The teams that are doing good in this year’s IPL (top half of the points table) have one thing in common, they all have very talented Indian youngsters or lesser known, lesser fancied players performing for them. Each of the eight teams have two current Indian nationals performing for them , they match each other if we compare man to man. Every team has atleast two foreign players performing good for them . But the real difference lies in the way the lesser known players have performed. If we check top four teams we observe,
1. Jaipur has Naman Ozha , Raut , Asnoadkar , Amit Singh performing well.
2. Chennai has Jakati , Tyagi ,Badrinath , Balaji performing well.
3. Delhi has Amit Mishra, Sanghwan, Rajat Bhatia
4. Hydrabad Has Suman , Ravi Teja, Venugopal doing great
While the teams lying in the bottom half have got disappointing results from their youngsters. They are depending too much on foreign players. Problem is you cannot have more than 4 foreign players in the team. But If you have young Indian players performing, it allows more flexibility with team compositions, and less pressure on stars.
So franchisees will be looking into this more seriously next time around. Auction of foreign players will always have media attention and front page coverage! But now franchising will have close look at Indian domestic players particularly from lesser known teams like Goa , Assam , Orissa , Maharashtra , railways etc. And its all win win for players , francisies , and Indain Cricket as a whole ! This will be really good opportunity for youngsters across India.
So here comes my Idea , can there be a tournament say ‘IPL domestic’ where teams will strictly consist of Indian players alone (on the lines of Challenger Trophy) . All eight teams will use it as opportunity to select best players for the main event. It will further improve quality of cricket played in main IPL . It might be tournament played over two weeks say in Diwali vacations! There is no T-20 Tournament in India which can give chance to the upcoming players. This will provide best opportunity for some of the youngsters as well as some forgotten cricketers. And believe me even these matches will be keenly watched by spectators ( if it is short tournament) . Mr. Modi does this sound smarter than Time-Out! And this is adding value to the game as well!!

First let me make it clear that I am a big Sachin fan but I have always felt that he is not a greatest match winner. Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting ( though I dont like this guy ) have been a better match winners for their team. I have far better admiration for Sachin than these guys when it comes to conduct, carrying yourself, having head on shoulders but these people take him over when it comes to match winning performance.

This is a pretty old issue but with Mumbai Indians performing badly this is the thing which came to my mind first as Sachin has not performed when it mattered the most and specifically while chasing.

We will try and anlyse why Mumbai Indians failed. Initially I felt the team looks good with likes of Duminy, Nayar along with Sachin and Jaysurya to pen the innings. They have a strong bowling department with Malinga at his best and Zaheer and Harbhajan bowling well.

Sachin started the tournament well with good innings in first and few games after that but slowly as he started getting out early the team especially the middle order became vulnerable except few good innings ( 3 to be precise ) by Duminy. Jaysurya has not been consistent through out the series and all other guys I always felt that play to impress Sachin rather than to play a good innings.

What makes the Mumbai Indians top heavy team is, it performs depending on the way openers have performed. I don’t see them playing well from 2/10 with Sachin and Jaysurya out, they tried change it in couple of games but sometimes they even show glimps of old Indian team in Azhar’s era who used to fail terribly while chasing and after Sachin’s dismissal.

They say a team is as good as its leader, which I feel goes spot on in case of Mumbai Indians. I alwys feel that Sachin has not been a greatest performer while chasing a target , there are n number of innings where he has failed to give a good start for India and if you see Mumbai Indians have lost all the matches when they are chasing. Sachin , we must say has been a little bit short of arrogance or aggression which is required while chasing.  

It will be great if some one can find out the number of centuries he has scored while chasing, I am sure the number will not go beyond 10/12 ( at least in one dayers). Most of the Sachin fans may not agree with me but I still feel Sachin may be a greatest batsman of all times but can not become greatest match winner of all times.

Most of you will read this blog after the match between delhi and Mumbai is over, in which I hope, Sachin proves me wrong atleast for this time. 

