Immediate thoughts - T20 is far from any kind of logical reasoning, for -

1) There's no guarantee that a bowler who's consistent will fetch you wickets in a crunch situation (ref: Dirty Dirk Nannes went for 21 after some 1st over Gilly fireworks).

2)There is DEFINITELY no guarantee that a player who's unheard of will not perform in a crunch situation (ref: our own sardar Harmeet Singh took a blinder, Gilly trusted him towards the end of the B'lore innings, and this was a FINAL)

My point - if Gilly could trust Harmeet, there's no reason why MSD shouldn't have trusted Oram. Just because he is called J.Oram doesn't mean he should be treated like he has Joram (very sorry, couldn't resist)

Anyway, CSK dropped too many catches, would have been a shame had they won. Being a heavy Gilly/Dravid fan, pained me to seem them both get out cheaply, but well. All's well that ends well (except for the Akon/other cheap glam part, someone tell the wastrels this is cricket)

@Hari:

1)Oh, forget Chennai's bowlers , it was a foregone conclusion that only Murali's 4 overs would matter / decide the match.

2) Oh, I have absolutely no problem in trusting random players to perform. But he should have asked the player to "Oram po" after 14 matches of no bowling/performance of note. Every team used to employ random catchment players as the oppu-ku-chappa fielder , but we had Oram for 14 freaking matches ! Ridiculous !

Of course, I agree CSK too was not champions material, but we did have a decent chance and our man took it upon himself to destroy it.

Also, as a Dravid fan it would have extremely pained me to see the fat figure of Vijay Mallya jumping around in joy after all the abuse that he hurled upon Dravid last year.

And as far as Akon goes, he should realise that however loud 1 Billion Indians shout, they cannot be heard in Johannesburg. Why the hell was he shouting "India make some noise " !!

Well, they screwed up the last few overs badly and thats what cost them..it was just an illusion that they can make totals without Haydos.

P.S. : Yuvraj Singh is good enough for cricket at any damn level. Badrinath will eventually get his turn. He's just perfect for being Dravid's successor.

@Vikram:

Yes, with Morkel also coming in at the 13th over, we ran out of players who could "Smack that". Yuvraj Singh is a good player,maybe a damn good one at that too , I doubt only for test cricket though.

As long as the man Dhoni is around I dont think Badri will ever get a chance in the Indian team. As Mama's( a very wise man whom I had the chance to meet in my first sem on campus and is currently at WWF pursuing his summer interns as a MBA grad at XLRI) logic rightly says, you have to make your debut before you are 25 and once you are past 25, you are "old" and you can no longer have the right to stake claim to a spot in the Indian National cricket team.

Nice post..couldn't help but add some random thoughts.

1. CSK never played their Lucky Talisman, Palani Amarnath. We won almost all the matches he played in last season. Also, picking a player named Napoleon Einstein into your squad just for glamour's sake is not funny.I agree with you on the mindless selection of Gony and Oram. Given their track records this IPL, Dhoni could have brought himself on to bowl.

2. Only Rajasthan Royals can pick players from the bylanes and get away with it. Who was Anureet Singh?

@Aravind:

Thank you .

1.Palani Amarnath, Napoleon Einstein, 'Electric' Sivaramakrishnan,R Ashwin will all never be played/utilised because Dhoni runs the show for Chennai.

2. This IPL saw the rise of the XYZ Singh's. Anureet Singh at KKR, Harmeet Singh who managed to get his time in the limelight in the finals , I also vaguely remember Jaskaran Singh being the do-nothing-but-field player for Deccan Chargers player in one match.Sadly, Chennai did not have one to add to the list .

As for Rajasthan's scouts from the bylanes , their picks can play for 2 matches before they are reported for suspect action. Batsmen have been a diff story , perfect definition for hit or miss. (Paul Valthaty,Asnodkar,Naman Ojha, Abhishek Raut or to a smaller extent T20 specialist Rob Quiney ).

