Bulldozed at the Bull Ring

Will wonders never cease? Barely had a week passed since Bangalore found themselves at the bottom of table, they are now joint top (albeit having played one more game) with Delhi, Deccan, and Punjab. And at the end of the first day of IPL 2, they were top (thanks to a superior run-rate after their emphatic win over Rajasthan). So, they have traversed the table in both directions in 15 days. Talk about unpredictability!

I am highly annoyed at Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar. Legends they may be, but, impartial commentators, they definitely are not. Right from the time Danny Morrison asked Sunny for his opinion of the pitch (and this happened soon after Tendulkar won the toss and promptly decided to bat), these 2 went on and on about Mumbai is doing this well and so on. I mean, even when Bangalore had done a great job of restricting them to a very gettable 150 on an apparent batting paradise, Ravi Shastri had the gall to say that the pitch might not be as conducive for batting as it was initially thought. Which means, he would rather blame the pitch for a poor total than be honest and give credit where its due - a fine spell from IPL debutant Dillon du Preez and poor shot selection from Mumbai's batsmen. Thankfully, during the post-match presentation, he had the decency to admit that Mumbai were comprehensively outbatted by a chanceless, unbeaten 126-run partnership between Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa. Sit on the fence, you biased idiots!

The other match between KKR and Punjab ended in another last-over nailbiter. Poor Brad Hodge must be wondering what more he must do to be part of a winning team. For the second time in as many matches, he gave respectability to his increasingly demoralised franchise and, from a neutral observer's perspective, should have been the choice for MOM. How could you award MOM to a player on the losing team (Yuvraj against Bangalore) and not take the same yardstick for another player today? It beats all logic!

Monday's match sees Deccan versus Chennai. Chennai have now won 2 games on the trot defending gettable totals and that means their bowlers are outperforming their batters. Dhoni himself admitted: 

"I think my batting is pathetic in the tournament so far. All the big-hitters including Albie Morkel, Jacob Oram and I didn't really click. We need to perform in the future as we are a side that relies heavily on its batting. If one of us clicks in future and with our top-order performing well we can give good targets to our bowlers to defend. And that is our strategy."

Given Deccan's lack of composure in the end overs of their last 2 matches, Dhoni, Morkel and Oram will look to capitalize on that slight weakness. Also, the absence of the feisty Edwards could hurt for Deccan. I reckon Chennai will make it a hattrick of wins tomorrow, just as Bangalore did today.