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.

When Chris Gayle failed..

Well in the last 24 hours or so, I had written about the fate of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in case Chris Gayle fails to dominate with the bat. And, to one's fortune the result has been evident right in front of our eyes within 24 hours when the Royal Challengers could not defend a mammoth total of 175 against the Chennai Superkings at Mumbai. A total of 175 should have seen the Royal Challengers Bangalore end up victorious but, scorecard suggests otherwise. The Chennai Superkings cruised to an easy win with 6 wickets still in hand but took till the last over.

Though Chris Gayle did not score much with the bat, the Royal Challengers felt the presence of Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli and Luke Pomersbach whose contribution promised something good on the cards for the Royal Challengers. Looking at the batting charts of both the teams, it can well be said that the pitch was a batsman friendly one. However, as a matter of fact the Chennai Superkings captain used only 6 bowlers, four of whom bowled their full quota of 4 overs and may be termed as successful looking at the nature of the pitch. Four out of the six returned with a wicket.

All that the match expected was some fireworks from Chris Gayle, failing which the Royal Challengers can hardly boast of anything. Though all gates are not completely closed for the Royal Challengers, fingers would definitely point towards them for relying on only one player. When someone like Mayank Agarwal and Pomersbach could contribute, there can be no reason for Chris Gayle not to do so. The match will no doubt go down as one of the biggest disappointment in the tournament with such a big total chased down effortlessly. For the Chennai Superkings, Suresh Raina was exceptional who was assisted by Dhoni and Morkel.

There were three Indian batsmen playing for one team giving it a deserved success. Of course, even Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli happen to be Indians whose contribution can never be thought less about. This confirms the name given to the tournament i.e the INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE.Initial breakthroughs for RCB could not be cashed in when CSK had the scoreboard reading 7/2. By the way, Chris Gayle did contribute to the RCB when he was the bowler with the best economy rate of 4.75 runs an over but when it came to batting, his score was 8 from 9 balls with one six.

Teach them how to defend

Though the total of 160 put up by the Delhi Daredevils yesterday against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at once again Delhi is not a decent total, it should not even be considered a cake walk for any tough opponent whatsoever. Had the same total been piled up by the Delhi team in one of the previous three editions, then that total would have seen them emerge victorious towards the end of the game i most encounters. Once again, the home team is found to be at the receiving end of the opposition's egos. I wish the Delhi team should stop playing on home turf.

A couple of days back, the Chennai Superkings were found defending a mere total of 142 on the board against Pune Warriors which was a game one of its kind for all those who have been following the tournament at least in this edition. The presence of Sehwag, Warner, James Hopes etc should provide a strong platform for the batting line up of the Delhi Daredevils whatsoever. But, what is seen happening is exactly reverse of the same. It has been the batsmen who have been responsible for their debacle. The bowlers, who get little support from the batsmen can do only this much.

Starting with the scorecard of the Delhi daredevils, it was a decent job done in by the batsmen that included Virender Sehwag, James Hopes and Venugopal Rao who showed confidence with the bat. Some decent tags include a quickfire 13 and 16 from Irfan Pathan and Naman Ojha respectively. Had they been out giving thus a chance to the forthcoming batsmen, that would not have added to the score in any way with Morkel and Umesh Yadav knowing their limits themselves. This was a tough match for Delhi to lose when all odds were for them. They had no reasons to lose absolutely.

However, it was one man that took the game away from the Delhi Daredevils when Virat Kohli turned the heat back at Delhi when he scored 56 runs from 38 deliveries which proved to be the backbone of their successful run chase. If not for that score, no other individual score from the Royal Challengers Bangalore seems to hit the headlines. Of course, Chris Gayle blasted a quickfire a 26 run from 14 balls at a strike rate of 185.0 which provided the platform for the run chase which eventually happened to be a close encounter. I wish Sehwag should have given one more over to Pathan which could have stopped tongues from wagging.

