The Importance of a Captain
The shorter the time of a match the importance of the captain increases, in day8 of the IPL season 5 both the match proved the same. First Dhoni’s heroism with the bat then Gilchrist’s shuffling of bowlers.
Chennai Super kings VS Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai
Chris Gayle ransacked the Chennai bowling early on
In the first game of the day at Chennai, it was a day where humidity touched 98% in Chennai, Royal challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to bat first. Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal got off to a good start bringing up the team 50 inside 5overs. When Agarwal got out to Bravo, Virat Kohli supported Gayle at the other end. Gayle hit some lusty shots over the boundary hitting six 6’s enroute to 68 of just 35 balls. Virat kohli made a well paced half century of 57 of 46 balls hitting some excellent boundaries. But late wickets in the last 2 overs where CSK conceded only 15 in the 2 overs helped them to restrict RCB to 205/9. Bollinger proved to be hero for picking up 3 wickets for 24 runs. When Chennai came into bat it the target looked tough but not impossible, a good start was expected from the CSK openers and M. Vijay and F Du Plessis gave them the same. when CSK lost the wicket of Raina, MS Dhoni came to bat at no.4, playing an important role in the run chase.
Kohli sheds 28 off an over
Dhoni first participated in a rock solid partnership with Du Plessis of 40 runs and then a hard hitting partnership of 35 runs with Dwane Bravo. When Dhoni got out CSK still required 43 runs of the last two overs and then in came Albie Morkel. He swung his bat at every ball hitting the inning’s penultimate over for 28 runs which swung the match in Chennai’s favor. The difference between the two team was the captaincy when Chennai super king’s were bowling in the last over’s Dhoni preserved his best 2 bowlers to bowl the penultimate and the last over picking 5 wickets and allowing only 15 runs in last 2 overs. On the other hand Daniel Vettori had no choice. He had bowled himself out, along with Murlidharan and Zaheer Khan. Vettori had no choice but to give the part time of Virat kohli the ball in the 19th over and Vinay Kumar bowling the last over. Chennai with this win underlines the fact: “Dont mess with us at home.”
Kings XI Punjab vs. Pune Warriors, Mohali
Gilchrist whips off the bails to dismiss Ryder
In the second game of the day Kings XI Punjab vs. Pune Warriors, it was the first home game for the team Punjab. The pitch was one of the liveliest pitches the tournament. The Mohali pitch is considered one of the fastest pitches of India and with the grass on the pitch, Kings XI Punjab chose to field. Pune started cautiously but an error of judgement of the part of Jesse Ryder sent him bck to the pavilion run out. Sourav Ganguly too went cheaply of 16 of 9 balls foxed by a slow medium pace of Dimtri Mascarenhas chipping one to the air. Marlon Samuels came and left without making much of a difference. He never looked like understanding the pace and bounce of the pitch. Robin Uthappa and Mithun Manhas tried to raise run rate but Uthappa fell against the run of play. Mathews, Smith and Manish Pandey couldn’t provide good support to Mithun Manhas. Mascarenhas’s 5 wickets bowled Pune Warriors out for 115 in 19overs.
Marsh made a handy contribution
Kings XI Punjab lost the first wicket in the first ball. But Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh steadied the innings. Eventually Gilchrist fell in the run of play, Shaun Marsh played an excellent innings showing glimpses of the past from the season 1 hitting seven 4’s and one 6. His shots had the elegant timing especially in the third over of the innings against Marlon Samuels when he hit 2 fours one through the extra cover region and other his favourite shot cut through the point region. He was given a life when Punjab was on 78/3. Piyush Chawla supported Shaun Marsh well hitting the winning runs. Kings XI Punjab beat Pune Warriors by 7 wickets.
With Punjab winning they bring upon the first points on the board with a home win they next face KKR at Kolkata but this time they would be a much more confident unit. Chennai face Pune on 14th, this Saturday which looks it has all the ingredients to be a party. The RCB boys face the mighty Rajasthan Royals at home.
To conclude, this IPL is turning out to be an open contest with no team looking to be a clear cut favourite from the eye of the experts.
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