sachin Tendulkar's 40 runs which was the highest any Mumbai batsmen could score.Added to Chris Gayle, there was Mayank Agarwal and AB deVilliars who supported Gayle in his big hitting. In fact, it was Chris Gayle who allowed Mayank Agarwal to relax by taking most of the responsibility on his shoulders. Of course, AB deVilliars came after Gayle was dismissed. By then, he had scored 89 runs at the rate of almost two runs for every ball he faced. There can be no words that can praise Chris Gayle at the moment. If Gayle's devastating batting was one way, there were confused bowlers from Mumbai side. Sachin Tendulkar didn't take the risk of trying another bowler.As usual, Lasith Malinga was the strike bowler for the Mumbai Indians who though didn't take any wicket could contain runs when his stats suggest that Malinga was the least expensive bowlers who gave away runs at the rate of 6.00 runs an opver from his quota of 4 overs. Sachin Tendulkar made a mistake by handing the ball to Rohith Sharma who went for 14 runs his lone over. With someone like Gayle striking at his best, this was something uncalled for. Whatever, Mumbai Indians had nothing to fear about because a defeat was always on the cards for them.It was just fascinating to see Sachin Tendulkar trying too many things to settle scores with Gayle's team, one of which was bringing in Harbhajan Singh at number 3 after Bizzard got out. Of course, Harbhajan Singh had a promising start when he hit one huge six outside the ground off the bowling of Mithun, three deliveries after striking a boundary of the same bowler. But, i the end all that he could manage was a mere 13 runs. That was the first six of the Mumbai Indians and the next one came off the bat of Lasith Malinga who was in at number 10.
Well when there is no one but Chris Gayle who can do the big hitting for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and making it still worse, Gayle has been known to take the full responsibility for the same, he can be considered the most important player for the RCB much more than the captain and the wicketkeeper. We have discussed the issue several times on this blog regarding what would happen to the Royal Challengers in case Chris Gayle fails to dominate with the bat. And, not making it too boring, the topic shifts to the forthcoming games in the IPL.There are two more games to go in this edition of the IPL namely the final and before that the 2nd qualifying final between the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers that is scheduled in the next 24 hours from now at Chennai. With Chennai being a neutral venue, there cannot be any home team advantage or any curse of being the home team like it has happened in this edition of the IPL. As we have already mentioned, the winner of the second qualifying final would completely depend on Gayle though there are the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Lasith Malinga etc in the Mumbai Indians' squad.It is Chris Gayle who now holds the record for the most runs in this year's IPL which in turn makes him wear the orange cap. Limiting our discussion about Gayle for the moment, one can observe the bad timing of the break between the final and tomorrow's match between the Mumbai Indians and RCB. There should have been a break after the second qualifying final between the aforementioned teams before the final is played. But instead, a break can be found between the second qualifying final and the elimination finals (between KKR and MI). Is this also for the sake of change?Another thing that one needs to notice is that the final of the tournament is held on a Saturday rather than on Sunday when there would be more viewers glued to their television sets on that holiday. As a matter of fact, the finals of the world cup 2011 was also held on a Saturday reserving Sunday for all fans to rejoice their favorite team's victory. Coming back to the tournament, the CSK have a chance of winning the trophy for the second time but, against who they'll be doing it is still awaited. If it is against RCB, that will be their 4th meeting in this IPL alone.
