IPL

It’s day one of the second edition of IPL and I’m already loving it. As has already been said by several people several times on Twitter today, it’s quite fitting that the three best performances of the day have come from Tendulkar, Dravid and Kumble. The second match was extremely strong, even from a neutral perspective, and was very refreshing after the batfest that had been the first edition of the IPL.

One major blessing in disguise of moving the tournament to South Africa is the change in conditions – which is likely to lead to better cricket – in the sense of a better contest between bat and ball. Last year’s tournament was a joke in terms of the quality of cricket. There was absolutely nothing in it for the bowlers, and then they put NED after that and made things worse for themselves. Hopefully this promising start will lead to a better effort by bowlers this time round and we’ll have more games like the second one.

I’ve always maintained that the best ODIs are defences of low to moderate scores. The ideal ODI, in my opinion, will have the team batting first making 200-225, taking early wickets and putting pressure on the second team so that it ends up as a tight game (don’t care who wins). Sadly, the pitches they have been making nowadays seem to be creating 300+ games only which is why I’ve stopped watching ODIs.

Coming to the games today, the main mistake that Chennai Super Kings made was with respect to their batting order. A lot of people maintain that they messed up their team selection, and I agree with them – I would definitely have put in Vijay and Balaji instead of Parthiv and Joginder. But even the team that they started off wiht wasn’t too bad, where they messed up was in the chase.

When you are chasing a reasonably moderate total like 166 (equivalent to 250 in ODIs), you don’t need to pinch hit. I know Sri Lanka did that when they won WC96, but I’m more of a fan of Pakistan’s method in WC92 which is to first build a base and then have hitters coming in lower down the order to capitalize. Similarly, chasing 166 with Hayden at one end, what was required was a proper batsman at the other, and Dhoni sent in Flintoff. I think the match might have been sealed there.

It is all about slotting people into the right roles. Having Badrinath and Flintoff in the same team makes sense, but the role for each needs to be well-defined. Badrinath is an excellent “holding batsman” (the same role in which Dravid and Tendulkar excelled in today – and the role that Tendulkar plays in ODIs nowadays) – someone to hold one end up and rotate the strike while batsmen at the other end go for it, but he is incapable of slogging if he comes in with a large required run rate and not much time. And CSK didn’t desperately need to slog when Raina got out – all they needed was some consolidation and for one guy to stay while Hayden accelerated.

Similarly, when you look at Rajasthan’s lineup, you will notice that there are very few “proper batsmen” in the line-up, and a large number of “hitters”. How many people in the Rajasthan XI would you count on batting for you within the first 30 overs of an ODI? I can count Smith, Asnodkar and NK Patel, and maybe Ravindra Jadeja. The rest of the “batsmen” in their lineup (Pathan, Henderson, Mascarenhas) are all essentially hitters. And when conditions are not ideal for hitting, you can come unstuck.

If things continue to go the way they did today, teams will need to re-think their strategies. The slam-bang approach of last year won’t work and they will need to move towards “proper cricket”. Have proper batsmen and proper bowlers and proper keepers rather than having bits and pieces guys, and fill-in guys. Let’s see how things pan out.

I hereby predict that if things continue to go this way, Rajasthan Royals will recall Mohammed Kaif. Also, you might have noticed Uthappa shouting out to Kumble in Kannada about what to bowl (he frequently shouted “kaal muri” which literally translates to “leg break”). And that the Bangalore team has 5 guys from Bangalore – which perhaps enables them to indulge in this kind of “cipher”.

6 thoughts on “IPL”

  1. I agree. Badri batting at no7 is infuriating. I don’t understand why Jogi is there in the team at all.
    The bottomline: Sachin took 20 overs to score a 50 and their team still won. That shows how badly CSK played!

    1. as i read somewhere today – that sachin decided to play anchor innings means that he quickly saw something in the pitch and hence played that way. and again – badri doesn’t get batting today!

  2. I have blogged in detail about CSK’s batting order, lineup and squad management goof up in my blog. I find Dhoni irritating. I do not like his handling of TN players. I wonder whether he has sent back the TN boys (Vidyut and co…) I believe he goes too much by face value. Oram has not played much cricket over the last yr. And Flintoff has been in average batting form over the last yr. He needs to back his TN boys. Else, as I have maintained – to ALL and sundry I talk to – he will lose the IPL and CSK’s fans.

  3. And, I think RCB’s decision to make Uthappa keep is an inspired and STUD one. It opens up a slot for a splist bat/ all rounder as the case may be. And Jesse’s bowling inspires confidence enough to play Jaffer instead of Akhil. I think Jesse will work better at 5. Here is my RCB batting order – something that looks very potent indeed –
    1. Jaffer (unless BRC have a stronger Indian batsman in the ranks. I cant see any. In any case i think he adds value in SA)
    2. Uthappa
    3. Dravid (when he is away – I think both Kallis and Van der merve/ Akhil can play, with Kallis batting at 3. If Van der Merve plays Taylor has to sit out.)
    4. KP (Taylor can replace him as the tournament goes on)
    5. Ryder
    6. Kallis/ Van der merve (depending on conditions)
    7. Kohli
    8. Praveen
    9. Vinay
    10. Kumble
    11. Steyn

    1. agreer about the decision to make uthappa keep. and if ryder plays (today’s team is puzzling) they can put a specialist batsman at 7. problem is they don’t have one. no proper indian batsman who is not in the starting lineup (this bishnoi guy doesn’t promise much – i’d rather go with bharat chipli).

      problem with RCB is bowling is toothless on flat pitches.

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