The beginning of a new IPL season! Runners up in IPL-2! The best team on paper! The signs couldn't be more positive than this for RCB.



Match 1 - RCB vs. KKR (Eden Gardens): Loss

Along came KKR, with a win under their belt in their first match against last year's winner, DC. And continued to win. For an RCB fan, it was an excruciating watch. After struggling to a paltry 135/7, with Kallis scoring half of the teams runs, I thought we still had a chance. But it wasn't to be. While defending a small total, instead of opening the bowling with our fastest and most aggressive bowler (Steyn), Kumble opted for Praveen Kumar and Kallis. Considering the purple patch that Steyn hit as the tournament progressed, this might have been the first costly error that RCB committed in IPL-3. Further on, RCB decided to indulge in charity. As KKR started their chase, in over #4, Brad Hodge and Manoj Tiwary got mixed up at the same end of the crease. RCB decided to ignore this and threw the ball all over the place until Tiwary and Hodge got comfortably settled at either end of the crease. To add insult to injury, Tiwary (who should have been out for 8 at that point) went on to score 20 runs in his next four balls, and finally scored a 29-ball 50. Considering RCB was defending just 135, that's being extremely philanthropistic. And here's the final icing on the cake...the statistic that made the difference victory and defeat: KKR scored 61/0 during powerplay. RCB DID NOT return the favour and scored 24/3 in the first 6 overs. Considering we lost with only 4 balls to spare, an extra 15 runs might have said a different story!!



Match 2 - RCB vs. Kings XI (Chinnaswamy): Won

On a fast Bangalore pitch, Kumble went in with Steyn, Praveen Kumar, Kallis and Vinay Kumar. And did it pay off? Not exactly! Because it was the batsmen who won us the match, not the bowlers!! Our bowling and fielding woes, much like the first match, started pretty much at the beginning itself. Manvinder Bisla had no business to score beyond 16 runs, when Steyn missed a pretty simple run out. And you guessed it...he went on to clobber 59 more runs from 32 odd balls after that!! This missed chance was just the beginning. Then the flood gates opened up. And before we knew it, Kings XI had scored a huge 203/3 in 30 overs, scoring at pretty much 9-10 runs per over from the 10th over onwards. It was a match that Steyn would like to forget. So would Vinay Kumar and Kumble. And then, the Lord said "Let There Be Light!"...and there was! One of RCB's better opening stands in IPL, Kallis and Pandey put on 61/0 in 6 overs. The turning point, however, came in the 13th over. With 90 runs reqd of 8 overs, Robin Uthappa delivered a special treat, hammering three 6's and a 4 and collecting 25 runs in the over, while puncturing Sreesanth's confidence as well as Kings XI's. The final turning point was Kallis treat - over #18...three 6's, one 4, 23 runs, goodbye Kings XI!! Without doubt, the victory belonged to Kallis and Uthappa!!



Match 3 - RCB vs. RR (Chinnaswamy): Won

Tight...Tighter...Tightest bowling! Period! That sealed the deal for RCB. The tactic was clear - bowl short, into the ribs of the batsmen. Just three 4's until the 11th over!! And 50 dot balls by the 15th over itself! Can't ask for more! And of course, Praveen Kumar's hat-trick for RCB! In my opinion, two overs turned the match - the 17th and the 20th. In total, these overs produced 6 wickets for 6 runs. RCB's ploy to hold back length balls paid off beautifully and RR got bundled out for a measly 92. But one cannot forget Kallis' and Pandey's onslaught while chasing. 92 runs achieved in about 10 overs boosted our NRR, which as we all later saw, came very handy while qualifying for the semis. RCB's most comprehensive victory in the league stage!!



Match 4 - RCB vs. Mumbai Indians (Brabourne): Won

Hard to pick the turning point of this match but it definitely turned out to be among the better RCB victories of IPL-3. In my opinion, overs #9 and #10 proved decisive for RCB. Mumbai Indians were comfortable placed at 67/2 after 9 overs. With strong batting to follow, Tendulkar & Tiwary set at the crease and 11 more overs to go, they looked set for a 170+ total. And then all hell broke loose. Kumble takes Tiwary out in the 9th, and in comes Vinay Kumar to snare the wickets of Rayudu, Tendulkar and Bravo. What an over!! Mumbai lost 4 wickets for 5 runs and were suddenly staring down the barrel. And then again...Steyn plucked Pollard's and Sathish's wickets in the 18th over and restricted a 160+ total. Who's to say how much Pollard could have scored had he not gotten out in the 18th!! Further on, Kallis continued to remain unbeaten in the tournament and along with Pandey, added 55 during powerplay and 85 runs for the first wicket. A pretty tense victory in the last over, but all's well that ends well.



