IPL6 Teams - Winner and Runner

IPL final took place yesterday and Mumbai Indians won their first ever IPL title. With all the new updates coming about the involvement of  CSK chief being involved in the spot fixing racket, almost every body around for some reason were speculating MI to win this years title. And their win pretty much confirmed the speculations. Somehow IPL 6 ended on little lesser interesting note. Even the way yesterday's match progressed did not helped to think about it other way round. I was little disappointed with yesterday's match. Only thing that I found intact and more on its regular coarse was the way Dhoni stayed on the crease till the end trying to work out a difficult possibility of winning.

One thing on the other hand is sure. MI and CSK were the two deserving teams to fight for the Championship. Both the teams performed better than all others and stood as top two teams in the list. They played good cricket over the whole series. While CSK as always looked more consistent, MI after few initial losses regained their composure as Rohit Sharma wore the Captain's cap.

Runners in IPL 6- Chennai Super Kings

A lot is happening with CSK brand. Their Chief himself has been dragged in to spot fixing controversy and so has created negative impression about the team. If we talk only about Cricket team, I think CSK is one team that stands different from all others in the same way as Australia used to be few years back compared to other teams. CSK has always been consistent. It has managed to win IPL most number of times and also played maximum number of finals out of 6 played till date.  One good thing about the team is people can connect with the team, because it hasn't really changed in these years. Dhoni has always been the face of the team. A very mature, calm and positive attitude towards the game, are the qualities he brings on ground with him. He handles situations very well and never let pressure rule his mind. Under him, CSK really has flourished. He equally supported the young as well as old players in the team. On one side, Murali Vijay made his name while playing for CSK, an old player like Mike Hussey also got so many opportunities that he is an orange cap bearer. Other players like Raina, Bravo, Jadeja have been exceptionally consistent in their performance.  Though Badrinath could not keep up with his earlier performance this year, Dhoni showed faith in him. Ashwin made it large only because he got chance to perform in CSK and now a new bowler Mohit Sharma is on his way to knock the doors of India Cricket team. I think, even if CSK couldn't win this years title, every body would consider them champions. In spite of what's happening around, I consider this team in high standards under the able leadership of Dhoni. 

Winners in IPL 6 - Mumbai Indians

This team has always intrigued me. A team with all big guns but took 6 years to touch the trophy.

I really appreciate the way Ambani's have handled this team. I never heard him putting any kind of pressure on the team and criticizing them for their performance as we saw happening with RCB or DC or KKR. The team was doing every thing right over the years but somewhere it never clicked enough to make it till the end. No doubt, the team was centered around Sachin. More than half of MI's popularity comes because of Sachin. After initially representing MI, he decided to pass it over to others and concentrate solely on his game. It worked for him but MI never had any able Captain to lead, After trying other players Pollock, Harbhajan Singh and Ricky Ponting for Captains Cap, finally they seem to have settled down with Rohit Sharma. Rohit has really pulled it well and managed to make MI look a consistent team. Since his nomination as the Captain, the team has won most of the matches with almost a perfect record on their home pitch. I believe, the team is now secured at least with the Captain's position. Becoming Captain has some how helped Rohit also. His performance has improved many a folds. Indeed Captaincy pressure works well for some players. The team has a very strong batting line up going down till 9th position. The only problem is except for few like Dinesh Karthik, not every body tries to be consistent. On their day, they would win the game for the team, but one can  not be sure when that day rises.

I believe MI had one of the best bowling line up. With Mithcel Johnson and Malinga in the team, I believe, it could be the best pace attack to face. And with the inclusion of Pragyan Ojha, the spin attack got even better that earlier depended solely on Harbhajan Singh. MI even tried giving opportunity to upcoming bowlers and Batsman which is one good thing I have noticed with MI.  Players like Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayadu, Abhishek Nayar, Saurabh Tiwari were first introduced  by MI. Even now, new names like Aditya Tare, Rishi Dhawan, Dhaval Kulkarni are getting known because of MI. In addition to creating opportunities for young players, team has also tried to support activities of social cause that makes MI stands out from other teams. 

Over all, IPL 6 ended on a note which sounds mixed with positve as well as negative impressions. On one side, spot fixing issue has really blackened the face of the Cricket, but on the other side there are so many positive outcomes of this league which would help Indian Cricket in the long run. Somewhere, I got a feeling that mixture of glamour and Cricket hasn't gelled very well. Cricket is Gentleman's game and by adding glamour to it, has actually tried to spoil this gentleman image of the game. If the extent to which the glamour should be added with Cricket can be controlled, probably there will be lesser controversies coming in way of Cricket. Well that's just my speculation.