RCB 1st Phase Summary : An excellent start by Namma Bengaluru by winning four of there first five matcheds. Classy Kallis, Blistering Uthappa and a ever reliable Jumbo wee important to this start. Losing last 2 matches against Dardevils and Super kings was the downside. Semis Spot : Normally in IPL as they say winning 8 matches will make sure a team goes to the last four. RCB had a good chance given there start but they should be cautious and what happened in next 30 days was history Players who will deliver : In form Kallis was a big bet to the teams success. I expected dravid to be sent up the order given his Immense International experience. Entry of KP and ross will give a big boost to the team given that these players are fearless, have a proven record and can tear apart any attack. Match by Match Analysis : KXP vs RCB - KXP started well with marsh, sangakkar building a good platform. Late innings cameo from Yuvraj helped KXP post a good total of 181. Kallis leaked 45 of his 4 overs. RCB started poorly but were helped by a very good partnership between KP and Kohli. Missed catches especially by Sreesanth and Sangakkara helped RCB on there way. 17th over of the innings by Lee turned out to be decisive and RCB chased down 181. RCB vs DD - Gambhir lead Delhi won the toss and put RCB into ball. Warner and Sehwag started with a bang especially Viru smashing all the RCB bowlers. But soon after there dismissals bangalore got more wickets. It was Collingwood (75*) who played a composed innings and combined with Dan Vettori made sure they reached a good total of 184. Abhimanyu Mithun was very expensive conceding 13 runs per over of the total 3 overs he bowled. RCB needed a good start but unfortunately kept losing wickets. Mishra and Sangwan bowled really well and even though Kallis made 54, we fell short by a margin of 37 runs. RCB vs DC - In the Garden city of Bangalore, Glichrist won the toss and put RCB into bat. Again Kallis held the fort and in the middle combined with Kohli to build a good partnership. Ojha bowled well but other bowlers didnt do enough and Bangalore posted a very good score of 184. Gilchrist got DC to a blazing start (32 of 19 balls). Kumble removed his opposite number and RCB picked couple more wickets in the early stages of DC innings. Suman and Symonds built a imposing partnership. Man of the match suman played a very good hand of 78 and helped his team win. KKR vs RCB - Dangerous trio of Sourav, Brendon and Gayle gave a great start to KKR after RCB won toss and elected to field. After having scored 100 of 11 overs they lost the plot as Vinay Kumar bowled a good spell of 23/3 of his 3 overs. What looked like 180+ total was restricted to 160. RCB again got to a slow start but the Wall Dravid and Uthappa made sure RCB won in 17.1 overs RCB vs DC - Playing DC for the second time in less then a week, RCB put DC to bat. Chargers started poorly as steyn bowled a excellent spell. It was Rohit sharma and the new boy Monish Mishra who made sure DC set 152 for bangalore to win. RCB in reply made a decent start with dravid playing a good hand of 49 from 35 balls. But DC kept chipping away and it was some good hits by Uthappa which brought some smiles back in doug out. Harmeet singh however bowled a very good penultimate over and RCB lost again to Deccan Chargers. RR vs RCB - Royals looked to put a big total in a virtual quarter final and elected to bat. They started poorly and there batsmen struggled throughout there innings. A cameo from Raut (32 of 20 balls) helped them get to a paultry 130. RCB wanted to chase down fast to get there Run rate going. It was KP all the way, his 29 ball 62 helped RCB win over hapless Royals and almost register a place in the semis. RCB vs MI - In a match delayed by a explosion outside Chinnaswamy stadium, Kumble again decided to chase. MI lost Tendlya early but good cameos by Rayudu and Mclaren at the end helped mumbai post a mammoth 191. RCB's bowling and fielding was very poor, except a economic spell from Steyn. RCB's batsmen came in, made a dozen plus runs and went away. It was a no show from the batsman and they lost to the better team by a huge margin of 57 runs. Very mixed bag performace by RCB in the 2nd phase and thanks to the Net Run Rate we just sneaked in and were set to play semis against Mumbai in Mumbai. Disappointed RCB fans lost out a chance to watch semis in Bangalore.

RCB III Phase Review : 7 Wins, 7 Losses = 14 matches (50% Record). What if they have a 50% record in the 3rd phase? - They will not win the IPL. Key Players - All 11 members + 12th man who should field well when he is on the field. Weather : Showers were expected in bangalore and after the explosion matches were shifted to mumbai, who knows Mumbai may also get some showers. Venue : We may see 50-100 red t shirts in the ground rest will be blue. But there will be lakhs of RCB supporters back home. Mood in the Camp : Everyone should be excited to play against Mumbai in Mumbai. April 21st 2010 - RCB vs MI - 1st Semifinal Pitch Report : Pitch will slow down as the match progresses, its a hard surface with less grass cover blah blah blah ... Toss : Someone had to bowl or bat, it was mumbai who batted. Play : If Tendulkar got out for india, opposition used to think they won the match, What were RCB Bowlers thinking after getting his wicket?. Rayudu, Tiwary played well and pollard played in true caribbean style to take the team's score 184. Why was pollard in red hot form that day? - Ah i dont know. RCB started poorly - Couple of sixes from Uthappa and Ross staying in wicket for a long time were the only highlights. RCB lost by 35 runs and disappointed RCB fans had to wait for less time to see there next match for the 3rd play off. 3rd Play Off - When the pitch is slow , Only thing you want to do is bat first, thats why chennai defeated to DC. DC VS RCB : DC thought we will also bat first on this slow wicket and win, but they were just dreaming. Very good bowling performance by Jumbo and PK helped RCB rattle DC for 82. A certain Mr Anirudh singh got a 40 and thats it. We chased the score in 13.5 overs and our Net Run rate was very very good, but the win made sure that we qualified for the Champions League. Well this is how i thought of putting the III Phase review in a comical way. I am true RCB fan and i was as disappointed as others when they lost the semis, but was a normal human and very happy after they qualified for Champions League.