A series of ducks in Ruhuna

Well yesterday the first match of the Nokia Champions League T20 tournament kick started with Ruhuna not only playing Trinidad&Tobago but also having a taste of their first defeat. Needless to be said, Trinidad&Tobago won the match by 5 wickets at Hyderabad. The match was one more instance where the team winning the toss ended up as the losing side and Ruhuna was that unlucky team to have done that yet again. If not for some Dinesh Chandimal, no other player from Ruhuna could really stand up to the occasion. Chandimal scored 50 runs to be the lone half century scorer of the game.

It is confusing to see Jayasuriya still opening the innings when there are so many young legs available who can do the job rather than relying up on a 43 year old guy. Of course, Sanath Jayasuriya has been known to strike the ball hard but those days were over some 4 years back which can be confirmed with Sachin Tendulkar keeping him warming the benches in the IPL 2010. Moreover, Jayasuriya was not picked up by any franchisee for this year's IPL. It is no doubt that Jayasuriya had his ball doing the talking though his bat had to just shut up after scoring 13 runs.

Jayasuriya scalped the wicket of Darren Ganga and returned with an economy of 5.00 runs an over after bowling his quota of 4 overs which made him the most economical bowler of the lot. Anyways, coming to the match, one can see three of the batsmen from Ruhuna scoring or rather getting out after scoring a duck and one player was unbeaten on zero. Another interesting fact of the match would be that the Ruhuna team played their 20 overs losing all ten wickets. That might not be of that importance but the way Ruhuna tackled the opposition was too poor.

Ruhuna had T&T reeling at 6/2 at the end of the 3^rd over but once again left Dwayne Bravo and Darren Ganga to rule them. There have been many matches where a team loses quick wickets initially and end up victorious towards the end and this time T&T need not be considered to be the underdogs. However, the scorecard suggests that until the entry of Sherwin Ganga who scored a quickfire 39* runs from 15 balls that eventually sealed the match for both the teams-with Ruhuna being the losers while T&T emerging the winners. Had Chintaka Perera been given the ball instead of Janoda, something might have worked out for Ruhuna.

Is England a match for Sri Lanka?

One has to wonder who on earth crowned the English as the world T20 champions last year when Australians were the favorites to win the trophy. It is agreed that England were a tough opposition then. But, yesterday England never showed any signs that a world champion is expected to show. England were no match for Sri Lanka who beat them in every department eventually in the match by 9 wickets. There was no player from the English side whose contribution can be highlighted. Out of the eleven, only three players were able to cross the double digit score with Pietersen and Morgan scoring 47 and 41 respectively.

Adding to the misery, being the home team, England had absolutely no chances to lose the game with players like Morgan, Pietersen and Stuart Broad. As mentioned in my earlier posts, the match was of hardly any consequence with only one game to go. A winner or loser has nothing to take home. But, that should not be a reason for England to relax with 6 of their batsmen scoring single digit scores out of whom two of them got out scoring zero. This can just be considered as a continuation of the dominance of Sri Lanka over England since the quarter-finals of the world cup.

One can go through the scorecard of that quarter-finals match too see the way the Sri Lanka batsmen openers shattered the England bowling by winning the match by 10 wickets with an opening run partnership of 229 runs. Now, though the effect was not that devastating, a 9 wicket win for Sri Lanka over England should definitely make them think much hard about their future in the game. It is fascinating to see the age old Sanath Jayasuriya still wearing the Sri Lankan uniform and scoring in boundaries and scalping two wickets. I guess he is the oldest player to feature in T20 cricket.

Well rather than calling it a guess, it is a fact. Though Jayasuriya's batting had nothing in particular to say, his bowling fetched him 2 wickets from 3 overs giving away runs at a rate of 6.00 runs per over. However, there were the likes of Jayawardane and Sangakkara who could get the job done for Sri Lanka. One can sense the lack of responsibility from the bowlers of the England team who bowled 11 wide deliveries. The Sri Lankan batsmen finished the game in style by grabbing a victory with a boundary. But, England need to re-think about their fortunes i case they need to make their presence felt.

The curse of 299

Well yesterday in the finals of the triangular series between India and Sri Lanka at Dambulla, not only did India suffer a loss in yet another finals of a tournament involving three nations or more but, also collapsed while chasing a total of 300, with Sri Lanka closing in on 299. This was the same score at which ten years back India slumped to their worst ever defeat in one dayers when they lost all their ten wickets for 54 runs while chasing the same target of 299. That match was a memorable one for Sanath Jayasuriya's epic knock of 189.

