IPL Thoughts - April 18

The World Cup is over. The 4th edition of the IPL has begun. Its been over a week. But still not feeling any enthusiam for the IPL as yet. I do watch the matches or at least follow the scores. But the World Cup hangover is still there. And with the changed teams, things are yet to settle into place.

The story of the IPL  has been provided by Paul Valthaty. Not a single first class game to date, just a single List A game. And then he comes up with a match winning century against CSK. This might have been dismissed as a one-off performance. But the very next match he follows it up with another blistering innings and tops it with a 4-wicket haul. In fact, he has single handedly lifted his team Kings XI, whom everyone had dismissed as an also ran when the tournament had started. Now lets see if he can continue this run of form. And if he does, there is a pretty good chance of landing a berth in the Indian team for the West Indies ODIs.

The expanded 10 team league has ensured that more and more Indian domestic players are getting a chance to play. And so far this year, they have been grabbing these opportunites. Ambati Rayudu, Bharat Chipli, Valthaty have been the performers so far. Performances in the IPL have given the India cap to quite a few players. Lets see who the benficiaries are from this time.

Sachin Tendulkar's maiden T20 century ended in a defeat. And as usual some jokers have started saying that when SRT scores a ton, the team loses. And this without any statistical evidence to back it up. Given the number of centuries he has scored, there is a chance of ending on the losing side more than any other batsman. And it was fun to see Sachin play the "helicopter shot" 

The unpredictability of the T20 format has ensured that no one starts favorites in any game. Everyone has one at least 1 game by now.  My prediction for the Top 4 as of today are - MI, CSK, KKR, Pune.