( Due to time constraint , I am not able to elaborate many of my thoughts and I feel this blog is incomplete and cut short in most of the points, so I ll request all of you to put in your thoughts and complete this )

Well one more match it should have won but couldn’t! What a pity every time they put themselves in winning positions and find the way to lose.  Last year it happened in four matches at least; and this year again, the same author seems to be writing the script. This team reminds me of Indian team of 90s.Is this just simple plane bad luck? Frankly it’s not the case!  If we analysed those close defeats or defeats from winning positions, we can easily find weakness! For me The three major causes in Mumbai’s poor run  are.

1.       Lack of depth in batting: You cannot expect to chase down targets and win 20-20 matches if your five down batsman is Harbhajan! With due respect to his ability, look at other teams Bangalore has Virat Kohli at number 7 . Even Kolkatta has better batting depth ( do they know it ?) So after 6 wickets its all over for Mumbai! Forget about decent batting lower order can’t even slog ! So when its 40 required from 30 balls with four wickets remaining, Match seems to be already gone !

2.        Middle order not firing:  Abhishek Nayer seems to be confused regarding his role, Bravo doesn’t seem to be in best of touch, and sachin never had confidence on Rahane. Its not lack of class but lack of form. This is putting more pressure on J.P. If he gets out trying to force the pace there is no back up. Last year they were missing Mr. Cool in middle order and this year they are missing Mr. Hot! Swapping Uthappa is proving costly!

3.       Conservative top order:  20-20 is game of momentum. You don’t require to put 100 runs partnership each time you go in. You require confidant and smooth start, more so with Mumbai due to lack of depth. Both Sachin and Sanath were one man army for their respective teams for many years in one day cricket , but their conservative approach is not helping Mumbai at all . Odd failure is expected but you need to put opposition under pressure! When someone is bowling at 120 Kph  with new ball why Sachin is thinking about six singles in the over  ?

So what’s the way out ? You cannot change squad in middle of the tournament and its two early to start planning for next season! And as they say “lot of cricket is still left” !  Here onwards its tough mountain to climb but such unpredictable is the game , everything is possible. 

The way out …………..

·         Use your strengths smartly: Lets take example of Jaipur , how smartly they are using Yusuf ! What is Mumbai’s strength ? Its the Experience of Sachin , Sanath , Zaheer and Harbhajan . Mumbai at any cost should use sachin and Sanath effectively. If target is too low ( like 120 against Mohali ) there is no harm in keeping Sachin in the middle order. If top order fires that’s great , but if it doesn’t  Sachin can still make others bat around him , his presence in the middle will make sure panic will not be created ! I know there will be many eyebrows raised over this suggestion but in such a small game sometimes you need to pull rabbit out of hat!

·         Pinch hitters : Mumbai requires them because they don’t have six heaters in  middle overs . Pinal Shah was a wise choice in earlier match , Harbhajan can also be option .  

·         Choose in form players: Can they use Bangladesh’s Mohammad Ashraful in middle order resting Bravo? It might add pressure on bowling department but that’s not the prime concern at the moment.  Yogesh Takawale or Ajinkya Rahane or some other youngster needs to be given chance. (See case of Suman for Hyderabad ).

And if possible Win The toss and Bat first! Come on Sachin we want you in semis !

