IPL 3 2010 Preview

A must read for all cricket fans! A preview of how the IPL teams fare in the third installment of this competition. In case you have forgotten, here are the teams that will be competing in the most anticipated and exciting twenty20 competition to date: Delhi Daredevils, Bangalore Challengers, Deccan Chargers, Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Superkings, Kolkata Knight Riders and the Mumbai Indians.

Delhi Daredevils

Pretty much the same squad as last year except they now have the services of South Africa young rising star Wayne Parnell. Personally, I think it was waste of money considering how many overseas stars they already have in their side. You can only have a maximum of 4 oversea players and Delhi already have Warner, De Villiers, Vettori, Dilshan, Nannes, Henriques… Will Parnell even get a game? We saw what Delhi did to McGrath despite his world class and accurate bowling. Well, Delhi have a strong squad for this year and there is no reason why they can’t win this tournament. The only issue is whether the players have belief in themselves to win after having their hearts ripped out in two consecutive semi finals. They remind me of South Africa – comfortably making the semi finals before choking. It is only when Delhi learn their lessons will they be a real threat to the title.

Prediction: 3rd

Bangalore Challengers

So close yet so far – the story of Bangalore’s IPL campaign in 2009. Still, they managed to make the finals and considering they were 2nd last in 2008 – this was a massive effort. The most notable addition to their squad is Eoin Morgan, the Ireland/England form player. As we saw in South Africa, when Morgan gets going he is nearly unstoppable and exciting to watch. But more importantly, he is consistent – something that Bangalore will need if they are to go one step further than last year. There is also no reason why this side can’t win this tournament, given the quality of their star players in Kumble, Taylor, Pietersen, Kallis, Steyn, P. Kumar … the list goes on. Under Kumble’s leadership and Taylor’s current hot and destructive form, the only real team that can beat them is themselves.

Prediction: 1st – Winners

Deccan Chargers

From Zero to Hero – the story of Deccan’s IPL campaign in 2009. From finishing dead last in 2008 to winning the IPL in 2009 is utterly remarkable and a huge confidence builder for many of those young Indian players. And they have no other person to thank than Mr Adam Gilchrist, single-handedly beating Delhi in the semis and then leading Deccan to the ultimate prize. Interestingly, Deccan recruited young but talented West Indian fast bowler Roach. Personally, I think Roach was overpriced considering his international success is modest to say the least but he can prove me wrong if he performs in this competition. Again, the stars of this spirited Deccan outfit will need to stand up as the senior players of this team to lead and set an example for the rest of the side i.e. Symonds, Laxman and Gibbs. Unless Gilchrist fires consistently (like he did last year) throughout this tournament, there is some uncertainty as to whether Deccan will be able to defend their title.

Prediction: 5th

Kings XI Punjab

Whilst being fairly impressive, Punjab were also very disappointing at the same time, finishing 5th and missing out on the semi finals. Like Mumbai, Punjab are also quite an expensive franchise and have a lot of quality players such as Sangkkara, I. Pathan, Jayawardene, Sreesanth and Y. Singh. Unfortunately, they lose Lee and Marsh due to injury this year. Interestingly they have bought in Barath (youngest West Indian to make a test century on debut against Australia), M. Kaif (don’t know what they expect in getting out of him) and kept Y. Abdulla (who was really good at the beginning of the tournament). Of those recruitments, none seem capable or likely to get their side through to the semi finals. At best, it could be said that bar Sangkarra and Y. Singh, Punjab’s star players underperformed. Unless they perform, then I see nothing better than a similar if not an even worse outcome this year round.

Prediction: 7th

Rajasthan Royals

Shocked everybody when they won the IPL in 2008. Since then, have not been much of a surprise, finishing 6th in 2009. They are the cheapest side in the competition but what has really impressed me is how they’ve been able to work with what they have (in 2008). They way Warne led his inexperienced side was fascinating! Unfortunately, they couldn’t repeat it the following year and it looks as though they won’t able to do so this year. A positive is that they have Martyn and Voges – two Aussies who can really turn it on in the twenty20 arena on their day. Voges in particular is not only handy with bat and ball but is also quite good on the field (if you want to see what is capable of on the field, you might want to watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph98ZBZtp1w. The bowling and batting of the Rajasthan Royals are just too inconsistent to be considered contenders to the title and possible threats to the other franchises. How high they can finish up in the points table will very much depend on the performances of Warne (the greatest spinner of all time), Smith, Y. Pathan and Mascarenhas.

