2010 IPL Diary: The mid-table battles begin!

By chetannarula, Sports Looney
Friday April 2nd 2010

One-sided matches between two equally placed teams in any tournament can be a rarity. Not so in the Indian Premier League, for here fortunes change in a flash and if it is just not your day, it is just not your day. No one could accept that better than Rajasthan Royals’ skipper Shane Warne as he acknowledged in the post-match presentation that although they had full plans for every move made by Delhi, none of them worked.

It would be harsh to say none, for they did get David Warner, Virender Sehwag and Paul Collingwood out, and these were the batsmen in form for the hosts. From here on, all you need is a couple more wickets and you would be chasing a sub-100 total when playing Delhi for their middle order is quite well known in the IPL circles for its weakness. Not anymore though it seems. The team think-tank, with Gautam Gambhir at its head, has found a new solution and balance for the team which allows Warner to open and Gambhir himself to anchor the innings later on.

In the last match against Kolkata Knight Riders, this task was performed by Collingwood as Warner blazed his way to a ton. This day was a bit different though as Gambhir first went about resurrecting the innings and then late on Dinesh Karthik peeled off the bowling in inimitable style. Rare are these days for the second-choice Indian stumper but when they do come, it is for every body to see why he was considered to be the best thing happening to Indian cricket before MS Dhoni came along.

That Karthik has grown as a player is sometimes hotly debated but if anything, there was indeed a moment in this game which would suggest that the critics have gotten it wrong. Going for a quick single, the bowler Warne back tracked right onto his way and there was a bit of touch and push moment. For a second one thought it was nothing and indeed it wasn’t. But expect the Australian players to get stuck in nevertheless and we had the Royals’ captain questioning Karthik on national television over an incident which didn’t really matter.

Or so we thought. Karthik unleashed an array of shots straight from the belligerent book, comfortably taking Delhi past 160 and then even above 180. Once that had transpired it was clear to every one who would be the most important Rajasthan batsman to walk in. Gambhir confessed as much in his post-match briefing when he said that they only feared Yusuf Pathan and no one else. Pathan did walk in to bat but only after four wickets had gone down and that is not the ideal way to chase a target when over nine runs an over are required from the start.

Now that the return leg of the tournament is under way, where do the teams go from here? Delhi are looking more fearless by the day and that can happen when all your jigsaw pieces start to fit and you only need to fear one player in the opposition. Quite clearly this might be the time for them to go on a little run and get into the semis. For Rajasthan though the task is a little edgier for they know they can be pulled back easily by any more such mid-table teams. And there are three out there – Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings – all boasting atleast more than one player whom the opposition ought to fear.

This article was first published at www.cricketworld.com.