Shane Warne and the Royals have done it again - conjuring up magic out of thin air. And in part , its that man Yusuf Pathan again!!! In an earlier post I had mentioned that it can’t be Yusuf vs the rest all the time but it was almost that again (though credit to Shane’s captaincy which was a big factor). You cant but love this team – the perennial underdogs. And now that they have sent the ‘playmate’ home , they are climbing back up my personal charts.
I missed Pathan’s knock today but sounded like Gilly missed a few tricks and fed him with spinnners – might as well have given the game away. Few can clear the field like Pathan can against slow bowlers on Indian pitches. By contrast , I read on cricinfo today that Tendulkar hasn’t hit a single SIX in the IPL so far and is a top 3 scorer. Another interesting tidbit – i think Rohit Sharma has now been involved in 8 run outs in the 3 season’s of the IPL!!!! Top that.
More on tomorow’s game.
Punjab almost certainly will be on their way out if they lose (even though there’s a long way to go in IPL 2010). And KKR will move to life support systems if they lose. So a very important game for honors at the bottom of the table. What’s my call – Kolkatta on points. I’m sticking to my prediction that they will sneak into the semis. Still waiting on McCullum but Hussey is in the building. And Ganguly will score tomorrow. Punjab probably have to be favorites (match winners in Pathan, Yuvraj, Sangakarra, men in form like Bopara and Bisla ). So its a strong lineup but they haven’t clicked so far and i fear they wont start tomorrow unless the reinforcements (Lee & Marsh) kick in well.
3 comments:
Yusuf's innings was outstanding no doubt, and our dear friend Mr. Teri Maa Ki still hasnt figured out that he should keep his not unfoul trap shut!
That said, in my mind, Warne's captaincy won this game - taking out Gilchrist in the 1st over not by LUCK, but a specifc bowling strategy would have charged up his team right from the beginning. And many of them found a piece of inspiration thereafter - Jhunjhunwala's run outs, Warne himself, Lumb & Ojha's start...
Job well done!
Moving onto today - a very critical game indeed. I think Punjab need to go all out on this one, to do that, they have to throw the Brett Lee die. That means bench Jayawardene and more responsibility for the batsmen. Should not drop Theron (bowling is as it is weak), so another risky call (but one that i think they should make) is Bopara out, Marsh in. Need to go hard at KKR and hope the latter crack.
For KKR, i read Dada's article today - there is a lot of steel there today. Well, i cant ever be a fan of KKR (and whilst i like to rib Dada, have tons of respect for him), so this might just be the day i agree
In any case, all of the above factors on both sides should combine today to give us a hard fought, aggressive game of cricket!
Agree. That's why I started with warne and the royals and called out yusufs effort as "in part". However to be fair , warne had a hit and miss - jhunjhunwalas over to open was a disaster. Also imagine if they had lost Yusuf at 23 runs in 16 balls - could have been very different as they are prone to collapses in batting rather easily (which I predict will happen in the next match ).
Onward to the best of the worst now ....
Also , by the way i dont think they will risk Bopara out given he's been in form.
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