India mistake England to be West Indies

With a depleted team, India managed to whitewash the West Indies 2-0 on the previous tour to the Caribbean. But, if the same mentality is applied towards touring England as well, one needs to judge the stupidity of the Indian team who have lost yet another match against England yesterday at Manchester by 6 wickets. Needless to be said, India saw contributions only from Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Dravid and Suresh Raina who did the scoring while the rest of them that includes Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failed miserably. However, a target of 166 was still a tough one to reach.

I really give hats-off to Dravid for hitting three sixes and en route becoming one of the two batsmen who could manage to clear the ropes. Despite his style not suiting to T20 cricket, Dravid managed to keep up the momentum which speaks of his hard work in the nets. Dravid's style of play is more suited to test cricket and comes in handy regarding one day cricket. Not only did Dravid score 31 runs but was instrumental in putting up a partnership of 65 runs for the third wicket along with Rahane. Coming to the game, one need not cite the absence of Yuvraj and Sehwag.

With the likes of Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Kohli etc, much more could have been made possible which actually didn't happen. Giving undue credit to some Jade Dernbach would be a waste of time when Dhoni and co felt that everything was over once they lifted the world cup in April this year.England were comfortable with contributions coming in from every batsman who took it to the crease. If not for Hales who scored a naught, there were contributions from Kieswetter, Pietersen, Morgan, Bopara and Samit Patel who came in handy with the bat. More than big scores, there was continuous flow of runs for England.

With so much depth and form in the batting England, nothing much could have been done by the Indian bowlers who got belted one after the other starting from Praveen Kumar. All the option that Dhoni had in hand was to give the ball to Rohit Sharma thinking that a change in bowling might stop runs from being scored at ease. With Rohit Sharma going in for 16 runs off his over, Dhoni didn't couldn't take the risk of trying Raina and Kohli. Dhoni has to be satisfied for crossing 150 and then bringing it till the 20^th over and not finishing somewhere in between.

The contest just seems to get dull

Three years back in 2008 when the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League kick started, all eyes were glued to the television sets as though a major encounter would happen in the days to come. During that time, the sport was at its peak with the T20 version of the game having a high run with things like the ICL and the ICC world T20 having their say. Things remained the same until last year when there were takers for almost every game. But, the spirit happens to be no more or rather has got faded to a great extent.

There were players like Mathew Hayden, Sanath Jayasuriya, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne etc who had retired from international cricket but could be seen in tournaments like the IPL then. But slowly and steadily, all the aforementioned players started departing from the tournament one by one. And people like Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne have lost their glorious days. Someone like Mathew Hayden played his last game in IPL 2010 which was famous for his mongoose bat. Glenn Mcgrath has been shown the gates from Delhi Daredevils after the inaugural edition when his style of play suited only the longer formats of the game.

Sanath Jayasuriya, despite his fireworks was forced to warm the benches in last year's IPL and has never been chosen by any franchisee in this year. Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Brendon McCullum etc are not the big hitters of the ball once they were. There were hardly any century scorers in the tournament though there were three batsmen who had amassed more than 500 runs. Only players from India are showing the spirit and enthusiasm since 2008. The list includes Sachin Tendukar, Suresh Raina, Dhoni etc to name a few. Overseas players include Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh and Chris Gayle.

The first blow came when Anil Kumble pulled himself out of the tournament. Added to that would be the fact that players have changed sides after they were picked up by a different franchisee. Chris Gayle had earlier played for Kolkata while Dravid played for Bangalore. So would be the case with Gilchrist, Gambhir, Ganguly, Muralitharan. Top spinners like Shane Warne and Muralitharan have been just ordinary players. In the years to come, there will be players like Gilchrist, Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar etc who will be missing from action. Shane Warne has already called it a day. With all these, will the IPL still be accepted by all?

Shane Watt-son Mega Watt performance

Well one sight on yesterday's match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals suggests that the Rajasthan Royals would have an easy won the match. But, I wonder how many of them would have thought the Rajasthan Royals would have won the match without losing even a single wicket and Shane Watson belting a 47 ball 89 run. The moment the Mumbai Indians ended their innings for 133 on the board, it was more or less understood that they would end up losing. But, something which was not thought about was the even with Lasith Malinga they couldn't grab a single wicket.

