IPL V
The fifth edition ended with the Kolkata Knight Riders ( KKR ) defeating the defending Champions Chennai Super Kings ( CSK ) in an intense final . If CSK had won , they would have performed the great escape act to retain the title . Such was their position till the play offs. Their performance did not look like that of Defending Champions till that point of time. On the celebrations in Kolkata , no comments !!
The current season had nine teams – Kochi Tuskers banned reducing the teams from ten to nine.. Did anyone miss them ? Of course not , such was their performance last year which was their first year and which never progressed beyond that.. Their best players all got picked by the other franchisees. On the Controversy scale ( how can there may be a IPL season without this ) , this season , it did not scale up to matching the earlier seasons. No Lalit Modi , so things were quiet till we had five players suspended for spot fixing and talking too much on the state of affairs of how IPL is run. All the five players were of that category that none of them were impactful with their teams.. One of them could have turned it on for himself for he was the highest wicket taker in the recently concluded Ranji season. One wonders why they did what they did ( to bowl a no ball one of them wanted 10 Lakhs ? ! ). Probably they are short sighted on their own future !
On the Masala side , we had the Luke Pomersbach incident that resembled a familiar scene out of our movies. Again , to the dismay of hype lovers, the settlement of the issue happened out of court .
The league games went on predictable patterns with strong performance by Delhi Daredevils ( DD ) and KKR and Mumbai Indians ( MI ). There were several last over finishes and several last ball finishes as well.CSK were not impressive at all. They looked ragged , lacked the motivation to perform at high levels, could not push things along. And with that kind of a performance far from outstanding, at the end of the play-off games , they were fourth but clearly three other teams that had matches on hand , could have grabbed that fourth place. Royal Challengers Bengaluru ( RCB ), Rajasthan Royals ( RR ) and Kings XI Punjab all had matches in hand to be won to get to the qualifiers. Most of us had written CSK off. Expecting three teams to loose, allowing CSK to protect that fourth place was not on. But the three teams helped the cause of CSK. First Kings Eleven crashed to DD and then Deccan Chargers ( DC ) who along with Pune Warriors ( PW ) were at the bottom of the table sprung two surprises. First they got better off RR and that meant two potential teams out of the way for CSK. Then DC again helped out. RCB , who had dismissed DC for a low total , built pressure on themselves and lost , thus allowing CSK to get in to the qualifiers.
From here on , CSK played like Champions. The body language improved , the fielding was sharp and everything started working.. Were they waiting for the Big stage ? Not only wait , they seem to relish the big stage challenge!
In the Eliminator against MI, it was Dhoni’s power hitting along with Bravo that helped CSK build a total that MI could not chase. Dhoni’s knock was one of the best of this season’s IPL. If anyone could treat Malinga as Dhoni did , it could be only him. Such was his power and reflex that in no time from a situation that was awkward , CSK had posted total that was a winning one. MI ran out of steam and CSK was on to the qualifiers to meet DD. Playing at home , CSK rubbed salt in to wound as the Delhi made team selection errors and Murali Vijay rediscovering his form, tore apart the DD attack. Chasing 200 + totals , DD was never in the hunt. The biggest talking point was DD leaving out the highest wicket taker in this IPL edition- Morne Morkel. Bringing in rookie Sunny Gupta who plays club cricket in Chennai was also a terrible mistake by DD. To me , it was a selection error and I saw nothing beyond or beneath it !
The final was classic. CSK won the toss and with Raina in good patch posted a total that they thought was a winning one. And when KKR lost their captain Gautam Gambhir , one thought the title would stay in Chennai. Not to be. Manvinder Bisla counterattacked magnificently with abundant courage and put KKR on the road to victory. Again , Bisla was a surprise choice . He came in for Brendon McCullum who had better reputation both as a batsmen and wicket keeper. I am sure all tails would have wagged if Bisla had failed as did Sunny Gupta in the other match. But Bisla turned it on and a selection that could have been a controversial one turned in to master stroke .. Gambhir had everything going for him while the same was not the case with Shewag for DD!.
Some notes:
Plenty of raw talent available , playing with courage and freedom. The youngsters need grooming and more critically mentoring to help them stay focused.