Similarly, the series being memorable one for Muttiah Muralitharan when he took 7 wickets giving away 30 runs in a game in the league stage of the tournament once again against India. That was the third time in history of one day cricket that a bowler had taken 7 wickets after Pakistan's Aqib Javed and West Indies' Windson Davis (who took 7/41) . For the second time in that series, India was at the receiving end of a bowler who took 7 wickets. The venue was Sharjah in both the occasions which makes it even more delightful for team India.

As a matter of fact, India and England are the only teams against which two bowlers have taken a 7 wicket haul. The other teams that have had it one are Zimbabwe against whom Chaminda Vass took 8/19 and Windson Davis taking 7/41 as mentioned above against Australia. As a matter of fact, no one has been able to take even a 7 wicket haul against Bangladesh. Anyways, coming to yesterday's match, this was a time when chasing even 350 should not have been tough atleast for India which didn't happen. One thing that is to be noticed is that this was India's second loss to Sri Lanka in the finals of a tri nation trophy.

Last time when India met Sri Lanka in the finals of the Asia cup, India won the match and prior to that, Sri Lanka won the finals in the triangular series late last year which also involved New Zealand. Of course, India didn't enter the finals of the tri nation tournament involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe. It is now a difficult task for anyone to hold the number of games played between India and Sri Lanka since 2008. Any tournament that stands canceled is found to be compensated by an India-Sri Lanka series. May be that is the reason Sachin Tendulkar was dropped despite there being fears of a series loss.

England on a roll

I was just thinking about Sri Lanka having a chance this time with their other two counterparts namely Pakistan and India having their share in 2009 and 2007 respectively. But, Sri Lanka spoiled all my hopes by getting defeated effortlessly to England. It was as though Sri Lanka were battling an ordinary league stage match when they piled up just 128 runs on the board. There should have been a tough fight between the teams in the semi-finals of a world cup needless to be said. All I would like to say after seeing this match is stay at home moms.

Hardly anyone would have expected to enter the finals of a world cup tournament. England did this after a span of 6 years when they were last seen making it to the finals of a world cup tournament in the ICC champions trophy 2004 after beating Australia in the semis. Once again, Sanath Jayasuriya was not only included in the playing XI but was also seen disappointing his fans. One has to wonder what sort of pressure is there on the Sri Lanka cricket board to not only include Jayasuriya but also feature him in the playing eleven. May be the selectors have gone sick.

I wish Sri Lanka has to learn from the BCCI who have not included Sachin Tendulkar in T20 matches despite him being fit and form before including an unfit batsman. The only notable score from the Sri Lankan batting chart was Angelo Mathews who scored a brilliant 58. He was the only batsman who could manage to hi a six as well. One need not give hats-off to Mathews for his work, because, Mathews or Sri Lanka were not under any sort of pressure whatsoever. Sri Lanka had already accepted defeat with both hands when winning was totally out of question.

Selfishness can be evident from the way the Sri Lankan batsmen played when neither did they go for big ones nor did they lose their wicket instead continued to play at a snail's pace in a format which expects quickfire knocks. The England bowlers never had any sorts of trouble with such a batting approach and stuck to a 5 bowler formula. One can see Sanath Jayasuriya getting belted for 15 runs of his lone over from the scorecard. Else, the top three batsmen from England sealed it for them and all that the Sri Lankans could do was to congratulate them for winning the game.

Poor Sri Lanka

One has to regret the fact that rain spoiled Sri Lanka's chances yesterday at Providence when they would have simply wiped out Zimbabwe from the tournament had the D-L method not come to their rescue. No doubt that Sri Lanka did win that encounter against Zimbabwe but, the introduction of the D-L method made matters worse by denying the viewers a chance to watch out for the bowling of Muralitharan and co. Scorecard suggests that even the Sri Lankan batsmen didn't have an easy going when only Jayawardane 's score of 100 spoke. There were only two other batsmen who scored more than 10 runs.

The second best score in the Sri Lankan innings was Thisara Perera's 23 and the other batsman who could cross the double figure mark was the number 7 batsman Kapugedra who scored 13. There is no doubt over Sri Lanka winning the match whether rain interrupted the game or not. But, looking at the performance of the Sri Lankan batsmen, that should certainly worry them with big games to come in the next week. One cannot find the reason for Jayasuriya making it to the playing XI at number 6. It was just a waste of space having Jayasuriya in at number 6.

