Pre Match Thoughts
Any non-Mumbaikar will love it when a Mumbai side loses. The reason is simple. Mumbai has consistently produced successful cricketers, cricketers who are tough characters and fight till the end. Not for nothing do they have an almost impossible record in the Ranji Trophy games.
Cut to IPL and Mumbai Indians. To the best of breed just add the likes of Jayasuriya, the in-form Duminy, the consistently-at-the-block-hole Malinga backed by Jonty Rhodes coaching their fielding, and you have a team every non-Mumbaikar would love to defeat.
Cut to Bangalore Royal Challengers, the Test side that has had a testing time after the first win over the Royals. Pieter-expensive-sen gone for next to no runs and Kumble at the helm after some concern that Kallis could be leading the side. A failing Robin and Jesse Ryder, injured Steyn and nothing noteworthy until the last two games againt KKR and Kings XI Punjab. Two wins on the trot, but would BRC match the dominant Mumbai Indians? Unlikely, said the head and if BRC came up with a reasonable performance the defeat will not taste as bad! 2nd time daddy Dravid is back.
News though is terrible. Kallis is playing, Jesse not there, performing Sreevats dropped and out-of-form Robin Uthappa back in the XI. New name of du Preez. On Set Max, Saba Karim says he has never heard of this name before.
Comments/thoughts as the game goes on.
The anchor and Akash Chopra and Saba Karim are for Mumbai to win this game.
Hedgehog Chang, the clueless Set Max cartoon anchor on the field asks Ravi Shastri about the IPL “tactical meeting”, and gets corrected that it was ‘technical’ meeting!! In good old days, when students erred a cane used to emerge from the teacher’s hand to whip the backside, the intent being that such methods will help. Shastri went on to state that at any point of time time, there cannot be more than four foreign players on the field, a situation probably discussed after Delhi Daredevils had five foreign players on the field when Chennai Superkings were batting.
And yes - de Villiers, Kallis, Boucher, Duminy, van Wyk, Merwe, Gibbs are now foreigners when they play at Johannesburg or Cape Town or Durban or wherever in this IPL 2009!
Good over from Praveen Kumar, a maiden to start with, and then Kallis followed it up with an over that went for 12 runs! Wonder why BRC persist with Kallis, more so to even open the bowling.
Over 3 and roving commentator Danny Morrison tells us that the crowds are fantastic, and all we see when the bowler runs in or the batsman finishes a stroke are empty seats!!!
Two classy Tendulkar boundaries in over 3 with a possibility of a run out of the last ball to a sharp single. Mumbai Indians 21 for no loss of 3 overs. Fine opening over from Praveen negated.
Fourth over from debutant du Preez, and after two dot balls he gets Tendulkar to drive and Rahul Dravid takes a smart tumbling catch at slip – fantastic start for Preez and Royal Challengers! 21-1 off 3.3 overs!
No Harbhajan Singh, but Ajinkya Rahane who probably got into the side after Sunil Gavaskar wrote about him in his column. Gone, first ball!!! Robin Uthappa makes no mistake to a low edge!!! 21-2 off 3.4 overs, du Preez on a hat-trick! Duminy in! Hat trick ball, and Duminy lets one go, which comes back to hit his back leg! Four overs gone, 21 for 2. Bangalore making a good start here!
Kallis in for the fourth over and Bangalore will need to bottle up the runs now and stay in the game. Mallya looks happy on TV as Kallis bowls three dot balls in a row. Big miss, as Jayasuriya swings wide off mid-off but Merwe lost sight of the ball. Missed opportunity. One run. Bouncer to Duminy, and an exchange of words between two South Africans!!! Duminy smiles, Boucher encourages from behind. 23 for 2 off five overs, not the start Mumbai would have wanted!
Sixth over from du Preez. Big wicket off Duminy off the second ball!! What a start for du Preez!!! 23- 3 and Bangalore on top!!! Wonder if Duminy was sledged out by Kallis and Boucher!! It is a total South Africa show here!
Over 7. Big over for Jayasuriya with a four and six; another four off Kallis in the following over. Pressure release for Mumbai Indians, as they end at 47-3 off the
9th over.