Due to the start of West Indies Vs England series and end of Pakistan Vs Australia series, we will see a few players out of IPL action and a few in. How much impact it may have on the teams, lets see what it looks like.
Deccan Chargers will have Andrew Symonds coming in and Fidel Edwards & Dwayne Smith leaving. Though the Hyderabad team will miss fire of Edwards in bowling, they have Chaminda Vaas in the squad, who can replace fire with wily class and accuracy. Dwayne Smith has done well recently, however, at least on the paper, they can’t ask for better replacement than Symonds. So, the change may not matter too much for the Deccan Chargers.
For Chennai Super Kings Andrew Flintoff has already left. He was not in great touch with both, bat and ball. In fact, he found himself at the receiving end as far as bowling is concerned. Therefore, CSK team is not missing him too much (or ‘at all’).
Kolkata Knight Riders will have David Hussey coming in and Chris Gayle going out. This is one of those neck-to-neck kinds of replacements to me. Should not make much difference for KKR. Did I hear somebody screaming ‘who cares’? Rightly so. KKR is now beyond the spot of bother. They have carved out a niche segment for themselves in this IPL, bottom of the points table.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will have Nathan Bracken in. Kevin Pietersen has already left. We have seen KP’s departure has not affected RCB at all as he did not do any memorable work. After KP left, RCB won both the matches.
Kings XI Punjab has James Hopes in and Ravi Bopara out. I think both players on paper look not much different in terms of impact they may have on the team. However, Bopara was in good touch, rather good frame of mind and has played one of the most delightful 20-20 innings this season. Don’t see Kings XI Punjab getting affected much as Hopes is a good player too.
For Delhi Daredevils Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah have already left. Both have not played any game in the IPL 2009. Also, I don’t see any reason why DD would have looked beyond Warner, Dilshan, DeVilliers, Nannes and Vettori for picking 4 foreign players. Dropping any one of them itself is a tough choice to make. No need to mention that departures will not cause any trouble for DD.
Rajasthan Royals will be boosted by Shane Watson’s arrival. This one change can have decent impact on the tournament. As he has shown before, Watson is a match winner with both bat and ball. Top order or middle order, wherever he bats, batting lineup of RR will get better with his inclusion. Without Watson, they have already scored 200+ in this tournament. Graeme Smith back in form, Yusuf Pathan doing well, Naman Ojha putting up a good show, Ravindra Jadeja looking in good touch – plus Watson. Hmm. Looks good for RR.
I feel with the changing compositions, barring Rajasthan Royals, no team will get much impacted – positively or negatively.

Isn’t it? At least 7 out of 8 teams have their chances to make it to semi finals. Four teams scoring 8 points each and 3 teams at 7 - makes the tournament really interesting from here onwards. No team can take it easy.
Well Done Royal Challengers Bangalore. They have turned this tournament upside down. A week back they were racing towards bottom with Kolkata Knight Riders. And now, they are threatening Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils for the top spot. RCB looks set to do better with revived confidence of their key players – Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa and Mark Boucher. Rahul Dravid joining the team will help the cause more.
In this crucial week, teams would look up to their unsung key players and keep faith in law-of-averages.
Delhi Daredevils will surely look forward to law-of-averages as far as Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are concerned. Both are yet to fire big this year. Next couple of matches are so critical that winning will give them top spot and by losing they may find themselves at as low as 7. This is true for 7 out of 8 teams. Thanks to Kolkata Knight Riders - they have sealed the spot 8 for themselves. For at least 2-3 matches of each team will not disturb them at spot 8.
Chennai Super Kings will look forward to Dhoni and Oram to come good and take some burden out of Hayden and Raina’s shoulders. They would also feel that Albie Morkel has not done much till now and should come good this week.
Deccan Chargers will hope that VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma and Venugopal Rao put up a good show in the middle order for Gilkhrist and Gibbs to feel free at the top.
Kings XI Punjab would want Mahela Jayawardene to continue from where he left in their last match. They would also hope that Piyush Chawala does better with the ball than what he has.
Mumbai Indians will bank more on Harbhajan Singh’s bowling than pinch-hitting and Abhishek Nayar’s batting than bowling. Duminy is carrying too much burden, it looks like. Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane and off course Abhishek Nayar have to respond now.
Rajasthan Royals – Graeme Smith, RJ Quiney and Swapnil Asnodkar are averaging 13, 11 and 4 respectively. This has not helped Rajasthan Royals at all. They need to fire. Yusuf Pathan alone can not be expected to win all the matches for them.
Who remains – Kolkata Knight Riders. Hmm! Nobody has really fired. Everybody is due for a good show. Hope at least 2-3 of them do justice to the law-of-averages. If they do, we are set for a couple of shockers. Will it add fun in the tournament or take out the charm? Lets see.

