With IPL getting complex and interesting, With 5 teams struggling for 2,3 and 4^th place, it was the “nothing to lose” team KKR had yet another last over finish but fortunately they were on the winning side this time. Apart from 2/3 matches most of the matches for KKR were last over finish and if they were batting first they used to finish it in first few overs itself. ( please do not ask how? ) 

It was great chase by Kolkatta Knight Riders. Macculum played beautifully well for is 81 in 48 balls and Hodge I think played his best innings in IPL so far. Having said this, I know he has also played couple of good innings this season as well but they were on losing side both the times. KKR has been a perfect example of how it is when things are not going your ways. They dropped simple catches, the top edges went to boundaries when they were bowling and then the same top edges or even good shots went directly to fielders when they were batting, few bad decisions against them added something more to it. Frustration was visible on Macculum’s face. 

They say Agarkar is inconsistent but I really feel he also is a damn unlucky man. He was bowling with no fire in first couple of matches but started bowling well later but even for him edges went for boundaries, lower full tosses went for sixers. If you have seen it carefully he has bowled  excellent bouncers this time similar to one he bowled to MS Dhoni yesterday. I think he needed some confidence to be given to him which  Macculum has given and looked pretty active after been dropped twice. He bowled an excellent 19^th over against Deccan Chargers, it was a perfect Malinga over with all the Yorkers bowled on the spot giving away singles on each delivery, had he been with a little luck he would have got atleast couple of wickets. I normally do not believe in luck but incidents like Yuvaraj Singh taking 2 hat-tricks , Rohit Sharma taking one make me believe in luck, fortune etc.

 For Chennai Super Kings it was like they have won the match, half before the match, 25% after the toss and 25% after scoring 188. I heard someone from their team saying it was good enough score to win. ( against Kolkatta J is what actually he meant J ). Dhoni in after match interview perfectly described the match, “ One of the greatest chase in IPL and One of the worst bowling performance in IPL. Dhoni would not have thought even in his wildest dreams that they will lose the match. It really came as shock for them. Now they need to win their last match or at least not lose it with huge margines.   

 I hope KKR to put up another cracking performance against Rajasthan Royals tomorrow and gain some confidence for many of them to claim a position in next year IPL. Let’s look forward to today’s match where I want Royal challengers to beat Delhi Dare devils… this will make it even more interesting

Instead of saying, these two are likely keys for success here onwards in IPL, the more appropriate sentence would be - lack of any of these two is potentially costly: common sense and unpredictability. By English meanings of the terms, both sound contradictory, however in the context of the on-field cricket action, they are not.
I am fairly inspired by the common sense cricket displayed by the Delhi Daredevil’s duo of Dilshan and AB de Villiers against Rajasthan Royals on 17th May. Though RR’s butterfingers and sloppy fielding helped DD, it was pleasing to see the assurance with which ABD & Dilshan paced their innings. This is exactly what Rajasthan Royals and some other teams lacked in IPL 2. Watson’s absence on one side, but what has really hurt Rajasthan Royals is Smith’s failure and lack of a batsman who can take up similar role.
If we look at Royal Challengers Bangalore, leave Taylor’s heroics aside, they also lacked assuring batting performances. Though Mumbai Indians had Duminy, a lot of ‘uncommon’ sense around him prevented MI from doing well. On the same factor, Kings XI Punjab disappointed us a lot as they had the best people to play such cricket – Sangakkara & Jayawardene. The later did not play a couple of matches due to injury where the former was not in his usual sorts for most part of the tournament.
Though Delhi looks good on the common sense batting front – thanks to ABD & Dilshan, the potential threat for DD is predictability. This team has become a set of fairly predictable people and if the pattern continues, they are likely to throw all away in semi finals. All good wins and great performances won’t count then. Your predictability allows your opposition to have a good plan against you. Off course, the way Sehwag plays is very predictable but on his day, it just doesn’t matter whether you have a plan against him or not. Still, it makes a big difference in the moral with which opposition team takes the field. If we see, Munaf Patel was looking extremely confident to take on Gambhir & Sehwag, and he got both of them. He kept bowling short and on-body to Sehwag, he almost knew that Gambhir would try to step out every now and then. The problem for Delhi is – I and you also know how Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan, ABD and Dinesh Karthik would approach the batting. This, I feel, may go against DD (unless Sehwag does what he can).
There is at least one answer available for Delhi Daredevils batting – Warner. I think, he is a ‘must’ inclusion in big matches and then top 3 can be shuffled. It is not a bad idea to have Sehwag at 3 looking at the pattern of success of slow bowlers in the middle overs. Or even if Sehwag opens, he might just remember how Gambhir and himself approached last T20 World Cup. India’s typical score in first 5 overs used to be 25 or 30 for no loss. 30-35 for no loss is better score than 45 for 2 in first 6 overs.
On Delhi’s bowling, Nehra-Nannes-Sangwan-Mishra have done great job. But still, Nehra & Nannes are again 2 predictable bowlers, especially Nannes. And we know how worse can Nehra’s bad day be.
The word ‘predictable’ is an alarm for Delhi Daredevils.

