The fifth and final team which couldn't make it to the play offs is Royal Challengers Bangalore. The team is owned by Vijay Mallya. He is one force who seem to be dominating the way the team should work. In the initial days, as Rahul Dravid was a star player, he was the face of the team. But back then, Dravid was a test match player. It took him time to get acquainted with the ways twenty:twenty is played. Mallya don't seem to have patience. He immediately started firing on the ways the team is running and took some strong decisions. He tried to justify how his move to include Misbah-Ul-Haq towards the end of IPL-1 was able to bring some dignity back to team after a pity start.
Apparently some lessons were learnt from season 1 and when implemented, it brought success to the team in next seasons where the team was successful in qualifying for the play offs. They even managed to reach finals at occasions but were never able to be the ultimate winner. One name that got associated with the team was Virat Kohli was a Captain in a making. After trying out many others for the position, finally this year they seem to have settled with Kohli. He has been leading from front. He is among the top run scorers in the league this year. But he seem to have some problem with keeping temperament. He got involved in a few on field arguments this year. One of them was with Gautam Gambhir while in the other he went ahead and tried confronting the spectators from Mumbai. If he is planning to be a leading contender for Captaincy of Indian Cricket team, then he better realize, he appears to Indian Cricket fans as an arrogant player who can't keep his emotions.
Although Kohli has made it large being team's Captain, the team is actually known because of another player called "Gayle Storm". I am wondering why Kolkota Knight Riders let Gayle go. Since his entry in RCB, he has changed the way twenty:20 is played. I feel more than half of RCB's success rely on Gayle's shoulder. He is in totally different league than any other player ever in the game. People come to watch him hitting sixes irrespective of if they support RCB or not. I myself could not resist appreciating him while he was butchering my home team Pune Warriors to make grand 175 runs.
Other than these, few more names from the team sometimes make appearance like AB Devilliers, Dilshan and Saurabh Tiwary, but they get restricted number of chances.
In bowling section, Zahir Khan was a big name. This year unfortunately he couldn't play because of injury. I guess its time for him to retire from Cricket. He has been injured for more time than he actually play any form of cricket. Muralidharan's inclusion in the team gave some support to the spin attack, but this year, he was little less favored. RP Singh is other wise a big name in twenty:20. He is the leading bowler for the team. Unfortunately he seem to be loosing it over the year. His last ball noball ruining their chance against Chennai could have created suspicion in people's mind to be a fixed match.
But two names are trying to make a name for themselves. Vinay Kumar and Jaydev Unadkat. Both the bowlers are impressive and turning out to be leaders in bowling section.
Overall the team is otherwise very good but depends a lot on one person's performance, Chris Gayle. Without him and Kohli, team finds it difficult to get going. And what ever is left is taken by Devilliers. I believe if this team ever wins, it will only be one person's credit and it will never perform as a team.
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