Speaking about the bowling or batting of Zimbabwe team would be another waste of time needless to be said. However, a quick glance suggests that the bowling of the Zimbabwean team was pretty decent with runs equally given by all bowlers with Chigumbura being the top run donor when he gave away runs at 10.50 runs an over. The rest of the bowlers maintained almost the same run rate. But the real enemy of the game was rain which almost threatened to abandon the game. Had the match sailed on smoothly, the margin of victory would have been more than 14 runs.

There is nothing much to write about the batting of Zimbabwe otherwise as well and this time the batting has been swallowed by rain forcing the match to be declared to Sri Lanka. However, one thing that was obvious from the match was that the man of the match could have been none other than Mahela Jayawardane who scored a hundred. That was the only highlight of the Sri Lankan innings with no other batsman from Sri Lanka making it count. One thing that needs to be reconsidered for Sri Lanka is their batting and the second one is the inclusion of Sanath Jayasuriya.

Back to the pavilion

Well this happens every year after the Indian Premier League gets over. The duration of close to two months which hosted the Indian Premier League not only was successful in showing a spectacular cricketing action on the field but was also responsible in showing the Indian sub continent as a world rather than as a country like it is after the IPL got over. In these two months of cricket's calender, most of the international players played just for one country nevermind that they played for different Indian cities but as a country it was India for which everyone was found playing.

Now, three days after the finals of the tournament which happened to be between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Superkings the players will have to go back to their respective teams to serve their international duties. Players like Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist who were seen picking up the willow even after their retirement from international cricket a couple of years back will now have to either play for their domestic team or else get back to some stuff like commentating or coaching young legs but would rarely be seen playing for any team or coming in front of the world for what they are known and have been known in their playing days.

The Mumbai crowd who would have cheered Sachin Tendulkar for his mind blowing batting will now have to dream "had Sachin Tendulkar been around in the upcoming T20 world cup" and worse come be contented with that. So would be the fans of Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble. And, players like Robin Uttappa, Virender Sehwag and Ambati Rayudu will have to be seen next year only with the selection committee picking Piyush Chawla for reason not evident to common man and is restricted only to the BCCI. In a way, players will also be losing a lot as said above.

And, finally the Chennai crowd who would have in the two months cheered the Sri Lankan off spinner - Muttiah Muralitharan will now have to make up their mind that he gets belted by some Yuvraj Singh or Rohit Sharma when India play Sri Lanka. So would be the case regarding Australia's Shane Watson, whom the Rajasthan Royals would now want to go back without scoring when he picks up his bat against India. Other such players who'd be rejoiced after being done so for their good performance until now will be New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond to name a few.

Sanath Jayasuriya's prospects surely needs a review

All thought that the world cup 2007 held in the Caribbean would see the end of players like Brian Lara, Inzamam Ul Haq, Glenn McGrath and Sanath Jayasuriya. Added to this was the fact that Sri Lanka made it to the finals of the world cup that year and the time for any great cricketer to retire would not have been better than this. However, all but Sanath Jayasuriya didn't make up his mind to retire from international cricket. It is confusing whether it is the greed for more individual records or was it the passion that was left in him still.

For someone like the West Indian great - Brian Lara this opportunity would have been welcome with both hands taking into account his team's caliber in all three formats of the game. It was the team which he was paying that restricted him from taking his prospects forward in international. On the otherhand, Glenn McGrath would also have waited for his retirement which he announced after his team's 5-0 Ashes victory in the preceding year. McGrath was just waiting for the WC to get over which see him one of the few to have played 4 WC finals and 3 WC victories.

Coming to Jayasuriya's case, Jayasuriya had absolutely no or little reasons to feature himself in the world cup 2011 which is four years from the 2007 world cup when all thought that it would be the last time that Sanath Jayasuriya would be seen in international cricket. It was after the 2007 world cup that Jayasuriya became the first player in history of one day cricket to have played 400 ODIs. It was after that he claimed his 300th wicket which uniquely identifies him as the lone player in history to have done a combo of 300+ ODI wickets and 10000+ runs.

And, in case Jayasuriya plays the world cup in 2011, he would be doing it for the 6th time that sees him in par with Pakistan's Javed Miandad and India's Sachin Tendulkar (who is likely to play in the sub continent). One has to also keep this fact in mind that Sanath Jayasuriya holds the record for scoring the most number of ducks in ODI cricket with his score being 34. However, one thing is for syre that Sri Lanka at present can manage even without the likes of Jayasuriya unlike India whose fate without Sachin Tendulkar would be as good as a person without a proper backbone.