Finally as all would have expected, the Kolkata Knight Riders ended their IPL stint yesterday by losing to the Mumbai Indians, which was their last chance to prove a point in the tournament. One has to anyway congratulate the Kolkata Knight Riders for coming this far when their performances in the past three editions of the tournament were haphazard. Despite the presence of big guns like Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullum and others, they ended at the bottom of the table in the past three editions of the tournament. This time there were more teams compared to the previous editions.A loss against one team could be made up in their next game. And, may be that was the reason why the Kolkata made it count unlike last three editions. On the other hand, there was a re-auction of the players which meant another chance for the franchisee to have their bid on a player whom they think is a promising one. This time Kolkata had promising players like Gambhir, Kallis, Yousuf Pathan and Brett Lee to name a few. However, all that could help them was to place them fourth in the points table which was a jump from position No.8 last time.Scorecard suggests there were the top order of the KKR failed miserably with hardly any contributions from Gambhir, Kallis, Goswami and Tiwary. So was the case regarding Yousuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan. It was fascinating to see one player from Holland and the other from Bangladesh having a major share in the Kolkata's batting with Ryan ten Doeschate top scoring with 70 and Shakib Al Hasan scoring 26. The second highest run getter in last year's IPL should learn from the player where cricket has taken a backseat. The aforementioned players didn't disappoint their franchisee who bid a huge sum on them.Coming to the Mumbai Indians' batting, it was as though Aiden Craig Blizzard was introducing himself when stats shows that he never played international cricket at all and more over neither he could be thought to represent the same in years to come. The opening batsmen top scored with 51 runs off 30 balls at a decent strike rate of 170. One can see the route taken by KKR who went in for 7 of their bowlers to try something to stop the Mumbai Indians from scoring. But, who on earth cares for those when James Franklin was trying to undo the damage which he did with the ball?
Well this was a well-deserved break for all players, fans and commentators who would have been in one way or the other associated with the IPL. Now with less than 24 hours left for the first play off between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, something special would be needed regarding the past performances of all the teams and its players. The reason for the same would be that a blogger can hardly take a break from writing some or the other stuff regarding the tournament which has given lots and lots which makes us run out of pages and time.One team that would never compromise with its victory or at least the runners-up tag would be the Chennai Superkings who have such match winnings payers like Mike Hussey, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Murali Vijay, Subramanium Badrinath and Suresh Raina who have been match winners in one game or the other. All the aforementioned players have been top class batsmen though they have little bit of problems with their bowling completely dominated by Bollinger and Tim Southee. Otherwise players like Suresh Raina and Badrinath are found taking the ball in their hands.And then, by chance the Kolkata Knight Riders have made it here replacing Delhi Daredevils.Likewise, the Mumbai Indians on the other hand have a lot of match winning players like Sachin Tendukar (more than anybody else), Kieron Pollard, Rohith Sharma and Symonds to name a few with the bowling department consisting of Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel and Lasith Malinga who have proved to be wonders. There are people like Harbhajan, Pollard and Malinga who can be hard hitting at the bottom of the table. They take the second place after the Chennai Superkings to make this tournament theirs. But, with both RCB and CSK having a better chance, MI stand in the third place.Much can be thought of regarding the RCB until now which has been totally dominated by Chris Gayle alone. One can look at the matches played by the Royal Challengers prior to the entry of Gayle and matches after Gayle was introduced. Moving still further, one can see the results of the RCB matches when Gayle has failed to dominate. All these would conclude that in case Gayle fails to provide the RCB with any sort of support with the bat then the RCB are bound to pack up their bags and head back home. Top three of these qualify to the Champions League.
