Tendulkar Vs Valthaty?

At the end of Round 6, the battle gets intense. Except for Mumbai Indians who are marginally ahead, there is hardly anything that separates the remaining 9 teams in terms of points.

It is bizarrely surprising to see Dhoni’s boys standing almost at the bottom of the table. Usually a winning skipper is not getting favorable results in the past 3 games. Though the loss to Punjab could be attributed to individual brilliance of Valthaty and the defeat to Tuskers to stroke of misfortune, the failure to Mumbai is definitely closer to sin. None of the batsman had the faith or common sense to rotate the strike to well set Badrinath where the asking rate was hardly 7 runs an over during the second half of the run chase. Though Dhoni for a change was very kind to his players by not slamming them publicly during the post match interview, for sure the boys must have had a big ride inside the closed walls. I’ve no doubts that CSK is going to win some games from here to seal a spot in the last 4, if the not the trophy itself.

RCB suddenly found redemption with the arrival of Chris Gayle. The Gayle storm not only changed RCB’s kismet but surely dented KKR salvation to glory. Two back to back loses and KKR are up and against a hit and miss Delhi Daredevils on the Thu 28^th Apr. Now KKR should be craving for Delhi to miss as Delhi already hit heavily against Punjab. Again no law of averages could defy Sehwag & Co. If Delhi happen to lose the game against RCB on Tue 26^th Apr, then KKR’s defeat to Delhi is mostly certain.

Kochi’s inspirational victories against Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkatta ran out of gasoline against Warnie on Sunday. Kochi, mostly a two man army of McCullum and Jayawardane and some support from Jadeja in the middle found itself wanting with the absence of McCullum due to shoulder injury against Royals. I sometimes wonder what is special with Gomez as he keeps finding the faith of the skipper despite his repeated failures. Their next game against punch bag Deccan, should keep hopes high.

A spineless bowling attack of Pune with already two defeats in a row facing wounded Chennai Tigers is no good news. However the big ticket game for this week would be Mumbai Vs Rajasthan. Since Rajasthan is mostly on must win circumstances, don’t be surprised if they eclipse all too mighty Mumbai Indians.

With so many intense battles between Teams, there is another good battle between two Individuals for the orange cap.

Tendulkar Vs Valthaty...

@#&^%

I can understand if you still continue give me that perplexed look.

If somebody ever told you the phrase Tendulkar Vs Valthaty before the commencement of IPL, I challenge you would have wondered what that word Valthaty means. Is that a person or place or club or what the hell that word means? Sure to bet even google would have fetched negative results on the word Valthaty.

Today, the kid is truly taking on a battle with the World (Cup)’s leading run getter. On paper this clash is a complete mismatch. In reality, there is a very good chance that Valthaty (261) could finish ahead of Sachin Tendulkar (269).

For the first time I truly wish to see the lord of cricket to be beaten on this battle of orange cap.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover