Last week, we spoke about Deccan Chargers and Kolkata night Riders. Continuing with the preview to the start of the IPL, this piece talks about the chances of two more teams, Chennai Super Kings and Bangalore Royal Challengers.
Chennai Super Kings:
Strengths:
The captaincy of MS Dhoni has to be their biggest plus. Not often does one have a captain, who can lead by example so finely like how Dhoni has done while captaining for India or the Chennai Super Kings. His batting has evolved with each passing day and his wicket-keeping is safe as houses, which makes it easier for him to command respect from most of his peers and subordinates. He could be the one singular factor who could turn things around for the side.
Weaknesses:
Loss of key players would be their biggest weakness. Jacob Oram may miss out for the entire season, whereas Andrew Flintoff will definitely not feature in the IPL this year. Makhaya Ntini is so out of form that he is out of the Test team for now, while Muthiah Muralitharan was savaged by the Indian batsmen in the Test series this year. It definitely is a ragged team and will need a lot of assistance from the Indian players
Players to watch out for:
Murali Vijay would be my pick for the opening slot. He is a class act as has been evident from the manner he plays and the amount of runs he gets, and could be a good man to have partnering Mathew Hayden at the top.
Bangalore Royal Challengers:
Strengths:
The manner in which they gelled in the previous season after the loss of Kevin Pietersen can be attributed to the two big factors; Anil Kumble, their captain and Ray Jennings, their coach. The pair will make up for the Challengers’ biggest strength after an abysmal performance in the first season of the IPL and they will hope to continue with the same vigour. Pietersen will return back to the side and despite being out of form will be the one man to watch out for. So will the presence of Roelof van der Merwe and Manish Pandey in the line-up.
Weaknesses:
Thankfully, the ‘Test team’ that the Royal Challengers were christened as in the first edition of the tournament is no longer the case, but the players of the calibre of Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis will need to play much quicker than they have earlier. While they had reinvented themselves in the second edition of the tournament, the one thing one needs to look at is that the previous tournament was played in South Africa. The pitches in South Africa were not as conducive for stroke play as the ones here in India and hence, both, Kallis and Dravid were vital cogs with their impeccable techniques. With the IPL back in India, there is no doubting that the requirement for the big hitters will be increase and if the two cannot deliver, there is a good chance that they will remain out of the team.
Players to watch out for:
Manish Pandey is the one man who will not only benefit his team with a good tournament, but also his own self. One can be rest assured that a strong performance from him will win him a place in the following ICC World T20; something that will be a huge motive to perform to the best of his abilities.
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Deccan Chargers:
Strengths:
The defending champions, Deccan Chargers are being led by Adam Gilchrist, one of the coolest men around in the game. He leads from the front, bats in a manner that can take games away from their opposition like it happened in the semi-final of the previous IPL against Delhi and also keeps wickets. As also, they possess a coterie of really hard-hitting batsmen who can turn games on their heads, and their experience in turning around a virtually hopeless first IPL into a tournament-winning second one will work as their biggest strength in the tournament. Thirdly, the Chargers also have, amidst them, some of the better current fast bowlers around the world in Ryan Harris, Kemar Roach and RP Singh, with Dwayne Smith always there to bowl his dibbly-dobblies in the middle of the innings
Weaknesses:
The Indian bench strength could be one of the issues that the Chargers may face. VVS Laxman is the biggest Indian name around, and he is a doubtful starter in this format, as the best batsman apart from him is Rohit Sharma. None of the other Indians inspire too much confidence and in a format which requires a minimum of seven Indian players in the playing eleven, this could be bit of an issue.
Players to watch out for:
Harris has had an excellent set of ODIs, with five wicket hauls in successive games, while Dwayne Smith’s shenanigans in Australia during the KFC Big Bash T20 will make the pair very dangerous.
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Strengths:
In Sourav Ganguly, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge and Brendon McCullum, the Knight Riders possesses a power-packed top-order. Of course, not all may play, but then, they do not need to. Also, the presence of an all-rounder in Angelo Mathews will be a big plus, as is the quick bowling of Charl Langeveldt, who is a great bowler at the death. Playing against the Knight Riders in a full-seeming Eden gardens will never be an easy task for the opposition.
