IPL hall of shame

1. Sreesanth crying like a baby after being hit by Harbhajan. He was reprimanded.
2. Harbhajan hitting Sreesanth. Banned for 11 IPL matches
3. Ganguly, appealing to the umpire for a catch taken by Greame Smith
4. Shane Warne criticizing Ganguly for being late to the crease and appealing against a clean catch. Fined 10% match fee.
5. Umpire Amish Saheba criticizing Sreesanth’s on-field behavior in a interview. Suspended for 2 matches.
6. Ishant Sharma hitting the stump in disgust. Fine 10% match fee.
7. Umpire GM Pratap Kumar suspended for one match for not referring to the on-field umpire in the Ganguly episode.
8. Lalchand Rajput, Mumbai Indians coach was standing behind Harbhajan when he slapped Sreesanth. He did nothing about it. He was fined 50% of his match fee. 

Who will go to semi-finals?

Here are my predictions for the semi-finals. The 2 teams which will go to the semi-final for sure :

1. Rajastan Royals
2. Kings XI Punjab

Reason : These two teams are relying on the team performance as a whole and not on individual stars.

The 2 teams which will not go to the semi-finals are :

1. Royal Challengers
2. Knight Riders

Reason : These two teams neither have a team performance nor have any stars to really take the match away.

The teams which will battle it out for the last 2 slots in semi-finals are :

1. Daredevils
2. Deccan Chargers
3. Mumbai Indians
4. Super Kings

The four teams above has match winners. If they click they can win the match for you. But if they fail they have to fall back on the team performance. They revolve against 1 or 2 players with the exception of Deccan Chargers which has 4 players.

Daredevils : Heavy dependence on Sehwag and Gambhir. If Sehwag clicks, game is up. If Gambhir clicks they are still in the race. Add to that McGrath and Asif who really dont give any runs away. They might actually clinch the 3rd semi-final slot but I have to keep them in the hunt because of their vulnerabilities.

Deccan Chargers : This team continues to perplex me. With such star line-up I am not sure why it did not find its place in the top 4. Having said that, they still have a pretty good chance to win some games and straighten things out. They have atleast 4 stars and the probability of one of them clicking is high. If any one of them clicks they can really win the match. Strengths are batting, fielding. Weakness : Bowling, Opportunity : Captaincy. If they find their spot in the semi-final they might actually win the tournament and make Deccan Chronicle $2 million richer.

Mumbai Indians : Expensive franchise in the circuit, still grappling with the difficulty of Harbhajan’s suspension and Sachin’s injury. They look like they have their team in order finally. Robin Uthappa and Shaun Pollock are real match winners. If Sachin comes back it would be a huge bonus.

Super Kings  : I wanted to put them in the second list of a big NO-NO to the semi-final but they have some points and with a few wins here and there they might end up in the semi-final. I think luck and skill have ran out for Dhoni along with some key players. It would be hard to rally around a team which has no performers. Suresh Raina is an exception and a saving grace for this team. I would rather not put my money on this team. Just look at what a big hole they have dug in by selection Mathew Hayden and Mike Hussey.

Knight Riders : You might think they have good chance of making it to the semi-final. Considering Shoaib Akthar joining the team one might argue that their chances have improved considerably. Ok, lets face it Shoaib Akthar is a maverick bowler and he can take wickets and at a exponential pace he can concede runs too. That is a dangerous proposition in 20-20 format. They really do not have any depth in their batting other than David Hussey. No, good old Ganguly is not upto the task. He needs to wait for the spinner to launch a couple of sixers. Now, that’s a rarity. On their day they might win a match or two. But, to do that continuously they might fall short.

History suggests that, teams who have a dream run in the league matches might end up losing the most important match, the semi-final or the final.  Its either Daredevils or Deccan Chargers who have a good chance of winning the tournament. These are the two teams which fall into the category of not too strong or not too weak, but have their vulnerabilities.

 

Video : Warne vs Ganguly, the whole episode

The whole episode with the Greame Smith catch and Ganguly’s wicket.
 
 

Video : Warne lambasts Ganguly

Warne is really on fire. I have seen this on tv several times. They are going to run this untill the next controversy arrives. Until then watch this. There was a Ganguly response too, which was on the phone. I did not get that. But, Ganguly wants to laugh at Warne and says that Warne should look back at his career.

 

 

Ganguly, Warne and the umpire fined

Its raining fines in IPL. Yesterday’s match between Rajastan Royals vs Knight Riders resulted in yet another controversy. Shane Warne was displeased with Saurav’s behavior. Saurav laughed at Shane Warne saying that he is no saint. In the middle of all this IPL is making money. You might ask how. Simple. IPL fined Saurav Gangaly, Shane Warne and the umpire GM Pratap Kumar. Reasons :

1. Saurav Ganguly was fined for showing dissent on-field
2. Shane Warne was fined for criticizing officials in public.
3. GM Pratap Kumar was fined for not referring to the on-field umpire Rudy Kurtzen and referring the third umpire directly. He was suspended for one match.

All three of them were fined 10% of their match fee. That would be $7800 from Ganguly and $3200 from Shane Warne. I am not sure how much the umpires make.

