Just a fourth of the Indian Premier League is over. What follows is the phase when the lower-placed teams begin to make up for the initial losses. The percentage of matches producing ‘surprise' winners falls.
Who could have imagined Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore ending up on the losing side eight times in the first fortnight of the competition and placing in the bottom-five?
For that matter, even the 2008 champion Rajasthan Royals was not expected to win four of its first six matches and head the table.
Already a few last-ball finishes have been witnessed and Bangalore, which faces Kings XI Punjab here on Friday, has been involved in two of them.
If the defeat to Chennai was a heart-breaker, the triumph over Pune proved to be just the kind of victory for Bangalore to get back on track.
In fact, after suffering three successive losses, Bangalore needed to win, and win in a manner that brought the self-belief back in its dug-out. It did so with Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers finding the big hits in time to set the game up and Saurabh Tiwari putting the finishing touches against Pune.
To find an otherwise composed Anil Kumble running on to the field with other players to celebrate showed what the victory meant for Bangalore.
After an easy win over Delhi Daredevils, Bangalore has conceded a minimum of 165 runs in each of the four games that followed, and it is the only team to lose even after scoring over 200 runs. The side has conceded a whopping 750 runs in just 80 overs.
Vettori, as expected, rued the lack of quality fifth bowler. Even the induction of Tillakaratne Dilshan did not help Bangalore's cause in the previous match.
But the victory over Pune has injected Bangalore with the much-needed enthusiasm. It has reasons to believe that its batsmen can score more than what their generous bowlers are capable of conceding.
Up next, it faces a self-doubting Punjab that is still waiting for its top-order to fire. From the point of view of stand-in skipper David Hussey and his men, the Bangalore attack could well prove to be the fodder the host's batsmen could tuck into.
On Wednesday night against Kolkata Knight Riders, though, the Punjab batsmen lacked the character and discipline to deal with the on-field injury to Gilchrist and the poor decision that consumed a well-set Shaun Marsh.
The side will still hope to get it right against an attack searching for consistency.
So, in short, it will be an interesting to see who strikes form — the Bangalore bowlers or Punjab's top-order.
On the flat PCA Stadium pitch here, the Punjab bowlers have done a fair job so far in the matches. But given the appetite of the Bangalore batsmen, especially after their awe-inspiring finish against Pune, the home bowlers might find the going really tough.
With both teams looking for a third win after five matches — and going by their lack of consistency — this should have been seen as a battle of equals.
But considering the way the teams have performed in their previous outing, Bangalore holds a psychological edge.
