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.

IPL6 Teams - Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals lost its way yesterday in the race of IPL. They lost their qualifying match for Finals to Mumbai Indians.

Rajasthan Royals is one team which always is considered underdogs. But it is the same team which slowly and quietly went up to the stage and lifted the cup in the very beginning season of IPL. Since then it has tried to perform on different levels. 

Though Shilpa Shetty is the face of the team, she hasn't been that upfront as Preety Zinta is for Kings XI Punjab. Earlier, Shane Warne was the Captain of the team who brought them glory by winning the cup. Now, the team is in the able hands of Rahul Dravid. 

Dravid has done a commendable job not only as a Captain but also as an opener for the team. He has totally changed his batting style and showed all that he can be equally aggressive as others but at the same time he did it by playing technical shots he is known for. He not only lead the team till qualifiers, but also gave opportunities to youngsters and others who other wise won't get chance to play at higher level.

I remember him giving an opportunity to a 41 year old guy Praveen Tambe  as a lead spinner. Surely, if Praveen was playing his first ever big match at 41, this was the biggest break he could ever get.  In contrast, RR introduced Sanju Samson to the world at the age of 18. Rahul not only allowed him to play but also gave full support to be a back bone of the middle order. No wonder, Sanju used the opportunity to become the youngest player to score a half century in IPL.

What I liked about the team is it is bringing up players who can play well at IPL levels but who also are technically sound in their game. Either you consider Sanju Samson or Ajinkya Rahane, they look good while playing technical shots, but they also maintain the required run rate in control.

And when these players get a support from big hitters like Shane Watson, Faulkner and Stuart Binny, their batting line starts look impenetrable. Brad Hodge and Kevon Cooper give the team that extra edge allowing the team to be among top fours.

The team on the other hand was very weak with the bowling attack. Except for Watson, there was no other big name to begin with. But addition of Faulkner brought some substance to the attack. The three black spots on the team Shreesanth, Chandila and Chavan all made a part of bowling attack. Their exit left the team with less options to plan their attack. And this is where team failed yesterday when they required some specialist spinners to control Mumbai Indians. As a result, team is out of the competition.

I believe the team has great potential to be a perfect team and it sets an example how a gentleman's game is supposed to played.

IPL6 - Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad is the latest team which got knocked of the competition for IPL cup. In yesterday's eliminator match, Rajasthan Royals some how managed keep their challenge going by defeating Sunrisers in a low scoring match.

Sunrisers Hyderabad is a new name in the competition. But the team is old. Its just the earlier Deccan Chargers team with a new owner from Sun group.

Deccan Charger was the second team to win IPL cup in season 2. Gilchrist brought the team together after a poor show in season I. Since then team has pretty much performed badly to an extent that the management decided not to retain any player and go for complete make over. In recent days, its either Sangakkara or Cameron White who represent the team. This season as Sunrisers, the team actually turned out to be a good and quiet team who slowly kept performing with out making anyhateadlines and sneaked into top four teams. 

Sangakkara played in few initial matches but later on it was White who represented the team. I really wonder what makes Sanga feel  he should not be among playing 11. He is a good player, with a potential to play according to the requirement of the situation. In contrast I don't really feel White is a Captain material. He plays once  in a while great inning but other wise I feel he fails to impress his team mates.

The team has found a good opening pair in the form of Dhawan and Parthiv. They really tried their best to give a good start to the team. Other than these, the team had Thesera Perrera who made himself useful every now and then. Rest of the batting squad was disappointing.

The team on the other hand had a very strong Bowling squad. In the Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma, the team got a very good opening bowling pair. They really managed to put an incredible pressure on the opponent batsmen. The team had a strong spin attack with Amit Mishra as their trump card. Its just a bad luck that Sunrisers could not go beyond position four in the season. But the way the team pulled up and managed to reach top four in their first ever attempt is a big success. I believe if they decide to go ahead with pretty much same team squad, they will surely make it big in coming seasons.

IPL6 - Royal Challengers Bangalore

The fifth and final team which couldn't make it to the play offs is Royal Challengers Bangalore. The team is owned by Vijay Mallya. He is one force who seem to be dominating the way the team should work. In the initial days, as Rahul Dravid was a star player, he was the face of the team. But back then, Dravid was a test match player. It took him time to get acquainted with the ways twenty:twenty is played. Mallya don't seem to have patience. He immediately started firing on the ways the team is running and took some strong decisions. He tried to justify how his move to include Misbah-Ul-Haq towards the end of IPL-1 was able to bring some dignity back to team after a pity start.

