IPL10 - the awards go to...

After the completion of the IPL10 season, here are the awards we have chosen to award to the respective players. Have a look & feel free to comment!

1. Dad-Of-the-IPL - MS Dhoni. He was the captain of the Dads Army. Not only that,  if the videos were to be seen right after the final got over, Dhoni was seen playing with his daughter, leaving his team to relish the title win!
2. Bowler-Of-the-Tournament - All Leg-spinners. Indian or foreign, there were a large number of leg spinners in the tourney. Even Ashwin started off bowling leg-spin in many matches!
3. Catch-Of-the-Tournament - AB De Viliers Spiderman catch has to be it! Nothing other.
4. ABD-catch-of-the-tournament - Trent Boult came trumps with his catch to dismiss Virat Kohli!
5. Worst-team-of-the-tournament - RCB Back-room team, who picked the team that flops so badly despite containing the best two players in the world!Either the ex-players did well ( e.g. Gayle) or the players from the region did well (e.g. KL Rahul).But, not RCB. God knows if they will reach the last four in the next few years!
6. Jasprit-Bumrah-of-the-IPL - Basil Thampi, for his good showing and precise yorkers! He has to be given more chances to show his true mettle
7. Budding-keepers-of-the-IPL - Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant shone in the IPL, giving themselves a chance to target the national slot. Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel are still around while Naman Ojha was not to be seen!
8. Comeback-team-of-IPL - Punjab under Ashwin did well but could not go all the way!
9. Gentleman-of-IPL - Kane Williamson was a great guy leading SRH to the finals with his genteel nature & proactive captaincy. Too bad his team ran into Daddy's boys!
10. Power-hitter-of-IPL - Ambati Rayudu seemed to have developed new muscles this year to power his way through the opposition. Was it hyderabad Biriyani or Chennai Sambar? He only knows!
11. Confusion-in-IPL - Why Rohit Sharma did not open regularly was a question mark! Even when his team was not performing!
12. Irritating-opener-of-IPL - Sunil Narine for his terrific shows at the top of the order!
13. Youngsters-of-IPL - Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Prasidh Krishna, Shubnam Gill, Deepak Chahar impressed with their games & temperament. Worth looking for!
14. Flop-show-of-IPL - Glenn Maxwell, D'arcy Short - For all their hype, their performances were nothing to write about!
15. Openers-of-IPL - KL Rahul & Chris Gayle. Brought Punjab back from wild & cheer into Preity's eyes. Great chemistry in the combination!

Please note that this is is only for fun and not to be taken seriously. Do take it in the right spirit and share your thoughts please!!

IPL10 - CSK win for third time

The IPL10 finished with its regular share of twists and turns, and the Comeback Star Kings (CSK) won it for the third time.

Picture Courtesy - espnCricinfo website

Called the "Dad's Army", CSK had nine players who were 30+ and turned the disadvantage to a plus! One of the oldies came to the rescue in every match, taking the team past the winning post in every match (Dhoni, Bravo,Rayudu, Tahir and Watson).

In the final, it was a great effort by CSK to win the title easily. Let us use the R-B factor to see how the winners got through. A look at the individual numbers (R-B) gives us good insight. Watson tops the list here too. Du Plessis and Rayudu have negative R-B but their contributions in partnering Watson when he was struggling was invaluable. All the others who batted, have a healthy R-B value, adding to the overall run-rate & ensuring CSK won the match by lots to spare. Just imagine the case that Dhoni, Bravo & Jadeja did not have to bat at all - that much fuel was available for CSK in the tank!!

Now, let us see the charts of SRH.Kane Williamson, Carlos Brathwaite  & Yusuf Pathan were the ones who did well with a R-B rate of 40+. The rest of the batsmen were guilty of consuming too many balls to score their runs! If the others had gotten up their R-B rate higher, CSK might have ended up chasing a score more than 200. But, as I mentioned earlier, three big-hitters did not step on to the field at all - Hence, CSK might have still ended up winners!

What do you think might have changed in the IPL final, in hindsight?Please share your thoughts.

IPL10 - Third title win for Mumbai

IPL 10 started after a series of tests at home. The pace quickened and how - it seemed tests were on fast forward mode.