Dropping Catches Becomes A Boon For Team India

Yesterday, in the second T20 international at Mohali, it is believed that the Indian fieldsmen dropped as many as 5 catches which eventually saw the Sri Lankan batsmen piling up a mammoth 206 runs on the board. However, as the saying goes "All is well that ends well", India managed to not only snatch a win in the second T20 international at Mohali but also prove a lot by recording the highest run chase in T20 internationals surpassing the 208 run chase by South Africa against the West Indies in the inaugural edition of the T20 world cup where Chris Gayle scored the maiden T20 hundred as a matter of fact.

Just imagine had India taken all the chances by not dropping any catches, then the Sri Lankan total would have been somewhere in the range of 150 at the most, chasing which would have been just another moderate chase whatsoever. This doesn't mean that dropping catches are welcome. However, the other side of the coin also says that even the Sri Lankan batsmen were no less when it came to giving lives to the Indian batsmen and that too, dropping the catch of which would prove and did prove too costly for the Sri Lankans. In addition to dropping catches, there were a couple of miss run-out chances as well.

It is believed that Sanath Jayasuriya missed out on a run out chance of Virender Sehwag when he failed to break the stumps at mid-on when Sehwag was just on 14 then. Then comes the the drop catch by Chamara Kapugedra at long-on when Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on just 1 then. Finally, the drop catch off Tilekeratne Dilshan at the slips when Yuvraj was on 40 made a complete mess of the Sri Lankan fielding. It is quite evident from the scoreboard regarding the damage done by Virender Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh that would have made the Sri Lankan batsmen kick themselves.

So, it is quite evident that even the Sri Lankan bowlers and fielders had a great role to play in India's highest run chase in T20 internationals at Mohali. Moreover, in addition to the drop catches, the Sri Lankan batsmen were found going in for unnecessary lofted shots that saw the end of Jayawardane, Jayasinghe and Sangakkara which would have otherwise seen Sri Lanka's total boost even more. Further, the Sri Lankan bowlers were never found striking the right line, length and adding to that were no variation of pace by any of the Sri Lankan bowlers. The Sri Lankan spin department consisted of Dilshan and Jayasuriya, luckily none of whom were given the ball.

Reasons For Sri Lanka To Smile As Well

No one, after being unbeaten until then would be happy after losing a match when it really mattered. No one on earth would continue smiling after losing to a team against which it had won in its previous encounter. Pakistan in this tournament had lost matches against England and Sri Lanka prior to lifting the trophy. And Sri Lanka, needless to be said had won all of its earlier matches with some worth mentioning teams being West Indies (twice), Australia, Pakistan and New Zeland. However, Sri Lanka's win over minnows Ireland can never be counted as a victory not only for Ireland's inexperience but due to the fact that it was a close encounter when Sri Lanka should have gone in for a clean sweep.

And on the other hand, the wins that Pakistan have tasted are worth rejoicing. They had a clean sweep against New Zealand & Ireland and a close encounter with South Africa. But, that close win against South Africa was also as good as a clean sweep, when most of the odds had opted for South Africa to advance further and more so because that was a semi finals of a world cup. Not to mention, it was a clean sweep for Pakistan yesterday as well in the finals of the world T20. In the earlier game between the 2 teams, it was all because of the start given to Sri Lanka by their openers that they ended victorious. Sri Lanka had scored 80 runs in the first 8 overs, with the final score reading 150.

Sri Lanka were never in the game from the beginning. At one stage of the match, it was as though Sri Lanka would not even be able to put on 100 runs on the board after the scoreboard read 26/3 at the end of the fourth over. The highest run getter of the tournament Tilakeratne Dilshan was out for a duck and so was Jehan Mubarak. On the other hand, Pakistanlost their first wicket at a score of 48 (a score when Sri Lanka had lost 3 wickets as said earlier). Nonetheless, Pakistan never ever showed any signs of pressure at any moment in the match. All the four batsmen who made it to the crease did what best they could do.

Despite losing the tournament, Sri Lankan captain should feel a little bit satisfied that his team never lost out on his face. They put up a decent total of 138 and lost only 6 wickets after at one stage being at 70/6 at the end of the 13th over. Meaning 68 runs in the last 7 overs at a run rate of just less than 10 an over. Perhaps! Some initial contribution from either Dilshan, Mubarak and Jayasuriya would have made the finals more challenging. And one more thing that Sangakkara should be proud about is that he has taken his team unbeaten to the finals of the world cup just few months after taking over from Jayawardane as the Sri Lankan captain. Finally, Dilshan was handed the man of the series award should add another feather to Sri Lanka's cap.

