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

IPL8 - Mumbai Indians are the champions

Picture Courtesy: Cricinfo

Mumbai Indians were crowned the Champions of the eighth edition of IPL at Eden Gardens. The Mumbai team won the title for the second time after defeating CSK by 41 runs. The result was not in doubt after Mumbai had scored a 200+ batting first.

The R-B chart shows how well the Mumbai team had managed to keep their opponents at bay

CSK's strategies seemed to fail on the big day. MSD's decision to ask Mumbai to bat first was probably the first risky decision. Dwayne Smith's slow batting was instrumental in failure of the chase. The Mumbai batsmen, especially Lendl Simmons and Rohit Sharma, were unstoppable at first. This was continued by a final assault by Kieron Pollard and Ambati Rayudu. The end result proved too much for Chennai. 

IPL-8 - Qualifier-1 - Mumbai go past Chennai

Chennai's record against Mumbai in knock-out matches took a beating thanks to Simmons, Pollard and Malinga.

IPL-8 Match-56 - Mumbai crush Hyderabad

Mumbai Indians made the last four in style, crushing Hyderabad in the last league match.

IPL-8 Match-51 - Mumbai beat KKR

Though KKR maintained a steady run-rate, Mumbai through Pollard kept them at bay till the end.

IPL-8 - Match-46 - ABD storm hits Mumbai

AB De Viliers and his massive stand with Kohli meant that Mumbai had to scale a large mountain in vain.

IPL-8 - Match-43 - Penultimate over costs CSK

One over from Negi that was the penultimate one in Mumbai's chase turned to be CSK's bugbear.

IPL-8 - Match-39 - Rayudu helps Mumbai beat Delhi

Rayudu's blast meant that Mumbai could reach the target Delhi had put up.

IPL-8 - Match-35 - Mumbai beat Punjab

Punjab's big purchases failed again as Mumbai led by Parthiv Patel went past them easily.

IPL-8 - Match-32 - Mumbai hold Rajasthan's sprint

Mumbai took the wicket of Sanju Samson to hold off the spirited Rajasthan chase

IPL-8 - Match-23 - Mumbai defeat Sunrisers

Malinga helped Mumbai Indians defend their score against Sunrisers.

IPL-8 - Match-21 - Delhi win at Kotla

Delhi won a match at Kotla after a long time, defeating Mumbai with ease.

IPL-8 - Match-16 - Mumbai open their account

Mumbai needed a large score against RCB to open their account in the IPL.

IPL-8 - Match-12 - CSK win easy

CSK through its top-order blitz blew away Mumbai Indians - the graph looks crazy below

IPL-8 Match-9 - Smith helps Royals go past Mumbai Indians

If Smith made Indians toil in Australia, he ensured Mumbai Indians received the same treatment.

IPL-8 - Match-7 - Punjab go past Mumbai Indians

Punjab had rattled off a large score thanks to George Bailey (and cameos by Vijay and Sehwag) and picked up so many early wickets of Mumbai that Harbhajan's blitzkrieg could not change the result.

CLT20 2013 - Mumbai stay alive with easy win

Mumbai, powered by Dwayne Smith and later Kieron Pollard, stayed alive in the CLT20 with a easy chase against the Lions. The asking rate increased from 14th to 17th over but things did not go out of hand.

IPL6 for Mumbai

During my morning stroll to the local market, I noticed a vendor who was sporting CSK jersey. Obviously, the topic shifted from tomatoes to last night's IPL final. The Chennai lad mentioned that he switched off once Albie Morkel was dismissed (even though captain MSD was still at the crease) - why? Dhoni needed someone to farm the strike and the ask was too much even for the champion batsman. Fair. Question was asked regarding the decision to send Raina when Hussey got dismissed in the first over itself. Why not send someone like Badrinath who could have settled the innings? Fair once again. It is very enlightening speaking to such folks on the street who are still following the League even with all its controversies (maybe Srinivasan is also having similar conversations!)

The discussion then moved to the spot-fixing controversy that is ongoing. The young lad mentioned that it would be no surprise that couple of days later, there would be reports coming in that talk about the IPL6 final being fixed as well! Very interesting indeed. Interesting because I noticed in Facebook that there were updates from my friends and contacts on how CSK's initial run made the bookies put all the money on a probable win only for Mumbai to win at the last minute! Is this what we have come to? What happens to Kieron Pollard's match-winning innings or Lasith Malinga's toe-crushing yorker to Hussey? Is this not the real deal?

The match itself was a good contest with both teams losing early wickets and making a recovery to post a total, only difference being Mumbai had 23 more runs than Chennai. Sachin Tendulkar's absence from the team meant that he was not part of the eleven that won the title (just like Champions League) but it looks like it did not matter. SRT was enjoying as much as Ricky Ponting. Which team can comprise of players outside the playing eleven that had a combined experience of 60,000 test and ODI runs? Which team can manage a support staff that has Anil Kumble, John Wright, Robin Singh, Jonty Rhodes? Only a team that can be funded and managed by the Ambani's, according to the Tamil lad (it is quite popular in Tamil Nadu to relate Ambani to one who is rich and famous). Such a team could upset a gigantic team like Chennai SuperKings in the IPL final, hoped the team owners. On 26th May, the hope became reality.

IPL4 - the final lines are drawn

RCB made Mumbai rue their indifferent matches over their last week by thrashing them in Chennai. Chris Gayle started off with a powerful display against hapless Abu Ahmed (why did SRT do this mistake?). He was joined by his partner Mayank Agarwal, who took on Harbhajan Singh - yet another evidence that the Punjabi is losing his plot. Though the latter batsmen could not convert the start into a 200+ score, the target was much more than Mumbai could handle. Look at the worm below - the (R-B) difference was always over 40 at any point of time - signs that Mumbai Indians were never in the hunt during the chase.

Today, it will be the match between the South-Indian teams once again. The charismatic MSD against the cool Dan Vettori. There will be others who will contribute to the match but how the captains think out their strategy will be key. There are many mini-plots in the match - Gayle against Ashwin, Kohli vs Badrinath (for the Indian middle-order slot), Hussey vs Vettori, Morkel vs Mayank and so on. My favorites - CSK.

IPL4 - Mumbai beats KKR again

Mumbai Indians, thanks to the blistering start by Blizzard and Sachin Tendulkar, managed to defeat Kolkata once again. KKR tried their best to delay the inevitable but Mumbai found their hero for each mini-crisis that came up during the batting innings. Earlier in the day, KKR suffered a mini-collapse only for their import, ten Doeschate, to get them to a decent score. On a pitch that was helpful to batsmen mostly, this score was not enough in the long run. Mumbai added to the pressure by gifting wickets away in their chase but finally managed to qualify for the next match against RCB.