The Jaipur squad were making all the right noises in the run-up to this match. They targeted Dhoni and Murali and set-up the clash even before it had begun. Dhoni, as usual, was wary of the war of words. He had seen what the Aussies had done to Harbhajan in Australia, or what Sreesanth did to Harbhajan in India. He, like the rest of the team, ended up subdued. Perhaps resolving not to get involved in any on-field incident - like the Ganguly-Warne clash. But they did not count on umpire Asad Rauf playing the partial arbitrator. The umpire made two glaring errors in the opening over. Tanvir had struck both Fleming and Parthiv on the pads outside the off-stump. But Rauf, the trigger-happy safari character, ruled both of them lbw. To Tanvir’s credit, he was swinging the ball really well, and got the wicket of Vidyut in the 3rd over, swinging away to Warne at 2nd slip. Raina was the only batsmen who showed any sort of form, and in company of Morkel set-up the innings. Dhoni had earlier edged Warne to slip. He did not show the initiative to step out to Warne and paid the price to a traditional leg-spinner.

Just when Raina and Morkel (score 88 in 14.2) were in with a chance of getting the score to 150 after the beleaguered start, Raina threw away the opportunity with a pull-shot that held up and was caught at mid-off. Once again there was a procession of batsmen and the innings ended at 109 in the 19th.

The Jaipur franchise did not make heavy weather of the chase, and reached 78 in the 10th when they lost Asnodkar. Both Smith and Asnodkar were lucky to get away with shots that could have cost them - Smith was even dropped once by Joginder off Ntini in the 3rd. After Pathan was caught at mid-wicket off Vidyut, Smith and Watson took them home in the 15th over.

The Warne-Dhoni clash was crucial to this contest. But Dhoni seemed keen to avoid an incident. It is definitely first round to Warne & Co. But Dhoni has a habit of playing a very good second and third round. It will be interesting to see how things turn out then when it matters most.

It was supposed to be the Delhi Daredevils’ day. They would have been at the top of the IPL table. But they hadn’t counted on Mumbai ruining their day. And that too, in the form of Delhi Ranji Player, Ashish Nehra. Nehra took 3-25 in his four overs to ensure his place in the side for the remaining games. He first put the brakes on the Delhi batting by claiming Gambhir’s wicket. He then claimed two wickets off full-tosses - hits made down the ground. This was the weekend when the bowlers came to the party and, except for Ishant Sharma, all the other bowlers seemed to perform.

Asif was the other bowler who suffered - at Pollock’s hands. Pollock scored 22 off Asif’s last over, the innings’ 19th, to set-up the run-chase. He then bowled a magnificent spell (4-0-16-2). He claimed the crucial wicket of Malik hitting down the ground - another batsmen hitting down long-off’s throat. He also helped set-up Karthik’s dismissal by Bravo - the captain had given the young West Indian a few words of advise before the crucial delivery. Karthik was looking dangerous with 28 off 23 deliveries. He had once won a match for India in similar circumstances against SA.

At the end of the match Pollock was rightfully awarded the man-of-match for his bowling effort and 33 off 15 deliveries. Sehwag was gracious in defeat. Even though, his team relinquished the top-spot to the Royals and besides, they had lost by 29 runs which will not do their run-rate any good.

Kings XI Punjab are now on a roll. They have won four on the trot to join league leaders Delhi, Chennai and the Royals who, at the end of the weekend, are top of the pack. It’s been an enthralling journey for the Kings XI, first the two losses and then the four wins.

The Knight Riders are singing the the same song but backwards. (Should it be dark Knights now?) They won their first two games and then have lost four on the trot. They even lost to lowly Mumbai, who are not so lowly anymore - they are on four points and beat the mighty Dare Devils to give the unheralded Royals a chance at the head of the table.

Kings XI  won the toss and put themselves in to bat. The Knight Riders clawed their way into the game with the wickets of Hopes, Marsh and then Yuvraj at crucial junctures. Umar Gul came on to bowl in the 12th and showed why he is such a class act. As the run-rate dipped, 160 seemed a good score, but Ishant gave 21 runs off the last over and the Kings XI had put on 178.

The Kings then turned on the heat when they came on to bowl. Sreesanth and Pathan both snared two wickets each to have the dark Knights reeling at 29-4 in five overs. Even the experienced Hodge could not counter the prodigious swing of Pathan. When Shukla lost his wicket to VRV Singh in the tenth over, the score at 50, you kinda sensed the end was in sight. But Hussey and Saha strung together a useful partnership and, when they scored 75 runs between the 15th and the 19th, it was game on. But Hussey hit one straight down long-off’s throat in the 19th. Like Rohit Sharma in the previous game, the batsmen gave the game away at a crucial juncture. And Ishant’s last over of 21 runs was to prove crucial.

