Friday, June 26, 2009Rain-shortened games are helping teams with more bowling optionsit was too much of a good thing, this ipl! and so the weather has struck playing havoc with the cricket and in doing so, is testing our index as well. as you probably know we incorporate two essential qualities of the t20 game in our index—the value of the flourish at the start and the ability to end with a bang. now if a team only bats for 5 overs, the power play merges seamlessly, and yet a touch irritatingly, into the end overs! but that is being addressed as are the various rain delays. and it didn’t help that the day after mumbai indians had their game washed out and indeed, kings xi had been done in again (though you might argue that they should have taken their catches), durban awoke to a bright, warm day!! these short games are posing problems for teams and yet are rewarding those that have many bowling options. to give you an example, when kolkata were up against king’s xi, the wet outfield (and a ridiculously small boundary one may add!) meant that the spinners were getting neutralised. even murali kartik only got one over and chris gayle couldn’t get a grip on the ball (though he returned with a tight grip on the game!). enter sourav ganguly to bowl four excellent overs (incidentally my choice for man of the match was a toss up between ganguly and gayle with a preference for ganguly). and so going ahead in this tournament, it is the best balanced teams, those that give themselves many options that will remain standing. six bowlers and another option from among the batsman is ideal and this is one hypothesis of ours that is coming good. the other, more obvious but ignored in the rush to highlight the foreign players, is that the teams with the indian players are doing well so far. but these are early days. for the ipl and for the new age ratings!
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ipl-2 is enhancing some reputations and injuring somei have written in these pages about the difference between the ‘how’ and the ‘how much’ and came face to face with it last evening. the commentators pick the player of the match and it was my turn to co-ordinate the award. so off i went to jeremy coney and pommie mbangwa and the others with my list but with a question i couldn’t immediately answer. we have to give points for the top three performances (3, 2 and 1) and at the end of the tournament the points are added up for the player of the tournament (certainly that is how i understand it!). in the delhi daredevils vs. chennai super kings game, irrespective of the result, it was clear that ab de villiers would be player of the match for his 105 from 54 balls. but what about number two? i thought in batting friendly conditions lakshmipathy balaji will 3-19 from 4 overs was outstanding. but then, what about pradeep sangwan who had 3-28 while the super kings were chasing? which was the more valuable performance? going by numbers, and the fact that balaji bowled a fine last over, you would have no hesitation in arriving at the verdict. but sangwan’s three wickets contributed very substantially to the daredevils’ win. the ‘how’ favoured sangwan, the ‘how much’ favoured balaji. the majority went with sangwan but it was one of those that would arouse debate either way. maybe you should tell us what you think—dispassionately and without team loyalties since this is a forum where cricket comes first! oh, and by the way, hayden was a unanimous third! meanwhile the ipl is enhancing some reputations (abhishek nayar, ab de villiers….), creating some (kamran khan) and injuring some. (flintoff, pietersen…) and yes, highlighting some that had been strangely cloaked (rahul dravid, sourav ganguly!) if the weather clears, more runs will be scored, bowling variations will come in and it will seem a bit like ipl 1. as i write, there is bright sunshine outside my room in durban. but if it starts getting cold and windy, expect more 140-150 scores which will bring out the role of the captain even more (see warne’s handling of kamran khan).
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