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00:00Hi guys and welcome to Straight Bat with Mr Cricket, UAE and Gulf News.
00:04We're now three days into IPL 2 of this edition and we've had our first
00:12absolute thriller in terms of a nail-biter.
00:14We had maybe not predicted these two teams to do so much to create all the
00:31fireworks but they certainly did tonight. Ana, straight over to you to say
00:35hello and then we'll get on to our guests. Thanks Matt. Hello to all the
00:40beautiful people of Gulf News. Hello Mr Shyam. Hello a very happy and booming
00:45Rohmit and a disappointed Arif. What a match we've had today. As always, both the
00:52teams have made it a habit of making close games. I remember last time Sanju
00:57Samson made a mess of it when he had to win it. And I still remember the last
01:02time in Sharjah where Devatia hit him for five sixes of the West Indian bowler
01:07and won the game. And today again, a young Karthik who has won India the
01:12Under-19 World Cup became a man overnight, I would say. A young boy becoming a
01:17man by defending four and took credit to this young man and giving these two
01:21crucial points to Rajasthan Royals and a heartbreak for Punjab.
01:25And Shyam, if you could give us a quick… I mean, I'm pretty sure… Because you were at the
01:30stadium there. That must have been an absolute thriller to watch.
01:34Yeah. I think in the first place, I thought Rajasthan scored 20 less than what
01:40they initially threatened to. Because they… I mean, it looked like they would score in
01:45excess of 200 given the collective effort which is going. But thanks to Punjab,
01:52they reeled them in quite well. But when Punjab batted, I mean, unless Rajasthan
01:58took early wickets, they were never going to do a match. They were going to make a
02:02match. But on the contrary, they even dropped Rahul three times which I thought
02:07they lost the match then and there. And 120 runs for the first wicket, I thought
02:11the match was pretty much in Punjab's bag. Actually, Punjab threw the match away.
02:15In fact, if I were to blame one single person for Punjab's defeat, it would be
02:21Nicholas Puran. Because four runs and six balls, he lost his head. I mean, they
02:28could have jumped one run each and they could have been over the line. I think
02:32it's a small, tiny collapse. And that allowed Tyagi to bowl a different four runs.
02:40I mean, that's incredible, I thought.
02:42No. The big thing, obviously, was… It was a two-run nail-biter. And obviously,
02:51Romit, you looked to be sitting pretty in Rajasthan. And then there was that big
02:58collapse after the top four, top five guys. What was it like for you as a rollercoaster rider?
03:07I think so. I jumped from my couch a couple of times and then I went back inside the house.
03:12So it was definitely a bumpy ride. But then I think so, at one point of time, let me be honest
03:17with you, from over 17 to 20, where we had like 26 runs and six wickets gone. I was a bit
03:25sceptical about, you know, like we're 20-25 runs short for winning a wicket on this day-to-day.
03:32Ironically, we proved ourselves right, because we dropped the catches,
03:39including the captain himself, which is a disastrous thing. Somewhere down the line,
03:44I was still hopeful that after over 15, if Punjab was able to create a miracle,
03:54then after over 15, Rajasthan Royals can have a miracle. And that's where it proved right.
04:00Like, the last six balls, where you had to be just a simple cricketer. Not a star-studded cricketer.
04:08You just have to be not an over-confident guy. That's what…
04:13Sorry, Shyam. Could you just mute the second? I think there's a lot of noise there in the media centre.
04:20Thank you. Sorry, Rohmit.
04:22Yeah. So, I think that over-confidence, that celebrity cricketer, you know, that tag that took
04:29away the match from the Punjab, you know, it was hilarious. I mean, like Aneesbhai said, that today
04:38Kartik is on a rollercoaster ride himself. I mean, he didn't expect that I'm going to do that.
04:43So, what am I supposed to say that? So, in a nutshell, we won it. We have two points on the table.
04:50And I think, so, it was one of the best nail-biting matches that I have come across. And what's it like?
04:55I had a terrible party on IPL. Because I was always saying, thank you, thank you.
05:00Like, we appreciate. But this sets the tone apart. And I think, so, to give a huge amount
05:05of confidence to Rajasthan Royals when they don't have their overseas players with them, currently.
05:11Okay.
05:12In the end, it's not about overconfidence.
05:14Yeah. We'll just go over to Arif now and get a response from that.
05:18Now, Arif, I mean, to come so close and then come up short, it must have been agonizing.
05:24What did it feel like for you?
05:26As you could see, even the Rajasthan Royals were agreeing that we were going to win the match.
05:33Because until 19th overs, it was very clear. I have even tweeted that advance victory to
05:39Punjab Kings. But then the last three balls were the game-changer for the Rajasthan Royals.
05:45So, it was not in our favor. The luck wasn't in our favor.
05:53Roma is actually making this with his reactions. He's loving it.
05:56Yeah. It's making me overconfident, yeah.