This is not to say that 20-20 cricket is all about instincts and not planning. No format of the game can be entirely planning or instincts. Not even test match. How much ever planning may go behind the test match, instinctive decision making finds a significant role in winning a match. Same way, how much ever we may say 20-20 is about instincts, planning acquires a significant pie in winning or losing 20-20 matches.
Better statement would be ‘20-20 is largely played on instincts rather than planning’. However, by saying that we do not underestimate role of planning in 20-20 format.
In 20-20 you are left with little choice about planning your game many times (not all times).
For example, you wish to play a Smithish (like Graeme Smith) innings of looking to stay till the end - anchor types. You find batsman at the other end is struggling to connect (and also not getting out). Suddenly, you find your team scoring at less than 6 runs per over. How much ever you may have planned your innings, you have to respond to the situation and do it quickly. You can not be taking singles whenever you get strike to see that the other batsman is making a mess of it. Opposite – if batsman at the other end is playing a Viruish (like Virender Sehwag) innings, you know how you need to respond. You are not required to hit each ball to boundary. Ensure that you are scoring at least singles and not getting out. Sense and respond!
Suppose, as per your plan, you may want to carefully see-off Muralidaran’s 3 out of 4 overs and target the bowler named Shadab Jakati; and you realize on that day Murali is not on top of his game, you got to respond. Because you never know, Jakati may have a good day with ball. Murali with 3-0-12-0 and Jakati with 3-0-20-2; you know as a batting side where you are heading.
The issue about planning in this format is, if the Plan A fails there is very very little time available to make Plan B work for you.
Does that mean, planning is of no use? Does that mean 20-20 is a pure gamble? Not at all. It is a sport not a gamble.
Fielding side needs plenty of planning, plan As, Bs & Cs… and therefore would like to handle that separately.
Lets see where planning is required for batting side.
In the above example of batsmanship, not all batsmen can play Smithish innings. Here is the scope for plan. Identify a couple of batsmen in your squad who are best equipped to sense and respond to the situations ranging from best to worst. Now, you almost know how these identified batsmen should be practicing in the nets and preparing for the games. See, these are not necessarily the best batsmen in the squad, but the batsmen who can change gears from 1st to 5th. In IPL, in case of Delhi Daredevils, Sehwag may be the best batsman in the squad but for the kind of batsmen we are thinking in this case may just be Gambhir & Dilshan. Sachin and Duminy for Mumbai Indians; Rohit Sharma for Deccan Chargers; Dhoni for Chennai Super Kings; Ganguly for Kolkata Knight Riders; Jayawardene for Kings XI Punjab; Dravid and Boucher for Royal Challengers Bangalore apart from Smith for Rajasthan Royals.
Batting order, to me, is one big area where lot of thinking and planning is required. As much as bowling needs planning, changes in batting order needs it. Changes in the batting order can not be too impulsive – one fine day, suddenly coach can not ask Harbhajan to pad-up before Duminy. You need to surprise opposition not yourselves. Surprised opposition often gives you chances. After doing it with a careful planning also, it may not work every time (as happened in case of Mumbai Indians – Harbhajan got promoted 2 times, once successful, next time not so). Leave alone the pinch-hitter tactics, the order in which top 6 batsmen play will have a crucial impact on the innings. Plenty of permutations and combinations like, what if 60 for 0, what if 15 for 2, what if 100 for 1 and so on to be considered and carefully worked out. Rajasthan Royals gives an impression of having given a deep thought on these aspects – thanks to Warne.
To surprise opposition without getting surprised yourselves needs a plenty of thinking and planning before the game. There is a thin line between being instinctive and being hasty. To be successfully instinctive, one needs to have thought about plenty of possibilities. Rigid planning and hasty instincts – both are equally troublesome.
Promoting Harbhajan Singh or demoting Yusuf Pathan may happen on instincts, however careful thinking of such possibilities before will allow captains to have belief in their own instincts. Thinking about possibilities before the game – isn’t this what we call planning?
Lets discuss in this forum about other areas where planning would help captains to have belief in their own instincts.

‘Time-Please’ !!

This was the favourite excuse we all would have given when we were still in our shorts in any game. To my amusement the same has been accepted by IPL committe and they have made it official. 

While writting a comment on one of the blogs (Strategic Time - out bothers Master) i felt that the subject is so vast and interesting that it is worth a second blog.