Apparently some lessons were learnt from season 1 and when implemented, it brought success to the team in next seasons where the team was successful in qualifying for the play offs. They even managed to reach finals at occasions but were never able to be the ultimate winner. One  name that got associated with the team was Virat Kohli was a Captain in a making. After trying out many others for the position, finally this year they seem to have settled with Kohli. He has been leading from front. He is among the top run scorers in the league this year. But he seem to have some problem with keeping temperament. He got involved in a few on field arguments this year. One of them was with Gautam Gambhir while in the other he went ahead and tried confronting the spectators from Mumbai. If he is planning to be a leading contender for Captaincy of Indian Cricket team, then he better realize, he appears to Indian Cricket fans as an arrogant player who can't keep his emotions.

Although Kohli has made it large being team's Captain, the team is actually known because of another player called "Gayle Storm". I am wondering why Kolkota Knight Riders let Gayle go.  Since his entry in RCB, he has changed the way twenty:20 is played. I feel more than half of RCB's success rely on Gayle's shoulder. He is in totally different league than any other player ever in the game. People come to watch him hitting sixes irrespective of if they support RCB or not. I myself could not resist appreciating him while he was butchering my home team  Pune Warriors to make grand 175 runs.

Other than these, few more names from the team sometimes make appearance like AB Devilliers, Dilshan and Saurabh Tiwary, but they get restricted number of chances.

In bowling section, Zahir Khan was a big name. This year unfortunately he couldn't play because of injury. I guess its time for him to retire from Cricket. He has been injured for more time than he actually play any form of cricket. Muralidharan's inclusion in the team gave some support to the spin attack, but this year, he was little less favored. RP Singh  is other wise a big name in twenty:20. He is the leading bowler for the team. Unfortunately he seem to be loosing it over the year. His last ball noball ruining their chance against Chennai could have created suspicion in people's mind to be a fixed match. 

But two names are trying to make a name for themselves. Vinay Kumar and Jaydev Unadkat. Both the bowlers are impressive and turning out to be leaders in bowling section.

Overall the team is otherwise very good but depends a lot on one person's performance, Chris Gayle. Without him and Kohli, team finds it difficult to get going. And what ever is left is taken by Devilliers. I believe if this team ever wins, it will only be one person's credit and it will never perform as a team.

IPL 6 Teams : Kings XI Punjab

Among the IPL teams, Kings XI Punjab is one team that never performed up to its real standards. Unlike other teams having a famous player being the face of team, Kings XI Punjab is known by the face of Preety Zinta. Every time there is a match of Kings XI, cameras keep searching her face. She is one enthusiastic person who always look optimistic.
A lot has changed with this team over six years. None of the big players stayed long with the team. In the initial days, Yuvraj Singh was one big name associated with the team. Back then, he was a big name in this format. He was the one who hit six sixes in the first ever twenty:20 world cup in South Africa. Obviously, there were lot of expectations from him and so the team. They even started well to say so. But over the time things started going wrong. First the team was in news because of some confusions and allegations over financial deals between the team owners and BCCI. Then, there were news of conflicts between the owner of the team and Yuvraj Singh that affected the team's performance. After the initial three years, Yuvraj Singh was allowed to leave the team. Almost  whole of the team was revamped. 

In the new set up, Gilchrist is acting as the Captain and Coach of the team. Gilchrist is actually pretty old by all standards to play the quickest form of Cricket. He has been struggling to score at ease, the way he used to do few years back. He hardly crossed score of 20 and thus turning more in to a burden than a help for the team. Still, at the age of 42, he manages to perform at much higher level than many of his younger colleagues. He is good with tactics and has been able to motivate his team to deliver at better level than usual. He seem to have respect in the team and of the owners which is big thing considering the kind of professional attitude these IPL teams carry.

David Hussey has been emerging as his successor in most of the games, now a days. He has been captaining the team in Gilchrist's absence.  But I doubt he is any good to lead the team. His plans some times are not just full of loop holes but they sometimes even appears like a joke to me. Like, once he himself tried to bowl the last over of the inning. Now, he is not a regular bowler and his bowling is just flat, simple and straight. Anybody must be able to score on his bowling. Half of his balls are full toss. He is also not doing any great in batting section. I am yet to remember any of his match winning knocks.
In contrast, Shaun Marsh is one player who looks good, consistent and sensible in the team. Though he did not played initial games in this season because of injury, he made up for them in recent games. He seem to be in good touch. Miller has been a good addition to the team. His knock against Bangalore was one great knock. He reminded Bangalore of the treatment their team Gayle's help gives to other team. But I feel he is a player of one great knock. I doubt he will produce any other similar knock. Kings XI also tried old time Pakistani player Azhar Mahmood. After initial glitz he vanished. There are some upcoming players who are making a mark once in while. I wonder what happened to Paul Valthaty. He shot to fame in one of the seasons and then hardly seen. I remember seeing him in one of the outings this season, and then he again disappeared.

