India's chances at the 2010 T20 World Cup

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The Indian team won the inaugural tournament but could not do well in the next version. How they will do this year seems to be seen. Whether they will be able to recover from their hectic IPL experience, will determine more than anything else.

The pitches will help the spinners and batsmen will feel more at home than in any other T20 World Cups so far.

Without playing any warm-up matches, the Indians are practicing the first few days in the islands. This might be a good tactic to go, after the IPL journey.

Openers

India are missing Sehwag here but never mind, Vijay comes into the squad thanks to his wonderful run in IPL3. Gambhir and Vijay are going to be key to provide starts to the Indian team.

Middle order

What can you say about a middle-order that has Suresh Raina (MoM of IPL3 finals), MS Dhoni among a host of other all-rounders. Dinesh Karthick will play if MSD has injury problems.

All-rounders

There are a number of batsmen who can be classified as all-rounders because of their ability to bowl spin - Yuvraj Singh (remember six sixes), Ravinder Jadeja (best Indian bowler in last T20 World Cup), Yusuf Pathan (the Baroda Marauder), Rohit Sharma (the best technical batsmen from the Gen-X). 3 of them will play and it might be mostly the first three.

Spinners

Harbhajan Singh will play a lead role in the team in the spinning department while Piyush Chawla will get a chance only if Bhajji gets injured. Because of his inconsistency, Bhajji is still considered as a spinner, not an all-rounder.

Fast bowlers

Zaheer Khan can be easily named as the most canny bowler in international cricket, if not the fastest. He will lead the pack with Ashish Nehra. The Kumars, Praveen and Vinay, will provide variety with their right-arm medium-pace - only one of them will play in the eleven. All the bowlers can pack a punch with their bat (which even if it is for a few balls, will matter in this version of the game).

Looking at the composition, the Indian team looks quite strong (on paper at least). Bowlers who can bat and batsmen who can bowl give the team a good look. Of course, if it goes to the Super Eights, that itself is a step up after the last year's performance.

Let us raise our hopes and hope that MSD brings back the T20 World Cup this year, to go with his IPL trophy. All the best, India.

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IPL3's contribution towards World T20

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IPL3 is over but the T20 season has not finished yet. The World T20 is all set to start and one can see the frenzy once again. This year, it is in the Caribbean islands where spin is expected to play a big role.

Let us see who are the players from IPL3 who can benefit from BCCI's adventure. There are quite a few Indian players who did well in IPL3 but they are not in the XV selected for the World Cup - the biggest name of them all, Sachin Tendulkar. The others who might feel unlucky will be 3 of the 4 active international players who have picked 20, 17, 12 wickets respectively - Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, R Ashwin. All 3 spinners and everyone who have played a major role in their IPL team's journey.

Dale Steyn, Lasith Malinga, Zaheer Khan, Muralitharan, Vinay Kumar are the others who have performed well (12, 13, 14, 13, 15 wickets respectively) with the ball - they will be turning out for their national team. South Africa, Sri Lanka and India will benefit by these bowlers as these bowlers will be in high confidence after their performance at the IPL.

Similarly, with the bat, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan played well and scored runs (by fours and sixes) at a very good strike-rate. These players might be feeling the heat of the IPL3 as well as the travel but high on confidence. Jayawardene will provide Sri Lanka with a good option for opening the batting while Jacques Kallis might tempt South Africa to follow the RCB model of opening the batting.

The other countries did not have their players contribute much to their IPL teams - maybe they might regain their intensity when they play for their nation. Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard did decently in the tournament, especially the latter. Australian national players mostly boycotted the tournament but ones like Warner, Watson and the Hussey brothers gained match practice (in fact, surprised to see Bollinger not in the squad). England's Collingwood, KP and Lumb must have gained invaluable experience from the Indian tournament. Of course, Pakistan, Ireland, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe did not benefit any iota from IPL - will they not do well? Let us see.

Hence, looking at these players and their performance, I would consider India, Sri Lanka, South Africa to get to the semi-finals. Of course, South Africa should work on their mental block of not getting to the finals of international tournaments. India and Sri Lanka both have good chances to win the tournament with their superior spinners (who are decent batsmen as well).

Let us see how the tournament pans out. Who is your favorite then?

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IPL3 Performances - Post-mortem

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The IPL finished yesterday with Chennai SuperKings winning this version but the news today was overshadowed by the Modi-factor. Newspapers feel that readers are more interested to know more about LKM than the final match itself.


