This is what happens

It always happens that the team that gives more signals of thrashing its opposition in crucial stages of a tournament gets thrashed itself. For instance, one can go through the South African episode in world cups between 1992 and 1999. If anyone calls South Africa as chokers, then here it is; Australia did everything right in the world T20 tournament 2010 only to lose to England in the finals of the same. So was Sri Lanka in the 2009 edition of the World T20 tournament and Pakistan in 2007. This has been the case many times and not once or twice.

I was just thinking about My world this moment before the final match of the champions league T20 tournament between Mumbai Indians and RCB. Rather than going through some other games,why don't we recollect what happened to Mumbai Indians in IPL 2010 when Mumbai were favorites to win the title any finally lost to Chennai? This time, the Royal Challengers Bangalore happened to be the culprit with them having a three successive 200+ total, once batting first and twice batting second. Every time the RCB took the crease, a batting record was rewritten. I just cannot what are these matches made up of?

Coming to the match, needless to be said, the pitch was a bowler's paradise regarding which Harbhajan Singh would be the best person to tell who could bowl successive balls of the century millennium. Luckily or unluckily, nobody got bowled in that fashion. But, the blame should completely go to the RCB team who very well knew what the Chepauk pitch was like. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians were somewhat a lucky team to have played on that pitch a day before in the second semi-finals against Somerset. That match happened to be a practice match for Mumbai before heading to the finals.

Likewise, the Royal Challengers Bangalore played on a pitch which was dead opposite of the Chennai pitch which made them pay the price. Secondly, the toss was a trump card which happened to be on Mumbai's side when they elected to bat first on a track where any total is defendable. However,anybody who saw the match would have seen the RCB batsmen belting the Mumbai bowlers until the tenth over when suddenly things stared to change. In the end, Lasith Malinga got his due when he became the highest wicket taker in a T20 tournament for the 2^nd time after the IPL2011.

Malinga for Gayle

Since the beginning of the 4^th edition of the IPL, two names that have made rounds were Lasith Malinga for his devastating bowling and Chris Gayle for his mind blowing batting. Lasith Malinga was the highest wicket taker in the tournament and Chris Gayle the highest run-getter. And, much to anybody's surprise, those two players are responsible for their teams to qualifying in the finals of the champions league T20 tournament. In yesterday's second semi-finals between Mumbai Indians and Somerset, Lasith Malinga scalped four wickets to see his team make it to the finals of the tournament needless to be said.

In the game, if Bangalore was a batsman's paradise, then the pitch at Chennai was exactly opposite to that when batsmen found it hard to score despite there being several wickets in hand. Most of the time, both the teams had scored equal scores at the end of a particular over. Moreover, the losers of the game - Somerset had been ahead of the Mumbai Indians until the 17^th over if their over comparison is made. But, it was Malinga who completely devastated the Somerset batsmen. The batsmen from Somerset team could not get enough runs towards the end of the innings.

The Mumbai Indians read the pitch well and did most of their scoring towards the end of their innings and not going for the kill right from the beginning. However, looking at the batting of Mumbai Indians, they scored 51 runs in their powerplay compared to 35 from Somerset and were always lagging behind when it came to their scores tally. This clearly shows that the Somerset tried to relax a lot during their batting with wickets in hand during most of the time. In the end, they fell 10 runs short of the total what Mumbai Indians put up.

It was Rajagopal's quickfire 25 off 12 balls which proved costly for Somerset. That was the advantage that the team batting first always has in hand when the last few overs happen to be slog overs where the batsmen go in for the kill which the team batting does not have. However, in the batting of Somerset, if not for Kieswetter and Hildreth no other batsmen could do anything with the remaining batsmen getting little opportunity to show their skills. One thing for which Harbhajan Singh needs to be applauded is for having Malinga bowl the last two overs which were crucial which saw 5 wickets from Somerset falling.

Alas! Mumbai couldn't lose

One has to wonder is it because of the absence of the star batsman Sachin Tendulkar which is responsible for the Mumbai Indians to perform so badly despite winning the match. There is absolutely no doubt that towards the end of the match all the fans and supporters of Mumbai Indians would go home with a smile on their face but that would not be the case with their heart beats. They heart beats might have simply doubled looking at the way the batsmen of their favorite team played. Mumbai Indians did Warriors (who got their winning runs in the last ball of the game against RCB) yesterday.

One can go through the batting chart of Trinidad & Tobago to see that they couldn't play their complete 20 overs. This is one mistake that teams seldom do. Yesterday, it looked as though Trinidad & Tobago had accepted defeat even before half of the match was still awaiting. They played just 16.2 overs with 3.8 overs still left in the play. Anytime, in cricket, more scores on the board makes the opposition to concentrate more and work more in an attempt to achieve victory. At the end of the game, no doubt T&T would be cursing themselves for their debacle.

With a total of 98 giving the Mumbai Indians a run for their money, one can imagine what would have happened in case the T&T had played their full quota of 20 overs. The T&T team kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and even the batsmen who came in later didn't ever think of undoing the damage that their seniors did. They could have just played their natural game when at that point of time, winning was totally out of question for T&T. There have been many matches where mere totals have been defended and huge ones chased down successfully.

It would be worth mentioning Yuzvendra Chahal's 13 run over in that 98 ball innings of T&T that managed only 98 runs. However, coming to the Mumbai's innings, criticisms would have poured in from all over for such an approach. A win at the end might not be able to stop all tongues from wagging against Mumbai. Two sixes from Mumbai came in from number 8 and 9 batsmen when Harbhajan Singh and Malinga were the ones who were responsible.Another major mistake that T&T made was opting for only 5 bowlers like a programmed device. In the end T&T got everything wrong which doesn't mean Mumbai had everything right.

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.

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.

Deccan Chargers slinged!

Well, the two players who have been any franchise's bargain in this year's IPL is no doubt Chris Gayle who was bagged by the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the second one is Lasith Malinga whose devastating spells were evident for the second time yesterday in the match against the Deccan Chargers on their home ground. Not even Sachin Tendulkar has been the pick of the players in this year's IPL. With that apart, in the game between the Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers, Lasith Malinga was outstanding needless to be said. This was not because he scalped 3 wickets from the Deccan Chargers.

If one can take some pains and go through the scorecard, not only did Lasith malinga scalp three wickets from the Deccan Chargers' side but also had them single handed. Two of his three wickets had the batsmen bowled while the third batsmen was caught and bowled by Lasith Malinga seeing that Malinga gets no help from any of the fielders or the wicket keeper. Added to that, Malinga had the Deccan Chargers' batsman-Cameron White run out. This brings down four wickets from the Deccan Chargers side by Lasith Malinga alone meaning Lasith Malinga has 50% of the Hyderabad wickets.

Moving away temporarily from Lasith Malinga, one can see from the scorecard that the Deccan Chargers used just five bowlers to bowl their full quota of 4 overs without opting for any other option. This always becomes the stepping stone for a loss by a team which has no guts to experiment with their bowlers. I have cited teams bringing in 7 to 8 bowlers when the going gets tough but, that is not any sort of criticism whatsoever. Though the playing XI of the Deccan Chargers lacks any well known bowlers, Barath Chilipi and Ravi Teja might have been worth a trial.

Similar to bowling, more batsmen making it to the crease means more pressure on the batting team and that was evident when all batsmen from the Deccan Chargers were found making it to the crease. One has to wonder why the word "home team" keeps on making rounds with most of the time in this IPL, it has been the home team that succumbs to pressure no matter what. The list is dominated by Delhi and Hyderabad to a greater extent. If the bowling of the Deccan Chargers brings in worries, so does their batting. If not for Sangakkara, no other batsman is found to hit the headlines for the right reasons.

This is just the beginning

As the rules of the game of cricket go, there has to be one winner and the other team has to end up on the losing side no matter what. This saying is not for matches that result in a tie or those games which get abandoned by no matter what once again. Most of you might not even accept the encounter between the Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils yesterday at Delhi when the Delhi team got out for just 95 runs. Should one forgive Virender Sehwag for starting the inning so brightly that even the best batsman on earth would have got scared.

