This weekend (May 17-18, 2008) at IPL

1. Rajasthan Vs Bangalore –
Yet another match for the Bangalore team where nothing went right for them. Great start by the Rajasthan team with Smith and Swapnil (who is fondly called as “Goa Cannon” by Warnie) which was carried on by one of the best allrounders in this IPL, Watson. The only hope with the BRC was to have a good start to the innings which didn’t happen almost as expected and it was the WALL again to get some runs on the board. The batting by RD was amazing with sixes flying around, but it was rather too late and the end was almost written on the wall !!!

2. Delhi Vs Punjab –
Well the true winner of this match was one of the most famous formulae in the world today, the D&L method. Viru made full use of the explosive start he made to get a huge score on the board, but he probably himself undid that by choosing to bowl an over at a crucial point of time in the match thereby letting the advantage slip towards a victory for Punjab. When there were other options available, its baffling as to why did he choose to bowl an over to concede a whopping 22 runs. For the Punjab team, it was Mahela who came to the party atlast !!!. I had always wondered why is this talented and experienced campaigner not amongst the runs for so many matches, but he rose to the occasion in style by hitting the DD bowlers all over the park.

3. Kolkata Vs Chennai –
Yet again it was D&L who was the winner !!! Kolkata did manage to put up a fighting total on the board, but the weather GODs had a different game plan. The good start from Fleming & Parthiv was a vital factor in Chennai sealing the match in their favour when the storm and rains stopped the match. Probably KKR would rue the dropped catch in the penultimate over and of course the last ball of the 8th over which Fleming smashed for a boundary. Rather unfortunate end to a promising match, but that z the this great game of cricked is played.

4. Deccan Vs Mumbai –
Another explosive start by the old warhorse, Jayasuriya. Add to it the knocks from Abhishek Nayar, Bravo, Sachin were able to build a healthy total for Mumbai. Though Mumbai started badly by dropping the dangerous Gilly in the very first over, they bounced back very soon to quickly remove Gilly, Afridi and Rohit Sharma. The resistance from Venu and Ravi Teja was very good but too little yet too far in the end with the ever mounting asking rate. On the whole it was a team effort from the Mumbai Indians. As rightly stated by Gilly that they have to look at next year with their exit from the tournament almost certain. But for Mumbai the return of Bravo would definitely have its impact as they lose a high quality allrounder from the team.

Thought....
Its interesting and confusing to note that Blore missed to add a good performer like Robin Uthappa from their team while Mumbai missed out one of the high scorers of the tournament, Rohit Sharma from their team. Probably the loss of Uthappa for Blore is felt more due to their poor performance. Hopefully next year both these teams might want to add their home grown good players back in their ranks.