Over the course of the tournament, there were a large number of performers who shone. Let us try to decide the best player in each category (I am not including players who are obvious - ones like Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, etc) 


The promising bowler from my perspective was Pragyan Ojha. Others who put in performances that were interesting in a couple of matches included Harmeet Singh (slower ball specialist), RP Singh, R Ashwin (opened the bowling in the latter part of the matches which revived CSK fortunes), Shadab Jakati (probably the best spinner in a squad consisting of Muralitharan - doesn't it say something?). Jaskaran Singh, A Uniyal, Umesh Yadav, Sumit Narwal, Abu Ahmed, KP Appanna, Jaidev U were some of the younger bowlers from different teams to notice going forward.


The promising batsmen was Saurabh Tiwary. The ones who shone as well included Robin Uthappa (amazing performance by the RCB batsmen in the end overs), M Vijay(came into the Indian team based on his performances at the top of the order), T Suman (One of the consistent performers of the Deccan Chargers team), Ambati Rayudu(must have gone up the pecking order for a backup wicket-keeper). Lone performances came from Manoj Tiwari, Manvinder Bisla, Manish Pandey, Abhishek Jhunjunwala, KM Jadhav, Kedar Jadhav.

From the all-rounders, it was clear that Angelo Matthews started well but did not sustain the level till the end. R Sathish, Yusuf Pathan, Juan Theron were the others who did well in both departments but not consistent enough. India definitely needs a bowling all-rounder who bowls medium-pace and if Sathish can play this role, it will be a great step forward for the team.


Naman Ojha is the keeper who has played well in the matches throughout the tournament other than the make-shift keepers like Uthappa or Rayudu. The duo of A Tare and Dinesh Karthick did well in matches but again, nothing startling.

Finally, the IPL Dream Team XV of the entire tournament who should be invited to play the World T20 winners - Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, MS Dhoni(c), Suresh Raina, Andrew Symonds, Robin Uthappa (wk), Angelo Matthews, Zaheer Khan, Dale Steyn, Pragyan Ojha, Lasith Malinga

Best Catches - Watch here for the ones I feel are great in the tournament.

R-B Charts of all IPL3 matches are available here. What is R-B? Check here if you dont know.

Men of the Matches, their home-towns and home-grounds can be seen here.

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IPL3 - semi-finalists identified

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The first phase of IPL3 came to a logical conclusion if not a complete stop on Sunday, with four semi-finalists finalized. Let us have a quick look at them:

• Mumbai Indians - The favorites going by their form so far. The batting is a bit wobbly dependent on the legend (SRT) who might want to win this one since he is the captain and more necessarily, no one expected him to fire so well this season. The bowling looks good with Zaheer, Harbhajan and Malinga. If the Caribbean duo of Bravo and Pollard as well as the ex-ICL duo of Rayudu and Sathish excel, no one can stop the Ambani's team.
• Royal Challengers - No one knows what happened in the league stages - why the momentum was lost after such a fantastic start. Kallis, Uthappa, Pietersen, Kohli, Taylor form the batting strength which has got a good bowling attack to support (Kumble, Steyn, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar). They need to get their act (and head) together before the semis as they will lose their home-advantage as well.
• Chennai Super Kings - Definitely, one of the favorites, for their explosive power - the match against Kings XI Punjab showed what MSD could do, on form. Hayden, Vijay, Kemp, Raina, Morkel, Badri other than MSD is great batting. If the bowling could do better than just Bollinger alone, they will give Mumbai a good fight.
• Deccan Chargers - five matches in a row!!! They are on fire. Symonds, Rohit Sharma and T Suman (my vote for the best Indian youngster in the league matches) have been doing a great job while Vaas, Ojha, RP Singh take care of the bowling.

 The final might be between Mumbai and CSK which will be a definite treat. Let us wait and watch. Who is your favorite?

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IPL - Incorporate from F1

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The Formula-One Racing has been expanding every year and I am sure Mr. Lalit Modi must be checking out how he will bring on IPL in the same way.

Some suggestions from my side to LKM

• Hook up the teams with radio to the coach in the dug-out. This will make the comments made by various teams transparent to the viewers as well as ensure match-fixing is controlled
• Warm-up. Let both teams use the pitch before the match for an over each so that they have an idea of how the pitch plays and choose their team accordingly.
• Take the matches to be played at overseas locations. Let teams pick their home-ground (even if it is outside the sub-continent - of course, LKM can give them a list to choose from). Let each team host the other nine teams at one go & the jamboree continues in each location.
• Do not allow rain-breaks disturb the match. In fact, there has not been much of an interference this season but would like players to continue the match even in rain!!!

Of course, some of these might just remain on this blog but who cares. What do you think IPL should 'borrow' from F1.

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IPL3 in UK

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I had the privilege of seeing the IPL3 in UK for the last 4-5 days both on ITV as well as Youtube and I was surprised pleasantly. Why?