One would have thought Sehwag to hit a double century rather than the entire team not even getting to the one hundred mark. A score of 95 by a team captained by a dashing opener like Sehwag and with members like David Warner and Irfan Pathan should have atleast scored runs at a rate f 6.0 runs an over. One has to wonder about the team which speaks of no other hard hitting batsman if not for their captain. There was some Venugopal Rao who makes his appearance flt only once in a year and that would be the IPL in case that happens.

Despite the fact that the entire Delhi team got bundled out for a mere total of just 95 on board, one has to no doubt appreciate the fact that the Delhi Daredevils had hit more sixes compared to the Mumbai Indians. The Delhi Daredevils' innings saw two hits out of the ground, with one of them being from the bat of Virender Sehwag and the other one being from some Naman Ojha, the profile of whom can be viewed on cricinfo if interested. On the other hand, the Mumbai Indins had just one six from Sachin Tendulkar who fell short of a half century by 4 runs.

Though not necessary, all the batsmen from the Mumbai Indians had their strike rates below hundred which can be taken the way you wish. Would it be right to suggest that the pitch was tough for batsmen? I don't think so, keeping in mind the was the Mumbai Indians played without losing their cool. Of course, who doesn't keep his cool chasing down just 96 on board? One has to appreciate the series of 0s and 8s in the Delhi Daredevils' innings with five batsmen getting out for naught and two of them scoring 8 runs. But, there is a long way to for both teams.

Malinga fond of Africans

Well yesterday another similar feat happened to Lasith Malinga when he scalped the tournament's second hat-trick after Kemer Roach had the first against Netherlands a couple of days back. This was Lasith Malinga's second hat-trick in world cup cricket when last time in 2007 he had a similar feat against South Africa in the super-eights of the world cup. In fact, Lasith Malinga's feat was a much bigger one then, for it was against a much better outfit and secondly it was a four-ball four-wicket one which is unparalleled even today. Unfortunately, Malinga's feat came a bit too late and Sri Lanka had to end up on the losing side.

South Africa was cruising towards the target with five wickets in hand with plenty of overs left. But, suddenly in came the slinger who produced the most devastating spell of the world cup that even the tournament's highest wicket-taker Glenn McGrath would have been jealous about. But, with very little work to do, the South African tail-end batsman did what was expected off him and saw his team through. That was Sri Lanka's first defeat in that world cup and the only team other than Australia who beat them in that world cup. Then onwards Sri Lanka beat New Zealand twice, West Indies and England.

This was the second African team that Malinga took a hat-trick but this would hardly come in for much applause considering the team against which he achieved the feat. Malinga's feat was just one step better than Roach's for he had the 7^th, 8^th and the 9^th batsmen under his name unlike Roach who ripped the last three batsmen from Holland. There has been no bowler in cricket's history to have taken two hat-tricks in world cups and so also there is no other bowlers to have taken four wickets in four balls in world cups (with my knowledge being restricted only to world cups at the moment).

However, as was the case with Kemar Roach's feat, the one with Lasith Malinga can hardly be applauded for once again, it was a non-test playing team that Malinga was playing against. Had the hat-trick been against some Pakistan or Australia, the feat could have been relished proudly. The match once again reminded Sri Lanka's world record total of 398 against Kenya at Kandy in the 1996 world cup that Sri Lanka won. Looking at the scorecard, if not for two Kenyan players who scored half centuries, not other player could manage even a ten. There was Steve Tikolo, who has been playing cricket since 1996.

To boost one's confidence

There are teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe who might just make one's life in many ways though their contribution to international is negligible. The teams mentioned above are one such teams against whom a victory is guaranteed unlike the case with the other 7 teams out there. In case some team happens to encounter either of the teams mentioned and in case that happens in a season where the ICC is bound to reconsider the teams' ratings, then, the team facing Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would have to consider itself lucky for, because of that their rating would definitely continue to raise.

I can recall the way South Africa made it to the number spot in ICC's test rankings in the late 2007 by beating the West Indies and Bangladesh with Australia losing to India in the Border - Gavaskar trophy. Similar to this, in yesterday's encounter between the Mumbai Indians and the Guyana team, the Mumbai Indians needed absolutely no effort needed to overthrow their opponents. Starting from Sachin Tendulkar and Kieron Pollard, everyone made their contribution felt if not for Saurabh Tiwary who got out for a naught. Of course, even Ambati Rayudu scored a mere 4 but that was towards the fag end of the innings.

