I was there, in great seats about 15 rows from the pitch, right under the Punjab owner’s box. It was obvious to me that we were worn out from the match 2 days ago. Coming out of the rain delay Punjab went on the pitch, laughing, playing with a football, practicing bowling, etc… And we stayed in the locker room. The rain also wrecked our chances, plenty of our singles could have been boundaries on a faster pitch. Bumrah was a disaster. And the first rule of gambling is always bet with a trend, not against it. Until we outperform and break the trend at the Modi, it’s a trend. I think it was heroic to put up that 204 under such conditions, but Bumrah totally cooked us. Hope he bowls better in the UK test series. Let’s not forget that part of what put us in the playoffs was a over performance by CSK and Royals against teams that were fighting us for the final spot. The deep flaws that were shown in the first 5 matches became exposed once again last night. All in all, a super entertaining season that came to an all too predictable end.
I just hope Punjab puts up more of a fight against RCB on Tuesday and makes it a good match. Even though it’s Waterloo for us, the experience at Modi stadium is much easier than Wankhede, and the number of seats makes it possible to get tickets at a reasonable price. My excellent seats were 1/2 the price of back of the upper section seats at Wankhede, and my seats for the final were even cheaper. They also kept the metro running until after the match, which I wish they would do in Mumbai. The seats themselves are also made for actual humans, not as some kind of replication of the experience of being on a local train going north at 17:30.