Posted on May 1, 2010 | Category: Twenty20
We pegged them as the team to beat and the favourites for IPL 3, but in what we were all hoping would be the eventual final had Bangalore return to the CINOs that we all used to know and mock. After restricting Mumbai to 4/107 at the end of fifteen overs by some tidy spin bowling by Pietersen and Kumble, the hard work was ruined as Kallis and Kumble were plundered by Tiwary and a cameo 33 off 13 from Kieron Pollard took Mumbai to 5/184. RCB stacked the decks with Kallis, Pietersen, Uthappa and Dravid leaving them in tatters at 4/81 after nine overs. Ross Taylor then knew what Daniel Vettori feels like and was stranded after 20 overs on 31* leaving Bangalore 35 runs short of the target.
After Virender Sehwag plundered 74 off 38 to take Delhi to 6/185, a Chennai squad that was missing MS Dhoni looked in trouble when Patel was run out by AB de Villiers in the second over. All looked lost for the Super Kings until Matthew Hayden brought out the highly publicised Mongoose bat. The bat with a longer handled who’s use was pioneered by Stuart Law in the county scene was brought out by Hayden and the results spoke for themselves. Blasting his way to a career best 93 off 43, Chennai chased down the total and won by five wickets.
With the fall of Sehwag, Gambhir and Karthik inside the first three overs it would be easy to write off the Daredevils especially since KKR was actually performing a lot better this year. Would this be a sweet Kolkata victory? Not if Paul Collingwood and David Warner had anything to say about it. Collingwood does what he does best and dropped anchor scoring a modest 53 off 45 while Warner let fly and punished the KKR bowling attack making 107 off 69. Kolkata was never in the chase and Delhi won by 40 runs.
Much like the Melbourne Storm, the incredibly horrible Kings XI Punjab were playing for nothing but pride while Chennai had only one option. A win gets them into the semi finals and a loss means they don’t make it. With finally finding form at the wrong end of the tournament an 88* from Shaun Marsh took KXP to 3/192, a more than daunting task for Chennai especially since Matthew Hayden had turned into Sanath Jayasuriya circa 2009. With the loss of Suresh Raina it would be safe to assume the Kings were out but MS Dhoni refused to go down without a fight and powered Chennai into the Semi Finals with a six scoring 54* off 29 with 2 balls to spare.
When only five bowlers need to be used in a Twenty20 match by the fielding team its extremely safe to assume that the batting side has made a mess of things. Well things were in shambles for the Rajasthan Royals in what was Damien Martyn’s return and subsequent farewell to officialy sanctioned cricket as the Bangalore bowling attack dominated and bowled them out for 92 runs. It only took 10.4 overs for Manish Pandey and the leaner and meaner Jaques Kallis to reach the total.
In our IPL 3 preview I mentioned how Kumar Sangakkara should watch out for his team considering what happened last time a foreign wicketkeeper batsman took over as head of the team. Well the losing run of KXP looked to continue as Chris Gayle became his old swashbuckling self and launched himself to 88 off 42 to set up the highly competetive 200 as a target for Punjab. Since everything else had failed KXP promoted Jayawardene to open in the absence of Shaun Marsh and they were rewarded with a magnificent 110* to take Punjab to victory and a rather large slice of humble pie served directly to Ryan Campbell.
Rajasthan seemed to have remained consistant carrying over their 2009 form when they really needed to get back to their game winning 2008 performance and Match 36 looked like they would continue their so-so run. Poor Shane Watson once again had to build the entire innings with his 58 an integral part of giving the Royals 159 to defend. With Rohit Sharma blasting 73 of 44 it looked like the Chargers would steamroll the poor Royals but once Warne took the wicket of Anirudh Singh for 9, Deccan unravelled with Warnie taking another three wickets to finish up with 4/21 and despite Deccan taking 13 runs off Morne Morkel in the second last over, the Royals dipped into their 2008 playbook and won by 2 runs.
This was the match that should have made Murali Vijay a household name as his explosive 127 off 56 took Chennai to 5/246, the highest total in IPL history. Rajasthan’s bowlers were ransacked with only Freemo’s favourite IPL player Abishek Jhunjhunwala going at an economy rate of less than 10 an over. Rajasthan, never a stranger to a challenge, looked to have the chase in their sights with Ojha scoring 94 off 55 and Shane Watson making his IPL return adding 60 to the total. But it was an extraordinary catch to dissmiss Yusuf Pathan that added to an amazing debut for Doug Bollinger. Taking the vital wicket of Shane Watson, Bollinger put the nail in the coffin of the Royals finishing up his four overs with 2/15. Doug Bollinger had arrived and the Super Kings had (in my opinion) the world’s best strike bowler in their arsenal.
After 56 matches it had come down to this. Arguably the two biggest active names in Indian cricket were coming head to head. On one side you had Tendulkar, one of the greatest batsmen of all time in the best form of his career and captain of the IPL’s ‘minor premiers’ battling a hand injury to lead his team into the final. On the other side you have MS Dhoni, the new cooler youthful (by comparison) representative of the new Indian cricket age in the IPL final once more trying to secure victory. The marquee had it all and in the end it was youth that prevailed with the Super Kings claiming the title and becoming the first Indian captain to raise the IPL trophy.
We had high hopes for Bangalore before the start of IPL 3, but they were dashed at the hands of Mumbai in the first semi. Surely we couldn’t be wrong could we? After copping a rough deal due to Net Run Rate in last years Champions League and a heartbreaking loss in the 2009 final, Bangalore looked to right the wrongs of missing out on the IPL title and had Deccan in their crosshairs for revenge. They may not have claimed the IPL title but they made their way into the Champions League with authority as they crushed the Deccan batting lineup that could only put 82 runs on the board. This was the Bangalore that we were hoping to see in IPL 3 and we got to see it… in the third place playoff. Mark my words though, come the Champions League, Bangalore will be ready and will be the force to be reckoned with!
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