There were two Mumbaikars in Rohith Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar who did something for the Mumbai Indians' side by emerging as the top batsmen of the game scoring 31 and 58 respectively. But, as it already evident by now, that was of no use to the team. All that those scores could do was to save the face for the Mumbai Indians without which the total would not have even crossed 100. One has to wonder why the Mumbai Indians preserved 5 wickets when no one had the guts to belt the bowling of the opposition. Why was Franklin sent ahead of Symonds?

Symonds was a bigger hitter than Franklin and Harbhajan. One has to applaud the Rajasthan Royals' captain for experimenting with his bowlers and at the same time criticize him for failing in his experiment. There were four bowlers from the Rajasthan Royals' side who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs and much to anyone's surprise, they all ended up successful. But, the ones who didn't get to complete their full quota of 4 overs, namely Siddhart Trivedi, Maneria and Amit Singh bowled the costliest of over giving away runs at the rate of 9.00, 10.00 and 12.00 runs respectively.

However, there is not much that can be written about the batting performance of the Rajasthan Royals which was finished by just two batsmen - Dravid and Watson. Watson's 47 ball 89 might not be of that great interest but, his combo of 3 wickets and 89 runs definitely falls into the best of all-round performances. There were 7 over to spare for the Rajasthan Royals which could have been compensated in case of a rain affected match. With this, Shane Warne could be last match in the IPL and he has outplayed his famous rival-Sachin Tendulkar. Just a gr8 way to finish a splendid career.

Chennai flawless..Rajasthan clueless

10 boundaries from a batsmen who has long been terminated from playing the shortest version of the game happened to be a savor to his team when his knock saved a lot of face for his team which would otherwise been making rounds for all the bad reasons. Rahul Dravid scored an individual score of 67 runs at a strike rate of 129.41 from 51 balls which saw the total boost to 147 which would have otherwise been just 80. The Rajasthan innings saw just three batsmen scoring double figure scores. All these were scored by international batsmen with experience.

The names include Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid and Ross Taylor who are all big names in international cricket. Johan Botha could have just added a bit to the score which actually didn't happen. Only Shane Warne can answer why he himself didn't take on to the crease to blow some bowlers with his decade long experience in international cricket which has seen him play some handy innings for Australia when the situation demanded it from him. It is fascinating to see none of the batsmen from the Rajasthan Royals' side being able to clear the ropes even once. No sixes!

However, Rahul Dravid from Rajasthan Royals' side can walk with his head held high with him being the highest boundary hitter in the contest with him being able to cross the ropes on 10 occasions. Rahul Dravid also falls into the category with the highest number of boundaries and sixes put together with Mike Hussey's tally of 8 fours and one six falling short of it by 1 hit. One has to appreciate the accuracy with which the bowlers of both teams bowled with there being just 5 extra deliveries. Four of them were bowled by Rajasthan Royals and one from Chennai Superkings.

On the other hand, the Chennai innings had absolutely no trouble at all in chasing down the total of 148 with batsmen like Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Of course, Morkel, Murali Vijay and Badrinath also form a handy set. But, if at all anyone can comment about the Chenai Superkings' innings, they might have to just dispute with the scorecard which showed them lose just two wickets en route to their successful run chase. The run chase would have been successful even had the Rajasthan Royals scored a total of over 180. Eventually, a fourth straight win would have excited Dhoni needless to be said.

Finally Sehwag gets his due

India's Virender Sehwag has finally been chosen as the number 1 batsman in test cricket. This was something Sehwag should have achieved long back, the moment he scored his second triple hundred against South Africa last year in the 1st test. Since then and even before that, Sehwag has never looked back whatsoever atleast as far as test cricket is considered. I wonder whether there has been any batsman in test cricket who has scored double hundreds in the frequency with which Sehwag has been doing since 2008 after the feat against Sri Lanka where he scored a double hundred in the 2nd test at Galle?

Sehwag has no 6 double hundreds against his name which is the highest ever by any Indian batsman. Rahul Dravid, who has 5 double hundreds against his name scored his second double ton against New Zealand in late 2003 where he scored 222 runs in the game that was drawn. Dravid scored 3 of his 5 double tons in a span of six months when he scored 233 against Australia at Adelaide followed by 270 against Pakistan three months later. And, it took V V S Laxman almost 8 years before he scored his second double hundred against Australia in the B-G trophy 2008-09.

