Of This, That and IPL

This summer IPL started with much fanfare and hopes of several fans, as it was a new location and people were expecting it to be much bigger. A big blow was IPL being shifted from India to South Africa, though South Africa is known for its pitches and here everything was expected to go according to plan, rain played a spoil sport for a few games and the opening of IPL was not great. Though the star presence gave the crowd something to cheer about, KKR’s continuous loss made King Khan leave the scene very early and that too disappointed. Maybe his and Buchanan’s plan to make McCullum the captain instead of Ganguly backfired. Still KKR is wondering what is wrong in their team. Is it their incompetence, or is it the pressure from home supporters that is making them loose every game they play. One team that has sprung back into action as compared to last year is Deccan Chargers. They seem to have got back their rhythm and their top four batsmen fire with full force. They are still in contention for the top four spot. Also Royal Challenger’s Bangalore had something in store for us when they started with Kevin Peterson as their Captain, but he failed to impress us and went back to England disappointed. Another disappointment was Flintoff, who was also not very impressive, if we compare the amount Chennai paid to get him.
IPL was always thought of as a batsman’s game till this year, when some good bowling performances from all the sides managed the score line of the opponent as low as 58. Also some part time bowlers surprised the batsman with hat-tricks, this includes, Yuvraj Singh with 2 and Rohit Sharma with 1.
King’s XI Punjab had their ups and downs and they still have a chance to be in the top four thanks to some excellent performances from Sanghakara, Yuvraj, Jayawardane and Katich, not to forget some good bowling by Pathan, Chawla and Lee. Similar stories with Chennai and Delhi, both of them continuing their good run from the last IPL and have almost made it to the semi final. However one big disappointment was the Mumbai team, which looked good after the return of the God of cricket Sachin. Though they started their tournament with a win against Chennai, they lost a few very close matches which they could have easily won and this led to their departure from the tournament.
There is a lot to this IPL which was missing from last year’s edition. We have seen some new faces in the commentary line-up like Gaurav and Chang, a new look of Mandira Bedi and also the Zoo Zoo’s Vodafone Ads which are creating a news about themselves. The latest and an innovative controversy this year, is of the Fake IPL Player, who is supposedly a part of some team and is disclosing strategies, in and out of the KKR team meeting and also about other players and commentators on his blog. This has really got some cricket fans to have a look at this blog as it is getting some really huge number of hits.
No matter who wins the IPL season 2, or for that matter loses cricket is the winner in this case. Next up will be the second T20 World Cup in England which will be another big watch. I Hope that these Indian players who have kept their feet on the ground and still held their heads high to show similar performances in the world cup.

Adios