Importantly, Saha and Hussey showed their teammates, and the other teams on view this weekend, how to T20 bat. They first built a partnership playing hits down the ground and then, starting hoicking the wayward deliveries to the fence. Both Hussey and Sharma were guilty of playing off-line deliveries too straight and giving catches down the ground. This was another lesson but at least they were not playing across and gave their teams a chance.

By the way, Shoaib Akhtar will be turning up for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Another dark Knight, you would think.

I was reading a news item, before writing this post, which said the Royal Challengers’ win papers over the cracks. It seems an entire nation can see the cracks. Only the Royal Challengers’ team management are in the dark. Often, before an election, politicians suffer a similar disillusionment. It is only after they lose the election do they reconcile themselves to the error in their ways. The Bangalore Royal Challengers have decided on a similar course.

Needing 154 to win the Deccan Chargers made heavy weather of the run-chase. They lost Gilchrist and Gibbs for very little, and then Laxman and Rohit Sharma strung together a 96-run stand. Laxman and Jaffer are two players who are proving they are T20 material. They are regular putting on scores for their side and holding up one end - and that too at more than a run-a-ball. Jaffer even took a sublime catch at deep square leg to end Gilchrist’s innings.

Unfortunately for the Deccan Chargers, they lost Sharma at a crucial juncture. They needed 30 off 20 balls. Afridi gave the game away with a mistimed hit to long-on. The umpires too played their part. Both Laxman and Styris got atrocious lbw decisions. The ball pitched outside leg-stump on both occasions - elementary errors, you would think. The Royal Challengers walked away with a win with barely 3 runs remaining, but not without some dramabaazi at the end. Kumble was given a bowl in the final over needing 20 - hardly the most judicious choice, you would think. Then Bangar proved to us why this Bangalore team suffers so much. He hit two sixes off the 3rd and 4th deliveries. Dravid’s face had more than fallen, he was back in some dilapidated dump. Luckily, his anxiety was short-lived. Bangar couldn’t reproduce his sixer magic. But every fan knew that if it was a more experienced player, perhaps a Warne, it would have been curtains. Dravid and the team, though, were celebrating a lucky win.

These two games will set the tone for the second half of the IPL. Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers both have 2 points from five games and will look to change their team’s fortunes. Surprisingly, the Deccan Chargers will find the game does not rest in their hands. The Royal Challengers have a much better squad, especially given their bowlers. But will their team management play the right players. Otherwise, we could have another closely fought duel which goes either way - depending on that vital statistic called ‘luck’.

The Night Riders must be smarting from their loss to the Royals, and Shane Warne is clearly keen to play the wordsmith in these contests and give each occasion a spin as he does on the pitch. But the Riders have some catching up to do and, with their great bowling options, cannot afford to lose games so easily. It is time the Kolkata side took a leaf out of the Delhi and Jaipur squads - restricting their opposition and more than just batting their way to victory. It will surely be an interesting contest. Both teams (Kolkata and Punjab) need to do some setting of agenda. Punjab, after the late wake-up-call, getting into the top-flight of teams in the IPL. Kolkata, getting into the middle-rung and reassuring their fans.

This was going to be a match-up of equals: the Chennai squad, a well-oiled machine, who had lost three vital team members, Hayden, Hussey and Oram, to their home-country tour duty and the Delhi team which is a team of specialists, bowlers, batsmen and even fielders, lead by team Icon Sehwag.

Chennai elected to bat on a good pitch and put on 169-6. They were held back by some excellent bowling. At 120-3 in the 14th you thought they were due some quick runs and 190 was on the cards. But Mcgrath, Yo Mahesh, Sangwan and Asif held them back very well. In the end the bowling probably won Delhi the match. Though, Sehwag’s 71 in 41 deliveries made it much easier for the visitors.

Earlier, for Chennai, S Vidyut scored 52. Parthiv and him had held the innings together after the departure of Fleming. Yo Mahesh and Sangwan were guilty of bowling to his strenght on the off-side. An international bowler like Asif, however, wasted no time in clipping his wings. Fleming had opened with Parthiv, but after a few hits to the cover fence fell to an in-cutter from Yo Mahesh. He must be feeling the pressure of being a natural successor to Hayden in the squad. Those are huge boots to fill - even for him.

