IPL 2023: The Afterthoughts

After a gap of few seasons returning to this blog with a post on the IPL After-thoughts (A name inspired by the times when IPL After-party was as important a feature of the tournament as the games itself!)

So what will we remember this season for? Lets see

1. The battle of the eyeballs: the biggest matchup was not between the teams on the field but between Star Sports and JioCinema. One product on two different media with different broadcasters for the first time. Not sure about whose numbers to believe, but in the end the viewer was the winner!
2. The circle of Life: Gujarat Titans played against Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad to kick start the tournament. Almost a couple of months down the line, the same two teams were at the same venue fighting for the title!
3. Performance of the tournament: Rinku Singh clobbering 5 sixes off the final 5 balls to win KKR a seemingly lost game. And this wasn’t the only heist he pulled off.
4. The Yellove: Or rather it was just the love for MS Dhoni which turned almost every single away stadium into a sea of yellow! End result, this was one of the more popular CSK tournament wins ever.
5. Six: That’s the number of IPL titles Ambati Rayudu has, as he walks away into the sunset. A career which could be qualified as a success and as well as leaving you wondering, “what could have been”.
6. Tales of Redemption: Like phoenix they rose from the ashes – Mohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra. A series of feel-good stories.
7. The Rise of the Young Uncapped Indian Batters: Rinku Singh, Sai Sudarshan, Tilak Varma, Prabhsimran Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nehal Wadhera, Dhruv Jurel, Jitesh Sharma – what a wonderful crop of talent. Unlike the previous lot, they are not all top order run-accumulators.
8. On the flip side, where are the new Indian bowlers?
9. Impact Player Rule: Gave something more for the team strategists to mull over, but has it diluted the role of some players. Shivam Dube and Rahul Tewatia hardly bowled. Gill, Jaiswal, Rayudu. SKY mostly did not even have to field. From the need for multi-dimensional players, we may swing the other way to single skilled specialists.
10. Game of Small Margins: If Sandeep Sharma’s last delivery against SRH had been legal, Rajasthan Royals would have been in the play-offs. Instead, it was a no-ball and the subsequent delivery was deposited in the stands.
11. And finally on the raging debate: running out the non-striker. At least, now it can be safely said, it does require skill. Just ask Harshal Patel. And is probably the only mechanism to keep batters within the line. 

And so it was, an action packed tournament concludes and more “serious” cricket returns.

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.