April 30th is being seen as an end of First Innings in IPL and what a first innings it has been! It had all the drama, thrill and the razmataz for a perfect and successful innings. The outcome of the first innings:
FAVOURITE TEAM:
When the IPL auction had finished, I had a list of favourite strong teams (on the basis of the players they had in the team): 1) Hyderabad 2) Chennai 3) Mohali. Also I had Kolkata (I always thought that they have a weak team) as one of my fav team purely on the basis of my place of stay at the moment (KOLKATA). After 12 frantic days and 16 mad games, I have only one favourite team : Rajasthan Royals. They have fought so well and earn my respect and love. They never gave up unlike the Kolkata Team (later on that one). Team Chennai is still strong but somehow I dont feel emotionally for them. In India cricket is emotionally played as well as watched. I guess Team Chennai has won matches but they have yet to win hearts. They may well win the tournament but if they dont win hearts they will run the risk of being only a Chennai T20 Team rather than Pan India T20 Fav Team. Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, is doing just the right thing. They are noy only winning matches now but they are winning hearts as well by their Never-Die attitude. They are not giving up till the last bowl is bowled. They are using their strenghts to the maximum and trying to keep their errors low. They know they are doing well with their bowls, so when winning a toss, they are bowling. This way they know what runs to chase and can make good plan when it came to batting. Its working wonderfully for them. They maynot have a very strong line up of batsman (read international players) but their strategy have worked well and guess it will do well in the future games as well. Cause they have more Indian players and local players, who are becoming stronger with each game. They have very few international players and are the least likely to take the heat in the second innings starting May 1st when most of the big names will leave India for national duties. Shane Watson is not part of Test Team Australia and he stays, and so the hope in Rajasthan Royals. And ofcourse Shane Warne is the Captain, so even if they dont win the tournament, RR have definitely won fans all over India by their performance and surely create a few more major upsets as the second innings start.
BIG NAMES:
The first innings of IPL saw the big Players from Australia and New Zealand go great guns (leaving aside the poor-in-form Ponting). But most of these big names leave by 1st May or 15th May (West Indies) whereas, most Pakistani big names will be available and thats when it would be interesting to watch how the Teams will come up with new equation of players and how well that combination work. I think the Team with the strongest Indian players will win the tournament. After all one can play only 4 international stars and the rest 7 have to be Indians. The local boys have a bigger role to play to make their respective team win. If not for anyone else, IPL is for them. This is their one golden chance to showcase their talents and make the world know their names and earn some money as well on the way.
Anyways the team to be hit most in the second innings due to their heavy relying on international players are Kolkata Knight Riders and to an extent Chennai SuperKings.
Waiting to see how the KKR team cope with that one along with CSK. Salman Butt and Umar Gul can do their bit for KKR but still ....CSK's bowling deppt needs to be revamped now that big hitter Hayden leaves and also Jacob Oram whose bowling hit KKR the most.
LOCAL ICONS:
Just 12 days into the IPL and it has already thrown out quite a few local names who really were nobody before the tournament started. Some of the names being repeated by experts and watchers of the game are: Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Rajesh jadeja, Laxmi Shukla ( Batting) Ashok Dinda, Goni (Bowling); Wriddhiman Saha (Batting and Wicket Keeping).
They are the ones who have to lift their teams to the highest forms in this second innings. IPL has really done its bit in bringing these "delights" and newer "hopes" for future Indian Cricket.
Now, I'm waiting for second innings to start. I want to see with all the big hitters leaving will T20 retain its entertainment value? will the local boys uplift the game to another level or will it become a small total, slow and boring games? By the end of second innings which I see as ard May 16 (or after about 16 more matches), clear favourites will come out. By that time each team would have played around 3 matches with their new combination (mostly locals) and each Teams actual strengths and weaknesses will become very very clear . Hopefully by the end of it we would get to know who all will be going to the semis. Cant wait..let the drama continue....
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
IPL and my Aunt
And so it begins...the mother of all battles, the frenzy of fans and the unavoidable razmatazz called IPL! Oh boy, what a start it was indeed! I dont remember when was the last time I had so much fun, excitement and sheer feeling of happiness before Friday the 18th, 2008.
It was the day DLF IPL started!
Great opening ceremony and even better first match between KKR and RCB. More about matches and teams in my next posting. This posting is for IPL and what it has done and what it could do to the future of cricket.
When IPL was just introduced to the world, as always a bunch of naysayers said that the concept was rediculous, how it would harm the "real"cricket, no "real" bonding/imparting of knowledge will happen between big players and juniors and ofcourse, not many will watch the matches.
WRONG, WRONG and WRONG!!!!!!
As is the T20 format all about hitting hard and smashing , IPL did just that- it smashed all naysayers' "wiseness" and hit home a straight 6!
For example, till about last thursday, my aunt's life revolved around OTs (she is a surgeon!) and only thing she could talk about was C-section deliveries. After IPL's first match happend in Bangalore she is talking about Ishant's and Dinda's deliveries and then it sunk on me that IPL has done its job. It is popularising cricket to a great extent- it is reaching out to people who would earleir not watch cricket because it was a fullday/five day affair. Who knows what will happen in the future, maybe it will take over football and basketball in popularity one day.
DURATION:
Take me for instance---Time was always a factor for me when it came to my loving football over cricket. I love football- cause you just go out there, give your best and after 90 minutes (in most cases), the game is over. But not so with cricket.