Well one sight on yesterday's match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals suggests that the Rajasthan Royals would have an easy won the match. But, I wonder how many of them would have thought the Rajasthan Royals would have won the match without losing even a single wicket and Shane Watson belting a 47 ball 89 run. The moment the Mumbai Indians ended their innings for 133 on the board, it was more or less understood that they would end up losing. But, something which was not thought about was the even with Lasith Malinga they couldn't grab a single wicket.There were two Mumbaikars in Rohith Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar who did something for the Mumbai Indians' side by emerging as the top batsmen of the game scoring 31 and 58 respectively. But, as it already evident by now, that was of no use to the team. All that those scores could do was to save the face for the Mumbai Indians without which the total would not have even crossed 100. One has to wonder why the Mumbai Indians preserved 5 wickets when no one had the guts to belt the bowling of the opposition. Why was Franklin sent ahead of Symonds?Symonds was a bigger hitter than Franklin and Harbhajan. One has to applaud the Rajasthan Royals' captain for experimenting with his bowlers and at the same time criticize him for failing in his experiment. There were four bowlers from the Rajasthan Royals' side who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs and much to anyone's surprise, they all ended up successful. But, the ones who didn't get to complete their full quota of 4 overs, namely Siddhart Trivedi, Maneria and Amit Singh bowled the costliest of over giving away runs at the rate of 9.00, 10.00 and 12.00 runs respectively.However, there is not much that can be written about the batting performance of the Rajasthan Royals which was finished by just two batsmen - Dravid and Watson. Watson's 47 ball 89 might not be of that great interest but, his combo of 3 wickets and 89 runs definitely falls into the best of all-round performances. There were 7 over to spare for the Rajasthan Royals which could have been compensated in case of a rain affected match. With this, Shane Warne could be last match in the IPL and he has outplayed his famous rival-Sachin Tendulkar. Just a gr8 way to finish a splendid career.
Well it is obvious that a team where 11 players contribute to their team would walk out with all the applause the match can bring in. And, yesterday as well things were hardly different in the game between the Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab at Mumbai. Well it should not be confused with the fact that Mumbai won because they were playing on their home soil. This could be the match for all people who would like to find flaw in Sachin Tendulkar who scored an individual 51 at the cost of his team's total. After Jacobs, Sachin Tendulkar had the least strike rate.Sachin Tendulkar played 45 balls before getting out on 51 at a strike rate of 137.83 while Ambati Rayudu scored the same amount of runs playing 8 balls less than what Sachin Tendulkar took. Both have to come under the scanner for, the innings didn't include a quickfire that is quintessential in a T20 game especially the IPL for in addition to the team losing the match, the audience would be deceived of an action on the field. Though the batsmen who came in next didn't play a long innings like Sachin Tendulkar and Rayudu, they added to the entertainment.Kieron Pollard and Rohith Sharma despite getting out on low scores of 20 and 18 respectively did the same at strike rates of 181 and 163 respectively. The next to have come in were Andrew Symonds and Suman. Well not having our discussion regarding Suman, Symonds would have well been an asset with him being the biggest of all the hitters out there in the Mumbai Indians side. Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga would also have added to the action. Had Sachin Tendukar and Ambati Rayudu thought otherwise, the score towards the end would have shot past 180 or may be even more. Speaking team work, it was evident why the Kings XI Punjab despite the presence of Adam Gilchrist, David Warner, David Hussey etc ended up on the losing side for their lack of team work. All those aforementioned players were among the top big hitters in IPL but not yesterday at Mumbai. If not for Shaun Marsh who scored 61, no other batsmen showed any toughness on the crease. One can sense the selfishness of Paul Valthaty who scored 33 runs at a strike rate of 86.87 when the situation demanded 150+ runs for every 100 legal deliveries. Finally, lack of team work saw he team lose and viceversa.
Well if it is only the result of the match that matters, then, there might have not been so many cricket crazy fans out there cheering for every shot that goes out of the ground and every ball that breaks the stumps no matter which player from which team is responsible in doing it so as long as there is entertainment on the field. But, that was no way the case in yesterday's game between the Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. A score of 94 from 20 overs should either deserve a better response from the opposition or else the track should be fit for a test match.
In the first innings which was played by the Mumbai Indians (as far as the batting team goes), they as mentioned neither lose all their ten wickets nor did they do a big hitting despite the likes of Sachin Tendulkar being there. Other names that promise good run include Andrew Symonds, Rohith Sharma and Kieron Pollard. Of course, other batsmen too have their names felt but, not yesterday. Even Harbhajan Singh might have added to the delight with the bat. But, there was no batsman in the Mumbai Indians' side who could get a score past 20 runs with the highest being Symonds' 17.