175 is too big a target

Well he moment a score of 175 is put up on the board, 99% of the time, it should be understood that the team wins and the case was no different yesterday in the match between the Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Very rarely do we come across games where 175 gets chased down like it happened the other day between Chennai and Punjab, with the Kings XI Punjab team grabbing it all in style. However, unlike Delhi, Deccan Chargers should be appreciated for not making a blunder at home soil losing both games in the very first week of their play.

Starting with the Deccan Chargers' innings where the players who took to the crease made double digit figures and with some Barat Chipili scoring the only half century of the Deccan Chargers' innings when he scored an unbeaten 61 off just 35 balls, a respectable target for the Royal Challengers Bangalore was always on the cards. This is how a team has to go on with all or at least most of their batsmen making it big or at least not small. This can happen very rarely with the very next innings of the Royal Challengers Bangalore being a best example for a lack of the same.

The only notable scores regarding the Royal Challengers Bangalore was an unbeaten 71 runs from the blades of Virat Kohli followed by a quarter century (in case that can be called so) Cheteshwar Poojara and last but not the least we have the opener Mayank Agarwal who scored 16 runs no matter how much balls he took to do the same. However, Royal Challengers Bangalore supporters have a reason to smile as the highest individual scorer of the match happened to be Virat Kohli with his 71 being 10 runs greater than what Chilipi could manage. Had there been an award for the highest run scorer in a match then Kohli would have had a run.

The scorecard suggests a perfect 5 from the Deccan Chargers with all five bowlers from the side bowling their full quota of 4 overs each. One need not confuse this to be because of the huge total that they put up. Instead, the Deccan Chargers never had depth of any sort in their bowling department which forced them to go in for just 5 bowlers as mentioned. Howevrer, a bowlerless Deccan Chargers' team had a rare gem in their crown with Dale Steyn being the pick of the bowlers with both teams put together. But, the tenth wicket of the Bangalore team never fell highlighting that the Hyderabad team has to keep an eye on their bowling.

Anil Kumble rocks

Well this is something which even the table toppers ion this year's Indian Premier Leagure namely the Mumbai Indians couldn't manage to do - getting into the semi finals of the Champions League T20 tournament. Neither could this be done by the champions of this year's IPL namely the Chennai Superkings led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni who is seen as a captain with silver lining. However, the Chennai Superkings have yet another chance in today's encounter with the Warriors at Port Elizabeth. And, if their past record is considered, the Chennai team has not given a bad performance whatsoever.

Coming to the match, I personally think that the Royal Challengers captain Anil Kumble had a greater share in his team's win, one as a captain of the side and two for bowling the most economical over of the match let alone the Royal Challengers' bowling innings. Headlines suggest Virat Kohli's dual effort, first with the ball and then with the bat to be responsible for the Royal Challengers' victory. Scorecard suggests however that Virat Kohli bowled three overs without grabbing a wicket and giving away runs at 8 an over which was in par with the overall rate of 8.0 by the Warriors.

There were just two bowlers from the Royal Challengers' side who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs, one of them being Anl Kumble and the other one being the South African spearhead Dale Steyn. One fascinating aspect from the game would be the fact that if not for Zander de Bruyn who bowled just one over for the Warriors, the rest of them bowled either 3 or 4 overs which rarely happens in any cricket match. On the contrary, the Warriors saw three of their six bowlers bowling their complete quota over four overs. Well, that is of little importance regarding both the teams out there.

If the scorecard is given a closer look at, the pitch might rather be considered to be favoring the batsmen for, the Royal Challengers didn't have any trouble chasing down the target though a target with the expecting run rate being 8.0 an over is an easy task. The RCB didn't lose more than 4 wickets en route to their successful run chase. And, in case someone is to take the credit for bringing the game into the Royal Challengers' hands, it has to be the bowlers of the side rather than Virat Kohli who was awarded the man of the match first for his wicketless 3 overs and then for his unbeaten 49.

Well, another interesting feat being that Kohli neither got out nor did he get anyone out. Well, that happens more than often.

