Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders registered comfortable wins in their 3rd games.
Deccan looked determined right from the onset and the Bangalore chase never happened even though Virat Kohli fought till the end. The batting order of RCB was flawed. Pujara coming at 6 after the lesser players was an awful sin and that reflected in their 33 runs loss. They have now lost last 2 games and they suddenly seem the team of the 2008 season rather than being the team of 2009 and 2010 under gutsy Anil Kumble. Still early days though, they would look forward to bounce back in the next few games.
Kolkata Knight Riders had their best outing in the IPL most probably today earlier morning EST. Gambhir played an aggressive knock after ages and the good thing was he didnt throw his wicket away. Kallis and he guided KKR to a comfortable win in the end thus ending fairytale of RR in Jaipur where they have won 9 of 12 games. The RR got a start but none of them converted that start to a big score. Dravid has been solid, but his strike rate has been in lowly 100s and 110s not quite upto the mark. It was sinful not to have opened with Shane Watson instead of Paunikar who had a 3rd failure in row.
The RR got their batting order flawed today and 159 wasnt a very safe score given the batting lineup the KKR have. Shane Warne for first time looked pedestal and today he had no resources and tricks to beat KKR in the game and in the end KKR romped home by 9 wickets.
And in the ongoing game, its the Tendulkar magic yet again. He is yet to get out this tournament and his last dismissal had been 2 weeks back on this very ground off his team mate Lasith Malinga.
Its a bit irony and strange that the cricket is back on the iconic Wankhede after 2 weeks India won that epic world cup final.
PS : India's 2 Test stalwarts Laxman, Dravid are injured and though its too early to press panic before West Indies tour, their handling in the IPL would be a thing to watch out for. Another concern is the dodgy shoulder of Virender Sehwag and some media reports say that he neeeds a surgery and for that he might skip the West Indies tour. Not good though if true.
