It was a clash of the two Royals of the tournament. It was a match from which one team was looking to continue momentum while the other was looking to record their first win. Royal Challengers Bangalore completely overpowered Rajasthan Royals by a margin of ten wickets. Not the game the fans in the stadium or watching on TV would have liked but the boys of Bangalore would be really happy with this win.
Prior to the game there was a lot of talk about the Bangalore bowlers being out of form in the two games but they have certainly put those questions to rest. The opening bowlers did well to restrict the Royals during the power play by maintaining a tight line and length. Rajasthan came in with a new opening pair after they lost Graeme Smith to injury and dropped Swapnil Asnodkar. Naman Ojha is a potentially aggressive batsman and the RCB bowlers did very well to keep him quite. They also kept the new comer Michael Lumb quite and made him struggle to the point that he lost his wicket when he charged to Anil Kumble. This just goes on to show how crucial the power play overs are. In modern day cricket, you will see that 9 times out of 10, the team that gets more wickets in the power play goes on to win the game. Bangalore not only got a wicket but also built up the pressure and did not concede runs. This strangled the Royals batting order all the more and it was evident when a batsman like Yusuf Pathan got off to a very slow start. I still felt that with Pathan at the crease, the Royals could still put up a fighting total but once he was gone the Royals collapsed like a pack of cards. Praveen Kumar got the seventh hat trick of the IPL. He is a smart customer and if u have a look at the three balls on which he got those wickets, you will agree with me that they were beautifully mixed up. The first one was a Yorker which was bowled just after he was hit for a boundary, the second was a short one to surprise the new batsman, and the third one was the best one I think. It was an off cutter which was a little back of a length and knocked the middle stump over. The Rajasthan bowlers had nothing to defend actually, but I think they could have bowled a lot better. The opening bowlers gave away too many runs in the first two overs and were straying on the legs too often for the liking. However, during the first over there was one delivery that really caught the batsman by surprise. It was pitched on good length around the middle stump and Pandey had no clue as it went past him. That is the line the Rajasthan bowlers should have bowled. It may not have won them the game but getting a wicket or two is certainly better that losing by 10 wickets. This makes it 3 loses in 3 games for Rajasthan and we will have to wait and watch whether they can repeat their magic of the first season. I still think they have a very good chance in this season as they have the players and a few more are to arrive during the course of the tournament. They made 5 changes (almost half the team) in their line up and I think that was too much as this tournament is all about momentum. They may not have won the previous two games but you never know with this format which player may come to form. Bangalore will be happy as their bowling was the major worry and they came back in style. Not much batting for their middle order but they will be happy with the superb form shown by their openers. Kallis was the man of the match for the second time in a row and he certainly is proving that he can play this game as well as anybody.
Off the field, we have good news and some bad news. The good news is that the Gujarat Cricket Association is taking measures to solve the moth problem at Ahmedabad. In one of my earlier posts I had highlighted the need to solve this problem and it is good to see steps being taken in the positive direction. Rajasthan play Kolkata there on Saturday at 4 PM. It is a day game and the moths shouldn’t be a huge problem but it is good step taken by the association keeping in mind the matches too come. Now we come to the bad news, The Delhi coach has said that Gambhir’s injury is reasonably serious and he is set to miss the Chennai game. There is not much left to say about his game as he has proven his ability in the last two years and it is a setback to the Delhi team. They will play Chennai who are playing without MS Dhoni, so it will be the new captains who will face each other tomorrow at the Feroz Shah Kotla at 4 PM. Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik haven’t captained a side at the big stage and will have a lot to prove in tomorrow’s encounter. Karthik will take confidence from his campaign with Tamil Nadu during the Domestic Season in which he led them to the title in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Cuttack will host its first IPL game when Deccan will take on Punjab at 8 PM. Deccan haven’t won a single game at home, be it Hyderabad or Navi Mumbai and will look to make amends. Punjab will look to open their account tomorrow. Their bowling clicked during the first game and the batting during the second, but they will be hoping that both the departments perform tomorrow to get them their first win.
That’s all for today, See you tomorrow.
PS: - Waiting for comments from you guys. Please post a few.
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