Last week, Aloke asked “who’s going to score the most runs/wickets” ?
It was simpler given the early results – i had called out Kallis & Vaaz will retain with Murali giving Vaaz a challenge. Looks like the week will end with Kallis on top (unless Tendulkar scores again at his current average of 62 in which case it will be a tie) and Murali ahead (vaaz played one game less). So let me know your predictions for week ending Sunday 4th April. Results to be published on Monday.
Here’s my call.
Batsman: Kallis will retain his lead – maybe for the last time.
Bowler: Murali will retain this – not for the last time.
So get your predictions in.
Remember its very simple; we are looking for the player who has scored most runs & taken most wickets by end of Sunday 4th April.
ps: Sunday 28th March games prediction? Very tough and will be heartbreaking as my teams will both lose tomorrow.
(i) Chennai will steamroll Rajasthan with a vengeance – Mongoose and all. Yusuf will fail and the batting will crumble as well.
(ii) Mumbai will tinker with the team (McLaren, Dhawan, Satish, Duminy, Rayadu – even Jaya – in the mix) & fail against the Deccan foreigners.
I told you so – and its about performance not favoritism
So a little gloating given the results.
Sorry but cant resist given that I’ve got my biggest day predictions (Mumbai and Delhi) as well as the bottom of the barrel right. And of course Rajasthan Royal’s magic and calling out that the weary old legs of the Deccan chargers wont last all the way. Enough said but feels good :-)
The objective of this short post is though to reinforce that emotion and nostalgia have no place in the IPL; its all about performance. If only Sangakarra and Gilly had embraced this faster. Shane Warne got there (late) and Tendulkar (just about) but Gambhir, Dhoni, Kumble have done it and it shows.
1. Jayawardene should have been dropped a game ago. Yes Sanga, he’s your old captain, buddy and Sri Lanka team mate but he just cost you some games mate. (and almost the chennai super over with a harebrained heave after a six off the first ball).
2. Laxman is a fish out of water in T20. Actually he’s like a fish in alcohol mixed with hydrochloric acid or something. Those embarrassing pulls & heaves – not to mention the weary fielding. Please put him out of his misery. Now. Gilly, you still have a chance – even Venugopal (shudder) might be better. And oh, keep a close eye on Gibbs.
3. Thank God Damien Martyn is back home after his $100k lottery – give me a friend like Warne; easiest money ever made. 3 in 3 after he's left the shores (ok , a stretch correlation but none the less). Tendulkar struggled to justify another Lankan but realized that there is a veterans tournament somewhere worldwide & that Jaya has a place there.
4. Contrast. Delhi benched McGrath last year, dropped Dilshan when he flopped (even though Gambhir was injured) in 2010. Chennai (and Dhoni) will drop their nostalgia brigade any moment they don’t perform. Maybe they could have taken a faster call on replacing Jacob Oram but in any case Bollinger (good addition) wasn’t available till the end of the month. And Kumble’s Bangalore – the oldies are doing well but you can rest assured that if Dravid fails a couple of times , he will be out.
So there you have it – perform or perish. Oh, i forgot Ganguly & KKR - for a reason. He’ll take swift action against non performers - except himself. But as i have bet on them, he’s scoring runs (albeit ugly) I’ll leave him be :-).
Especially as they just won 3 minutes ago – but then, i told you so ….
Sorry but cant resist given that I’ve got my biggest day predictions (Mumbai and Delhi) as well as the bottom of the barrel right. And of course Rajasthan Royal’s magic and calling out that the weary old legs of the Deccan chargers wont last all the way. Enough said but feels good :-)
The objective of this short post is though to reinforce that emotion and nostalgia have no place in the IPL; its all about performance. If only Sangakarra and Gilly had embraced this faster. Shane Warne got there (late) and Tendulkar (just about) but Gambhir, Dhoni, Kumble have done it and it shows.
1. Jayawardene should have been dropped a game ago. Yes Sanga, he’s your old captain, buddy and Sri Lanka team mate but he just cost you some games mate. (and almost the chennai super over with a harebrained heave after a six off the first ball).
2. Laxman is a fish out of water in T20. Actually he’s like a fish in alcohol mixed with hydrochloric acid or something. Those embarrassing pulls & heaves – not to mention the weary fielding. Please put him out of his misery. Now. Gilly, you still have a chance – even Venugopal (shudder) might be better. And oh, keep a close eye on Gibbs.
3. Thank God Damien Martyn is back home after his $100k lottery – give me a friend like Warne; easiest money ever made. 3 in 3 after he's left the shores (ok , a stretch correlation but none the less). Tendulkar struggled to justify another Lankan but realized that there is a veterans tournament somewhere worldwide & that Jaya has a place there.
4. Contrast. Delhi benched McGrath last year, dropped Dilshan when he flopped (even though Gambhir was injured) in 2010. Chennai (and Dhoni) will drop their nostalgia brigade any moment they don’t perform. Maybe they could have taken a faster call on replacing Jacob Oram but in any case Bollinger (good addition) wasn’t available till the end of the month. And Kumble’s Bangalore – the oldies are doing well but you can rest assured that if Dravid fails a couple of times , he will be out.
So there you have it – perform or perish. Oh, i forgot Ganguly & KKR - for a reason. He’ll take swift action against non performers - except himself. But as i have bet on them, he’s scoring runs (albeit ugly) I’ll leave him be :-).
Especially as they just won 3 minutes ago – but then, i told you so ….
Resurgent Royals , Kolkata Komeback?
Shane Warne and the Royals have done it again - conjuring up magic out of thin air. And in part , its that man Yusuf Pathan again!!! In an earlier post I had mentioned that it can’t be Yusuf vs the rest all the time but it was almost that again (though credit to Shane’s captaincy which was a big factor). You cant but love this team – the perennial underdogs. And now that they have sent the ‘playmate’ home , they are climbing back up my personal charts.
I missed Pathan’s knock today but sounded like Gilly missed a few tricks and fed him with spinnners – might as well have given the game away. Few can clear the field like Pathan can against slow bowlers on Indian pitches. By contrast , I read on cricinfo today that Tendulkar hasn’t hit a single SIX in the IPL so far and is a top 3 scorer. Another interesting tidbit – i think Rohit Sharma has now been involved in 8 run outs in the 3 season’s of the IPL!!!! Top that.
More on tomorow’s game.
Punjab almost certainly will be on their way out if they lose (even though there’s a long way to go in IPL 2010). And KKR will move to life support systems if they lose. So a very important game for honors at the bottom of the table. What’s my call – Kolkatta on points. I’m sticking to my prediction that they will sneak into the semis. Still waiting on McCullum but Hussey is in the building. And Ganguly will score tomorrow. Punjab probably have to be favorites (match winners in Pathan, Yuvraj, Sangakarra, men in form like Bopara and Bisla ). So its a strong lineup but they haven’t clicked so far and i fear they wont start tomorrow unless the reinforcements (Lee & Marsh) kick in well.
IPL 2010: The biggest day so far
Short post.
This is probably the biggest day of the IPL so far.
4 top class teams battling it out.
1. Delhi Daredevils vs Bangalore Royal Challengers: Last year's favorites versus this years leaders. Whoever wins this will definitely go through to the semi-finals. Bangalore because they will be racking up the points and Delhi will gain a lot of confidence if they can cross the finish line here. A key game. Beware the wounded North Indians. They have enough X factor players to do it and i predict a Delhi turnaround from here. De Villiers and Dilshan (i think they should play both but sadly they may not) are too good to fail again .
2. Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Superkings
Again a classic battle. Murali vs Tendulkar; Hayden vs Harbhajan. Again, Chennai need this win but winning this may not guarantee anything as they are not yet playing like a team. Mumbai on the other hand are playing at their best and a win here will put them well on course. Dhoni's availability will be critical but unless it all comes together well for Chennai this will be a hard game for them to win. I predict the West Indians will have a big role to play in a Mumbai win tomorrow.
