Public sentiment will be with Rahul Dravid and co

The Rajasthan-Hyderabad game on Wednesday will be the second time these two teams play each other within a week. That previous game was won by the Hyderabad team despite not putting up a big total.

And, while it was mainly due to their bowling, which, led by Dale Steyn, has been simply outstanding, the fact remains that the Rajasthan boys were still reeling from the after-effects of the news that three of their teammates had been arrested just a couple of days earlier.

To find that a guy whom you have shared a dressing room with, had a laugh with, indulged in lots of leg-pulling and even shared some family stories with, is a person who was prepared to sell you down the drain, is a shock from which it is not easy to recover.

The Rajasthan batting seemed to go through the motions even as they chased a not-too-daunting target. Yes, Dale Steyn, Amit Mishra and company bowled exceedingly well again, but the Rajasthan batting, which has chased bigger totals, appeared to be physically present but mentally not in the game. If they had won that game, they had a great chance of finishing in the top two, which would have given them another chance to recover in case they had a bad first game in the knockouts. But having lost, they now have to be on top of their game to win not just one but three games to bag the trophy.

They have some strong characters in Rahul Dravid, Shane Watson and Brad Hodge, who have played a lot of stress cricket, and they also have a very eager young lot who will want to show that what happened was not what the team culture is but was an aberration, although a huge one. Ajinkya Rahane, Stuart Binny and Sanju Samson all have the skill-sets to do well in this form of the game and James Faulkner has been the find of the season. Kevon Cooper has been worth his weight in gold and Siddharth Trivedi has ploughed away in his own unobtrusive way to good effect.

Hyderabad will be on a high after the manner in which they qualified with that terrific win over the defending champions Kolkata, and they will once again rely on their bowlers to pull them through. Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel have been getting the team off to a great start, but it’s people down the order who have been a bit inconsistent and reckless, and that is what they have to improve on if they are aspiring to win the trophy.

As always, the team that keeps cool will get through and there is no doubt that public sentiment will be with Rahul Dravid to lead his team to a win.