Ankit_sharma03 Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 IPL 2018 was the most exciting and entertaining one ever. Never has the tournament seen so many tight finishes, and a real dogfight to get into the playoff positions. The IPL as a T20 league got a boost in popularity this year, but to confuse this with it being high-quality cricket would be wrong. As far as quality goes, it wasn't of a very high standard in terms of cricketing skills. But what this shows is that cricket becomes entertaining when there is intense competition between teams. Fans don't really care much about the quality of cricket, as long as it is an edge-of-the-seat kind of experience. International cricket must make a note of this. Also striking in this IPL were the kind of dramatic turnarounds seen. It was a dream script for those invested in the event. You were never sure about the final result because right through this IPL, fans saw, many times, teams in losing positions coming back to win games. The strong possibility of a likely change in the course of a match kept them in their seats at the grounds and in front of their screens, mobile or TV, till the very end. Rights-holders want fans to spend more time in front of their screens. This IPL will have seen a surge in this regard. My theory on why we had so many tight games and turnarounds is that there wasn't one great team - not even Chennai Super Kings. All teams were similar in one aspect, and this was the main reason for the intense competition: each team had major weaknesses; vulnerabilities, waiting to be exposed at a given time, allowing opponents to come back into the game. Interestingly, the one team that had the fewest weaknesses did not qualify for the playoffs - Mumbai Indians. Their failure this season just did not have any cricket logic; you could put it down to it being just one of those things. It's a bit like the justification we give when a great batsman has a run of low scores: Mumbai were just out of form as a team this season. An Indian flavour This year the IPL was the most Indian it has ever been. Local players often overshadowed the overseas ones. There were, in fact, two games when teams played just three foreign players in the XI out of choice. Sure, some foreign players of genuine class were missing - the likes of David Warner, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc and Kagiso Rabada. If they had been around, the overseas fraternity would perhaps have made more of an overall impact on the tournament. But as it turned out, it was generally a bad IPL for foreign players, especially for those who came with reputations owing to their big-hitting performances in the Big Bash and so on. These players got a taste of the Indianness of the Indian Premier League, and learned that this widely watched, extremely lucrative T20 league is ultimately about slow-paced Indian pitches and, yes, spinners. Each team had at least two, if not three, like KKR did. If you are not a good player of spin and don't have the subtleties in your skills to account for spin, whether batting or bowling, you will struggle in the IPL. After this IPL, I see team owners getting a bit sceptical about the power hitters from England, Australia and South Africa. It was also an IPL where some of the smaller names of Indian batting took centre stage - batsmen like Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav. Having been part of this high-profile league for a few seasons, they perhaps feel more at home now and not as intimidated by its atmosphere. They really came into their own this time. It was also a great IPL for those players who are true products of the soil - batsmen and bowlers who year after year go through the hard grind of playing on Indian pitches in Ranji cricket that no one watches. Their immense knowledge of how to survive and excel in these conditions has made players like Siddarth Kaul and Ambati Rayudu invaluable. Their success provides great hope for other Indian domestic players of their kind, and it makes me very happy because I really want this breed of player to be a part of the IPL and to enjoy its spoils. Go-to deliveries: knuckleball and yorker We also saw that the knuckleball is now the most favoured version of the slower ball. With the other slower balls, the scrambled seam is a giveaway for batsmen; the advantage with the knuckleball is that the batsman still sees a seam-up delivery coming towards him, even if it's now coming 30kph slower than the last seam-up delivery. We also received reaffirmation that the yorker is still the most effective tool in the death overs to stop dangerous big hitters like Andre Russell from taking the game away. This was seen whenever Jofra Archer of Rajasthan Royals nailed his yorkers. The problem is, there aren't many bowlers who can bowl it consistently with control. We saw a large percentage of high full tosses as bowlers tried to get the ball into the blockhole. This, for me, is a definite parameter to judge the overall quality of T20 bowling by: how many bowlers can actually bowl good yorkers under pressure. Currently there aren't any. Rashid Khan, playing his second IPL season, emerged as a real force in T20 cricket. His unique style of delivering both legspin and googly with the back of the wrist facing the batsman was a nightmare for the T20 tonkers. Before him, when you saw the back of the bowler's hand as a batsman, you knew it was a googly. Not anymore. Now you have to also look at how the seam is rotating as the ball is coming towards you, to be absolutely sure. Kevin Pietersen made a good point about how batsmen in T20s aren't watching the wrists and the ball closely because the dominant thought is to hit the ball out of the ground. It's a bit like when a fielder fumbles when he knows a run-out is possible - he misses the ball because he is thinking of the final event, throwing and running the batsman out, and not focusing 100% on fielding the ball. Oldies welcome CSK, the champions, reminded me yet again of something that first struck me after I watched T20 cricket for the first time: that this format, albeit modern, can still have a place for ageing, experienced players who aren't as mobile anymore. A common phenomenon seen this IPL was how batting teams would lose their way in the middle stage of the innings after getting a rollicking start. I believe this was because the middle stages, unlike the first six overs of Powerplay and the last four overs, is not just about power-hitting; it's also about being sensible in a frenzied atmosphere, and that's where age and experience can be very handy. Middle-Overs And Powerplay Run Rates And Averages: Last Five IPL Seasons Middle overs Powerplay Year RR Ave Year RR Ave 2018 8.05 28.97 2018 8.42 35.04 2015 7.83 29.90 2017 8.33 32.39 2017 7.87 30.50 2015 7.75 31.80 2014 7.74 31.89 2016 7.70 34.83 2016 7.85 32.85 2014 7.54 33.25 The average runs-per-wicket figure is the lowest in the 2018 IPL among the last five seasons; the corresponding Powerplay rates were the highest Look at Shane Watson. He took 11 balls to get off the mark in the final, but his experience didn't allow him to panic and he kept his calm in the middle stages to take this team through. And what a revelation MS Dhonihas been this IPL! He has got his batting mojo back. He can now once again clear the ropes four times in six attempts, unlike once in six, which seemed to have become his fate over the last few seasons. As for his captaincy, well, I believe no other captain