Should one come to the conclusion that the Rajasthan Royals were on the top of their bowling with the army consisting of Shane Warne including Ashok Menaria, Shane Watson and Johan Botha? If that was so, then one should think for a reason for the Rajasthan Royals not to have grabbed all ten wickets from the Mumbai side which saw them play until the 120th legal delivery may be no avail which forms a different issue. Another point to ponder over is that the Rajasthan Royals' batsmen came until the last two overs to reach the target which was achieved in the 19th over.
A tough opponent would have chased down the target in just 15 overs with just over run a ball which also happens to be much. An ideal approach would be 11 overs at 9.0 runs an over. One aspect that needs to be digested is that despite grabbing 3 wickets at a rate of 3.0 runs an over, Johan Botha was given only two overs to bowl when he could have been given two more overs. On the other hand, Shane Watson was allowed to complete his full quota of 4 overs despite being the 2nd costliest bowler after Siddharth Trivedi who was restricted to juts 2 overs.
Well, if anybody thinks twice on having their bet on new teams, one has to think no further because this is IPL and not some international cricket tournament. We understand that in international games but for a few, it is always the test laying nations that have an upper hand while the non-test playing nation has to compromise with just the participation. But, this is not the case regarding tournaments like the IPL where the new team if not for making their first appearance is not short of any talent with big names like Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth still making rounds.Recently, the Delhi Daredevils had a run for their money against the Kochi Tuskers Kerala and yesterday, Mumbai Indians had to wait until the last delivery to be bowled to achieve the so-called granted victory. If the batting of the Pune Warriors was thought to be below par, then either the Mumbai Indians' batting should also come under scrutiny for taking it to the ultimate delivery or else, the bowlers of the Pune Warriors should walk out with all the applause for making the batsmen under Sachin Tendulkar struggle under pressure. Both batting and bowling are vital parts of the game.One has to think about the way the batsmen from the Pune Warriors went out with them losing their wickets with 5 of their batmen failing to get past the ten run mark and with 4 others making it just above 10 to see to that they don't get into the single digit club whatsoever. Putting it simple, only Robin Uttappa had a game when he scored 45 runs to see the total go past above 100 but still ended with a run rate below 6.0 runs an over. As though that was not enough, the Mumbai Indians also played the same way.The efforts of the Pune needs applause with their captain Yuvraj bringing in 7 of his bowlers to bowl with three of them finishing their full quota of 4 overs. This worked to a greater extent when though the Mumbai team never lost wickets, they took it to the ultimate delivery of the match to score that winning run needless to be said. Point to be noted was that Murali Karthik and Parnell who gave away runs at the rate of over 7.0 runs an over were given four overs while Shrikant Wagh and Rohith Sharma who were among the wicket-takers were given 3 and 2 overs respectively.
As the rules of the game of cricket go, there has to be one winner and the other team has to end up on the losing side no matter what. This saying is not for matches that result in a tie or those games which get abandoned by no matter what once again. Most of you might not even accept the encounter between the Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils yesterday at Delhi when the Delhi team got out for just 95 runs. Should one forgive Virender Sehwag for starting the inning so brightly that even the best batsman on earth would have got scared.One would have thought Sehwag to hit a double century rather than the entire team not even getting to the one hundred mark. A score of 95 by a team captained by a dashing opener like Sehwag and with members like David Warner and Irfan Pathan should have atleast scored runs at a rate f 6.0 runs an over. One has to wonder about the team which speaks of no other hard hitting batsman if not for their captain. There was some Venugopal Rao who makes his appearance flt only once in a year and that would be the IPL in case that happens. Despite the fact that the entire Delhi team got bundled out for a mere total of just 95 on board, one has to no doubt appreciate the fact that the Delhi Daredevils had hit more sixes compared to the Mumbai Indians. The Delhi Daredevils' innings saw two hits out of the ground, with one of them being from the bat of Virender Sehwag and the other one being from some Naman Ojha, the profile of whom can be viewed on cricinfo if interested. On the other hand, the Mumbai Indins had just one six from Sachin Tendulkar who fell short of a half century by 4 runs.Though not necessary, all the batsmen from the Mumbai Indians had their strike rates below hundred which can be taken the way you wish. Would it be right to suggest that the pitch was tough for batsmen? I don't think so, keeping in mind the was the Mumbai Indians played without losing their cool. Of course, who doesn't keep his cool chasing down just 96 on board? One has to appreciate the series of 0s and 8s in the Delhi Daredevils' innings with five batsmen getting out for naught and two of them scoring 8 runs. But, there is a long way to for both teams.
