The tournament is evenly poised and there are three teams genuinely fighting for a berth in semi finals. RCB wonderfully chased down the runs in back to back matches aginst KKR and CSK. The guy who pulled it off for RCB, hands down, was Ross taylor. What a perfect time to put your hand up and say, I Belong here.
KKR could not win the match against RCB after having set one of the toughest run chase in IPL. But their bowlers were utterly disappointing on the day. Ajit Agarkar - Is he ever known for some match winning performance with the ball ? I do not recollect. I do not want to be harsh on Ajit, but oh my god! he is an over rated bowler. How in the GOD's name, he played for India so long, all I could think of, for an answer would be, Saurav Ganguly backing this guy all the time.
Full toss, on top of full toss, feeding to Ross Taylor, who took each of those chances to bludgeon it over the bondary lines. Macullum would have thrown the ball to Ajit Agarkar simply for the reason that Ajit is better equipped to handle such pressure cooker situation and he would have been his obvious choice. What he never realised, all Ajit has in his armoury, is nothing but mediocre full tosses and loads of experience on the same. I remember lots of ODIs where Ajit Agarkar has come up with such abysmal bowling performances in the past. Inspite of him, some youngster could have been moulded by Macullum for the death bowling and his job would have been done.
Credit should not be taken away from Ross taylor and Mark Boucher, two great finishers on the day. Boucher is a guy who was moulded by the south africans for these kind of run chases, to stay in the end and see through the team. Ross taylor had the perfect partner to do just that.
The match against Chennai super kings was half won by RCB in the first innings, when after Hayden's wicket, they stopped the run flow by picking rest of the wickets. You got to have a bad day mostly, when your team gets all out in a T-20 game. Chennai Super kings was at the receiving end this time from RCB. What was so heartening to see is, CSK making a match out of it and pushing RCB to win the match in last but one delivery. It was 130 runs to chase. Again, thanks to Ross taylor, who kept the run chase interesting during tough times.
Virat Kohli had a good partnership with Ross taylor, which set it up for tail enders to finish the match, though not easily. Virat Kohli, in comparison with Robin Uthappa makes a conscious effort to prove his talent to the world. Consistency is the difference between a good player and great player. Virat Kohli will learn it over time. He still has long way to go in his career. He has definitely got the opportunity to do it again and again now. Just play around with Dravid, Kallis, Ross Taylor and Boucher, you know what it takes to achieve the unachievable.
Kumble has got the right mix, he has to believe that Uthappa should click at right time. I would like this team to be part of top 4, if they play the same way. They have got to win the remaining two matches of theirs. We might see them piping Deccan chargers or Rajasthan Royals out of the league. Kings XI punjab is in same position as RCB.
Lets wait and watch for the Top 4.
Thanks,
Prashy.
No comments:
Post a Comment