Wednesday, April 17, 2013

IPL 6 - What A Show Cameron White!

I am a huge fan of Cameron White's captaincy and my belief in his abilities was vindicated in the way he led his side Sun Risers today to victory over Pune Warriors. Sun Risers Hyderabad is arguably a weak side with no stars and they capitulated for 119. Most would have given up when Pune was romping home at 38 for no loss. There were comments for 'Sun setting on the Sun Risers' etc. But Cameron White showed how it is done in a street fight where the end is all that matters. He hung in there, slowly tightened the screws, played all the right cards to upset the Pune Warriors rhythm and drove home the final nails before the Warriors knew what happened. Sun Risers won with a margin of 11 runs.

From the tenth over onwards it was a master class exhibitionism of wonderful captaincy. Going for wickets all the time White made sure that his best bowlers got all their overs done early on so the pressure was kept on till the very end. And when there is pressure there is bound to be a mistake and each time there was a mistake, White had his men ready. It was a classic exhibition of what to do when you have limited resources - with some imagination and attacking play, you can make those resources seem pretty dangerous. Superb stuff. I liked what Mishra, the hero and the hat trick man for today said - Cameron told me to go for wickets and not bother even if I got hit for a four or a six. Now that's the kind of a captain one would like. Good for young Ashish Reddy too who makes a contribution every match - batted and fielded well today.

I saw White do something equally good last year when he made Mumbai Indians sweat to get 90 off runs against the Deccan Chargers. He is the right man to lead the Sun Risers. Why is he not leading all the games? It could give Sangakarra time to focus on his batting which could help the Sun Risers big time.

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