There are teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe who might just make one's life in many ways though their contribution to international is negligible. The teams mentioned above are one such teams against whom a victory is guaranteed unlike the case with the other 7 teams out there. In case some team happens to encounter either of the teams mentioned and in case that happens in a season where the ICC is bound to reconsider the teams' ratings, then, the team facing Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would have to consider itself lucky for, because of that their rating would definitely continue to raise.I can recall the way South Africa made it to the number spot in ICC's test rankings in the late 2007 by beating the West Indies and Bangladesh with Australia losing to India in the Border - Gavaskar trophy. Similar to this, in yesterday's encounter between the Mumbai Indians and the Guyana team, the Mumbai Indians needed absolutely no effort needed to overthrow their opponents. Starting from Sachin Tendulkar and Kieron Pollard, everyone made their contribution felt if not for Saurabh Tiwary who got out for a naught. Of course, even Ambati Rayudu scored a mere 4 but that was towards the fag end of the innings.Lack of game planning was evident in yesterday's match with the Guynese captain - Ramnaresh Sarwan opting for not more than 5 bowlers who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs each. A little bit of risk taking usually helps in getting back into the game and if that doesn't, nothing to worry. Atleast the captain would be satisfied that he made use of the options available to him to the fullest extent whatsoever. The Guyanese innings saw just two hits out of the ground compared to 9 alone by the man of the match Kieron Pollard alone in a T20 game. I had totally forgotten until now that Guayana was facing a team that stood on the top in this year's IPL and had international players like Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Lasith Malinga to name a few. Despite ending up on the losing side, one has to give the Guyanese a pat on their back one, for scoring a decent 153 with over 7.5 an over and two, for not losing all ten wickets in a failed run chase. Only Christopher Barnwell was found ending up with a strike rate of more than 150 compared to three from the Mumbai Indians' side.
Well it would not be a surprise for any team to have pulled off a stunning win against any team in T20 games. Mumbai Indians might have been the team that was on the top in the third edition of the Indian Premier League that was concluded some 5 months back. But, how can it consider itself comfortable with just 180 on board with 200+ totals being successfully chased down repeatedly. There should not be anything peculiar in any team that is found chasing 180 on board. Despite all odds, on fact to be noticed is that the Mumbai Indians' team didn't have even a single score above 50.Well, that is not an area of concern for either of the teams out there. At the end of the day it is who wins and who loses and South Australia have made the better of the day by beating the Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets rather deserving. Unlike the Mumbai Indians' inings, the South Australian team had their openers post individual scores in excess of 50 with Michael Klinger and Daniel Harris scoring 50 and 56 respectively. By the end, Daniel Harris was awarded the man of the match for scoring just 6 runs above his opening partner which can seem to be a race for that as well.There were no other contenders for the man of the match award with no bowler managing to take more than 2 wickets. Ali Murtaza and Lasith Malinga happened to top the bowling charts with two scalps against their names each with Aaron O'Brien doing the same for the South Australians. But these performances were not able to fetch either of the three the man of the match award with little coming from the willow and obviously the preference going to them. Despite a run rate of 9 an over, there were hardly any individual batting performances from both the teams.
