The morning after Chris Gayle's mayhem, the Chinnaswamy Stadium presented a contrasting picture of calmness — empty stands and water sprinklers on the outfield while Kochi Tuskers Kerala's Muttiah Muralitharan posed for pictures with eager ground staff.
Gayle's shadow, however, refused to fade and in the pre-match press conference, a scribe told Mahela Jayawardene: “A storm called Gayle is blowing across.”
The Tuskers captain laughed it off and mouthed a platitude about sticking to plans, but it is a fact that Gayle has added kinetic energy to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Test of mettle
The face-off between RCB and Tuskers on Sunday afternoon might well reflect the mettle of the teams' respective top-orders.
Besides Gayle, RCB has Tillakaratne Dilshan, surprisingly lukewarm so far, Virat Kohli and A.B. de Villiers.
Gayle has led the riot with his 284 runs from four innings, while in the rival dugout sits a man who gave the IPL inaugural day's fireworks an inferiority-complex here in 2008 with a blistering unbeaten 158 that sunk the host.
Brendon McCullum then played for Kolkata Knight Riders and now he has seamlessly blended into Tuskers.
McCullum (241 runs), Jayawardene (214), Brad Hodge (192) and Ravindra Jadeja (224) have scored the bulk of Tuskers' runs, but will have to be at their best to counter the host's attack.
Zaheer finds form
Zaheer Khan, who seemed spent after the World Cup, has revved into form and skipper Daniel Vettori has choked batsmen with an economy rate of 5.53.
Add to it S. Arvind's belief, Abhimanyu Mithun's return to consistency, Gayle's golden arm and fancy dance steps and coach Ray Jennings cannot be blamed if he thinks the RCB attack has acquired a settled look.
Tuskers, meanwhile, will rely on bowlers who have a fair idea of the Chinnaswamy Stadium track.
R. Vinay Kumar is familiar with his second home while S. Sreesanth and R.P. Singh have been regulars — thanks to their rehabilitation stints at the adjacent National Cricket Academy.
Tough task
The emergence of Kerala players — Prashant Parameswaran's rapid ascent and Raiphi Vincent Gomez' gradual arrival — has also enthused the visitors' camp, but against an upbeat RCB, celebrating four victories in a row, Tuskers have a tough task on hand despite its recent triumphs against Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders.
With the race for play-off spots heating up, a victory on Sunday can be crucial in the final stakes.
Gayle's two centuries, including the latest on Friday night that ambushed Kings XI Punjab, has endeared him to the crowd and a similar effort on Sunday might well gift him a cult status among the die-hard fans who throng the galleries.