Either way, the biggest day of the IPL so far and will be exciting.
This is probably the biggest day of the IPL so far.
4 top class teams battling it out.
1. Delhi Daredevils vs Bangalore Royal Challengers: Last year's favorites versus this years leaders. Whoever wins this will definitely go through to the semi-finals. Bangalore because they will be racking up the points and Delhi will gain a lot of confidence if they can cross the finish line here. A key game. Beware the wounded North Indians. They have enough X factor players to do it and i predict a Delhi turnaround from here. De Villiers and Dilshan (i think they should play both but sadly they may not) are too good to fail again .
2. Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Superkings
Again a classic battle. Murali vs Tendulkar; Hayden vs Harbhajan. Again, Chennai need this win but winning this may not guarantee anything as they are not yet playing like a team. Mumbai on the other hand are playing at their best and a win here will put them well on course. Dhoni's availability will be critical but unless it all comes together well for Chennai this will be a hard game for them to win. I predict the West Indians will have a big role to play in a Mumbai win tomorrow.
Either way, the biggest day of the IPL so far and will be exciting.
The IPL’s best bowler & batsman – by our guest expert Aloke Gupte
(my cousin Aloke, possibly an even crazier cricket buff, submitted this by email so here goes…)
This may elicit a fair number of strong opinions - not only in relation to the precise title of the exercise attempted here, but also because (a) it is essentially a pointless exercise (who really knows if a Porsche is better than a Maserati??) (b) of the more mundane (if you will) "its early days!"
However, such is the lot of a self assigned crick stats tragic (only 1 other fondness for statistics and never appreciated standard deviation et al), that the attempt must be made. So, lets do that - with one simple twist. I am not looking for your view of who will be THE BEST batsman or bowler (or may just be Player) of the IPL or even who currently occupies that spot.
After 4-5 games (4 for all except KKR and Delhi who have played 5), these are the stats for the batsmen and bowlers. I have kept it focused on runs and wickets respectively for now.
Runs
#1 Kallis 264
#2 Sehwag 186
#3 Sachin 176
#4 Bopara 172
#5 Tiwary 169
#6 Gilchrist 149
#7 Hayden 144
#8 Symonds 143
#9 Yusuf 141
#10 Karthik 124
Wickets
#1 Vaas 8 (@6.06!)
#2 Murli 6 (@5.31)
#3 Symonds 6 (@6.53)
#4 Praveen 6
#5 Ishant 6 (@8.65! thanks, Sachin…)
#6 Balaji 5
#7 Maharoof 5
#8 Nannes 5
#9 Mathews 5
#10 Mishra 5
You may ask about why runs/wickets and not strike/economy rates as the key benchmark. No doubt these are very important and manifold so in T20, but I continue to believe that delivering a mountain of runs or wickets is the best thing you can do to for your team. And I suspect that a majority of the leading run scorers or wicket takers will do well in on strike & economy rates as well (there are and will always be exceptions).
This is illustrated by the fact that amongst bowlers who have played >1match so far, the leading 3wicket takers - Vaas (4th), Murli (1st), Symonds (6th) are a force to reckon with on economy rates. The other slots are interestingly taken up by : #2 Kumble (4@5.43), #3 Kartik (4@5.57), #5 [surprise], Yuvraj (3@6.18), #7 Nannes - a wickets top ten man (5@6.55), #8 Zaheer (3@6.57) with Langevedlt and Rohit Sharma bringing up the top 10
For the batsmen it gets tougher - so I am applying a yardstick of atleast 75 runs scored (I know, you could argue for 50). This is how the top 3 run scorers fare: Kallis (13th), Sehwag (2nd), Sachin (9th). The leaders of the pack there are: #1 Gilchrist, #3Uthappa, #4 Yusuf, #5 Dhoni, #6 Hayden, #7 Rayudu, #8 Irfan (who is the 11th highest scorer), #10 Tiwary. A decent overlap! So you could argue that Kallis can certainly not be the best (1st & 13th) when compared to Sehwag (2nd & 2nd), but then it depends on sheer volume of runs scored and effectiveness for the team. Despite Sehwag's rapid run making, DD are 6th as against Kallis' RCB who are top of the league!
