Champions League - Mumbai lose first match

Mumbai started their campaign in the Champions League 2010 with a loss against the Lions, who were much more comfortable with the conditions and played like a team. The chase was on, especially with the openers playing their shots freely. Once wickets fell, the Indians fell behind.  First match out of their way, the Indians would do well to get back with their top game for the rest of the matches.

Sachin was brilliant with the bat - especially when he was giving the left-arm spinner a master-class by scoring runs all around the ground. He was determined to win but his team-mates left him down

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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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Karnataka's topsy-turvy campaign ends

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Karnataka's Ranji campaign which was topsy-turvy from the beginning of the season came to an end with a disappointing loss to Mumbai.

The Domestic season started for the Karnataka players by the introduction of KPL - the local Board's offshoot of the now-legendary IPL. The matches were played with zest and sponsored by the local corporates - all in all, a half-successful business model was introduced even though Kumble and Srinath were not happy with the tournament.

There were many players who performed well in the bat and ball but the selectors did not rush to bring them onto the Ranji squad. If you notice, only a handful of players from the Top-10 list have made to the national team. In fact, there was a minor controversy over the selection of players as well.

Once the team was selected, credit needs to be given for the Management (Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Coach Sanath Kumar) for keeping the focus on the field. This resulted in a wonderful performance by the young team who never lost any matches in the tournament till the final. The top run-getters and wicket-takers were from this team itself.

The team has enough potential to prove themselves in the longer run and have time on their side to take their revenge on Mumbai in the next edition. Some of the younger players in this team have the option to show their wares in the Duleep Trophy also, to impress the selectors. Hopefully, Harsha's thoughts on the A series is read by the selectors and some action planned.

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Mumbai win the Ranji but who cares

Mumbai won the Ranji Trophy today to win the title for the 39th time. It was one of the interesting matches (let alone domestic) in recent history. Two factors was very evident here - the crowd support in the Tier-2 centre, the sporting pitch on offer. These two ensured that the match was interesting on all days. Only if the BCCI were sporting enough to pre-pone the match to allow Rahul Dravid play the match!!! The last match that I remembered was the one where Haryana defeated Bombay in the final - Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar being the rival players who made the match memorable.

Manish Pandey has proved himself in the IPL by being the only Indian to score a century. He took couple of seasons in the domestic championship to display his wares. This season he is the leading run-getter for the country but his innings in the Final was proof enough that there is hope for the future Indian team. The teenager has so much of time to spare at the crease and approached the target with a very calculated approach. Only after his dismissal did Mumbai have any visions of victory. Surely a talent to watch in the coming days.

The Karnataka team had the bowlers with the highest number of wickets in the competition as well as the highest run-getter. They had not lost the first innings lead in any of the matches until the final. The young team displayed enough gumption to prove their mettle as runners-up.

But, the way Mumbai performed in this match (with their attitude) does not make them worthy winners. The way their senior bowlers - Ajit Agarkar and Dhawal Kulkarni behaved was disgusting to say the least - this from the players of Sunil Gavaskar's backyard was not expected. The lip-service that was given to the young Karnataka players was visible on national television for everyone to see - I am not sure how the BCCI has allowed such behavior to carry on in their domestic structure. The behavior carried on during the third day when the captain Robin Uthappa was given a colorful send-off. Competition is good but when combined with such a disgusting show of character, it does not befit the champion status.

Catch of the match - The star of the match, Manish Pandey, took a stunner on the field to dismiss Nayar.

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