Pollard cautioned - Rohit

Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians, captain is hopeful there won't be a repeat of the incident that saw Kieron Pollard fined 75% of his match fee. In Mumbai's last match, Pollard was involved in an onfield spat with Royal Challengers Bangalore's Mitchell Starc during which he hurled the bat at the bowler.

"We have spoken to him. Whatever happened happened in the heat of the game," Rohit said. "Nobody wants to ruin the spirit of the game. Pollard is an aggressive player and he didn't do anything purposely. As a captain it was my responsibility to tell him what sort of behaviour is expected on the field. We have had a word him and he is ok with that. Hopefully, he won't repeat such mistakes."

Eric Simons, the Delhi Daredevils bowling coach, has been using mats to help his bowlers focus on the exact lines and lengths he would want them to bowl. The desired results haven't followed yet - Daredevils' bowlers have struggled to take wickets - but Simons has said it is not easy to get the bowlers to bowl one line these days.

"We use a mat for practising length delivery, wide delivery, yorker," Simons told PTI. "Unless you have a specific objective, you don't learn and you just bowl. The ball goes where it goes from a specific muscle memory. Let me tell you that there aren't too many bowlers in the world today who can just run up and bowl six deliveries line and length.

"Simply because, we don't do it regularly. If that was taught at a young age, I wouldn't have to do it at this age. That's the problem. There aren't many who can bowl six proper deliveries."

"You know what dendrites are? Dendrites are mental habits. Identifying problems is very easy, fixing it is difficult part. That's what coaching is. It's easy to sit there in the commentary box and say what bowlers should and shouldn't do."

The way Shivam Sharma, Kings XI Punjab's offspinner and IPL's latest find, bowled against Royal Challengers Bangalore, it would have been hard to believe he was playing his first match. In fact, apart from being part of Delhi Under-19s, the 20-year old has not played any other top-flight cricket. How did he prepare the challenge of bowling to Yuvraj Singh, who is in the middle of a wretched run but still an imposing name?

"I had decided that instead of trying too much at the risk of getting it wrong, I will let him make a mistake," Shivam told iplt20.com. "Fortunately, he did and I got him out. Viru bhaiya and (George) Bailey, both told me that he has a problem when spinners bowl the middle and off-stump line to him, and I did just that."

Bowling to Royal Challengers' batsmen proved to be slightly easier than bowling to his own team's line-up, that includes Glenn Maxwell, in the nets.

"When it comes to Maxwell, it is a nightmare to bowl to him. I don't ever understand where to bowl to him. He will hit you anywhere, anyhow with the reverse-sweep and all other kind of shots. Wo paagal banda hai (He is a crazy guy). But there are many advantages of bowling to him because it makes me think of new tricks to get the better of him and it helps me improvise on my own bowling."

With batting not being their reliable suit at the moment, Kolkata Knight Riders are hoping to get inspiration from two of their consistent performers. Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine have been economical and have accounted for 18 wickets between them and Gautam Gambhir has said they are likely to be the gamechangers during the Indian leg.

"They both are exceptional bowlers and have performed brilliantly," Gambhir told IANS. "The next few matches are crucial for us, especially now that we are back in Indian conditions, and we are confident that the two potent spinners will get us back into the reckoning by giving us the results we are looking for."