Matches were very competitive and one over can swing a game either way.
The highest run getter ( Gayle ) and highest wicket taker ( Morne Morkel ) finishing on the losing side. Goes to prove that the sport needs contributions from everyone.
Star studded teams not able to win the title – So it is all about right balance of local and international talent for each match .
The number of sixes struck through the tournament was amazing with the longest coming from Dhoni at Bangalore against Mumbai
Internet coverage and the number of tweets
Game following and coverage over TV expanded more than before
Few people watching the KKR lift the trophy ! ( give it to the Chennaites who left for home to get to work early on Monday morning !! )
One thing that kept me surprised was the ease with which people kept telling that matches were fixed. Many comments in FB even suggested the amounts that have been paid and also recommendations as to what each Team owner had to do if his team had to win. CSK entering in to playoffs with three potential teams loosing was entirely attributed to money changing hands with the three teams to facilitate CSK entry in to the play offs. I saw posts that said this year the owners have decided that the winner will be DD.I also saw posts that said that IPL was equivalent to WWF !
I am not sure what helps people to get to these conclusions and also share them in public. If you look at the matches , it is so difficult to say how these can be fixed. Several on field examples to me, do not support the theory of match fixing.
Look at Mike Hussey’s effort to catch Kallis in the final. He ran over the fence and his efforts to get the ball back in to play cannot be questioned.
If anyone watched Pune’s Steve Smith in one of the matches on the boundary line – it was 100 % effort and stunning display of atheletism and acrobatics.
Look at the shortlisted best catches of IPL – no one could have fixed them !
One would wonder if the matches are fixed , why are these guys throwing themselves in the boundary line trying to save ones and two’s. Several fielding examples alone can show that the game is played to win and not set to loose.
May be I am not seeing things the way , others are seeing !
The current season had nine teams – Kochi Tuskers banned reducing the teams from ten to nine.. Did anyone miss them ? Of course not , such was their performance last year which was their first year and which never progressed beyond that.. Their best players all got picked by the other franchisees. On the Controversy scale ( how can there may be a IPL season without this ) , this season , it did not scale up to matching the earlier seasons. No Lalit Modi , so things were quiet till we had five players suspended for spot fixing and talking too much on the state of affairs of how IPL is run. All the five players were of that category that none of them were impactful with their teams.. One of them could have turned it on for himself for he was the highest wicket taker in the recently concluded Ranji season. One wonders why they did what they did ( to bowl a no ball one of them wanted 10 Lakhs ? ! ). Probably they are short sighted on their own future !
On the Masala side , we had the Luke Pomersbach incident that resembled a familiar scene out of our movies. Again , to the dismay of hype lovers, the settlement of the issue happened out of court .
The league games went on predictable patterns with strong performance by Delhi Daredevils ( DD ) and KKR and Mumbai Indians ( MI ). There were several last over finishes and several last ball finishes as well.CSK were not impressive at all. They looked ragged , lacked the motivation to perform at high levels, could not push things along. And with that kind of a performance far from outstanding, at the end of the play-off games , they were fourth but clearly three other teams that had matches on hand , could have grabbed that fourth place. Royal Challengers Bengaluru ( RCB ), Rajasthan Royals ( RR ) and Kings XI Punjab all had matches in hand to be won to get to the qualifiers. Most of us had written CSK off. Expecting three teams to loose, allowing CSK to protect that fourth place was not on. But the three teams helped the cause of CSK. First Kings Eleven crashed to DD and then Deccan Chargers ( DC ) who along with Pune Warriors ( PW ) were at the bottom of the table sprung two surprises. First they got better off RR and that meant two potential teams out of the way for CSK. Then DC again helped out. RCB , who had dismissed DC for a low total , built pressure on themselves and lost , thus allowing CSK to get in to the qualifiers.
From here on , CSK played like Champions. The body language improved , the fielding was sharp and everything started working.. Were they waiting for the Big stage ? Not only wait , they seem to relish the big stage challenge!