@Navin:

1.True, I guess. Vidyut wasn't all that bad last season.

2. The number of foreigners must be the same, contrary to whatever Buchanan and Moody think. They must do something about inclusion of these random under-23 players, maybe reduce the number. I remember Jaskaran Singh getting whacked whenever he bowled. Same for Harmeet, till the final.

3. Even though they were reported, they had done enough damage. Kamran with the super over and Amit Singh (off-spinner with run-up) with all those wickets. Their batsmen were useless, one of the reasons they fared so badly

@ Aravind:

Exactly, my feelings for all the comments . Talking about Royals bowlers with suspect actions , I wonder what will happen with Johan Botha . Interesting to note that he has been cleared to bowl the "normal off-spinner" but not the "doosra". So what happens if he uses the doosra in the finals of the T20 WC to help the team to victory ? Will the umpires recognise the deviation from 15 degrees to say 19.6 degrees ? A very weird situation is bound to crop up I would say.

Hey da...a big out-of-the-blue HI...your post tempted me to comment.

I have to say you have been generous to do a punditry on this farcical tournament, it doesn't deserve it.

Yes, teams that aren't champion-material will be crowned winners; finest bowling talents like Ishant sharma will get battered around the park; bowling wizards like Muralitharan ,with all their trickery and experience, would be rendered ineffective; Harmeet"wtf is he" Singh will castle veterans with harmless deliveries;and IPL will produce things much more inexplicable and shameful.So, doing an autopsy on IPL and its matches is a waste of time and effort. Because its simply not cricket.

It has been successful because of reasons anything but cricket. People have been short-changed to believe that just sixes and fours make entertaining cricket.They have made the fans more illiterate.And the fans are loving them for it.

Lalit Modi is nuts to think IPL will be as big as those football counterparts in Europe.Never. Unlike the BCCI or ICC, the UEFA(as much as I hate Michel Platini) respects the beautiful game. Club-football enhances and takes the sport to a new level,whereas IPL(or T20)sinks the game of cricket .

Ironically the format was introduced to save a dying sport.


PS: That was a brave comment on MSD. But, he is still a work-in-progress.

Great to hear from you after a long time.

More or less agree with you over the fact that IPL was a farce, especially this time around with SuperSport Park Centurion substituting for Hyderabad/Jaipur/Mohali. The "home" and "away' factor even though a blatant copy from existing EPL/UEFA norms was something which got most of us hooked on .

T20 is killing the game , and will take its toll soon. More surprising to note will be the effect of IPL 2 on T20 World Cup with all the players fatigue etc coming into play .

As for MSD being a work-in-progress , I might agree on that , but I think it is a given that the team has talent in truckloads and the performance from such a 11 is expected to be near perfect . I hope that MSD finds his golden touch for the sake of India , "Aane De" and "Yeh Cup Kahin Nahin Jayega".

P.S:

As for wasting time writing this, you know how "effective" and "educative" PS is , it is really a tough ask to sit for close to 9 hours in the office doing absolutely nothing !

Talking of farcical systems, PS tops the list. It is a travesty of highest kind. And those deluded pencil-pushers in Pilani must be patting their backs, thinking, "Waah, hamne kya system banaya!The students will get much needed work experience at those stations.Waah, Waah!!"

Every day of these six months, I wanted to put a boot through the outdated, closed- minded and rigid-thinking arse of the PSD.

Anyway,sorry for the off-shoot.Got carried away.Do write more posts on sports. I see u r a gunner's fan. I have been supporting United for 3 years. Great scope for poking each other!!

P.S: I know that u may think,"
WTF!!After aaall this time!"
Blame it on my not-so-up-to-date social life. A mega-belated congrats on making it to IIM-B. Hope at least your PG would be relevant and value-adding.

The thoughts were more on the lines of " Where were you all this while ? " :) . Anyways, it is pretty obvious that we need to talk, and that we shall sooner or later hopefully through some medium other than this comments section :D .