Kunal,

I have watched a couple of games completely during the weekend and will continue to do so until the tournament comes to an end.  Although the initial games were more of muscle-flexing, the latter part have been a terrific example of skill.  

Shane Warne has been an astounding Captain.  He is consistently backing his strike force and that makes his team a very dangerous customer.  Nobody considered Rajasthan to dominate the scene in this fashion, but that assessment has been a big plus for Shane's team.  All of his ground crew and support staff would get wide recognition if they continue to play the way they are playing.  

Chennai has been the best team, as far as my opinion is concerned.  They had very strong players initially and it was no surprise that they dominated the intial games.  But when they left to serve their nation, the team got a jolt.  Then it took some time for them to regroup with a new set of players.  Now, they are back to winning ways and this is what makes them a serious customer.  I have never seen a team that had so much of resilience.  The IPL Chennai team is dominating pretty much in the same way their ICL counterpart did and this is what amazes me.  I wonder what would happen if they had the likes of Vignesh, Satish and Kumaran in their ranks......If you consider just local players, Chennai has the best team, IPL and ICL combined, that is.  Balaji's performance yesterday was awesome.  The bloke is just back from rehab, but he bowled well within himself and got amazing results bowling some consistent line, while extracting great bounce in Chepauk.  Wonder if he can replicate that in other grounds too.  Lets see.


Delhi's aggression has been their hallmark.    McGrath has been effective even though one would have imagined that he is well past his prime.  Gambhir, I am sure will be a regular with our ODI team.  I missed the Delhi game in the morning, but I am sure they are in contention for the semi-finals.  If they have the services of Sudhindra, from Delhi ICL team, arguably the 
fastest bowler after Ishant, Delhi will scare the rest with their armoury. 

Dada's team is re-grouping very fast.  With Shoaib opening the bowling from the next game, I am sure KKR's bowling line up is now the most potent in the circuit.  Ishant, Dinda and Gul make up the rest of the fast bowling line-up.  Tell me, do you need more? If Jhunjhunwala [ICL Kolkata] was part of this team, it would have been more potent.  LR Shukla is one extremely energetic fellow in the circuit.  I can only remember Ajay Jadeja in comparison.  Jadeja's catch of Allan Border, off Kapil Dev in 1992 WC is among the top three outstanding catches in the outfield.  The other two I recokon are Kapil Dev catching Viv Richards off Madan Lal in 83 WC and Martin Crowe catching David Houghton in Hyderabad, 87 Reliance Cup.  Dada has now won 2 MOM's on the trot and this guy I am sure will set Eden Garden's alight in the next few games. 

Hyderabad is one team I want to talk about in length.  But as of now, it seems to be that unit in which the sum is not the same as parts.  Gilchrist and Rohit are the top two run-scorers of the tournament, but their team's fortunes have not been the same.  Gibbs and Afridi have been scare-crows at best.  Venugopal Rao's knock in the morning has been a revelation.  This guy is definitely ODI material.  I would like to share a lot of my observations with respect to my home team in the near future.  Adam Glichrist or Laxman should now introspect and work hard to get the team to dominate in the next edition.  Their ICL counterpart was off-color in the first two editions too.  But they have just lifted the latest edition with some extremely good all-round performances.  While slow bowlers were a huge hit with ICL, it seems its the opposite with IPL.  If the team has Rayudu, Absolem, Shashank Nag, Anirudh Singh and the latest ICL superstar [as far as wicket keeping skill is concerned], Ibrahim Khaleel, we are talking about an extremely competitive regional side.  

Bangalore needs Rahul Dravid to come at #4 or 5.  If they have the services of Robin Uthappa and Stuart Binny, they are an equally dangerous unit as Hyderabad.  Hyderabad ICL team won so many games with Binny's performances.  Karnataka has probably the best bowling line-up in Ranji Trophy and if they are close to replicating this, you are talking about an extremely competitive unit.  Mr. Mallya needs to bck his men and the issue now is to think strategically, instead of sacking people.  Mr. Charu Sharma's sacking is absolutely unjustified.  

Mumbai is a different unit if Cricket's Super Star makes an entry.  I would like him to make a complete recovery though.  If ICL Mumbai's Raviraj Patil comes out to bat with Sachin, I am sure we all want more and more......

Later,