Indian Premier League (IPL)

[Sin Hombre]

KL with another pathetic knock as his team is eliminated.

[prasen9]

So five teams left. Those two sixes on the last two balls may have cost the KKR a spot in the final four. KKR always seems to fade towards the end. Tewatia fought with both the ball and the bat but could not bail out the worst team in the IPL although all the bottom 5-6 teams are actually pretty evenly matched.

CV Varun with another good bowling performance. He perhaps has been the second best spinner after Chahal and interestingly has kept Kuldeep on the benches without any murmuring anything about him. Kuldeep suddenly forgot how to take wickets in this IPL. Maybe did not get in shape/practice during the layoff?

Batting leaderboard is about the same.

Hardik, Jadeja, Samson, Mayank, Surya, Dhawan, Saha, Ishan

with SRs over 140. Only Saha under 200 runs.

The next tier 135-140 SR are: Tewatia, Rana, Shaw with Shaw having a horrendous average of under 20. All others average over 25.

If we need a middle order bat due to an injury, Surya should be sent over for the T20 games. He is good but not as devastating in List-A and FC cricket though. Similarly, if Jadeja or Hardik get hurt, send over Tewatia.

[prasen9]

Interestingly, Jadeja is now the #2 hitter in this IPL based on form. The overall #2 among players who are still playing is the other Pandya, Krunal. Followed by these two is PP Shaw, Raina, Dhoni, Rahul, Rana, Surya, Kishan, and Tripathi in that order. It is interesting to see that Rahul has become rather slow. That was perhaps because of bad strategy by the captain and the coach of their team. As Morgan said today, you have to take a few more risks in this game now. Which saved KKR's season at least for a day or two. We were 5 down at over 13-14 for 110 or whatever it was. In the last 5 overs they scored 56 runs or more. That is because Morgan and Russell did not get afraid. Only Cummins and the tail was after that. But, they knew that if they do not get a huge score, they would be out. So, they hit out and it clicked. Some days it will not. But, in those cases, you lose anyway. India needs to move on with the times. I used to be an average fan. And, still am for ODIs #1-4 positions with a SR cutoff. But, for the T20 game, you pretty much need a 140 SR. Or have several of these in the team and not be afraid to use it.

Rather than forget about Krunal, we should send him to the academy and fix whatever is ailing him. If we can get him to be slightly more of a wicket-taker and slightly more consistent with the bat, he could be an asset in the T20 World Cup. Maybe it cannot be done. But, it may be an easier bet than making Axar those things especially, given that we need a batting allrounder or two in stock to cover for injuries.

[prasen9]

Sorry Krunal is #3. Pant is #2.

[prasen9]

Our batsmen are so slow that apart from the above list, you have to add Saurabh Tiwary and Sivam Dube, as people with SR between 130-135 in this IPL. The rest of the stalwarts are all under 130 SR, which is bad.

[Atithee]

I think part of the reason is that the foreign top batsmen usually score at a rapid pace. It allows the Indian stalwarts to play tuk-tuk for a while. Would be interesting to compare the strike rate of these slow pokes when batting with a domestic partner rather than an import.

[prasen9]

But people like Dhawan, Prithvi, etc. have not done that. Why are the foreigners hitting only? And our players playing for a larger score at a slower rate?

Some of what you say is true. In international cricket, Rahul bats at 146, Rohit 139, Kohli 138. Iyer is below 130 as is Dhawan and Manish. So, it seems like Dhawan is either in a good form or is a dada on Asian grounds. The latter is certainly true. None of these top 3 have reproduced their run rates in this IPL. Iyer and Manish are slow here and slow there. Hardik is 148 but Krunal is 131 in internationals. So, Krunal is also a bit of an IPL dada but he has not done that well this year anyway.

Shankar is 138 and Dube is 136 but both with very small sample sizes in internationals.

This is becoming like football where all our strikers are foreign ...

[Kumar]

SRH will play second semis with DC! I really like SRH, they are easy time to like! Don’t see any team beating Mi though, but SRH could probably give them a tough fight compared to DC!

The remaining teams have pretty impressive bowling but Mumbai has the best balance

Dies it also feel like Indian batsman don’t use their feet much against spinners?

[Sin Hombre]

Our players know that our junta is happy with losing 50s and high averages.

Kohli had an IPL to forgot, terrible except for one innings.

[prasen9]

Dies it also feel like Indian batsman don’t use their feet much against spinners?

Could be. A lot of these guys do not play as much FC cricket. Or do not care because the glamour is in the IPL.

[cricketkeeda]

Today is the final of the IPL 2020. What do you think who will win. Will Mumbai Indians defend their title of Delhi Capitals will won the title of Indian Premier League for the first time in their history. According to www.criclines.com, Mumbai Indian will defend their title. What do you thinks guys?

[PKBasu]

The Ambani money has made Mumbai Indians an unbeatable side. That they lost so many matches in the league stage was something of a fluke, frankly. With a bowling line-up of Bumrah, Boult, Pattinson, Coulter-Nile, (non-available) Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar, and a deep batting line-up, MI were far ahead of the other sides all season.

[prasen9]

There is now another Kuldip Yadav sometimes spelled Kuldeep Yadav whom I think RR bought. Great fun!

[rajitghosh]

Tendulkar purchased.by Ambani for 20 lakhs

[prasen9]

Really? Is this just a PR gimmick or is he good? He barely got into the Mumbai side I think but has not played a game yet. He is not that good. What is going on?