And when it comes to Sachin Tendulkar who has most of the batting records in international cricket but this one, has one of his double hundred scored against 248* which is coincidentally his highest individual score in test cricket. This was way back in 2005 which is close to 5 years since he has crossed the 200 run mark in tests. The recent double hundreds include only the ones by V V S Laxman and Gambhir in the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2008-09 excluding Sehwag's. Likewise, Sehwag has scored 3 double hundreds, twice against Sri Lanka and once against South Africa which went on to become a triple hundred.

Dravid was aged above 30 when he scored his 5^th double hundred and so was Tendulkar when he scored his 4^th against Bangladesh. Despite all these feats that keep Sehwag apart from the rest, he had to compromise the number one position in test cricket with someone like Gautam Gambhir for all these years. I bet that Sehwag is the only player who has 6 double hundreds against his name, all of them scored within a span of 6 years from 2004 (when he scored his 1st double triple hundred against Pakistan at Multan) till date. Added to these is the strike rates that he has maintained when scoring these double hundreds.

Denying the open truth

Well the stand in Pakistani skipper Shahid Afridi has been banned for two T20 games following his action which Afridi says was trying to taste the ball whether it is sweet. May be, had the ball not been sweet enough, he would have ordered some sugar or honey to suit his taste. Anyways, jokes apart, was this the opportunity that Shahid Afridi was looking forward to when he was made the captain of the one day side in the absence of Mohammed Yousuf? I wish Pakistan had named Afridi the skipper since the first ODI so that he could have helped his bowlers in swinging the ball by taking the wrong route.

And moreover, if one goes through the videos where Afridi is found biting the ball, he could be clearly seen doing that and the fun is that he comes out sating that he did nothing wrong despite being proved guilty by the entire would who were watching the match- some on television and few others in the stands. There was no need for anyone to do such a kind of act on the field which would draw only criticism and nothing else from the world of cricket. Pakistan had already lost the series when they had lost the 3^rd one dayer and this would have been just another one for Pak.

This does not mean that Afridi or such actions by anyone would be justified no matter at what time it came. There have been many cases of ball tampering even in the past and as far as Pakistan is considered, they have a much more share compared to that from the rest of the world. The names that can be heard regarding Pakistan's history in ball tampering include some of the greats like Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akthar. The latter having a much more share than anyone else. No matter that there were few others like Dravid, Sachin and Atherton who have also been charged with ball tampering.

Other serious offences include sledging, doping and match fixing which have been rare case compared to ball tampering. I remember the way Harbhajan Singh initially denied charges on him saying that he was not accusing Symonds of anything. So was the case with Gautam Gambhir when he hit Shahid Afridi and denied charges saying that it was accidental. There was Mohammed Asif who denies charges of doping against him when blood tests and urine tests show the opposite of what Asif claims. However, it is difficult to charge someone for match fixing with hardly any evidence being available which is clear from the fact that the last such issue was somewhere a decade back.

Does Dhoni have an answer for this?

Well it was all praise for team India who were thought to have realized their mistake when they took the Bangladesh team seriously and batted in the way they would have against any other team when they scored 459 runs in less than a day's play on the second day's play after bowling out the Bangladeshi batsmen for a score of 233 on the board. And, India gave signs of having taken the game away from the Bangladeshis when they ended their first innings after posting a total of 544 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. But, only to be mistaken.

It was a sort of illusion that India had to just wait for one more day so that they can get the Bangladeshi batsmen out and spend two more days in relaxation. May be after the Indian batsmen did their job in a more perfect manner, the bowling department has gone to relax keeping away from their minds the fact that they had not yet completed their duty of winning the match which meant in bowling out the Bangladeshi batsmen out for the second time. But, whenever any team takes Bangladesh for granted, the Bangladeshis have made it a routine to make the opposition pay the price for the same.

How can one afford to relax when a Bangladesh team puts up a partnership of 200 and that too against India? May be this is the first 200 run 2^nd wicket partnership for Bangladesh against any team barring West Indies (may be to an extent). The entire day saw only one Bangladeshi batsman falling to the Indian bowlers when on the other hand, there were 3 Indian batsmen making their way back to the pavilion after putting up a total of 85 runs after they were 459/5 at the end of the second day's play. So, in a way, Bangladesh had a better day that India.

