 At the end of the first five games in the Champions League T20, it is evident
that the spinners will play a big role in the competition. However, it must also
be said that the quality of the spinners will be taken into account as well, rather
than any one who needs to run and bowl.
So far, the two South African sides have done well, winning three games in all.
Warriors began with a win over Royal Challengers Bangalore before having got the
better of the South Australian side. On the other hand, the New South Wales Blues
were beaten by the Cobras to ensure that the two Australian sides, favourites
to get to the latter stage of the tournament will need some hard thinking to do.
It wasn't a good start for the three of the four Indian sides as well. Bangalore,
who looked to have got to enough on the board when they scored 170 on a flat
pitch were pummelled by the bats of Ashwell Prince and Johan Botha
to lose a close tie. On the other hand, Kolkata and Somerset played out a repeat
of the previous, qualifier, with the English side turning out easy winners in
the end. It was the batting of Roelof van der Merwe that took the side home.
The one team from the IPL that did win was the weakest of the lot and the one
which was not expected to do well. This was Mumbai Indians who stunned the defending
champions Chennai Super Kings, in a close game. What was interesting about this
game was that they looked doomed till Lasith Malinga came out and won
them the game with the bat rather than the ball!
With today's game between Mumbai and Trinidad and Tobago, things will get interesting
if Mumbai Indians can win it. The reason one says this is because the
Mumbai Indians are missing most of their top players and hence have been allowed
the leeway of an extra foreign player.
However, if they win this one, there may be complaints from the other to that
regard and could end up waking the organisers up.
If Trinidad and Tobago win the encounter, it will be left to the sides to end
very closely at the end of the league stage of the competition. Unfortunately
only two of the five teams will go through to the semi finals.
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