History is going to repeat for SA once again, or what???

Won all the previous matches and lose semi or final….

1st semi…PAK Vs. SA. PAK is in commanding position and right now they are the favorite…SA after 10 overs 60/3 chasing 150 to win.

Well….it is too early to predict so and it is too late (night) in India to write more…so…lets watch out…

We can not be acting too funny by putting entire blame on Dhoni for some of his decisions in the crucial match against England on 14^th June. I say its funny because for similar decisions or sometimes even more amusing decisions taken by Dhoni, when worked, we made a king out of him. And today when it hasn’t worked out, we are ready to give him all the blame in the world.

If we take him to the heights for choosing Joginder for the last over in 1^st T20 World Cup final over, I do not see any reason why we should be bashing him for choosing Ravindra Jadeja to bat at 4. This decision was logically better than the Joginder one. One ok or ordinary sort of decision makes you king and one reasonably good decision offers you defamation – funny world.

Problem about such instinct based decision making is, you are judged by the result of that decision and not the quality of thinking. We tend to forget that decision is taken when one does not know the result. This can sound obvious or even ridiculous, but isn’t that what it is? Go by the book is not the best option always (if it was, Dravid would still be captaining India). Captain can not be bookish, he got to work on instincts and back his own instincts. When they do not work, as a captain you find yourself on wrong side, but if you keep working as the book says, you will definitely find yourself as somebody who is a non-achiever.

Suddenly, there have been a lot of talks and whispers about Dhoni batting at 3. So what? What’s the problem? He has done it before; it has worked or not worked a few times. How has it become a big problem now? “He should not be batting before Raina…”…hello… do we think it was right that he batted before Dravid, Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma in the past? Today some reporter is asking him questions like, “When will you start hitting sixes again – start playing like what you used to?” If India hadn’t lost the game, we would have still showered praises on Dhoni for having successfully geared himself to play anchor types innings; captain’s innings; so called!

This has happened in the past and will keep repeating; faces will change.

We celebrated Ganguly for fighting with selectors to get young guns in and then blamed his demanding style as arrogance and bias for some players. We hyped Greg Chappell’s theories of having youngsters and building team for 2007 ODI World Cup. When we got the result of World Cup, we threw him out and blamed for destroying Indian cricket. We took captain Dravid to heights by saying ‘he deserves’ because of methodic approach and then we blamed him for being bookish, weak and non-innovative.

Now, its Dhoni’s turn. For some of the common sense moves (which any cricketer would have done), we said ‘great captaincy’ and now for some of his not-so-bad decisions we say ‘poor captaincy’. Earlier we called him ‘cool’, ‘straight-forward’ etc, now we call him ‘arrogant’. You are crowned and within no time, you find yourself on the streets where each person in your kingdom is thirsty for your blood.

Praising somebody is a free choice but while defaming we need to be more responsible, more reasonable, rather.

India - very strong contender for WC T-20 2009; not only because they are champions of previous WC but the team is very strong and they performed very well at IPL-2009.

But…..there are certainly a lot of ifs and buts in their way towards the glory.

1. Dhoni: Is it necessary to play at No. 3 for him?

2. Sehwag: What had he done? Is he really injured or management and dhoni had made him “Barka”?

3. Bowling: A big Question mark?

Zahir bowled beautifully in last match. But still nobody knows whether he is 100% fit or not. Other bowlers have really lost their way. Ishant is bowling at good line & length in middle overs; but still he can’t be utilised is death overs.

Harbhajan - Is he only good for tests played in India or what? He bowls exceptionally well in one match and loses his way in next 3-4 matches. Pragyan Ozha though bowling nicely, is still very new to international cricket and India can’t rely on him too much.

Batting: Gambhir & Rohit opening the innings. Raina & yuvraj to follow - Looks very strong Upper Order. In Middle order, you have Dhoni, Yusuf & Irfan. I strongly believe that Pathan Brothers are good asset for India 20-20 team; they can hit the ball very hard and can bowl also. With Duo in team, you can have flexibility to play extra batsman or bowler as per conditions.

I strongly recommend that Raina should play at No. 3; whatever is the situation. No. 4 , 5, 6 can be changed as per the situation.

There are lots of points to be discussed; which we can & we will in this blog in coming days….so please share your valuable thoughts…………….

