Sunday 29 May 2016

A Battle of Champions who have embraced themselves with the attitude that defines them !

              Here we are on the eve of the grand finale of IPL-9 looking at two similar individuals who have taken the center stage. Virat Kohli and David Warner. Two individuals who are said to be being fearless and arrogant at times, swear out to the whole world , wear their heart on their sleeves but above all there is one thing that defines them; they both hate to lose.


              Virat Kohli has been a sensation in this season. People are losing adjectives to describe his performance. His consistency level and Bradmanic performance is becoming dangerously scary for other players to cope up with him. It's unbelievable that he has scored almost 1000 runs in 15 T20 innings.

               On the other side there is David Warner who too has lead from the front. He is the second leading run scorer of the tournament next to Kohli. Sun risers have been a bit over dependent on him in this season. It is only in the later part of the season where other players have taken the responsibility as well.

               Royal Challengers Bangalore started the season well, but lost the track in between with consecutive loses. At a moment their were almost out of the tournament and they had to win four out of four matches. These are the kind of situations on which Virat Kohli thrives on. They struggled to get the balance right without Starc. Watson is the player who brought the balance to the side with his canny bowling and meaty blows.

              Still their bowlers were struggling to bowl at the death . Then came in Chris Jordan who struggled in initial couple of matches after which he has been their key bowler at the death.  As expected RCB have thrived on their batting powerhouse only. Virat Kohli in almost every match and AB De villiers were scoring the bulk of runs with cameos from KL Rahul in some matches.  As they entered the later stages, Gayle coming to his own was a big plus for them. Getting inspired from their batsman, bowlers also started performing  well. Coming into the tournament they have gained great momentum which plays a key role in T20s. They had a close match with Gujarat where ABD held his nerve to take the team to the final.


           Sunrisers have thrived mostly on the brilliance of their bowlers like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mustafizur, Henriques and relied heavily on Warner in the batting. In the later part of the tournament Dhawan, Yuvraj performing well has helped them. After taking captaincy he has improved alot in the last two seasons. Even in the last season they lost the place in the last over brilliance from Virat Kohli.

             Even today they will be heavily relying on Warner and Bhuvi in their respective departments. But who knows, they do have big match players like Yuvi and Shikhar who may just show up and take the game from the opposition.

           Both Virat and Warner who have been known for their banter and arrogance on the field in the past. But they have shown that if you could control the character that defines you, the same will take you to great heights. They didn't have to lose or change their attitude. They just had to control it and it has done wonders to them. These two players will be the key for their team's success today; Warner more for SRH than Virat for RCB.


            IPL has never been so much competitive and interesting. We are going to have a new champion this time. RCB has edge with home advantage and the momentum they are in. But cricket is such a crazy game that anything can happen. SRH just have to show up and play out of their skins to cross line. For me it's a battle between two individual champions who have mastered their attitude to their advantage. Irrespective of who's gonna win, it is going to be real fun for the fans who embrace the joy the game gives.  

Saturday 14 May 2016

Virat Kohli - The Virus Indian cricket is blessed with !

    After that carnage at Bengaluru there'll be a lot of posts coming about Virat and AB De villiers. This one is not about them, but it is definitely about one among them. The man is Virat Kohli.






    Having following him from his debut, he has always been a player who keeps improving. He was an Orthodox player, didn't have any outrageous skills to smash the ball everywhere, doesn't slog, never even had a pull shot when he made debut.

    But what he had was outrageous hunger for victory, eagerness to improve and an unbelievable work ethic. The way improve his skills in every match he plays is unbelievable. The rate at which he does that is dangerously scary for the other players who could never keep up with him.
 
   To start of, he was a predominantly leg side player who had a cover drive. Rahul Dravid said once that when he first met Virat at RCB he couldn't take on the short ball. After six months, in a camp he saw Virat playing it with ease. That is the thing about him. He keeps improving as a player every single day.

    Back in 2011, he had a torrid IPL season. He said that he was looking at the mirror and telling himself that if he is gonna remain the same he is not going to sustain at this level. That is when he took his fitness seriously and after that the stats are there to see.
 
      After that unforgettable summer in England, when everybody was resting he went to his idol for improving his game. After that he entirely changed his game. His stance became a bit wider. His drives became punches. It changed so much that his flicks which used to go through square and fine leg were going in front of square now. It did him a lot of good that he score a bulk of runs.

     He has scored so much of runs, but I rarely see him slogging. There was always a method in his shots. I used to say my brother that Rohit can hit big sixes because he can slog through the line. But with Virat even a knee high full toss will be dealt with a cricketing shot. In all those sixes he has hit, there'll be an essence of cricketing method. But well, who am I to say that. He changed that too. In  the match yesterday probably for the first time I saw him clear his front leg and thump Pravin Tambe over long on for six.

     Me and my brother used to discuss about the bottom hand of MSD. The way he used to send a wide yorker over long off in those prime days. This man Virat has quite a bottom hand too. The way he plays the spinners, especially the way he swipes it through mid wicket is amazing. There was one shot against Faulkner in the world T20. He dances down the track tapped the ball of chest height over long off for six. It was like a table tennis tap of the bottom hand. I keep playing that video again and again and just wonder how did he do that !!...

     In the IND vs PAK  match in the T20 world cup, the first shot by Virat was a square drive of the back foot. That moment I was like "Jeez!!! This man is amazing. I have never seen him play this shot in all those years. How does he keep on improving every single game and increasing his range of shots!". It is not possible unless he have an extremely good work ethic and hunger for victory.

     After the loss against Mumbai, he says that he loves the situation where they have to win three out of three. I am not saying he will do it. But his attitude towards the challenges is too good. That is one thing I admire about him. That is the quality he wants to plant in his team.
 
     He has become a virus today. We can clearly see his influence in players like KL Rahul. Provided that India is going to play a lot of test matches in the coming season, if his attitude spreads through the team then that will definitely take this team to greater victories. If this man infects the team with his attitude and work ethic it will definitely do a greater good for Indian cricket.