Being a cricket fan, I cannot neglect IPL altogether. Well, it is more like a break from my continuous and monotonous internet sessions. Today, like yesterday, there is only one match. Delhi Daredevils meet Royal Challengers Bangalore today at Delhi. After the reshuffling, I am still getting used to the new team groupings. Earlier, when I heard RCB, Rahul Dravid used to sub-consciously come into my mind, but now I have to think of Chris Gayle instead, who made an amazing comeback in the last match against his previous club (KKR) after not being bought at the IPL Auction. Well, I am still biased towards Mumbai Indians, which is in fact the team which has the highest auto-correlation co-efficient among all the other teams.
Well, coming back to the match, I have just one phrase to describe it - A simple pendulum with damping oscillations. The match swung between two teams many times. Starting with the Delhi innings, it was going good even after Warner fell, but some good fielding and bowling put the brakes on the run and Delhi just managed to touch the 160 run mark. Pathan hit a few sixes at the death but not without wasting too many deliveries. The last match played on this pitch produced a very high scoring match - DD scored 234 and Kings XI also managed to score 200 odds in their chase. Today, the pitch had lesser amount of grass, and hence the ball didn't skid as it did in the previous match. At the half way stage, the match looked evenly balanced, but with the knowledge that Gayle was going to open at the other side of the half, no one was willing to put his/her money on Delhi yet.
Second half, RCB were off to a fantastic start despite looking a wicket early. Kohli was timing the ball superbly, and was later joined in by Gayle, after his dormant start. RCB were cruising along nicely at the 8-9 over mark, when Gayle fell down to a nice bouncer by Hopes. Just a few deliveries later, Ab de villiers was run out by an unbelievable direct hit from the deep by Warner. Kohli was played on after that, and suddenly the RCB camp was running for water. But, after a lean phase of 14-15 runs in 5 overs, Saurabh Tiwary and Vettori played some nice shots to bring down the run rate close to 6. But the tension was far from over, when two wickets fell very quickly putting the pressure back to RCB. Well, finally with some bad bowling and uninspiring field placements, DD gave away the match to RCB, who easily managed to bring the boys home.
A good match, and also an important win for RCB, who are now 2nd in the points table with 8 points just behind the Mumbai Indians. Well, personally I didn't care who won, but I wanted the Indian players to perform well. After all, it is INDIAN Premier League.
Well, coming back to the match, I have just one phrase to describe it - A simple pendulum with damping oscillations. The match swung between two teams many times. Starting with the Delhi innings, it was going good even after Warner fell, but some good fielding and bowling put the brakes on the run and Delhi just managed to touch the 160 run mark. Pathan hit a few sixes at the death but not without wasting too many deliveries. The last match played on this pitch produced a very high scoring match - DD scored 234 and Kings XI also managed to score 200 odds in their chase. Today, the pitch had lesser amount of grass, and hence the ball didn't skid as it did in the previous match. At the half way stage, the match looked evenly balanced, but with the knowledge that Gayle was going to open at the other side of the half, no one was willing to put his/her money on Delhi yet.
Second half, RCB were off to a fantastic start despite looking a wicket early. Kohli was timing the ball superbly, and was later joined in by Gayle, after his dormant start. RCB were cruising along nicely at the 8-9 over mark, when Gayle fell down to a nice bouncer by Hopes. Just a few deliveries later, Ab de villiers was run out by an unbelievable direct hit from the deep by Warner. Kohli was played on after that, and suddenly the RCB camp was running for water. But, after a lean phase of 14-15 runs in 5 overs, Saurabh Tiwary and Vettori played some nice shots to bring down the run rate close to 6. But the tension was far from over, when two wickets fell very quickly putting the pressure back to RCB. Well, finally with some bad bowling and uninspiring field placements, DD gave away the match to RCB, who easily managed to bring the boys home.
A good match, and also an important win for RCB, who are now 2nd in the points table with 8 points just behind the Mumbai Indians. Well, personally I didn't care who won, but I wanted the Indian players to perform well. After all, it is INDIAN Premier League.
No comments:
Post a Comment