KXIP gifted victory to RCB

Old saying in cricket is ‘Catches win matches’ but KXIP did exactly opposite yesterday and gifted the match to RCB. Now only miracle can help them to reach the semis. KXIP have to blame themselves for this loss because all the players yesterday had butter fingers and whatever chances came their away easily slipped away. KXIP scored in excess of 180 runs which is winning total and very seldom in this tournament teams lost the match after scoring those many runs. No doubt couple of decisions also went against KXIP but yet they got the chances which they dropped. Now morale of KXIP is completely down and they don’t know from where they will achieve win. Most disappointing for KXIP is Yuvraj’s form as he failed to live upto his reputation. Yesterday he looked in good touch but got out wrong time. I think KXIP have to re-think their strategy and replace the non-performing star players with fresh young players, this will be a gamble but you never know which bullet hit the target. As far as RCB, they are now in comfortable position along with MI to reach the semis but yet long way to go. They have been joined by their star players and this is helping them immensely to further improve their performance. Yesterday Kevin Pietersen performed well for them and Ross Taylor is sitting out waiting for his opportunity. So all in all good sign for RCB and they now have strongest batting line-up and Anil Kumble leading from the front is icing on the cake. Not to forget Robin Utthappa he is real dasher and played some very useful innings for RCB. He has improved his batting tremendously and I don’t understand why selectors left him out from T20 WC squad. He has to be in the team. In 2007 WC victory Robin played important innings for India and helped the team to win the title, so why not include match-winner and blaster like him. I think once Mohinder Amarnath quoted selectors as ’Bunch of Jokers’ and till date selectors are proving Mohinder Amrnath’s statement correct.

Today two important encounters coming up. CSK v/s RR and MI v/s DC. CSK have to win this match to keep their hopes alive. They now also have Bollinger and Michael Hussey in their ranks which gives tremendous strength to their team as both the Australians are match-winner. On the other side RR will also be bolstered by the arrival of Shane Watson. He is also a match-winner. Nobody starts favourite today in this match as both the teams have great players in their ranks.

Coming to another match MI v/s DC. I feel MI starts as favourite because they have balanced side in terms of batters and bowlers. They have great players in their line-up and most importantly their local players like Saurabh Tiwary, Ambati Rayadu, Shikhar Dhawan, R.Satish etc. are taking responsibility and performing very well. MI right now ruling the points table and most certain to reach semis. On the other side DC coming into this match after losing few matches and they will be bit down on morale. I feel Adam Gilchrist not firing from the top is hurting them badly. Also they are bit weak in their bowling. So if DC have to win today they have to play out of their skin and Gilchrist have to fire from the top.