Prediction: 8th

Chennai Superkings

Had a quite a good tournament last year, finishing a respectable 2nd on the table last year, until they too choked their way out of the tournament (like Delhi). What would of really made them frustrated is the fact that all franchises in the top four qualified for the twenty20 champions trophy except them and they will be looking to make amends this year. Through the later stages of the IPL last year, Chennai were looking flat and it was their loss to KKR in the final round that was a catalyst that would bring about their downfall. Like last year, Chennai will depend on Dhoni, Raina, Hayden and M. Hussey to make big totals or chase totals down. The bowling is what will be the most worrying aspect of their game – though they do have Murali, the other bowlers don’t seem to be in that great of form to be penetrative and support Murali. Another worry is the inexperience and fragility of their batting order, especially the young domestic Indian cricketers who will be under all sorts of pressure if the big names above don’t fire. On a positive note, they now have the services of destructive allrounder Justin Kemp but as we have seen in the past – can be a bit of a hit-and-miss player. Unfortunately, don’t see very good things happening for Chennai this year.

Prediction: 6th

Kolkata Knight Riders

I don’t know what it is but something tells me we are gonna see something special

from a side that was so bad and embarrassing last year – finishing dead last. But what did raise some eyebrows was their last match against Chennai where they chased down 180+ to win. The energy and spirit they showed looked as though they were playing in a final. After witnessing that McCullum century against Australia, I believe McCullum can most certainly bounce back from his dismal and poor performances with the bat last year. A notable addition to this squad and which may potentially be buy of the season is Shane Bond!!! Who would of thought from ICL to New Zealand and now IPL. He is exactly the kind of bowler that give the rest of the attack energy and inspiration. With him being the spearhead, and Langeveldt, Sharma, Mendis and maybe Agarkar as support bowlers – then you have a very good bowling attack. And if we mention the power of their batting stocks – McCullum, Gayle, Hodge, Ganguly and Shah – then you have one pretty complete team. All this team need is belief and who knows what they can do.

Prediction: 3rd

Mumbai Indians

Something’s just has to happen/break through for this Mumbai side. They’re the most expensive side, they have the most talented players, guess where they finished last year – 2nd last! Just to add some more power to an already star-studded side this year round is Kieron Pollard, the West Indian matchwinning Twenty20 superstar batting allrounder! Like Kolkata, something also tells me that this side is going be a major threat for this IPL competition. With Tendulkar in career best form, Jayasuriya who really just needs a start to get him going again and matchwinners in the allrounder Bravo and spin bowler and Harbhajan – there is absolutely no reason why Mumbai can’t at least be there during semi final time. If they fail to perform in this IPL tournament, then one must think that Mumbai are just too star-studded for their own good.

Prediction: 4th

Now that this tournament has been previewed, there is nothing left to do but to wait for IPL Season 3 to kick-off on the 12th March 2010!  Remember, live coverage and highlights of IPL 3 will be available here at CricFire.

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February – Month of Cricket Madness

February, the month that has really glorified the game of cricket! We have had wonderful test match series between India and South Africa, a record breaking and probably the best One Day International (ODI) innings in the history of cricket and on the last day of February, one of the best Twenty20 International (T20I) games ever…

On 6 February, a much anticipated test series between India and South Africa began – the battle between the top 2 test teams in the world. It most certainly did not disappoint. Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis stunned the host nation with their god-like batting, making 253 and 177 run innings respectively to take South Africa to an incredible 558! To make it more fascinating, the South Africans restricted the damage by India’s two premier spinners – Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra. Harbhajan bowled 46 overs and taking just two wickets! Mishra bowled 53 tiresome overs and took NO wickets. As we all should know by now, India almost always produce some kind of response or counteract with such a large 1st innings total from the opposition. This time, they failed to do so and it took a fired up Dayle Steyn and his destructive bowling to dismantle an Indian batting line-up featuring Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar and Dhoni all in good form prior to this test match. The top order had no answer for his swing, the lower order and tailenders had no answer to his pace. Though India were beaten quite convincingly (by an innings and 6 runs), it was the individual brilliance of players that made this test match so good to watch. This is what we all like in test cricket and why it is the form of cricket that distinguishes class players from one hit wonders. What better way to respond to a thrashing than to respond by winning in the same manner that opposition won against you. And that was exactly what India did as they drew the series by beating South Africa by an innings and 57 runs. What was impressive was the way in which they dismantled South Africa. This time round, it was the spin duo who were responsible for restricting and troubling South Africa’s batsmen and the centuries of the senior players of the team (Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman and Dhoni) that took India to the matchwinning 1st innings total. India learnt their lesson from the first lesson and finally adapted to Steyn’s bowling – giving him just a wicket from 30 overs! All in all, a high quality test series and one of the very few series that were worth watching.