would have managed to win a title with the kind of limitations his team had. It was not just the age factor, CSK had some other deficiencies too, like in their bowling. The feature that stood out for me in his captaincy was how he used his vast experience to pre-empt events. It was like he visualised the effects of his intended move and then decided whether he should go ahead with it. Despite being picked as pure spinners in the side, Harbhajan Singh and Karn Sharma each had a game where they didn't bowl a single over in the match. Well done, CSK. What a comeback it has been for them, and yes, Dhoni's career fairy tale continues. It is into year 2018 now. Garuda 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ankit_sharma03 Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, Ankit_sharma03 said: Interestingly, the one team that had the fewest weaknesses did not qualify for the playoffs - Mumbai Indians. Their failure this season just did not have any cricket logic; you could put it down to it being just one of those things. It's a bit like the justification we give when a great batsman has a run of low scores: Mumbai were just out of form as a team this season. MI didnt had weakness- 1. Those guys went didnt have proper backups which proved out costly coz when mustafizur failed they didnt have anyone to look to 2. captain was out of form 3. half the games they played with duminy which meant they were playing with 10 players 4. pollard Garuda and UrmiSinhaRay 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ankit_sharma03 Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 4 minutes ago, Ankit_sharma03 said: It was also an IPL where some of the smaller names of Indian batting took centre stage - batsmen like Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav. Having been part of this high-profile league for a few seasons, they perhaps feel more at home now and not as intimidated by its atmosphere. They really came into their own this time. I dnt remeber pant being intimidated by atmosphere in season and neither did any u19 player this season gave that impression Garuda, velu and Switchblade 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garuda Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 Looks like Manju need to be put out to pasture. He made boring commentary before but he atleast made some sense. Now he's gone senile like most bambis on this forum. Even Sunny is better than Manju given his age. UrmiSinhaRay and UnknownGenius 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vvvslaxman Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 He has taken his cheerleading to a whole new level. He implies the quality of cricket was bad since MI didn't make the playoffs. Hahaha. Wallow in misery for next one year. Switchblade, Garuda, UrmiSinhaRay and 3 others 1 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 Every time Manju opens his mouth a part of my brain dies. Switchblade, velu and Ridgepi 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ankit_sharma03 Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 27 minutes ago, Gollum said: Every time Manju opens his mouth a part of my brain dies. its makes me envy that someone can be so bad and still earn out of it Garuda, Switchblade and Gollum 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchblade Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 1 hour ago, vvvslaxman said: He has taken his cheerleading to a whole new level. He implies the quality of cricket was bad since MI didn't make the playoffs. Hahaha. Wallow in misery for next one year. He was almost in tears or seemed that he wanted to cry hard but got constipated whenever MI were about to lose.Even during the finals he was talking about Rohit the Ipl trophies he won.The bias from Sunny G and Manjrekar was pathetic. The Dark Horse and vvvslaxman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchblade Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 1 hour ago, Ankit_sharma03 said: its makes me envy that someone can be so bad and still earn out of it Dunia aisi hi hai bhai ab zyadatar sifarish ya chamchagiri hi chalti hai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchblade Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 3 hours ago, Ankit_sharma03 said: I dnt remeber pant being intimidated by atmosphere in season and neither did any u19 player this season gave that impression Agree Pant has played three seasons and to me never looked intimidated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchblade Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Gollum said: Every time Manju opens his mouth a part of my brain dies. Edited June 2, 2018 by gambhirfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 @gambhirfan why do you put these GIFs in response to my posts? Just asking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchblade Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 1 minute ago, Gollum said: @gambhirfan why do you put these GIFs in response to my posts? Just asking. Really enjoy your posts you are a brilliant poster over here . Gollum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, gambhirfan said: Really enjoy your posts you are a brilliant poster over here . OK thanks, I asked because you use many GIFs . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ankit_sharma03 Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 23 minutes ago, gambhirfan said: He was almost in tears or seemed that he wanted to cry hard but got constipated whenever MI were about to lose.Even during the finals he was talking about Rohit the Ipl trophies he won.The bias from Sunny G and Manjrekar was pathetic. add to that rahane also failed, was a tough ipl for both sunny n manju Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchblade Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 4 minutes ago, Gollum said: OK thanks, I asked because you use many GIFs . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchblade Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, Ankit_sharma03 said: add to that rahane also failed, was a tough ipl for both sunny n manju Manjrekar during that RR KKR game was comparing Rahane to the likes of Faf and KW.He said that Rahane will just anchor the innings and play like Faf did against SRH.Even I like Jinks but sad that he is very limited should stick to the longer version of the game like Pujara. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ankit_sharma03 Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 9 minutes ago, gambhirfan said: anchor such a misused word by some commies to defend some players specially rahane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchblade Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, Ankit_sharma03 said: such a misused word by some commies to defend some players specially rahane Rahane was very disappointing this season at least did well during the previous editions but now I think his performance is going down in the IPL as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ankit_sharma03 Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, gambhirfan said: Rahane was very disappointing this season at least did well during the previous editions but now I think his performance is going down in the IPL as well. coz IPL has gone to next level so those s/r wont work now, he has to take his game to next level Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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