The Cup of Joy!! Reloaded

[Edit: This write-up of mine won the Super Blog contest at chennaisuperkings.com. Never knew my words will be worth 5k bucks one day. One more reason to love CSK!]

The finishing note on the last year's blog plug after CSK won IPL 2010 was "Hoping for more success for the Lions in the forthcoming seasons too. Fingers crossed". Looks like it's happening and the dream is coming true and how!?

Lot has been said and talked about Gayle's super powers but he went fishing when it mattered the most, the Grand Finale. But, it would be rude to put the blame on him. If there is one reason for RCB to be in the finals, it is him. They were trotting at the lower half of the Points Table before he joined the squad and then he blew everyone away by the Gayle Storm

Back to our very own CSK, wow! Just wow! An amazing and consistent performance throughout the tournament has made sure that we retain the cup for the 2nd year in a row. Mahi continues to prove that he can't do anything wrong. Quoting a tweet from a Twitter user yesterday "Dhoni is getting on a flight and flying to Wembly to win the Champions League" only goes on to show this man's tryst with destiny. It's as if he can turn any team into the most formidable one with his leadership qualities and a little bit of lady luck. All glory to you captain. Sincerely hoping that you never ever leave CSK! As noted by LSK, "Dhoni always receives the trophy and then disappears into the background" Could there be a better sign for a True leader?

When the victory lap was on and when I could see the distant glow of the flood lights at the stadium and hear the faint sound of the crackers from my home, I wished I was in the crowd somewhere cheering for the Team Stupendous.

Once again the yellow fellows proved that we are the 'Good boys' by winning the Fair Play award again this year.

Mr. Malinga has the Purple cap. Mr. Gayle has the Orange cap. But, we CSK have the Trophy. What else could we ask for?

And just as @Sidvee mentioned "I am waiting for the day ManU wins the league and someone says 'We want to be the Chennai Super Kings of the EPL'" Hoping that the day isn't far away :)

Like last time, here are a few numbers highlighting the best teams across the IPL seasons and needless to say CSK is on the top!

No.	Teams	IPL '08	IPL '09	IPL '10	IPL '11	Net worth	Avg
1	CSK	7	5	8	10	35	8.75
2	RCB	2	7	6	9	27.75	6.94
3	MI	4	2	7	8	24.25	6.06
4	DC	1	8	5	4	21.5	5.38
5	RR	8	3	2	5	21.25	5.31
6	KXIP	6	4	1	6	19.75	4.94
7	DD	5	6	4	1	19.75	4.94
8	KKR	3	1	3	7	15.75	3.94
9	KTK	-	-	-	3	3	3.00
10	PWI	-	-	-	2	2	2.00

The points are allocated as below:

10 pts for the Tournament Winners (8 for pre-IPL4)

9 pts for the Runners-up (7 for pre-IPL4)

8 for the loser of 2nd Qualifier or winner of 3rd place play-off (6 for pre-IPL4)

6 for the loser in Eliminator

5-1 for the rest of the teams according to their positions in Points table

The Net Worth will be the summation of points across the IPL seasons

The retention game

It's been 3 yrs since the IPL started. 2 more teams were supposed to be joining the league and the players are going to be auctioned off again. But the current teams (the final number is not decided yet) are being allowed to retain 4 players from their squad . Read somewhere that Chennai insisted the most on retention. If it's true, it has to be the MSD factor.


So here is a small write-up on the list of players who could possibly be retained by the teams.

CSK

Possibilities: Dhoni, Raina, Bollinger, Morkel, Murali, Hussey

So, who would be worth the $1.8 million retention fee for the 1st player? Few might say Dougie. But he wouldnt be a costly miss even if left out. There are other good (n also better) pacemen in the pool like Parnell, Tait, Steyn, Nannes etc who could be available (their franchise permitting) for selection.
Same goes for Morkel n Hussey too. Though they are good, they are not one of a kind. So they may not be retained. Murali would be an interesting choice. But given his age and not-so-match-winning contribution, he just might not be worth the huge compromise.
The only player I can see being readily taken is Dhoni. CSK has grown in such a way that the team has been built around this guy. So losing him would be like losing the axle/pivot of the team. He should be retained. Also Raina. He is the highest run getter across all IPL seasons and a worthy fit in the Indian-International slot.

