IPL 2 - Goods and Bads

I had written too many temple blogs recently :). I hope I will continue to write too!! But, for a change this time, here are my views and and a quick recap of IPL 2.

This edition started with a huge drama. When there were questions raised - election or IPL, the answer was obvious - though both have many things in common viz both are team "games", players who represented one team played for someother team (politicians switiching parties and parties switching alliances), star attraction (actors / actresses roped in by parties as well as teams), stars owning parties and teams, cheer leaders (in elections, we, the people and party workers do this job, dancing and celebrating without reasons :)) and above all the GREATEST similarity is the amount of money involved :) - and the IPL was moved to SA. I felt weird when the Indian PL is being played in SA!! But the voter turnout (sorry, audience turnout) was on similar lines and the whole event was a success!! Congrats to BCCI and Modi :)Now, my team (CSK) started rather sluggishly and picked up towards the middle and later part of the tournament and as expected, reached the knockout stage. I was happy that my list of teams reached the semis - CSK, RCB, DC and DD. After this it was anybody's game and DC won in the end. The script couldn't have ended better - Two teams that finished 7th and 8th in the last edition just reversed and played the finals. I was happy for the consistency of DD and CSK reaching the last 4 stage in both the editions!!
But I strongly feel that the knockout stage is the real spoiler in any tournament - not because we lost - but I have my reasons. In the last edition, RR were deserving winners - they showed consistency in the league stage and were literally unbeatable. But KXP was not far behind with as many as 10 wins. But who played the finals with RR? CSK!! (my team :)). In this edition, DD showed real consistency and were table toppers. They had 8 wins out of 10 matches and were playing the remaining 4 games just for the heck of it. When it came to semis, Gilli had a great day, just ra**d everyone and won the game. Ironically, unlike Bangalore, DC din't even earn their semis berth. They were in because KXP lost to CSK in their last game and KKR spoilt RR's party. Somehow RCB deserved a vistory because they were consistent towards the later part of the tournament at least and they defeated real top teams (including DC!!) on their way to the semis. DC on the other hand were totally inconsistent, winning 4 / 4 to start with and then 3 / 10 towards the end (this is poor!!). DC have one less win than DD, having played one more game (the finals)!!! This is ridiculous :( DD - 10 wins / 15 matches and DC 9 wins / 16 matches)

The point I'm trying to drive is, that this kind of a knockout pattern just makes a mockery of the entire league phase. Ideally, at the end of the 14 matches have a best of three finals between the top two teams to reward consistency. Or if there were four teams selected, have a Super 4 kind of concept where teams carry forward points based on their win / loss record against the remaining three qualified teams and then play each other once more. Then decide the finalists!! This would help the tournament and also in generating more revenue :) Otherwise, the champs will be decided based on just one bad day that a good team may have like it happened this time!!

I don't have any grudge against DC but just that I felt something was wrong and hence the post.. End of the day cricket is a sport (a funny game) and anything can happen any day and more so with the T20 format.

DC - Congrats!! RCB - Well played!!

DD - Really Sorry!! MI - Try to win!!

RR - Lightning doesn't strike twice!!

KKR, KXP - Thumbs down!! (I just don't like these teams :()

CSK - My heart is with you!! Well played and you will be the champs in the next edition :) :) :)

All the best to the Indian T20 team... Let's keep the cup :) :)

PS: All you need to win the IPL is to make a 37 year old, retired Aussie player to captain your side!! Just thinking :)

Cheers!!