No certainty in such a format

May 22,2009 | Abbas Ali Baig

The semi final line up is now established—Delhi play Hyderabad and Bangalore take on Chennai.

Of yesterday’s matches, only the one pitting Bangalore against Hyderabad held due relevance because of their impressive showing. Bangalore was able to ensure Punjab’s exit and their own survival. And what a marvelous performance it was too. They lost Kallis early on but their local prodigy, Manish Pandey played out of his skin and put the team on the road to victory. Garnering an unbelievable punch, coupled with sound defensive technique, he held centre stage till the end of the innings thus becoming the only Indian to score a century in this edition of IPL. I wonder how he has fared thus far for Karnataka in the domestic season but surely with this blistering knock, he has made a clear statement of his arrival on the international arena. His strike rate of 200 plus was astounding particularly against an attack including RP Singh. The other player to be doing consistently well has been the left hand spinner Roelof ver Merwe whose accuracy and aggression have been a revelation.That Bangalore were able to post such a huge total without calling on Taylor, Boucher, and Kolhi was a tribute to their strength in batting. Duly rested these stalwarts will serve them well in the semis.

The other match held only academic interest as Mumbai were already out of contention. In fact it provided an opportunity to the Delhi openers to get back into some kind of rhythm which they did without much ado. It was particularly heartening to find Sehwag in his elements his nonchalance and aggression belying his dismal form hitherto. What a temperament ---unflappable and unpertubable and what a player!

And now to the semis. I fancy Delhi despite Bangalore’s impressive showing in the last three games and because of a return to form of their incomparable opening pair. But one can never be certain in this format of the game.