Friday, May 2, 2008

Battles of the Beleagured Captains, Bollywood, Paki Powers, & Leading Stumpers

Battle of the Beleagured Captains

One of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, captains of the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Deccan Chargers respectively, will come out on top tomorrow.

Old friends and team mates, both of them have looked out of place in 20-20 cricket.

Apart from their last innings in the Indian Premier League, they have seemed all at sea at the crease failing to adjust their games to this form of cricket and on top, their captaincy has also been anything but inspiring.

They come head to head tomorrow.

Will they be able to produce a 20-20 innings? Which one will lift their team out of the losing rut they are in? Which one of them will redeem themself tomorrow?

Battle of the Bollywood

Kolkata Knight Riders won their first 2 matches of the Indian Premier League. Kings XI Punjab lost their first 2.

Then KKR lost their next 3 matches on the trot. And KXIP won their next 3.

Shahrukh Khan is obviously disappointed at the losses but I'm sure he's hurting a lot at the fact that Preity Zinta's team has gone ahead of his in the points table. No one likes losing you see, and moreso no man likes losing to a woman. Specially not a Bollywood one.

It gets better tomorrow as SRK's Kolkata Knight Riders take on Preity's Kings XI Punjab.

Will SRK have the last laugh as he always does? Or will Zinta continue smiling and hugging her players?

Battle of the Paki Powers

Misbah Ul Haq will finally get his chance for RCB tomorrow. Or so I hope. I think common sense will finally prevail in the RCB camp and Misbah will be given his first taste of the IPL since Ross Taylor has made his way to the land of the Queen.
Misbah will be up against a team mate though - the Chargers' Shahid Afridi.
Not only are the 2 the most powerful hitters Pakistan have, they both are Pakistan's most successful 20-20 players as well. Misbah is the 2nd highest run scorer in all 20-20 Internationals, while Afridi is the highest wicket taker; and both were instrumental in taking Pakistan to the final of the 20-20 World Cup last year.
It will be a great watch if Afridi is given the ball when Misbah is in full flow. Will Afridi be able to stop Misbah? Or will Afridi bear the brunt of Misbah's blade like Harbhajan and all other spinners have?
Battle of the Leading Stumpers
One tops the most dismissals list in test cricket and the other tops the ODI one. One is second on the test dismissals list and the other is second on the ODI one. One is arguably the best wicketkeeper to play cricket, while the other definitely the best keeper batsman ever.
Both have come against each other a number of times for South Africa and Australia, but tomorrow one takes the field for RCB and the other for the Deccan Chargers.
Its Mark Boucher up against Adam Gilchrist.
Watch out for Gilchrist and Gibbs going great guns against Steyn with Boucher behind the stumps and Kallis at 1st slip. Where else but the IPL.
All this and more at the IPL Double Header starting at 1030am GMT.
(Note to Uncle J: 4 thoughts in 1 post, only for you. I could have done 4)

Make your pitch on this post...



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5 Pitched:

  1. Anonymous said...
     

    I support the Deccan Chargers. It is however a shame to see VVS Laxman captain this side when he is certainly not fit for the job. Put this team up against a Test team masquerading as a 20-20 side and you are in for a good contest, not the best possible.

    Unless Afridi, Gilchrist and the rest of the big guns on Deccan fire.

    That would sink Bangalore. Even if Misbah played.

    Laxman is however not managing to utilize his teams full potential and makes the most bizarre and stupid calls.

    Dravid also looks absolutely at sea. If he bats at number 9 tomorrow I will not be surprised.

    I feel we might be seeing two very confused captains out in the field judging by past performances.

    I just hope I am wrong and we see both captains break out of their shells and come out all guns firing and get their teams to finally click.

  2. Anonymous said...
     

    I don't think SRK would mind falling behind Zinta's team. After all chasing the Zintas is what SRK has been doing all along his life!

  3. Q said...
     

    haha, good one Som. But I don't think SRK would like to be told by Zinta that her team is doing better than his ;-)

  4. NAzhar said...
     

    good one som....:-D

  5. Trideep said...
     

    The Deccan Chargers are becoming the chokers of IPL. They have done that twice now.

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