So the question is how will this all play out as the tournament progresses? Will Kallis retain his lead and make up a few places on speed? who will have the purple cap - Vaas? Murli? or Kumble who isnt even in the top 10 but is close with a great eco rate?
The Ask: how will these lists look after 8-9 games each? Based on form, who they are going to play, at what grounds, team changes (i.e. is there an incoming McCullum or KP going to usurp a place??).
This may elicit a fair number of strong opinions - not only in relation to the precise title of the exercise attempted here, but also because (a) it is essentially a pointless exercise (who really knows if a Porsche is better than a Maserati??) (b) of the more mundane (if you will) "its early days!"
However, such is the lot of a self assigned crick stats tragic (only 1 other fondness for statistics and never appreciated standard deviation et al), that the attempt must be made. So, lets do that - with one simple twist. I am not looking for your view of who will be THE BEST batsman or bowler (or may just be Player) of the IPL or even who currently occupies that spot.
After 4-5 games (4 for all except KKR and Delhi who have played 5), these are the stats for the batsmen and bowlers. I have kept it focused on runs and wickets respectively for now.
Runs
#1 Kallis 264
#2 Sehwag 186
#3 Sachin 176
#4 Bopara 172
#5 Tiwary 169
#6 Gilchrist 149
#7 Hayden 144
#8 Symonds 143
#9 Yusuf 141
#10 Karthik 124
Wickets
#1 Vaas 8 (@6.06!)
#2 Murli 6 (@5.31)
#3 Symonds 6 (@6.53)
#4 Praveen 6
#5 Ishant 6 (@8.65! thanks, Sachin…)
#6 Balaji 5
#7 Maharoof 5
#8 Nannes 5
#9 Mathews 5
#10 Mishra 5
You may ask about why runs/wickets and not strike/economy rates as the key benchmark. No doubt these are very important and manifold so in T20, but I continue to believe that delivering a mountain of runs or wickets is the best thing you can do to for your team. And I suspect that a majority of the leading run scorers or wicket takers will do well in on strike & economy rates as well (there are and will always be exceptions).
This is illustrated by the fact that amongst bowlers who have played >1match so far, the leading 3wicket takers - Vaas (4th), Murli (1st), Symonds (6th) are a force to reckon with on economy rates. The other slots are interestingly taken up by : #2 Kumble (4@5.43), #3 Kartik (4@5.57), #5 [surprise], Yuvraj (3@6.18), #7 Nannes - a wickets top ten man (5@6.55), #8 Zaheer (3@6.57) with Langevedlt and Rohit Sharma bringing up the top 10
For the batsmen it gets tougher - so I am applying a yardstick of atleast 75 runs scored (I know, you could argue for 50). This is how the top 3 run scorers fare: Kallis (13th), Sehwag (2nd), Sachin (9th). The leaders of the pack there are: #1 Gilchrist, #3Uthappa, #4 Yusuf, #5 Dhoni, #6 Hayden, #7 Rayudu, #8 Irfan (who is the 11th highest scorer), #10 Tiwary. A decent overlap! So you could argue that Kallis can certainly not be the best (1st & 13th) when compared to Sehwag (2nd & 2nd), but then it depends on sheer volume of runs scored and effectiveness for the team. Despite Sehwag's rapid run making, DD are 6th as against Kallis' RCB who are top of the league!
So the question is how will this all play out as the tournament progresses? Will Kallis retain his lead and make up a few places on speed? who will have the purple cap - Vaas? Murli? or Kumble who isnt even in the top 10 but is close with a great eco rate?
The Ask: how will these lists look after 8-9 games each? Based on form, who they are going to play, at what grounds, team changes (i.e. is there an incoming McCullum or KP going to usurp a place??).
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