Final cut: Dhoni and Raina

MI

Possibilities: Sachin, Pollard, Malinga, Zaheer/Bhajji

Sachin is in by default. For me, there is no MI without Sachin, plain and simple. As for others, it would be a tough choice. There would be a tempation to retain Pollard for obvious reasons. But this guy is a gamble. Malinga is one of the best T20 bowlers I have ever seen. And for me, he is more worthy than Pollard.
Bhajji has not been impressive compared to the success of fellow spinners in CSK (Ashwin and Murali). Zaheer has been a little rusty too after his injury. But he seems to have found his form recently. But I doubt whether the franchise wud b ready to spend such big money on him

Final cut: Sachin, Malinga/Pollard

DD

Possibilities: Viru, Gauti, Nannes, Collingwood

Again Viru is pivotal in the scheme of things for Delhi. So he could be there. Other than him I don't see anyone who have high chances of being retained. Gauti could make the cut, for his recent form in IPL. Nannes is one of the best bowlers in T20 but there are others too. There would be a temptation to retain Collingwood, the English T20 caption and a wonderful all-rounder.

Final cut: Sehwag

RCB

Possibilities: Kumble, Dravid, Kallis, Steyn, KP, Taylor, Cam White

It's one hell of a star-studded line up. Frankly, a very tough call to decide as who can be retained / let go. Reportedly the owners did a lot of ground work to form a succesful team after their poor show in Season1. So, wont be surprised if as much as 4 are retained.
Steyn is arguably one of the best bowlers now (any form of the game). KP has had a form slump. Kallis is ageing. Same with Kumble and Dravid too. It would be interesting to see whether they retain their captain Kumble. Taylor is an asset to any side

Final cut: Steyn, Taylor

DC

Possibilities: Gilly
Yes, you read it right. The one player who could be retained. But remember even this guy is over 38 yrs old

KKR

Possibilities: Ganguly, Gayle, Mathews

KXIP

Possibilities: Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Yuvraj
If they had been allowed to participate, players listed above might have been considered.

RR

Possibilities: Warne, Tait, Smith, Y Pathan
Same goes here too.

All said and done, hope IPL is able to stay ahead of all the problems and issues being faced now. Now, like all Cricket fans, waiting for the dust to settle down and the auction to start (last announced to be held on Jan 8/9).

My Dream Fantasy team - IPL 3

As with the last IPL, here is a composition of my Dream team of 11. It consists of players who have impressed me in one way or the other this season.
First the list of players, then a little about my selection and those who almost made it and then the final line-up.

Batsmen:
The only Orange cap contenders (Sachin and Kallis) throughout the tournament earn their place right at the top of the order. Sachin is the only player to have scored 600+ in a single IPL so far. Well we can always keep talking abt this guy day in n out.
Surprisingly Kallis wont be opening the innings. It will be Sachin's mate Dada who scored nearly 500 this season @ 47 opening for KKR.
Raina, the best ever IPL batsmen earns the call after scoring 520 @ a SR of 140+
Pollard and Symmo have been the pick of the all-rounders this season with Symmo failing in small patches and Pollard being excellent towards the end of the tournament.
Those who almost made it:
M Vijay (huge transition from tests to T20s), Jayawardene and S Tiwary were in close contention. Rohit Sharma and I Pathan were the next best as all-rounders.
Bowling:
Ojha, the Purple cap holder is an automatic choice. Mishra is a tough omission, but Bhaji had the edge with a little help in batting, not to mention his 17 wickets this season @ an economy of 7
Fast bowling is not complete without 'Slinga' Malings these days. The choice of next pacer was very tough. It was a toss-up between Dougie and Harris. Bollinger makes it coz of his better Econ rate (6.6)
That said Kallis, Raina, Pollard and Symmo should be pretty handy with the ball too.
Those who almost made it:
Fast: Harris should have made it. Others were Zaheer, Vinay kumar (a good young talent) and Steyn (little patchy this season).
Spin: Mishra, Kumble and CSK's find of the season Ashwin. He has it in him but just that he has to play more games.
Wicket-Keeper:
Dhoni is the only guy who came to my mind. He doubles up as my Captain too :) (No.. am not being partial here. Seriously considered Sachin/Ganguly for the role. But Dhoni has that lucky charm to lead the sides)
Those who were a bit close were Sangakkara, Gilly and Uthappa (only for his batting)

Here is the batting line-up with the 2 stalwarts opening


It's quite odd that only Raina and Malinga made it to the current team from last year. Biggest disappointments from last year were Yuvi, Hayden, Gilly and ABD
Lets see how the season is, next year with more teams and more players :-)

IPL season 3

So the season 3 of the mad man's game is here. So is it Back? Bigger? Better?