Virat Kohli gets his due

Finally, the Indian new batting sensation Virat Kohli gets his due when he was awarded the man of the match award for his century which guided India to a 6 wicket win over Bangladesh which was expected. Since the start of the tri nation tournament, Virat Kohli has been the man in form for India with scores of 9 against Sri Lanka, 91 against Bangladesh, 71 against Sri Lanka and 102 against Bangladesh yesterday. This was an inconsequential match for both the teams Bangladesh and India but not one for Virat Kohli which saw him earn his maiden man of the match award.

Coming to the game, once again Bangladesh came close to putting up another score in excess of 250 on the board which unfortunately didn't happen. For the 2nd time in the series, Bangladesh missed out on an opportunity to notch up a 250+ score. Had Bangladesh been able to do that, they would have been the first one to do so in the series in case they restrict the opposition from surpassing the total put up by them. And, Bangladesh is the only team in the series to have batted first on all four occasions. Neither India nor Sri Lanka had been able to do this.

Though this is not a feat that can see itself in the record books, such unusual feats are worth mentioning I suppose. And another feat being that Bangladesh have so far not been all out on even one occasion in the series. For that matter, even India have not lost all their ten wickets despite losing a game to Sri Lanka. On the other hand, Sri Lanka in their last encounter were all out for a score of 213 on the board which saw them the first team to have lost all its ten wickets in the series though there is one more match to go - the finals.

Whatever be the stats, Bangladesh have ended yet another tournament without winning even a single game in the series despite some mind blowing performances with Bangladesh so far recorded the highest team total in the tournament when they scored 296 runs against India in their first meeting with the same. They have lost in a better manner compared to what Sri Lanka could manage. Sri Lanka lost its last match to India by 8 wickets when India took the game away from them with 104 balls to spare. All the losses that Bangladesh suffered were after atleast overs were bowled though there was a 9 wicket loss to SL.

Did Sri Lanka desperately lose the match?

Well this was rather anticipated in the earlier game between India and Sri Lanka when Sri Lanka had a struggling but a satisfactory win against India in the first encounter at Dhaka. It took Sri Lanka nerves to go past the total of 280 that was required by Sri Lanka to win that game. But, despite losing that encounter, the body language of the Indian players were as though they were least bothered and were sure to give it back to the Sri Lankans with compound interest in the next game which they actually did. Indians were as though they had not lost anything and their best was still awaiting.

Sri Lanka were nowhere in the scene when Indian batsmen were repeatedly sending the ball rolling over the ropes which saw them go past the total of 213 runs in just 32.4 overs. Any batsmen who made it to the crease took to the Sri Lankan bowling with utmost confidence. It was no Virender Sehwag or Yuvraj Singh who have made news previously for their big hitting capabilities but rather it was Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir who took the Sri Lankan bowlers for a ride at Dhaka. For the 3^rd time in the recent past, Virat Kohli was found belting the opposition with confidence.

Three of the four batsmen who made it to the crease returned with strike rates of 100+ and the same number of batsmen returned with scores averaging more than 50 that included Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli. There was only one bowler from the Sri Lankan side who was found bowling his full quota of 10 overs namely Suranga Lakmal. This was the 1^st time that Lakmal's name was heard in international cricket (atleast as far as I am concerned) and statistics suggest that the man under discussion is just 6 ODIs old. One has to wonder as to what on earth made Sangakkara go in for Lakmal with the likes of Welegedra and co being there around.

Moreover, Lakmal was the costliest of all bowlers who returned with figures of 0/75 from his 10 overs. Added to this was the fact that the pitch was a batsman's paradise which saw all the Indian batsmen who made it to the crease face the Sri Lankan bowlers with confidence (as mentioned earlier) . However, on that pitch as well the Sri Lankan batsmen were found flattering as though it was another Kotla. The next costliest on the list happened to be Welegedra who returned with figures of 0/51 from 5.4 overs and still was shown confidence from Sangakkara. A number 8 batsman in Randhiv is seen scoring 56 which doesn't happen with the top order. Nothing fishy?

Indian players' roles reversed!!!

