Play offs for 3rd place for this year’s IPL offers the incentive of a place in the next T20 Champions League. The Royal Challengers take on the Deccan Chargers in Mumbai on Saturday and RCB are the favourites. Team News: Bangalore Royal Challengers: Who can pick themselves after semi final disappointment? The Royal Challengers were comfortably beaten (35 runs) by the Mumbai Indians in Wednesday’s semi final whilst The Chargers fell 38 runs short when chasing a modest Super Kings total on Thursday. Both the semi finals were played in Mumbai and both were won by the side batting first. Despite the comfortable winning / losing margins in the semi finals both RCB and Deccan had their chances. RCB got the prize wicket of Tendulkar early doors and looked to be on their way to restricting Mumbai to a manageable total until a combination of slack bowling and awesome hitting saw Mumbai cut loose and eventually post 184/5. RCB were never really in the chase. Meanwhile the Chargers restricted the Super Kings to 142 and were trading deep in the red at the interval before failing miserably in the chase. Royal Challengers would look forward to Jacques Kallis rediscovering his magic touch that gave them a superb run in the earlier part of the tournament. The Bangalore team has tried out Manish Pandey and Rahul Dravid in the opening slot to accompany Kallis with mixed results. In the lower order, Robin Uthappa has given them a flourishing finish on a few occasions with his clean hitting. The team would look forward to the youngster with powerful shoulders to do the bidding against the Chargers along with Kevin Pietersen at the top. RCB skipper Anil Kumble said his team had two days at its disposal after losing by … [Read more...]
Kumble’s Swan Song ?
Will today's match be Anil Kumble's swan song ? The statements he keeps making indicate that it may well be. He will turn 40 this October. He retired from one-dayers in 2007 and tests and all forms of first class cricket in 2008. He has been playing only in the IPL in the last 2 years and he has oft repeated in jest that he is an old man and the T20 format is tough on his body. The onlooker may feel that it is just a 3 hour match and the bowler has to bowl only 4 hours but it is a lot tougher than the lengthier formats of the game. As a bowler, you cannot afford to commit a mistake, every ball has to be bowled right. And captaincy will just add to the pressure. Jumbo as he is called debuted in 1990 and with age his technique and finesse just improved. He bagged all 10 wickets in an innings in a test match against Pakistan at Delhi's Feroze Shah Kotla stadium in 1999. His dedication to the game cannot be doubted. It was the year 2002; a test match against the West Indies. Who can forget a heavily bandaged Kumble who came to bowl inspite of a fractured jaw? He is captain material but got to lead a Test team at the fag end of his career. The way he steered the test team and his stint as captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team speak volumes of his leadership. His first IPL performance wasn't impressive. But after he assumed captaincy in the 2nd IPL, his as well as the team's performance improved. Sadly, last IPL they lost in the finals to Deccan Chargers and this season, they were defeated in the semi-finals by a very strong team, Mumbai Indians. They now have to fight Deccan Chargers for the 3rd place to qualify for the Champions League. For his age, he has maintained tremendous levels of fitness and injuries have been few. Though … [Read more...]
Team Analysis: Bangalore Royal Challengers
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Team Analysis: Royal Challengers Bangalore also referred to as RCB is a franchise, cricket team based in the city of Bangalore. Indian Premier League The team is owned by the business magnate Vijay Mallya, through his flagship firm UB Group. Brijesh Patel is the CEO of the RCB and Anil Kumble is the captain. Rahul Dravid is the team's Icon Player, while Ray Jennings, the former South African coach, is the coach. Players’ Profile: 1. Anil Kumble:No bowler in history won India more Test matches than Anil Kumble, and there probably hasn't been a harder trier either. Like the great tall wristspinners Bill O'Reilly and his own idol BS Chandrasekhar, Kumble traded the legspinner's proverbial yo-yo for a spear, as the ball hacked through the air rather than hanging in it and came off the pitch with a kick rather than a kink.2. Mark Boucher: A man to go to war with, but never against, Mark Boucher packs all the archetypical attributes of the South African cricketer into his short, stocky frame. He is relentlessly competitive, invariably aggressive, and as hard and uncompromising as the new ball. He makes a point of, in his own words, "walking onto the field as if you own the place". 3. Rahul Dravid: Rahul Dravid, a cricketer who seamlessly blends an old-world classicism with a new-age professionalism, is the best No. 3 batsman to play for India - and might even be considered one of the best ever by the time his career is done. He already averages around 60 at that position, more than any regular No. 3 batsman in the game's history, barring Don Bradman. 4. Dillon du Preez: Dillon du Preez had one of the more interesting entries into the first-class game when he … [Read more...]
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