Sachin helps break Another Record!

Sachin has so many records to boot that a book can be written on them ! But this (The Rajasthan Royals loosing a match at Jaipur) was achieved with the help of a certain Aditya Dole, as I had said in my previous post that Mumbai Indians are becoming increasingly dependent on him, they showed that again at Jaipur! If Aditya Dole had hung onto the simple catch the target would have been at least 20 runs less and we could have easily chased it! Even Warne called it the turning point in the match! Sid Trivedi had an off day with the ball and Sachin took him for plenty and the match was done and dusted there Unless there was a Pathan or Watson special!

The bowling performance was great at the start with Watson getting us of to a dream start, finally his bowling has come good and should be lethal in the coming matches! Dole again leaked runs but took the crucial wicket of pollard, rest of the bowling was good but nothing special from Warne in this match! As i have mentioned earlier the end overs leaked a bit more than what we would have liked, but still the target within reach and we needed Watson or Pathan to play well.

The team got off to the worst possible start when Naman Ojha, (the leading run scorer for us in this IPL) got out cheaply someone had to take up his role and anchor the innings as we were chasing a big target, but the batsmen had other plans, 3 runouts in the Top 4 and you are never going to win a match with stuff like that happening, it looked like we were giving Delhi daredevils competition for the team with the worst running between the wickets, the runouts hurt us bad and the required rate was climbing up all this time. generally Warne takes sensible and logical decisions, but holding back Yusuf Pathan for so long was a big blunder IMO, the reqd rate was around 12 when he came in and by the team he settles in it was 14! It was too much for the Big man to do! he should have come in after Fazal had got out , so that there was time for him to settle in and smash the bowlers around! The tail wagged and lessened the margin of defeat with Aditya Dole getting some blows in, it was the least he could do after dropping the crucial catch of sachin which let them get 20 runs more, anyhow the margin of loss was BIG (37 runs) and it once again dented our NRR!

Now that CSK and RCB have very good NRR and even DD have a better NRR than us, our only hope to make it to the semis would be to win both the matches and secure 16 points which would assure us of a place in the semis! Today, we play RCB and its imperative we bowl first as RCB has too many clean hitters of the ball ( Uthappa, Taylor, Kohli, White) who can chase down any target in a small ground like Jaipur! We need to restrict them to below 160-165 and chase sensibly. This should give us the best chance of winning!

Here’s hoping RR win this match and make it to the semis !!

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Perfection at Jaipur Continues

Well, the Rajasthan Royals are back to their Home venue after matches at the “home” in Ahmedabad. The scenes in Jaipur in IPL 1 were pure magic, when the Royals went unbeaten at their home and crushing every opponent who set foot on home turf by winning 7 in 7 ! We are the Only IPL team to do that and we have added another match to it by beating the Kings XI Punjab ! 8 in 8 ! Mumbai Indians, be scared, be really scared as you are next! First of all Mumbai is on a losing streak of 2 and will be 3 by 11 30 today! 🙂

Match Report

Punjab were on a High after chasing down 200 against an undisciplined KKR and were carrying on from where they left off, but it was Aditya Dole who turned it around as he did in the previous match against the Deccan Chargers for us! He is expensive but gets the big fish out and in this match he stopped a Rampaging Mahela and Yuvraj and that about settles the match! after the double blow, Punjab never recovered and were not able to hot a boundary leave alone clear the ropes, their batting performance in the last five was even more dismal due to the disciplined effort from our bowlers, who sealed the deal but restricting them to a way below par score of 153.

I have previously voiced my opinion about the inclusion of a certain Adam Voges into the playing XI, finally they have listened to me, but instead of dropping Lumb they choose to drop a bowler which also makes sense as Watson is proving more valuable as a bowler than Tait and Morkel combined of late! Anyhow Voges didn’t have a bowl nor a bat, but it added to the team balance and a deeper batting lineup.