Weaknesses:
Time and again, Sourav Ganguly has proved that he is a man to reckon with even at a reasonably older age. However, to be able to lead a side consisting of so many foreign players, apart from well-established Indian ones will be an issue that Ganguly will need to overcome. It will be a challenge for Ganguly, who has usually excelled as a captain when he has actually gone on to hand-pick the players. The lack of a genuine all-rounder Shah rukh Khan’s overbearing presence around the team could be an issue as well.
Players to watch out for:
One would be most interested in following Ganguly’s captaincy. He would know well that another abysmal tournament would end his reign at the top. Ajantha Mendis was one of the most difficult bowlers to face when he had started out but he has already lost his place in the side. He will be the one man to watch out for.
As one counts down to the third season of the Indian Premier League, we preview the chances of the eight sides in a four-part series. In this part, we bring you the chances of Mumbai Indian and Deccan Chargers.
MUMBAI INDIANS:
Strengths:
The Mumbai Indians have never qualified for the semi-finals of the IPL before and will be looking to get there for the first time. Their biggest strength would be the hard-hitting batting of three of their top-order batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and the newly recruited, Kieron Pollard. If two, or even one of them get going and go the distance, the Mumbai Indians will be in very safe hands, and on Indian pitches, life would be much easier for these guys who like to hit through the line of the ball.
Weaknesses:
Their inability to finish off games is their biggest liability. In both the editions of the tournament so far, the Mumbai side has lost some really close games, and they will need to overcome that by showing a killer instinct that they are hitherto lacking. Tendulkar was never a great captain even while leading the Indian side, and under his captaincy, the Mumbai team hasn’t done too well either, thanks, mainly due to the hunger to close out the games. This needs to change or else it may see a change at the top as well.
Players to watch out for:
Pollard. He is hugely built, and can slam the ball a fair distance. He can bowl 3-4 overs as well, with his brand of medium pace helping captains in the middle overs, while he is one of the better fielders in the side.
DELHI DAREDEVILS:
Strengths:
When a team has such a balanced line-up like Delhi Daredevils, it is not a big surprise that the bookmakers have put them as favourites to win the tournament. The opening four batsmen, are by far, the most explosive in the format of the game and there is a reasonable chance that only three out of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dave Warner will make it to the playing eleven. Warner’s form in the KFC Big Bash and the few T20Is that he played for Australia will mean that it could be a tough decision to leave him out of the side. The bowling lies in the hands of Dirk Nannes, and the other Indians in Pradeep Sangwan and Ashish Nehra, all of whom are good, left-handed pace bowlers and with Daniel Vettori and Amit Mishra in the spin department, it looks like they will be a team to watch out for.
Weaknesses:
Not too many perceptible ones. But the lack of an all-rounder is probably one of them. Also, they have a new captain in Gautam Gambhir and that will mean that there will be a lot of pressure on him to perform – Delhi have been semi-finalists in the previous two editions of the tournament after all.
Players to watch out for:
The aforementioned four batsmen aside, the Daredevils will depend on their little known Indian players in Sarabjit Ladda, Kedar Jadhav and Joginder Singh.
Afghanistan win the ICC World T20 Qualifiers
Romance in sport is what drives the fans to the grounds. And makes them flick their television sets on more eagerly than any other time. A generation or two onwards, when the fans look back at cricket as we know it today, they would probably be savouring the emergence of a new powerhouse in the international cricket, Afghanistan!
For the time from when the Afghanistan team had won the Division Five title in ICC’s qualifiers for the World Cup of 2011, their story has been seeped in romance, grit, gumption, and to say the least, glory. They had narrowly missed out on qualifying for the World Cup 2011, but thanks to that performance, they had managed to qualify for the ICC World T20 Qualifiers which was played in Dubai recently.
There were ten teams in that tournament, and only two out of those were to qualify for the ICC World T20 in West Indies to be played in April this year. In the competition were the teams like Ireland, who have played in the World Cup before and qualified for the Super Eights in 2007, Netherlands, who have not only played in the World Cup, but also in the 2009 edition of the ICC World T20 and beaten England, Kenya, who have featured in the semi-finals of the 2003 edition of the World Cup and others like Canada, UAE and Scotland, all of whom have done their bit at the highest level.
So, while Afghanistan’s record before the tournament would have put them amongst the top four favourites, they were up against some fierce competition across the board.
And not only did they pass the examination, but they also aced them with wins over Ireland, Scotland, USA and UAE in the league stage. This ensured their place in the finals of the tournament, and more importantly, a slot in the ICC World T20 to be played in West Indies later this year. The cherry on the cake was then provided by Nowroz Mangal and Mohammad Shahzad, both of whom assisted the side in a facile win over the Irish in the finals of the tournament, to lift the trophy as well! In turn, this gave them a right to play India and South Africa in the World T20.
