April 24:
Deccan v. Rajasthan
Star among stars... Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals)
There were so many candidates for this today that any choice was bound to be controversial. Andrew Symonds, for one, came in under pressure after his team had lost Gilchrist and Afridi, and then went on to hit the fastest century of the tournament. He would've been a shoe-in for the award under just about any circumstances, except in the event that his bowling got so viciously spanked that it lost the Chargers the game. Hmm...
Candidate no.2, Jack Johnson Yusuf Pathan, got the two vital wickets of Gilchrist and Afridi (when was the last time you've seen Gilly get stumped anyway?), and then followed that with a rapid-fire pinch-hitter's 60, giving the Royals the impetus they needed at the top of the order to chase successfully. On the other hand, he also mistimed his jump worse than an 8-year-old with inner-ear problems and dropped Symonds at point when he was on 75. (Plus, half the boundaries he hit in his half-century were off short wayward deliveries.)
So we'll have to go for SKW, for the second time in as many games. What can we say, really... mofo can play. Not only did Warne hit the winning runs with a couple of sixes, but Adam Gilchrist got so thoroughly schooled by his captaincy that I'm amazed he was even willing to show his face later to keep wicket. If that had been anyone else getting stumped in the Powerplay off Yusuf Pathan's bowling , I wouldn't be surprised to still find them in the locker room showers, curled up naked in the fetal position, muttering nonsense to themselves.
Old-timer on an egg-timer... Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers)
So that's it? That's how you get Gilly out? You bring on a part-time spinner in his second over at the crease?! If only someone had told Sri Lanka that, they would've probably opened the bowling with Russel Arnold and Tillakaratne Dilshan in the World Cup final.
Catch from the catchment... (N/A)
No winners today. Not one local player did anything even remotely noteworthy. Kalyankrishna was an early candidate after bowling a couple of tight overs of yorkers and awkward low full-tosses, picking up the wicket of Pathan along the way. Then he came back for his second 'spell', got hit for 17 off one over, and later dropped an easy catch off Afridi's bowling.(Which led to the most insincere round of appreciative clapping from a bowler to an outfielder in the history of cricket.)
3 Bullets to the head...
- Boy, sometimes I miss the Barmy Army. Say what you want about them, but at least they make the aural landscape at the cricket a lot more interesting thanks to all their chanting. I just don't know how many more Chargers games I can stand with the announcer screaming ONE-and-TWO-and-THREE-and-FOUR... DE-CCAN CHAR-GERS HIT-A-FOUR... ONE-and-TWO-and-THREE-and-FOUR... It almost makes me wish Greg Chappell and Aamer Sohail would talk right over the top of him. (Almost.)
- Andrew Symonds doesn't seem to catch balls in the outfield so much as he absorbs
them. It's as if he plants himself perfectly in the path of the ball's
trajectory and then morphs his whole upper body into a type of human
valve, where any object can flow in unimpeded, but it can never get out.
- The 12th over of the Royals' innings, bowled by Shahid Afridi, was something like the IPL equivalent of the Michael Holding Over of Death. First ball, to Graeme Smith, was an offspinner at his body that goes for a single. The second, to Shane Watson, was a quick legbreak at the stumps that is just barely cut for another single. The third is an even quicker offie at Smith's body that goes for a legbye. The fourth is a leggie to Watson that goes for a tight single. Smith mis-times another quick one on the fifth ball but just picks up a single, and then, to finish things off in style... Watson loses his off-stump and gets bowled off the last delivery. Brilliant.
That Yusuf hits a ball like it's Tina Turner.
Posted by: J Rod | April 25, 2008 at 02:23 PM