Well, what can I say about the team from Bangalore except as you sow, so you reap. There was almost unanimous opinion in the media circles about the sustainance of this team during its selection. Rahul Dravid and folks did make sure that the predictions come true and in turn, cooked up more controversies than good cricket.

What went Wrong ?: Well, almost everything. Right from the team selection to execution of the game plan on the field. Close knit team like Jaipur could do wonders without any star players. But here even with star test players they would have won some more matches, at least the close ones but only motivation to win was clearly missing. It hurts badly when you loose close matches as the team morale will be down. To just give you an example check out the match between Chennai and Bangalore when Bangalore almost made it before they fell like 9 pins. Lack of hard hitters in the team made sure they do not cross 160, 11 out of 14 times! Also, they experimented a lot with the opening combination( 11 pairs in 14 games), as a result no player was able settle and the team failed gather momentum in power-plays.

Key Moments:

• 5 wicket win against Mumbai in Mumbai after being bowled out for a paltry 82 chasing 223 against Kolkata in the inaugural match(which is still the largest margin of loss in IPL).
• Loosing the match against Chennai by 13 runs after crusing well while chasing a target of 179.
• Winning the close match against Hyderabad by 3 runs after scoring 156.
• Dravid getting out to ganguly in a rain reduced low scoring game at Eden Gardens. The team the lost the match by 5 runs.
• Stunning semi final aspirants Chennai by winning in their ground by 13 runs, when everybody thought it would be cakewalk for Chennai for the semis, thus creating stage open for semis.
• B. Akhil scored 27 runs of 7 balls to seal the victory in a battle to avoid the basement against Deccan Chargers.

Sucess Stories:

• Zaheer Khan has been topping the bowling charts before the likes of Sohail Tanveer and Sreesanth took over. He bagged 13 wickets from 11 matches.
• Inspite of being seen as inept t20 player, Rahul Dravid leads chart for highest run getters for RCB with 371 runs from 14 matches. Some of the crucial knocks in this total had come when he was literally pushed to the wall by media pundits.
• A few pulsating innings by Ross Taylor in initial stages of the league. After his exit for fulfilling national commitment, the batting line-up of RCB lost the fire-power .

Controversies:

• RCB was constantly involved in controversies, most of them initiated from their corporate owner, Vijay Mallya. Charu Sharma, the CEO of the team, was the scapegoat in Dravid-Mallya tussle when Mallya sacked him for team’s poor show.
• Mallya created flutters again when he told he trusted Dravid in matters of selection, when he himself had a seperate list of players.
• Pakistan Cricket Board was behind Misbah, for playing for a team whose sponsor is a liquor company, as it does not approve its players for such conduct.
• Also, there was a PIL against the team for using the name of the team which is strikingly similar to liquor brand, Royal Challenge and thus indulging in surrogate advertising. Not to forget our honorable union health minister - Ramadoss for speaking against the same.

Eye Candy: For the spectators, who had come to watch matches involving Bangalore, Redskins Cheerleaders, cheerleaders of the team, were the prime attraction. Their performance was one of the reasons for the audience to be interested in those matches where Bangalore guys lost miserably.

Balance Sheet:(in INR)
Revenue: 45 crores, Expenditure: 88 crores … Net Loss: 43 crores.

Strategies/Tasks for next season: Cut the crap; I mean drop all non-performing test players, international players no exception. Get your selections right - only t20 players - no more face off between team owner and team skipper. Give Misbah more matches to play as he is the most eligible player in T20 in Bangalore team as of now and had successfully carried the load of expections when in Pakistan team.