12 days into the IPL and there have been many a hit and miss in the tournament. This piece reviews the moments of the tournament for each of the teams.
Royal Challengers Bangalore’:**Hits’: A first match win against the defending champions would have warmed the cockles of most Bangalore hearts, but none more than that man who spent the best part of $100m to buy the team which had struggled to put points in their kitty last time around. Everyone knows the casualties at the end of it all, but in the end what counts are the results and this was definitely one of them; especially after Mallya’s team was defending a paltry total.
Oh and it was Rahul Dravid’s half century that had even got the RCs to that score. The man who had unceremoniously dumped from the captaincy for being a part of the ‘test team’.
**Misses: The same story repeated after the first game; string of losses, a disgruntled owner, an indifferent captain in Kevin Pietersen who barely remembered his players’ names and a line-up as settled as a nomad. Some things never change, do they?
*Kolkata Knight Riders:’Hits: After a lot of thought, I sense that I don’t remember too many. Nor will too many others as well. Chris Gayle’s smashing inning in the rain-curtailed match to beat the Kings XI Punjab was the one I can think of. Gayle was in his elements, and deposited most of the deliveries to where he thought was the best place for them; towards the fence. That, unfortunately has been their only win till date.*Misses’: It is endless, the list is. But remaining within the realms of the playing field, the tied game against the Rajasthan Royals was one the biggest misses for the Knight Riders. Sourav Ganguly looked on course to be playing one of his best inning in a victorious cause along with the little known Yashpal Singh when the latter played a stroke he would want to forget in a hurry. Ganguly fell soon after, the match was tied and went into the ‘super-over’, and Yusuf Pathan ensured that there were no hiccups from his side. 