06:01And to come to, I think, Satish, are you there? Did he appear? Or is he gone away?
06:07No, no. I'm there. I'm pretty much there.
06:09Hi, Satish.
06:11Quickly, to just touch on another point from a neutral point or a Chennai fan's point of view,
06:18we now have a very interesting table in our hands.
06:21It looks a little bit different than it did a few days ago. We've now got five teams,
06:24four points apart. And we could have a little bit of a battle on our hands for who gets those
06:30four playoff places.
06:31Yeah. This is nothing new, but this has been the case almost every IPL.
06:37We think that, yeah, some teams are down and out. And the team, the favorites,
06:42the so-called favorites of the first half will make it easy. But that has never happened.
06:48Always, it's been two points, three points here, there. Until the last match,
06:53the teams generally would have the chances of going to the playoff.
06:57This is the beauty of IPL over the last 14 seasons. And I'm sure this will be nothing new
07:03this season as well. And I'm sure more will be coming up in the next few days.
07:11Maybe tomorrow, Sunrisers could upset Delhi. This has been the beauty of this
07:20Indian Premier League, which was so close. And any team can beat any other team on that day.
07:26And, Anas, obviously, we saw KKR win a famous victory over RCB last night.
07:32And now, obviously, we've seen Punjab with a great 5-4 by R-Deep as well.
07:39I mean, they've actually got a lot of hope, despite being seventh in the table.
07:43So there's a long, long way to go before we get a clear picture of anybody reaching the playoffs yet.
07:50Yes. To be very honest, now with RR winning, they are on the same page.
07:54They are on the same point levels as Mumbai Indians. So it's going to be a fight for the fourth spot.
08:02Unless RCB also go for it as they did last time. But as we all know in the history of IPL,
08:08three teams make it. It's the fourth team which generally has a fight.
08:12And we wouldn't know which would be the fourth team. But knowing Mumbai Indians, I see them sneaking
08:18unless they play very badly. But having said that, I want to again say,
08:24Punjab has made this a habit of losing matches from winning positions.
08:28And if I was a team owner, I would be bloody tearing my hair.
08:31This was a match they should have won 10 out of 10 times.
08:34Absolutely. Absolutely.
08:37And I'll quickly come back to our two fans and our readers that are our guests today.
08:42Romit, what are your hopes for making the playoffs?
08:50I have a good feeling. The Sunrisers Hyderabad, which has got to win all the matches.
08:56They've still got two games in hand.
08:57Yeah. So they might upset that number four spot. I have a good feeling.
09:03But however, if I compare Mumbai Indians to Rajasthan Royals or the Punjabs and all that,
09:12Mumbai Indians stands far apart in taking that spot.
09:16But Kane Williamson, you know, I think so.
09:21We shall see.
09:23Arif?
09:25Yeah.
09:26Arif, what's your take? How do you see now that we've played a few games now in the UEE leg?
09:33We may not reach the playoffs, maybe. But still, we will try our best.
09:39We will try our best to spoil others' party.
09:46That's what they do.
09:49We'll scare the players. Until 19th over,
09:52RR was like, oh my God, they are going to win. They are going to win.
09:55And finally, they did. So, basically, until 19th over, it was our victory.
10:02Chris Gale told them to party, party, I think.
10:05I just wanted to say T20, not T19.
10:14Shyam, did you have anything else to add?
10:19Yeah. Sorry Shyam, you want to go ahead?
10:22Go ahead, go ahead.
10:24No. One thing I wanted to make it clear. We can always say Puran could have played
10:30the singles and all that. But today, the West Indians are the rulers of the T20 game.
10:37That's because of the flair and the flamboyance they are bringing.
10:41They don't go by the norms. They don't play by the norms.
10:43They play by the games that we can't even think of it.
10:47So, traditionally, they go for it, maybe wanted to finish it off with a six.
10:52So, that's the way it is. You go for a high risk, you pay the big price.
10:57Heavy price for that.
10:58Okay.
11:00Nicholas Puran is not to do this.
11:03If you look at the last year's matches also, he just throws it away even when he is on some.
11:08So, he is…
11:11This is his highest knock for the season this year.
11:14So, he could have actually taken it off.
11:16Yeah.
11:18Which is why, I mean, I wouldn't trust Puran to steer them home.
11:24This is a game which was in their bag. They just threw it away.
11:27I mean, there is no excuse for this.
11:28Absolutely. There is no excuse for that.
11:30All right. All right. We're getting out of time before we start fighting.
11:36Thank you so much to Romit and Aru for joining us from their teams.
11:40We'll see them later in the season.
11:42And thank you so much to Anis and Sham and Satish for joining us.
11:47As ever, you guys can always get on to engulfnews.com for all the latest.
11:51We're covering every game live with our readers.
11:53And we're also got all the latest updates, previews, reviews and everything else.
11:58So, we'll catch you later and we shall see you again tomorrow.
12:02Thanks for listening.