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.

Somer-Set Gayled by RCB

It is not something new to the viewers of either the IPL or the ongoing champions league T20 tournament regarding the fate of Royal Challengers Bangalore who have smiles on their faces whenever they win (obviously) and more so when Chris Gayle blasts the bowlers from the opposition the way he wants all over the field and at time outside it as well. Yesterday, in the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Somerset, needless to be said, Chris Gayle blasted 86 runs off just 46 deliveries to see the Royal Challengers Bangalore record the highest total in Champions League 2011.

Looking at the scorecard, taking confidence and support from Gayle at the other end, there were batsmen like Dilshan, Kohli, Mayank Agarwal and Saurabh Tiwary who did their part of batting which was not the case in the previous matches that the Royal Challengers played. There was a six from every batsman who had aggregated more than 6 ruins which happens very rarely in any form of cricket. Wickets were registered against those names in the Somerset side who had bowled their complete quota of four overs. This is another point to be noticed from the match not knowing whom to thank.

With Gayle in full bloom, there was nothing much the Somerset bowlers could do when Alfonso Thomas could not take risks with the bowlers. Whatever, the pitch never looked to compromise with the bowlers by any chance when even the Somerset batsmen had an easy going until the 13^th over when the run-rate was maintained close to 10.00 runs an over with 7 more batsmen to go. It was after the fall of Buttler that all things started deviating away from Somerset. In the end, it was fascinating to see all batsmen from Somerset getting bowled out with them falling 51 runs short of what the RCB managed achieved.

Another fascinating aspect of the match was that the batsmen who made the game watchable were equally disastrous with the ball in their hand. As all of you know, Chris Gayle had an awesome time with the bat but was equally generous with the ball with his only over gong for 24 runs. That was a "TIT FOR TAT" message that was being delivered to Gayle by the Somerset batsmen. On the other hand, the least successful bowler from Somerset namely Peter Trego who gave away 50 runs from three overs happened to be the most successful batsman in the Somerset side.

Chris Gayle unparalleled in IPL 2011

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.

Is there anything still left to say?

Well at last, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have to end their IPL journey only with a runners-up tag which would be the case for the second time. Previously, two years back in South Africa, they had the same fate with the Deccan Chargers grabbing the trophy from them. The game was one of its kind with the Chennai Superkings having their second title and the Royal Challengers Bangalore having their second runners-up tag as mentioned above. Whatsoever, one thing that the RCB needs to be satisfied with is that they will play the Champions League T20 for the third time.

No other team from the IPL has been able to make it though the Chennai Superkings were the contestants in the inaugural edition in 2008 along with Rajasthan Royals, the Champions League tournament was not carried on with Pakistan hosting the tournament and owing to security concerns there. Since 2009 the RCB have been making it there which stands apart from any other team in the IPL. Coming to the game, it was well understood that the Royal Challengers are without a right hand in case Gayle fails with the bat needless to be said. This was the fourth match between the two teams in this IPL.

Out of the four games, three have been won by Chennai Superkings and one by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Thanks to Chris Gayle's unbeaten 75 from 50 balls that ensured a 6 wicket win at Bangalore. In those four games, Chris Gayle has featured in three of them where his scores are 75* fro 50 balls at Bangalore, 8 from 9 balls at Mumbai and 0 from 3 balls yesterday at Chennai. The match turned all critics wrong with the home team winning the match which has been otherwise in games involving Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knightriders to a large extent.

A total of 205 on the board desperately needed a lot of fireworks from Chris Gayle which unfortunately didn't happen. I can just correlate this to Sachin Tendulkat getting out in the very first over in the finals of the 2003 world cup at South Africa against Australia when the target to be achieved was a whooping 360. Sachin Tendulkar scored just 4 off 4 balls giving a catch to Glenn McGrath. The CSKs required just Hussey and Murali Vijay to tame the RCB who scored 63 and 95 respectively. Or else, Raina, Dhoni and Morkel were failures. The man of the series has no disputes whatsoever.

Result comes as expected

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.

IT all depends on Gayle

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 2^nd 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 4^th meeting in this IPL alone.

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.

Finally a break from action

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.

9 vacancies filled in CSK

If the match between the Chennai Superkings and Royal Challengers Bangalore played yesterday at Bangalore is considered, then one has to first go through the batting display of the Chennai Superkings which was dominated completely by Dhoni and to some extent by Saha. If the scores of Dhoni and Saha are removed, then the Chennai Superkings would have scored just 36 runs 50 balls at a rate of 4.32 runs an over which would have fetched a mere 87 runs on the scoreboard with extras included. The way Dhoni played was just superb and a little bit of support from Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina and Badrinath would have helped a lot.

