Win some and lose some

Whew! IPL 2009 is over. What a tournament? We won some and lost some. Let review.
It was a well organized tournament courtesy IPL administration and SA spare a "dog" in the first game.
DD were looking invincible all the way till semifinal when Gilly pounded them to submission.
Most valued & most talked about team lost matches and their most admired & reverved owner lost respect even while its marketing team created maximum brand value. Yes we are talking about KKR.
Most derided and bootom placed teams from IPL 2008 finished 1 & 2.
Broadcaster gained after 10th over due to commercial...oops...strategy break...while teams lost momentum in 11th over.
Indian players, who play all 3 forms of game, look jaded after non-stop playing on foreign shores - NZ and SA. Viru, Gauti, Yuvraj and Dhoni didn't perform half as well as they did last year. Zaheer and Ishant were not even as good as second string Indian bowlers. What will happen in ICC T20 championship?
Last but not the least my prediction about semifinalists was only 50% off mark IPL 2009 Semi-finalists :)

It is good that regular openers of DD have not performed so far...

In IPL 2008 DD had a very good team; in fact it was one of the best. The opening combination was supposed to be the best among the 8 participating teams. Viru and Gauti had a great history of scoring profusely at the top; they opened together in all formats of the game both in International and Domestic cricket. They only increased their reputation during IPL 2008 by performing exceptionally well. DD won the matches mostly due to brilliant performances of the opening combination; Shikhar Dhawan at number 3 bolstered their batting line-up. When DD won, they won by huge margin only because of openers and in some instances Shikhar Dhawan. The middle order never really got any chance to play in winning matches. This proved to be a bane for the team, middle order was never tested. When openers failed, middle order just could not deliver and team failed. Sadly DD could win only 7 out of 14 games at league stage.
IPL 2009 has started on a very different note. Viru & Gauti are not performing and Shikhar Dhawan is playing for MI. In the absence of opening cushion, middle order has blossomed. The performance of team in IPL 2009 is better than that of IPL 2008. The team has won 7 out of 9 matches played so far. There has been no change in middle order except that Shohib Malik is not playing. Rest of the middle order consisting of AB, Dilshan, Karthik and Mithi have given the team necessary impetus to win most of their matches.
Moving forward, it can get only better. The opposition can thank their stars that regular openers have not performed so far because if openers perform, it will become extremely difficult for them. The class players that Viru and Gauti are, it is only a matter of time when they start delivering for the team's success.