Well, maybe this time I have taken too many liberties and have run out of excuses for not writing. Too many working Saturdays and another barrage of workload impending, had clouded the lean periods of relaxation and the immediate priority remains spending some time with my daughter who started official schooling last week. Having said that I thought I do a little postmortem of the IPL to begin with and then return to the rigmarole of writing.
IPL 2 was not a whimper like what a lot of us believed and firmly advocated. With the resounding success of this format and the tournament, I seriously question my ability to predict current affairs. It was also slap on my hand that – “Rajesh, stick to advising organizations on strategy and human resources, let the pundits do the same for cricket!” Moreover ‘The fake IPL player’ blog ruled the roost and I enjoyed it too much to critique or to copy the style!
A quick dekko at a team wise personal view :-
Deccan Chargers - They emerged champions after languishing at the bottom of the pile last year. I always maintained through out last year that they were one of the best teams in the tournament even last year and the performance in the previous tournament was never totally lacklustre , they just seemed to be loosing it at the end ! But they re wrote the story this time with Gilchrist carrying on from where he left last year and Rohit Sharma turning out some gems during the choking stages. Ojha’s bowling impressed me more than purple cap RP Singh and somewhere I appreciated the grit shown in dropping Laxman though I do not think the Ravi Teja or Venugopal Rao justified being brought in ahead of Laxman.
Royal Challengers - My favorites for the year ! Not because Kumble proved that his art is ageless, or Dravid fought hard to keep his reputation intact but for just standing up and delivering against the media who were somewhere cozy lampooning Mallya. Ross Taylor played the innings of the tournament and young Pandeyji came good when the spot light on the team.Whether it was Roelof, Kallis, Praveen, Dale Steyn, they laughed at the media for counting them out.
Rajasthan Royals – Well, you can’t win them all. Lady luck does not always the favor the brave and even if you have Shilpa Shetty as your mascot, it takes a little more than sheer grit to be the Big Boss ( or brother) ! Pathan did his cameos and Warne spun it around but Sohail and Shane Watson were badly missed. Like last year no one gave them too much of a chance and this time there were no stars and master protagonists.
Mumbai Indians – Well, Sachin and Sanath can only do so much ! Duminy turned consistent and Malinga was easily the best bowler of the tournament, but it takes a lot more than that to stand on the winning podium and somewhere they lost the plot big time inspite of the elegant Nita Ambani personally sitting with the crew in the dugouts.
Preity’s Lions – They just could not get the act together when it mattered and lost some crucial matches. Brett Lee came too late and Sreesanth did not deliver. Poor Purple cap contendee Abdullah was swatting flies in the dugout and cursing his luck for being dropped after his wicket taking spree and being replaced by Sreesanth. Finally when Sree came good, he had to dance and celebrate – wicket of Dhoni – Something tells me from Dhoni’s face that – it was the end of Sree’s career with the national team.
Chennai Super kings - I have never remembered anyone as consistent as Hayden who went out there on each match and gave Chennai the start they wanted in each game. Dhoni’s astuteness as a captain was questioned time and again but he still managed to douse all criticism with wins and a semi final berth. Murali spun mysteriously as usual and Raina came good with the bat and on the field. I guess they will always be among the top contenders for the tropy each year for a while.
Delhi DareDevils – Perhaps the best team on paper ! Dilshan and De Villiers outshone Gambir and Sehwag by miles and they were quite good at backing the totals of their batsmen with bowling. But have we not seen the best teams choke in the semis especially when one is hit by Hurricane Gilly ! Nehra and Nannes came good for them and but Sehwag’s excuses for not including McGrath was just not convincing enough. You cannot leave McGrath from any team in the world !
Kolkatta Knight Raiders – Last and definitely the least was the baffling consistently poor performance of this team. They played hard to throw muck on Shah Rukh’s face. The fielding was pathetic and sitters were almost consistently dropped. Saurav truly showed how a retired player should play – lazily, in deep fatigue and thorough disinterest! Eventually the cheer leaders of KKR were dancing whenever he got out eagerly awaiting for Hodge to improve things! From me Booooooooooooooooo !
