RCB - KXIP = 85 runs

What better results can be expected from a team which is at one of the highest position in the points table plays a team at equal places counted from the bottom of the same? And that was what the spectators at the Chinnaswamy stadium witnessed yesterday with the Royal Challengers Bangalore piling up 205 runs on the board and the Kings XI Punjab losing the plot at 120 with 85 runs still being needed to at least snatch a tie. A fascinating aspect of the game was the the Kings XI Punjab didn't lose all ten wickets despite the pressure.

There was one man in Chris Gayle who scored 13 runs less than what the entire Kings XI Punjab team could manage in 20 legal overs excluding the extras in just 8.1 overs. There can be nothing said about this great man whose introduction into the IPL is as good as the entry of a hero in a James Bond movie. It was as though a shadow of Brian Lara and Vivian Richards was out there batting for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. This was an innings one of its kind needless to be said. The entire team can be dedicated to Gayle alone.

Having Chris Gayle in the team, the RCB captain can experiment with at least five of his batsmen provided Chris Gayle continues in this form. Looking at the scorecard it is unbelievable that he remaining scores put together comes up to 98 runs with not other batsman daring to cross more than 27 runs. I could just remember a match in which Sehwag scores 80 runs to see the Delhi team through earlier in the tournament. This was a similar match with Gayle replacing Sehwag. As usual, both captains didn't ever experiment with their bowlers with 8 bowlers in the game finishing their quota.

This should not be a cause of worry for the Royal Challengers but a point to think about for the Kings XI Punjab. If one side of the coin is considered, even Gilchrist has a point when nothing could be done as long as Chris Gayle was there batting and the remaining bowlers were enough to contain the rest of the batsmen from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Eventually, a bunch of players from the Kings XI Punjab that includes Paul Valthaty, Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, Abhishek Nayar and Dinesh Karthik could not score at over 6.0 runs an over which was aided by 5 extras.

When West Indies team itself is unfit?

Well the news has its say that the West Indies cricket Board (WICB) has scrapped contracts for Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Jerome Taylor owing to the same old reason that the above mentioned players' fitness does not cope up to the standards of the international cricket. As per my view, the aforementioned three players are the commonest of common names that can be heard in the West Indies team and what is more is that the new upcoming star cricketer in the West Indies team - Narsingh Deonarine has also been shown the gates. Nevermind though if the WICB's words have meaning.

The only name that is seen missing from the list would be Shivnarine Chanderapaul who has been taking the burden of the rusted West Indies team for more than a decade since the 1999 world cup after the retirement of the famous three deadly fast bowlers namely Curtly Ambose, Courteny Walsh and Ian Bishop. Of course, the names mentioned are fast bowlers. But, in their department, they did their job to the fullest extent, leaving little job for the batsmen to complete that included Chanderapaul and Brian Lara. Since then, the West Indies' burden has been shared by only Chanderapaul especially after Lara retired.

The other comparatively lesser known names are obviously Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle (though Chris Gayle's name is not listed in the wrong list). Though not completely successful, the fast bowling line up of the West Indies team is headed by Jerome Taylor with equal support from Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo. With Jerome being stripped of his contract, there would no doubt be a blow to the West Indies fast bowling line up which is otherwise also deteriorated. One can definitely ask what is the alternative in case a player is injured or speaking precise is not completely fit for the WICB to award contracts?

Though there can be no other option but to go ahead with the WICB, one has to imagine the lack of fitness of the senior players with the rest of the squad being healthy, if at all the WICB is to be believed. News also had its say that in addition to the three mentioned, even the wicket keeper Denesh Ramdin has been stripped of his national contract. This means that the West Indies team has an unfit player in all departments namely batting, bowling and wicket keeping. On the otherhand, new comers namely Kieron Pollard and Adrian Barat have been given full deals. How mean!

400* in tests and 200* in ODIs: The new landmarks

This was perhaps the only record that Sachin Tendulkar had not made his own. I remember the way Sachin Tendulkar was looking helplessly in that particular match against Pakistan at Chennai that played more than a decade back when Pakistan's Saeed Anwar belted Anil Kumble for three consecutive sixes enroute to his 194. Finally, it was in the bowling off Sachin TendulkarSaeed Anwar's dream run came to an end when he was 6 runs short of scoring a double hundred. May be Sachin had told this to himself that these 6 runs would be scored by "me" which turned into a reality yesterday when he scored the world's first double hundred.

People would have gone sick looking the way Sachin Tendulkar scoring hundreds the way sun rises and sets every day. But, it would be wrong to consider this a hundred. The ICC and all major cricket websites must open a new column in batting records indicating the number of double hundreds scored by a batsman, which would at present contain only one name-SachinRamesh Tendulkar. The record, until yesterday was against a player who had achieved it by an unfair means when Saeed Anwar had a runner when his individual score was 70 and had no problems when he took to front foot to send Anil Kumble out of the ground on 3 successive occasions.

It is a bad fortune of the record that it remained unbroken until last August when Charles Coventry notched an unbeaten 194 which is considered to be better than the one set up by Saeed Anwar for the fact the the Zimbabwean batsman remained unbeaten. Finally, the unfair record set up by Saeed Anwar will never ever pop up as the highest individual score in one day internationals anymore. For, the score of 200* by Sachin Tendulkar is not only the highest individual score by a batsman in one dayers but also a new landmark called the double hundred that'll be the one for ever.

In case by a freak chance someone is able to overtake Sachin's record, still Sachin Tendulkar will be the man to have first scored a double hundred. And no one would highlight Saeed Anwar as the first batsman to have crossed the 190s. This can no doubt be considered to be in par with the unbeaten knock of 400 by Brian Lara against England which became another mark in test cricket. If the difference between these two batsmen is that one player plays right handed and the other left handed, similarities exist with both batsmen using a MRF bat. So cool isn't it!!

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???