With IPL getting complex and interesting, With 5 teams struggling for 2,3 and 4^th place, it was the “nothing to lose” team KKR had yet another last over finish but fortunately they were on the winning side this time. Apart from 2/3 matches most of the matches for KKR were last over finish and if they were batting first they used to finish it in first few overs itself. ( please do not ask how? ) 

It was great chase by Kolkatta Knight Riders. Macculum played beautifully well for is 81 in 48 balls and Hodge I think played his best innings in IPL so far. Having said this, I know he has also played couple of good innings this season as well but they were on losing side both the times. KKR has been a perfect example of how it is when things are not going your ways. They dropped simple catches, the top edges went to boundaries when they were bowling and then the same top edges or even good shots went directly to fielders when they were batting, few bad decisions against them added something more to it. Frustration was visible on Macculum’s face. 

They say Agarkar is inconsistent but I really feel he also is a damn unlucky man. He was bowling with no fire in first couple of matches but started bowling well later but even for him edges went for boundaries, lower full tosses went for sixers. If you have seen it carefully he has bowled  excellent bouncers this time similar to one he bowled to MS Dhoni yesterday. I think he needed some confidence to be given to him which  Macculum has given and looked pretty active after been dropped twice. He bowled an excellent 19^th over against Deccan Chargers, it was a perfect Malinga over with all the Yorkers bowled on the spot giving away singles on each delivery, had he been with a little luck he would have got atleast couple of wickets. I normally do not believe in luck but incidents like Yuvaraj Singh taking 2 hat-tricks , Rohit Sharma taking one make me believe in luck, fortune etc.

 For Chennai Super Kings it was like they have won the match, half before the match, 25% after the toss and 25% after scoring 188. I heard someone from their team saying it was good enough score to win. ( against Kolkatta J is what actually he meant J ). Dhoni in after match interview perfectly described the match, “ One of the greatest chase in IPL and One of the worst bowling performance in IPL. Dhoni would not have thought even in his wildest dreams that they will lose the match. It really came as shock for them. Now they need to win their last match or at least not lose it with huge margines.   

 I hope KKR to put up another cracking performance against Rajasthan Royals tomorrow and gain some confidence for many of them to claim a position in next year IPL. Let’s look forward to today’s match where I want Royal challengers to beat Delhi Dare devils… this will make it even more interesting

Instead of saying, these two are likely keys for success here onwards in IPL, the more appropriate sentence would be - lack of any of these two is potentially costly: common sense and unpredictability. By English meanings of the terms, both sound contradictory, however in the context of the on-field cricket action, they are not.
I am fairly inspired by the common sense cricket displayed by the Delhi Daredevil’s duo of Dilshan and AB de Villiers against Rajasthan Royals on 17th May. Though RR’s butterfingers and sloppy fielding helped DD, it was pleasing to see the assurance with which ABD & Dilshan paced their innings. This is exactly what Rajasthan Royals and some other teams lacked in IPL 2. Watson’s absence on one side, but what has really hurt Rajasthan Royals is Smith’s failure and lack of a batsman who can take up similar role.
If we look at Royal Challengers Bangalore, leave Taylor’s heroics aside, they also lacked assuring batting performances. Though Mumbai Indians had Duminy, a lot of ‘uncommon’ sense around him prevented MI from doing well. On the same factor, Kings XI Punjab disappointed us a lot as they had the best people to play such cricket – Sangakkara & Jayawardene. The later did not play a couple of matches due to injury where the former was not in his usual sorts for most part of the tournament.
Though Delhi looks good on the common sense batting front – thanks to ABD & Dilshan, the potential threat for DD is predictability. This team has become a set of fairly predictable people and if the pattern continues, they are likely to throw all away in semi finals. All good wins and great performances won’t count then. Your predictability allows your opposition to have a good plan against you. Off course, the way Sehwag plays is very predictable but on his day, it just doesn’t matter whether you have a plan against him or not. Still, it makes a big difference in the moral with which opposition team takes the field. If we see, Munaf Patel was looking extremely confident to take on Gambhir & Sehwag, and he got both of them. He kept bowling short and on-body to Sehwag, he almost knew that Gambhir would try to step out every now and then. The problem for Delhi is – I and you also know how Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan, ABD and Dinesh Karthik would approach the batting. This, I feel, may go against DD (unless Sehwag does what he can).
There is at least one answer available for Delhi Daredevils batting – Warner. I think, he is a ‘must’ inclusion in big matches and then top 3 can be shuffled. It is not a bad idea to have Sehwag at 3 looking at the pattern of success of slow bowlers in the middle overs. Or even if Sehwag opens, he might just remember how Gambhir and himself approached last T20 World Cup. India’s typical score in first 5 overs used to be 25 or 30 for no loss. 30-35 for no loss is better score than 45 for 2 in first 6 overs.
On Delhi’s bowling, Nehra-Nannes-Sangwan-Mishra have done great job. But still, Nehra & Nannes are again 2 predictable bowlers, especially Nannes. And we know how worse can Nehra’s bad day be.
The word ‘predictable’ is an alarm for Delhi Daredevils.

