So a good day on the prediction front with both calls (Delhi and Chennai) turning out well. Not so good for the Royals (who i wanted to win despite predicting against). A huge sigh of relief for Chennai. If they win the next game they will truly think they are back with a chance (and the next game is against Rajasthan so Dhoni will fancy his chances - more on that later).
Interesting question now though is what do Delhi and Bangalore do with their team selection going forward.
1. Bangalore: They benched Boucher (risk with Uthappa who's not a specialist) and Morgan but were justified as KP and White both performed well in the limited time they had. Morgan can feel unlucky that he didnt really get a chance while Dravid should feel lucky that he's in. (questionable if No 7 is the right slot for him). Kumble may be thinking that he can move up and down the order to provide flexibility but i think he's there at this point more for emotional reasons. More importantly they have Ross coming soon - and he's been in superb form , treating the Australian test attack in the 1st innings of the 2nd test like he was already playing in the IPL T20. Also Praveen Kumar is losing a bit of steam and Roelof and Dillon are sitting in the ranks (though they are already hitting the foreign player cap). So finding the balance and sticking with it will be hard but important if they are to go through.
2. Delhi: This is a little different from Bangalore - problem of plenty because of non performers. Sehwag certainly hasn't set the stage on fire - he's probably bordering on inconsistency even by his standards wrt big scores every 3 games, Dilshan and De Villiers are already benched and Collingwood has hit the ground running as have Mithin and Jadhav when they had the chance. Nehra is fit and probably wanting a go & when Nannes it back this will be a headache as the bowlers (Yadav, Sangwan, Mahroof, Mishra etc have all donbe pretty well).So a bowling problem of plenty and a batting problem of tough calls (bench Sehwag for a couple - will Gambhir dare?). Either way he needs to get it right fast and stick to it.
What do you think Kumble and Gambhir should do ?
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An email from a friend reminded me that in the problem of plenty, i forgot to add Daniel Vettori - who's also in great form - and will show up for duty for the Daredevils on April 1st or so. More fun times...
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