• The ads in the ITV version of IPL3 are very minimal. The ads appear mostly during the Strategic Time-outs. There are no ads between balls or overs that we typically see in India. Maybe, that is the reason why the ones outside India are not able to realize what is the big deal of the ads that we all keep harping about!!! So, the next question then - how is ITV making money out of the deal?
• The matches are being seen by ones who are not so addictive to cricket in the first place. This is interesting because it is attracting more people to view the sport at home. The fact that everyone is able to watch it without buying any additional equipment (since ITV is free to air), must be really great for all cricket followers. Of course, my sample size is quite small but nevertheless, the attention that IPL has brought to Indians in UK is amazing.
• Youtube also has minimal ads on its page. Just one sponsor - a small-time mobile company which is trying to lure Indians to buy their mobile cards.
• Mandira Bedi was supposed to be part of the commentary panel, based on some reports that I had read earlier. No longer. I can see some guy hosting the show with commentary by Mark Butcher, Greame Hick and Ronnie Irani.

Of course, the mainstream TV as well as newspapers do not talk much about IPL but definitely the tournament has made a mark in the Lords of Cricket. It is time the English Board gets on to the IPL bandwagon in full spirit.

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IPL3 - 12 matches completed by all teams

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For the first time in the tournament, all the teams have played the same number of matches - a good basis to compare the teams. Pity there is just one more match that they are expected to play - two more matches each, in fact.

The status after the 48 matches so far, gives the table a muddled look. Mumbai has qualified while Punjab are definitely out. KKR is on the way out while the other 5 have a chance to get the 3 remaining slots.

A thought occurred to me - why is the points table so muddled at the center? Is it because of the format of the game? Is it because of the team composition where all the teams are more or less equal (have a mix of overseas and domestic players)? I would have thought that the answer would be a combination of these reasons.

But, again, I had a re-think. Punjab started winning while Mumbai started losing. The others anyway were inconsistent as usual. Then, today, Lalit Modi's past history incident came to the surface while his fight against Shashi Tharoor is in the open. Of course, Shashank Manohar of BCCI is also against LKM.

The English Premier League is something hard to miss in the United Kingdom - each year the matches are held dime a dozen - in fact, more than what are being played in this year's IPL. But, the top teams mostly are at the top and keep winning consistently. Why does it not happen in IPL? Should the games be more, for these two formats to be compared? Of course, it is just a thought and one could always argue that this is a case of comparing oranges and apples. But, why not?

The Twitter search here will show you how many twitterers think differently. Of course, Rahul Mehra has been suggesting what could be the possibilities. It is time Modi creates a unit for Anti-Corruption that works with ICC and gives the entire IPL circus a clean chit.

What do you think might be happening behind the doors?

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RCB needs to get its batting order right

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RCB failed against Deccan Charges on 10th April - 4 losses in the last 5 matches.

This is mostly due to the fact that the bowlers did not defend the score but more importantly, the strip was so good that Deccan batsmen could chase the score easily.

The top-order of RCB seems to be very heavy - especially if you have Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid in the Top3. Manish Pandey and Kallis seem to be the right opening pair for the team but Rahul is not the right No.3.

The Team Management would do good to give a chance to Srivats Goswami - he can do the role of a wicket-keeper (though Uthappa is doing a fairly good job in his role). He scored heavily in the recent ODI matches and hence would give a better balance to the team than Dravid. Though I hold Dravid in high esteem, he seems to be out of sorts in this format - it is better that he is rested for the remaining matches.

Of the four foreign players in the playing eleven, Kallis, Steyn, Ross Taylor and Cameron White would be the ideal players in the Top seven. Manish, Uthappa and Goswami will finish the remaining slots in batting. The bowling will be taken care by the captain Kumble, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar and Appanna. This will be a good balanced squad for RCB - containing the dashers as well as the steady batsmen. Of course, Virat Kohli is missing - maybe he might be swapped for Appanna.

This eleven will give a better chance to win the match against Kolkata and in the future games.

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IPL3 - Nuggets

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Noticed some points in the ongoing IPL3 - I am sure you will have observed this, as well.

• Commentators - The commentators are typically known to be honest, non-biased, frank and brutal in their insights on the cricket match. In this tournament, the set of commentators at all the venues (including reputed ones like Gavaskar, Shastri, etc), the descriptions are more around the sponsors of the tournament - DLF (Six), Maxx Timeout, Karbonn (Catch), etc. In fact, one commentator even forgot to mention six - he just said 'It is a DLF'!!! Is the terminology being changed here, by Lalit Modi? If someone pays him a bonanza, he will gladly agree.
• Sledging - the international players seem to be a bit less reluctant to voice their intentions on the field in international cricket. It is probably the fact that they are playing in IPL together with players from other countries. But, the attitude of the Indians is not getting better - Harbhajan and Sreesanth are prime culprits - even Zaheer seems to give his opponents a solid hearing (check the video against RCB when he gave a mouthful to Uthappa who was his team-mate till last year).
• Faster Ball - The slower ball in the T20 matches are being over-used so much to the extent that bowlers ball almost all the balls lesser than their normal speed. It is time that the 'faster ball' makes a (re)appearance in cricket now.