Lack of game planning was evident in yesterday's match with the Guynese captain - Ramnaresh Sarwan opting for not more than 5 bowlers who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs each. A little bit of risk taking usually helps in getting back into the game and if that doesn't, nothing to worry. Atleast the captain would be satisfied that he made use of the options available to him to the fullest extent whatsoever. The Guyanese innings saw just two hits out of the ground compared to 9 alone by the man of the match Kieron Pollard alone in a T20 game.

I had totally forgotten until now that Guayana was facing a team that stood on the top in this year's IPL and had international players like Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Lasith Malinga to name a few. Despite ending up on the losing side, one has to give the Guyanese a pat on their back one, for scoring a decent 153 with over 7.5 an over and two, for not losing all ten wickets in a failed run chase. Only Christopher Barnwell was found ending up with a strike rate of more than 150 compared to three from the Mumbai Indians' side.

New Zealand Fast..But Not Steady

The match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand could rather be considered as the second quarter finals of the T20- world cup, with the first quarter finals being between West Indies and England on Monday. It was a curse for any team to have won all of its previous matches and still be under test. This was what Sri Lanka was facing yesterday when they took on New Zealand. The Sri Lankans should consider themselves lucky to have won the encounter against New Zealand and in the process make it to the semis. Not at all..I am not talking about the way the Sri Lankans played their game yesterday. I just compared this Sri Lankan team to the South African team that was eliminated after losing to India in the inaugural edition.

The loss for South Africa against India in 2007 was their first ever loss in that series. But, unfortunately, that particular loss proved to be too costly for the Proteas. Until then, the Proteas had wins against West Indies, Bangladesh (not to mention), New Zealand and England. This time it was Sri Lanka in that position. But, the way they put all that behind them and finally emerged victorious indeed deserves a praise. For, if the New Zealand batting was taken into consideration initially, they almost threatened to upset the Sri Lankan team who had until then been unbeaten. But, there was Mendis.

The match looked as though Sanath Jayasuriya wants to make it to the record books for the wrong reasons in this format of the game as well when he was out for a duck. Jayasuriya holds the record for most ducks in one day internationals. However, if not for the loss of Sanath Jayasuriya, none of the Sri Lankan batsmen followed suite. Of course..Chamara Silva was also not too much impressive either. But, the ones who followed him thereafter did a fab job for Sri Lanka needless to be said. There was Sangakkara and Jayawardane who held the nerves tight for Sri Lanka until the 18th over, leaving the remaining batsmen in Mubarak & Mathews with not too much to worry about.

However, the New Zealand were never in any mood to compromise either when they took 20 runs off the second over bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya. If the debacle that Sanath provided with the bat for Sri Lanka was not enough, this was in addition to the woes. But, the courage that Sangakkara showed when he handed over the ball back to Sanath Jayasuriya towards the end indeed needs some cheers. This was a gr8 risk taken by Sangakkara, for had Jayasuriya continued from where he had left in the 2nd over, all fingers would have pointed towards him.I remember the then Sri Lankan captain Jaywardane handing over the ball to Jayasuriya when his stats never supported him. At the end, Jayasuriya had yet another black feather to his cap when he became the bowler to concede the maximum number of runs after bowling 4 overs.

Sanath Jayasuriya in that match gave away 64 runs from his allotted 4 overs. If not for the 2nd over and the one which Malinga bowled giving away 14 runs, the rest of the overs were decent.There were four batsmen in the New Zealand who had scored 2 runs, with 8 of them scoring single digit scores.

Smallest Total But The Biggest of Challenges

Despite the Mumbai Indians' opener Sanath Jayasuriya getting out for a golden duck, the scoreboard read the score of 1-1 with a run being conceded by an extra. For, not every team in the second edition of the IPL is as lucky as the Royal Challengers Bangalore are, who under all circumstances are found to witness the scoreboard reading 0-1 be it the Royal Challengers themselves or the opposition they are facing, 1-0 is a common gesture for them. Anyway, getting into the match between the Mumbai Indians and the Kings XI Punjab, this was one such match where Mumbai Indians neither lost wickets not put up a winning partnership.

Sanath Jayasuriya once again reminded us that he holds the record for scoring most ducks in one day international cricket of all times. This I guess till date is the lowest total defended in atleast the second edition of the Indian Premier League. Both the teams namely the Mumbai Indians and the Kings XI Punjab used as many as 7 bowlers to tackle the opposition batsmen. When the pitch was so bowler friendly one, it was just not understandable as to why the bowlers didn't make much of the pitch. Why did both the captains try out lesser known bowlers like Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin for Mumbai Indians and Goel & Mota for the KXIP.

Despite bowling a comparitivey tight spell, Sanath Jayasuriya was given just one over, with Bravo bowling three overs giving runs at 8.0 a piece. Wilkin Mota-though not being able to take a wicket, bowled economically giving away just runs but was given just 1 over. If it was too late by the captains to judge their bowlers' ability, then I ask as to what sort of captains are they? It was amazing to see Yuvraj Singh himself not willing to take charge as a bowler when his part time left arm spin has at times found to benefit the team. And when the Mumbai Indians have a match winning all rounder in Shaun Pollock, it is just not acceptable that all he is found doing is just warm the banches.

The Mumbai Indians' batsmen went in for more offensive shots rather than chase the small target the way it should have been done. There was absolutely no reason for Dwayne Bravo to go in for that lofted shot off Piyush Chawla when Mumbai Indians had the match well in their kitty. Rather than sending in Tiwary, Lasith Malinga would have done a better job, for it is still in my memories when Lasith Malinga in the world cup 2007 lofted blindly the bowlers from England and Australia that saw them beat England and go past 200 against Australia. Hmmm...this was the match that saw Harbhajan's IPL dreams end when he slapped Sreesanth in the first edition.

Sachin Tendulkar's On Field Influence

In the IPL match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Mumbai Indians, it was the Ganguly show all the way, for he was the highest run getter in the Kolkata Knight Riders' innings for his score of 34 which was followed by Brad Hodge (24) and Chris Gayle (12)-the only other two batsmen who posted scores above 10. So, there is not much for the Kolkata Knight Riders' fans to regret about for, their beloved DADA- Sourav Ganguly would no doubt make it until the ultimate game the Kolkata Knight Riders play in South Africa. Not only did Sourav become the top run getter in the match but also he was one of the two batsmen the KKR saw in that match to have cleared the ropes.

If one can manage to go all the way to the first game of the first edition of the Indian Premier League, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders at the delivering end in the match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, after riding high on Brendon McCullum's 73 ball unbeaten 158. And this time it was the very same Kolkata Knight Riders who were at the receiving end. And Brendon McCullum's score this time was 1 run out of the 16 balls he faced at a strike rate of 16.66. Probably it was the captaincy burden that McCullum was supposed to bear this time around that his performance with the bat and behind the stumps failed so badly!!!

Frontline bowlers like Harbhajan Singh go wicketless and a part time bowler in Abhishek Nayar bags two wickets. None of the Mumbai Indians' bowlers bowled their entire quota of 4 overs. I wish Sanath Jayasuriya had been given the ball which would have made him display his all round skills. Instead Sachin Tendulkar was found displaying his off spin there. Oh! yes, Sachin Tendulkar was the front runner when in came to receiving the man of the match award after he had scored a blistering 45 ball 68 (6x4;4x6). And as a captain why would he ever want to transfer it to Sanath Jayasuriya who is even more deadly than Sachin when it comes to bowling?

Sanath Jayasuriya has a lot of T20 games under him when he would be found playing for Sri Lanka and on the other side, the BCCI have left out Sachin for the T20 matches by giving the youngsters a chance. So, it was a rather intelligent move by Sachin not to have given the ball to Jayasuriya, for transferring the ball to the hands of Sanath would also mean transferring the man of the match. However, my man of the match would be Lasith Malinga who broke the stumps on two occassions during his three wicket haul and that too bowling just 2.2 overs. But, Lasith Malinga is yet to make his name into the history books like Sachin has done. Until then, the preference obviously goes to Sachin.Ha ha ha.....