Key moment, with Vinay Kumar coming on. Spin still to come. Dot ball and then makes the mistake of banging in short and Jayasuriya gets a 4! Inexperience of Vinay Kumar! 29 runs off 24 balls, the partnership growing now. Some crucial boundaries gone off bad deliveries. Bangalore may need to target Bravo with his hook in the mid wicket region now. 53 for 3 with one ball to go for the tactical break. Anil Kumble can bowl 4 of the last 10 overs now.
Break after 10 overs. Even if Bangalore give away just 8 runs an over in the last 10 overs, Bangalore Royal Challengers will have a target of 133 to win this game. First ten overs is simply the du Preez show!
Lovely rains in Bangalore as Anil Kumble resumes the game now after the tactical break! Two runs each of the first two balls. Bring on the magic Anil!
12 overs and 67-3. Boundaries restricted so far.
77 for 3 in 13 overs after a poor over from Anil Kumble. Two boundaries to Jayasuriya. Bring it on Anil, tighten it up!!!!
Praveen back into the attack and Kumble is looking for a wicket now. Wickets now critical for Bangalore to keep the pressure. Good bowling by Praveen, not giving Jayasuriya any width. 83-3 after 14 overs.
Time for Merve?
Yes, Merve into the attack and Jayasuriya gone off the first ball!!! Good catch in the deep mid wicket region by Vinay Kumar!! Big wicket for Bangalore!!! End of over and just 86 for 4, just 3 runs off the over. Go Bangalore!!!!
Good start by Vinay into the 16th over, one run off two balls and Ravi Shastri speaks of the magazine on IPL T20!!! He is speaking of 130 or 140 now! Abhishek Nayar gets a 4. Direct hit and an appeal, but looks like Nayar is in!!! He is in.
Four overs to go and Shastri talks of Nayar taking Flintoff apart. The last delivery of over 16 gets a single. 94-4 off 16 overs.
Merwe with two good deliveries into the 17th over. He can bowl good yorkers comments and just singles off the first three balls. Danny Morrison interrupts the action with his musical views!! No boundaries, and at the end of 17 overs, 101-4.
3 overs to go.
Shastri feels the wicket is slow! Wessels non-committal. Ravi Shastri erupts as Bravo gets a boundary! 106-4. 14 runs off the over, expensive one from Vinay Kumar!!! Two overs to go, 115-4.
Kallis goes for a knee problem!!!! Will it affect his batting? Good 19th over so far from Merwe, just two’s and a single. Fourth ball - good fielding by Dravid, but Merwe not behind the stumps to effect a run out. Bad for Bangalore, full toss gone for 6!! One more six, 133-4 one over to go. Tighten it up Bangalore!!!
150 to win, and though disappointing , a score BRC would have taken at the start of the game. Good show with the ball on a batting wicket.
Does not look like Jaffer is opening the game! Yes, it is, my eyes failed me!!! Kallis on strike with a target of 150 to win this game, Zaheer on, and Sunil Gavaskar commentating with Danny Morrison.
Kallis misses a flick of 2nd ball and wide opens the score! Tendulkar and Bhajji talking animatedly. Four Bacardi’s down for me!!! Boundary off a thick edge, lucky but Kallis gets going! Super shot into the cover region from Kallis and 9 without loss of the first over. My Bacardi is just half full. Samsung ad and my friend PDSC is partially seen!
Wide from Bravo, 10 for 1 of 1 over!!! Tendulkar animatedly clapping hands and Jaffer clobbers Bravo for a 4 in the cover region. Chinese cut, after a single to Jaffer, for Kallis, and now it is 17 without loss, empty stands show up on TV!!! “Go fetch it” says Gavaskar as Kallis swings Bravo to mid on for a four. Over 2 ends, 21 without loss! I will never buy Havell fans!.
Over 3 and Jaffer facing Zaheer. TV moves to technical discussions, and end result is no dew! Jaffer playing solidly, and it is not a Test. Misfield, and Jaffer gets 2. 24 for no loss. Jaffer gone off next ball to a bad short ball!! Caught at short mid wicket. Mumbaikar playing for Bangalore gone!! :-( 24 -1. Robin in, not Dravid!
Woohooo, what a welcome for Malinga!! Kallis flicks him for 6! Will experience pay? Woohooo again!! Kallis smashing Malinga over cover for another 6!!!!! 36-1
5 overs gone.
