When Kohli’s here you know about it!
HELLO again! Unfortunately since last time things have not gone brilliantly for us, or myself, out here in Bangalore. With the level of competition so high you never get an ‘easy’ game as all sides have a string of high- class performers. We found that to be the case as we won just one of our first five until we secured a timely win against Gujarat Lions. THE last game I played was against Mumbai Indians and the crowd were particularly excited as it was the return of a certain Indian captain. You could feel that extra bit of buzz around the ground as soon as we arrived. Not only was it Virat Kohli’s first game of the tournament, but AB de Villiers was also playing his first home game. As soon as those two headed out on to the field for the warm-ups, you knew all about it! Virat and AB are genuine A-list celebrities over here and there is fanfare wherever they go. IT WAS great to have Virat back and he went about making up for lost time straight away scoring 62 off 47 balls — welcome back skip! We came out trying to defend 142 and got off to an amazing start with Samuel Badree taking a hat-trick, which as you can imagine sent the crowd into a frenzy! Unfortunately, even after having them seven for four we came up against Kieron Pollard who won the game for his side, scoring 70 off 47 balls. He was too good for us on the day. DURING that match I tweaked my hamstring while bowling and, even though I was able to finish the game, it ruled me out of the next couple against Pune and Gujarat, which is extremely frustrating. It’s not a bad injury, however, so I won’t be out for long. IT’S been good to see the other English lads and it’s certainly strange playing against them instead of having them as team-mates! I caught up with Eoin Morgan for a beer after the match against Kings XI. He was on good form as always, and I sat down with Ben Stokes for 10 minutes to catch up before our game against Rising Pune Supergiant. It’s nice to see familiar faces from home as you end up spending a lot of time in your hotel room while travelling around India. I AM still ploughing through the various TV series, but have changed my sleeping pattern to accommodate watching the NBA play-offs, which started this week. You very rarely have anything to do in the mornings here, so I find myself going to sleep after the basketball at around 3.30am and waking up just after midday. I’VE been keeping up with football, too, in real and fantasy forms. I was smug to come off the field against Delhi to find my side, Norwich City, had thumped Reading 7-1, so proudly paraded my shirt around the hotel. But it was back down to earth a few nights later with a 3-1 loss to Fulham. I’ll try not to get too giddy in future. Fantasy football is also getting to crunch time and the Sussex CCC league is heating up. I’m sat in third place hunting down the old timer Steve Magoffin with Ed Joyce and Ben Brown hot on my tail — gripping stuff! WE HAVE had a far from ideal start so the runs of Kohli and Chris Gayle in our 21-run win over Gujarat on Tuesday were just what we needed. We certainly have the time and enough talent to still make an impact in this tournament, so it’s just a matter of piecing it together and a few individuals really standing up and taking the competition by the scruff of the neck. I’ll certainly look to be one of those when I return.
I WOULD like to use this opportunity to help promote the Matt Hobden Trust, which was set up in memory of my Sussex team-mate who passed away last year. You can find out more on the great work the trust do on Twitter @matthobdentrust. Until next time, T.