A bookie calls Shane Warne before the match between Kolkata KnightRiders and Rajasthan Royals.

Cell phone rings. Warne picks up.

Warne : hello

Bookie : I am ….. Here.

Warne : yes tell me

Bookie : how is the pitch

Warne : ya dry and good for batting

Bookie : I want u to loose today’s match

Warne : impossible

Bookie : I will pay u $200,000

Warne : will be difficult to make KKR win.

Bookie : I will pay u $250,000

Warne : May be I could help you by reducing the margin. u tell by what margin we should win. will be much more easier

Bookie : no KKR should win

Warne : OK. I will try my best

Bookie : no make it.

Warne : OK.

Bookie : what will be the score

Warne : 200, if we bat first

Bookie : no make it 120

Warne : Impossible. Agarkar and Kartik are playing.

Bookie : 120 no change.

Warne : I will try

Bookie : OK. If KKR bat first

Warne : 110

Bookie : no make it 175

Warne : no u are asking too much. Ganguli is playing.

Bookie : OK make it $300,000

Warne : This would be the toughest match in my life

Bookie : OK, deal is made.

Warne : yes

Bookie : bye.

Match starts KKR bats first. KKR score only 120 in 20 overs. During the lunch break Shane’s cell rings.

Warne : hello

Bookie : its me. why did KKR score only 120. Our deal was 175.

Warne : What can I do ? They run one when they could run three, defend full toss, get out on wide balls, all catches and shots. I mean, if there is any. exactly directed to the fielders. But I will tell you this, Knight Riders are too good at this , I tried re-arranging the field.but they never miss a fielder.

Bookie : still u could bowl more no-balls. We got only 53 extras.

Warne : I asked all my bowlers to bowl badly. I also made Smith and Asnodkar bowl.

Bookie : Okay. leave that. I want u to loose the match.

Warne : I will try.

Bookie : Rajasthan Royals should be all out for 110

Warne : OK.

Bookie : bye.

Rajasthan Royals bats. They are making a serious attempt to not hit the ball and if at all they hit trying their best to hit to the fielders. They try to run only singles for doubles. But sometimes, they can’t stop themselves from running.

All Rajasthan Royals batsmen charged down to Kartik’s bowling and they purposely miss the ball hoping at least one
would hit the stumps. But they got to run a bye for that as McCullum is still searching for the ball . Inspite of the bad display of batting, they score 118 of 19 overs. Last over, 3 runs
required, the worst part is that its an Agarkar over. Warne is batting with Carseldine.

Bookie gets really furious.
Warne is ready to face the last over his cell rings (he plays with his cell).

Warne : hello

Bookie : its me! . What are you upto ?

Warne : We tried the best we could

Bookie : OK forget it. I want u to loose the match

Warne : what can I do. Fate !!! Agarkar is bowling

Bookie : I don’t know. u are loosing

Agarkar bowls. Warne tries to hide his bat behind his back. But the ball hits the bat and goes to third man. So they take a single.
(cell rings)

Warne : sorry what can I do I was hiding my bat but still the ball comes and hit my bat. If I play much worse than this everybody will find out.
Bookie : (gets really tensed). OK I can understand. But please don’t take last two runs.

Warne talks to Carseldine. Agarkar bowls. a juicy full toss. Carseldine uses all his batting skills to restrict that one to a single. Scores are level.
(cell rings)

Bookie : OK. Past is past. Atleast finish it in a tie. I don’t know what u are going to do u are not taking a single or u give u’r bat to the umpire.

Warne : OK. OK. Don’t worry this time I will! see to it we are not taking the single. Let it be obvious also. I am not taking the single.

Agarkar bowls, unfortunately he bowls a no ball. RR wins the match.
Bookie goes mad and Shane warne faints in the field itself

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.

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 !!!