A bookie calls Shane Warne before the match between Kolkata KnightRiders and Rajasthan Royals.

Cell phone rings. Warne picks up.

Warne : hello

Bookie : I am ….. Here.

Warne : yes tell me

Bookie : how is the pitch

Warne : ya dry and good for batting

Bookie : I want u to loose today’s match

Warne : impossible

Bookie : I will pay u $200,000

Warne : will be difficult to make KKR win.

Bookie : I will pay u $250,000

Warne : May be I could help you by reducing the margin. u tell by what margin we should win. will be much more easier

Bookie : no KKR should win

Warne : OK. I will try my best

Bookie : no make it.

Warne : OK.

Bookie : what will be the score

Warne : 200, if we bat first

Bookie : no make it 120

Warne : Impossible. Agarkar and Kartik are playing.

Bookie : 120 no change.

Warne : I will try

Bookie : OK. If KKR bat first

Warne : 110

Bookie : no make it 175

Warne : no u are asking too much. Ganguli is playing.

Bookie : OK make it $300,000

Warne : This would be the toughest match in my life

Bookie : OK, deal is made.

Warne : yes

Bookie : bye.

Match starts KKR bats first. KKR score only 120 in 20 overs. During the lunch break Shane’s cell rings.

Warne : hello

Bookie : its me. why did KKR score only 120. Our deal was 175.

Warne : What can I do ? They run one when they could run three, defend full toss, get out on wide balls, all catches and shots. I mean, if there is any. exactly directed to the fielders. But I will tell you this, Knight Riders are too good at this , I tried re-arranging the field.but they never miss a fielder.

Bookie : still u could bowl more no-balls. We got only 53 extras.

Warne : I asked all my bowlers to bowl badly. I also made Smith and Asnodkar bowl.

Bookie : Okay. leave that. I want u to loose the match.

Warne : I will try.

Bookie : Rajasthan Royals should be all out for 110

Warne : OK.

Bookie : bye.

Rajasthan Royals bats. They are making a serious attempt to not hit the ball and if at all they hit trying their best to hit to the fielders. They try to run only singles for doubles. But sometimes, they can’t stop themselves from running.

All Rajasthan Royals batsmen charged down to Kartik’s bowling and they purposely miss the ball hoping at least one
would hit the stumps. But they got to run a bye for that as McCullum is still searching for the ball . Inspite of the bad display of batting, they score 118 of 19 overs. Last over, 3 runs
required, the worst part is that its an Agarkar over. Warne is batting with Carseldine.

Bookie gets really furious.
Warne is ready to face the last over his cell rings (he plays with his cell).

Warne : hello

Bookie : its me! . What are you upto ?

Warne : We tried the best we could

Bookie : OK forget it. I want u to loose the match

Warne : what can I do. Fate !!! Agarkar is bowling

Bookie : I don’t know. u are loosing

Agarkar bowls. Warne tries to hide his bat behind his back. But the ball hits the bat and goes to third man. So they take a single.
(cell rings)

Warne : sorry what can I do I was hiding my bat but still the ball comes and hit my bat. If I play much worse than this everybody will find out.
Bookie : (gets really tensed). OK I can understand. But please don’t take last two runs.

Warne talks to Carseldine. Agarkar bowls. a juicy full toss. Carseldine uses all his batting skills to restrict that one to a single. Scores are level.
(cell rings)

Bookie : OK. Past is past. Atleast finish it in a tie. I don’t know what u are going to do u are not taking a single or u give u’r bat to the umpire.

