RCB vs MI: A forgettable day. And the way forward.
Alright, so we lost to Mumbai. But volcanic ash and rain aside, we're in the semis. And must savour it. Plus, the situation around and what lies next.
Mumbai Indians 191 for 4 (Rayudu 46, Duminy 42*, McLaren 40) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 134 for 9 (Kohli 37, Pollard 3-28) by 57 runs
A shiver down the spine
It isn't everyday that you sit in an enclosed space with 45,000 others and hear that space may be blown up. Chinese Whisper is a good game for a lazy sunday afternoon with friends, but does no favours in a frenzy-like situation.
Eventually, the bombs (there was a deliberate attack) turned out to be low intensity and the threat nullified. But it affected us all. To be able to carry on with the game and watch Sachin back foot punch to point to remind us why we love it was heart warming.
It's no excuse for poor cricket, and Mumbai were clinical, but let's leave aside harsh criticism for a bit.
Yes, the form worries me, although every time we've needed to win to stay afloat, we have.
The journey's been more scrap than sizzle, but objective one on mission IPL-3 has been achieved.
The road ahead
When in doubt, I usually refer to 'Ray of Hope', a secret diary of Jennings's wisdom that I maintain in invisible ink.
Two lines invigorate me as I write this.
1. Good teams forget bad days fast and make the next their own.
2. The only thing that matters is peaking at the right time.
Well said, and the jigsaw has a few missing pieces indeed.
Here's my Pai's worth (Couldn't resist this pun concoted by a konkani friend) on strategy for the knock out stages:
1. Heavy Artillery at the start
"If you have the bombs, use them". Rumsfeld would concur. So should RCB. Get the leather belters in the top four and cobble a 60-70 in the Powerplay. Just seven runs an over post that gets us to 170. It would be fairly entertaining as well. My openers: Manish and Virat.
2. Flexibility at the toss
Bat first. Doesn't hurt. The pitch will likely be the same for the semis. Dale's snarling deliveries should plump a wee bit more fear when he has 200 runs on the board behind him.
Oh, and yeah. Catch 'em all. We dropped three regulation ones, paid 60 extra runs for those against MI yesterday and lost by 57.
Of course, Net Run Rate would have sulked as she wouldn't have gotten as much attention as she is now.
Post a comment
Notify me of follow-up comments?
Post comment to Facebook
subscribe to rss 
Archives
hot discussions
WANT TO BE A
FANATIC FAN?
FANATIC FAN?
Latest comments
You are right in saying start our batting with Manish and Virat...
But there is a problem then where will Kallis bat..He seems to be anchoring the innings..I dont think lower down the order his style of batting will help RCB..
Rather I should drop him and play Van der merwe..
What is your thought on that?
Team for Semifinal:
Kallis
Taylor
K Pietersen
Dravid
M Panday
Utappa
Kohli
Vinay Kumar
Praveen Kumar
Steyn
Anil Kumble
Don't do the same mistake in Semifinal by sending Pandey & Kallis. Bcz in first 6 overs Taylor can rise the runrate randomly.If he fails also we have a good batting lineup.