Curse the Challengers

As their name gores, the Royal Challengers Bangalore royally challenged their opposition-Warriors by setting a target of 174 on the board and taking them till the last over ball of the match to secure a win. Speaking with the spirit of the game, a win is a win, no matter which team it is and at which stage it has been achieved. One need not come to the conclusion that the Warriors had their luck on their way which the Royal Challengers Bangalore were missing. The game consists of 20 overs and if at all a team can win, it can do it even in the 120^th legal delivery.

It absolutely makes no sense in bringing in some invisible luck factor into the game where both teams are equipped with 11 best players who are thought to be fit. However, it is such games that keep the minds of a fan swinging like a pendulum. At one moment, the situation would be as though RCB would win and in another moment, Warriors would have made the equation theirs. Whatever may be the case, one thing that was seen in the game was the true spirit which usually lacks in a T20 game. There was a series of 20s and 30s from RCB with some hiccups.

A total of 172 is indeed a decent one. And, the reason for that were the five batsmen as mentioned who scored in 20s and 30s. Asking something more from RCB batsmen would not be fair. If not for Mayank Agarwal, the rest of them never deceived. But, if the scorecard of the Warriors is considered, there were only two batsmen in Ashwell Prince and Johan Botha who scored 74 and 42 respectively. If these two scores are removed from the Warriors' squad, the total reduces to 57 runs from 41 balls that included 5 wides as well. The Warriors no doubt lacked team work to a great extent.

By now, readers would have gone sick with me always highlighting about the lack of experimenting with the bowling. But still it is worth mentioning that Smuts was underrated when Tsotsobe was allowed to bowl 10 overs despite going in for 31 runs from 3 overs at over 10.00 runs an over. There was a splendid performance in the bowling department with Rusty Theron bowled a magnificent spell of 3-0-29-4 which stood apart from all major performances with the bat. In my opinion, Theron should have been given the man of the match and not Ashwell Prince when batting was not at all tough.

Not a fair play from RR

Well if it is only the result of the match that matters, then, there might have not been so many cricket crazy fans out there cheering for every shot that goes out of the ground and every ball that breaks the stumps no matter which player from which team is responsible in doing it so as long as there is entertainment on the field. But, that was no way the case in yesterday's game between the Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. A score of 94 from 20 overs should either deserve a better response from the opposition or else the track should be fit for a test match.

In the first innings which was played by the Mumbai Indians (as far as the batting team goes), they as mentioned neither lose all their ten wickets nor did they do a big hitting despite the likes of Sachin Tendulkar being there. Other names that promise good run include Andrew Symonds, Rohith Sharma and Kieron Pollard. Of course, other batsmen too have their names felt but, not yesterday. Even Harbhajan Singh might have added to the delight with the bat. But, there was no batsman in the Mumbai Indians' side who could get a score past 20 runs with the highest being Symonds' 17.

Should one come to the conclusion that the Rajasthan Royals were on the top of their bowling with the army consisting of Shane Warne including Ashok Menaria, Shane Watson and Johan Botha? If that was so, then one should think for a reason for the Rajasthan Royals not to have grabbed all ten wickets from the Mumbai side which saw them play until the 120^th legal delivery may be no avail which forms a different issue. Another point to ponder over is that the Rajasthan Royals' batsmen came until the last two overs to reach the target which was achieved in the 19^th over.

A tough opponent would have chased down the target in just 15 overs with just over run a ball which also happens to be much. An ideal approach would be 11 overs at 9.0 runs an over. One aspect that needs to be digested is that despite grabbing 3 wickets at a rate of 3.0 runs an over, Johan Botha was given only two overs to bowl when he could have been given two more overs. On the other hand, Shane Watson was allowed to complete his full quota of 4 overs despite being the 2^nd costliest bowler after Siddharth Trivedi who was restricted to juts 2 overs.