Welcome Back Bangalore Royal Challengers..!!

For someone who had admired Kumble putting in his efforts ball after ball, Dravid dripping in sweat due to his fierce concentration and Kallis scoring tons of runs with that poker-face expression, it was pretty depressing to see Bangalore lose the way they did in IPL 1 and the 4 out of 5 matches in IPL 2.  So much so that the frustration gave vent to a blog where I belittled Jennings for his short-comings as a coach. No, my blog didn’t spark a miracle, but a natural phenomenon happened. The joker who was made the captain( I had questioned the profound logic in the previous blog..) had to leave in order to don national colors and the team management of Bangalore Royal Challengers sat down to take an inspired decision. They made Anil Kumble the captain, a man proud of his cricketing roots and one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen. And what a difference it has made since then. Welcome back to IPL Bangalore Royal Challengers.

It was not only Anil Kumble who turned things around. The onus for this goes to both Kumble and his musketeers who for a change combined for a common cause at hand, that of resurrecting a sagging campaign. With Pieterson gone, the ego in the air vanished and the respect garnered by Kumble, simply because of his amazing work ethics during his hey days, filled the dressing room. Now we have seen Kumble captaining the Indian side. A noticeable similarity between that team and this one is the eagerness to prove their mettle to the world. Kumble became the captain of the Indian cricket team only after Dravid had stepped down owing to his bad batting form and after Tendulkar had refused the position, having tasted the bitter pill twice already. Yet Kumble led with remarkable aplomb and gave the team the confidence to win abroad again and also turned them into a fear-less bunch who gave back as much as they got, something continued by the witty Dhoni. Without digressing from the main point, what I am trying to say here is that, there is a remarkable difference in the body language of the current BRC team than when Pieterson was at the helm. The players are all pumped up and seem to be eating off on each other’s eagerness to do well.

Now getting to more cricketing matters, BRC have now won 3 matches on the trot. They edged out Knight Riders in a thriller, held their nerves against the high-flying Kings XI and absolutely belted Mumbai Indians. Winning against Knight Riders seems to be the turning point as the team gained momentum which they have carried into rest of their matches. Boucher came to the party against Knight Riders, Praveen Kumar displayed admirable grit against Kings XI and Uthappa(a friend of mine had called him Robin-single-digit-Uthappa not so long ago) consolidated Kallis’ rousing start in their pursuit of the target after Du Preez (sorry who??) had had a dream debut picking 3 wickets in 2 overs. This distribution of performances shows that its been a total team effort without having had to depend any one or two individuals. The best thing is that all these victories were notched without having Dravid in the team, on whom the batting had inevitably hinged so far.

Going forward, I may have written this blog a little too early as lot of work still needs to be done before BRC do achieve that elusive semi-final spot, but there are a few pointers that may ensure that my effort in brandishing theirs feats so early isn’t actually futile.

• Return of form for Robin Uthappa who forms a vital cog in the BRC batting order. If he gets going, we surely know what he can achieve.( for your knowledge he just smashed the biggest six of this IPL when he slogged Bravo out of the park..)
• Kumble, the super cool captain, who marshals his resources in a smart manner. That he handed over PK the last over against Kings XI even though he had conceded 14 runs in his penultimate over is an example of his supreme faith in the abilities of his players . Also his ability to lead from the front is unmatched.
• Return of Dravid to the batting order. Now that the middle-order has the reassurance of the Wall, Uthappa and gang can have a crack at the start without worrying too much.
• Good spin combo of Kumble and Van der Merwe who are getting increasingly difficult to get away for runs.
• Last but not the least, return of the team as a unit, which for so long had appeared a little lost and confused under a lackadaisical captain and a helpless coach.

Till the ends are achieved, Go Bangalore and this time lets kick some serious cricket butt.