Ireland, on the other hand, had qualified for the finals after their first match loss to Afghanistan. They beat Scotland, USA, UAE and Netherlands, en route the finals, and had it not been for a rather arduous schedule, they would have probably done much better than they actually did.
Like all of the other teams, they played their first three league matches in three days, and qualifying for the Super Fours meant that they had to play their remaining two games off consecutive days as well. So, after featuring in five matches in as many days, they qualified for the finals, which was to be played on the same day as the final league game; ensuring back-to-back games for the Irish, in a span of a couple of hours!
The coach, Phil Simmons, a former West Indian all-rounder was obviously an unhappy man at the scheduling, but would have taken heart from the fact that they qualified for their second successive ICC World T20. Last year, they had played India and Bangladesh in the first round, and while they lost to the Indians, they had bundled Bangladesh out of the tournament and qualified for the second round. This time around, they face West Indies and England in the first round of the tournament.
I may be thinking far, but the romance that I was alluding to in sport may not be over. While expecting the Afghan side to beat India and South Africa may sound a bit far-fetched, they may give the two sides a run for their money. However, what could even be more probable is that Ireland could surprise either of West Indies or England in the first round to enter the second! That will be some day.
Why was he not given the captaincy?
Ever since they bowed out of the first round of the ICC World T20 tournament in England, the Aussies haven’t been playing too much T20. That is, if you discount the two abandoned T20Is against England at Manchester later, in the same year.
Now, after that long hiatus, Australia will take on Pakistan in a one-off T20I and the difference between the line-ups from the World T20 of 2009 and this game, is as much as chalk and cheese. And the biggest of them all is the fact that Ricky Ponting has decided to call it a day from this cheese-burger format of the game, and allow the reigns to fall in the lap of Michael Clarke.
The change was almost assured after the Aussies bowed out of the World T20 early, for the second time in running. Clearly, the side wasn’t respecting the format as much as they should have and the results were there for everyone to see. And with Ponting having a rather rough time of it with the bat and as a captain, one could be assured that something had to give. And in a deed which reeked of a trade-off that Ponting had with the selectors to prolong his career in the other two formats, he decided to hang his T20 Kookabura bat.
However, I am still surprised by Ponting’s successor in this format. While there is no doubting the talent of Michael Clarke in the sport, there are other issues that Cricket Australia needed to ponder over, and cater to.
For one, there is an issue of Clarke’s recurring back illnesses which has kept him out of a few games in the previous years. Of course, Cricket Australia has a reasonable rotation plan in place, but when one is the leader of the side, the breaks are quite few and far between. Especially, given that Clarke has been tipped to succeed Ponting in both the other, and the more important, formats. This would mean that in around one year or so, when Ponting walks his way into the sunset, Clarke would take on the mantle of leading the side in even the Tests and the fifty over format.
So, how will Clarke be able to manage the three sides and a persistent back trouble then?
Then again, there is as much a case for White as there is against Clarke from taking over. There is every evidence that White is a natural leader, which can be gauged from the fact that he has led almost every side that he has been a part of. Right from the Under-19 days, to getting the role for his first class Victorian side, he has been in the thick of things. And it is not only the fact that he is the captain, he has one of the most amazing T20 records in Australia’s domestic T20 tournament – the KFC Big Bash T20.
Ever since the inception of the T20 tournament, there have been five editions of the same played, and the Victorian Bushrangers have been a part of the finals in all of them. What’s more fabulous is that the side has triumphed in four out of those five finals; White being the captain for all five!
Probably, and so reminiscent of the manner the Australians have been testing their bench strength, one could see White and Clarke shuffle around the captaincy as well. Probably, the selectors are only getting Clarke ready for the main job later. Probably, Clarke does have his sights on an IPL slot sometime down the line...as a captain!
Google Buys Live TV Rights to 2010 IPL
Google's Live Internet Video Streaming Website - YouTube, will have exclusive rights to play the 2010 Indian Premier League. Money will be made from advertising. This is fantastic news for people with fast broadband internet.
What do you think?
article by Robert Andrews
Google has confirmed yesterday’s reports - YouTube has inked rights from the big-money Indian Premier League’s (IPL) licensing partner Global Cricket Ventures to live-stream all 60 matches of the 45-day tournament, starting March 12.