Match 5 - RCB vs. CSK (Chinnaswamy): Won

"Uthappa...Uthappa...Hodiappa...Hodiappa!!" As I stood there in the Stand A at the stadium and chanted these words along with thousands of others, I saw the ball flying to all parts of the ground from Uthappa's bat. After a rather sedate start by RCB standards, scoring just 38 runs in powerplay (and losing Kallis' wickets, which till now seemed impossible!!), wickets were lost regularly. Until of course, Uthappa arrived at the crease. This, in my opinion, was the second big turning point of the match. What an innings - 68 of 38 balls. The first turning point was the sheer number of catches and run outs that CSK missed...about 5-6 chances. 171 wasn't going to be easy. It wasn't a very big score either. But the bowlers, yet again, sealed it for RCB. 29/1 at the end of powerplay told the story. Then CSK lost its' way. Between the 10th and 13th over, they lost 4 wickets for 21 runs!! The third big turning point in this game for RCB was Kumble's spell. His miserly 4 overs for 15 runs strangled the CSK scoring rate hard enough to ensure victory for RCB. Look at those bowling figures again because you won't see it too often. He didn't get too many wickets, but in T20, dot balls are more valuable than wickets, right?



Match 6 - RCB vs. DD (Chinnaswamy): Loss

A loss was a tough result to digest after 4 consecutive wins. But what goes up must come down. In hindsight, the above four victories finally managed in a large way to get us in to semis. Anyway, back to this match...We lost the match in several places during play. With a bowling line up that continuously had delivered, it was really strange to see the same line up concede 64 runs during powerplay. David Warner clobbered 33 runs of 14 balls, after being dropped in the first over for 4. Blasphemous!! The kind of start he provided spread panic among RCB who hadn't really been taken for too many runs in the past 5 games during powerplay. When the fast bowlers were getting hammered all around the ground, I thought about the old adage - "When in doubt, go for spin!!" Personally, I feel Kumble could have come on to bowl much earlier to arrest the flow of runs. The pace of the wicket was good and there were too many length balls on offer for Delhi to get a flying start. But RCB stuck to its' tried and tested plan of bowling seamers only in the beginning (which obviously didn't work this time) and this probably proved to be a turning point later on in the result of the match. We could have and SHOULD have adjusted to change. Moving on, after scoring a decent 71/0 in 9 overs, all hell broke loose. From 85/1, RCB slipped to 90/4, losing Pandey, Dravid and wonder boy Uthappa in quick succession. These wickets, in my opinion, turned the match around on its' head. Immature shots, cute (and unnecessary) reverse sweeps and a horrendous run out dug the hole for RCB. Thereafter, wickets fell, the crowd sighed, I wept...and RCB's dream run came to an end.



Match 7 - RCB vs. CSK (Chepauk): Loss

Match 7 marked the beginning of a down slide for RCB. The Midas touch of the batting openers had gotten lost somewhere between B'lore and Chennai during the 6 day break. Pandey scratched around and failed. And Kallis' 52 in 49 balls was slow enough to make him the most-discussed/hated/disliked player on royalchallengers.com. In a big way, the pace of his innings was key to the final match result. With a little bit of acceleration, and an extra 15-20 runs, the result might have been different. Praveen Kumar had a day he'd like to forget. Even I could guess the frequency of his slower deliveries. And guess who else guessed...of course Murali Vijay. But the second nail in the coffin was Kumble's choice of field placing. In my opinion, he pulled fine leg and third up into the circle far too often, allowing freebie fours. It didn't help that the bowlers didn't bowl to the field either. At the end of it all, I just drank myself to sleep and missed work the next day!!!