I don’t have a stats with me right now, but I am sure wicket fall on 11th/12th over would be there in last season also. In blogging language, it has now been tagged with ’strategic time-out’. Why on earth the set batsman think about loosing the momentum after this time-out? It should be treated as welcome break by batsman. It gives batting side an advantage of target setting.
I belive the perspective need to be changed.
There should be target for first 6 overs (power play) in terms of wickets (that they can afford to loose) as well as in terms of runs.
Then there should be a target for 4 overs.
If these targets are met batting side can relax and give pat themselves within the time-out period for achieving the target. Most important factor that batting side can do is to analyze number of overs remaining by key bowlers ( ‘Key Bowler Category 1′ - Bowlers like Warne, Murli ..i think readers won’t need any explaination on this category, ‘Key Bowler Category 2 - who can be taken for smashing the ball)
For a bowling side it should have proved a bane. By the time bowler’s form, 11 player’s body language gets exposed which can be formed as a feedback for a batting side.
I agree that cricket is not the game which gets played in theory. You need to experience it on field.
But strategic time-out has created a much more importance for the think tank of the team. Coach/few selected members need to analyze the situation and give the feedback to batsmen. It should be treated as ‘Feedback Time-0ut’ rather than an ‘Unwanted Guest’.

Change is the only constant phenomenon in our life. Isn’t it? Obviously this ‘change’ got hit to our IPL team owners as well. But it didn’t hit them as hard as Yusuf Pathan’s whack. It hit them like a silky cover drive of offside’s god. They didn’t made huge changes in team composition. So I tried to analyze whether the big charge of Deccans or knight losers continued way of losing has anything to do about these changes in team composition.

Deccan Chargers: After looking at initial performances, I feel that this team has got the perfect tiny dynamite naming ‘Fidel Edwards’ to get charged if not exploded. Suddenly this team is looking a more balanced pack after the incumbent of Edwards. He is providing them much needed raw pace to send shivers down the spine of opposition.

Mumbai Indians: Exclusion of Utthappa from MI team is the best thing that has happened to MI rather than inclusion of JP Duminy. I seriously have my questions about Utthappa’s utility in ultra short version of the game unless he is not getting his favorite horizontal bat shot. Again the change in pace battery with ‘Matured’ Zaheer in has placed MI in the league of “balanced team”.

Rajsthan Royals: I don’t think any change will impact this team’s fortune till Warne retires from this format. But still the treatment, exposure , confidence shown by Warne on new pace sensation (again “”) Kamaran khan has proved healthy for RR in the absence last year’s pace battery.

Kings Punjab XI: This team is the worst hit because of non-availability of key players. But again the changes in the team composition are providing them to again gear up to fulfill ‘preity’ ambition to fetch IPL title this time. Again the welcome change is Yusuf Abdulla. He is among wickets in every match and what can one say about Ravi Bopara’s knock against Royal Challengers. It was as refreshing as a ‘Nes’cafe cup.

Delhi Daredevils: Last season’s border case but this year’s favourite after first few matches. Again changes in bowling attack in terms of Nannes and Vettori may be the reason. Nannes is giving Delhi crucial breakthrough’s at early stages of the game and Vettori is just mesmerizing batsmen with changes in line and length

Kolkata Knight Riders: What this team could afford was a ‘Veteran’ Sanjay Banger. Can anyone please spy within KKR camp and let me know whose idea it was to have ‘Sanjay Banger’ in the team ahead of many good players?

I am ready to recommend his/her name in Bollywood as a casting director for David Dhawan’s film.

Royal Challengers: This team made some good, logical changes in team structure but bowling attack still remains same. There changes are yet to pay fruits.

After this analysis, I think successful teams like DC, MI, DD, Kings Punjab XI have one common factor, they have done tactical changes in team composition not the strategic one. For KKR and RC they have done strategic changes in team structure like change of captains itself. Tactical changes specifically in terms of bowling attack has been paying fruits for succusseful teams where as KKR, RC are still fighting for the last rank within table. Only exception to the rule is Channai Super Kings. They have done the wonderful change in terms of ‘Freddie’. But it didn’t paid off. (I am firm believer that rule gets established through exceptions onlyJ)

So the key is to ‘Make most out of it’, make the most out of changes done to team composition. This is true for coming seasons as well as to your Vodafone connection.. J What say guys?

KKR, I feel is the weakest team in the IPL, I have been a great follower of this team since the start of the IPL but have disappointed to a large extent.  SRK must be wondering what is going wrong with his team.