Warne : OK. OK. Don’t worry this time I will! see to it we are not taking the single. Let it be obvious also. I am not taking the single.

Agarkar bowls, unfortunately he bowls a no ball. RR wins the match.
Bookie goes mad and Shane warne faints in the field itself

After a couple of good results, Mumbai Indians are back to square one in desperate situation. They do not have anything or anyone else to blame but themselves.
The most sober line to express about MI’s loss against Rajasthan Royals in an IPL match on 14th May is – they made a mess out of it.
We would tempt ourselves to say that poor tactics of sending Takawale to open the innings with Bravo, poor tactics of having Sanath, Sachin & Duminy at 4, 5, 6 respectively. However, I agree with MI’s thinktank for the changes in batting order. I would like to emphatically say that Sanath, Sachin & Nayar were their best bet to attack the slow bowlers’ gang of Warne, Botha, Pathan & Jadeja in the middle overs.
Unfortunately, changes in batting order are not enough to win matches. If order is changed, batsmen need to have the crystal clear instructions about tackling various situations. And if they do have the right instructions, they need to religiously execute those. This is where we can not be sure about ‘what went wrong’. This is why I would not conclude whether it was a failure in tactics or execution.
Possible tactical failure –
Suppose, Takawale had the instructions to give a stand to Bravo. This is alright. But I guess, he was not very sure what he would do if Bravo failed. And if Takawale was asked to play the way he did even after Bravo’s early loss and Rahane coming in next, this is a pure tactical failure. If Sanath had come at 3, Takawale’s batting could still be justified.
Possible execution failure –
Suppose, Takawale was asked to give a brisk start, which he can do – this was a good surprise MI had planned. But Takawale failed to do that. My problem is not his strike rate, but the way he approached the innings. He played 22 balls and hardly attempted aggressive shots. This is an execution failure.
If they thought, Takawale would do an anchor role – I feel it is an extremely forgettable tactical mistake. However, I don’t think that was the case. Giving a stand to in-form Bravo for a few overs is fine but the way he batted after early loss of Bravo should have been different. Don’t know what instructions he had got, so don’t know whether it was a tactical or execution failure. Failure is failure and needs to be dealt with.
Easy to say and write this sitting in Bangalore having no obligations and stakes – but as a keen follower and lover of the game, it is difficult to be non-critic on such undesirable display by the most desirable personalities of the game.
No need to mention how good Munaf’s last over was and how good Warne is – high stakes match, bowling against Sachin and Sanath, and he gets both of them plus Rahane. How many times he has done this in important matches and God only knows how many times he will do it before he stops playing cricket.

In one of my first few comments on this forum I had mentioned that one of the things that IPL T20 would add to the game was great fielding. Sadly though more than half way through the tournament I only have images of missed catches lingering and not any stunners plucked from thin air. Interestingly the malice seems to be spreading across all teams and even world class fielders seem to have caught the virus. The ‘drops’ could have been attributed to the poor domestic (that would be in comparison with the other domestic leagues) fielding standards which has thrown up the likes of Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra etc. Through the tournament we have now seen the likes of Symonds, Duminy, AB de Villiers, Rohit Sharma etc. spill catches they thought they would have taken for practice. We do not often get to see wicket keepers drop the skiers with their gloves on but we have in this tournament seen the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Mahesh Rawat, Dhoni drop them. There surely has to be a trend or a reason for having so many catches dropped through the tournament. I could only speculate and come up with my thoughts on this –

Dew factor and windy conditions
All through the tournament we have seen the dew factor have a significant impact on sides bowling second. The swirling winds of the Rainbow nation have for sure made a few players (most of them seasoned professionals at that!) look like absolute novices when attempting to hold onto the skiers.

‘Sighting’ issues
Some experts have hinted that the lights could be an issue…especially the twilight time seems to have resulted in more than a couple of spilled chances. The tendency of the batsmen in this format of the game is also to go hard at the ball which a lot of times results in flat hard hits and against the multi hued background it would be quite a task getting a sighter.

Concentration
Or rather the lack of it…Jonty Rhodes in a recent interview said that as a fielder you need to keep expecting every ball to come to you. There are distractions galore at the venues – the noisy crowds, drums and the music and last but not the least the cheerleaders With the fast paced nature of the game it is easy for individuals to get ahead of themselves and plan for the next course of action and suddenly you are a touch slow to react and end up missing a catch.

