By Sunil Gavaskar
Once again the visiting side has won
away from home with the Royal Challengers beating the Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur and thus exacting revenge for their loss in Bangalore.
The opportunity is there now for the Mumbai Indians to return the favour to the Kings Eleven Punjab when they go to Mohali.
The Mumbai Indians are clearly handicapped by the absence of Lasith Malinga and with Munaf slowing down and being pasted by even newcomers the Mumbai Indians will have to put plenty of runs on the board. They went in with just three of their overseas players even dropping Richard Levi from the team. Levi has not quite struck form but he can change the complexion of the game and should have been played. Suryakumar Yadav is another who can turn it around but needs to feel that he will be given enough chances to do so and not dropped after just one failure. Too much chopping and changing never helps and while it is understood that teams are still trying to see what is the best combination for them, the pressure on fringe players increases dramatically when there is uncertainty about tenure in the eleven.
The Royal Challengers also need to stay with the flow that they have with three succesive wins and they have discovered a fine prospect in Appanna. The ball with which he dismissed Owias Shah was a beauty drawing him out of the crease and then turning just enough to leave the experienced batsman stranded.
Daniel Vettori also had a good economy rate but he did not turn the ball anywhere as much as Appanna did. Vettori is more of a roller of the ball than a spinner and even when the Kiwis were here for the Test and one-day series last year, he hardly turned the ball on Indian pitches. If he was not the skipper, the Challengers would have thought seriously about dropping him now that they have discovered Appanna.
The last ball win that Chennai engineered in their last match will have given them lots of confidence. They have found a good opening pair in Badrinath and Faf du Plessis and the start that they give is solid enough for the stroke players to cash in on afterwards.
Suresh Raina has not quite struck form as yet and when he does the Chennai score will multiply rapidly. Dhoni has shown his cool self as he flicked the winning runs and they would be looking to repeat their earlier win and stay on top of the table.
As the tournament enters the second half there is not much to separate the teams at the head of the points table and that is a good thing as nobody can be termed favourites.
That is the beauty of the T20 format and the IPL.