IPL 2018 | RCB vs SRH - Winners and losers ft. Bangalore fans, soft signal and Kolkata Knight Riders
BCCI
Royal Challengers Bangalore lived up to their unpredictable tag and thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad to take up the fourth position on the table. However, the ever-so passionate RCB fans and the tournament as a whole were the ultimate winners today for the way the tournament has been panning out.
Winners
The passionate Bangalore fans
During the Indian Premier League, no one complains about Bangalore traffic, neither do they flinch, they just wait for their home games to cheer for RCB - a franchise, despite their 11-year existence, is yet to touch silverware. Year after year, heartbreak after heartbreak, the red and black army comes back to support “Namma Team”. Nothing explains more than the franchise retiring Jersey No. 12 as an ode to the fans.
However, the fans also deserve better. They had enough of those heartbreaks and what transpired in the first half of the season was nothing less than heart-wrenching. But, RCB is unpredictable and so is their style of play. They made a comeback with two consecutive victories to keep their hopes of a play-offs berth alive and it needed them to fire in all cylinders to get the better of Mumbai Indians’ Net Run Rate as well. The fans should also thank the rain gods for staying away from their favourite shelter, Bangalore, during the match day, which meant the ground was filled to its brim.
And when the arena is Chinnaswamy, you don’t need to wait for a perfect day and AB de Villiers knew that more than anyone else. He hit his way out to harass the Sunrisers bowlers and even went down on his knees to hit one outside of the stadium. One of those dreamy days Chinnaswamy crowd pay huge bucks for. What a day they have had!
AND the biggest winner is - IPL
As a build-up to the 10th edition of the IPL last year, the official broadcasters put up a wonderful campaign 'Yeh Dus Saal Aapke Naam', calling it a tribute to all its fans. While it is not a secret that the fans have enjoyed every bit of the long journey that the tournament has traversed, making it their go-to-daily-soap during the summers, it has been mostly through many memorable performances and its fair share of controversies over the course of its 11-year journey.
And what a wonderful season this has been for the IPL fans. With only five matches remaining in the league stage, as many as five teams stand a chance to qualify for the playoffs and what better thrill a fan needs from the IPL. Come the weekend, the stadium will be packed to the rafters and the TV volume will be cranked up to witness who actually goes into the playoffs. Fans deserve a tournament as thrilling as this.
Losers
Soft Signal - To stick with or not?
Technology and the third umpire are used in cricket to make the on-field umpire’s job easier, but every now and then, even the third umpire is guilty of making silly mistakes. Today, however, the soft signal rule was blown out of proportion as third umpire Chettithody Shamsuddin overturned the on-field umpire’s decision despite not having any conclusive proof for the ball touching the ground.
Here the question arises, what is the soft signal is there for? There is no way that the on-field umpire would notice whether he took the catch clean or not from the position they have been put in and if the third umpire is the guy who is going to decide, what is the point of having soft signal? Sure, it helps in giving the third umpire a perspective, but if it does make mess-up like this, it is better to do away with the soft signal altogether.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ dreams take a backseat
It is quite an unlikely choice. However, the way the last few matches have turned out and after Bangalore’s victory over Hyderabad, things have become spiced up for the Kolkata-based franchise. The team are slated to play Sunrisers Hyderabad, who after two back-to-back wins, will obviously be pumped to end their league stage on a high and remember, they are playing at their home den where they are all the more dangerous.
Given RCB’s NRR is a huge boost, KKR will want at least one of Mumbai or RCB to lose their last game and then even if they lose their last match, as their NRR is much better than that of Royals and Kings XI, they can still go through. However, that is too much of an assumption and the Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise wouldn’t have wanted to be in the place where they find themselves in and they will give all their energy to nullify the SRH force who would want to end their two match losing streak before their playoff match against CSK.
