End of day's play

So who will make the final 4 at the IPL?

Here's what i think.

1. Delhi because Viru will win 2 matches on his own in his remaining games. Any team good enough to win after keeping McGrath and Vettori on the bench has to make it.
2. Chennai: great momentum and in form batsmen in Hayden/Raina/Dhoni. And I have to believe that the back up power of Badri/Oram/Albie will provide enough firepower. Their bowling is somewhat weak & I suspect defending a below 150-160 score will be hard.
3. For the other two slots: On paper it’s between Rajasthan, Punjab, Deccan and Mumbai (i dont think the Bangalore run will sustain).
1. Punjab: ability to throw away matches (Yuvi, Irfan and even Sangakarra to an extent are in my mind not yet reliable)
2. Deccan: team may have peaked too early
3. Mumbai: needs to figure out batting strategy (what is shikhar dhawan’s role?). Jayasurya despite one hit is not the right guy.
4. Rajasthan: I think they will make it esp as Graeme Smith seems to be hitting form. The team has a much bigger X factor (think Pathan, Jadeja, Mascarenhas , Warne and Tyrone) and keep producing bowlers (munaf, kamran, amit singh etc).

So net, i think its Delhi, Chennai, Rajasthan for sure with a close call between Punjab (slight edge now with Brett Lee back) & Deccan. Sorry home boys of Mumbai but it is what it is – pay for poor selection.

Strategy break

So after a dismal showing by the Mumbai Indians, i spent a couple of hours doing an 'in hindsight' on the Mumbai Indians Team selection. Mostly because like every other citizen of the cricket nation i have strong views but also because i am genuinely not inspired by my home team. The key issue is that it doesn’t have have the 'X' factor and relies heavily on the aging openers. (Don't get me wrong, I am Tendulkar's biggest fan. However there's a reason why he's opted out of the T20 India team and why a youthful team won the world cup.
So keeping the following assumptions in mind, i am proposing my picks.
1. The max cap budget for the auction was 5M + 2M $ for this year.
2. Max 8 foreign players, 4 in playing 11 (no point having too many therefore)
3. Min 16 players to be chosen with a Min 4 to be under the age of 22.
4. Constraints of icons/captains unavailability + need to keep some local players
5. Player prices based on internet research - some scope for error here.

Name		Price $		Skill
Tendulkar		750000		Bat
Hayden		375000		Bat
Raina		650000		ARounder
Dilshan		250000		ARounder
Y Pathan		475000		ARounder
Bravo		220000		ARounder
A Nayar(22)		100000		ARounder
Ojha		50000		Bowl
Zaheer		450000		Bowl
Mailnga		350000		Bowl
P Shah (22)		100000		WK
Abdulla		300000		Bowl
D Kulkarni (22)		100000		ARounder
A Rahane (22)		100000		Bat
Warner		200000		Bat
Backup
De Villiers		300000		Bat
I pathan		925000		Arounder
Boucher		450000		WK
Harbhajan		750000		Bowl
RP Singh		875000		Bowl

The red is the playing 11. And the back up list is invoked if budget is 7M. This will likely be Harbhajan & Boucher and maybe one from RP Singh/Irfan (who are very expensive).

My controversial deletions are Jayasurya (past reliable sell by date) and Duminy (a million bucks!!! - don't tell me he's better than Pathan + Hayden + Dilshan). Just not worth it. Removing them also reduces Tendulkar's price (the icon's price is 15% higher than next highest player).

I think this team allows for a nice blend of experience (Tendu, Hayden, Zaheer, Dilshan), T20 expertiste (Raina, Yusuf, Nayar) and the X factor (Mailinga, YPathan, Warner, Abdulla)

What think?

Opening spell

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd kick off my blog with a short introduction on why i started it. I have spent the last few weeks totally engrossed in following the IPL - from debating the team selection and potential semi-finalists (i still believe it will include Rajasthan despite the Chennai mauling today and Shane Watson being declared unfit) to spending hours on the cricinfo fantasy league (i was position 34 yesterday out of 40,000 participants).

So i thought why not create a blog to talk about it as also a general forum for fellow cricket afficionados to connect. I'm sure there are quite a few of these but over time i hope to make mine best in class for all those who really enjoy the game and like talking about it. For those who like myself are citizens of the global cricket nation.

I'd love your feedback and contributions.
More to come