Indian Premier League (IPL)

[PKBasu]

Gambhir has that something special to deliver when it counts. He top scored in the 2007 T20I world final and the 2011 World Cup final, and yesterday he steered his side home under pressure again.

[prasen9]

So, Gambhir will click in the final this year? Unfortunately, Uthappa has faded after a very good start. Yusuf seems to be past expiry date. The batting needs to click against Mumbai. Just as Rahane and Dhoni clicked after having a poor-ish season.

[PKBasu]

Making 32 of the 48 runs needed for victory, after three wickets had fallen for next to nothing, is pretty spectacular. The selectors discarded him too casually, and never really gave him a proper chance to stage a comeback. He is the exact opposite of Dhoni and Rohit -- - non-glam player who invariably performs when it counts.

[Prashant]

I know there are no better alternatives & I know this is part of the game, but seeing any LO game decided based on these hugely reduced targets just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And I support Mumbai, so had no dogs in the fight between Hyderabad & Kolkata. Just wish they had a reserve day. Or, maybe play five overs each at a time.

[prasen9]

There is an alternative. Just have a reserve day. I am fully with you. Or if the forecast calls for rain, move the game earlier if the logistics can be handled.

I looked at the Indian players with the lowest SRs with over 142 runs. Here is the list (in sorted order of low SR first): Mandeep, Dhoni, Rahane, Kohli, Nair, Rohit, Saha, Rana, Dhawan, Pandey, Gambhir. (all under 130)

That seems like a veritable Indian batting lineup. With the exception of Rana, all of these guys have played for India. It is strange to see this. What could be the explanation? 142 runs is too much? So, the Indian players who have not made it to the national team do not make the qualification? Very few players who have not played for India get a chance to play significant number of matches? New players are slotted down the order and have to hit? I did not expect this list of top-10 to not have only one non ex-India player (with the exception of Rana).

[PKBasu]

KKR inexplicably picked Rajpoot ahead of Kuldeep Yadav, and that meant that the bowling unit was carrying a passenger who was completely out of his depth. Somehow teams seem unwilling to have 3 spinners even in Indian conditions.

[PKBasu]

Bad decision to send Dhoni in at #4. He slowed the scoring rate, and the rest succumbed to the extra pressure in a final. Terrific bowling by Bumrah, Johnson and Malinga at the death to take MI home by 1 run, and defend a low score.

[PKBasu]

Bizarre choice of Man of the Match for the IPL final. Krunal Pandya did well in other matches, and was crucial with the bat in the final for his team. But he dropped a sitter at cover (from Rahane) and then bowled one of the most expensive overs of the match.
I think the MoM should have been Mitch Johnson or Bumrah, who actually won the match for their side in the end.

[Atithee]

It's all meaningless. IPL is 100% played in the betting dens. What a sham!

[prasen9]

This is a repudiation of the Dhoni doctrine. There was an international match where Gambhir was very angry with Dhoni because he wanted to take the match to the last over and win when Gambhir (and Sehwag?) had given a fantastic huge opening stand while scoring very fast. Dhoni lost that match for us and then shrugged saying that probabilistically that gives us the most chance to win even if you do not win every match. Gambhir argued that the game should have been finished two overs earlier or you should at least target that so that you have some cushion then you have a few more balls left. It works more often than not when Dhoni was at his prime. But, now with him slowed down, it fails more regularly.

[abhishek_bong]

From the very beginning of this year or I would say from them previous year lots of people in my locality was saying like-"no one gonna watch IPL any more" -"IPL have lost all its space " it's no longer famous- Ipl Band ho jaya ga"-
Then I made some research I was clearly able to find out that IPL is no longer an Indian Premier League it's an international premier league. Nothing will matter that much if Indians entirely stop watching IPL.
The reason that I am saying so is -
1. IPL is the highest watched sports event in dubai ,saudi Arabia and all other Gulf countries.
2. IPL have the highest fan base in YOUtube Internationally.
3.The single Indian sports which receive the highest amount of foreign funding in India. The most FDI builder in India.
4.IPL contribute Over 5 billion dollars to Indian GDP.
and we all thought that IPL is an Indian sport!!I have no proof but I allege that the 50% of satta market rely on IPL.
Might on that day of making BCCI haven’t ever imagined that this IPL cricket is going to be the world most attended cricket league ever and in terms of public attendance and popularity IPL will rank six among all sports leagues in the world.
I will keep on posting shocking IPL details in - blog.100mph.in

[prasen9]

Abhishek, thanks for the info. I had no doubts when it was formed that IPL would be the premier cricket league in the world. I have always wanted it to be an international league with no restrictions on number of foreign players. But, I know that will not happen.

[arjun2761]

Good old Wikipedia has the sports leagues listed by revenue.

IPL at $337mm is among the top 20 sports leagues in the world based on revenue and does even a little better on a per-team basis as they have relatively few teams.

[PKBasu]

I don't quite understand what is happening with the merry go round of teams in the IPL.
CSK (Chennai Super Kings) were banned -- but seem to be back this year.
Pune were the replacement team (of sorts) last year, but are missing this year. CSK has been reconstituted with most of their players from the pre-ban roster (Dhoni, Jadeja, Raina) back in the squad now. How the heck? (Wasn't the Supreme Court's intervention in the affairs of the BCCI all about reining in the corruption of CSK's owners..??).

[PKBasu]

Shreevats Goswami is again in the same team as Wriddhiman Saha, and will thus not get to demonstrate his abilities as a 'keeper-batsman. Some of the other teams have no-name 'keepers, while one team has both Parthiv Patel and de Kock. Teams should pay more attention to filling this specialist slot, but rarely do, which suggests the lack of cricket professionalism in the IPL managements. They are looking for the glamour quotient rather than pure cricketing logic.