Bigger- it might be next year with 2 more teams to join the party

Better- is what we could decide over the next 1 month of action

But, its definitely back.. ya back to India after almost 2 yrs. That's definitely a reason to celebrate.. Yay!! :P

So what's new this IPL? Let's have a look what each of the franchises have in store this season

1. Chennai Super Kings

Its my home side :) and I hope we win this time after a couple of fairly good outings in the past 2 seasons. We made it to the semis on both occasions. CSK will be as ever blessed with the presence of one of the best captains of the IPL, Dhoni. Couldn't agree with Director of CSK more when he says, he s a 3-in-1 performer whose contribution can never go without a mention.

Haydos is back and we might get a chance to see him with his Mongoose bat. The one that looks like a Dhobi walla's. Kemp is in the side too and we might have to wait for sometime to c the blazing opening pair of Hussey and Hayden.

Now putting the other teams in perspective in the order of my backing them :)

2. Mumbai Indians

+ Sachin leading from the front and in the midst of an amazing purple patch

+ The Caribbean explosive duo of Bravo and Pollard.

+ They will hope that the Indian Spin and Pace spearheads Bhaji and Zaheer fire along with Malinga's unorthodox bowling

3. Delhi Daredevils

+ The awesome Delhi opening pair of Viru and his Ranji team mate Gauti. Warner could only add to the woes of the opposition.

+ SA's ABD and SL's Dilshan were well worth their money last time. ABD might not be the same on Indian tracks.

+ Nannes and Parnell will form a nice bowling pair

No more favorites.. Listing others in some random order

4. Bangalore Royal Challengers

+ My 3rd fav captain after Dhoni and Sachin. Kumble can trouble any side with balls landing on their seam

+ Kallis couldn't have hit a good form in anyother better time. Being an excellent all-rounder he comes as a nice package

+ The young Indian contingent of Praveen, Pandey and Vinay kumar should make their presence felt.

5. Kolkata Knight Riders

+ Supposed to be the most glamorous team of the IPL. But the glamour usually limits itself to just SRK. Hope Dada leads them to a decent position this time.

+ Gayle's flamboyant batting, Mathew's all-round abilities and Bond's fiery bowling should come good for them to spell success this season

6. King XI Punjab

+ Much will depend on how good Sangakkara handles the additional responsibility of Captaincy with batting and wicket keeping.

+ Jayawardene, UV and Bopara's batting will be things to look out for.

+ The Australian pair of Lee and Marsh would be eagerly awaited.

7. Deccan Chargers

+ Gilly Gilly.. all the way. He s one another Batsman-Wicketkeeper-Captain package after Dhoni and Sangakkara. And a main cog in the wheel for the Deccan.

+ The out of form talented-Rohit and lasttime-purplecap-holder RP Singh need to come good.

+ Big man Symmo has been good with both bat and the ball. Vaas seems to be going back to his good old days with some amazing opening bowling spells. Look out!!

8. Rajasthan Royals

+ Royals = Shane Warne. The equation couldn't get any simpler.

+ Smith's and Dimma's injuries have really hurt them. Should more than be compensated by Shane Watson's return in April.

+ Warne lead a team of underdogs to an emphatic win once. Can he do it again? Wait and watch.

The day I was blessed

The magician and his wand

Bless my holy angel! Was i really watching this!? I jus CAN NOT BELIEVE!! I felt like I was blessed 175 times today! Its an innings of a life time and something which u can very proudly say to ur kids n grand children that "I was alive when that happened and I watched it live!!"
And for this first time in my life i shud say n am guilty to accept that today something was more important for me than India winning. I was madly hoping that he wud cross 194 n reach whr any ODI player has never been, the magic 200. However it was dreadful that it could not be a fairy tale ending and had to end that way..
Most of us have read about One man show, single man army n all those stuff where an individual brilliance overshadows anything n everything that happened that day. This was that day and Sachin was the man. The Man of the match award for a man from the losing side stands as a little testimony.
Am damn excited and emotions are running high. Penning them all down is a pretty tough ask. I wud have written a blog for every shot he played today, that wud have been lot easier. It had his class written all over, again n again.

I guess am sounding a little lunatic. So, I wud better take a break here n go back to enjoying one of the finest moments in the history of Indian cricket.

The answer was pretty obvious when he was asked post-match as what keeps motivating him all these years. "I care about playing for India, it's a passion and I have been absoloutely honoured to play for India so long" This is why we love u!