Well it has been the trademark of the Kolkata Knight Riders to reserve wickets and go in for a final assault which is yet to become a reality. Even in yesterday's game between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Mumbai Indians, the Kolkata Knight Riders lost just 3 wickets in the 20 overs that they played only to pile up a mere 155 runs on the board and eventually end up on the losing side. If not for his captaincy, Sourav Ganguly should stand nowhere when it comes to rescuing his team which was evident when he scored just 31 runs from 34 deliveries at a strike of less than 100.This strike can be appreciated had it been in a one day international. But, this is not the time to remind anyone that Ganguly was playing a T20 game where his experience is less than some Piyush Chawla who is at present half his age. But, if common sense speaks, Ganguly should have taken the decision to take charge of his team by going for big shots rather than steadily increasing the pace after ducking in the initial part of his batting. No one would account Ganguly for hitting 5 boundaries but would surely point their fingers for not hitting even a single ball out of the ground.If the other side of the coin is also given a close look at, it would be quite evident when the KKR team hardly had any hard hitting batsmen with only Chris Gayle and to some extent Ganguly being an exception. Had I been in place of Ganguly, I would have opted to choose Brad Hodge instead of Angelo Mathews and Shukla over Saha or Harpreet Singh. One has to wonder from where did this Harpreet Singh come from when the KKR squad doesn't mention his name. On the other side, even the bowlers from KKR had no momentum in them to trouble the Mumbai Indians' batsmen.One cannot cite the presence of Sachin Tendulkar to have increased pressure on the KKR side for, Sachin is as good as anybody else as far as T20 cricket is considered though there might be a lot of contradictions to this. Shane Bond and Ishanth Sharma should have shown their caliber for the money what they were paid and the expectations they had drawn from their fans. But, they were the bowlers who ended up with the highest economy rate when both of them returned with a run rate of over 10 runs an over. Shane Bond was not even made to bowl his full quota of 4 overs. The only area where KKR can boast over MI is that they hit 2 sixes compared to only one from the MI side.
Well this is quite usual in the T20 format of cricket and more so when it comes to the Indian Premier League when a team that ended on a high note in the previous edition of the same is found getting belted by a team that finds no place in comparison with the other team. And this was once again the case when the Mumbai Indians beat the Delhi Daredevils by a whooping 98 runs which could be the case in test matches and one day cricket and not in a T20 game and that too in IPL. But, scorecard suggests otherwise.No total should have seemed to trouble or even put in some pressure on the Delhi Daredevils especially on Virender Sehwag who cares to nobody when it comes to a tempting delivery. And, Sehwag did exactly that when he scored or rather hammered a 16 ball 26 with a strike rate of more than 150. And neither was Dinesh Karthik or Maharoof anyway less when it came to belting the ball which they did with a mind blowing strike but was nowhere when it came to the number of runs scored. All that they could do was to just wait and see what the batsman coming in next would do.After the exit of Dinesh Karthik who scored a 6 ball 16 runs with a strike rate of 233, no other batsman from the Delhidaredevils really stood up to the Mumbai Indians' bowling. It was fascinating to see well known bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga going in for runs when part time bowlers like Sanath Jayasuriya and Dwayne Bravo did a fab job with the ball. There were just 2 bowlers from the Mumbai Indians' side who bowled their full quota of 4 overs viz Sanath Jayasuriya and Kieron Pollard, both of whom have less to say with the ball.But, such unusual incidents have been part and parcel of the IPL. It was a shame for the Delhi Daredevils who not only lost the game by a large margin but also couldn't play their complete quota of 20 overs when they lost their 10th wicket with still 21 legal deliveries remaining. Only Farveez Maharoof was able to hit a couple of shots outside the boundary in the entire Delhi Daredevils' innings. Not even Sehwag could do that. And, one has to notice the presence of Maharoof who was included as a bowler but was not given the ball and was the lone six hitter in the innings. Any explanations???
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.
