The Indian Premier league has become a regular feature in the nation’s sporting calendar. It has seen full houses in most matches till now. As the sixth edition of the IPl completes its half-way journey, Amit Chaudhary looks back at the four weeks of the tournament
At times it was an edge-of-the-seat thriller, at others it wasn’t even a contest. One day there was a certain Chris Gayle hitting 175 in an innings, on another an entire team bit the dust after scoring just 83 runs. If there was an Amit Mishra recording a hat-trick, there was a Piyush Chawla as well taking only three wickets in seven matches. The sixth edition of the Indian Premier league (IPl), which has reached its half-way point, has been a rollercoaster ride for its spectators.
To start with, the IPl stayed true to its trend of providing a combination of players that was hitherto possible only in fantasy cricket leagues running on various sports websites. It provided fans with a rare opportunity to see world’s two greatest batsmen of modern era — Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting — opening the innings together for Mumbai Indians. However, the pair, disappointingly, couldn’t produce the same magic with which they have cast a spell on cricket lovers at international stage for over a decade. And Ponting (Mumbai skipper) had to ‘drop’ himself from the team later on.
But Ponting wasn’t the only captain and reputed player to do so. Kumar Sangakkara too dropped himself from Sunrisers Hyderabad team after a spell of low scores. It wasn’t the first instance when Sangakkara dropped himself. last season as well he sat out for the reaason while representing the now defunct Deccan Chargers.
The failure of such successful international players in the IPl, though surprising considering the level of competition here, is an indication that despite being a franchise based league, it is not a cakewalk, thus, making IPl a good platform for youngsters from across the world to showcase their talent.
But then there is Gayle to prove the otherwise. With his 66-ball 175-run unbeaten knock against Pune Warriors, he shattered all the existing T20 records.
He may have dominated the bowlers that day but it is the bowlers who have dominated the tournament thus far. Despite T20s being unfairly skewed in favour of batsmen, as many as 11 matches saw below 130 scores this season. They are no more an easy fodder for the willowers.
The team that has done brilliantly in this department is Hyderabad, the new franchise. On three occasions, Sunrisers’ bowlers led by World No 1 Dale Steyn successfully defended totals that were equal to or less than 130. On two other occasions, they dismissed the opposition below 130 while bowling first. However, it is surprising to see how just a change in name could change the fortunes of a team. The same set of players under the banner of Deccan Chargers were struggling to get a win under their belt last season and now they are among the top four teams in the points table.
Returning to the bowlers’ success this season, the pitches have played a big role in that. The 22-yard strip has offered more help to the bowlers as compared to other seasons. Some offered bounce for medium-pacers, some provided help for tweakers while a few others were slow making stroke-playing difficult. Hence, the scores of 140-150 are turning out to be difficult to chase down and even low scores of 120s are being defended.
It seems that the IPl governing body’s decision to take control of the pitches this season has made the contest more even.
As a result, we have seen some spectacular batting collapses in the tournament so far. Mumbai Indians, Pune Warriors, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals all have seen their batting crumble this season. And Pune have suffered the most. Their batting have failed them three times in eight matches and two of them happened against the best bowling side Sunrisers. The most remarkable was the one in which their last six batsmen got out within a span of seven runs. Mishra claimed four of them, including a hat-trick, in one over.
Mishra’s success is an example that even in a tournament like IPl, spinners play a crucial role in a team’s success. Sunil Narine is another example of it. last year Narine finished as the second most successful bowler in the league and he continued to write those success stories this year as well. With 14 wickets from seven matches, the Kolkata Knight Riders bowler currently holds the purple cap.
But seamers aren’t too far behind. Contrary to the perception that sub-continent pitches don’t help pacers, there have been many instances where pace bowlers have had tremendous impact on the matches. Dale Steyn, Dwayne Bravo, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar and James Faulkner to name a few, have picked up good number of wickets.
The credit for the success of bowlers this season should also go to the fielders. What about those spectacular catches that left spectators awestruck.
KXIP’s Gurkeerat Singh took a stunner against Warriors to send back Ross Taylor, Gilchrist dived to his right to pull off an amazing catch against Rajasthan, but the best of the lot was a blinder from Ponting. The Mumbai captain took an amazing one-handed catch while diving full length to his right at extra cover to dismiss Unmukt Chand off Harbhajan Singh.
Perhaps, it is because of this improvement in fielding standards that we have seen many a nail-bitting contests. As many as 12 matches out of 34 so far have seen last over finishes, including that of two super overs.
Interestingly, RCB were involved in both the super overs, losing against Sunrisers and winning against Delhi Daredevils.
As the beginning of the second part of the league nears, the run-scoring pattern has seen a significant shift. The batsmen are gradually getting into the groove and helping their teams posting totals in the excess of 160. Two centuries that have come this year came towards the end of first-half only. And as the tournament moves forward, constant travelling and frequent matches will weigh heavily on bowlers’ mind and affect their game. So, the time to watch more batsmen-dominated games is about to come.