There was a Bangladeshi batsman in Tamim Iqbal who was found scoring 151 runs which was 8 more than what a double decade old Sachin Tendulkar could do in the first innings that India played. This was 40 runs more than what Rahul Dravid - who has been playing test cricket for almost one and a half decade could do. His injury need not guarantee that he would have gone on to score even more, had that not been the case. That can also be considered to be another feat by a Bangladeshi bowler when he could get a great batsman injured. Finally. it would no doubt that the entire day belonged to Bangladesh.

Where are Bangladesh heading towards?

At the end, and much to Dhoni's fortunes India came back very harsh upon the Bangladeshi bowlers first on day 1 and then on Bangladeshi batsmen when they piled up 459 runs for the loss of 5 wickets at the end of day 2 with the Indian captain yet to declare the innings. One has to just wait and see if India are fortunate enough to secure an innings victory here against Bangladesh and see to that they don't make it to the record books for the wrong reasons. Very few teams in the world have been that unfortunate not to have had an innings win against Bangladesh throughout the series.

However, that doesn't seem so if their approach to the second test is given a close look at. If at all some sort of misfortune has to happen, it has to be in the form of whether playing spoilsport which though not take the game away from the Indians but can reduce the margin of victory. This time also, it was the decade old batsmen in Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar who made heavens for India against Bangladesh with both of them scoring centuries. The Indians scored their runs at the rate of above 4 an over which showed that they never took Bangladesh lightly.

It was really fascinating to see Rahul Dravid scoring a hundred no matter that it came against a weak opposition in Bangladesh. This feat of Dravid once again reminded his fans not to give up hopes of him being known as "the wall" of Indian cricket, which was on the verge of history with Dravid being unable to continue the good work that he was seen doing some couple of years back. A more precise way to express this would be to call Dravid as a silent assassin who doesn't panic the bowlers with his shots but irritates them by holding onto the crease for long.

Added to this were half centuries from the blades of openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. It is not possible to cite which batsman didn't do his job to the perfection and so was the case with the bowlers as well. Putting it simple, there were contributions from Dravid, Tendulkar, Dhoni, Gambhir and Sehwag. All the questions that now needs to be answered is whether India can take the game forward by holding an upperhand for the remaining atleast two days of the test match. And, incase they don't end up winning by an innings, it would be as good as a draw for India.

Match Slowly Turning Into A Test

Just a day ago, when the Indian batting line up saw as many as five scores above 50, out of which three had scored hundreds, the match was thought to be just another boring draw. But, only to be mistaken. For, the pitch was found to deteriorate on the second day of the test match itself when the remaining eight Indian batsmen could amass just above 200 runs to finish the innings at 642 losing all their 10 wickets. The run-rate at the end of the first day's play read just below 5.0 an over which at the end of the innings reduced to 4.16 to be exact.

Things that followed were just that can be expected an an ideal test match. It looked as though the Sri lankan batsmen were deceived by the pitch when they had assumed the pitch to be a batsman's paradise only to kick themselves at the end of the day. However, things weren't too tough for the Sri Lankan batsmen when they had 9 wickets still to go despite Tilekeratne Dilshan getting out for a duck. Moreover, spin bowlers like Muralitharan were found getting a lot of turn at the fag end of the first innings of team India's batting and so was the way the fast bowlers when they found getting a bit of swing.

This has at present givn the Sri Lankan batting line up consisting of the two Jayawardanes in addition to Samaraweera and Sangakkara a warning not to take the pitch for granted after the Indian batsmen made most out of their first batting after winning the toss. However, not to be mistaken, this was not the way things were going on on the first day's play. Not only that the Indian batsmen viz Gambhir, Sehwag and Dravid got quick runs but also the bowlers were struggling to get some movement off the seam. This is quite evident from the fact that someone like Dravid could maintain a run-rate of 4.0 an over who has made a name "The Wall" for himself.

Finally, after a long time one can expect a test match that can assure a result. The last time India played a test match was against New Zealand in march-April which India won 1-0 in the three match test series. After India had won the first test by 10 wickets, the second test was just another run accumulator with New Zealand belting 613 runs that followed with India 305 and then 476 after allowed to follow on. The third one saw India having an upperhand with New Zealand just avoiding follow-on and also the defeat by a whisker when they were just 2 wickets away from losing the series/test with the scorecard reading 281/8. Atleast now, a test match giving a result can be thought about.

Is The Second Test Heading For A Draw?