From the beginning, the slot for the top and bottom three teams remained the same. RCB was the biggest disappointment, especially with the team on paper. Another heavyweight, Mumbai Indians, funded by ultra-rich Ambanis won the title, pipping the Pune team by a single. Overall, the final reflected the closeness of the tournament.
This year saw the emergence of Sanju Samson, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan with the bat - let us see if they go on to bigger things.MSD also showed that he was still a force to reckon with,
It has been a great tournament so far. In 10 years, all the initial icon players have become coaches or mentors. New players have emerged, both domestic and foreign. New captains have been identified. Let us see what happens next year for that will dictate the next ten years of cricket, not just IPL!

Image Courtesy: espncricinfo.com website

IPL9 starts

IPL - Team retention

It is IPL time again...Up to 5 players can be retained by each team as per the recent regulations. Teams have to decide whom they plan to retain for the future seasons.

Let us play the role of Team Management and figure out who will be retained.

1. Chennai SuperKings - This is easy. MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Faf Du Plessis will be the ones who will be retained by the team. Of course, given a choice, they will like to retain another 10 more players!
2. Mumbai Indians - Rohit Sharma, Mitchell Johnson, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Glenn Maxwell will be targeted by Madam Ambani for retention. 
3. Kolkata Knight Riders - The Management has already spoken that they want Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine as part of their next season.
4. Royal Challengers Bangalore - Another easy choice here. Virat Kohli, AB De Viliers, Chris Gayle, Zaheer Khan and Cheteshwar Pujara will make the cut.
5. Rajasthan Royals - Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson, Sanju Samson, Stuart Binny will be on the top of the minds of Royals Management
6. Delhi Daredevils - David Warner, Morne Morkel, Unmukt Chand, Umesh Yadav seem to be definite but Gary Kirsten will surely have different ideas.
7. Sunrisers Hyderabad - VVS Laxman and Krish Srikkanth will be closely looking at the names of Dale Steyn, Shikhar Dhawan, Thisara Perera, Amit Mishra, Quinton de Kock 
8. Kings XI Punjab - Preity Zinta will look at Piyush Chawla, Ryan Harris, Shaun Marsh, David Miller as options to retain them for the coming season.

Obvious choices for retention would be the players on the Indian roster. The next options will be the players who are likely to play well for the next 3 years (not ones who are on retirement mode). Also, folks who were on the sporting headlines recently will be sought after. Your thoughts?

Update on 11th January after teams gave away their retained players

1. Chennai Super Kings Players retained: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Dwayne Bravo. Interesting decision to choose Bravo over Du Plessis!
2. Delhi Daredevils Players retained: None. Very interesting indeed.
3. Kings XI Punjab Players retained: David Miller, Manan Vohra. Another interesting piece of selection.
4. Kolkata Knight Riders Players retained: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine
5. Mumbai Indians Players retained: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu. Rayudu was the surprise choice for me.
6. Rajasthan Royals Players retained: Shane Watson, James Faulkner, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Stuart Binny
7. Royal Challengers Bangalore Players retained: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers
8. Sunrisers Hyderabad Players retained: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn

Sreesanth and spot-fixing

This post is not to support Sreesanth or look into the spot-fixing incident that has rocked IPL on the morning of 16th May. ESPNCricinfo was quick to put up the overs in question into a video (attached below).

What is interesting is the fact that there are hundreds of crores of money being used in this type of fixing. How sure is the bowler to give away more than 14 runs? Agreed that he will bowl badly in the over and offer bad balls. It is also upto the batsman to hit those runs, right? 

For example, let us look at the video closely.

1. In his over, Chandila bowls a wide ball down the leg side to Finch (over 2.1) but Finch is not able to put it away for a boundary. Result is only a single.
2. Similarly, Sreesanth in his over (3.3 of the innings) balls a delivery wide outside the off stump but Gilchrist is not able to time it and there is no run given.

So, all I am saying is that even if fixing is done, it seems to be very risky proposition to be able to pull this off successfully. Obviously, I am not supporting it (repeating it again) but it seems crazy to me.