All 8 teams have played 6 matches except MI and DC, who have played 5 matches. The positions of different teams and how they have played till now gives a inkling of how they are likely to perform in future.
MI and RCB are looking settled and they are likely to go through to semis. MI, with Tendulkar at helm, is looking formidable to go all the way through. But one can never safely predict in this fickle format. Remember what happened to DD in the last season.
DC are doing OK. They are not performing as well as last year as bowling attack is missing sharpness.
CSK, as in last 2 seasons, is without good bowling attack but their batting line up is extremely good. They may have lost few matches in a row but they still are contenders for semis spot.
At the start of season 3 DD were looking very powerful as their team was settled but injuries to Nehra and Gambhir have cost them dearly. The balance is missing but somehow they are still perfoming well. Gambhir's return may augur well for them.
RR is looking more weak then it was in last 2 seasons. Watson is playing to Australia, Smith and Dmitri are injured and Jadeja is not playing. But still they have started gelling well as team.
KKR is looking better than they were in the last year. Unnecessary controversies were very costly. They, in all probability will do much better than last spot of IPL season 2.
KXIP are a poor shadow of first two seasons. Neither their batting order nor their bowling is looking settled. It looks as if Sangakara's captaincy is brewing unrest in the team.
The best thing is India can look forward to new breed of talented youngsters.
Showing posts with label CSK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CSK. Show all posts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
A logical deduction - DD is the best team of IPL Season 2010
Indian squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2010:
MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma
There are 4 players from DD, 2 each from CSK, KXIP, RCB, MI & RR (if Jadeja is still considered part of RR) and 1 from DC. There is no player from KKR.
By sheer numbers, it seems that, DD has best Indian lineup. Unfortunately 2 out of 4 are not playing in IPL 3 due to Injuries and DD is not doing as well as last year.
Does it mean KKR is the worst team in the competition?
MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma
There are 4 players from DD, 2 each from CSK, KXIP, RCB, MI & RR (if Jadeja is still considered part of RR) and 1 from DC. There is no player from KKR.
By sheer numbers, it seems that, DD has best Indian lineup. Unfortunately 2 out of 4 are not playing in IPL 3 due to Injuries and DD is not doing as well as last year.
Does it mean KKR is the worst team in the competition?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Realize your mistake and move forward
Rajasthan Royals
RR was not among favorites before the start of IPL season 2. They lost 2 of their best performers from season 1 due to different reasons - Watson and Tanvir. Analysts were not very confident about Shane Warne's bunch even though they were defending champions. In the initial games RR didn't do anything to belie analysts prediction. They won only 2 of their first 6 games and were languishing at the bottom of points table. One of the games RR won was against hapless KKR; that too was won only by a whisker. In first 6 games their batting was woeful and below par. Smith, one of the stars of IPL season 1 was failing consistently, None of the other batsmen, except for Pathan, was playing up to their potential.
In next 5 games (RR has played 11 matches so far), RR won 3 and also posted tournament's highest total so far - 212. What changed between first 6 games and next 5 games? Warne realized that they have to improve their batting in order to make a dent in IPL season 2. So he recalled Naman Ojha who was sent back to India even before the tournament begun.
Insulting to have been sent back: Naman
Naman Ojha wants to make his journey count
In the 5 games, that Ojha has played so far, he has scored 136 runs at an average of 34. Ojha is now the 4th highest run scorer for RR whereas the top 3 run getters namely Pathan, Jadeja and Smith have each played 10 matches; Jadeja has the highest average among them (27). Ojha has not set the ground on fire with his batting but has made significant contributions for winning cause.
The cardinal point is that Warne realized that team management made a mistake by sending back Ojha and they need to rectify it before it is too late. Now, after 11 games, RR are among the top 4 teams.
Chennai Super Kings
CSK, like RR, were also not doing too well initially even though they started as pre-tournament favorites. CSK's balling was well below par - Flintoff, Gony and Sharma were failing consistently. Batting too was not at its best - even though there was a mini-competition between Hayden and Raina to win Orange cap, rest of the batting was failing badly. In first 5 matches they won only 1 match.