The Delhi side wasted no time taking the Chennai bowlers to the cleaners. Even Ntini felt Sehwag’s bite was worse than his bark. Goni got the worst of Sehwag’s slug-feast and cute footwork. He moved away and hit him over his head. Played him down to the square-leg next. Got inside of a delivery, again played to square-leg. (All boundary hits.) And once he creamed him to cover. Joginder Singh found out the same when he went for 19 in his first over. Dhoni, however, noticed the fuller deliveries (from Singh) were not coming onto the bat and bowled him again. Sehwag, not one to shy away from a challenge, took the gambit and perished down third man’s throat. But by then the damage was done. Gambhir, too, had been in business with hits to the cover fence, straight hits and running the ball between slip and the wicket-keeper once. When Gambhir lost his wicket to Goni, they needed 28 in five overs. They reached their target in the 19th: De Villiers and Dhawan were batting.

The Hyderabad team is suffering what I call ‘bowl-itus’. They have no strike bowlers, except for RP Singh - and when he gets whacked around the park, which usually happens, they suffer from what I call ’severe bowl-itus’.

You may have the best batsmen in the world, but if you suffer from ‘bowl-itus’, you are done for. Which is why the Hyderbad side have won one only one match in five. Talk about ’severe bowl-itus’ and this, after having Andrew Symonds, Gilchrist, Rohit Sharma, Afridi, Gibbs and Laxman in their team.

At 86-3 the Hyderabad team may have considered themselves to be cruising. But Chawla put paid to their hopes, by snapping 3 important wickets, Laxman, Gibbs and Bangar. Luckily, Rohit Sharma put on a brilliant showing again to score 76* and give them a chance with a target of 164.

Shaun Marsh (85*), Geoff Marsh’s son, lit up the stage for the Punjab team scoring freely and almost at will. His strong flicks to the mid-wicket fence and head falling over are almost reminiscent of his Kings XI captain Yuvraj. The resemblance was uncanny and once Yuvraj had departed, one got the impression his apparition, Aussie Shaun Marsh, was continuing his legacy, whacking the ball with ease down the wicket, to extra cover or over mid-wicket for another four.

The Punjab side is settling into a rich T20 form. Their bowlers are working well in tandem and Chawla in particular has run into some serious form. As long as Sreesanth and Pathan are getting them wickets, they have nothing to fear. But, I guess, the absence of Lee will hit them hard. Their batting is holding together well with Sangakkara one-down, then Yuvraj, and Jayawardane to follow. Earlier Marsh had opened with Sarwan. They reached their target in the 19th.

I started off the previous post with this one in mind. The IPL format is exposing Ganguly’s foibles, unfortunately for him, as a captain very well. His inability to handle his bowlers well has meant his team has always given away too many runs. And playing catch up, even with a strong batting line-up, is proving more difficult than he thought. One of the key statistics I noticed was the sixes hit by the 8 teams in the IPL. The Night Riders have hit 31 sixes till date. 13 sixes by McCullum and one by Ponting in the game against the Royal Challengers meant in the remaining 4 matches, they had hit 17 sixes, while the other teams were slugging it out against them.

You might ask me what I meant he is not handling his bowlers well. The thing is, right from his days as India captain, Ganguly has been using his strike bowlers in the opening and death overs. He has continued to use this formula with some variations in the IPL. But it is still not what the best in the format, Dhoni, Sehwag, Warne and Yuvraj (whose team has come back strongly), are doing. Yesterday, Ganguly brought back Umar Gul in the 13th or 14th over to claim two wickets. This was after the damage had been done by Yusuf and Asnodkar, and curtailing the run-scoring with half the side still to walk into bat including Jadeja and Warne was going to be difficult. Agarkar was bowled in the 7th or 8th and he gave away quite a few. Bowling Gul at this crucial stage would have curtailed the scoring, if not broken the important partnership, and induced the batsmen to make mistakes. This is what other team’s are doing to the Knight Riders. Besides they (Knight Riders) are not clearing the fence with their hits and getting caught.

I think Ganguly, like Dravid, Laxman, and the Mumbai team management, would be better off playing their strike bowlers in the seven to twelve over stage, especially when bowling first, and rotating the bowlers adeptly, so that the batsmen never feel they have their eye-in at any stage. Even if they give away too many in the end overs, what difference does it make. They give away as many in most matches and struggle to defend scores.