Hopefully we shall not see a dropped catch at a crucial juncture decide any of the matches in the knockout stages of the tournament. Fingers crossed or should I be saying ‘butterfingers’ crossed!

Last week the prospect for the tournament was looking extremely dynamic with 7 out of 8 teams having opportunities to make it to top 4. Unfortunately, this week it does not look that great. Still a plenty of fun in the points table is possible – but may be only theoretically.
Week is set to separate top from bottom. What looks more likely is -
Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings are well set to grab the positions in semis. Kolkata Knight Riders have already occupied an unenviable (:)) position of no-stress and 2 teams Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore depend on others’ failures as much as on own success. They will cherish failures of Kings XI Punjab and Deccan Chargers more than relishing their wins. If KXIP and DC do well in their next 2 games, MI and RCB would soon be fighting for 6th spot. Rajasthan Royals are in a spot of bother too; however I feel they are well equipped with Warne’s cricketing acumen to see them through.
I just had some fun calculating what can happen theoretically. Considered all the remaining matches and gave 2 points per match to the team which is lower in the points table than the other one at the moment – for example, RCB Vs KKR, calculated 2 points for KKR and 0 for RCB; MI Vs DD, 2 points for MI; DC Vs RR, 2 points to DC and so on. With this hypothetical (but not impossible at all) calculations what we may have in the end is – MI and KXIP in the semis and any 2 of DD, RCB & DC will qualify based on Net Run Rate.
Another extreme consideration like, DD & KKR lose all their matches, MI & RCB win all their matches, KXIP win all matches except against MI & RCB and for remaining matches same logic as above, we will see DD, CSK & RR not qualifying for semis.
Hypothesis! Hmm…what if it goes that way.
Can we hope for such scenarios? May be not. But also things are not so clear yet. We may still have a lot of fun hidden in this IPL-2. Let’s wait and watch what actually happens.

We often hear from the experts that ‘A captain is only as good as his team’. I thought let’s put that to the test as we are more than half way through the tournament and it would be a good time to evaluate Captains of the individual franchises and see how influential have they been as far as their team’s fortunes are concerned.
Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag
Viru has always been viewed by most experts as an instinctive and street-smart cricketer and to a modest extent he has been able to bring that out in his captaincy as well. However he has not set the batting charts on fire so far and hence not led by example as such. Besides he has missed a couple of games due to injury which has not helped. Many experts feel that T20 is tailor made for a Viru explosion but that kind of an innings is still awaited from the man. He has however used Amit Mishra in a very shrewd manner so far in this tournament but the absence of Glen McGrath is going to hurt the Daredevils sometime later in the tournament.
Stand-in Captain: Gautam Gambhir
Too early to comment yet
Chennai Superkings: MS Dhoni
Mahi continues to do a good job of leading the team through the mini-crisis in the beginning of the tournament. His simplistic approach is what has been the secret of his success. His boldness adds to his simplistic approach wherein he has volunteered to lead by example by promoting himself up the order and taking more responsibility. The team for sure will look up to such a leader. If it was not for Mahi probably the Superkings would not be 2nd in the standings as of today. There is however room for improvement in his ‘fringe’ player usage – he has not yet found a way to use Albie Morkel (a potential match winner especially in South African conditions). His usage of Murali could also probably be better than it has been so far in the tournament. On the flip side though he has nurtured Shadab Jakati (an absolute unknown quality from the domestic circuit) extremely well in the latter half of the tournament. MSD’s man management has been fairly good so far but there is a lot of scope for improvement on the ‘tactical’ aspect of his captaincy.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne
Sorry guys but this guy happens to be my personal favorite  International cricket I would say did not have the privilege to see him captain Australia – thanks to his indiscretions in part with bookies and in part with mischievous text messages to a certain English lady. Thanks to IPL however we are getting to partially see what Australia probably missed out on. If you look at the Royals team on paper they do not have real big guns but Warne usage of the squad proves once again that sometimes ‘Whole is not necessarily equal to sum of the parts’. The loss of Shane Watson has not helped the team’s cause but Warne’s excellent utilization of Kamran Khan, Yousuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja and Graeme Smith is what puts the Royals 3rd in the standings. While Warne has lead the team admirably what is lacking is a match winning performance from himself which is due given that he has been unusually quite in the tournament so far. Going by Warne track record though I would say ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’! The tactical and strategic acumen that Warne brings to the job in my opinion tilts the scales in his favor as far as the best captain in the tournament is concerned when compared to Dhoni.

Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist
Gilly and his chargers started off like a men possessed wanting to prove to the world that they did not deserve to finish bottom of the table last year. Gilly has lead the team adequately so far but there is definite room for improvement on his usage of VVS and Styris and some of the fringe players like Ravi Teja and Venugopala Rao. Given the current state of mind of a certain Mr. Symonds it is difficult to say whether his absence has helped or hurt the team yet. The team however suddenly seems to have gone off the boil suddenly and Gilly will have rejuvenate the likes of Gibbs, Rohit Sharma, VVS, Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh and Fidel Edwards. His own performance so far has been a mixed bag but hopefully he should get some more consistency into his own game in the latter half of the tournament.

Bangalore Royal Challengers: Kevin Pietersen/ Anil Kumble
KP it almost seemed was weighed down by the price tag and the expectations during his entire stint in the IPL. He seemed to be trying too hard and probably hence did not really succeed. KP’s relative inexperience also came to fore with some of the tactical decisions that the Royal Challengers have made – Rahul Dravid being moved up and down the order for almost no apparent reason (Rahul has been the most consistent player for the Royal Challengers this IPL season); Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder also being moved up and down the order with no success; non-selection of Mark Boucher (a player of immense international experience) for the initial few games.
Kumble to a certain extent has brought in some semblance of order to the team and this is partially manifested in results. He has led from the front and has been one of the most economical bowlers in the tournament so far but he will have to get the likes of Uthappa, Kohli, Kallis, Ryder and Taylor to play to their potential if the Challengers need to make to the semi finals. There is too much of chopping and changing in the side currently which is not giving the team desired result. The overall performance of the team so far gives an impression that people are uncertain about their ‘roles’ in the team.

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh
As much as I like Yuvi the batsman (my personal opinion is that the world can expect a lot more from him as a batsman if he plays to his full potential and for a reasonable length of time and not give a breathtaking one-off performance) he does not seem to possess any captaincy acumen. The gulf in potential to performance of the Kings XI team becomes even more apparent when you see the squad which has hugely underutilized Mahela Jayawardena and Kumara Sangakara. His handling of the bowlers leaves a lot to be desired – Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, VRV Singh and company would agree I feel. With Moody at the helm I feel Mahela or Sangakara would be better bets to lead the team. He might be able to contribute more to the team cause as just a batsman. Also on the fitness front Yuvi appears to be about 4- 6 kgs on the heavier side – this has been noticeable since his knee injury. He gives an impression that his knee is not a 100% and he would do well to work on his fitness

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin is the best example of the idiom ‘your best player does not necessarily mean he should captain’. For all the Little Master’s capabilities as a cricketer (a batsman par excellence, more than a useful bowler and fielder) he just can’t seem to deliver the goods as far as captaincy is concerned. His tactics through the tournament have been fairly baffling – promotion of Bhajji, usage of JP and the overall confused selection. MI would probably better served if the responsibility of captaincy was taken off his shoulders and we might just be able to see a better output from the Little Master. As much as I personally did not like Greg Chappell as the coach of the Indian cricket team he did make a remark about Tendulkar’s ‘naiveté’ as far as tactical/ strategic inputs in team meetings were concerned which seems to be showing up as the tournament is going by.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Brendon McCullum
Now here is another example of an ineffective leader harming their side real bad. McCullum cuts such a forlorn figure on the field that it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion now that KKR will not making too much of a comeback of sorts. Nothing has worked for the Knight Riders right through the tournament now but as a leader McCullum should have got more out of Dada, Murali Karthik, Ishanth, Gayle, Ajantha Mendis. Baffling also is the choice of players in the squad – the likes of Bangar and Aakash Chopra only helped them increase their ‘frequent flyer miles’. And why buy Mortaza, Pujara, Henriques if you were not going to play him. Relieved of the burden of captaincy McCullum could still be able to fire and some team would pay dearly for the lean run he has had so far.