DC started off decently. But some where they have lost the way. Losing the way is probably not the right expression. It should rather be that the tried and tested formula of DC has failed now. The team offers no surprises. It still remains as a team of the top 4 batsmen. Bowling continues to be woeful. DC has conceded the highest no. of runs in the last 5 overs. The only way DC can win a match is if Gilchrist or Symonds take the match all the way or leave it in a position from where Rohit Sharma can come and clean the leftovers. But this has not been the case at all. Gibbs seems to be in great touch but was never known for a responsible knock or carrying his bat till the end. What’s worse is the pitches in India over the due course of the tournament are bound to get slower and will grip. The bounce is going to get lower and spinners will get a lot more purchase. It is starkly different from Aussie conditions and hence the Aussie contingent has repeatedly failed to fire. A look at the squad offers us no solace or options. What a team like DC needs are solid players like Sehwag, Gambhir , Sangakarra, Dilshan or Jayawardene who can devastate fast bowlers and take the attack to the spinners. But DC is one team starved of local talent and we have not one player who features regularly in the national side. Alien conditions, limited talents and too much pressure on individuals – this is a dangerous trio and if DC’s coach hasn’t noticed this, we are in deep shit.

Considering the reasons above what should our approach be to win matches? For Indian conditions it is very important to have our Indian talent get maximum exposure than play second fiddle to a struggling Gilly or Symmo. It’s true that we don’t have big names in our side. But a 20-20 game can be won not just by one brilliant performance but also by 2 or 3 handy performances. This has to be explored. The following would be my suggestion. The best Indian players we have, if I ranked them, would go like this: Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao and T Suman. I would club Mohnish Mishra and Anirudh Singh in the next lot because they haven’t delivered yet. So considering this, Rohit Sharma has to assume a different role. He has been used a finisher. Instead he should be sent up the order, 1 down, and should be given the responsibility to carry the bat till the end. I rate V Rao higher than T Suman because V Rao is an excellent player. He is technically sound and most importantly is a good player of spin. He has experience to back him too. The batting order should go like this: Gilly and Gibbs to open, R Sharma comes 1 down, V Rao 2 down, Symmonds 3 down, T Suman 4 down, M Mishra 5 down followed by the bowlers.

DC has also had communication issues when it comes to running between the wickets. It’s just pathetic. The team has to take some time out and start gelling as a cohesive unit. R Sharma is a gifted player but for a team like DC he has to assume a leadership role. He has to take the onus of guiding the younger players. This will take so much pressure off Gilly and Gibbs whose best chance of firing is when the pitch is freshly rolled and hard at the start of the innings. They can play more freely.

Couple of words on the bowling – Vaas has been the most successful bowler for DC and he has to come back. He knows these conditions well and hasn’t done very poorly in comparison to any of the current bowlers. Jaskaran Singh or R P Singh should be used as the second seamer. R P Singh seems to be finding touch and it was unfair he got dropped the match before the last one. He has been the purple cap getter on many occasions and still is the main stay of DC’s attack. Pragyan Ojha has to step up a notch. He is a far better bowler but seems to have lost focus. He seems to be firing more deliveries in and is not giving the ball enough flight. That’s when he is most dangerous and flight is his guile. Somebody’s got to remind him the basics. Now the fourth and fifth bowler. It can be Rahul Sharma or if the pitch assists seam bowling like it did in Nagpur either one of Harmeet or Jaskaran Singh can be used. Rohit, Rao and Suman have to form the fifth bowler and if they go below 40 runs in the 4 overs there is enough reason to celebrate.

DC still seems to be in experimentation mode in the bowling dept. and the batting has not lived upto its reputation. There is an urgent need to regroup and the urgency has to show on the field. Right now I see drooping shoulders of the biggies and a nervous set of youngsters. Somebody has to keep their spirits high and have the faith. We have faith in you, we just hope u have it in yourselves too!!

 MI vs RR

Mumbai Indians, a weird name. I will never get over that. More importantly the Sachin led team walked into the Brabourne stadium high on confidence after their captain’s stupendous achievement and their ownner’s exhilarating performance in the auction. Rajasthan Royals, a prodigy team, where new found heroes are discovered by Shane Warne in every season were up for an away match against a star studded MI. Jayasurya and Sachin assumed crease and took MI to a flying start. Jayasurya was later captured by a new found talent in RR, Uniyal. Sachin followed but the momentum never dropped. MI’s contingent only had 3 overseas players sending a strong message against supporters of more international players in the side. Aditya Tare is a definite talent and during his brief stay at the crease he delighted the audience with some great shots. The innings that formed the foundation of MI was a partnership between the ICL star AT Rayudu and Saurabh Tiwari. They put on 110 runs in quick time and MI set up a massive 212 runs to chase.