With work pressure rising, expanding business line, I hardly had the mood or the time to sit through the whole day to catch a game of cricket. I had to please myself with "Highlights". But with this T20 format along with IPL, every game is a Highlight!
TREAT:
Watching Ponting giving advice to Ishant, when the later was losing his nerves the other day at Edens, Ponting hugging Dinda after he got the opponent out and Hussey lifting Laxmi Shukla after hitting the winning 6 at Edens--- these are the Golden moments--momets all cricket fans had dreamed of always and now their dreams are coming true! Ofcourse, the raining of 6s and smashing of wickets also have their fair share in giving more allure to T20 format and IPL, but nothing, according to me compares the beauty of watching multi-national teammates, big international players showing the new entrants a trick or two and sworn enemies becoming teammates! Tell me how many times in life do you get to see two of Cricketing world' s most aggressive and strategist captains in the same team fighting for the same cause, when not in the too distant past, they were fighting against each other for the World Cup! If not for anything else, I will still watch matches for these moments- They are just MAGICAL!.
SPIRIT/PHILOSOPHY
Many proponents of the longer version of the game believe that this T20 format is bogus and real talent can only be seen in Test cricket. Yes Test cricket is the real hero; You have to have the talent; but you also do a lot of calculations, holding back and stuff like that. . However, the philosophy of T20 format is to not to do any calculations whatsoever, just go there, give your 200 % and be happy knowing that you did give your all and did not hold back as part of the strategy. Personally thats my philosophy too, as I'm completely inspired by Prefontane (of USA). Much to the frustration and dismay of his coach, He always said, "how can I be called a good long distance runner until and unless I run to my full potential from the very first lap and test my lungs to their full capacity! I donot want to run a calculated run, I want just to run to my full capacity and then if I win, I'm the real winner!" T20 is pretty much in line with that philosophy- Let the best man hit and the best bowler break the stumps! Classy players will stay and they will adjust no matter the format. So, a classy batsman like Sehwag will hit a tripple ton even in Test matches and so will McCullum hit a 157 in a super flat pitch, when others are struggling to score even a single.
One-day cricket might just not survive in future but Classy players will survive always!
It was the day DLF IPL started!
Great opening ceremony and even better first match between KKR and RCB. More about matches and teams in my next posting. This posting is for IPL and what it has done and what it could do to the future of cricket.
When IPL was just introduced to the world, as always a bunch of naysayers said that the concept was rediculous, how it would harm the "real"cricket, no "real" bonding/imparting of knowledge will happen between big players and juniors and ofcourse, not many will watch the matches.
WRONG, WRONG and WRONG!!!!!!
As is the T20 format all about hitting hard and smashing , IPL did just that- it smashed all naysayers' "wiseness" and hit home a straight 6!
For example, till about last thursday, my aunt's life revolved around OTs (she is a surgeon!) and only thing she could talk about was C-section deliveries. After IPL's first match happend in Bangalore she is talking about Ishant's and Dinda's deliveries and then it sunk on me that IPL has done its job. It is popularising cricket to a great extent- it is reaching out to people who would earleir not watch cricket because it was a fullday/five day affair. Who knows what will happen in the future, maybe it will take over football and basketball in popularity one day.
DURATION:
Take me for instance---Time was always a factor for me when it came to my loving football over cricket. I love football- cause you just go out there, give your best and after 90 minutes (in most cases), the game is over. But not so with cricket.
With work pressure rising, expanding business line, I hardly had the mood or the time to sit through the whole day to catch a game of cricket. I had to please myself with "Highlights". But with this T20 format along with IPL, every game is a Highlight!
TREAT:
Watching Ponting giving advice to Ishant, when the later was losing his nerves the other day at Edens, Ponting hugging Dinda after he got the opponent out and Hussey lifting Laxmi Shukla after hitting the winning 6 at Edens--- these are the Golden moments--momets all cricket fans had dreamed of always and now their dreams are coming true! Ofcourse, the raining of 6s and smashing of wickets also have their fair share in giving more allure to T20 format and IPL, but nothing, according to me compares the beauty of watching multi-national teammates, big international players showing the new entrants a trick or two and sworn enemies becoming teammates! Tell me how many times in life do you get to see two of Cricketing world' s most aggressive and strategist captains in the same team fighting for the same cause, when not in the too distant past, they were fighting against each other for the World Cup! If not for anything else, I will still watch matches for these moments- They are just MAGICAL!.
SPIRIT/PHILOSOPHY
Many proponents of the longer version of the game believe that this T20 format is bogus and real talent can only be seen in Test cricket. Yes Test cricket is the real hero; You have to have the talent; but you also do a lot of calculations, holding back and stuff like that. . However, the philosophy of T20 format is to not to do any calculations whatsoever, just go there, give your 200 % and be happy knowing that you did give your all and did not hold back as part of the strategy. Personally thats my philosophy too, as I'm completely inspired by Prefontane (of USA). Much to the frustration and dismay of his coach, He always said, "how can I be called a good long distance runner until and unless I run to my full potential from the very first lap and test my lungs to their full capacity! I donot want to run a calculated run, I want just to run to my full capacity and then if I win, I'm the real winner!" T20 is pretty much in line with that philosophy- Let the best man hit and the best bowler break the stumps! Classy players will stay and they will adjust no matter the format. So, a classy batsman like Sehwag will hit a tripple ton even in Test matches and so will McCullum hit a 157 in a super flat pitch, when others are struggling to score even a single.
One-day cricket might just not survive in future but Classy players will survive always!
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