Spinners breathe easy in slambang - IPL 5 update

IPL 5 is entering the next phase as the race to the top hots up.  It is only 120 legitimate balls each – a bowler can bowl a maximum of 24 balls; and theoretically, there is little possibility of a team getting bowled out under the allotted 20 overs.  So batsman go slambang from the word go, and bowlers get carted around, is what the game T20  is made out to be.  There are some athletic speedsters like Dale Steyn who would be too tough to be scored off and one also thought that any team would prefer bowlers bowling at express speeds trying to knock out the limbs of the batsmen.  Anybody bowling at a lesser speed would get killed in the melee

-         IPL is confounding and exposing many more myths.

Strangely, or factually, every other team have lesser known bowlers, who open the bowling, bowl when power play is on, bowl at death and go unscathed also.  1^st May 2012 pushed two more names to the list.   Most unlikely that you would have heard of Pawan Negi, 19 years of age, who bowls slow left arm orthodox or Ankit Nagendra Sharma, 21 years of age, born in Gwalior, played for Madhya Pradesh, bowls slow left arm orthodox variety of spin bowling.

In the Second match at Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals were restricted to 141 which was scored by Delhi Daredevils with ridiculous ease.  DDR employed Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav, Morne Morkel, Sehwag and S Nadeem – the most successful was P Negi who bowled 4 overs gave away only 18 runs and captured 4 wickets !!  It was indeed a game-changing spell which superceded Virender Sehwag’s fifth consecutive half-century.   When Negi got the ball on his hands RR had not lost a wicket and had scored 56 in 6 overs – but his spell left RR depeted at 95 for 5 after 13.    He accounted for the in-form Rahane, Shane Watson, Brad Hodge and Ashok Menaria.    In the chase, Mahela was without scoring but Sehwag’s blistering attack saw the team through with remarkable ease.  

Deccan Chargers has been the low rung team and in the first match of the day, for the major part, it appeared that they were struggling for runs.  Parthiv Patel was out to the first ball of the day, dragging Marlon Samuels to the stumps.  But the whipping boys turned out to be the scare for the Pune Warriors beating them for the second time, mainly due to the explosive stand of 157 between Cameron White and Kumar Sangakkara, the captain, who had dropped himself in the previous match.  

It would remain a mystery though, why Ganguly chose to bowl his 3^rd over and gave 25 runs with 3 sixers.  Murali Karthik and Marlon Samuels did not complete their quota and Steve Smith did not bowl at all.  Then it was the turn of Nehra who went for another 25 – 95 off the last six and Pune were made to chase a hefty 187.  when Pune Warriers batted, the first over was by another left arm spinner – Ankit Sharma, who got a wicket off the first ball – Manish Pandy softly hitting the ball to mid-on.  It was comical to see Deccan fielders dropping catch after catch, still PWI never upped the ante.  

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.