Well one of the teams upon which all IPL fans can have their bet this time around would be the Kolkata Knight Riders who are found to have regrouped from their previous shattering which was evident in the last three editions especially the second one where Brendon McCullum was made to captain the side instead of Sourav Ganguly. However, yesterday the story was slightly different with the Kolkata Knight Riders having a tough time against Kochi Tuskers Kerala at Kochi (where else). Another delight of the day was that the home team won the match which has been otherwise in the other contests.
Home teams have been seen returning at the losing end with the teams like Delhi and Hyderabad topping the list followed by Mumbai. Coming to the game between Kochi and Kolkata, the match was a favorite one for 'K' fans with both teams having the letter 'K' in them. However, even if one goes by that theory, then the fans would have been delighted for the team with the maximum number of 'Ks' emerging victorious. The Kochi Tuskers kerala have three 'Ks' in them as against only two such 'Ks' by the Kolkata Knight Riders. And for peiople who don't go by that, here it is.
One has to just think why on earth does the batsman from whom a master innings is expected happens to disappoint? Brendon McCullum who has shown to entertain his fans happens to get out early scoring just one run no matter how many balls he has played. Is it because McCullum had last played for Kolkata in the past three editions of the tournament that he has a soft corner for them should be thought about not so seriously. No individual batsmen can be highlighted from the Kocjhi team with contributions pouring in from Parthiv Patel, Michael Klinger, Mahela Jayawardane and Brad Hodge.
The toughest decision to make was as to who should be adjudged the man of the match with Jayawardane being the top scorer of the innings and Morgan doing his stand alone innings of 66 that topped the match overall. However, with the preference going to the individual from the winning team, adjudging Jayawardane as the man of the match would not have been a bad choice. But, considering a quickfire innings, the award points to no one else but Brad Hodge for his 35 from 19 deliveries at a strike rate of 184. Main mistake lied in Kochi giving 4 overs to Lee who went in for 42 runs at 10 runs an over.
Showing posts with label Brad Hodge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brad Hodge. Show all posts
Friday, 6 May 2011
Thursday, 7 May 2009
A Successful Captain Replaced By A Non Aggresive One!!!
Well the second edition of the Indian Premier League has witnessed a lot of twists and turns not only on the field but also off the field as well. For, most of the teams that ended at the bottom of the points table in the first edition in 2008 went in for a change in captain. The list includes the Royal Challengers Bangalore-who changed their captain from Rahul Dravid to Kevin Pietersen and now the inevitable choice being Anil Kumble. Then comes the Kolkata Knight Riders whose captaincy was handed over to New Zealand's Brendon McCullum. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the Deccan Chargers having Gilchrist as captain instead of VVS Laxman.
For that matter, even Sachin Tendulkar is not found doing a good job for his team as a captain despite some decent wins this season. It looked as though Brendon McCullum was still in his player mood and not in the captaincy one as it was witnessed in the match against the Kings XI Punjab. Four drop catches at a crucial stage in that match never moved the KKR captain whatsoever. This just showed that the degree of aggressiveness of McCullum was nothing greater zero. The Kolkata Knight Riders once again showed as to why they deserve to be at the bottom of the points table.
If not for the last over that fetched 22 runs for the KKR, none of the other bats if not for Brad Hodge really showed some momentum. I wonder as to whether it was really McCullum who scored the highest individual score of the tournament in the firt edition where he scored an unbeaten 158 off 73 balls which stands unbroken even today? As I always keep on mentioning, the batsmen have to go in for some risky shots when the situation demands. There was no point in preserving wickets when the game hardly lasts 20 overs. The Kolkata Knight Riders lost just three wickets if one goes by the scoreboard.
A big hitter like McCullum to have consumed 31 precious deliveries to score 19 runs showed the lack of motivation by the skipper himself. Keeping this fact in mind, one can draw a conclusion regarding the motivation that the remaining players can bring in. Big hitters like Ajith Agarkar, Laxmi Ratan Sukla and Saha never got a chance to get into the crease owing to the spoilsport played by the rest. I wonder as to what made the KKR to have 7 wickets in hand when 20 overs were fast approaching?the KKR innings saw just three sixes. Anyway, it is not the number of sixes that is the difference between a win and a loss.
But, a sense of selfishness can be found in the Kolkata Knight Riders who never want to take a risk that could add a lot more to the total. The KKR batsmen just wanted to maintain their individual average by staying in the crease. For that matter, the bowlers did a fair job by bringing the Kings XI Punjab innings until the last ball. However, fielding department is once again to be blamed for this mishap. Better luck in the next tournament KKR.
For that matter, even Sachin Tendulkar is not found doing a good job for his team as a captain despite some decent wins this season. It looked as though Brendon McCullum was still in his player mood and not in the captaincy one as it was witnessed in the match against the Kings XI Punjab. Four drop catches at a crucial stage in that match never moved the KKR captain whatsoever. This just showed that the degree of aggressiveness of McCullum was nothing greater zero. The Kolkata Knight Riders once again showed as to why they deserve to be at the bottom of the points table.