What do you think about this?

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The tale of 2 overs

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The match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers hinged upon 2 overs - one each in either innings. These 2 overs were the turning points in the match.

The 1st over was in the KKR innings - Sourav Ganguly and David Hussey were repairing the KKR innings and slowly but steadily accumulating the runs. The run-rate was still not something for DC to be alarmed about. Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, was brought on by Adam Gilchrist for his last over - very bad choice since Sourav was at the crease.

For your convenience, I have added the Cricinfo commentary below:

End of over 16 (9 runs) Kolkata Knight Riders 125/3 (RR: 7.81)
DJ Hussey            19* (19b 1x6)        SC Ganguly           70* (50b 9x4 2x6)

16.1 Ojha to Hussey, no run, another missed stumping, beaten by the turn there, landed outside leg stump, Hussey came down the track but couldn't get his bat to it as it turned away, he missed and so did Gilchrist

16.2 Ojha to Hussey, 1 leg bye, spun away after pitching on leg stump, goes for the slog-sweep, is struck on the pads as it turns away, steals a leg bye

16.3 Ojha to Ganguly, SIX, massive, turning into him and he bends low to sweep that powerfully over the deep backward square leg boundary for a big six

16.4 Ojha to Ganguly, 1 wide, full and wide, saw him coming down and fired it wide but Ganguly got back into his crease in time

16.4 Ojha to Ganguly, SIX, Ganguly has spoiled Ojha's figures here, flighted on middle and he swings it miles over deep square leg, took it from a length and punished it

16.5 Ojha to Ganguly, 1 wide, Ojha is struggling, tried to get him stumped again off a wide ball but Ganguly's not falling for it, it's called by the umpire

16.5 Ojha to Ganguly, SIX, Ganguly's on fire, full toss by Ojha and Ganguly shovels that gift ball over deep midwicket, the crowd is delirious, long time coming

16.6 Ojha to Ganguly, OUT, holes out in the deep, the shot was on, on middle and on a length, Ganguly was in position to send that into the stands but connect this as well as he had the earlier ones, found Rohit in the deep
   
SC Ganguly c Sharma b Ojha 88 (54b 9x4 5x6) SR: 162.96

That ends an excellent innings, giving Kolkata a great chance of posting a more than challenging score on this slow pitch

The run-rate of KKR jumped by almost 1 run per over after this blast by Ganguly. Even if KKR had a good over of about 10, the score would have been 10 runs less. Thanks to Dada's trio of sixes, the run-rate became a healthy 181. The missed stumping of David Hussey also added to DC's pain.

The 2nd over that sealed it for KKR was the penultimate over - of course, the target was huge - 40 runs from 2 overs but Andrew Symonds was at the crease and he was looking in good form. Shane Bond was brought into the attack by Sourav Ganguly.


Commentary from Cricinfo added below:

End of over 18 (8 runs) Deccan Chargers 142/4 (40 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 7.88, RRR: 20.00)
A Symonds            38* (29b 4x4)     TL Suman            7* (7b)             
18.1 Bond to Symonds, FOUR, low full toss and he connects well, strikes it cleanly over the bowler's head wide of long-off for a one bounce four, first four since the 14th over says the TV commentator, took a while to come

18.2 Bond to Symonds, no run, trying an inswinging yorker there, moves away to steer it past point but it's fuller than he would have liked, misses

18.3 Bond to Symonds, no run, mixing it up very well, it takes some wily bowling to keep Symonds in check, the slow legcutter there, he didn't pick it and missed, another dot ball

Symonds says he can't quite see the ball, but the umpires have refused him a newer one

18.4 Bond to Symonds, no run, failing to get them away, short on middle, tries to swat that past the bowler, ends up playing it straight back to him, dot balls galore

18.5 Bond to Symonds, no run, another one, tight line, bowled on a good length on the off, strikes it back to Bond, big cheers from the crowd

18.6 Bond to Symonds, 2 runs, another superb over, finishes off with just a couple, driven wide of long-off

Shane Bond bowled exceptionally with a combination of slow balls, length balls that did not allow Symonds to attack at all. Other than the first and last balls, Symonds could keep tapping every ball. Amazing. Again, if not for Bond's control, DC could have easily scored at least 10 runs more in this over. Of course, KKR played really well in the last 5 overs of DC's innings - the runs were hard to come by and Sourav shuffled his bowlers around to keep DC guessing.

At the end of the day, KKR came out victors in the match by 24 runs. These 2 overs did make their mark in the match and ensured that KKR notched up another win over Deccan Chargers.

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