It’s YouTube’s first deal to live-stream a big global sport - no mere domestic competition, IPL is the largest cricket tournament in the world, forecast to generate Read the rest of this entry...
- January 24, 2010
- article by Jimmy
- 0 comments
One would almost have thought that the Indians had invaded their neighbours. In the end, it was only a bunch of Pakistani cricketers not selected for the third edition of the IPL by the franchises that caused so much furore in the Pakistani parliament that there have been talks of boycotting anything and everything remotely Indian.
The potential embargo could involve cricket matches – which already do not exist – hockey games, which occur once in like a gazillion years, and even Bollywood films. Or at least that is what most voices that matter in Pakistan are suggesting. Phrases ranging from insult to the Pakistani cricket team to insult to the country as a whole have been doing the rounds, as some players have termed it as a ‘conspiracy against Pakistan as a whole which was being hatched for the last three or four months.’
Really now, while being hurt and disappointed at not been selected for one or other franchise for the IPL and not making that quick buck is only justified, the rest of the jamboree that seems to have followed is nothing short of over-reaction.
The critics from Pakistan have pointed fingers at everything plausible. The Indian Government, the IPL functioning committee and the franchises have all been blamed, and for someone observing it as a neutral, one cannot understand what the shenanigans are all about.
It is a private tournament, which like any other multi-national company in the world is not governed by what the government says. At best, it can consult the government and any decision that it has to take has to be its own prerogative, not the government’s. This was evident in the previous year’s IPL when the tournament had been shifted to South Africa despite the government asking them to postpone the whole tournament.
That leaves the IPL and the franchises, and one cannot see how a collective decision to exclude the Pakistanis would have benefited either one of them. In fact, the IPL committee would understand that the presence of Pakistani cricketers and the ensuing following of the game in that country would make for better revenues for the league. And one cannot see any real motive behind conspiring to deliberately do this after strategising for a definite period of times.
The hard and cold fact is that the performances of the teams depend on players who would be there through the entire duration of the tournament; players for whom the franchises did not have to worry too much about after having a lot on their plate already. So, if the visas of such players did not arrive on time because of the cold vibes existing between the two governments, then, it sure could have been an issue for the team unity; apart from adding to the unnecessary things to ponder about for the owners.
While it is easy to say that politics and sport should not be mixed, it is much more difficult to implement it. Gone are the days when cricketers or sportsmen could live in that cocoon of safety despite the existing threat to the world security; and in the prevailing scenario, it is only evident that the Pakistani cricketers touring India – or vice versa – would elicit an unnecessary security threat to those concerned.
KFC Big Bash Points Table
KFC Big Bash 2010 Australia
| Team |
Mt |
Pts |
Nrr |
| West End Redbacks |
5 |
8 |
0.74 |
| XXXX Gold Qld Bulls |
5 |
6 |
1.003 |
| DEC Bushrangers |
5 |
6 |
-0.869 |
| Retravision Warriors |
5 |
4 |
0.68 |
| RTA SpeedBlitz Blues |
5 |
4 |
-0.764 |
| PKF Tasmanian Tigers |
5 |
2 |
-0.728 |
- January 18, 2010
- article by rowoot
- 0 comments
Lee was missed by NSW Blues and crashed out
It was almost inconceivable at the start of the tournament. But, unless Lalit Modi comes up with a wildcard concept for the defending champions of the Champions League T20 tournament, they will not be participating in the second edition of the tournament, having already bowed out of KFC Big Bash T20 with only two points in four games out of a possible five matches.
The NSW Blues campaign had begun on a positive note and was almost akin to their performance in the Champions League T20, when they crushed Tasmania by 31 runs in the first game. The win was built around a similar batting prowess of their two openers in Phil Hughes and Dave Warner – both of whom smashed quick-fire half centuries – and captain Moises Henriques’ knock of 37 in the end.
The Tasmanian reply had begun well, what with 44 added for the first wicket off only 20 balls. However, once the first wicket fell, the rest of them capitulated to almost next to nothing to hand the Blues a winning start to their competition.
And it was not as if they were in a lot of trouble in their second game either. The Blues had batted first again against Victorian Bushrangers, and piled up another 178, but against the previous Champions League T20 qualifiers, the target fell short. Victoria had Brad Hodge, Matthew Wade and David Hussey gelling well to guide the Bushrangers to a narrow win with two balls to spare.