In the Eliminator against MI, it was Dhoni’s power hitting along with Bravo that helped CSK build a total that MI could not chase. Dhoni’s knock was one of the best of this season’s IPL. If anyone could treat Malinga as Dhoni did , it could be only him. Such was his power and reflex that in no time from a situation that was awkward , CSK had posted total that was a winning one. MI ran out of steam and CSK was on to the qualifiers to meet DD. Playing at home , CSK rubbed salt in to wound as the Delhi made team selection errors and Murali Vijay rediscovering his form, tore apart the DD attack. Chasing 200 + totals , DD was never in the hunt. The biggest talking point was DD leaving out the highest wicket taker in this IPL edition- Morne Morkel. Bringing in rookie Sunny Gupta who plays club cricket in Chennai was also a terrible mistake by DD. To me , it was a selection error and I saw nothing beyond or beneath it !
The final was classic. CSK won the toss and with Raina in good patch posted a total that they thought was a winning one. And when KKR lost their captain Gautam Gambhir , one thought the title would stay in Chennai. Not to be. Manvinder Bisla counterattacked magnificently with abundant courage and put KKR on the road to victory. Again , Bisla was a surprise choice . He came in for Brendon McCullum who had better reputation both as a batsmen and wicket keeper. I am sure all tails would have wagged if Bisla had failed as did Sunny Gupta in the other match. But Bisla turned it on and a selection that could have been a controversial one turned in to master stroke .. Gambhir had everything going for him while the same was not the case with Shewag for DD!.
Some notes:
Plenty of raw talent available , playing with courage and freedom. The youngsters need grooming and more critically mentoring to help them stay focused.
Matches were very competitive and one over can swing a game either way.
The highest run getter ( Gayle ) and highest wicket taker ( Morne Morkel ) finishing on the losing side. Goes to prove that the sport needs contributions from everyone.
Star studded teams not able to win the title – So it is all about right balance of local and international talent for each match .
The number of sixes struck through the tournament was amazing with the longest coming from Dhoni at Bangalore against Mumbai
Internet coverage and the number of tweets
Game following and coverage over TV expanded more than before
Few people watching the KKR lift the trophy ! ( give it to the Chennaites who left for home to get to work early on Monday morning !! )
One thing that kept me surprised was the ease with which people kept telling that matches were fixed. Many comments in FB even suggested the amounts that have been paid and also recommendations as to what each Team owner had to do if his team had to win. CSK entering in to playoffs with three potential teams loosing was entirely attributed to money changing hands with the three teams to facilitate CSK entry in to the play offs. I saw posts that said this year the owners have decided that the winner will be DD.I also saw posts that said that IPL was equivalent to WWF !
I am not sure what helps people to get to these conclusions and also share them in public. If you look at the matches , it is so difficult to say how these can be fixed. Several on field examples to me, do not support the theory of match fixing.
Look at Mike Hussey’s effort to catch Kallis in the final. He ran over the fence and his efforts to get the ball back in to play cannot be questioned.
If anyone watched Pune’s Steve Smith in one of the matches on the boundary line – it was 100 % effort and stunning display of atheletism and acrobatics.
Look at the shortlisted best catches of IPL – no one could have fixed them !
One would wonder if the matches are fixed , why are these guys throwing themselves in the boundary line trying to save ones and two’s. Several fielding examples alone can show that the game is played to win and not set to loose.
May be I am not seeing things the way , others are seeing !
Comments
Personally, am not a big follower of IPL and more specifically in this season. All our guys played their fitness out immdly after the WC victory during 2011 and we all know what happened during the series which immdly followed IPL. The great wash-out in England
Secondly, overdose of cricket with each playing against the other twice. There is big power shortage in many parts of the country, and we had a match every night under the blarring lights. Do we need this, when small industries are closing down unable to sustain the expensive DG power during power holidays...
Thanks, Radha..
IPL 5 has seen the most last-ball finishes since 2008, of the 26 last-ball finishes so far, 10 happened this year.
Regarding young local talent, few openers S Dawan (26 yrs), Mandeep singh (20 yrs), A Rahane (23 Yrs), Mayank Agarwal ( 21 Yrs) have come good.
I am excessively discontent about not witnessing an Indian orthodox right arm off-spinner.