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The IPL ends .....but the T20 show goes on

I must admit that the Deccan Chargers were not the team I would have predicted as the eventual champions despite their brilliant start to the tournament. But then I wouldn't have picked Bangalore as a finalist either so that just goes to show that my predictive powers are not too good. But as I said in my earlier post, that's part of what makes this format attractive.

Overall the quality of cricket was good and Gilchrist's innings in the semis was simply brilliant, probably the best moment of the IPL. That plus the hat-tricks (including two for Yuvraj!!). It was heartening to see the bowlers making a real difference, especially relatively unheralded ones like R.P. Singh, Dirk Nannes, Pragyan Ojha and Shadab Jakati. I didn't to watch Manish Pandey bat but he will be one to keep an eye on.

The T20 caravan keeps rolling though and it'll be interesting to see how India deal with the 'favourites' tag and also whether the grounds are filled up for the non-subcontinent games. A lot of the teams look terribly evenly matched to me and predicting a winner is going to be awfully hard. So I'm going to cheat and predict the final four after the first set of group matches are done :-) What'll be more exciting is to see if any youngster can take the tournament by the scruff of its neck and emerge as the MVP.

The excitement begins on Friday!

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