It was only in their third game that their wheels began to come apart, as the Western Australian Warriors absolutely bagged them with an imposing score of 198/1 in the 20 overs. This was built around the first century of the tournament by Shaun Marsh and his first wicket stand of 168 with Wes Robinson. Almost playing like they had given up even before the chase had begun, the Blues saw only two of their players getting into double figures and capitulating to 71 all out!
At the start of the Blues’ fourth game, South Australia were leading the points table with eight points from four games, who were followed by Victoria and Western Australia with four from four, while Tasmania had two from four. Both, New South Wales Blues and Queensland had two points from three games, and it was evident that this match between NSW and Queensland was a virtual quarter-final. The side winning the game would go up to four from four matches and tie with Victoria and WA for the second spot, whereas the losing team would be out of the tournament.
As it turned out, the game was reduced to a nine-over a side match due to rain and inclement weather. The Queensland innings began with an early wicket of James Hopes, but Andrew Symonds spanked a 38 off only 21 balls and combined well with Chris Simpson who took the game away with 14-ball 34. In the nine overs, Queensland had got to 110.
Any hopes that NSW would be able to make a match out of it evaporated in the first eight balls of the game, when they lost Phil Hughes, Dave Warner and overseas recruit Dwayne Smith all in the space of those many deliveries! Daniel Vettori then celebrated his first game in the Big Bash with a two over spell that cost only seven runs and that effectively broke the back for the Blues; 56/7 in nine overs.
Incidentally, this last game was watched by almost 30,000 fans, which was a record for domestic T20 cricket in Australia.
Victoria and Queensland then won their respective final games to get through to the Preliminary Finals, whereas South Australia is already through to the final and will face the winner of the Bushrangers and Queensland. South Australia, which has the likes of Shahid Afridi, Kieron Pollard and Shaun Tait in their side have already qualified for the Champions League T20.
The Indian Premier League is a good two months away, but there is already a little buzz around the player transfers and the forthcoming auctions. However, the biggest piece of news coming from the IPL camp is that out of the list of 97 players that had put in their names in the ‘probables’ hat for the auctions, the league has gotten one Chris Cairns out of the list.
And the reason? “For his alleged allegation as we have zero tolerance for this kind of stuff,” as put by succinctly by Lalit Modi. The more interesting bit here is that allegations against the Kiwi all-rounder had come during the unsanctioned, and a rival to the IPL, Indian Cricket League.
Make no mistake, the BCCI must be lauded for not using a line like, “ICL is an unauthorised league and hence, we do not take match-fixing in that league as authentic enough.” After all, fixing a match, is a cricketing crime by itself and whether or not the tournament is authorised should not be a deciding factor here.
However, I have another problem with this decision. And that has to do with the fact that as far as the reports, there was an allegation of match-fixing, which was neither proved, nor proclaimed in the media. The official reason for his ouster from the league then, had been that he had hidden an injury, and continued playing in the league. So, isn’t this a case of using the yardstick of being guilty till proved innocent?
And if at all Cairns – or anyone else – had actually been involved in match-fixing during the Indian Cricket League, it is a mighty surprise that it has not yet come out in the public. Nothing more than rumours have so far! Let’s hope there is more coming our way from this story so that there is a clarity regarding what actually happened for the stakeholders of the game.
Apart from the Cairns saga, the IPL transfer window opened to a very lukewarm response. Till date, not too many transactions have taken place; Owais Shah (originally from Delhi) has been exchanged with Moises Henriques (from Kolkata) whereas Manoj Tiwari, also from Delhi earlier was taken up by Kolkata. While the Tiwari buy-out makes sense given that he is originally from Bengal and will help in building up the brand for the Knight Riders, what is surprising from Kolkata’s point of view is the Henriques was allowed to go for another foreign player.
For one, Henriques is the captain of the New South Wales Blues T20 side in their KFC Big Bash back home, which was very evident in the manner he performed with both, the bat and the ball during the Champions League T20. His all-round skills would have been of utmost utility in the tournament, and one would have almost seen a clamour for buying him out at the auctions. One almost feels that the management has missed out on a trick or two here.
Secondly, one could have understood if the exchange would have taken place in order to free up a slot for the foreign player. In this case, it is a foreign player that has been chosen for Henriques, which means that the Knight Riders will be left with no freed space for anyone extra from the auctions either.