Orange cap is still with Mathew Hayden

Yesterday, it was Gautam Gambhir who came close to claim the orange cap from Hayden but fell short by 16 runs. Today, it was Rohit Sharma of Deccan Chargers. Boy, is he a cool customer under pressure. When you look at this bloke batting he never looks like he is gonna hit you for a six the next ball. He looks like he is still learning the game. His puppy face is often deceptive. He is batting consistently in this tournament barring a duck he has these consecutive scores : 0, 66, 36, DBB, 76. Hope he will give a very good chance to Chargers in this tournament. Well, he missed out on the orange cap by 12 runs today, Sangakkara has a very good chance to become the leading scorer of this tournament.

The race would be between, Sangakkara, Gambhir and Rohit Sharma.

Ganguly did not play the game in the right spirit : Warne

Shane Warne, Rajastan Royals skipper accused Saurav Ganguly of not playing the game in the right spirit. This happened in their match between Knight Riders and Rajastan Royals, which is won by Rajastan Royals by 45 runs. Warne accused Ganguly on two accounts :

1. Saurav Ganguly, did not come to the crease on time and Royals were waiting in the scorching sun for Saurav. Warne checked with umpire Rudy Kurtzen to see what the delay is but he does not have any clue. Then Warne walked up to Ganguly and said this “Mate, this is not about you, it is about the cricket. Lets start the game on time”. He recalls the spirt of cricket agreement which all captains signed in Bangalore on 18th April. Each side would take 1 hour 20 minutes to finish 20 overs.
2. Saurav Ganguly hit a ball from Yusuf Pathan to the deep. Greame Smith came running and dived to the front to take the catch. Smith claimed the catch. Everybody is ecstatic except Saurav. He appealed to the umpire quite animately to refer the catch to the third umpire. The umpire was GM Pratap Kumar. He succumbed to the pressure and refered it to the third umpire. Third umpire, much to the dismay of Shane Warne and Greame Smith, ruled it in favor of the batsman. Catch looked clean to me. Warne’s accusation is Ganguly should take the word of Greame Smith who is a renowned captain of South Africa, and also he has no right to pressure the umpire to go for third umpire.

Other pertinent questions : 

1. Why did the Indian umpire GM Pratap Kumar refer to third umpire?
2. Why did the third umpire gave the decision in favor of Ganguly?

Now, my concern: Is IPL a comeback saga for whatever happened in Australia and to turn the heat back on India about the spirit of the game? First, we have the Harbhajan episode which gave a glimpse to the world and also lost India’s credibility in defending Harbhajan over the years. Now, this Ganguly episode where our spirit of game is questioned.

Whatever might be the case, it does not augur well for Indian cricket. Ganguly, an experienced cricketer should have been better informed.

IPL Stadia and their capacity

 

City	Stadium Name	IPL Team	Capacity
Kolkata	Eden Gardens	Knight Riders	1,20,000
Bangalore	Chinnaswamy Stadium	Royal Challengers	70,000
Mumbai	Dr. DY Patil Stadium	Mumbai Indians	60,000
Hyderabad	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Deccan Chargers	55,000
Chennai	MA Chindambaram Stadium	Super Kings	50,000
Jaipur	Sawai Mansingh stadium	Rajastan Royals	48,000
New Delhi	Feroz Shah Kotla	Daredevils	47,000
Mumbai	Wankhede Stadium	Mumbai Indians	45,000
Mohali	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium	KIngs XI Punjab	25,000

 

 

 

Lone English player joins IPL

That is Dimitri Mascarenhas. He is the lone english player who was allowed to play in IPL. Mascarenhas has attracted a bid of $100,000 from Rajastan Royals.  He is a batting all-rounder and his explosive batting skills are a welcome addition to the IPL which has lost some of the powerful hitters this week. Othe english players have expressed that they would like to play for IPL, Kevin Pietersen was very vocal in his desire. None of them were allowed to play because of the central contract. Mascarenhaswas the only english player and will be available for 5 games. It would be interesting to see how Shane Warne uses Masceranus and will he play against Knight Riders tomorrow.

It will be a tough for Shane Warne tomorrow, because he has to choose 4 from a pool of 7 players, including himself. Assuming Warne, Graeme Smith and Kamran Akmal as the obvious choice he has to fill the last spot from 4 players. I think he will choose Mascarenhas ahead of Sohail Tanvir, Morne Morkel and Younis Khan.

Mascarenhas will be leaving to England on May 12.

 

Tamil movie industry adds itself to the growing list of IPL haters

Not exactly haters but people who either don’t like it or dont want to like it. Looks like the movie industry has no audience for the late evening shows, courtesy IPL. Well, can you blame the audience. You have a team that plays good cricket, you have roped your favorite star (Vijay), you have the most wanted player in the international arena (Dhoni), above all you are playing good cricket and winning the matches. Why would anybody watch a movie when you can stay back and watch live cricket on TV.Both movie and an IPL match take the same time. I would prefer the match for the sheer entertainement value it is providing. Few matches were close so far but I think we are yet to see the best.

This is not a reason to really worry. You just have to time your release around IPL.

It is just not ICC who needs to provide a window for IPL. Movie industry too has to provide a window for IPL.