IPL 2 – Day Nine – Three Royals and one devil
Doesn’t the title look like “Three Weddings and a Funeral”?
It takes more time for me to think of a title than even writing few paras of the post. The title has to be good, arresting, attractive, imaginative, enjoyable, inviting and the like. The post can be full of bull. In any case who reads more than the title. Hence the time spent on the title is worth the while.
(As I write this post bit late than normal for my daily dispatch – the match between KKR and Mumbai Indians is on the tele. I stop writing to watch, Ganguly igniting Sanath Jayasurya’s bat to launch to mighty sixes – the second one going full 90 meters. Ajanta Mendis, the super bowler who could not bowl the super over well again Rajasthan Royals, commences the next over. Before I complete the previous sentence Mendis moved to his fifth delivery of his first over in which Tendulkar briefly becomes Yousuf Pathan to send one out of the ground – Mumbai Indians are already 86 at the expense of all KKR bowlers in just 8 overs).
Ok! Shall I proceed with writing what they don’t read in the elementary school?
The first match of day nine was between Bangalore Royal Challengers (BRC) and Delhi Dare Devils (DD). Even before a ball was bowled I was sure that there BRC would be no match for DD. My conviction improved once I saw the team line-up for BRC – it included the “impossible to win with them” combination of Uthappa and Pietersen with Pietersen still at the helm of affairs. This convinced me that I will win any bet on BRC losing the match hands down, up, sideways and underground.
BRC won the toss and elected to bat first. And immediately started living upto my and DD’s expectations losing the wicket of Kallis for zero. Uthappa belied expectations staying there for full eight balls at the crease besides scoring three very valuable runs (considering that he is paid Rs.3 crore plus for playing in IPL). Robin should thank Rahul Dravid’s wife for playing in this match. Had not Dravid’s wife got labor pains Uthappa would have cooled his heels eight balls earlier at the BRC dugout.
With no wall to repair, it was left to KP to score some runs in this match atleast. And he did. Improving his best score in IPL from 32 to 37. This Rs.7.5 crore priced catch for BRC has scored all of 80 runs in five matches till Day Nine.
Better value for money contributions from Virat Kohli, Mark Boucher and Ross Taylor helped BRC to laboriously post a score 149 in twenty overs.
For a strong batting line up like DD – full of aggressors, 149 is a small score. However, what they didn’t do when batting, BRC made up while fielding, that is, dropping catches and mis-fielding. Even here Robin Uthappa had no competition.
The only point of complaint that BRC could have was the run out decision they didn’t get in their favor against Dilshan. Probably the third umpire played Devil’s advocate in this decision besides being the judge.
Dilshan was on 34 when the decision favored him, and went on to score an unbeaten 67 and win the match for DD and Man of the Match award for himself.
Thus the match between the Royal and Devil ended in favor of the Devil.
The second match of the day was a battle Royal by all means. Kings XI Punjab Vs. Rajasthan Royals. I expected this to be a close contest as Kings XI was brimming with confidence after their resounding victory over Royal Challengers in their first full match of the tournament and Rajasthan Royals were coming equally confident after super successfully riding the Kolkatta Knights.
Though in the end the match was won by Kings XI it was not before some great fight on the part of Rajasthan Royals, this time Warne carrying his fight with his batting.
Kings XI won the toss and batted first but the start was not that great with Bopara failing and Goel still not clicking. When Captain Yuvraj and Jayawardene followed suit and Kings XI was reduced to 38/4 I had forgotten that there was Sangakkara still batting there and thought Rajasthan Royals will fold the Kings XI quickly.
But Yousuf Pathan had other ideas even as Sangakkara was determined to stand tall. You thought I wrong Yousuf instead of Irfan? No, I meant Yousuf Pathan. I think Yousuf wanted to provide some encouragement to his younger brother in this match. He bowled few dollies to Irfan enabling him to hit a six and also fumbled with a possible catch at the midwicket fence besides few misfields ending up giving boundaries to Kings XI. Still, one cannot take away all the credit from Irfan as he capitalised on the chances to score a nicely compiled 39 with two sixes and two fours and supported Sangakkara who was at this best notching up a fifty – his first in this episode.
Thus, despite the early wobbles, Kings XI ended up with a score of 149 which I thought was clearly 20 runs more than what RR would have wanted to chase.
Batting second, once again Smith failed as also Asnodkar who somehow has not shown the tremendous ability he displayed in the previous season. Yousuf Pathan continued his poor match getting out cheaply. It was left to Ravinder Jadeja and Captain Warne to put up some kind of a fight. Until they both were together, I thought Rajasthan Royals might pull off a victory with my mind reminding Shane Warne’s wonderful batting in one such match last year to pull off victory from the jaws of defeat.
However, the asking rate had climbed much higher. Further Jadeja departed right at the crunch time (first ball of 19th over) and so Super Captain Shane Warne had to digest the defeat.
Even in defeat Rajasthan Royals came off with their head held high due to the fighting spirit shown by them. Who knows, in the coming matches they can notch up victories and find a semi-final place.
Readers also liked
Leave your response!