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.

Sri Lanka Make It To The Semis

Well two wins out of the three matches in the super eight stage of the ongoing T20 world cup in England would see that particular team through to the semi finals of the same. And now since Sri Lanka have won their first super eight match against Pakistan, they have not only come closer to blocking the semi final berth but also have made it almost theirs, for a win against minnows Ireland is taken for granted unless the ghost doesn't haunt them. For that matter, Sri Lanka have a better chance of making it three in all, with the odds favoring Sri Lanka against New Zealand as well.

It was all because of the opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Tilakeratne Dilshan who put on 80 runs on the board at the end of the 8^th over, thus making full use of the powerplays and the lack of cricketing experience of the Pakistan team who have not been found playing serious cricket since the past one year or so. If not for these two, the mission would not have been accomplished no matter what the Sri Lankan bowlers had to say. For, the remaining 12 overs could fetch just a mere 70 runs at a run rate of just less than 6.0 an over.

The scores that followed after the dismissal of Mahela Jayawardane read 8, 5, 9*, 0 & 2, with just a boundary inbetween that came after 7 overs. The lone six of the game came from the bat of Sanath Jayasuriya (which is as obvious) and after the fall of Mahela Jayawardane, only two boundaries were seen in the Sri Lankan innings. On the other hand, the Pakistani batsmen showed a better class if not for their initial loss of Salman Butt who was out for a duck. The trio viz Younus Khan, Shoaib Malik and Misbah threatened to take the game away from the Sri Lankans. I am indeed sorry to say that the Pakistani team was inexperienced to take on any other major team of the tournament.

This victory of Sri Lanka against Pakistan was the first one (for Sri Lanka against Pakistan) in any ICC Cricket tournament till date. They had lost to Pakistan in the 2007 edition of the T20 world cup held at South Africa after Sanath Jayasuriya went in for 64 runs from his four overs. And prior to that was Sri Lanka's loss to Pakistan ion the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and before that it was in 1992 where Sri Lanka once again had lost to Pakistan. Since the 1992 world cup held at Australia/New Zealand, Sri Lanka have never faced Pakistan till date.

A knock out before the semis is expected in the match between Pakistan and New Zealand not to forget the run rate which would decide who would go in to the semis.

Is This Also A Target???

Well the other day, the Mumbai Indians lost to the Deccan Chargers by giving a part time bowler in Rohith Sharma 4 wickets out of the eight wickets that fell and that too in just 2 overs that he bowled. I just imagine what would have happened had Rohith Sharma was asked to bowl a quota of 4 overs. Perhaps! All the recognized bowlers would have cursed themselves for not having got such a weak batting line up and secondly for not being able to do what a part time bowler was found doing. I still don't know what all surprises regarding the Mumbai Indians is reserved!!!

If one goes by the tournament, there have been different contests for the teams like the purple cap for the highest wicket taker in the series, the orange cap for the highest run getter, fair play award and lot many in addition to the age old man of the match and the series. Now, it would not be wrong to introduce one more award named funny play award for taking unusual decisions and ending up on the wrong side of the match. If this is introduced, I bet, the Kolkata Knight Riders would bag this for sure. For, despite having lot of wickets in hand, they often end up losing. Most of the batsmen in the KKR side end up being unused.

The second on the list would be the Mumbai Indians, who the other day couldn't chase a modest total of 119 against the Kings XI Punjab. Had the pitch been tailor made for the bowlers, that should have been understood by the lower order as wickets started falling. In the next instance, against the Deccan Chargers, regarding which nothing more needs to be said. Then in the match against the RCB, it was a one sided affair meaning the Mumbai Indians had no intention in making it to the next round. Now, after the loss against the Delhi Daredevils, the Mumbai Indians' consecutive loss is now at 4.

There was no Sanath Jayasuriya and neither was Sachin Tendulkar found opening the innings. As a result, both the openers were out for a duck. I wonder this is why the BCCI selectors never went in for Sachin Tendulkar as captain for team India for more than a decade. Sachin last captained regularly for India in 1997 for the Sahara cup in Canada. Sachin's captaincy is exactly opposite to his batting one can say. Usually, people drop rest their key players only when the team is in a comfortable position in the series. But, how come Sachin dropped Sanath Jayasuriya when the team had lost their earlier 3 matches? Now, I wish Sachin is one such captain who must be dropped and the reins of the MI be handed over to Jayasuriya.