Who is to be blamed when a team puts up a mammoth total and yet has to compromise by being on the losing side? Bangladesh did well to put a massive total (atleast as far as the standards of international cricket in Bangladesh is considered) against India when they scored a team total of 296 on the board only to lose the match by a huge margin of 6 wickets. Bangladesh's efforts would not have gone unrewarded had they bought India close to winning the match by making them bat for close to 50 overs and in the process get atleast 8 Indian batsmen out.

Moreover, it was no Yuvraj Singh or Virender Sehwag who proved to threaten the Bangladeshi outfit but it was some lesser known batsmen in Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and of course the captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (though who is not considered a chick in international cricket) . The Bangladeshi bowlers were able to get the wickets of in form and dangerous batsmen - Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir who could contribute just 31 runs of the 297 scored by India at the end of the innings. And, Yuvraj Singh returned back to the pavilion scoring only one run. Still, the odds favored India and that went on to become a reality.

India was at one stage found to be reeling at 51 runs on the board with three batsmen making their way back to the pavilion. The odds should have started doubting about India making it to the target which still didn't. The odds still favored India. However, the batsmen who cashed in on the offer was the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who scored another century which earned him the man of the match award which he pertly deserved. Even in the bowling department, the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was found bringing in Yuvraj Singh to bowl 10 overs.

On the other hand, frontline bowlers namely Harbhajan Singh, Aashish Nehra, Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan were found to bowl less than their quota of 10 overs. This may have been the reason for Bangladesh ending their innings scoring at a rate of just less than 6 runs an over. It was no doubt Yuvraj Singh who was the most economical of them all but, the decision of Dhoni to toss the ball repeatedly to a part time bowler with 5 main bowlers resting on the field draws a different conclusion. It is confusing to see the Bangladeshi bowlers belting all Indian bowlers with the esxception of Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja.So was the case when Bangladesh could get the frontline batsmen out and surrender to new comers. How???

First Ball Wicket Yet Again

In the last match that the Royal Challengers Bangalore played against the Chennai Super Kings, the opener Praveen Kumar was out for a duck with the scoreboard also reading a duck. This was also the second successive defeat for Kevin Pietersen's men after being mauled by the Chennai Super Kings the other day. So, things are now clear as to why the Royal Challengers don't have the killer instinct in them to conquer the opposition let alone the world. They just allowed two batsmen Rohit Sharma and Adam Gilchrist to dominate the RCB bowlers for most of the time. The duo of Rohith Sharma and Adam Gilchrist played 75 out of the allotted 120 balls scoring 123 runs.

I still remember the catch of Rohith Sharma put down by may be K V Sharma before the batsmen went for a kill. Things would have slowed down appreciably had such catches been held on. For, in most of the T20 games, it is just two to three players-be it the batsmen or the bowlers who prove to be the difference between a win and a defeat at the end of the day. Also a drop catch would be the most dangerous mistake by the fielding team, for that is something which is solely responsible for the match debacles. And that is why the fate of RCB has this to say.

One more thinag that would be the most wisest of all thinking would not to get batsmen like VVS Laxman out in this format of the game. For, the players can only consume deliveries and not produce any exciting stuff whatsoever. Getting rid of a test batsman like Laxman meant the entry of a comparitively explasive batsman in Rohith Sharma who did most of the damage. This might not be the agenda in reality but this is a point worth to be noted. But, some hats off for the Royal Challengers as well, for despite losing the game, their batting display against the Deccan Chargers was comparitively good if their performance in the last match against Chennai Super Kings in considered.

The batsmen never hinted to have put up such a decent batting performance, when their side was found reeling at 62-4 at the end of the 10th over. But, kudos to Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli who never let the team lose their face out this time as well. And for Dravid to showcast such a display was indeed worth some applause for that is not his style of playing. For, he could be considered another VVS Laxman who can spend time out in the middle and not play some scoring shots by lofting the ball haywire. A little bit donation from the rest of the players bought up the remaining 62 runs that included 7 extras. Well at the end of the day the RCB lose by 24 runs.