IPL 2 was not a whimper like what a lot of us believed and firmly advocated. With the resounding success of this format and the tournament, I seriously question my ability to predict current affairs. It was also slap on my hand that – “Rajesh, stick to advising organizations on strategy and human resources, let the pundits do the same for cricket!” Moreover ‘The fake IPL player’ blog ruled the roost and I enjoyed it too much to critique or to copy the style!
A quick dekko at a team wise personal view :-
Deccan Chargers - They emerged champions after languishing at the bottom of the pile last year. I always maintained through out last year that they were one of the best teams in the tournament even last year and the performance in the previous tournament was never totally lacklustre , they just seemed to be loosing it at the end ! But they re wrote the story this time with Gilchrist carrying on from where he left last year and Rohit Sharma turning out some gems during the choking stages. Ojha’s bowling impressed me more than purple cap RP Singh and somewhere I appreciated the grit shown in dropping Laxman though I do not think the Ravi Teja or Venugopal Rao justified being brought in ahead of Laxman.
Royal Challengers - My favorites for the year ! Not because Kumble proved that his art is ageless, or Dravid fought hard to keep his reputation intact but for just standing up and delivering against the media who were somewhere cozy lampooning Mallya. Ross Taylor played the innings of the tournament and young Pandeyji came good when the spot light on the team.Whether it was Roelof, Kallis, Praveen, Dale Steyn, they laughed at the media for counting them out.
Rajasthan Royals – Well, you can’t win them all. Lady luck does not always the favor the brave and even if you have Shilpa Shetty as your mascot, it takes a little more than sheer grit to be the Big Boss ( or brother) ! Pathan did his cameos and Warne spun it around but Sohail and Shane Watson were badly missed. Like last year no one gave them too much of a chance and this time there were no stars and master protagonists.
Mumbai Indians – Well, Sachin and Sanath can only do so much ! Duminy turned consistent and Malinga was easily the best bowler of the tournament, but it takes a lot more than that to stand on the winning podium and somewhere they lost the plot big time inspite of the elegant Nita Ambani personally sitting with the crew in the dugouts.
Preity’s Lions – They just could not get the act together when it mattered and lost some crucial matches. Brett Lee came too late and Sreesanth did not deliver. Poor Purple cap contendee Abdullah was swatting flies in the dugout and cursing his luck for being dropped after his wicket taking spree and being replaced by Sreesanth. Finally when Sree came good, he had to dance and celebrate – wicket of Dhoni – Something tells me from Dhoni’s face that – it was the end of Sree’s career with the national team.
Chennai Super kings - I have never remembered anyone as consistent as Hayden who went out there on each match and gave Chennai the start they wanted in each game. Dhoni’s astuteness as a captain was questioned time and again but he still managed to douse all criticism with wins and a semi final berth. Murali spun mysteriously as usual and Raina came good with the bat and on the field. I guess they will always be among the top contenders for the tropy each year for a while.
Delhi DareDevils – Perhaps the best team on paper ! Dilshan and De Villiers outshone Gambir and Sehwag by miles and they were quite good at backing the totals of their batsmen with bowling. But have we not seen the best teams choke in the semis especially when one is hit by Hurricane Gilly ! Nehra and Nannes came good for them and but Sehwag’s excuses for not including McGrath was just not convincing enough. You cannot leave McGrath from any team in the world !
Kolkatta Knight Raiders – Last and definitely the least was the baffling consistently poor performance of this team. They played hard to throw muck on Shah Rukh’s face. The fielding was pathetic and sitters were almost consistently dropped. Saurav truly showed how a retired player should play – lazily, in deep fatigue and thorough disinterest! Eventually the cheer leaders of KKR were dancing whenever he got out eagerly awaiting for Hodge to improve things! From me Booooooooooooooooo !
Finally kudos to the BCCI and specifically to Lalit Modi who rocked it, even in South Africa !
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