After the initial hiccups, they took some tough decision. They replaced IPL season 1 top bowlers - Gony and Sharma with an unknown name Jakati and a world class player Murli. Flintoff had to leave due to injury. Similarly in batting they replaced Patel with an IPL novice Vijay. All of them performed and today, after 10 games, they are sitting pretty at second place in points table. They won all of their last 5 games. Again the credit goes to Dhoni and team management who realized their mistakes and turned the tide.
Kolkata Knight Riders
I am sure there would have been many more tough decisions that CSK and RR would have taken to improve their standing which are not so apparent. On the other hand KKR are committing mistakes again and again which are apparent to the whole world but not to their world renowned coach. The controversies also are not just dying down.
'Racial rift between KR coaches, players'
Anatomy of Kolkata's disaster
Mr. Khan made a mistake by not listening to Mr. Gavaskar before tournament began. Mr. Gavaskar is respected in cricketing circles not only for his test records but also for his astute cricketing knowledge. I hope Mr. Khan comes out of his silence and acts fast - let their be some more controversies for a better IPL season 3.
RR was not among favorites before the start of IPL season 2. They lost 2 of their best performers from season 1 due to different reasons - Watson and Tanvir. Analysts were not very confident about Shane Warne's bunch even though they were defending champions. In the initial games RR didn't do anything to belie analysts prediction. They won only 2 of their first 6 games and were languishing at the bottom of points table. One of the games RR won was against hapless KKR; that too was won only by a whisker. In first 6 games their batting was woeful and below par. Smith, one of the stars of IPL season 1 was failing consistently, None of the other batsmen, except for Pathan, was playing up to their potential.
In next 5 games (RR has played 11 matches so far), RR won 3 and also posted tournament's highest total so far - 212. What changed between first 6 games and next 5 games? Warne realized that they have to improve their batting in order to make a dent in IPL season 2. So he recalled Naman Ojha who was sent back to India even before the tournament begun.
Insulting to have been sent back: Naman
Naman Ojha wants to make his journey count
In the 5 games, that Ojha has played so far, he has scored 136 runs at an average of 34. Ojha is now the 4th highest run scorer for RR whereas the top 3 run getters namely Pathan, Jadeja and Smith have each played 10 matches; Jadeja has the highest average among them (27). Ojha has not set the ground on fire with his batting but has made significant contributions for winning cause.
The cardinal point is that Warne realized that team management made a mistake by sending back Ojha and they need to rectify it before it is too late. Now, after 11 games, RR are among the top 4 teams.
Chennai Super Kings
CSK, like RR, were also not doing too well initially even though they started as pre-tournament favorites. CSK's balling was well below par - Flintoff, Gony and Sharma were failing consistently. Batting too was not at its best - even though there was a mini-competition between Hayden and Raina to win Orange cap, rest of the batting was failing badly. In first 5 matches they won only 1 match.
After the initial hiccups, they took some tough decision. They replaced IPL season 1 top bowlers - Gony and Sharma with an unknown name Jakati and a world class player Murli. Flintoff had to leave due to injury. Similarly in batting they replaced Patel with an IPL novice Vijay. All of them performed and today, after 10 games, they are sitting pretty at second place in points table. They won all of their last 5 games. Again the credit goes to Dhoni and team management who realized their mistakes and turned the tide.
Kolkata Knight Riders
I am sure there would have been many more tough decisions that CSK and RR would have taken to improve their standing which are not so apparent. On the other hand KKR are committing mistakes again and again which are apparent to the whole world but not to their world renowned coach. The controversies also are not just dying down.
'Racial rift between KR coaches, players'
Anatomy of Kolkata's disaster
Mr. Khan made a mistake by not listening to Mr. Gavaskar before tournament began. Mr. Gavaskar is respected in cricketing circles not only for his test records but also for his astute cricketing knowledge. I hope Mr. Khan comes out of his silence and acts fast - let their be some more controversies for a better IPL season 3.
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