If not for the last over that fetched 22 runs for the KKR, none of the other bats if not for Brad Hodge really showed some momentum. I wonder as to whether it was really McCullum who scored the highest individual score of the tournament in the firt edition where he scored an unbeaten 158 off 73 balls which stands unbroken even today? As I always keep on mentioning, the batsmen have to go in for some risky shots when the situation demands. There was no point in preserving wickets when the game hardly lasts 20 overs. The Kolkata Knight Riders lost just three wickets if one goes by the scoreboard.
A big hitter like McCullum to have consumed 31 precious deliveries to score 19 runs showed the lack of motivation by the skipper himself. Keeping this fact in mind, one can draw a conclusion regarding the motivation that the remaining players can bring in. Big hitters like Ajith Agarkar, Laxmi Ratan Sukla and Saha never got a chance to get into the crease owing to the spoilsport played by the rest. I wonder as to what made the KKR to have 7 wickets in hand when 20 overs were fast approaching?the KKR innings saw just three sixes. Anyway, it is not the number of sixes that is the difference between a win and a loss.
But, a sense of selfishness can be found in the Kolkata Knight Riders who never want to take a risk that could add a lot more to the total. The KKR batsmen just wanted to maintain their individual average by staying in the crease. For that matter, the bowlers did a fair job by bringing the Kings XI Punjab innings until the last ball. However, fielding department is once again to be blamed for this mishap. Better luck in the next tournament KKR.
Sunday, 3 May 2009
KKR Never Turned Out To Be Another KIXI
If all of us are aware of, the match between the Mumbai Indians and the Kings XI Punjab, the Mumbai Indians came close to winning the match, first by bowling out the Kings XI Punjab for a low score of 119 and then lost out in close contest by losing all their ten wickets for a score that was four less than the actual target. I guess that this was the most disappointing of all matches in the IPL for such hard work never goes unpaid. That match showed the degree of bad luck the Mumbai Indians had on that particular day. However, this was not the case in their encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
This was the second encounter of the Mumbai Indians with the Kolkata Knight Riders in this series, and much to their excitement, the Mumbai Indians have won both the matches, the first one by thrashing them and the second time in a close encounter by 9 runs. One can observe the bad timing of the schedule which saw the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders face each other twice in a span of a week. When most other teams had not even completed their first round of games, these two teams out there were ready playing their second round.
Over to the match, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders who were more responsible for the loss rather than the Mumbai Indians who were rejoicing their win. For, the Kolkata Knight Riders were well within the limit by bowling 17 tight overs and the last three overs went out of control, which fetched the Kolkata Knight Riders 42 valuable runs and the KKR 42 steps to cover for a victory. Likewise, the batsmen of the Kolkata Knight Riders never took any sorts of risks, which could be well judged from the fact that they neither lost wickets nor did their batsmen go in for runs which is a bad sign. I wonder as to what is the use of such batsmen who never want to slog the bat despite the situation demanding it?
This has been observed many a times in this tournament. It looks like most of the batsmen out there were in the 50-50 mood. The Kolkata Knight Riders lost just 6 wickets with a score of 138. When the strike in a T20 game demands not less than 133 i.e 7 runs for every 6 balls faced, one can observe that most of the KKR batsmen had their strike rates less than hundred and despite that they scored single digit scores. A littkle bit of T20 thinking from the batsmen meaning a few lofts would have seen the Brad Hodge's effort yield his team some results for the KKRs. This is somewhat selfish I believe.
This was the second encounter of the Mumbai Indians with the Kolkata Knight Riders in this series, and much to their excitement, the Mumbai Indians have won both the matches, the first one by thrashing them and the second time in a close encounter by 9 runs. One can observe the bad timing of the schedule which saw the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders face each other twice in a span of a week. When most other teams had not even completed their first round of games, these two teams out there were ready playing their second round.
Over to the match, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders who were more responsible for the loss rather than the Mumbai Indians who were rejoicing their win. For, the Kolkata Knight Riders were well within the limit by bowling 17 tight overs and the last three overs went out of control, which fetched the Kolkata Knight Riders 42 valuable runs and the KKR 42 steps to cover for a victory. Likewise, the batsmen of the Kolkata Knight Riders never took any sorts of risks, which could be well judged from the fact that they neither lost wickets nor did their batsmen go in for runs which is a bad sign. I wonder as to what is the use of such batsmen who never want to slog the bat despite the situation demanding it?
This has been observed many a times in this tournament. It looks like most of the batsmen out there were in the 50-50 mood. The Kolkata Knight Riders lost just 6 wickets with a score of 138. When the strike in a T20 game demands not less than 133 i.e 7 runs for every 6 balls faced, one can observe that most of the KKR batsmen had their strike rates less than hundred and despite that they scored single digit scores. A littkle bit of T20 thinking from the batsmen meaning a few lofts would have seen the Brad Hodge's effort yield his team some results for the KKRs. This is somewhat selfish I believe.
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