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Showing posts with label Mishra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mishra. Show all posts

Uncertain Winners and a Certain Loser

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 1 comments

As the saying goes the only thing that is certain is uncertainty, which has been the nature of this tournament. As the tournament is moving forwards surprises like Royals defeating Kings by a huge margin, Challengers beating Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets are following us. With winter setting in it has affected the fielding (even though there is no correlation)and more matches played in the northern part of the county bigger targets are being chased with ease, though credit has to be given to the batsman. One of the reasons being the top order of each team that is firing; be it Smith n Ojha for Royals or Kallis n Uthappa for Challengers, Gauti and Warner for Delhi. There is nothing like picking top order wickets to stop the flow of runs, but the opposing teams haven’t done that consistently.
[image source: Cricinfo]

No team is clear favorite’ even though CSK have looked THE team, but they rely heavily on top order i.e. Hayden and Raina, much like the last years Delhi and we all know what happened to them. And all their victories have come batting first. Delhi has a good balance good top order solid middle order and a decent bowling attack; they need Sehwag to click if they want to look formidable. Royals are peaking at the right time, Smith played his best innings so far and Warne is getting best out of his brigand, arrival of inform Watson would be a huge bonus.

Kings again depend heavily Yuvraj to fire, bowling is a mixed bag, Piyush n Abdulla are their stars, Sreesanth inclusion could be dicey. Challengers look a different team after KP’s departure their opening is the surprise each time. Kumble had found two unsung heroes in Dillon n Merwe. Mumbai boasts to have the best bowling attack along with most brutal opening pair; neither of them is winning them matches as expected. They are heavily dependent on Sachin to anchor the innings as it falls apart towards the end. With Sun beating down Chargers need to recharge their solar batteries before it drains out. With openers failing the middle order looks too bleak, without Edwards bowling looks weak.

Only thing that is certain is that SRK isn’t going to come back as Kolkata Kite Riders have found ways lose games. Lack of good match winners in the first place, (sorry if Gayle n McCullum were match winners then WI n NZ wouldn’t be where there are today) compounded with bad breath among the team, they haven’t found winning ways. It looks as if they have a point to prove, that good coach do need good players to perform. The only positives being the humorous FakeIPLPlayer’s blogs; which has bought much interest among the print media. Blame it on Buchanan’s multiple captain theory which was rather a Ganguly sacking strategy or Gayle n McCullum compound debacle or Ishant n co’s inability to take wickets upfront or even on the drop catches KKR don’t look like a team.

As they say there is no I in a team, but there too many I’s in KKR.

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(Dare)ing Dilshan take DareDevils home

Sunday, April 26, 2009 0 comments

Last time Delhi’s biggest problem was the inability of the middle order to step up when the top order failed, but this time things have changed for good. Dilshan has been a revelation this season; he is one of the better finisher in the modern era due to his ability to hit the boundaries at will. He has shown that he has in him the temperament to pace the innings. Coming in at the 2nd over he used his experience to nudge around initially building partnerships with AB, and finally some good hitting along with M&M (Mithun Manhas) he made sure DareDevils achieve the desired target without any hiccups.

I might sound like a broken record but RCB’s biggest problem is their opening pair, it doesn’t last more than an over. We now have 5 ducks in 5 games from a combination of openers, Ryder twice, Kumar, Kallis n Uthappa ones. Basically RCB’s no 3 is trying building an innings, while their counterparts are trying to keep up the good work done by their openers. And the biggest problem is that neither Pietersen nor Jennings have a solution to that. Like the famous bollywood movie doctor’s dialogue “Inhe Dawa Ki Dua Ki Jaaroorat Hai” is quite apt for the Challengers.

Today for a change our Dum Slog Millionaire did score some runs along with Taylor. RCBs were 73 at the half way stage, it was a good score considering the bad start they had. Blame it on the tactical break or good bowling, Mishra got Taylor. It came at a bad time for RCBs as they had just lost KP before the break. How many times has this happened that a team doing well till the 10th over suddenly loses a wicket right after the break? These strategy breaks are becoming the talk of the town. The batting teams quickly need to come up with a strategy to counter these strategy breaks. Good hits from Boucher n Kohli took Challengers to a respectable 149. Once again IPL 2.0 has shown that spinners do have a role here and a big one, Mishra’s 1/19 from 4 was instrumental in keeping the pressure.

Chasing at 7.5 an over for DareDevil’s even against depleted RCB wasn't all that easy, especially after losing Sehwag early. Double strike from Pankaj and good tidy bowling by Kumble restricts DD to 64 in 10 overs. As did other slow left armers KP Appana did flight the ball that dipped, turned and knocked AB’s leg stump. “Mandir ka ghanta” Kallis did prove costly again this time; he has been the new Agarkar -- the run daata. 51 runs in 30 balls seems daunting but as Bopara did it other day Dilshan did make it look ridiculously easy. Bowling towards the end has also been Challengers problems, yorkers n slower ones were missing and the length deliveries were deposited on the stands. Clean hitting by Dilshan and M&M (Mithun Manhas) saw Daredevils home with 4 balls to spare.

With Dravid out for couple of games and KP leaving RCBs need some Divine touch if they plan to stay in the hunt.

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