Indian Premier League (IPL)

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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by PKBasu »

Wriddhiman's 93* off 55 balls takes Kings XI Punjab to victory over table-toppers Mumbai Indians. This is one guy who has been kept hidden away from displaying his real abilities for far too long. And he made the runs yesterday against McClenaghan, Malinga and Bumrah (to be fair Bumrah was the only one who survived his onslaught), plus Bhajji, Hardik Pandya and Karn.

So KXIP are still technically in the hunt for a playoff spot. RPS (16) have two more games to play, SRH (15) and KXIP (14) have one each left. RCB have already finished last. Their top order (Gayle, Kohli, DeVilliers) fell apart inexplicably this year.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by PKBasu »

Delhi Daredevils delayed Pune's chance of qualifying for the playoffs -- beating them yesterday, after Zaheer bowled a beauty to clean bowl Rahane first ball. Manoj Tiwary (60 off 45) ran out of partners in the end (after a freak run out of Dhoni); there were 25 runs needed off the last over, Manoj clobbered the first two balls from Cummins for sixes, but then could only add 5 more as Cummins nailed the yorkers and the batsmen decided not to take singles. (A bit like Jadhav in the Calcutta T20I against England, where he decided he would either do it himself or fail, and the latter happened after a good six off the first ball or two).
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by sanjay8886 »

Clearly a fixed match today between Gujarat Lions and SRH. 111/0 in 10 overs to 155/8, followed by lot of missing catches and umpire not giving out even when there was clear edge of Warner. Oh well, that's IPL, don't really know what is going on outside the field.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by PKBasu »

Hyderabad have now qualified. KKR are probably in, but Pune need to win their match against KXIP in order to make it through.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by sameerph »

sanjay8886 wrote:Clearly a fixed match today between Gujarat Lions and SRH. 111/0 in 10 overs to 155/8, followed by lot of missing catches and umpire not giving out even when there was clear edge of Warner. Oh well, that's IPL, don't really know what is going on outside the field.
Even the match between Mumbai and Punjab looked fixed to me just to keep Punjab in contention. In the last over, after hitting a six, Pollard could not get even 2 runs in next 4 balls from Mohit Sharma.

Otherwise it has been entertaining with lot of young Indian players showing their mettle. It remains to be seen though if these remain one season IPL wonders ( as many in the past) or go on to do well in international cricket.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by PKBasu »

No big surprises in the end, with Pune thrashing Punjab on a slightly wet pitch, that Unadkat (2/12 in 3) and Thakur (3/19 in 4) exploited to the hilt. Unadkat has been the best bowler after Bhuvi in this IPL.

So it will be a Mumbai-Pune match to determine the first finalist (while the loser awaits the winner of the first eliminator between KKR and SRH).
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by prasen9 »

At the end of the regular season, here are the batting leaders among the Indian players (qual:300 runs)

By Avg: Pandey, Gambhir, Raina, Dhawan, Karthik, Uthappa, Iyer

Interesting that most of them are India or ex-India players. The only newcomer is Iyer, who may be a future India player.

By SR: Uthappa, Pant, Tripathi, Raina, Samson, Karthik, Iyer

We have some hard-hitting youngsters who are inconsistent (except Iyer, who appears in both lists). Pandey and Gambhir have been relatively "slow". Hence, Uthappa's firing is very crucial if KKR has to win anything.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by PKBasu »

Yuvraj Singh and Manoj Tiwary had better strike rates than Samson, Iyer and Karthik, although they missed a few games and so didn't meet your qualifying criterion of 300 runs.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by prasen9 »

Right. I was being lazy. By no means am I saying that these are the only good performers. However, it is easier to hit at a high SR for fewer matches and/or while scoring fewer runs. Tiwary, Jadhav, and Yuvraj Singh come in if you use 240 runs as qualifying. And all of them had a SR over 140.

The two worst SRs among those who scored 138 runs (CricInfo's cutoff) were Dhoni 113 and Rahane 116. Mandeep Singh had a poor ave (18.8) and a poor SR 106! I think nobody else is below 120. Only Narine and Negi average below Mandeep but they had much higher SRs. Dhoni and Rahane should possibly be kept away from our LoI teams. Maybe Dhoni can be given a bit of a leeway because of his stellar career.

Now among the bowlers (12 wickets qualifying);

By avg.: Negi, Unadkat, Bhuvi, Kaul, Sandeep Sharma, YS Chahal. (All under 24.)
By Econ: Negi, Bhuvi, Unadkat, Axar, Chahal, Bumrah. (All under 7.75)

Interesting to see the top 3 being the same. And Chahal in both lists. Sandeep and Siddharth Kaul took wickets and Axar and Bumrah kept it quiet.

Interestingly, Negi, Unadkat, Chahal, Axar, Bhuvi, Sandeep Sharma, and Bumrah are all India or ex-India players. So, Kaul is the only "new" face. I think Chahal clearly seems to be taking the mantle from Amit Mishra for the next leggie. Piyush Chawla seems to have faded. At least for the LOIs, I would prefer Chahal to Chawla.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by Sin Hombre »

The issue I have with prasen's list is that for T20 cricket, minimum runs is relevant but sorting by avg to call some of them inconsistent is less so.

