IPL II- Comming on Its Own

After the batathons of the first 2 matches, and the totally one sided match between Rajasthan and Delhi, the IPL finally came into it's own on Sunday. Both the matches were totally competitive, both went down to the wire. And most importantly, it showed that T20 was not just about 4's and 6's. It was about true grit and competition. Kolkata Knight Riders overcame a minefield of a pitch, a power failure and a Mexican shoot out to prevail against Deccan. And in the best match of the tournament so far, dark horses Bangalore Royal Challengers, overcame their rout in the first match to shock favorites Mumbai Indians. Most importantly in both the venues, Eden Gardens and Wankhede, the fans took to their teams, like duck to water. The support was raccous, partisan, the opposing players were booed. Are we seeing the beginning of a new rivalry here?

Well anyway first and foremost i am delighted that Namma Bengalooru team won, in a match they were expected to lose by many( including yours truly). There are times when i dont mind eating my own words, and this was one of them. I honestly had no hope for Bangalore Royal Challengers, especially after the rout in the opening encounter. Also most of the Bangalore RC team had conventional batsmen like Dravid, Kallis, Jaffer who were not exactly slam bang specialists, the exception being Mark Boucher. Against that Mumbai had an array of stroke makers in Uthappa, Pollock, Jayasurya and all rounders like Pollock,Jayasurya himself, and above all Sachin Tendulkar.

But then Zaheer bowled brilliantly ably supported by Praveen Kumar. Honestly this was one of the best matches. Mumbai would start off well, Bangalore would pull things back, and just when it seemed Bangalore was dominating, Mumbai again come back. A real fascinating see saw battle. Uthappa played a brilliant knock, but when he fell, Mumbai still had a long way to go, and that was when old fox Pollock, played a blinder of an innings, especially taking apart Vinay Kumar in the final overs to take Mumbai to 165 in 20 overs.

In reply Bangalore started well with Dravid and Chanderpaul. Unfortunately Dravid's stop and start approach, did slow things down, he played some superb strokes, but also got bogged down, especially against Pollock. And just when Mumbai seemed to be taking the match, Boucher and Kallis put on a 55 run partnership. For me Mark Boucher remains the most underrated of all cricketers, apart from being a superb wicketkeeper, he is a gutsy player to the core. In fact one of the rare S.African players who dont choke at the last minute. And he showed his value here, as he intelligently placed the ball, and then lashed out in the final overs to take Bangalore to a victory. This was easily the best match so far.

In an earlier match, Kolkata scampered to a last minute victory over Deccan on an Eden Gardens pitch that resembled a minefield. Ishant Sharma exploited the bounce brilliantly sending Deccan captain VVS Laxman back with a snorter. None of the Deccan batsmen could negotiate the bounce, as the ball spit and reared at crazy angles. It was only some last minute hitting by Andrew Symonds, that saw Deccan to a respectable total of 110. While chasing Kolkata did not have it easy either. Brendon Mc Cullum Kolkata's first match hero, discovered that it is one thing to hammer bowlers on a flat pitch, and another thing to survive, as he fell for just 5 runs.

The old wily fox Chaminda Vaas made it a double sending back Ricky Ponting and Wriddhiman Saha. 21 for 3 it was game on, and VVS did not make things easier, by cutting off the run supply, while Vaas and Scott Styris made life difficult for batsmen. Saurav Ganguly survived, rode his luck before he fell for 21. And when Sanjay Bangar & Mohd Hafeez got out soon, Kolkata was in real trouble, and as if to compound the misery, we had high drama with lights conking out all of a sudden. Fortunately the lights were restored but it was still game on, with 22 of 20 balls. If it was Mike Hussey who rode the spotlight in Mohali, here it was another Hussey, his brother David, who turned out to be the hero of the day, playing a cool innings and taking Kolkata to victory. The Hussey family back home in Australia would be surely proud.

Well let me stick my neck out, and say for sure, that Bangalore Royal Challengers is the team to watch out. Yeah what i learnt from the Mumbai match was to wear your heart on your sleeve, and i am proud to be a Bangalore Royal Challengers fan. Yep watch out guys, we are the dark horses for sure, and we are gonna give you all a nasty surprise. We are gonna shut the mouths of our critics, the way we shut up the partisan Mumbai Crowd. Go Bangalore Go.