24 February is the day no cricketer (especially Indian cricket fans) will never forget! If you currently don’t know what I’m talking about, then i question whether you are true cricket fan (feel free to comment below if

you disagree). It was the day that Sachin Tendulkar scored the first ever double century in one day international cricket, surpassing the previous best score of 194* to score an unbeaten 200 off just 147 balls featuring 25 fours and 3 sixes!!! Normally you would associate those number of boundaries with a team total and not one player! Everyone will agree when I say this was the best one day international innings ever in the history of this format of the game. What was so magnificent about this innings apart from the wonderful array of shots was the pacing of the innings – a good lesson for all young cricketers out there. From the start, Tendulkar started slow primarily focused on getting himself him. Once he had done that, he started playing some shots but mainly most of his runs came from his technique and skill in just placing the ball into the gaps. Tendulkar showed you have to hit every ball out of the park to get a lot of runs. It takes patience, temperament and concentration. It was only a matter of time (with Tendulkar looking so settled and comfortable) until he started taking on the attack and once he did, it was just raining fours and sixes and the run rate soared up at a incredibly high rate.

4 days later (28 February), the cricket audience witnessed the best twenty20 innings of all time – take a bow Mr Brendon McCullum. It was incredible not just to see McCullum going after pretty much every ball but it was his frequent

success of hitting (scooping) the ball behind the wicketkeeper! Sound familiar to Dilshan’s shot? Well this one is so much more effective and destructive that commentators have started calling this shot the “McScoop.” Normally as a captain, you would tell your bowler to bowl yorkers to restrict the ball going to the boundary or to take wickets. But against, McCullum that will just not work. A lot of the yorkers bowled by Australia’s form bowlers (the twenty20 specialists Tait and Nannes and the ODI wicket taking machine Harris) were scooped by McCullum for fours and sixes. It was just McCullum’s night. Most short balls went for sixes, good length balls dispatched to the boundaries and most yorkers hit for fours and sixes. Though one must remember that this innings was played in New Zealand in a field that had short boundaries. The true test is if McCullum can repeat this in Australia, in bigger fields such as the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground).

FEBRUARY 2010 – MONTH OF CRICKET MADNESS

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Cricket Powerhouses

One of the big questions that many cricket fans are asking is which country is the

cricket dominating powerhouse in the world (i.e. who is the real number one?).

As of the 21st of February 2010:

• The top four test nations are India, South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka
• The top four ODI nations are Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand

From those two rankings, we can see that India, South Africa and Australia feature as the top 3 teams in both formats of the game – time for the analysis breakdown!

It is important to first look at the class of players from each nation. When we think of superstar players, we immediately think of India. The Indian cricket team is a team full of all superstars, boasting the likes of Virender Sehwag (Most destructive batsman in the game), Sachin Tendulkar(Best batsman in the game), MS Dhoni, VVS

Laxman, Yuvraj Singh (literally unstoppable when on song), Rahul Dravid (one of the hardest players to dismiss in the game), Zaheer Khan and Harbarjan Singh (India’s gamebreaker and momentum changer). To be honest, every player that is currently playing for India are class acts but at this stage we are only looking at players who have played the game for quite some time and have the records as proof of their class and achievements. Now to look at South Africa’s team, boasting class acts such as Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla (what a series he had against India – 490 runs in just three innings! ft. a double century and two centuries), Jacques Kallis (Best allrounder in the game), Ab de Villiers, Mark Boucher and Dale Steyn (Most destructive bowler in the game). Now the biggest surprise packet is Australia. Despite the loss of their big stars and genuine matchwinners (such as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden…), they just seem to getting better and better. Though the current Australian side still have threatening and matchwinning players such as Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee (injury may mean he may never play again but nothing has been confirmed yet). What makes Australia so good is the ability of their newer players to adapt to the international scene. Shane Watson (technically not new but played almost for a full year without getting injured for quite some time), Nathan Hauritz (again not new but has been a much better player since returning to international cricket – becoming Australia’s number 1 spinner), Brad Haddin, Doug Bollinger (Gayle’s “Bunny”) and Ryan Harris (who took two 5 wicket hauls in two straight games!). On paper, it seems India are the current powerhouses in international cricket.