I would Rishabh Pant's 366 runs at a S/R of 166 over the "consistency" of Dhawan's 468 @ 129 or Smith's 420 @ 125.

India needs one high average batsman with 130 S/R to tie the innings together and we already have two of them in Kohli and Rahul. Rest of the lineup needs to be guys who can score at 150+ and can score 20-30 runs per game on average (with higher variance naturally).

Agree regarding Dhoni and Rahane.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by prasen9 »

1. Dhawan was out two less times.

2. I am not saying that we choose based on averages alone for T20Is. That is why I listed both averages and SRs. For LOIs, that would have been adequate until now, but, it seems Australia believes otherwise in the last 1-2 years. It would be interesting to see what their experiment produces. Although drawing conclusions from them is fraught with dangers because they have a fabulous bowling attack. Your proposal may well be a winning formula in T20Is.

3. I called Pant to be more inconsistent than Iyer or Dhawan. Note that I did not say that is why Pant should be disqualified from a slot in the 11. I guess one of the best ways to measure inconsistency is possibly to compute the variance of the scores of Pant and Dhawan. I did not do it and will do the numbers later when I have more time. But, I am willing to bet that Dhawan's variance will be less than that of Pant. Note that Dhawan's highest score is 77 while Pant's is 97 --- a quick rationale for my bet. Although the variance would penalize someone who has scored varying number of runs (say, 50, 60, 70 would have higher variance than 0,0,0), but, I think in this case it will capture what we want. I think it is a fact that Dhawan was more consistent in this IPL than Pant. Whether you care for consistency or not that is a separate question. If someone averages 40 with the ball, I would actually prefer a person who is inconsistent rather than one who is consistent. The inconsistent person may at times have a match winning spell. The consistent person is always mediocre and never match winning.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by PKBasu »

Dhoni demonstrated again his ability to deliver at the crunch (and despite his slow scoring off the first 10 balls of each innings, and the first 17 balls of this one). And Rahane played a stellar innings too. (I was also surprised that Bhajji didn't play for MI yesterday; there was some injury scare in the previous match, and perhaps that is why he was rested: dropping him would be folly given his economy rate; also surprised that Malinga didn't bowl his fourth over, after going for just 14 runs and 1 wicket in 3 overs).

Having watched the innings, I'm astonished at the way Cricinfo, for instance, finds ways to play up Dhoni's performance and downplay others'. Cricinfo reports that, in the 19th over, the first ball (a Beamer) was carted for four and the next ball for six. No mention of the batsman (it was Manoj Tiwary, who scored 11 runs off the first two balls of that over, including the beamer which was deemed a no-ball). After that the narrative is all Dhoni. The reality is that Dhoni hit 12 runs off the last 4 balls of that over, which were also punctuated by two wides; so in total, 9 balls were bowled in the over, 11 off 3 balls being made by Tiwary, and 12 off 6 balls being scored by Dhoni -- and yet the narrative is all Dhoni, and Tiwary is asked to comment just on Dhoni in the post-match interview! Our Cricket star system is so much like Bollywood!
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by prasen9 »

Generally accept your point. I am a MT fan. But, I also like to argue. So, I'll play the devil's advocate.

1. If you count wide balls, then that undercuts your argument. Wide balls cannot be hit and thus the batsman's SR should not be penalized for that.

2. Dhoni scored at a SR of 153, whereas Manoj's SR was 120. I understand Manoj came during a crisis. But, if you compare Manoj's SR to that of Rahane's (130) he comes out slower too. I think Dhoni's contribution was the most important in this innings.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by PKBasu »

There's no question (i.e., I agree!) that Dhoni's contribution was the most important. It is also crucial to realise, though, that Dhoni had made 14 runs off 17 balls before the final blitzkrieg. And, it is the description of that blitzkrieg I take exception to. The 26 runs off the penultimate over were contributed equally by both (11 runs off Manoj's bat off, 12 off Dhoni's; the latter faced four legitimate balls, Tiwary two, but Cricinfo didn't even mention who scored the first 11 runs; and the other 3 runs in that over were extras). In the final over, Dhoni didn't do all that well: 12 runs off five balls, and failing to get the single off the last ball that should have been taken.
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Re: Indian Premier League (IPL)

Post by prasen9 »

There is also no question that Dhoni gets the superstar treatment. A bit of it is deserved, but, we do go overboard.

It is deliciously ironic that the two slowest players among the regulars/stars Rahane and Dhoni anchored Pune to a victory. When the pitch has something in it, you need the slower batsmen.

Dhoni's approach to LOIs is fraught with high risk. He plays too slowly in the beginning. If he gets out, that is bad for the team. It is hard to recover from. If he succeeds, then of course, the team is much better placed. Contrast that to Kohli, who even though plays with the same template is not *that* slow at the beginning especially if the team is chasing a big total. Now that he has started getting out earlier more often, his overall SR has started to go down and the team suffers more often than not. I think the great man should retire. He may win us a few more matches, but, I would rather see the next generation groomed before the next WC.
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