The Punjab Kings 11, owned by Ness Wadia and Preity Zinta have nothing to show for their efforts after their first two games in the Indian Premier League.
In their first game, they were simply ” oubatted ” by Michael Hussey.
In their second game, Shane Warne marshalled his men well, and the Royals upset the Kings.
But this is what I’m coming to. After the Royals beat the Kings 11, a prominent T.V. channel screamed ” Preity ki dusri haar ”.
What could Preity Zinta have done that Yuvraj and his boys could not have ? And in what way does she influence their on- field fortunes ? Maybe she should flash that megawatt smile a lot more, and avoid relegating players from the team hotel to accommodate socialite friends ( Read Gagandeep Singh and co )
If Manchester United were to lose two games in a row, do we see the headline ” Glazer ki dusri haar ” ? Of course not.
As for the Mumbai Indians, Sachin Tendulkar missed their second match against the Super Kings. In fact, Tendulkar turns 35 in a little while from now. Happy birthday to the Master Blaster.
And with the Super Kings blasting their way to a second 200+ score, one could have been forgiven for misreading MI as Mission Impossible when Jayasuriya and Co. came out to bat.
The Kings were in control for most part of the game. With the required rate climbing higher and higher, it seemed that nothing less than a miracle would be required to prevent the Mumbai Indians from joining Kings 11 and the Deccan Chargers in the list of teams not to have scored a point in the IPL.
And a miracle it nearly was.
Abhishek Nayar and Harbhajan Singh batted as if it was a World Cup final.
When Singh did fall to Murali in the penultimate over, Mumbai needed 19 to win off the last over.
Bowler : Joginder Sharma.
It seems that Dhoni chose to go with Joginder, keeping in mind what he did at the T20 World Cup in South Africa.
First ball- four ( 15 to win off five)
Second ball- four ( 11 to win off four)
Third ball- single, no ball. ( Nine to win off four)
Mistake here. Big mistake. It ensured that Ashish Nehra would play the free hit.Â
Fourth ball- Nehra swings and misses ( Nine off three)
Fifth Ball- Nehra takes one ( Eight off two)
Sixth Ball- Joginder gets it right, and Nayar cannot get underneath the ball. (Â Eight off one)
Seventh ball- Single.
CSK win.