Gaylent
Chris Gayle has been ruling the IPl world since his entry into the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011 and he touched new heights in the latest edition when he scored a century in just 30 balls to break all existing records in Twenty20 cricket.
He didn’t stop there. The Jamaican went on to set a new record for highest score in T20 cricket — 175 not out. Previous record was held by Kolkata Knight Riders’ Brendon McCullum, who hit 158 runs from 73 balls in the very first match of IPl. In that murderous innings against Pune Warriors, Gayle hit 17 sixes, which is also a record for most number of maximums in an innings.
The orange-cap holder for the last two seasons, Gayle looks set to retain it for the third time as well. In eight matches so far he has scored 432 runs, which is 99 runs more than his nearest competitor RCB skipper Virat Kohli, at a tremendous average of 108 with strike rate of 170.07.
Hits And Flops
Sunrisers Hyderabad
No one expected them to perform so well in their first season in the IPl, especially after choosing to retain the squad from Deccan Chargers, a team which finished at the bottom last season. Placed third in the points table, Sunrisers’ fortunes are only likely to improve from here as their batting has got the much desired boost with the arrival of fit again Shikhar Dhawan. So far their bowlers have led the way.
DelhiDaredevils
The table-toppers of last season have turned into bottom-dwellers this time. After losing Kevin Pietersen to knee injury, Jesse Ryder to a brutal attack and Virender Sehwag to back spasm (for three matches), nothing has gone Daredevils way this season. To make matter worse, they have lost seven (six on trot) out of eight matches this season.
Pune Warriors
Into their third season, they already have five captains but success is yet to visit them. Nothing has clicked for them this season as well. They have seen the most numbers of batting collapses (3) and their bowlers are guilty of letting Chris Gayle play that record breaking innings. Despite the presence of proven T20 players like Yuvraj Singh, Angelo Mathews, Aaron Finch and luke Wright, there hasn’t been any inspiring performance from them.
Rajasthan Royals
No one exactly knows the secret behind Rajasthan Royals’ success. The winners of the inaugural IPl, Rajasthan are the least glamourous side in the tournament. Yet they give hard times to the teams that are full of stars (remember Mumbai Indians were dismissed for 92).
Fallen Stars
Ricky Ponting: After retiring from international cricket, Ricky Ponting went on to become the Sheffield Shield player of the year. Knowing his genius and looking for an experienced leader for their team, Mumbai Indians signed the three-time World Cup winning former Australian captain this season. But Ponting failed to carry his Sheffield Shield form to IPl and had to make way for another player in the playing eleven. In five innings of six matches, Ponting could manage only 52 runs at an average of 10.40 with 28 as highest score.
Kumar Sangakkara: In the absence of Shikhar Dhawan (injury), Sunrisers Hyderabad needed their captain Kumar Sangakkara the most. Sangakkara, an accomplished player at international level, however, disappointed both his team as well as himself. In five matches, he has scored only 84 runs at 16.40 with 28 as highest score. He too had to make way for another player.
Sachin Tendulkar: Mumbai Indians have dropped Ricky Ponting, or he dropped himself that is arguable, but would they be able drop Sachin Tendulkar from the team. The master blaster, who celebrated his 40th birthday earlier this week, hasn’t done anything of note this season. In seven innings, his total runs stand at just 125 at 17.85.
Angelo Mathews: Appointed captain by Pune Warriors, he was supposed to take the team forward with his all-round skills. But neither the team went forward nor he displayed his all-round skills. In five innings, he got only 52 runs at 17.33. He too dropped himself to accommodate another player who hasn’t got the chance to play.
Adam Gilchrist: One of the greatest wicketkeeper-batsmen, Kings XI Punjab skipper hasn’t been able to play a single good knock for his team. His returns from eight matches — 94 runs at 11.75 — are nothing from his standards.
Suresh Raina: Chennai Super Kings have been in such a good form that Suresh Raina’s failure has gone unnoticed so far, thanks to Mike Hussey and MS Dhoni. The first player in IPl to feature in 100 matches, Raina has played a minimal role in CSK’s victories this season. This is quite surprising considering the form he was just before the start of the Australian Test series. One has to wait and watch whether Raina fires when the team requires him to.
Hat-trick Mishra
He became the first bowler in the history of T20 cricket to have three hat-tricks to his name. The Haryana leg-spinner bowled a spectacular penultimate over against Pune Warriors and took four wickets, including the hat-trick, in five deliveries to help Sunrisers Hyderabad win the match by 11 runs. Now, interestingly, Mishra has taken a hat-trick each for every franchise he has represented in the IPl so far. His first hat-trick came when he was a part of Delhi Daredevils in 2008 and then for Deccan Chargers in 2011. Only Yuvraj Singh has two hat-tricks in IPl. KKR’s Sunil Narine too registered a hat-trick this season.
‘Sir’ Jadeja jokes
Mahendra Singh Dhoni started a new trend this season by cracking a few good-humoured jokes on his CSK teammate Ravindra Jadeja. Here are a few of them: