CLT20: RCB will hope to be third time lucky

Last week saw the conclusion of a terrific Champions League. There were so many close games and some awesome big hitting that the crowds got its money's worth. Even 200 plus totals were not safe as the Royal Challengers of Bangalore showed when they won both those games. Of course Chris Gayle had to play a big part in that, but others also contributed especially young Virat Kohli who without quite playing the big shots like Gayle still kept the scoreboard rattling with some authentic cricket shots.

What this tournament also showed is that batsmen could play regular cricketing strokes and still get runs at a good clip, and that the slog shots don't always work. If anything, this tournament saw more straight bat sixes and more of them in the 'V' between mid-off and mid-on than ever before. There were also the reverse sweeps and the switch hits and all these shots added to the entertainment of the spectators and those watching on TV.

The crowds were a trifle disappointing and that could well be because India had returned after a pretty forgettable tour of England where they had just lost the Test and one-day series as also their number one ranking in Test cricket. Some of the stars also were injured and so the crowds may have felt that they didn't want to go watch the newcomers.

The T20 format is very hard for the bowlers and when you have batsmen like Chris Gayle and David Warner who can smash the ball out of the Stadium, then it's also a scary prospect. The pitch at Bangalore was a good one for batting. The ball came onto the bat quite nicely, and so the batsmen could play their shots without worrying too much about deviation off the surface. The Chennai pitch on the other hand was more two paced because of the wet weather and so it didn't see high scoring games like in Bangalore.

David Warner scored two back to back centuries but still found himself on the losing side in the semi-finals when Gayle and Kohli took the game away from the New South Wales Blues. When Warner went to South Africa immediately after the Champions League he found how cricket is a great leveller when he was out without scoring. Gayle also failed in the finals like he did in the IPL finals earlier in the year and so the Royal Challengers of Bangalore lost their second consecutive finals at Chennai. They will be hoping that it will be third time lucky for them. That is if they get to the finals.

Mumbai Indians playing without any of their big names won the Champions League and in doing so showed that sometimes when youngsters are given the responsibility they can rise to the occasion as they did in this event. It was a triumph for Harbhajan Singh who put the disappointment of being omitted from the Indian team behind him and led the team with purpose and determination and won a much awaited trophy for the team. It was a team effort with Malinga being the pick of the players with his bowling at the top of the innings and in the death overs.

However the CEAT International Cricketer of the Week is Chris Gayle for his smashing display with the bat which saw him hit the most sixes and score the most runs for his team.

Professional Management Group