IPL 6 - MATCH # 02 - MUMBAI INDIANS Vs ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

It's completely different watching a match live from the stadium compared to watch the same on TV!

When the required runrate is over 10 and a batsman like Dinesh Karthick can turn the course of the match in a single over with 3 sixes and a four.... it's none other than T-20 cricket and when he's doing it to a Daniel Christian its definitely IPL!! yesterday's match brought back the original taste of an IPL game! it was a sumptuous treat to both the sides :-) personally when I, with my bunch, was shouting and jumping from the last row of the C-stand in the Chinnswamy Sadium, Bangalore, the match offered everything a true cricket fan would ask for! Excellent match which gave a bleeding win to the hosts in red in the last ball when Pollard's final hit couldn't quite reach the fence! I wont say that RCB won by 2 runs but I will say they beat the Mumbai Paltans by a millimeter as the previous hit of Kieron Pollard pitched just a millimeter short of the sixer rope and if that ball would have been a six I'm sure the points table would have had Mumbai on top!

Ricky Ponting who won the toss did a Dhoni by opting to field first! I was a bit surprised about the decision.... though it's considered ideal to chase in T20, I felt Ponting would have given a thought about the playing conditions before he chose to field first..... no issues about the pitch, as the batsmen's paradise the will never deceive a batsman no matter what you bat first or second but the mist factor wont really support the team batting second in flood light..... anyways that only had a meager effect so lets round it off!

Mumbai's bowling attack was very controlled in the opening spells and Johnson was very adamant not to give away anything to the batting team while Munaf too (he was bowling close to 140kmph yesterday!) supporting Johnson's effort from the other end! It was Dilshan who lost his cool and came forward to play a wrong shot, completely miss judged Johnson's line and let the stumps break to make a painful exit with a duck off 8 balls! Virat was also struggling to get settled down when he was the new man in the middle! MI pacers successfully mounted a huge pressure on the batsmen in the initial overs as the fielding restrictions were almost done when the RCB had posted a score which was not even close to 6 per over and they were one down too! but the batting side knew Unless they feel the pressure there is no pressure and they were keen not to feel it and just concentrated on getting settled. Kohli started to fire when the young Bumrah came to bowl... and was looking so handsome with that straight six! Teenager paceman Bumrah was well backed by the veterans Sachin and Ponting, both reaching out to him everytime he was smashed by Kohli in that one good over! the corrections gave by the seniors made its magic and he really got his man Virat Kohli and went on to bag an another wicket too!

Right from then it was all GAYLE show!

One end was losing wickets readily but that never could shake the RCB's dark knight Christ Gayle! He is not an eagle as his bowlers usually get frightened at him but he's a hungry crane! Crane never loses its patience when she hunts down fishes in the water currents....she patiently lets her prey to get escaped from her pointed long beak as she always knows that enough fishes are ever there under the water for her to feed on! Gayle who, also has the long legs just like the bird of his quality, too believes strongly that he will get his own deliveries enough for him make his mammoth scoring pattern! From the stadium it was great to see Chris Gayle's batting strategy! Man.... he has his own protocol to scan the fielding set up and he waits for the bowler to miss his line and he knows the art of lifting the ball right in the gaps of the field with his enormous arm power! The moral of the story is that if you ever want to beat RCB take Gayle away from the middle at the earliest you can!

with Gayle's heroic 92 off just 58balls RCB handed a competitive target of 157 to MI!

The whole crowd went mad when the Master Blaster Mumbai Indian was walking along with the legendary Aussie to the middle! and I was in heaven when I felt that my voice was also mixed in the wild roar thundering in the air for the GOD of circket! Sachin and Ponting started it really very well against the not so commanding bowling attack.... but the seniors couldn't maintain the momentum when Sachin's wicket fell cheaply for a terribly misjudged call for a run! Mumbai Indians' ship started to sink right from there while its new captain could only watch it from one end! When Ponting gave his wicket to Murali Karthick the wicket keeper Arun Karthick stumped him out with his quickest reflexes and it was a "Karthik calling Karthick" moment (!) for the skipper's wicket... third umpire would have given out with his naked eyes it was such a clean call yet Ponting was waiting till the screen told "OUT"!

If Chris Gayle is the hungry crane for RCB , Rohit Sharma was the lazy duck for the Mumbai Indians yesterday! Any Mumbai Indian fan would have been irritated to the core when Rohit was fumbling along with Dinesh Karthik while the required runrate was rapidly raising from 8 to 9 and also to 10! Me, inspite of being a Mumbai Indian supporter cheered happily for the exit of Rohit! and was praying for the dismissal of Dinesh as well! But soon I realized it was my mistake being so emotional at that point and I was yet to witness the best of Dinesh Karthik slamming Daniel Christian for three sixers in row and also a four too! He gave a clean "U" turn to the graph of Mumbai Indians to put them back on the winning track! Dinesh Karthick the man who gave India the triumph in the very first T-20 International the country played against the proteas in South Africa with his flamboyant sixer , gave MI too almost such an exciting winning moment  yesterday with his die hard batting! Sorry Dinesh for cursing you impatiently before you started to cruise! :-))

It was 10 needed from 6 balls when Vinay Kumar was handed the ball to bowl the final over! Vinay did the magic to take Dinesh and Rayudu to his consecutive deliveries! Can't still think why the hell Harbhajan Singh was sent to bat while the bench had Jacob Oram an all rounder! Also only Nita Ambani has to figure out why his skippers never provide Pollard enough balls to lift the team to the posted target while she has invested a lot on him just to do the same! Ponting also joined the club of Mumbai Indian's botching captains while sending the wrong men at the right time! (Also there's no answer for why Munaf bowled the last over when Johnson had an over remaining in his quota of allotted overs?!) RCB beat Mumbai Indians in the end in a nail biting climax all praise to Vinay Kumar for his realistic last over and I would say not to forget the previous tight over bowled by Unadkat conceding only 7 runs while the batsmen were one fire!


Kohli has started with a win...... though I wont say he is a deserving captain for this! Dude you are the captain of a big side and you still exhibit an "angry young man" posture from the pavilion not getting rid of the pads hours after losing the wicket, asking for a six from Gayle in a pressurized moment!!!! Didn't really enjoyed Kohli as a captain..... but yes he lead the winning team which has started with a big win!

Best Wishes to RCB and tough luck Mumbai..... it was a superb match to watch.... Thank you GUYS!

Meet you tomorrow with the review of the underdogs set to fight each other at Hyderabad today evening!

Luv,
Prabu M