Thursday, April 25, 2013

Commentators' Curse?


Match no. 26:  KKR vs CSK at Kolkata on 20/4/13

KKR won the toss and chose to bat. It was their turn now to collapse like nine pins after a very promising start through Yusuf Pathan and Gautam Gambhir. From 46/0 they were 55/4, leaving punters backing KKR gasping. The fourth wicket, the run-out of Pathan was really comic! When Pathan saw Bravo, the fielder, fumbling with the ball, he stopped mid-pitch to compensate for the fumble, to be run-out as had been scripted and conveyed to him. 

And the clippings of Morgan hitting fours in last innings were shown just before he got out without bothering the scorers much.

In the innings break, after KKR were restricted to 119/9, the experts opined as if the match was over. And  yet at  one stage with CSK  71/5, KKR had become the favourites to win the match. Dhoni, the super hero failed courtesy run-out. But CSK was to win and they won courtesy some lose bowling and lousy fielding by KKR towards the end. Inexplicably, Pathan bowled one over for 3 runs and 1 wicket, and then came back to bowl only in the last over when match was more or less over. Kallis, the greatest international alrounder, had ensured so by bowling full tosses in his last over.

Nearing 15 overs of CSK innings, Shastri tells us that if required run rate crosses 10, it will be difficult for CSK to win on this pitch. And it was just after the required run rate crossed 10, that CSK started hitting and won comfortably in the end.

Commentators' curse or something else? 

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