The dream team IPL XI – and why Bangalore Royal Challengers have a chance in the finals?

As the IPL carnival draws to an end I wanted to propose a dream team. The criteria is simple. (i) performance in IPL 2009 (ii) Minimum 5 matches played (iii) match winning potential.

So here’s my pick (consistent with the Mumbai team i proposed earlier) . Comments welcome.

Player	Nationality	IPL team	Status
Matthew Hayden	AUS	Chennai Super Kings	Retired
Adam Gilchrist	AUS	Deccan Chargers	Retired
Suresh Raina	India	Chennai Super Kings	Playing
AB De Villiers	SA	Delhi Daredevils	Playing
T Dilshan	SL	Delhi Daredevils	Playing
Rohit Sharma	India	Deccan Chargers	Playing
Andrew Symonds	AUS	Deccan Chargers	Dropped
Yusuf Pathan	Ind	Rajasthan Royals	Playing
RP Singh	Ind	Deccan Chargers	Comeback
Lasith Malinga	SL	Mumbai Indians	Playing
M Muralitharan	SL	Chennai Super Kings	Playing

A dream team always leads to heated debate (comments welcome) so here's some more color.

• Hopefully no debate for first 6 on this list (Sharma could battle with Duminy/Hodge but he’s a proven match winner and hat trick bowler which nudges him in).
  
• Symonds and Y Pathan fill the all rounders slots. (Yuvraj or Irfan Pathan didn't do nearly enough and while Ravindra Jadeja did, he doesn't inspire fear in the opposition).
• The bowlers: Malinga was a clear choice - devastating (18 wickets in 13 games) with an impressive economy rate of 6.3. Muralitharan nudges out Kumble & Warne (who should be in just for captaincy) due to an awesome economy rate of 5.22.
• The closest call: RP Singh vs Ashish Nehra – the two leading wicket takers of the IPL. Strike rate of 15.1 vs 16.1 in RP’s favor and economy rate of 6.8 vs 7.2 in Nehra’s favor. However RP smiles more :-)

So incredibly for all those of us who have marveled at how last years bottom ranked team made it to the final, this table suggests that this should not be a huge surprise. The Deccan Chargers have 4 of their players in there – all match winners – more than any other team. If lightning strikes twice it will be another no contest.

So can Bangalore hope to do it (no entry in the dream team) ?

They can, precisely for the reason that they have no entry in the dream team.

The key difference between the two teams is that Bangalore has , since Kumble took over , played a total team game. Everyone from Kallis, Kumble, Dravid, Boucher , Taylor & Kumar to now Pandey, Kohli, Roelof Van Der Merwe have raised their hand and made it happen in bits and pieces to win 5 on the trot. So tomorrow’s game is between X factor players capable of winning matches on their own against a TEAM. Kumble's Team Bangalore.

Tomorrow's script will confirm whether T20 is about team work or inspired individuality!!!

So who the hell is Manish Pandey?

Born September 10, 1989 in Nainital Manish Pandey came to Bangalore when he was 15 and stayed back when his father was transferred to Rajasthan three years later. In those three years Pandey represented Karnataka at the Under-17 and Under-19 levels & also represented India in the U-19 World Cup in 2008(though he didn't get many chances in that winning side).

He played one U-19 test match against SA and scored 47 and has played fifteen U-19 ODI’s (mostly against Bangladesh) scoring 328 runs at an average of 32.8. He was with Mumbai Indians in IPL 2008 & as with other sound team selection decisions, they let him go!!!

What he will be remembered for though isnt any of this - its the magnificent 114 (73 balls) in the last league game & an equally important 48 (35 balls) to take them to the finals with 2 consecutive man of the match awards.

If he can repeat his performance against the Deccan Chargers in the final then one thing is for sure , Pepsi and Coke will be fighting to put that soft drink bottle in his hand!!!

The Australian effect part deux: A tribute to Adam Gilchrist

In this “young man’s” T20cricket guess who the top 2 run scorers are? Retired Australian batsmen!!!! Matthew Hayden at 546 runs so far (and he missed a couple of games) at an astounding average of 54.6 and a strike rate of 145 . And then there’s Gilchrist; 495 runs at a strike rate of 153 but most importantly a destructive 85 of 35 balls today to shut the Delhi Daredevils out of IPL 2009. What tragedy for the league leaders but they were outclassed by one of the all time great destructive innings. It was Adam Gilchrist vs. Delhi Daredevils and it was a no contest. I said in my post yesterday, don’t write Deccan off as the Australians can do it and Gilly did. So should we expect the other Australian to take Chennai through tomorrow or will it be the bottom 2 teams from the 2008 IPL to face off in the finals??

Watch this space…

4, 2 ka 1 - Delhi Daredevils vs Deccan Chargers; the Australian effect

So another incredible performance from a team that was almost written off after its first 5 matches. Bangalore did all of Mallya's euphemism's proud and suddenly looks like the team to beat from the pack of Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super kings, Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers. So who will make it to the finals? Dare i make a prediction given that my semi final lineup prediction didn't really make it after Rajasthan lost a game they should have won? What the hell , here we go but one at a time.

Delhi DareDevils vs Deccan Chargers.

On paper you have to give it to Delhi. (i) Most wins in the league stage and clear tournament favorites at this stage (ii) Excellent batting line up with De Villiers, Dilshan and Karthik in great form and Sehwag and Gambhir hitting their stride now (iii) Surprise package bowling attack with Nannes, Nehra, Sangwan and Amit Mishra doing the job so well that they are keeping Vettori and McGrath out of the team (iv) They have defeated Deccan in all 4 previous IPL encounters.

Wow , Deccan should just give up and go home then?
Not at all. (i) They match Delhi in raw batting talent just as much if not more. Gilchrist and Gibbs, Symonds and Rohit Sharma pack a powerful punch (ii) RP Singh is the purple cap holder with the highest wicket and Pragyan Ojha has turned out to be a wily bowler and Symonds has a lot of experience (and is hurting to prove the Aussie selectors wrong) (iii) they have pulled off some very close games most notably against KKR (iv) the law of averages might just benefit them. However in balance , the bowling is weak with Ryan Harris scalping only 2 in the last 6 matches and Jaskaran Singh looks suspect.

The last word- Its all about Australia: Unless Gilly and Symonds fire its all over for the Chargers and Sehwag will have the last wallop.

So near yet so far.....5/6 is not too bad though

Ok - so i got 5/6 predictions right in my post last week. Unfortunately the one i got wrong was the critical one. Both because it meant my personal favorite team is out but also because it has now rendered the remaining games somewhat irrelevant.

So Rajasthan came so close but threw it away. Once again a poor batting performance (Graeme Smith not being in the team for a cruical game will remain a question mark - though his performance justified being dropped. I think Warne got this one wrong - the already brittle batting was woefully exposed). But after having Kolkatta on the ropes at 42 for 6, they should have really closed this out. Rajasthan, the team that has pulled off last over victories miraculously(think Munaf Patel) and KKR the team that has lost in the last over against all odds (think Rohit Sharma) - surely this couldnt have happened. I was hoping till the last over but after the keeper fluffed 2 run out chances it was all over. In some ways a miracle that the team without Shane Watson, Sohil Tanvir, Graeme Smith making it even till here is probably a great outcome.

So I'll stick with my predictions for the rest of the league but given its all irrelevant, the teams might experiment and things could change. Predictions for the finals and winners tomorrow but can you imagine if this IPL is won by Vijay Mallya's not so long ago test team???? This season has been so unpredictable that anything is possible....

Answers to last week's trivia

No one got it all right so here goes

1. The cheerleader is janine kallis; jacque's sister working for chennai super kings!!!
2. kamran khan is the youngest; sanath jayasuriya the oldest player
3. fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com is the most visited cricket blog.
4. Sohail Tanvir had the purple cap last year.

Till next time

Ideal outcome for the remaing IPL games

Here's something that i called out yesterday in terms of results - first two are on track; more to come...

-----Original Message-----
From: Thakar, Gautam
Sent: Sun 5/17/2009 1:22 AM
To: alokegupte@jp.com
Subject: ideal outcome

Deccan Chargers v Kings XI Punjab - Punjab wins
Delhi Daredevils v Rajasthan Royals - Delhi wins
Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders - Kolkatta wins
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Daredevils - Blore wins
Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals - Rajasthan wins
Chennai Super Kings v Kings XI Punjab - Chennai wins
Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians - Mumbai wins
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Deccan Chargers - Deccan wins

This will be the ideal outcome in terms of excitement till the end and still have Delhi, Chennai , Rajasthan and Deccan qualify Not great odds of all of these happening but this is my pick so lets see...

So where did the Mumbai Indians fall short?

So what really happened to Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians?
1. Poor team selection: but enough about that in a previous post

2. Its the bastmen stupid: The bowlers actually did a fine job with an overall economy rate of 6.83. Funnily enough the Mumbai batsmen scored at exactly the same runs per over at 6.83. The other teams had a far worse economy rate with Delhi (7.31) Deccan (7.37) & Chennai(7.48). And clearly the batting is where they fell short. The comparables were Chennai (7.71), Deccan (7.46) and Delhi (7.21). A closer look also reveals that apart from Duminy no other batsmen really fired with Tendulkar barely crossing an average of 30 (each of the other teams had at least 4 batsmen averaging greater than 30). The youngsters never really clicked and Jaysuriya didn't fire.

3. Nerves & temperament:a. Lost to Punjab by 3 runs chasing just 119 b. Lost to Rajasthan by 2 runs needing 4 in the last over.

Am trying to be positive now. Good news is that the last year the Mumbai Indians had a poor team on all counts, did not hold their nerve and the youngsters didnt fire. At least they got the bowling right this year. Perhaps next year we'll get the batting right and the year after the youngsters wont be be young anymore....