Well there was a lot of hues and cry in the first test match between India and Sri Lanka played at Ahmedabad that eventually ended in a draw. After team India posted a mammoth 426 runs on the board with some awesome batting display from the blades of Rahul Dravid and the captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, all was thought to be in for team India only to be deceived later when an even better show by the touring nation Sri Lanka aided with Mahela Jayawardane's individual contribution of 275 in addition to 154 from another Jayawardane and a decent 110 from the opener Tilekeratne Dilshan not only surpassed India's total of 426 but also recorded Sri Lanka's highest team total against India in India.

And eventually, there was just three innings which ought to have been four in a decent test match. And what more can be done when the pitches are designed in such a manner that can only entertain the crowd when their favourite batsman hits boundries and sixes? India were able to record more than 400 runs in both the innings. There was hardly any thrill in such a match where the result is right in front of our eyes and betting on one particular team would mean disastrous. Such should never be the fate of any crickt match atleast as fas as a test match is considered.

And if the first day of the second test is considered, things are no different. Team India lost just 2 wickets and put up a mammoth total of yet another 400+ with the day's play ending at 417/2 with two Indian batsmen-Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag completing centuries and Dravid batting on 85 along with Sachin Tendulkar. And there is Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh yet to come. One can imagine the fate of the second test as well with such a kind of batting display.

Either there should be more bowlers in the side or else, the pitch has to be prepared in favor of the bowlers so that there can not only be a result at the end of the fifth day or even before that, but also that the batsmen earn their runs rather than the same being gifted for no effort. A ray of hope lies in the fact that Sri Lanka's Tilekeratne Dilshan was out for a duck may raise the hopes of the match yielding a result. This if and only if the Indian bowlers work hard and on the other hand the Sri Lankan batsmen make a fool out of themselves. Lets wait and watch!!!

Kevin Pietersen Has The Last Laugh

As it has always been the trademark of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, a loss of their first wicket without opening their account still continues to haunt the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the match was no different in the encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders either. But, for this time, it was not the Royal Challengers Bangalore who were at the receiving end when it came to a 0 run wicket. On the other hand, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were at the delivering end. Meaning this time, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders who were found losing their first wicket when the scoreboard never found ticking even for the first time.

It was unsual gesture in any format of the game for a spinner and that who does it part time to have the ball and bowl the first over. But, this was the approach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain-Kevin Pietersen who was not only found bowling the very first over but also found taking the wicket of the Kolkata Knight Riders' skipper Brendon McCullum and that too in his first ball. Anyway, no cheers for Kevin Pietersen for this, because it was good fortune that made Kevin Pietersen have his man and was neither his intelligence nor his timely anticipation.

Even Pietersen wouldn't have thought to have got his man prior to the match. And a new ball that can hardly offer any grip to a spinner is never a spinners' cup of tea whatsoever. And no mateured captain would ever hand the new ball to a spinner whatever the need of the hour may be. I still remember the then Indian captain Rahul Dravid handing the ball to Virender Sehwag in the second over in a particular match against Australia owing to the reason that Australian batsmen are poor players of spin bowling and as a result, Virender Sehwag was belted for 14 runs off that over. And if Pietersen has found some success doing that, it can be corelated to his fortune and nothing else.

Kevin Pietersen can never be an inspiration for any captain to hand over the new ball to a spinner. But, one positive move from Pietersen was that he dropped Robin Uttappa who had a series of unsuccessful knocks both behind the stumps and in front of it as well. The introduction of Goswami should have been done much before. If the thinking that Pietersen had prior to the one against the KKR, they would have beaten teams like Kings XI Punjab, where Robin Uttappa gave away 5 runs as byes and the Kings XI Punjab sneaked for victory despite needing 60 runs off the last five overs.

A total of 139 was not that challenging defending the total was truely challenging and KUDOS to Pietersen for that. And not to mention the timely contribution from Anil Kumble, Mark Boucher and Shreevats Goswami. All these aforementioned players gave Kevin Pietersen (who would be playing the last match of this IPL before leaving to play against the West Indies) his last laugh. This victory for the Royal Challengers Bangalore ensured that they would not make it to ht elast position in the IPL points table for the time being. The spot is now being owned by the Kolkata Knight Riders. Now, with Pietersen to go back for his national duty and Rahul Dravid to be back in Bangalore, it would be a watchout for Anil Kumble who would be captaining his side for the remainder of the series.

Whom Does Vijay Mallya Wants To Axe Now?

