The IPL story so far….

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has become a regular fixture during the summer. The cricket hungry fans simply revel in the atmosphere and enjoy each and every match in the stadium braving the heat. The IPL BRAND has only grown strength to strength. It’s not liked it has not faced it share of hurdles (from moving to South Africa in its second season due, to general elections to the spot fixing saga; from two leading teams facing suspension, to matches this season being moved out of Maharashtra due to severe shortage of water) it has seen it all. The IPL this season has also not be unscathed from controversies; however, with the tournament entering the business end what has been the key takeaways so far. Let’s find out….

1)    The two high profile teams-Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings were replaced by Gujrat Lions and Pune Super Giants. And with this replacement we also saw a turn of fortunes, with Gujrat Lions led by Suresh Raina comfortable sitting on the top of the table and MS Dhoni led side scrapping at the bottom.

2)    Delhi Daredevils led by Zak Khan and mentored by Rahul Dravid have come back strongly after losing their opening match and are comfortably placed amongst the top four teams.

3)    The tide is not even in the favour of Kings XI Punjab this year as they too are scrapping at the bottom. But will the change in captaincy bore results or will it be the case of too little too late?

4)    The form of Virat Kohli does not seem to have rubbed on his team because while he is leading run scorer in the tournament, his team is sitting at the bottom.

5)    The openers of the top four teams have been among the runs.

6)    Most teams in the tournament so far has won matches chasing. So, if you are a bowler, my prayers are with you!!!

7)    Fast bowlers have been among the wickets this season, which is very uncanny since; the Indian pitches assist the spinners the most. (P.S. Seems like the wind is blowing from a different direction all together).

8)    Due to drought situation in Maharashtra, all the home matches to be played in Mumbai and Pune has been shifted to Vizag. Now, Mumbai Indians and Pune Super Giants will have to adapt to the conditions of their second home soon.

9)    This season, the bar for fielding has been raised to a new level altogether and with the top fielder of the tournament to be rewarded for the first time this year; the competition will only heat up.

10) The men from the Caribbean has performed like ‘CHAMPIONS’ for their respective franchises and have extended their golden form post the ICC tournament as well.

Tracing the steps backwards in the ICC World T20

India had entered the ICC World T20 tournament as favourites. They were playing in their own backyard and seemed invincible. From the cricket pundits to the fans all were confident that India would win the World Cup again and bring back the memories of 2007.

They did not have the best of the starts to the tournament loosing badly to the Kiwis in their opener. However, they roar back into form beating the arch rivals Pakistan at the Eden Gardens and stamped their authority in the tournament. The road was laid out for the Men in Blue they had to beat to Bangladesh and Australia successively to seal the berth for the semi-final.

Bangladesh, the perennial underdogs for the tournament were dubbed as an easy prey for the Indian team. But seemed liked everybody spoke to soon. India won the match against Bangladesh off the last ball on the back of brilliant run-out by Captain Cool. The Men in Blue ‘just’ managed to cross the finished line and everybody heaved a sigh of relief.

But their virtual quarter-final match was set up against the mighty Australians. There was no scope for error when the Indians met the Kangaroos. The Indian team knew they could not commit the same mistake they had against the Bangladeshi team and one man stood up and took complete responsibility for guiding India to the semi-final-Virat Kohli. He single-handedly demolished their bowling attack and cemented the Men in Blue’s position in the semi-final.

The Indian team was now to meet the mighty Caribbean’s at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Nobody has till date forgotten the winning-six that was hit by the captain MS Dhoni, to guide India to its World Cup victory against Sri Lanka at this particular stadium and hopes were high that we would see a repeat of something similar. But if always what the fans wished had become a reality then India would have been an invincible side today. Having lost the toss, India was put into bat first, which proved to be too costly for the home side. India started slowly however soon they shifted from the first gear to the second gear. Rahane playing his first match of the tournament along with Rohit Sharma gave a steady start to the team and after Sharma’s departure Kohli took charge of the situation and took the game away from the bowlers. India finished at 192/2. But experts believed that the Indian team were 10-15 runs short as the dew factor will come into picture later in the game and Wankhede being a batting paradise would not be an easy sale for the Indian team.

When the bowlers came in to finish the job, it felt India will walk away with the victory and they smelled their first success as well after they strangulated the mighty Gayle force for just five runs. But that was a very small triumph in the bigger context of the match. Simmons and Samuels-the former playing the first match of the tournament replacing the injured Fletcher and the latter not in the best of his form bought a little stability to the score, but it was Charles who came into bat along with Simmons who almost took the match away from the Indian team. The spinners were going for runs and the fast bowlers were not sticking to their plan. The runs could not be arrested and Simmons, a cat who has nine lives survived throughout the game and then along with Russell sealed the deal for the West Indies. India's dreams of a World Twenty20 title on home soil were shattered after the West Indies stunned the hosts by seven wickets to reach the final. The Windies broke a million hearts and marched ahead to Kolkata to set up a clash with the Englishmen for a cracker of a match, which the former won in a last over thriller securing this year’s World Cup.

The journey of the Indian team ended in the semi-final but looking back the only positive that emerged from the entire tournament was the batting prowess of Virat Kohli, which further cemented the fact that he is indeed hit his purple patch, where his form is concerned and though India were all along tagged as eternal favourites they never performed like CHAMPIONS!!!

All images have been sourced from: www.espncricinfo.com

The ‘Virat’ show

Flashback mode: In 2011, India hosted the ICC World Cup (50 over format) and emerged as champions after 28 long years. However, their journey was not a smooth ride to begin with. After crossing the knock-out stage they met Australia in their quarterfinal match. Four-times champion Australia were a hard team to beat. But nothing punctured the spirits of the team and India sent the Kangaroos packing in a mouth-watering clash in Ahmedabad to book a date with arch rivals Pakistan in the semis and as we know the rest in history.

