Uncertain Winners and a Certain Loser

As the saying goes the only thing that is certain is uncertainty, which has been the nature of this tournament. As the tournament is moving forwards surprises like Royals defeating Kings by a huge margin, Challengers beating Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets are following us. With winter setting in it has affected the fielding (even though there is no correlation) and more matches played in the smaller grounds of northern part of the country bigger targets are being chased with ease, though credit has to be given to the batsman. One of the reasons being the top order of each team that is firing; be it Smith n Ojha for Royals or Kallis n Uthappa for Challengers, Gauti and Warner for Delhi. There is nothing like picking top order wickets to stop the flow of runs, but the opposing teams haven’t done that consistently.
[image source: Cricinfo]

No team is clear favorite’ even though CSK have looked THE team, but they rely heavily on top order i.e. Hayden and Raina, much like the last years Delhi and we all know what happened to them. And all their victories have come batting first. Delhi has a good balance good top order solid middle order and a decent bowling attack; they need Sehwag to click if they want to look formidable. Royals are peaking at the right time, Smith played his best innings so far and Warne is getting best out of his brigand, arrival of inform Watson would be a huge bonus.

Kings again depend heavily Yuvraj to fire, bowling is a mixed bag, Piyush n Abdulla are their stars, Sreesanth inclusion could be dicey. Challengers look a different team after KP’s departure their opening is the surprise each time. Kumble had found two unsung heroes in Dillon n Merwe. Mumbai boasts to have the best bowling attack along with most brutal opening pair; neither of them is winning them matches as expected. They are heavily dependent on Sachin to anchor the innings as it falls apart towards the end. With Sun beating down Chargers need to recharge their solar batteries before it drains out. With openers failing the middle order looks too bleak, without Edwards bowling looks weak.

Only thing that is certain is that SRK isn’t going to come back as Kolkata Kite Riders have found ways lose games. Lack of good match winners in the first place, (sorry if Gayle n McCullum were match winners then WI n NZ wouldn’t be where there are today) compounded with bad breath among the team, they haven’t found winning ways. It looks as if they have a point to prove, that good coach do need good players to perform. The only positives being the humorous FakeIPLPlayer’s blogs; which has bought much interest among the print media. Blame it on Buchanan’s multiple captain theory which was rather a Ganguly sacking strategy or Gayle n McCullum compound debacle or Ishant n co’s inability to take wickets upfront or even on the drop catches KKR don’t look like a team.

As they say there is no I in a team, but there too many I’s in KKR.

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D for Dilshan D for Daring D for Delhi DareDevils

D for Dilshan D for Daring D for Delhi DareDevils, well that has been the mantra for DareDevils this season. Even without Mcgrath, Maharoof, Asif contributing with the ball, Sehwag and Gambhir batting firepower like the last IPL Delhi look a complete team. The fact that Mcgrath is warming the bench shows how good their bowling attack is. Dilshan, M & M and Karthik have been a gem with the bat, stealing victories from the jaws of defeat twice in a row now. The way Dilshan punched in the air after pulling Edwards for a boundary showed the intensity with which he played his cricket; he possessed a true Dilli arrogance much like Gambhir possesses. Edwards could have put in his effort in bowling in the right areas rather than fighting with umpire or staring and using adjectives with the batsman. All it did was charge Dilshan.

It’s nice to see 3 left arm seamers bowl in a team after a long time; Nannes reduced the Chargers to 19/2 picking both Gibbs and Gilly. Bikhalia and Rohit played some good cricketing shots and kept the momentum going. Mishra and Vettori bowled in tandom pegging back Deccan to 53/4 in the 10th over. Then came Devon Smith man with a mission, “mission to swat every ball to the leg side” and he did it successfully. All he played was the midwicket slog and yet scored 48 in 28 balls; he tore Mishra and Vettori apart. Vettori never came back for his fourth over. Sangwan and Nehra came back well and picked Smith, Suman and Venugopal. Nannes bowled a brilliant 18 over just one run without a single Yorker, couple of runouts and what looked like a 160 odd at one stage ended up being 148.

Delhi got their best start of the season 30; soon they were 49/3 in the 8th over. Dilshan and Karthik yet again played the ODI kind of innings, knocking around for singles and getting the odd boundaries. We saw tidy 4 over spells from Ojha and Shoaib. 17 runs off Venugopal proved be the over which brought DD back into the hunt. With 17 needed of 12 balls it took only 4 legal deliveries for Dilshan to get those runs and also get his 3rd 50 against Edwards who was their best bowler. All Edwards did was shout, kick the turf and put his hands on in head and appreciate Dilshan’s efforts. He is the same Dilshan with a round hat who has won n number of matches for Sri Lanka in similar fashion. He now has 3 consecutive 50s at a good strike rate all in the wining cause making him a true match winner or the crisis man. Even though Nannes was awarded MOM Dilshan was not far behind.

cross-post ipl-buzz

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