Yeah, this could be the next best seller 'how to' book, if the KXIP do manage to write it. More than a couple of occassions, this team has found itself in winning positions, but the way they have managed to surrender the advantage to the opposition amazes me. In this match against the RCB, they did everything they could to lose the match, and finally succeeded in their effort. They dropped easy catches at crucial positions, missed fieldings and allowed the ball to go for boundaries when there were not even singles there, they let go the run out chances, not to mention their bowing and fielding efforts. On a certain occasion, Sangakkara not only missed a crucial catch, but kicked the ball across the ropes.
Earlier, helped by some good batting efforts from Sangakkara(45), Ravi Bopara(42) and Yuvraj(36), KXIP had managed to put on board a decent total of 181 for 5. But when they took the field, catastrope struck. Despite of claiming Kallis's wicket early, they allowed Peiterson(66) and Manish Pandey(29) to put up a good parnership. KP continued the good work in Virat's company. But when Virat fell, the very next ball KXIP had the chance to send back Kevin. Instead they gave away a boundary. This was one of the many such efforts that was the order of the evening.
Even then at one stage, they had the comfort of 48 runs that were needed by the RCB off 24 balls. Unlike the other night, when Mahela had tossed the ball to a non-regular bowler in Bopara and lost the plot and the match, Sangakkara decided to go for their most experienced bowler Brett Lee. The batsman was Robin Uthappa. He displayed some awesome hitting(22 off 8 balls) and RCB collected 25 runs from the over. Brett Lee too helped RCB by bowling a ball well outside legstump which crashed into the sightscreen, conceding an extra ball and 5 runs.
Even after this debacle, the KXIP were not done for the night. They dropped KP once more, missed more balls on the field and ensured that RCB doesn't lose from there.
Winning just one out of 8 matches, they don't go anywhere from here, may be they have a few more ideas to teach us, a few more how (not) tos!!
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