All the aforementioned names were big hitters of the ball and a lot were expected from them. All the above mentioned names have known to bail their teams out from trouble many times and it is just unfortunate to all these players not to contribute for the Chennai Superkings yesterday. Had the above mentioned batsmen made their contribution, then may be Chris Gayle would have had more responsibility on his shoulders. One can never take his eyes off Chris Gayle in this tournament whatsoever.His unbeaten knock of 75 runs off just 50 balls was just another instance of power and commitment.

I have all kudos to Dhoni for maintaining his patience and seeing to it that his team didn't lose all ten wickets which assured that his team played all the 20 overs. The entire Chennai Superkings' innings saw only two scores above 10 20 out of which only Dhoni's 70 was a highlight. Adding to the excitement, Dhoni did it in style with 6 sixes and 4 boundaries at a strike rate of 175 which was more than Gayle's 150. Dhoni scored five runs less than what Gayle could manage. It would not have been a bad choice had Dhoni been awarded the man of the match.

But, it was just the difference between a win and a loss that made Dhoni miss the award. I just run out of words when it comes to describing the batting of the RCB which was dominated by Gayle. Had Gayle failed, then there would have been a far closer competition between the two teams. There can never be anybody in the RCB who can hit the ball hard and in case Gayle fails, so would be the entire Bangalore team. Names that make up the RCB squad include Saurabh Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Kaif and Pomersbach who can score balls as much as Gayle.

Blame it all on Chris Gayle

There was a time in Indian cricket when the absence of star batsman Sachin Tendulkar would mean a massive loss for the team. That was in the 90s where Sachin Tendulkar used to be the key man for his team's success in at least 75% of the games India played. Now, the same problem is found to haunt the Royal Challengers Bangalore who can hardly come close to winning in case Chris Gayle fails with the bat. Yesterday's game was the best example in the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab. Bangalore lost to Punjab by 111 runs.

Chris Gayle's score in that game was nothing but zero. This was the match that all RCB fans would have been looking forward to having very high expectations from Chris Gayle. And, one cannot just blame Gayle for disappointing his fans. Chris Gayle has been entertaining his fans ever since he entered the contest after his national duty involving the series against Pakistan. However, what if Chris Gayle didn't score a ton; There was Adam Gilchrist who did everything that was expected from Chris Gayle. Adam Gilchrist scored a hundred when he ended his innings at 106 from 55 balls.

This was more than enough to ascertain that the viewers were not deceived from any sort of cricketing action on the field no matter from which team it comes. Any Indian fan would have loved to see the entertainment on the field irrespective of which city or state is playing. One can take a look at the scorecard to see 9 sixes hit from the blades of Gilchrist which I'm afraid whether any batsmen has been able to overtake. I might just have to take time to see whether the total of 232 is the highest by any team in the IPL.

Of course, 232 is the highest team total in this year's IPL. Chasing this big total would have been possible only had Chris Gayle continued from where he had left it in his previous game. But, that very busy man had no time to help his team mates in this game. And, what better treatment can one get when he hands over the ball to Virat Kohli? Making it his day, it was Gilchrist who took the catch of Chris Gayle behind the stumps. Likewise, another major contribution that needs to be applauded is that of Piyush Chawla who ended his spell with 4 wickets.

Totally illogical

This point has already been thought about by so many experts about the illogical nature of the D-L method for which there was yet another example yesterday in the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders. The match was reduced to 13 overs even before the Kolkata Knight Riders were put into bat by the Royal Challengers owing to bad weather. But, towards the end of the first innings, the Kolkata Knight Riders ended their innings at 89/4 but the target that the Royal Challengers Bangalore were supposed to chase down to record a victory happened to be 102 from 13 overs.

According to not only me but many of them, the target that the RCB were supposed to score should have been 90 and not 102. But it is the magic of the D-L method that makes the target exceed by 12 more runs than expected. Recently, there was a game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Superkings where despite batting second the Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by ten runs which is impossible in a regular LOI. Going by the rules of cricket, a team batting second can win a match by so many wickets and by so many runs.

If this happens to be the case after the introduction of the D-L method, what if a 20 over match happens and the team batting second requires more than one run compared to the score put up by the team batting first in order to attain victory? The debate has been going on for decades altogether but a proper permanent solution is awaited and that is in case someone is serious in solving the problem rather than terming the match as a bad luck for the losers. However, a total of 102 never seemed to bother Chris Gayle's team.

