 In a tournament of fluctuating fortunes, the race has well and truly hotted up. Slow starters, Chennai Superkings and the Rajasthan Royals, after a string of victories are both back from the dead, and are in fact, looking more alive than most other teams. Kolkatta Knight Riders, with an up and down tournament, are finally showing more up than down, and are also back in the reckoning, while Bangalore Royal Challengers suddenly find themselves, in spite of their abundance of talent, struggling for a semi-final spot. Some dread, though, if Kolkatta does go on to win, and Shahrukh Khan does go on to do what he said, one dearly hopes jokingly, that he would dance naked if this were to happen!
The purple cap gave Muralitharan the slip this week, along with his position in Chennai Superking’s starting line-up against Mumbai, after Shane Watson of Rajasthan Royals decided to take it upon himself to overhaul the highest score of the tournament, all in one Murali over. The end result was neither favourable for Shane Watson nor Murali personally, though Murali , the team man had much reason to cheer as Chennai triumphed convincingly. No doubt, Murali will be back, as Chennai’s strike bowler soon enough, and hopefully the purple cap as well. And here is one for those who thought T20 format would cost the spinners dear. Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ohja, Murali and Harbhajan Singh, all spinners, are now the four leading bowlers of IPL3 and look set to continue this trend.
A Tendulkar fan in Chennai in their match against Mumbai |
Rajasthan also found its reason for cheer after Deccan Chargers used their two and a half minute strategy break very effectively to figure out how to lose from a position of certain victory, leaving the knowledgeable commentators, enthusiastic fans, prosperous team owners and all and any from the IPL world very perplexed indeed. Kings XI further added to Warne’s broadening smile when they played true to their seasons form by handing one to Rajasthan, though Kumar Sangakkara and his team did show true glimpses of their capabilities with victories against Kolkatta and Mumbai.
Meanwhile, the Deccan Chargers have stopped both - charging ahead and playing Chaminda Vaas in the XI, if anyone wishes to make the connection. Playing reputation for performance cannot pay certainly, though they did pull back one against Bangalore. It was also heartening to see Ajantha Mendis in action for Kolkatta, in their match against Delhi where he picked up 2 crucial wickets. The Srilankan impact players for last week, though, were the rising all-round star, Angelo Mathews and the magical Mahela Jayawardene. Mathews resurrected Kolkatta ’s hopes of experiencing an IPL semi-final berth with an excellent 28-ball 46,win against Delhi Daredevils.
In the match against Kolkatta in Kolkatta, 200 runs and a smiling Ganguly greeted Jayawardene at the crease. Victory and a stunned Ganguly were left behind. Kolkatta was left witness to an exhibition of some silken craftsmanship from Jayawardene’s bat. There was no aggression, no hard hitting, just pure class, timing and placement. It was a T20 knock packaged for the cricket connoisseur. A master class century from a master bat, with a satisfied, but quiet burp from the cricket puritans. The T20 world had just gone up a notch.
Glenn Mcgrath experienced it. Paul Collingwood experienced it. Mark Boucher is experiencing it. Jayasuriya and Dilshan are experiencing it. Kevin Peiterson too. No more than 4 international players can play in the XI. And the varied team combinations means you land up with a World XI as bench strength. |
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