The contest just seems to get dull

Three years back in 2008 when the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League kick started, all eyes were glued to the television sets as though a major encounter would happen in the days to come. During that time, the sport was at its peak with the T20 version of the game having a high run with things like the ICL and the ICC world T20 having their say. Things remained the same until last year when there were takers for almost every game. But, the spirit happens to be no more or rather has got faded to a great extent.

There were players like Mathew Hayden, Sanath Jayasuriya, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne etc who had retired from international cricket but could be seen in tournaments like the IPL then. But slowly and steadily, all the aforementioned players started departing from the tournament one by one. And people like Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne have lost their glorious days. Someone like Mathew Hayden played his last game in IPL 2010 which was famous for his mongoose bat. Glenn Mcgrath has been shown the gates from Delhi Daredevils after the inaugural edition when his style of play suited only the longer formats of the game.

Sanath Jayasuriya, despite his fireworks was forced to warm the benches in last year's IPL and has never been chosen by any franchisee in this year. Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Brendon McCullum etc are not the big hitters of the ball once they were. There were hardly any century scorers in the tournament though there were three batsmen who had amassed more than 500 runs. Only players from India are showing the spirit and enthusiasm since 2008. The list includes Sachin Tendukar, Suresh Raina, Dhoni etc to name a few. Overseas players include Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh and Chris Gayle.

The first blow came when Anil Kumble pulled himself out of the tournament. Added to that would be the fact that players have changed sides after they were picked up by a different franchisee. Chris Gayle had earlier played for Kolkata while Dravid played for Bangalore. So would be the case with Gilchrist, Gambhir, Ganguly, Muralitharan. Top spinners like Shane Warne and Muralitharan have been just ordinary players. In the years to come, there will be players like Gilchrist, Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar etc who will be missing from action. Shane Warne has already called it a day. With all these, will the IPL still be accepted by all?

Vettori has a point to prove

Well though Daniel Vettori couldn't take his team farther than what his predecessors could do, may be he can think of something as a captain of the Royal Challengers team in the forth coming Indian Premier League. Daniel Vettori has been named as the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Last time, it was Anil Kumble who not only took his team to the finals of the tournament in 2009 but also did it in style when initially under the captaincy of Kevin Pietersen emerged as the second team from the bottom of the table. From there onwards, RCB emerged as runners-up losing to Deccan Chargers.

En-route to that, the Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Chennai Super Kings equipped with the highest run-getter of the tournament-Mathew Hayden in the semi-finals of the same. In 2010, though the Royal Challengers team failed to reach the finals losing to the same old rivals-the Chennai Super Kings, they beat the Deccan Chargers in the one off game to make way into the Champions League T20 tournament. There too, Anil Kumble held the crown for taking his team to the finals. This time, there is no Anil Kumble and someone no doubt has to take his place and there can be no other player but Vettori who can do it.

If other players in the team are given a close look at, there is Chris Gayle, who can only be considered to captain the West Indies which is filled with individual talents and not as a team. Then we have the Sri Lankan hard hitting batsman Tilekaratne Dilshan who can be given a consideration considering his batting capabilities and with the fact that he has captained the Kings XI Punjab team earlier. But, Vettori scores over the Sri Lankan in my point of view. Then we have Mohammed Kaif who is seen playing cricket once in a year in the IPL alone.

Making him a captain could be dangerous. If A B deVilliars is made the captain, another Greame Smith can be expected and a disastrous Royal Challengers team could be anticipated like what happened to South Africa in the recently concluded world cup in the sub-continent where South Africa failed to chase down 172 against England. There is not other player about whom anything regarding his captaincy can be mentioned here in this post. The list includes Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthik, Sreenath Arvind etc. If any of these players be made the captain, it would be better top drop the RCBs from contesting in the tournament.

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.

IPL 2010 - Perfectly Indian

Though the name of the multimillion dollar Indian Premier League suggests that it has more of an Indian flavor in it, this had not been the case so far in the earlier two editions that were played. Indians had to wait for three editions of the tournament to get some Indian flavor in the tournament. In both the earlier editions of the Indian Premier League, the winners happened to be the team which was captained by Australian legends namely Shane Warne who lifted the trophy in the inaugural edition in 2008 and Adam Gilchrist who held the title for Deccan Chargers in 2009.

