Here's a really quick wrap of today's match
The IPL started off with a bang, with a spectacular (yet short) opening ceremony, and then the McCullum show. He smashed everything and everyone- pace, spin, line and length- good balls or otherwise- all around the park. With as many as 14 sixes, he set new standards as a T20 batsman, crossing the massive 150 and staying unbeaten, carrying his bat through. The rest of the batsmen on show had little to do, and some of them didn't even get a bat. Laxmiratan Shukla, for instance, had to make his presence felt as a bowler, and we wonder what would Kartik have to do. The standout bowler was Ishant Sharma, though Dinda also had a good match and Ganguly got more than a little with the ball.
The Royal Challengers didn't get their bowling right at all. Except Praveen Kumar and Cameron White, the bowling was largely less than average, or dreadful, and even they had to face a rampaging McCullum. The rest of the bowlers were weak- Zaheer was six-hittable, Noffke pedestrian, Kallis helpless, and Joshi only looked better because he was unfancied. The fielding left a lot to be desired. The inept bowling put their team far from victory, as their batting simply didn't have the firepower to chase down a huge score, folding up quickly- gifting away as many as five wickets. Except Kumar again, the batting was a thorough mess, and the lack of attack power was a clear factor. The superior Kolkata fielding made it a lot tougher.
Vijay Mallya has done a good thing by banking on experience with race-winner Fisichella in his F1 team. But this is cricket, not Formula 1. Mere track records don't help keep a team afloat if they can't rip through the tracks when others can.