People who saw yesterday’s Ganguly innings must have seen the old determination, focus on his face. It wasn’t even a half century but a true Ganguly admirer or a hardcore Ganguly critic ( this number is huge ) must have felt that he is back to normal and not only to normal but he was even running pretty well in between the wickets and the sixes he hit to Munaf were awsome hits. One should remember that one of them was a pull of a short delivery and was a just shut up shot.

Media has always been “kind” with him when it comes to promote the controversies and critisism that he has been facing from the day he entered the international circuit… be it the drinks issue or opting out from a match, losing captaincy, losing his place from Indian team or the super duper hit Greg Chappel incident. After facing all this now SRK and John Buchanan have joined the band wagon.

 So having so many people including his boss to critisize him, he had a task cut out and that’s where I feel he is at his best. The innings I felt was very mature and very few people could have handled that pressure; generated more by Shane Warne’s delaying tactics of shuffling fielding after every ball and acting to be in a serious discussion with the bowler after each delivery than the target. Ganguly was the best possible person out there to handle all this.

SRK must have learnt a lot of things from Ganguly’s innings like one needs a mentally strong person to play in these coditions, there are lots of skills required other than just hitting sixers, taking wickets and having multiple captains. Having done all that Ganguly has given it back to SRK and Buchanan. So I would like to ask Mr. SRK and Mr. Buchanan , “who is going to be the next captain after losing 2 matches out of 3?”

It could have been a cherry on cake if KKR had won the match but atleast I am happy for Ganguly for his innings, the way he handled Shane Warne, the way he dismissed Munaf, the way he hit back to SRK and Buchanan and proved his capabilities yet again. People ( Ganguly’s critics) may find it partial but that’s the way I ( and Ganguly’s fans ) feel. I can see better Ganguly innings coming in next few matches as he must be feeling task half done. He proved his point but was unable to win the match for KKR which is his half job remaining.

Two cracking games. One high scoring (CSK Vs DD) and the other tie with super over (KKR Vs RR).
The missing component - thrill on the field, in this tournament is now brought back in the picture by 4 teams.
I felt, teams which were more hungry and eager than their opponents won the respective matches.
CSK & KKR both would be extremely disappointed in the end. However, organizers and cricket lovers are really happy for the fact that ‘thrill’ is back.
Millions of us would be discussing whether ‘Mendis was the correct choice or not?’ ‘What was Yashpal thinking when he played that shot?’ ‘After playing so well, why couldn’t Dada finish the job?’ ‘What an innings by AB de Villiers!’ ‘How well Nehra bowls once in a while?’ and many others.
I am happy that we would be discussing cricketing aspects more than off-field dramas. And hope that we get such cracking games more often than not.
Hey…there is an interesting discussion topic on ‘in case of super over, which bowler to choose in each team?’

IPL is still about cricket played on the field

Looks like KKR is finding it difficult to understand that IPL is necessarily a cricket contest played, won/lost on the field. It is still a battle between bat and ball.
SRK would do well if he uses himself as a brand which pulls crowd, gets traffic on KKR website, motivates players, fights for players and supports all senior - junior players. SRK may detach himself from passing on cricketing judgments and trying to do too many changes in the team structure, endorsing innovations in cricket, slamming and apologizing ex-cricketers etc. Showing long faces after the match won’t help brand SRK. It is in SRK’s interest to keep looking cheerful and supporting players. By him being involved in cricketing aspects and making big statements is not going to help KKR. KKR will win if players perform. Even if KKR loses, being a positive energy SRK as a brand will still remain as winner…. Bazigar! Harkar bhi jeetne wale ko…!!!
Looks like insulting Ganguly has become a fashion. Now SRK also wants to adopt and promote that fashion.
My sincere feeling is all cricketing aspects should be left for Dada. He has successfully lead and encouraged raw teams with a lot of spirit. Buchanan should help out young players for honing skills.

In corporate analogy, I feel roles (roles, not titles) should be as follows –
SRK: Head - Marketing
Buchanan: Head - R&D
Ganguly: Head - Projects Delivery