However, as a consolation the runners up happened to be those teams which were captained by Indian players namely Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2008 and Anil Kumble in 2009 when the Chennai Superkings and the Royal Challengers Bangalore made it there in 2008 and 2009 respectively. And this time in 2010, both the winners as well as the Runners up happened to be teams which were captained by Indian players with Sachin Tendulkar captaining the Mumbai Indians side which finished as runners up and Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Chennai Superkings finishing as winners of the trophy. Likewise, it was an Indian led Chennai Superkings who reached the finals of an IPL twice.

In the earlier editions of the IPL the man with the highest aggregate of runs happened not only to be a non Indian but also was an Australia in Shaun Marsh in 2008 who amassed 616 runs and Mathew Hayden in 2009 who surpassed 500 runs. But, this time it was an Indian in Sachin Tendulkar who returned as the highest run getter in the tournament after he amassed 618 runs to become the highest run getter in the tournament. And, when it comes to the player with maximum number of wickets, India has been lucky enough when this has been owned by an Indian on two occasions.

If not for Sohail Tanvir in 2008, the remaining two editions of the Indian Premier League has seen an Indian in R P Singh and Pragyan Ojha returning as the leading wicket takers in the 2009 and 2010 edition of the IPL respectively. And, when it comes to the players who have scored maximum number of sixes in the tournament, the number stands at a mind blowing 5 among the top ten leading six hitters in the tournament with Robin Uttappa topping the charts with 27 such hits. Others who have made it there are Vinay Kumar, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay and Yousuf Pathan.

The batsman who has scored the fastest hundred in an IPL is yet another Indian in Yousuf Pathan who did it against Mumbai Indians when he scored the same in 37 deliveries.

RCB ahead of KXIP in all aspects

Well hardly anyone on earth would have anticipated the Royal Challengers Bangalore to not only win the match against the Kumara Sangakkara led Kings XI Punjab but also chase a mammoth total of 204 runs by losing just 2 wickets in the process. Such a match can hardly be found anywhere in the history books concerning cricket. The Kings XI captain Kumara Sangakkara was found bringing in 7 of his bowlers, none of whom could settle things for his team. This I heard was just the second time that the Royal Challengers have won a match against the Kings XI Punjab in the history of the IPL.

And, the way they have done it is just superb and nothing else. None of the 7 bowlers who had the the ball in their hands from the Kings XI Punjab were found bowling their full quota of 4 overs. That was the fears that Jacques Kallis injected in the minds of the bowlers of Kings XI Punjab. It was a more or less a one handed effort from Jacques Kallis that ensured not only of a Royal Challengers win but also ensured that the Kings XI Punjab team will go into the next match without a win in their hands in the current edition of the IPL.

One has to indeed raise his eyebrows for the coincidences that are found taking place in the match. If there were a team in Kings XI Punjab who are yet to win a match in the current edition of the IPL as stated above, there is a batsman in Jacques who is yet to lose his wicket in the current edition of the IPL. If at all someone os to be blamed for the debacle of the Kings XI Punjab as far as their match against Royal Challengers is to be considered, it has to be only the fortune of the KXIP team and no one else.

The Kings XI Punjab batsmen did each and everything they could to ensure that they stay on the top by piling up a mammoth 203 runs on the board losing just three wickets en-route. But, not only did they end up as the losing team but also, could not take more than two wickets off the RCB batsmen. The pitch no doubt was a paradise for batsmen but, had that been the case, the Kings XI captain Kumara Sangakkara should not have chosen to bat first after winning the toss. And, with a batsman like Kallis there in the opposition, nothing good can be guaranteed.

Patented Records

Well, yesterday in the third day of the 1^st test match between India and South Africa, SachinTendulkar recorded his 47^th test hundred and Virender Sehwag his 19^th test hundred, which is not the discussion here. But, Sehwag's feat of 100 in just 87 balls is one. It has been almost a decade since the newspapers make headlines whenever Sachin Tendulkar scores a hundred. On the otherhand, whenever Sachin Tendulkar used to get out in his nineties, that used to make headlines. So, would be Sehwag whenever he scores a fastest hundred or a fastest double hundred.