This time as well, there was no one stopping Chris Gayle who scored runs at a rate of 316.66 runs for every 100 balls he faced. Had there been no Chris Gayle, the Royal Challengers Bangalore would have been termed as an unlucky team for, despite the presence of Chris Gayle and his timely contribution with the willow, the RCB took 12.3 overs and losing 6 wickets en route to reach their target. So one can imagine RCB without Gayle. Likewise there was a noted bowler in Charles Langeveldt who shone with the ball scalping 2/10 from 3 overs at 3.33 runs an over.

Watson+Rahane+Dravid < Gayle

Well whenever in this season of the IPL is heard about Royal Challengers Bangalore, one name that flashes everyone's mind would be that of Chris Gayle, the reasons which are not unknown or need to be told separately. Yesterday as well in the game against Rajasthan Royals, it was Chris Gayle who did most of the damage to the host team first by having a wicket under his name and secondly needless to be said by belting another splendid 70 runs off just 44 balls and remaining unbeaten in the second innings chasing a modest total of 147 on the board.

There were batsmen like Dravid, Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane and Ross Taylor who got into double figures but the noteworthy scores were just that of Dravid and Watson. Neither were there any major strike rates for the Rajasthan to boast about. Not to mention that a combination of all the aforementioned scores were out shadowed by Gayle from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. With someone like Gayle out there in the opposition, the teams facing should have been a little lot more careful at least when it came to saving their faces let alone winning or even coming close to winning one against the RCB.

On the other hand, other than Chris Gayle, there were the likes of Dilshan, Virat Kohli and A B deVilliars who could have done the job for the Royal Challengers Bangalore with a target of just 147 on the board set by Rajasthan. One can take a look at the scorecard to see the bowling chart of Rajasthan Royals who bought in 7 of their bowlers mainly to bowl Chris Gayle which happened to be a valiant effort. However, the Rajasthan Royals' efforts got paid for when they had one wicket towards the end of the RCB's successful run chase.

The Rajasthan Royals had Dilshan out with half the target already achieved. But, had they got Gayle out atleast late in the innings, that would have bought in much satisfaction for the Rajasthan Royals. Once again popping up the man of the match debate, I bet none can explain why Gayle was deceived of the award. Is it because that Gayle has received that award thrice earlier in the tournament or is it because the match officials wanted to give bowlers a chance to go up and collect something? To mention, Gayle had a wicket against his name which wasn't noticed by match officials I supppose.

Kochi Tuskers double Gayled

Well in a couple of matches prior to the one yesterday between Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Royal Challengers Bangalore, the man with a Midas touch - Chris Gayle was seen destroying the opposition bowlers only with the willow. But, yesterday was something different when Chris Gayle not only hammered the ball with his bat but was also found bowling his full quota of 4 overs being a part time bowler and what is more! Chris Gayle was successful in giving the RCB their initial breakthrough when he had Michael Klinger bowled. At the end, Gayle's efforts was equivalent to Zaheer Khan's.

Coming to the match, the game would be remembered for Chris Gayle's 37 run over that was aided with extra deliveries. However, the bowler who was bowling to Chris Gayle should also be given a consideration when only has to nothing but pity Prasanth Parameswaran who was unlucky to have hit Chris Gayle in his initial period of his cricketing career. However, that should not be mistaken with 6 ball over with an extra delivery being bowled in the second ball which unfortunately (as far as the bowler was considered) went for six runs. This makes it 37 runs off 7 balls.

Sparing this over, if Gayle's innings is considered otherwise, scorecard suggests that his overall tally stood at 44 runs unbeaten which brings down the equation to 7 runs from 10 balls which suggests that Gayle was still in setting up his innings rather than going for the kill once for all. It was the Kochi batsmen ho made life tough for the viewers who would have watched an even better show from Chris Gayle had the total been some 150+. The highlight would be the 37 run over, the 4 overs which Gayle bowled and his 16 ball 44* which completely took the game away from Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

It is accepted that nothing much could have been done with Gayle out there in full bloom. But, with batsmen like McCullum, Klinger, Patel and Jayawardane there in the side, the Kochi Tuskers might have put up a better batting performance by getting to a total of at least 150-180. The entire Kochi innings didn't consist of any sixes. The match would have been won by the same margin even without Gayle. Dilshan, deVilliars etc would have got the job done for RCB. The RCB bowlers had read the mindset of Kochi batsmen it seemed when no experimentation happened with their bowlers.

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.

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.

Just for a change..

Well with all tongues cursing the Kolkata Knight Riders for their 9 wicket loss to the Royal Challengers Bangalore, one has to go through their performance in the past with them coming too close to winning the opening game against the Chennai Super Kings when eventually they lost by 2 runs. Following that defeat, the Kolkata Knight Riders won games against Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers though they lost against Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Yesterday's loss places them behind with three losses and two victories. But, this was better than what they could do in the last three editions of the IPL.