What makes a cricket team a ‘powerhouse’ are teams that are able to win matches without the impact/contribution of their big stars (as briefly mentioned above). Looking at recent international results, India seem dependent on the contributions of their star players and their ability to win against the top teams depend on the

performances of their big name players. Their last ODI result was an exception, as it was a complete ‘team effort’ – with their younger and newer players making useful contributions to the win. However, in their last test match, it was their big stars that orchestrated the win for them against a red hot South Africa. Without Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman and Dhoni centuries, India would not of made a matchwinning 1st innings total of 643. In the bowling stocks, it was the dual performances of Z. Khan and H. Singh that were able to bowl South Africa out twice. South Africa are also guilty of this to some extent. In the batting stocks, they heavily rely on Smith, Amla, Kallis and De Villiers to make big contributions to post a strong total or chase a large total. In the bowling department, they heavily rely on the services of Steyn – as we saw in the 1st test match with his 10-wicket haul that was instrumental in bowling India out twice. It seems that if their big stars don’t perform, South Africa  find it very hard to beat the top teams – as we saw South Africa succumb to England on their own home turf! Unlike these two star-studded teams, Australia is not as reliant on their star players to win. We saw the depth that Australia had in the batting and bowling stocks. Ponting, Clarke and Hussey are some of the most consistent cricket players in the whole world and they rarely all fail in the same match. However in rare cases where this has happened, players like Watson, North and Haddin have stepped up to the plate to put Australia back in the game and on course for victory. Australia’s bowling stocks has been most impressive if anything, with the lesser names such as Siddle, Bollinger (29 ODI wickets in 15 matches), Harris (21 ODi wickets in 8 matches) and Hauritz doing the job with the absentees of Lee, out-of-form Johnson and out-of-favour S. Clark. It is obvious that Australia win in this department.

Finally, cricket powerhouses are extremely consistent in their performances in terms of batting, bowling and fielding (and catching). From the three sides, India are obviously the worst fielding and catching side. However, they make up their poor fielding with their superb batting and bowling. In terms of viewing, it is safe to

say that India are the most exciting side. In most matches, they make big matches or chase (or come close to) big totals – probably what most cricket fans enjoy watching. Every game they play (mostly at home) attract much bigger countries than with other countries. South Africa greatly surpass India in the fielding department – with their superior athletic and catching ability restricting team runs regardless of whether they (opposition team) are batting first or second. Their batting at its peak matches India but are a little too inconsistent which has led to some of their losses (most notably in world cup semi finals). However, their bowling attack are marginally better than that of India’s but given their day, can bowl anybody out. Of late, Australia have been nothing but consistent in the batting, bowling and fielding departments. Australia are right up with South Africa as the top fielding teams in international cricket. No matter what over or time of day, their players are always putting in 100% effort to either stop runs and boundaries in situations where other teams would just the ball go to the boundary or let the fielder in the deep field it. Their batting is slightly under India’s but their consistency ensures that teams must be at their very best if they are to beat them. Their ever-reliant bowling is what has won them a lot of games – what makes it even more impressive is that the bowlers that are winning them the games are fairly new to international cricket. Their bowling rarely misfires and is usually consistent. Batsmen who are a little of their game is all that Australian bowlers need to open the game up.

India’s domination of cricket seems to be getting less by the day – as evident through their home ODI series lost to Australia and their battling test series draw with South Africa. Their hold over the top nations is gradually wearing off. South Africa may be next in line but their ‘choking’ is what has really held them side back from being the ‘cricket powerhouses’ – leaving one side remaining – AUSTRALIA ARE THE CRICKET POWERHOUSES!

Questions to consider before my next article.

Who will win the ODI series between India and South Africa?

Will Australia’s unbeaten summer continue when they travel to play an in-form New Zealand? (Bear in mind the last time Australia travelled to New Zealand, they were thrashed in the ODI series 3 – 0)

Can the West Indies bounce back to become a threat to the top nations again?

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