In the ongoing 2nd test at Kolkata, Sehwag made headlines for not scoring the fastest fifty when at one stage of the match he was found having a score of 44 from just 22 balls. This has been the usual way that Sehwag's innings have been in the recent past. If anyone scores a hundred with a strike rate of more than hundred the first name that would strike anyone's mind would be that of Virender Sehwag. This can never seems to be broken atleast in the near future. So would be the number of matches played, number of hundreds scored and the number of runs piled by none other than Sachin Tendulkar would be hard to even come closer.

It would take more than a century or even more than that for anybody to come closer to the batting records held by Sachin Tendulkar. The other record that still stands unbroken is the batting average of 99.99 held by Sir Don Bradman that can never be beaten. Then comes the unbeaten score of 400 by Brian Lara and his two scores above 350 and 375 (to be precise). Then on the list would be the perfect 10 taken by Jim Laker and Anil Kumble that can happen only may be once in a century. One has to be lucky to have survived throughout the nineties to have witnessed two such feats.

Scoring 36 runs off an over may not be a distinct feat though it is spectacular and might raise eye brows, with teams like Bermuda and Holland out there. A Last ball six to win a match is also a record of the past when at present there are three such records held by Javed Mianded, a batsman from Zimbabwe (name unable to be recalled) and by Shivnarine Chandrapaul. Though there has been a chase of 400+ total, in the coming years one can expect few more such chases. Some unclaimed records are a perfect 10 in LOIs, 6 wickets in an over, a double hundred in LOIs and a 1000 run in an innings of a test match for a winning cause to mention a few. Are we lucky enough to see them in our life time???

Curators play for India

Well, rumor has its say that the curator who will be preparing the pitch for the 2^nd test between India and South Africa- Prabir Mukherjee is asked to prepare a turning track which will be a special one exclusively for Harbhajan Singh we can guess. After losing the 1st test match at Nagpur and that too by a margin of an innings and 6 runs, India have to look out for some or the other means to settle the series by winning the 2^nd one scheduled at Nagpur and with it secure their number one position in test cricket which India is now enjoying.

This is not the first time that India will be going in for a track that will best suit them and a track that is sure to trouble the opposition. And the main weapon for India and that too against South Africa is no doubt the spin bowling department and more so when they are playing under home conditions. The secret is now revealed that India will be playing South Africa at a turner in Kolkata where unofficially India will have the upperhand. This is not the first time that India has taken such a stand when it is hosting its opponents.

If India's past series' against South Africa alone is considered, in the last tour in 2008, India lost the second test at Ahmedabad after the first test ended in a draw (which saw Virender Sehwag scoring his 2^nd triple hundred) by an innings and 90 runs. In that particular match, not only did India go all out for a score of 76 on board but, the spinners returned with just 5 wickets between them. And, in the 3^rd test at Kanpur, Indian curator took no sorts of risks and prepared a turning track where Harbhajan Singh had 7 scalps and spinners in particular taking 14 wickets en-route to their 8 wicket win.

So was the case in 2004 where the 1st test at Kanpur ended in a draw with Harbhajan Singh taking just 4 wickets and Kumble taking 6 in the 1st innings and going wicketless in the 2^nd. Once again in the 2^nd test at Kolkata the track suited spinners which Harbhajan Singh made full use of when he was found taking 10 South African wickets. This was also the case in the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2008-09 where two test matches ended in draw with the pitch aiding batsmen and the remaining two tests being won by India where spinners had their say.

Dinesh Karthik's Immaturity!!!

It was good to see India win the third one day international against Sri Lanka at Cuttack rather convincingly by 7 wickets. Not only did the Sri Lankan team made a mess of their performance in all departments of the game but also, the Indian players did well to dominate the show in every departments. However, some things need to be made clear with respect to players' thinking when it comes to onfield performances. This points directly to Dinesh Karthik despite having a hand in India's victory. Despite having been in and around in international cricket since 2004, some things are not found to be learnt by Indian or international players.

Dinesh Karthik hits a six in the final stages of the match which no doubt did see his team through the match. But, at the same time, the six grabbed the opportunity for Sachin Tendulkar to score yet another century in one day international. That was not at all the moment for Dinesh Karthik to go in for any sort of big hitting. The hit came exactly in the 41.5 over, just 4 balls prior to finishing the match in style. There were as many as 8 overs left for team India to finish off the game and one cannot understand as to why Dinesh Karthik had to go in for such a shot at that stage!

