Well, it is time for some Bengali magic in the IPL. The Kolkata Knight Riders seem to have put the demons of their last season behind and have started the new season with a bang. If the surprise win over Deccan was not enough, today they completely overpowered the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Mecca of Indian Cricket.
The Bangalore batting was disappointing. Some of them got starts but apart from Jacques Kallis, none of them converted them to a good score. The surprise for me was that they opted for Sreevats Goswami instead of Mark Boucher. Boucher adds years of experience to the Bangalore line-up and is still without doubt one of the best wicket keeper batsman in the world. Goswami tried to push the rate and make use of the power play but did not succeed and holed out to third man. Manish Pandey’s hundred from IPL-2 and his domestic performances this season looked a distant dream today. I could not understand why he was backing away from the stumps and trying to manufacture strokes when he has some good cricket shots in his repertoire. Even the ball he got out, his body was far away from the bat and he literally threw his bat at the ball. He is a good young player and will learn from these mistakes. I still think he can be a trump card for Bangalore’s success this season. The Kolkata bowling was bang on, fantastic. The start given by Langeveldt and Ishant really set the tone for Mathews and Kartik. Mathews in particular was good. Picking up four wickets in a T20 game certainly shows he got his line and length right today. The Kolkata batting too was fantastic. They did a good thing by letting Brad Hodge take first strike. This would have given the opportunity to Manoj Tiwary to watch the ball from the other end and plan out his style. I had stressed in my previous post that Tiwary is a good player for this level and today he certainly showed everyone that he can play well at this level. What must be noted is that he scored a fifty against a good bowling attack which includes the likes of Kallis, Kumble, Praveen Kumar, van der Merve. Brad Hodge on the other hand was calm and played a sensible knock while Tiwary went after the bowling. Thus, it is 2 in 2 for Kolkata, a good start to the season and promises more as Gayle and Bond will join this side in the coming days. Bangalore on the other hand may have to rethink their batting order. Uthappa should come higher that No.7. We saw him playing a few good knocks during the Champions League opening the innings. Morgan is good at No.5 and looked good in the short time he was there in the middle. Kohli and Dravid can exchange spots, thus Dravid at No.4 will be a good idea. Many people underestimate Dravid’s hitting skills but he has shown in the two previous editions that he can go after the bowling like anybody. He was unlucky to get out in the way he did and had played some good shots before that.
The second game of the day was between the Chennai Super Kings and the Deccan Chargers. The hype surrounding the game was regarding the Matthew Hayden’s long handle mongoose bat. However, when he spoke to a few commentators he suggested that he wasn’t sure whether he would actually use it during the game. When he walked out to open the batting, all the hype was put to rest as he came with a normal bat. Deccan chargers would be happy with their performance. All the batsmen looked in form and their bowlers also hit the right areas especially during the power play. The Chargers would be happy with the fact that Symonds and Gibbs have regained touch. Symonds was slow to start with but finished his innings with a flurry of boundaries. That partnership really got them back on track after loosing both the openers off successive balls. Suman and Sharma made good contributions in the end. Dhoni would be thinking about his bowling. Tyagi looked completely out of touch, and went on to bowl two beamers for which he had to be taken off. Morkel and Balaji also went for runs. It may be a good idea to get back MS Gony in this attack. He failed to do well during the second season in South Africa but was very useful on Indian tracks the first time around. Chargers got their bowling right as well. Vaas was fantastic again and Ojha too picked up wickets to derail the Chennai chase. Vaas may just try to prove the Lankan selectors wrong with his performance in this tournament. The way things have gone for him during the last two games, the tale may have only just begun. Chennai tried to do too many things during the power play. Such ideas work or don’t work, it depends whether it is your day. I think, Dhoni must not worry about his batting but should mainly ponder on his bowling. Meanwhile, we are still waiting to see the mongoose. Will we see it when Chennai take on Kolkata at Eden Gardens on Tuesday??
It was good to see a bowler get the man of the match award in Chennai and I also think that Mathews deserved the man of the match award for his 4 for. The award should have been shared between him and Tiwary. Is it that we still give too much importance to the batsmen???
We have just one encounter on the ides of March. Delhi will take on Rajasthan. Rajasthan will look to Yusuf Pathan again for magic; meanwhile Delhi will want their batsmen to fire along with their captain who was absolutely brilliant at Mohali. All this and more right on your way at 8 PM live from Ahmedabad. It is a new home ground for the royals and it remains to be seen if it brings them any luck. Till then. Adios.
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