Bowling section for the team seems very weak. Whole responsibility apparently lies with Praveen Kumar. He most of the times delivers fine but some time especially in death overs he also falls prey to Batsmen's rage. Other than him, there is Piyush Chawla. He doesn't impress me. He is sometime good but mostly seems pretty ordinary.  Then, there is Manpreet Gony and Awana. But they are also good on few occasions. There is no bowler in the team who will scare the batsman. I guess the team need to strengthen this side. Azhar Mahmood's inclusion initially tried to solve this issue but he seemed to be a temporary solution which couldn't last long.

I never kept high expectations from this team. But as is known about Punjab, this team plays with heart. They might not be good on paper, but if they decide and if its their day they can turn tables against any team, like they did for RCB few days back. Its always fun to watch Kings XI Punjabs matches. Just one condition, don't keep hopes with this team to win a game. 

IPL6 teams: Kolkota Knight Riders

Six years back, when IPL started, one team I was looking forward to, wished to follow and be a fan was Kolkota Knight Riders. The reason is obvious,  Saurav Ganguly. I was a die hard fan of Ganguly. He represents fight back attitude anyone should have. And somewhere I used to like Shahrukh Khan, the way he created his place in Bollywood, which usually is governed by few Families, starting right from scratch as a TV actor. So, when these two forces decided to come together, I had no reason to say no to KKR. I started routing for this team. 

The team even started with a bang back then with Brendon Mccullum hitting 158 runs leaving Bangalore no place to survive. Over the time, things started changing. A few loss in close matches and every body started questioning Ganguly. By the time second season of IPL arrived, Buchanan's famous four captain theory started making rounds and Ganguly was replaced by Mccullum. That season, KKR become more famous not because of its game but because of a blog by fake IPL player who surely created lot of tension in KKR circle. 

After a dismal performance in second season, Ganguly returned as Captain of KKR for third season. This season turned out to be a good one as the team managed to reach up to  14 points but couldn't make it to next round just because of relatively poor run rate.

As Ganguly was out of KKR after this season, the team one of its fans, me.

Since then, Gambhir has been a face of the team. He has succeeded in taking the team till the end and grab the IPL cup in the fifth season. But over all I don't enjoy watching this team's game anymore. Gambhir is an aggressive player. He guides the team from the front and has pretty much succeeded in creating a confidence in the team. But somewhere down the line, the team has also collected a sense of arrogance. The team mostly appear with a arrogant face. It hardly does well in Fair game list. It is known more for other reasons than Cricket, may it then be the controversies surrounding the owner Shahrukh Khan, or the altercations involving Gambhir and Kohli or Bisla, Gambhir vs Watson, Dravid.  Yesterday, I was little surprised to see other wise cool Jacques Kallis involved in heated argument with the Umpire himself over a mankad wicket.

Coming back to team's performance. The team at present has some big names like Gambhir, Kallis, Yusuf Pathan, Eoin Morgan and Mccullum. Last year Gambhir and Kallis were in good form that resulted in winning the trophy. This year none of them including the above two have shown any good performance. Except for one or two games, their performance has been dismal. Team doesn't look like a team. There is a lot people expect from Pathan in tournaments like 20:20. But he apparently is going from worse to worst. Yesterday's his presence on the field had started appearing funny at times. His misfieldings, wrong directional return throws made me think, does he even fit in the format anymore? Eoin Morgan on the other hand has been performing fine. His exceptional catch on the boundary and presence of mind the other day was phenomenal.

On Bowling front, the team looks little loose. Though they have some strong bowlers in the team but apparently they are not being used properly. I was  hypnotized when Bret Lee bowled out Unmukt Chand on the first ball of IPL season 6. The sheer speed and accuracy of Lee's ball was mesmerizing. But later on Bret Lee simply disappeared in air. He hardly is playing any game. Other trump card Sunil Narain apparently has lost some of this shine this season. He hasn't remained that economical  as he was last year. Though he is among leading wicket takers, but he isn't any more scary for batsmen. Balaji is another bowler who tries to make impression every now and then. Some times it works, other times its the same old story.

Over all the team is good but has some where lost its shine this year. The team is not trying hard enough together and prefer to rely on solo performance of individual players. 