Reason 1. - I don’t know but on paper  the team has good players and the likes of Macculum, Gayle, Ganguly, Ishant Sharma are capable of winning matches single handedly but none of them has done it so far. The team may have different reasons but they remind me of Indain team before captain Ganguly. The reasons may varry but still the thing is they have approach of losers. 

Reason 2. - Another reason in case of KKR is the team has got a lot more visibility than any other team and the reason is obvious “SRK” and to some extent Ganguly and to some extent “Buchanan’s theorem of multiple captains”. Except Ganguly I don’t think there is anyone who is ready to face this much of publicity, most of the players from KKR must have come to know that the fan following of KKR is more than their country’s population and that is a huge burden of expectations. This must be affecting their performance. It could have been the same case had been a positive visibility.

Reason 3. Another reason I think is both SRK and Buchanan are trying to handle ( not Solving ) the problems using their charisma and philosophy about the game respectively. On the management side both of them are dominating personalities and on players’ side Ganguly, Gayle and Macculum are also dominating types. This becomes a deadly combination and takes care of small problem turning out to be a  bigger problem. I don’t see any analysis has been done before the match and after the match and if it’s done I don’t see anyone ever implemented it. Some one please update me if he /she has seen any kind of home work done by KKR and plan well executed by them.

Reason 4. - Macculum may be a good captain but I still think he can not lead 7  Indian players as language is different, he himself has hardly seen the other Indian players except Ganguly which makes his job difficult. Every one can not be Shane Warne to make Kamran khan look like a greates bowler of all time.

And a suggestion to SRK and Buchanan - This is not an inexperienced “Chak de India” team, but most of them are seasoned players and can not be motivated with his style, attitude etc. He needs to come out with something extra ordinary to boost the spirit of the team  and Buchanan should start looking for a next captain, may be a non playing one, may be one of his sons.

I don’t see KKR’s fortune changing in near future ……… God Bless them !!!

After 1st match, Tendulkar said, “…I think the strategy breaks are hampering the momentum of a team. The seven and a half minute breaks are a bit too long.”
And it is still playing on his mind.
I wonder what is so special about this time-out for the Master. Each of his Test match centuries would have gone through number of breaks – every hour drinks break, every two hours either lunch break or tea break or end-of-day. Each of his ODI centuries would have gone through at least one drinks break, if not two. If Sachin was a batsman to get disturbed by breaks this much on consistent basis, he wouldn’t have scored these many centuries. Here, century is just a simple indicator of a big innings. He has successfully handled breaks in Tests and ODIs in cases whether he was well set or not set; in form or out of form. Then why is this break bothering him so much?
After mastering all possible skills as a batsman, I think there is atleast one thing which is challenging Sachin – strategic time-out.
Whether the break really bothered him or just because of his reservation he got bothered, I am just wondering this has costed Mumbai Indians a match against Deccan Chargers on 25th April and restricted them below 200 on 27th April against KKR. Though it is ambitious to make statement like one incident costs a match, I can’t avoid the temptation.
Tendulkar and Duminy were well set – well set being an understatement. They tore apart the DC attack and looked like cruising towards two points. And then came the strategic time-out. How uncomfortable Sachin was in that over just after the break! It looked like he was waiting for the inevitable. Series of uncharacteristic shots and he was a goner.
That evokes a necessity of understanding dos and donts for the batting side during those seven and half minutes.
In form and well set batsmen do hate breaks and this is well known. Teams have to make sure that batsmen are calm and relaxed during the break. Each batsman has his own method to handle the breaks. Some of them may want to have a look at bowling chart of opposition and target a bowler. Some of them may want to calculate runs per over. Some of them may just want to relax. Let the batsmen choose how they want to handle the break.
Over enthusiastic suggestions, bombardment of strategy points and motivational talks etc are absolute no-nos. I feel the staff and the bench of batting side would do well to leave the on-crease batsmen alone and provide on-demand (i.e. only if the batsmen ask) support. At the best, two not out batsmen may spend time together. Fielding side in a huddle makes sense, but not the batting side.
On the other side, batsmen need not be over cautious about the strategic time-out. I do not believe in the theory of seeing-off 11th and 12th overs. This theory over emphasizes the time-outs. Easier said than done – still I feel strategic time-out may not bother experienced players so much. Just for a simple reason – they have handled breaks in all other forms of the game successfully before.