The Royal Challengers Bangalore team owner Vijay Mallya might be thinking after the match between his team (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and the unbeaten Deccan Chargers as to why did he ever go in for Robin Uttappa by exchanging him for Zaheer Khan. For, this is the man who has been the hero in most of the flop shows that the Royal Challengers Bangalore has ever witnessed so far. The other flop show heroes that follow Robin Uttappa include Praveen Kumar, Pankaj Singh and not to forget the captain himself Kevin Pietersen. And putting it together, I must say that neither does the name Royal Challengers nor the owner Vijay (meaning victory) make justice to their performance.

I just wonder as to what justice has the present Royal Challengers captain-Kevin Pietersen done to the team that Rahul Dravid was not found doing. If the last and the first edition of the IPL is taken into consideration, Rahul Dravid played a captain's knock in most of the occasions and not only that, he even saved the face in most of the games that his team lost. I even today remember Rahul Dravid scoring 76 off 36 balls in one of the matches that RCB won and this being despite the face that T20 never suited the style of Rahul Dravid.

Had I been the owner, the first thing that I would be found doing is to axe Kevin Pietersen as the captain. Not only as the captain but also as a player. For the reason, one can view the statistics for his past performance. It looks like a golden duck has been the mantra of the Royal Challengers' batsmen. For, in every match there is atleast one batsman who would have laid an egg. This time it was Kevin Pietersen along with Robin Uttappa. For such a weakn batting line up, one never needed a bowler of the caliber of Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh or Irfan Pathan.

Had the score of 168 been against someone like Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians or the Delhi Daredevils, the Kings XI Punjab batsmen would have had to think before sending in a batsmen. But, this is not the case against RCB. The only highlight of the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers was that they could at the fag end of the innings take the wicket of Ravi Bopara. The innings witnessed the drop catch of Kumara Sangakkara by Rahul Dravid. But, that could have just delayed the inevitable had it been taken. If at all the Royal Challengers have to save some face, Mark Boucher has to keep wickets. The class of Uttappa behing the stumps could be adjudged when he gave away 5 runs by leaving a wide that reached the fence.

So, it would be a guess work as to who would Vijay Mallya drop now. For this is something that he has been found doing ever since his team is found in shambles. The list includes Charu Sharma along with the coach and captain.

First Ball Wicket Yet Again

In the last match that the Royal Challengers Bangalore played against the Chennai Super Kings, the opener Praveen Kumar was out for a duck with the scoreboard also reading a duck. This was also the second successive defeat for Kevin Pietersen's men after being mauled by the Chennai Super Kings the other day. So, things are now clear as to why the Royal Challengers don't have the killer instinct in them to conquer the opposition let alone the world. They just allowed two batsmen Rohit Sharma and Adam Gilchrist to dominate the RCB bowlers for most of the time. The duo of Rohith Sharma and Adam Gilchrist played 75 out of the allotted 120 balls scoring 123 runs.

I still remember the catch of Rohith Sharma put down by may be K V Sharma before the batsmen went for a kill. Things would have slowed down appreciably had such catches been held on. For, in most of the T20 games, it is just two to three players-be it the batsmen or the bowlers who prove to be the difference between a win and a defeat at the end of the day. Also a drop catch would be the most dangerous mistake by the fielding team, for that is something which is solely responsible for the match debacles. And that is why the fate of RCB has this to say.

One more thinag that would be the most wisest of all thinking would not to get batsmen like VVS Laxman out in this format of the game. For, the players can only consume deliveries and not produce any exciting stuff whatsoever. Getting rid of a test batsman like Laxman meant the entry of a comparitively explasive batsman in Rohith Sharma who did most of the damage. This might not be the agenda in reality but this is a point worth to be noted. But, some hats off for the Royal Challengers as well, for despite losing the game, their batting display against the Deccan Chargers was comparitively good if their performance in the last match against Chennai Super Kings in considered.

The batsmen never hinted to have put up such a decent batting performance, when their side was found reeling at 62-4 at the end of the 10th over. But, kudos to Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli who never let the team lose their face out this time as well. And for Dravid to showcast such a display was indeed worth some applause for that is not his style of playing. For, he could be considered another VVS Laxman who can spend time out in the middle and not play some scoring shots by lofting the ball haywire. A little bit donation from the rest of the players bought up the remaining 62 runs that included 7 extras. Well at the end of the day the RCB lose by 24 runs.