IPL6 teams: Delhi Dare Devils

At present this team stands at eighth position in IPL-6. Nobody would have expected such a poor performance from this team. It has performed much better in earlier seasons of IPL. If I remember correct, this team stood among top four teams in some of the earlier seasons of IPL. So, this times run is little surprising for me. 

There are four strong pillars of this team. Sehwag, Pietersen, Jayawardhane and Warner. All these players are capable of turning the game on their own on their day. Pietersen unfortunately has not been active this season due to injury. Sehwag has kind of lost his touch completely. There used to be a kind of aura around him that itself was enough to reduce bowler's confidence to half even before the game begins. He was in the league of Gayle and Dhoni. But that is not the case any more. He seems too easy for any bowler now  a days. It seems sometimes as if he is doing the duty of visiting the pitch and throw some shots here and there. Except one knock of 95 he has not shown any glimpse of real Sehwag we know  in this season. Jaywardhane on the other hand is known to be steady player who anchors the inning and drives it till the end. Well he is not that off from his character even this season, but some how he looses it some where half way and it is not enough. I am not sure about what Warner is up to. His presence on pitch is pretty much negligible and I don't remember him contributing. Is he even in team in all the outings? I am not sure.

Other than these four big names, there are some other known names linked to the team. Like Irfan Pathan. I guess he is trying his best to give good performance both as a bowler as well as a batsman. He is paying back every penny Daredevils spent on him. I am glad he got his swing back though on speed clock he still seem to be struggling. But doesn't matter, he is proving quite economical and also a wicket taker at the same time. His inclusion in the Indian squad is a good sign.

Another name that is famous around is Unmukt Chand. I am not sure if he deserves this much fame for so little performance he has given. Other than captaining the under 19  team that made every body aware of him, I have not seen any real performance by him. But he is in every another ad, taunting seniors, picking Pietersen's girl and what not.  

Their Bowling squad is also good. With the likes of Umesh Yadav and Morkel, they should actually be controlling the game. But that doesn't seem to be the case. And sometimes I am not sure what makes them tilt in favor of Ashish Nehra. He has been in lot more of outings than I expect for him.

Overall Delhi Daredevils is a good team which actually deserves to be in the league of winners. But this time with all the players off color, it appears like a bunch of big names with intention of making no impression. Among all, I feel bad about Sehwag, who seems to be on his way to retirement. I hope he comes out of this bad patch and start showing his true colors. 

IPL 6 - Sirf Dekhne Ka Nahi

IPL 6 is round the corner. Today is its opening ceremony. Tomorrow onwards for  a period of almost 2 months, Indian Cricket fans will have something to look forward every evening. If I remember correct, DLF was major sponsorer till IPL-5, but IPL-6 is sponsored by Pepsi. 

Many other things have also changed while moving from IPL-5 to IPL-6. One major change is the team itself. Earlier Deccan Chargers doesn't exist any more. Though Hyderabad is still one of the host places, but the team owner has been changed. New team is owned by Sun group and the new team name is SunRisers Hyderabad. There was some issue with Pune Warriors also about the venue located in Pune. Apparently it was about to be moved to Kanpur, but then it was settled down and Pune Warriors is still in the run.

Many of favorite players are out of the competition. One prominent name is Saurav Ganguly who was a big reason why KKR and later on Pune Warriors were able to attract the crowd. Another interesting development is the inclusion of Ricky Ponting in Mumbai Indians as a Captain. It will interesting to watch Ponting and Tendulkar play together. A major blow I guess came to Delhi Dare Devils when one of their players Jesse Ryder got in to a brawl and went in to coma. 

On advertisement side for IPL-6, somehow it appears little cold. Except for Chennai SuperKings I did not came across any advertisements for any other franchisee.  There are some commercials making rounds for IPL -6 in general with Farah Khan at the center teaching people of different backgrounds like office people, family, kitty party ladies, how to celebrate when ever there is any instant of cheering like somebody hitting boundary or six or a wicket falls. These ads are not as novel as they were for earlier IPL seasons but still Farah Khan in her style has pulled these ads. With these ads she is introducing a music piece, we are going to keep hearing for next two months and a set of funny steps which I am not sure how many people are going to follow in stadium. It will be fun to watch if all audience perform that step together.

IPL-6 is taking off today followed by first match tomorrow between Kolkota Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Dare Devils (DDD). This is the last season of IPL where all players remain with their home teams. For next IPL season, all teams will be dissolved and fresh teams will picked through new auctions. So, if you follow a team because of a particular player, this is the last chance to cheer for him. Probably, he won't be playing next season or may be for a rival team.
Follow these links for commercials:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j19L_EiD1VA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYnOxwU7Gdk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MQ4Jbb_nns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U53z17c88mU