God Has To Save The Mumbai Indians

The ongoing second edition of the Indian Premier League has witnessed some of the most amazing facts in the cricketing world. One aspect being that the well known names like Adam Gilchrist, Sanath Jayasuriya etc have got only initial knocks that were limited to just one or a couple of games. While on the other side, batsmen like Abhishek Nayar, Yousuf Pathan and Suresh Raina have displayed rather decent knocks almost in every match that they have played. And no recognized bowler has been able to take a hattrick so far in this tournament. But, lesser known part time bowlers like Rohith Sharma and Yuvraj Singh have done it despite it not being their cup of tea.

And one can imagine the caliber of the team that provided full support for a part time bowler like Rohith Sharma not only take a hattrick but also capture 4 wickets giving away just 6 runs in the two overs he bowled in the match. Even Rohith Sharma would be thinking how stupid was the team against which he had played? There was a rare distinction that the Mumbai Indians had. That was the fact that they are the only team that are gifted with openers in Sanath Jayasuriya & Sachin Tendulkar, who have been doing the job for one and a half decades for their respective teams.

No other team in the IPL has this benefit. The top scorer of the match was J P Duminy but to no avail. He was also the lone half century scorer in the match. The Mumbai Indians side lost 8 wickets at the end of the day. Out of those 8 wickets, 4 were bagged by Rohith Sharma meaning half the wickets were named against Rohith Sharma. From this I recall the group stage match between India and Namibia in the 2003 world cup where Yuvraj Singh ended up with the same figures of 4/6. From this , atleast on that particular day, the Mumbai Indians were like a Namibia team that went through the world cup without even a single win.

If there can be a Yuvraj Singh and Rohith Sharma who can come out successful with the ball and someone like Robin Uttappa who is found to keep wickets for his team despite that not being their cup of tea, it would not be wrong for one to expect someone like Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, R P Singh and other lower order players to come and score a hundred. For that matter, similar for a team not to have had any recognized bowlers to take a hattrick, no well known batsmen if not for A B Devilliars has scored a hundred in this tournament. So, just imagine a team losing 7 to 8 wickets within the first 6 overs and the tail enders scoring a century.Awesome isn't it?

KKR Never Turned Out To Be Another KIXI

If all of us are aware of, the match between the Mumbai Indians and the Kings XI Punjab, the Mumbai Indians came close to winning the match, first by bowling out the Kings XI Punjab for a low score of 119 and then lost out in close contest by losing all their ten wickets for a score that was four less than the actual target. I guess that this was the most disappointing of all matches in the IPL for such hard work never goes unpaid. That match showed the degree of bad luck the Mumbai Indians had on that particular day. However, this was not the case in their encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

This was the second encounter of the Mumbai Indians with the Kolkata Knight Riders in this series, and much to their excitement, the Mumbai Indians have won both the matches, the first one by thrashing them and the second time in a close encounter by 9 runs. One can observe the bad timing of the schedule which saw the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders face each other twice in a span of a week. When most other teams had not even completed their first round of games, these two teams out there were ready playing their second round.

Over to the match, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders who were more responsible for the loss rather than the Mumbai Indians who were rejoicing their win. For, the Kolkata Knight Riders were well within the limit by bowling 17 tight overs and the last three overs went out of control, which fetched the Kolkata Knight Riders 42 valuable runs and the KKR 42 steps to cover for a victory. Likewise, the batsmen of the Kolkata Knight Riders never took any sorts of risks, which could be well judged from the fact that they neither lost wickets nor did their batsmen go in for runs which is a bad sign. I wonder as to what is the use of such batsmen who never want to slog the bat despite the situation demanding it?

This has been observed many a times in this tournament. It looks like most of the batsmen out there were in the 50-50 mood. The Kolkata Knight Riders lost just 6 wickets with a score of 138. When the strike in a T20 game demands not less than 133 i.e 7 runs for every 6 balls faced, one can observe that most of the KKR batsmen had their strike rates less than hundred and despite that they scored single digit scores. A littkle bit of T20 thinking from the batsmen meaning a few lofts would have seen the Brad Hodge's effort yield his team some results for the KKRs. This is somewhat selfish I believe.

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.