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Its 16-16 now

Well, If someone thought 20-20 was pretty fast, now ready to witness a 16-16 match. Curtailed by rain  the match between Royal Challengers vs Knight Riders is going to be 32 over affair. Can we get it any shorter than this please. Come on, give me a break. How hard could it be to bowl 8 more overs with an extra 40 mins. This is getting ridiculous. Oops, the match is in Kolkata. That might be a reason for this short match. Remember the floodlights, they dont hold for too long.

Gavaskar quits as the chairman of ICC cricket committee

Asked to decide between his media commitments (commentary) and the ICC job, Gavaskar chose the media commitments. He will be back at the IPL providing his valuable insights in commentary. I guess he is missing praising Sachin Tendulkar. Because that will be out of context on a ICC job. Gavaskar’s decision comes after ICC found that he is having a conflict of interest in two different roles and has to chose between the two. With so much cricket being played and so many lousy commentators around Gavaskar has found a niche market and a non-fungible job for himself. His position as a commentator will not be challenged for a while as there is realy dearth of talent. That does not mean that Gavaskar is a good commentator. Far from it, he fills the words in the commentary by pronouncing the names of the players correctly and fully. For example if Ganguly misfields, this is what Gavaskar would say. Saurav Ganguly, the former captain of India has misfielded, which has resulted in a run for his team. He is also called as prince of kolkata, mind you. True he uses that many words. You can check as he will be back from Dubai to entertain us all.

Long live Gavaskar.

PS : I guess, IPL pays the commentators handsomely. Or else, why would he quit an executive postion?

Long live IPL. If it wasnt for IPL, Gavaskar might have thought twice.

Gavaskar resigns as ICC cricket committee head

Charu Sharma fired?

It is reported that, Charu Sharma, CEO of Royal Challengers was either fired or made a graceful exit to Brijesh Patel. This move might be prompted after the drubbing Royal Challengers continuous defeats. I think this is a bit late for this season. This might help them for the next season.

There is a speculation about dropping Venkatesh Prasad as the coach of Royal Challengers.

Would that really helpl the team now?

Ravi Bopara turns down IPL offer

English cricketer Ravi Bopara turns down an IPL offer to play for his country. He is not centrally contracted by the English board and is free to play for IPL. He turned down a six figure dollar amount to continue playing for Essex and hoping to be selected to the national team. He was part of the T20 world cup team for England but could not play because of an injury. Bopara says IPL offer is tempting.

Bopara should be praised for his single-minded goal of getting into the national team.

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.

 

Unable to blog

I am not able to blog yesterday because of some contingencies. I will try to make that up in the next two days. Some exciting matches coming up Super Kings vs Deccan Chargers today. Also Shoaib Akthar is ready to play for IPL as his ban is suspended. This is awesome. I did not know that you can “suspend a ban“. That is the best oxymoron I have heard in a while after “Microsoft Works“. Anyway, Shah Rukh will be a happy man and Knight Riders deserve a better run and Shoaib might bolster the bowling attack who already have Ishant Sharma and Ajit Aggarkar.

Other big news is Misbah-Ul-Haq might not play for Royal Challengers as they are advertising alchoholic brands. That would be a blow for the Challengers if they have to pull Misbah out. It wouldn’t hamper their chances at the champioship at all because they dont have any chances whatsoever.

One more news Ishant Sharma is fined 10% match fee after hitting a stump. This is ICC level 1 offence which deals with destruction of ground equipment. I guess they will buy a lot of stumps for the rest of life with that money. Ishant Sharma joins the elite list of Harhajan Singh, Sreesanth, Saurav Ganguly, Shane Warne who are either reprimanded, suspended or fined.

 

Top bowlers for Royal Challengers

S.No	Player	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	NB	Wd	RPO
1	Zaheer Khan	28	0	212	12	0	2	7.6
2	Praveen Kumar	27	1	207	8	0	2	7.7
3	Jack Kallis	23	0	22	4	0	3	9.6
4	B Akhil	7	0	51	2	0	0	7.3
5	Dale Steyn	16	0	105	1	1	7	6.7
6	Sunil Joshi	9.1	0	82	1	0	0	9.0
7	A Noffke	4	0	40	1	0	1	10.0

 

 

Top bowlers for Daredevils

S.No	Player	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	NB	Wd	RPO
1	Glenn McGrath	24	2	148	7	0	1	6.2
2	R Bhatia	13	0	96	6	0	2	7.4
3	Yo Mahesh	10	0	150	6	4	0	7.5
4	Mohammad Asif	20	0	180	6	1	4	9.0
5	Fervez Maharoof	11	0	78	4	0	2	7.1
6	Daniel Vettori	8	0	54	2	0	0	6.8
7	Shoaib Malik	6.3	0	57	2	1	3	9.0
8	Virendra Sehwag	5	0	53	2	0	0	10.6
9	P Sangwan	8	0	61	1	1	2	7.6
10	B Geeves	4	0	41	0	0	0	10.3