IPL 2 – Day Seven – No Royal challenging Kings
Talent was always there with the Kings XI. Luck was not. I always felt luck will not remain alien to Kings XI Punjab for long.
Simply Dimply
One just has to take close look at Preity Zinta’s cheeks to appreciate what I mean. Haven’t we long believed that dimples are lucky? If someone has dimples as pronounced as Zinta they will be wealthy and lucky to own a team in which Yuvraj plays. That is, when the heavens do not come down to have a glimpse of Preity Zinta.
The match between the Bangalore Royal Challengers and Kings XI Punjab went the full length as heaven’s seemed to have had enough of Preity Zinta and wanted to see Cricket instead.
Being a weekend holiday here I could watch the full game without any interruption, save for the strategic advertisement breaks spanning ten minutes every innings sponsored for sponsors by Lalit Modi. (Probably when the IPL security was discussed and Modi was no more bearable, Mr. Chidambaram told Lalit Modi “give me a break yaar” and Lalit Modi took them as instructions from the Home Minister).
At the toss, funnily, both Kevin Pietersen and Yuvraj Singh could not remember what changes they had made in their team. Yuvraj listed out one change and said “I do not remember”. I had a feeling he wanted to lose the toss to bat second. Because, after tossing he didn’t even wait to see whether he won or not. He just walked away and had to be called back for the post toss interview!
BRC batted first having won the toss and for once Jesse Ryder came half good to score a blistering 32 with six super fours and earned me some points at the Cricket Fantasy Game (I continued repose faith on him, Super Captain Warne style!). I forgot to mention that Robin Uthappa was in terrific form notching up a faster zero.
Uthappa was also in prime form when he kept wickets leaving byes left, right and between legs. But opportunities were not that many for leaving byes between legs as the off-stump and the batsman came in between! At this rate, Pietersen may want to do a Dada and ask Dravid to keep wickets and open batting. At least that can help him play someone else who might score more than not/ naught. That change will also make the opponent team play with just 11 players instead of 11+Uthappa from BRC.
While Jacques Kallis who had come in at the fall of Uthappa lived up to his reputation scoring runs at will without slogging (62 in 46 balls), departure of Jesse Ryder gave a chance to Kings XI to send a clear message to Vijay Mallya that Kevin Pietersen should not endorse but actually “Fly Kingfisher” back to England. He has been staking his claims for a seat for the past three matches. Does Vijay Mallya need any recommendation or KP is looking for a free seat?
Of the rest only Ross Taylor made a notable contribution. The Wall probably thought he had already made his points three times in a row and wanted to “give himself a break”, scoring ten more than Robin Uthappa.
If we move to break to break-thrus two left-arm medium pacers for Kings XI came real good in this match. Before the match commenced Arun Lal was opining that Kings XI didn’t have a great bowling line up. He was proved wrong by Irfan Pathan (is this going to turning out to be a Pathan League?) and the hitherto unheard of South African Yousuf Abdulla. So, the King XI were left to chase a total of 168.
When Kings XI went out to chase the total they seemed very determined not to lose early wickets and then accelerate. Even the hard hitting Ravi Bopara was restrained in his approach as also Goel who curbed his aggression to a great extent but still ended up scoring a run a ball 19. The first six overs went without any loss of wicket and still without any obvious slogging Kings XI still scored at more than run a ball.
Sangakkara had a brief but fruitful stay scoring 26 in 18 balls but the day belonged to Ravi Bopara. Oh man! What a terrific striker this man is. He gave no respect to any BRC bowlers save for Anil Kumble. Fours and sixes just flowed from his bat as if he had tuned it like a radio to the boundary line!
Even the powerful Yuvraj, who was on his favorite ground where he scored those six consecutive sixes in the T20 world cup against England (a 12 ball fifty with seven sixes) , was overshadowed by the lusty hitting of Bopara.
If T20 is all about quick scoring, someone who scores half the target all by himself taking less than 50% of the total legal deliveries available, has to end up on the winning side.
Ravi Bopara did and ended being the Man of the Match, while Yuvraj went away with the distinction of scoring the winning runs with a mighty six which was also the 100th six of the tournament and pocketed two points while the Challengers had nothing Royal about them at the end of it all.
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I believe that Royal Challenges have not thought about keeping the momentum. Understandably that is because they lost wickets at regular intervals.
One more time in his cricket career Rahul arrived at the crease for a rearguard action.
A lot is expected from Pietersen and he always says there is nothing to add on his part! 7 1/2 Crores???
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