With 4 wins from 7 matches, and a healthy NRR, RCB was managing to keep its' head well above water. And so began Phase II... Match 8 - RCB vs. Kings XI Punjab (Mohali) - Won Kings XI 182/5; RCB 184/4 Surprisingly, for a bottom-table team, Kings XI's batting was a great example of how to pace an innings...a slow start (41/1 in power play), regular 4's between the 7th and the 14th, and then a full-blooded assault in the death. RCB conceded 62 runs in the last 5 (41 in the last 3 alone) and had a stiff 182 to chase. All bowlers had got tonked around, with Kallis obliging the most...too many balls on to the pads and slow bouncers for my liking. As RCB came out to bat, Kallis' loss of form was becoming apparent to everyone, him included!! But with the super deep batting line up that we had, we were always in with a good chance. A decent 51/1 in the first 6 overs, RCB scored slowly in the next 8, losing 1 wicket and adding 59 runs. And then...the before-party to the after-party began. In my opinion, overs 15, 16 and 17 served RCB the match on a platter - 49 runs in these 3 overs. But this time, Sreesanth must have silently giggled to himself...it wasn't him but Brett Lee who's confidence got punctured (25 runs in the 17th). Clearly, without KP, Kohli and Uthappa, the match could have gone Kings XI's way. After this match, had Uthappa stood for elections, I'm pretty sure he'd have won. By a laaaaarge margin!! Match 9 - RCB vs. Delhi Daredevils (Feroze Shah Kotla, Delhi) - Lost Kings XI 184/5; RCB 147/9 With Steyn and Praveen Kumar being rested for the game, we were always going to be at least one quality bowler short in this game. And it showed!! Paul's calling(wood) came in this game as he politely pulverized the RCB attack. In spite of conceding a decent 54 runs in the power play and snaring 2 wickets, RCB continued to leak runs and in the end, faced a target of 185. My feeling is, we lost the match mostly in the 6th and 11th overs. In both these overs, RCB had grabbed back-to-back wickets but failed to maintain the momentum. White had to shoulder bowling responsibilities, since we were a bowler short, but his single over costing 19 runs made me change the TV channel for a short while!! The less said about RCB’s batting, the better!! 185 was always going to be tough on a Delhi wicket. Kallis' slower-than-evolution innings held the batting together, while wickets fell around him. You can't expect Uthappa to bail us out every time, can you? He isn't some sort of assembly-line production for quick runs!! And as law of averages caught up with him, RCB gulped down a second loss to the Daredevils in IPL-3. Match 10 - RCB vs. Deccan Chargers (Chinnaswamy) - Lost RCB 184/6; Deccan Chargers 186/3 Interestingly, RCB had scored exactly 184 in the past two matches too, losing an extra wicket each match. Useless trivia, so let's get on with this match. Whenever RCB has played against DC, I've always been confident because, historically, we've beaten them more than they have. But I guess it was wrongly-placed confidence. In spite of a rare batting failure, Kallis and Kohli ensured we reached a challenging total, with White adding the icing on the cake. But guess what...we went on to lose the match, which had RCB written all over it. And that too from a position where DC required 73 runs from 36 balls to win and had just lost the wickets of Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma. Even a 3-year old will know we lost due to our pathetic death bowling. Too many length balls on middle and leg stump and horribly-gone-wrong-attempted-yorkers-turning-into-juicy-full-tosses. If anyone in the stadium was happy, it must have been the fans close to mid-wicket. The sheer number of fours that were scored in that area (of course RCB didn't put a fielder there in spite of leaking runs in that area over after over! Whaddya think??!!) must have been paisa-vasool for them!! Match 11 - RCB vs. KKR (Chinnaswamy) - Won KKR 160/9; RCB 162/3 It had been a while since the bowlers had come good for RCB and what a crucial match to come good in (we'd lost 4 out of last 5 games played). In the beginning, it didn't seem so, though. RCB conceded 61/1 in powerplay, and at the end of the 11th, KKR was comfortably placed at 101/1, with McCullum and Ganguly threatening to unleash a barrage of boundaries. And then came the tight bowling that RCB had so badly missed in recent matches. In the next 3 overs, they conceded 20 runs for 3 crucial wickets. This was the first nail in the