Incessant Rain ends Knight Riders’ Hopes

Unfortunately Kolkata Knight Riders’ worst nightmare came out true as they have been kicked out of IPL not by one of the IPL teams but by the Incessant Delhi rain even without a single ball being bowled.

Interesting Equations:

IPL in its last phase is getting interesting as the cricketing equations are changing to some extent at the end of everyday. Since Kolkata Knight Riders are out now, this confirms a semi final spot for Punjab Kings XI. With this, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings XI are confirmed semi finalists.

This washout means Delhi must win their last game of IPL against the Mumbai Indians at the same Ground. Rain permitting, if Delhi beats Mumbai, they would have 15 points, 3 more than Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians in that case will have to win their last two games against the Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal challengers to get 16 points and beat Delhi for the semi final spot. In case the rain doesn’t show any mercy and the weather forecast is definitely not with Delhi, Delhi would only have 14 points and Mumbai would only need to win one of their remaining games to qualify for semi-finals.

Chennai on the other hand must be cursing themselves for losing the game against the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Had they won, they could have qualified for semi finals by now. They also need to win at least one of their remaining two games against Rajasthan Royals and Deccan chargers respectively. In the worst case scenario, if they lose both, and Delhi also lose to Mumbai, they will tie at 14 points with Delhi and NRR will decide their fate. As for now, Delhi has a much better run rate (+0.350) than Chennai has (-0.209). So Chennai Super Kings would definitely not like to leave it to the NRR. However if Chennai loses both the remaining games and Delhi beat’s Mumbai and Mumbai in turn beats both Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore, Chennai would be kicked out.

Remaining games now don't deter the semi final chances for Punjab and Rajasthan, but they would certainly love to go into the semi finals with the momentum in their side. Cricket at times is all about momentum.

IPL Observes Chocker's Day

IPL saw a day which can aptly be termed as "Chokers Day". First, Mumbai Indians collapsed from a winning position, thereby denting their semi-final chances to some extent, and in the second game, the Chennai Super Kings collapsed from a similar position chasing a modest total against a team that had lost 5 of its previous games.

The loss of Chennai Super Kings would surprise many pundits given the modest total they had to chase, but more surprisingly it is going to surprise even the Bangalore Royal challengers. They hardly did anything extra ordinary, but it was CSK that created a panic situation out of nowhere. Kumble was the main bowler with 3/14 and was ably supported by Styne towards the end. This game has further exposed the frailty of Chennai's batting line up and it is a definite cause of concern for them as their bowling attack is not one of the best when we are talking about the semi finalists. As their captain put things aptly at the end, rash shot selections and perhaps the over confidence was the key to a shameful loss, which seem to have dented their chances for semi final a bit. After all this was a game, they should have won easily.

Mumbai Indians, on the other hand were equally big chokers. After the brilliance of Shaun Marsh and LA Pomersbach saw Punjab put a big total of 189 runs, Tendulkar and Jaysurya provided a perfect start to Mumbai Indians adding 36 runs in the first three overs. DR Smith later joined Tendulkar and continued from where Jaysurya had left and it looked as if the Mumbai were all set for their 7th record consecutive win in IPL. But a tight spell from Chawla changed the things as Mumbai indian's completely panicked and collapsed once Tendulkar was run out in the 17th over. As many as 6 run outs in the Mumbai Indian innings confirms the panic in the Mumbai camp, not to foget the last one of Yeligati outdone by a brilliant Yuvraj.

Chennai would like to remember this loss when they meet another joker in Hyderabad next time. Playing an underdog at times is really tricky because the underdogs have nothing to lose and hence they are under no pressure.

Mumbai Indians on the other hand, still have three games and the confidence of 6 straight wins prior to this game. This should make them positive for the next three games.

Semi Final Gate slightly opened : With two top teams, Chennai and Mumbai, losing their games today, it has slightly opened the semi final gate for Delhi Daredevils. Delhi's only way for a semi final spot remains the same- win both the games, however they would be helped a bit from the panic created in the camps of Chennai and Mumbai after today's loss. As it was seen today, both Mumbai and Chennai failed under pressure and panicked at the time they should have maintained their calm. Delhi Daredevils, would hope CSK and Mumbai Indians continue in the same vein for the games to come.

