Kochi Tuskers Kerala vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Match Review

Kochi Tuskers Kerala (KTK) is the new cricket franchise team added in the IPL (Indian Premier League). It represents the city of Kochi in Kerala. Other than this team, another team called Pune Warriors India has also been added to the 2011 season of IPL. The owner of the Kochi team is Kochi Cricket Pvt Ltd. The captain of KTK is the Srilankan cricketer, Mahela Jayawardene and its coach is the Australian cricketer, Geoff Lawson. The jersey of this team is represented in orange and purple color. Kochi has been selected out of a number of other franchises through an auction. It was chosen under the second highest bid made by Rendezvous Sports World. The highest bid was made by the Sahara Group who opted for Pune as their base. The team consists of some big-hitting batsmen like Jayawardene, Brendon McCullum, VVS Laxman and Brad Hodge.

KTK played its first game in the IPL on 9th April 2011 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The KTK skipper Jayawardene won the toss and chose to bat first. The two team comprises of these players:

Kochi Tuskers Kerala team - Mahela Jayawardene, PA Patel, VVS Laxman, Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge, Ravindra Jadeja, Raiphi Gomez, Muttiah Muralitharan, Vinay Kumar, RP Singh, Sreesanth.

Royal Challengers Bangalore team - Mayank Agarwal, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Cheteshwar Pujara, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Saurabh Tiwary, Asad Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Daniel Vettori, Dirk Nannes, Abhimanyu Mithun.

The home team gave an amazing start to their game with four boundaries and two huge sixes within a short duration. This wonderful beginning was courtesy the opening batsmen, Brendon McCullum (45) and VVS Laxman(36). In just 9 overs, they provided the home team with an explosive 80 runs. The second over itself made the kochi crowd celebrate with two fours and a six. These runs were made off by the incredible McCullum off Dirk Nannes bowling prowess. With the help of his aggressive partner, VVS Laxman too showed off his class in an elegant style. The RCB bowlers were having a tough struggle with their line till the 9th over when the awesome Tillakaratne Dilshan gave them the much-needed breakthrough as VVS Laxman tried to smash another one of his balls landing it as an easy catch to Cheteshwar Pujara. With the dismiss of his partner, McCullum could not sustain longer in the field and was knocked out the same way as VVS Laxman, this time the easy catch going to Dirk Nannes. It was Virat Kohli who took his wicket and put a sad end to a promising innings for the home team.

After this crucial wicket, the game suddenly turned in favor of RCB. The bowlers started to put more and more pressure on the newer batsmen. However, Brad Hodge (27) and Ravindra Jadeja (23) played well and pushed the Kochi Tuskers to a competitive total of 161. This was approximately the score that the skipper, Jayawardene aimed for, though he himself was able to make only 18 runs. The best bowler of RCB for the day was Daniel Vettori whose 4 overs produced 1-17. Though Nannes took one crucial wicket, he turned out to be too expensive by giving off 31 runs in just 3 overs.

The RCB's reply to this target was a bit shaky in the beginning. In the first bowling over of the local boy, Sreesanth, he got a very important wicket and dismissed the explosive opener, Tillakaratne Dilshan for just 1 run as the crowd jumped with joy. But that was the only time when Sreesanth, the face of the team, showed his mettle and class. Being the favorite among the fans in the crowd, he should have made them more happy by taking more wickets and giving fewer free hits. The youngster Virat Kohli, who must be still in the hangover of the World Cup victory, got an impressive 23 runs but eventually got trapped by Vinay Kumar who stumped him out to the pavilion.

As soon as the South African cricketer, A.B de Villiers came to bat, the game again took a good shape and was very well turning in favor of Bangalore. He smashed an unbeaten 54 off 40 balls. They reached the target of 162 runs in just 18.4 overs leaving the party of the home crowd speechless. Supporting A.B de Villiers was Mayank Agarwal who also showed lot of guts and talent and made a fearless 33 runs with two fours and two sixes. He selected his shots very cleverly and patiently not going for any unruly shots. Whenever the Kerala bowlers made loose deliveries, he took the opportunity and penalized them, ultimately smacking one boundary and five sixes. Even as the game ended, none of the home team bowlers were able to dismiss him. Another batsman who gave good support to A.B de Villiers and ensured that RCB got off to a winning start was Saurabh Tiwary who made 26 runs. A.B de Villiers was the star of the day and undoubtedly the man of the match too for bringing the Royal Challengers to a six-wicket victory in a thrilling match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi.

One must say that under the captainship of Mahela Jayawardene, the Kochi Tuskers displayed an impressive line of batting, fielding and to some extent their bowling. A lot of improvement is still needed though in the bowling department. Even the awesome bowler, Muttiah Muralidharan was not able to get any wicket on the day of the debut match. But being a debut team, the Kochi Tuskers have already proved that they are worthy of being a part of the IPL. They gave a good account of themselves and gave a tough competition to the RCB's. With a team effort they managed to give the opponents many anxious moments and fought well. Just like Mahela Jayawardene, all the Kerala cricket team fans are also confident about the team making a good comeback in the tournament.