After a couple of good results, Mumbai Indians are back to square one in desperate situation. They do not have anything or anyone else to blame but themselves.
The most sober line to express about MI’s loss against Rajasthan Royals in an IPL match on 14th May is – they made a mess out of it.
We would tempt ourselves to say that poor tactics of sending Takawale to open the innings with Bravo, poor tactics of having Sanath, Sachin & Duminy at 4, 5, 6 respectively. However, I agree with MI’s thinktank for the changes in batting order. I would like to emphatically say that Sanath, Sachin & Nayar were their best bet to attack the slow bowlers’ gang of Warne, Botha, Pathan & Jadeja in the middle overs.
Unfortunately, changes in batting order are not enough to win matches. If order is changed, batsmen need to have the crystal clear instructions about tackling various situations. And if they do have the right instructions, they need to religiously execute those. This is where we can not be sure about ‘what went wrong’. This is why I would not conclude whether it was a failure in tactics or execution.
Possible tactical failure –
Suppose, Takawale had the instructions to give a stand to Bravo. This is alright. But I guess, he was not very sure what he would do if Bravo failed. And if Takawale was asked to play the way he did even after Bravo’s early loss and Rahane coming in next, this is a pure tactical failure. If Sanath had come at 3, Takawale’s batting could still be justified.
Possible execution failure –
Suppose, Takawale was asked to give a brisk start, which he can do – this was a good surprise MI had planned. But Takawale failed to do that. My problem is not his strike rate, but the way he approached the innings. He played 22 balls and hardly attempted aggressive shots. This is an execution failure.
If they thought, Takawale would do an anchor role – I feel it is an extremely forgettable tactical mistake. However, I don’t think that was the case. Giving a stand to in-form Bravo for a few overs is fine but the way he batted after early loss of Bravo should have been different. Don’t know what instructions he had got, so don’t know whether it was a tactical or execution failure. Failure is failure and needs to be dealt with.
Easy to say and write this sitting in Bangalore having no obligations and stakes – but as a keen follower and lover of the game, it is difficult to be non-critic on such undesirable display by the most desirable personalities of the game.
No need to mention how good Munaf’s last over was and how good Warne is – high stakes match, bowling against Sachin and Sanath, and he gets both of them plus Rahane. How many times he has done this in important matches and God only knows how many times he will do it before he stops playing cricket.

Last week the prospect for the tournament was looking extremely dynamic with 7 out of 8 teams having opportunities to make it to top 4. Unfortunately, this week it does not look that great. Still a plenty of fun in the points table is possible – but may be only theoretically.
Week is set to separate top from bottom. What looks more likely is -
Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings are well set to grab the positions in semis. Kolkata Knight Riders have already occupied an unenviable (:)) position of no-stress and 2 teams Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore depend on others’ failures as much as on own success. They will cherish failures of Kings XI Punjab and Deccan Chargers more than relishing their wins. If KXIP and DC do well in their next 2 games, MI and RCB would soon be fighting for 6th spot. Rajasthan Royals are in a spot of bother too; however I feel they are well equipped with Warne’s cricketing acumen to see them through.
I just had some fun calculating what can happen theoretically. Considered all the remaining matches and gave 2 points per match to the team which is lower in the points table than the other one at the moment – for example, RCB Vs KKR, calculated 2 points for KKR and 0 for RCB; MI Vs DD, 2 points for MI; DC Vs RR, 2 points to DC and so on. With this hypothetical (but not impossible at all) calculations what we may have in the end is – MI and KXIP in the semis and any 2 of DD, RCB & DC will qualify based on Net Run Rate.
Another extreme consideration like, DD & KKR lose all their matches, MI & RCB win all their matches, KXIP win all matches except against MI & RCB and for remaining matches same logic as above, we will see DD, CSK & RR not qualifying for semis.
Hypothesis! Hmm…what if it goes that way.
Can we hope for such scenarios? May be not. But also things are not so clear yet. We may still have a lot of fun hidden in this IPL-2. Let’s wait and watch what actually happens.

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.

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.

As much as winning is a habit, losing also is a habit. This philosophically interesting sounding statement was made in commentary during RC-Bangalore’s match. Not sure who the commentator was; may be Danny Morrison. And I think, this statement summarizes Bangalore team’s story so far.
Delhi Daredevils had put themselves in precarious situation. Ambitious to say but a couple of misfields by Royal Challengers turned match in Delhi’s favor. But that was incidental. To me the problem lies in their minds – no belief, not at all.
Body language of neither on-field players nor off-field players & staff suggested that they believed that they could win.
On consistent basis now, key players are looking out of sorts. Robin Uthappa needs to recollect himself – what he is losing is as big as the place in India T20 World Cup squad. He will do well not allowing this IPL to decide his future. Boucher doing well with bat worsens the scenario for Robin further. I will not be surprised if Robin is not part of playing XI in next game. Either he has lost in his mind completely or enemy of him has taken charge of his mind through black magic. Certainly this is not the Uthappa we know.
KP disappointed again. Kallis’ bowling is a worry factor now. Unfortunately enough, Royal Challengers have to bank on his bowling again and again. Taylor, a big hope, is struggling to make impact which would be proportionate to his abilities. Kumble could not offer much threat to the batting side either. Whether men or boys, nobody is believing that they can win.
KKR is doing badly till now because their focus is diverted on anything other than on-field cricket, at least till now. Why are Royal Challengers failing? May be losing is a habit.
Hope they turn it around in the next game.

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?’