Analysis : IPL Semi Finals Spots Nearly Fixed

With today's match, (May 20th, 44th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals) where Rajasthan Royal's thrashed the Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets, the Semi Final spots in the DLF IPL seems to be nearly fixed. At least we are in a position to know which teams are not going to make it. Below chart shows the current standings and it follows my own analysis:

Jaipur: They certainly have emerged as the Royals. Topping the chart with 9 out of 11 wins so far, they have sealed the semi final spot without any doubt now. Even if they lose their remaining three games (worst case scenario), they are going to comfortably make it to semis.

Mohali: They are number 2 right now and the good news for them is they still have 4 matches to go namely against Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals. They would certainly like to win against the Deccan Chargers as it might be their easiest game of all. They would also like to win against the KKR, since that would eliminate all possibilities of KKR advancing into semis. Only with these two wins, they should command the number 2 or 3 position.

Chennai Supper Kings: They have three games left against Bangalore, Rajasthan and Hyderabad. They need to win at least one of them. Given the performance of Bangalore and Hyderabad in the tournament so far, I believe it is going to be easy for them. 2 wins would make them comfortable at number 2 or 3.

Mumbai Indians: This team has been the biggest surprise so far given the way they started in the tournament. It seems ouster of Harbhajan Singh has motivated them to the same extent as the return of Sachin Tendulkar who is yet to play a valuable knock in this shorter version. With 4 games remaining for them, namely against Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and Bangalore, they have time in their stride. Having said that, they at least need to win 2 of their remaining four games to be comfortable. They are now tied with Delhi, so they must beat Delhi as well.

Delhi Daredevils: It is a pity that after such a dream start the daredevils are languishing behind the top 4 teams. It is another pity that daredevils are the team who posses the best opening partners in the tournament and one of the openers (Gambhir) is also the most run accumulator in the tournament so far. Their opening bowler Mcgrath has been consistent and miser. In spite of all these facts, they are the joker right now. With two more games remaining to their name, they have the chance to make some upset in the last few matches before IPL heads for knockouts. All in all, they must win both the games against Mumbai Indians as well as KKR. They are going to see the toughest games, because both KKR and Mumbai Indians would try to beat them and seal their own chances for semis. Watch out for these two games.

Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers, Bangalore Royal Challengers: In my opinion these teams are out of the first edition of DLF IPL.

Obviously teams qualifying for Semis would not like to be at number 4 and face number 1 (Rajasthan in most probability) in the semi's itself. So every team would compete hard to leave the number 4 spot and give themselves a much better chance to advance into the finals.

Tie Ups: There are high chances that 2-3 teams would stand at the same number of points after this league round. This induces masala in IPL in the remaining games when the teams would not only want to win the games but win them comprehensively. Watch out for big hits and hence big failures.

PS:- This analysis is completely based on my opinion and it might not match everyone's. Not that I care, but I do apologize to the loyal fans of KKR, Deccan Chargers and Bangalore to mention that they are out of the IPL. (I assume, IPL has been able to infuse some loyalty among the local fans)

Sorry Punjab you may be Kings but we are super kings

As Chennai Super Kings beats Punjab Kings at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai by 18 runs, thanks to the first hattrick of the IPL by the forgotten pace battery L Balaji and blistering knock by Chennai's adoped captain and Jharkhand's Hero MS Dhoni well supplemented by chennai's own son Badrinath's well compiled half century, we have a chance to go back and think if the IPL is finally able to infuse the loyalities in the cricket fans for their local teams?

Looking at the enthusiasm of the fans and the kind of placards they put on display, I believe it is slowly slowly catching up. We have also seen Dravid not being acknowleded and cheered for his boundaries in Bombay already. In today's match too, when Yuvraj singh was cleaned, the roar of the crowd was so intense as if they were celebrating dismissal of Ricky Ponting in an India Australia match. I do not know how the international stars might be coping with this sudden change of loyalties by their own fans but this is definitely good for the future of IPL and it seems IPL is on good track.

This observation is eye catching because for a team that has its coach, captain and as many as half of the team members from not the same soil, receiving this amount of fan loyality is something extraordinary. In my opinion this may be attributed the maturity and the love for the game of the Chennai cricket fans. A good cricket, a good bowling spell, murderous big sixes contribute more towards team loyalities than just the "Sun of the soil" factor.

Observing the halla bol going on in one of the most developed states of India on the related subject lines of "Son of the soil" by Raj Thakrey Vs the UP and Bihar, It is so pleasing to feel that cricket is such a good leveler of Nationality among indians. In this respect, I believe the world of cricket which ofcourse comprises all sort of its fans is much more mature, well behaved, loyal and responsible.

This article has also been published on www.cricweed.com