WHAT'S UP WITH THE IPL

A lot of things.

New teams, new strategy and unpredictably predictable pattern in the flow of the game and virat’s first hundred.

 And Of course who can forget controversies... IPL just can't do without it.

The fab team of the Chennai franchise has been split and new loyalties have been forged in the new teams Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions.

 

friends turned foes?

Pune started as the giants they proclaimed to be with a convincing win over the Mumbai Indians but since then have had problems with their combination and balance.

Gujarat have come out roaring and their top heavy batting line-up have been complemented by their all-rounders. Raina’s captaincy seems to have the coolness from the man whose shadow he is trying to come out of now.

Kolkata seems to be the team to have found out its perfect combination. That they have  highest batting average and lowest bowling strike rate in this edition is testimony to the fact of their in form openers, destructive all-rounders and wicket taking bowlers. Clearly no other team has come close to having the balance that kolkata has.

leading from the front?

Evidence to that is Royal Challengers Bangalore whose top four comprising of Gayle, Kohli, De villiers and Watson is so strong that it seems like cheating. However even they are not able to insulate their toothless bowling and their flat home ground. It is with wonder, one will wonder, what a wonderful team this could have been if only starc had been there.

Yet another slow start sees Mumbai face a similar but reversed role with their bowling in good t20 form but their batsmen in blowing hot and cold. Rohit Sharma has engineered two wins and Krunal Pandya certainly been a find but overall the batting has been inconsistent.

Same is the case with Hyderabad. The team is heavily reliant on Warner’s batting and commitment and Mustafizur "the fizz" Rahman"s cutters. Kumar has started bowling well after the mauling from Sarfraz khan while Dhawan has started to get some runs with other steady contributions.

Mustafizur fizzing through line-ups?

In Murali, Mannan, Marsh, Miller, Maxwell, and Mitchell it seems Punjab likes the letter ‘m’. However memorable isn’t exactly what they would call their initial run of play. Their bowling doesn’t look threatening even with Johnson and their string of losses have coincided with the surprisingly extended loss of form of Miller and Maxwell which sees at the bottom of the table yet again.

Delhi’s batting looks more of an under-25 line-up. Their selection policy is centred on youth but too much of it seemed to be the problem. However with Zaheer, Morris and Duminy and De kock, Delhi have surprised themselves by winning three on the trot at this stage. Can they continue punching above their weight?

This IPL has been surprisingly predictable thus far with the thrillers that define IPL few and far. Surely with the definite slowdown in pitches and gradual increase in turn for spinners will correct the “anomaly’ as De Villiers puts it of the chasing team winning first?

However another controversy has overtaken the game, yet again. This time it takes the form of the high court order of banning IPL games in Maharashtra due to the severe drought it faces.

From the haughty and dismissive attitude it used to carry when controversies first appeared IPL is now acting as the victim and trying to look as if it is always wronged upon.

You cannot clap with one hand. Similarly the fault doesn’t lie with one party. Clearly the drought is a sustained phenomenon whose prediction could’ve been made before the drought’s consequences and (ahem) the IPL schedule drawn.

Why the PIL 5 days before the event and not when then the planning was made? Why was there no action taken during the world cup where Mumbai was a venue?

Also why did BCCI fix matches in the state where the symptoms of drought started well in advance?  
Better planning and forethought would have help avoid the situation it is in now.

However as dravid says “It's a serious issue, and the fact that so many people are dying because of shortage of water is serious, but linking it to IPL will trivialise it”

However IPL has become that one tournament that we all hate to love but cant help getting attracted to. It's taking longer than usual for the on-field drama to be scripted with regularity but once those thrillers start taking place... well its called IPL for nothing.