All would have thought the score of 171 and a target of one run in excess of that would be sufficient to prove the absence of Ganguly as a forgettable one. But, let alone winning the game, even the loss can never be digested by the Kolkata fans whatsoever. I have mentioned many times on the blog that a total less than 180 in a T20 game is just ordinary. But, a little bit of concession can be given to the total of 171 not only for the reason that it is just 9 runs less than the projected total but since that total does not fall behind when it comes to winning matches.

There have been less instances when a team loses piling up a total of 171 and few cases falling otherwise. The batsmen of the Kolkata team never showed any signs of compromise when three out of the top four batsmen scored in excess of 40 runs. However, despite scoring 40 runs, Kallis needs some refinement and someone needs to tell him that he is playing a T20 game and not a one day international. A 40 runs from 42 balls is not acceptable in a T20 game. Pain was evident from the RCB bowlers when 7 of them came in to bowl or rather stop Yousuf Pathan.

But, nothing much could have been done with a batsman of the caliber of Chris Gayle when all the fielders were supposed to do was to collect the ball from the ball boys whenever Gayle hit a boundary and ask the spectators to throw the ball whenever he hit the ball for six. Perhaps! had the audience been payed for doing a ball boy job, they could have gone home with a few pennies in their pocket that could have covered their popcorn costs. As a revenge, even the Kolkata bowlers were made to change the bowler 7 times. Putting it simple, the KKR were Gayled!

When there exists losers

Well in case a match that can be won happens to be lost, who is to be blamed becomes the toughest question of all. And that was what the West Indies were to face after their close and yet so far from victory against England at Chennai yesterday. A total of 244 on the board put up by the Englishmen should not have been a tough chase for a team that started off well blasting off 58 runs from the first 7 overs at a run-rate of over 8 runs an over. Chris Gayle and Darren Sammy were supposed to make life miserable for the Englishmen which eventually didn't happen.

Chris Gayle blasted 43 runs from just 21 balls scoring over 2 runs every ball he faced while Darren Sammy massacred the English bowling by scoring just less than one and a half runs every ball he faced when he too fell 9 runs short of scoring a well deserved half century. I just couldn't stop cursing the West Indian batsmen who undid the good work which the bowlers did. If one can go through the scorecard, the West Indies team is hardly gifted with decent bowlers though Kemer Roach and Dwayne Smith can boast of some splendid feats occasionally.

At the end, if Chris Gayle and Darren Sammy fell short of a well deserved half century, the West Indies team fell short of a well deserved victory. Compared to the bowlers like Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann, the West Indies' bowlers fall way short though there is Kemer Roach who has had a hat-trick against Holland earlier in the tournament. Similarly, in the batting department, England fall short of a hard hitting batsman of the caliber of Chris Gayle though the tournament's highest individual run scorer has been Andrew Struass when he blasted the Indian bowlers for a 50X1.5.

But, the scorecard suggests otherwise when bowlers do the job for the West Indies team by restricting the English batsmen for a score less than 250 and at the same time getting the opposition all-out. Getting a team that has so far holds the record for the highest team total batting second should come in for some praise until the unexpected happened. England scored 339 batting second in the game against the co-hosts India at Bangalore. West Indies' unsuccessful run-chase started from 58/1 at 6.5 over to 150/6 at the end of the 27^th over. This brings 92 runs from 21 overs which is just less than 5 an over but still gettable.

Wow! It is the West Indies!

Well there have been a couple of 200+ run margins in this tournament with the latest one to join the club being the not-mighty West Indies who inflicted a 215 run win against Netherlands yesterday at Delhi. Earlier in the tournament, Pakistan had beaten Kenya ruthlessly by 205 runs following which Sri Lanka outplayed Canada by 210 runs both by the host nations who are one of the favorites to win the trophy and against weaker teams as mentioned above. Now, the record has been broken by another 5 runs when West Indies did what was expected against Holland yesterday.

It is fascinating to see the three 200+ run margin records having a margin of 5 runs with Sri Lanka belting Canada by 210 runs at Hambontana on February 20^th which was three days before Pakistan did the same against Kenya and a week later West Indies joins the club by bettering Sri Lanka's record by 5 runs. All these three events took place in a span of just two weeks of the tournament starting and with ten days of the first one by Sri Lanka. There are matches yet to come where teams like Australia, South Africa, New Zealand etc will take on Kenya, Canada, Holland etc.

