Sport - Cricket

Hoping for an encore

Beating Punjab on Thursday was good, but we have to do much better that.

I am a little bit concerned about the fielding, more so over the way we dropped catches. Other teams, too, have spilled some crucial catches, but on Thursday we dropped Yuvraj and Mahela at key moments in the match, and giving top batsmen like them ch ances could have cost us dear.

We are trying to put our finger on it and improve. The bowlers were really good, but Punjab played beautifully to chase down our score. We have to create pressure in situations like that, and the way to do it is by making sure our fielding is up to par.

On Saturday, we play Rajasthan Royals again. They had a really comfortable win over Bangalore earlier on Thursday, which was really surprising considering how well Kumble & Co. have been playing recently.

We beat Rajasthan the first time we met, and then it was Raina and Balaji who batted and bowled brilliantly. Rajasthan have since then introduced Naman Ojha who, along with Graeme Smith, has steadied the top order.

Their bowling too has been consistent throughout the tournament. Amit Sharma and allrounder Ravindra Jadeja have only added power to their line-up. And then there is the return of Graeme Smith to form, so we will be watching out for him.

Yusuf Pathan has to always be considered a threat, because he can almost single-handedly win the game for them with his powerful batting, if given the chance.

They seem well-rounded team at the moment, but I think that we have been the more consistent team and are feeling really confident that we will play as well as them. Our batting line-up is more rounded and has depth, so we are hoping we can make inroads into their bowling, especially with Raina playing so well in the middle, and Hayden as consistent as ever on the top.

Oram could not play on Thursday because he was not well, so that threw the balance off a bit but we are hopeful he will be back on Saturday.

The Warne-Murali match-up will be another exciting aspect of the game tomorrow, and it’s only a competition like the IPL that bring together two world class competitors like them. It will be something for the fans to look forward to, too.

Only sometime back Rajasthan and Chennai were the bottom two teams, and now we are the top two, so it shows both are peaking at the right time.

We got the better of them the last time round, so hopefully we can do that again tomorrow.

Gameplan

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