51-1 and Kallis on fire!!! Gavaskar is subdued, as he claims to be very neutral. Drama with Robin Uthappa surviving a run out appeal to the 3rd umpire.
Post Match Thoughts
Phenomenal win! Mumbai Indians beaten comprehensively. Time to celebrate and you could still be charged for drunken driving tomorrow morning on your way to office! Kallis, who every BRC well-wisher wanted out of the side, is Man of the Match and deservingly so!
The key moment in this chase was perhaps when Kallis tore apart Malinga with those two sixes in one over. Though he did get a maiden over after that to Robin Uthappa, the tone was set. If Kallis held the game with runs off his bat first, Uthappa took charge in the latter part to race away to fine 50 and a win with 11 deliveries to spare and with 9 wickets in hand! This against what was rated as the best bowling attack in IPL 2009. Zaheer left injured with two overs in his kitty, Harbhajan bowled just two overs. Did Tendulkar get it all wrong?
Is this a turn-around for BRC or just a huge run of luck?
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What ails KKR and RCB (or BRC as the blogger calls it?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: Owner's interference. Nothing more, nothing less.
Take KKR. Any successful business knows that preparation for the new year starts with a Business Plan being prepared and then, success depends upon the proper execution of this Business Plan - on how to tackle the Strengths of the competition, how to overcome the incumbent company's weaknesses, what targets to aim for, etc.
How did KKR go about it? A lesson in how to plan for the wrong things. First, their captain and main spinner were persuaded to spend several weeks picking cheer-leaders, instead of studying the opposition. Second, they wasted enormous money in buying a not-so-successful bowler from Bangladesh, just because they thought it would help in gate receipts in that country. Both time-wasting and money-wasting ventures were the result of the folly of the owner. He must realise that people in Bangladesh will not turn out in their millions to pay and watch a match because one of their boys is playing. They will come to see the "foreign" players whom they never saw in their home country. Afterall, why pay to watch Murtaza bowl 4 overs when you can otherwise watch him free?
Before that, a bengali song and a "reality" show. An unemployed Ganguly and under-employed Murli Karthik could have sat with Bukkha Naan (as the fakeiplplayer names him) and done some simulation exercises on how to bowl to whom of the opposing teams, collected video clips of the new-sign ups in the other teams, etc. Instead, they did "Naatak baazi". Now, Dada is great at 'Naatak Baazi' but only when he writes the script. He is a Director-cum-Actor but not a Director's Actor like the Owner. The less-said about the captaincy tamashaa, the better.
No wonder the most popular ad is Nokia's Chatterjee chacha saying "Thum bi jeethogae".
Now to Bangalore. The Owner's father made his crores because of his amazing abiliy to read Balance Sheets and leaving professionals to manage the business. His flamboyant son and successor, built on the brand names he inherited and went about buying out every competition in sight. He followed his father's footsteps of leaving professionals to manage the business with the exception of two - he named himself CEO of his Airlines, whose books are more redder than the red in its brand logo and the F1 team, where, at least, Vijay babu had some previous experience of having driven race cars 30 years back. His closest experience or association with playing cricket is watching top players practice in the nets opposite his house in Bangalore. Once he started deciding what should be the on-field and off-field strategy, the message was clear to the stalwart players-close your mouth and the other opening, collect your salary and go. Only with the forced imposition of India's best cricket captain in a crisis, is the team showing some signs of what its players are capable of.
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ReplyDeleteWhere was Dillon du Preez all these days? He, along with Kallis and Praveen Kumar, had the Mumbai batsmen in knots in the said match. It was nice to see Kallis and Uthappa among runs.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons, in my opinion, for Mumbai Indians’ insipid defence was Malinga’s off-colour bowling in the match. The guy was totally out of his elements and looked listless. Those toe-crushing Yorkers were conspicuous by their absence.
And then, one was surprised to see Tendulkar, who had not bowled in most of the (or all?) matches in IPL this season, introducing himself into the attack. Surprisingly, Harbhajan and Zaheer, the frontline bowlers, got to bowl just two overs each.
Costly mistakes, no doubt!
Venky,
ReplyDeleteI would give more credit to Kallis for taking on Malinga in the first over with that flicked 6 and the cover drive for 6. Malinga did come back well to bowl a maiden, but before he came back again the game was taken away by first Kallis and then Robin