IPL Review - 1

The IPL has reached a midway stage now or almost close to it and there are few teams who can claim to dominate it so far. Most of the teams have had a start stop kinda run so far and they haven’t been consistent altogether.  Deccan and Punjab franchisees have lost more than they won. Actually Deccan has won nothing. And the schedule is such that they don’t play another game this weekend.  Few players have emerged and few old warhorses have continued to charm the whatever audience that returns to see every game (including me).

Mumbai Indians are without their best batsman and they have looked shaky at the top. They are on the top of the tally for now, but they cannot be said to be the dominant team of the tournament so far. They won easily against Chennai Fooper Kinks, but lost to Warriors and then won the next 2 against Rajasthan and Deccan Chargers who can be renamed to Dhakkan Dischargers!! Sachin Tendulkar is still injured and his critics are either silent given they don’t have anything to harp to or they are scared what if he comes back strong or he doesn’t play at all.   Rohit Sharma has lived his reputation of being a classic one day and a zilch the next. His match winning assault against Dhakkans was breath taking, but he returned back to what he does the best in the next game. Harbhajan Singh isn’t getting wickets. Pollard is having best times in IPL as he always does and so is Lasith Malinga.  Boss DK doesn’t know how to bat now and he is actually missing his home town franchisee. But he is not going to go to CSK any more as long as MSD is keeping wickets.  Mumbai have to impose themselves to live up to their dollar value in the business and for that they need to have a stable opening pair in absence of the GOD of Indian cricket.  Munaf Patel in wickets is a good sign given the horror show put up by Indian “fast” bowlers recently.

Kolkata Knight Riders are inconsistent and again as they started their campaign with 2 losses and then bounced back to deflate RCB in their 3rd game.   The captain isn’t among the runs except a 50 and he was run out in the ongoing match too for 11.  Either he is opening or he is at 3.  He has batted successfully at 3 for Indian ODI team whenever Sachin and Sehwag have opened together in past few years. The most notable innings of course was 97 in that memorable World Cup final.  The owner of the franchisee continues to be in the news for wrong reasons and latest stuff is that he was detained @ Yale airport for some unknown reasons.  Most of the players are inconsistent till date and for them to start winning, they need to be consistent and identify core players who’d come good always.  Their big signings Pathan Y, Kallis and Baaz are still to explode and the bowling depends a lot on the slower bowlers like Shakib and Balaji (4-for in one game won him a MoM).

Dhakkan Dischargers are nothing to write about and they are just hopeless after they mysteriously transferred their best players to other franchisees during the trading window – P Ojha and Kevin Pietersen the examples.  Sangakarra himself is coming off a worst test series of his career, so its futile to hope much from the beleaguered team.

Chennai Blooper Kinks are inconsistent and they almost lost their 3rd game on Thursday until Morkel had a miracle with his 28 off 7 aided by some lame decisions by Vettori, the RCB captain.  Jadeja fired in game 2, but flopped in game 3 and then came good with winning runs in game 4.  CSK are the most hated and most applauded team given they manage to attract a lot of strong emotions from the fans.  They also come around as a stubborn team who refuse to change the personnel. They have gone in all 4 games unchanged and the players like Vijay, Ashvin, Badri have played all games despite failing in every game. Sad part is that culture seems to emanate into Indian team as well when there was no change in the lineup or the batting order or bowling in Australia’s disastrous tour.  Would be very happy to see the team lose and not make even the semis or playoffs whatever they call it.

Punjab are other weakest teams going around, though they manage to beat Pune on Thursday, they don’t have a big impact player who can rise above and deliver the goods consistently.  Last season’s find Paul Valthaty is a failure this season and Gilchrist isn’t the batsman he used to be. Another contender to finish as wooden spoon winners!!