Cut to present: India are again playing host for the ICC World T20 tournament and India has set its date with Australia in a virtual quarterfinal match at Mohali. It’s a do or die game for both the teams and whoever wins will play the semi-finals with the in-form West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. History repeated itself and India again defeated the Australian side to move ahead in the tournament.

What is common between both the situations? Some might say the same opponent; some might say Dhoni the captain; some might say Yuvraj Singh but above all these common factors there are two strong individuals whose contribution could not be ignored and paved the way for India. In 2011, Sachin Tendulkar contributed with its majestic 53 runs and set the tone for the match. Today, Virat Kohli- The ‘New God of Cricket’ chased down the target of 161 and guided its team to another victory single-handedly.

Have India got a replacement for Sachin Tendulkar? Is Kohli the new ‘God of Cricket’? Can he surpass the record set by the legend himself? All these questions are being raised by everybody but according to me-There is only one Sachin Tendulkar and only one Virat Kohli. 

Summary: The IS Bindra Stadium had geared up for the clash between the Men in Blue and the Kangaroos and with a packed stadium behind them India had to go for the kill. Having lost the toss India was put in to field first. Usman Khwaja got off to a flier and expressed their intent straightway. They have been and continue to play the aggressive brand of cricket. At the end of the power play over, Australia piled a score of 59/1 and was looking towards a target of close to 200. However, the Indian bowlers pulled things back and started taking crucial wickets at regular intervals to put a break on the scoring. After the bowlers went for plenty in the first six overs, Jadeja and Yuvraj picked up crucial wickets and kept the Australian batsmen quiet. Bumrah and Nehra were spot on at the death too and prevented Australia from getting an improbable total. From 53/0 in four overs, India did well to restrict Australia to 160.

Looking at the track everybody knew it would not be an easy chase and the Indian openers had to rise to the occasion and perform if India needed to move ahead in the tournament. They got off to a steady start but after showing some promise Dhawan fell 13 on Coulter-Nile’s delivery. In came Virat Kohli and raised the hopes of every Indian that he can chase this one down as well. Kohli and Sharma continued manoeuvring the bowlers and squeezing in the runs. But Watson playing his last match of his cricketing career did not wish to bow out without a fight. In his first over itself, he removed Sharma and Raina and made the chase all more difficult with run-rate creeping up with every passing ball. Kohli stuck at the other end patiently and the next batsman to come in was Yuvraj. A crucial 45-run stand was stitched between both the batsman but an injured Yuvraj was dismissed at 21 by Faulkner (having strained his ankle in the first over itself he came in to bat). 

Top-notch running from these two men

 

With the run rate now have climbed 12 runs per over the captain came in to bat. Both the batsman had their job cut out for them. Dhoni and Kohli began running hard between the wickets and converted the ones into twos and twos into threes, which did not happen with Yuvraj since he was injured. With India needing 59 from the last five overs, Kohli had cut loose and dismantled the bowling attack of the Australians. First, he took Faulkner to the cleaners and then made light of the chase by targeting Coulter-Nile next. After having scored 82 from 51 balls the master of chases had guided his team again to a victory and as we no match is complete without Dhoni hitting the winning runs and this came true in the match as well as Dhoni finished it off in style by hitting a powerful six in the first ball of the last over taking India over the boundary line. India had beaten Australia by six wickets and are now through to the semi-finals of the ICC World T20 2016.

Thank You Virat!

 All images have been sourced from: espn cricinfo

India beat Bangladesh in last-ball thriller

India beat Bangladesh  to keep their hopes alive in the tournament 

Until the last ball is bowled it’s not over. This would best describe the match that was played between India and Bangladesh.  

India survived a scare and kept their hopes alive of entering the semi-final of ICC World T20. Playing in Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, India lost the toss and was put in to bat first by the Bangladeshi skipper, Mashrafe Mortaza. On a slow pitch Bangladeshi stuck to their plans and bowled with utmost discipline and restricted India at the score of 146. No batsman could convert their starts into a big score and the poor run of Indian batsman continued in this tournament. 

When the Bangladeshi batsman came on to bat they were cruising all along the chase. The poor fielding only added to the woes of captain MS Dhoni. Crucial breakthroughs were provided by Ashwin and Jadeja but other bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the Bangladeshi batsman. Jasprit Bumrah particularly, had a bad day in office after he dropped a sitter in the first over and was then taken to the cleaners when he came onto bowl. 

Throughout the match Bangladeshi team were in command over the ‘Big Brothers’.  However, things turned around for the Indian team in the 19^th and 20^th over. Bumrah gave only 6 runs in the 19^th over and now the Bangladeshi team needed only 11 runs off the last over. Pandya was asked to bowl the last over and with two set batsman on the crease in Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah it was only a matter of time for the Bangladeshi team to start their celebration as they would have spoilt India’s party, yet again. 

After hitting a four of the third ball, Mushfiqur had already punched the air and was celebrating their victory but Mushfiqur lofted a six but was caught in the deep by Dhawan. Now Mahmudullah would face the next ball but he too could not hold on to his nerve and while hitting a six was caught by Jadeja. Bangladesh needed two runs to force a tie, but Pandya bowled wide to beat Shuvagata Hom and Mustafizur Rahman was run out by Dhoni.  India registered a thumping one run victory over Bangladesh. The win keeps India on course, and a victory over Australia in the final league game on March 27 will see them through to the semi-finals behind leaders New Zealand. 

Hardik Pandya celebrates India's victory after picking up two wickets in the last over

The next match is against the Kangaroos, which will be a virtual quarter-final and the Australians will not commit hara-kiri as the Bangladeshi did hence, maybe the sprint of MS Dhoni will not also save the day!