Shuttling teams set for Kotla showdown

Virender Sehwag’s team, for instance, has traveled to Hyderabad and beat the Chargers, before suffering their first loss of the tournament to Mohali in Mohali.

The Royals, after that miserable opening night, have shed their underdog tag with victories in Jaipur over Mohali, over Hyderabad in Hyderabad and over Rahul Dravid’s Royal Challengers in Bangalore.

The Bangalore team, meanwhile, arrived in Delhi today for tomorrow’s clash having last night lost to the Chennai Super Kings. It’s not just the Cricket that’s manic in the Indian Premier League.

“It’s a challenge for everyone, not just for us,” Dravid said when asked if the traveling was taking its toll. “It’s not easy... we played a game last night in Chennai and we’re playing again tomorrow. The good thing is it’s an 8 pm start so at least we can get some rest in.”

While the 8 pm start does give players extra time to snooze, the Bangalore side should really be worried about waking up from their prolonged slumber. A team with a few high-profile signings seems intent on proving wrong the theory that a good cricketer is good enough to play any form of the game.

Need to get lucky

In a line-up that was supposed to be led by Jacques Kallis and Dravid, it’s the less conventional — and less celebrated — Ross Taylor who is calling the shots.

Both Dravid and Martin Crowe, the team’s chief cricket officer, admitted that they had a lot of work to do — and that they needed to start getting lucky.

“No one’s done a McCullum or a Hayden or a Sehwag for us,” Crowe said. “It’s more a side that needs consistent performances from all the players. It’s still a game of bowlers and batsmen, so in that sense it’s not different. But we need to learn and we need to learn quickly.”

Setting problems

For the hosts, the only concern after three games will be how uncomfortable their line-up looked setting a target against Mohali. Having authoritatively...