“Paper se kya hota hai? Kuch nahi hota hai!!” That was the first gem Ramiz Raja threw up, insinuating the Deccan Chargers to be a bunch of paper tigers, as he announced he was also a BBBBBIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGG fan of Shane Warne. He wasn’t quite done as he went on to slam the Deccan Chargers batsmen bang in the face, in hindi – something to the effect of, “They don’t play with their head” Chang looked on highly impressed, as his hair dresser was seriously looking at alternate job options, losing out in the bargain, potential high profile clients like Ramiz, who must have saved a few thousands by growing his hair and head.
Chargers’s start was messed up by New Zealander Baxter, Gilly declared out lbw to a Pathan delivery pitched outside the leg side. “What a master stroke, Yusuf gets Gilchrist with a great delivery” gushed Ramiz. The TV replays confirmed that the ball had pitched outside the leg stump when Gilchrist attempted the sweep. Ramiz rebuilt the damage with, “it was just a little outside”, which sounded more like a girl proclaiming that she was only a little pregnant!
Someone seriously needs to have a talk with both Baxter and Asnani from India and tell them that if a ball pitches outside the leg stump, a batsman CANNOT BE GIVEN OUT!! Asnani also needs to be told that when a bat hits the ball before it hits the pad, again, it CANNOT BE GIVEN OUT LBW!! Thankfully Asnani was not accompanying Baxter for this game, but one shudders to think of the day these two come together!
The exuberant “President, Rohit Sharma & Shane Warne Fan Club” was gushing again as Yusuf Pathan was taken off after one over, and Trivedi was brought into the attack when Rohit Sharma came in at number three. ”He is such a fine player of spin bowling! Warne has read the opposition really well”. A few overs later Rohit Sharma, looking more like Munaf Patel with the bat these days, went cluelessly down the wicket to spinner Jadeja and ‘keeper Ojha had enough time to stump him after the ball popped out of his hand.
And yes, when Trivedi was brought on after Munaf Patel and Yusuf Pathan had bowled one over each, came another Ramiz special. “Warne is seriously rotating the bowling order!” Some order, indeed! The disappointment ofcourse was that he didn’t go on to say something like, “Warnie is so great, not just the batting order he can also rotate the bowling order like he spins the ball!”.
The next man to get Ramiz’s attention was Dwayne Smith, probably in Ramiz’s book a key player in the ‘does not play with the head’ group. “He is not good against spinners though he can whack the medium pacers real hard” was the judgement. In the final analysis, Smith got 37 of his 47 runs from 27 deliveries from the spinners, hitting a six each off Jadeja, Warne and Yusuf for a six each.
One expected great stuff when finally Ranjit joined Ramiz during the Royals innings, but unfortunately nothing much came out. Ramiz seemed to have lost his form and all he could muster was “there is a lot of action in this over, sponsored by our sponsors………….”.
Ranjit did make an attempt to leap ahead of Ramiz when Ravindra Jadeja was batting, ‘one of the talented youngsters threatening to showcase his talent……………..”. Ramiz however is moving fast ahead of Ranjit to claim the Yellow cRap Commentator position with his pearls.
On to more mundane things about the game.
Luckily for the Deccan Chargers they noticed they had someone called Chaminda Vaas in their squad and replaced him with Ryan “Who” Harris. The bowling line-up with Vass, RP Singh and Ojha looked far better.
With Symonds coming in and firing away, and Dwayne Smith playing with a calmingly murderous approach, Chargers look like a side that can match and compete well with any side. The disappointments would be Gilchrist himself, who has not been the Gilchrist one expected and the pedestrian Rohit Sharma who again looked clueless with the bat. But then, as Gilchrist pointed out, he seems to be in the race for the purple cap instead of the orange cap!!
Royals look regal when things work for them, and like rubble when things don't! Yusuf Pathan may have to be given the opening slot and the entire 20 overs at his disposal perhaps.
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