Gayle needs two or three games to be fit to bowl, reveals Muttiah Muralitharan – Cricket News Update
The spin bowling spearhead of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/M-Muralitharan-c1864, has revealed that the explosive West Indian all-rounder Chris Gayle still needs two to three games to be fully fit to take the ball.
"Unfortunately we cannot have a fifth or sixth bowler because we have to balance the side,” said the legendary Sri Lankan spinner while speaking to media reporters ahead of RCB’s match against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rajasthan-c837 Royals, on Sunday, April 15, 2012.
“Once Gayle starts bowling we will not have the fifth bowler problem. Gayle needs two or three games to be fit to bowl," Muralitharan added further.
The Bangalore based franchise has been feeling the lack of a fifth specialist bowler in the ongoing fifth edition of the IPL so far. After the five-wicket dramatic loss at the hands of the Chennai Super Kings on Thursday, which saw the RCB bowlers conceding
45 runs on the last 12 balls of the game.
After putting a mammoth 205-run total on the board, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were in complete command of the match when the Chennai skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 departed on the last ball of 18th over to leave the side still needing 43 runs
to win off the last two overs. The incoming CSK batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DJ-Bravo-c1379 finished it off with
a last ball four off http://www.senore.com/Cricket/R-Vinay-Kumar-c2237.
To avoid a repetition of the thrashing like the one against CSK, in their ensuing IPL5 fixtures, Royal Challengers are looking towards http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CH-Gayle-c1221, who is recovering from a groin injury, to fill the spot for the fifth bowler.
At the same time, the RCB batting relies heavily on Gayle, so the selectors and the team management does not want to risk him by putting the burden of bowling on him.
"We don't want to put extra pressure on him,” said Murali. “If he bowls and something happens he would be out of the league and don't want him to lose a valued player like him," he added further.
Gayle battled with cramps in the previous game but the Sri Lankan said that he was completely fit for Sunday’s match.
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