coffin. Thereafter, after such a promising start, KKR kicked the bucket themselves scoring 39 runs in the last 6 overs, losing 5 wickets (all 5 coming in the last 4 overs). So, what could have been a 180+ target was kept down to a mere 160. Take a bow Steyn, Vinay and Kumble, you miserly fellas!! I have to confess though, that when the chase began, I was still on the edge. Can't blame me...after so many losses, confidence tends to take a beating!! But I guess the victory was never in doubt as I watched Dravid bat. His 52 off 35 balls put a wide smile on my otherwise forlorn face. And the icing..?? Uthappa, Taylor and Dravid hammered 77 runs in 5.1 overs at the end at a mind boggling 15 runs per over. Eat this!!! Match 12 - RCB vs. Deccan Chargers (Nagpur) - Lost DC 151/6; RCB 138/10 Chance to redeem lost pride, having lost the first match against DC, but chance lost yet again. After having DC on the mat at 1/2 in the 1st and 16/3 in the 3rd, they managed to get away with some free hitting and post a respectable 151 on a slow wicket. Can't blame the bowlers here really. They did their job, and I'm sure at the end of the 1st innings, they'd have been confident that the deep RCB batting lineup would carry them through. But the anti-climax, that we've gotten so used to, was just waiting to happen. After a decent start (in spite of Manish Pandey returning hastily to the dug out after the 1st ball itself), RCB had added 72/1 at the end of 10 overs, requiring just 80 from 60 balls. With the World-XI-esque batting to follow, I decided to finally start dinner. And then, RCB did a KKR! Between overs 14 and 17, they lost 4 wickets for 20. My heart went out for Uthappa, who's quick fire 34 in 20 balls inspired hope amongst hopeless fans like me. But victory was just a mirage by then. RCB seemed in a hurry to get to the after-party and dinner just got stuck in my throat. Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh's 2 over spells in the middle overs were the turning point. Seriously, such a talent-loaded team that RCB is...how they managed to crumble like this is beyond me. Match 13 - RCB vs. Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur) - Won RR 130/6; RCB 132/5 Pretty much a must-win match for RCB (considering the next opponent, Mumbai, would be tougher), and the bowlers delivered, yet again!! 3 wickets for 4 runs between overs 2 and 3, and a score for 30/3 at the end of power play made for some very pretty reading. The fact that just 4 overs went for over 10 r.p.o speaks volumes of the kind of effort the RCB bowlers put in in a crucial match. The earlier tactic of bowling short, into the RR batsmen's ribs fetched as many as 4 out of 6 wickets and Pankaj Singh turned out to be the new find. When they came out to bat, RCB's intent was obvious - score runs as fast as possible and up the NRR. And the execution was perfect, until the 10th over - 91/2 and KP going insane with the bat. And then what followed was frustrating, scary even!! The infamous KP-Kohli run out hogged more limelight than the victory itself, but as I've said earlier, all's well that ends well. RCB romped home with close to 5 overs to spare, 14 points in the kitty and an envious NRR!! Match 14 - RCB vs. Mumbai Indians (Brabourne) - Lost MI 191/4; RCB 134/9 A tragic match for many reasons - Bomb blast outside the stadium, a 57 run loss that dented RCB's NRR and finally, the news of the semi-finals being shifted out of Bangalore to Mumbai. Murphy's law - If anything can go wrong, it will!! In this case, everything went wrong!! Starting with our bowling. In spite of a terrific display during power play, in which RCB conceded just 34 runs and snapped the priceless wicket of Tendulkar, 116 runs were clobbered by the Mumbai batsmen in the last 10 overs. 7 of the overs bowled during the innings conceded >10 runs at an insane rate of 16.3 r.p.o. A big turning point in the match was Vinay Kumar's catch drop of Rayadu, when he was on 18. And as always, the batsman went on to score 46 runs at a strike rate of 170. Aaargh!! But there was hope with the kind of batting RCB had. Or so I thought. Truly a pathetic display of batting, the famed lineup crumbled faster than I could mouth the word "crumble". In my opinion, we lost the chase completely in between the 10th and 11th overs, when we KP and Uthappa got out in a space of 4 balls. Thereafter, there was just too much to do for the rest of the batsmen, and I was just glad that RCB had managed to squeeze in to the semis. Live to fight another day, boys!!!