This is one such rare matches involving the West Indies where all the top five batsmen show their talent with three of them scoring half centuries, one other batsman falling just a run short of achieving that feat and the other scoring a decent and a handy 30. A total of 332 and that too by West Indies seems a lot but, have a look at the opposition whom they are playing. May be other stronger teams might fail in getting such a huge margin of victory against such teams but for sure, their performance will be better against West Indies.

The man-of-the-match Kemar Roach is seen picking up a hat-trick but look at the batsmen whom he has dismissed-the last three batsmen players namely some Pieter Seelaar, Bernard Loots and Bernard Westdijk and gets awarded the man of the match for his 6-27 when there was Kieron Pollard who made a quickfire 27 ball 60. Nevermind who was awarded the man of the match for anyhow West Indies would have won against Holland but, it should be seen whether they can do it against India and England with them already losing to South Africa. Even a narrow escape or a close encounter against them would be appreciated.

Gates not yet closed for India

It is confusing as to how come it happens only against India that a batsman can hit sixes at will. In their last game against Australia as well, there were 13 sixes scored by Shane Watson and David Warner between them. That was not the case for Australia against either Pakistan or Bangladesh. Yesterday, even against the West Indies, Chris Gayle had 6 hits out of the ground. Had it not been for Gayle, West Indies would not have won or even come close to winning the match. On can go through the scorecard to see no other score other than Gayle's being a highlight.

The series of scores from West Indies were 23 from Chandrapaul, 19 from Darren Sammy and 17 from Pollard. If Gayle's knock is removed from the list, the total would drop down to 71 from 9 overs at a rate of close to 8.00 runs an over. One thing that made the difference between the two teams was the way both the captains handled their bowlers. The Indian captain used only 6 bowlers with four of them bowling their complete quota with the remaining two bowling half of that. Of course, one had to Ashish Nehra 4 overs when he took three wickets.

On the other hand, the West Indian captain bought in 7 of his bowlers to bowl with every change accompanying a reduction in run rate and an increase in the run rate required to secure a win. One fascinating aspect was that every bowler from the West Indies had a wicket against his name. There was almost every Indian batsman who contributed with the bat but that was simply just not enough. Except Murali Vijay and Rohith Sharma, there were similar scores until Harbhajan Singh. Putting it simple, the Indian innings saw more of their batsmen making it to the crease with limited bowlers taking the ball.

Whatever, though India have lost both their games in the super eights, they still have a freak chance to make it to the semi-finals of the world cup with a match yet to go against Sri Lanka. In case India manage to win against Sri Lanka and both West Indies and Sri Lanka lose to Australia (which has a greater probability) then India's run-rate might be the qualifying factor to enter the semis. But, as mentioned, that would be a tough fight for India with both Sri Lanka and West Indies also being in the same phase that India are in.

Smiles on West Indian faces

Well finally fans of West Indian cricket can hope to smile after the West Indies registered a rare victory in an international one day match. It doesn't matter against which team the victory came against at present but, it is winning that is important for a team who has got to losing as though it is the sun rise and sun set. However, the victory was not achieved until the last 12 odd balls prior to finishing the match with the West Indies team taking the game until more than the 47^th over of the match. And, in the process the West Indies team lost 6 wickets.

This is no big deal whatsoever. As it has been repeatedly mentioned in this post, it is winning at present that is important for the West Indies and not the margin of victory or the way they achieved it. But, the West Indies' efforts were not even that bad either when Chris Gayle and Deonarine scored 153 runs out of the total score of 208 which ensured the West Indian win. Not even Chanderapaul was found at his batting best with that being his only job in international cricket since decades. Whatever, it would be worth mentioning the 21 extras that the Zimbabwean bowlers bowled which aided the West Indian run chase.

Chris Gayle and Deonarine accounted almost 84 percent of the total score of 208 that the West Indies team needed to win. If not for these two, the remaining batmen could not record individual scores more than 10, which ws possible only by Chandrapaul keeping in mind his decade long experience. Had Chandrapaul not been this experienced, may be even his score would have been just a couple. A comparative picture would suggest that the Zimbabwean team had a better batting chart with almost all of them notching up double digit scores. The fact is also that the present Zimbabwean team is more experienced compared to West Indies.

But, the main area that needs some consideration is the man of the match that was awarded to some Deonarine. Scorecard suggests that he was the second highest scorer for the West Indies after Chris Gayle scored 88.It is impossible to find a valid reason for Deonarine being awarded the man of the match. Chris Gayle would have been the ultimate choice after furnishing his role as a captain, opening batsmen and a part time bowler. Not only did Gayle top score at 88 but also took the wicket of the number 3 batsmen- Brendan Taylor and was the lone bowler to have bowled 10 overs for the WI.