Bangalore Reign Supreme

There was a beautiful build up to the much awaited encounter between Mumbai who were in top form and  Bangalore  who were on a roll after its first loss to KKR. After all it was a clash of top 2 teams in IPL. Mumbai Indians were riding high on Sachin’s form and the dyanamic duo of Tiwari and Rayadu, where as Royal Challengers were dependent on Kallis who looks to set a batting average record this season.

The 2 teams were very much alike with a strong opening pair, a dependable middle order and the spin twins of India, Harbhajan and Kumble battling it out for MI and RCB respectively. One thing that was in favor of Mumbai was that their middle order had performed exceptionally well in the previous 2 matches where as for Bangalore it was top order and stong middle order just watched it from the dugout. All in all nothing to choose between 2 teams.

Mumbai won the toss and chose to bat. Steyn looked ominous today trapped Jayasuriya early on and Praveen Kumar choked the run flow at the other end. The pitch was offering a bit and Steyn took full advantage – the pace at which he bowled had the MI batsmen in discomfort quite often. Kumble too was at his very best not giving anything away. His prize scalp was Tiwary who was cleaned up by a goggly which is still not read by the best in the business.

The magical 11th over was bowled by Vinay Kumar. Rayadu, Tendulkar and Bravo all got out in 1 over. Take a bow Vinay Kumar. Today was his day or should we say Bangalore’s day. MI lost wickets in quick successions and there on it was always going to be difficult to build up a big total. No doubt that the pitch was wearing out fast and a total of somewhere around 170 would have been a strong total to defend. Thanks to some late hitting by Satish, Pollard and Zaheer Khan, MI managed to reach a respectable total of 151 in the allotted overs.

Bangalore got off to a flier with Kallis and Pandey taking full toll of Mumbai bowling which looked timid in front of the Bangalore’s openers. Kallis and Pandey put up a fifty run partnership for the consecutive third time in this season. Pandey made a handy 40 with some lusty blows over the boundary before getting out to Harbhajan Singh. Kallis once again never looked as if he would give away his wicket and remained unbeaten on 66. Bangalore will be banking on him to keep this going right till the very end. They reached the target easily in 19.1 overs and with 7 wickets in hand. Kallis is also the highest run getter in IPL 3 with a total of 264 runs form 4 matches.

As far as Captaincy is concerned, Sachin looked clueless today after Kallis was on a rampage smacking his bowlers to all parts of the ground. A few misfields didn’t help his cause. Royal’s  bowlers are doing a wonderful job and Jumbo must be given credit the way he is mixing the bowlers and rotating them in short spells keeping the other team guessing. RCB are surely playing as champions and if they maintain the consistency they will surely be bidding for the top spot this season too. Vijay Mallya will be one happy man and the RCB boys will surely be getting some Royal treatment from the Tycoon. Cheers to RCB!!!

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