The Star Studded Teams !!

by Harshdip Singh

Match-2
Mumbai vs Bangalore
So here we are with the most sensible crowd in India and one of the best outfields of the country, Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Beautiful people, lovely atmosphere, star-studded teams.. And the pair which has been the buzz of the town. The opening pair of Mumbai Indians.
Some call them Sachin and Ponting, some call Tendla and Punter but they will always be known as the GOD and the Disciple.
Some aggressive opponents on field when playing for their countries, but jolly good friends when you see them play for the IPL.
But the wait gets longer; Ponting wins the toss and puts RCB to bat first.

A slow, steady start with Dilshan falling in the 3rd over and then, in comes the future Indian captain (we hope), Virat Kohli. Some good hits, but then the surprise package for Mumbai, Bumrah the debutant, makes a lovely spell taking 3 wickets.
Are we missing something yet ? Yes, of course! We have not spoken about the Gayle-storm. The purple cap holder for the last two IPL seasons.

For some people who are not aware, purple cap is given to the player who is the highest run scorer in the IPL season. Gayle seems calm (4 runs in 12 balls). This was the silence before the storm. Even after getting a mild hamstring injury during the innings, he stays not out’ throughout the innings and smashed the ball all over the park scoring 92 not out in 58 balls which included 5 big sixes and made every penny of the audience worth the expensive tickets . Bangalore finishes with 156 in their stipulated overs.

Then comes the moment when the twitter updates increase, FB updates makes your home page a new one every minute; the time when The GOD Sachin comes out to bat with his biggest competitor in the category of personal records, Ponting !! These are some benefits of the IPL, ones that  make you witness moments which you would have never imagined of.
Amazing shots, glove punches, the smiles- all make it a delightful scene. But after a good half century stand, the age factor shows up on Sachin. He fails to get to the crease in time . He falls a little short and is run out. But the impact? The crowd in Bengaluru goes quiet on his departure even if he is the opposition for them now.
And not much later, Ponting departs too. And now it is on Rohit Sharma and rest to win it for Mumbai. But then they  have a big-big rock like hurdle in front of them- Muttiah Muralitharan.
So around 90 odd runs required in the last 9 overs with 8 wickets in hand for Mumbai to win and this makes it a contest to miss-your-dinner for.
So the next two continue in a steady rate, hitting the boundaries in the odd balls. And then Rohit Sharma swings and finds his stumps uprooted by Vinay Kumar. So in the final quarter of the innings, Mumbai needs 60 odd runs. And guess what! we still do no have the big boy, Pollard, in! For RCB,  five different bowlers have bowled 3 overs each. So we are going to see one from each of them in the last five.
The crowd is waiting for Pollard and I guess the MI fans won’t be sad now if Mumbai loses a wicket. But then Karthik does a Pollard with three sixes and a boundary in the 17th over off Christian. He completes his half century and then its Murali’s turn to head for the stands. The equation becomes 20 of 16 and with Pollard yet to come, this is a Mumbai Indian’s match.
Right, so 10 required of the last 6 from Vinay Kumar’s bowling. Anybody’s game you can say. Can you expect some drama in the final balls? Why not, this is the IPL !!
The man of the night, Dinesh Karthik departs in the 2nd ball after making 60 in 37 deliveries. In comes Pollard with 9 required from 4 balls. And then the next ball, another wicket falls but thankfully it’s not Pollard. Pollard is just the spectator on the other end with 9 required of last 3 now. He can now face a maximum of two deliveries assuming Vinay does not ball an illegal delivery. So this match goes to the wire with 8 runs required of 2 balls with Pollard on strike. Not impossible for Pollard. A very tense situation as can be seen by the fact that Kohli speaks to Vinay after every ball. Pollard hits his first ball for a 4 and makes it 4 required from the last 1 delivery.

What-A-Match! WwwHhhAaaTtt-A-MmmAaaTttCccHhh !! Next? Next what?
A perfect full-delivery to Pollard but he could just drill it to long-on for a single and RCB win by 2 runs.

Aaaarr-Ceeee-Beee !! The stands roar!
Chris Gayle is the rightly judged Man of the Match for his wonderful performance in the first part of the match!!
This rush and excitement is what defines IPL
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