None of would have seen Dinesh Karthik even in T20 cricket blasting the bowlers all over the stadium. If the circumstances are taken a closer look at, it would not be wrong to say that the SriLankan bowler Randhiv desperately bowled the ball in such a way at Dinesh Karthik so that Sachin Tendulkar dows not get another hundred. For nothing can be ruled out in today's cricket. Anyways, Sachin Tendulkar would not have regretted over not having another hundred against his name. May be that Sachin himself would have got tired of scoring hundreds and missing one or two like this would not be a problem for him we can guess be sure.

However, recalling the past, it is remembered even today the way Javagal Srinath let go a leg before appeal of Wasim Akram to see Anil Kumble grabbing all ten wickets in the Delhi test. Another instance that comes to my mind is the way Pakistani batsmen saw to it that SaeedAnwar take most of the strike when he scored the world record 194 which even today is the joint highest in ODIs. Howevr, there are some likes of Dinesh Karthik who have played a spoilsport in their teammate's performances like, Mahela Jayawardane never handed the ball to AjanthaMendis in the finals of the Asia cup which would have otherwise seen Mendis taking a 7-wicket haul.

There can be no calling a press conference to address such issues and it is upto the player to take decisions at times which can see his teammate making his day.

A World T20 Final Like Situation

Well one can imagine the teams that made it to the finals of the inaugural T20 world cup that was held in South Africa a couple of years back. The teams who made it there were India and Pakistan, the same two teams who were eliminated from the earlier world cup the same year in the Caribbean earlier that year after their losses at the hands of minnows. Pakistan lost the match to Ireland and India on the other hand lost their match to Bangladesh, thus disappointing the fans and the tournament on the whole who were deprived of a major challenge.

However, it was the same two teams out there who made it to the finals of the inaugural T20 world cup. And this time too, in the second edition of the Indian Premier League, the venue is once again South Africa and, the teams who have entered the finals of the IPL 1 namely, the Deccan Chargers and the Royal Challengers Bangalore had finished at the bottom of the points table in the last and the first edition of the Indian Premier League in 2008. Deccan Chargers ended up at the bottom most and they were followed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Anyway, coming to the semi final match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Chennai Super Kings it was a terrible bowling effort from the bowlers of the RCB, for, it was the bowlers who laid the foundation for the victory by restricting the CSKs for a comparitively low total of 146. The CSK at one stage were at 102/2 at the end of the 13th over. Meaning only 44 runs were scored from the remaining 7 overs at a run rate of just above 6 an over. Anil Kumble won the toss and put the CSKs to bat, with the fact weel in his mind that the pitch would suit the batsmen and chasing a decent total on this track would not a challenging.

Unfortunately, the man of the match was handed over to Manish Pandey who just exctracted something out of the pitch. My man of the match would be Vander Merwe or Vinay Kumar, because they did something for which the pitch never gave them any sort of assistance. The CSKs lost just 5 wickets, once again doing the mistake what the KKR did throughout the series. There was Gony, Muralitharan (if his experience is to be taken) and Balaji who could have added 20 more runs to the CSK total had the earlier batsmen gone in for some risks. Had this been done, the run rate required would have been around 8 an over. And the match was all over after the CSK innings. The only question left unanswered was by how many wickets would the RCB emerge victorious?

The RCB indeed need a pat on their back for making it not only to the semis but also to the finals when they were on the cards to be the first team to be out of the tournament until the captaincy was taken care of Kumble. Congrats Anil!!!

Vow! From Position 8 To Position 3-RCB

This regarding the Royal Challengers Bangalore, I just can say that is a miracle and nothing else. Might be because as I have stated in one of my earlier posts, might be due to the change in the number behind the T-Shirt of the Royal Challengers' captain Anil Kumble. However, forget about making it to the semis, it would have been a sigh of relief for the franchisee of the Royal Challengers Vijay Mallya in case the Royal Challengers didn't finish at the bottom of the table. Thanks to the Kolkata Knight Riders who made that spot theirs. At one stage of the tournament, the RCB saw themselves at position number 8.

And look what they are at present!!! Position number 3. OMG! This is just unbelievable. The Royal Challengers have shown us how to make 8 into 3. I remember in my school days where I had scored 13 out of 25 marks in a test and had to go for unfair means to make that score of 13 as 18. And I did it by stretching the curves at the left end which makes 3 look like 8. But, until the Royal Challengers jumped from position 8 to position 3 in the points table, I was unaware as to how to make 8 as 3. For, it is not easy to rub off the extra curves in an attempt to make it number 3.

And the RCB can also boast of having the only Indian and the second player in the tournament to have scored a century though Suresh Raina of the CSK came close to that score when he scored 98. Adding to that was the fact that he is the youngest player to do so and also this is the highest score made in this particular tournament. Despite the 114 runs scored by Manish Pandey, the RCB settled for a score of just 170 losing just 4 wickets. Cooool! This is not the case of the KKR where they neither lose wickets nor put up a mammoth total on the board.

It had to take the RCB franchisee-Vijay Mallya the tour of England over the West Indies to inevitably go in for Anil Kumble to captain the team and this really worked out well. Just imagine had the England players been available for the entire tournament like the players from New Zealand and South Africa were available? Then, still Kevin Pietersen would have captained the side and continuing the good work he was doing until then. Losing matches and helping the betters not to bet on RCB. If not for Gibbs, none of the Hyderabad players really stood upto the challenge. But, still, their partly contribution could bring them close to the score of 170 despite losing the match by 12 runs.

The day however belongs to Manish Pandey, for if not for his dominance with the bat, the score of 170 would not have been possible and thanks to the drop catch when Manish was on 2.

T-Shirt Number Working Perfectly For Anil Kumble

Both the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers had their lat chance of making it to the last four which includes a lot of ifs and buts. But, the most important thing for both the teams is to ensure that they do not lose matches anymore. Well, the Mumbai Indians were a bit unlucky when they had to draw a point in one of their earlier games. At the same time, they were reluctant in defending a decent target against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the same when they could not chase a small target against the Kings XI Punjab.

On the other hand, the Royal Challengers Bangalore never played upto their expectations and the exit of Kevin Pietersen paved the way for Anil Kumble to take over the captaincy. It looked for a while that the number games were working for Anil Kumble. A couple of days back, I had written a post regarding the action of the number on the back of Anil Kumble's T Shirt. The number ensured a win against the Mumbai Indians and the Kings Xi Punjab from a nowhere situation. There I had also cited the result of a match as a result of change in the T-Shirt number. And it exactly happened the way I thought it to be.

The RCB lost the match against the Mumbai Indians which meant the exactly opposite of what happened in their earlier meeting. So, they next go to meet the KKR who are at the bottom of the table. And losing to the hands of the KKR would prove too costly for the RCD though a loss might not be of much importance for the KKR. The RCB have won their last encounter with the KKR. So, it would be a bit wise if Kumble revert back to number 8 behind his T-Shirt to avoid any complications. May be this time also the RCB might end up victorious for, even in the previous game against the KKR, Kumble's number read 37 and not 8. So, a different result might not be witnessed.

Coming to the match between the Mumbai Indians and the RCB, it was really difficult to tell whether the pitch favored the bowlers, owing to which the MI batsmen played cautiously by not losing wickets. The MI lost only 2 wickets and didn't even post a big total and whats more? They won the match at the end of the day. Had Harbhajan been sent at number 2, 20 more runs might have been added to the MI total. Much to the surprise, Anil Kumble was rated second in the match as far as his bowling figures were considered. After this particular match, the MI are just a step ahead compared to the RCB and are a step behind w.r.t the Kings XI. If any one or both the MI as well as the RCB have to make it the semis, in addition to them winning, they have to ensure that none of the teams win anymore games. At the moment, only the KKR are found to co-operate.

Did Anil Kumble Change Back His Number Back To 8?

I happened to read it in the Bangalore Times the reason for the Royal Challengers' success after Anil Kumble took over the reins from Kevin Pietersen. The reason if Anil Kumble's wife is to be believed is all owing to the number on the back of his team shirt. The number until he took over as captain was 8. After that, it seems that Anil Kumble changed the number on the back of his T-shirt to 37 which was the main reason for the Royal Challengers' success. This was done upon consulting a known numerology expert I suppose. How coool!!!

