During the 2011 IPL auction,Pune Warriors paid $100,000 to sign Nathan McCullum. He played two matches that season,and didnt feature once in 2012. Sunrisers Hyderabad then paid $100,000 to sign McCullum. The New Zealand all-rounder is yet to play a game this season. In his three seasons in the IPL,McCullum has bowled 30 deliveries and faced 22. On Tuesday,the eve of Hyderabads eliminator against Rajasthan Royals,McCullum faced,according to fairly reliable estimates,five times that number of deliveries. At the nets,his teammates came and went,one after another,disappearing before anyone could form an opinion about their form or lack thereof. In the middle,on a practice wicket,McCullum batted on and on. Behind him stood VVS Laxman,Hyderabads mentor,shouting indistinct instructions between deliveries,making cryptic gestures with his hands. Hyderabad,it seemed,were preparing to unveil a secret weapon for their most crucial game yet. Or maybe not. This,after all,wasnt the Ferozeshah Kotla,which,in a few hours,would host the first Qualifier between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. Centre-wicket practice doesnt quite carry the same sort of prestige when said wicket is located in the middle of the arid,pockmarked outfield at Modern School,Barakhamba Road. It was 44 degrees Celsius,moreover; hardly the sort of weather meant for intense training,even for a Sunriser. Rajasthan had chosen to stay indoors,away from the sun and away from anything resembling a camera,microphone,recorder or notebook. Understandably. Already,Krishnamachari Srikkanth,Hyderabads ambassador,had begun two informal media interactions by saying he wouldnt answer questions about the spot-fixing controversy,and ended both abruptly,when he realised that the questions would pop up anyway. Rajasthan,had they shown up,would have faced a far bigger and far more demanding press contingent than the motley group that milled about here with bored expressions on their faces. Concerns about the match itself were now secondary. Which was perhaps a little harsh on Hyderabad,who had beaten a number of higher-profile teams to the final playoff spot. And in a tournament full of batting pyrotechnics,it was their bowlers,largely,who had carried them through. Parthiv Patel,Hyderabads most prolific batsman with 293 runs,sits 25th on the overall run-getters table. Strong attack But their bowling attack has managed to take wickets and keep the scoring rate down at the same time. Three Hyderabad bowlers Dale Steyn,Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma have taken 10 or more wickets while conceding less than seven an over. No other team has three bowlers who have achieved both. Not insignificantly,the three other teams that have two such bowlers are Chennai,Mumbai and Rajasthan. Rajasthan,in fact,are very close to having a third bowler in the 10 wickets/sub-seven economy rate club.Unfortunately,the bowler on the cusp of that select group,with six wickets and an economy rate of 6.24,is Ajit Chandila. Apart from all the off-field headaches they have had to confront since the spot-fixing scandal broke,Rajasthan have also had to worry about one on-field issue Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were their two most important spin-bowling options. And therefore,in Wednesdays Eliminator,on a Ferozeshah Kotla wicket that has so far proven kind to the slower bowlers,Rajasthan will start second-best,on paper,in that department. They already had a taste of what this could mean,during their league meeting at Hyderabads Rajiv Gandhi International stadium,Rajasthans first without their tainted trio. Rajasthans spin duo of Pravin Tambe and Brad Hodge bowled four overs between them,for no wickets and a more-than-respectable 23 runs. Hyderabad leg spinners Mishra and Karan delivered eight overs,taking four wickets for 41. Hyderabad won a low-scoring game by 23 runs. Distinct advantage But the Kotla wicket,slow as it is,shouldnt be as difficult to bat on as the one at Uppal,which has tended to inconsistent bounce as well. And with the bat,Rajasthan start at a distinct advantage. Three of their batsmen have scored over 400 runs this season,and their highest run-getter,Shane Watson,has scored 513 at a strike rate of 143.69. He couldnt quite get going in Hyderabad,but the Kotla might throw up a completely different script. *Live on Set Max,8 pm
