Skip to main content

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!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy New Year .....

....well almost......its only 2 months in to 2009 so I guess its not terribly late for the first post of the year :-) The end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 has been quite engrossing primarily because of the tussle for supremacy between Australia and South Africa. And its interesting how once again, the Aussies are showing that the biggest mistake 'pundits' can make is to write them off. But I am jumping way ahead. The series in Australia was a real cracker and it was great to see the Springboks actually delivering so well on their abilities for once and not choking at the big moments. And in Steyn, Amla, de Villiers, Duminy and Morkel they have some real stars in the making and should be a strong team for some time to come. Australia's struggles on the other hand were not surprising after their performance in India. The same guys, i.e. Hayden and Lee continued to underwhelm and with the inexplicable selection of Symonds made things worse for Ricky Ponting. They were a l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Season ending review

Well, officially the season hasn't quite ended since the last one-dayer between Australia and South Africa still remains to be played but given that its a dead rubber, the season is as good as over. And what a season its been. Probably as much action off-field as on it, but its been riveting throughout and the quality of Test cricket overall (apart from the WI-Eng series) has been top-notch and a welcome reminder of why I like the 5 day format the most. The two Aus-SA series have in particular been fascinating to watch though a lot of it has been driven by Australia waiting too long to make much needed changes. South Africa though has truly come on in leaps and bounds and though they will be losing Kallis and Ntini sooner rather than later, their decreasing reliance on them over the last year or so has meant that they won't be missed much. Their one-day game has come along strongly too and they should have a genuine shot at the World Cup this time. Australia on the other hand h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Of backward selections and England's future

A couple of interesting selectorial decisions recently by England and India (and actually as its turning out Australia as well!). For once I think the England selectors didn't panic and showed the right thinking by not picking either Key or Ramprakash for the Oval Test. And luckily for them, both Bell and Trott have performed well enough to vindicate the decision. India on the other hand have actually gone the other way bringing Dravid back to the one-day squad. I'm a bit ambivalent on that one. While the decision to leave out Rohit Sharma and retain Raina was certainly the right one, bringing back Dravid is questionable. It would have been a bolder decision to pick someone like Kohli or Rahane who both played really well in the Emerging Players Trophy recently, mainly because Dravid is quite unlikely to feature in the 2011 World Cup so why bring him back now? As for the Aussies, they will certainly be regretting not picking Nathan Hauritz for the Oval. A defensive decision if...
Post a Comment
Read more