Well we believe that the number behind his T-shirt was mainly responsible for his team's success as well as Anil Kumble's success as a captain. After Anil Kumble took over as the skipper of the Royal Challengers, the team won matches against the Kings XI Punjab and the Mumbai. The former one was a close encounter and the latter was a one sided affair. May be that it was the luck that Kumble had acquired by changing the number on the back of his T shirt that the team won marginally against the Kings XI Punjab despite the Kings' team having enough number of wickets and the target not being too much appealing.

Finally, the Royal Challengers have got back to their routine not for losing matches but for giving a hopeless performance. Or else, where did the determination that was found in the first encounter against the Rajasthan Royals' go? The Royal Challengers defeated the Rajasthan Royals by bowling them all out for 58 with Kumble taking 5 wIickets. Perhaps, now I realize that the change in number behind his T-Shirt means the opposite result of what happened in the first meeting with the same opponents. Had the RCB won the first encounter against the Rajasthan team, then this time they end up losing. On the otherhand, they had lost the first one to team Punjab and later won the second encounter.

It is a wonder of the tournament that a new comer becomes successful. This we had on two occassions. First, the Kings XI Punjab medium pace bowler in Yousuf Abdullah who is now one of the leading contender for the purple cap. And then in this match, the man belonging to the Rajasthan Rouals' team Amit Singh who was playing his second match of the series took 4 wickets and with it the man of the match as well. Well..Robin Uttappa would be enjoying for being the highest run getter in the match by scoring 17 runs. So, the next encounter for RCB is against the Mumbai Indians. If things go they way as said, then they'll have to lose this match. I wish that Kumble revert back to number 8 failing which, he might loe the game as well.

When Will Vijay Mallya Play Sunil Joshi?

I had never thought the Uttappa would do this. After a series of ugly performances in the past, he had been the reason for raising many eyebrows for what made the RCB team owner Vijay Mallya go in for Robin Uttappa by exchanging him for Zaheer Khan. Well, the fact is that even Zaheer Khan is of little use to his native Mumbai not for his performances but due to the fact that he has been prone to injuries off late. This was evident from the fact that he despite being the main spearhead was given just 2 overs to bowl which was rather economical giving away just 6 runs an over and taking the only wicket of Wassim Jaffer.

It looked as though Vijay Mallya was himself not interested in his team making it to the last four. Otherwise, can anyone of you cite me the reason for including Wassim Jaffer? As expected, Wassim Jaffer just did what best he could do. Either keep on ducking like in a test match or go for a bad shot selection and in the process throwing away his wicket. Some positives for Wassim Jaffer include a four that he was able to hit and the other was the fact that he was a part of the RCB team that won the match against the Mumbai Indians.

If today it was Wassim Jaffer's turn to play in the XI, the next time it would not be surprising if someone like Sunil Joshi, the selection of whom would be critisized by none other than Joshi himself is included in the playing XI. I wonder as to why Shivnarine Chanderpaul is not being made to take the crease when the likes of Uttappa, Praveen Kumar are included despite repeated failures? Every selection step is found to yield a mistake. Not only the team selection but also the man of the match was a wrong judgement. The pitch was a heaven for batsmen and a debutant in Dillon du Preez could take three wickets.

The intelligent work done by Sachin Tendulkar in one of the previous matches, where he sent in pinch hitter Harbhajan Singh to just go and slog it out, was found lacking in this match. I wish Harbhajan Singh would have done a better job than Rahane who took 6 balls to score a run. Very rarely, the Mumbai Indians team were never in the hunt since the beginning of the RCB's chase began. Taking the wicket of Wassim Jaffer is no big deal I suppose. Sachin bought on 8 of his players who could bowl as well to try things that might favor his team but to no avail. And what more can anyone do when all odds are against you???

Finally A Working Strategy For RCB

For the first time in this tournament the match involving the Royal Challengers Bangalore never witnessed a score of 0-1. A good news finally arrived for the fans of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Vijay Mallya in particular who invested whooping Rs 442 crore. The Royal Challengers Bangalore might have won matches in the series even before. But, this particular victory against the Kings XI Punjab would have given them more satisfaction and more confidence to go ahead with their heads high. For, it was not only a win against a formidable team in Kings XI Punjab but also a nerve testing one for the RCB which they overcame.