I cant imagine hw things wud b, once this guy retires!! I just cant digest that it might happen some day.. Sachin, Do u really need to retire!? U jus keep playing till eternity. Hope the God gives him a long life and in someway an ability to play till his very very end for the simplest of reason that the law of aging just doesn't apply for this man.

- A Sachin Fanatic

ICC Awards 2009

Its that part of the year when the Cricket players are honored. And they have something to brag about officially!! This year the awards had a very good Indian presence. Hope it gets better with years :)


ICC World Player of the Year - Mitchell Johnson [Australia]

Test Player of the Year – Gautham Gambir [India]

ODI Player of the Year – MS Dhoni [India]

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year - Tillakaratne Dilshan [Sri Lanka]

Emerging Player of the Year - Peter Siddle [Australia]

Spirit of Cricket - New Zealand

Umpire of the Year – Aleem Dar [Pakistan]

World Test Team of the Year – Led by Dhoni [India]

Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (England), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Stuart Broad (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)



World ODI team – Led by Dhoni [India]

Virender Sehwag (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Umar Gul (Pak), 12th man: Thilan Thushara (SL)

Women's Player of the Year - Clare Taylor [England]

Associate Player of the Year - Will Porterfield [Ireland]

Thanks Cricinfo, from where the content was heavily borrowed :)

Time to fantasize

The IPL II comes to an exciting end today. It being a Sunday of underdogs in South Africa, with two retired war horses in Gilly and Jumbo leading their pack to the finals. No one would have expected them to pull this off given they were the wooden spoon holders last time around finishing 8^th and 7^th respectively.

One of the best things about this season’s IPL has been the Fantasy cricket, I have been playing throughout. It was really exciting to take a manager/captain’s role and pick the best 11 for your fantasy team.

So as a finishing touch, here is my hand-picked fantasy team with the best in this season so far.

[caption id="attachment_316" align="aligncenter" width="382" caption="Ram's 11 - My Fantasy team"][/caption]

Icon player [1]

It was a tough choice. Other contenders were Sachin and Dravid, but Yuvi has been good in parts with both bat and the ball, if not consistent. He has scored 346 runs and picked 6 wickets including double whammy of hat-tricks. His bowling and powerful hitting made him edge over Sachin. Dravid has been sort of in and out of the team, so he had an unsettled look. Sorry Viru, VVS and Saurav, better luck next time. But one small change, the icon player doesn't get to be my captain.

Foreign players [4]

Orange capped Haydos and his good old team mate Gilly were automatic choices. Mr. Priest, the walker gets to be my captain for his ability to lead from the front. Bowling slot was sweeped by Malinga given his consistent performance thru out the series. I couldn’t make a quick decision reg the 4^th slot. Should it be a bowler or a batsman? If a batsman then, ABD or Dilshan or Duminy. Else Nannes / Abdulla / Murali. I would love to have Abdulla in my team. This guy was amazing picking 14 wickets in 9 matches. He was unlucky to have Lee back in the side and he automatically fell out of favour. But inorder to maintain a balance, I have to go with a batsmen. And it’s the first centurion of this season ABD.

Indian under-22 [2]

Blore’s Kohli, Chennai’s Tyagi, Deccan’s Rohit n Suman, Delhi’s Sangwan, Punjab’s Sohal n Chawla, Kolkata’s Ishant, Mumbai’s Abishek, Rajasthan’s Kamran Khan n Jadeja have been really impressive and outstanding. I was really happy to see these kids perform well in the big stage, after all, IPL is all about identifying new talents like these. Now coming back to my pick, Rohit Sharma goes straight through. He has even been named the ‘Citi under-23 success of the tournament’. He rightfully deserves it. 2^nd slot was a tough fight between Ishant, Sangwan and Chawla. Sangwan gets picked for his wicket taking ability (He is 8^th in the top 10 wicket takers of this tourney) He bowls good left-arm medium-pace like his idol Wasim Akram.

Indian over-22 [4]

Purple cap holder RP Singh, the underdog and revelation of this season Ashish Nehra (I never expected him to be this successful) and namma Chennai’s very own super king Raina pick themselves up. The only remaining slot had the Pathan brothers from Baroda in a tussle. But, Yusuf lost it to his younger brother Irfan for his exceptional all-round abilities picking 17 wickets at an avg of 22.94 and scoring 196 runs @ a strike rate of 124.05.

All said and done, if there were no restrictions like Icon/Under-22/4 Foreigners etc., then the one below would have been my dream team.. Looks sexy na :)

[caption id="attachment_321" align="aligncenter" width="260" caption="My dream team"][/caption]