RR’s main stay was Yusuf Pathan. The start was shaky losing Asnodkar early. He hadn’t even faced a ball. Graeme Smith labored a 26 and RR seemed to lose hope until Yusuf walked in. Whatever we have seen so far of Yusuf Pathan is magnificent but it isn’t magnificent enough if you haven’t seen him bat against MI. He took the bowlers to the Railway cleaners. He clobbered the ball and it looked like the ball was asking for mercy. RR needed 74 off 37 balls at one point and Tendulkar looked pensive and was making furious field changes. There was no reason for comfort. Yusuf made a brilliant century of just 37 balls equaling Afridi’s record in another format of the game. He departed quickly after that when R Sathish pulled out a freak run out. Dogra, who was helping Yusuf get all the strike till then, burst a fresh attack on his own and got a quick 20 odd runs in some 5 deliveries But RR kept losing wickets and Lasith Malinga was brilliant he got 2 for 22. He was ably assisted by Zaheer Khan who bowled very intelligently. MI pulled of a 4 run win after giving an rpo of 10.6 for RR to chase. Don’t we all love IPL for this?

MI – Very patchy. Some good knocks. S Tiwary and Rayudu come good. This is very important for a team like MI who need their young force to take charge. Malinga has always been a great servant of MI and bowled very well indeed. Zaheer Khan looked sublime. But that’s it. The bowling dept. otherwise left much to be desired. 

RR – Well for yet another young team it was too much to ask to chase 212 first up They put up a great fight. The youngsters played very maturely using their head and giving strike to Yusuf. Please check if Graeme Smith can play this format at all. I am still counting on more Warne magic to come.

DC took on KKR in the first match. This match was originally scheduled in Hyderabad along with the opening ceremony. But thanks to the Telangana issue the match and the opener had to be moved out. The concept of home game and home advantage is totally devastated for DC. Not that they made great use of it during IPL 1 but still some of us IPL lovers got denied the pleasure of watching the match at the stadium. So we are allowed to crib.

DC won the toss and elected to field. Error 1. You can be dead confident that your team can walk into fire and come out alive but you still play safe and test waters at the start. Gilly got it wrong there by opting to field thereby saying first thing we do in this tournament will be to play under pressure and take a hit on our confidence. But things did begin well for DC. Vaas, an almost non-existent DC player except for some expert commentary, came and took two wickets in the first two balls of the match. Knowing Vaas this isn’t unusual. He can bowl even his first delivery with deadly accuracy and hence has taken a few first-ball-of-the-match wickets. KKR went from 0-2 to 31-4 in no time with RP and Jaskaran Singh picking up a stick each. Then came Owais Shah and Angelo Matthews. They displayed what can be described as hygiene cricket. Playing by the merit of the ball, dismissing the bad ones to boundaries. They both applied themselves and turned the fortunes for KKR. They put up a respectable total of 161-4. Yes, KKR didn’t lose a single wicket after that. All bowlers started well and only Pragyan Ojha finished respectably at about 4.75 runs per over.

DC came to bat and had a steady start. Gilly and Laxman started off very well. They were striking the ball well and sent a couple sailing over the boundaries. DC got to 60-0 in just 5 overs. But Laxman fell to an atrocious and uncharacteristic shot. His wicket was taken by Murali Kartik who must be thanked by the KKR crew for turning the fortunes. He was introduced by Ganguly during powerplay. A definite risk. But again, we have Dada as the captain. We know his antics and totally unorthodox captaincy. He gambles and usually makes most of it. So came the breaks to an otherwise speeding train of DC. Then went Gilly to a mistimed shot to midwicket.  Gibbs came in 1 down. He played himself in and got out cheaply. Symonds I thought was upset that he couldn’t finish the beer he had started sipping when Gibbs was playing. So he seemed to be in a terrible hurry and wasn’t even connecting the ball well. He joined Rohit Sharma at the crease who seemed in good touch. Symmonds went back to his beer without wasting much time.  Rohit Sharma got reminded of his childhood Gully cricket days. He got out to a shot about which Harsha Bhogle exclaimed “Please explain that shot to me”. Winning bells started ringing for KKR. The youth that came later for DC didn’t perturb KKR and they clinched a comfortable 11 run victory.

KKR – Astute captaincy. We could see Dada at his best marshalling his resources excellently. Charl Langeveldt and Murali kartik are to watch out for bowling and definitely Angelo Matthews for his all round ability. The prodigy child from Lanka has started to display his feathers.

DC – Lots of introspection needed. Aggression to be mixed with caution and as usual please knock sense into Rohit Sharma. He usually gets rapped after the 6^th or 7^th game and he then starts assuming better responsibility. Some positives in Vaas and Jaskaran Singh. DC has to play their best 11. Venugopal Rao to replace Anirudh Singh. But then, the tournament has just begun.

IPL was off to a cracking start and we were thoroughly entertained!!