Best to relax and take one game at a time

The Indian Premier League has entered its decisive phase, with all teams striving to make the semifinals. However, the basics of the Twenty20 have not changed, and as the Kolkata Kinght Riders-Mumbai Indians game showed on Friday, a good start is essential. If you start well with bat or ball, more than half the job is done. The tendency is for batsmen to go hell for leather at the outset, and with bowlers become more cunning, this results in the loss of early wickets. The value of wickets is such that 40 for no loss in six overs is a very good target for a team to set itself at the start.

On Sunday, a very crucial game gets underway between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders. Both teams are fresh from a comprehensive defeat at the hands of the Mumbai Indians and more particularly, Sanath Jayasuriya. There will be an urge in both teams to go out and make amends for that disappointing defeat.

Kolkata has a very strong bowling attack, one of the strongest in the competition, while it's our batting that has been doing well for us. I am sure I will be asked about my plans vis-à-vis Shoaib Akthar at the press conference, and my reply is that we will play every ball on its merit, whether it's Shoaib or anybody else.

Sourav Ganguly has preferred to bat first when he calls right, and since it's a 4 pm start, both teams would tend to want to do that. However, I still have not had a look at the surface, and would take a call on what to do on Sunday. Kolkata is really humid at the moment, and the heat will make it very hard for the players as well as the spectators, many of whom will be sitting on concrete slabs. While both teams will be focused on getting two points I hope we will be able to provide spectator-friendly cricket because I expect the Eden Gardens to be full, heat or no heat.

Both Chennai and Kolkata suffered at the hands or a belligerent Sanath Jayasuriya. While Kolkata set up a very modest total we had a pretty decent score and still were defeated with more than six overs to spare. I am not too sure about Kolkata's bowling plans, but we did err with our bowling to Jayasuriya. We were either full on his pads or providing width, and as a result he flourished. However, it must be said that the kind of form Jayasuriya was in, very few plans would have worked against him.

Bowlers are getting wilier with every game, and there has been evidence of that in the dwindling scores in the final five overs. They are working hard on accuracy and change in pace, and when the ball is in the slot, it's very hard to get away for runs.

We had a short break in our itinerary, so the team got into Kolkata on Thursday itself. Kolkata is a city I know well, and it was great to dig into some chicken biriyani, which I have been having for every meal since I landed here.

It's best to relax and take one game at a time right now, rather than worry about a semi-final berth. Technically we have to win two out our next four games, and we will try our best to get halfway there on Sunday itself.