Punjab bowlers were down and out by the target and Lumb cashed in big time and Ojha, who is in the top 5 run getters in this IPL continued his form with Pathan finishing off, All in all in was a perfect game which even helped our NRR a fair bit!

Mumbai are next, the key is to get Sachin out before he gets 20 and the rest will take care of itself 🙂 Mumbai “Indians”, true to their name are playing like the Indian cricket Team of the 90’s these days! If only they have won 5-6 matches till now it would have been a whole lot interesting for their semis berth! Warne vs Tendulkar, even after 12 years after his desert storm innings is one any cricket fan would not want to miss out on!

Halla Bol!

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Yusuf Pathan take a bow !

The Mumbai Indians, true to their name became the 1st team in the IPL to play less than 3 foreign players ( they could have played two by giving Abhishek Nayar a game instead of Ryan Mclaren). From what we have seen of them they seem to have no weak link,for the 1st time they have a good keeper in their playing XI who played some delightful strokes and the ICL stars Ambati Rayudu and R Sathish gave them the extra edge which lacked from their domestic players in the previous seasons. Another plus point was Saurabh Tiwary who played a very mature innings and has cemented his spot in the final XI at least for a few games ahead of Shikhar Dhawan. Abhishek Nayar and Shikhar Dhawan would find their way into any IPL team! This just shows the depth in the squad of the Mumbai Indians. Ryan Mclaren and Ali Murtaza would give way for Pollard and Dwayne Bravo for the coming matches.

The Rajasthan Royals have a balanced side but they preferred left arm unorthodox ( Uniyal and Kamran ) over orthodox right arm bowlers like Munaf and Trivedi ( both of them will prove a handful under lights when the ball nips a bit ). If Asnodkar and Ojha get in some good runs they will have a formidable batting line up which can upstage any target! Yusuf Pathan was in brilliant form coming into the tournament where he flogged bowlers to all parts of the ground in domestic matches and even created world records in the process. Shaun Tait was the biggest let down of the match where he couldn’t find his line and length and sprayed it all over, to be fair to him bowling in the heat of Mumbai at 3 pm on a placid pitch were not ideal conditions for him. I expect him to be a handful while teams are chasing against the Royals under the lights where his speed will be difficult to get hold of even if he gets a little bit of swing.

Coming to the match at hand it was meant to be a one sided affair until Yusuf Pathan came in and produced one of the finest display of clean hitting ever seen. Yusuf used to make quick fire 30’s and 50’s and get out trying to launch the ball out of the city he was playing in. But these days he has a better approach to his game, waits till he settles down and goes after the bowling and respects good deliveries and plays sensibly. The way he hit boundaries of Ryan Mclaren of yorkers show how he has matured as a player and the singles taken of Malinga and Zaheer showed that he was patient enough and matured as a batsman. These are ominous signs for the opposition as he can also clear the boundary at will. The 37 ball hundred will surely be remembered for a long time to come and it deserved a victory just like Sachin’s 175 against the Australians at Hyderabad in November 2009. A brilliant piece of fielding by R Sathish ended Pathan’s innings. Few might know about this catch by Sathish in the ICL where he had made a name for himself as a utility player who can bat,bowl and field brilliantly! Paras Dogra shifted gears beautifully after Pathan got out, but not being able to score a boundary of the last 2 overs cost the Rajashtan Royals dearly as the fell 4 runs short of Mumbai’s Score of 212. Mumbai batted brilliantly with a bit of help from the wayward Rajashtan Bowlers.

Rajashtan will need to pull up their socks against the bookmakers favorite the Delhi Daredevils if they want to recreate the magic of IPL 1.

I am taking part in the Interblogactic IPL Battle and will be blogging about every Rajasthan Royals match. If you are supporting Rajasthan Royals and/or like my blog please do vote for me
here in the “Interblogactic IPL Battle Official Poll” . Hoping Rajasthan Royals or Deccan Chargers ( the team i have been supporting from IPL 1 ) win the IPL and Rajasthan Royals the Interblogactic IPL Battle ! 🙂

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