The very same Royal Challengers Bangalore had lost to the Kings XI Punjab just half a month ago when the Kings XI Punjab required 60 runs off the last five overs and they did it with ease losing just 3 wickets. And the situation was no different this time either. No one might have thought the Royal Challengers to bounce back so hard on the opposition in such quick time. One view shows that this time compared to the last one, the Kings XI Punjab had a bigger hand in snatching the match from the RCB after riing high over Yuvraj Singh's hattrick and then a quickfire 50 off 34 balls (4X6;3X4).

The win shows the sprit that the RCB have developed in them after a series of dismal performances prior to this match. Their earlier wins were a bit owing to some mistakes done by the opposition. But, this time that was not the case. A "Never Say Die" attitude was outright with their performance. A few strategies looked to work for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. One was the fact that they never sent in Uttappa to open the innings which was the case until this match. And Vijay Mallya might be now kicking himself for opting Kevin Pietersen as captain of his side after comparing his skills with that of Dravid's last year's performance.

Perhaps, Mallya's decision might have bacome more firm after the new and inevitable choice of Anil Kumble as captain started restoring the lost confidence for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. This I guess is the second victory for RCB in this series and the first one for Kumble. Had Kevin Pietersen been the captain, I bet this would not have been the case. One could have expected another loss at the hands of the Kings XI Punjab. Having Mark Boucher keep wickets meant another weapon in the RCB's armour. After Yuvraj Singh's exit, there was not even a single hit that cleared the stands, which showed they way the RCB were back in the hunt. After this match, the RCB can be considered to be one of the front runners for the semi final berth.

Kevin Pietersen Has The Last Laugh

As it has always been the trademark of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, a loss of their first wicket without opening their account still continues to haunt the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the match was no different in the encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders either. But, for this time, it was not the Royal Challengers Bangalore who were at the receiving end when it came to a 0 run wicket. On the other hand, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were at the delivering end. Meaning this time, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders who were found losing their first wicket when the scoreboard never found ticking even for the first time.

It was unsual gesture in any format of the game for a spinner and that who does it part time to have the ball and bowl the first over. But, this was the approach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain-Kevin Pietersen who was not only found bowling the very first over but also found taking the wicket of the Kolkata Knight Riders' skipper Brendon McCullum and that too in his first ball. Anyway, no cheers for Kevin Pietersen for this, because it was good fortune that made Kevin Pietersen have his man and was neither his intelligence nor his timely anticipation.

Even Pietersen wouldn't have thought to have got his man prior to the match. And a new ball that can hardly offer any grip to a spinner is never a spinners' cup of tea whatsoever. And no mateured captain would ever hand the new ball to a spinner whatever the need of the hour may be. I still remember the then Indian captain Rahul Dravid handing the ball to Virender Sehwag in the second over in a particular match against Australia owing to the reason that Australian batsmen are poor players of spin bowling and as a result, Virender Sehwag was belted for 14 runs off that over. And if Pietersen has found some success doing that, it can be corelated to his fortune and nothing else.

Kevin Pietersen can never be an inspiration for any captain to hand over the new ball to a spinner. But, one positive move from Pietersen was that he dropped Robin Uttappa who had a series of unsuccessful knocks both behind the stumps and in front of it as well. The introduction of Goswami should have been done much before. If the thinking that Pietersen had prior to the one against the KKR, they would have beaten teams like Kings XI Punjab, where Robin Uttappa gave away 5 runs as byes and the Kings XI Punjab sneaked for victory despite needing 60 runs off the last five overs.

A total of 139 was not that challenging defending the total was truely challenging and KUDOS to Pietersen for that. And not to mention the timely contribution from Anil Kumble, Mark Boucher and Shreevats Goswami. All these aforementioned players gave Kevin Pietersen (who would be playing the last match of this IPL before leaving to play against the West Indies) his last laugh. This victory for the Royal Challengers Bangalore ensured that they would not make it to ht elast position in the IPL points table for the time being. The spot is now being owned by the Kolkata Knight Riders. Now, with Pietersen to go back for his national duty and Rahul Dravid to be back in Bangalore, it would be a watchout for Anil Kumble who would be captaining his side for the remainder of the series.